Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / Ukraine reinforces Pokrovsk, while China rams American-allied ship (and even interferes with violence inside America)

Transcript

Ukraine reinforces Pokrovsk, while China rams American-allied ship (and even interferes with violence inside America) · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan and I am so thankful you guys have joined me this week.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: I think we're going to have a great show and I can't wait to get into it.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: If by chance this is your first time ever tuning in and you have no idea who this
0:15
SPEAKER_00: guy Stan is that you're listening to,
0:17
SPEAKER_00: just who am I?
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a 12-time author, I'm a long-time journalist, and I'm a prior infantry Marine.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Besides all of that, I am infatuated with podcasts.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: So a couple of years ago, I figured I'd launch one myself.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Because if you've ever deployed and had almost no one know what you did or care
0:38
SPEAKER_00: about what you did,
0:39
SPEAKER_00: you probably realize we need more attention focused on what our military is doing.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And you probably also realize we need more discussion about potential hotspots and
0:52
SPEAKER_00: conflicts that we may get involved in before we get involved in.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's what I'm trying to do here.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: And besides that,
1:00
SPEAKER_00: at the end of each episode,
1:02
SPEAKER_00: I throw in some words of encouragement because who doesn't need that?
1:05
SPEAKER_00: I also end the show by talking some about depression and PTSD because we have lost
1:12
SPEAKER_00: too many veterans and we cannot afford to lose anymore.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: So with that, let's get started.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: What is going on everyone?
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Hope everyone is doing great out there.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining us.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I am just ecstatic to be here and I am super fired up.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get into the news in just a second and there's plenty of it to cover.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: But I am super fired up because I got to see my favorite band this past week.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: That band is called Disciple.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: They are amazing.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: But what's amazing about them is that their lead singer is one of my legit heroes.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: He is...
1:54
SPEAKER_00: not only from knoxville he has kept that band going for 30 years they've put out
2:02
SPEAKER_00: almost 15 albums but the amazing thing is they've gone through three sets of band
2:07
SPEAKER_00: members he has never let the band die it's had some huge years where you know
2:13
SPEAKER_00: they've had songs played on
2:16
SPEAKER_00: NFL like Monday Night Football WWE they've had some just brutal hard years like I
2:23
SPEAKER_00: said they've gone through three sets of band members this dude has never given up
2:29
SPEAKER_00: he just inspires me to no end and he'll he says in many of his interviews that you
2:35
SPEAKER_00: know during some of the rough years that
2:38
SPEAKER_00: He has literally been a roofer in the summer.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: He has delivered pizzas on weekends when there wasn't concerts.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: He has done everything that you can imagine to chase his dream of keeping this band
2:55
SPEAKER_00: going and keeping it successful.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: I've been following them for probably 15 years maybe.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I try to see them about once a year.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time, I chicken out on meeting him.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned in a podcast last year that I met him for the first time,
3:11
SPEAKER_00: but I didn't even stay this time to meet him again because every time I'm even near
3:16
SPEAKER_00: his presence,
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm like total crazy fanboy,
3:20
SPEAKER_00: almost sick to my stomach.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't even tell you how much I just appreciate and I guess I should say his name.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: His name is Kevin Young.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've said that yet.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Man, he is beyond humble, but I know how hard it is to keep something going.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: I ran a newspaper for nine years.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Meeting a payroll is no joke.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: It's very hard.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: You pay yourself last.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: That's what small business owners do across the country.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the people that make it big like hedge fund people or others
3:55
SPEAKER_00: who just file bankruptcy while they're paying themselves some big salary.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Most small businesses,
4:01
SPEAKER_00: the person that's really behind it works the most hours,
4:04
SPEAKER_00: pays themselves last,
4:06
SPEAKER_00: they sacrifice to no end for what their dream is.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Now in his case,
4:11
SPEAKER_00: he's obviously spreading the message of Jesus as well,
4:15
SPEAKER_00: but they play amazing music,
4:17
SPEAKER_00: but he has just always inspired me.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: But I got my disciple fix this week, and so I'm super pumped, so...
4:24
SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link into the show notes if you want to check out their music.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: If you like rock and roll, it's good, good stuff.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: But the bigger question I have is, who is that person to you?
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Who is your Kevin Young?
4:41
SPEAKER_00: For you regular listeners, I would love to know.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Drop a comment.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Tell me who it is that when you meet,
4:50
SPEAKER_00: if you even met them or have you met them,
4:51
SPEAKER_00: it's almost like sick to your stomach that you're too nervous to even meet them again.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: I want to know who your person is because I think it's good to have healthy role
5:01
SPEAKER_00: models and heroes that you look up to that help inspire you,
5:05
SPEAKER_00: that help push you a little further toward whatever goal you're chasing.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: So I would love to know who your person is,
5:12
SPEAKER_00: even if it's like a movie star or,
5:15
SPEAKER_00: you know,
5:15
SPEAKER_00: some singer or maybe some former president or something like that,
5:19
SPEAKER_00: whoever it is.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Tell me who it is.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: It'll help me get to know some of you guys better.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: And if you're one of those people who've been following the show for a while,
5:27
SPEAKER_00: but you've never left a comment or sent me an email,
5:30
SPEAKER_00: I actually respond to those.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: And the show is obviously not huge yet, so there's a good couple dozen or so of you that I actually know.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: I respond to comments.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I halfway know you.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: I follow these people.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: The good news is when a show is newer like this, you can get in at the ground level.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: I will never forget a quote from Eminem many years ago.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Eminem once said,
5:56
SPEAKER_00: he was asked by a reporter,
5:58
SPEAKER_00: how do you deal with all these friends coming at you for money?
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Who do you trust now that you're in Hollywood?
6:06
SPEAKER_00: How do you deal with it?
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Eminem said, I don't have any new friends.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: He said,
6:12
SPEAKER_00: the only friends I have are the people who cared about me in 8 Mile,
6:16
SPEAKER_00: which is,
6:16
SPEAKER_00: of course,
6:17
SPEAKER_00: his hometown.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: He said that only the people who cared about him when he had nothing were the
6:25
SPEAKER_00: people that he could trust and the people that he could actually feel safe around.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: That's how I always see it.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: If the show were to ever take off,
6:38
SPEAKER_00: There comes a point where you don't have time to respond to comments and everything
6:42
SPEAKER_00: else if a show were to get big enough.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: But you never forget those who supported you in the beginning.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: And I think you never close the door on people like that,
6:51
SPEAKER_00: so there's still time to make it on the ground level,
6:55
SPEAKER_00: folks.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: I say that with a chuckle for a couple of reasons, and then I promise we'll get to the news.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: But I chuckle because,
7:03
SPEAKER_00: you know,
7:03
SPEAKER_00: there are some weeks that are higher than others,
7:05
SPEAKER_00: and clearly the show is still growing,
7:08
SPEAKER_00: and that seriously makes my day.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: But there are times where I'm impatient with it, and I've talked about this before.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: But I'm reminded of something I saw.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: I believe I saw this on TikTok.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And it talked about how sometimes not reaching the altitude that you wish,
7:25
SPEAKER_00: getting that whatever that is that you're looking for too soon,
7:29
SPEAKER_00: is actually a blessing.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's literally God protecting you from something that you may not be ready for.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And the pastor in that story,
7:39
SPEAKER_00: TikTok video goes on to talk about how if a woman is pregnant and in the five or
7:48
SPEAKER_00: six month stage,
7:50
SPEAKER_00: having a baby too soon is not a blessing.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: That's a curse.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: That's not healthy.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: That's not good for the baby, clearly.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: If you're a young couple just married and you've been dreaming of getting a home,
8:01
SPEAKER_00: getting a home too soon before you're financially ready,
8:04
SPEAKER_00: or getting one that you really want that's too big and too expensive,
8:08
SPEAKER_00: that's not a blessing.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: That's a curse.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And he goes through a few other examples about how you can get to things before you are ready.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, in my mind, I think I'm ready.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: But then sometimes I see the amount of hate and just worse than even hate that some
8:25
SPEAKER_00: of the big name people get.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And I know that while I sometimes think I'd love to have a big audience,
8:34
SPEAKER_00: I know that if I had 10,000 hateful comments one week,
8:40
SPEAKER_00: I would probably be...
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Be second guessing my decision.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: And I also know that,
8:45
SPEAKER_00: you know,
8:45
SPEAKER_00: a slow growth is actually the healthiest,
8:48
SPEAKER_00: safest way for a podcast or really any venture to grow.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: I need to do better at setting up boundaries because as those who comment or email me know.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: I reply too quickly.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: I reply too often.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: I get way sucked into things.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: I've literally met someone who's been a follower for a while and,
9:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
9:11
SPEAKER_00: offered to send them money to help out a family member that was struggling with a
9:16
SPEAKER_00: house bill.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Stan's heart is too big and Stan is too accessible.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: For the kind of position or platform that at some point I think I would like to be
9:31
SPEAKER_00: able to hopefully have and humbly handle.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: But when I'm honest with myself, I'm probably not ready for that.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Even though, you know, I think I am.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: But everyone,
9:47
SPEAKER_00: every 15-year-old out in the driveway shooting basketball hoops thinks they're
9:53
SPEAKER_00: ready for the NBA.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: And they are not.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And so I have to be realistic.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Let me know who your hero is.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: I do want to know.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And I do love hearing from you guys.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never commented before,
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I challenge you to make this week your first time to comment or email me.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: I put that out as well.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'm betting you'll hear from me.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: So let's begin with news coming out of Ukraine.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: One of the bigger stories that just came out on Wednesday as I'm recording this is
10:24
SPEAKER_00: that there has been a pretty significant reshuffling of the cabinet under President
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Zelensky inside Ukraine.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: The Washington Post called it the largest government shakeup since Russia invaded the country in 2022.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Now,
10:42
SPEAKER_00: this is just prior to President Zelensky visiting the United States and what he
10:48
SPEAKER_00: plans to unveil,
10:50
SPEAKER_00: what he calls a,
10:51
SPEAKER_00: quote,
10:51
SPEAKER_00: victory plan,
10:53
SPEAKER_00: end quote,
10:53
SPEAKER_00: on how Ukraine will win the war.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: That's supposed to be later this month.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: There was a statement from him.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Now,
11:03
SPEAKER_00: initially,
11:04
SPEAKER_00: as the news was coming out,
11:05
SPEAKER_00: it said that several cabinet folks had resigned,
11:09
SPEAKER_00: and it looked as if there might be reasons behind it,
11:12
SPEAKER_00: as if maybe they're not happy with President Zelensky or maybe his plans or
11:15
SPEAKER_00: something like that.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: But then, during a news briefing...
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, well, there's no apparently to it.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: President Zelensky praised the team and he said,
11:27
SPEAKER_00: quote,
11:27
SPEAKER_00: Today we need new energy and these steps are related to strengthening our state in
11:33
SPEAKER_00: various directions.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Now,
11:35
SPEAKER_00: some of the stories I saw on this said that some of these folks may serve in other
11:39
SPEAKER_00: positions inside the government.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: So,
11:41
SPEAKER_00: the initial sort of appearance on social media that there was something behind it
11:46
SPEAKER_00: or some kind of shake-up or unhappiness with some of them with Zelensky or vice versa,
11:54
SPEAKER_00: maybe that's not the case.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: It's still a little too early to know, but there was a major shake-up inside the cabinet.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: And so,
12:04
SPEAKER_00: President Zelensky,
12:05
SPEAKER_00: at least,
12:06
SPEAKER_00: is saying that Ukraine needs,
12:08
SPEAKER_00: quote,
12:09
SPEAKER_00: new energy,
12:10
SPEAKER_00: and that these steps are related to strengthening our state in various directions.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: So that's his quote.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Like many political stories,
12:18
SPEAKER_00: it often takes days and days,
12:21
SPEAKER_00: if not weeks,
12:22
SPEAKER_00: or sometimes months,
12:24
SPEAKER_00: for the real truth to come out on some of these things,
12:27
SPEAKER_00: but...
12:28
SPEAKER_00: So that's the first major story I definitely wanted to mention.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, not going to speculate anymore regarding that right now.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to the one town that Russia is trying the absolute hardest with all
12:45
SPEAKER_00: of the pressure that it can possibly mount to take.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: And this is the town of Pokrovsk.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: If you've been following social media at all the past week,
12:56
SPEAKER_00: almost every analyst has been scrutinizing the Russian attack on this city and
13:04
SPEAKER_00: talking about it.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: And there has been a ton of frustration on social media and probably some of the
13:11
SPEAKER_00: heaviest complaints about Ukraine and its government that I've seen from huge
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian supporters that I have followed for more than two years now.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: There's just been some serious heartburn and frustration with those who followed the war.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: And so let's talk about it a bit.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have no idea where or what Pokrovsk is, it is a city in the eastern part of Ukraine.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty good-sized city.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: Prior to 2020, it had a population of 60,000 people.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: So it's a pretty good-sized city or town, depending on how you want to label it or term it.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: But the heartburn this week was that Russia had not only been focusing all its efforts,
14:00
SPEAKER_00: but the advance had been speeding up and accelerating.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: And in fact,
14:05
SPEAKER_00: I'll put into the episode notes some information from the United Kingdom's Ministry
14:13
SPEAKER_00: of Defense.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: And they...
14:16
SPEAKER_00: literally say that the Russian advance was within 10 kilometers of the edge of the city,
14:23
SPEAKER_00: that the rate of advance had accelerated toward that city,
14:30
SPEAKER_00: and that it would slow once it entered the built-up areas,
14:34
SPEAKER_00: but this update from them on September 1st,
14:38
SPEAKER_00: which is three days before I record this,
14:41
SPEAKER_00: is part of what really spiraled the frustration and anger among military analysts
14:47
SPEAKER_00: on social media and just regular observers,
14:50
SPEAKER_00: because this is a key hub for Ukraine.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: It's a very important logistical city or town, depending on how you want to describe it.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Almost every news article you read says it plays a crucial role as a logistics hub
15:08
SPEAKER_00: that's used by Ukrainian forces.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And from this city,
15:13
SPEAKER_00: resupply,
15:14
SPEAKER_00: other reinforcements,
15:17
SPEAKER_00: units,
15:18
SPEAKER_00: and almost everything filters through this city.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: If you look at a map,
15:21
SPEAKER_00: you'll see that it's just a crucial part of the ground and of the defensive network
15:29
SPEAKER_00: that Ukraine has.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: So the concern among analysts had been growing for weeks.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Many were frustrated that Ukrainian government officials were being...
15:41
SPEAKER_00: I even saw a pretty prominent one say,
15:44
SPEAKER_00: quit acting stupid,
15:45
SPEAKER_00: but saying that Ukrainian officials were being stupid for pushing north into Russia
15:51
SPEAKER_00: in the Kursk region.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that a lot in previous episodes.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about it some more here shortly.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: But they were frustrated because Russia hadn't really taken the bait yet.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of folks thought Russia is going to take this this key logistical hub,
16:09
SPEAKER_00: this pretty large city.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And everything up north was a waste of time.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: It was silly.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: It was foolish.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: And so these are the kind of words you were seeing on social media again from Ukrainian supporters.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know there are people who've been.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for watching.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Now,
16:54
SPEAKER_00: since Monday,
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Sunday-ish,
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Monday-ish,
16:57
SPEAKER_00: when people are really frustrated,
16:59
SPEAKER_00: like I said,
17:02
SPEAKER_00: at least one big thing has happened.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll say two things, actually.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: The first is that serious reinforcements have started to arrive.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: And I've got in the episode notes that it's now being announced that elements from
17:17
SPEAKER_00: the 93rd Mechanized Brigade,
17:20
SPEAKER_00: which is quite a storied unit,
17:23
SPEAKER_00: it had a lot of,
17:26
SPEAKER_00: really,
17:27
SPEAKER_00: it gained a name for itself when it was defending Avdiivka back when the Russians
17:33
SPEAKER_00: were taking that city over.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And I'll get into that in just a second.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: But this unit has,
17:38
SPEAKER_00: according to some of the analysts keeping up with it,
17:41
SPEAKER_00: has been taken off the line for a bit,
17:45
SPEAKER_00: had received some reinforcements,
17:47
SPEAKER_00: some new gear and all,
17:49
SPEAKER_00: and is apparently one of Ukraine's better units.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Elements of that have arrived, if not much of it.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: And according to some of the folks that you can read about the unit, it's a pretty large brigade.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: It's not just like 3,000 people, it's actually more in the neighborhood of about 10,000.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: So Ukraine is shifting its forces rapidly.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: which is big,
18:15
SPEAKER_00: and that has helped really quiet down some of the criticism that you will see as
18:21
SPEAKER_00: you go up and down Twitter and other places where analysts sometimes vent too much.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, the second thing I wanted to mention was...
18:32
SPEAKER_00: someone made a great point,
18:34
SPEAKER_00: which is that they said,
18:37
SPEAKER_00: you know,
18:37
SPEAKER_00: basically,
18:38
SPEAKER_00: I'll just give the guy a quick shout-out.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: His name is Artur Rihai,
18:45
SPEAKER_00: and he reminded people that Pokrovsk has 60,000,
18:50
SPEAKER_00: or a pre-war invasion population of 60,000.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: So before all the fighting started happening so near it,
19:01
SPEAKER_00: It's a town of 60,000,
19:03
SPEAKER_00: and he reminded people who were really getting nervous that the population of Avdivka,
19:11
SPEAKER_00: which was,
19:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
19:13
SPEAKER_00: how many months were we talking about that battle,
19:15
SPEAKER_00: was 35,000.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: So Pokrovsk is almost twice as large now.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to slow down and it's going to be very challenging for Russia to
19:27
SPEAKER_00: take a city twice as large as Avdiivka.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I looked up just to remind myself.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: I remember talking about that so much back in 2023.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I looked up just to make sure that my memory was correct because this can start to run together.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And so the Battle of Avdiivka,
19:51
SPEAKER_00: which is of course the one that even President Zelensky went to visit,
19:55
SPEAKER_00: it's the one where they signed the flag before he flew to America and presented
20:00
SPEAKER_00: that to Congress.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: So the fighting there goes all the way back to February 22, 2023.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: So it sounds kind of hard to say, but the 22nd of February is when it was initially declared...
20:20
SPEAKER_00: The governor there that was almost destroyed.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: So they'd already been fighting there.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Only about a thousand people lived there.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And then by the 22nd of February,
20:29
SPEAKER_00: the governor says the city's almost completely destroyed and basically orders the
20:34
SPEAKER_00: remainder to evacuate.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Russians keep moving around.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: They keep getting closer, pressing in, attempting to encircle it.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: And so this starts happening seriously in March.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: And then it gets more and more serious as you get into October.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: So this is like six months later.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: They're still making a push toward it.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's when it really started making the news.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: And then you go all the way from October 2023...
21:01
SPEAKER_00: to February 17th, that's five, six months.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: At that point,
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine finally withdraws the last Ukrainian forces to,
21:13
SPEAKER_00: quote,
21:14
SPEAKER_00: avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of service personnel.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: So,
21:20
SPEAKER_00: depending on how you want to do the math,
21:21
SPEAKER_00: whether it's six really hard months,
21:24
SPEAKER_00: or whether you want to say it's almost a full year of hard fighting,
21:28
SPEAKER_00: it took Russia in an almost all-out effort
21:33
SPEAKER_00: somewhere between six months to a year to take Avdiivka.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Six months to a year.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: And so Pokrovsk is twice as large.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: And so it's interesting.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: I was reading some of the comments online.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: And some of these analysts are just so good.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: But someone made a great point,
21:50
SPEAKER_00: which is that Pokrovsk,
21:52
SPEAKER_00: because it's been so dire there for the Ukrainians in the past few weeks,
21:58
SPEAKER_00: and because it's made so much media attention there,
22:01
SPEAKER_00: What always happens is Vladimir Putin will order his forces to take it or else.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And so the pressure from the Russian leadership begins to increase.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And so just as Ukraine is getting in fresh units that are battle-hardened and tested...
22:23
SPEAKER_00: It's just like,
22:25
SPEAKER_00: you can just imagine the Russians paying a heavy cost and being ordered to take
22:32
SPEAKER_00: this city no matter what,
22:34
SPEAKER_00: no excuses,
22:36
SPEAKER_00: and you can just imagine Ukraine,
22:37
SPEAKER_00: which has its supply lines.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: This is,
22:39
SPEAKER_00: again,
22:39
SPEAKER_00: a logistics hub,
22:41
SPEAKER_00: and so they're going to have an easier time getting supplies,
22:45
SPEAKER_00: whereas the Russians are overextended because they have been advancing for 20-30
22:49
SPEAKER_00: miles in this area toward this city.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: So it's going to be harder for the Russians.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: The Ukrainians are going to have less to defend.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: They've got more units there now.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: So this could be a very bad situation for Russia as it tries to take a city twice the size of Adivka.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll keep an eye on this.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure we will be talking about it in the weeks and weeks ahead.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to an update on the invasion in the northern part of Russia where
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has invaded part of Russia as a way to try to obviously reshape the
23:29
SPEAKER_00: battlefield which has mostly been stagnant.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: along the 600 miles of front line.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Since last week, Ukraine hasn't taken a whole lot of ground up there.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Hasn't been a lot of talk about advancement by Ukraine, nor any kind of real counterattack by Russia.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: But what I wanted to share was, first of all, Ukraine destroyed another pontoon bridge in
23:56
SPEAKER_00: that Russia was trying to establish.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: If you recall from the previous couple of weeks, there were three major bridges.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine knocked out all three of those bridges, cutting off several thousand Russian troops.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And then Russia has been trying to put up a pontoon bridge ever since,
24:14
SPEAKER_00: which is of course a floating bridge that's kind of a temporary thing.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: And there's been at least two of them destroyed,
24:20
SPEAKER_00: although some analysts believe there have been multiple ones destroyed.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: What has come out since last week is that there are apparently about 3,000 Russian
24:29
SPEAKER_00: troops who are caught in this pocket of land that are cut off from Russia because
24:36
SPEAKER_00: there's this river or set of rivers,
24:39
SPEAKER_00: forks,
24:39
SPEAKER_00: depending on how you want to describe it.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: But they will not easily be able to get back to Russia, and they have advancing Ukrainian troops that...
24:49
SPEAKER_00: will probably take them hostage as they're cut off unless Russia can find some way
24:54
SPEAKER_00: to continue to supply them,
24:57
SPEAKER_00: and Russia hasn't been the greatest at some of its supplies.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of a big deal if you're Ukraine.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: That's a potentially large victory waiting to happen there as long as they can
25:11
SPEAKER_00: continue to hold off Pokrovsk,
25:13
SPEAKER_00: as we talked about earlier,
25:14
SPEAKER_00: down to the southeast from where Kursk is.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Now,
25:20
SPEAKER_00: even though not a lot has happened since last week,
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I did want to squeeze in an interview that retired U.S.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Lieutenant General Ben Hodges had given to the Kyiv Post just because it was very insightful.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to just share that.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: And actually, I need to correct myself.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: It was actually the Kyiv Independent, which is a news media organization out of Ukraine.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges was actually the commander of U.S.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: Army Europe from 2014 to 2017.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: So this is a gentleman and an officer who's used to commanding very large land forces.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: in a similar area obviously he was in charge of europe he spent at least three
26:11
SPEAKER_00: years trying to figure out how he would fight the russians so pretty good guy to
26:16
SPEAKER_00: get his take on and so now this interview is a tad dated because i had meant to get
26:21
SPEAKER_00: it in last week but last week's episode was really long and so it's still so good
26:26
SPEAKER_00: that i wanted to get it in this week
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Now,
26:29
SPEAKER_00: as a reminder,
26:30
SPEAKER_00: so far today,
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has captured 500 square miles of Russian land,
26:37
SPEAKER_00: which is a bit more than what they'd had when this interview was done.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: They were at about 488 square miles, so not a ton difference.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: But here's what General Hodges said in this interview with the Kiev Independent.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of a question and answer back and forth, and...
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Here are some of his key takeaways.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: Let me just begin with that.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: He says,
27:01
SPEAKER_00: first of all,
27:02
SPEAKER_00: it shows that,
27:03
SPEAKER_00: once again,
27:04
SPEAKER_00: all of us in the West and Russia have underestimated Ukraine,
27:09
SPEAKER_00: its ability to put together such a capable force and to do it in a way that caught
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Russians by surprise.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: And,
27:16
SPEAKER_00: of course,
27:16
SPEAKER_00: he's talking about how with satellite imagery and all of the drones and things that
27:22
SPEAKER_00: didn't used to be available for armies to
27:24
SPEAKER_00: There's been a lot of talk that it's hard to do surprise attacks anymore,
27:28
SPEAKER_00: and yet Ukraine pulled this off.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: As a reminder to any new listeners,
27:32
SPEAKER_00: a couple or so weeks ago,
27:33
SPEAKER_00: I went into great detail about how Ukraine managed to keep its own troops in the
27:41
SPEAKER_00: dark about this.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: In fact, some of them thought it was a...
27:44
SPEAKER_00: training mission or a joke or they couldn't believe they were actually going to be
27:49
SPEAKER_00: invading part of Russia so that was the first takeaway that General Hodges mentions
27:54
SPEAKER_00: second thing is that he said that no one really knows the point of the counter
27:59
SPEAKER_00: offensive and that that's a good thing that no one should know the official purpose
28:04
SPEAKER_00: of it
28:05
SPEAKER_00: And so that was a good thing.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: The third thing he mentioned is the Russian response.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: He called it incompetent, slow, and confused.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: And he mentioned something I hadn't really picked up on,
28:19
SPEAKER_00: but he said that not only were they surprised,
28:23
SPEAKER_00: but Russia is having serious command and control problems.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: He said, for instance, who's in charge?
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Is it the FSB, which is the Federal Security Service, which is, of course, the new version of the KGB?
28:37
SPEAKER_00: So is it the FSB?
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Is it the Russian General Staff?
28:42
SPEAKER_00: Is it Russia's National Guard, its border forces?
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And so he said that this kind of confusion and that there's a lot of friction,
28:51
SPEAKER_00: and he actually used the word hatred between the different parts of the Russian
28:54
SPEAKER_00: security forces,
28:56
SPEAKER_00: all of that has contributed to their slow and uneven response.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: So I thought that was a great point.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the bridges that have been destroyed, which we've talked about at length.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: He talked about that the entire situation,
29:15
SPEAKER_00: even though Russian media is downplaying it,
29:18
SPEAKER_00: he said this has been a catastrophe for Putin and the Kremlin.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: because,
29:23
SPEAKER_00: one,
29:23
SPEAKER_00: they were caught by surprise,
29:26
SPEAKER_00: and then,
29:27
SPEAKER_00: two,
29:27
SPEAKER_00: it doesn't match the narrative that they have been pushing,
29:30
SPEAKER_00: he says.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: He said they've called it a Ukrainian terrorist operation,
29:35
SPEAKER_00: and so,
29:35
SPEAKER_00: because they're trying to downplay it,
29:37
SPEAKER_00: that's why they put the FSB in charge,
29:40
SPEAKER_00: which is kind of like KGB,
29:41
SPEAKER_00: so...
29:43
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about how the rhetoric or the messaging out of Moscow doesn't meet
29:49
SPEAKER_00: what's really happening on the ground.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: And that is leading to worse problems.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: And he makes a good point that because the FSB is...
29:59
SPEAKER_00: technically the ones in charge,
30:01
SPEAKER_00: the Russian armed forces hate the FSB,
30:04
SPEAKER_00: and so the two aren't working together very much.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: So he talks about that.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: He talks about how there's plenty of corruption among the border forces as well,
30:13
SPEAKER_00: and all of this has been exposed.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: And it's further made President Putin,
30:18
SPEAKER_00: who always talks about how he's the only one who can protect Russia,
30:22
SPEAKER_00: he has clearly failed at protecting Russia.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: And this massive land grab of 500 miles worth of Russian territory proves that
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Putin is not doing a very good job,
30:36
SPEAKER_00: according to General Ben Hodges.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: One other and final point that I wanted to share from the interview,
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to it in the episode notes,
30:45
SPEAKER_00: and he makes quite a few other points,
30:46
SPEAKER_00: but I'm just going to share one other from it.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: He talks about how a lot of analysts have been a little amazed at how many tanks
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Russia just keeps pushing from tanks to infantry fighting vehicles.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: There have been thousands and thousands destroyed.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, where does Russia keep getting these?
31:07
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about how there are tanks that are about as old as he is that are
31:13
SPEAKER_00: being pulled out of storage,
31:14
SPEAKER_00: repainted,
31:15
SPEAKER_00: refurbished,
31:16
SPEAKER_00: sent to the front.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: But not only does he talk about that these are old and not very effective, he makes a good point.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: He said what makes an armored vehicle effective is not just the tank, it's the crew inside.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Are they properly trained?
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Do they have the best fire control systems,
31:36
SPEAKER_00: the sights,
31:37
SPEAKER_00: the night vision devices,
31:40
SPEAKER_00: the capability to engage targets and hit them at a distance?
31:44
SPEAKER_00: He said, I don't think that the tanks from the 50s and 60s necessarily have that.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: or that Russia can add these capabilities to all their tanks.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, the fact that they're having to import ammunition from North Korea tells me something.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: He says the fact that they're depending on parts from China for long-range systems is telling too.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: So he's obviously making the point that we're probably unaware of some of the
32:11
SPEAKER_00: weaknesses that Russia's having to deal with right now with its logistical supply
32:17
SPEAKER_00: issues and with some of the older tanks.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought that was a really keen point from someone who knows a lot about
32:24
SPEAKER_00: warfare that some of these tanks you're seeing,
32:26
SPEAKER_00: the reason that often they're destroyed at sometimes even close distance in some
32:34
SPEAKER_00: really crazy video footage that you'll see is I never thought about the fact that
32:38
SPEAKER_00: some of these tank crews for the Russians are not very good.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: That's why sometimes you'll even see an armored personnel carrier from Ukraine just
32:48
SPEAKER_00: light up a Russian main battle tank.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: Those are the kind of things that aren't supposed to happen,
32:55
SPEAKER_00: but they can sometimes happen because the Russian crew is not very good,
33:00
SPEAKER_00: and so they're not as good at manipulating the...
33:03
SPEAKER_00: the barrel of the tank and getting it on target in time.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: And so a Ukrainian vehicle,
33:10
SPEAKER_00: infantry fighting vehicle from the United States can just light it up with its main cannon,
33:18
SPEAKER_00: its 25mm Bushmaster gun,
33:20
SPEAKER_00: which shouldn't be able to do a ton of damage.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: They often can if you're fighting an inexperienced crew.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to talk about the restriction on Ukraine not being able to use some
33:34
SPEAKER_00: of the long-range weapons that the United States and NATO allies have provided
33:40
SPEAKER_00: against Russian targets within Russia itself.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, the U.S.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: had slightly loosened it up probably four,
33:49
SPEAKER_00: five,
33:49
SPEAKER_00: six months ago to just a short distance inside Russia,
33:54
SPEAKER_00: if basically a lot of conditions were met,
33:57
SPEAKER_00: like you saw that they were either preparing to attack or maybe weapons had been
34:01
SPEAKER_00: fired from there,
34:02
SPEAKER_00: and there were some pretty strict rules,
34:05
SPEAKER_00: and at first Ukraine was happy with that,
34:06
SPEAKER_00: but since then...
34:08
SPEAKER_00: As these devastating missile and glide bombs have been increasingly used,
34:14
SPEAKER_00: with Ukraine basically unable to defend itself against some of these.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: In fact,
34:19
SPEAKER_00: in August,
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Russia launched over 200 missiles at Ukraine,
34:23
SPEAKER_00: including those not counting even the guided bombs.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has been wanting to strike some of these Russian airfields because it could
34:31
SPEAKER_00: really reduce these attacks.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: Because they're landing not that far away, rearming and flying right back, dropping these glide bombs.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: And so, initially, the United States has mostly been not listening to Ukraine.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: But since last week, and I've mentioned this a couple of times in the past few weeks...
34:53
SPEAKER_00: But the pressure has been building because the West had said in the U.S.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: that there were not enough worthwhile targets for Ukraine to hit.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: So there was no point in loosening these restrictions,
35:07
SPEAKER_00: which could provoke Russia,
35:08
SPEAKER_00: because there weren't many targets to hit anyway.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: Well,
35:12
SPEAKER_00: since then,
35:13
SPEAKER_00: the very highly respected Institute for the Study of War has studied the terrain
35:20
SPEAKER_00: and the area and the geography,
35:23
SPEAKER_00: and they have assessed that there are over 250 objects or targets that are within
35:30
SPEAKER_00: range of the long-range missiles,
35:33
SPEAKER_00: which are,
35:33
SPEAKER_00: of course,
35:33
SPEAKER_00: called ATACOMs.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: In fact, 17 of those targets were airfields, so 17 airfields that could be hit.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: And then the Institute for the Study of War also listed that there are also large
35:48
SPEAKER_00: military bases,
35:50
SPEAKER_00: communications stations,
35:52
SPEAKER_00: logistical centers,
35:54
SPEAKER_00: fuel depots,
35:55
SPEAKER_00: etc.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: ammunition warehouses and that of these 250 targets it would be very hard to move
36:03
SPEAKER_00: without serious consequences for russia's war effort so basically russia has about
36:10
SPEAKER_00: 250 targets that could be hit
36:13
SPEAKER_00: that are within range of the weapons we've already provided that the U.S.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: will not allow Ukraine to use,
36:20
SPEAKER_00: from which Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians and obviously attack
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian military personnel.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Now,
36:30
SPEAKER_00: if that story bothered you or upset you or frustrated you,
36:34
SPEAKER_00: this next one's not going to make you feel any better either.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to cover that,
36:39
SPEAKER_00: you know,
36:39
SPEAKER_00: I talked several months ago about how the European Union,
36:43
SPEAKER_00: the EU,
36:44
SPEAKER_00: had finally decided to use the frozen Russian assets,
36:50
SPEAKER_00: which of course is...
36:52
SPEAKER_00: A large, large number of Russian assets, which was like $300 billion.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: And they were going to,
36:59
SPEAKER_00: instead of seizing them,
37:00
SPEAKER_00: they've already seized them,
37:01
SPEAKER_00: but instead of releasing them to Ukraine,
37:04
SPEAKER_00: they were going to use the interest from them to help fund Ukraine's government.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: And that was like a big deal at the time.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, two months ago was when that happened.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: I apologize on the date being wrong about that.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: So two months ago that happened.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: The EU pledged to create this legal framework that would allow Ukraine to get the
37:23
SPEAKER_00: interest on these frozen assets.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: And two months later, nothing has happened.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: And so it was supposed to be $50 billion to help Ukraine over a number of years.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: And the decision was made.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: It was done.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: It was a big deal.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: I remember covering it.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, since then, nothing has happened.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And part of the reason they went with this decision,
37:50
SPEAKER_00: there was a good story in Politico,
37:52
SPEAKER_00: was because the US,
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Canada,
37:55
SPEAKER_00: and the UK wanted to seize the assets.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Not just the interest, but all $300 billion.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: But some of the other countries in Europe thought that was too aggressive,
38:04
SPEAKER_00: so as a method of consensus,
38:10
SPEAKER_00: the idea was,
38:11
SPEAKER_00: let's just allow the interest that's being earned from the $300 billion go to Ukraine.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately,
38:18
SPEAKER_00: since then,
38:18
SPEAKER_00: according to the Politico,
38:21
SPEAKER_00: none of the EU's biggest players,
38:23
SPEAKER_00: not the German Chancellor,
38:25
SPEAKER_00: not the French President,
38:28
SPEAKER_00: none of them have been working to actually get this done,
38:31
SPEAKER_00: even though they all agreed to it.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: And so, without the EU legislation, according to the article, the United States is stuck as well.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: And so, basically, there's been two months of nothing happening.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully,
38:45
SPEAKER_00: the fact that this has made it into the press will start to loosen things up and
38:53
SPEAKER_00: get the EU moving,
38:54
SPEAKER_00: but this is not good news if you're Ukraine,
38:57
SPEAKER_00: because the interest from those assets was part of how Ukraine was going to keep
39:05
SPEAKER_00: its finances working.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: So, not good news at all from the EU, and completely...
39:14
SPEAKER_00: There's really no excuse for it.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: I know there's been the Olympics and all, but
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Just not great news for Ukraine to hear that kind of absurdity.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to talk about China some.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And China rammed a Philippine naval ship since the past week, so that's obviously pretty big news.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: But what I also want to talk about is the fact that China,
39:39
SPEAKER_00: the Washington Post had a great story about how China is organizing and paying for
39:46
SPEAKER_00: groups in the United States to assault or take part in violence against peaceful protesters.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: This goes back to when the President of China visited Xi Jinping and the Washington Post,
40:05
SPEAKER_00: there was lots of,
40:07
SPEAKER_00: there was basically some fighting between protesters there.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And the Washington Post did this really in-depth story that goes into the details.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: And they looked at tons of video.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: I'll go into some of this after the break.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: But what they found is crazy.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to share why when people say, why don't we just ignore China and the Taiwan issue?
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter?
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Blah, blah, blah.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say as just one answer, this story is going to show you why it matters.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: China is not going to stop.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: China is already using resources in America to organize and pay people to go around
40:54
SPEAKER_00: and beat up American protesters.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: I'll share that story in just a second.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, just a quick reminder.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoy the show,
41:12
SPEAKER_00: you've been listening to it for a while,
41:14
SPEAKER_00: and you'd like to support what I'm doing,
41:15
SPEAKER_00: there's a few ways you can do so.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: You can sign up on my Substack page, support the show at $5 per month.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: You can also do it through Patreon.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to that in the episode notes.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, you can even do so through Venmo or PayPal.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: I have links to both of those in the episode notes as well.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for watching.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: I think that not only would that help not the country better,
41:54
SPEAKER_00: not only would it help me reach more people,
41:57
SPEAKER_00: I think it would allow the show to grow greatly with the way that the algorithms
42:03
SPEAKER_00: are set up on the various podcast stations.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: It's just pretty challenging with a weekly show to get where you need to be on the charts.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: Twice a week would help that a ton as most of the shows that go up the charts come
42:18
SPEAKER_00: out sometimes daily or at least twice a week.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: So doing it once a week,
42:23
SPEAKER_00: it's very challenging to get the kind of traction that in a perfect world you would
42:27
SPEAKER_00: like to have.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Not to mention,
42:29
SPEAKER_00: there's often updates on news that I would love to put out that doing it once a
42:34
SPEAKER_00: week is a little more challenging.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: As I love to say, there's a quote,
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: And so,
42:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping that this small group of thoughtful,
42:53
SPEAKER_00: committed citizens that listen in every week can help this show grow to where we
42:59
SPEAKER_00: can have the kind of impact that goes far beyond our own internal borders and
43:05
SPEAKER_00: actually helps people out there.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: That's the long-term goal,
43:08
SPEAKER_00: and of course,
43:10
SPEAKER_00: I want to help people inside our own country as they face so many weekly and
43:15
SPEAKER_00: sometimes daily challenges.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: All of us need pep talks,
43:19
SPEAKER_00: and I would love to be doing this full-time and doing that at least twice a week.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: So thanks if you're supporting already,
43:27
SPEAKER_00: and thank you for those who are on the fence and thinking about it.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate even your consideration.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about China and the story that I ran that teaser on.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: So the Washington Post did an in-depth story,
43:49
SPEAKER_00: a six-month investigation,
43:51
SPEAKER_00: that back when the leader of China,
43:55
SPEAKER_00: who was President Xi Jinping,
43:57
SPEAKER_00: he visited in November...
44:00
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that was very important for China was that no protesters be
44:07
SPEAKER_00: seen by Xi Jinping because he likes to live in this bubble,
44:11
SPEAKER_00: obviously,
44:12
SPEAKER_00: and he's used to in China there is no free speech.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: And so he didn't want to see protesters who were frustrated about Tibet not being free,
44:22
SPEAKER_00: who were frustrated about Hong Kong being increasingly under pressure,
44:26
SPEAKER_00: from China.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to see any of these groups protesting.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: And so, what did China do?
44:34
SPEAKER_00: Well,
44:35
SPEAKER_00: the Washington Post,
44:37
SPEAKER_00: according to the Washington Post,
44:40
SPEAKER_00: a number of groups from China helped organize just an incredible kind of
44:48
SPEAKER_00: counter-protest effort.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: And you can see they reviewed more than 2,000 photos and images
44:56
SPEAKER_00: tons of video and you can see how organized these groups are and there's some money
45:03
SPEAKER_00: that is exchanged hands you can read all about it I've got the gift link in the
45:08
SPEAKER_00: source notes so that you can go read this because it's it's shocking is what it is
45:13
SPEAKER_00: really there's no other way I try to understate things but it's a shocking thing to
45:19
SPEAKER_00: read and you can watch in the videos
45:21
SPEAKER_00: All of this publicly,
45:22
SPEAKER_00: you know,
45:23
SPEAKER_00: public information that you can look at,
45:26
SPEAKER_00: they're wearing red bands so that they're organized so they can keep up with who's where.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: And anytime there would be counter-protesters for China showing up,
45:36
SPEAKER_00: peaceful men and women,
45:38
SPEAKER_00: these very aggressive groups would quickly move against them.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: And in the most shocking of videos,
45:46
SPEAKER_00: you can see how they actually were stopping the protesters from even arriving.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: And so they've got this one video.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: You can go watch it.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: There are three people, three men, one of them 51.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: One of them is 73.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: A 73-year-old man.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: One of them is 40.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: So these are older folks.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: These aren't the type of people who are probably going out looking for a fight.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: They're walking toward where they intended to try to stage a protest.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold,
46:19
SPEAKER_00: nine dudes dressed similarly,
46:23
SPEAKER_00: wearing bands,
46:25
SPEAKER_00: very young,
46:26
SPEAKER_00: 20s,
46:27
SPEAKER_00: late teens,
46:29
SPEAKER_00: early 30s,
46:30
SPEAKER_00: very tough looking dudes are walking behind them and
46:36
SPEAKER_00: verbally assault them, and then the next thing you know, they all get jumped.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: One of them in a concussion, you know, wakes up in an emergency room.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Just, they beat the crap out of these three guys.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: So, nine versus three, and some of the
46:55
SPEAKER_00: those who are fighting have masks on to help protect their identity,
46:58
SPEAKER_00: and the Post has tried to figure out who some of these folks are.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: The local police haven't done a whole lot.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: They've referred it to the FBI, so hopefully the FBI is doing something.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: It's just one of the reasons why when people are attacking the FBI sometimes,
47:13
SPEAKER_00: I get frustrated because we do need a very efficient and good federal law enforcement.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: But...
47:22
SPEAKER_00: I challenge you to read this story when you think we should leave China alone,
47:31
SPEAKER_00: stay out of their business.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: China's already here.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: China's already in our business.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: What makes you think that...
47:40
SPEAKER_00: If we leave them alone as they push up against Taiwan and other countries in Asia,
47:45
SPEAKER_00: that their influence operations aren't going to get stronger and more dangerous here.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: That's my question.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: It's already happening.
47:54
SPEAKER_00: Read the article.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a little shocking.
47:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't like to scare people, but it's kind of crazy.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to be aware of the steps that China will actually go to in order to
48:10
SPEAKER_00: silence people who speak out against them.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember how a few years ago the movie stars and all the movie production companies,
48:18
SPEAKER_00: if you dared speak out against China,
48:20
SPEAKER_00: the threats that those larger,
48:24
SPEAKER_00: bigger-named people faced.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: So this is real, and so go take a look at the story.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say too much for lots of reasons, but just go read the story.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: I think you'll find it enlightening.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: One other story I wanted to cover regarding China was,
48:43
SPEAKER_00: as I did say earlier,
48:45
SPEAKER_00: China rammed a Philippine ship last week.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of crazy because if you just read the article,
48:53
SPEAKER_00: you're like,
48:53
SPEAKER_00: eh,
48:54
SPEAKER_00: two ships collided,
48:55
SPEAKER_00: no big deal.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: But if you look in the episode notes,
48:58
SPEAKER_00: I've shared several things I think you'll want to see,
49:03
SPEAKER_00: several videos.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting is it's much worse than what the articles you can read anywhere say.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: One, I've got a link to a map to kind of give you an idea of where it is.
49:17
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this in some previous weeks.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the images that I shared,
49:23
SPEAKER_00: if you watch the video of the vessel being rammed,
49:28
SPEAKER_00: one analyst that keeps up with some of this stuff,
49:33
SPEAKER_00: they believe China was actually trying to basically take the ship...
49:39
SPEAKER_00: to hit it in the rear toward where the propeller and the rudder is to make the ship
49:47
SPEAKER_00: basically lose power or lose the ability to control where it was going.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the video on one of them,
49:57
SPEAKER_00: of course they hit it more than one time,
49:59
SPEAKER_00: but it kind of seems compelling that that's the case and that there was actually
50:03
SPEAKER_00: some ships there that were prepared to tow it.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: So, this ship gets encircled by a ton of vessels.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: There's 3, 6, 9... There's like 10 ships around one.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: Ten.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: And,
50:18
SPEAKER_00: again,
50:19
SPEAKER_00: some of the vessels were there that could have towed the vessel from the
50:24
SPEAKER_00: Philippines had it been immobilized.
50:26
SPEAKER_00: So, they try to ram it in the rear.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: They try to hit it in the front.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it looks like it's more than just a... We're just trying to deter this Philippine ship.
50:34
SPEAKER_00: So...
50:35
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of thing,
50:36
SPEAKER_00: if you really...
50:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't think people are aware of how close something like this could spiral out of
50:45
SPEAKER_00: control into an act of war.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: Which, oh by the way, we've talked about this before, but we are treaty allies with the Philippines.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: We have been for 50-something years.
50:55
SPEAKER_00: And so,
50:57
SPEAKER_00: this is not a good thing that they are basically trying to,
51:00
SPEAKER_00: what appears,
51:01
SPEAKER_00: capture a ship,
51:02
SPEAKER_00: or at a minimum...
51:03
SPEAKER_00: Surround it and just batter it.
51:06
SPEAKER_00: Again,
51:06
SPEAKER_00: not a good thing because if they severely wound or kill any Philippine sailors,
51:12
SPEAKER_00: it would be an act of war and the U.S.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: would get involved.
51:16
SPEAKER_00: Now since the incident, an admiral...
51:19
SPEAKER_00: for the Navy, who at least for now is still an admiral, because what he suggested was pretty aggressive.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: But in a press conference that followed the incident, he said that the U.S.
51:32
SPEAKER_00: military is open to escorting Philippine ships in the South China Sea, if we were asked.
51:39
SPEAKER_00: So, I'll leave you a link to that as well.
51:44
SPEAKER_00: I dare say his hand will probably be slapped for saying that, unless he was told to say it, but...
51:52
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully he doesn't get in trouble for saying that.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: I think it's not the worst idea for sure.
51:57
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, China is being China.
52:02
SPEAKER_00: And when I say that, I mean China is being super aggressive around the world as usual.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: Both near their,
52:09
SPEAKER_00: well really it's not even their backyard,
52:11
SPEAKER_00: but at least somewhat close to their country,
52:13
SPEAKER_00: but also inside the United States.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're running out of time, so let's move away from China.
52:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about a couple of U.S.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: news stories I want to make sure I got in.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: First of all, in the episode notes, there's a great map with a list of the growing U.S.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: military presence in the Middle East.
52:36
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about for the past several weeks how the U.S.
52:39
SPEAKER_00: has been increasing its presence as some type of an attack force
52:44
SPEAKER_00: by Iran on Israel and possibly US installations in the Middle East has gone up and
52:51
SPEAKER_00: down to varying degrees.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to know for sure where it's at right now,
52:57
SPEAKER_00: but there is a great link with a map showing you the various places that US forces
53:05
SPEAKER_00: are inside the Middle East and
53:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's always good to work on your geography to make sure you know where Syria,
53:12
SPEAKER_00: Iraq,
53:13
SPEAKER_00: Saudi Arabia,
53:14
SPEAKER_00: Iran,
53:14
SPEAKER_00: etc.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: etc.
53:16
SPEAKER_00: all those countries are.
53:18
SPEAKER_00: So great map that I wanted to get into a little more and talk about but
53:23
SPEAKER_00: unfortunately running a little tight on time.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that I wanted to make sure I mentioned was there were seven U.S.
53:30
SPEAKER_00: personnel that were injured inside Iraq in a raid that killed 15 ISIS members.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link to that if you want to go read that in detail.
53:38
SPEAKER_00: I often talk about that we continue to do very dangerous missions in places around
53:43
SPEAKER_00: the world that Americans constantly take for granted and don't think about anymore.
53:48
SPEAKER_00: Until something bad happens.
53:49
SPEAKER_00: But obviously this is one of those situations that did make the news.
53:54
SPEAKER_00: Because we did have some wounded personnel there.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: Again, there isn't a ton of details about that story.
54:02
SPEAKER_00: But what there is, I have a link to in the episode notes.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn a little more.
54:08
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's get to the best part of the show.
54:10
SPEAKER_00: This is the words of encouragement section where I like to end the show with some
54:15
SPEAKER_00: just uplifting words because we know,
54:18
SPEAKER_00: and I know certainly,
54:19
SPEAKER_00: but I know you know this as well,
54:22
SPEAKER_00: that life is hard and sometimes you just need to hear something that will lift you up.
54:26
SPEAKER_00: So,
54:27
SPEAKER_00: Every episode,
54:28
SPEAKER_00: I like to share just a few verses from the Bible or some quotes that touch on the
54:32
SPEAKER_00: Bible or Jesus,
54:33
SPEAKER_00: just because,
54:34
SPEAKER_00: as you guys know,
54:35
SPEAKER_00: my Christian faith has become such a source of strength and wisdom and calm for me
54:41
SPEAKER_00: during the past couple of years since...
54:43
SPEAKER_00: losing my mom, and then now I worry an awful lot about my dad and his pretty serious memory problems.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'm betting that you might have something going on that's kind of challenging in
54:54
SPEAKER_00: your life or that you're worried about.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't, I know you're wise enough to know that it's coming.
55:00
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, in life, we are going to go through some challenging things.
55:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I hope by sharing these,
55:06
SPEAKER_00: it might encourage you a bit to get into your Bible because I think it'll change
55:10
SPEAKER_00: your life if you let it.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: For this week,
55:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to start with a little bit of a broader topic using part of what I heard
55:20
SPEAKER_00: from a sermon that's quite a few years old,
55:24
SPEAKER_00: but I thought it was pretty good.
55:27
SPEAKER_00: And so...
55:29
SPEAKER_00: I'll start with a quote that gets us kind of into this deeper thing I heard in this sermon.
55:36
SPEAKER_00: I just want to use a part of that sermon, but it really got my mind thinking.
55:40
SPEAKER_00: But the quote was, I want to read that one again.
55:54
SPEAKER_00: It's from a pastor named Ken Boa.
55:56
SPEAKER_00: But again, it's, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
56:01
SPEAKER_00: We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
56:08
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, isn't it?
56:10
SPEAKER_00: And so,
56:10
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to share this part from a sermon where the pastor was talking about how
56:17
SPEAKER_00: most people in this world
56:21
SPEAKER_00: You see yourself by your identity.
56:25
SPEAKER_00: You see yourself by your identity.
56:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you see yourself as like a father or a mother.
56:33
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you see yourself as a fitness guru of some kind.
56:37
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're big into CrossFit or you're a bodybuilder.
56:41
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a powerlifter.
56:43
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you see yourself as an entrepreneur.
56:46
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you see yourself as a veteran.
56:47
SPEAKER_00: You're very big in the Marine Corps.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: It's history or the Army or your special forces or whatever.
56:55
SPEAKER_00: Or often you'll see this with athletes.
56:59
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you were a football player all the way through high school, through college, and then you weren't.
57:07
SPEAKER_00: Or you often see this with,
57:09
SPEAKER_00: especially professional athletes,
57:13
SPEAKER_00: when someone retires from the NFL or from the MLB.
57:18
SPEAKER_00: When they're no longer a football player or a baseball player,
57:22
SPEAKER_00: they usually spiral because that's their identity.
57:26
SPEAKER_00: That's how they measure who they are, how they get their self-worth.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: And we all do this.
57:32
SPEAKER_00: All of us see ourselves that way if we're not careful.
57:38
SPEAKER_00: And so that's how we see ourselves in the world.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that when that doesn't go well,
57:47
SPEAKER_00: Or when that ends.
57:51
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
57:52
SPEAKER_00: What are you?
57:54
SPEAKER_00: Because if you are measuring yourself by any of those, at some point it's going to go away.
57:59
SPEAKER_00: It will eventually go away.
58:01
SPEAKER_00: Any of those things I said...
58:03
SPEAKER_00: As sad as it sounds, they're going to at some point collapse or go away.
58:10
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're measuring yourself by any of those things, it's just a burden that's too heavy to carry.
58:15
SPEAKER_00: And eventually it's going to crash down.
58:17
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to be a good father.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: You can't carry the load.
58:21
SPEAKER_00: You can't carry watching the kids and working the job and everything that's expected of you.
58:27
SPEAKER_00: And you get laid off or there's marital problems and suddenly you're not a good husband or
58:34
SPEAKER_00: The entrepreneur, the company fails, or the military career ends, the sports career ends.
58:41
SPEAKER_00: No matter what it is, whatever that identity is, it eventually crashes.
58:49
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, it's not a good day.
58:54
SPEAKER_00: And that's like the dark night of the soul for a lot of people.
58:58
SPEAKER_00: And it can even lead to suicide, to depression.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: And if you chase desire, it's not always a good ending.
59:10
SPEAKER_00: And so as dumb as it sounds, and this pastor was making the point that
59:17
SPEAKER_00: you need someone to tell you it's going to be alright.
59:20
SPEAKER_00: Because at some point, for all of us, the truth is, is it's not going to be alright.
59:25
SPEAKER_00: We're going to face the end of our lives here.
59:28
SPEAKER_00: And we all like to not think about it.
59:30
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to think those kind of negative thoughts.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: But we all are going to,
59:34
SPEAKER_00: at some point,
59:36
SPEAKER_00: have that moment,
59:37
SPEAKER_00: that crisis,
59:39
SPEAKER_00: or just the end of our natural life.
59:41
SPEAKER_00: It might be something fast, or it might be that you're in your 80s.
59:44
SPEAKER_00: But at some point,
59:45
SPEAKER_00: We are going to face realities that really none of us like to think about.
59:50
SPEAKER_00: We run from as hard as we can.
59:54
SPEAKER_00: And the pastor was talking about something which is so true.
59:57
SPEAKER_00: And he was mentioning that his favorite show was Survivor,
1:00:00
SPEAKER_00: which obviously that's the reality TV show where you take a dozen plus people,
1:00:06
SPEAKER_00: put them on islands without technology,
1:00:08
SPEAKER_00: they compete to see who can win the challenges and stay a member of the tribe.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_00: But he was talking about this one season, and it happens almost every season as he said, but
1:00:21
SPEAKER_00: They would take, you know, and a person would lose a challenge.
1:00:25
SPEAKER_00: And they would be sent out on an island all by themselves for the night.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: No phone, obviously.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_00: And it happened to almost everyone on the show at some point.
1:00:36
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is, they interviewed these folks later.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_00: And these were non-spiritual people.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_00: But what was curious was that all of them...
1:00:47
SPEAKER_00: All of them just bottom out,
1:00:49
SPEAKER_00: just as probably you or I would,
1:00:51
SPEAKER_00: unless you have something spiritual to lean on.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_00: But they all said in these interviews that when you leave the mainland,
1:01:00
SPEAKER_00: when you leave America,
1:01:01
SPEAKER_00: all your identities go away.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_00: You're not a parent.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_00: When you're on Survivor, you're not a parent.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_00: You're not an entrepreneur on Survivor.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_00: You're literally a part of a tribe.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_00: You've been moved away for the night or for a couple of days.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_00: Nothing to distract you.
1:01:16
SPEAKER_00: And you who do a lot of soul searching.
1:01:19
SPEAKER_00: And most of them say something along the lines of, I realized I wasn't alright.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: Or they have almost mental breakdowns.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_00: Because it's pretty hard to just sit alone by yourself with nothing to distract you
1:01:33
SPEAKER_00: and really consider some of the deep and challenging questions of life.
1:01:39
SPEAKER_00: Now, in that line of thinking, I thought I would read a couple paragraphs from an author.
1:01:46
SPEAKER_00: His name's Henry Nowen.
1:01:48
SPEAKER_00: I believe it's Nowen is how you pronounce it, but it might be a new one.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_00: But I've got it in the episode notes.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to read this, because it's kind of along those lines of thinking.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_00: He says, "...at issue here is the question, to whom do I belong, God or to the world?"
1:02:07
SPEAKER_00: Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_00: A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed.
1:02:21
SPEAKER_00: A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_00: It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_00: Often, I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_00: All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing
1:02:44
SPEAKER_00: myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle
1:02:50
SPEAKER_00: for survival,
1:02:52
SPEAKER_00: not a holy struggle.
1:02:55
SPEAKER_00: but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.
1:03:03
SPEAKER_00: As long as I keep running about asking, do you love me?
1:03:07
SPEAKER_00: Do you really love me?
1:03:10
SPEAKER_00: I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the
1:03:15
SPEAKER_00: world is filled with ifs.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_00: The world says, yes, I love you if you are good looking, intelligent, and wealthy.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_00: I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_00: I love you if you produce much, sell much, buy much.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_00: There are endless ifs hidden in the world's love.
1:03:40
SPEAKER_00: These ifs enslave me since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_00: The world's love is and always will be conditional.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_00: As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love,
1:04:00
SPEAKER_00: I will remain hooked to the world.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_00: Trying, failing, and trying again.
1:04:08
SPEAKER_00: It is a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the
1:04:17
SPEAKER_00: deepest craving of my heart.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_00: That is, that's strong, isn't it?
1:04:24
SPEAKER_00: That's deep and that is strong.
1:04:27
SPEAKER_00: Because I think all of us,
1:04:29
SPEAKER_00: when we're honest,
1:04:31
SPEAKER_00: when we slow down a bit,
1:04:33
SPEAKER_00: or when we go on those scary times where we really contemplate death,
1:04:36
SPEAKER_00: which none of us really want to,
1:04:40
SPEAKER_00: we know that there is something out there.
1:04:43
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be more.
1:04:44
SPEAKER_00: There has to be more.
1:04:47
SPEAKER_00: There has to be more.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you can hear that more calling you.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_00: And so, obviously, I believe the answer is to seek God.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_00: And that if you seek God, you will find Him.
1:04:58
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's crazy to me that...
1:05:02
SPEAKER_00: You literally have the opportunity to,
1:05:06
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:05:07
SPEAKER_00: should you become a Christian,
1:05:08
SPEAKER_00: but I shouldn't push it too much,
1:05:10
SPEAKER_00: but it's crazy to me that you have the opportunity to talk with your creator and to
1:05:16
SPEAKER_00: have a relationship with him.
1:05:17
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like mind-boggling if you think about it.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_00: It's...
1:05:24
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_00: So, at any rate, I don't want to get too deep.
1:05:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't ever want to be too pushy or whatnot.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_00: But I think, yeah, hopefully that helped you some.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_00: And I clearly think...
1:05:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for watching.
1:05:59
SPEAKER_00: open arms that they aren't pushy and this coming from a guy who's got a complicated
1:06:06
SPEAKER_00: past with christianity so at any rate hope that helped let me share three lighter
1:06:11
SPEAKER_00: ones because i know that was a little more heavy than what i typically do so here's
1:06:16
SPEAKER_00: a good quote the lord will fight for you you need only to be still
1:06:25
SPEAKER_00: Again, the Lord will fight for you.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_00: You need only to be still.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_00: So often.
1:06:32
SPEAKER_00: Once you become a Christian for sure,
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: it's hard to learn to lean on God,
1:06:37
SPEAKER_00: to think that there's a God that cares about you,
1:06:39
SPEAKER_00: that would send His Son to die for you,
1:06:42
SPEAKER_00: that would even care about whether you prayed or asked Him for anything.
1:06:46
SPEAKER_00: But as you develop your faith, you start to realize that actually that's true, and that is the case.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_00: And so you learn to stop trying to do everything in your own efforts and allow God to do things for you.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_00: And there's a magnificent illustration that I read many years ago.
1:07:06
SPEAKER_00: And it said, imagine a young boy that's like trying to get something off a tall shelf, like a bookshelf.
1:07:14
SPEAKER_00: And so the boy can't reach it.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_00: So he gets a chair and then he gets a chair and he stands on top of the chair and that's not enough.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_00: So then he gets a, you know, a box and,
1:07:22
SPEAKER_00: He climbs on the chair,
1:07:23
SPEAKER_00: stands on the box,
1:07:23
SPEAKER_00: he's still reaching,
1:07:24
SPEAKER_00: straining,
1:07:26
SPEAKER_00: trying his very hardest to reach this book that's on this top shelf.
1:07:31
SPEAKER_00: And he's straining, and the chair's wobbling, and the box is wobbling, and he's like so close to falling.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_00: It's dangerous.
1:07:39
SPEAKER_00: It's scary.
1:07:41
SPEAKER_00: And the illustration was,
1:07:43
SPEAKER_00: imagine God's leaning against the wall like a father,
1:07:48
SPEAKER_00: proud of his son,
1:07:49
SPEAKER_00: who's trying to reach for this book,
1:07:51
SPEAKER_00: who's striving,
1:07:52
SPEAKER_00: who's doing his very best,
1:07:53
SPEAKER_00: trying to think of a new way to get a ruler to pull on it,
1:07:57
SPEAKER_00: whatever.
1:07:58
SPEAKER_00: But the minute the boy stops struggling,
1:08:03
SPEAKER_00: the minute he says,
1:08:05
SPEAKER_00: help me,
1:08:06
SPEAKER_00: the minute he says,
1:08:07
SPEAKER_00: Father,
1:08:08
SPEAKER_00: please help me get that book,
1:08:09
SPEAKER_00: what do you think is going to happen?
1:08:12
SPEAKER_00: the father runs over and grabs the book for the son, the son that he loves.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a powerful metaphor that once you become Christian,
1:08:23
SPEAKER_00: so often where in the past you would still be on that box,
1:08:27
SPEAKER_00: still be trying,
1:08:28
SPEAKER_00: you just learn to say,
1:08:30
SPEAKER_00: I can't handle this.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_00: God, please help me.
1:08:33
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes some pretty crazy things happen that are either really crazy coincidences or
1:08:40
SPEAKER_00: or probably, possibly miracles, depending on how you want to define them.
1:08:46
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's go to the next one.
1:08:47
SPEAKER_00: This is a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
1:08:52
SPEAKER_00: And the quote is, Again, turn to the Bible for there is in it the very word you need.
1:09:03
SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this in previous episodes.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you're questioning something,
1:09:08
SPEAKER_00: worried about something,
1:09:09
SPEAKER_00: whatever,
1:09:09
SPEAKER_00: can't figure out the answer to something,
1:09:11
SPEAKER_00: so often you open the Bible and you'll even read something you've read before and
1:09:16
SPEAKER_00: it's like,
1:09:17
SPEAKER_00: The answer's there.
1:09:18
SPEAKER_00: You're like, how was that there?
1:09:19
SPEAKER_00: How did I never see that?
1:09:20
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to explain.
1:09:22
SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult to understand sometimes.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's the last one.
1:09:32
SPEAKER_00: When weak, let faith be your strength.
1:09:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a good one.
1:09:37
SPEAKER_00: When weak, let faith be your strength.
1:09:41
SPEAKER_00: That's the classic David and Goliath story.
1:09:44
SPEAKER_00: As you become a Christian and start to get into it,
1:09:48
SPEAKER_00: so often when you would not even attempt something with your own natural,
1:09:54
SPEAKER_00: physical self,
1:09:55
SPEAKER_00: you learn that with God's help,
1:09:58
SPEAKER_00: you can do something.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_00: I was going to say almost anything, but you pretty much can do anything if it's God's will for sure.
1:10:06
SPEAKER_00: And so you get more and more courageous.
1:10:09
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, that's a good one.
1:10:11
SPEAKER_00: When weak, let faith be your strength.
1:10:15
SPEAKER_00: I realized this week I got a little more deeper than just the simple quotes that I usually do.
1:10:21
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure I'll do that every time, but I felt like
1:10:25
SPEAKER_00: It was the thing to do, and so hopefully that helped someone out there.
1:10:29
SPEAKER_00: If it did, send me an email.
1:10:30
SPEAKER_00: That would make my day.
1:10:31
SPEAKER_00: If you have questions of anything about the Bible or faith, I'd be glad to try to answer them.
1:10:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a pastor or anything like that,
1:10:39
SPEAKER_00: but I am kind of nuts about it,
1:10:42
SPEAKER_00: and I do spend a lot of time in the Bible.
1:10:44
SPEAKER_00: I do spend a lot of time listening to sermons and other things, so I could probably answer anything.
1:10:51
SPEAKER_00: most of the questions and those I can't I have pastors and other people I can reach
1:10:57
SPEAKER_00: out to so if you have a question that just stumps me we'll find an answer we'll see
1:11:01
SPEAKER_00: if we can't find one but hopefully you enjoyed that like I said reach out to me if
1:11:05
SPEAKER_00: you got any questions or feedback on that
1:11:09
SPEAKER_00: One other thing that I want to do tonight is something I do in every show.
1:11:14
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you just for a moment about depression, PTSD, and even suicide.
1:11:21
SPEAKER_00: Just for a moment.
1:11:22
SPEAKER_00: I do this because,
1:11:23
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:11:24
SPEAKER_00: most people aren't aware of this,
1:11:25
SPEAKER_00: but veterans are at a 57% higher risk of suicide than
1:11:29
SPEAKER_00: than their peers of the same age group of folks who haven't served.
1:11:34
SPEAKER_00: But this section isn't just for veterans.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_00: I know we can all get in really low spots in our lives.
1:11:39
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to remind people that it's a season.
1:11:42
SPEAKER_00: It's a valley.
1:11:44
SPEAKER_00: So when you're in that thick, deep valley,
1:11:47
SPEAKER_00: tough situation that just seems like you can't see over it.
1:11:51
SPEAKER_00: Just remember, it's just a season.
1:11:53
SPEAKER_00: It's just a valley, like I said.
1:11:55
SPEAKER_00: If you are having serious issues, you can call 988 and select one.
1:12:00
SPEAKER_00: You can talk to a crisis line responder anytime,
1:12:03
SPEAKER_00: day or night,
1:12:04
SPEAKER_00: and you can do this whether you're a civilian or a veteran.
1:12:08
SPEAKER_00: But I do know that this is hard to do.
1:12:10
SPEAKER_00: And I know most of you who are struggling probably won't.
1:12:12
SPEAKER_00: So I have to be a little mean here because the fact is,
1:12:16
SPEAKER_00: is when we've had a drill instructor or a tough coach in the past who pushed you,
1:12:21
SPEAKER_00: you've experienced that you can go further than when it's just yourself just
1:12:26
SPEAKER_00: talking to yourself.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to be mean for a moment.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_00: And I got to remind you guys that you cannot give up.
1:12:32
SPEAKER_00: Can't give in to those really terrible thoughts you're having.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to lose this fight.
1:12:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to, you know, don't make your parents or your family have to plan your funeral.
1:12:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to feel guilty that they didn't check on you enough or that they couldn't reach you.
1:12:48
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that you can hold on for another day, and I think if you do...
1:12:52
SPEAKER_00: I think the next day is going to be a little easier.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, if you're in a fight that you worry you may lose, please call someone.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_00: Call a friend or a family member.
1:13:01
SPEAKER_00: This is really easy to do and it's something I beg of you to do.
1:13:05
SPEAKER_00: We've all lost friends that we wish had reached out to us.
1:13:08
SPEAKER_00: So, again, reach out to one of them.
1:13:10
SPEAKER_00: Just be honest.
1:13:11
SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, I'm struggling right now, man.
1:13:13
SPEAKER_00: I can't
1:13:13
SPEAKER_00: Can't catch a break.
1:13:15
SPEAKER_00: But you can also call 988-SELECT-1 as I said.
1:13:18
SPEAKER_00: But whatever you do, please do not quit.
1:13:21
SPEAKER_00: You're just in a valley and this world does need you.
1:13:24
SPEAKER_00: Probably, if we're honest, your parents need you as well.
1:13:28
SPEAKER_00: Because seriously, who's going to take care of your parents in 30 years?
1:13:31
SPEAKER_00: Or in 10 years?
1:13:32
SPEAKER_00: Or whatever age you are?
1:13:34
SPEAKER_00: And I'm serious about this.
1:13:35
SPEAKER_00: I just helped take care of my mom before she passed.
1:13:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm helping take care of my dad.
1:13:40
SPEAKER_00: And so...
1:13:41
SPEAKER_00: I just want to ask you, who's going to do it?
1:13:44
SPEAKER_00: Are you just going to let the system take care of them?
1:13:47
SPEAKER_00: How horrible is that?
1:13:48
SPEAKER_00: So the broader point is you cannot quit.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_00: And you need to think about beyond the season that there's something you're meant to do.
1:13:57
SPEAKER_00: You just can't see it because, like I said earlier, you're in this immediate fog and pain.
1:14:02
SPEAKER_00: You can't see the end result.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that there's a mission for you to do.
1:14:06
SPEAKER_00: I believe that God has a mission for you to do.
1:14:09
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's to coach Little League.
1:14:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's to help others with PTSD.
1:14:13
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're supposed to run for office.
1:14:15
SPEAKER_00: But I believe there's some calling for you, and you just haven't found it.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you to get involved.
1:14:22
SPEAKER_00: Stop isolating yourself.
1:14:24
SPEAKER_00: Visit a veterans group such as the VFW, something like that.
1:14:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe visit a church near you.
1:14:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe visit some family you've lost touch with.
1:14:33
SPEAKER_00: Maybe call or text that friend you've grown apart with from the one from high
1:14:38
SPEAKER_00: school or the one from the military.
1:14:40
SPEAKER_00: They're probably dying to talk to you.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_00: But again, if you're struggling, I beg of you.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_00: Call 988, select one.
1:14:47
SPEAKER_00: Or, of course, you can start moving closer to God, which is something I'd certainly recommend.
1:14:51
SPEAKER_00: Read the Bible if you never have.
1:14:53
SPEAKER_00: I really do think that will help.
1:14:54
SPEAKER_00: You can read some of Psalms or Proverbs, or you can start with the New Testament in John.
1:15:00
SPEAKER_00: I think you'll find the Bible will start drawing you in, and I think it'll start changing your life.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't have a Bible, you can download a Bible app on your phone, or you can look it up online.
1:15:09
SPEAKER_00: There are dozens of sites with it.
1:15:12
SPEAKER_00: But again, the broader point is, I just want to encourage you not to give up.
1:15:16
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a plan for you.
1:15:18
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll reach out to God or maybe check out the Bible, as I've mentioned so many times.
1:15:24
SPEAKER_00: If that's not your thing or if you're not ready for that step,
1:15:27
SPEAKER_00: I hope you try to surround yourself with some more community or some more friends.
1:15:33
SPEAKER_00: I know...
1:15:34
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the websites say don't guilt someone who's thinking about suicide,
1:15:37
SPEAKER_00: that that's cruel,
1:15:39
SPEAKER_00: but I sadly think suicide's the easy way out.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_00: It's a short-term solution to what you think is a complicated problem that you can't solve.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_00: And hey, I'm not stupid.
1:15:53
SPEAKER_00: I know life is hard.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_00: I know going on, whether it's life or a marathon or a really long rucksack run...
1:16:02
SPEAKER_00: or forced march in the military, to keep going is often more painful.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about that, but it's also the right answer.
1:16:11
SPEAKER_00: Not only will you get tougher and stronger and have more endurance,
1:16:17
SPEAKER_00: but if you fall out of that race,
1:16:19
SPEAKER_00: someone's got to carry your gear.
1:16:22
SPEAKER_00: Someone's got to care for you.
1:16:24
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you arrive at the mission objective with fewer people, which is going to lead to more strain
1:16:30
SPEAKER_00: in danger, and probably casualties to those around you.
1:16:33
SPEAKER_00: And so that same thing happens if you decide to pull the plug and check out.
1:16:39
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's going to have to carry your load.
1:16:43
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's going to have to care for your family, for your parents.
1:16:46
SPEAKER_00: Someone's going to have to plan your funeral.
1:16:49
SPEAKER_00: Someone is going to have to deal with all the things that you left hanging out there.
1:16:54
SPEAKER_00: So am I trying to guilt you?
1:16:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm really not trying to, but I just want you to think about these things.
1:17:00
SPEAKER_00: When you are in that lowest point in your life, that really dark place, please think of others.
1:17:07
SPEAKER_00: You're a good person, and I just think you're stronger than what you think you are right now.
1:17:12
SPEAKER_00: And I just encourage you, please keep fighting.
1:17:16
SPEAKER_00: Please keep taking that next step.
1:17:19
SPEAKER_00: It's going to get better.
1:17:28
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
1:17:30
SPEAKER_00: I hope as you go through this week that you act a little nicer on social media and in the world as well.
1:17:36
SPEAKER_00: Smile at folks in the grocery store.
1:17:38
SPEAKER_00: Do small acts of kindness.
1:17:40
SPEAKER_00: And remember that most Americans are good and they will help you in an emergency,
1:17:44
SPEAKER_00: even if you don't agree politically.
1:17:47
SPEAKER_00: As you go through this week, I want you to aim to be more motivated and more disciplined.
1:17:52
SPEAKER_00: Try to improve yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually.
1:17:57
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to set impossible goals on these matters.
1:18:00
SPEAKER_00: Just be a little more motivated and disciplined than you were the week prior.
1:18:05
SPEAKER_00: As I said earlier, I really hope that you spend some time in your Bible this week.
1:18:10
SPEAKER_00: If you have no idea where to read on your own, just start with Psalms or Proverbs.
1:18:16
SPEAKER_00: Read some of those and then start with the New Testament by reading the book of John.
1:18:21
SPEAKER_00: Moving to a final note on the political front,
1:18:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm confident after this episode you're going to hear some bad news this week.
1:18:29
SPEAKER_00: Where you're going to hear something ugly and it's going to remind you of how divided we are.
1:18:33
SPEAKER_00: This is as certain as the law of gravity.
1:18:37
SPEAKER_00: But I'm begging you, please do not give up on this country.
1:18:40
SPEAKER_00: I know it's pretty ugly right now.
1:18:42
SPEAKER_00: And I know we're living in dark times,
1:18:44
SPEAKER_00: but we've made it through nearly 250 years together,
1:18:47
SPEAKER_00: and we're far stronger together than we'll ever be apart.
1:18:51
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever believe anyone who tells you differently about that.
1:18:55
SPEAKER_00: Let me wrap up the show by talking about my books and a couple of other newsletters that I do.
1:19:00
SPEAKER_00: First, a bit about myself and my books.
1:19:03
SPEAKER_00: I am a military vet.
1:19:05
SPEAKER_00: I spent four years in the Marine Corps, all of that time in the infantry.
1:19:08
SPEAKER_00: And yes, that does matter.
1:19:10
SPEAKER_00: After my enlistment, I went to college at the University of Tennessee.
1:19:13
SPEAKER_00: I became a journalist.
1:19:14
SPEAKER_00: I spent more than 10 years in the news business.
1:19:17
SPEAKER_00: Besides all of that, I've also written 12 books.
1:19:19
SPEAKER_00: Those books include a series about a Marine Corps sniper,
1:19:23
SPEAKER_00: several novels about a police detective and a private investigator,
1:19:26
SPEAKER_00: and a few books about war,
1:19:28
SPEAKER_00: such as World War II and Afghanistan.
1:19:30
SPEAKER_00: Basically,
1:19:31
SPEAKER_00: these are all fast-moving books with lots of action and plot twists,
1:19:35
SPEAKER_00: because those are the kind of books I've always enjoyed reading.
1:19:38
SPEAKER_00: You can find all of those books in the link in the episode notes,
1:19:42
SPEAKER_00: or you can look on Amazon by just searching my name,
1:19:45
SPEAKER_00: Stan R.
1:19:46
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell.
1:19:47
SPEAKER_00: Buying a book,
1:19:48
SPEAKER_00: telling a friend about a book,
1:19:50
SPEAKER_00: or buying one as a gift for someone,
1:19:52
SPEAKER_00: friend or loved one,
1:19:53
SPEAKER_00: is a great way to help support the show.
1:19:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, I always like to end each show by reminding people that you can comment anytime.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_00: I try to monitor those.
1:20:01
SPEAKER_00: You can also reach out privately by email to me at AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
1:20:08
SPEAKER_00: And that's in the episode notes, by the way.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_00: But again, it's AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
1:20:14
SPEAKER_00: Hey, here's one other thing.
1:20:15
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is about defense news, but I also do a political blog.
1:20:20
SPEAKER_00: So if you love my moderate, optimistic views, you might enjoy that.
1:20:24
SPEAKER_00: It's called Thoughts from a Southern Gentleman.
1:20:26
SPEAKER_00: You can find a link to the episode notes to that, or you can just search that on Google.
1:20:32
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for hanging with me this week.
1:20:34
SPEAKER_00: It's truly an honor to talk with each of you and to know that there's a few of you
1:20:38
SPEAKER_00: out there who are listening and who care about our country and our military and all
1:20:43
SPEAKER_00: the issues that we face.
1:20:45
SPEAKER_00: I know there are a lot of scary issues out there,
1:20:47
SPEAKER_00: but we're going to get through them together,
1:20:49
SPEAKER_00: the same way America's gotten through everything before this.
1:20:53
SPEAKER_00: If you can at all this week,
1:20:54
SPEAKER_00: reach out to a friend or anyone who you know is struggling,
1:20:57
SPEAKER_00: whether they are young or old.
1:20:59
SPEAKER_00: Life is truly hard.
1:21:01
SPEAKER_00: We know this.
1:21:02
SPEAKER_00: But the true strength of this country is its people,
1:21:05
SPEAKER_00: and that includes you folks listening to me right now.
1:21:07
SPEAKER_00: So be a leader, be a doer, be a servant to someone.
1:21:11
SPEAKER_00: With all of that being said, I'll catch you all next week.
1:21:14
SPEAKER_00: You have been listening to The View from the Front.
1:21:18
Thank you.