Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / Celebrating 1,000 days of Ukraine defending itself, plus lots of news on Russia, China, and the benefit of courage

Transcript

Celebrating 1,000 days of Ukraine defending itself, plus lots of news on Russia, China, and the benefit of courage · 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: What is going on everyone?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining us.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We have so much amazing stuff to cover tonight that I'm going to try my best to get it all squeezed in.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to that news, let me mention just three quick things that I need to squeeze in.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: First,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: if you missed the earlier interview this week,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I did an interview,
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: the first one that I put out with an author named Miles Spencer who had
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: walked 1,100 miles across the Middle East.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if you would like to hear a little bit about some Middle East history that goes
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: back more than 100 years from a very smart individual named Miles Spencer,
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: make sure you check that out.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've had some great feedback on it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you can just go to the episode notes,
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: click the regular website for the view from the front podcast,
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: and check it out.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're listening on Apple or whatever station you prefer, just look at the previous episode.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I've already got the guest figured out for next week.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully I'll be getting those in on pretty much the regular.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Second thing I wanted to mention was that I got some feedback in.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually been almost a month ago, but I keep forgetting to get it squeezed in.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to thank Jim in Vermont for making my day almost a month ago.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just read what he said.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: He said, listening to the latest episode of the podcast, your voice and your words.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to thank Jim, and I wanted to mention...
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to try something new from here on out where if you have a question or you
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: want to provide some feedback to the show,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: you can record a voice memo in your phone and then email that to authorstanrmitchellatyahoo.com.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Again, authorstanrmitchellatyahoo.com.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I will have that at the very top of the episode notes under the source notes, but very near the top.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you can send me that and please include your
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: at least your first name and the city.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of cool.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to include your full name, you can do that.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to get a little more famous,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be glad to play some of those and answer some questions,
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: perhaps depending on how those go and what you're asking.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I often do get questions in the comments that I answer after the shows,
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: but a lot of people don't see those,
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: and so I take time answering those and
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: provide links and usually decent feedback and the people who ask those questions
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: are usually pretty happy with my feedback and it hit me I should be sharing some of
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: that with all of you because usually if one person has a question a lot of you have
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: that same question
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then the final thing I wanted to mention was just some feedback from my close
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: supporters before we get to the news.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate your patience.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I've been doing this for two years now.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And something happened in the past week that was such good news that it almost made
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: me sick to my stomach.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, you work really hard for a couple years to get somewhere.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a public relations firm reach out about someone being interviewed.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it's like some massive,
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: massive name,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: but by my standards,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: it's a pretty big name.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'll be trying to get that scheduled.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: But what
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: What made me almost sick to my stomach was that I've had smaller people reach out
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: who've maybe published a book or this or that.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And for the most part,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: for the past two years,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've done no interviews and I've just kind of pushed them aside as politely as I could.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: But to have like...
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: someone who has someone working in public relations reach out to you,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: and when it's a bigger name,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: it's like,
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: this is happening.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you start to realize that if your show's been vetted for a bigger person,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: that all that work you've put in has really set you up for some larger success,
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: with bigger names and you know as that happens the profile and the pressure builds
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: and so as this happened of late i had to go to some of my close family and advisors
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: and i'm like man i'm like almost almost literally sick that
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is happening.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And all of them were like, oh, what's why?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is what you've been working for.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it is true.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because for two years,
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: there have been times where I'm like,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: and don't get just don't get frustrated if the views aren't high.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're not a bomb thrower.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You don't pick one side or the other.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just stay true to your character.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're on a five-year to 30-year plan, or at least as long as God tells you to do this.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't even look at any of the numbers.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, we're human, and we do, right?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just hit me that as I interview that person,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: and as more names come,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: and as more public relations firms try to squeeze in their person,
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: and I know at some point this will actually be a problem because I listen to enough
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: podcasts that
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: to know that there's only so many episodes and you can only squeeze so many people in,
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: so you start to become very selective at some point.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just sharing this because I really want to thank you guys because the
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: show's been fairly small for a couple of years.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And every single one of you all who have emailed or posted something on social
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: media or any of all the comments,
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: all the support has helped me get to this point.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're just kind of at the point where things are beginning to take off and
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: it feels a little out of control and scary.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm very thankful that I got people around me.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I told them that they got to help me vet people.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: They've got to help me.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Keep my head on the ground.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a little scary because here's the deal, if we're honest.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're trying to make it,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: the main thing you have to worry about is do you have the persistence and the
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: endurance and the faith to keep going no matter the odds,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: no matter how long it would take?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm kind of a stubborn Marine and I am doing what I think God wants me to do.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I've always said in my mind, I will do this 30 years or whatever.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter as long as I'm hitting one person and I get enough emails from
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: random people that are touched by the show that I have the fuel I need.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very happy with my day job, etc.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I always in the back of my mind knew there was the possibility that this could take off.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: that big brands could want to advertise.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as I see these,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: the first of what will probably be several public relations firms want to line up
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: the show,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: it hits me that if the show is good enough for their person to be interviewed on,
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: very soon there will probably be larger name brands that want to advertise.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And just there's going to be, you know, increasingly...
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I guess explosive growth is probably the only way I could share that, and financial things that come up.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Part of me,
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: as I've said a million times,
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I am naturally a creator,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: and part of me wants to do this full-time,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: to share this podcast,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: to do one that's a political podcast that's also from a moderate perspective that's
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: based on unifying and not being too much of a bomb thrower.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then, obviously, I have the Faith Podcast.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, I want to do all three of those, and I want to spread the word about God.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I clearly love my country, and we're clearly very divided.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always felt that there was a need and a...
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: desire for someone who was like me,
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: who wasn't on the left or right,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: who wasn't throwing haymakers,
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: name-calling,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: doing all those things that people do for clout.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I always felt like there was room for a voice in the middle that was sane.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I also would constantly listen to this one TikTok video that talked about,
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: and I mentioned this in a previous episode for the long-time listeners,
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: about how God will protect you from something until you're ready for it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I mentioned how a baby that's born too soon, that's not a blessing, that's a curse.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you get a house before you're really ready for it as a young couple,
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: that's a burden,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: that's not a blessing.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so in my mind,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think I had so mentally like girded myself for like this five or 10 or 20 or 30
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: year struggle of just really slow growth.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then just kind of imagine people saying, man, Stan, like he paid his dues.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how he did it, this and that.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just give credit to God.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I had so mentally prepared myself that some people would say,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: just try it for three to five years.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't take off, man, you try it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, this is like a 30-year plan.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is a go until my last breath if that's what God wants.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think I was expecting at the two-year mark,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: even though there were times I was disappointed that it hadn't grown faster,
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: that it could suddenly take off.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was kind of this moment of, am I ready?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think I'm ready.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty sure I'm ready, but I won't lie.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: After that sickening feeling, one of the first thoughts I had was like, Stan, you're going to be famous.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And instantly, it was like, aha, I know this feeling.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know what that felt like back in 2012 when my books went viral.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was making good money for a very short time.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a good chunk of money in a very short time.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an intoxicating, scary thought.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I immediately, once I was able to get away from the computer and catch my breath...
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I just went to a fast food place, ordered my food.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I texted my wife about the person trying to set up an interview.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I said a prayer before my food, and I was just very honest with God.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I did thank Him for that email and the opportunity and the reality that this is
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: starting to happen,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: and it's going to take off,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: and it's going to be scary.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I've known all along that God was in control,
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: but also prayed to just stay humble and grounded,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: to never sell out,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: to never shy away from my principles,
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: and just to...
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just to continue to think about,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: it's just for one person out there,
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: not some big audience,
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: and not to let all of that overwhelm me.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And thankfully,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: like I said,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some great friends and family members that I reached out to that helped afterward.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And all of them were, it's kind of funny, but I was just telling them how nervous I am and this and that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they were like, this is what you wanted though, right?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, it is, but it's happening.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's happening faster than maybe I thought.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's an amazing feeling.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to thank you guys because there are so many times,
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: and I've told some of you this,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: that some of you,
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: and it's weird how some of you crossed paths with me either on social media or with
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: this show.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: because you've mentioned how random it is and odd but it was like some of you all
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: sent messages when I was at a very low point and where
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I do rely on God for strength,
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: even though I am kind of a stubborn cuss,
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: as we would say,
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: in the South,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: and got the Marine background,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: and I generally don't quit when I start,
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: there were some dark nights of the soul.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: There were times where I thought I was just wasting my efforts and energies,
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: and,
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: there were times where there'd maybe be like 30 people listening.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I would have devoted so much time that week to just gathering the news, trying to pull it together.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, why am I doing this?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I would always get just an odd email here or there.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: I would get a military member that was kind of at a low point who thanked me or
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: once had an atheist that reached out to me.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: There was always just that little bit of...
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: People that reached out, they kept me going.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So just wanted to thank you if you're out there listening and you're one of those people.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously I thank God because every time I was just about to drop my pack, something small happened.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And those little things, they help, they add up.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: They get you to the next step.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: So thank each and every one of you guys and I can tell you one thing for sure.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I used to be a huge Eminem fan and he's still just an incredible creator
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: and I've always looked up to him just for his
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: The original way that he writes lyrics and the way that he transformed an industry to some degree.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: he once gave an answer that I've never forgotten and I've shared it with some friends.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm saying this for those folks who have reached out to me in the past two years,
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: all of whom's name I know and your emails are saved.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Eminem was once asked,
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: how are you dealing with the pressures of being famous,
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: blah,
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: blah,
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: blah,
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: after you made it big,
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: all these new friends,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: blah,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: blah,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: and this reporter asking this question.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Eminem says, and I'll mess up the quote, but it's such a striking quote that you never forget it.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: But Eminem says, I don't have any friends in Hollywood or L.A.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: or any of those places.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the reporter is kind of shocked and gives him a look like, what are you talking about?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because he's going to these various big shot events.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: He said,
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: the only friends I have are the people who cared about me when I lived in 8 Mile,
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: which is,
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: the very small,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: impoverished area where he lived in a trailer dreaming big.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And...
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So my final point,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: and I appreciate everyone's patience,
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: is that if this show does what I think it's going to do and what it's certainly
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: headed toward,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: those you people who were with me back in the beginning,
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to forget you.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so no matter what happens when I get an email from you guys many years from now or whatnot,
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to remember.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I've told a couple of people this already by either email or direct message.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: People who've pushed and really helped encourage me.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they're all like, man, I can't believe that I helped play a role, blah, blah, blah.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's the early people that you remember.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's the ones.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those are your true supporters.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there will be others that come later, blah, blah, blah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: But as Eminem said, and as he wrapped up his quote, those people are, to use his term, suspect.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are suspect.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: He said, because those people didn't care about him when he lived in 8 Mile.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so, for those very amazing early adopters...
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: The ones who were listening when there were 30 of you.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And at one point I was in my closet recording this thing because the clothes helped absorb the sound.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are the real heroes in this.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I know for a fact that one of you guys is on a fixed income.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: helping support someone,
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: and yet has still signed up to support the show at $5 per month,
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: when I know there wasn't a ton of money there.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I pray that God blesses you for that, and maybe someday I can surprise you as well.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let's jump to the news,
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: and we're going to begin with Ukraine,
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: because Ukraine has had some things happen,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: but among the things that have happened,
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: and there's quite a few good things that have happened,
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: but one big celebration is Ukraine has now been defending itself for 1,000 days
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: against a foe that both Russia and the United States and Western intelligence
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: agencies have
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, everyone thought the capital of Ukraine would be taken within three days.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Three days.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Russia thought.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: They barely packed uniforms.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: They even packed dress uniforms.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not enough ammo, clearly.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what America thought.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: We said that beforehand.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: We halted some of the weapon deliveries that could have happened.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: We had plans to evacuate Zelenskyy.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Same with the Western intelligence agencies.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone thought Ukraine would last three days.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: We were on day 1000.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Day 1000.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Russia has not achieved a single strategic goal.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have the capital.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: They barely have the Crimean Peninsula.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: They don't even have any of their naval forces there anymore.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: The incredibly well-conceived attacks by unmanned sea drones have sunk many ships
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: and pushed the Russian Navy back.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: They clearly are nowhere near the capital.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: They were pushed back there.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: They've only got the eastern part of the country and part in the Crimean Peninsula.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And besides that,
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: while they have been slowly encroaching on that land because they have just so many
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: more bodies to throw at the situation...
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Russia has now also lost land inside the Kursk region because Ukraine invaded north
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: to try to reconfigure the tactical situation,
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: and it's actually worked.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: 1,000 days in,
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: huge congrats to Ukraine and its people for their spirit and their courage and
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: their grit and their resolve.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I almost dare say America could learn something from them.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Congressman Adam Kinzinger, former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, I guess I should say, said it best.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Ukraine is winning.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: All a defending country has to do is defend.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: 1,000 days and Ukraine is still defending.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Glory to Ukraine.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So a thousand days,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: that's two years and seven months of uncertainty of men and women on a front line
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: that often can't report back to their families and let them know if they are safe,
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: of two years and seven months of some prisoners inside Russia.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Camps being tortured, physically beaten, barely fed.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those who have been returned are almost skeletons.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: They look like photos you see from like a World War II concentration camp or something.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's horrific to see.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: We know how many war crimes Russia has committed.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: We know they target civilian buildings.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: As I read someone say on social media, there were a lot of really moving posts
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: A family was saying that people in the West have no idea.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every time there's an air alert,
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: and believe me,
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: even in the capital city,
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: many of the cities in Ukraine have an air alert every single night.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so every time there's an air alert, the family has to wake up, get dressed, and go to a shelter.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them go...
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: underground into subway tunnels.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: They have other places.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the person mentioned that not only is Ukraine dealing with blackouts and
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: electrical supply issues,
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: but for two years and seven months,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: not only have they had to worry about whether they would win the war and worry
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: about people who have become refugees and moved to other parts of Europe or worry
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: about those on the front lines,
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: but for two years and seven months,
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: They have had to wake up in the middle of the night at the sound of sirens and take
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: their family into shelter.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because Russia loves to hit with guided weapons apartment buildings, large apartment buildings.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: They have tried to break the will of the Ukrainian people.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even though there have been more valuable targets,
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: even though there have been military targets,
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: because Russia targets civilian buildings,
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: apartment buildings,
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: children's hospitals,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: theaters,
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: various places where people might actually go either for safety or
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: or for some form of just distraction for an hour or two.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the places Russia loves to hit.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the person was mentioning how people in the West forget that every time that
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: alarm goes off,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: those air sirens...
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Families have to get up, get dressed, and move to shelters.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Kids are scared.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Kids are crying.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: These are not fun situations.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the Ukrainian people, by overwhelmingly large numbers...
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: still desire to resist,
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: still refuse to give up,
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: still serve in very large numbers against a much larger foe.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I celebrate the Ukrainian people and how hard they have fought.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is something that I think people will talk about 100 years from now, if not longer.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Also,
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: because of this thousand-day anniversary,
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to read a series of tweets about President Zelensky.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just going to read them.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: This person says,
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now obviously, had he fled, I think the forces probably would have collapsed.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen that in places like Afghanistan and many other countries that once the
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: leader flees,
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: everyone's kind of in an every-man-for-himself attitude.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky said he didn't need a ride, he needed more ammo.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Very famous for saying that.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me continue that tweet.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky has been a target of massive disinformation and smear campaigns.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's been called a Nazi, a Zionist, a warlord, a drug addict, corrupt, that he's a beggar, etc.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And side note,
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: a lot of people were talking about how it's interesting that he's called both a
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Zionist because he's a Jew,
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: but he's also called a Nazi.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you tell me how that's supposed to be.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just goes to show how ridiculous all these terms are.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: They just constantly call him everything.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: But again, he's been called a Nazi, a Zionist, warlord, drug addict, corrupt beggar, etc.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yet still,
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky delivers messages to his people on a daily basis,
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: whom he watches die every single day.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: if you don't know,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: as that person said,
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: there might be a day or two that's missed,
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: but if you follow his feed,
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: every single day,
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: He gives an update to his people, and he's always optimistic.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he tells them it's not good, this or that, but he rallies his people.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: You tell me a politician who's done a daily update every single day for two years
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: and seven months under the most horrific conditions.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me who that person is because I don't know who it is.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to continue reading.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky goes around the world and asks for politicians and governments to help
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine defend itself,
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: usually without any good results.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's actually gone to the front lines to meet the soldiers, which is very true.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's put himself at risk so many times.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's just off the charts, half insane what he's done in some of the front lines he's gone to.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, absolute front lines.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how they've managed to sneak him in some of those places.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll continue.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky has had to make some tough wartime decisions over censorship, elections, mobilization, etc.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: there's always room for criticism,
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: and many Ukrainians have criticized him for domestic politics,
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: decisions over the war,
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: and so on.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't remember many wartime presidents or leaders who have done better.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, it seems like war fatigue, U.S.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: domestic politics, obviously we're talking about...
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: The elections in the U.S.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: So U.S.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: domestic politics and time has turned President Zelensky into a somewhat negative figure.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the Russian Kremlin will probably keep pushing their smear campaign against him.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then this person ends this pretty epic line of tweets or threads, whatever you want to name it.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: He quotes a Batman movie, Dark Knight.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said,
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: as Harvey Dent famously said in the Batman movie,
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Dark Knight,
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And man, has that been true with President Zelensky.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: A man who has been dealing with going all the way back to the Trump administration.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: He has led Ukraine as ably as he can.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And while there are a few things you can critique him for,
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: and while his popularity may not be as much as it has been in the past,
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: certainly.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you can name many world leaders,
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: going back to Churchill,
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: who have withstood the pressure as well as he does.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I tip my hat to President Zelensky and all that he and his family have done.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's an incredible story of how to rally a country against impossible odds, and he has somehow done so.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he has gotten the world to pay attention and to send old equipment and to send
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: the smallest amount of help,
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: given what these countries could have done.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the smallest amount of help to help that country somehow hold on.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: among the achievements that President Zelensky has helped pull off,
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: there is a recent article that came out from the Institute for the Study of War.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about in the past couple of months about how hard the Russians were
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: trying to take on the eastern front a city called Pokrovsk.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone into detail about that.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: How many people used to live there?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: How big a deal?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a logistical hub.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it used to have a population of about 60,000, and the Russians were getting so close to taking it.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of soldiers inside Ukraine's military who were getting frustrated
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: with President Zelensky because he sent troops north into Kursk,
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: into a barely guarded region of Russia,
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: to divert forces.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: He took a huge amount of heat for that.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was a gamble.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was risky.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to share the news.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And despite all of the criticism that he took,
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: and he took a lot,
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: even by a lot of people in the West,
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: and especially in the United States,
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: friends of mine that I've followed for the past two plus years,
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: even some of those were saying he's made the wrong move.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: He needs to move those troops to Pokrovsk.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: but here we are middle of november almost a little over the middle of november and
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: the institute for the study of war has said that the defense of pokrovsk has held
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: so well eight months of relentless assault
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: From Russia.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: That Russia has realized it cannot take the city directly.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is now trying to encircle it.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, eight months of holding it.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: They have held the line for eight months.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: President Zelensky has been right.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: They held the line perfectly.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: They pushed into Russia,
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: once again got Ukraine on the world's radar,
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: which once again reminded people that Ukraine could win,
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: that Putin was at some risk because he couldn't even defend his own homeland.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was, in hindsight, a brilliant move.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it got Ukraine back on the radar.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: It got some more weapons to the country.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because we know people in the West very quickly get just bored with war.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what a big deal this war is to people in Ukraine.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: People in the West get bored.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did want to share.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't updated about Pokrovsk in a while,
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: but they are still holding there,
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: although the Russians are trying to encircle it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: But winter is coming, and I think it's impossible to know.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Things can always change.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: but I think most analysts feel like the situation has stabilized there even more
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: than it had,
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: and so just a huge achievement by President Zelensky and all of his military staff
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: who took a gamble,
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: and it appears that it was the right move.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a few other things, and Ukraine's been getting some good news.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, when the Trump administration takes over,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: No one's really sure how that's going to play out,
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: but one thing that is happening is that in the remaining two months that President
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Biden is in office,
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: he has surged the remaining congressionally approved aid,
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: military aid,
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: to Ukraine.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's $5.5 billion worth of equipment, older equipment, obviously.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: But he's trying to get it all there within 70 days that remained when he initially
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: announced that news on the earlier part of November.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the military says they're going to do it.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: So they're pushing lots of stuff there, which is great news for Ukraine.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Also this week.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this is frustrating,
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: but after months and months and months and months and months of delay,
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: President Biden finally authorized long-range strikes with the long-range missiles
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: called Atacums,
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: and they have already been used.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's so frustrating he took almost a year to approve that.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: But he did approve it.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: I guess better late than never.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to see how far those can hit, you can look inside the episode notes and see a map.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've put that in there.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: First six have been fired.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Some folks are speculating that Ukraine will target that...
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: very important bridge that connects the Crimean Peninsula with Russia.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone over that bridge in detail about a year or so ago, but I haven't mentioned it in a while.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it is, as a reminder, it is the longest bridge in Europe.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is 12 miles long, and it even includes a train rail across it.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has tried to target it before, but it is very important for Russia to
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: That they keep this bridge open.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's been attacked in the past.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: But many people are speculating that using Atakum's missiles,
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine may put that thing into the bottom of the ocean.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: So again,
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: the good news is President Biden has authorized Ukraine to use those on long-range
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: attacks finally after almost a year of waiting.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: One potentially bad news is Ukraine only has about 50 of them,
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: according to quite a few analysts that I keep up with.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they have to be pretty selective on their targets.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: One other downside is Russia had some airfields it had been using within range of
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: those long-range missiles,
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: the Atakums.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: But Russia has pulled back its aircraft.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not real sure what to make of that.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that means President Biden somehow warned Russia to back up those
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: planes or maybe they saw that Russia was worried about it and backed the planes up
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: and that helped lead to
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: President Biden agreeing to allow the ATACOMs to be used.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Either way,
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: it would have been nice to have used those to knock out Russian aircraft,
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: which were launching glide bombs into civilian targets from a very long range away.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And those glide bombs have killed a lot of civilians.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're horrific, horrific weapons.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless, the planes have been pushed back now, so I'll take what good news we can.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: One other thing President Biden did,
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: which is finally showing a little bit more backbone,
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: he has authorized the use of anti-personnel landmines inside Ukraine.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is controversial because people always worry about landmines after a war with
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: kids picking them up or civilians,
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: and it is horrific when that happens in countries.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the ones that will be used are what are called non-persistent,
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: meaning that the mines self-destruct or lose battery charge and are rendered inactive,
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: which reduces the danger to civilians.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of other things I want to point out.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have been using...
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: uh anti-tank landmines inside ukraine those have been very effective so those were
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: allowed but the anti-personnel have not been so the fact that ukraine can now use
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: anti-personnel mines should help it as it defends itself it's very important to
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: help in defense i was in the infantry i know how important mines are and they're a
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: psychological weapon for the enemy
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: No one likes to walk forward when you know at any given step you could step on a mine.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: They get in your head.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're very scary.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's good news.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to mention, too, that Russia has been using anti-personnel landmines the entire time.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: So Ukraine and yet another example has been fighting with one hand behind its back.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because people in the West have treated them differently than how we've treated Russia.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: So just another example of where Ukraine has had to fight uphill in a very difficult situation.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I hope...
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: that in that package they are sending a ton of mines,
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: especially now that North Korean troops should be entering the Kursk region at any moment,
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: according to the Department of Defense.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that they have some little surprises waiting for them in the form of landmines.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: The drones have been very effective already that the Ukrainians are using,
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: so a nice supplement of some anti-personnel mines would be very nice.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's flip it and let's look at things a bit from the Russian side of the equation.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the latest bit of what is being called hybrid warfare that was
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: conducted by Russia recently.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably seen this in the news.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: There was a good write-up in CNN, but you can find it just about anywhere online.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: ...by simply just Googling the underwater cables in Russia.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a ton of stories from Reuters to CNN, Washington Post, you name it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's being called hybrid warfare because essentially...
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Almost every country involved knows that Russia cut to cables,
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: but there's just not quite enough proof to come out and state that with complete confidence.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just quote a bit from a CNN story that popped up on it today.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: This was recorded on Wednesday, so the story's from Wednesday.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: One of the cables was cut between Lithuania and Sweden,
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: and this is in the Baltic Sea,
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: so this is north of Europe.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it was cut on Sunday.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the company that runs the cable has opened up an investigation into what is
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: believed to be apparent sabotage.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure this is just a massive coincidence,
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: but this incident,
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: this really just oddly timed situation,
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: follows the United States' warning that Russia was likely to target critical
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: undersea infrastructure.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as if it isn't crazy enough that the U.S.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: would warn this might happen,
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: and then this would happen,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: and then they would suspect sabotage and begin investigating it.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the first link was between the countries of Lithuania and Sweden.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that was cut.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it was just total coincidence.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then, oddly, a day later, I am sure this is all just coincidence.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Finland and Germany have one of its cables suddenly disrupted.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's an investigation into that as well.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, all of this is pointing toward Russia.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And as the CNN article says, this is a form of hybrid warfare.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are a lot of
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Folks who on various social media channels have really gotten into the weeds and
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: they're actually naming various ships and potential vessels that were in the area.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some allegations that maybe even China was involved.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that hasn't quite completely come out in the media yet, so I will not speculate.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say that the article in CNN put it this way,
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: and I quote,
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: The cutting of the cables on Sunday and Monday fits the pattern of attacks that
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: have been linked to Russia.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: Additionally,
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: it is no secret that Russia has been showing increased interest in undersea cables
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: in recent months.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: patrolling close to critical maritime infrastructure, often far from its shores.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: I will add,
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: the CNN article did summarize what I've discussed in some previous episodes,
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: that there have been a number of very odd incidents happening across Europe,
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: including random arson attacks,
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: hackings of various companies and utilities,
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: explosions that occurred across multiple European cities all in recent months.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm sure all of this is just complete coincidences, has nothing to do with Russia.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like that's the kind of country that would bomb hospitals or apartment
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: buildings or have its soldiers rape women or put kids on trains and take them away.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's certainly nothing that Russia would do.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the CNN article,
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: which I've linked to in the episode notes,
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: there's one analyst who said that the disruptions happen at a time when Russia is
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: trying to increase pressure on Ukraine and the West.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's quoted as saying that it could be seen as Russia ramping up the war and
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: the effects of the war in Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump comes into
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: power so that it might increase the willingness of Western powers to bring an end
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: to the war.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on to explain that you can see how Trump,
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: if Trump wants to bring an end to the war,
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: and if the Russians increase pressure on other Western countries and show them the
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: effects of the war,
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: then those Western countries might be more amenable to supporting Trump in his
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: desire to have a ceasefire.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Two final quick points from that CNN article.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: First of all,
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: it mentions that Russia often uses low-level operatives or common criminals who
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: they pay to conduct these operations so that Russia can deny any involvement.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, in the past, the article doesn't mention this, but they've often used oligarchs who...
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: at that point, really provide Russia with a form of deniability.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: They can just say, hey, it's this billionaire or this tycoon who did that.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some of his henchmen did that.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's one thing I wanted to mention.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing is they interviewed another analyst from the United Kingdom who said that
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: The idea is to conduct the operation in a way that everyone understands it was done
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: by Russia,
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: but at the same time it leaves some room for the victim to pretend they didn't know
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: because the victim is not interested in escalation.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the article points out that as we all remember,
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: and I've talked about this a bazillion times in the past couple of years,
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: when Russia annexed and invaded the Crimean Peninsula inside Ukraine in 2014,
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: they used those little green men,
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: which everyone knew was Russian forces,
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: But because the West was not ready to admit what was happening and no one wanted to
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: really get involved,
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: everyone kept saying,
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: it's not certain.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll try to figure out what's going on.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, maybe it's local militia or something.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, good article.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have it linked in the episode notes if you want to check it out.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: I will add, I made a bit of a joke on Blue Sky that I figure...
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's appropriate for this audience.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And someone had talked about these cables being cut when at first there was fewer news stories.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Germany and Finland had said they were,
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: deeply concerned about the severing of an undersea cable that connected the countries.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time, both countries are kind of like...
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: you know, really tiptoeing around it.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they said an external force probably cut the fiber optic cable.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I put this joke and I said, you know,
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: What would work better for my friends in Germany and the European allies?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I also said to a hesitant Joe Biden,
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: and I may have been a little mean,
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: and I called Jake Sullivan a scaredy cat.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I did say, option A. So what would work better?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Option A, send another deeply concerned letter to Russia.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or option B. You guys give me your take on this.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: Option B.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you're Germany,
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: for every act of Russian aggression,
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: send 10 long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine with an explicit requirement that
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: they be used within five days of arrival.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I asked the question, I wonder which would work better.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I added, please share to teach others the value of real deterrence.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so, obviously, you guys know my view.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's just frustrating that these countries allow Russia to continue to make
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: aggressive actions,
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: and there's barely a response.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so,
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: as I've said in so many rants on this podcast,
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: when you do not do any type of deterrence,
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: when you allow people to constantly do small actions against you,
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're not seeking peace.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're actually incentivizing additional actions against yourself and additional violence.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: By refusing to act out, you are literally encouraging the bully to come and punch you again in the nose.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or to tell his buddy to punch you in the nose.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or to tell his buddy to steal your book bag or that book or your lunch bag.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: when you're turned around looking the other way.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know the bully did it, but he has some kind of plausible deniability.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so to me, it just seems like at some point, some type of more aggressive action might be worthwhile.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can keep walking around with a sign on your chest or back that says, kick me.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: I guess that's option two.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Interestingly,
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: there is an election happening in Germany as we speak,
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: and the current chancellor is campaigning on the fact that he is refusing to send
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: long-range missiles to Ukraine.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I put kind of another joke on Blue Sky that said, vote for me.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm scared of the unethical monster bully.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be nice to this brute.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: And while he may rape and pillage all the other countries, he'll leave us alone.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then I sarcastically said, what a profile and courage.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the funny thing about this is that the German chancellor,
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really get into German politics,
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: but he sees himself and describes himself to voters as the prudent choice ahead of
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: an early election which is set for February.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he makes the case that by following his refusal to send long-range missiles to Ukraine...
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: is prudent,
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: as he said,
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: and that by doing so,
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: the public will vote for him because such prudent measures will avoid any kind of escalation.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: what's interesting is that his primary opponent,
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: a guy named Friedrich Merz,
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: don't know a lot about this person,
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: the leader of the Christian Democratic Union.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: This guy, Friedrich Merz, assuming I'm pronouncing that correctly,
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: is actually willing to provide Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got one guy who says, I'm not going to send them.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Another who says, they will.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy who says they will, Frederick Merz, is actually leading in the polls.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that was refreshing to see, for sure.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: And lots of people were making comments about what I wrote.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: And someone said, hey, they know which boats didn't.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those boats shouldn't even be floating right now.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I really should move to the next topic.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: I really should avoid what I'm going to say.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm a little irked, and so I'm going to say it.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was talking with some folks online,
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: talking about this German chancellor situation where you got one that wants to send missiles,
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: one that doesn't.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there's obviously a decent chance that the one that doesn't could win,
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: even though he's currently behind.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I mentioned to someone in some private communication that the sad reality is
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: that people these days are so self-centered...
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: that it wouldn't surprise me if the one that didn't want to send the missiles would actually win.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: People are so worried about their own safety.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: that they will ignore terrible things being done to a neighbor.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the number of people in this most recent election in the United States who told me,
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: oh Stan,
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so worried about World War III.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't need World War III.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: And usually,
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: within just a couple of minutes of talking to them,
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: explaining a few just fairly simple facts,
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: they'd be like,
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think about that.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have to just say some things.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's about how I just wonder,
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: where have we gotten so soft and so spoiled that we prefer peace and just shut our
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: windows to the sounds of the screams out in the streets?
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: have we gotten to that point because if you just look at a map Russia
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just pull up a map anywhere.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: Look at where Ukraine is.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's very clear that Russia invaded Ukraine with overwhelming force.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: That Russia is a country multiple, multiple times larger than Ukraine.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they thought they could take it.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: They've obviously invaded the country of Georgia before.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at a map, they clearly expected to take Ukraine within just a few days.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: Our own intelligence agencies thought Ukraine could be taken.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to admit it, I thought Ukraine could as well.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what all the intelligence agencies were saying.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: People did not expect to see the kind of spirit that we've seen in Ukraine.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which reminds me of our own freedom a couple hundred years ago.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: No one assumed a few barely connected colonies...
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: could rally against the world's superpower and stand up against a king.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: But we have seen that when people fought for their freedom,
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: there is a level of courage that is hard to understand unless you've been under the
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: bondage of oppression.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: But back to the map situation...
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at a country like Russia,
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: you look at an authoritarian dictator like Vladimir Putin,
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: who invaded Georgia,
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: invaded Ukraine,
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: you see Belarus to the north of Ukraine,
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: which is aligned with Russia.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: But then just to the north of Belarus,
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: you see Estonia,
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: Latvia,
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: Lithuania,
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: three very small countries,
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: who,
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: by the way,
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: happen to be in between Kalingrad and Russia.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these three small countries are members of NATO, so if they were to be invaded...
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: NATO would have to defend as an entire organization.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: Unless NATO just showed no backbone, as sometimes NATO kind of looks that way.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got a country like Russia, with Vladimir Putin...
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: who was not afraid to use a very large force to invade a country the size of Ukraine,
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: which is a huge country.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you look on a map, it's one of the largest countries in Europe.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: And to think that he wouldn't be willing to invade Estonia or Latvia,
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lithuania,
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: to get to Kalingrad so that there's a land bridge,
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: which he's talked about wanting.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why we're fooling ourselves.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: And,
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: people say,
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: there's more to the Ukraine war,
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe you don't understand this or that.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a country that is cutting cables of countries inside Europe
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: that are much larger and stronger,
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: like Finland and Germany.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we think that a man who acts in that way is going to be happy with just Ukraine?
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's an aggressor.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Ukraine provides, as President Zelensky says, the manpower to help stop Russia.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_00: To help weaken it to such a point...
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_00: that it could be less of a threat for decades to come.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to be armed.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's all.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to be armed.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: And by arming them,
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: we're actually decreasing the chances of World War III because by arming them,
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: Russia's going to be less likely to attack a NATO-backed country.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now if Russia were to attack a NATO-backed country,
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: and especially if NATO were to blink,
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: which I'd like to think it wouldn't,
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: but one never knows...
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: But we're incentivizing aggression by very large,
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: very dangerous countries,
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: such as Russia,
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: such as China.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's frustrating.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Such as Iran, such as North Korea.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Ukraine has a population of 37 million people.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: 37 million.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: Taiwan, which is south of China, has a population of 23 million people.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so my question to those who...
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have a couple of questions, I guess, to those who are worried about World War III.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: I guess question one is, how many million people are you okay with being invaded and oppressed?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we just take Ukraine and Taiwan, we're already at 50 million.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, we've really incentivized China, so they're going to keep going.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're at 50 million already.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: And with every bit of land that these countries take,
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: and as they become more and more powerful,
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: as we saw happened with Germany in World War II,
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: whenever we decide to finally have some courage,
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: how much stronger do we want our opposition to be?
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: So these are the questions I want to ask, because I hear Americans...
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the lack of backbone is a little alarming to me sometimes because they say
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: things like,
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_00: we want to avoid World War III.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, you don't always get to decide when something like World War III happens.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: But secondly, countries like China and Russia throw out that term to scare people.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: ...to intimidate you into not seeing the fact that Russia is gasping.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: It barely has the forces to do anything.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because the world rallied together and armed Ukraine.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: We saw a horrible wrong happening...
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the world came together and said, we will not tolerate this.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: We will not let you take Ukraine and multiple countries after that.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: It stops here.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it has worked.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: Two plus years sending old equipment,
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: rearming our own country's inventories with newer equipment,
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: which provided jobs.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: We helped the Ukrainians defend themselves.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: With adequate weaponry, obviously we could have sent more, but we did something.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_00: We did the valiant, courageous, correct thing.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: Could we have done more?
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the lack of courage that I sometimes hear in my countrymen worried about a World War III.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: When we are standing on the luxury and the protection of men and women...
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: who served and fought by the millions in World War I and World War II to grant us
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: this protection and safety that we covet with such delicate hands sometimes.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I just say this stuff because I've carried a rifle in cold places and wet
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: places and hot places,
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: and I've done my hard years.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the fear...
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the ability to allow a country like Russia to use disinformation and lies to
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_00: persuade public opinion...
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_00: For Americans to say we're not going to trust our own government and what they're telling us.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to listen to disinformation on TikTok or somewhere like that,
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_00: which says bad things about Americans.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand this.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm getting too old.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: But...
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: I get frustrated by this.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_00: The talk of, we don't want World War III.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_00: What if we don't want World War III?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the way to prevent World War III is to show these countries that you cannot
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: just invade your neighbors because you have a larger military.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: That that leads to anarchy.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: That we're not going to allow our little neighborhood to have someone move in and
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: start trashing the place.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: and then taking more property lines next to them, blocking the road, doing all kinds of stuff.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's why neighborhoods create homeowner associations.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, they can be abused and they can be obnoxious sometimes, but they also serve a purpose.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a way of a neighborhood saying, not here.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to let one home put a tarp over the roof for the next three years
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: and put a car up on a set of blocks that
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: And do a number of things that's going to damage everyone else's home values.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not going to happen.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not going to have 30 people living in that home.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not going to let you pull a trailer right in the front of it.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to do certain things.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason neighborhoods have homeowner associations.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason that since World War II...
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: The world has mostly come together and said we will not allow countries to invade other countries.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so when a country does so,
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: like when Iraq invaded Kuwait in the 90s,
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: a huge coalition of like 30 or 40 countries,
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_00: it might have even been 50,
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: but a huge coalition of countries said,
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_00: no,
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_00: not going to allow it.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to send troops, create a combined army, and we're going to liberate Kuwait.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to punish you for doing so.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then countries that couldn't or wouldn't send troops like Japan, they helped fund it.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was a signal to the world that dictators will not carry a sword around and threaten people.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be allowed.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to stop the bullying.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we've mostly held that in place,
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: but it just frustrates me that Americans,
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: with just the smallest amount of fear and disinformation from Russia,
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: we have not shown the courage we could have shown.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone listening to this knows I'm absolutely right.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone listening to this knows that a little bit of saber rattling from Russia,
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_00: the threat of a nuclear weapon,
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: which,
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: by the way,
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: all our parents dealt with the potential of nuclear annihilation as kids.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_00: They hid under desk and they worried about it so many nots.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: And yet we just,
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_00: our Netflix addiction or whatever the latest thing is or our Monday Night Football
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever little soft comfort we have,
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: we hear the word nuclear from Russia.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly we're all like scared little kids who just want to be protected
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_00: and we just want all the bad stuff to go away.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just want to close our window and ignore the screams that are happening.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so, if I sound a little frustrated, it's because I am.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think we could use a little pep talk.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think we could use a little more courage.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we could probably listen to our intelligence people who have told us
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_00: what Russia's intentions are,
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: what the threats are.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: They have warned us what the possibilities are in China.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_00: A country does not ramp up its military budget to the level that China does today.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_00: and act the way China is with its navy unless it has very bad plans for a whole lot of people in mind.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is just common sense.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter if you want peace.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you don't want to have World War III.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: We don't always get to decide.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_00: There are other people involved.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran want World War III.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we can either come together and say,
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to stand tall and courageous because we're going to let you know now
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: that if you guys want that,
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: it's not going to go well for you.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or we can,
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_00: as each little country,
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_00: turn our backs,
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: show fear and cowardice,
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: and we can repeat history as has been done two different times in the past century.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen this.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do we have to see this?
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do we have to be told about this?
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand how this is so hard to... It's not a hard concept.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh,
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: and I hear some of you people on the right out there who are probably cursing me
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_00: under your breath and calling me a globalist.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not forget,
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: you are the very same people who,
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: when Biden pulled out of Afghanistan,
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_00: said that the American weakness encouraged Russia to invade Ukraine.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let's not double ignore our own logic here.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can't say that us withdrawing from Afghanistan and showing that kind of
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: weakness encouraged Russia and then turn around and say we need to show weakness
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: somewhere else like against China or against Russia now and just give them half of Ukraine.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can't have it both ways.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's either logic.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your logic is either correct about Afghanistan or your logic isn't correct.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: But
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can't have it both ways.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I hear someone else out there objecting.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that I do struggle with.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: I hear some of you saying, well, what about Sudan?
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_00: What about some other country in, say, Africa or some poor part of Asia or some terrible thing happening?
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: You name the place.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: South America.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: What about Haiti?
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_00: What about... And we can what about it all day.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, the United States and the West cannot get involved everywhere.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not possible.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so, countries can decide where it's in their strategic interest to get involved and where it's not.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: We can't get involved everywhere, but we also don't have to never get involved anywhere.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_00: While outside your home,
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_00: you could probably drive 10 minutes any direction and find crime or terrible things happening,
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_00: and we can't stop everything.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: But what you can do is if you see crime happening right outside your house,
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: you can call the police,
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_00: or you can step outside and try to stop it.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can take some form of action.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what you can't do is you can't close your windows and ignore the screams.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's my point.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's show some moral courage.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm saying, because it's very clear Russia's going to show courage.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is beyond clear.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: China's not afraid to use water cannons, court cases.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're not afraid to do numerous things against either other countries or their own citizens.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: They have a plan.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're building their military.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're expanding and threatening other countries.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so there just comes a point where you as your neighborhood,
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_00: as you see something happening,
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_00: you can either just ignore it and go sit on the back porch and,
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_00: watch the sun go down and pretend nothing's going to happen in the near future.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can say, wow, China's leader says they need to be prepared to invade Taiwan by 2027.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why would he say that?
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or, wow, China's really building up their...
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: military.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why would they do that?
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_00: They had the second largest economy.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_00: Things were going well.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really understand why they'd risk that.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a fair question.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the same way that if you saw a home in your neighborhood,
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_00: lots of really bad people starting to show up,
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_00: car loads and
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_00: people looking armed and very dangerous,
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_00: and suddenly you're worried about your kid going out,
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: you can't just pretend that stuff's not happening.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to at some point do something.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to call the police.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to show a little moral courage and let them know that not in this neighborhood.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can't come here and do that in this neighborhood.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not going to happen.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just end by explaining one final thing that I'd happened to come across.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_00: There was an institute in Germany that looked at what Germany was spending to
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: support Ukraine and what would be the cost if it didn't support and Russia won.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what's interesting.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_00: If Germany allowed Russia to take Ukraine,
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_00: the cost to Germany would be 10 to 20 times greater than what Germany is currently spending.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now you say, how is that possible?
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got the numbers.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_00: At 0.1% of GDP...
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the German average annual military support for Ukraine has been since
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_00: the beginning of the war compared to the German economy.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they're currently spending 0.1%.
• 1:07:58
  0.1%.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's shockingly little for one of the strongest, most robust economies and countries in Europe.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_00: That sees a war happening on its flank.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're spending 0.1%.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this institute studied what would happen if Russia won.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how that 0.1% changes.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_00: A Russian victory in Ukraine.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_00: would lead to substantially higher costs for Germany through a number of ways.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_00: First,
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_00: increased military spending,
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_00: because Russia's going to be closer to them,
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_00: and the possibility of war,
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_00: far more likely.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, additional refugees.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is something I've said so many times on this podcast.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_00: Already 3-4 million Ukrainians have fled the country.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: If Russia starts to break through and starts to try to really take Ukraine,
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_00: do you know how many millions of people are going to flee?
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how many...
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_00: Millions have tried to support the war effort that would probably be rounded up and
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_00: tried by Russian authorities.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_00: They would have to flee.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: But of course they're Ukrainians, so most of them would fight to the death.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there would be additional refugees.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: There would be women leaving with kids at a minimum.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_00: Also, and this is kind of crazy, but people forget Ukraine is a very large country.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Germany would lose loss of trade and investment with Ukraine.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_00: And all of this at a conservative level.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_00: this is on the low end, would cost Germany about 1-2% of its GDP, 1-2% of its GDP, compared to 0.1%.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're talking 10-20 times higher cost if Ukraine were to somehow fall apart
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_00: under Russian invasion,
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_00: it's going to cost Germany.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you can think about this same example in your neighborhood situation.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_00: by allowing certain things to happen,
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: those things affect the value of your home or your own local economy,
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just... I feel like this is something that needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_00: All of these reasons and the pep talk and the reminder that we need to show just a
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_00: little bit of courage and the smallest amount of courage...
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_00: If the bully sees five or ten kids lock their arms together and say,
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_00: we're not going to allow you to punch little Joey during lunchtime,
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_00: or if you do that again,
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to tell the teacher,
• 1:10:44
  SPEAKER_00: or something.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_00: If people would just stand up and show the smallest amount of unity and spying,
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_00: then the bullies will not do what the bullies want to do.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lesson we've been learning since childhood,
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't understand why we can't take the lessons that we should know and apply
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_00: them at the larger level of how things happen across the world.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_00: The data is there.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_00: The past hundred years of history is there.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very simple concept.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to China just a little bit more specifically.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm referring to Hong Kong, where there's been some sad news.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just as a bit of a refresher of your history,
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_00: obviously Hong Kong used to be a British,
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: a colony of the British Empire.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then in some of that history, it was eventually occupied by Japan during World War II and
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then the United Kingdom got it back afterward,
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_00: and then they handed it over to China in 1997,
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_00: where initially it was pretty much promised that it would stay a democracy,
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_00: but we all know that China doesn't like free speech or democracy.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so since that time,
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_00: a lot has changed and China has been clamping down on what was once the free people
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_00: of Hong Kong.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to share a news report that's really quite sad and just further proof of how
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_00: China actually operates and how it will operate over any of the new territories it
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_00: acquires in the future as it controls its own massive territory of more than a
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_00: billion people that are completely locked down with limited freedoms and lots of
• 1:12:38
  SPEAKER_00: fears and
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_00: But let me share this report from MSNBC about the latest on what China has done to
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_00: some folks in Hong Kong who China sees as doing the horrific task of just trying to
• 1:12:55
  SPEAKER_00: practice democracy.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's turn overseas.
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Dozens of former politicians and activists were sent to prison today in Hong Kong.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_01: The mass trial targeted legal scholars,
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_01: opposition strategists and leading voices in the pro-democracy movement.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_01: China imposed crushing national security laws on Hong Kong in 2020,
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_01: following months of wide scale demonstrations against Chinese rule.
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Crackdown has been called a, quote, knockout blow.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_01: to hopes for democracy in Hong Kong.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Joining us now live from Beijing, NBC News international correspondent Janice Mackey-Ferrer.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Janice, what more can you tell us about this?
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well,
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Willie,
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_02: this trial is seen as the most significant sign of Beijing tightening its control
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_02: of Hong Kong.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Dozens of pro-democracy activists facing conspiracy charges under this national
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_02: security law that was imposed in 2020.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_02: All but two of the 47 lawmakers and politicians who were arrested back in 2021 were convicted today.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the crime, according to authorities, was holding or taking part in an unofficial primary election.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Among them was Benny Tai, a law professor.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_02: He got 10 years.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_02: 20 people were given terms of five to eight years.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Others, including Joshua Wong, a well-known activist, were jailed for over four years.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_02: Wong actually pleaded guilty so he could avoid a life sentence.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_02: The law was Beijing's response to those protests in Hong Kong in 2019.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_02: The government here saying it was necessary.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_02: to stop challenges to China's sovereignty.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's now made certain slogans a crime and expressing ideas about politics is dangerous.
• 1:14:31
  SPEAKER_02: Censorship and digital surveillance have also been stepped up.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_02: When I last spoke to Joshua Wong after the law came into effect,
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_02: he said,
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_02: well,
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_02: it doesn't mean we give up and stop.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_02: We're never going to stop fighting.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the law and then the arrests and now this trial have been
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_02: worked to all but end the pro-democracy movement, or it's at least pushed it well into the shadows.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Critics are saying it's the end of the rule of law in Hong Kong.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And tomorrow,
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Jimmy Lai,
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_02: the publisher,
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_02: will take the stand at his trial for the first time in four years.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_02: He's been in solitary confinement.
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_02: He's facing charges of collusion and sedition that are widely seen as politically motivated.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_02: And there have been international calls to have Lai, who's now 76 years old,
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_02: to be released immediately.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So very sad news there.
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know really what else to say.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I try every week to warn about the dangers of China and its plans.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so just all I can do is report on it and hope that a few people pay attention.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's get to the best part of the show.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, life is hard and sometimes you just need to hear something that will lift you up.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_00: every episode I like to share just a few verses from the Bible or some quotes that
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_00: touch on the Bible or Jesus.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just because, as you guys know, my Christian faith has become such a source of strength and wisdom.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_00: and calm for me during the past couple of years since losing my mom and then now
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_00: worry an awful lot about my dad and his pretty serious memory problems.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm betting that you might have something going on that's kind of challenging in
• 1:16:13
  SPEAKER_00: your life or that you're worried about,
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_00: or if you don't,
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're wise enough to know that it's coming.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately,
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_00: In life,
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_00: we are going to go through some challenging things,
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_00: and so I hope by sharing these,
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_00: it might encourage you a bit to get into your Bible,
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_00: because I think it'll change your life if you let it.
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_00: This first one I want to read is just a quote from someone,
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_00: and they said,
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_00: To all the bullies out there,
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_00: what if the person you're targeting is already struggling at home,
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_00: feeling hopeless,
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_00: and your actions push them deeper into despair?
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Consider the impact of your words.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Choose compassion.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's put an end to bullying and make a difference.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to share that because I know all of us are horrified when we think back
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_00: to our childhood when we bullied someone or laughed at a joke said by someone else
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_00: at someone's expense and we laughed at it.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we know what that hurt feels like.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to share that to remind us to stay on your kids and remind them of
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_00: how important it is that they not only not engage in bullying,
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_00: but that they also not laugh at or pile on,
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_00: and that possibly if they can and when they can,
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_00: they also help counter bullies.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's an important thing.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Stand up for the weak.
• 1:17:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's the right thing to do.
• 1:17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read next a verse from Matthew 5, verse 16.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's do another one.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Everything gets better with God.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Trust that He is walking with you.
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Again, everything gets better with God.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Trust that He is walking with you.
• 1:18:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is so amazing to have a Father that you can reach out to at any time.
• 1:18:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can be at work.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can be eating lunch.
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can be away from your physical parents.
• 1:18:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can speak to the Father at any time.
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is amazing.
• 1:18:31
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go to the next one.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you are walking on stony paths, so sharp, edgy, sharp stones.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you are walking on stony paths, remember that God will provide strong shoes.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great one.
• 1:18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do a couple more.
• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's another quote.
• 1:18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Worship through your worry,
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_00: worship through your fear,
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_00: worship through your stress,
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_00: and worship through your exhaustion.
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So again, worship through worry, fear, stress, and exhaustion.
• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the final one, this is from the book of Colossians.
• 1:19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we mentioned the shoes earlier for the stony path.
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_00: But clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
• 1:19:38
  SPEAKER_00: How important are those things?
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_00: More importantly, how amazing would the world be if more people followed those things?
• 1:19:47
  SPEAKER_00: As a quick reminder, I did launch a new podcast that focuses solely on faith.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can find it in the episode notes, or you can just search in whatever station you listen to or at.
• 1:20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just search The Search for God.
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And my name's Stan R. Mitchell, and that will come up.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think I've got five episodes up of that.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_00: just as a final scripture reminder,
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I try to remind people,
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_00: do not grow weary in doing good,
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_00: even if you're just helping one hungry kid,
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_00: donating one school backpack.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_00: You may not be able to solve world hunger.
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_00: You may not be able to fix everything in our country or even in your neighborhood,
• 1:20:26
  SPEAKER_00: but you are doing good.
• 1:20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be overwhelmed by the size of the world's problems.
• 1:20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know absolutely nothing about the Bible,
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_00: but you kind of just want to test the waters because you don't really want to try church,
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I totally get that.
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a link in the episode notes that you can click where I've written some
• 1:20:48
  SPEAKER_00: information that's just kind of a resource page that you can follow,
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_00: where you should read,
• 1:20:53
  SPEAKER_00: etc.
• 1:20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally,
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_00: even if you don't want to be anything to do with Christianity,
• 1:21:01
  SPEAKER_00: just remember to be a part of a community,
• 1:21:03
  SPEAKER_00: if nothing else.
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_00: As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes,
• 1:21:07
  SPEAKER_00: two people are better off than one,
• 1:21:10
  SPEAKER_00: for they can help each other succeed.
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_00: If one person falls, the other can reach out and help.
• 1:21:16
  SPEAKER_00: but someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
• 1:21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm, but how can one be warm alone?
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Finally,
• 1:21:30
  SPEAKER_00: a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated,
• 1:21:33
  SPEAKER_00: but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
• 1:21:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is from the Bible.
• 1:21:43
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 begins with verses 9, goes all the way down to verse 12.
• 1:21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then I like to end every week's edition with this one, which is not Christian or anything.
• 1:21:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a good quote.
• 1:21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Be the reason someone smiles, be the reason someone feels loved, and believes in the goodness of people.
• 1:22:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're one of those people that say,
• 1:22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need Christianity,
• 1:22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a good moral person,
• 1:22:10
  SPEAKER_00: then I'm challenging you to be a very good moral person.
• 1:22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be a light.
• 1:22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for joining us tonight, guys.
• 1:22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
• 1:22:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for ways to support, there are several ways to do so.
• 1:22:23
  SPEAKER_00: All of them in the episode notes.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can support us through Venmo, PayPal.
• 1:22:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can support through Patreon, through Substack.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_00: All the details for that are in the episode notes.
• 1:22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to mention one other thing.
• 1:22:35
  SPEAKER_00: All of my books make great Christmas gifts.
• 1:22:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you're thinking of buying a book for a military guy or gal,
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe someone who's retired,
• 1:22:45
  SPEAKER_00: they all make great gifts.
• 1:22:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you can be thinking about that.
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I did want to mention...
• 1:22:52
  SPEAKER_00: One particular one, especially.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_00: That one is called Little Man and the Dixon County War.
• 1:22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is a great, just a great book from beginning to end.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the first ones I wrote.
• 1:23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the story is just so fast moving.
• 1:23:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a Western, quick moving, just a good shoot them up.
• 1:23:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'll read part of a review because you're going to want to read this book or buy it
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_00: for that person of yours who needs it.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_00: The review says, don't call him, quote, little man.
• 1:23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then the review reads,
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_00: his name is Paul,
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_00: and his story is a rip snorter of a tale about good versus bad,
• 1:23:34
  SPEAKER_00: real bad.
• 1:23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Cricket shares,
• 1:23:38
  SPEAKER_00: governors taking bribes,
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_00: and a man slowly taking over with indiscriminate killings to obtain more land and cattle.
• 1:23:46
  SPEAKER_00: No one dares stand in the way except one.
• 1:23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Little man with a big heart who overcomes unbeatable odds.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Go west, young man, but take a lot of guns and ammo.
• 1:23:58
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be needing both.
• 1:23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Good writing by Stan Mitchell.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah.
• 1:24:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't checked out that book, Little Man and the Dixon County War, it is a good one.
• 1:24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, I think that's everything.
• 1:24:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was a long episode this week, but I appreciate everyone's patience.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely appreciate y'all joining us this week.
• 1:24:19
  SPEAKER_00: And reach out to me anytime.
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_00: I always say emails in the episode notes.
• 1:24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I try to answer each and every episode relatively quickly.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_00: At least until this point, the show has not been big enough that I couldn't answer all of them.
• 1:24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I will always strive to answer all of them.
• 1:24:37
  SPEAKER_00: But perhaps some of the indications are that there might be a day when I can't.
• 1:24:40
  SPEAKER_00: But at least while I can, reach out.
• 1:24:44
  SPEAKER_00: See if that guy Stan will answer your email.
• 1:24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I bet he will.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks a lot, guys.
• 1:24:49
  SPEAKER_00: I will catch you all soon,
• 1:24:51
  SPEAKER_00: possibly with an interview episode dropping before the next edition,
• 1:24:58
  SPEAKER_00: depending on how the scheduling goes.
• 1:25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much.