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Stanford Sexual Assault Case Outrage; A Private Company Wants To Mine
Minerals On The Moon; District of Columbia to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 - Part 2>
Michio Kaku>
Business; Astronautics & Space; Labor; Washington, D.C.; Cities;
Legislation>
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh, it's too much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. (INAUDIBLE)
KENNEDY (voice over): It's pretty cool but it's so dangerous. That seems like the kind of thing we should probably outsource to helpful robots.
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KENNEDY: In fact, I recently smuggle a robot I purchased in Game 2 of the NBA finals which may explain why the Warriors cleaned up. See if you can spot the robot.
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KENNEDY: Man, they don't have an answer for him there in Cleveland. Topic number five, earlier this week, three-time Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep smeared on some orange face paint and jumped into a fat suit to portray Donald Trump and Shakespeare at a "Shakespeare in the Park" event in New York
Streep has previously played Margaret Thatcher and is, of course, famous for her roles in Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Jurassic Park 6: Velociraptors in Space. So how does her Donald Trump impersonation stack up? Well, here's the real Donald Trump.
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KENNEDY: He's a robot. I knew it. They're taking over, people. He's probably suiting up right now for Cleveland.
If you have any weird stories you want to see in the Topical Storm, robot or otherwise, or if you have your own pet bear, go ahead and tweet me at Kennedynation.
You can also find me on Instagram. Use hashtag Topical Storm. And remember, the chubby ones are the sweetest.
Coming up, Washington, D.C. is going to jack up the minimum wage. Will it help workers at the bottom of the force or push them out? The party panel returns to sort that out.
And later, an ambitious company says it will be the first private outfit to visit the moon. Are we at the dawn of a new space age? So exciting. Michio Kaku, he weighs in.
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KENNEDY: You know, I love the (INAUDIBLE). All right. Hi, you. The District of Columbia has approved a measure to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour. (INAUDIBLE) proponents say will boost the income of thousands while about half of Washington's employers say they're going to have to either lay off or reduce hours for their employees after the last hike.
The party panel is back. It's Dagen McDowell, Rick Ungar, and Tom Shillue. So Dagen, you are a business expert. Let's talk about this a little bit and all the ways the minimum wage can hurt those it's aiming to help.
MCDOWELL: They -- employers, which you have witnessed, end up cutting jobs, they end up automating so they don't have to actually have human beings working there or they end up raising prices which hurts the customer base. And you've seen this happen in cities across the country because 15 by the way is the new standard for the very liberal left where you've seen it in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, now New York and in D.C.
But I think you have to go -- you have to -- you have -- you hear it from business people, you see it in these stories, and the left does not listen to them.
You hear fast food chains and restaurant owners saying, "We're not going to open new restaurants in these cities. We're not going to create jobs," because half of people who get the minimum wage are between the ages of 16 and 24, and these businesses are not going to take a chance on a young worker with no experience if they have to pay them $15 an hour.
KENNEDY: Yes. No, you end up shutting younger workers and especially minorities out of the job market. I mean no harm to the people that you're trying to help?
UNGAR: It is. It's a really hard conversation if you're trying to be objective. I agree. A lot of those restaurants are going to go to automation as will other businesses. But it's not because of the minimum wage.
That's not an argument for the minimum wage, it's just the truth. They're going to automation because it's called progress, and that's what's happening in society.
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KENNEDY: I mean we talked to restaurants owners and bookstore sellers that have to go out of business in these big cities because they can't afford it.
UNGAR: Except -- but let's look at what happened, and that may be true and that may be happening, and I read --
KENNEDY: Look at what's happening in Seattle.
UNGAR: But in Seattle, that's the problem. If you look at the original data in Seattle, what they were writing about, it turned out to be completely inaccurate. And actually followed up for a piece and went and talked to some of those same restaurant owners.
And what they were saying is, "No, they didn't quote me right. Yes, I closed this restaurant. But I closed this restaurant because I was opening up two in these other parts of Seattle.
So the jury is out. I won't sit here and tell you it's not going to have a bad effect because it might. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.
KENNEDY: But it's an artificial imposition on the market which should determine wages.
UNGAR: It does -- except that the market --
KENNEDY: It shouldn't be these blanket policies because that's the most people are ever going to make. There's no upward mobility.
UNGAR: What do you do when the market is unreasonable as they are today when it comes to worker payments?
MCDOWELL: I don't think it's unreasonable. I think if you look, the average full-time worker at Walmart, they make in this country, as of this year, $13.38 an hour. So everybody -- it's not 15, which is what the very far left want. But I think --
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MCDOWELL: I think -- but you -- but you also get benefits from what --
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KENNEDY: I want to bring -- I want to bring Tom in this because we only have about a minute left to discuss.
SHILLUE: It's all Republicans' faults. It's all Republicans' fault because they -- what you just said and what you just said, what were great concise arguments that Republicans are unwilling to make.
KENNEDY: Yes.
SHILLUE: They're unwilling to say that minimum wage laws get people fired. I mean we say it on our shows but they don't say that.
(CROSSTALK)
SHILLUE: You actually made an honest point. You articulated your position against the minimum wage and they won't do it. They (INAUDIBLE) around the issue and they're afraid of losing the issue so they don't make the case.
MCDOWELL: Fight for 15, all these protests, all they want is unionization that's paid for by the SEIU. And what happens, which is what happened at the Seattle Airport, you get $15 minimum wage and then the union say, "Hey, but we can get you a pass on it if you have a Collective Bargaining Agreement." So that's what they're counting on.
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KENNEDY: Then it turns into crony capitalism. And then you have big businesses like with Obamacare, who are now shielded from these regulations because they work with lawmakers. They help write these laws.
And then the smaller businesses are the ones who are hamstrung by regulation. It's too expensive for them to comply. They either go out of business or they don't start up in the first place.
That's how you get this ongoing economic stagnation. You're never going to get out of it. Government and their overarching policies will never be the answer to creating jobs and creating economic growth.
UNGAR: The problem with that argument is I own a lot of small businesses and I have never felt hamstrung or any strung by regulations.
KENNEDY: Because you're rich.
UNGAR: It doesn't matter. I still have the business.
MCDOWELL: Yes, my parents were not rich and ran a small grocery -- a small wholesale grocery business and it was a nightmare and is the very central reason why they hate government. They hate government (INAUDIBLE).
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MCDOWELL: It was all the regulations that big companies could manage, that big companies can handle it with a small number of employees.
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SHILLUE: Again, you articulated a great position that I don't see politicians articulating, and it happened with the banking laws. I mean the big banks benefit because they're writing the laws, and the little banks, they're -- they don't exist.
KENNEDY: No, they're enriched by Dodd-Frank because the community banks get gobbled up because they can't afford to comply.
You guys, thank you so much. A great night of conversation and on the day of the (INAUDIBLE). Tom, I love you a little bit more every day.
MCDOWELL: Every day. Love you back.
KENNEDY: All right. Coming up, light sentencing in a Stanford rape (INAUDIBLE) that has sparked public outrage. Will California recall the judge? And should they? Arthur Aidala, he's on deck.
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KENNEDY: Welcome back. A rape case at Stanford University has prompted national outrage after a judge sentenced defendant Brock Turner, a star swimmer for the school, to just six months in jail and probation for sexual assault.
Judge Aaron Persky said he gave the sentencing because sending Turner to prison would have a severe impact on him. Yes, as it does. And he doesn't believe that the -- this former student poses a risk to others, I guess unless they're passed out behind dumpsters.
Here to shed light on the disturbing case is Arthur Aidala, Fox News Legal Analyst. So this is one of those cases that gets the national spotlight.
People are so outraged for a number of reasons. I mean, first of all, it's the story. Second of all, it's the dad's defense. But now you have this kind of lenient sentencing. Why do you think the judge went so light on him?
ARTHUR AIDALA, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the judge presided over the whole trial, right? So let's just say the judge knows more than you, me, and everyone else reading the newspapers except the people who are in that courtroom.
So he's in a position to really know everything that happened. This wasn't even a plea. So he knows all the facts. He heard from every one.
He read all the letters. And maybe he knows what it's like -- and I'm not saying this as a lighthearted - like to go to prison because we all hear these numbers, you know, this is what I do every day, Kennedy. I don't play a TV lawyer. I'm a lawyer.
KENNEDY: You're not cool. You've got --
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KENNEDY: You can't come on TV because you're busy defending people.
AIDALA: Correct. Just go in your bathroom. Haven't you -- or just go in your bathroom all by yourself without your phone, without the radio, without TV, close the door, and sit there for half an hour.
Just stay half an hour and see what it's like because when a young kid like this goes into the California prison system, most likely than not, he's going to be put in protective custody. You know how they protect people in jail? They isolate them.
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KENNEDY: Here's what I say, if one of my daughters were the one passed out behind the dumpster, I would want that kid to go away to the Gulag for life.
AIDALA: And that's why the judges are there, and that's why the parent doesn't make the decisions, the -- and the victim in any case doesn't make the decision. A judge makes a decision, except in (INAUDIBLE) where sometimes the jury makes the decision.
But I think that the word that we're leaving out here is alcohol -- alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. If you take alcohol out of this equation there is no crime.
He's so drunk he doesn't remember what happened. She's so drunk she's unconscious. So I think the judge looked at --
KENNEDY: He knew what happened. He wouldn't -- he wouldn't have stayed on top of her if he had no idea what he was doing. He ran away when he was confronted by two guys.
AIDALA: But under the influence --
KENNEDY: That (INAUDIBLE) on some level he knows what he's doing is wrong.
AIDALA: And he was convicted, he is going to jail. And you know what the dad said is about having a felony record is a tremendous price to pay. It is. Unless - when you're 20 years old and you now know -- you know there's a ton of stuff you're never going to be able to do in terms of making a living, in terms of having career choices or having a productive life. So the dad's point was he is suffering even if you don't send him to jail for what he did, as he should. And the dad came under a tremendous amount of heat for defending his son and you know --
KENNEDY: The twenty minutes of action.
AIDALA: Any father --
KENNEDY: I mean that's --
AIDALA: I don't think he meant sexual action.
KENNEDY: It doesn't matter. To have someone read your statement and edit those words so you don't look like a total dolt (PH).
AIDALA: Look, I was a prosecutor, I am a criminal defense attorney. So I've been on both sides of these. These are hard cases. These are why we should let judges to be the best judges they can be and get the best people to be the judge --
KENNEDY: Is he -- is he a bad judge in your eyes?
AIDALA: No. Not considering what he took into consideration. He articulated it.
KENNEDY: Should he be recalled because 600,000 people are --
AIDALA: No, that's so silly. No, that's people thinking with emotion and not thinking with the law. We have the best criminal justice system.
It's far from perfect. We make a lot of mistakes. But a thoughtful judge, hearing the evidence, reading everything, hearing everyone out and saying this is the reason why I'm giving this sentence, that's our system.
KENNEDY: Okay, we're running out of time but I want to say it seems like rich people get different justice in this country.
AIDALA: Money definitely plays (INAUDIBLE) on this, no doubt about it. A hundred percent. It has to do with the representation you get. I, Arthur, can't do all pro bono cases. I do many, but I can't do all. But yes, families who have money to hire a law firm that's going to put their time, effort, energy and intelligence into it, absolutely, and probably in most cases going to get better representation than those who can't afford it. That is the imperfection of our criminal justice.
KENNEDY: So if this kid came from an under privileged background and wasn't a collegiate swimmer, and he does the exact same thing, do you think he would have gotten the same sentence?
AIDALA: Probably not because --
KENNEDY: And not according to the victim. That was the question the victim posed in her statement.
AIDALA: But because there would not have been advocates for him. There wouldn't have been the lawyers lawyering. There wouldn't have been the fathers fathering. That's the game changer.
KENNEDY: Well, it's utter (INAUDIBLE).
AIDALA: Well, I'll look that word up when I leave this set. Maybe I'll ask your aunt, she can explain it to me and I'll know what's going on.
KENNEDY: And we're better people for this conversation. Thank you, Arthur. I'm always --
AIDALA: I'm a better person for hanging out with you.
KENNEDY: Oh, hardly, yes.
AIDALA: Humbly.
KENNEDY: You know, your humility is your greatest trait.
AIDALA: So is my bald head.
KENNEDY: You told me that.
AIDALA: So is my bald head.
KENNEDY: All right. Coming up, there is a company trying to make it to the moon. But it has to overcome a lot more than gravity. Federal regulations. Michio Kaku, the decorated physicist, he is on deck. He's next.
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KENNEDY: Fly me to the moon, baby. Space startup Moon Express wants to fly a private mission to the moon next year to take advantage of resources like platinum and helium so we can all talk in higher voices.
But it will have to obtain permission from the government first. A private space mission is the way of the future. Here to lend his brilliance is Dr. Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and professor at the City College of New York. Welcome back, Dr. Kaku.
MICHIO KAKU, CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK, THEORETICAL PHYSICIST: Glad to be on the show.
KENNEDY: So this is exciting. A private company going up and mining minerals.
KAKU: That's right. The backers of this technology say that we're beginning to watch the beginning of a gold rush, a gold rush to the moon. There's going to be a stampede of all sorts of commercial entities, first of all wanting to get the x price (PH), a $20 million prize to the commercial group that could put a package successfully on the moon.
After that, scientific instruments will go to the moon and then the mining operations begin. So we're talking about off-the-shelf technology initiating a new chapter in space exploration.
KENNEDY: Yes. Now, what does this do for our quest to know more about the heavens? Is it a good thing for science to have these private explorations and are you okay with the government being out of it?
KAKU: Well, first of all, science likes the fact that the initial deliveries to the moon are going to be telescopes.
KENNEDY: Yes.
KAKU: Telescopes, spectrographs, so that we know more about the moon, its topology, its mineral content, and its geology. But after that, mining operations could begin. (INAUDIBLE) --
KENNEDY: Would they be manned?
KAKU: Pardon?
KENNEDY: Would they be manned? Would there be people living on the moon?
KAKU: It's robotic. The $20 million x price is for the robotic exploration of the moon. You just remember that to go into outer space costs about $10,000 a pound. That's the weight in gold. This puts you in your earth orbit. To go to the moon costs about $100,000 a pound. So to put life support, oxygen and masks and toilets and things on the moon, that's very expensive.
KENNEDY: Yes.
KAKU: Robots are cheap.
KENNEDY: And they're the way of the future.
KAKU: Yes, and they don't have to come back, they're disposable.
KENNEDY: But the -- this company, Moon Express, is lobbying the government to get the rights. I mean, who has the rights to the moon?
KAKU: Well, there is a 1980s -- 1967 Outer Space Treaty which says that nations cannot -- can have sovereignty over parts of the moon. But it doesn't say anything about individual, private corporations. There's a loophole in the '67 Outer Space Treaty. Many people think that eventually the courts will say it's like the oceans.
KENNEDY: Yes.
KAKU: No one owns the oceans. But everyone can use the oceans for commercial ventures. And so outer space and the moon could be like the oceans.
KENNEDY: Oh, interesting, we're going to Maritime Law. And now we're going to your brain. Can science bring you back from the dead?
A company called Alcor is offering to preserve your brain for about $80,000 or your whole sexy body for $200,000 after you die with the idea that at some point in the future, scientists could thaw you out and resuscitate your braincicle.
Should we all stock up on ice and antifreeze? This is really interesting. For 80 grand, they can freeze your brain, they put you in an ice bath and put a bunch of antifreeze in your body. Is it hokum or is this real science?
KAKU: Well, as P.T. Barnum once said, quote, "There is a sucker born every minute." I think it's a wild goose chase. However, that doesn't mean that in the far future we might not have some form of immortality by freezing yourself and then curing yourself decades later.
KENNEDY: Yes.
KAKU: But it's not ready for prime time. When you freeze tissue and then you thaw the tissue out, you get a lot of dead tissue at the end.
KENNEDY: Okay.
KAKU: Ice crystals form and you have to put antifreeze to prevent the ice crystals from forming, but antifreeze is toxic and they have not been able to solve all the problems of suspended animation. Now in the pond, fish and frogs will freeze to death at wintertime.
Lot of people in the country realize that springtime you see fish and frogs jumping out of the ice. It is possible on a small-scale but that's because animals use antifreeze, glucose. That amount of glucose will kill you.
KENNEDY: Oh.
KAKU: And that's the problem, antifreeze. There's always a problem with the details. The antifreeze is toxic usually in these situations.
KENNEDY: So people are throwing their money away just flushing $80,000 down the toilet, when the scientist comes and chops their head off, and fills it with antifreeze and takes it to Arizona.
KAKU: Well, that's -- people do strange things for the prospect of immortality, even doing crazy things on a wild goose chase.
KENNEDY: All right, well, Dr. Kaku, it's very interesting to see where all this stuff goes. We have to have futurists, we have to have optimists who look and say, you know, one day we may be able to solve this problem.
KAKU: One day. That's right, but not now. Okay, not now.
KENNEDY: They are baby steps. They're frozen little baby steps. But interesting nonetheless.
KAKU: That's right. Don't put your money down so soon.
KENNEDY: Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
KAKU: OK.
KENNEDY: Very good. I always love hearing his perspective on things. I love the science. Thank you so much for watching the show tonight. And tomorrow I've got Judge Andrew Napolitano, Lisa Boothe and Jonathan Hoenig.
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at kennedynation. On Facebook, it's KennedyFBN. Email me any time. Hate mail is tomorrow night. It's kennedyfbn at foxbusiness dot com.
I love your unfrozen head. Good night.
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