As we wave goodbye to the old year and ring in the new year, Breaking Battlegrounds brings you a special New Year's episode that's all about setting the stage for success and positive change. Our first guest, Dean Lindsay, author and CEO of Progress Agents, dives into the art of achieving "Big Phat Goals" and shares his insights on transforming aspirations into action. Next, we pivot to the world of career transformation with Ashley Stahl, a counterterrorism professional turned career coach, whose expertise lies in navigating career crossroads with clarity and confidence. This week, join Chuck Warren and Sam Stone for a conversation that promises to ignite your motivation and help you chart a course toward your dreams in the coming year.Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsAward-winning business author, Dean Lindsay – CEO of The Progress Agents LLC – is a successful business culture strategist, a skilled workshop facilitator and a powerful business keynote speaker with a humorous and engaging approach (watch latest demo below).  Dean is ranked as one of World's Top 30 Sales Speakers by Global Gurus and hailed as ‘America’s Progress Agent’ by The Strategic HR Forum.  Each of Dean’s keynote presentations and fully customized sales, customer service and leadership coaching programs – in person & virtual – are designed to help reach each client’s desired outcomes.  Here are some of his most requested topics:* Achieving BIG PHAT (Sales &Team) GOALS : Goal Commitment is Key for Accountability, Resilience and True Mental Health* LEADING PROGRESS in a World of Change (featuring insights from Dean's award-winning book PROGRESS LEADESHIP: Say No to Change Management)* OPTIMISM IS AN ASSET! : Master the #1 Most Underdeveloped Skill needed for Happiness, Innovation & Resilience by Harnessing the power of Optimizing our Optimism* ROCKING the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE to Strengthen Loyalty & Cultivate Referrals – in person, on the phone & on line-Ashley Stahl is a counterterrorism professional turned career coach, spokesperson, and author of the bestselling book, You Turn: Get Unstuck, Discover Your Direction, Design Your Dream Career.Through her two viral TEDx speeches, her online courses, her email list, and her show, the You Turn Podcast, she’s been able to support clients in 31 countries in discovering their best career path, upgrading their confidence, and landing more job offers. She maintains a monthly career column in Forbes, and her work has been also featured in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CBS, SELF, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and more. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Join us for a heartwarming holiday episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with Chuck Warren and Sam Stone where the spirit of the season shines through stories of resilience, joy, and transformation. Our first guests are the hosts of the beloved "Deck the Hallmark" podcast – Brandon Gray and Daniel Thompson are known for their diverse takes on Hallmark films. Listen as Brandon shares his passion for Hallmark's Christmas cheer, while "Grumpy Dan" gives us the scoop on why he's the outlier of the group. They'll reveal behind-the-scenes facts about Hallmark movies, discuss their favorite holiday films, and answer why they think Hallmark movies are loved by so many.In the second half of the show, we're joined by the inspiring Celeste Edmunds, Executive Director of The Christmas Box International, along with renowned author Richard Paul Evans. Celeste's story of overcoming a harrowing childhood as detailed in her bestselling book, "Garbage Bag Girl," co-written with Richard Paul Evans, offers a message of hope and courage. They will discuss the transformative work being done at The Christmas Box International, and how Celeste's experiences fuel her dedication to improving the lives of children in the foster care system. This episode is a blend of light-hearted holiday banter and profound stories of resilience, celebrating the season's ability to inspire hope and transformation.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsBrandon Gray is the heart of the Hallmark Christmas movie fandom within the group. His love for the channel's festive rom-coms sparked the idea for the podcast as a way to bond with friends over the ever-growing lineup of holiday films. Daniel Thompson, affectionately known as "Grumpy Dan" by fans, brings a critical eye to the Hallmark movie empire. A self-proclaimed anti-establishment figure in the world of Hallmark critiques, Dan's unique perspective adds spice to the podcast. Stepping down from his principal role at Shannon Forest after the 2018-19 school year, he now dedicates his time fully to the podcast.Together, the "Deck the Hallmark" hosts, who began their journey as educators at Shannon Forest Christian School, have carved out a niche in the podcasting world. They've watched every Hallmark movie, providing them a wealth of content to discuss, and eagerly share their holiday film insights at www.deckthehallmark.com and across podcast platforms. -The Christmas Box International Executive Director Celeste L. Edmunds understands what the children she serves at The Christmas Box House emergency shelters are going through. She went through it herself. Her biological parents were addicts, and her childhood was an ongoing cycle of police calls, fighting, and physical, sexual, and mental abuse. At age 7, Celeste was taken from her home and placed into a child welfare system, where moving every few months to a new environment became normal. By age sixteen, she had lived in more than 30 cities ultimately finding home in an unlikely place. Her book “Garbage Bag Girl” is her incredible story of hope and love.Richard Paul Evans, an award-winning author, has sold nearly 39 million copies of his books worldwide, written 46 consecutive New York Times bestsellers and has had seven of his books produced as television movies (CBS, TNT and Hallmark.) Last November, Evans’ first feature film, The Noel Diary starring Justin Hartley (This is Us) and directed by Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride, Private Benjamin) was the #1 Netflix movie in the world the week after Thanksgiving and spent five weeks among the top Netflix movies in the world.Evans hopes Garbage Bag Girl will save children’s lives and help the half million children in the foster care system today. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

In this week's episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, we kick off with an insightful segment featuring Aaron Steed, the CEO of Meathead Movers. Despite the numerous accolades, including being recognized by the Obama Administration, Meathead Movers recently faced a federal lawsuit alleging age discrimination. It's important to note that no individual filed a complaint against Meathead Movers; this action came directly from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. We delve into the details of the lawsuit, exploring the implications and challenges ahead. Following this, Ashley Hayek, Executive Director of America First Works, engages in two segments, shedding light on her new book, "Beat the Elites," the fentanyl crisis, and her early entrepreneurial endeavors of selling Mistletoe’s during the holidays. Lastly, we are joined by Patrick Byrne, founder of Overstock.com, discusses whistleblower complaints aimed at Jack Smith. Kiley is back this week for Kiley's Corner, where she takes us on a delightful exploration of the history of ugly Christmas sweaters. Don't miss these thought-provoking conversations shaping our current landscape!-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsAaron Steed started Meathead Movers in 1997 as a way to make money while going to school and to support himself while being a competitive wrestler. Always wanting to be the best on and off the mat, he strived to create the best moving company by utilizing clean-cut, drug-free, student athlete movers who are professionally-trained. Meathead has grown to become the largest independent moving company in California with over 700+ employees and 120+ trucks. Currently, Meathead has six operation centers in Central and Southern CA and three storage facilities with plans to expand in the future.Aaron has led his team to land on the Inc. 5000 “Fastest growing companies in the US” list for eight years in a row, making them the top 2% of fastest growing companies in the country. Aaron has also been recognized as Small Business Administration’s “Young Entrepreneur of the Year,” and the White House’s “Top 100 Entrepreneurs” under the age of 35 who are making a difference. His passion for serving the community is reflected in his company, as well as in his work on the board of NCADV, and for the French Hospital. He is also the Founder of the MoveToEndDV, which has inspired hundreds of businesses all over the world to give back to domestic violence programs.-Ashley Hayek is Executive Director of America First Works, Chief Engagement Officer America First Policy Institute and Author of her new book Beat the Elites. Ashley is originally from the small agricultural town of Clovis, California, and serves as AFPI’s Chief Engagement Officer. Hayek is a political strategist with over 15 years of experience in political, non-profit, and organization consulting, most recently serving on the Trump-Pence 2020 presidential campaign as the National Coalitions Director. At the age of 22, she started her first company in the loft of her townhouse in San Diego and within five years became the premier political and non-profit fundraising firm in Southern California. Hayek attended the University of California, San Diego, where she received a degree in Political Science, and is the proud wife of a United States Marine and mom of five. Despite her relentless commitment to work, she is devoted to her family, juggling it all in her best stilettos.-Patrick Byrne received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and Asian studies from Dartmouth College, a master’s in philosophy (ethics) from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a doctorate in philosophy (focusing on political theory, jurisprudence, and economics) from Stanford University. He has taught at the university level and frequently guest-lectures on business, the Internet, leadership and ethics.Patrick served as chairman, president and CEO of Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torch consumables, then held the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company that manufactures police, firefighter and military uniforms. Patrick Michael Byrne is the former CEO of Overstock.com, Inc., a Utah-based internet retailer that has been publicly traded since 2002.In 2001, Patrick began Worldstock.com, Overstock.com’s socially responsible store for products handcrafted by artisans from developing nations and rural areas of the USA.  To date, more than $30 million has been returned to Worldstock’s artisan suppliers.A classical liberal, Patrick believes that our nation’s future depends primarily on a sound educational system and a healthy capital market. Towards those ends, Patrick serves with Rose Friedman as co-chair of the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, supporting legislative reform to bring educational choice to parents.  Patrick has also founded 19 schools internationally that currently educate more than 6,000 combined students.In 2005, Patrick began a vigorous campaign against corruption in our capital markets through securities manipulation. His stance quickly caught the attention of Wall Street analysts and reporters and remains a point of high controversy today. The Deep Capture website grew out of this campaign. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Join us this week on Breaking Battlegrounds as we welcome two distinguished guests. Bill Gertz, the esteemed national security correspondent for The Washington Times, sheds light on critical global challenges. From illegal claims in the South China Sea to China's cognitive warfare tactics, Gertz unveils crucial insights. Then, legendary journalist John Stossel takes the stage. With a career spanning 50 years, Stossel challenges prevailing myths about food insecurity, scrutinizes emergency spending, and dissects misconceptions about capitalism. Learn more at Stossel TV. Tune in for a captivating exploration of pressing global issues with our insightful guests.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsBill Gertz is a national security correspondent for The Washington Times. He has been with The Times since 1985.He is the author of eight books, four of them national best-sellers. His latest book, "Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China's Drive for Global Supremacy," reveals details about the growing threat posed by the People's Republic of China. He is also the author of the ebook "How China's Communist Party Made the World Sick."Mr. Gertz also writes Inside the Ring, a weekly column that chronicles the U.S. national security bureaucracy.Mr. Gertz has been a guest lecturer at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.; the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia; the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington; and the Brookings Institution in Washington. He has participated in the National Security Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.-With 50 years as a reporter, John Stossel, a pioneer in TV consumer reporting, left mainstream media to spread liberty and free market ideas to the younger generation. After exposing con men and thieves, winning 19 Emmys, and challenging government overreach, Stossel's shift in focus led to his skepticism of big government's role, emphasizing the power of free markets. Departing ABC News due to differences in airing segments on free markets, Stossel launched Stossel TV, producing weekly videos reaching over two million views each. Alongside this, he founded a non-profit, Stossel in the Classroom, engaging 10 million students annually in discussions on liberty and free markets, aiming to educate through videos, teacher guides, quizzes, contests, and more. Support for these initiatives is welcome through tax-deductible donations to the Center For Independent Thought. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we're excited to welcome Henry Olsen, Washington Post columnist, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and host of Beyond the Polls. Alongside Olsen, we're welcoming Noah Smith, a journalist with a unique focus on the business, political, and cultural implications of video games, bringing a fresh perspective on the intersections of gaming, culture, and society. Plus, don't miss Kiley's Corner, where Kiley dives into the gripping case of Oklahoma City Attorney and Her Client-Turned-Lover Charged with Triple Murder. -Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsHenry Olsen Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was the Thomas W. Smith distinguished scholar in residence at Arizona State University for the winter/spring 2023 semester. Olsen began his career as a political consultant at the California firm of Hoffenblum-Mollrich. After three years working for the California Assembly Republican Caucus, he returned to school to become a lawyer. Following law school he clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and as an associate in the Philadelphia office of Dechert, Price & Rhoads. He then joined the think tank world where he spent the next eighteen years as an executive at a variety of institutions, serving as the President of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Vice President at the Manhattan Institute, and as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He left AEI in 2013 to pursue a career in political analysis and writing at EPPC. During that time his work has appeared in variety of leading publications in America and the United Kingdom. He is the author or co-author of two books, “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism” and (with Dante J. Scala) “The Four Faces of the Republican Party”. His biennial election predictions have been widely praised for the uncanny accuracy, and he is a frequent guest on television and radio programs. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United State, Europe, and Australia.Noah Smith - Washington PostNoah Smith is a journalist focused on the business, political and cultural implications of video games. His reporting for The Post has also included national, political, business, sports and culture news. Noah's writing, photos and videos have previously appeared in NBC News, the New York Times, the Guardian, Fortune Magazine, and dozens of outlets across the U.S. He was based in Israel from 2012-2013, where he reported for Digital First Media outlets in the U.S. Midwest. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

In this week's episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, we're honored to feature Aaron Murphy, a social media sensation whose journey in South America ignited a powerful mission against poverty. Overcoming personal struggles, Aaron's act of selflessness during lockdowns sparked a movement, inspiring donations to aid impoverished families. Explore the impact of MurphsLife Foundation in creating food farms, toy factories, shelters, and schools in El Salvador. Following Aaron's inspiring narrative, join Judge John Kralik, renowned for '365 Thank Yous' and 'A Simple Act of Gratitude.' His journey, born from a New Year's resolution to express daily gratitude, unfolded through transformative books. Later in the episode, Pastor Carl Wimmer delves into the biblical perspective on gratitude, offering spiritual insights. It's a power-packed show delving into personal missions, transformative gratitude, and insightful perspectives. Don't miss this episode of Breaking Battlegrounds—it's one you won't want to miss!-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsAaron Murphy is a social media sensation who transformed his journey in South America into a mission to combat poverty. Overcoming personal struggles, he immersed himself in the region, learning languages and understanding the socio-economic landscape. His act of selflessness during the lockdowns sparked a movement, inspiring donations to aid impoverished families.After a particularly bad 2007, lawyer and Judge John Kralik decided to start 2008 with a serious New Year's resolution: to be thankful for the good things and people in his life. So he spent the next year writing one thank you note for each day -- to family, friends, co-workers, even the barista at his local Starbucks. Those notes make up his new book, 365 Thank Yous: The Year A Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

In the latest episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, we're joined by Noah Rothman, a seasoned senior writer at National Review. He sets the stage with his incisive take on the complexities of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the intricate web of American foreign policy dynamics. Brace yourself for thought-provoking discussions that kickstart the show's exploration of today's most critical global issues. Following Noah, Corinne Murdock takes the spotlight, diving deep into her investigative reporting. She delves into the case of Arizona State University College of Law Professor Khaled Beydoun, who deleted a viral tweet detailing a racially-motivated verbal attack against Muslims after it was publicly exposed as fake. We have a power-packed episode for you—this is one you won't want to miss!-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About out guestsNoah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. He is the author of The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back against Progressives’ War on Fun and Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America.-Corinne Murdock is a reporter who prioritizes truth and rejects those partisan takes that spare a favored narrative. In addition to AZ Free News, her reporting appears in The Daily Wire and Be the People News. She got her start reporting with The Star News Network. Her proudest reporting accomplishment to date: when The Rush Limbaugh Show cited her investigative reporting prior to his passing. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

In this week's episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, we're honored to host Carla Sands, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark and current Vice Chair at the America First Policy Institute. She brings unparalleled insights into pressing global issues, including ambassadors' advocacy for Israel and the dynamic role of ambassadors in conflicts similar to those in Israel and Ukraine. Join us for a comprehensive discussion on the risks associated with Biden's energy plan, featuring facts and figures that shed light on it all. Later in the show, we welcome back Attorney General Austin Knudsen, addressing his recent reelection bid for Attorney General, the constitutional implications of Hawaii's gun ban, and the support for a mother suing a school district for hiding her child's gender transition. Visit AustinForMontana.com to learn more. Wrapping up, we have a special podcast feature with labor law and policy expert Vinnie Vernuccio, exploring deceptive salting loopholes in unions and their impact on the workforce. Plus, don't miss Kiley's Corner, where Kiley provides updates on the Idaho 4 murder case and reports on the suspicions surrounding the suicides of four Los Angeles Sheriff Department deputies within a 24-hour span on Monday. It's a power-packed episode you won't want to miss!-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsAmbassador Carla Sands is currently the Vice Chair, the Center for Energy & Environment, America First Policy Institute, and also leads AFPI’s Pennsylvania Chapter. She previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark which includes Greenland, and the Faroe Islands from 2017-2021.During her tenure, she and her team increased U.S. exports to Denmark by 45% according to MIT’s Observatory of Economic Complexity.  Her number one goal as ambassador was to increase U.S. national security by establishing a consulate in Greenland. By working with the inter-agency and Congress, her goal was realized in 2020.Additionally, she successfully executed trade and cooperation agreements with Greenland and the Faroe Islands to counter Russian and Chinese malign influence. In 2021 she was awarded the Department of Defense’s highest civilian honor, the Medal for Distinguished Public Service.In 2015-2017 Carla served as Chairman of Vintage Capital Group and its subsidiary company Vintage Real Estate which specialized in the acquisition and development of regional malls and shopping centers across the country.Before an orderly wind-down of the company starting in 2018, Vintage Real Estate had a portfolio that included 13 properties with 4.3 million square feet invested in underperforming assets. The team was vertically integrated with in-house leasing, development, and property management.Early brief careers included film acting and practice as a 3rd generation Doctor of Chiropractic. Carla pursued her undergraduate education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Elizabethtown College where she studied pre-med and earned her Doctor of Chiropractic from Life Chiropractic College.Carla is currently a board member of the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum and serves on the advisory boards of Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, and the International Women’s Forum. She has served on many charitable and philanthropic boards.-Attorney General Austin Knudsen grew up on his family farm and ranch just outside of Bainville (in the far northeast corner of Montana) where they grew wheat, sugar beets and raised angus cattle. Austin was a 4-H kid, raising steers to show at the fair, and volunteering at community events. He participated in Future Farmers of America (FFA) throughout high school. In fact, Austin met his wife, Christie, while they both served as FFA State Officers during their freshman year of college at Montana State University-Bozeman.Austin put himself through college in Bozeman working jobs at the local butcher shop and a hardware store, and each summer he returned to work on the farm and ranch. Austin and Christie were married shortly after graduation and moved to Missoula where Austin earned his law degree from the University of Montana. Their oldest daughter Leah was born in between Austin’s first and second years of law school and they were later blessed with a son, Connor, and their youngest daughter, Reagan.After law school, Austin and Christie moved their family back to the farm and ranch where they knew they could instill in their children strong Montana values. Austin worked at a law firm in Plentywood before opening his own practice in Culbertson.In 2010, Austin was elected to serve as the Representative for House District 34, defeating a two-term incumbent Democrat in what was one of the most expensive State House races in Montana history. Having quickly noticed the extent of the disconnect between Helena bureaucrats and political insiders and the rest of the people across Montana, Austin took on leadership roles within his caucus and was elected Speaker Pro Tempore (deputy Speaker) in just his second session of service.AustinForMontana.com-F. Vincent Vernuccio, president and co-founder of Institute for the American Worker, brings over 15 years of expertise in labor law and policy. Vernuccio holds advisory positions with several organizations, including senior fellow with the Mackinac Center. Vernuccio served on the U.S. Department of Labor transition team for the Trump Administration and as a member of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. Under former President George W. Bush, he served as special assistant secretary for administration and management in the Department of Labor. He has advised state and federal lawmakers and their staff on a multitude of labor-related issues, and testified before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and Labor Policy.TRANSCRIPTION Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Our first guest up today. Carla Sands served as US ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, which includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, from 2017 to 2021. Currently, the vice chair at the center for Energy and Environment and America First Policy Institute. Ambassador, thank you for joining us. Welcome to the program.Carla Sands: Thanks. It's great to be with you guys.Chuck Warren: Well, ambassador, I was listening to an interview that you had recently that said you always wanted to be an ambassador. You've always been involved in politics, very engaged. You always wanted to be one. Then one day, you get a call from the Trump administration and said, we're going to appoint you here. What? Did it meet your expectations, I guess is my question.Carla Sands: Wow. So it was a dream as a high school girl to be an ambassador, but I didn't know about the Foreign Service.Chuck Warren: Matter of fact, matter of fact. Ambassador, I wonder how many girls in junior high have the dream of being an ambassador.Sam Stone: It's. It's brilliant. I love that.Chuck Warren: I love it, too, I continue. Sorry. That's amazing.Carla Sands: No, no, not at all. So I just harbored that dream in my heart and went off and became a businesswoman. And so when I got the call, I mean, I was thrilled because we know, like when you can fulfill a dream, it's a very, very good thing. So I went off and served and it did exceed my expectations. It was extraordinary. What an honor to work for the all the people of the United States. And the power of our federal government is so immense that that, you know, the respect that you receive has nothing to do with you as a person. The the other country's leaders respect our country so much.Sam Stone: Ambassador, I have to jump in. I know we're going to get to talking about the letter that you helped organize to Congress about Israel, but from the outside, and maybe this isn't entirely fair, but it seems like there are, in essence, two types of ambassadors, those that go in a more ceremonial role and those that roll up their sleeves and dig in. And the ones that, like you did, roll up their sleeves and dig in, can get really extraordinary things done. And I think a lot of times under the radar, people don't even realize that it's true.Carla Sands: And political ambassadors, some of them do go to it seems like have have a vacation and some go to really work hard. But but the career foreign service officers, because some people make a career out of being an American diplomat, you just take the test, the Foreign Service test, and then you enter the Foreign Service and the, the, the capstone for their careers would be to become an ambassador. Those people also get a lot done, but they don't have most of them don't have that private sector experience that, for instance, the Trump ambassadors brought that where we know how to get things done. And they're also fearful of doing the wrong thing, because then it's very easy to derail a fellow Foreign Service officer's career.Chuck Warren: Oh, interesting. Interesting.Sam Stone: That makes they live in fear a lot of sense.Chuck Warren: What surprised you about the what surprised you about the job?Carla Sands: Um, what surprised me was how much some European countries dislike, like the United States and do not wish us well. Who are they? How unfair. Most of our European allies. Actually, our trade isn't fair. They do things. Their tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers. They they do. They do a lot of unfair things to our trade, to suppress our trade where we don't do that to others in the same way we're we're pretty much a fair minded country. We've cut a lot of bad trade deals. I think President Trump tried to right those bad deals and did have a lot of success. He got that phase one China deal, he got the NAFTA, became Usmca. So he was looking after the American working people and American companies and saying, you got to treat us fairly. That was a big surprise to me.Sam Stone: And that's a that was a big shift in his administration, because historically, there really hadn't been much pushback against any of those barriers or trade deals.Carla Sands: Yeah. No.Sam Stone: No.Chuck Warren: Let's get to the nitty gritty. So on October 7th, a major terrorist attack happened upon Israel. Yeah, a group of ambassadors, including you, sent a letter to Congress urging support for our closest ally in the Middle East, which is Israel. My question to you. There's two questions here. One, did you have anybody saying no to you when you try to round up this letter? And two, we have two main hot points in the world right now Israel, Ukraine. And of course, there's a bunch of other things. There are very long term but immediate focus. What is the role for an ambassador, a US ambassador in those crises?Carla Sands: Yeah, it's a really good question. So first of all, the ambassadors really did want to support this letter on behalf of. So on behalf of all of us urging bipartisan urging Congress and the Senate to support Israel and to make sure that that support stuck. And because we all saw that ISIS kind of behavior in Israel. My worry is we're going to get that in the US on our soil, because the Biden administration has a wide open border and they're not catching all of the terrorists. They already caught less than 300 like in the last recent time, but we only catch 60%. So some are getting through. And a lot of Chinese aged and foreign countries we're not friends with aged military men are getting through to tens of thousands. But the role of an ambassador. So during a conflict like this, it really depends where they're serving. Are they serving in a NATO ally country? Are they serving in an adversarial country, a muslim majority country? Right. So you got to know, like the audience and how you can get support. And then if you look at how all of these different countries around the world are voting at the UN, for instance, not to censure Russia after the Ukraine invasion, if you see how the Chinese Communist Party is having an outsized influence on a lot of these countries in the world, and then you see how if we all think about the United States Congress and the president, we have been in a bipartisan way supporting Israel, the state of Israel and the Israeli people. It's been very strong. But now you see how the left and the Muslim supporting elected officials and citizens have really, it looks like abandoned Israel in a public way. And they're supporting the terrorist group Hamas.Chuck Warren: Right.Sam Stone: Ambassador, do you think this is adjacent? But one of the things that we've seen is that these these radicalized Islamic factions have done a really good job of infiltrating US universities and education and really spreading their message there. Does Israel need to be more proactive in trying to counter that messaging at that level?Carla Sands: Well.Sam Stone: Can they? I mean, I don't know.Carla Sands: I think it's tough because there's so much anti-Semitism around the world. It's very strong. So it's a big challenge. But it's not just in academia. Iran is at the highest. Iran has people in the highest levels at the DoD, at our Pentagon. So and yes, they do in the white House and at State Department. So they have influence over our government. And you can see that in some of the softer support of Israel, how we saw Obama, very big Iran sympathizer. And we can see how, for instance, the the students for Justice in Palestine is on a lot of college campuses. That's a muslim Brotherhood offshoot, right, funded by the Muslim Brotherhood. Okay. Like ISIS kind of people, all funded through Iran. So this is all the spawn of Iran. And I think we really are are doing a disservice to the kids on our campuses to allow such an entity have such a big influence, but also Muslim countries. And they're funding things at the universities are having an influence in what our kids are learning too.Chuck Warren: Well, it seems like all these university professors do is out, raise money all the time, and they don't really care what it comes from. But, you know, like Covid, while while Covid was a tragedy, what it did do is open a lot of middle class parents eyes, upper middle class parents eyes to how bad the public schools are. And you're seeing those changes in education and the only the only spark of light in this tragedy in Israel right now is it's a waking up a lot of donors to how bad these universities are, and that they've been giving money and they're not going to do this any longer. So hopefully this has some long term effects. Have you? Being a Pennsylvania girl, are you surprised by Fetterman's absolute support for Israel? I mean, I've been impressed. I mean, he is not taken. He is giving it back. I'm really impressed by it.Carla Sands: Well, before I pivot to Fetterman, I just wanted to say that China has given $400 billion to Iran in military training and military equipment. So China is behind a lot of what is happening. There's now become an alliance which is economic and military with China, Russia, Iran. And of course, we know North Korea, but it seems like it's strengthening and becoming more bold. John Fetterman I mean, please, how it's embarrassing to Pennsylvania. It's embarrassing that he's representing us. He doesn't share my values. But yeah, I'm glad that he's supporting Israel. That's the right thing to do. Everything else he's ever said and fought for, I'm against. But in this one place, I will stand with him because you find your friends where you find them.Sam Stone: It takes a lot of courage on the left. Right. Well, I.Chuck Warren: Think I think here's the thing about him as well. And I agree with you 100% on your opinion on him. I think it's important if we want to start seeing some resolve and getting things done in DC again, that when our political opponents do something that's worthwhile, that we do say thank you. Though you agree, you give credit. I don't think you can get anything done. If we say everything they do is bad. Because you know, what makes you ever going to build any goodwill to get things done? And so I think in the case of Fetterman, I agree with you. I wish he wasn't in the Senate. I think he's going to vote the wrong way 98% of the time. But when they go and do something like this, I think you say kudos. Thank you.Carla Sands: Yeah.Chuck Warren: Quickly. We're going to take a break here in about two minutes. But I quickly want to ask you, how did you increase trade US exports to Denmark by 45%. Who did you beat up to get this done really quickly?Carla Sands: What I did is we made goals at the embassy. Number one, security number two, trade to make to create American jobs. And so I and my team would go and talk to pension funds to insurance companies saying, please invest in America by our by by our companies or invest in them, invest in our stock market. Please buy our real estate. And we would ask them to invest in the US. And then I would work to get them to be open to more trade to from the US. And you have to understand the EU trade really is done in Brussels. We went to Brussels, but there's other stuff we did as well.Sam Stone: That is brilliant and real quick we have about 30s left. What are our number one export? What are our top exports to Denmark?Carla Sands: Well, they buy our pharmaceuticals, we buy theirs, they buy a lot of software and they use our Zoom and Microsoft platforms. So there's a lot of service exports as well. But they also buy wood pellets and burn them and call it green.Sam Stone: Of course. Of course folks, we're going to be coming back with more from Ambassador Carla Sands in just a moment, so please stay tuned. And if you're not already, make sure you're subscribed to download our podcast, Breaking Battlegrounds Dot vote. We'll be back in just a moment.Advertisement: At Overstock. We know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms. Overstock has every day free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock. Making dream homes come true.Sam Stone: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. We're continuing on with Ambassador Carlos Sands in just a moment. But first, folks, how's your portfolio doing? The market's been going up and down. Biden. The Biden economy is just tearing people apart. That's why we recommend highly recommend that you check out our friends and invest y Refy.com. So go to their website, invest the letter Y then refy.com learn how you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return on your money. You can compound it. You can take the money monthly as income. No attack on principal if you have to withdraw your money ahead of time, it's a fantastic opportunity. So again check them out. Invest y.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: We're with Ambassador Carla Sands. Sands? She's from Pennsylvania. She's a former US ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. You can find more about her and her writings at Carla. Sanskar com. She is also the vice chair for the center for Energy and Environment for the American First Policy. Which brings me to the question. I'm still laughing. They import the Kingdom of Denmark wood pellets in Burnham and count them as clean energy. How is the clean energy policies affecting Europe? I know when the war started in Ukraine with Russia's aggressive actions. Yes. You know, oil, the Nordic pipeline, I mean everything.Sam Stone: Germany, Poland, they're buying coal to burn in their houses.Chuck Warren: New York Times basically said when the war started, Europe's going black that winter. Right. Okay. So how was the green energy crusade of Europe affecting businesses and employees and their households and things of that nature? Yeah.Carla Sands: Well, thousands of people died in London last year because of the high price of heating. Thousands.Sam Stone: You don't hear that from anywhere?Chuck Warren: No. Wow.Carla Sands: Yeah. Germany and Denmark pay the highest energy costs in all of Europe. And they really did believe in Germany that they were going to have everything was going to be windmills and solar panels and Kumbaya. But the dirty secret was they were doing that deal with Nord Stream two, the Russian gas pipeline, as their base load power. But they never talk about that. They were turning their back on clean nuclear. They wouldn't turn their nuclear plants on. So there's there is a kind of climate delusion, a climate religion that a lot of Europeans have bought into. And you can hear their doxology as they speak. But but it's crazy. It doesn't work. You need baseload power. Maybe tiny countries can make that work, but not countries that make big things. You need a lot of power to do manufacturing like we do in the US. And so on. A cold day in my state of Pennsylvania, a third of the power comes from gas, a third from nuclear, and a third from coal, with maybe 2%, 2.5% from renewables. And and that's pretty much what it's going to be. I think we'll increase the natural gas over the years. The renewables haven't kicked up a whole lot, even with the billions and hundreds of billions and trillions that we're dumping into it as taxpayers.Chuck Warren: Well, I just looked up your comment about how many people died in England. This is from The Economist in May 10th, 2023. Expensive energy may have killed more Europeans than Covid 19. They're estimating high energy costs. I'm sorry for laughing. High rising energy prices cost 68,000 deaths in Europe. Yeah, that is that's true. I mean, no one's talking about kudos to the kudos to the economists for printing it. I haven't heard anybody else talk about it.Sam Stone: I had not heard it.Chuck Warren: I'm actually stunned by this.Carla Sands: Yes. It's real. It's killing people. Cold kills a lot more people than heat does. And people thrive when it's a little warmer.Sam Stone: Yeah, it cracks us up here in Arizona because they keep telling us if the temperature goes up one degree, we're all going to die.Chuck Warren: And soon, soon, soon.Sam Stone: Yeah. We've all been through summer before. What's one degree?Carla Sands: Yeah, well, Joe Biden says it's more frightening than nuclear war if it goes up.Chuck Warren: Exactly. I remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is very green, was trying to put solar panels in Death Valley and all the environmentalists started complaining and suing that, you know, you can't do this. You're going to kill X, Y, or Z, right? Some rodent, some insect, and I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'm paraphrasing, basically said, if you're not going to put these in Death Valley, where in the hell are you going to put them?Carla Sands: But it does kill birds and it kills animals, just like the windmills kill a lot of eagles and other protected birds and bats too, right?Sam Stone: Well, Whales also.Chuck Warren: So yeah, it's it's incredible. So let's talk here. So what do you think America's energy policy needs to be going forward?Carla Sands: Well I would like to see a policy where. Every kind of energy is treated on a level playing field. So and I trust American innovation to figure out how we're going to do it. But we're never going to run out of our oil and gas. We have enough gas to run the whole world for hundreds of years. And with innovation, we're going to figure out incredible ways to power our lives going forward. If you think about how fast the world's changed, I can remember a time before cell phones. So it American innovation is extraordinary.Chuck Warren: But.Sam Stone: Ambassador, for instance, if we were putting a significant portion of this money that they're spending on this green fantasy, if we were putting that money into the development of advanced nuclear and reactor technologies, how much further ahead would we be on that road right now to developing things that are truly sustainable?Carla Sands: Well, we're pretty far ahead in nuclear. We do have those small modular reactors and they are successful, and I'd love to see them roll out more. I actually don't like a lot of taxpayer money in the private sector a little bit to incubate and get it going, but then I like to see the free market work because consumers are the best judges of what they want. And when you do top down planning Chinese Communist Party style, you don't get to a good outcome. And that's what the Biden administration is trying to do, for instance, with our combustion engine cars. They're trying to say you will drive an EV by 2030. I think it's 2035. No, it's nine years. So 2032 and you will and it will be 60 or 70% of you will drive an EV. So they're shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars at the car companies right now. So they retool and make EVs. But the fact is people don't want them and it enriches China. They make most of the parts.Chuck Warren: Well, it also you have to have the car 15 years to see an environmental benefit from it.Sam Stone: And we don't have the grid.Carla Sands: Most people don't know that. That's a terrific.Chuck Warren: Fact. So George Will had a great op ed today. I suggest everybody post it. But he makes a point here. In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said the US oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. In 1939, the Interior Department said world oil supply done in 13 years. It goes on and on and on. In 1970, it was estimated there were 612 barrels of proven reserves. In 2006 it was 767 billion. Now it's 1.2 trillion. His whole article is climate warriors are idiots. I mean, it's just like they don't know what they're talking about. And the problem is, Sam has this theory that this is all about just government power and ruling has nothing really to do with the environment.Carla Sands: Yeah, I totally agree. And Harold Hamm, who's one of the original founders of the horizontal drilling to get at that oil from one clean little pad of drilling, wrote a book recently called Game Changer. I highly recommend it to your audience if they like to read about Great American Story. Yeah. Great book.Sam Stone: Absolutely. We have just about one minute left. Ambassador, how do people follow you and your work? Because especially at the America First Policy Institute, you guys are doing amazing work, and we'd like to get more people tuned in to to help support those missions.Carla Sands: Thank you so much. So you can go to American America First policy.com. And we have 22 centers. And we're working to make policies that benefit every American. I also am on Twitter at Carla H. Sands. I'm on Instagram and Facebook a little bit, and I have a website, Carla sands.com, and I'd be delighted to. They can read what I'm posting. A lot of it is pro American energy to bring us back to American energy independence. Well, come.Chuck Warren: Back and join us any time. We'd love to having you ambassador.Carla Sands: Talk to you guys.Chuck Warren: Bye bye. This is breaking battlegrounds. Breaking battlegrounds vote. We'll be right back.Sam Stone: All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Up next, we have a friend of the program, returning guest, Austin Knudsen. He is the 25th attorney general of Montana. We had a great conversation with him. It was about a year ago, wasn't it? It was. Yeah, yeah. And actually it's Knudsen. Knudsen. I am so sorry. I'm the.Chuck Warren: Boat. And he was so excited about the interview. He flew down to be here with us.Sam Stone: See, I happen.Austin Knudsen: To be in town. This worked out really, really well. So glad you're here.Sam Stone: Yeah, it's great golf season for any guests who want to come into town and knock a ball around. How many.Chuck Warren: How many whip wimpy Montanans come down here for the winter? I mean, I'm sure you look at them very poorly, but how many wimpy Montanans.Austin Knudsen: Well, you're wrong. So my my parents are actually among that group. There. Look, it gets cold. Oh, it does this time of year.Chuck Warren: And my one of my better friends is up there, and it's. He.Sam Stone: I lived in Montana through exactly one winter, and I'm from upstate New York. Yeah. And one winter of that. And I was like, okay, no.Austin Knudsen: There's a ton of people from Montana that come down here and actually, believe it or not, my little my little rural hometown, I bet half the town spends the winter in Wickenburg. Oh, do they really well? And they rope. Yeah, they're all rodeo people and they all rope. And Wickenburg is a huge roping community.Sam Stone: They have a fantastic facility.Chuck Warren: And you have a lot of Arizonans go up there for the summer.Austin Knudsen: I don't know about that. I think the whole thing's probably still better here. But it gets hot, though. Yeah.Chuck Warren: It does. Well, thank you for coming in. You've announced a re-election.Austin Knudsen: I have, yeah.Chuck Warren: Was that a tough decision?Austin Knudsen: No it wasn't. I had people asking me to do some other stuff. There was, you know, people wanted me to run for the Congress and run against Jon Tester. And I like what I'm doing. I mean, I, I've put together a really, really good team. We're doing really fun, aggressive things with the attorney general's office. We're taking Montana in directions. It's never gone. I think it just makes a ton of sense to stay, stay the course and keep doing what I'm doing. So that's that's why it was this was a no brainer.Chuck Warren: Well, let's talk about one case you've signed on. It's states are supporting a mom suing a school in Chico, California that hid her daughter's gender transition. And this seems to be popping up here and there everywhere, more frequently than we would ever thought ten years ago. Right. Are you amazed by the rapid process of this now, this just this trajectory, just like they're hiding what these kids are doing from parents.Austin Knudsen: It seems like we say that about everything. I mean, we just can't believe how fast this stuff is moving. We can't believe how fast, you know, just just in three years of Joe Biden, how much the world has changed. Really? Yeah.Chuck Warren: I mean, it's it's sort of like I had a friend who was an attorney when the gay marriage issue was coming, and he said, I'm not concerned about gay marriage, but I don't think the people understand the floodgates on other issues is going to come about. That's my concern about it. I really don't care if Bob marries Mark, right. But it's the other issues.Sam Stone: And then I think Covid broke the norms when they were able to get so outside of the norms of governmental operations, suddenly it seems from the left, like anything is possible.Austin Knudsen: I think that's exactly right. I mean, there was a huge power grab with Covid and I mean, if if that's constitutional, I mean, what isn't constitutional, right? And that's that's why you saw so many AGS like me push back on that. But yeah, the case you're talking about, I had to look up the lady's name. It's Regina versus the Chico Unified School District. And so yeah, what you had in this case was you had a girl who was going through a rough time at home.Chuck Warren: Dad died.Austin Knudsen: Yeah, dad, I think that's right. I think dad died or left the home and divorce and mom got cancer, and she was she was going through a really, really tough time. And unbeknownst to her, to her mother, the school district started transitioning her and using male pronouns and helping this girl transition, which she now has backed away from and has detransitioned and said, no, I was. I was mixed up, I was emotional, I was going through a very difficult time and but but look what the school district did to her. And we've seen this in a couple other jurisdictions as well. And this, this people ask me, well, why does Montana care? I mean, this is. You have a fundamental right to raise your children. I mean, there's nothing more fundamental in our country than you as a parent are the one responsible for those kids. My kids can't get an aspirin at their school without my say so.Chuck Warren: Nor should they.Austin Knudsen: But we're going to live in a world where you can transition my children without me knowing. I mean, my God, what are we doing?Chuck Warren: But that's that's what's amazing about it. They don't even understand the illogical nature of the argument. I'm going to hide the gender transition. But you can't get an aspirin. I don't want you to drink. I don't want you to do these things. But I'm going to hide your gender. I mean, a fairly lifelong decision, a.Austin Knudsen: Lifelong decision, and one that certainly should involve the parents and probably faith leaders, whatever that might be. But it's probably not the job for the school guidance counselor.Chuck Warren: Like, ever.Austin Knudsen: Like ever.Chuck Warren: So what? So what happens when you go when you guys go and join, you have 16. Well we have one minute left. We'll go over from that. But when we come back I want to ask what is. So what does it mean when you have I think it was 16 or 17 Republican attorney generals join in on this case. To our listeners, what does that mean for the residents of voters of Montana? What does that mean when you have all of these people and you're a leader in this group? Yeah. What does that mean long term on these issues? Well, I.Austin Knudsen: Mean, first of all, I think it sends a message to the people of our respective states. But number two, I mean, this is us literally trying to help. I mean, we file amicus briefs. This is front of the court briefs. We're we're not an actual party to the case, but this is where we come in and say, look, court Ninth Circuit in this case, which, you know, we sit in right here, this is important enough that we as state attorneys general, believe that we should tell you our opinion on this and you should listen to it.Sam Stone: Precedents are being set in California that will affect the people of Montana, Florida, Arizona and every other state.Austin Knudsen: Unfortunately, we're all in the Ninth Circuit.Sam Stone: Breaking battlegrounds back in just a moment.Advertisement: At Overstock. We know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms. Overstock has every day free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock. Making dream homes come true.Sam Stone: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck and Sam. We're going to be continuing on with Attorney General Austin Knudsen of Montana here in just a moment, folks. But first, you've been hearing us talk about why refy for a while now? They've been getting a ton of calls from people listening to this program. We thank you for your support in an investment that actually helps people. First off, it's true you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return that's not correlated to the stock market. You can turn your income on or off, compound it. Whatever you choose. There are absolutely no fees and no attack on principal. If you ever need your money back, you'll get your monthly statement each month with no surprises. If you're not sure you trust this economy, this secure collateralized portfolio may be a good option for you. Go to invest. Com that's invest the letter Y then refy.com or give them a call at 888 refy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. All right. Continuing on Attorney General Knutson Hawaii. Hawaii has been trending to the farthest left. But they're not alone right now. They recently did something in relation to the Second Amendment that I have a hard time imagining would stand in front of the Supreme Court, but it's part of a trend. Now, we've seen the same similar type thing in our nearby state of New Mexico, where the governor there tried to essentially ban guns in public for an indefinite period and got slapped down by her, even members of her own party there. Yeah. So tell us what's going on in Hawaii and what they've done, because this story, I don't think has really gone far and wide enough. Yeah.Austin Knudsen: Well, I mean, I'm a big Second Amendment guy. I mean, just as a Montanan, shooting, collecting, hunting, competitive shooting, reloading. It's my hobby. So I mean, I'm, I'm really, really passionate about about the Second Amendment, but this one's really dangerous. And unfortunately, this isn't just Hawaii, but what Hawaii did is it started with the Bruen decision, right? This this is the US Supreme Court decision where it affirmed, yep, there is an individual right to carry a firearm and not just in the home. You have the right to bear arms outside of the home. Right? Okay. And what the Bruen decision also said is, well, okay, but there are some restrictions. This isn't wide open. You there are some historical precedents where we have restricted firearms carrying, for instance, and the Supreme Court in Bruen said specifically polling places, government buildings. Okay, those those were the two examples that they could historically say, all.Sam Stone: Right, airports. And.Austin Knudsen: Yeah, well, I mean, even that there's probably a historical question about. But I mean, I think just from a I think that one probably stands. But what has happened with Hawaii, they created they crafted new legislation that said, well, yeah, polling places, government places, but also also sensitive places. Well, what is a sensitive place? And this is where this gets real nebulous. The Hawaii said, well, you know, parks, maybe some restaurants, maybe beaches. Yeah. Well sorry. No, that's not in the Constitution. And that certainly does not comport with with the Bruen decision. I mean, the Bruen court was very clear. There has to be some sort of historical precedent, a historical analog for whatever restriction you're trying to place on the Second Amendment. So, I mean, that's why we jumped in this one, because Hawaii, I think when they when their legislature passed this, they probably knew this was going to get slapped down.Sam Stone: Well, in their really good Chuck and and AG Knudsen, they're really good at nebulous language that they then work to expand on over years. Oh for sure. They chip away at every legal decision and they're very patient about it.Austin Knudsen: Well, and we had a very similar case to this coming, coming out of Maryland. And I forget which circuit we filed a very similar brief because they tried to do this in a in a county in Maryland. I mean, almost exactly the same thing. And people said, well, why does Montana care about Maryland? Well, as these circuits go, so do the rest of the circuits. I mean, we're going to create a situation here where if this is done in one circuit, another circuit will try it, and pretty soon this is the law of the land. I mean, this is this is why we're having to be so, so aggressive on the Second Amendment stuff in front of the Ninth Circuit. I hope we don't have to go to the US Supreme Court, but based on Bruen, we might.Chuck Warren: You probably.Sam Stone: Will. How much is the Ninth Circuit moved back towards the center after Trump's appointees or has it.Austin Knudsen: Well, I mean, some of those appointees are fantastic. I mean, I happen to know one of them. He's a he's a former solicitor general from from Montana, Justice Van Dyke. The problem is there's they're just so outnumbered. I mean, the ninth is still just so crazy to the left. Yeah. There are a handful of of better justices on the panels for sure. But what what inevitably happens is whenever you draw one of those good panels. The ninth will suddenly find a reason to come in on bonk. And and we'll just review what those conservatives did and and yeah, we don't like that and we'll flip that over. I mean, that happens a lot.Chuck Warren: Former Senator McCain wanted to break up the ninth. Yeah, he.Sam Stone: Did, and he was right about that.Austin Knudsen: He's totally right. Absolutely. I mean, I look at my state, I look at your state. I don't think we belong in that that crazy circuit.Chuck Warren: No. Let me ask you a question. So we have this Maine tragedy, this this evil act done by this guy. And there was just like, gobs of warnings from the Army Reserve. They did two welfare checks on him. How do we prevent people like that from happening? I mean, he just should not have had a gun for law abiding citizens. We all agree this evil act could have been prevented. They had plenty of warning on this family. The Army Reserves. A former soldier said he could break the sheriff's office. Yeah, I mean, they all did it. Yeah. How do we prevent this? I mean, that's that's going to help a lot. How do we prevent this?Austin Knudsen: Well, I mean, we have to enforce laws that are already on the books. I mean, this guy was clearly a prohibited person. This this is a person with a history of mental disease or defect diagnosed. The warning signs were all there. I mean, they were multiple, multiple reports. I mean, he literally kicked one of his friends out of a moving vehicle because the guy tried to talk him out of shooting up the military base that he was a member of. This was reported to the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office showed up, knocked on the door. He didn't answer. Oh, well, case closed. I mean, this this was a case of the law enforcement system failing. I mean, there needed to be follow up here. And this guy, I mean.Chuck Warren: But it seems that but that seems that failure seems to happen a lot when you ever you go look at these mass shootings, has there been one. There's not been there's been no warnings.Sam Stone: No. I mean, for instance, the Nashville, the three pages of the Nashville Shooter Manifesto that just came out. Yeah. How about that stuff? Wow. I mean, she she references that there was some sort of contact, probably in 2021 with law enforcement or the FBI or something. We don't know exactly all the details, but she references that she could have been caught at that time. Right.Chuck Warren: I think Republicans, those who support the Second Amendment, are going to have to allow law enforcement to say if there are these triggers, we're bringing them in, period, and we're going to understand that.Sam Stone: But as the AG says, it's really just a matter of enforcing laws we already have.Austin Knudsen: That's exactly right. It's already illegal to be a mentally defective person and have a firearm. The question is, how do we get that diagnosis done and how do we make sure that's enforced? And I mean, I've had cases of this just in my own private practice where someone that clearly has a mental disease or defect is still able to walk in and purchase a firearm, like there's there's obviously a gap here, I think, in law enforcement, but whether it's from law enforcement to the ATF and the NICs system or, you know, however that gets communicated. And I'm here to tell you, sometimes the communication between the administrations from a state level to the federal level does not work really well. That that's a real, real problem. And I think you're right. As Republicans, we have to be in favor of enforcing that.Chuck Warren: Well, and I think we need to be leaders on this and be very proactive and tell people what's in the books and what's being missed. I don't think people understand. I just think they think we keep adding x, y, z. It's going to solve the problem. All these problems would have been solved. Nine out of ten of these would have been solved if law enforcement had done their job. These people have come in and I don't care if they had had a psychological check or whatever, you would not have had these tragedies. A lot of.Sam Stone: This tracks back to the FBI, which maintains the database. Is it time for Congress to hold hearings on where did you guys miss all these signals?Chuck Warren: It is it is time. And matter of fact, maybe what you do is skip Congress. Maybe the AG's do a tour around the country and say, here are these ten shootings. Nine could have been prevented. How are these missed?Austin Knudsen: Atf has got a lot of problems. I mean.Chuck Warren: They've always had a lot of.Austin Knudsen: Problems. The NICs system with an FBI has got a lot of problems. I mean, the problem right now we've got is that those agencies aren't talking to me. I mean, they they especially the federal DOJ, I mean, they they detest me. They do not like me. Now, I've had some communication with ATF that the regional director on the western side of the US, we've we've we've had some things happen in Montana and he's actually traveled up and sat down to his credit, knowing he was coming into probably an unfriendly situation. He came into my office and sat down to talk with me. But they don't communicate with us. The states, especially the red states, they don't talk to us. So, I mean, there is a huge breakdown here.Chuck Warren: You were. Uh. Let's see. Well, you were in Trump's. You were elected in 2018.Austin Knudsen: In.Chuck Warren: 2020. Okay. So you missed the Trump years. I'm interested if there have been the if it's just them being just obstinate or that's an administration thing. Well, I mean.Austin Knudsen: I certainly saw it in my time in the state legislature. But before this, several years back, I was the state speaker of the House. And I can tell you, I mean, I started that serving while Barack Obama was was the president. Zero communication out of Washington, DC to our state legislature? Zero. And I just assumed that was normal because I was a freshman legislator, I didn't know why would you know? And then I transitioned in my last term, we had President Trump, and all of a sudden I'm getting phone calls from the white House, from from the Office of of Intergovernmental Relations. I didn't know there was such a thing. I didn't know that we could have intergovernmental relations from from the federal government to the state legislature. And it was great. You know, we were able to discuss policy and talk about things that we had mutually could work on together. That did not happen at all before. It's not happening now.Chuck Warren: That's just unacceptable.Austin Knudsen: It makes no sense. I mean, it was such a it was such an aha moment for me to get a phone call from, from the president's office. And it was, hi, I'm so-and-so. This is my job outreach to state legislatures. What do you need? How can we help you? What are you working on?Chuck Warren: Well, especially since not every issue you're working on is adversarial to the administration. Right?Sam Stone: Right. Well, and Democrats like to talk.Austin Knudsen: It seems like it is anymore.Chuck Warren: Yeah.Austin Knudsen: Especially in Montana.Sam Stone: Democrats like to talk in the press all the time about finding common ground. They want to present themselves in that light. But what you're saying totally refutes that. I mean, just totally refutes it.Austin Knudsen: The only communication I have with the federal government is I do have a relationship with our US attorney in Montana, and that's just because I went to law school with the guy. You know, he's a he's a Biden appointee. He's he's a John Tester. Confirm me. But we're like, we're we get along, you know. Yeah I mean just it's a small state. We know each other.Chuck Warren: Are you a better student to him? You can be honest here. You know, he.Austin Knudsen: Was a couple years ahead of me. I really couldn't tell you. We're both in the legislature. I'll say that.Chuck Warren: So that brings up a point. So what do you think we need to do? That we can work better together. Look, we have our differences, but there are things that we can do to work together. We. We had a former ambassador, Carla Sands, on before you and we were discussing John Fetterman, who none of us in this room agrees with on anything probably disagree with him 95% of the things. But he has been a stalwart on this Israel. He has.Austin Knudsen: He's been really good.Chuck Warren: And we just Sam and I were talking to her and she agreed. Like, look, when our opponents do something, well, they need to be praised and given an attaboy. I don't think it happens enough because there are things we can work on together like, and they're probably not a lot of I mean, I think you're I think you're in the one field that there's not much give and take in a lot of things. But, you know, if you're talking about budget or infrastructure, look, there's some give and take here to get things done, right? I mean.Austin Knudsen: Border security, public safety, fentanyl. I mean, there are some things that we should be aligned that affect everybody and we're just not.Chuck Warren: So you focusing on the southern border, is there a problem in the northern border? Are we having things? Are drugs and fentanyl coming through the northern border because Canada has a loosey goosey immigration system?Austin Knudsen: I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it is such a small percentage that for for the sake of our conversation and for the sake of what's going on in our country, no.Chuck Warren: Because that's because they're afraid of the Dutton family. Yeah.Austin Knudsen: It's just so cold up there. I mean, it's it's something that we do track. I mean, we've got almost 700 miles of, of northern border in Montana, and we we track that very carefully. I've got good relations with the sector chief up there with Customs and Border Patrol. I'm not saying it doesn't happen.Chuck Warren: But it's a tough but.Austin Knudsen: It's a it's such a small number. When you start talking about the human trafficking and especially the drugs. The drugs are all coming from the southern border because it's so easy to get across.Chuck Warren: I'm sure you've talked to a AG who's a Democrat. What do they not understand about the southern border problem? Well, I mean, what is their view on this? Why can't they see this as a problem? We have one minute.Austin Knudsen: I really can't tell you because, I mean, this is just one of those blind spots they have. I think it's so ingrained into their base and into it's such a hot issue for them that they don't want to publicly have an intelligent conversation about it. I mean, every law enforcement officer in this country knows where all the fentanyl is coming from, and it's all coming from that southern border because it's wide open.Chuck Warren: It's like every mom who says their oldest son is just brilliant.Sam Stone: What if, you know offhand, what is the price of a fentanyl pill in Montana? Well.Austin Knudsen: So in Montana, it depends. So down here. A fentanyl pill is probably worth $1.25. Okay, well, you know better than me, but up in Montana, depending on where you are, 50 to 100 per pill.Sam Stone: And you wonder why the trafficking. Absolutely. A strong incentive and why we have to cut it at the source.Austin Knudsen: They want to be in Montana, that's why.Sam Stone: Yeah, absolutely. Attorney General Austin Knudsen of Montana, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you back and love having you in the studio. Happy to do.Austin Knudsen: It. Yeah. This worked out.Sam Stone: Great. And any time in the future if there's some issue, please let us know, because we want to be able to inform our listeners about what's going on all around this country.Austin Knudsen: Great. Thanks a lot, guys.Chuck Warren: Thank you.Sam Stone: Breaking battlegrounds will be back on the air next week, but make sure you tune in for the podcast segment. You can go to Breaking Battlegrounds dot vote all your favorite podcast channels. We're on there. Make sure you download, subscribe, tune in again next week. We'll see you then.Advertisement: The 2022 political field was intense. So don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a your name web domain from GoDaddy.com. Get yours now.Sam Stone: All right. Welcome to the podcast segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren I'm Sam Stone. Up next for us today, Vincent Vernuccio, president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker, has over 15 years of expertise in labor and law policy. And we asked him on today, specifically, Chuck, to talk about an article he recently published in the New York Post called Unions Deceptive Salting Loophole Leaves a Bad taste. Vinnie, welcome to the program. And let's start out by telling what is salting.Vincent Vernuccio: Hey, Chuck, it's great to be on again with you. And thanks again for having me on. So salting, is this really kind of deceptive tactic? You have union organizers, many of which are getting paid by the union. Go get a job. Don't tell the employer. The sole reason they're taking the job is to organize the company. Then they get the job. They rabble rouse on the worksite. They instigate their fellow employees. They try to organize the employer, sowing discord at the workplace. And, you know, the whole reason is to try to bring a union in. And like I said, that union that they're getting paid by, but not telling anybody that they're getting paid by.Sam Stone: And also so these people show up, let's say you have a a nice happy work environment. All your employees are doing well. These people show up part of their their opening mission is to try to create rancor and discord in your employee base. Like that's step one, right?Vincent Vernuccio: That's step one. You know, there's even we've even heard examples from when they're doing trainings on this of how to win over the employer. You know, they do thankless task scrub toilets volunteer. So the whole point is to put the employer at ease, weasel their way in and then, yeah, get employees. And you know, we've all had know we've all known fellow employees that, you know, the whole toxic employee that creates rancor in the work environment. That's what they're trying to do. In many cases, they're not telling their fellow employees that they're actually working for the union and saying, hey, now that I've gotten you all angry at the employer, here's the solution. It just so happens it's the union that are working for.Chuck Warren: That's like false advertising. Is there some law that should be passed in various states to prevent this? Well, it.Vincent Vernuccio: Would probably be at a federal level. Representative Allen Rick Allen has the Truth in Employment Act, which would allow employers to at least ask, hey, by the way, are you taking this job for any other reason besides, you want to work for me? So that's one option. You know, the NLRB or. Excuse me, the Department of Labor could probably look into it. Obviously, under this administration, they're not going to do that. But here's the rub. If you have a employer going out, hiring a consultant, having that consultant talk to their own employees and say, hey, you know, a union may not be the best thing to come in, and it might not be the best thing for our workplace, that those consultants actually have to be reported to the Department of Labor. However, if you flip that and you have a union paying someone to talk to their to talk to employees, to try to get those employees to unionize, they don't. So there's a loophole. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. And if employer consultants have to file these forms with the Department of Labor, so should unions. Salts.Chuck Warren: Don't you think we should have some states? Try to pass this, though, and let the administration just challenge it and take it to court.Vincent Vernuccio: You know, I you know, it would be really interesting. Unfortunately, there may be some preemption issues because, you know, the law on unionization for the private sector, for the most part, you know, with the exception of right to work and a couple other things is pretty clear that, you know, all that runs under the purview.Chuck Warren: But they're lying, but they're lying on their application, but they're there for I mean, most jobs, you would be fired for lying about something on your resume or not disclosing it.Vincent Vernuccio: That's right. Right now, that is the heart of what Representative Allens bill is trying to do is simply say, hey, you could ask this question and it is, you know, it is an offence if the worker lies or the union organiser lies about why they're really taking the job.Sam Stone: This really to me, this whole idea of salting sort of degrades the principle of unionization, which which is based on the workers in a particular industry or for a particular company coming together of their own self interest, which is essentially a free market force at that point versus having it imposed where someone comes in to agitate this from the outside. It sort of seems like it really throws out the, the principles, the, the, the moral principles behind unionizing.Vincent Vernuccio: That's right. I mean, this really is, you know, a key example of astroturfing. And you're seeing that with most of the union organizing drives these days. You know, gone are the days of, you know, it's organic from the employees of the worksites saying, hey, we're being mistreated. We need help. We need to band together. What you're seeing with salting and, you know, with a lot of these organizing efforts around the country, is that it's actually unions going, oh, wait, there's money there. Let's organize these employees so we can get dues. So, you know, fully supportive of, hey, if employees want to band together and they want to organize to negotiate with their employer, you know, that is very clear. That's, you know, why labor law was created. But unfortunately, what we're seeing today is it's not starting at the employee level. It's starting at the union level. And you're seeing it with this salting where the unions are targeting employees and saying, okay, you know, who can we organize? Well, in the.Chuck Warren: American public against the salting, I mean, you put some polling number in your New York Post piece. It found that 75% of Americans agree that if employers need to disclose their labor consultants union should disclose all of their organizers, including salts. Some 59% want union unionization elections with hidden salts to be thrown out as unfair. And you have 62% want workplaces to be able to ask applicants if they're union organizers, something that's banned under federal law. So clearly the public is on the side of this. But this is this is one of those small items that it seems like those who support free enterprise should really be pushing through.Vincent Vernuccio: That's right. You know. You know, the salting practice. It's disingenuous. We went out. We did that polling over the summer. And you see the incredible results there of Americans simply saying, yeah, this is this is not right. There should be other options. If employers have to file their consultants, Union should have to file their salts. Right. If those salts lie, then employees should be entitled to a fresh election. And then like the, you know, allenville that we were just talking about. Employers should have that right to ask, hey, are you really coming to work just for me?Sam Stone: Vinny, how much of this? So there's been a long term decline in unionization in this country. This is one of the tactics they're using to try to turn that around. But I would argue that the biggest reason for that long term decline is that they take union dues. They use them for entirely political purposes on one side of the aisle. They're really not used to benefit the members that directly. In other words, it's not that great a deal to be a union member. And so it seems like they're having to turn to these sort of backhanded tactics to prop up their membership.Vincent Vernuccio: Yeah. You know, it's funny that you you bring up some of the history there. That is something where, you know, we were talking to, you know, a lot of Americans. And it's something that kept coming up with salt. And, you know, let's put the politics aside for a second, is that it's an antiquated tactic. It's not something that's new. It's something that, you know, is is decades old that the unions are doubling down on now. But most people that I've talked to on this like, well, wait a minute. But, you know, it's not like the union needs to lie to get access to employees, right? Or it's going to have trouble getting access to those employees anymore. You know, now you have social media, you know, they can advertise on Facebook, they can geo locate, they can do a lot of ways of communicating with employees. They don't need this salting tactic. But now going back to your point about union membership declining, this is exactly why. It's because unions aren't innovating. They aren't modernizing. They're doubling down on these decades old tactics. Their business model is mired in the Industrial revolution, one size fits all collective bargaining mentality. And the modern worker is just saying, you know, I don't think that's for me.Chuck Warren: Isn't this the same tactic that The New York Times and the Washington Post moan and groan about James O'Keefe and Project Veritas does that. They put people inside as a job, unsuspecting, and they tape people. I mean, if you did this, a Republican operative went and placed somebody on a Democrat campaign and did this. Can you imagine the howling and screaming for weeks on Broadcast News, New York Times, LA times? Et cetera. It's the same. It's the same concept. Am I wrong here?Vincent Vernuccio: I mean, the bottom line is they should be transparent, you know. If a union wants to organize workers and once again emphasize the union coming in and organizing those workers, they should be transparent of who they are. And with salting, that's just not happening. In fact, the unions are even doing classes on this is how you can win over employers and gain their trust so you can infiltrate and try to organize the worksite.Sam Stone: Unbelievable. Vinnie Vernuccio, thank you so much for joining us today. How do folks stay in touch with you and your work before we wrap up here?Vincent Vernuccio: Sure, you can find this article. You can find the polling that we use to back up the article. It's all on our website, Institute for the American Worker. It's I the number 4.org i4 org and it's all there.Sam Stone: Fantastic Vinnie thank you so much for joining us. We look forward to having you back in the future.Chuck Warren: Hey. Thanks, Chuck. All right. Well, interesting guest today. Yeah.Sam Stone: Really interesting.Chuck Warren: We covered a gamut of things. We did cover a.Sam Stone: Gamut of things. You know, I really love these interviews. When we have someone like the ambassador on who can talk about stuff that nobody's paying attention to and nobody's heard about.Chuck Warren: And wood pellets or green energy.Sam Stone: And we get this with Vinnie Vernuccio. This isn't, you know, I mean, he has the piece in the post, but this isn't been turned into a big thing. Right? And then you hear from AG Knudsen, who is involved in some lawsuits you're not going to hear much about from the mainstream media what's going on with those lawsuits.Chuck Warren: And we learned today 64,000 people in Europe died because of high energy prices. I'm stunned. I'm stunned at that number.Sam Stone: My my jaw is on the floor.Chuck Warren: It's incredible. Kiley's corner.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. We got some interesting things today. Well, the first one we have is an update on the Brian Kohberger case, because I know you love that case so much.Chuck Warren: I do love the case. That's the Idaho.Sam Stone: Case. Oh yeah, we do love that.Kiley Kipper: We do. Yeah. Yeah. For those that don't know, the Brian Kohberger case is the gentleman who's being accused of can I call him a gentleman? I shouldn't call him that individual.Chuck Warren: Call him a.Kiley Kipper: Dude. Yeah. The dude who is accused of suspect. That's the best word. That's what he is.Chuck Warren: That's a legal word.Kiley Kipper: Of murdering the four Idaho students. The four students at the University of Idaho. Anyways, so he filed a motion to get the entire case removed on the grounds that there was an error in grand jury instructions because they used a grand jury to indict him. Right. And so his defense is saying that there they were he was convicted on probable cause, putting this in air quotes instead of beyond a reasonable doubt.Sam Stone: But but but a grand jury does not convict the grand jury. Correct.Kiley Kipper: So like the Idaho state law says, the grand jury has to just find and indict them based on the evidence that they're shown. It doesn't. There's no argument to it. It doesn't.Sam Stone: It's usually a preponderance of evidence standard in front of the grand jury, not beyond a reasonable doubt.Chuck Warren: Right? Right.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. And so the prosecutor said, well, the language is vague. The Idaho Supreme Court has already ruled that this is good enough to stand up for it. And the judge who is on this case denied the motion, obviously saying this is an issue you're going to bring to a higher court, aka the Supreme Court, which they've already done, ruled on it. And he said, I appreciate the journey back in history and I appreciate this argument. I think it's creative. He kept going on and it goes, but I'm going to deny the argument.Chuck Warren: Is there been anything in this case that you've seen that has made you change your opinion that maybe Brian didn't do it? No.Kiley Kipper: And I've seen people's comments on it. Like, I think he's innocent and all this. I just think he's really because he also his team filed two other motions, one to dismiss the case on a a biased jury and then dismiss the case on lack of sufficient evidence, slash withholding evidence. And I think they're really just trying to because they denied the speedy trial. So they're just trying to push it off, trying to find anything to just drop the case. Because I do think that he is guilty.Chuck Warren: And they are seeking the death penalty, right?Kiley Kipper: Yes. Yeah. They come out in July and said that their God bless Idaho seeking the. Yeah. All right. What else do.Chuck Warren: We what else have we got on Kylie's corner.Kiley Kipper: Here. You know this one is not much of a story because we're not getting much out of it. However, I find a suspicious. So I want to bring it up and hear your guys's thoughts on it.Chuck Warren: You've gone down some rabbit holes on it.Kiley Kipper: There's just. I've tried, I've tried. I'm really trying to find more information for you guys, but tell me, tell me. On Monday of this week for LA Sheriff's Department, deputies died by suicide in a 24 hour span. For for wait. What I know.Chuck Warren: For LA sheriff.Sam Stone: La sheriff's.Chuck Warren: Deputies by suicide in a week.Kiley Kipper: In 24 hours in the same day. So the first one was found at 9:30 a.m. Monday and the last, the fourth one was found at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday.Sam Stone: So what case did they have in common?Chuck Warren: So did they have one in common?Kiley Kipper: That's like I think what people are trying to figure out. But one was retired, three were current officers. And so it's just that's all they've said is we're treating these as individual cases. And end of story. We haven't. Like, there's nothing out there that's more trying to figure out who these people are because they haven't released two of the names either. So we only know two names and two are not really.Sam Stone: I mean, look, it is a profession that has an unfortunately high rate of suicide.Chuck Warren: The stress, the stress is huge. Four in 24 hours. Is that that's unheard of. Matter of fact, I'm sure that's even happened before.Kiley Kipper: So in 2020, there was 116 suicides across law enforcement across the country. In 2021, they increased 23% to 150 in 20 20 to 170. 172 officers die by suicide. And then this year alone, so far, 83 law enforcement officers die by suicide, nine coming from this department alone. Being the LA Sheriff's Department.Chuck Warren: Okay. That's strange.Kiley Kipper: So I find those numbers like that's a lot of officers that have died by suicide. However, the number that have come out of the same department seems.Sam Stone: I think something's happening there. That does not sound like that is a a that's a major statistical anomaly. I mean, you're way outside of any probability field.Chuck Warren: Keep on this. I'm not.Kiley Kipper: I was like, I need more.Chuck Warren: I don't trust this at all. Yeah.Sam Stone: Also, I think we probably need to assign you to track the six journalists who were apparently embedded with Hamas on the morning of the seventh, because Israel announced today that they're going to be executed. They're they're they're not going to be here.Kiley Kipper: I saw the videos on Twitter this morning. I think your.Chuck Warren: Guy had the grenade in his hand. Yeah. So did you know there's been 46 attacks on US bases the last three weeks? I did know.Sam Stone: Yeah.Chuck Warren: Incredible.Sam Stone: And our response was to bomb an empty warehouse in Syria. That's the Biden response. It's literally an empty warehouse.Chuck Warren: So let's talk about this for a minute. So a poll came out today that nearly half of Democrats disapprove of Biden's response to the Israel-hamas war, which is amazing. Poll found 50% of Democrats approve of Biden has navigated the conflict, while 46 disapprove.Sam Stone: That 46% is rooting for Hamas, 100%.Chuck Warren: It's it's crazy. Nearly seven of ten Democrats approve of Biden's management of the conflict, but think the US provides the right amount of support of those who disapprove. 65% say the US is too supportive of Israel. We are really discovering the anti-Semitic nature of the progressive left, which has been there forever. It's been there forever. The fact that the because the press is.Sam Stone: Has hit it and blamed it on white supremacy. But we all know the truth that the vast majority of anti. I said the other day.Chuck Warren: 65% of Democrats younger than 45 disapprove of Biden's handling the.Sam Stone: You know what the difference between the left and the right on anti Semitism is on the right. We have a couple of fringe anti-semitics. They're nuts and nobody gives them any credence.Chuck Warren: We all we know what they are.Sam Stone: Yeah we call them out. We ostracize them.Chuck Warren: On the left are university professors and reporters at the New York Times.Sam Stone: Yes, that's the difference.Chuck Warren: Didn't you have experience where you posted this? Did you? Were you the one telling me that they had that they got scolded for being pro-Israel?Kiley Kipper: Yeah, yeah, I have, I have the text. Let me see if I can find them really quick. Put me on the spot there. It wasn't me. It was a friend who sent it.Chuck Warren: No, but your friend sent you. Yeah. I remember you telling me that story. It's. Uh, they really look, these progressives are in universities. They are teaching this bigoted, racist ideology of theirs. It's it is really frightening what's happening in our universities right now. There was a really interesting piece this week. Um. And then in the London. I think it's the Telegraph, to be exact, the Telegraph. And they were talking about the reports about just how Jewish students do not feel safe in England now going to universities.Sam Stone: Well, and how can they? I mean, as bad as the vitriol has been here, the vitriol in many European countries against Jews has been far worse.Chuck Warren: Oh, it's so bad. It's so bad.Sam Stone: I mean, if you were a Jewish citizen of the UK or mainland Europe right now, and you are not trying to figure out how to relocate to Israel or frankly, the US, still, I think you're crazy. I think you're leaving yourself in a very, very vulnerable position.Chuck Warren: Let's talk about the debate.Kiley Kipper: Around the text. Read it to us, please. So this person messaged my friend and said, delete it now. And she goes, no, he goes, you seriously feel that way? And I remember vaguely the image it must have. I think it was just the flat the Israel flag with like I support Israel or. Yeah, just the very basic image. There was no fax or anything on it. Like just nothing like that. Just said I stand with them and he goes, you seriously feel that way? And she goes, feel what way? And he goes, you stand with Israel. Are you an effing terrorist? You support crimes against humanity. You support Jewish question mark. I'm just like a bunch of texts, like all in order. Did she.Chuck Warren: Say yes?Kiley Kipper: She just didn't. She was like, I'm over it. I'm done responding. And then she did say he texted her like 3 or 4 more times, and she's just like, I'm done.Chuck Warren: You balk them, I hope.Kiley Kipper: Hopefully I'm just that's you know.Sam Stone: This is a result of the deliberate miseducation of multiple generations now is what's I mean. Well, it goes it.Chuck Warren: Goes back to this TikTok thing we were talking about last week. This is very much because they get their education from TikTok. Everything.Sam Stone: Well, but if the if the k 12 education they were getting, if the college education was honest and and and reasonable and factual, there would be a balance to that. What they're learning on TikTok. But they're not getting that. They're getting reinforcement and the.Chuck Warren: Press is not help. Let's talk about one other thing the press is stupid about this week. So, you know, Vivek went after Nikki Haley's kid. And you know, Nikki. Nikki's a tough old bird, right? I mean, she's she's a tough gal. So they asked Ron DeSantis about it on NBC and he just said, I think kids are out of bounds. I don't think that was an appropriate thing to do. So then NBC goes and tries to make a big deal of DeSantis going after Biden. So folks, for you out there who are really disinclined intellectually. Nikki Haley's daughter is in her 20s. She's not a public figure. Hunter Biden's a degenerate at 53 years old who has stole money tax, evaded well, sold his soul.Sam Stone: Also, by all accounts, I mean white House accounts and appearances. He is one of his father's closest advisors.Chuck Warren: He goes with them presidential trips. So, folks, there are two different paths here. One, you have a 20 something year old who's living her life. That's her decision, right? Well, it's Hunter Biden is embarrassing. And the fact that the NBC news tries to lump them together makes them a failed institution.Sam Stone: And this is why I never complained when the press did pieces on Eric Trump or on Jared Kushner and Ivanka, because they were directly involved in the activities, which is the Trump kid that isn't involved with any of this stuff. I forget. Right? But but that's the dividing line. Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany's not yeah, if you're not involved, if you're not part of this world, then you're off limits.Chuck Warren: Yeah I agree, I agree. Well great show this week. Thanks for setting it up Kylie. Absolutely follow up on both these cases. But I want to know more about the sheriffs. That is a that is a strange one. There are coincidences but usually not.Sam Stone: Not at that level. That is a lot of coincidence, folks.Chuck Warren: Thanks for joining us. Please share our program with your family and friends. You can find us at Breaking Battlegrounds Dot vote or wherever you download your podcasts. Have a great weekend and week! Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Join us this week on Breaking Battlegrounds as our hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone present a captivating radio show featuring two remarkable guests. First up, we have the esteemed #1 New York Times bestselling author, Richard Paul Evans, who will share insights into his latest children's book, "My Son Lives in a Tree." Discover the inspiration behind this heartwarming story and why he's generously donating all his royalties to charity. You can purchase the book at RichardPaulEvans.com or on Amazon. Then, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a dynamic leader from Tennessee, will delve into critical issues such as the Middle East, housing affordability, and her work on the Kids Online Safety Act. And in Kiley’s Corner, Kiley Kipper joins us to discuss the mysterious case of a California woman who went missing in Arizona while driving from California to Connecticut for a wedding. Don't miss out on these engaging discussions, and visit our website for more information: www.breakingbattlegrounds.vote. -Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsRichard Paul Evans is the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box. He has since written 41 consecutive New York Times bestsellers and is one of the few authors in history to have hit both the fiction and non-fiction bestseller lists. There are more than thirty-five million copies of his books in print worldwide, translated into more than 22 languages. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Mothers Book Award, the Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award, the German Audience Gold Award for Romance, five Religion Communicators Council Wilbur Awards, The Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award, and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award. Evans lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children and two grandchildren.-U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn was sworn in to the Senate in January 2019. Marsha Blackburn was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, and is currently serving her first term representing the state of Tennessee. Before her election to the Senate, Marsha represented Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.Marsha’s public service is dedicated to promoting opportunities for women and making America a more prosperous place to live. Marsha’s leadership philosophy is based on her experiences in the private sector as a small business woman and author, as well as being a mother and grandmother.Marsha went to college on a 4-H scholarship and worked her way through school selling books for the Southwestern Company as one of their first female sales associates, and later as one of their first female sales managers.She then became Director of Retail Fashion and Special Events for the Castner Knott Company, which was a Nashville-based regional department store. Later, Marsha founded her own business, Marketing Strategies, which focused on the retail marketplace, as well as electronic and print media.Marsha began her career in public service in 1995 when she was named executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission. In 1998, she was elected to the Tennessee State Senate. In the state legislature, she earned a reputation for fiscal responsibility and government accountability by identifying waste and offering realistic solutions to Tennessee’s budget challenges.While serving in the Tennessee Senate, Marsha led a statewide grassroots campaign to defeat a proposed state income tax. The tax was defeated, and Marsha’s leadership earned her a reputation as an anti-tax champion. In 2014, the people of Tennessee passed an amendment to the state constitution to expressly prohibit a state income tax – a fitting cap to a 14-year battle.In 2002, Marsha was elected to represent the people of Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District based on her record in the state legislature. She brought her Tennessee values to Washington, DC, and became a leader in the fight for small, efficient federal government that is accountable to its citizens. As a Congressman, Marsha was often selected by her colleagues to lead the charge for principled conservativism. Her congressional career was also noted for her Chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, as well as bipartisan expertise in defending songwriters’ and performers’ rights.Marsha is a member of numerous charitable organizations and is an active member of her church, Christ Presbyterian. Marsha and her husband Chuck live in Williamson County, Tennessee. They have two children, Mary Morgan (Paul) Ketchel and Chad (Hillary) Blackburn, three grandsons, and a granddaughter. Originally from Laurel, Mississippi, Marsha is a graduate of Mississippi State University.-TRANSCRIPTION Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, we have guest host Michelle Ugenti-Rita filling in for Chuck Warren, along with co-host Sam Stone. Join us as we welcome our first guest, Abe Hamadeh, who's running to represent Arizona's 8th Congressional District. A former U.S. Army Reserve Captain and Intelligence Officer, Abe is a staunch America-first fighter, and he'll share his vision for securing the southern border and holding the government accountable. Our second guest, Mike Coté, founder of Rational Policy and a writer at the National Review, offers a historical perspective on policy, international affairs, and politics. Tune in for engaging discussions and expert insights into the political landscape.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-About our guestsAbe Hamadeh is a former U.S. Army Reserve Captain & Intelligence Officer, Maricopa county prosecutor and an America first fighter. Abe is the son of immigrants; his family fled places like Syria and Venezuela. He knows all too well that if America falls, the flame of freedom may be extinguished forever. Abe is running to represent Arizona’s 8th Congressional District where he grew up, having gone to Happy Valley School, Stetson Hills, and Terramar. He is honored to be the voice of the district back in Washington.Mike Coté is a writer for the National Review and historian focusing on great-power rivalry and geopolitics. He blogs at rationalpolicy.com and hosts the Rational Policy podcast.-Transcription Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Sam Stone. The international man of mystery. Chuck Warren is out of the studio again this week, but we are graced by the lovely presence Michelle Ugenti-Rita, former state senator here. She's running for office herself. Yeah, yeah.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Glutton for punishment.Sam Stone: Yeah. No, seriously. Having done that once now and having no interest, I have all these people keep coming up to me and they're like, hey, Sam, you should run again. I'm like.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Why are you kidding you? You value your yourself too much to do that again.Sam Stone: It's painful.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: It's tough. It's tough. I like it though. I mean, I don't know how many races have I done. 6 or 7. And you know, the vast majority of one lost one, one six. I like it. You have to like it to do it.Sam Stone: See, I like working on campaigns. Yeah.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: So you like it? Just a different component, a.Sam Stone: Different component of it. I actually I just found out that when I was doing it, I found out I don't like being the candidate.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Right. That's a that's a different kind of person, the person who likes to be a candidate. But there can be a lot of people that like to be in the political sphere, working behind the scenes, working on policy, working on campaign strategy. But the candidate, it's it takes a lot.Sam Stone: It's different. I mean, for one thing, the thing that that frankly got me and folks, we have some very good guests coming up today on our second segment, we're going to have Abraham Hamadeh. He was the candidate for attorney general, general election candidate in Arizona, lost by I think by the end it was like 270 votes. I think it was down to like 123 by the time it was all okay, whatever. And as we discussed briefly or will discuss briefly with Abe there, there's really no doubt in anyone's mind here that he got hosed out of that election by Maricopa County. And what happened on Election day and uncounted ballots.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Their incompetency.Sam Stone: Their incompetency and all this kind of thing. I have not met one serious person who doesn't think that he should be the AG right now in a fairly run election. Yeah, and that's even a lot of those people are people who disagree with Kari Lake and disagree with Donald Trump and don't take that position, but they look at what happened here on Election Day with malfunctioning machines and 63% of the precincts, all this stuff and they say, look, 100 and something votes that absolutely cost that. So he's announcing a run for Congressional District eight here in Arizona.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: So that's going to be that's going to be a really interesting congressional race. You mentioned we we talked to Abe about this.Sam Stone: But folks, in all fairness, before we stumble over this anymore, we actually already did our interview with Abe. We pre-recorded it before we began the show here. I'm just going to be honest about this. Like, folks, you know, we're not live. We pre-record this on Friday. You're going to you're going to hear this on Saturday. So it is what it is. Instead of assembling it over to Michelle, we'll just tease this interview that's coming up and then folks make sure yeah, make sure you stay tuned afterwards because we're going to do a nice podcast segment following on this as well. And then for segments three and four today we have Mike Cote, writer for National Review and historian, focusing on great power, rivalry and geopolitics, which obviously isn't relevant at all to the moment in time we're in. Yeah, yeah. Um, but so we were teasing the lead in with Abe in that race from last time when Debbie Lesko became the congresswoman. I think if I remember, I mean, it was a huge field, like 15 to 18 people in that field.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: I think so too. I mean, everyone and their mom comes out and puts their hat or puts their name in the hat to run. And but that is honestly the nature of an open seat. You see that quite frequently in an open seat. It is exasperated by fact that it's a congressional open seat. And on our side, the Republican side.Sam Stone: Whoever wins the primary.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Yeah, it will. The general.Sam Stone: The general. I mean, I think when Debbie ran, her Democrat opponent in the general was.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Tipirneni.Sam Stone: Was it Hiram Tipirneni or was it? I think it was Brian nee. Brianna Westbrook. I don't know. Either way. It was terrible.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Candidates or something. Yeah. It's terrible.Sam Stone: Well, yeah. No. So the Democrats here in Arizona don't have a great bench.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: No, no, they don't have a good bench at all. It's not deep. Just the fact that we have Katie Hobbs as our governor I think is evident of that. But it does tell you, though, that if we aren't smart about how we're campaigning, if we don't have strategy, if we don't stick to our talking points, if we veer off of, you know, issues that matter to people, it's not a given. We're going to win. I mean, right, you know, just because the other side is that bad does not mean you're going to win. You know, you really have to make sure that you get your message out and you, frankly, stay on message. Stay. On message. I hope that's what happens in in CD eight is they stay on message. There's so much going on. Abe talked about that. And people want results. Yes. You know, deliver something for the good people of that district, please.Sam Stone: Well, you know one thing, and I know Debbie Lesko a little bit. You probably know her a lot better than I.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Served with her.Sam Stone: Um, but one of the things I was a little disappointed with her over the few years she's been in office versus Paul Gosar, for instance, is that Paul ran around and turned out voters in his bright red district in general elections. Yeah. And Debbie did not do that in hers. And folks, that makes a big difference. You need a candidate. Yeah. They've won the thing in the primary. It's over basically. But you need them to go out and turn out those votes.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: You do have to energize the base, right? This is a numbers game. The person with the most numbers, you know, the highest number, excuse me, wins. And it's about keeping majorities or getting majorities if we don't have them. And that doesn't happen unless let's get out to vote. Like your point.Sam Stone: Let's take a Debbie Lesko and let's call it five of our brightest red state legislative districts. Right. What what how much of a change is there if each one of if Debbie turns out an extra 1000 votes and all of those turn out an extra hundred.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: And especially since races are becoming more and more competitive, they're closer and closer. So, you know, a lot of people have this mindset of like, oh, it doesn't matter or I'm just one. But when when, you know, the race we had the superintendent race, there was another legislative district race. This was just last general election, right. They they triggered recount my recount bill, by the way, that the counties opposed vehemently because they don't like to recount.Sam Stone: That's one of the things most people don't maybe don't know, because people don't follow the legislature in any state.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: They should, but they should.Sam Stone: I always laugh because, like the Florida legislature has done so much right, and everyone, all everyone talks about is governor DeSantis. Now, I love governor DeSantis too, but let's be honest, 80% of what he gets credit for.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: They they served up to for him.Sam Stone: They're teeing him up. And, you know, we we haven't always done a good enough job here. But had we turned out those extra 1500 Republicans, we're not talking about Abraham Hamadeh running for CD eight. We're talking about AG Abraham Hamadeh right I mean that's a big difference. And this is nationwide folks. Think about all these the presidential election, everything how close that was.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: And it's only going to be I think that you're going to see more and more competitive races. And what I mean by that, the differential between the top two candidates become narrower, more narrow and narrow. So they're going to be razor close. So every vote actually does count. And I think in 2016 it was Congressman Andy Biggs that won his race by I want to say 27 votes.Sam Stone: Yeah it was really tight really really tight tight. Yeah. And so these things make a big difference.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: So if you're extended family's not voting and you lose that race I mean you can't go to any family function ever again.Sam Stone: Well no you can. You just you stand at the door and you're like, you're allowed in. Let's see. Did you vote? Pull up the voter rolls. Did you cast a ballot? Oh no no, no potato salad for you today.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Exactly.Sam Stone: Um, there's a lot going on in the world, and obviously we're going to be focusing on a lot of the the great power situation and all of this with Mike Cote. When Cote, I'm hoping I'm probably mispronouncing this two different ways. That's what I do, folks. Um, but I want to touch on something else that came up today. It's kind of icky, but I'm throwing I'm throwing this into this thing. It's Friday. There's the news out today that about a week ago you had a reporter in Philadelphia, 39 year old reporter who was murdered in his home. And everyone was like, you know, what's going on, blah, blah, blah. Well, today they arrested a 19 year old homeless kid that he was having a air quote, I'm putting up the air quotes here, folks. Relationship with. This comes about two weeks after we saw a activist stabbed on the streets of New York.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: That was horrific.Sam Stone: Video for basically the same underlying reason that he had been in a relationship with this crazy young homeless person who then stabbed him to death. Democrats have a pedophile problem.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: You are going bold.Sam Stone: I am going bold there. But you know what they do. Look at the thing. So there was a little bit of controversy here about Turning Point USA. One of their activists chasing and asking questions of an ASU professor, who then shoved the cameraman and physically made a poor decision of who to assault because he just got tossed to the ground by a much stronger person as a result. Now that that was the result of his actions, this this act, this activist professor. But I looked into why they were asking him these questions. This guy is a professor at our university and he's basically promoting pedophilia. I mean. What are we? What do we have to do?Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Why isn't why isn't there an outcry about that?Sam Stone: You know, I saw a little clip from Joe Rogan this morning, and I actually, I like Rogan. I think he's a great interviewer. It's not his insights I actually find the most interesting. UsuallyMichelle Ugenti- Rita:  He's good at teasing it out of his guests.Sam Stone: Yeah, he's a great interviewer. He asks brilliant questions, but this was a kind of a clip of him talking with one of his guests, guest hosts or co co producers or whatever, and he was saying, you know, you have this thing where it's just Ghislaine Maxwell has been jailed, convicted, right, of selling kids for sex. And yet there's no one anywhere in any documentation who bought. That sex. Now obviously that happened. I'm not saying it didn't write. But why aren't they being charged? All of those people who were flying to Epstein Island.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Who are they and.Sam Stone: Who are they? Where's the list?Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Where's right? It happened. Where's the list? Who are they? Why can't we identify them?Sam Stone: Yeah.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: And bring them to justice.Sam Stone: And forget trying to hold them accountable? We're not even being told who we.Michelle Ugenti- Rita:  You don't even. Know who it is.Sam Stone: Who should be held accountable.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Very powerful.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Forces.Sam Stone: And this is this is something totally different. Like I always was. You know, you grew up in a country where it's like, hey, one side wants lower tax rates and the other one side wants to spend more money. And like, okay, that's a discussion we can all have.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: And be on.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Either side of the issue on. Right. But why, why are why why is this one divided. Right. Or at least feels like it? Shouldn't we all be on the same side on this one?Sam Stone: I'm sorry.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: You have a different perspective when it comes to pedophilia.Sam Stone: Or. Yeah.Sam Stone: I mean, like they go so far as to call it minor attracted persons. Now they're trying to do this name swap thing again.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Hopefully Huckabee has banned that term.Sam Stone: Everyone should ban that term. If your governor hasn't banned that term you need to talk to your governor. I don't care which side of the aisle they're on. Okay, folks, we're going to break. We're going to be coming back for more. Make sure you tune in for our podcast segment, because I want to follow up on some of this. It's, you know, there's some weird stuff going on these days, folks. We'll catch you on the next episode here. We're going to be talking to Abe Hamadeh and then moving on with my coat or coat writer for the National Review in just a moment.Advertisement: At Overstock. We know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms. Overstock has every day free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock. Making dream homes come true.Sam Stone: All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Michelle Ugenti-rita. And I'm Sam Stone. Coming up next, a guest who just announced a run for Congressional District eight here in Arizona. He is also the man. I really believe that you can if you're a Democrat or you're an independent, you want to quibble about what happened to Kari Lake? You can, but I don't believe you can quibble about what happened to this guy in Maricopa County in this last election, where he theoretically lost by a couple hundred votes when they had huge problems with the machine problems. I have not talked to anybody in Arizona, anybody who's reasonable, who doesn't think the election was stolen from Abe Hamadeh. So, Abe, thank you for taking the time this morning. I know you've got a busy schedule because you just launched this run for Congress. Tell us how you're doing and what's going on.Abe Hamadeh: Thank you. Sam, good to be with you, Michel. It's been, you know, it was Groundhog Day for a whole year, just about since last November. Right. Focusing on our election lawsuit, which, you know, as you said, I think everybody recognizes what happened. And, you know, with the government withholding all of the evidence, all these 9000 uncounted ballots. But when this opportunity arose, you know, I decided, hey, you know, I don't trust I don't trust the court system right now. Sam, you know, it's really unfortunate that we've been met with roadblocks. So I plan to serve in in Washington alongside Kari Lake and alongside Donald Trump. And I think that's where the focus is now. But we're still fighting the election lawsuit, of course, because we need to expose what happened. But, you know, right out the gate, we had so many endorsements, Sam, and we got endorsed by Kash Patel, who's a huge fighter. We have Ric Grenell and director of National intelligence. We had Robert O'Brien, the national security adviser. We even had Adam Laxalt, who ran for Senate in Nevada, the former AG up there. So I think we built this really broad coalition and a type of unity to kind of ticket right now, because I'm just trying to I want the grassroots, the grassroots right now need a victory.Abe Hamadeh: You know, they need a fighter who's willing to say the things that need to be said and do the things that need to be done. And when I go to Washington, DC, everybody knows my fighting spirit, right? I mean, the establishment wanted me to go cower and hide and, you know, beg for forgiveness. And instead I stood tall to them. I stood tall to them, the the media and the political class. And I think I've come out stronger than ever. And the polling suggests that certainly right now. So we're in a very good spot. And I'd be honored to go back to my eighth congressional district, where I actually grew up from. I lived in North Peoria. I went to school at three different schools out there. So it feels it feels really nice and especially that area for so long. You know, it's really MAGA country, very supportive of President Trump. And who can't be, especially with the world on fire right now. Sam. So I think my skill set, you know, being the an Army captain serving overseas, being a former prosecutor, I think it's going to be it's going to be really good transition in Congress.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Yeah. So I think the audience we kind of need to set up this race. This is this is we had an incumbent who is not running for re-election, Debbie Lesko. So we have an open seat in a.Sam Stone: Very red district.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: A very.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Red district. So this is going to stay Republican. It's just what flavor Republican are we going to get. And we need to get a conservative. The race is shaping up. Talk to us about what that looks like right now. How many candidates are in the race. How do you see it ultimately kind of solidifying as as people look at.Sam Stone: As I told someone the other day, I think Abe has a pretty good chance of winning a 19 way primary.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Well, you know what?Michelle Ugenti- Rita: These open seats, right? I mean, that's around how many candidates enter the races.Sam Stone: I think last time it was like 18 or 19 for this seat when it kicked off.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: So it's really going to be about your base. And in that niche what do we what does it look like right now.Abe Hamadeh: So I think you guys are exactly right. And, you know, I entered the race as the clear underdog with 0% name ID and, you know, that was probably the most contentious primaries in terms of how many legitimate candidates there were. And, you know, we defeated all of them because, you know, the voters are smart. They really sense authenticity. They know who's genuine. They know who's a fighter. Right now, I know my one of my opponents, Blake Masters, just entered the race. He's coming in all the way from Tucson, no ties to the district. And, you know, actually did the worst out of any of the Trump endorsed candidates. He he only won that district by 7%, which is kind of scary. I won the district by 12%. So but, you know, I'm focused on my race. I don't really need to focus on anybody else. But people know they're the electorate nowadays is a lot smarter than people give them credit for. They know they're really in tune with so much of what's happening. So, you know, the more the merrier that come in and, you know, we'll, we'll we'll just run our race just like we ran the ag race. And I have no problem running against people who are older than me, who are more established than me, but I.Abe Hamadeh: People at this at this time. They know our country is collapsing. I mean, we have to be very honest about the assessment of our country. It's in a dire state. And it's the same reason why I ran for AG and the same fighting spirit I'm going to take to Congress with me is I know what's at stake. My family left Syria, know I was born in the United States, but my family immigrated from Syria and my family from Venezuela. And I've seen what Marxist revolutions do to countries. And once they activate them, it happens very quickly. And as I were seeing all of our institutions under attack right now, but I look forward to a spirited primary and, you know, we're going to we're going to go off to the races. But I feel very confident we're going to have a lot of support. I'm honored that Kari Lake endorsed me right off the bat, too. She was actually on the phone with me telling me to get in the race. So I feel really good about the way of the race. Right now.Sam Stone: We have just about two three minutes left before we get to the end of this segment here, and I want to give some time for you at the end to be able to share your website and all your information so people can help support you. But one of the things I noted from the campaign last time for Attorney general and for folks outside of Arizona, you wouldn't have seen any of this. Obviously, no one's paying attention outside of the state. It was, like you said, a big primary. One of the things I thought differentiated you from the other campaigns was you were focused on campaigning, on things you were going to do in office. A lot of them spent a lot of time attacking you. I didn't see that from your camp. You really ran a issue based. YeahMichelle Ugenti- Rita: Right.Abe Hamadeh: Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, there are so many, so many people want to get into politics because they want to be a politician. I'm getting into it because I'm desperately worried about our country. And I've seen it firsthand. Right. When when you had everybody coming after me, you know, with this election that happened last November, you know, one of the things I want to go into Congress is get election integrity at the federal level. And so I think just that type of fighting spirit the voters recognize, they know that I'm so focused on terrorism. You know, I've served overseas in Saudi Arabia vetting, you know, trying to prevent terrorists from coming into the United States. And, you know, you see our wide open border, which I think, unfortunately, we've had 167 encounters with people on the terror watch list. I mean, there's so much, so many things that are happening in our country where it's a multi-dimensional war and we have to fight it on all fronts. And having somebody with that conviction and who can withstand the pressure is so important right now at this dire time, and especially with and look at this time last year, Sam, Michelle, we didn't president Trump wasn't under indictment. Now he's had to withstand four indictments. And I think people need to be really concerned about the direction of our country right now, where we're starting to jail political opponents. I mean, this is not something that we've seen in the United States of America before. This is more reminiscent of banana republics, third world countries. And I think I can speak to it most better than most people right now.Sam Stone: We have just a minute left. Oh, real quick, give us your top three issues and then tell folks how they can support your campaign.Abe Hamadeh: My top three issues are, of course, the border. I mean, the border is completely open because of the disaster of the Biden administration, which I do believe is intentional. And I think we need to impeach Secretary Mayorkas as soon as possible. Election integrity is my other focus, and I've been tried and tested in that battlefront, and we're going to do some good things at the at the federal level with that. And thirdly, you know, national security and military, you know, somebody who served, you know, I know what veterans go through. And I also know that a foreign policy that doesn't put America first is a is a disaster. But I feel really blessed to be to represent this district. And if anybody wants to learn more about the campaign, I'm honored to have their support. They can go to my website at for Azcom. Abe. Perfect.Sam Stone: Thank you so much, Abe. We're coming back in just a moment. All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Michelle Ugenti-rita. I'm Sam Stone. We're going to be continuing on with our interviews here in just a moment. But folks, you've been hearing me talk about why Refy for a year now? It's actually been a year since they started sponsoring this program. And, you know, after a few months, I went and did some research on my own and really got to know the folks in that company. And I got to tell you, you are missing a fantastic opportunity. If you don't go to their website and see about the incredible rates of return, you can get there. It's not linked to the stock market. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That is just an incredible opportunity in today's market. So check them out. Invest y refy.com that's invest the letter Y then refy.com. Or give them a call at 888 y refy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. All right. Continuing on today, folks, we have Mike Coté. He is a writer for the National Review and historian, focusing on great power, rivalry and geopolitics, blogs at Rational policy.com and host the Rational Rational Policy podcast. Mike, thank you so much for joining us. And welcome to the program.Mike Coté: Great. Thanks so much for having me.Sam Stone: So nothing to talk about at all these days in the areas of great power, rivalry and geopolitics. Um, you know, one of the one of your recent articles is that titled the Sky Isn't Falling for those who decry Western support for Ukraine, everything a precursor to World War three? This couldn't be further from the truth. Tell us a little bit about that, because I thought that was an interesting take and kind of an important one to inject into the discussion at this moment.Mike Coté: Yeah, great. Thanks so much. So the piece basically I'm trying to talk about we have people online, especially even going up to people in Congress as well as the president of the United States that are basically thinking that any sort of change in our posture in Ukraine, whether that's giving them more weapons, assisting them with intelligence, things like that, pretty much are forcing us into a third world war. You'll see people talking about World War Three, things like that all the time online. And that was something that really bothered me. As someone who studied both world wars, they're basically mistaking the way that escalation dynamics worked, both in the current war as well as in both the First and Second World War. So unfortunately.Sam Stone: What are what are some of the primary differences in that?Mike Coté: Sure. So with World War One, that's something I study a lot, and I feel like it's unfortunately not really well understood as much here in the US, but people usually think about it as, you know, war that happened for nothing. A lot of people died for really no reason. It kind of burst out of nowhere with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in summer of 1914, but this was something that was brewing for a very, very long time beforehand. The big geopolitical rivalries between Britain and Germany and France and Russia with Germany as well, were really simmering for decades, if not longer. And this was something that really kind of ramped up over time. And I see the Ukraine war right now as much more as one of those smaller wars that were kind of earlier, a couple of decades earlier, as a precursor to the First World War. It's a proxy war essentially. Right now, the US is not directly involved, neither is any other NATO country. And you have Russia basically trying to take over their smaller neighbor. So there are various conflicts that were like this before World War One.Mike Coté: None of them blew up into the big one. Obviously that eventually happened, but there was a lot more build up to it than there is right now with Ukraine and with respect to World War II specifically, I think the lesson that people are taking away from that is kind of the opposite. We saw those smaller conflicts happening before World War II as well. Hitler was trying to gobble up different parts of Europe. Japan was trying to take over China since 1937, and essentially us in the West. We did very little about that. You famously have Neville Chamberlain with the peace in our time, getting a piece of paper at Munich, basically saying, oh, Hitler is not going to do any more besides take this part of Czechoslovakia. And we all know how well that worked out. So I think the lesson coming from World War II is that if we meet with force, these sorts of revanchist aims by a country like Russia and Ukraine, then we may be able to avoid a much bigger conflagration later on.Sam Stone: And, you know, I think that makes sense. It's a view that you don't hear expressed that clearly very often. And I think one of the issues that I see with the public on this is that coverage of the war tends to be either rah rah or no, no, the war in Ukraine, there isn't much room for nuance, it seems, in the national discussion right now.Mike Coté: Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a big problem with it. I mean, I wish the president would go out and make a speech that really kind of explained the stakes, why it matters to the US to aid Ukraine in this war against Moscow and kind of help them protect their own territory. You know, one of the things that I think people don't talk nearly enough about is the world system. We live in now that the US is really the hegemon of. That's something that's very fragile. And these things that are chopping away at the edges of it, like the war in Ukraine, really do undermine our security here at home.Sam Stone: Yeah, absolutely. We're going to be going to break here in a moment, but we're coming back with more from Mike Kott, writer from National Review and historian focusing on great power, rivalry and geopolitics, blogs at Rational policy.com. And he's the host of the Rational Policy podcast. We also want to get into, obviously, what's going on with the Israel-hamas conflict and how history can help us understand that conflict a little bit better. And in general, I think it's valuable just to hear from people who aren't looking at these things as black and white and very straightforward. They are complex issues that will affect this world for decades to come. So stay tuned, folks. We're coming back with more in just a moment.Advertisement: At Overstock. We know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms, Overstock has every day free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock. Making dream homes come true.Sam Stone: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Michelle Ugenti-rita. I'm Sam Stone on the line with us. Mike Cote, writer for the National Review. Mike, when we went to the break, we were talking obviously a little bit about the Ukraine conflict with Russia. I do want to touch one thing real quick on that, and then I want to get on to what's going on in Israel and Hamas. And another piece you've written that I think is very interesting. But talking about containing Vladimir Putin. How much do leaders around the world and intelligence agencies see Ukraine as a line where if we allow that, that domino to fall, that it's almost certain Russia will take additional steps, and perhaps China and other potential aggressors will see that as the green light to go in, you know, expand their territorial ambitions.Mike Coté: Yeah. And I think that's that's very true. I think one thing with Ukraine specifically is we've kind of seen this happening over the past decade or so. In 2008, you had the invasion of Georgia by Russia, which we didn't really do much about, that. Georgia was not in NATO is not in NATO at this point. Basically, Russia carved off a significant portion of Georgia and has kind of kept that country on the sidelines in terms of an American or a NATO alliance. We saw that as well in Ukraine in 2014, when Russia invaded, took Crimea and started a long, prolonged conflict in the eastern part of the country. Obviously, this year they've expanded that, trying to take out pretty much all of Ukraine. Their initial advance was really on Kiev, which was the capital. And obviously trying to do that is not something you do if you're just trying to take small, different parts of the territory. I think one thing that Vladimir Putin is banking on is that Ukraine is not in NATO. I think that really is where he's trying to push at first to see how NATO responds when it's not a NATO ally that's directly affected. But we have seen NATO allies directly affected as well, especially in the Baltic countries. Over the past 5 or 6 years. We've seen various incursions there, especially with cyber attacks.Mike Coté: And that's something that I think we're going to see more of going forward, that asymmetric sort of warfare, trying to test NATO's tripwires and see where we'll really get a stronger response and where they may not. And as you said, with other countries, especially with China, in Taiwan, I think, as you said, with respect to Israel, we've seen Iran becoming more belligerent with respect to the way that it's attacking Israel and trying to carry out its own aims. You know, we've responded pretty strongly in Ukraine. I think one of the problems is we haven't been getting them the material they need fast enough. The Biden administration has basically slow walked a lot of these things saying, oh, you know, Israel doesn't need it, sorry, Ukraine doesn't need it. And then a few months later, okay, well, Ukraine can get it in a couple of months from now. And by the end of that cycle, it's 8 to 9 months, if not a year down the line, that Ukraine is actually getting these sorts of weapons on the battlefield. And that sort of delay is something that I think really does incentivize our enemies to try to make these big moves, especially like China on Taiwan, and try to get that done before we even really have the opportunity to react.Sam Stone: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Moving on and switching up subjects a little bit here, talking about what's going on in Israel with the Hamas attacks. Israel's response. You had a great piece accusing Israel of genocide as a moral outrage, but also based on your historical background and knowledge. How can people I mean, again, this is a narrative, Michel, that I think has been massively oversimplified in public discussion here and around the globe. There's a lot of history that goes into this. And people, you know, people talking about apartheid or talking about occupation don't seem to understand that history very much at all. So, Mike, give us a little bit of that background and what is informing the decisions that are being made on both sides.Mike Coté: Sure. So I mean, you can go back even to before the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. And see, there was very interesting back and forth between Israel, Jews in the area that would become Israel, and the Arabs in the area that would have become Palestine had they accepted the creation of a state either in 1948 or later on. And basically, we're seeing a battle over something that's been really fought about for for centuries. The Holy Land has always been somewhere that you've had competing claims Muslim, Jewish, Christian, obviously, the Crusades going back over a millennia at this point. But with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it really goes back to 1948, where you have Israel being partitioned, the land that was Mandate Palestine. The UN basically split it into what would have become a Jewish state and what would have become an Arab state. And that was something that was accepted by Jewish leaders at the time, including David Ben-Gurion, who became the first prime minister of the country. Unfortunately, the Arabs did not accept this and had basically launched a genocidal invasion at the time to wipe out all the Jews of Israel. And this is something that you can see pretty clearly from the historical record. Various Arab and Palestinian leaders essentially are saying that we need to wipe out the Jews here. We need to make sure that this is purely a muslim land. And at that time, you had a significant number of Arabs living in what would become Israel. Many of them fled. There was a lot of fighting that was really back and forth, civil war, sort of fighting. A lot of civilian casualties on both sides. And the Arab armies that were coming in essentially said, hey, get out of our way.Mike Coté: Let us come in here to do what we need to do to destroy what would be the state of Israel. And then you can go back to your homes afterward. And so a lot of people did listen to that. Most of the population, the Arab population of the area fled. I think there were about 750,000 refugees. Palestinians today call that the Nakba, the catastrophe. So basically, the catastrophe for them was the very existence of Israel in the first place. And you see a lot of this happening at the time, you know, various partitions of states, India and Pakistan being split up, which caused about 15 million refugees, a much, much larger population. And those people were eventually absorbed into those two states. Obviously, there's still conflict between India and Pakistan, but you don't have as much of that internal conflict, whereas you have Palestinian refugees that have been refugees in camps for 75 years now. And I lay a lot of that blame at the feet of the Arab states around which have kept the Palestinians essentially completely outside of the political process in these countries. Whereas you had Arabs who remained and became citizens of the state of Israel who have participated in politics in Israel. You even had in the last government, an Arab party was part of the government for the first time in Israeli history. So it's really been a very long term conflict here. You've always had Palestinian Arabs, especially in the leadership, basically advocating a genocidal aim towards the Jews of Israel. And that's something that is very, very hard to make peace with, as we have seen.Sam Stone: Obviously, the underlying issue, I mean, really break it down, is that one side would accept peace and one side will not. And the accusations of genocide are completely reversed from the reality. Yeah.Mike Coté: No, totally. I mean, it's one of those things again and again, you'll hear even people who have been very pro the peace process. Bill Clinton, for example, in 2000, essentially was trying to broker a deal at Camp David between Yasser Arafat and the Israeli government, and they gave Arafat essentially everything that he could ask for in terms of territorial splits, in terms of having a relatively contiguous Palestinian state. And he turned it down, and they launched the Second Intifada, which killed several hundred Jews in terrorist attacks across Israel. And it's really one of those things where, again, you can offer so much, but if it's not accepted, what are you going to do? Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in 2005, pulled out Israeli settlers at gunpoint and relocated them into the state of Israel. And yet you had the people of Gaza essentially electing Hamas as their government, who only had one election. They've held a power in Gaza the rest of the time, and they've been using all of the aid money we give them, essentially, to impoverish their own people and build terrorist infrastructure to try to destroy Israel. So it's very hard to make peace with a group of people who are led essentially by terrorists, who have no interest in actually having a state, even when they have the chance.Sam Stone: One of the one of the charges you hear all the time is that Israeli settlements are encroaching upon Palestinian land. But but as you point out, since 2005, that has not been the case. As far as I can tell. Those complaints are actually based on well, Israel's population is growing, so they're building more houses in Israel.Mike Coté: Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of it. And you do have some settlements in the West Bank, which have been very controversial, but that has nothing to do with the conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Like I said, there have been no Jews living in Gaza essentially since 2005. And if you look at Palestinian governed territories or generally the Middle East overall, it used to be various vibrant Jewish communities across the Middle East, whether that was from in Morocco, in Baghdad, which had a centuries old Jewish community. They were all evicted essentially after 1948, causing about 850,000 refugees, which were indeed accepted by Israel and integrated into the population.Sam Stone: So a fair swap at that time, I mean, if we're just talking fair, would have been, okay. All you Arab states, you take the 750,000. That are.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Refugees.Sam Stone: That are that left to get out of the way of your armies. You take those refugees and we're taking the 750,000 Jews. But but this, this sort of genocide, if you want to talk about genocide or apartheid has continued very programmatically into very recent years in a lot of these Arab countries where even just 10 or 20 years ago, there were still hundreds of thousands of Jews living there. And now there are basically none.Mike Coté: Yeah, yeah, you've seen that happen constantly across the years. And thankfully there is a state of Israel for these people to go to that would be able to protect them. And I think that's one of the biggest things that we see is that obviously there is the atrocities of October 7th, and that was one thing that was obviously a very big security failure for Israel that they'll be dealing with over time. But that's somewhere where you have an Israeli army that is meant to protect Jews in Israel. And having that place for them to go to is something that really is very different than what the Arab countries. Obviously, there are plenty of Arab countries. Jordan has a very large Palestinian population, and yet they have refused to essentially integrate these people into their societies, which has indeed actually caused many more problems. Know, if these Arab countries aren't integrating Palestinian refugees, that breeds more resentment. And instead of directing that resentment towards the Arab countries, they're directing it towards the one Jewish state in the region.Sam Stone: Mike, before we wrap up, we have just about three minutes left here today. Really appreciate you joining us on the program, folks. You can follow his work at Rational policy.com. Also at National Review. Mike Cote, I want to thank you so much for joining us. But before you go, I want to jump onto one last topic. You recently wrote a piece, The Multi-headed Hydra Menacing America, talking about increasing cooperation between China, Russia and Iran. Why should that concern the average American?Mike Coté: So basically, I think it comes down to their goal, which is really what unites them. They all wish to essentially destroy the world order that we live in and have lived in since the end of World War two. Basically, at that point in time, the transition from Britain, you know, running the world is really not the right word. But controlling the world system, making the rules, trying to establish fairness for various countries that really that responsibility came on to the United States. And what we've seen over the past 75 years is an explosion in prosperity, not only within the US, but around the world. Whether that's been the protection of trade by the American Navy, the fact that we have rule of law generally have international bodies which have arbitrated disputes between states. Obviously, there have been wars since World War two, but nothing to the extent of that war. And I think part of that is really because of the Western led world order and these countries China, Russia and Iran, as well as some of their proxies, Venezuela and North Korea, etcetera. They want to overturn that. They want to return to a world that's much more like the 19th century, where you'd have hard spheres of influence with the great powers basically running their near abroad and controlling that. And that's been something that has not been the case for the past 75 years, where we've had small states be able to have their own interests and have their own security without having to worry about their bigger neighbors gobbling them up. And so these nations really want to go back to that older world where they can have a stronger influence around the countries around them, whether that's economic or military. And one of the ways they're trying to dismantle our world order is through secondary economic institutions. They try to avoid US sanctions. They try to build their own banking systems, things like that, to really separate themselves from the American led order. And that poses a danger to us here at home, because it really cuts at the core of our prosperity and our security.Sam Stone: Fantastic. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today, folks. Mike Kotei, writer for the National Review. Mike, how do folks follow you and your work and stay in touch? And obviously, we're going to look forward to having you back on to continue some of these discussions. I think it's critical for the future. Yeah, sure.Mike Coté: Well, thanks so much. They can check out my website at Rational policy.com. I write there a good bit. Obviously I have writing at National Review, Providence Magazine, and The Federalist, and you can check me out on Twitter or whatever they're calling it now at RATL Policy.Sam Stone: Fantastic, folks. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Breaking battlegrounds. We'll be back on the air next week, but make sure you download our podcast segment. Also got some juicy stuff in there this week from Michelle and I. Breaking battlegrounds back next week.Advertisement: The 2022 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a Your name web domain from GoDaddy.com. Get yours now.Sam Stone: All right, welcome to the exclusive podcast segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host today, Michelle Ugenti-rita. Thank you so much for joining us in studio I love coming. You know, we were talking a bit in the first segment, and I want to kind of build off of that about the Democrats really appear to have a problem with pedophilia, and they have a problem calling it out, and they're not willing to just be like, this is wrong.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Well.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: You know. Do they see a constituency there?Sam Stone: Apparently they must. I mean, but but so I was thinking about that in light of everything going on with Hamas and Israel. Right. I don't know how you cannot anybody everybody cannot unambiguously say that people. Raping women and children, taking hostages, killing civilians, 1400 dead civilians. How? You cannot say that. That is an unalloyed wrong. There is no justification for such an act ever. And yet you see Democrats in this country, they cannot say that.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Right. There's something there's something that they're unwilling to admit.Sam Stone: The moral, the moral equivalencies they're creating. Are just. I mean.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: But remember.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: These are the same people that can't even say what a woman is.Sam Stone: Yeah, it all ties together, though, to me, Michel, because, like, you can't say that a woman's a woman. No, you can't call a pedophile a pedophile, and you can't call a terrorist a terrorist.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: So it's bigger than those examples. It's it's really this war on facts and the truth. And they seem to want you to believe that there's subjectivity in facts and the truth and there's not. It just is factual and it just is the truth, whether you believe it or not, doesn't take it away. The truth doesn't need you to support it. It survives and exists outside of of whether you agree with it or not. But they don't want it seems like they don't want you to believe that. They want you to believe. Whatever they say is the truth, or that you have some ability to create your own set of facts and truth.Sam Stone: You know.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: How do you have. A society if there aren't rules?Sam Stone: Well, so this is actually the point I was I was going to get to with all this discussion. How do you have a society without some sort of moral values? Right? I mean, the entire Western world has been built on essentially the Judeo-Christian set of values, right? We all agreed on those things. And I think one of the things that's going on is Democrats. It's all about power and control. And a moral. People do not require a lot of government oversight.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: No, but.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: You're right on power and control. That's exactly what you saw with Covid. That was all about power and control. That's what all of. And that's really this. The trans gender issue is about power and control, making you feel that you can't even speak out loud what you know to be true, what is true, what is factual because you are so in fear of being either ridiculed, fired, you know, drawn and quartered in your community. And that's a power and control thing. They don't want you to feel like you have freedom. They want you to get permission.Sam Stone: And and you just brought up a really good point. So for like you and me, you know, I say things whether here on the radio or on Twitter, which I now call Twix, right? I say things all the time that if I were working for almost any company, any fortune 500 company in this country, I would be fired that day.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: There'd be some video.Sam Stone: Oh no. Yeah, I mean, they they would never tolerate someone like me. They would never hire someone like me if they went back and looked at those things.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: So, you know, I, you know, this really actually brings up an interesting area which is corporations and what they're doing, what they have done. To allow this and give this kind of this, this power grab steam. I mean, look how they market. Look what they do. Look at the choices they make, look at how they set up their corporate boardrooms and the diversity training and what, you know, cancelling Christmas parties because God forbid, you celebrate anything and, you know, they're part of it.Sam Stone: It's corporate cowardice, I think is the root of this. And I don't think they're just part of it. I think they are the engine now behind it, because I think the I think the left realised that without the power of corporations behind these ideas, that these ideas would never extend past the dark recesses of academia.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: That's right.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: They would implode upon any reasonable person, you know, thinking about it or looking at it. It couldn't survive. It's that nonsensical. So you use corporate the corporate world to.Sam Stone: Yeah, you infiltrate HR.Sam Stone: You take HR and turn it into something it was never intended to be. Hr was never intended to be the Hall monitor in a business. It was simply intended to be the person who managed like your health plan and your benefits. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, oversaw the paperwork for now.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: You know, looking in your office and seeing what posters you've put up or, you know.Sam Stone: They're following all your socials, you know, they're they're tracking everything you say and do.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: These ideas don't sell like you were saying. So people have to be.Sam Stone: They have to be.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Coerced and coerced into acquiescing. So that's why you can never acquiesce. Don't put that mask on. Don't social distance.Sam Stone: Amen. You know, I know absolutely.Sam Stone: Absolutely. You're hearing it from a Jewish guy now.Sam Stone: Amen, sister.Sam Stone: There's no question that is exactly right. The only answer is to have no tolerance at all for their version of this societal great change that they're trying to bring in, which is built on the most amoral and and unsustainable foundation.Michelle Ugenti- Rita: Well, no. Yes. It's collectivism. Right? Everybody does the same thing. Nobody stands out. That is not how we are built, particularly in America. It's exceptionalism that motivates us. Individuality. It's funny that these are the same people that pretend to care about individuality when they want everyone to be the same, marched to the same tune. Do not deviate. Everyone has to act the same, be the same, think the same, look the same. It's that's really how they behave.Sam Stone: It's an amazing.Sam Stone: Point. It's. It is. You're telling these people, oh, you're an individual warrior, and yet you don't allow them to step out of line one bit. They're ants marching, right?Michelle Ugenti- Rita: That's exactly right, sheeple. Going right off the cliff.Sam Stone: Well, and speaking of off the cliff, folks, we are going off this cliff and off the air. But thank you so much for tuning in and joining us today. We really, really appreciate having you. And make sure if you're not subscribed, subscribe. Send this to a friend. We really count on those things to show the support to the Salem Network and to our folks here, so we can expand and help reach more people each week. Again, thank you for tuning in for Michelle. I'm Sam. We'll see you next week. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe