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Trump has won. What this means for America and the world · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome to The View from the Front.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan, and I'm thrilled you all have joined me.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, I have timestamps for every topic that we're covering in this episode.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's a piece of news you want to jump to,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe later you want to share that with a friend,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: you can easily find that segment in the timestamps and let your friend know.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or even better, help me out and share it on social media.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And with that out of the way, let's get started.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what is going on, guys?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining us.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: The show's going to be a little different in this episode.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: but it feels like it's been about a year since the last episode,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: and I had several things planned for this week,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: but the election has been just so big,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: and the potential repercussions of a change in administration...
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: will certainly affect the world and our country's direction as it moves forward with its alliances.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to handle things a little different because nothing could be bigger than
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: the election and than this pivot point that our country will now go through.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: my promise to you in this episode is I'm going to handle this as delicately as possible,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: as fairly as possible,
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: and as soberly as absolutely possible.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are some people who are hurt and scared and terrified.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some people who are ecstatic, just elated.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in some cases, maybe they're dunking on other people.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I get it.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I understand celebrating.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I understand being elated about what had happened or has happened.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's time that we start to come together and that we start to heal,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: which was what I was going to say no matter had Harris won or Trump won.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have been very divided,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: and one of the key goals of this show,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: one of my greatest ambitions,
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: is that I could do a very small part to try to help unify the country.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: That I could be a calm voice each week, a rational one, and someone who just helps heal things and...
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Put water on big fires and just tamp things down.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Calm everybody down.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Keep blood pressures low.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be that voice.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've always wanted to be that voice.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I'm going to try to do tonight.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then, after I've done that...
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I actually had pre-recorded, I believe it was Monday.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Monday.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it had to have been Monday because Tuesday night was the election night.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I had pre-recorded,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: there is a huge story involving China and how they have hacked into our
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: telecommunications infrastructure.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: how that has put people at risk, how they are spying on very important people inside Congress.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so on Monday night, I had recorded a pretty strong section.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And after breaking the news, after explaining it, I let go.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I bring the fire.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it happened Monday, so I brought the fire.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if you listen to this first part of the show,
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: and you're like,
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: the second part sounds way different.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's way different, because...
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am infuriated at what China has done, and I want to wake people up on what China is doing.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, you're going to hear Stan probably as fired up as Stan gets today.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be the second part of the show.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I recorded that Monday night.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But let's get to the part that I want to get to that I know so many people probably
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: want to hear my perspective on or a lot of people are either hurt or they're ecstatic.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to try to give a balanced perspective on the steps forward, the paths forward, etc.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's begin by stating an absolute clear fact.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Former President Trump won, and he won big.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was decisive.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was a very strong turnout for him.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was bigger numbers than 16 and 20.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was a huge political comeback for him.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Huge props to him for fighting a tough fight, dealing with a lot of court stuff.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Arguably an uphill fight, and he fought the fight, and he won.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'll also give props to Kamala Harris.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: She accepted the verdict.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't make excuses about called-in bomb threats down in Atlanta by Russia,
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: which actually happened,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: as you guys probably know.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so we are thankfully not facing a week or two weeks of recounts of litigation of just complete...
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Total stress with all of us on a razor's edge.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is definitely good news, regardless of which side had won, that it was decisive.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because we must, as a country, pick a direction and say we're moving that direction.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the majority wants.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you do in a democracy or a republic.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So thank the Lord that we were protected from a protracted and nasty legal fight
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: with potential political violence during the interim or political violence
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: happening while that legal stuff sorted itself out.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that is certainly great news for our country that we avoided that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I also need to do a mea culpa statement.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I need to eat some humble pie.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I need to admit when I am wrong.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people expect of me,
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: and it's what I certainly aim to do as a man,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: and certainly as a follower of Christ.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you are wrong, you say, I am wrong.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I apologize.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I ask for your forgiveness.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't believe I predicted a Harris victory on any of the Defense News Podcast episodes.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: episodes because I mostly avoid politics on here,
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: but I do have a political newsletter and I,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: as you guys know,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I am a very proud moderate.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not only do I never want to be completely sold out to one tribe or the other,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to see them with clear eyes and either support them and their
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: candidate or not.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But not only that, but
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I also just in my heart believe that our country works best when we compromise,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: when there's bipartisan legislation,
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: when each side of the aisles cross the aisle and work together.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not always getting everything they want,
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: but working together and creating better legislation simply by working together.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: As a general rule,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: again this is a general rule,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to attack either party here,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: but as a general rule,
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: both parties seek equality.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: more and more power.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: As a general rule,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: both parties try to scare their supporters so that they can get more fundraising
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: and so that they can get better turnout.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then often when they are in, they push as hard as they can for their legislation
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: even though it usually leads to a backlash further down the road,
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: which is why,
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: again,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think a compromise-type,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: slow-and-steady approach is better.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I know being a moderate these days is not the most popular thing.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: It would be so much easier if I just picked a side and just rode it for all I could.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: It would be...
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast would grow.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Stan would be beat up way less.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because both sides are always pulling or pushing.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or trying to shove me away.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Being in the middle is very difficult.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's where I am.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just naturally it's where I always tend to fall.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a skeptical person.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to show me evidence and facts.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just going to take the party line from either side.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also just naturally.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like conflict,
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: and so naturally I want to pull everyone in a room,
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: get people talking,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: and let's just shake hands and give hugs and get everyone on the same page.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: When people are in different rooms and they're not communicating and they're
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: screaming and the distrust grows...
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: that is where you create a dangerous situation.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just a very, let's just be transparent.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just talk this out in good faith.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just at my core an optimist who says,
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: let's get as much as we can together on this and find a way to just move forward together.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because this country is so amazing.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when we all pull in a single direction,
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: as we've done a few times in our history,
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's World War II,
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately after 9-11, we can name examples.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: When we pull together, nothing can stop us.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: When we start to fray and pull apart,
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: a good example being the Vietnam War,
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: it is quite easy for this country to almost just fray and just be torn apart again.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And always my biggest fear is if you read history,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: is if you think of like Yugoslavia,
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: how that country broke up and fell.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: immediately went into just a terrible, bloody civil war.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It lasted a decade.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you study the Roman Empire,
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: how it started to tear itself apart,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: it was civil war that brought that empire to its knees.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't invaders.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was constant infighting and distrust that led to that empire finally being
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: conquered and falling apart.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's always...
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: been my biggest concern for this country is that we are very well protected as far
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: as we have two oceans on both sides,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: we have two neighbors that are very friendly,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: minus the chance of some type of nuclear war or something like that.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're so protected.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: We are so blessed in this country.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so the biggest threat has always been,
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: as Abraham Lincoln said,
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: the house-divided scenario or just political infighting that leads to actual acts
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: of terrorism against each side that then happens.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: starts as small flames and turns into a roaring fire.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so naturally, I've always just been a unifier, a man of compromise.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't get everything I want today, I think I can get it tomorrow.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just all get along.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way I am.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's just how I'm wired.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even honestly take credit.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's how God made me.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know some people are really good at pushing hard, making their arguments and
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: advancing causes they care about this or they care about that and they are just
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: fighters and they get in there and they bloody their knuckles and they push and
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: they just tear at the opponent and even if they're getting pummeled they wake up
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: the next day and they are eager for that fight
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: God bless those people.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not how I'm wired.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know we need those people.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: We need people to push causes.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: We need people to wake people up who are asleep,
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: that may not realize certain things are happening,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: or that there's a better direction.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: You need those kind of people.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just not that person.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just say all that as a too long preamble, but I did feel like I needed to say it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the point...
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: On my political newsletter,
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I had said that I thought Harris would win and that Harris would win in a landslide.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Again, as I said when I first started this, I was wrong.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was dead wrong.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm eating my humble pie.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have apologized.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share something that kind of rubs my face in the mud or in the dirt
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever the right term is.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because I need to own this mea culpa.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I always want to be right.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I always want to, you know, I want to be as real and clear as is possible.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good goal to have.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to beat myself up a bit for just a few minutes by reading something
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: that I thought is pretty well said by someone on X.com.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is from Bill Ackman.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to read this.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm going to read the whole thing, actually.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: But if I start reading it and it starts to seem long, I might stop.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it is very eye-opening.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what Bill Ackman said.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: If the election outcome is as I expected,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: it should cause the large minority of the country who supported Kamala Harris and
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: predicted her victory to begin to question their sources of truth.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Half the country has believed that X is filled with misinformation and disinformation,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: and that they could only therefore rely on the New York Times,
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: MSNBC,
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: CNN,
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: and other mainstream media for their news,
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: and they did.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: If,
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: however,
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: you have been active on X for the last year,
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: you have known the truth days,
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: weeks,
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: and often months before the facts appear in the mainstream media.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: The mainstream media excerpted,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: clipped,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: and cut to defame former President Donald Trump while claiming that Joe Biden was
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: fit as a fiddle.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then when Biden's poll numbers collapsed,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Kamala Harris was anointed the candidate and her background was written with
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: glowing acclaim from the press.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: But this could not hold as she ducked the media and held fast to the teleprompter.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Citizen journalists,
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: with their phone cameras in hand,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: captured the real Kamala,
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: forcing her to defend her record and her plans in more media appearances.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: It did not go well,
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: and the public demanded to learn more so that Kamala Harris had to risk more
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: unscripted media.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: The doom loop was underway with perhaps 60 Minutes as one of the more dramatic examples.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Even after CBS tried to save her, the most glaring excerpt
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: most glaringly by exerting one answer to replace a word salad response to another.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But the citizen journalist on X quickly caught and outed this fraud and demanded a transcript.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: As many who supported Kamala began to realize they had been misled,
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: they became open to Trump as an alternative,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: but they didn't want to rely on the media to understand him because they did not
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: want to be misled again."
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to hear the candidate in his own words,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: and that is where podcast hosts such as Joe Rogan and Longform Podcast came to the rescue.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: When Kamala was offered the same opportunities to explain herself,
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: she rejected them,
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: and the voting public could only draw a negative inference.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: My apologies.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: When the story of this election is written,
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I expect it will be as much about how half of America woke up to the reality that
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: they had been manipulated by the media.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: This should lead to an abandonment by many of their mainstream media channels as
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: their primary source of information.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: It will push more people to X,
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: or what used to be Twitter,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: it will push more people to X,
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: to podcasts,
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: and other sources,
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: and it will lead to a more informed public.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: The other outcome I hope happens is the implosion of the Democratic Party.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The party lied to the American people about the cognitive health and fitness of the president.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: It prevented,
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: threatened,
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: litigated,
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: and otherwise eliminated the ability of other candidates for the primary to compete,
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: to get on ballots,
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: and to even participate in a debate.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: The party and the administration used lawfare in an attempt to imprison,
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: bankrupt,
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: or otherwise kill off Trump as a candidate.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: These acts are collectively grave threats to our democracy.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: With the highest irony in order to hide these facts,
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: the party accused the opposition candidate of being the grave threat to democracy.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Democratic Party proved itself to be fundamentally undemocratic and needs a complete reboot.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: The leadership should be thrown out and those responsible should apologize to America.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Honest Abe said it best,
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I've read that long piece from Bill Ackman and I've been as fair as I can to
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: those who support the side of Trump.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to do the flip side.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had assumed that Kamala Harris would win,
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: as I said earlier,
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: and so I had planned to say some things to the Trump side and those Trump
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: supporters who would be hurt,
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: devastated,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: scared,
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: etc.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't that way, so it's flipped the other way.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to speak now to those who did support Kamala Harris,
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: who are concerned about the future,
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: who are in some cases scared or terrified of
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I also want to speak to,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: as I've said before,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: it still blows my mind,
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: but there are a decent chunk of my listeners are overseas folks.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: People in Europe, people who obviously probably care about Ukraine and America's role in the world.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so it blows my mind when I see these listeners in Denmark and Norway and places in Europe.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, that's crazy that people over there are listening to someone like me.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always flattered.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: It always makes my day.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I also know that these listeners are very interested in our political system
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: and what may or may not happen.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So for both those overseas listeners and those who are disappointed and sad about
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: the election results,
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I want to now speak to you for a moment.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've shared some of what I'm about to say in my political newsletter, which was just titled, What Now?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And many people who've read it have said it's helped them.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping that I can alleviate your concerns,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: because the last thing we need as a country is for either side...
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: To feel overwhelming fear.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as I said earlier, we need unity.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We need healing.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: We need to start to come together.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wrote something that was as positive as I could possibly be for those out there who were scared.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share part of it.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: and then maybe add a thing or two, and then we'll keep moving.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it was titled What Now?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I begin by saying that
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Trump won.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: I admit I was wrong because these regular subscribers there had seen me saying that Harris would win.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what do you say to people?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I have people on the far right and people on the far left that subscribe to this newsletter.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: But this email, this Substack post that was sent by email was to those who were devastated.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: From my perspective,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was like,
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: what do you say to someone who is convinced that in some ways life as they know it
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: in America is over,
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: that they fear the worst with Trump?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, what do you say to someone like that?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I told them that, you know, I could write a scary story.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: email update that absolutely terrifies them.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's easy to do.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a lot of the media has done or will do.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to do.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to write those kind of articles that get shared more,
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: that get you media share,
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: that get you clout.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't feel that was the right thing to do or the responsible thing to do.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, well, let me find ways to encourage those who are completely just at rock bottom.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't want people at rock bottom.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's someone on the right after losing a very close election in 2000.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those folks acted out and have paid heavy penalties for acting out.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't want the flip side to be true either.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to try to give them something to hold on to.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: First thing I mentioned was that even though the Dems had lost the Senate as well, that was expected.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Even if Harris had won, it was just a terrible year for the Democrats in the Senate.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I reminded them that in two years,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: which is just 2026,
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: the Democrats will have an advantage in that Senate election because Republicans
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: have to defend way more seats.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore,
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: that Republicans will be in power for the next two years,
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: so they will have a harder time defending their record.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just the same way that the Democrats have been for the previous years,
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: and certainly because Biden's been president and they've had some control in the Congress,
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: at least in the Senate.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to beat up one side when they're in control and things aren't going well.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, that was the first thing I wanted to mention.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then I mentioned,
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: some of those who are worst casing it are like,
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: we won't even have elections by then.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Trump's going to be an authoritarian, etc.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I don't... I think that's overreacting.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if you believe that,
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: then you absolutely should go buy plenty of ammo,
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: guns if you don't have them,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: make your plans,
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: just hunker down.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I just don't think that's wise.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's biblical, and I don't think it's the most effective strategy.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I see it.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's overreacting.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as I reflect on things, I don't think Trump can destroy the Constitution in two years.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he's going to be facing some things,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: including there are going to be some pretty heavy hitters who are going to want
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Vance to step into Trump's shoes.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to name those names,
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: but there are just some very rich people that really love Vance and that...
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to want Trump replaced because Trump is a very strong personality.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they are not going to want Trump there.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Trump's going to be fending off some political attacks from within his own party.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And again, he won't even be in office until well into January, a couple months from now.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And within two years, there are going to be 33 Senate seats up for regular election.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: 33 Senate seats up for regular election in 2026.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: So in January 2025, Trump takes over.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Of those 33 seats, 13 of them are currently held by Democrats and 20 of them are held by Republicans.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Republicans have a lot to defend,
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: and even if Trump tries to push some really aggressive or ambitious stuff,
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: some of these Republicans are going to be very worried about how they vote,
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: because the reality is we all know that most politicians care most about staying in power.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So they will be hesitant to make aggressive votes.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, Trump will probably call them rhinos.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's going to be part of the buffer.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing, and just as crazy as it sounds, that's 2026 of Senate seats.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: But all these people will be running a year before 2026, which is 2025.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we're talking next year's.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Again,
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: 20 Republicans,
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: 13 Democrats,
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: that's 33 members of the Senate will be campaigning beginning next year because
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: they all want to stay in power.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And don't think that those,
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: remember the left just lost,
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Harris just lost,
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: so there's going to be a lot of money pouring into those races.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are going to be hard races for some of those Republicans.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the buffer for those who are distraught.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sharing this again so that they may be encouraged.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is the Democrats are probably going to have the House.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Probably.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be close.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've read some articles again today that some of the votes,
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: basically we won't know for three weeks,
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: two to three weeks,
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: because California doesn't even start,
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: they got like seven days before all the postmark ballots come in and a lot of the
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: seats are out in California.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at an article just literally about an hour ago and NBC News said,
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: goes really into the weeds about which way some of these seats may go.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be very close.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: if Democrats don't win,
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: if they do not win,
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: it's going to be such a slim majority for the Republicans that it is going to be
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: very hard for them to do things in the House.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: The House is a very powerful...
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: very powerful arm of Congress.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: In some ways, the House is more powerful than the Senate.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's the funding bills.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many things that they can hold up that they can really cause all kinds
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: of havoc with that I think most people underestimate how much power the House has.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's an important thing as well that I want to make sure that I mention to folks that
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: The House is probably going to the Democrats,
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: or it will be just so almost stuck in mud,
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: mired in mud,
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I guess,
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: that there's just not going to be a lot that can happen.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: for those,
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: if the Democrats take control,
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: there's already rumors that Congressman Jamie Raskin will take over the Oversight Committee.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't think the House and the Oversight Committee can...
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: cause all kinds of conflict, then you haven't been paying attention.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to remember the words like Benghazi, Hillary's emails, Hunter Biden.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of these committees in the House, the amount of power they have, it's pretty impressive.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I share that as possible encouragement.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Besides all of that, besides all of that,
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is,
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: those people who voted for Trump just yesterday,
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: and I guess the week or two before in early voting,
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: These are all persuadable voters.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: As the great Abraham Lincoln said, public sentiment is everything.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I don't know if Trump actually plans to be dictator for a day.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said that.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he plans to do mass deportation.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: He definitely said that.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if those are just funny lines in some of his speeches or that we shouldn't take serious.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, sometimes it's hard to know when to take him serious, when to take him literally.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know those things.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: What I do know is I know his record and
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to say this.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to attack him.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: He is popular.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's back stronger than ever.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just reporting on the record and then I will give him credit or I'll defend him a bit on it.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he promised in his first campaign to build a wall and he said Mexico would pay for it.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was his primary campaign promise.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was the main thing he talked about and he literally would not stop talking about it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what did he actually get done in four years?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Almost nothing.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was only 500 miles of wall built.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a link to a Wall Street Journal article, so this is a pretty solid source.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: 500 miles, but it's worse than that.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the 500 miles that were built, 458 miles of it were to replace existing barriers.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: 458 of 500.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll just say, we'll round up, we'll give them two miles, that's 468.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: He built 500 miles, but 460 replaced current barriers.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, some of those probably need to be replaced.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: But 460 out of 500 was replacing existing barriers.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: So in four years, he built 40 miles of new walls.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: 40 miles of new walls.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, that's kind of hard to say.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: he would say,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: that there were rhinos in the Republican Party and others who helped stop him.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fair argument,
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: but my grander,
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: larger point is that for those who are absolutely scared out of their mind,
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: A president is powerful, but a president is also limited on things they can do.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard being president.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're one of those people that are scared, just breathe.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that things in Washington, D.C.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: with all the bureaucrats, all of the sand in the gears of everything...
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: It slows things down.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: There will be people even jockeying inside the Trump administration for
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: high-ranking positions,
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Secretary of State,
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: all these positions.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are people who are ambitious who want them, and they will be stabbing each other in the back.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: They will be leaking information.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: It will be a complete mud-wrestling, just slime-fest situation.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even in their own party, this is what happens in Washington.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ambition and just desire for power makes people crazy.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're going to be fighting each other.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, does Project 2025 give me pause?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Does deportations give me a pause?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a hundred other things that I worry about?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there are things that the Harris administration would have done that same thing.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's very nice to be a moderate.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: I like being in the middle.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: I like being able to criticize either side.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I just don't want those who are absolutely terrified to start thinking worst
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: case and to live in high levels of anxiety for the next two months before he's even
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: in and then worrying about the absolute worst case scenario for every single thing.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Try to not think worst case or catastrophize everything.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Try to remember that this country's been through a lot.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: We've even been through a civil war.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can get through this if you're one of those people on the left.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: We can get through this.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: You need to breathe.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: You need to try to stay calm.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And just, I guess relax is probably the wrong word.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can grieve or whatever, but you can organize.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is, a very large part of the country voted for Trump.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: That is the direction our country has decided, and we have to move forward as a country.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: We have to try to be as united as we can and pull together as we can to try to heal this country.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's shift now to the foreign policy implications.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen several people,
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: several leaders on the right who are celebrating Trump's election,
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm going to just name some of the things that they are certainly excited about.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, they think Trump will help avoid World War III.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things you see a lot of people saying.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: They think Trump will help America stop getting so involved overseas.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: They think Trump will help end the war in Ukraine and that Trump will stop sending
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: money to Ukraine,
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: which is money that can be spent here at home,
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: such as in North Carolina,
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: which is still dealing with tornado damage.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: So those are some of the things,
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: some of the larger sentiments that I had seen people saying that they're excited
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: about Trump doing.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to share that first because that's the rosy picture for those who are
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: excited that Trump did win in such an overwhelming fashion and will be in charge.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And those are valid points, especially the avoid World War III.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've tried to explain why.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: The opposite of that argument,
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: and I've done that quite a bit in the past,
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know,
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: many,
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: many months,
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I believe.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: I believe showing weakness incentivizes aggressive countries like Russia and Iran and North Korea.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I do know there is risk when you help fund a country that's being attacked by a much larger neighbor.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I do know there's risk when you send weapons.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's risk of escalation.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there's certainly risk to acting.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are also risks when you don't act effectively.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've made the case on why I thought it was important that we help Ukraine defend itself,
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: including the fact that I think Russia is going to keep going across Europe,
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: and that we're eventually going to get pulled in ourselves with ground troops
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: inside NATO.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think the conservative response to that of those who support Trump,
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: and I want to be careful how I say that,
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: because many...
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Some number of conservatives,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the number,
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: were more of the hawkish anti-Soviet Union Ronald Reagan Republicans,
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: and they want to support Ukraine and stop Russia.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: But again, back to what I was trying to say.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: The larger part of the current Republican Party who support Trump seem to be far
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: more libertarian and more of a let's not get involved in places.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we care what happens in Ukraine?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we care what happens in Taiwan or some of those places in the Pacific?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: I understand those arguments.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've told you guys before, probably eight or 10 years ago, that was my position too.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very,
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes I almost feel like a weird double,
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: like a double stand version because I'll make a point on here and I'll be like,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: 10 years ago,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Stan,
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: you didn't even agree with that.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: But as I've said,
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: just the rapid expansion of Russia into the Middle East to help support Syria and
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: just seeing some of what China's been doing has helped me see that we can't just
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: pull back very easily without other countries filling the void.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: And those countries are nothing like us.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so at any rate.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it will long-term impact us, but it really doesn't matter what I think.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: The people have spoken,
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: and so the great larger point is,
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: as I said,
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: those who are supporting Trump are celebrating what they think will be the
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: reduction of risk of a chance of World War III.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know they're also thinking that Trump can negotiate an end to the war and that
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: will save thousands of Ukrainian lives.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that perspective.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: I,
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: again,
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: just know that in the past 10 years since Russia invaded the first time in 2014,
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Russia has ignored,
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think the last time I compiled it and made an argument on here,
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: it was like 80 or 100 different treaties or something just insane.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Where they would just buy more time and then they'd invade again or break it and attack.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or they would say Ukraine broke it when Ukraine didn't and then they would attack again.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just not real confident in such an agreement.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: But those who support Trump say, hey, Trump's strong.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Putin won't push him around.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what they're holding on to.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get a little bit closer or deeper into the weeds on this.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to share what the president of Ukraine said.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is Volodymyr Zelensky.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was one of the first world leaders to actually congratulate President Trump.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, congratulations to Donald Trump on his impressive election victory!
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: I recall our great meeting with President Trump back in September when we discussed
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: in detail the Ukraine-U.S.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: strategic partnership,
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: the victory plan,
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: and the ways to put an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate President Trump's commitment to the quote peace through strength end
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: quote approach in global affairs.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am hopeful that we will put it into action together."
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: We look forward to an era of strong United States of America under President
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Trump's decisive leadership.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was just a typo in his tweet.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, English is not his first language.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: We rely on continued strong bipartisanship.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: or bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: We are interested in developing mutually beneficial political and economic
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: cooperation that will benefit both of our nations.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine,
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: as one of Europe's strongest military powers,
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: is committed to ensuring long-term peace and security in Europe...
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: and the transatlantic community with the support of our allies.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I am looking forward to personally congratulating President Trump and discussing
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: ways to strengthen Ukraine's strategic partnership with the United States.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dig just a bit deeper on this,
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: and I want to share just some short reporting from the BBC from a reporter who's
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: over there in Ukraine right now.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is reporting from James Waterhouse,
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: and it's only about 60 seconds long,
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: but it's pretty insightful,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: especially something he says at the end about what Zelensky is hoping for with Trump,
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: which is he basically implies that he hopes that Putin will...
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: try to bully Trump and that Trump will potentially react strongly against that and
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: send lots of military aid.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: So here's that reporting from, again, the BBC and James Waterhouse.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: President Zelensky will both want to keep fighting this war,
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: which entirely depends on help from the US,
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: and he will be desperate to form some kind of functioning relationship with Donald Trump.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he was early to congratulate him as well.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: He described a great meeting they both had in New York, and he was trying to sell his country.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: He was describing the economic and political opportunities, a partnership,
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: between Donald Trump and himself, what that could provide.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: But these are incredibly uncertain times.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: American support has been laid out for the coming months by the outgoing Biden
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: administration in terms of armoured vehicles.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: But beyond that, we just don't know.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: If Donald Trump is turned down by Russia for any kind of peace negotiation,
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: then he might step up support for Ukraine.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the very faint hope here this morning.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the research that I was doing, I did see one potentially positive thing.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is from a soldier who actually served inside Ukraine.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's an American veteran who served inside Ukraine.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: His name is John Jackson.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he put a tweet up on X that said, Ukraine will carry on.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: They've been through unimaginable suffering in their history,
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: and their spirit of resilience will win out in the end.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Trump neither controls Ukraine nor its military.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Biden was in control of the escalation management debacle.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine is off the leash now.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: I found that kind of interesting because I hadn't thought about the fact that if
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine suddenly realized that American weapons were going to come to an end at
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: some point,
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: say maybe a month or two from now,
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: they might risk using some of those long-range weapons to attack Russian airfields.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: which currently the U.S.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: is prohibiting them from doing so.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if they had nothing to lose, and President Zelensky's like, man, I've got to do this for my country.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: America's not going to send more anyway.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: Russia's going to build up its forces and capacity.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just use them.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have never thought about that,
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: but maybe Ukraine will be off the leash if we suddenly stop assisting them as we've been.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to end this section talking about the foreign policy potential changes
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: with a Trump administration by sharing something that's a little more critical.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I've tried to have as broad a view on this as possible.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about the positives that the Trump supporters are touting with the
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: change of the administration.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: But this comes from a former Republican named Sarah Longwell.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably seen her on TV.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: She's the publisher of The Bulwark.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to share what she had to say today in a podcast.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty insightful,
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: and it lays out a few different ranges of options of where the Trump administration
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: may fall.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: And part of it is on the foreign policy, but also...
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: the political spectrum it kind of circles it starts with that so this kind of goes
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: full circle to what i started with i wanted to share again this is a long-term
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: republican that is very well situated within republican circles until she recently
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: began obviously she's not a trump supporter so she's kind of been thrown out of the
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: party but she knows how the
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Republican Party thinks or some of the long-term Republicans think she knows about the levers of power.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so let me just share what she had to say today.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again, her name is Sarah Longwell.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and let me warn you that there is a little bit of foul language in this.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think the bigger issues,
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: the things I worry about most are like the international policy side of things that
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_02: Trump has
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: buddies up with all the strong men,
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: that he abandons Ukraine,
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_02: that he abandons Taiwan,
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: that maybe he pulls us out of NATO just because that's a hobby horse of his,
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: and America's rule in the world.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: And this is not me being some kind of unrepentant neocon.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is about just abandoning allies,
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: dropping everything that we do that is around diplomacy and everything else.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: We just completely retreat from the world.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: That scares me a great deal.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: The idea of
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: But like these things, right, like these things will engender backlash when they happen, right?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: If he does the things,
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: like our job is to be there to fight them because just because he was elected with
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: this mandate does not mean that the things he does,
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: if he does the worst things we imagine,
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: will be popular,
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so the way, and this is the world that we have lived in
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is what I've been saying to myself over and over again today is like,
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: history is long and you can look back and see lots of times when one party shocked
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: the country,
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you thought, well, man, it's over, but it's never over.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's another election.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: So there's new voters coming in and out of the electorate.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's always, he will be the incumbent now.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: He will do a bunch of things that are unpopular.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: It is our job to help voters understand
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: why they are bad, right, to be better about our messaging.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because I do think that the reason that one of the reasons Joe Biden was so unpopular,
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: and I complained about this like literally all the years,
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: was about how little they did to promote the agenda that they had,
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: to talk about it,
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: to make it stick.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway,
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: our job is to be the bulwark as these things happen and to make sure that voters
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: understand when they're bad.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: And to try to stop as many bad things from happening and then get a corrective in the House in 2026.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that was Sarah Longwell.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: And let me apologize.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: I had said in the transition to that, to playing that, that she mentions some of the political stuff.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: And after recording that and then listening to what she said again, I just thought that
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the comments were just too crass to share,
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: and I've been trying to have a message of unity,
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: and upon hearing it again,
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: it was a little bit more anti-Trump than I even thought it was,
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: so I decided not to replay that.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I just shared the foreign policy part,
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: but I just wanted to apologize that in the transition to that or the bridge to that,
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: I had said she would talk about that.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's not there.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get to the part I had teased in the very beginning about what China is doing right now.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: And with a change in administration,
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: with some of the things Trump has said about China,
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: he says he's not willing to or he's not scared to take them on,
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: he's promising tariffs,
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: etc.,
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: It will be interesting to see how he reacts once he is fully briefed on this story.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I'm about to share is just public media reports, but this alone is pretty scary.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the part I warned about earlier.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: You will hear me start to pretty quickly get fired up because...
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just get right to it.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is the part I recorded Monday,
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: but it is some breaking news in the past week that goes back a bit to October when
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: some initial leaks were kind of coming out,
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: but the story has started to come together,
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: and I felt confident enough to share some of the reporting on it,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: and then I share my thoughts on what is actually happening.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I get a little fired up
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about this.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: The name of the hacking and spying operation is called Salt Typhoon,
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: and they have targeted former President Donald Trump.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: They've targeted his running mate for Vice President, Senator J.D.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: Vance of Ohio.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: They've targeted the other side as well.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: They've targeted staffers for Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: They've targeted members of Congress.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: And these hackers from China have been able to collect audio and text messages from
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: their targets in what is called a wide-ranging espionage operation.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it likely began several months ago,
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: although I'm not sure the intelligence agencies even know when it began.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: So how are they doing this?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, according to the media reports out there,
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: China's Ministry of State Security has hacked into or infiltrated the private
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: wiretapping and surveillance system that American telecom companies built.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: After 9-11, for the exclusive use of U.S.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: federal law enforcement agencies.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: So somehow,
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: China is inside this system that was put in as part of an anti-terrorism
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: implementation or safeguard,
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: and China is in this system,
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: according to these media reports.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: One of the crazier parts of this story is not only have they hacked into it,
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: But according to multiple sources talking to the media, they still have access to it.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're still in it.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so millions of mobile phone users on networks of at least three major U.S.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: carriers could be ongoing, could be vulnerable at this point right now.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the U.S.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: government and these telecom companies are saying very little publicly since it was detected in August.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: So again, this is about three months ago.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the public can only learn about details that trickle out through various leaks to the media.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're like me, you're probably like, well, what companies have been infiltrated?
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: according to the Wall Street Journal in a report going back to October,
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: it involves Verizon,
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: AT&T,
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: and Lumen Technologies.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to worry too much because,
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: quite frankly,
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: you and I aren't important enough for them to be wasting their time infiltrating or
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: tracking us.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: So more than likely,
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: unless you're in the government,
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: or unless you're doing something that's pretty important,
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: or unless you're a very important CEO somewhere,
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: you probably don't matter.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the honest truth.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to spin everyone up too much on this.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: So who are the targets?
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: According to one media report that I read,
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: the targets that are identified by the intelligence community inside the United
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: States that China is trying to go after include senior U.S.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: government officials, which that makes sense.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: top business leaders.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, that makes sense.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: But what some people fear is that these wiretapping operations could compromise
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: federal criminal investigations.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: They could compromise U.S.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: intelligence operations around the world.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that is absolutely terrifying,
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: especially if you're some covert source out there in a foreign country.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the Washington Post,
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: at least,
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: reported that there is a growing list of compromised targets who are being briefed
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: by investigators saying,
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: your stuff's been hacked.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again,
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: these are probably members of Congress,
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: probably important executives,
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: people that matter,
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: but this is still a big story.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Washington Post quoted one of the hacked victims who the FBI had talked to who
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: said this victim had reported to the Washington Post that they had been briefed
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: that right now China has the ability to listen to any phone call in the United
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: States whether you are the president or a regular Joe.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: It makes no difference.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: This has compromised the entire telecommunications infrastructure of this country.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: Also quoted in that Washington Post story is a very important person.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Intelligence Committee Chairman.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: So Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: They get very top secret briefings.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Mark Warner.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's a senator out of Virginia, a Democrat.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he said,
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: it is much more serious and much more worse than even what you all presume at this point.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is one of the most serious breaches in my time on the Intelligence Committee.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now if you're curious like me,
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: and you want to know how long Warner has served on the Intelligence Committee,
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: you're in luck.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: I looked it up.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's been on the Senate Intelligence Committee since 2011.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: So in the past 13 years...
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: More than a decade.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Past 13 years.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is the most serious breach that the chairman of the Intelligence Committee has ever seen.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to put that in context a little bit, and let's talk about WikiLeaks.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: So WikiLeaks had those big consequential leaks during the 2016 election where they
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: published private and confidential information of the leading Democratic
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: presidential candidate,
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hillary Clinton.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: They helped lead to her defeat.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially that leak...
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: from WikiLeaks helped turn an election.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Senator Mark Warner is saying that this breach is even bigger than that breach.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, that breach was largely a breach of emails.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so, obviously, emails are, you know, they contain confidential private information for any of us.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you think about it, we don't really email as much as we did even 10 years ago.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is on our phone these days, and I mean almost everything.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is a little terrifying to think,
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: if you were a congressman or a senator,
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: that the Chinese government could have access to your information.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't take a genius to think about the fact that,
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: let's say China hacked your phone,
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: and let's say you were a congressman and you're having an affair with someone.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Chinese now have you by the neck.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: They can get you to do things that they want you to do.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or they'll tell your wife.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's say you took illegal donations.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: You could be investigated for that.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_00: You could be possibly removed from Congress.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the Chinese have you by the neck.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you could probably think of a dozen other situations kind of similar to that.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is a big deal.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely a big deal.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because I almost weekly talk about China,
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: how it harasses and bullies smaller countries in the Pacific.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_00: And yet here we have an example of China doing an incredible,
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: incredible breach of our most sensitive telecommunications systems.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: I almost shudder in fear to think that they may have information on some of our covert sources.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, surely those folks are using something better.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: But then sometimes you read about some of the absolutely antiquated,
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: old-fashioned stuff that our government forces use in so many different branches,
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's the military...
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the spy agencies I don't think are that much better.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so, it definitely concerns me a bit.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: At any rate,
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: if you want to read about at least one of the articles,
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have,
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: thanks to an amazing friend,
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: he goes by Nayfo.com.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: underscore Marvin on threads.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's provided a gift link article to the Washington Post.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can get way more into the weeds on this if you wish.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Huge hat tip to him.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate him sharing that link.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got a link on how to find him.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're on threads, you should absolutely follow him.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: Great source of information.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's constantly posting very relevant defense-related matters on threads.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely follow him.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if you want to read more about it, go check out that article.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the larger point is that for those who just kind of...
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: some on the right who have been kind of isolationist,
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: and in the past it's been people on the left,
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: and there's probably still extreme on the left,
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: who are like,
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: who cares about Taiwan?
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who cares about China?
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need conflict.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need this or that.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really think China is going to leave us alone?
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we did that, do you think China is going to leave us alone?
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_00: China wants to be the sole world power.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: They want to be the preeminent power.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: Power in the world.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: They want to have more influence in places like Africa.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: In places like Europe.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: In places like South America.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly in places like the United States.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: As I've said before,
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_00: China paid and organized groups of agitators who were wearing armbands and
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: basically almost in uniform,
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak,
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: dressed as civilians,
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: but they had armbands in small ways that you could see who was on what side.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this group of paid,
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: organized,
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: young thugs,
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: agitators,
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: ever how you want to refer to them,
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: went around and assaulted China.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: They beat the crap out of people who wanted to protest Xi Jinping visiting America.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: People who supported the cause of free Tibet or any other cause that might embarrass the leader of China.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: People who wanted to support additional free rights in Hong Kong, which are being suppressed.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: Agitators organized and paid by China.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: Attacked them in California.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: In the United States, people.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_00: In the United States.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these Chinese paid agitators are already here.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: The threat is already here.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what else you need to see.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when you see countries like Russia...
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: And China and Iran and sometimes even North Korea pushing disinformation to divide us.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: They want the left and the right to hate each other.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're weaker when that happens and it allows them to advance their agenda.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: So what else is China doing besides all of that?
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_00: They have organized crime in America.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they do.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: Organized crime.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: They help with the illicit marijuana trade in Oklahoma.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: Back in 2023,
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: the Department of Justice charged 40 officers of China's National Police for
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: repression schemes that targeted U.S.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: residents.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to provide links to this stuff in the episode notes,
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: but I just kind of chuckle when someone on the far right or someone on the far left says,
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Someone who's just like, eh, let's just stay here.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just, you know, we don't need to be engaged.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to be the world's policeman or give peace a chance.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, like, you can't do that with a country like China.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: These aren't nice people.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: They are going to bully and take and manipulate and push and shove and take and just take and just take.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what they do in their own country.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what they do in the smaller countries around them.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, we cannot be naive.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: We must be aware of what's happening.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen them.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_00: They even bully...
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_00: The billion-dollar companies that are in California, they bully them.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: They bully the movie industry.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think that they don't have the power to do more than that?
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have to wake up.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have to heal as a country.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have to see what a serious threat in our future is.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: A serious threat in our future right now.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like right now.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: China's wanting to invade Taiwan by 2027 is one year I've seen.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say it might be sooner.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some may, it may be later.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now their economy long-term, I'm not sure how healthy it is.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: The birth rate,
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: the aging rate,
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: they have some long-term problems,
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: but we cannot overlook the threat that China is right now,
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: right now.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for those who try to describe some kind of
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_00: disengagement or withdrawal of U.S.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: forces and not being as involved in the world,
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of want to challenge someone who says that to say,
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: tell me or describe or show me an example where that has worked.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's one that comes to the top of my head right off the, like, just without even much thought.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: The United Kingdom.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: They used to be one of the largest empires in the world.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: They used to have ships, you know, the old saying, you know, the sun never shines.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, they had empire countries, colonies, etc.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_00: across the world.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: And after World War II, they start pulling back and pulling back and pulling back.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're in a defensive organization called NATO.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: But they're not really getting super involved in places.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: Their military is a fraction of what it was a hundred years ago.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: A fraction of what it was.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: And still...
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_00: Russia has the nerve and the ability and the lack of fear to send Russian agents
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_00: inside the United Kingdom and use weapons of mass destruction.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: They've used a nerve agent to kill people.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's very little fear.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: Very little fear of Britain inside Russia.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think even if you have this idealistic image that we'll just start pulling back,
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: we'll get out of South Korea,
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_00: we'll pull back all across the world.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think guys like Putin or Xi Jinping are going to be like,
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: America's kind of pulled back a bit.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they got the largest economy in the world and their military is getting smaller and smaller.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just leave them alone.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're on the other side of the ocean.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, let's just leave them alone.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you think they would do that?
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: We know Russia hacked the 2016 election.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: We know they've been pushing disinformation.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you think they aren't still involved and wouldn't still be involved in
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: the future if we tried to disengage?
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_00: These countries are run by authoritarians.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are bullies.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're not seeking peace.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're seeking intimidation.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're seeking dominance.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't negotiate or show weakness to people like that.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: So
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've probably rambled a little longer on this than I want,
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: but I try almost weekly to rally the country,
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_00: to unify the country,
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: and to wake up the country to the realities out there.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so, hopefully, I've helped move the needle a little bit on this topic this week.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I apologize that I got a little more...
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: amped up than I normally do.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: I like to lower people's blood pressure.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_00: Again,
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: if you're an average person like me,
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: you,
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: etc.,
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you need to worry about this telecom stuff too much.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_00: Probably you've got TikTok on your phone and they can track everything you're doing anyway.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_00: But we need to be aware of the threat and the direction China is going with its actions,
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: with its,
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: even the gumption and the to have the gall to pull off something like this.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm sure our intelligence agencies are doing things inside China,
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm sure you could make the argument that we've been spying on them.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I challenge you,
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: and honestly I almost would be infuriated with you,
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: if you would compare America to China.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're not even in the same hemisphere as far as how we operate or what our intentions are.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: America's not trying to intimidate and invade other countries.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: America doesn't have people rounded up.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_00: America has freedom of speech.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: America has regular elections.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: We are not even close to being the same as China.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I will...
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's really no nice way to say it,
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_00: but I will not tolerate someone who says we're in any way similar to China.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's be very clear, we are not.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that was Fired Up Stan, as promised.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to wrap up the show now.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to share three quick little things from the Bible,
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: and then we'll just say goodnight or goodday if you're listening tomorrow or
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: whatever time you're listening tomorrow.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: I apologize.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, I've had about two nights of no sleep.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: I kid you not.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_00: Before the election, I had read some pretty scary stuff.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was an arrest made of someone who was going to use a drone,
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_00: allegedly use a drone,
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_00: to attack an electrical substation.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he was arrested by the FBI.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very worried about political violence.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I could barely sleep Monday night after recording what you just heard.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just praying for unity, for safety in this country, etc.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I could not sleep that night, hardly at all.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, Tuesday night, I stayed up very late and took the day off.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: But at any rate, let's get to these three verses.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, Again, That is a great one.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: This next one is a famous quote from C.S.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis, who is obviously a big author that wrote many books and is fairly well known.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, Perfect love we know will cast out fear, but so do other things.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_00: Things such as ignorance, alcohol, passion, presumption, and stupidity.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is very desirable that we should all advance to that perfection of love in which we fear no longer.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it is very undesirable until we have reached that stage that we should allow
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_00: any inferior agent to cast out our fear.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of stilted language.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably from the 40s or so.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_00: But obviously what he's saying is that
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect love from above, from God, casts out fear.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing God will get rid of your fear.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_00: You will no longer fear death.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_00: You will have peace that goes beyond understanding.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it is possible.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_00: to avoid that fear by doing things such as drinking,
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_00: he mentions alcohol,
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_00: having passions,
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's sports or whatever you're really into,
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_00: or just not having any knowledge of faith,
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_00: just trying to run from it all the time,
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_00: even though God does give all of us a chance to
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying that that is obviously that perfect love cast out fear,
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_00: but it's desirable that long term we fear no more.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_00: But in the short term,
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_00: we shouldn't allow things like alcohol or hobbies,
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: the things we love or idols of the world,
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's the nice truck or the career or whatever it is.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't allow those things to keep us from finding God.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_00: Again,
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_00: the quote is kind of stilted from the language perspective,
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_00: but the deeper meaning was pretty good,
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_00: I thought.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally,
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_00: just one verse from the book of John,
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_00: chapter 14,
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_00: verse 27,
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_00: which I think is a great one to wrap up on a post-election edition.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, or the verse is, I should say.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_00: Again, man, I...
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_00: I need to catch up on some sleep, but the verse is, the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just a reminder that there are bigger things than this election.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_00: There are bigger things than America.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_00: We forget the actual, just, it's impossible to describe, but the size of God and the world and it's...
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I decided I'm going to add one more thing.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just had this thought.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's God.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just Stan.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's complete delirium from being not able to sleep the past two nights.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I will share a prayer that I shared on the various social media,
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_00: which I couldn't help but notice cost me quite a few followers.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you are a moderate and you post something religious, you lose people on the left side.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_00: who often follow you because they're like,
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_00: there's this Marine guy who's not like super conservative.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's a moderate.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I lose being in the middle.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I lose people on the left if I post this.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_00: But then if I post something that's not like super pro Trump, I lose followers on the right.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I will probably never have a large social media following.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But today I shared a prayer that I thought, you know, I'll just end the episode reading this.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what the prayer that came to me this morning.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for this day.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this wonderful country where we can peacefully gather and pick who we
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: want to lead our country.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know this election did not go the way many had hoped,
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_00: and I know it did not go the way that millions of Americans had desired.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know that people are scared.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_00: People are hurt.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help give them peace.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: For those who side won, Lord, we ask that you help them to see that many people are scared.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_00: We ask that you help them see that now is not a time for gloating.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now is not a time for dunking.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is a time for healing.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we know that in our country, the power is not in Washington, D.C.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_00: The power is not in a single office.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_00: The power is with the people.
• 1:11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we know that Americans are kind.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Americans are good.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_00: People on both sides of the political spectrum help those in need and stand up for their neighbors.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, as with so many election cycles in the past, our bonds will be tested.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord,
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_00: we know that they are already frayed and that we are as divided as we have probably
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_00: been since at least the 60s.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to soften our tongues.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to soften our hearts.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Help pull us together.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord,
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_00: let us never forget that last night was not a surprise to you,
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_00: that you know how the story ends,
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_00: and that ultimately,
• 1:12:41
  SPEAKER_00: for each of us,
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: this is not about an election.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is not even about America.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is about the deep void in our lives that only you can feel.
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I said, this is about the deep void in our lives that only you can feel.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We know you love us.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you gave your son for us.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you are waiting for us to come to you, whether lost or saved.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_00: We love and praise you, Lord.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you have this.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I shared today.
• 1:13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, hey guys, hope some of this helped your blood pressure.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I hope something I said was a moderating force in your life,
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_00: was a more calm perspective than you've been getting either on the left or the right.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that it has helped you in some ways.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we will be here again next Thursday.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks guys for all the love, for all the subscribers, for all that good stuff.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to email me, you know the email is in the episode notes.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
• 1:13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that is AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can send me a line.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I would be honored for you to do so.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I do try to answer every single email I get.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I prefer you to sign them.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a big fan of anonymous ones, but if you want to send me an anonymous one, I might answer.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So at any rate, guys, hey, hang in there.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the faith.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you guys next week.