Oldyelllerd by the american electorate. laughter if you dont upon, you should rent it. Its pretty good up until that part. laughter it was a major repudiation, repudiation of the president who, according to reports, spent Election Night in his sweat pants drowning his sorrows in point force one. laughter the next day, the president went before the White House Press corps to confront the why of his defeat. Im a single mom and at the end of the month its really hard for me to pay the bills. laughter applause jon thats not why you lost. Actually, that joke was brought to you by context, context. Look at how silly the world would be without context. laughter actually, the damage the damage from this years midterms pretty easy to catalog. Well, this morning, the party is in shambles. There will be a lot of soulsearching as you can imagine. I think the democrats are still in sort of stage three of the five stages of grief. Jon the Democratic Party is no more. It has ceased to be. Its shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. Sorry, i havent come down from john cleese being on the show yesterday. Wait a second. The Democratic Party in shambles. A lot of soulsearching. Stages of grief. Why is it those phrases are so familiar . The latest sign of a Republican Party simply in shambles. For more republican soul searching is now under way in the wake of the november elections. The republicans are kind of going through their five stages of of grief after the election. Jon oh, right oh i know why those phrases are so in my head because they said the exact same ones about the Republican Party when the death warrant was signed in 2012. A mere 24 months, apparently, before it burst forecast p forth from its grave like jesus christ. Or a zombie, depending on your personal beliefs. laughter its as though every event that happens is viewed by our media singularly as though it didnt exist in any previous oh, whats the word were looking for . Oh, right context. laughter applause its the bleep you have in your tape library that gives seemingly isolated incidents perspective. laughter regardless of which party is currently grieving, theyre going to have to find a way to get along. We ought to see what areas of agreement there are and see if we can make some progress for the country. Im certainly going to be spending a lot more time with them now because thats the only way that were going to be able to get some stuff done. And i i take them at their word that they want too produce. Jon you know what . Im sorry, that that is inspiring. To see two longterm rivals come together. After an election and unite around a shared message of disingenuous bleep . laughter but, obviously, their relationship is going to change. This was their relationship last year. Some folks still dont think i spend enough time with congress. Why dont you get a drink with Mitch Mcconnell, they ask. Really . laughter why dont you get a drink with Mitch Mcconnell. Jon boom well, that was the old relationship. This is the relationship now. Are you going to have that drink can Mitch Mcconnell now you joked about at the white house correspondents dinner. You know, actually, i would enjoy having some tu kentucky bourbon with Mitch Mcconnell. Jon first of all, no you wouldnt. laughter and second of all, we all know senator mcconnell isnt a bourbon fan. His prefer drink is an algae and pond water and garnished with a refreshing leaf of lettuce. You know, theres actually been a little bit of controversy that weve been likening the Presumptive Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell to a slowtalking tortoise man. laughter i want to i want to state for the record we are not. What we are doing is asserting that Mitch Mcconnell is literally, biologically, a tortoise. laughter applause specifically a 180yearold living, breathing, giant tortoise of the species who has, despite not being indigenous to north america ascended to a prominent leadership role in the united states. So i say to senator mcconnell, kudos. So we that was a long ride, wasnt it. That was a long walk. You really didnt know where we were going on that. So with both president obama and senator mcconnell giving lip service to actually working, maybe there can be a truce between these two parties. Mitch mcconnell and john boehner, the speaker of the house, they are calling for another repeal of obamacare. The battle over Immigration Reform as president obama vows that he will get reform done with or without congress. The temporary truce between president obama and congress lasted less than 24 hours. It is the dawning of the age of aquarius age of aquarius laughter really, if you look at what mcconnell said yesterday, it was clear this partnership was doomed from the start. Theres no personality problem here or exg lik anythine that. I think my attitude about all this at this point is trust, trust but verify. Jon trust but verify. Where have i heard that before . The importance of this treaty transcends numbers trust but verify. Jon there you have it the Highwater Mark of our miew era of bipartisanship is the Senate Majority leader implying he is to obama as reagan was to the leader of our totalitarian Nuclear Armed nemesis a. K. A. , the evil empire. laughter well, my feeling of despair is brought to me by historical context. laughter its why old people are sad. laughter well be right back. Well be right back. cheers and applause Wireless Networks are awesome. Theyre big, fast and dependable. And at net10 wireless, we let you tweet text, talk and surf. On those amazing nationwide Networks Without getting locked into a pricey phone contract. Americas best 4g lte networks for half the cost. Thats wireless your way. Unlimited talk, text and data starts at just 40 a month. And now android smartphones start at just 19. 99. Maestro of project management. Baron of the buildout. You need a permit. To be this awesome. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. aaron purrrfect. vo meeeow, business pro. Meeeow. Go national. Go like a pro. Everyone wants to be the best. But what does that really mean . To us, it means giving you a wide selection of products, both online and instore. Expert advice. Our geek squad agents to get you up and running. And thanks to our price match guarantee, youll always get an unbeatable price. Because best isnt just in a name, its everything we stand for. cheers and applause . Jon welcome back. The day after the democrats got their balls waxed, president obama aannounced he was going to take action whether the new congress was with him or not. The president said he will bypass congress with an executive order on Immigration Reform. Im eager to see what they have to offer, but in the meantime, lets figure out what we can do lawfully through executive action to improve the functioning of the existing system. What im not going to do is just wait. Jon i mean, its been two days. Should i call them . Should they call me . I dont know what to do. I dont want to look desperate, but i do have a little business. It raises the question. He is excited about doing stuff now but what was he doing before the election . More controversial decisions delayed by the Obama Administration until after the election. Everything from the nomination of a new attorney general to decisions on a controversial keystone xl pipeline, Immigration Reform, Corporate Tax reform, and rates for the farc. The white house says that action was taken as a request of Senate Democrats. Three senators, mark pryor, kay hagan, and mary land row asked the president to delay decisions on immigration, deportation. Jon Senate Democrats wanted to avoid votes on contentious issues so they wouldnt have to take unpopular stance that might cost them reelection. And they got president to go along with it. Its a wellknown political maneuver known add the bleep . Its named, of course, for senator dickless h. Chicken bleep . Who, when he was asked whether he supported the emancipation proclamation, famously said what . Huh . And then had to pretend to be hard of hearing for the rest of his life. laughter but if youre basing your agenda purely on what helps redstate democrats, how about the Keystone Pipeline. The Keystone Pipeline is more popular in red states than chickfilas new patriot basket. Why not just approve that before the election . President obamas decision to delay the Keystone Pipeline allows vulnerable democrats from energyproducing red states room to distance themselves from president obama and oppose him. Jon oh, come on. Democrats are not so cynical that the president would delay action on a project just so fellow democrats could attack him for delaying that action. Louisiana senator mary landrieu, denowpsing the latest delays saying, this decision is irresponsible, unnecessary, and unacceptable. Alaska senator mark begich says, i am frankly appalled at the continued foot dragging by this administration. Acsaws mark pryor said, theres no execution of excuse for another delay. The president needs to approve this project now. Jon adding wink. So last april, seven months ago, obama delays his keystone decision. Redstate democrats get points for attacking the president s, bluestate democrats get point for attacking the pipe line. It was a winwin. Except for one thing. They all lost pryor lost. Haig an lost, begich lost. The only one who hasnt lost is land row. Shes going into a rauf that shes going to lose. Its like democrats came up with this plan to approval springtime for hitler but only because they really thought it was a good bleep play. And by the way, that Keystone Pipeline . You delayed the decision on that back in april. Thats seven months before the election. You dont have that kind of governing time. These elections are two years apart. If you take out the seven months before the election, where things are going, and then you go from the first few months of the new election where the new guys where unpacking and figuring out the email, plus summer reserks plus spring recess, autumn apple picking, the week when the senators parents come to visit, house of reps Sadie Hawkins dance, all the time spent fundraising, basically theres one day in march where, weather permitting, you think you can get bleep done without politically harming one thing or the other. And apparently, this year, democrats spent that day sitting around trying to make that sound. cheers and applause so to recap. The democrats 2014 strategy instead of doing things that the people who voteed for them would like, they decided to not do anything so as not to offend the voters who already didnt like them. laughter or to put that in the classic words of dickless h. bleep . What . Well be right back. cheers and applause everyone you meet theyre jamming in the street all night long all night bud light lime cranbrrrrita fiesta forever when you take advil you get relief right at the site of pain. Wherever it is. Advil stops pain right where it starts. Relief doesnt get any better than this. Advil. cheers and applause jon welcome back. My guest tonight the bestselling author. His new book is called, pay any price greed, power, and endless war. Please welcome back to the program, james risin. Sir. applause nice to see you. Thanks for having me displ last time that you were here, this book is called pay any price greed, power, and endless war. The last time was the book state of war an expo say of wiretapping, the n. S. A. I remember leaning over to you after the interview and going, are you going to get in trouble for this . And do you remember what your response was. I said, no, no trouble at all. Jon tell me whats been going on the last couple of years. laughter . Well, afte the governments n after me ever since for that book and theyre still after me, in fact displ how much legal trouble are you actually in now or is this a nuisance harassment to cause you pause . Well, theyve been doing a pretty good job of it if its just a nuisance. Its lasted seven years. Theyve subpoenaed me three or four times. And theres a trial scheduled in january. Jon a trial. You are going to be on trial . No, they want me to testify in the trial displ oh, thats right, thats what it is. Its a little unclear where its going right now, what the government is planning to do. And they seem like theyre kind of confused right now about what they want to do. Jon really . laughter so while you were thinking of that, you wrote another book. Yeah. laughter that was my answer to the government. Jon this book is a really interesting examination of the corruption underlying our war conflicts. Right. Jon and intelligence apparatus. Basically, what i realized was remember when dick cheney said the gloves come off . What that really meant was we were getting rid of all the rules that governed the war on terror, and at the same time we got rid of all the rules, we poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the war on terror. So you had a massive enterprise with hundreds of billions of dollars with no rules. And its a lot like the banking crisis. We had weve had a National Security crisis and nobody has noticed thats very similar to the banking crisis. Theres a lot of unintended consequences. Jon and both seemingless purposeful. I think both institutions its an interesting analogy because both obfuscate very much in a determined way so you cant see whats going on. Right. And this secrecy thats layered on top of the war on terror has made it so lots of people have been abe to come to washington able to come to washington, claim to be an expert on counterterrorism and gotten very rich. And they all claim they have the Silver Bullet to find Osama Bin Laden or to solve the war on terror whatever displ and this get to some of the whistled blowers also, the case of a fellow named drake who blew the whistole government excess, and they nearly put that guy in jail for 35 years. Right. There were, like, five people at the n. S. A. And the House Intelligence Committee combined, that they all thought were sources for our stories in the niemsz on the n. S. A. , including tom drake, and they went after all of them. None of them were our source. And they turned their lives upside down for years. Jon it brings up an interesting point because there are i would assume you would think there are lines of National Security that we should not cross in terms of giving these out. Right. Jon the the question swho decides what those lines are and when they bring the full force of these agencies against you ference, why is your story different than the story about spying on germany . Why you . Why drake . Why these other whistle blowers. I think there is a very arbitrary system in place now that gives the Intelligence Community and the white house and the Justice Department an ability to randomly and arbitrarily decide which stories they want to go after to investigate, and when whichthey dont. And what basically what theyre trying to create is a pathway for acceptable National Security journalism. If you go outside the accepted limits of what they want people to report on, youll get punished. If you stay in the accepted limits that they want, you wont have any problems. And thats what i think is dangerous to a democracy when you have investigative reporting that the government is trying to limit through the use of the Justice Department and the legal system. Jon and within the legal system, is it the spying apparatus that decides . Can they call up and say can the c. I. A. And n. S. A. Call up the Justice Department and said, he made us very upset . Yes, exactly. Thats exactly what happens. The c. I. A. Or the office of the director of national intelligence, or another any other Intelligence Agency can file what they call a criminal referral. Jon a criminal referral. To the Justice Department, and thats what gets the ball rolling on a leak investigation is the c. I. A. Jon let me ask you a question if i c. I. A. Purposefully leaks something for the n. S. A. Im not suggesting that that has happened but it happens. Right. Jon who can then go after them . Nobody. Thats why you have official leaks and unofficial leaks. Official leaks, nobody goes after. The unofficial leaks that make them look bad or they dont like, those are the case they say pursue. Displ do you trust the displ do you trust the Journalistic Community to min find that line . Its very difficult. At the same time weve been going through this crackdown on whistle blowers and reporters, journalism has gone through a dramatic reduction in financial crisis and and become, more dangerous for those its sort of been democratized and people go out there and put themselveses in true danger. Yeah. The freelancers in syria are not backed by any major organization. Its a very dangerous time for journalists. The industry is remaking itself right now. And so the models of how you do this kind of reporting are breaking down. Jon its its really a fascinating and slightly frightening thing. Do you have a couple of minutes to stick around. Pay any price, its on the bookshelves now. James risin. cheers and applause vo you are a business pro. Solver of the slice. Teacher of the unteachable. You lower handicaps. And raise hopes. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. pro nice drive. vo well played, business pro. Well played. Go national. Go like a pro. To help spread some holiday cheer. Before earning 1 cash back everywhere, every time; and 2 back at the grocery store. Thank you even before they got 3 back on gas, all with no hoops to jump through, a couple was inspired to use their bankamericard cash rewards credit card to throw the ultimate Ugly Sweater Party of the season. Thats the spirit of rewarding connections. Apply online or at a bank of america near you. cheers and applause . Jon thats our show. Listen up. Ive known asieve for many years. Recently i find out, he can read. Also, he can write. He wrote a book. Which im pretty sure that he wrotewrote while he was supposo be working for me. laughter obviously he cant read or write so well. Its called no lands man. I mean he completely bleep the title. The phrase is nomansland. But he wrote no lands man which oh. I think hes clever. You should get it. Here it is, your moment of zen. Dallas is in london for the big game against jacksonville. Unfortunately, they used a bad social media hashtag. Hashtag cowboytioning sponsorey Comedy Central captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org stephen tonight, a medical breakthrough in south america. Have soccer players regained the use of their hands . Then, republicans are address Climate Change by burning the midnight oil. And my guest, Science WriterSteven Johnson has a new book and tv series called how we got to now. Ill talk to him when i get to then. laughter the upcoming star wars movie is titled the force awakens. It fell asleep during the phantom menace. This is the colbert report. Captioning sponsored by Comedy Central