Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / From trade wars to real wars: Are we lurching toward World War III?

Transcript

From trade wars to real wars: Are we lurching toward World War III? · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is going on, everyone?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: and this week I'm taking a look at some of the biggest stories and headlines
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: and giving you my take on what matters and why.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'll start with Trump's latest poll numbers,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: then get into several news topics that I think will only make those numbers worse
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: for him.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then we'll jump to the midterms.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: A trade war with Canada and how that's going to bring more economic pain
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: while also betraying the conservative cause.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'll cover Iran, the looming threat of a potential World War III.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then we will even discuss how Hakeem Jeffries has managed to get himself
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: in some big trouble.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: As always, there will be timestamps in the episode notes in case you want to jump around.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: we've got to start with the biggest news this week,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: which is unfortunately the passing of Dolly Parton.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: She was a legend across the country and the world.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: She was born in Sevier County,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: which is just one county over from where I was born and raised and live currently
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: in Knox County.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: But she got her start from an even closer tie to me.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: There was a small little radio show that was put out on Channel 10 News.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: In Knoxville called The Kaz Walker Show.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: You probably won't hear many people talk about this,
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: but this was one of the first things she ever sang in and made her start,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak, in.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Kaz Walker owned some grocery stores.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Literally a few blocks from where I was raised and my mom and dad used to talk
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: about having met this guy who started from nothing,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: started the Kaz Walker Show where you would just literally buy a 30 minute segment
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: on one of three channels back then on a very slow day when you could do that.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: My parents had met him and they would always talk
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: about how Dolly Parton had gotten started on the Kaz Walker Show.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, she went on to do much bigger things.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: She won 11 Grammys, was one of the most popular figures in the world.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: she launched from scratch something that's about 30 minutes
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: from my house called Dollywood.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: She's given away 300 million books through her Imagination Library.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And to honor her, I thought I would play two short tributes.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: These were the two best ones I saw, and they're both very short, so I think you'll enjoy them.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: I just try to make life a little better.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I try to lift things up when they're down.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: I write my songs about that sort of thing.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find me and my opinions, you know, in a lot of the songs.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: But most of it's based on love and acceptance and lifting people up.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I ask God every day to let me be a blessing to mankind and to uphold Him and
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: to glorify Him, and that's how I go about my day.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: No political rallies for you then?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: No political rallies for me.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think my joke is that my daddy was a Republican, my mama was a Democrat, and I'm a Hippocrat.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So she obviously was big on not dividing the country and on keeping just
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: a beloved place in everyone's heart, whether you were on the left or the right.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: as you guys know,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: with what I'm trying to do with the show, that's something I care a lot about.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's that second tribute I wanted to share.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is a local news program where we only talk about local news.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: But Dolly Parton died today and this is my show and I love Dolly Parton.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is our producer Mallory's show and she loved Dolly Parton.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this is your show and there's a real good chance that you love Dolly Parton too.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually a pretty amazing thing in America these days.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: That me growing up in western New York,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: almost Canada,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Mallory growing up in western Georgia,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: almost Alabama, and you from wherever you're from would all love one woman.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Grew up in East Tennessee, almost North Carolina.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly Parton was one of the last things that nearly all Americans loved.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Set aside her musical talent for the ages, her sharp business mind, Dolly Parton was good.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: She was kind.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: She was joyful.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: She was generous.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: She knew that a fast way to make a friend was to make a joke about yourself.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: She loved to say that she wasn't offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: as she said, I know I'm not dumb and I also know I'm not blonde.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And how she used to joke about her famous figure saying that she had little feet
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: because nothing grows in the shade.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly Parton was what America aspires to be.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Up from nothing to astonishing success, not through conformity, but through originality.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: As she once told Barbara Walter, she'd never stoop so low as to be fashionable.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And once she reached the top, she reached out to help others up.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Her imagination libraries gifted more than 300 million books to children.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Her Christian faith led her to care for and to unify people,
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: even when mockery and division were more in style.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Her family announced her passing today,
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  SPEAKER_01: echoing the lyrics that she wrote in 1973, saying, She will always love you.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: That was the thing.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: A whole lot of celebrities are loved.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Dolly Parton loved you back.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's fair to say that all of us are going to miss Dolly.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to Trump's poll numbers.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not to state the obvious, but they are rough.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Check out this report.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: Record low polling.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: A new projection showing President Trump's net approval rating is negative in 47 out
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: of 50 states.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: According to The Economist and YouGov, Trump's net approval is minus 26%.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be right back.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's negative 22.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And in Michigan, Trump's net approval is negative 27.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: wow.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the negative in 47 of 50 states, there is an election in just a few months.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're down to basically two months.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Trump is in the negative in 47 out of 50 states.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: I will say, though, the good news is he has done a lot this past week to help his numbers.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wait.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, he has not.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: He has done a lot that will hurt his numbers, and we're going to go through that stuff.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the larger bit of things happening behind
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: the scenes is you increasingly hear A bit of a follow-up to the Natalie Harp story
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: from last week which blew up.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Which is that Trump is so insulated.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: He is so in a bubble that he does not realize what is popular or unpopular.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing he ever hears is that he's doing a great job.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And here's an article that's positive that Natalie Harp will print off for him.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: He lives in this bubble.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's like the king that doesn't leave the castle,
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: who thinks all of the serfs across the kingdom thinks he's the greatest thing ever
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: as he increases taxes or announces wars.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: The president does not realize how unpopular he is.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And all of his advisors are sycophants, and they will not tell him the truth.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: All of the cabinet members and advisors from the first term who They're all gone.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is partly on him, because he wants loyalty more than anything else.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is one of his weaknesses.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because loyalty involves telling someone the truth when they have erred.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he has made many errors, but no one is telling him that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in his mind, he...
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thinks he's, as he's said so many times, smarter than the generals.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's a genius.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: He thinks because he passes memory tests that are like pre-Alzheimer's tests
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  SPEAKER_00: and aced them, that he's a genius.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And no one will tell him the truth.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Here is a good,
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: for example, or just a good data point that makes the larger point that I'm making.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: There was a big report in Newsmax,
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: conservative outlet, that in July, ICE arrested 50,000 people.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: 50,000.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is the highest during Trump's second term.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they're literally ramping up arrests and enforcement.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as if that's not enough,
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  SPEAKER_00: they're also going to Cancel 200,000
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  SPEAKER_00: visa holders of folks applying for asylum.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is a big number.
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  SPEAKER_00: 200,000.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And need I remind you that while I will definitely grant that many Americans believe
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: the border was an issue and they have appreciated the president locking it down
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: and tightening it up, There,
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: on the other hand,
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  SPEAKER_00: are poll after poll that says many of these folks,
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: actually I should just go ahead and be honest,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: it's most of these folks being arrested have not broken any laws.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're not the hardcore criminals.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that folks on the right say,
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: hey, if you're here illegally, you've broken the law, and I get that.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of them are either family members of, or married to, Or engage to U.S. citizens.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're people who've been here for 6, 8, 10 years or longer.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so with every arrest,
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: with every enforcement of some of these rules,
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: it is hurting those on the right who are running for re-election.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because Latinos who supported Trump in strong numbers, that has plummeted.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And with this increased enforcement,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: you're starting to see stories that really make the headlines.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, Military Times.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not exactly a liberal bastion.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a military newspaper.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the wife of an army sergeant.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I would say her name, but I don't really want to link.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to put her name out there, but you can find this easily.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Has been deported to Honduras.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So one of our soldiers had his wife deported.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Another story.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: This one made even more news.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the folks serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln...
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: His father, while his son is out at sea defending us, fighting Iran, his father is arrested.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: His father has been in the U.S.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: for 19 years,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: has a work permit,
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: has no criminal record,
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: and was arrested by ICE agents as he came home from work that day.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And again, his son is on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So these are just the kind of stories that if you're a Republican running
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: for Congress in re-election in a couple of months,
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: these are not the kind of stories you want highlighted.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: not to be totally cynical,
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: but I'll just be cynical,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: but even if your goal was to increase the arrest and the enforcement of some
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: of these rules,
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: you would think the president would tell his advisors,
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: hey, let's slow it down a couple of months.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Any of the controversial ones,
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: like release them quickly, let's put water on the fire, so to speak.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just, like,
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: we gotta low-key this for a little bit longer,
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: see if we can't win some seats in November that we might have lost,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: and then we can crank it up.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that would be the politically smart thing to do, but instead they're ramping it up.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what his advisors, I mean,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think they tell him the truth,
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't know that any Republicans who are actually
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: in close congressional districts that are running for re-election,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: none of them think this is wise.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have the nerve to say it to his face, but none of them think it's wise.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And 200,000?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there will be some economic hits to the economy and
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: to local I believe there will also be political consequences from this move.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it might be, obviously, it's legal to do what he's doing in most of these instances.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: These folks are here,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: they've either gone past the amount of time they were granted on their visa,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe they don't have the right documentation,
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe they're waiting on an asylum claim.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But again, he's going to take 200,000 of those and send them home.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, again, maybe the 30-35% on the right of his hardcore base, maybe they want this.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: But there will be economic consequences.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: There will be political consequences.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is going to cost President Trump.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to cost the Republicans in November.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can mark that down.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's the second big thing
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: that will certainly make President Trump's numbers worse since the poll results
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: that already had him in a negative in 47 of 50 states.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: What am I referring to?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm referring to the trade war that he has launched with Canada.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Here is a quick summary on that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed late Friday night,
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: just minutes before a deadline,
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: triggering 50% US tariffs on roughly 20 billion worth of Canadian goods,
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: including hockey sticks, building materials, liquor, and clothing.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: This morning,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: President Trump fired up Truth Social,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: said that even more tariffs were planned for January 1st, 2027.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: So he's making advanced plans now.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: 50% on cars, trucks, automotive parts, and steel.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: He says Canada will be treated like a state no longer.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney,
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: meanwhile, said the US is at war with Canada over these tariffs.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: He's announced dollar for dollar retaliatory tariffs on US steel,
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: dairy appliances,
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: agricultural equipment,
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: pulp and paper,
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: electronics, and that it will be effective September 8th, which is soon.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: That is the day after Labor Day.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Let's listen to a little bit of his speech from Saturday.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: So they can own us.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I promise that that will never ever happen.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: We are keeping that promise.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: We are already giving ourselves more than they can take away.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why does it feel like today Mark Carney is going to war?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're attacked.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: When you get attacked, we got attacked.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: The U.S. put 50%.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: We waited until the United States decided to actually implement the so-called 338 tariffs.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the reserves.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the resilience.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the plan.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the focus.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: We will respond.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to focus on what we can control.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to build.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this is interesting because while our economy is much larger,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: as I saw one analyst put it, Carney,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: the Prime Minister of Canada,
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: has spent the last nine months making the case that Canada must fight back against
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: the U.S. in order to ensure its survival.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Carney has a 70% approval rating.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone in Canada is so mad at Trump right now that they're willing
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: to tighten their belts and go to economic war, so to speak, against the U.S.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: just like with the Iran war,
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: President Trump has a very low approval rating,
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: and most Americans don't even support this new trade war.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact,
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: there are Republican elected officials who are coming out against it and warning
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: that hey, this is not what we need while the economy is a little shaky.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile,
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: The president has done something else that has,
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: again, angered both his base and Republican elected officials.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm referring,
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: to the news that the president is going to import in lots of beef from Argentina.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: 300,000 metric tons.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And ranchers who clearly usually vote Republican are not happy about this.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Neither are some senators and congressmen who are all Republicans.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start first by just listening to a rancher who went viral.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is a Trump supporter.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Again, a beef rancher who went viral because he is not happy.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to play this clip,
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: and then afterward you will hear longtime Republican Bill Kristol,
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: who's not a fan of the president,
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: but again, 30, 40 plus years of big time moves in the Republican Party.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear what he says after this viral comment.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: They're going to import a bunch more boxed beef,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: ground beef,
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: scrap cuts,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: what I call them,
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: And hopefully bring down the price of ground beef in the store for y'all.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now this morning, the markets are crashing.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: And you're going to lose more ranchers.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: And in the long run, you're going to lose everything.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Because where there are cattle, there is freedom.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: And when these disappear, so does your freedom.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think this is going to work out like they hope.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: MAGA ranchers are pissed.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's kind of real political effects, couldn't it?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: In Nebraska, for example, and Kansas, sad thing about tariffs.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: They do real damage.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you kind of get,
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: once you start the business of imposing them and taking them off,
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: you get, you offend people both ways, right?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Especially if the prices don't come down.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, while we're on this topic,
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: before we leave it,
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want to just share one more clip to remind folks just how much has changed in
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: the Republican Party.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm a little sensitive to this because I've got to say that I remember
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: when I was younger,
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: while I was in the Marine Corps especially,
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: and then early part of college, I really wasn't a fan of free trade.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to beat it up and not be a fan of it.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I used to always think,
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: you know, we lost our manufacturing base and we should just have tariffs.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I know why a lot of people want to support it.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's partly why it's so frustrating that Trump has been so inept
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: with how he has pursued this policy.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you wanted to test it out, like the worst person to test it out under was Trump.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because He rolled it out without congressional approval.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Supreme Court, of course, gave him as long as possible, but then they overturned it.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: He just does things on a whim.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's just how he rolls.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that an economic system needs to be stable.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: It needs to be predictable.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: It And there might have been a way to test this,
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: but he has completely destroyed that option for the next probably 20 years.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no stable, predictable way to do this.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And any thoughts that even I used to have...
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them were defense-related,
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: like the fact that we can't seem to make enough artillery shells or Patriot missiles
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: or anything else to defend ourselves has shown some of the weaknesses of how our,
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: at least,
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: military-industrial complex has spread over across the world,
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: especially with our Navy now down to 300 ships and overstretched.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the President has completely destroyed any chance of trying to do this the right way.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Having said all that,
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: I did not realize,
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: and it's probably,
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: it's an age thing,
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 48, so Ronald Reagan was, I was pretty young when he was around.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to share this clip that Charlie Sykes had found.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he's talking about that conservatives have always been free trade and
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: that Donald Trump is a populist.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And does not even follow the conservative line of thinking on free trade.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that with MAGA there's a new trend where it's like,
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: you know, America first, put tariffs in place, and a lot of people do support them.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought it would be worth hearing what Ronald Reagan had to say about free trade.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this was found by Charlie Sykes, who you will hear in the beginning.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: I want to leave you with this because I want to remind you
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: that there's nothing conservative about Donald Trump's fetish for tariffs
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: and trade wars.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Look, don't take my word for it.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Listen to what Ronald Reagan had to say about tariffs and free trade and
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: the demagogues that don't support free markets.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: They are our allies.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: against our friends,
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: weakening our economy,
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: our national security,
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: and the entire free world, all while cynically waving the American flag.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: The expansion of the international economy is not a foreign invasion.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: It is an American triumph.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: One we worked hard to achieve and something central to our vision of a peaceful
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: and prosperous world of freedom.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: After the Second World War,
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: America led the way to dismantle trade barriers and create a world trading system
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: that set the stage for decades of unparalleled economic growth.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, back in 1776, our founding fathers believed that free trade was worth fighting for.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: And we can celebrate their victory because today,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: Trade is at the core of the alliance that secure the peace
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: and guarantee our freedom.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: It is the source of our prosperity and the path to an even brighter future for America.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: Until next week, thanks for listening and God bless you.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, the worst part of all of this is how ham-fisted the president has been.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: How he has wrecked alliances with just running roughshod
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: over threatening European allies,
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: threatening Canada,
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: putting up maps that show Canada with the American flag over it,
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: and threatening Greenland and I mean,
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: he could not have executed the tariff policy any worse.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then as if all of that isn't bad enough...
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of news out there that with the Canada part, they had a deal almost done.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone, in fact, thought that the deal was basically done.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then he sends a representative up at the end who wasn't even a part of
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: the negotiations, who threw out more demands.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And, of course,
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: no one knows if Trump told them to wreck it or to add these demands or Trump has.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: He also always just...
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's how he thinks every deal's got to be.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: The deal got wrecked at the end with one of our longest term allies.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just, I just can't.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I try to be as fair as possible, but I just can't sometimes.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: The amateur hour that happens every single week under the president's leadership.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should put air quotes under the word leadership.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I just can't.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, before I go on too big of a rant, let's just keep this show moving.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about another bit of news headlines that will not help Trump's poll numbers.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these are ugly headlines.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And intuitively, most people used to care about this stuff, at least to some degree.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Many of us have been hearing about it for 30 or 40 years.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm referring, of course, to the debt which has hit 40 trillion dollars.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: But those headlines have dropped.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, does the American public care?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Does this stick to the president very much?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so who better to listen to than the great Tom Nichols and Charlie Sykes discussing this?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: I loved what they had to say.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, catching a clip of them makes the show worth listening to.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't catch this, just hearing this makes listening to my show worth it.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Between the two of them,
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: the number of decades of political wisdom they have is just impossible
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: to really summarize or get your arms around.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what they say as they're talking about the...
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: $40 trillion that we've now hit.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then they move a bit into cultural issues, which is obviously something big on the right.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I will move right into my next topic after that about cultural issues.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what they had to say on this big news that we have crossed $40 trillion.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: I want to start, we have a lot of really interesting stuff to talk about.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about a story that nobody actually cares about.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: People pretend to care about it,
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: but I think the political reality is that nobody cares that
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: the national debt just hit $40 trillion.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a little statistical tidbit.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: The day that Barack Obama left office,
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: the national debt was just a couple hundred billion dollars below $20 trillion.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: $20 trillion when Barack Obama leaves office.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: It is now.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: $40 trillion under Republican president, Republican Congress.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I bring this up because,
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: as you know,
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: I spent years in Wisconsin talking to people like Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: who were warning about how terrible the national debt was,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: what an existential threat this was.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: I find this a little ironic.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: That we've now hit $40 trillion under Donald Trump,
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: who promised,
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: if I recall correctly, that he was going to actually eliminate the national debt.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Any thoughts about this, Tom?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they didn't care.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: For the elected Republicans, I mean, I think we have to put this into three batches, right?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the elected Republicans,
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: the voters, and then the kind of Trump and his inner circle group.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: For the elected Republicans, it was say anything to stay in power.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Say anything you have to say to keep living in the Emerald City
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: and having people bring you your coffee and pick you up for work
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: and take your dry cleaning.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, look, you and I both know this.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: The life of an elected—
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: So at this point they went on a little bit of a tangent.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm jumping from there.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you all of this is still in context,
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm jumping from there to where they get back on the topic.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're skeptical and you're like, well, what were they talking about, Stan?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: they were talking about how every congressman wants to stay in Washington, D.C.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: their entire lives because they don't really want to go back home and be normal.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I think most of us agree that That's probably what happens to most people
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: when they go to DC, so I don't think you need to hear that part.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's them jumping back into it.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: So Trump in the inner circle, Trump's going, you know, why does he want power?
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to stay out of jail and he wants to enrich himself in his circle.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: The rest of it, nobody cares about.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have the voters.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: And here's, you know, where I have to put this back on the voters.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: The voters claim to care about deficits and immigration and,
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: you know, all of the hot button, abortion, trans rights.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: But in fact,
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: what they really care about is A big chunk of them,
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: that kind of hardcore of 30% maybe that's left at this point,
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: is owning the libs,
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: getting back at people,
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: shaking their fist at the TV while they're watching OAN or whatever
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: the hell they watch.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: In the end, nobody really cared about any of this stuff.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: The Tea Party turns out not to really care about this.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Tea Party never really cared about debts and deficit, did they?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Tea Party was as bullshit a movement as Occupy Wall Street was.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: That'll make some people mad, I know,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: but I'm sorry I was an anti-Tea Party guy from the jump because,
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: again, as you say, none of that stuff matters.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was all kind of primal yops of boomer angst back in 2008, 2009.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: You have to understand the reason I'm bringing this up is I still have a little bit
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: of PTSD from this this period.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I probably spent more than 100 shows talking about how dangerous the debt and
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: the deficit was.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you – in his first term
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: before he completely lost his mind – Every time Ron Johnson went anywhere,
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: he basically bored his audiences by showing them big charts about the debt and
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: the deficit and how this was this cataclysm coming.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: And they're just sitting there and they've presided over this.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so let's move on to something else.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing that he mentioned was about the culture wars,
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: and I will say that,
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: actually, for folks on the right, that culture wars are a big deal.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to play a clip from Senator Ted Cruz, who was on the Benny show, and he
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that this does matter is even if you try to minimize it, well,
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: if it starts to infringe on the rights of some folks on the left,
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: then clearly it matters to them.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it is an animating issue for folks on the right,
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: and particularly something that's been in the news now for probably a couple
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: of weeks and still going strong is the WNBA and Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: and what she said and the trans issue.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I know folks on the left are like,
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: yeah, we don't want to talk about bathrooms or this or that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: But this is something that the right is just it's a it's a big issue to them.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: And even when people are mad about the economy or I had a Trump supporter that is
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: a big Trump supporter.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he told me recently, he's like, I wish he just shut his mouth.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he used the word shut his mouth.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And even those who are frustrated with a president,
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: the moment you bring up either trans or if you bring up anything to do,
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes even with gay rights,
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: if you bring up anything to do with Islam,
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: instantly most of the folks on the right fall back into line because they see all
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: of those things as threats to either By the way, Clay Travis...
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: Has offered,
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_03: he initially offered $10 million out of his own pocket for
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_03: the defending WNBA world champions to play a high school boys team.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: And he'd give $10 million to the winner.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_03: The WNBA has not taken up on it.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_03: Clay Travis then upped the ante and said,
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: all right,
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: I'll give you $10 million for the defending champions to play
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: an eighth grade boys team that I get to pick.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing but eighth grade boys against the defending champions.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: Absolute crickets from the WNBA.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: And look, the reason is obvious.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: There is a difference between men and women.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: At Judiciary Committee hearings, I've asked witnesses, tell me something.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_03: What does the W stand for in WNBA?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_03: And these Leftists,
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_03: their ideology is so insanely inconsistent, they cannot answer that question.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_03: Are you going to be bringing in the CEO of the WNBA, Kathy Engelbert, to ask this?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: Would you commit to doing that on the Judiciary Committee?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_03: I think it is an excellent idea.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's an excellent idea.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think it'd be musty TV, Senator.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think we could get to the bottom of this.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think I'd kind of enjoy seeing her testify next to Ennis Freedom Cantor.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there it is.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's the Judiciary Committee talking.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay, great.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we look forward to that.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: We might even fly to DC for that one.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: That would be exciting.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So as you can tell,
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: this is something that the right is getting mileage out of,
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't expect them to stop anytime soon on the issues
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: that they're pushing forward.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let's move to Iran now,
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: and this is another story that will not help the president's poll numbers at all.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: First of all,
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: there was the news that the Pentagon has updated the number of wounded or killed in
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: the Iran war.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there are now more than 750 have been wounded.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a big increase,
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: bringing home some of the additional cost of the war that
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: the public hasn't really known about.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So 750 plus wounded.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Also, we're more than six months in.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Wall Street Journal,
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: the conservative Wall Street Journal, had an article nearly six months later.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: A conflict with Iran that President Trump promised would be over
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: within six weeks is continuing without a clear end in sight.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that was the conservative Wall Street Journal.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Economist had an article that said even if Donald Trump turns up
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: the economic pressure to 11 on a scale of 10,
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Iran's economy is already struggling and its leaders will probably remain unbowed,
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: meaning they're not going to give in.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then the final thing.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Strait of Hormuz currently,
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: New York Times had an article, averaging about 12 vessels a day, down from 130.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about this in previous weeks.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of oil flowing through is just, it's down.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is going to affect not only our economy, but the world economy.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, no real good news happening out of Iran.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: No closer to a peace deal.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the past week we have shown even more weakness.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: There have been several attacks from Iran on commercial tankers
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: and we're basically not even responding now.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of embarrassing, honestly.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Iran is flexing its muscles and we're afraid for it to blow wide open again
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: because we don't have enough interceptor missiles to protect the countries in
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: the Middle East.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to remind you that when President Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: and showed weakness, that that was the beginning of the end of his popularity?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I say this because the president's trying to delay it,
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: but unless the Iranian economy somehow collapses in a way
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: that no analyst is currently predicting.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I really hope I'm wrong.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would love for their government to collapse and for there to be freedom and for
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: the people to have a chance to,
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: you know, freedom of religion, to not have to have a burqa and all the stuff.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I would love for their government to collapse,
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: but there's just no indications it's going to happen.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so this will continue to be a slow drain on the president's popularity until and
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: or if he finally says whatever he's going to say,
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: which essentially we have lost the war.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know how else to say it, but he will try to claim victory.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure at some point.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we, I mean, we've lost the war.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: We've got troops moved back.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: We've got bases destroyed.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Iran still picking at other countries.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we've, we're basically not retaliating.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know how else you, you frame that other than a loss.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I wish I was wrong, but I just don't know how you frame it any other way.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: And again,
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've said this numerous times,
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: and not to beat a dead horse, but I am going to beat a dead horse.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because the only way we could win at this point is some type of all-out,
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: full-scale action, maybe even ground troops.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the president is a salesman, and he said this would be easy.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: He did not prepare the country for this.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: He did not get allies on board.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: He is a salesman.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: He is not, in my opinion, a strong leader.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he instead of like at my company that I work at or my day job,
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: one of our number one principles is we under promise, we overachieve.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: When we know something can be done in four to eight hours,
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: we tell folks one to two business days so that we have extra time.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's what most businesses do.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: The president did the exact opposite.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: He over-promised, and I don't really know what he was thinking.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's very frustrating, but Again, I'm trying to be fair to him.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know there are conservatives that listen.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want conservatives to listen.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that he thought that
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: the people would uprise He thought those strikes would perhaps win
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: the short term.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: People would uprise.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: I guess that's what he was thinking.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: He overpromised.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: And now here we are.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we're six months in.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we look very weak.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: We are very low on interceptors.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And increasingly, Russia and China...
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: And even North Korea are kind of pushing us around.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the president can say he gets along with North Korea,
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: but we canceled training exercises that have gone on for 50 years.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: In Europe, not only will we not help Ukraine arm and defend itself...
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Which would be a great way to help stop Putin, by the way.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: But Putin is emboldened and we had to send our CIA director over there to try to meet with him.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, Putin stood him up and wouldn't even meet with our CIA director.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: But we sent the CIA director over there
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: because Russia is increasingly escalating hybrid attacks across Europe.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: And because Donald Trump has made so many members of NATO mad,
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: and because we've withdrawn some of our troops,
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: we yet again have shown weakness, we look soft, and we have no answer.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: All of this kind of points to what conservatives were pointing to
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: when people thought Kamala Harris would win election.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: They said she would get us into World War III.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: They said she would get us into a war with Iran.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what is increasingly kind of obvious is that even
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: though President Trump was elected, he did get us into a war with Iran.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: And these countries are on the move.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: They look stronger than,
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't want to say ever, but they definitely look pretty strong.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Ukraine's doing a great job of deep strikes inside Russia, which is hurting its economy.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: But Europe doesn't seem ready for these increasingly hybrid attacks.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: There was news this week that China had,
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: yet again with their IT skills,
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: broken into multiple government agencies in the US,
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: including the FBI and ones they shouldn't.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: We just look weak.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: The president went in saying he was going to stand up to China
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: and promising brutal tariffs,
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: but China retaliated so strongly that And because we upset our allies like Canada,
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: and Canada signed deals with China and some of these other European countries
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: that used to be our friends,
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: the president made so many of them mad that we literally had to back down
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: on our tariff war with China.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's just very frustrating.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I think no matter how you spin it, everyone agrees.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're moving toward an increasingly...
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Higher likelihood of some type of larger conflict.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Russia is probing Europe with hybrid attacks.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: We sent our CIA director over there to meet with Putin.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: The last time we sent the CIA director, Russia invaded Ukraine.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: We warned them not to.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was under President Biden.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: We sent the CIA director to tell Russia not to do what we know they're going to do.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to probe NATO.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what will the U.S. do?
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: J.D.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Vance doesn't care about NATO.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: The President barely, if at all, cares about NATO.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Will we even respond?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: Will we show strength?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can we show strength?
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: The crazy thing is our military could cut through the Russian forces quite easily.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: They are conscripts.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: They are exhausted by war in Ukraine.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine alone has devastated Russian ranks.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: Although there is talks that they may do a mobilization to get more bodies because
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: the Ukrainian drones are just wearing out Russia.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so the U.S. could definitely deal with Russia or any type of probing action it does.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: But every time the president talks to Putin,
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: he shows, at best, deference and respect, if not friendship.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Europe isn't sure that the president would even stand up to Vladimir Putin.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: In some ways,
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: it would probably literally depend on the president's mood that day
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: or what they were saying on Fox News.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, do you think the president would stand up to Russia?
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think he would send more troops over there?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it goes against partly his America First agenda.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: He certainly didn't show any strength against North Korea.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hasn't been a whole lot of strength shown against China and what it's doing in
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: the South China Sea or its threats toward Taiwan.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm always reminded of what we used to say in the Marine Corps,
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: that if you want peace, you prepare for war.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we look weak right now, and we're talking about stuff like Cuba or Venezuela.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not trying to scare anyone,
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: but we are creeping toward Essentially a World War III,
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: where more and more countries are getting pulled into these various conflicts.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: You've got China pouring in stuff into Iran.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: We've been helping Ukraine.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: All these countries are kind of interconnected.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: We know North Korea sent troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're all kind of on this consolidated, united path.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I have said for years that we should have sent air defense units,
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: certainly Europe should have, but I think even the United States.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, said this, like, we should have had a no-fly zone.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he said it,
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: it was more dangerous because there were Russian planes flying over Ukraine.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so U.S. troops could have shot down Russian planes.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: But for the past three years, it has not been nearly that dangerous.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things we could have done.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: But instead we brought Zelensky into the White House and they tried
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: to dress him down and embarrass him.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: Trump has been pulling troops from NATO,
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: threatening NATO countries with not wanting to defend them.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've shown weakness.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: And whether you like Trump or not, if you want peace, you plan for war.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be safe in a parking lot,
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: you keep your eyes open,
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: you look for potential threats,
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: and in a perfect world, you are prepared to handle any type of threat.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I'm in a parking lot, I don't avoid looking toward danger.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: I stare at danger.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm almost never not armed.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Half the time, deterrence is all you need.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: You want the criminal to say,
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: you know what,
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: that guy doesn't look scared and he's either crazy or he's probably packing heat.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: imagine if we had sent a squadron of F-16s or whichever aircraft you want to name
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: and said, hey,
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to help shoot down these drones that are coming toward Ukraine,
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: toward its capital cities.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or, hey,
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to put air defense troops from the ground,
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: Patriot batteries, etc., like American ones, defensive only.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: The war has to end, Vladimir Putin.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: What if we'd done that?
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: What if we pushed more units toward the eastern flank of NATO as we speak and said,
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: hey, we know you're going to try something.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are sending troops over.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are strong.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do not think we are weak.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do not think we are low on interceptors.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we are low on interceptors, but we've got armored divisions.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: We've got troops.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: We have grit.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: We are not scared of you.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are a paper tiger.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: Russia, your economy is the size of Italy's.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: You've been at war for four years.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine alone has nearly whooped you from one end of the place to the other.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: We are not scared of you.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't see that response.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we've forgotten the Russian quote from,
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: attributed to anyway, the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: Lenin himself saying, You probe with bayonets.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you find mush, you push.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you find steel, you withdraw.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: And of course the meaning of that is you test an adversary.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: You push against their boundaries or their weaknesses with minor actions.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're probing.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're pushing that bayonet.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if they collapse or mush, then you keep pushing.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: If they resist strongly, if they're still, you withdraw.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the crazy thing is,
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: is I mean, I think even President Trump's supporters would say, the man's a bully.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: President Trump is a bully.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: You'd think he would understand this concept and these ideas.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to Russia or when it comes to China, I don't know if he senses their strength.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what it is.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: But he likes to bully countries like Canada or some of the European countries or Denmark.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to strong dictators like North Korea or China or Russia,
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: he just will not stand up to them.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I have no idea why.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: He just won't do it.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: Alright,
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: let's move away from that pretty terrifying topic I was just on,
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: and let's talk about Hakeem Jeffries.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: As you've probably heard,
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: although there's been a lot of news,
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: so you might not have, but the minority leader for Democrats is Hakeem Jeffries.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he's from New York, and he stepped in it this week.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: And folks on the left are not happy with him at all.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's crazy because most people think he will become the House majority leader
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_00: in just a couple of months.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: Most people expect Democrats to take the House.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Senate's not as much of a guarantee.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, Democrats shouldn't, in theory on paper, take the Senate.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: But there are more and more articles saying they might just because
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_00: the president is just running the country into the toilet.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Hakeem Jeffries...
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just a couple of months from becoming probably his,
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: if not lifelong goal, definitely his goal of the past five years or more.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just a couple of months out from getting that post of becoming majority leader,
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: he has stepped in it.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he stepped in it pretty big with the base.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm referring, of course, to the fact that he had a meeting with Jared Kushner.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the left has absolutely lost its mind about this.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just the, I mean,
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: you get on any,
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: especially if you get on Blue Sky,
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: the amount of vitriol and anger at him is, it's really, like, it's pretty loud.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're more mad at him than it seems like they've been at Chuck Schumer,
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: the lead Democrat in the Senate.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been pretty mad at him for almost a year plus now.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: But Hakeem Jeffries had a relatively secret meeting with Jared Kushner,
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: and the left absolutely lost its mind.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tommy Vitor,
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: one of the famous hosts with Pod Save America,
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: big time, long time Barack Obama guy, clearly in touch with the base.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, put a post up on X that said, Jared Kushner has no actual government job.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: He just uses his family connections to get money from Gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: The only way Hakeem Jeffries should work with him is with demands for documents and subpoenas.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just kind of a good look at how mad the left is.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: They don't even want to meet with someone like Jared Kushner.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: They literally want the Democrats to take the House,
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: and they want to issue subpoenas, investigate, investigate, investigate.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: I totally get it because there have been such rampant and widespread corruption
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: that it's really, it's hard to even report on it.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've tried in some previous episodes, as you guys know.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's just so much that it's very difficult to keep your arms around it.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Democrats will have plenty to work with if they take the House.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: And after this meeting with Hakeem Jeffries,
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that it went so poorly for him,
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: you can be confident that those elected in November will be very keen
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: to hold hearings,
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: to subpoena officials, and to investigate, just to go all out on investigations.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: No doubt with the base.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it was this way with the Republicans when they weren't in power.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then they finally got power.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you go from anywhere from like Benghazi to you can name different things or back
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: when Obama was there and Solytra and some things like.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: People on the left and even in the middle are mad at the president and they want
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: a lot of people held accountable.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this was a very early taste of just how...
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: How badly folks on the left and probably some in the middle want accountability
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_00: and they want the truth to come out because there's been way too much stuff behind
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: the scenes, way too much smoke.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're not sure how much fire there is,
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: but there's been a lot of smoke and there's already been quite a bit of fire
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: that people have seen.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so Democrats, this was their really first public bit of data.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_00: Although you could say maybe even some of the DSA candidates winning their primaries.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a very public sign that Democrats are furious.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're in the Trump cabinet or any Trump official who doesn't get a pardon,
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: you are in for some rough years.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: You better be saving up some attorney fees because they're going to be calling you
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: in front of Congress and asking you lots of questions.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's move now to Ukraine.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share just one quick thing that Wes O'Donnell,
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: who's a great,
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: great guy that covers so much defense news,
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: he wrote an excellent article about the latest on Ukraine's air defenses.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has obviously,
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_00: we've covered in previous episodes, they're limited on interceptors, on patriots.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so President Zelensky's been trying to find some type of a solution.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Wes O'Donnell covered this week that,
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: and I've got a link to this in the Substack Notes,
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: go show him some love,
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_00: click the link, sign up at a minimum for free for his Substack, he does great stuff.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_00: He covered that President Zelensky did announce this week that they did get some Patriots.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, he did not say how many.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know how many.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: He also didn't say from where.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_00: But Wes O'Donnell covered that.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: But he also covered that Ukraine received some additional.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: These are the medium air-to-air missiles.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're called AIM, A-I-M.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the medium air defense missiles.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that they also had gotten confirmation
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: that they will be getting some anti-air defense vehicles.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_00: That are French made.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_00: They carry six missiles.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, eight medium range anti-air missiles with radars are pretty good vehicles.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is going to help Ukraine.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to mention on the Ukraine thing that there's been no change in
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_00: the story I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that...
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine is struggling to get its grain out.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to see a map,
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: the economists put a map out of the grain corridor,
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: they're calling it,
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: where Ukraine is trying to get some of the grain out, but they're struggling.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also a great map that shows just What Russia currently controls in Ukraine.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_00: How Ukraine is oscillating Crimea or the Crimean Peninsula.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just a good map.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_00: We talked a few weeks ago how Ukraine had hit so many Russian ships,
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: like 100 plus, that even J.D.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_00: Vance was asking them to hold off.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: But Russia retaliated,
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: started hitting some tankers that were carrying out Lots of Ukrainian grain,
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: which affects food prices around the world.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: But more importantly, if Ukraine can't get its grain out, it can't plant the next year's crop.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: So this is kind of a big story and just something that we have to keep an eye on.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_00: Before we wrap up, I want to take a minute to come back to something deeper.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: We spend a lot of time each week talking about the country,
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: where we are, where we're headed, what's at stake.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: But if that's all we look at, it'll just wear you down.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is,
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: most of us don't think much about faith or even about what really matters
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: until life forces us to.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: When we get that phone call,
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_00: or that doctor's report,
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: or the job that you thought was secure is suddenly gone,
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_00: those are the moments that cut through the noise, that wake us up, that frighten us.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the part of the show where we step back,
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: open scripture, and remind ourselves what actually matters.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not politics.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not personalities.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's something stronger than that.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's wisdom from God, carried across thousands of years.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest, I haven't always believed it.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: But my life has gone better when I've turned to it, listened to it, and tried to follow its way.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't care, I'm going to share a little from it.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope you'll stick around and listen.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: So this week, I want to talk about God caring for us.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_00: And just like last week,
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: where I used a devotional from the Tim Tebow devotional,
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_00: this week I'm using one of the other devotionals I read.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: As I said last week, on a good day, I try to read from three Bible devotionals in the morning.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: This one is called the Pocket Bible Devotional for Men.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the entry,
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_00: not that I'm on the correct day or page,
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: because I don't do this every day as I should...
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it comes from February 1st and it's about God caring for us.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so the page is just the summary title is He Cares for Us, meaning God.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to read just a few verses from that page and then the summary section at the end.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think this will bless you.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with those verses.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: The first one comes from Matthew.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: It goes, and you've probably heard this one.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a famous Christian song, Give You Rest for Your Soul.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is from Matthew 11, verse 28.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_00: Again, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we're going to jump over to 1 Peter.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: The verse reads, Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_00: Again, give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, stop trying to carry everything yourself.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's from 1 Peter 5, verse 7.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jump back to the Old Testament.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, this is probably written about more than a thousand years before, reads...
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: He, He being God, God will feed His flock like a shepherd.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_00: He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, God will feed His flock like a shepherd.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's Isaiah chapter 40 verse 11.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then we'll jump back to the New Testament in Matthew.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 6,
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_00: it reads,
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_00: If God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 6, verse 30.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the summary of that page,
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_00: just about a paragraph,
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read that, reads like this, The Lord cares about us.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_00: He cares about His people all the time and everywhere.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: He is never far removed from His children.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_00: Never is He deaf to our prayers.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: Never is God busy with more important things when we call out to Him.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_00: He cares for us so much that we can give our burdens completely over to Jesus.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_00: He is strong enough to carry every load, even that of the whole world.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_00: Again, all of those verses and that summary came from the Pocket Bible devotional for men.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know we are all searching for that something that the world cannot feel without.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I just strongly believe that ultimately God is the thing that we are all longing for.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_00: God is the thing that will give us the greatest peace and happiness and just sense
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_00: of security that you can find.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so as always, I always encourage you to get into your Bibles this week.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Bible is so powerful today.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_00: That the Roman Catholic Church tried to keep people from being able to read it.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's how powerful it is.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have died putting these words, these are the revealed words of God, onto paper.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is God speaking through 40 plus authors over thousands of years.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's,
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_00: like I always say,
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_00: if it's not real,
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_00: if there's nothing to it, Then you'll read it and you're like, this makes no sense.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I've read a lot of books from a lot of other faiths and they didn't speak to me.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just challenge you to just get out your Bible this week and see if it speaks to you.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: I like to end the faith section each week by saying that if you're skeptical
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_00: or you're not sure if what I've shared is true or not,
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to encourage you to read the Bible for yourself.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not secondhand, not through headlines or arguments, just open it and read.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've linked a Bible resource page in the episode notes that talk about translations
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_00: and a good place to start.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't want to click anything or take the time to read
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_00: that short explanation I provide,
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_00: just start with the book of Mark in the New Testament.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then read a little bit of Psalms or Proverbs each day.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let the text speak for itself.
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's all a bunch of hooey or drivel,
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_00: then you'll know pretty quickly that I'm off my rocker.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's the Word of God...
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then I think God will speak to you through the text.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you're unsure, you shouldn't be afraid to read something.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've read many texts about Buddhism,
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Islam, other faiths, Hinduism, and none of those texts spoke to me.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible did speak to me.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so my challenge is, open the book yourself.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Read it as a skeptic.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And see...
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If it's full of absolute truths and feels like the Word of God.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't own a Bible or don't have one handy, There are free apps on your phone.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_00: There are bazillions of websites that have the Bible on it.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you can read it from your phone.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_00: One final word.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a veteran and you're dealing with depression,
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: PTSD, or thoughts of suicide, please check out the link in the resource notes.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_00: We need you in this fight.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you cannot give up.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_00: After all, who is going to take care of your family someday?
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really want your military friends to feel guilty they didn't check on you more?
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's taboo to say that it's selfish, but it is selfish.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_00: There is a purpose for your life,
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_00: and you're just dealing with a lot of pain right now that feels overwhelming.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_00: It can get better.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just do not give up.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me this week.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to support the work, there's a link in the episode notes.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I always like to end each episode by saying that as you head into the coming days,
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_00: try to be just a little kinder, both online and also out in the world.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that most Americans are good people, even if they vote differently than you do.
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Aim to be a little bit more disciplined this week than you were last week.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Mentally, physically, and spiritually, raise the bar just a little.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be perfect.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to aim to be a little better than you were last week.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_00: When you fall short, forgive yourself quickly.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Start again.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when the news discourages you,
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_00: and I believe it will,
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: because even on the best of weeks, the media is looking for bad news.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_00: But when the news discourages you, Don't give up on this country.
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Try to remember that division weakens us.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Unity strengthens us.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is wisdom.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also biblical.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So guard what you feed your mind and your spirit.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_00: What you take in and absorb will shape what you become.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ingest poison.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's mostly what cable news is.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a person of faith,
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_00: make sure you make some time this week to spend time in your Bible.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you are not, try reading the Bible this week for the first time.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or for the first time in a long time.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know what kind of results you're getting with what you've been doing.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_00: It might be time to try something new.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we leave,
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I need to mention on the off chance that you don't know I am an author in addition
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_00: to being a podcaster.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like to say that I write compelling stories that matter about courage,
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_00: faith, and the fight for what's right.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've written a dozen books to date.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_00: They include military thrillers,
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_00: police detective mysteries, or whodunits, war literature, a western.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is even a motivational self-help book.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been fortunate to have sold more than 70,000 copies to date.
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're one of those who have purchased one of my books, I really appreciate it.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_00: All of them can be found for sale on Amazon.
• 1:14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are one of those folks out there who are wondering if you might like one
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_00: of my books,
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I will say that the military and political thrillers are very similar
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_00: to books written by authors Vince Flynn and Jack Carr.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then The Crime Ones,
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_00: if you enjoyed Robert B.
• 1:14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Parker's Spencer series or any of his books,
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_00: then I'm confident you will like The Crime Ones as well.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Robert B. Parker was a huge influence on my writing.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now moving away from my books,
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I should also say before we end the show that if you believe in what I'm doing
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_00: on this podcast,
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_00: if you believe it matters in this moment for our country,
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_00: you can partner with me on this mission to help keep the show independent and As
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_00: the Bible teaches,
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_00: God loves a generous giver,
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't want anyone giving out of compulsion or out of guilt.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_00: At any rate, thanks in advance for all of you who are supporting the show.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time,
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_00: please stay hopeful,
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_00: stay humble, and keep working to be the light in your corner of the world.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.