Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / The 7-11-24 edition of The View from the Front podcast.

Transcript

The 7-11-24 edition of The View from the Front podcast. · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is going on guys?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this week's edition of The View From The Front.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: As you know,
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: my name is Stan,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: and each week I cover the news in a sophisticated and balanced manner with an
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: overarching goal to unify our country.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Not only do I try to unify our country,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I also do my best to cover all of this information in a respectful and calm manner.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I promise I will always do my best to lower your blood pressure and avoid
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: trying to scare you with articles designed to only get more audience share.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, I'm an independent voice.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not the corporate media.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Finally,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I wrap up each episode by adding in some motivation and wisdom at the end of each show,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: because who doesn't need that,
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we have so much news this week that it will probably be a longer show.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping I can get through all of it without rushing it too bad or anything like that.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But before I begin, I just have to give a quick shout out to my wife.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I am a very happily married man.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this past weekend, I really didn't think my wife could be any more awesome than she already is.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: She is selfless.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: She puts...
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, her son before her.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: She puts me before her.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: She puts her friends before her.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: She spent three hours with a stranded dog on a Friday night just last week.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: She literally puts everything before her.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Her family, her friends, etc.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: But this past week we went fishing, and she's normally not much of a fisher.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: She likes to just lay out in the sun, but she likes to be on the lake.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I managed to thankfully be catching a few fish,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: and it was kind of exciting because they were hitting topwater and jumping up,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: and she's like,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: can I try some?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so it went from me trying to get some hooked for her to roll in,
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: to her casting,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: to her casting better,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: to her getting the...
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of getting into it, you might say.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And she had some hits.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't catch one on her own yet.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: But, man, I literally did not think she could be any better or a better wife.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But she somehow,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: God blessed me this week by giving me a woman that's beyond all those awesome
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: things and wife,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: spouse,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: friend,
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: all that stuff.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And she can also captain the boat and load the boat.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I think God has given me a woman.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Watching her, she likes to fish.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think she's going to get more and more into it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I feel like the most luckiest dude in the freaking world.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, I appreciate your patience while I shared that news.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Which may be the most important news in the world.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I joke, of course.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But let's get to, like I said, there is so much news this week.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start by just doing an update on the story that we shared last week and
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: that continues to go up and down in waves.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the question of will President Biden remain on the ticket?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting because I said last week, I think we'll know within a week it'll be a fast-moving story.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we go through the weekend.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it looked like that everything had been pretty much decided.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I wrote an article on Tuesday saying that the Biden question had been answered.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's not leaving.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned that this planned meeting from the Senate Democrats,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Warner,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: he's a Democrat,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: was supposed to have this meeting of senators that got canceled yesterday.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: that throughout the weekend,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: there wasn't a large number of House Democrats in the Congress come out against Biden.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: By Monday, it was just four, which is 1.8% of Congress.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Reminder, there's 213, so only four had come out against him.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then also on Tuesday,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: or I'm sorry,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Monday night,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: AOC,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: obviously a very powerful Democratic leader,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: came out and said that it was done,
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: that President Biden had made clear he wasn't going to step out,
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: that he's in the race,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: and AOC says she supports him.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, to me, it really seemed like
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Everything was pretty much done, including President Biden had a more busy and aggressive schedule.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so he'd had 18 post-debate appearances.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point,
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: he'd flipped the script,
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: was attacking former President Trump for basically being in hiding for 10 days,
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: as he called it.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so it looked like it was done.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote the article,
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: and then today on Wednesday,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: some things started happening,
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: and it seems like a lot's happening behind the scenes.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: But some stuff started happening in front of the scenes, so to speak, or out in the open as well.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that included, George Clooney wrote an article, said he believes...
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: President Biden should step down.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: George Clooney's obviously been a big fundraiser for President Biden, so that was a pretty big blow.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Then the first U.S.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Senator came out and publicly said President Biden should step aside.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time,
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Nancy Pelosi kind of left the door open and made some comments that a lot of people
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: are reading into.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a pretty big deal.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then there was even some news that Hakeem Jeffries,
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: the lead Democrat in the House,
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: that he too was talking to some congressional officials.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: leaders,
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: committee chairs,
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: etc.,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: and that he might be going to speak and share those views with President Biden at
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: some point.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: This follows James Carville,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: who's a longtime Democratic leader as far as political campaign man,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: you might call it,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I guess.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But a long time, long time.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: aid to Clinton and many high-ranking Democrats.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote an article in the New York Times saying that President Biden would end up
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: stepping down,
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: whether he chose to pretty much voluntarily or whether it got uglier.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he went so far as to say that there should be an open primary.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: It should be handled by President Obama.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And former President Clinton.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the two should pick up to eight people to have these basically open debates or
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: meet the people or hosted type events.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there should be one in the northwest, one in the southwest, one in the south, one in the northeast.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Four events.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Eight people.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: No more than eight or it would be too many.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he really laid out the details of how all of this would go down.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if you talk to some people, he's in with a lot of people.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you really wonder if he made that comment,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: having talked to perhaps former President Obama and former President Clinton.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just saying that as of the recording on Wednesday night.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: It no longer feels like this is a done deal or a decided thing.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it kind of feels like that the momentum is now pushing toward President Biden
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: being asked or they can't force him out,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: but the pressure building to the point where he may have to,
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: for the good of the country,
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: not run again.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the update on that situation.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's flip to the other side, and the other side being the Republican Party.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit of news on that side of the house.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Former President Trump is expected to pick his vice presidential choice personally.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much any day.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we're down to three.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Marco Rubio, obviously a senator.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: J.D.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Vance, also a senator.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's from Ohio.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Marco Rubio, obviously Florida.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, is the last one.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the three that most people believe it's down to.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, next week, the Republicans have their big national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's from July 15th to the 18th, so they'll be getting...
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of attention during that time.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say that former President Trump did have a rally last night,
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Tuesday night,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: that was done in front of a crowd.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was raining.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: He did use a teleprompter.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: He has been, I guess...
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Fairly or unfairly criticized for that speech because he did come off the
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: teleprompter quite a few times and he did make a few verbal miscues as we have been
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: talking about with President Biden.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just a few of those since I don't want people saying, oh, Stan, you're making this up.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just name, I'll just name three quick ones.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: First,
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: he said that Don Jr.,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: his son,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: was a great talent and that he had a great wife,
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: even though Don Jr.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: isn't married to Kimberly Guilfoyle.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first one.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: at another instance he read his teleprompter cue to speak quickly out loud and then
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: finally he said that biden had abandoned cuba when in fact it was trump who had
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: stopped obama former president obama's plan to reopen trade and travel to cuba so
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: that's just three examples
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm clearly not trying to get in a debate about which is worse.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just know that last week I stated the facts that President Biden had had a terrible debate.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so,
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: in the interest of fairness,
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to point out that former President Trump has had some speaking miscues of
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: his own.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: From a larger standpoint,
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know that the reality is most people listening to this podcast have made your
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: mind up one way or the other.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't intend to try to change anyone's minds.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just want us to be informed,
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: and I hope everyone is an involved citizen that takes this vote responsibly.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty much where I am.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know that the reality is,
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: we hate to admit this,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: but it's going to come down to about three states,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: and it will do me a little good to upset either half of one side or half of the other,
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: trying to push one way or the other when the reality is it's going to come down to
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: a few thousand votes in three different states.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And probably most of the listeners out there, you're not in either Michigan, Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll probably be those three.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would love, once again though, if you hear this, I would love to hear your thoughts.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want President Biden to stay in the race or do you think it's time that he steps down?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to know where you guys are if you get a chance to let me know on Thursday or Friday.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I bet by the weekend it will be a little bit more obvious that it's
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: definitely going to happen as far as him being asked to step down.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps the fires will be put out again.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And by then, the RNC convention will be getting fired up.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so it seems like it'll,
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: just like I said last week,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is going to happen within the next week.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be more clear.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're one of those that wants to put your money where your mouth is,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: and just let me know,
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm calling it,
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think this,
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: or I'm calling it,
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think that,
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to know.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like to, kind of makes politics a little more interesting if you...
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Put down where you stand and call it early enough versus waiting until late Friday
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: afternoon or late Friday night when I think by then we're going to know a little
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: bit better.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to some news on our troops, let me clean up one thing.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think I said put money where your mouth is.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'm not a big fan of gambling, so I don't know exactly why I said that.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you can ask all my friends,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: even though I will go to a casino with my friends because many of them enjoy doing so.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a gambler, just like I'm not a drinker.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And neither of those actually...
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's previous to my last two years of really refinding and restarting my faith journey.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have an addictive personality, and alcohol and gambling has always, always scared me to death.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you could ask my Marine buddies 20 years ago.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Never gambled, never drank, scared to death of both of them.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Growing up, I had an uncle that...
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately,
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: went through all the horrible phases of being an alcoholic,
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: and so it ended up splitting his family and leading to financial ruin,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: and eventually it cost him his life.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I witnessed that for over a period of years,
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: and I have always been scared to death of alcohol and gambling.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't judge anyone who does.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I have had a few drinks in my life.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've had probably six to ten Jack and Cokes over 47 years of life.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: So for celebratory times, I might drink half of one.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But most of the time, I don't like the way that even half of a drink makes me feel.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It just scares me.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make that clear, but again, I don't judge anyone who either drinks or gambles.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just know that both have some level of risk to them.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I hate I had to ramble on that,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: but it would have been too hard to cut out the earlier line I said,
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: and the reality is that now I am,
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: and at least I like to think of myself as an ambassador for Christ,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't want someone to hear my podcast and me make a single offhanded remark
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: about putting your money where your mouth is, and then someone think that I'm a gambler.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, I apologize that I had to clean all of that up.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move to some U.S.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: military news.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's about three things I want to cover on this while we're here.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is, we so often...
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Have such short attention spans here in the United States.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to share just a brief military update from Central Command,
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: which of course covers the Middle East primarily.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they did provide an update from last Thursday, shortly after the podcast released, that...
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Military forces, U.S.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: forces in the area,
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: had destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed surface vessels,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: USVs,
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: which are,
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: as I understand it,
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: just basically drones.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: These were in the Red Sea,
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: as you guys remember,
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: a month or two ago,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: although it really hasn't been in the news of late.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But a month or two ago,
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: because the Houthi rebels were firing various drones and missiles at ships,
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: the U.S.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Navy,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: along with the United Kingdom and some other NATO partners,
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: and maybe even a few non-NATO partners,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: so I probably shouldn't have said NATO,
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: but a large part of a coalition have been patrolling the Red Sea to make sure that
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: commercial shipping,
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: of which a very large percentage,
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: goes transits through that area is safe.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that has been off the radar for a couple of months now, but U.S.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: forces were in action again last week, last Thursday.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: They did destroy two Iranian-backed drones,
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: surface drones,
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: which we've seen Ukraine use these to great effect against the Russians.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So these are very deadly and dangerous weapons.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: So the U.S.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Navy destroyed two of them.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: They also decided to hit a radar site that probably was working in conjunction with it,
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: if I had to guess.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Central Command reported it as saying it was determined the USVs,
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: or these drones,
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: these very heavily laden explosive drones in the radar site,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces,
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: as well as merchant vessels in the regions.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so the...
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Department of Defense said actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: make international waters safer and more secure.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I share that because, like we do so often in the United States, we take our military for granted.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have men and women across the entire globe pulling 24-hour shifts in dangerous places,
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes in very boring places.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: We take all of this for granted.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And in none of these places can you possibly let down your guard or bad things can happen.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that most of the listeners out there have served or you have a family
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: member who served and many of them held many a watch and
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: that was probably boring,
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: was probably not exciting,
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: but it was important,
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: and it served a very important purpose,
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: and we still have to recall and remind ourselves that we have forces that are in
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: harm's way as we speak in places like the Red Sea,
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: and many other places around the world.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to remind us of that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Since there was recent action that happened there,
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: let's not forget what these men and women across all the branches are doing for us
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: and for our freedom,
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: as well as,
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: frankly,
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: the world economy and the ability to buy very inexpensive things that come from
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: places like China.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: and around the globe,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: all of which,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: or much of which,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: transits across the oceans through very dangerous and narrow channels.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: The second U.S.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: military story I wanted to make sure I squeezed into this episode is we,
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: just as an update,
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: we've talked about the potential withdrawal of U.S.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: troops from Africa in the country of Niger,
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is set to be completed as of this weekend from one of the main air bases in
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: the capital city of Niger.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is supposed to happen this weekend.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: As you recall, a month or two ago, there was at one point a little bit of risk to U.S.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: troops there.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: so often there is risk to u s troops but there were some russian troops or
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: mercenaries beginning to enter somewhat near the area there was some concern that
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: maybe some of the forces inside niger that maybe weren't perfectly pro-government
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe were some you know potential dangerous folks
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Could try to make a really foolish move,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: which most of the time,
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: if you take a shot at US troops,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: it is a really foolish move.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But we were a little overstretched at one point,
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: so definitely want to give a lot of kudos and props to the military leadership
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: inside Africa today.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: that apparently have almost completed this withdrawal.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of things.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was a coup there, of course, that led to this.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: military is saying that they hope to be able to return, so they did not completely demolish that base.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you see videos saying we left equipment or anything like that,
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: which propaganda outlets will often do,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is still being negotiated.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: In fact,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: as this is being recorded,
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: we expect to leave by this weekend,
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: but there's still a chance that that might change.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing I want to make clear of.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: the forces that are leaving Niger are going to be transferred to European locations
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: with the exception of some small teams that will be relocated to other West African countries.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we will try to continue to have enough forces in the area to help train and
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: stabilize many of those African countries that
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: that have governments that are not in control and in power, but they are weak governments.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: They are susceptible to coups,
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: and they are trying to fight some very dangerous folks,
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: including even former terrorist cells that are in the area.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so the U.S.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: forces do a lot to help stabilize many of the countries involved.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: inside africa and you only have to look at africa's history the past what 40 50
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: years to see many examples of where governments have collapsed or war has broken
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: out and it has led to large-scale genocide and untold numbers of war crimes
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: The most famous of which was back in the early 90s in Rwanda,
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: where fighting broke out and some genocide of large,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: rampant scale.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And more than a million were expected to have been killed in that before the United Nations got involved.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And even worse, 150,000 to 250,000 women were raped there.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: during some of that widespread fighting that happened at that time.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you can do a very quick search on this and find many other examples or dig more into that one.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: But we have proven the past few decades that a small footprint of military advisors
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: can lead to some really big-time return on investment.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: and stabilizing the continent.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: But as I've said in some previous episodes,
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Russia has,
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: of late,
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: been doing a great job in China as well of increasingly pushing into Africa,
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: trying to create new agreements with countries there,
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: bringing in financial aid as a way to increase influence.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot is happening inside Africa.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Contrary to the popular myth in the United States, there are many valuable resources inside Africa.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, 40% of all the gold that goes out to the globe comes from Africa.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's also 90% of chromium, there's platinum.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's also some other very valuable things that are needed for everything from
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: weapons to planes to you name it.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are just some really valuable critical minerals that are inside Africa,
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: which Russia and China have their eyes on.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's part of what is happening inside Africa,
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: as well as what I mentioned earlier,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: the very large terrorism threat,
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: because so much of Africa is only barely governed by
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Many of these terrorist groups began their lives inside Africa.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the most famous of these were Al-Qaeda.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: They conducted operations inside Africa.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: They recruited members inside Africa.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: There were some bombing attacks.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: They supported various parties in civil wars inside Somalia, inside Eritrea.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: From 1991 to 1996, Osama bin Laden, as well as other al-Qaeda leaders, were based inside Sudan in Africa.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, Africa is the kind of place you ignore it at your own peril.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: The final story I wanted to cover involving the United States is it was announced
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: this last week that the United States would provide Poland a $2 billion loan to
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: help provide financing to buy additional F-35 fighter jets.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the most sophisticated fighters out there.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Patriot anti-air missiles.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: as well as Abrams tanks.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so the U.S.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: is providing Poland with a $2 billion loan.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: The United States will help finance $60 million of the interest.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then Poland will begin to repay that $2 billion loan over a number of years.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, that will allow them to significantly ramp up their defensive posture.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Poland is concerned that Russia will invade other countries besides just Ukraine.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Poland believes Russia is already planning additional invasions.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Poland is now up to 4% of defense spending already.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they are taking the threat of invasion very serious.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Russia has made numerous antagonistic comments toward Poland,
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: threatening to invade,
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: threatening to bomb cities,
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: just typical loud comments.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: from Russia,
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: but there has also been increasingly small things happening that are a little
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: harder to explain.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some various activities across Europe where there are saboteurs,
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: there's increased spying,
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: there's increased...
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Activities happening across social media where Russia is trying to influence elections,
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: including using cash to bribe people running for elected office.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so the fear inside Poland is real.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: A recent poll showed that nearly half of the residents who live inside Poland fear
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: a potential Russian invasion.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Poland was invaded by Russia and Germany back in the 40s,
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: and they endured a brutal occupation.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: So just as we have grandparents in many situations or great-grandparents who served
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: in World War II,
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: they have many of their older folks who remember the stories and the horrors of occupation.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's something they fear.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's something they take serious.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they are the highest spender inside NATO of GDP.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you go by percentages compared to GDP, they are the highest.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is a $2 billion loan.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really smart move by the United States because it strengthens one of the
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: most important flanks of NATO.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a spearhead.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: It makes Poland less likely to be invaded.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: If Poland were to be invaded, NATO has to be involved.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: That means U.S.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: troops have to go there and fight and bleed inside Europe.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it does more than even that.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: It also helps the US defense industry which is trying to ramp up in scale on what
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: we can produce in case something were to happen with China which is clearly a
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: resurgent country that is pouring billions and billions into their own defense industry.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is a win-win-win all the way around.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: It allows Poland to buy things it really can't afford yet and pay it down over a
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: longer term,
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: just like any of us who would go get a loan.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: It helps the U.S.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: defense industry, and it also helps deter an attack by Russia, so...
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is a $2 billion loan.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're helping with $60 million of the financing.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to get way more than that with jobs and money spent inside the United
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: States through the arms industry.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a $2 billion loan, and they did do one in 2023 as well.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Another $2 billion loan to Poland.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: These will be repaid.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: These do help U.S.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: American jobs, and they help global stability, so...
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: To me, like I said, it seems pretty clear, cut and dry.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a win-win-win all the way around.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move to some Ukraine news.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a lot of Ukraine news to get through.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of good stuff has happened.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to start with some bad news.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some really sad news, but also infuriating news.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because earlier this week on Monday, Russia launched a daytime attack, which is not real common.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So they used a little bit of a surprise move.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then they also used very sophisticated cruise missiles.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are the ones that fly very low and they sent them in from unexpected directions.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they also used some of their ballistic missiles.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: These are missiles called the Kenzals ballistic missiles.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: They do this very brutal daytime attack.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: it's Russia,
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: so Russia can't hit a military target or anything like that,
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: like a normal military would do.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Russia used a very sophisticated, very accurate missile to target a children's hospital inside Kiev.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I am not making this up.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: targeted a children's hospital inside Kiev.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: The casualties were horrific, at least 22 killed.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're still digging out and trying to confirm how many died,
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: including two children,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: at least 80-plus wounded,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: and it was such a horrific attack.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are videos with still shots that show the guided missile that hit it.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was not a missile that was intercepted or shot down or deflected.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: This was a guided missile attack against a hospital inside Ukraine.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it was worse than just a hospital.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was Ukraine's largest treatment center for kids, for children with cancer.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking children with cancer here.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: They attacked it.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Blew down the largest part of the toxicology ward, largely destroyed.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Also, the intensive care and surgery units.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Rescue workers were trying to pull out these shell-shocked kids,
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: these anesthesiologists,
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: these staff members,
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: terrified young patients.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking kids.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how anyone with a soul could do this, but...
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was horrific.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was condemned across the world for the brutal war crime that it absolutely was.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to lead with that story because it led to some consequences, and I'm glad it did.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I have said before that Vladimir Putin does some really stupid things.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: He is not a genius strategist.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And increasingly it's becoming clear to many across the world that he is not a
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: genius strategist between this war in Ukraine and some other things he's done.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: So most of that myth has been reduced, thank goodness.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: But this attack...
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Russia said it was in retaliation for a strike from Ukrainian drones on Russian oil storage facilities.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: So a little background on this.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because Russia has so poorly planned this invasion,
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: they thought it would be over years ago,
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: they have very limited air defense.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as they have increasingly struck targets inside Ukraine,
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: such as dams,
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: such as energy production,
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: electrical grid stuff,
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: as they've done everything they could to bring Ukraine to its knees,
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has said,
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: okay,
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: if you want to make this all out,
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to hit your energy sector back and knock out some of the oil storage
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: containers you have and some other targets.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: This has infuriated Russia because they do not have good air defense.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because they are,
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say a paper tiger,
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: but they have lost so many hundred thousands of troops inside Ukraine.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they have moved so much of their military equipment inside Ukraine that they
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: don't have a lot of defenses outside of it.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so they are beyond frustrated that Ukraine is able to hit some of these targets,
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: including Russian airfields inside Russia.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: using these drones.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're not using American weapons.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're using drones they created themselves.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Russia cannot seem to shoot down simple,
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: One-bladed propeller drones that fly very slow.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Russia, with its supposed infinite military ability, cannot stop these things.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Their air force is too weak.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Their radar systems are not very good.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: They can't stop them.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy,
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: but the supposed very strong military power cannot stop simple flying one-bladed
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: propeller drones
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Drones.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're basically like one-man little aircraft with no man in it,
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: with nothing but explosives,
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: and they can't seem to stop these things.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: So Putin,
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: in classic Putin fashion,
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: decides to overreact and does this surprise day attack and says,
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: why don't we just hit any kids' hospitals we haven't hit in two years?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's add that to the list.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he does it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he does it the week before NATO comes together in a large meeting.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, this genius Putin, he does it at a time when much of the country is saying, eh, the U.S.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: President Biden, he looks a little frail.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: He looks a little weak.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can't make this stuff up.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: How stupid do you have to be, right?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, how stupid do you have to be if you're Vladimir Putin?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he does it.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: He strikes this children's hospital building.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Inside Ukraine,
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: the week before the big NATO meeting,
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: when people are literally suggesting President Biden should not run for re-election again.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: That he's a doddering old man, as many have said.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so Putin says, hey, great time to hit a hospital.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: What could Biden possibly do?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do I have to lose, right?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: That must have been what Putin was thinking.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you what he has to lose.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Within a day or so,
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: as this NATO conference pulls together,
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: several NATO countries,
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: which were infuriated by this,
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: like I said,
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: brutal,
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: cold,
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: heinous attack on a kid's cancer hospital ward.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: What are you thinking?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: They completely rallied together,
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: quickly pulled together a massive new air defense package for Ukraine,
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: including three Patriot batteries donated by the U.S.,
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Germany,
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: and Romania.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Three in one week.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: You guys know...
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: no one's real sure of how many have been sent but at best we've sent one or two in
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: small dribbles and drabs from the us and germany and a few other places and there
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: might be somewhere you know four six or eight or so in the whole country of ukraine
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: they've been begging for more and more and we in a single day said boom we're gonna
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: send three more from the us germany and romania three more
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Netherlands is going to use a composite kind of mix and mash,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: but they're sending a Patriot battery as well.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Four of them.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then Italy is going to send their best system called a Samp T.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then on top of that,
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: all of the countries together are sending their medium air defense stuff.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: NASEMs, Hawks.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: There are several other weapon systems you've probably not heard of called the
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: IRIS-T SLMs and the IRIS-T SLS.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're also going to send those German tanks,
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: the Gepard systems,
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: which are low altitude to medium altitude with the automatic cannons that are
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: guided by radar.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're very accurate, very deadly, very valuable anti-drone and low-flying missile defense units.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that, in a big announcement,
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Easily the largest air defense package ever announced in two years.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: It might be as much as 40-50% of everything that's been announced to date.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was an incredibly large package that will be going to Ukraine.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: It will be going there very quickly.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Putin did.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: He made a horrific mistake by attacking this children's hospital in this daylight
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: raid as well as some other places.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Part of it is probably the fact that the energy attacks are leading to some blackouts.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: So there was already pressure building.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've been talking about that at length for weeks and weeks and weeks.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what he did crossed the line.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: It completely crossed the line.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: And NATO has reacted.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: NATO has spoken strongly.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: And again, three more Patriot batteries with another one from the Netherlands.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you basically got four, but then you kind of have five if you count the system that Italy's sending.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Plus all of this other stuff,
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: medium range stuff,
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: NASEMs,
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hawks,
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: all these other things,
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: plus the lower altitude,
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: the automatic cannons,
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: the Gepard systems from Germany.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: The skies are going to be a lot clearer over Ukraine,
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: and that is a wonderful,
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: beautiful thing to be able to say and to have a speaker to talk to you guys about.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've all watched Ukraine deal with so many casualties for the past, what, two years?
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it is such an amazing bit of news that Ukraine is going to get some much-needed air defense systems.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: sent into their country to help defend the civilians who are being pounded by
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: weapons of war from Russia.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what Putin was thinking,
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm betting he's regretting that decision right about now or he will be in the
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: coming days.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just to update that article,
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: I paused it since I did go on a bit of a rant there,
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: and I wanted to find that number that Ukraine has.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a secret-ish number, and I did look it up online.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like currently Ukraine has three Patriot systems.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Three.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now the United States only has about 15.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: So Ukraine will be going from 3.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: We just added 4 more.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Really 5 if you count the system from Italy.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: So they go from 3 to 5.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Almost overnight.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to add all the other stuff.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Hawks, the Nasums, all these other items that I mentioned.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: So again, from 3 to 8.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're at least giving them 5.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then depending on how much you want to count on those medium to low altitude stuff.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Much of which is needed because these cruise missiles,
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: as a reminder,
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: the cruise missiles come in very low.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: 50 to 100 feet off the ground sometimes.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Very low.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hard to see on radar.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: So the short range,
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: the low altitude stuff is great against trying to help against defending against
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: the low altitude stuff.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Patriots help against these ballistic missiles sometimes.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: which come from very high arcs well into the sky and then come racing down.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: The Patriots can come up to meet those in the sky at very high altitude.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of unrelated,
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: but also kind of is related,
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: but four days before this big announcement,
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Estonia,
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: which is a very small member of NATO,
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: had actually already said that it was going to send some of its medium to low
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: altitude air defense systems to Ukraine.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: These are mobile, they're called the Mistral air defense systems to Ukraine.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so that had already been announced going all the way back to July 6th before this attack.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: So those were going to help to some degree already.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I think Putin really has overstepped it.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in so doing, he has helped doom some of his tools that he had available to try to win this war.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: He has probably really hurt himself on what he can do.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Also announced at this NATO summit was news that the first American made F-16
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: fighter jets that are going to be going to Ukraine are in the process of being
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: transferred as we speak.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're going to keep some of this stuff a little secret,
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: but they are expected to take to the skies this summer according to officials from NATO.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: They announced that today on Wednesday and as many or as 60 F-16s will be inside
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine and those are going to help a lot against a couple of things.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: First it's going to help with these missiles that are coming in because these F-16s
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: will have a much better ability to carry anti-air missiles and shoot down some of
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: these things and
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: at a further distance out from the cities so they'll be able to mount aerial
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: patrols and be able to intercept some of these planned attacks they will also be
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: able to push further out the use of glide bombs that russia is currently doing
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: where they
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Russia will fire these glide bombs from inside Russian territory and they will arc
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: down into Ukrainian territory.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: These are some pretty nasty weapons, very powerful.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has struggled to try to deal with these, but the F-16s are expected to help push those back.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: And as a part of this announcement on Wednesday,
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: as I'm recording this,
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: NATO officials have said that,
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: as you know,
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: some of those pilots have finished their training in the United States.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Ukrainian pilots are now getting their additional training inside Europe,
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: some additional advanced training.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: And again, those F-16s are going to be starting to be transferred very soon.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: a good question would be how soon...
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: all I know is the joint statement that came from NATO and President Biden said that a,
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: unspecified number of aircraft are en route from the Netherlands and Denmark.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, I'm not sure how fast that is, but it sounds to me like that's going to be happening pretty fast.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move to another big story involving Ukraine.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: This one...
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Very big as well,
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: almost as big as the two previous stories about the F-16s and all of that air defense,
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: which is that the Biden administration,
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm sharing this because this is how it always goes,
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: been covering this for two years now,
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: and all of you listeners who've been riding along with me,
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know this is true.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: But CNN reported that the U.S.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: may soon allow military contractors inside Ukraine.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these aren't guys with guns on the front lines.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: These are folks who can maintain and fix and repair U.S.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: weapons systems themselves.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, various ground base tanks, all the stuff we've been sending a lot of stuff.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the Ukrainians who use have been using Soviet bloc weapons for,
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: what,
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: 60,
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: 70,
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: 80 years are not as good at maintaining these sophisticated weapons inside Ukraine.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Biden administration is looking at.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: lifting its ban on allowing military contractors inside Ukraine where they could
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: help maintain and repair the U.S.-provided weapons systems.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: This would be a big change.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: The CNN article makes that clear because the policy currently is that's not allowed.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: One administration official said no decision has been made and any discussion is premature.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that the president is absolutely firm that he will not be sending U.S.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: troops to Ukraine.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: But again,
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: having covered this for two years,
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: and you guys know from listening,
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: this is how it always starts.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: It'll get leaked.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Pressure will build.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then usually they will, after much kicking and screaming, agree to something.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so this would speed up maintenance for pairs of weapons used by the Ukrainian
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: military so that some of these tanks...
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: anti-air systems, etc.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: can get back to the front lines faster.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our troops who have gotten out and become contractors are some of the best in the
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: world because they were trained by the U.S.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: military.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: They are experts.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than just training.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: They have done it for years in very austere environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to be able to work on an engine or a tread or anything with a tank
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: inside an air-conditioned facility.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's another to...
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: find ways to do it in a basically, you know, very rough, austere environment, as I was saying.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: How do you find ways to jerry-rig something, to fix something with a patch?
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we have veterans who are very good at that and have spent decades doing it that
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: could serve as contractors inside Ukraine.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Again, non-combat role.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: doing nothing but turning wrenches and running testing computer systems,
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: etc.,
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: who could go into Ukraine and make good money,
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: and it would be a win-win.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have men and women who want to do this,
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: who want to help Ukraine in their fight,
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: and it would help Ukraine substantially as it continues to train and improve its
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: own support,
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: folks.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, that is big news that you guys need to be aware of.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to make sure I squeezed that in in the episode, and so I'm glad I did get that in.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, I want to get one last Ukraine story squeezed in, and this one's a pretty big one as well.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Again, a lot happened this past week in Ukraine.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure you guys are aware of this because with everything going on
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: with our presidential race on both sides,
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: it's just not a lot of bandwidth out there.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's just not a lot of, you know, room for the media to talk about some of these things.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to do my best to make sure you guys are aware of it.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the final thing that I wanted to make sure we shared in this episode was NATO
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: announced that there will be a new military command inside Europe to train
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian troops.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to just share that just a couple of sentences or so about that.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: This new command will actually involve a three-star general.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a pretty high-ranking officer.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Almost no military has anyone higher than a four-star general, so this is a three-star general.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: They will lead a new German military command solely focused on training,
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: equipping,
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: and improving force development as part of a program for Ukrainian troops.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure how many they're going to be training,
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: but you don't put a three star in charge of something,
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: that's a big deal.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: These are very high ranking men or women.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: By the time you get to a three star, no one wants to do something that's piddly at that point.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're wanting to get four stars,
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: so they want command of something or they want to take part in something that
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: really matters.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: That isn't a chance to continue to improve the arc of their career.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going to involve a three-star general,
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: a new German military command,
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: and it's exclusively designed to help train and equip Ukrainian troops.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that seems like a pretty big deal to me.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: But in addition to that, there's another little part of this that involves the command.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that NATO will,
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: inside Kiev,
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: there will be a new senior NATO representative inside the capital city of Kiev who
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: will be there.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: to, quote, So, NATO is going to send a very high-ranking senior NATO representative to Ukraine.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that that person can be even better engaged and aware of the issues and in
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: communication with the Ukrainian government on what is needed,
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: on what is happening,
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: etc.,
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: etc.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: the final story I wanted to make sure I got in this week's episode involves the
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: tension that we've been discussing in previous weeks outside China,
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: but around China and the Philippines.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: And since the last week,
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Japan and the Philippines have signed a key defense agreement that the two...
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's...
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: They've been ironing it out for a bit.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a defensive pact.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to allow Japanese forces to conduct joint drills with the Philippines
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: and then the Philippines will also be able to train with Japan.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now these would both have to pass,
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: this agreement would have to pass in both of the countries legislators inside both
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: the Philippines and inside Japan.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: But, assuming that happens, this is a pretty big deal.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a link to that in the episode notes.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: But part of what brought this on was the very tension that I've been covering for the past few weeks.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably been more like six weeks or so, maybe two months, full two months.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Japan has been concerned about the level of aggression that China has been
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: showing toward the Philippines.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so Japan wanted to sign a defensive pact with the Philippines to help counter that aggression.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you can read about the agreement in the episode notes.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put it down toward the bottom.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: It also mentions in the article that there is a long history between Japan and the Philippines.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: And, in fact, they weren't always on the same side.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, during World War II, Japan committed many atrocities, including inside the Philippines.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: But, it's funny how, I guess, time heals old wounds and teams change sides.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: The two are looking to grow much closer together.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that is probably a good thing to help remind China that it needs to slow down
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: its very aggressive military and political expansion program throughout the
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: Southeast because many countries...
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: are not viewing it very favorably and are doing everything they can to stop it so
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: that the countries can continue to coexist out there in peace.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: This seems like a fairly simple concept but China has not been showing very much
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: kindness to its neighbors and I have documented that time after time the past few
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: months as they have pushed around the Philippines and other countries
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: in the southeast pacific we are going to take a quick break so that i can tell you
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: how to support the show if you're enjoying it but when we come back we will share
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: the best part of the show the motivation wisdom section so
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, just a quick reminder.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoy the show,
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: you've been listening to it for a while,
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: and you'd like to support what I'm doing,
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: there's a few ways you can do so.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can sign up on my Substack page, support the show at $5 per month.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can also do it through Patreon.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to that in the episode notes.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, you can even just send a tip through Venmo.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to that as well.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate all of your all's support.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to the best part of the show.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is the motivation and wisdom section.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: I share these each week because, you know, life is hard and we all know that pep talks help.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here is the first one.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a quote.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ignore the effort of someone who tries to keep in touch.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not all the time that someone cares.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good reminder about friendship, isn't it?
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ignore the effort of someone who tries to keep in touch.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not all the time that someone cares.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got that friend out there who you haven't gotten back with,
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: it might be a good time to get back with them because friends...
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do not come very often, do they?
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not true and real and good friends.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: They are hard to find in this life.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's the next one.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: Remember who checks on you when you get a little quiet.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: Those are your people.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: That quote's kind of a similar one to go along with the last one.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember who checks on you when you get a little quiet.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: Those are your people.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's the next one.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you change, don't announce it, just bloom.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: Again, when you change, don't announce it, just bloom.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good one, isn't it?
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: Again, try loving yourself instead of loving the idea of other people loving you.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think that hits all of us.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: Again, never be a prisoner of your past.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a lesson, not a life sentence.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: Again, your thoughts shape your future.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: Again.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's never too late to become what you might have been.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: We all can think of stories like Colonel Sanders with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: So many people, even into their 60s, into their 70s, who have done things.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: And especially when it comes to artistic things.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: I like to write fiction and do this podcast and other things, but...
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know when you're retired, you know, you have time.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: You don't always have money, but you do have a somewhat stable income.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes young people don't have that.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can reignite that dream in your life, you can do something.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can write that book.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can start that podcast.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can do whatever it is, woodworking.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many things.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's never too late to become what you might have been.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your next one.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: wake up with energy and optimism new opportunities are waiting for you today again
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: wake up with energy and optimism new opportunities are waiting for you today
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one, just kind of a quote on how we should act.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: Always be kinder than you feel.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's some good advice, isn't it?
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: Always be kinder than you feel.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're at work or whatever,
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_00: at the doctor's office,
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: we don't want to be there,
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: we don't want to wait,
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: we don't want to get there early.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: Always be kinder than you feel.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get a lot further that way, will you not?
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's the next one.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a quote from the author Ray Bradbury.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in being serious about anything.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the quote is, I don't believe in being serious about anything.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's a quote from Ray Bradbury.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am terrible at that.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a very serious person.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: I overthink things and I need to work at being lighter.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things in the... I've got a...
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: sort of file of quotes and ideas and things that I try to look through at least once a week.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'd like to on a daily basis,
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: but one of the things is I always tell myself,
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_00: be lighter,
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: be lighter,
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: be more humorous,
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: be more funny,
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: be that energy,
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: be that joy.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it's very hard for me to do.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm naturally.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not that person.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_00: And part of the time I just tell myself, you know, most people in life are almost too loose.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're too relaxed and
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: They don't take things, you know, they don't want to grow up.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to be adults.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've taken it too far the other end, but that's a good quote from Ray Bradbury.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in being serious about anything.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you weren't born to just pay bills and die.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: Live up to your fullest potential.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do one more.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is a quote that was shared by a retired Sergeant Major,
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Spadaro,
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: and he knew it from another retired Sergeant Major,
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_00: but the quote is,
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: worry about your disposition and not your position.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: Again, worry about your disposition and not your position.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_00: Disposition meaning how you look, what your attitude is.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter if you didn't get the promotion.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if your job is lowly and really, you know, not that important.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: You carry yourself like someone, you show energy, you show enthusiasm.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you're going to get somewhere.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: So again, the quote is worry about your disposition and not your position.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then,
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: as you guys know,
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: I like to share a few from the Bible or that touch on Jesus,
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: just because,
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: Christianity and the Bible have become such a source of strength and wisdom and
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: calm for me during the past couple of years.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope by sharing a few,
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: it might encourage you to get in the Bible yourself,
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: because I do think that it will really help you.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one is a verse from James chapter four, verse eight.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: These next three are just kind of three quick little verses that kind of all go together.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'll just read them.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a paraphrase, but the first one is, You say I can't figure it out.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: God says I will direct your steps.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's from Proverbs chapter 3.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: You say I'm not able.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: God says I am able.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's from 2 Corinthians chapter 9.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then you say I'm too tired.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_00: God says I will give you rest.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's from Matthew 11.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read them one more time.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_00: You say I can't figure it out.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_00: God says I will direct your steps.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: You say I'm not able.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_00: God says I am able.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: You say I'm too tired.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: God says I will give you rest.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: This next one is a verse from Matthew chapter 28, verse 20.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, quote, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Jesus said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do one more from the Bible.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Chronicles 16 9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: Again,
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: hearts are fully committed to Him.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great one right there.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining us this week.
• 1:02:54
  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.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: Smile at folks in the grocery store,
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: do small acts of kindness,
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: and remember that most Americans are good and they will help you in an emergency,
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: even if you don't agree politically.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_00: As you go through this week, I want you to aim to be more motivated and more disciplined.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: Try to improve yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to set impossible goals on these matters.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just be a little more motivated and disciplined than you were the week prior.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: As I said earlier, I really hope that you spend some time in your Bible this week.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you have no idea where to read on your own, just start with Psalms or Proverbs.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: Read some of those and then start with the New Testament by reading the book of John.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: Moving to a final note on the political front,
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm confident after this episode you're going to hear some bad news this week.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: Where you're going to hear something ugly and it's going to remind you of how divided we are.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is as certain as the law of gravity.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm begging you, please do not give up on this country.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's pretty ugly right now,
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: and I know we're living in dark times,
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: but we've made it through nearly 250 years together,
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: and we're far stronger together than we'll ever be apart.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever believe anyone who tells you differently about that.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let me wrap up the show by talking about my books and a couple of other newsletters that I do.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: First, a bit about myself and my books.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_00: I am a military vet.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_00: I spent four years in the Marine Corps, all of that time in the infantry.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, that does matter.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_00: After my enlistment, I went to college at the University of Tennessee.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_00: I became a journalist.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: I spent more than 10 years in the news business.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: Besides all of that, I've also written 12 books.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: Those books include a series about a Marine Corps sniper,
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_00: several novels about a police detective and a private investigator,
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: and a few books about war,
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: such as World War II and Afghanistan.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_00: Basically,
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: these are all fast-moving books with lots of action and plot twists,
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_00: because those are the kind of books I've always enjoyed reading.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can find all of those books in the link in the episode notes,
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: or you can look on Amazon by just searching my name,
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: Stan R.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_00: Mitchell.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: Buying a book,
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: telling a friend about a book,
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: or buying one as a gift for someone,
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_00: friend or loved one,
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: is a great way to help support the show.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I always like to end each show by reminding people that you can comment anytime.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: I try to monitor those.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can also reach out privately by email to me at AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's in the episode notes, by the way.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it's AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, here's one other thing.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is about defense news, but I also do a political blog.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you love my moderate, optimistic views, you might enjoy that.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Thoughts from a Southern Gentleman.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can find a link to the episode notes to that, or you can just search that on Google.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for hanging with me this week.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's truly an honor to talk with each of you and to know that there's a few of you
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: out there who are listening and who care about our country and our military and all
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_00: the issues that we face.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know there are a lot of scary issues out there,
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: but we're going to get through them together,
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_00: the same way America's gotten through everything before this.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you can at all this week,
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_00: reach out to a friend or anyone who you know is struggling,
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: whether they are young or old.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: Life is truly hard.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: We know this.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the true strength of this country is its people,
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_00: and that includes you folks listening to me right now.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_00: So be a leader, be a doer, be a servant to someone.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_00: With all of that being said, I'll catch you all next week.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have been listening to The View from the Front.
• 1:06:42
  Thank you.