They could steal it. They took it home to the netherlands just as a Neener Neener weve got your royal charles, weve got your flagship, then they sunk all the rest of them. 1660s were just a terrible time in britain. But by the end of the 1660s, in 1670, the king himself, the aforementioned charles, he found himself a little bit of a way out. He was a little bit at the end of his rope. Demoralized, suffering defeat and disaster on multiple fronts, both his kingdom and personal life were really freaking chaotic at the time. I should mention at the time he was busy producing 12 different offspring by 7 different mistresses. So at least we know what he liked to do for fun. But things in general were a mess. Even though he was the king of england, he was kind of broke. Seven mistresses . Hm. So 1670, he came up with a rescue plan for himself. In 1670, he made a secret deal with his first cousin, who conveniently was also a king. His first cousin was the king of france. And in this deal in 1670, the king of france agreed to secretly pay the king of england a ton of money for the rest of his life. In return, the king of england said that he would before he died convert to catholicism. That was the deal. And apparently both kings, the king of england and the king of france thought this was a great deal, although understandably they both realized it was maybe a deal that should be kept secret from their subjects. But they made this deal in 1670, and after this deal was made for the duration of his time on the throne, king charles ii of england, he really was secretly on the payroll of another country. And in terms of the deal, regardless of how the agreedupon religious conversion thing worked out, not actually sure if it did, history is a little fuzzy on the issue. But regardless of the converting to be a catholic issue, even if you remove from the equation what the king of england offered france for his side of the deal, even if you just take that whole thing out of it about him converting and you only look at frances side of the deal, even if you only look at what they gave, that was still a good deal. Because think about it, they had the king of another country on a tether. The king of freaking england was their paid agent. I mean, even at the exorbitant rate that he was charging them and he was charging them a lot, frankly, its cheaper than a war. You just pay for the guy. And thats what charles ii did. Charles ii was kind of a lousy king. Ultimately his fantastical secret corruption became a failure in historys lessons is of how to run a country or rather how not to run a country. Thats what happened in 1670. And in the 1700s, when it came time for the founders of our country to set the rules for how we would run this country, that historical example, which was only a couple of generations old at the time, that historical example of charles ii, that arguably is what the founders of our country had in mind when they put into our constitution an explicit rule that says federal officials cant take things of value from foreign vernments. You cant be involved in running our country at any level while some other country is giving you stuff because, obviously, that basically makes you a paid foreign agent. Even if the upkeep of your seven mistresses is very expensive, you just cant do it. Our constitution is weirdly, even arcanely specific about that. On taking gifts or taking moneys from Foreign Countries that ban and the clear reasoning behind it, theyre part of the reason why the Ongoing InternationalBusiness Affairs of our president elect, they continue to be a real concern. And its not out of any personal concern about him or whether you think hes a good guy or bad guy, its a constitutional concern and a constitutional concern that comes from a real rooted in the real world corruption experience. And these concerns with his International Business entanglements, these concerns are getting bigger not smaller with each passing day in the news as we get closer to him being sworn in. Because this stuff keeps coming up, when it comes up, the more you look at it, the worse it is. For example, we now know that the daughter of the president elect, she apparently got a big business deal greenlighted by a governmentcontrolled bank in japan right after that bizarre and otherwise inexplicable spectacle where the president elect invited his daughter to sit in on his inperson meeting with the japanese Prime Minister. If that deal in fact only got greenlit because of the new political position of the trump family, well, then that action by that governmentcontrolled bank in japan, thats pretty clearly a Foreign Governments gift to the president s family. Thats just one. With each passing day theres another one of these now. They are getting bigger and worse over time. Theyre not none of them are getting cleared up. I mean, at the end of last week when the president elect threw more than three decades of diplomacy out the window by making direct president ial level contact with taiwan despite our countrys hard fought fragile deal with china that we do not do that, was that related at all to the business of the president elect sending executives over to taiwan as recently as last month to look at possible sites for new trump hotels near the big new expanded airport in taipei . The taiwanese government we know from the news has just gotten something from the president elect of the United States that theyve been trying to get from the United States for 30 years. Will they now say yes to whatever his business is asking for in terms of permits or leases or loans or permissions or anything else the government in taiwan can give now that they are apparently being asked for those things by trumps business . If the Family Business effectively gets paid by taiwan as personal compensation tthe president in return for this radical policy shift that the president elect just made toward taiwan, then that would be a gift from a Foreign Government to the president elect through the mechanism of his familyrun business. There are a number of these things in the news, and not just these arent the first ones. More and more of these each passing day. Honestly, if any one of those things end up getting prosecuted as such, it would be the biggest raw Corruption Scandal that weve seen in american president ial politics in a long time. Weve had other kinds of scandals, president s lying and president s conducting secret or illegal politics or spying on their political enemies but flatout using the office of the presidency for naked political personal excuse me naked not political but personal gain . Taking foreign money. This charles the ii stuff that were seeing right now . This is the thing that we criticize kleptocuratic countries on other continents. This is nothing weve had to confront in our own government before. The charles the ii stuff that we continue to get with each passing news cycle, we get more of these problems, thats a really big deal. In todays news we went a step beyond our charles ii problem, which we definitely haveith the new president elect. Weve got that problem. Today we got a whole new and maybe worse problem because getting paid effectively by Foreign Governments is not the only way we can get into trouble as a country because our leader has stopped acting in the intests of our country and is being used for another countrys purposes. Paying the leader is o way we get into that kind of trouble as a country. But todays new wrinkle is this. Today we started to hear from the people who are overtry claiming credit for what the president elect is doing with other countries. Today we started to hear from the people who are overtly claiming credit for what just happened, for example, with taiwan. Alston bird, a big d. C. Law firm. Theyve been getting paid 20,000 a month by what would be the Taiwan Embassy in the United States if we had diplomat relations with taiwan, which we dont, on purpose. Bob dole may be 93, but that does not mean hes retired. Hes still at it. Its fair to say we may have had some influence in setting up that diplomatic bombast of a phone call between the president elect and the leader of taiwan. Think about that for a second. I mean, it is one thing to be directly on the payroll of a foreign country, king charles. It is another thing to effectively be on the payroll but to collect your fee through your Family Business. But it is a third and coequal thing to be like an empty set on foreign policy, to be ignorant or naive or agnostic or cynical enough about policy about americas interests that youre happy to be an instrument of a Foreign Government. Youre happy to be an instrument of a Foreign Government or anyone who pays the right people to get next to you to tell you what to say. Even on super, supersensitive high policy issues that you may think you understand. But its one thing to think of your president as radical but another to have people bragging openly that your president is someone who does what hes told because he doesnt know any better . Which is worse . And in terms of who is telling him what to do while hes doing what hes told, in terms of who is controlling who gets in his ear and whether or not these people are being paid by Foreign Governments to tell him what to do, this comes at a really delicate moment in terms of this transition, in terms of National Security and this new incoming president and his administration. Today in fayetteville, north carolina, the president held this second mass rally that hes done since the election. Mass rallies may be a permanent feature of his presidency. At the first one last week it was mostly just a campaignstyle event as if he were still running against Hillary Clinton. They chanted lock her up. He was telling the assembled crowd a secret, that they should not tell anybody, but he said that this week on monday of this week hed be announcing his choice for defense secretary, former marine general james mattis. The mattis announcement it was itself a little chaotic. Mattis announcement was leaked on thursday, then denied by the trump transition later on thursday, then thursday night the president elect went to this mass rally and said he wasnt officially making the announcement yet, nobody should tell anybody, he would make it on monday. Monday came and they didnt make the announcement. Then tonight on tuesday they did roll out their secretary of defense choice general mattis. Secretary of defense jim mattis will be subject to senate confirmation. But the other major announcement that this Incoming Administration has made on security is a pick that will not be subject to senate confirmation. Hes a done deal just by being designated by the president elect. He remains probably the most controversial choice other than the chief strategist steve bannon. The other most controversial personnel announcement made by the Incoming Administration is retired army general mike flynn who is designated to be the National Security adviser. He has raised eyebrows since he was first brought on to the trump campaign, because he has this reputation for being a nut. Sorry. For trafficking in truly insane conspiracy theories. For his apparent willingness to suspend disbelief in order to absorb and pass on totally fake madeup news stories that no serious person would take seriously but he does because they apparently fit his ideological inclinations. So he was raising eyebrows just as a campaign surrogate let alone as National Security adviser. But now hell be National Security adviser. Today at the moment when president obama was making his final major National Security address of his presidency, literally at that same moment, the Vice President elect was on cable news amid all these snowballing concerns about the Incoming Administration on National Security and whether their radicalism is intentional or not, whether they know what theyre doing, who is telling them what to say and who theyre being paid by, well, amid all these snowballing concerns about National Security and whether or not theyre shaky on those most important issues, while president obama was at centcom giving his National Security address there on cnn was the Vice President elect, having to explain why or if the transition sought security cleaners and gave a formal government transition role to the son of mike flynn, the son of mike flynn, the National Security adviser designate, the son of general flynn is a stated fan of alex jones and info wars. He has served as his dads chief of staff while trafficking publicly in truly insane conspiracy theories including that Hillary Clinton was secretly running a child sex slave operation out of the back of a d. C. Pizza restaurant. You must be aware that the Transition Team put in for security clearance for michael g. Flynn, the son of retired general flynn . Im aware in talking to general flynn that his son was helping ask scheduling, jake. No, but you put in for security clearance for him. Helping his dad arrange for meetings and provide meetings, but thats no longer the case. Were you aware that the transition had put in for security clearance for Michael Flynn jr. . I worked very closely with general flynn. Ive worked on many occasions. Ive never seen his son present for any of those meetings. But youre head of the Transition Team. You know who was given security clearances. This is a young man who was helping his father. He had a social media profile that had all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories and had links with white supremacists. Were you aware that the Transition Team put in for a security clearance for him . What i can tell you in talking to general flynn today he made me aware that his son was saiing him. And that you put in for a security clearance . Well, whatever the appropriate paperwork was to assist him. Were bringing together with general mike flynn and k. T. Mcfarland, with the team that will surround them and advise this president. People who will set into motion, im confident, the policies that will make america safe again and at home and abroad. Two days ago we saw someone with a gun go to common pizza because of this crazy Conspiracy Theory that Michael Flynn had put out there, defended afterwards and you guys put in for a security clearance. But i will move on. If youre a National Security voter or if youre not a National Security voter primarily but just a person who cares about National Security, whats happening with the president elect with the Incoming Administration on this issue, i mean, its not the great plague of london, not the great fire of london, not the dutch sailing up the river thames andsinking the whole fleet, but its bad. Audacious, scandalous conflicts of interest and a radical form of incompetence and disorganization that outside paid interests are already bragging that theyve been able to take advantage of. And if you think we are the unchallenged most powerful country in the world an nobody can touch us then maybe it doesnt matter. Maybe theres a huge margin of stuff you can screw up here and ways you can be incompetent and corrupt here and it wont matter. But if you dont think that we are the unchallenged ruler of the world, if you dont think that we can do anything and nobodys too big a screwup, if you think weve got competitors, if you think weve got challengers and enemies in the world, then them being this bad on this issue, its bad. He gets a lot of compliments. He wears his army hat, walks around with his army shirt looking all nice. And then people just say, thank you for serving our country and im like, thats my dad. Male vo no one deserves a warmer welcome home. Thats why were hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. Im very proud of him. Male vo comcast. Donald trump tonight announced his nominee for secretary of defense. General james mattis. Its a civilian job to be secretary of defense. In order to take that job, somebody so recently out of the military will have to get a waiver from the United States congress. Tonight they started the process of getting him that waiver, even before trump gets sworn in. Its a provision tucked into a draft spending bill for the overall funding of the government right there on page 27. Look. Exception to limitation against appointment of persons as secretary of defense within seven years of relief from active duty. Thats on page 27. Page 28, quote, limited exception. This section applies only to the first person appointed as secretary of defense after the date of the enactment of this act and to no other person. So in other words, congress intends this exception in the law for general mattis and for general mattis only. Provided hes the first person donald trump names as his nominee for secretary of defense. This thing is written almost in disappearing ink. Its supposed to be just for mattis and to go away and glide by in a hurry again before trump is even sworn in as president. Its true that some democrats may balk at this, senator guillen brand of new york said she wont go along with this. Civilian control of the military is too important to have a waiver on this. President obama will need to sign this when it goe