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Giardians of the Republic: Voter disenfranchisement and Voter fraud claims debunked · Palafox Media Network

• Jonathan Cole: Good evening friends and welcome to another edition of Guardians of the Republic. Joining me as always is Tony Hughes. How are you tonight, Tony? Tony Hughes: Great Jonathan, good to be here. Jonathan Cole: Good deal. Tonight we have a special guest, Charles Barfield. He's going to join us tonight for commentary and some additional perspectives to what we usually term as ⁓ recent hell has been vetted upon us each week by Trump and his administration. Charles, tell everybody a little about yourself. Charles Barfield: Well, good evening, Jonathan and Tony. I'm Charles Barfield. I'm a licensed attorney for about almost 29 years, going on 30 years to all type of law. And I'm an ordained minister of gospel of Jesus Christ. Equally and duly have done that by the same amount of time. So ⁓ I have a I've married. ⁓ to my wife Wendy for a very long time. we two kids, adults, but I love America, I really do. And I don't like what I'm lately. And so hopefully we can talk about some of those issues tonight. Jonathan Cole: well it sounds like Tony introduced the first subject with this executive order which in the course of work today I missed but fill us in Tony ⁓ Tony Hughes: You Well, it just happened. mean, I think it happened like four o'clock our time, five o'clock Eastern time, as I understand. But President Trump signed an executive order. that is really gonna just put him and the federal government right in the middle of elections voter rolls. As understand, the jest of it is that the federal government's gonna send a list of every born and naturalized American citizen to the states. The states have to compare that list to their voter rolls ⁓ and then they have to eliminate people off their roll ⁓ if they're not the list that the federal government sends them that ⁓ ⁓ condensed role will then be provided to the Postal Service and post office is not going to deliver a mail-in ballot to anyone whose name is not on that list. Now I don't see any way anything could possibly go wrong with any of that. It seems like it's completely legal. I'm sure that the records are going to be a hundred percent accurate. There's there's there's just not any possibility for any mistakes and even that Jonathan Cole: You Tony Hughes: unlikely event that something would be missed. Like for instance, they accidentally leave Jonathan's name off the list, Charles. You know, I'm sure all Jonathan's got to do is make a phone call, a simple email, it'll all get fixed. No problem can happen he's going to the ballot box to vote. It happen just that fast. ⁓ But the executive order that is, I haven't read it, but I just read a summary Jonathan Cole: Yeah. ⁓ Tony Hughes: think NBC News Feed and that was the gist of it. So ⁓ level of hell, you know, ⁓ can't get the Save Act passed, so he's going to do voter suppression on his own now is what it boils down to. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. That's what it sounds like. So two points. One is, I always say this every election year, but like, if you go to the polls, then you're challenged in any way, telling you you cannot vote, request a provisional ballot and vote. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: Number two, ⁓ Charles is the attorney of the group, how's that going to stand up in court? ⁓ it's one thing if Congress passes legislation, but just really how much power does an executive order have? Especially something that magnitude. Charles Barfield: Well, generally speaking, first of all, that's illegal. The short answer is totally legal. That's that's an act that first of all, you got it. got problems with them. Problems with that complexity. Number one is that it's a role that Congress has to do based upon a federal right or civil rights. But with but ⁓ primarily voting is a state right. The GOP has long to push the idea of conservative states' rights, right? And voting is generally done to basically to certify a vote, even on a federal level, it's usually done by the states, okay? The states must certify that each individual state has to make sure that that person that's in the voting population is legally and has abide by all the laws of the state. For example, if you have a felony that prohibits you from voting, that's done from a criminal standpoint on a state level. So the federal government has no jurisdiction, no legal authority whatsoever to be dealing with the details of voting and voting qualifications. Now you have a federal right to vote constitutionally, but that the mechanism of doing that is usually done by the state. Okay. So the state has to certify you because you can be disqualified by prison and losing that right to vote. So the right is somewhat of privilege or qualify. So you have that issue. state rights versus federal issues. So that's another legal quackmire that's going to happen eventually. But in general, me back up a little bit. An executive order generally gives the executive branch power to regulate or really clarify something that's already been constitution established. You know, any constitution, and they can clarify or bring Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: clarify ambiguity. You know, that's generally how executive orders are arranged, but because he can't get nothing through, using orders ⁓ like are something magical. But it is illegal. Tony Hughes: You mean like a king? Like a would do, ⁓ Charles Barfield: Yes, exactly. I think he's a king, but I think that all of this, all this legislative tyranny was done by SCOTUS in July of the year before he was ran when he literally changed cases by saying that no one's above the law. No matter what course you get in law school in America, regardless of what course, the ⁓ thing you're going to learn in each course is Jonathan Cole: Hehehe. Tony Hughes: Ha! Charles Barfield: that no one is above the law. This is the foundation that makes us America, right? It's what makes our Jewish community. They blew that basic principle out of the war and literally said that he could be, know, all the crimes and all the things he had done, the Supreme Court allowed things to happen. But I'll say this though, what's interesting to me is that the same person, president said that ⁓ trying to make the executive order by the federal judiciary, but there was legitimate and very conservative understanding of the law that said that because of those 34, how many felonies, you were not qualified to even rule. But it's the second new thing that SCOTUS did Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: the election that July, that July, August. So they made by two or three major decisions that ⁓ are now, I think slowly realizing that we have created a Frankenstein ⁓ we can't take it back. So there have been a couple of recent rules where they're basically realizing that, listen, this country is about ready to go under like rain. And ⁓ think they're nervous now. I think scores are very, Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Charles Barfield: Nervous now. Tony Hughes: You know, Charles, it's also interesting that... Trump has railed against mail-in voting and of course in the election they had last week in Florida, that special election, he voted by mail. And also South Dakota has been kind of interesting because is a convicted felon. He was never sentenced but he does have felony on his record. How could he vote? Well, those felonies, I found out that those felonies were in New York. And in New York, Charles Barfield: Yes. Tony Hughes: you don't lose your right to vote just because you're convicted felon. Now if you're actually incarcerated, you can't vote. But because if you're not in prison, you can vote. And in Florida... It's no question you're a felon and you can't vote, but because it is a state issue, Florida defaults to the state where your conviction is. So if you're allowed to vote in the state where your felony conviction is, you're allowed to vote in Florida, even with felony convictions. So because he was convicted in New York, but he's not in prison, he can still vote. You can still vote in Florida, which I thought was kind of interesting. You know, talking about, talking about both sides of your mouth. mean, all the things he rails against, he's taking advantage of. Jonathan Cole: Well, if you'll remember, what, 10 years ago he railed about how much President Obama was abusing the executive order privilege and now he's signed four times more than Obama ever did. you know, it's, you know, it's make up the rules as you go. Didn't like someone asking like, well, aren't you against mail-in balloting? And he kind of said something to the effect like, well, I'm different, you know, it was like. Charles Barfield: Yes. Tony Hughes: Yeah, yeah. Yep. He said, yeah, he said, he said, well, I'm the president. So, you know, I can't be home to vote. So I'm the president. Okay. I get it. And there's, and he still has listed off all these different exceptions he's going to allow. So the state going to send detectives out to see if you're actually on a business trip when you request your mail in ballot? Cause you're not going to be present. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: you know, on election day? mean, you're in hospital, you know, or you're crippled, ⁓ I to what extent are they going to go in there? Is it going to be a felony if you request a mail-in ballot but you're not entitled to it? I mean, what's the... ⁓ Jonathan Cole: What about all the APOs? That's why, I mean, what about the APOs, all the military overseas that has to mail in their ballot? mean, it, you know, and it's, you're right, supplying database is just, you know, that's, it should obvious, but as we know with Trump, it doesn't matter. I'm curious now, Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Jonathan Cole: how the states will respond to this because you know the constitution of united states pretty much spells out the elections are the realm of the states. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: And it really doesn't give any provision for federal tampering it. The only thing it provides is the age and the residency requirements for president ⁓ Congress. Other that, it says it's to the state. now, to make Charles point minute ago about the hypocrisy is the... the party they hijacked, you know, who always preached, like you said, states' rights and that federal overreach was a sin. And now we are with the queen of the right wing, so to speak, doing that same thing. So where does it end? ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. Well, I kind of took that this, I kind of interpreted this executive order today as being Trump sort of throwing his hands up as far as the Save Act is concerned. You know, you remember that he begged, number one, he threatened the Senate to say he was not gonna sign any legislation of any kind until they passed the Save Act. Well, that hadn't happened. Then he told them, you know, ⁓ Jonathan Cole: You Tony Hughes: Stay in session. go on your Easter break. Stay town and pass the Save Act because it's what Jesus would want you to do. know, do this for Jesus is literally his quote. Well, obviously they left. And then you see that before they did leave, the Senate, by unanimous consent, voted to fund all of DHS except for border patrol and ICE. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: You Tony Hughes: And then the House Republicans revolted and said they were, it didn't even come to the floor. They passed their own legislation, which was dead on arrival as soon as it went back to the Senate. And then everybody left town anyway. So they still have DHS, I guess TSA got funded. Who knows how, you know, Trump signs an executive order. guess they moved money around the ICE budget to pay TSA. I still haven't figured out exactly how they paid them. I'm glad they did, ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Thank Tony Hughes: It's like, well, the Senate Republicans do what Trump wanted to do as far as DHS and the SAVE Act was concerned and going home on vacation for spring or for Easter break. And I'm curious what's going to happen within Congress ⁓ once do come back in session. Because that was clearly I mean, something's going on there. know, there's, ⁓ mean, MAGA can spit it any way they want to, but the reality is there is a big gap between where the Senate Republicans are, where the House Republicans are, the Democrats, I think, are just trying to decide, Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: I mean, I kind of like, I mean, I personally don't care for Chuck Schumer. think he's a terrible leader for your party, but I think he did make a comment about, know, as far as the Save Act was concerned that, you know, we should probably just keep our mouth shut, just let the Republicans pass it. And then when America finds out how terrible it is, just hanging on them. You know, they can say, we tried to tell you, but they had control and they cramped it down America's throat. kind of agree with him with that. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Charles Barfield: You know, ⁓ don't respect, think the Democrats that have been got rid ⁓ of Schumer, I think he's ⁓ utterly to their party. I think that his passive approach ⁓ is double in terms of it's like this, like, if someone says, patient, but your house on fire. Tony Hughes: You Charles Barfield: Sometimes you have to move in an urgent emergency situation and you can't have a delayed philosophical approach to things. My thing is I see politics the way I believe and the way the Spirit of God will help me to see things. I'm not waiting for it. You know what saying? I tolerate the deal a little bit better because I think they have a general immoral situation. But I think that they fundamentally intellectually fair to a person who wants to try to do better. Right. But I think the GOP, the current GOP is just utterly insane because they are allowing the country and the history to be urinated on constitution to replace ⁓ all the games. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: that everybody has had blood, sweat, equity in of all races, immigrants, you name it. Everybody has the ultimate sacrifice to war through all kinds of situations to have a functionally governed democracy that we ⁓ can logically disagree strongly without violence. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: and dealt with except a little few big assassinations. But fundamentally, we can differ on ideas. But now you want to erase and abort all those years, those centuries of trying to make this thing fundamentally work. For one person, for a king, in 2026, it's like, Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Charles Barfield: I'm really serious here. It's like I'm living a bad movie and the movie just won't And the bottom just won't stop falling. it's like, yeah, yeah. And it's like, I think it's important to me when I look at the other countries, right, that we look like terrorists to terrorists now. We look like anti-democracy people too. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Won't stop. Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: And it feels like parts of it are in a loop too. It's just looping. Charles Barfield: communist government, everything that we said that we stood for. The world look at us as a hypocritical joke society. That bothers me. And what I'm trying to understand is are the John McCain type of Republicans? Where are the reasonable Republicans and Democrats for the good of the country? Even jail for case aid, know, not, don't ask what your country do for you. What can you do for your country? What happened? I mean, we just lost that. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Charles, am that conservative Reagan Republican, not MAGA. And because I do draw a very sharp distinction between MAGA and conservative Republican values, the Ronald Reagan values that we had in this country at the time. can tell you where those John McCain type Republicans are. They been, ⁓ the base has kicked them out of power. Every time Republican raises their hand to object to what Trump is doing, he just says, I will I'll primary you and you're out and that's exactly what he does and that MAGA base which is which is in control ⁓ the Republican Party right now they vote the guy out Tom in the Senate You know, he objected to what Trump was doing. Trump said, I'm going to primary you. Tilla said, don't bother. I'm just not going to run again. I'm not going to stand for reelection. Marjorie Taylor Greene, you know, she gets into a conflict with him. She went ahead and just resigned because he said, I'll just primary you. Well, she went ahead and resigned why even go through the hassle? Because she knows that in her district, she would likely get beat because people are going to blindly, the MAGA base, which is in control, is going to blindly follow whatever Trump says, no matter how ridiculous and how ludicrous it is. And I want to say something else, Charles. I've had, I mean, I'm 67 years old and I've been around the block a time or two. I was a commercial banker for 42 years. Certainly been inside courtrooms plenty of times on the civil side. Thank God, never the criminal side. Not gonna would, right? But if I ever am, I know who to call now. But my point is, Jonathan Cole: Okay. ⁓ Tony Hughes: I have never had such an appreciation for the judicial branch of government that I have this past year because finally it seems like they're trying to stand up to say no, the Constitution still means something. know, today the federal judge said the construction on the or the construction slash demolition of the ballroom on the White House has got to stop because it's not been properly approved. We had. Another, another federal judge today ruled that, and Jonathan, if you've seen this yet or not, but immigrants who came into this country under ⁓ app Biden had, which, which granted them ⁓ permission be here. as long as they checked in and got their court dates and blah, blah. But then by executive order, Charles, by executive order on day one, Trump said, nope, those are all illegal. They had to be, and they sent them all a message and said, hey, you can self-deport or we're coming to get you. Well, the judge today said, no, they came in legally. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: They have the right to have their day in court, have their application processed. Now, it doesn't grant citizenship to them. It doesn't grant permanent status to them. But it just says, you could not unilaterally kick somebody out of the country that came into the country with a legal application. And I think that's just common sense. because you didn't like Biden, and I didn't like Biden. I thought he was very weak. I thought his border was just the border was just completely out of control with Biden. And I think most Democrats agree with that now. I ⁓ that's why the Democrats lost the election, frankly. But you close the door behind the last person in. You don't tell the people that came in your front or your back door legitimately and You don't just kick them out without due process. And thank God for the judiciary. sure it's going to get appealed. The indictments where... The, our DOJ has gone after Trump's political enemies. I know Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Letitia the AG in New York. Yeah, they can't even get it. They can't even get grand juries to indict these people. I mean, ⁓ my God, Charles, have ever had client that did not get indicted by grand jury? ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Charles Barfield: Well, I mean, it is well known that the grand jury can't eat a ham sandwich. mean, that's, I the fact that the matter is that hear what you're saying, but I think the judiciary is way too slow and way too countless, way too long. And starting seeing a fraction ⁓ of the doing what they should have been doing 10 years ago, right? Tony Hughes: I mean, that's just... Ham sandwich, right? Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: ⁓ yeah. Charles Barfield: But I think that it's a permanent injury in a judiciary because when you allow a king-like illegal conduct across the board, what happens is the rule of law get undermined and when the people perceive that the law is fundamentally flawed. Okay, we've always known that the law was not equitable. But at least everybody fundamentally felt like they had a fair shot in the American judicial process, right? We know there was some great racial and class disparages. That's always been the case. But even then, there still was a fundamental belief that anybody can go in an American courtroom and get some level of justice now, right? A majority of people, I don't think, really believe that now. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: You know what saying? It's still like the, I mean, in some sense like the mob got more credibility than our judiciary right now. You know, and that's bad. That's really bad. But I think that ⁓ it is, we have to get back to common sense. But I want to ask you a question, Tony, just a very simple question. ⁓ Because I'm not, I tend to tolerate the Democrat party. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yep. Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: That's bad. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: Uh, not necessarily the party, uh, because I vote for whoever, who I feel like it's going to do the right thing for the people. Right. Um, so it's hard to say, uh, my politics may transform all over the place, but fundamentally I agree with the Democrats to give you a fair shot, you know, um, but now if you, if you go back to a call of power or John McCain, or Rockefeller type Republicans, that's me. You know what saying? But this new thing, I don't understand it. my thing is that, why is it ⁓ thing the Republicans always was good at, in my opinion, were two bird things. They're good at lying, winning elections, and destroying reality. That's how they won. But the main thing I want, the question is this, is that they understood. when they lost elections, one understood what you had to do to get back. Okay, ⁓ ⁓ name it. But the Dems has been taking down stronghold red Trump dominated, not leaning district, just the red district that he blew away. I recall nationally or whatever. ⁓ They've winning, they've been on a. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: big stream for the 12 months or so. And I'm like, I some of the Senate, the Senate to know, but they haven't really been as ⁓ outspoken as they should be. So as a person who's very sharp and cerebral Lee on top of things, why do you feel that the GOP, the same GOP is allowing this king to wreck your party? ⁓ Cause Tony Hughes: Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: Because I think that what the people see now, the Dems get back in now, I don't know how y'all get back. Tony Hughes: Well, Charles, I hate to tell you this answer, but I don't think the Republican party is going to make it back. I mean, I've said on the show before that I truly believe that Donald Trump is going to be the death of the Republican party. There's a group of people and it's MAGA. The MAGA block has got that 50, 60, 70 % of the Republican party. Charles Barfield: Exactly. Tony Hughes: And they're going to, they're going to move like, they're going to move like drones and just like a pre-programmed drone, they're going to vote however Donald Trump says. the political power, the political reality of holding onto power. in the Republican party is to do what Donald Trump says. personally have all, now I had to tell you, it's been a long, long, long time since I had voted for a Democrat. I'm trying to recall if I ever have, if I did, it was probably at the state level because I, ⁓ have always, I mean, let's face it, the last few presidents you've run, last few, big candidates compared to my values as a Republican, I felt like the John McCain was a better candidate. The Mitt Romney was a better candidate. George W. Bush was a better candidate. Yes, I voted for Donald Trump the first time around. I did not vote for him the second time around or the third time around. Now, in fact, I even wrote in, I this last election, I wrote in Nikki Haley's name. I knew it was throwing my vote away, but just could not bring myself to vote for Donald Trump. And I felt like Kama was just a terrible, terrible candidate. But that's for another show another time. To answer your question, I don't think ⁓ the party is gonna make it back because they are too coward by coward ⁓ Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: by what Trump is doing. want a candidate that's actually gonna, I mean, yes, I wanna vote for Republican, but I wanna vote for Republican who is gonna vote their principles and vote their conscience, not wait to hear what Donald Trump wants them to do. In Jonathan's Jimmy Patronus, Patronus barely even lived in the district. I think he had a vacation house on ⁓ 30A in Walton County that barely even qualified to be a Republican. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: representative for the first congressional district of Florida. I mean, there's no telling how many Republicans that there were in Escambia or Santa Rosa or Ocalausa County ⁓ would have been wonderful in Washington, DC, representing that district, actually had ties to that district, ⁓ grown up in the district, had had businesses in the district, but no Trump picked Patronus. And everybody just fell right in line. the Republicans just bailed. just ⁓ their, hey, Patronus has got Trump's endorsement. We have no chance ⁓ winning the election. So they they saved their money. They just bowed out. you know, the only, here's the only way it gets resolved, Charles, in my own opinion. If Democrats, ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: And I can't even believe I'm even saying this. It shows you, it shows the fresh level of hell we're in there, Jonathan. You know, here's the level of hell I'm in. I'm actually hoping that the Democrats take the majority of the House and somehow come up with 60 votes in the Senate. There's at least enough Republicans that will join Democrats so that Donald Trump is neutered the last two years of his presidency. Once he becomes truly a lame duck, Charles Barfield: you ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: And maybe we're seeing this now with the Senate. Maybe the midterms will take this, take care of this in the house with midterm elections. I don't know. But, but until Trump gets neutered, I don't, I don't think it's going to get any better. I honestly don't. You know, Trump was making a big deal that I think CNN a poll and they asked Republicans who identified as MAGA. what level of support they gave Donald Trump. What was 100 %? Because it's MAGA. Let me tell you, any political organization where their candidate has got 100 % support, there's something weird going on. There's some Kool-Aid being drunk there. But he was like, well yeah, MAGA loves me. Well yeah. But see, here's the problem with the numbers. The numbers are... Jonathan Cole: Yep. you to do it. Charles Barfield: Thank Tony Hughes: As a nation, we're very equally divided between Democrats, registered Democrats, registered Republicans. Elections always turn on independence. Now let's look at MAGA. Let's look at that MAGA base for just a minute. Do you think MAGA has gotten larger since the presidential election or has it gotten smaller? I would argue it's gotten smaller because I think even inside the Republican Party, people like MTG, people like ⁓ Carlson, to the extent that they follow him. mean, there are Tom Tillis, Thomas Massey, Paul. There Republicans now that are pushing back ⁓ on stuff. that do not identify themselves as MAGA. I don't think they're picking up or any Democrats joining MAGA, Jonathan. ⁓ You think any independents are now identifying themselves as MAGA today compared to ⁓ ⁓ year and a half ago? I don't think so. So when you start looking at the next election and yeah, MAGA is gonna vote in block for the Republican candidate that Trump has endorsed. Jonathan Cole: Okay. I Tony Hughes: But I think a lot of other Republicans just stay home. think to the extent that I think the Democrats are gonna be out in force, I think the independents are gonna be out in force. I don't think they're gonna be voting Republican. So I think that's why, I mean, I think that's why Charles, your point, I think that Republicans that are really sensible. Jonathan Cole: Right. Tony Hughes: and are not drinking the Kool-Aid are really scared shitless right now about what these midterms could look like. Because I think it could be really, really ugly. I don't see MAGA getting bigger. The only way I think the Republicans win would be if MAGA could increase itself 15%, 20 % of what it used was at the presidential election. I don't see it happening. Jonathan Cole: Well, yeah. I don't see it happening. There's another number that came out yesterday though. latest approval rating is at 33%. We're talking Richard Nixon territory. ⁓ Tony Hughes: I think that was, wasn't that Biden's, wasn't that the end of Biden's term, what did he hit 33 % to? Wasn't that much? Yeah, wasn't that much? Jonathan Cole: It was still higher than that, was, yeah, 33 is another, I mean, no. ⁓ we're, you know, he bragged about a mandate when he won the election, but I mean, ⁓ don't, you know, there's, has to be a lot of Republicans saying they don't approve of Trump ⁓ reach 33%. Now he took a magic marker and filled in all those threes and make it look like eights, you it's, you know, but it's, ⁓ Tony Hughes: He would do that. Jonathan Cole: know 33 % for a sitting president going into midterms yeah I'm gonna that's why he's trying to create a database and hand it to the to the to the states to try to enforce but it you know I don't know I've heard multiple things Tony Hughes: Well, Jonathan, did you hear the latest about the war this afternoon from Trump himself? We're gonna go for two more weeks and then we're leaving. And if the strait's not open, that's up to Europe to figure out, because we don't use the strait. So. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, I did see that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Tony Hughes: So we've gone from, and we're going to leave with us a negotiation or not. So what happened to the got to sign a deal. I'm going to blow up their power plants, their water desalination plants, their other infrastructure if they don't sign a deal. Well, now you say they have to sign a deal. ⁓ You've got to open the strait within 48 hours. Well, now we're going to leave with the strait being closed. So. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: We've just turned the, we've gone to war and we've turned the Strait of Hormuz into the Panama Canal that belongs to Iran. Charles Barfield: But this is the thing, Tony, with any ⁓ ⁓ kindergarten or third grade reading level would know this has been the case with this trade since the right? ⁓ And confident the ⁓ military and people, regardless, if he, ⁓ you he overruled them and didn't listen to them, but they clearly told him that. Jonathan Cole: . Tony Hughes: Sure, of course. Charles Barfield: But he doesn't care. Honestly, I really think all this is about stop market manipulation. His billionaire buddies, they're so greedy, they don't want to be billionaires anymore. They want to be treated as, as we said, we're off camera here. So I really think this is an economic play by the real people who are pulling his chain behind the scenes, which is the billionaire buddies who trying to make money. Tony Hughes: Sure he did. Sure he did. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: Everything he's doing since he's been in office now is about stock market manipulation. a few days, people ⁓ winning big money and losing big money because everything he says, why? Because as and both foolish as he is, ⁓ he is in the space in the place of the president of the United States, which is de facto the most powerful person in the earth. Period. And so therefore what he says then, he affects financial markets and he's intentional about that. He's not stupid about that. He's intentional. Okay. So now I think that the reality of the matter is that his billionaire buddies realize that, wait a minute, you about to do something so crazy that you're to blow up all the financial thing for everybody. Jonathan Cole: Thank Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. you Charles Barfield: And so now they're trying to rein him in. And that's why I don't think he's going to do anything. But people don't understand is ⁓ they don't teach history well enough in America, particularly right now. And the thing about it is, Iran is a ⁓ old nation. These been around before the biblical days. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: thousands and tens of thousands of years, they know how to survive. And I'm glad that he made what they call him, that, you know, Trump. Yeah, you know, Trump, what they call him. You're gonna change. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, in this case, I'm glad, you know why? For all those men and women in our military that I think is gonna be set up Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: Yep. Yep. Yep. Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: Taco? Taco? Trump always, Trump always sickens out. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. Charles Barfield: for bloodbath. These Iranian people have got all kinds of booby traps up in there. See, this is the deal. It's a given that America is the most powerful military on the earth. You know why? Because we spend 7 % more of the next two through 10 military nations, including Russia. We spend, so we got all this technology. Tony Hughes: Absolutely. Yeah, including China, including China too. Charles Barfield: including China and Russia, we still spin out all those nine together. But this is the problem. From a sense, you can have all the technology you have. And what's been embarrassed by our military, unfortunately to me, is that when you start putting boots in the ground, you got to know the terrain of where you're stepping into. It's one thing to sit up there and shoot missiles and blow stuff up. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: But when you start getting that terrain, we got to realize what has history told us? Afghanistan for the Russians, ⁓ not learning. We as a nation are not learning. And I've been praying for our truth because ⁓ just, in my feeling, I just believe that those Iranians are too competent by telling us they dare enough to bring our truth there. They just like this. Jonathan Cole: No. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: when they closed that straight. He didn't think it through. If you start pulling out troops up in there, it's gonna be ugly. It's gonna be ugly. Yeah. Tony Hughes: Nope. There's no question about that. Ain't no question about that. Now let me tell you, Trump thought once I start throwing some bombs at him, Iran's gonna give up. They're just gonna give up. And what he found out is they're not gonna give up. Jonathan Cole: No. Well, thank you. Yeah. Charles Barfield: Yes. Yes. Right. Tony Hughes: ⁓ they took a waterway that was international waterway that was open and that's closed. And now, ⁓ though Iran has been neutered as a military, Iran can still cause problems in the strait. And they've just turned one of the most important waterways in our world over to Jonathan Cole: Well. Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: The same is the same regime. you know, he, I'm so sick and tired of it. Well, we had regime change. No, you haven't. This, the son of the Aetola that you killed is now in charge. He may be wounded or disfigured. I have no idea. He's not been on TV, but you know, they're, they're playing, they're playing Trump right now. okay. So Jonathan Cole: you Charles Barfield: Right. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: Your ballistic missiles are gone. Your uranium is gone. You're not going to have a nuclear weapon. But you know what they can still cause? I have a lot of problems. And they can still generate a lot of money with oil. And now they're going to charge $2 million for every ship that goes to the, unless it's one of their ships, unless it's their oil going to a country that's printed in them like China or India. But Saudi Arabia sends oil through there. Kuwait sends oil through there. Qatar sends oil through there. Jonathan Cole: All right, guys. ⁓ yeah. Tony Hughes: There's a lot of these, these, all these, these quote unquote friendly Arab states that are going, that are, that they got shot at. They were cooperating with the United States. They got shot at by Iran. You think Iran's gonna let them send their ships through for free? No, I don't think they are. Charles Barfield: Well, this is a thing. Jonathan, Tony, this is what I really believe. No one really will publicly say this, but I believe that the most central long-term economic calamity that this nook ahead has put America in is this. For the last, if you study economics, for the last 10 years, actually 20 years or so, China has been trying to replace America as the world's backup currency. Now, America has had that for a very long time, but in the last decade, China has been gaining ground on that. Right? And so what's happened now is that Iran has basically said that whoever goes through this waterway now, you can go through this. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: it. Charles Barfield: but you got to pay in Chinese currency. That is a game changer. ⁓ economically just bankroll America instantly. And that's what China been wanting to do forever. So that's the big deal that most Americans do not have the magnitude to understand the gravity of that. And so that's what's going to happen. Tony Hughes: Yep, that is a big deal. That's a big deal. Charles Barfield: China is going to be to replace America as a de facto currency. If that happens, that's exactly what's going to happen. And then you got all these alliances between China, Russia, and people looking at the great big bad bear America. It's not as bad as we thought. So see, it's kind of shameful and embarrassing that you got Iran. Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: Yep. Charles Barfield: knocking out with $10,000, $20,000 drones, knocking out our $55 billion planes. That's a bad look. That's a very bad look. And we spend a billion dollars a day, they're telling us. And we know they lying is their norm there. So what are they really spending? If they are meant to a million a year a day. So we don't know what it's gonna really cost us, but. Tony Hughes: That's a bad look. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: I think that that's going to be a big deal. That currency, by China, that's going be very big deal. Tony Hughes: What what? Jonathan Cole: So, see you later. This goes back to early 70s when Nixon knew we needed to get rid of the gold standard because we were giving away all our gold. But we still needed to back our money. what was the plan? It was oil. We created all of these alliances with the Middle Eastern and all the oil producers to use the dollar as the basis. oil is what really backs our dollar now, not gold. So yeah, China upset us. pretty much what we're going to do here. enjoy. Tony Hughes: All right, so now, all right, I've got the MBA in the family here. And I got the 42 year career at commercial banking, 28 as a CEO. So let me jump in here economically for just a minute. So let me jump in here just for a minute. ⁓ I hear Charles is spot on about the Chinese dollar or the Chinese yuan. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, okay. Well, no, I'm just saying it's... Well, I got refreshed on this the other day in an article, so but you know Kissinger Yeah Go ahead Yes. Tony Hughes: being becoming a alternative to petrodollars because you're exactly correct. All the oil transactions have been done in dollars. That's been the agreed upon thing. And China has certainly been trying to increase their influence. The missing piece here though that makes it even worse now is because of the Trump tariff taxes, what I call them, which of course turned out to be ruled illegal, But ⁓ some still tariffs out there. look at the damage that was done between us and our allies. Charles Barfield: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: court in China, Mexico's court in China, European Union court in China. So China, as terrible as they are as a regime, are now making themselves be the good guys. Hey, look, we're predictable. know, at least you know what you're dealing with when you deal with us. Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: And you don't know what you're dealing with with the United States anymore because they may just come pull the rug right up underneath you and start imposing these crazy trade deals on you, which don't make any sense at all. one thing that, you're right, Charles, in my opinion, you're right very partially as far as Trump paying attention to the stock market. What Trump really looks to is the United States bond market. If you go back and look at post-liberation day, Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: We're Trump Trump tacos. We're Trump chickens out That really came when the 10-year bond Basically locked up we could we had so many people trying to sell out of US treasuries Because they were fleeing our country because of the tariffs you couldn't find purchasers for our debt. Well, we're still running trillion dollar deficits ⁓ Charles Barfield: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: And that has to be funded somewhere. And that's where, I mean, that's who's basically investing in our debt is most of these oil companies. Because the dollars just evaporate. When they leave our country, for whatever reason, they don't evaporate. They're still out there somewhere. They are financing oil transactions. They are financing other trade, they are being held by other countries, central banks. So. That's why these new tariffs that Trump is trying to impose are ridiculous because they're talking about these off balance sheet trades that to be a problem when we hit the gold standard. They're not a problem now that we have efficient currency markets to really mark our dollars to market. And in fact, probably a lower dollar is not a bad deal because that makes goods in our country less expensive vis-a-vis other countries. I don't know that if China started ⁓ let's take the Iranian oil. Let's take the oil that goes straight to Hormuz. If all that winds up being denominated in Chinese won, I'm not so sure that's terrible. I don't think that's going to wreck our economy. It will devalue the dollar. But again, that's not all a bad thing necessarily for us because that does spur our exports now become cheaper to other countries. But at the same time, it's knocking us down three or four notches as far as that leadership is in the world is concerned. But let me tell you, every time Trump sees that 10-year note start to jump up, in fact, when he that 48-hour threat, open straight-ahorn moves or 48 hours from now, I'm taking out all your power plants. Well, then ⁓ that on a Friday, and all of a sudden, the credit almost crashed. The 10-year note, which really denominates 30-year conventional mortgages, jumped up over 40. Jonathan Cole: you Tony Hughes: and half percent, which is kind of a big, it was 4.6 % after liberation day. It went almost that high. So that's home ownership, that's inflation, that's the affordability, all the things that Republicans have got to have in order to win a midterm. All of a sudden, this just flying out the window because of Trump's policies. That's when he chickened out. That's when he started backing off. know, oh, well, we're negotiating. Oh, well, they're very reasonable. Oh, they gave us, you they gave us this tremendous gift. a gift. They sent eight of their tankers through the Strait of Hormuz or they allowed it to go probably for payoff, probably a million, two million dollars a ship, but at least it was oil so that was good, but it wasn't because of Trump, was because of Iran. Iran made that call and Trump's just taking credit for it, but you watch the credit markets, you start seeing that 10-year rate start to creep up to four and a half percent or more. Jonathan Cole: . Yep. you Yep. Tony Hughes: Whatever Trump did to cause that, he's about to undo it because he's more afraid of that than anything else. He doesn't listen to anybody else in the entire world except the United States credit market. Jonathan Cole: I'm shift gears a little because one of the reasons for inviting Charles on the show we'll get back we've discussed and even though it's kind of ⁓ where it's I think it'll be taken up once they come back out of recess but the save act we've discussed what the impact is, especially when it comes to women, that we've talked about. know, like if your birth record doesn't match your driver's license, can't vote. ⁓ I wanted to Charles's ⁓ on ⁓ impact on minorities. What does the SAVE Act gonna cost the minorities who have always voted ⁓ want to vote? Charles Barfield: Well, I think first of all, of the things about the Save Act is that historical republicans have been very good at telling pause if it's good and wrap it up in a good boat. Right. And so ⁓ when they that, well, you got to have an ID to do this and to do that. But Why would you need extra stuff if everything is, you know, if everything is fine and you thought you could win the election fairly? I think what's happening is that empirically, statistically, there is clearly a population numbers that everybody's been knowing for the last 60 years. It's not just coming, it's already here. And that's what you have with the big GOP freak out. And so they're doing and putting all of these extra unconstitutional between federal law and state law. you you heard that in the eighties when Reagan was about undue burden about when they didn't like what the Democrat was doing. It's unfunded mandate and undue burden. And so we can't, you know, it's going to cause businesses this, this and that. But this SAVE Act, mean, it's just much from what I understand of it that it is intentional for Black and Brown people. Statistically, there's a thing where powers that we know that a certain power is going to affect a certain zip code, a certain group of people, is delivered, is known. And so what they, I think, believe is that if you can frustrate and cause economic stone blocks in front of people where they have to go to court and many people can't afford lawyers to go out there and be their voice piece to say that they have a right to do this and that, they simply can't afford it. That alone is why people do a lot of things. A lot of times in law, ⁓ There are some times in early my career, will see judges I felt will make decisions because they assume that's going to cost a whole lot of money to appeal it and make you just go appeal it because it costs a lot of money to defend that. So sometimes people don't care stuff is right or wrong. And that's why a lot of fun is administration. They know it's going to be expensive in the morning. It's going to be costly. It's going to frustrate you. And a lot of times people do things because they want you to throw in the surrender towel. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. you Charles Barfield: and just quit because it's easy for you to quit and then you become a non-voter. And so we can X you out. And if you could do that with enough people in the population, you could win a seat. You can win a house seat or a Senate seat or a governor's seat. I've seen a couple of elections recently this year, believe, where it's like the difference of like, 10 votes or something like that. So Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Charles Barfield: That's what they're, that's the plane, Jonathan and Tony. The plane is to frustrate people, them put all these economic burdens, all these things where people who are poor or have a certain class statistically won't be able to challenge it because they can't, lawyers only going to take certain cases for free. You know I'm trying to say? And so, and so a lot of this stuff is, they know it's some of it unconstitutional. And then. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Charles Barfield: Again, it was amazing to me is that the federal government is now trying to act like the state. Well, happened to that 60 years states right deal ⁓ or less government, less intrusive. ⁓ We need the state to do this, this and that. What happened to that? This guy has changed everything that the conservatives. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Charles Barfield: say that they stood for and there's a lack of congruency in terms of intellectually and historically of what they said they were standing for because he's not acting like the state rights kind of guy. It's like the big fair government is usurping everything the state traditionally had through the ninth amendment. It's like the ninth amendment has been a blanket by the GOP. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: Since he's been in office because he everything he's doing is with the big hammer the sledgehammer of the federal government Just stop stampede on every states right? That was somewhat legitimate You don't say so I think that everything that's adverse and hostile to Minorities and immigrants is being deliberate. It's been intentional. It's been systemic as part of a game plan the whole Tony Hughes: Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, you know Charles... Charles Barfield: ride the 25 thing, it's a deliver thing. Tony Hughes: You know, Charles, the thing that gets me about the SAVE Act is that... I mean, and I hear some about minority, but I think it's every lower income, lower middle and lower income people, they tend to move more often than homeowners. The amount of homeownership is usually lower in that bracket just because they can't afford to buy. They can't afford to come up with a down payment to buy a house to begin with. it's always been my thought that lower and lower moderate income people tend to move more. They tend to be renters instead of homeowners. And now if you have to Charles Barfield: Bye. Tony Hughes: citizenship every time you go in just to change your address on your voter registration. if you happen to have a passport, fine, but again, probably the lower ⁓ demographic in our country probably doesn't travel internationally an awful lot. They probably don't have a need for a passport. mean, I'm 67 years old. I have a passport, but it's a good thing because I have no earthly idea. I haven't seen my birth certificate in years. I have no idea where it is. Now I know the hospital that I was born in, it's not there anymore, but I at least know the county I was born in. know I could get a copy of it, but that's going to take money. That's going to take time. It's going to take effort. Now, and the thing that gets about the SAVE Act. You know, they advertise it just as nothing but voter ID. You got to show an ID to vote. Okay, that's, yeah, 80 % is in favor. Hell, I'm in favor of that. I don't have a problem with showing identification card a polling place. What I do have a problem with is When I signed my application to become a voter, I had to affirm by oath that I was a United States citizen. Is that not accurate, Charles? Isn't that? Don't you have to take an oath? Don't you have to swear an oath that you are under the penalty of perjury, that you're an American citizen at the time you registered to vote? And if you've if you were not here legally and you signed up to vote, you're not legal as an American citizen, you've just committed perjury. Charles Barfield: Yes. Tony Hughes: Perjury basically is a felony, right? Or it can be. don't we just go after the people that have lied on their voter registrations and have committed perjury and purge the rolls that way? You know, rather than making grandma, 80-something-year-old poor grandma that... Charles Barfield: Yeah. Tony Hughes: that was probably born in a farmhouse in Covington County, Alabama, you know, back in 1930 something, because she couldn't get to a hospital. They were poor. They couldn't afford a doctor or a hospital. Mayor Manette probably had a birth student, have burned up in the fire when the farmhouse burned down. I don't know. you know, I've seen people on Facebook say, and some of these are my friends, say, Well, you know, just for fun, I decided to go out and replace all of my stuff. You know, a new birth certificate, a new voter registration, a new social security card, a new driver's license. And here's how long it took, and here's how much it cost. Well, you know, good for you. Good for you. But you know, most people... Voting is important to some people, not as important to other people. I mean, we look at the voter turnout in lot of elections and sometimes it's pathetic. So voting is not that, because it's hard to see how individual vote made difference. Now you're right, Charles, in some elections it is that close, but generally speaking, it's hard to see how my individual vote makes a difference. Now, if I know I don't have my birth certificate, Jonathan Cole: Thank you. Tony Hughes: I I can't go vote because I never updated my birth certificate and ⁓ I've married three times and I have marriage licenses and divorce decrees to prove my name change from point A to point B to point ⁓ C to D. I'm just not going to fool with it. That is the very essence to me of voter disenfranchisement. Jonathan Cole: Thank Charles Barfield: Well, see, that's the whole point, Tony. Tony Hughes: Because you put a barrier up to someone who did not have a barrier before, and they've been voting for decades, and now they can't. Charles Barfield: And not only that, it's like this, the common sense economics of that, Tony and Johnathan. For example, they're saying, well, you don't have to do this and that. If you're poor and you have what a choice you've made, your medicine, your food, buying a power bill, whatever. So it's economic deal. Tony Hughes: Power bill? Your power bill? Jonathan Cole: you Charles Barfield: And when you are poor, your goal is $50 take you three days or maybe three weeks of food. If you get some meat and whatever and just make it happen, you know, from the South, you know, can make, you know, miracles happen, coronary speaking, with a little. But that can stretch and keep your family for maybe a couple of weeks. ⁓ you saying earlier, Tony, Tony Hughes: Yep. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: Yep. Charles Barfield: If you don't really think your vote may even count, or you're going to take care of your family for a couple of weeks, or you're going to go out there and try to pay 50 bucks. Not only that, but if you pay for the 50 bucks, what a lot of people don't understand is that if you're in a rural area, you don't have the transportation to get to where some of these polling places and drive-alike places are. They're like miles away. like 40, 50 miles when you're in rural Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, whatever. So you can't just go every day. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-mm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: Thirdly, if you in a city and you have that limited amount of phones, then you got to catch a bus. That costs money. So there's money on top of that. Then while you're there, you got to eat or something. Who want to pay for the food to eat? So my thing is this, if they were serious about making this, if they were serious, why not make the ID, let the government pay for it? That'll solve everything. Give them an ID, but you pay for it, government. Tony Hughes: Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, that was a point. Well, this person, this person that talked about all the stuff that they replaced, they said it cost them a maximum of 20, it cost them $20. Took them three weeks, it cost them $20. I said, look, we're talking about voting here. Voting is an absolute right guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It's not like driving, which is a privilege, because you can lose your driver's license, but you can't, but you only lose your right to vote if you commit a felony. Charles Barfield: Right. Tony Hughes: I mean, at the end of the day. So it doesn't matter to me if it costs $20 or $200 or $2. If we're putting an impediment up to someone, oh, and I saw one person who chimed in and said, well, you know, if they can't go figure this out, then they're too dumb to vote. And it's like, oh, well, thank you, Jim Crow. Thank you, Jim Crow. And you know, he wasn't even insulted by that. Jonathan Cole: Thank Yep. Charles Barfield: But this is a fatal Tony it's like right Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: He was insulted by that. It's like, look, dude, I mean, I could not believe it. Charles Barfield: See, and this is the thing though, like what people don't get, you kind of touched around this. Voting is what we call an enumerated right, which is an express right. It's in the constitution. Now that's federal. Even though the states has a right to kind of regulate the qualification of voting, that is in the purview of the state. But now, but the right is granted federally. So, Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: Yep. Yep. Charles Barfield: If the right is absolute because it's enumerated in the Constitution, that means nothing or no one should put a roadblock to impair your absolute right to vote. So what I'm saying earlier, if in fact the government wants to do all this with the IDs, they should pay for it, it state or federal, because you shouldn't put a roadblock or a commerce in front of someone to block them from an absolute right that they have on the Constitution. Tony Hughes: That's exactly right. That's right. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: Yep. Yep. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: How about we just make lying on your voter registration a felony with five years in prison? mean, let's put teeth behind that. Go enforce it. Charles Barfield: Well, this is the thing, most states have that, Tony. We have that. See, there's a lot of duplication in this so-called sayback because that's already illegal. Just like some of the immigration laws have already been illegal since the 70s. They just couldn't lie about it. Tony Hughes: Well. And let's face it, this goes back to nothing more than Trump's obsession with the 2020 election and this lie that lost the election. And ⁓ this the fruit of that tree because he's convinced that it was just election fraud, although he's never ever been able to prove it. And Charles, I'd be like to answer your opinion about this. He's never taken the court case anywhere. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Charles Barfield: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: and it's never even gotten passed in the appellate court, much less the Supreme Court. And I think he knew he could not take it to the Supreme Court because he knew he'd lose. And if he had taken this case, if he had taken his election case to the Supreme Court where he appointed and had a majority that you would think would be favorable to him, and if he lost it, then he could never play the victim ever again about, ⁓ woe is me. I had the election stolen from me. Democrats stole the Well, who stole it? How did you get stolen from you? Were it of immigrants that voted illegally? No. The Heritage Foundation, that bastion of liberalism, the Heritage Foundation, did an analysis ⁓ the numbers of voter fraud, which is all fraud. Jonathan Cole: Thank Charles Barfield: It's interesting. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: illegals, know, people lying on their voter registration, people voting in the wrong place. Everything in this country went back to 1982 and there's like 1300 convicted cases in the entire country. How many billions of votes were cast since 1982 in national elections and they have found 1300 total Jonathan Cole: How many bills would you pay? Right. Tony Hughes: you know, violations that were convictions voter fraud. Which is not just even illegals, that's all fraud. I mean, this is a solution after looking for a problem, and there's just not one. Charles Barfield: Thank Jonathan Cole: Yeah. I always use the example of Arizona. Assisted Arizona had been stolen. they brought in the cyber ninjas. They confiscated all the polling machines, all the ballots. They were looking for bamboo fibers in the paper to show it was created in China. they took all this stuff off site, which ⁓ didn't understand how that could happen. But they it all back and they had a press conference. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: shooting refining and they spent probably 30 minutes talking about the evils of voter fraud. And it finally got to the conclusion of the matter. know by the way, after our exhaustive examination, Biden actually had 200 something more votes than he was originally awarded. But also too, there were 75 cases filed. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: after 2020, 2020, where you have a voter fraud, voter fraud, voter fraud, a lot of them were thrown out. A lot of them, lack of evidence, but there were 16 where the judge said, okay, I'll bite, show me what you got. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Good to have to have them. Yep. Yep. Yep. Jonathan Cole: And in all 16 cases, they withdrew the case because they had nothing. What was their name? Sidney? Whatever. Yeah, she admitted that like it was all a style tactic just to try to, know, they were hoping to get the states to like replace the ballots with or electors with Republican electors and find a way for Trump to win. that so and that's your point. It was. Tony Hughes: City Power. Charles Barfield: Thank you. Jonathan Cole: acknowledging the voting of American voters but that Trump had to win some now so but it didn't happen and yeah he's still he's still harping on that. I kind of wanted to transition into a couple items. So the other night I was watching The Royals playing the Braves and it great game. Royals had their way with the Braves for eight and a half innings. They two to nothing. And the fell out. The pitcher just kept giving up this and that. ⁓ They tied game with two-two. And then the bases are loaded. It's a full count. Pitcher can't do anything but throw a strike because it never hit the guy. Grand Slam homerun. You walk off Grand Slam. So 62. So anyway, I was in here. I was kind of watching. was kind of working on my computer. And then when the game ended, this documentary came on. It was kind of about the whole, how the late 2000s Yankees dynasty came about. Tony Hughes: Thank Jonathan Cole: and how they really went through a wasteland through the late 80s and early 90s. Well, there was a player they brought up. name was Mel Hall. And remembered the name. But ⁓ they talking about what a kind of a bad seed he was. ⁓ if look, he played for about eight different teams. And he great but ⁓ he was a We used to call the clubhouse lawyer. They to keep moving well. So really transpired too is that he a pedophile. He even, during his time with the Yankees, almost kidnapped 15-year-old girl and she was living with him. And ⁓ it almost accepted. years later, two women out. Tony Hughes: for. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, he assaulted me underage and he got sent to prison for 60 something years based off those counts. But then as they kept digging, his whole life had been just one... It sounded like Epstein, but it was baseball player. But what came out in this documentary was the young lady who had been his concubine, for heck of a better word. ⁓ The entire time he was in New York, he stayed in Trump Tower at the invitation of Donald J. Trump. They were very good friends. They partied together. A lot of months she said he didn't have the rent and Trump was like, don't worry about it. Now let's go up to 21 and you So here's another certified pedophile who's very good friends with you know who and as you brought out last week Tony, we're talking about all these other things but what are we not talking about tonight, you know? Exactly. And like I said, Tony Hughes: Cool. Hmm. I had talked about Epsi in a month. Charles Barfield: Get to bow. Jonathan Cole: You know, in other countries, they're taking it serious. know, Prince Andrew's been removed from a lot of duty now. His daughters are investigation. The Royal Family in Norway is ⁓ investigation. But in this country, no, not going to do anything. There's no proof. ⁓ Yep. So, but was just interesting that, you know, it's a of plain sight that this man is obviously Tony Hughes: Wag the dog. Wag the dog. Jonathan Cole: lifelong pedophile and sex trafficker, but we're not going to do anything. There's no point. you look at it, the people he's associated with and even comments he made through the years, it's like that MAGA doesn't see it. A lot of rank and file Americans don't see it. It's kind of weird. yeah, you know. Tony Hughes: Mm. Hmm. Charles Barfield: Thanks. Tony Hughes: And, MAGA doesn't care. Let's just face it, MAGA doesn't care. MAGA cared, MAGA cared until Donald told them not to care. And then they didn't care anymore. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, the party. Well, the party of family values embraced a three-time divorcee who kept ditching wives and marrying mistresses and as Pete Townsend said, fiddled about in between. You know, I had a meme. Yeah. Well, exactly. There was a meme, I say. There was a picture of Sidney Freud and he's like, let me get this straight. Tony Hughes: who had sex with a porn star, who had sex with a porn star, wife was home with their newborn baby, Baron. Jonathan Cole: You were spanked on the ass with a rolled up newspaper or raggedly with your picture on it by a foreign star. Let me get back to you on that. It's funny. But, you know, it's... Tony Hughes: Hahaha! Wow, wow. ⁓ hey Jonathan, did you hear today that, or maybe it came out yesterday, that stockbroker was inquiring making a multi-million dollar investment in a fund that was made up of nothing but defense contractors about two weeks before the Iran war started. Now they didn't do it. They wouldn't him in because it was Hegseth. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: But they tried, and it was Hex says Stop Broker. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: But we lost Charles. ⁓ there's a conspiracy theory for you. He was just fixing to open the can of worms and Trump has cut him off. ⁓ Trump, the Senesce has spoken. There he is. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Good. Nice choice. Yeah, the NSA has spoken. ⁓ There he is. You were just censored by the NSA, Charles. Charles Barfield: to happen. Tony Hughes: Charles, thought the NSA got you. You fixed the spill, spill something, the NSA got you. Charles Barfield: That's probably true too. You know, you're right. We haven't been talking about though everything files and I think that there's a law that he signed that they should be meeting the president that I don't get why I'm not talking about a 33 % of the maga extremists. just, they just in crazy lane. But I'm talking about the other 60 % of Americans. we have not demanded those files released immediately. And secondly, for what we do though, which is the ⁓ drip drop. And just understand why is it that either Congress, they have lawyers. Why don't you? file a mid motion to go to SCOTUS and put SCOTUS on record saying that this is overstepping all this stuff, but causing the FD file, causing the wars and all this kind of stuff. an injunction. ⁓ SCOTUS say yeah or nay about all these unconstitutional things. Why we just waiting for the midterms? ⁓ don't get it. We may not have no country like I was saying earlier. The house is on fire. America's on fire. We're burning up. We need to be rescued. We got to get out of this and we got to take action. can't wait. to me, ⁓ I think that again, all we talk about now is the stock market, ⁓ street, chip can go through with this little tiny pathway that's got all international currencies affected by it. Tony Hughes: They're so far. They're so far. Yep. Jonathan Cole: you Charles Barfield: And that's all we're talking about. What is the president going to do? Is he going to really blow up and nuke all the stuff he's talking about doing? Why? We have forgotten our minds. And the journalists, we have no journalists now. I talked about this with Greg and I talked about this with Greg and Jonathan when they were first starting their podcast a while back. And this is the thing. We don't have Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace. We don't have Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. No we don't. Charles Barfield: We ⁓ have journalists now, ⁓ we have entertainers. ⁓ in the microphone want to be an entertainer now, and they're afraid to ask a president basic questions about basic governance. They're afraid to. So why are you in that space? So I think that's the problem. like people are deferring and just not doing their basic jobs. So why are you there? Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: The entertainers. Mm-hmm. you Well, I'll defend some journalists like on MSNOW and NBC and ABC ⁓ CNN. Trump belittles those reporters. They will not even call on them. Charles Barfield: Yes. Tony Hughes: in press conferences for them to ask questions. And in fact, again, a court just reversed the Defense Department's rules because they were restricting who could go into, who could cover the DOD or DOJ or DOD, Department of War now. ⁓ you had to basically sign a loyalty oath to be a journalist and cover the Department of Defense. Jonathan Cole: you Yeah. Tony Hughes: And they just recently, a court finally just recently said, no, that's not constitutional. You have to up to everybody. But the president still picks who sits in the press office. The president picks who goes on Air Force One with him. I mean, so he's controlling the press and he's not allowing any, what he considers to be unfriendly news sources, news sources that aren't going to take, they're going to call him on his BS. He doesn't want that. He only wants Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: He only wants the Peter Deuces of the world, then in a kiss in his ass about, Mr. President, instead of talking about the war, could you please show us the pictures of the ballroom you're designing? I mean, that's who he wants covering him. It's just like his cabinet secretaries. is the most ridiculous ⁓ kissing session. They can't hand him a cup of coffee without telling him what an amazing leader he is. I mean, it sickens me. Jonathan Cole: Thank Tony Hughes: I mean, it's just such narcissistic behavior. And Charles and Jonathan, I mean, last week the Justice Department said there's still 1.5 million files of episodes that have not been released publicly yet. Now why have they been released? I thought there was a law. Jonathan Cole: Well... Yep, exactly. and ⁓ of that, ⁓ current Secretary of War, prior qualification was Fox News host. You ⁓ Tony Hughes: Weekend. But only on the weekends. He was just a weekend guy. He was a major in the National Guard until they forced him out. He was a major. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, yeah, I know. Are we sure? Okay, well, we'll see. don't know. So wanted to close on an update. And Charles, weren't with us last week, but there is an There was a news about a murder in Virginia where a guy shot a in the head in the front seat of his car. And yeah, and... ⁓ Tony Hughes: Hahaha ⁓ yeah. I shouldn't laugh. This isn't funny. Jonathan Cole: I know, it's like, but the assailant a quadruple amputee who stubbed, he's be amputated at the elbows. How is driving? How ⁓ does he a trigger? It's, ⁓ I checked So the latest is, The Virginia's not really fighting whether or not to extradite him because they said could be harmful ⁓ of his condition. But accusing him of murdering a man with a gun ⁓ when has no hands. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Mm. Well, Charles was going to be his defense attorney, and Charles' argument is he's unarmed and doesn't have a leg to stand on. Jonathan Cole: ⁓ Okay. So, still doesn't explain any of these news stories. It still doesn't, none of these news stories explain how he could have done it. The only thing I did find out new is he shot the guy twice. Tony Hughes: God's gonna send me to hell for that joke by the way. Yeah. Twice, ⁓ my God. Wow. Jonathan Cole: You know, and then somehow this man with no arms and no legs drugged this body out of his car and dumped it in the yard because the friends... Tony Hughes: Yeah, Charles, were two guys in the back seat and he tried to get them to help him dispose the body. They refused. They jumped out of the car and took off. So he had to get him out of the car himself. Jonathan Cole: But it's been a week now and I still don't have answers to all these blazing questions. Tony Hughes: I hope trial winds up on Court TV. I can't wait to watch this one. Jonathan Cole: you know how the news is usually very like if there's a murder they go into deep details. It's like I feel bad for the victim's family sometimes but ⁓ no detail. other dude was shot twice. ⁓ ⁓ I don't know how does this ⁓ with no know nothing passed here, definitely not hands, pull a twice. Tony Hughes: I'll do it to you. Well. Charles he's also a cornhole champion. Jonathan Cole: ⁓ least we saw how he did that. ⁓ Tony Hughes: So he, there was a picture, there was a picture on the internet of him throwing a bean bag with both his nubs. can't even get my arms over there to hold a bean bag, but yeah, that's, I've got questions. Jonathan Cole: So I said, it's not humorous that someone was murdered, I don't get it. It's it's bloody time-lapse. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Well, Jonathan, stay on this. We've got an issue with journalists in this country. We're relying upon you to uncover the facts of this case. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Well, I did today, when I did my Google, there were three pages of articles from reputable sources. New York Times had already gone down, nobody's getting into how he could have pulled off this. Tony Hughes: Okay, well keep after it. Keep on it! you Jonathan Cole: Yeah. that's my first question. the defense attorney is like, you you ⁓ you did you take samples of the powder burns on his nubs? And ⁓ like, I it's it's not funny, it's I'm laughing because I'm baffled. Tony Hughes: It's weird. Definitely weird. Jonathan Cole: And I've got a news and then and all of the news sources are not going into the details, which I don't understand. But I've seen the guy multiple pictures, seen videos of him even. How the heck does he shoot someone twice in the car? You know, I'm thinking if someone's got a gun between two nugs, I got a pretty good chance of disarming him, you know. Tony Hughes: Hello. I'm not even gonna go there. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: That is... I guess, sorry. was... much... ⁓ Yes. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: That's what happened thinking. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: Are you talking about the capital case in Alabama? Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jonathan, I don't think they even charged the other two guys, though, did they? Jonathan Cole: Great. No, they didn't. That's just it. It's Charles you talking about, that capital case in Alabama? Well, no, there's one right now where the governor signed a death warrant guy that. ⁓ fit that same bill. didn't pull the trigger. He was in an armed robbery. It's been years ago, but they're wanting to put him to death because of that law. So there's a lot of back around the country, but the goat, what's her name? She's not backing ⁓ and down. ⁓ saw that in the news. So my thing, and why I keep saying this is I handguns. Tony Hughes: Okay, Abby. Jonathan Cole: They have a grip and they have a trigger guard. And that requires digits to... That's what I mean. Yeah, a trigger guard. It requires digits to manipulate that and turn it into a deadly weapon. If you don't have those digits, how does this happen? The second I heard this story, it just did not set right. And I'm just curious... Tony Hughes: And a trigger guard. And a trigger guard. It would definitely have to be modified somehow. Yeah, the gun would have to be modified in some pretty significant way. like you say, you just can't imagine it being convenient. I mean, it's hard. I mean, can imagine if I was sitting in the front seat and most front seats, they don't have bench seats anymore in front. They're usually bucket seats of some kind. Jonathan Cole: Amen. Tony Hughes: I mean, if you're left handed, you might be able to cover and shoot somebody in the passenger seat. But if you're right handed to try to turn around and get a beat on somebody, that's hard with someone who's fully functional with all your limbs. And I just can't imagine being able to turn and hold a gun with nubs figure a way to pull the trigger. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: I mean, can see, like Charles says, if you're disabled and you like to shoot skeet or you like to target practice, there's probably some modifications you could do to a gun to be able to do that, but probably not just something you can pick it up out of the glove compartment and start blasting away. It seemed like it would take some time to get set up to get whatever the apparatus is on yourself or on the gun to be able to use it. I still have questions. It's going to be interesting to see how that turns out. Jonathan Cole: Right. you Yeah. Well, mean, apparently. Tony Hughes: Yep. I want to start seeing Charles as an analyst on Court TV. He's good. I'm hooked on Court TV by the way, Jonathan Cole: Yeah, well, and the thing too is, like I said, usually when it's a murder case, you get all the details. ⁓ through every article, they haven't identified what firearm it was, what caliber it was. ⁓ There's literally nothing. Tony Hughes: Hmm. Wow. Jonathan Cole: Just the angle of a quadriplegic murdering someone. If I'm a journalist, I want to dig deep and spill it all out, but it's almost like... Tony Hughes: Yeah, you gotta figure it can't be much more than a 22 cal per pistol though because I think anything else can have too much kickback. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Exactly, but I mean... Tony Hughes: ⁓ yeah. Yep. It's got to be it's got to be a, it's got to be a headshot. That's a headshot. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, well, what happened to RFK, you know, it was literally six inches from his head when it was fired. So, but again, was this guy doing that he didn't see all this hackthaning and defending himself? ⁓ what, know, ⁓ of this makes any sense. And after week, it still doesn't make any sense. ⁓ I am. Tony Hughes: Yeah, for real. We'll say on it, Jonathan. Inquiry minds. Jonathan Cole: And you can... Tony Hughes: Hahaha. Jonathan Cole: Well, I mean it is, but it's very incomplete details. I and I looked today, I cruised every... Tony Hughes: Hmm. Jonathan Cole: Three pages of Google and none of them go into any more details other than, now it's two shots. That's the only thing I saw different from a week ago. But you can Google it, Charles, it's the quadriplegic suspect or something ⁓ that. ⁓ it's all in ⁓ But as I ⁓ there's no details. Tony Hughes: Hmm. Well. Well. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Jonathan Cole: bizarre. So yeah, we're gonna keep on top of that just because it, you know. Tony Hughes: Hmm. Well. Jonathan Cole: ⁓ It has ⁓ from the first time I heard it. I we're gonna call it an evening, though. We appreciate everyone joining the show this evening. We appreciate Charles for us this evening with his ⁓ perspectives, and we Tony, as always. we want to sign off tonight, ⁓ usual. Like our show, in sections. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Sure do. Jonathan Cole: but definitely tune in next week for the next edition of Guardians of the Galaxy. Tony Charles, hope you all have a great evening. Tony Hughes: Take care, see you later. Thank you, Charles. Thank you very much. All right, bye bye. Jonathan Cole: Alright, appreciate it.