Join us for a dynamic episode featuring three exceptional guests who bring diverse insights to the forefront. Paul McLeary, a seasoned defense journalist at Politico with unparalleled reporting experiences; Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a former Navy Lieutenant Commander, physician, and political candidate running in Arizona’s 4th Congressional District; and Rick VanMeter, the Executive Director of The Coalition for App Fairness, leading a bipartisan effort to address anti-competitive policies from tech giants Apple and Google. -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 guestsPaul McLeary covers major defense programs and acquisitions policy for POLITICO. He previously covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News and Breaking Defense, and has embedded with U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.In Afghanistan, he was the first reporter to get inside the secretive ODIN program that targeted insurgents planting roadside bombs, and later accompanied U.S. special operations forces training Syrian Kurds in northern Syria. He has also traveled to the Arctic with the Norwegian military.-Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a former Navy Lieutenant Commander, physician, and political candidate running in Arizona’s 4th Congressional District-Rick VanMeter is the Executive Director of The Coalition for App Fairness. A bipartisan Congressional effort aimed to address anti-competitive policies from Big Tech companies Apple and Google.-TRANSCRIPTIONSam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone. Chuck Warren and I are apparently taking alternate days off this month, but fortunately for for us, we have Michelle Ugenti Rita in studio today to be here. Michelle is always fantastic and another fantastic lineup of guests for you today, folks. First off, we're leading out with Paul McCleary. He covers major defense programs and acquisitions policy for Politico, previously covered the Pentagon for foreign policy, defense news and breaking defense and has embedded with US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Paul, thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the program.Paul Mcleary: Thank you.Sam Stone: Obviously, there's a lot going on right now. A lot of news focused around Israel and Gaza and everything going on there. But that's also leading to a lot of ripple effects around the globe in terms of defense, in terms of economics, a whole host of, of of problems that are created when a situation like this kicks off. Can you talk a little bit about what's going on and how that's affecting our defense programs and policy really globally right now?Paul Mcleary: Sure thing. Yeah. I mean, I think what the wars in Ukraine and now in Israel are really showing is that the the Pentagon gets $800 billion a year, is well funded, but there are some real stresses here that were being felt even before these wars and the defense industry, as far as how long it takes to get new weapons and equipment under contract and things like that, and how expensive they are. And that has not been working out well for Ukraine as we're shipping billions of dollars worth of weaponry. We've given 2 million, I think, artillery shells to Ukraine. And the Pentagon has been struggling a little bit to get contracts to the defense industry to replenish our own stocks for that sort of thing. Both countries are also using a lot of Israel, more than than Ukraine, precision guided weapons. And those are expensive. They're kind of tough to make. And the US hasn't really ramped up production for those as much as maybe they would like to, given that China is also posing a threat on the other side of the world. We're not in a war with China, obviously, but the DoD is trying to increase production to increase its stocks for that, while it's also giving to Ukraine and now Israel. So there's some real concern on Capitol Hill and at DoD about how they're going to pull this off. There's no US troops involved in in these wars, clearly, but the US defense industry is going to have to get on wartime footing at some point. And it's definitely not right now, which is the new package that the Biden administration released on Friday morning. $106 billion for Taiwan, for Israel, for Ukraine, for the US defense industry, for border security. And that's going to try to get at some of this to increase production lines, speed things up a little bit. But there's no House of Representatives at the moment. So that bill is going to go anywhere for the foreseeable future. It's going to be some debate.Sam Stone: Is there a whole you know, you follow obviously, acquisitions policy really closely. And I've wondered for a few years now if we have a hole in our thinking where our adversaries around the globe are manufacturing very quick, cheap, easy to manufacture weapons, where everything we have is very high tech and tends to be very expensive. Does the US need to consider creating almost a secondary pipeline for weapons that we we've known how to manufacture for 50 years, and things that can be manufactured and given into the field very quickly.Paul Mcleary: Yeah. I mean, the thing with God is everything that they buy is bespoke, right? Very little commercial off the shelf, off the off the shelf equipment and stuff, you know, and and so everything that they buy or they ask industry to make is made for God specifically. Right. They demand intellectual property, things like that. So it is tough for them to do it quickly. And it's tough sometimes to even share that technology with with allies. That's been the case with Ukraine, with some of the weapons systems, even with Israel. So and we've seen the Ukrainians, I mean, they're building small drones using Chinese parts and whatever they have, and they're being incredibly effective with it. The Russians have no answer for it, but the US Army and military would never do that in a million years. Right? Right, right.Sam Stone: Right.Paul Mcleary: Build small parts even though it works. But we're just not going to do it.Sam Stone: Yeah. I mean, it seems like our enemies obviously have the ability to wage war for a lot less money than we do. And a lot of it comes down to that sort of bespoke military that you're talking about.Paul Mcleary: Exactly. I mean, the Chinese are doing it, the Ukrainians are doing it. Most countries around the world are doing it to some degree, and DoD won't. And there's a real push to try to change that. There's a new program that the DoD announced in August. We don't have a lot of details about it called replicator, which is a great name, where they want to build thousands of small drones that can be lost. They can be treatable where they can perform drones, drone swarms, do surveillance, I think some kind of kinetic activity. And this is aimed directly at China because China is building these, these drone swarms and things like that. But there's a lot of questions if DoD can do this in the next 24 months, which which they're giving themselves a timeline to do it if industry is ready, if DoD will trust small, innovative companies who they don't have a relationship with to work on this stuff, because this has been a years long project where DoD is trying to get VC firms, small tech firms to work with them. And they've had real, real problem with it because the overhead is low, the payoff is low for these companies, and it takes years for DoD to do anything right. They say, okay, this little drone looks good. Make five of them. We'll get back to you in two years, and we'll tell you if we want to buy 500 of them. And these companies say no thanks, it's not worth their time, right?Sam Stone: Yeah. We talked to a reporter a few maybe, actually about a year ago, who was talking about this in a different sense, that we've become too reliant on just a handful of major contractors, and they're not designed none of them. Their operations are designed to quickly gear up to expand production overnight.Paul Mcleary: Well, exactly. Well, this is part of in 1993. So I'll be quick about the history lesson, I promise. Then-secretary of Defense Les Aspin called in all the major defense contractors for a dinner at the Pentagon, and it's called the Last Supper. And he told them, hey, budgets are going down. There's 92 defense companies. And some of you, we have no problem with some of you going out of business, so you're going to have to consolidate or die. So those dozens of defense companies whittled down to the handful we have today, which creates less competition, higher prices. Et cetera. Et cetera. So that was a decision made then, that we're really feeling now that all those smaller companies that maybe would compete or have new ideas are now, you know, ten companies, essentially the Lockheed Raytheon's BAE systems bought up all those companies. So the policy decisions made 30 years ago are having a real impact now in trying to modernize and reform the system.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Is is America vulnerable militarily, with us being pulled so thin across all of these different interests in terms?Paul Mcleary: Yeah, I mean, I think that there's an argument that the DoD makes that I think has some merit to it that, you know, we're giving billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine. But what Ukraine is doing with that investment is decimating the Russian war machine. Right? I mean, stuff that we had built in the 80s or early 90s to fight the Soviet Union is now fighting the Russians in Ukraine. And it works. It works the way they wanted it to work. And the Russians, a lot of it for a lot of this equipment, don't have a good answer for it. And this is at the cost of the package. Today will be at 64 billion for for Ukraine, a lot of money, but no American soldiers are being killed, no Americans are being taken hostage or prisoners. So the argument by DoD is that this is we're achieving our aims cheaply and without loss of American life. But still, like I said before, until and unless DoD and industry can really figure out a way to get industry on some sort of. War footing. It's not sustainable for the long run for the United States. If this war drags on for four years, which it looks like it likely will.Sam Stone: That looks like it will drag on for years. And, you know, we we've talked about that quite a bit on this program that I don't think anyone really has any idea of what the out out in story is. Is Gaza different? Because it does seem like Israel is starting to very carefully focus on what comes after the invasion that appears to be imminent.Paul Mcleary: Yeah, it does appear that the IDF will go in on the ground in Gaza and try to clear out the north and target Hezbollah leadership. I it's it's not clear that Israel has a good day after plan other than decimating Hamas leadership. What comes next? Is it going to be an occupation? Is it a couple of battalions behind you? Create a buffer zone. It's that is going to be tough, tough stuff because the urban fight in in Gaza will be will be absolutely brutal. And we, the United States has done it in Najaf and in Fallujah. And those were hard, bloody door to door, literally room to room knife fights.Sam Stone: And and those are not as dense. And the density creates additional challenges in that type of environment. Right.Paul Mcleary: Exactly. I spent some time in Fallujah with the Marines after the, after the big fight. And there was still, you know, some some resistance there, but just driving through those streets and, you know, taking over houses and, and just trying to do that in a populated, dense city is just so hard. I mean, every time you turn a corner, there's a threat. Every time you pass an open window, there's a threat. And Hamas, I'm assuming, has Islamic Jihad has dug in pretty well in Gaza. They're going to have tunnels. And so this will be incredibly difficult for Israel. And it blunts a lot of their technological advantages, right? Things like drones and things like that they'll still be able to use, but packed in so tight those won't be nearly as effective as they would be on open ground.Sam Stone: We have just about a minute and a half before we go to break. We're going to be coming back with more right after that. From Paul McCleary with Politico covers major defense programs and acquisitions policy. Talking a little bit about, obviously, Gaza and Israel, what's going on in the world right now. But also I want to touch a little bit on Taiwan and China and does this when we come back. Does this create an opening, the US involvement in Ukraine now in Israel, potentially a pretty significant supporting of our ally there? Does this continue to make things more dangerous for Taiwan and increase the chances that China may look to take advantage of everything that's going on in the world right now? And obviously, I want to give you a little bit more time than the 30s we're about to have here. But Michelle, I think it's not been talked about enough. What what all this various conflicts is doing to create additional instability.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Absolutely.Sam Stone: So folks, make sure you stay tuned for that. We're going to be coming back with more from Paul McCleary in just a couple of minutes. And then stay tuned afterwards, because we have a very interesting second guest on the program, Dr. Judy Zaza. Zuhdi Jasser. I'm getting his name wrong already, but he has a fantastic background, and he's just announced a run for Congress here in Arizona. It's going to be an interesting fight, folks. Stay tuned. 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 Sam Stone in studio with me today, Michelle Ugenti-rita. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us. And on the line, Paul McLeary covers major defense programs and acquisition policy for Politico. We're talking, obviously, about what's going on in Israel and Gaza and the effects all around the globe. Paul, is this creating an opening that China may look to take advantage of, or that creates additional concern for Taiwan in that regard?Paul Mcleary: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. The Biden administration is trying to at least make the right noises about this in the $106 billion supplemental today for Israel and Ukraine and other things. There's 2 billion for foreign military financing for Indo-Pacific partners, and there's also money for Taiwan to finance US weaponry. But yeah, I think the Chinese are seeing the United States and Europe being consumed with the fight in Ukraine and now Israel. And just like they watched for 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, while China was cranking out destroyers and aircraft carriers and submarines and things like that, they can kind of continue with that, that that project there is I think they're also probably taking some lessons from the from the fighting, right, in that in Ukraine, particularly that a small country backed up by the West and can fight and can do some real damage to a larger industrialized nation like Russia.Sam Stone: Well, and they share a lot of the same technology. Theirs is better for the most part, but the basis of a lot of their military technology. Is Russian technology, correct?Paul Mcleary: It is. It is the disadvantage that Chinese have if they were to try something in Taiwan or, you know, give them a shooting war in the Pacific, is that they haven't they haven't fired a shot in anger since the late 70s when they fought Vietnam to a standstill. Right. So they have brand new ships and submarines and drones and a lot of and fourth or fifth generation fighter jets, as we've seen with Russia and Ukraine. That stuff doesn't always work. You know, you build stuff cheaply and in mass. It's not always going to work the way you want it to.Sam Stone: It doesn't even always work for us. I mean, hence the f 35 and its continued travails. But yeah.Paul Mcleary: Exactly. Or the littoral combat ship for the Navy, which are retiring five years after they built some of them. So that's not to take away what China's done, but it's a big unknown. If this stuff works right, we're doing something in an exercise is a lot different than doing it under the stress of actual combat. But the United States is trying to bolster allies in the region, you know, trying to make more deals with countries like Vietnam. There's a big push in the Philippines to get them more aircraft and more ships and things like that. So it is an increasingly complex situation in the Indo-Pacific, and it's kind of unclear where China wants to take this and how just how, how many things the United States and its allies in the West can juggle at the same time?Sam Stone: Reading into some of what kicked off this event in in Israel, in Gaza, it looked in the weeks preceding this like they were going to be some fairly historic agreements coming up on the table between Israel and some of the other regional powers there, particularly Saudi and Egypt. We're talking about a large economic corridor for transport. How much are groups like Hamas tuned in to those sorts of things, and how much does that affect their decision making when they launch these type of things? Or was this just something from what you know, that they were planning and they were going to do regardless of anything else going on in the world?Paul Mcleary: Yeah, I mean, Hamas had clearly planned this for, for several years. I mean, this was a complex, massive operation. They somehow kept kept secret. But I would think that the agreements that were being reached, Israel kind of being accepted slowly and incrementally into the larger Middle East community, I'm sure that did concern them. But they also took advantage of an Israeli defense force that was completely distracted by. I mean, I think they were most of the IDF was focused on the West Bank. That's where the Israeli settlers and their politicians in the Knesset had demanded more protection from the IDF. And those are Likud voters. There's a Netanyahu people. So the IDF was fully focused on the West Bank, and it was also in focus, focused on a lot of internal fighting, with Netanyahu trying to change the Constitution and and exert more control over the courts. You know, there were mass resignations, there were protests within the IDF from top leadership to the to to regular soldiers. And I've spoken to a few IDF soldiers who said that they were distracted by just internal fights over these political moves by Netanyahu and the rejection of them within the military. So I think they took advantage of that. The idea of being focused on the West Bank and the internal struggles in Israel, where they took their eye off, off the border there and in Gaza and. They clearly took advantage of that and took the Israeli army hours to reach a lot of those communities, which wouldn't have been the case probably just a few years ago.Sam Stone: That brings up kind of the follow up question is the IDF regardless of some of these other things going on, have they gotten, you know, sorry to say it this way, but a little soft, a little complacent with the last decade of relative quiet?Paul Mcleary: Yeah.Paul Mcleary: I mean, I think whenever things are quiet and there seems to be a status quo, most people settle into a routine. Right? And you watch the border and nothing happens. You do that for years at a time. You probably settle into that routine. But like I said, a lot of those units that were around Gaza were pulled out to go over to West Bank and the West Bank and and protect the Israeli settlers there. So I think that was it was a confluence of a lot of events. And Hamas pays attention. And they saw it happening and they they decided the time was right. I'm sure with the agreements Israel is making with other countries and just kind of the internal chaos and the distraction by the IDF, they figured it was time to go.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Who's Hamas is, you know, back up where where can they rely on for military support and money and finance?Paul Mcleary: Several places I've speaking to earlier today, a few sources in the region who said that the Israelis have seen some North Korean components in some of the rockets that have come over from Gaza. So they have been pulling a little bit from North Korea, is happy to solve anybody.Sam Stone: Right? Right.Paul Mcleary: So they've pulled from North Korea. There's been some Iranian help, just like with Hezbollah. So they they have allies and sources that they can. I mean, there's been a blockade of Gaza for years, but they've still managed to smuggle in all this weaponry and all this equipment. So it gets in and they have some state actors who are helping them out for.Sam Stone: Fantastic. Paul, I want to thank you so much for joining us today. How do folks stay in touch with you and follow your work? Because obviously, we'd love to have you back on the program. I thought this was a fascinating discussion. I'm sure a lot of folks out there want to stay in tune with the work you're doing.Paul Mcleary: Yeah, thanks for having me on. I write daily or multiple times a day, depending on what happens in the world. Yeah. Politico.com. I'm also on Twitter at Paul McCleary Mcleary. And if I could remember my blue Sky and threads handles, I would tell you those, but you could look me up on either one of those, and they could.Sam Stone: Probably find you through your Twitter and take it away from there. Right?Paul Mcleary: Exactly, exactly.Sam Stone: Paul, thank you so much. We really, really appreciate having you on the program. Thank you for fantastic discussion today, and we'll look forward to having you back on to talk about some more of this stuff, as unfortunately, the world doesn't look like it's getting safer anytime soon.Paul Mcleary: So thank you very much.Sam Stone: Okay, folks, make sure you stay tuned. We're going to be coming back with a couple more segments here. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, he has an amazing resume.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Michele, interested to hear about this. A challenger to Stanton.Sam Stone: It's a it's a blue seat. You got to you got to be ready to fight.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: I want to hear the strategy. Yeah.Sam Stone: Me too. All right, folks, breaking battlegrounds. Coming back with more in just a moment. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, folks. You've been hearing us talk about why reify for a while now, and if you haven't gone on their website and checked them out, you need to do it today. Especially with the stock market as discombobulated as it is, the market's going up. It's going down. World events are decimating people's bankrolls and their futures. So you need to check out our friends at Invest Refy. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's not correlated to the stock market. All you got to do is go there, 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, and you'll do a fantastic thing to help secure your financial future and your family's future. So moving on with our next segment today. We are very excited to talk to recently announced congressional candidate Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. He is running against Greg Stanton here in Arizona. For folks who don't know, Stanton is the former mayor of Phoenix. He campaigns as a moderate. He governs as an extreme liberal. He did this when he was at the city of Phoenix, when he was on the council. And as the mayor, he will talk the the middle of the road all day long, but he votes the far left lane. But on the other hand, Greg Stanton is a tough competitor. He knows how to campaign. He knows how to to win in these races. And so, Dr. Jasser, thank you for joining us today. And welcome to the program. You've got a big hill to climb, but I think you're the type of guy who can climb it. Tell us a little bit about you and your background first.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Well, I served in the Navy for 11 years as a physician. My family emigrated from Syria in the 60s as political refugees and got asylum here. I grew up in Wisconsin, was on a Navy scholarship for medical school, and moved here to join my father in practice in 99. My dad was a cardiologist and internal medicine doc here in town, and I've been in primary care running a small business in Maricopa County. And with most of my patients actually from the district area for now 25 years, and been very involved not only in the medical society. As a past president of the American, I'm sorry, the Arizona medical Association, but also active on the Maricopa County Board of Health and a number of areas in the community, but also post nine divided by 11, have been very active in Islamic reform, counterterrorism. And as we see now, it's more relevant than ever and have been leading the charge nationally and globally, actually in Islamic reform and counter ideology. And I think that it's time for new leadership. It's time for folks that our community trusts and have looked to leadership on a number of issues, not only in health care. I mean, through the pandemic, for example, I was one of the few docs to to stand up and say, listen, we shouldn't have these shutdowns that destroy American businesses. We shouldn't be printing money. We should allow the engine of American economy to work. And I'm for free speech and the ability of American citizens to make their own decisions and not have government make the decisions for them. And I think it's time to to send people like Congressman Stanton back home, as they are simply empty suits who talk the talk sometimes when it suits their purposes and campaigns. But the reality is, is he's a rubber stamp for President Biden and also the far left radical progressivists that are anti-Semitic and un-American.Sam Stone: And, Doctor Dr. Jasser, you have served two terms as a US Senate appointee and vice chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which I think is actually one of those groups that does really good work that a lot of people don't know about. We have only about two minutes before we go to break here. We're going to be coming back for more. But tell us a little bit about that experience and what your work was there.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Yeah. Thank you. Senator McConnell had appointed me based on the recommendation from Senator Kyl back in 2010. It took a year and a half of vetting. I was one of the first appointees that President Obama actually refused to accept, even though the Republican seat that should have just been accepted. But the the Islamists across the country did not want me in their served for four years. That's an independent body that had nine seats, three from the Senate, three from the House and three from the white House. That is pretty balanced. And it provides feedback to the State Department, to appropriations and others about how we spend our money abroad, and the fact that America should stand behind forces of freedom, religious freedom, protecting minorities, such as. And what I spoke out quite a bit about was the protection of Christian minority Jewish minorities across Muslim majority countries, across the planet. And 2013 we went to Egypt. I confronted the Muslim Brotherhood in meetings at the time. I went to Saudi Arabia three times and basically told our State Department that they were mistranslating things intentionally to make it seem like the Saudis were more moderate than they were. And now, fast forward, we realize we need adults in the room. And this is some of the experience, I think, that would shape my ability to do a lot more as a member of Congress and represent our constituents much better than Congressman Stanton, who really has really very little to show on what he's done in his three terms.Sam Stone: Yeah. You know, for folks who know, I worked at the city of Phoenix while Greg Stanton was mayor there, and quite frankly, he had very little to show for his time at the city of Phoenix. You know, he is he's one of those go along to get along rubber stamp votes. And folks are not being well served by him here and here in Arizona. So we're going to be coming back with more from Dr. Zuhdi Jasser 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 the host Sam Stone and Michelle Ugenti-rita in the studio with me today on the line, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, he's running for Congress against Greg Stanton. And while we were at the break, Michelle was asking a good question because we're broadcast now across this country, literally from coast to coast. Yes, a lot of people probably have no idea who Greg Stanton is or what this district is we're talking about.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah. Let them know what the geographical makeup.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Yeah, it's a CD four. It includes all of Tempe, most of Mesa, and also Ahwatukee Phoenix. And demographically, it's a very diverse district with various populations of the community that include a large Hispanic population and, and a number of faith representations. And also the numbers Republicans should win this district. It's not as democratically blue as it was when Stan got elected. It's now plus 2%. It was split completely down the center presidential ballot with 49.1 to 49. Biden, Trump and right now registers heavier Republican by 3 to 4% with a large independent registration. So it's definitely winnable by a conservative, by Republican and with the right candidate and the right background. And that can take Stanton to task.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Very competitive district.Sam Stone: Yeah. It is. And it's funny because it includes a big Mormon population in portions of it. But you also have Tempe where ASU is, which is is very blue around that. So Dr. Jasser, you mentioned kind of briefly that you were one of the few physicians in the country who kind of stood up to the Covid restrictions that were rolled out and all the limitations on on people, the lockdowns and everything else. Tell how how tough was that? Because there really weren't many physicians who were able or willing to do that at that time. And I think a lot of them I've talked to kind of regret not taking that that tough road that you did.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Yeah. You know, this is one of the reasons I'm, you know, after being an activist and small business medicine for some time, I'm putting my hat in the ring to politics because I see folks like Stanton in politics. And I ask, where is their courage? Why? Why the demagoguery in which they say one thing privately and do something else publicly and so many physicians, unfortunately, from Fauci on down here, we have a profession that for a long time, I can tell you in primary care, I'm often trying to push physicians to tell my patients what they should do, because they're often giving them a buffet of choices and often are noncommittal. And yet, in the pandemic, we were basically our our profession almost willingly became weaponized in order to tell government that they should shut down businesses, shame gyms and shame restaurants and others into shutting down. I understand initially, until we figured out what was going on for 4 to 6 weeks, maybe it made sense. But after that, when did America become the most risk averse country in the planet in which we were basically telling businesses, telling families, somehow I became the only profession that was essential. I mean, health care is not the only essential profession. Every family is essential when they want to put food on the table for their kids and their families. And we then started doing disease trading. I was telling medical leaders here in Arizona and was on the radio frequently in television saying, listen, you're going to delay the treatment of elective procedures of cancer, screenings of patients with abdominal pain, asthma attacks, heart attacks and chest pain.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: And true enough, there's going to be pandemics after the pandemic. And we saw that now in the last year, so many diseases were delayed, so many treatments were traded for that one virus. It didn't make sense from a public health perspective. It didn't make sense from an American choice perspective. Let families make their own decisions. And yet politicians locked us up, told us that they couldn't go to work. And I was talking to so many people in the district that were saying they wanted to work, and they were being forced to wear masks, and sometimes they didn't disagree. They disagreed with that. They were suppressed in their free speech. They couldn't speak out against what government was mandating. And it's just from every perspective. And I think the people of this district, especially that includes ASU and other places where free speech should be a big part of who we are. I think there's going to be a large pushback in this election, as we're seeing, for example, even on the left with Rfk's candidacy and others, there's folks that are really fed up with government controlling so many aspects of our of our lives.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah. Well, I would say I mean, Covid to me was about control. I think you really hit the nail on the head there about control. How do you see the campaign moving forward right now? Are you the only Republican in the race?Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: No. We've got a contested primary against Kelly Cooper and I've I've not met Kelly. Look forward to a challenge and challenging him. You know last time he had his hat in the ring and unfortunately lost by 12 points. So I think it's time for a new candidate, new platforms. And I think we can hit Stanton with a much broader and I think diverse portfolio, if you will, for the constituents to appeal to.Sam Stone: Yeah. And for folks again, who don't know, outside of Arizona, Kelly Cooper, a local businessman, owns a handful of restaurants here locally. You know, certainly he he, you know, did as well as he could in that run, but it was still a 12 point margin. That's a tough seat. But I think it does take a little bit more experience. And maybe he could bring that in a second run. But you come to the table with that here for your first run.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Yes. And I think it's this is the issue I believe in meritocracy. That's what America is all about. And have the voters decide, you know, who is not only the best for their district, but the best to bring change and new leadership, because it's not just about being able to check a box and become a congressperson, but it's what's best for the district, what's best for the state, the country. I think the Republican Party needs a bit of a new branding, if you will, as far as diversity. And and we look on the far left, you've got extremists like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and I think the party of immigrants, legal immigrants as the Republican Party. And that's really the story that and the reason I believe in this country. And I've been so honored and privileged to be able to serve. So many different ways in the past few decades.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: And I think another important component of this race coming up will be turnout. So we're coming into a presidential election. And that's not what obviously last election cycle was. That was a midterm cycle. So there may be an opportunity to get this seat. If you see our side, our Republican side, really build out our turnout, the ground swell. And with Biden doing such a horrible job, I mean that in a weird way, there's a gift there. If we can capitalize on it and see if we can't win some of these more competitive seats.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Amen. And this is one of the reasons I felt, you know, sort of carpe diem. Seize the moment now. Because if you look, I became a conservative in high school right after the Carter administration and saw what inflation was doing, was a Reagan conservative in junior high. And that's when I started to do my first volunteer work. And so much of this seems the same to me, is that you see a huge swing because people are working twice as much to make the same money. They are realizing that we're losing strength. We had hostages in 79 that were taken by Iran, and now we're seeing Iran fueling another war in the Middle East. Same thing is that nature abhors a vacuum. There's been a vacuum of American influence, not only domestically, economically, but globally, militarily. And I think people you're going to see a conservative wave. And this district governor Ducey won by six points in the current polling of the current district. So with the right candidate, this district can be won. And I think it's only been lost in the past because, you know, good candidates might have said, oh, it's it's too solid for Stanton, but it's just not true. I think that toe to toe pre.Sam Stone: 2020 though, the district legitimately was tougher because you had he had more of central Phoenix wrapped into it. Right. So it was through redistricting. Yeah.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Yes exactly. And that's why the numbers I gave you about Ducey's margin, the Republican margin of registration of 5 to 6% is all post 2020 redistricting.Sam Stone: So one of the one of the challenges I think you're going to face in other candidates. You've got an amazing background, amazing record, is getting that out to the public in a in a year when people are talking about Arizona potentially being the having the most political spending of any state in the country, I mean, people are talking about maybe 5 to $800 million plus in political advertising spent just here in Arizona in this cycle. And obviously, you're running for Congress. You're not going to have 50 or $100 million to get your message out. How do you get across to voters who you are and who what your background is, so that they have an they can make an informed decision?Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Well, I think it's exactly what I've been doing for 25 years in primary care is you meet people, you engage them, and then they feel they can trust you and want to invest in your message and feel that you will serve their interests transparently and do the best possible to advance the interests of the district. So I think ultimately, as they hear that message, they'll want to invest in that future, because I think most of the voters are looking for new leadership. They don't want the same old failure that's been happening with the Democrats. They see that the Biden administration and the rubber stamps like Stanton have brought them nothing. And I think ultimately, you're right. It is going to take a bit of fuel. Stanton is not only an empty suit, but he's not as good a fundraiser as you know, the folklore has. Yes. The ICC dumped a lot of money into the last few months of his campaign, but that's really most where most of his money came from. And I think ultimately, this is my first run for political office, and I think people will be refreshed at seeing a new candidate who can bring new leadership for the district and ultimately want to invest in that and, and be able to produce very good.Sam Stone: Dr. Jasser, one of one of the things here on your resume I got to ask you about, well, two things, but I'm going to start I'm going to start with the easy one. First, you were a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal for service to the office of the Attending Physician of the US Congress. Tell us a little bit about that, because that's pretty darn cool. Yeah.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Well thank you. Yeah. My I served as a physician with the Navy for 11 years. My last billet was as a physician to Congress. I was chief resident at Bethesda Naval Hospital, which also includes NIH. And by the way, Fauci was one of our attendings out there. And after I.Sam Stone: Did, he actually did he actually, like, treat patients?Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Sometimes you did a lot of research, done a lot of grants. And yeah, he's a smart he's a smart guy, but obviously became a politician instead of a sort of state as an academic professor, if you will. But then my last billet was the head of internal medicine at Bethesda Naval Hospital, then became the admiral for the attending physician of Congress, and he asked me to join him. There are two junior internists that are staff physicians to Congress, and I served there for a little over two years. And after that service, I received the Meritorious Service Medal. And part of it was in recognition, I don't know if you remember, but on July 24th, 1998, Russell Weston junior shot his way into the US Capitol and killed three Capitol Hill Police officers. And I was the only physician that responded to that. It was 20 yards from our medical clinic, and we did advanced trauma life support on the police officers. And unfortunately, they didn't make it. We did get them to the hospital, but it was the closest I got to terrorism directly, if you will, with the four corpsman and I that responded to that. And I talk about it, by the way, in detail in my book, A battle for the Soul of Islam and a lot of Time on service. I was a member of the USS El Paso, served in Operation Restore Hope in 93, in Somalia, and was part of that deployment.Sam Stone: So last question before we let you go here today. You are a father of three. Your children are ages 21, 19 and 15, which means by the time it's all over, you will have had a teenager in your house for the better part of a decade and a half. Can anything prepare you as well for the battles in Congress? Is that.Dr.Zuhdi Jasser.: Exactly? This is you know, it's the teens today especially, you know, post Covid are my poor kids were stuck at home. It made my wife and I were like, this makes no sense. Why are they at home? Covid doesn't affect them. You're affecting the next generation for no reason. They had to stare at a screen instead of socialization, and it was just the worst decision public health could have made. Absolutely.Sam Stone: Folks, you can check out Dr. Zuhdi Jasser at Z for F or Z for Arescom. Check him out. Go on. Their breaking battlegrounds is going to be back on the air next week, and we'll look forward to as this campaign unfurls. Learning more about Dr. Jasser and his positions 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: Welcome to the Breaking Battlegrounds podcast with your host, Sam Stone in the studio with me today, Michelle Ugenti-rita. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us. Happy to be here. And someone on the line right now that I'm excited to talk to because it's I love finding out about issues I know nothing about but that are potentially actually really impactful for folks. And so, ladies and gentlemen, we have Rick Vanmeter on right now. He is the executive director of the coalition for App Fairness, a bipartisan congressional effort aimed at to address anti-competitive policies from big tech companies Apple and Google. And yeah, they are really vicious in their, frankly, their agenda, in their agenda and their exclusion of all potential competitors. They have created these landscapes that are almost impossible to avoid and that they control totally. So Rick, thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the program.Rick Vanmeter: Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. We're a coalition for App Fairness is a group of about 70 app developers from all over the world. Some big companies like Spotify, Epic Games, match Group, but also a lot of smaller kind of mom and pop app developers with with 1 or 2 employees. So but what unites us all is that we're all fighting these anti-competitive practices, which come through the app stores, which are holding back innovation and creating a lot of consumer harm. So look, looking forward to discussing this with you all.Sam Stone: So how did this come about? I mean, we know that they have developed these ecosystems. And I think when you look at some of the antitrust issues behind it, it's this exclusion of app developers and other software developers from their platforms. Given that Apple and Google essentially dominate the the mobile, mobile phone and mobile device market. How were they able to do that legally?Rick Vanmeter: Well, to your point, this really came about because of the fact that Apple and Google came to dominate the mobile, the mobile internet, if you will. So if you think back, you know, ten, 13 years ago, you had a lot of different choices for smartphones. You had iPhones, there were Android devices, windows had a phone, there was Windows Phone, there were Nokia's, there were blackberries. And at that time developed kind of the the hardware companies were competing for developers to create products and software or apps for their, their devices because they lured customers to their products. You know, if you've got cool apps on iPhones, you want to buy an iPhone. That's that's why I originally wanted to buy an iPhone.Sam Stone: It's not just for the color of your texts.Rick Vanmeter: That's right. Yeah. Somebody, you know, at first I had no interest in having an iPhone. Then I had a friend who had one, and he was showing me Pandora and Google Maps. And, you know, I thought all these things were really that it was because of the software on the phone that made it desirable. And then now you've basically got a system where two companies not only control 100% of the market share, but within that market share, there's no going back and forth. It's not like Coke and Pepsi, where one day you're going to buy Coke, and maybe next week you're going to buy Pepsi. Once you have an iPhone, you're locked into that Apple ecosystem and you can't get Android apps on your your iPhone and vice versa. So it's really kind of a siloed ecosystem where they have total control over developers and ultimately over what consumers can put on their phone and what they can't have on their phone.Sam Stone: I mean, really, it's sort of, for consumers, a digital prison that you have, you can roam freely within the walls of the prison that Apple or Google create for you, but you're dependent on them to expand it, to go anywhere else.Rick Vanmeter: Yeah, that's exactly right. And for for developers, where this is a problem is, you know, on on you can't get your software to a consumer on their phone without going through the Apple App Store. And they use that basically as a choke point to impose all of these other crazy things.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: So like what what are what are some of the things that they do.Rick Vanmeter: So for example, one of the major concerns of our member companies is that they one thing that they will do is they will say they categorize you if you sell goods through the app. So they say you're either physical goods or digital goods and why that matters, I have no idea. But if if you sell digital goods, they say you have to use. Our payment processor to process credit card payments. So Apple Pay on the Apple devices and Google on Google devices, they both do this the exact pretty much the exact same way. So and they charge a 30% commission to process those payments, whereas a standard credit card processing fee is like 3 to 5%.Sam Stone: So and this is for digital goods. But like so like if someone orders from whatever restaurant app, you know, Grubhub or whatever, they don't pay that same level of fee.Rick Vanmeter: They don't. And actually that's a good example because this is a good point on, you know, kind of the arbitrary nature of this, of this determination by the two companies. So things like Grubhub don't believe are they're categorized as physical goods because they say you're getting a you know, food, you know, it's a physical thing. Whereas the companies themselves, like Grubhub might argue, well, we're just a platform, you know, we're just software. We're connecting drivers and restaurants and customers.Sam Stone: Yeah, they make that argument extensively. Legally.Rick Vanmeter: Yeah they do. Yeah. Uber is another example where Apple and Google said Uber is a physical good because you're getting a ride. So when you pull up your Uber app, you say where you want to go, but then you have a choice on how you want to pay. You can pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay. You can use your credit card, which they use a third party processor to process that payment. You can use Venmo, PayPal. You can even use your SkyMiles. But if you're using a dating app or if you want a streaming service, something that they determined to be digital, you don't have a choice. You have to use Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the company has to pay that 30% commission. So when you're talking about 30% commission, that's a huge amount of money, especially for small companies that are up and coming and trying to get started to pay 30% of their revenue to Apple and Google, who have provided no value for the developer. So but what do they say, other business expenses that ultimately gets added into the cost of the products that they have to consider?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: What does Apple and Google say in response to that? There must be a justification that they rely on.Rick Vanmeter: Sure. Yeah. What they will say is that these are our customers. And if you because they're using an iPhone, they are apples customers. Of course, Spotify might say our customers to, you know, just because you that like if. If you use your Toyota Camry to drive through a drive through at McDonald's, and then. Toyota wanting 30% of the sale of the McDonald's food because their Toyota customer mean they're just it's just different things, right? You can be a Spotify customer and an Apple iPhone customer, but but Apple takes kind of a controlling view of that is their customer.Sam Stone: Rick, I got to tell.Rick Vanmeter: You, you want to right? To sell anything to them. You have to pay us a commission.Sam Stone: I don't want you to give these car companies any ideas right now while they're looking at it.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: At this this this is a familiar issue. Has there been legislation regarding this? This sounds like something I've, I've seen introduced at the state level and maybe even at the federal level.Rick Vanmeter: Yeah. So several different states have attempted to pass legislation that would say is very narrow and kind of one, one part of this issue, which is the payments issue. Right? So essentially saying that you you can't force developers to use your payment processor if they want to use something different, they have to be able to do it. That should be fairly common sense. You know, any other business can choose how to accept payment. You know, there are many businesses that are cash only. There are other businesses that are no cash. Some businesses accept checks, some do not. You know, for for brick and mortar stores, that's that's always the option. So that should be the option online as well. Um, that has not I don't believe that has passed in any state, and in large part because there was federal legislation introduced about two years ago, bipartisan, the Senate, by Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal. Um, it did get a bit of traction in the past. Last Congress, it passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee 22 two. So nearly unanimously, um, and it's a little bit broader than just that payments issue. It would also basically say that developers can offer their apps and services outside of the App Store. So that would make it basically work on your phone exactly the way you get software on your desktop computer or laptop, where you can go through the official app store to get software, or you can go directly to a developer's website and download it directly from there. So we people do this all the time. It's it's very common if you if you buy a new computer, which I did recently, I went to Microsoft's website to get Microsoft Office, you know, Outlook Word. Um, I went to Zoom's website to get, you know, to download the zoom app. I went to Spotify's website to download the Spotify app. This would essentially remove Apple and Google as the internet gatekeepers for mobile devices and just make it work like your your desktop computer or laptop.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: And I suspect they're vehemently opposed.Rick Vanmeter: Yes, yes, there might be an understatement. Yeah, yeah, the big tech companies, I think last year spent, according to Bloomberg, they spent over $300 million in advertising against this bill and several others, you know, kind of big tech reforms. And they spent an additional, I think, $90 million in lobbying, um, which is which is just insane. I mean, it's it might be the most ever spent on a lobbying campaign. It tells you how.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Lucrative this must be.Sam Stone: Yeah. I mean, from my understanding for Apple and Google now, they're both basically trending towards being essentially subscription services and that revenue being a much more significant portion of their business than hardware or other other services or that kind of thing. So this points right at their intended business model. Right?Rick Vanmeter: Right. Yes. And one of the arguments that they make all the time is this is our business model, to which we say, well, you're you're just because it's your business model doesn't mean that it's right or doesn't mean that it's legal. So it can still.Sam Stone: Be monopolistic and anti-competitive. We've had plenty of businesses that have engaged in very predatory practices like that. Rick, we have just about two minutes left. What are the current what is the current status of that legislation? What are you guys trying to get done and how can folks support your work doing that?Rick Vanmeter: Well, the current state of the legislation is that we're hoping it will be reintroduced in the House and Senate shortly. You know the best thing, folks? Can do is to contact their members of Congress, their senators, their House members, and encourage them to support this issue. We actually have a function on our website which is app fairness.org. And you can you can go there and you can enter your address and information and it will help you contact, you know, send a message to your your representatives and senators. But there's a lot of more information there. So I would encourage folks to go to our website again. App fairness.org. And to contact your lawmakers.Sam Stone: And tell them to support the Open Apps Market Act. Correct. Or or similar legislation. And and there can be a push to get some of this done at the state level also. I mean, it might not be as effective, but at the same time, we've seen states have a major impact on corporations like these when they pass these laws. Absolutely. Because all of a sudden they either have to start creating a patchwork system, or they have to follow what that state is leading.Rick Vanmeter: That's right. Yeah. If a state were to pass it and folks in other states would see that it works and it's effective, it helps lower prices and probably have a lot of app developers moving to that state. Yeah, it could grow from there. So we definitely would not discourage that at all.Sam Stone: Fantastic. Rick Vanmeter, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program, folks. Make sure you check them out at the coalition for App Fairness and the Open Apps Market Act. I'm going to trip over that if I try to say it again. But thank you again, Rick, so much for joining us. We really appreciate having you on the program and look forward to getting an update, hopefully down the road when this moves forward.Rick Vanmeter: That sounds great. Thanks for having me.Sam Stone: Perfect. Thank you. All right, Michelle, I want to thank Rick Vanmeter for his time on the program. Really appreciate having him. But I got to got to get to something that, folks, if you're outside of Arizona, you're probably rolling your eyes because this is a little bit of an Arizona heavy episode. But at the same time, there is one of these organizations in your state, too. And if you're not aware of who they are and the work they're doing to undermine public education, quite frankly, you should be. We're talking about the Arizona School Boards Association. There is a National School Boards Association. There are basically branches in every state. These are hard left organizations that pretend to be nonpartisan.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: When they're the exact opposite.Sam Stone: When they're the exact opposite. I mean, they are they are so far lefty. Remember, these are the ones they got in big trouble around. Some of the trans stuff. They got big trouble around some of the Covid stuff. These organizations are.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: They're like an arm of the the the.Sam Stone: Teachers union.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah, the teachers union. It's exactly right.Sam Stone: And and they control by the way, this is where schools get their superintendents from, right?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: This is where they're farmed. Right.Sam Stone: If you wonder where your superintendent came from, who put them up for that job? It was your local school board association or your state or your national. So they have a huge influence on what happens with schools, which makes this week's news in Arizona just a little bit more entertaining. So, Michelle, it came out today that the Arizona School Boards Association hired as their executive director a ridiculous nutjob commie Democrat.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Perfect for them.Sam Stone: Yeah, perfect for them. But who lied on his resume? Oh, and doesn't have a college degree?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Well, whoopsies.Sam Stone: Now he has put this on multiple applications and resumes. Not only for this, but he tried to get a maricopa supervisor, you know, supervisor seat. He applied for that.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Oh, as an as as an.Sam Stone: Appointee and he didn't get it. But he had that on his resume. When he applied for that. He served as a temporary appointee in the state legislature. As a far left dem and he had it on his resume there. But then this fool had had gone on.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: So it was working for him.Sam Stone: It was working for him. Except that he went on some friends podcast in 2020 and told the truth.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Well, how would you do that?Sam Stone: I don't know, it's.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Not that smart at the end of the day.Sam Stone: Oh my goodness. Seriously. Like so here's the thing. Like I don't even care that he doesn't have a college degree. What does that.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Matter? Right? But why'd you lie about it?Sam Stone: Yeah. What is it again? Why does it matter? And then the school board is being called out. They found out about it.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: What are they going to do? Have they said anything?Sam Stone: They. They have a lawyer looking into it. Right. Who came away with. Okay. No, he didn't go to college. But more to the point, they weren't then going to they were going to sweep this under the rug and just go on. And they're paying him, by the way, $215,000 a year.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Is. Are you really?Sam Stone: Yeah. For to be the executive director for the state school board Association, which, by the way, is a cakewalk of a job.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: And what are you doing? You're coordinating your.Sam Stone: Coordinating some meetings each year. They have like a monthly meeting and then they have an annual meeting. I'm sure you're coordinating those and you're coordinating messaging and you're recruiting candidates to to come be school leaders. It's not a $200,000 job.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: You know, what's this organization even doing? I mean, beyond just the executive director position.Sam Stone: Why do they exist?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah, that's right. There's like a broader question there. Why do they exist? They have been nothing but a thorn in the side of students parents.Sam Stone: And they're paid for.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: By the legislature.Sam Stone: They're paid for with tax money. Right.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Because these are this is this is an association and the school boards pay dues.Sam Stone: Yeah. The schools are all members. The districts are members. The school boards pay dues. So, I mean, these are they work.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Against the interests of students and of parents and of hardworking teachers who just want to, you know, get in the classroom and and teach. Yeah.Sam Stone: And folks, again, this isn't just Arizona. This is going on. They may not have hired a liar in every other state.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: I don't know.Sam Stone: Possible in at least a few of them. But I mean, but this is going on everywhere. And why does you ask the right question, Michelle? Why does this organization exist? What is the point?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Well, when this happens, a lot of times they consolidate, right? And there's just a lot more power and control when you can consolidate the school boards and then have everybody in lockstep, in unison, saying the same thing the same way, and it looks like there's a much bigger support for your message when it's all coordinated by a select few.Sam Stone: Yeah. So so to your point, the school board associations actually put out and train all the school board members at all the different schools on their approved agenda.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: And the school board should be like, what approved agenda? I'm a school board member. I will approve our agenda for our district, but you have the association wanting to combine all of that and take advantage of the control that you get when everybody's saying the same thing. This is all about propaganda pushing.Sam Stone: Isn't that even, like entirely the point of having independent school boards?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: That's right. Exactly.Sam Stone: Because otherwise, wouldn't you just elect a state school board? That was these people. Basically, why do we have.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: 200 plus districts? Right? Right.Sam Stone: Yeah. Because otherwise, again, this this throws out the entire notion of local control disappears.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: I mean, this is a one size fits all for education. And that's the exact opposite that those at the local level like to say they support, which is something that's far more connected to the local districts and those that you know are in school.Sam Stone: It's really amazing what's going on with our public schools. Like I'm not I used to a few years ago and tell me if you agree or disagree, but a few years ago I was like, no, we can turn this around. We can save them. I'm kind of at the point, like just tear it down and start over because they're just such a disaster.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: You know, I have three kids in public school and it's there's there's a lot of great moments. The problem the problem is there's so much fear and there's they've abandoned independence. They've abandoned their teachers, their, you know, teachers can't do what they want in their classroom. There's so everyone's being watched and they're really been exploited. And now this is an area where they can get to your kids before you can. And you know, there's a distrust. You know, that's how I feel as a parent. I dropped my kids off and I am like, I hope you're teaching the basics.Sam Stone: How much of this do you think? I've always wondered about this, but how much of the hard core left movement in schools, which has gotten way worse in the last decade or two? How much of that has come from a combination of helicopter parents and endemic lawsuits from those parents? Right.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: I think a lot. I mean.Sam Stone: It's kind of a defense mechanism against that, isn't it? Like the way they're doing it.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Well, I just think that schools have gotten way too outside their scope.Sam Stone: I'll give you a good example. So the local school district that I live in, they have I think the last time I looked at the numbers, it was like 37,000 students. They deliver 90,000 meals a day.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah. Yeah. Right. So exactly like they're, you know, their you they're they're addressing food and mental well-being and, you know, education and sex and, you know, personal health issues. And they're just getting way too big and they're becoming way too integral into like, your student and your child's life when they just need to be talking about math, science, reading, writing. But this is a way to get to your kids. That's what's so sad.Sam Stone: You know, I think there's a lot of sometimes good intentions gone wrong in a lot of this stuff, right? But at the end of the day, I think they've just made themselves so vulnerable to this sort of Marxian philosophy where they have just decided we're going to take over the schools and mis educate the children and the way we want, and that's going to change the world and the way we see it, and they may not be wrong, is what worries me.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Well, the good news is, if you have parents who are active in a child's life, then a lot of this stuff can be combated. I find that the problem is when you have schools that have an agenda and are looking to exploit and then, you know, parents and caregivers who aren't, as.Sam Stone: Some of the narratives, though, seem worse than that, like the anti-police narrative, the anti-Israel one.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: At the school level. Yeah, yeah.Sam Stone: Like, these things are societally destructive. I mean, you talk to Democrats. You've heard this a lot this week. Israel is an apartheid state. Well, it's empirically not. The people of Gaza are prisoners. They are empirically not. It's an occupation. They hadn't set foot inside Gaza since Israel had not set foot inside Gaza since 2005. The blockade is not a blockade. It's basically a checkpoint where they try to limit the number of weapons that come in via the sea. So they just checking the cargo ships. It's essentially a port control.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Well, I mean, we're talking about something that I don't really know needs to even be discussed in school. I mean, you know, maybe you want to acknowledge it, but in terms of talking about the complexities of the issue, I mean, those are conversations that are probably best for home. It really has no relevancy in your arithmetic class.Sam Stone: It's also, I think, the age at which you're exposing kids to some of those.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: True. I mean, is it a second grader, you know, or are you talking about high school?Sam Stone: That was one of my complaints. Do you remember the old La Raza studies issues here in the state? Right. Uh huh. And one of my issues, I read through those books and I was like, you know, this all material is good when you're in college and you can question your teachers, and you don't have to assume they're right about everything, but it doesn't work when you're in high school. And the default for most kids is, well, if the teacher says that, then that's true. Like, as you get older, you learn that that may not really be the case.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: That's such a good point because I had this come up with with my kids. They were given ID badges. You know, they have an ID badge. And this year there was a chip put into it so that when you got off the bus, if you rode the bus, I mean, it would, it would log when you got on and off the bus and I hole punched them out and said, you know, you can have the ID, but not with a tracking chip in there. And my, my kids were like, mom, it's not. I'm like, what do you mean it's not? They're like, well, that's because the principal went on the loudspeaker and said it wasn't. And I'm like, so yeah, tell me why. How when it logs, it's an RFID chip. Yeah, yeah. How it logs where and when you're located. That's not tracking. I go did it measure your weight right. You're like, but it's mom. They said it's not tracking. I'm like, no, honey, I know, but what's the justification to your point? They just took it, right? And we had to spend, you know, I had to spend 45 minutes unwinding that and helping them understand that that's not the case. And let's use logic and let's work backwards from that statement and see if we can justify it. And you can.Sam Stone: A perfect example we dealt with at the city of Phoenix was around the traffic cameras, the red light cameras and that sort of thing. So the city told us for years that these things only take a still photo. Oh video. When a car goes through illegally. Right. And they told us that over and over and over here. Here's what we get. They even showed us that the videos and the photos, they're like, this is all we have, doesn't show anything else. We get into it and bring someone from that company in and put them up on the on the dais where they're now. They're afraid to perjure themselves. Right, right. Because it goes on public record. And so we start asking them those questions and it's like, well, no. So the camera's always running. It's running 24 over seven facial recognition. It's running 24 over seven license plate recognition. It's running geolocation data and all of that's gathered. But we don't give that to the city.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Right. But you can subpoena it.Sam Stone: Yeah but but but what do you do with it? Oh, we sell it.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah.Sam Stone: In. What are they selling data on your kids?Michelle Ugenti-Rita: That's what I was saying. What was the. What was the purpose of it? Did they tell you the purpose? Well, what's the harm? Well, no. You see, you guys, you're not looking at it at the right way. It's your autonomy. It's your privacy. You shouldn't have to justify why you want to keep it that way. They should have to justify why there's some overarching interest that makes a compelling one, that makes it so they can take it from you. But yeah, but if you just believe everyone at first blush, particularly in the K through 12 world, God only knows what you're going to.Sam Stone: Yeah, well, they will look.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: To you to come out at.Sam Stone: They will look you straight in the face, I.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Know and just blatantly.Sam Stone: Yeah.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Tell you the sky's not blue.Sam Stone: Yeah, yeah. Like we don't base our curriculum on on CRT.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Really. Right. That's not a tracking device. It's not interesting.Sam Stone: Folks. Thank you so much for tuning in again today. We really appreciate having you join us on the program. Make sure you share this with your friends. Share the podcast around. That's how we know you're actually interested in things we're yapping about here. And it's worth coming into the studio every week to do this. So again, thank you for joining us for Chuck. This is Sam for Michelle. I'll let you say goodbye to the.Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Yeah, please share it. And we appreciate the listeners out there. And everyone have a great weekend. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to this week’s episode of Breaking Battlegrounds! In this episode, we have an incredible lineup of guests and captivating discussions. First up, Anna Giaritelli, a Homeland Security Reporter for the Washington Examiner, dives into pressing topics like illegal immigration, the southern border, 'special interest aliens,' and the recent 'Day of Terror' announced by Hamas leaders. Jon Riches, Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute, provides insights into the growing concerns of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) on Arizona State University's campus and the actions being taken to address it. Lastly, we welcome the Honorable Don Tapia, former United States Ambassador to Jamaica, who shares his valuable insights into the role of an ambassador, the appointment process, and the modern challenges of managing the Israel/Hamas conflict. Be sure to stay tuned for Kiley's Corner, where Kiley explores intriguing global topics, including the remarkable story of the world's largest pumpkin, affectionately named 'Michael Jordan.'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 GUESTSFriend of the show, Anna Giaritelli, is a Homeland Security Reporter for the Washington Examiner focused on immigration, and border issues. Anna has traveled to the border on more than 40 occasions since 2018 and has covered human smuggling, the evolution of the war on drugs, domestic terrorism, and migration trends. She is currently based in Austin, Texas. Follow Anna on X: @Anna_Giaritelli. -Jon Riches is the Vice President for Litigation for the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation and General Counsel for the Institute. He litigates in federal and state trial and appellate courts in the areas of economic liberty, regulatory reform, free speech, taxpayer protections, public labor issues, government transparency, and school choice, among others.Jon has developed and authored several pieces of legislation, including the landmark Right to Earn a Living Act, which provides some of the greatest protections in the country to job-seekers and entrepreneurs facing arbitrary licensing regulations. He also developed legislation eliminating deference to administrative agencies in Arizona—a first-of-its-kind regulatory reform that can serve as a model for the rest of the country.His work at the Institute has been covered by national media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CBS This Morning, Bloomberg News, and Politico. Jon is also a member of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project: State and Local Working Group.Prior to joining the Goldwater Institute, Jon served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. While on active duty, Jon represented hundreds of clients, litigated dozens of court-martial cases, and advised commanders on a vast array of legal issues.He previously clerked for Sen. Jon Kyl on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, worked for the Rules Committee in the Arizona State Senate, and clerked in the Office of Counsel to the President at the White House. Jon received his B.A. from Boston College, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D. from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law.Jon served as a presidentially appointed Panel Member on the Federal Service Impasses Panel. He is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and an Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University School of Law. Jon is a native of Phoenix.-Honorable Donald Ray Tapia, a prominent businessman, committed civic leader and compassionate philanthropist, was the Chairman and CEO of Essco Group Management the largest Hispanic owned business in Arizona for more than three decades before retiring in 2010 to devote his time to philanthropy. Essco Group Management provided front line management and back room production for twelve electrical wholesale branches located in Arizona and Southern California. Mr. Tapia’s philanthropic efforts have included serving on the Board of Directors of the Sun Angel Foundation & Endowment at Arizona State University, as Chairman of Board & Trustee at Saint Leo University in Florida, and as Member of the President’s Circle at Xavier College in Phoenix, Arizona. He has served on the Boards of social service organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Metropolitan Phoenix, Teen LifeLine Phoenix, Advisory Council of the Arizona Animal Welfare League and Advisory board for Foundation for Blind Children in Phoenix Arizona.Mr. Tapia is a veteran, having served in the U.S. Air Force, Honorably Discharged (1955-1959). Mr. Tapia’s excellent management and entrepreneurial skills, demonstrated commitment to a culture of success and wide-ranging leadership in business, community and education make him well-qualified to serve as Ambassador to Jamaica. Additional enterprises Mr. Tapia has engaged in; include CEO, Sonapar USA, Chandler, Arizona (2008-2010) as well as employment with Cal Neva Corp., Los Angeles, California (1973-1977) and International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., Chicago, Illinois (1967-1973). He also worked as an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration in Cleveland and Cincinnati.Mr. Tapia earned a B.A. and M.B.A. from Saint Leo University, Saint Leo, Florida, which also awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.-TRANSCRIPTIONChuck Warren: Welcome to another show of Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warren, and with my co-host, Kiley Kipper. Sam is out ill today. We're first going to start with Anna Giaritelli. She's a homeland security reporter for the Washington Examiner. She's been on the show before. She has a very specific knowledge. She's been to the border more than 40 times since 2018. And she's also covered human smuggling and the evolution of the war on drugs, domestic terrorism and migration trends. And she is based in Texas. Anna, welcome back to the show.Anna Giaritelli: Thanks for having me.Chuck Warren: So we have a day of rage, apparently. Hamas has declared it. Tell us a little bit about it. And what does the United States government doing to prepare to keep our citizens safe here and abroad?Anna Giaritelli: Yeah. So yesterday the former leader of Hamas came out and said that, you know, people who sympathize with Hamas around the Muslim world and outside that that that just that region should take part and come out in public and protest and engage in a day of jihad and rage. And so the Israeli government put out notices yesterday saying, you know, people should take cover, should remain vigilant, should be, you know, braced for the worst. And so the United States has also followed suit. Typically, something happening in one region of the country wouldn't affect us. But the Department of Homeland Security said it's been in touch with for different faith leaders, 65,000 people in faith organizations, making sure that synagogues in particular, even mosques, are going to be safe today. I know here in Austin, Texas, police are are have been called in in full gear. So they're ready for anything they have to deal with. New York City, LAPD, Miami police, they're all being called in today to report to duty just to to make sure that their presence is there in case something does happen in any of these cities.Chuck Warren: Anna, have you talked to any Jewish folks or synagogues or educators at Jewish schools about today? Have you had a chance to talk to any of them and how they're feeling?Anna Giaritelli: You know, I haven't, but the secretary of Homeland Security had his spokesperson was saying on this white House call last night that he's been in contact with a number of different groups, and really, one of their top three priorities right now is being in constant contact with these faith based organizations. So it's not like these groups are on their own. You know, if you're a synagogue, you're on your own hope for the best. The federal government has billions of dollars in grants so that these facilities can what we say is hardened security. So make sure you have more security presence as well as police. Make sure you have private security, just especially at this point in time. So I think the department really is rolling out a lot. We've seen this for several years now, where DHS has even yesterday said that faith based organizations are considered critical infrastructure here. So that gives even more ability for the federal government to really surge resources and even push funding to to these entities.Chuck Warren: Well, and that's fascinating. And the Biden administration is to be applauded for that. There's not much I would applaud them for, especially regarding immigration and so forth. But I applaud them for doing that because they are a critical infrastructure. Explain to our audience what a gateway is and how this relates to what is going on at the border. And because of the gotaways, how this may pose a threat to some of these faith based communities and to our our larger cities.Anna Giaritelli: Yeah. So at the southern border you've got A 2000 mile border. Some with fence, some without. What we've seen over the past two and a half years is a real. It went up in March 2021 when Biden first took office and hasn't declined. Normally we would see 30 to 50,000 people cross the border in a month and get arrested. What we've seen. In each of the months since Biden took office is anywhere between 150,000 and 300,000 people in a month, which is just, you know, we can't detain people through court proceedings. There's things that bar families from being held more than 20 days. So it's the perfect storm of this mass releases.Chuck Warren: And let me and let me ask you this. How big is Austin, for example?Anna Giaritelli: Austin, I believe, is 1.1 million.Chuck Warren: So over a course of a week, we get a new Austin. Over a course of 4 or 5 months, we get a new Austin in the United States.Anna Giaritelli: We do. And that's and that's who's crossing, right? That doesn't mean they're getting released since since Biden took office, the best estimates we have are more than 2 million people have been released into the United States. And so we've seen the number one spot that people are going is New York City, based on where people tell Border Patrol agents and Ice, you know, when they're getting released, hey, I'm going to go to my sister who lives in Queens, and then let the immigration officials do is place them in removal proceedings. So, hey, you need to go to court and see if we're going to remove you down the road. And we're the closest court to Queens is the New York immigration court. So we'll put you in that system. And so based on all the court data, we're seeing that more people are being placed in the New York court system than any other in the country.Chuck Warren: And is the Biden administration and Congress providing more resources so you can have more judges so they can do quicker rulings on these and not have these lengthy time periods. So they bring it back in.Anna Giaritelli: You know, each administration the last few years has added judges. I mean, we only have under 700 nationwide and we have more than 2 million cases pending. So the thought is that even if you hired enough judges, you can't. You can't go through the backlog fast enough. You really need to do something up front. That that causes fewer people to either come through or you're immediately dealing with cases now so that more aren't being added to the system. But but this is something we've seen under President Obama, President Trump, and now President Biden each administration is guilty of. Well, not guilty of. But they have hired more judges. But but they're guilty of that number of the backlog just keeps going up.Chuck Warren: Well, I'm sure the judges also work banker hours. I mean, it'd be interesting if you say working quadruple the amount of judges we have. We're going 24 over seven.Anna Giaritelli: Yeah. And, you know, back to what you said about the Gotaways. Gotaways are people who, thanks to great technology and agents who are in the field, border patrol agents, you know what they'll happen. What will happen is downtown, in populated areas, at the border, you have a group of, say, 400 people come across at once. And that pulls all the agents in the nearby vicinity over here to take everybody into custody, to pat people down, make sure no one's carrying something they shouldn't be, and then to organize people by by country and by families here, adult men here, single women here, and then bussed them to the appropriate facilities where they'll be processed. That means that other areas of the border, maybe ten, 20 miles away, you've just pulled the agents that were there from their spots. And so what the cartels will do is run drugs across. They'll run the meth across. They'll run different stuff across the border because no one's there. And they'll also run the criminals. So say someone who's been deported previously knows they shouldn't be reentering the country, or someone who maybe is on the terror watch list, or someone who is a kind of a worldwide known criminal. So we can't look at databases for each country and see crimes, but they're well known, or they're a gang affiliation. They don't want to get caught like all the families coming across. So you'll see them on camera or agents will see them. But but they're too busy to make an apprehension. So it's like, okay, there's a group of 20 bodies we see in this infrared camera, and they're walking in and we have no one to get them. So, you know, add 20 to the list. And at this point we're over 1.6 million people. Who are we dubbed Gotaways. We've seen enter illegally. And then they got away. And that doesn't include the number who have entered illegally, not been observed and also got away.Chuck Warren: How big? You know, look, this is purely a guesstimate on your part. So I'm not asking you to go to Vegas to put a wager on it. But okay. So we have the ones they've seen the gotaways right. And they've done an estimate on it. And let's say they're off ten, 15% one way or another, minus or more. How many do you think have come into the country that they never observed?Anna Giaritelli: You know, I could not put a guess on that. So all sorts of numbers out there.Chuck Warren: So give me the give me the. You've heard a bunch of numbers. You talked to a lot of people. Homeland security border. What's the low number and what's the high number you heard. And then Kiley and I will make some really gut wrenching comment here on it. But what is the lowest number? What's the highest number?Anna Giaritelli: You know, I really just don't I focus on the numbers. We know for sure just because as a reporter, I want to make sure I'm putting out the most factual information.Kiley Kipper: Do We, Sorry. Do we know how much, how many miles? There aren't cameras that we so that we aren't seeing them. Do we know how many miles there are that aren't being monitored, or are they like drones that are going back and forth?Anna Giaritelli: You know, that's a good question. It's a it's a mixture of both drones have in the last few years, become a real big part of how Border Patrol is monitoring the border. The latest numbers we have are that the Mexican cartels actually have 17 drones for every one drone that the US has. So they're using that to surveil ports of entry. They're using that to see where agents are on the border. And oh, there's no one here, you know, run something across. And they're also some of them are capable of carrying, you know, just a couple pounds of something. So obviously you carry it. So you would carry a pound of marijuana over the border in a drone that's not worth a lot of money. But if you can carry, you know, fentanyl a pound or two, like that's, that's going to be worth a lot more money. So drones are really a way that cartels are surveilling US federal law enforcement and, and making moves here and there. And they're also you can't shoot it down with a gun half the time. You can't even hear them or see them at night. And so there's also no prosecutions. I think one has been prosecuted, one incident in the last five years, because you don't know where where it's going to or from.Chuck Warren: I. It's just. It's just not getting. It's just. I don't even know what to say. It's just not getting better here. We're coming up to a minute left here and we to our next segment. We're going to talk to you. But one thing I want to talk to you about, how was the dysfunction of the Republican Congress right now affecting things like homeland security and border, if it is or if it isn't at all? We know you have to have operational government to get resources, so we want to do that. One other quick question before we go to a break, because of the legalization of marijuana in the United States, has that decreased the amount coming across the border?Anna Giaritelli: Yeah, we do believe that. We used to see a couple million pounds coming across the border in a within a couple of years, easily over a million in a year of just marijuana. And that number has diminished significantly. And so overall, you would say Border Patrol is seizing far, far less drugs than it used to. But really, if you see a pound of fentanyl one year and then you seize £1,000 of the next year, but you're used to seizing £1 million of marijuana, you know, it's hard to sort of quantify. So we really try to look at it as a drug by drug. Right. But you're right. Marijuana is available here. So so yeah, it's still coming over, but it's not as profitable.Chuck Warren: We make our own. We don't need to import that. This is Chuck Warner breaking battlegrounds with Anna Giaritelli. She is a homeland security reporter for the Washington Examiner. You can find her on X, which is formerly Twitter at Anda. Underscore gear brightly. This is breaking battlegrounds. We'll be right back.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.Chuck Warren: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warren of Kiley  Kipper. Today we have with us a friend of the show, Anna Giaritelli, Homeland Security reporter for the Washington Examiner, really asked you to follow her work. She does fantastic work telling us what's going on in our border, homeland security. And you'll be more knowledgeable for following her, folks. First of all, want to make sure and give a plug to our sponsor. If you're looking to increase your savings and your return, I suggest you go talk to Y refy. You can call them at 888 Y refy 24. That's 888Y Refy 24. You can go there. There's no fees for your investments, and you can get a 10.25% fixed rate of return while also helping college students with their college loans. So take a look and call Y refi and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. All right, Anna, so let's talk about something people don't talk about. Canada has a big border up north. And I, you know, assumption is the mother of all screw ups. But I would assume that people are starting to go into Canada and crossing through our border there. Is that true or am I just making something up?Anna Giaritelli: No, you're right on there. We see about 1% of the number of southern border crossings on the northern border. So it sounds like it's nothing really, but 1% of 2 million in a year. We do see a good amount of people who are coming across typically in Vermont, Maine and upstate New York areas. And we also see a lot of smuggling going from the United States into Canada. Those are typically things guns, the firearms, sometimes cigarettes, those sorts of things. And those are those are the old school bootleggers from 100 and so years ago who whose families are still involved and moving stuff. Um, but yeah, we do see immigrants coming across typically from Europe, sometimes Mexico and Central America. People will fly into Canada and then try to come down. But it is certainly there's no border wall across the 4000 mile northern border. It's double the length of the southern border. So yeah, it's very wide open. But again, we still have Border Patrol up there monitoring things. And and these are typically senior agents. They've they've paid their time on the southern border. Right. And now they're up north.Chuck Warren: Yeah I mean, you know, this is your nice retirement, your gold watch opportunity to serve at the end. And now you've got this going here. Do they have like coyotes up on the Canadian border like we do in the southern border? I mean, how are they getting across? I mean, there's obviously has to be operations that help them do this.Anna Giaritelli: There are. Yes. And some of the groups that smuggle stuff north are also working with people who are coming south. Some of those more irish-italian, sort of old school mafia groups are helping people. We do still have some coyotes, but but typically what we see are. People from Eastern Europe who have flown into Canada because they didn't need a visa. And then that's that's how they're coming down. And this winter, we saw a number of deaths of people who were trying to cross the border at night and, you know, freezing conditions and got lost. And, you know, those are really the really tragic things. But but, you know, people are going to there's a coast, there's the northern and southern borders and um, even Florida, Florida has seen extraordinary amount of people taking boats from Cuba and Haiti trying to reach the Florida Keys and get on land or trying to reach. We've even had West Palm Beach boats landing not far from Trump's home at Mar a Lago.Chuck Warren: Maybe they were just. Maybe they were just real estate appraisers. We don't know this, but maybe so. Yeah. Let me let me ask you this question. So since the start of the fiscal year 2023, which is October. October through August, the Border Patrol caught 151 people who were processed and determined to be on the FBI's terror watch list. That's who they caught. Is this something people should be concerned about, or is this just the imagination of conservative media that these are bad people.Anna Giaritelli: You know? And you explained it perfectly because these are people on the watch list. That doesn't mean that they are actual terrorists. I mean, they.Chuck Warren: Have a cousin or something, right? Or a friend or. Exactly. Yeah, but but but but they've got but there's a link. There's a handshake in there somewhere.Anna Giaritelli: Yes, exactly. It's not like you get on the list for no reason. Um, you know what we believe a lot of it to be is people, Colombian nationals who were affiliated with FARC. So during the the fight in Colombia a number of years ago, people who were involved in that are still sort of flagged in the system. But inevitably in the last ten days, we've seen people from 28 special interest countries. So that includes Egypt, Iran, uh, the whole of the Middle East, the Eastern Europe, Indonesia, certain countries, Uzbekistan, uh, apprehended at the border, which is not a normal but, you know, to see so many just just with what's happened in Israel and Palestine has given Republicans a lot of a lot of concern with, you know, we we know who we're encountering and we can screen them through the databases, but who we who gets away and hasn't been screened, we don't know.Chuck Warren: And so well in 20. So in 21 we had 15 people. Right. So there's hundred and 51 now. So and before.Anna Giaritelli: That it was like three. Yeah.Chuck Warren: So the number. So the number is increasing. Let's just say they're not all bad people. I mean I know Kiley, but I'm still a good guy. So we have that situation. But if you have 151 people versus 15 and 21 three before that, 1 or 2 probably we don't want to have over for dinner. Is that fair to say? Maybe just based on numbers?Kiley Kipper: And Tom cotton, I think you reported on it. And he said it took 19 terrorists to commit nine eleven. Right. So we have potentially, you know, so.Chuck Warren: So, Anna, look, you've been you've done this for a while. We got about three minutes left in this segment. What needs to be done in your expert opinion. And you are an expert. But your reporter I just want an objective. And you can say Republicans stink at this, I don't care. What do they need to do to get this border situation under control?Anna Giaritelli: You know, I think one of the interesting points is that under Obama, when he imposed the DACA program, Republicans said you overstepped your executive authority and you shouldn't have done that. Right. And so now what we're seeing with the Biden administration is they're using that to Republicans disadvantage. They're saying, well, the border, yeah, stuff is happening, but we can't do anything because we don't have the authority. It's only Congress that can do something. And so they're using Republicans argument against them as a means to do nothing. So, you know, in a way it's like you respect that, but it's nothing's happening. And it's we're heading into almost the fourth year now of the border. Just I mean, I would say remain unchecked. They've tried so many different programs that haven't worked. I don't think you necessarily need to return to Trump era policies to bring things down, but as long as people are seeing family members and friends, you know, hey, call, call them back home and say, I got released and I'm in New York now. What the Biden administration says, they can say the border is closed, but you have 2 million people who have been released and called home and said, yeah, you should come. Yeah, yeah. And so there's that stuff happening. Um, you know, whatever policy doesn't matter. You can have a policy, but are you going to enforce it.Chuck Warren: Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's like a lot of parents, we threaten our kids, but at the end of the day, if we don't have the punishment aligned to it, they're going to just keep ignoring us. So it's it's hard to watch. And we appreciate you coming on the show. You've been fantastic as usual. Could you tell our audience a little bit where they can catch you at and follow your work?Anna Giaritelli: Yeah. On X if you search Anna underscore Giaritelli just look up. Gia. If you also want to go to Elon Musk's page and search his followers, I, I don't know why, but Elon Musk follows my work.Chuck Warren: That's amazing because you give good numbers and we hope you have a great weekend. Thank you for joining us on Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you. This is Breaking Battlegrounds, folks. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host with my co-host Kylie Kipper. Sam is out with the sniffles today. Kiley we feel bad for Sam, don't we?Kiley Kipper: We do. All right.Chuck Warren: Well, we're here with a friend of the show, John Riches. John is the vice president for litigation for the Goldwater Institute. And he litigates on federal and state trial and appellate courts in the areas of economic liberty, regulatory reform, free speech, all those things. Good conservatives, libertarians care about things that the left says they used to care about, but they apparently don't care much anymore. He has a Boston Law School grad. He previously worked for John Kyl and he is a commander at the Navy Reserve. Thank you for your service, John.John Riches: Yeah, Thanks for having me on, Chuck.Chuck Warren: All right. So let's talk about DEI It's been an interesting conversation here on the show when the whole Barrett mess happened, and we had a professor on who didn't work at Barrett, but he was defending him because he just likes to talk all the time. And he said, oh, they don't require die. And what you found, what Goldwater found is that they were making was it staff or just professors take a loyalty oath.John Riches: So that was new job applicants. And then we started to learn that they are requiring.Chuck Warren: And how long ago was that for the did they implement this policy for new job applicants?John Riches: It seems like a couple years back. Okay. What we found is that they'd post like a new job application and there'd be your traditional things, your resume cover letter, but then they would require and tell us in two pages or less your professional accomplishments wherein you advanced dei measures. Et cetera. Et cetera.Chuck Warren: Really?John Riches: And we found that they did that in like, more than 80% of all new job postings.Chuck Warren: So, you know, conservatives like to yell and scream about Michael Crow. I think he's been a decent university professor in some ways. Is this something he would be unaware of because it's a department mandate that just happened?John Riches: Yeah, it's entirely possible. And to ASU's credit, and maybe to Michael Crow's credit, once we pointed it out and presented the evidence and provided the report, they stopped doing it.Kiley Kipper: What was Crow's response when you brought it to him? Well, we.John Riches: Didn't have a specific one from Crow, but when we brought it to the university and published the report, the university stopped doing it. And that's and.Chuck Warren: That's a decision probably he was well aware of at the time. And so when they when you brought this up with them about these loyalty oaths, what was their first reaction to you? Like, no, this doesn't happen. I mean.John Riches: There was a denial at first.Chuck Warren: So they lied.John Riches: There was a denial at first from the school and from professors and others like, you know, this isn't happening. This isn't happening.Chuck Warren: So John's talking legally, saying there's a denial. We're going to tell you on the radio show, folks, they lied because they knew they were doing it. Okay. So Johns saying denial hashtag Chuck lied. Okay. How long did it take to get the information from them that this was actually happening? And did you have to follow, you know, take the bat to this issue and say, you know, we're suing or what happened?John Riches: So we requested the information through public records requests, talking with new hires, things like that. You know, put put the report together in a few months. And once we published it, they were pretty quick to act to their credit. And they eliminated it. But that got us thinking, you know, is this happening in other areas? Does this go beyond the loyalty oath? And so a few months after that, we had a couple professors reach out to us and say, hey, we saw what you did with the Dei loyalty oath. Do you know that ASU is requiring all faculty and staff to take a mandatory training that covers all these Dei initiatives? Not only that, after you complete the training, the university gives you a quote unquote test where they supply the right answers. So it'll say something like, you know, you refer to a student and it's not the student's preferred pronoun. What do you do? A apologize B whatever. And the university then supplies the right answer. And if you get it wrong, then you're reported to your dean. So when we heard about that, we go, well, that seems like a compelled speech problem. So we requested more information about that.Chuck Warren: How long was DEI training? They had to take this mandatory training.John Riches: Unfortunately, I sat through it once we got the public records. Well, I should because you're.Chuck Warren: Because you're an associate professor at the law school. That's right. So you you had to participate in it?John Riches: Well, I, I never actually, I think I got an email once or twice, but I didn't quite pay attention to those ones. But once we realized that it was happening, I requested the records to get to.Chuck Warren: So how long did it take?John Riches: It was several hours.Chuck Warren: Just mind numbing word salad, progressive DEI. Don't offend anybody. Woke crap.John Riches: Kendrick. Zebra. You know, intersectionality. You know, the.Chuck Warren: Fraud, the fraudster they're promoting the fraudster. The guy who's basically bilked millions of dollars.John Riches: I think he had his own little video segment in the training.Chuck Warren: What a grift.John Riches: Yeah, yeah, truly. You know, things like white supremacy is built into the foundational documents of our country, you know, that sort of stuff. And it just went went on and on.Chuck Warren: It's just unbelievable what happened if you didn't take it?John Riches: Well, we don't know for sure. We asked about that. We asked the university about that, and they said no one's been disciplined for failing to take it yet, or at least they didn't have records of anybody being disciplined for failing.Kiley Kipper: Can you fail this said test? So if I fail it, I am just not a professor or.John Riches: Well, I mean, that was the problem. They said if you failed it, they would report you. They would report the professor to the dean. But then we asked, has anybody been disciplined, reported, and they said, we don't have any records of that.Chuck Warren: This is Breaking Battl Grounds today with John Riches. He is the vice president of litigation at the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Litigation. He's general counsel for the institute. And this is Breaking Battlegrounds. You can find us at Breaking Battlegrounds .vote. We'll be right back with John to talk more about DEI and the craziness at the university, not the University of Arizona. Arizona State, we want to talk about University of Arizona as well. Breaking Battle Grounds. We'll be right back.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.Chuck Warren: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warren. My co-host Kiley Kipper, also known for Kiley's Corner, which will be on later today on the podcast with John Riches, vice president of litigation for the Goldwater Institute. John, let's go talk further about the DEI situation at Arizona State. First of all, is University of Arizona, Northern Arizona. Are they also having these same type of issues?John Riches: We think we've gone to their website and requested some records, and it looks like they're doing these sorts of trainings as well. We sent a letter to Arbor where we asked them to audit all the universities across the state, because it appears that this is a broader problem than just ASU.Chuck Warren: How much money is ASU dedicated to DEI officers? Do you know that's.John Riches: A good question I don't.Chuck Warren: That'd be interesting for us to find out. Kiley, I think our audience would like to know. All right. So let's talk about the Board of Regents and die Staffing. Did the Board of Regents, were they aware of this? Did they? What did they do on it?John Riches: I don't know, we sent them a letter just last month. So this is interesting. The Arizona legislature last session passed a statute that prohibits DEI esque trainings for state employees and prohibits the spending of taxpayer dollars to provide these trainings. And there's, you know, very quaint concepts like, you know, no race is inherently superior to another. People aren't inherently racist based on their race. You can't discriminate based on someone's race. All of these things were in the statute.Chuck Warren: All common sense things. Most people would find common sense if we just went door to door.John Riches: Exactly. Common sense, moral things. Right. And it said, you know, no state agency, including the universities, can require their employees to take training that advances things contrary to the, you know, to these common sense items, and you can't spend taxpayer money on it. So when we got the records on this training for faculty and staff, it was pretty clear that that training violated violated the statute. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. So that's what we sent the letter to Eburon. And we said, look, here's the training. We pulled out specific segments of the training and said, you know, you're in violation of state law. What you should do now is stop mandating the training and stop spending taxpayer dollars to provide it.Chuck Warren: You have much money, just even the mandatory training cost, what they spend on that.John Riches: It had to have been a lot. I mean, it was a it was a very comprehensive training with videos with, you know, people throughout the country because.Chuck Warren: These people sure have no problem increasing tuition every year.John Riches: Yeah, yeah. That's true.Chuck Warren: Let's talk about the Cronkite's journalism school at ASU. It's a mandatory class there. Is it not or was.John Riches: That's right. Yeah. So what we found they're requiring this loyalty oath for new hires. They're requiring the training for existing faculty. And then we're wondering, is it going into the student body? And it turns out that the Cronkite School has a required Dei course for every single journalism student at the school. So we requested those records. We asked for the syllabus. At first they didn't want to give us copies of it, but eventually they did.Chuck Warren: What was what was on what was on the syllabus?John Riches: You know, a lot of the same sort of Dei dogma stuff that you see, you know, throughout, throughout these sort of courses, a lot of the intersectionality stuff and that sort of thing.Chuck Warren: We wonder why Kiley, our press is slanted.Kiley Kipper: I don't wonder anymore. It all makes sense, and I don't think ASU is coming up with these ideas themselves.Chuck Warren: So it'd be interesting to see surveying the students when they start the Cronkite School of Journalism if they think it's needed, and after four years, if they think it's needed.John Riches: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean, think about how little time you have to actually do the few mandatory courses that are required that are required. And this is this is the thing that the school is focusing on, you know, and that limited chunk of time.Chuck Warren: Do you is this happening in our public schools on the high school level? Is it happening on the junior college level?John Riches: I'm not sure about junior college, but K-12 for sure. I mean, this has been a debate for for a couple of years now where, you know, K-12 are clearly introducing di CRT concepts into the classroom. They deny doing it. Then you come up with real clear evidence that they have. So yeah, this this goes obviously broader than higher. Ed.Chuck Warren: John, explain to our audience why this fight is necessary. We all you know, we want we really do want a colorblind society, right? I mean, I think that's all we want. You know, that may be a goal. You know, sort of like the more perfect union. You know, we can get a little bit better each time each generation. Our kids will be better, hopefully. But why is this important for us? Just to put our thumb on it and say this, this nonsense has to stop. Why is it important for our country, for the state of Arizona?John Riches: It's contrary to the founding ideals of the country, right? If you take a concept like equity, what does that mean? It's the opposite of equality of opportunity. It's they're trying to get equality of outcome, which of course, you can't do. And that's essentially a Marxist theory. But, you know, our country is predicated on the belief that all people are created equal and everybody should have an equal opportunity. Not that some people are given special privileges, not that some people should be discriminated against based on race. You know, the content of our character is determined by our choices and our actions, not by immutable characteristics.Chuck Warren: Kiley, do you feel like folks in their 20s and early 30s believe in that concept at all?Kiley Kipper: Yes. Yeah, yeah yeah I was.Chuck Warren: I mean, you have some friends who are Democrat liberal, I imagine. I mean, you've not cut him off, I'm sure.Kiley Kipper: No, no absolutely not.Chuck Warren: No, no, I have recommended it. But anyway, continue. What do you find their beliefs are on this, this type of thing.Kiley Kipper: I find that my friends who. They think Republicans are racist. Yeah, like, but when I was in high school, in college, I was really not political. And none of my friends were like, we did not discuss this and how I got in because.Chuck Warren: Because you're a normal human beings.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. And we just and we all. That's why we became best friends. And then obviously 2020 when the whole Trump everything, that's when it all started coming out. And I'm like, you have known me for this long, and have you ever.Chuck Warren: Seen me say racist thing in the world?Kiley Kipper: Exactly. And so I'm like, you guys need to look, reflect back and like, look at this and really look at the people. They really their character.Chuck Warren: They really don't look at the content of the character. No. It's been it's been very odd to see John as a Goldwater and you do litigation there. Okay. You've been doing this how long now? Goldwater? Ten years. How have things changed with the left and governments are trying to do ten years ago versus now? What is it? Have you seen a change? Has it gotten worse? What's what's going on.John Riches: Sure. So we got to decide, of course, what cases we're going to take. Are we going to do an economic freedom case? Are we going to do a free speech case? Are we going to do a regulatory case? And for the first five years, six, six, maybe even seven years, I was there. Things that everybody basically agreed on. Free speech is a good thing. People shouldn't be discriminated against based on their race.Chuck Warren: It was it was a liberal ideology in the 70s and 80s. Right. And Republicans are always trying to suppress it.John Riches: Supposedly it's essentially a liberal notion. Right, right, right. But these things that everybody that we thought everybody agreed on, you know, it appears they don't. And now things like free speech, you know, equality of opportunity are controversial concepts. And that's been that's been something of a surprise.Chuck Warren: Have you noticed attorneys you work with who are on the left or, you know, have they changed on this. Do they feel things are going too far? In one extreme, I think they're.John Riches: Saying, I think there's a divide in the, you know, on the left between classical liberals and this.Chuck Warren: Israel massacre. What's happening? It's been interesting to watch. And I know this isn't your forte, but we talk about this a lot on the show. I've noticed a lot of liberal journalists, traditional liberals, I'll call them. They're appalled. Like, I can't believe how much anti-Semitism is on the left. It's like, well, you never talk to anybody because it's been there forever, right? Right. I mean, talk about people with their heads in the cloud. Do you find that type of eye opening moment has come to some of these folks on the attorneys on the left you've known and you respect, just like, oh my gosh, what is going on here? Yeah.John Riches: And I've had I've had conversations with some that say, hey, look, I mean, I've been so disenchanted with what's happening with the progressives and this, this, you know, this animosity towards free speech that it's made me want to leave, for example, the Democratic Party. But I feel like it's necessary for me to stick around so that there's an adult in the room and so that there's a sane voice. But I think they're that voice is becoming quieter and the progressives are becoming louder.Chuck Warren: Yeah. I don't know where they go. I know we've had that on the right. We have our Never-trumpers or Trump. Of course, our side, in all their self-righteousness, stomp their feet, held their breath and just felt like, I'm just going to leave and take my ball and go home. And it's been an absolute catastrophe that they've done that because there's not this intellectual rigor of debate in the party right now. What else is Goldwater working on right now that you feel our audience should know about?John Riches: All kinds of things? You know, we do a whole lot of things where we try and protect taxpayers against subsidies. We got a case going up to the Arizona Supreme Court next month on an issue where City of Scottsdale is subsidizing one of its favorite parties. We're always working on people's right to earn a living, right? So everybody has an inherent right to work in the job of their choice, free from government interference. Courts have sort of relegated that right to second class status. So we're frequently in courts arguing.Chuck Warren: Talk a little bit about that, about the hairdressers and so forth. Occupational licensing talk a little bit what Goldwater has helped do versus your Michelle Ugenti sponsored the bill. Governor Ducey signed it. You folks are intellectual power behind that to a degree. Explain what difference that made for people. Sure.John Riches: Yeah. So you think about this about 50 years ago, only 5% of jobs required an occupational license, a government permission slip to work in the job. And it would be like lawyers, doctors, things you'd think about today. Depending on the state, it's about 25% to a third of all jobs require an occupational license. And some of the stuff is bizarre.Chuck Warren: Is that because of certain people in their industries have gotten together, created a cabal, and said, you need to be licensed? Precisely.John Riches: It's rent seeking. You know, it's rent seeking. It's a lot easier to go to the government and ask them to prevent competition than it is to actually compete and beat your competitor.Chuck Warren: I don't think people realize that's where a lot of it comes from, right? I saw it a lot. My dad owned a dental lab, and they're always trying to get people to have to be licensed to do it. Right now it's medical, I get it. It's a little bit different than nails or hair or, you know, things of that nature, but it does seem like it comes from people who've done well and have time to devote to let's create a trade organization. And then our next step is let's get these suckers. All licensed here.John Riches: 100%. Yeah. You'll like this story. In Florida, they decided to license florists. So if you wanted to sell flowers, you had to take a test. And then the second part of the test is you had to make a floral display and show it to a panel of licensed florists, and only if they deemed it sufficiently beautiful could you have the privilege of selling flowers in the great state of Florida.Chuck Warren: How long ago was that?John Riches: They still have the licensing requirements.Kiley Kipper: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.Chuck Warren: Is Goldwater do anything in Florida to knock down that nonsense? It is the free state of Florida, so I've been told.John Riches: So there was a case. In fairness, there was a case I think brought it a few years back that that attempted to challenge it. And I think they had some some victory in there. But the the licensing regime is still in place.Chuck Warren: Well, that sounds like something DeSantis probably should. Sounds like something he'll do if he gets excited about it. Yeah. You had a question. You know, I was just.Kiley Kipper: I was just thinking about why licenses are necessary in the first place. Because if I'm going to like my hairdresser and she doesn't have a license, but she cuts my hair, well, then I'm going to keep going to her. If she doesn't cut it, well, then.Chuck Warren: You go elsewhere.Kiley Kipper: You go elsewhere.Chuck Warren: Yeah. I mean, I get it for like, doctors I get for attorneys for medical.Kiley Kipper: Stuff and nails. I do because.Chuck Warren: They're basic things now. So I'm sure now for medical boards you have to pass some other sort of DEI training, as well as actual medical things that make people get better. Right? Yeah.John Riches: They're building all that stuff into a lot of licensing requirements.Chuck Warren: So we got we got a couple of minutes there left. How do people stop this? What do they need to do to prevent this die, this progressive organ control your thought patrol progress first.John Riches: Notice it. I mean, people got to got to understand this is happening, you know, throughout government, throughout universities, throughout K-12. So, you know, figure out what's going on in your school district, figure out what's going on in your state universities, identify the problem first, and then, you know, be willing to stand up. And sometimes that takes takes courage. You know, people don't want to get quote unquote canceled. But, you know, if there's a professor that's like, hey, this training's going on, I shouldn't have to do it. I shouldn't have to take this test where they're telling me what the right answer is. You know, it requires people willing to say, this is wrong and we shouldn't be doing this.Chuck Warren: So it's a really good point. I think people I think it's a problem is it takes people like you because most people don't have the time to spend on these issues. I mean, they've got a, you know, a lot of people working two jobs now trying to get extra income. They got their kids, they got soccer practice, all the things you do except during the day. You get to be sort of this watchman at the tower doing this. One final thing. You recently had a new baby. Yep. And you had a son before. What? How has fatherhood made you a better attorney?John Riches: Oh, that's a that's a really interesting question. I guess maybe fatherhood at bottom makes you more empathetic. And I think a lot of attorneys lack in empathy, you know, of course, for opposing counsel, but maybe even sometimes for your own clients. And I think, you know, there's nothing like having responsibility over a human life, developing a person's character. And, and, you know, being able to achieve those really important things that make you more empathetic and focus on the things that truly matter in life.Chuck Warren: 15 20s left. What's the hardest part about being a father for you?John Riches: Making sure they're protected while also giving them the freedom to grow?Chuck Warren: That's hard. You can scrape your knee. I just don't want you to break the leg. Got one of the two, right? That's right folks, this is thank you, John Richards, for joining us from Goldwater Institute. This is breaking battlegrounds. You can find us at Breaking Battlegrounds. Vote. Pay attention for our podcast. Coming up, we're interviewing former Jamaican ambassador Don Tapia. This is breaking battlegrounds. Have a fantastic weekend. Share the podcast. We love you guys. Take care.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.Chuck Warren: Welcome back to Breaking Bad Grounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warren with Kiley Kipper. Sam is out with the sniffles today. We are honored for this portion of the show to have my friend and community leader, ambassador Don Tapia. He's former ambassador of Jamaica, and he's been a community leader and led a business here in Arizona for many years. He's also served on various charitable boards and whatever you think in Arizona, that's happened in the last 30 years, 40 years John's been doing it. Don's been doing it. Sorry, John. Don's been doing.Kiley Kipper: Just moved from John to Don.Chuck Warren: Yeah. Ambassador Tapia, welcome to the show. Well, thank you very much for inviting me. Well, we're so glad to have you on. So what was the process like becoming an ambassador?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, the first thing is, is you've got to be nominated, of course, by the president of the United States. And whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, it's great an honor to have the president nominate you. And then after the nomination, the process is you've got to go through the confirmation. And that's a confirmation of the US Senate. And you have to go and visit Washington, and you must make your rounds to the senators and so forth to let them ask you questions and so forth. And one of the things that always set me back is that what they call a motor, a motor, a motor board, and what that is, is that you go before the the opposition, which would be the Democrats, since I was a Republican, to go before this board and they take you down the road, believe me, they take you down the road with questions and so forth. And I always remember one I sat across from Menendez's attorney, know his office, and he said, I've been a liberal Democrat all my life, and I'm going to die a liberal Democrat. And of course, there's five other people in the room. And so you sit there and you listen to the questions and so forth. So when it came around to my time to respond, I said, well, I'm a Republican, but if in fact, I'm confirmed as a US ambassador, I will represent you as a liberal Democrat because I represent the American people. On which side of the aisle you're on, it makes no difference. And after the after we got through with that as we were walking out, he says, that's the best answer anybody has ever given me in 20 years that I've been on the murder board.Chuck Warren: Oh that's amazing. How many senators did you have to visit with?Ambassador Don Tapia: I visited with probably about 15 to 20, basically the foreign minister, the Foreign Relations Committee, and that was.Chuck Warren: Over a couple of days.Ambassador Don Tapia: They had oh, no, that's over. You got to go with their schedule. So that could be over a couple of weeks that it could take place.Chuck Warren: Once you got the phone call until you were confirmed. How long did that process take?Ambassador Don Tapia: Just about 11 months.Chuck Warren: It's a long process.Ambassador Don Tapia: It's a long, long process, yes.Kiley Kipper: So is what is that seat open? And then the president nominates someone. Or does every time a new president come in, a new nomination happens. You got to keep.Ambassador Don Tapia: In mind that it was some trying times back there. So Trump being the president and you coming in normally you would be you would be confirmed through, you know through a a committee. And then it goes to the floor and the floor then would actually call you up and it'd be unanimous. But because of the situation in Washington at the time, they were taking individuals. So we had to wait and wait and wait until he got called up. And out of all of them by acclamation, there was only two ambassador nominees that went before the full the full Senate, and that was myself and the one out of Georgia. There was only two of us that was that actually had to go through the complete roll call vote.Chuck Warren: Really?Ambassador Don Tapia: Yes. We thought that was pretty good. I came across out of all of the 100 senators, I got 68, I think it was 68 US senators across the aisle, which meant that I had Democrats and Republicans across the aisle. You're a.Chuck Warren: Bipartisan choice.Ambassador Don Tapia: I'm not real sure about that because you know it. But it was by eye that year was the highest that anybody ever received. Going through confirmation to the Foreign Relations Committee.Chuck Warren: We're with  the honorable Don Tapia. He's a former ambassador to Jamaica during the Trump administration. What being an ambassador, what did you think it was about going in and when you left, how had your opinion changed on the role?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, going into it, the first thing you got to look at is what is an ambassador? You know, what does the duties of an ambassador? And I always relate it to being the CEO of a large company. And that's basically what you are. You're the ambassador. You're the what they call the commander, the chairman of the board. When you go there, you have an embassy. And I had just under 500 people at the embassy that reported to me in different agencies. I had 18 law enforcement associate companies, or you might say, units that reported to me across the board from the CIA, down to the FBI, down to, you know, the. Dea and so forth. So you go all of those people were reporting to you to tell you what's taking place in the not only in Jamaica, but in the world.Chuck Warren: As an ambassador. Let's say today is supposedly the day of rage. Hamas has asked people to go out, express their rage. What would you be doing right now as an ambassador in Jamaica with such a warning throughout the world today? What would you be doing?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, let's take a step back and talk about Martin Luther King Day. You know, when we had the we had the Black Lives Matter that was going on and throughout the Caribbean and throughout the world, right at the embassy, of course, you have you have people showing up, you know, to demonstrate. And one of the things that I did is you have your detail. You're always around with your detail, your security detail. One of the things that I did that surprised everybody in Jamaica, and in fact, even the Caribbean, got a lot of a lot of press on. It is the fact is that I went out into the Black Lives Matter demonstration. And when I walked out there, they were all aghast at the US ambassador, who would actually walk out of the embassy and walk into a demonstration, right to meet with the people.Chuck Warren: Yeah, it would be. They wouldn't. They don't see that. No.Ambassador Don Tapia: And I'm not real sure of the way that with the organization that's out there now demonstrating that you would want to be in that, in that group of people. You know, it's it's a different type of you're talking about terrorists versus a demonstration. Correct. So that's one of the things that you're seeing here in, in the US that when you look at the demonstrations taking place in New York and in Los Angeles and so forth, Hezbollah, and you're seeing things that that truly we never have seen on our on the US soil, where you see terrorists. Actually, I shouldn't say they're all terrorists, but yet the the matter that they're, that they're demonstrating against or for is terrorism. It has been terrorism. So that's one of the things that you look at. And you're going to ask me about, about what my thoughts are about what's taking place in. Yeah.Chuck Warren: Yeah. What would you do as ambassador to prepare your staff today and obviously protect them and so forth on this type of day?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, they tell you to, to stay in place, which means when they say that, it says stay where you are, don't go out in the streets, don't get involved, stay where you are. And that's what you basically train. And we actually have things within the embassy that you train. All the people that went something like that happens to stay in place. So if they start storming the embassy like they did I did a few years back, that's different. You have there's no way that you can control that. There's no way that you you have your of course you have your military there, that that guards the gate and so forth, but there's not enough of them that could take that could stop a major demonstration coming over the wall of an embassy in Jamaica.Chuck Warren: How many people worked at the embassy? I mean, you told us you had this big crew, about 500 people. How many people were career people that worked at the embassy had been there for a decade plus.Ambassador Don Tapia: There's no such thing as a decade plus. Plus in an embassy. You're all your all your organizations that are that are assigned to the embassy is a three year, basically a three year run. You have your career, people that come in and they they're there for three years. The worst part about that is that that on their second year, they have to bid out to their next job.Chuck Warren: Oh, okay.Ambassador Don Tapia: They actually have to bid out. So you have them for one year when they knowing that that that they're leaving within a within that year period of time to go to their next assignment. So that's one of the things I hold the career people or the people in the State Department that are in the US embassies because they're traveling around the world. If you really want to, if you really want to see the world, join the Foreign Service, because that's where you will see the see the around the world. And if you have children, they'll get an education around, you know, different countries around the world and so forth.Kiley Kipper: So did did you find that people would join to see the world? So they would say, I'm going to go work at this embassy for three years, and then I know that I can be assigned to another one. Is that kind of their goal or.Ambassador Don Tapia: I don't think that that's anybody's goal to know that, you know, it sounds you're going to keep switching. It sounds, you know, romantically, you know.Chuck Warren: It sounds like the Navy recruitment. Right.Kiley Kipper: So they would prefer just to stay in like, well, there's an assignment.Ambassador Don Tapia: Or I think that they would like to stay longer. But you've got you got a three year because keep in mind, in two years you're only there two years and you're bidding, you're bidding out for your for the next three years or next four years. So and you're still maintaining your position there and in the embassy.Chuck Warren: What do you feel the difference is between ambassadors like you who are appointed men and women of great integrity, background substance versus these great career Foreign service folks who are appointed? What do you feel the difference is? Is it that folks like you, who have been appointed and not been part of the Foreign Service, just comes with fresh eyes? Is that helpful as an ambassador, to come in with fresh eyes and say, we can do this better?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, let's take a look at a career, a career ambassador. In an appointed or a political ambassador. A career ambassador, of course, is is a employee of the State Department. Keep that in mind. So for them to get things done, they have to actually more like tag based constantly with the with the State Department to do anything if they want to. If I wanted to talk to if they wanted to talk to, let's say, the DEA director, they actually would have to go back to the State Department to have somebody within the State Department make the appointment, tell them what they want to discuss with and who they wanted to talk with. Well, as a as a political appointment, you're you're appointed by the president of the United States and you're representing him directly. So therefore, you pick up the phone and I've talked to the vice president, I've talked to the secretary of defense and so forth, where you pick up the phone and you just call the secretary, or you have your secretary set up an appointment and you and you can get more things done as a political appointment than you can as a career.Chuck Warren: That makes sense in your weekly schedule is ambassador, how much time were you actually at the residence versus being out and about in the country?Ambassador Don Tapia: I started at 730 in the morning, got home normally about 4 to 6:00 in the evening.Chuck Warren: And so you're out every day?Ambassador Don Tapia: Yes, yes.Chuck Warren: What is something about Jamaica that the American public doesn't know about it? Besides, it's a great place to go for a vacation. What? Tell us about the people. And I'm sure you fell in love with these people. You feel like it's probably a second home now. Tell us a little bit about that.Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, Jamaica, there's a couple of things. There's the security thing that that you've got to look at. One of the things is Jamaica is sits in a location, of course, in the Caribbean, as we know, just south of, just south of Cuba. There's only two ways into the Gulf of Mexico. And that's one of the things that a lot of American people don't realize, that you either go north to come into the Gulf of Mexico, and that takes you that takes you by the D.R. and into by Cuba, into the Gulf of Mexico. If you're coming out of the Panama Canal, which most of the big ships are coming out of the Panama Canal going into going into the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans to drop you to drop the goods off that they've picked up in Europe is the fact is that you're going by Venezuela, you're going by Colombia into the Gulf, into the Gulf of Mexico. So what we have seen in one of the things that you've got to look at is the CCP, which is the communist, the Chinese Communist Party, which becomes a factor around the world. And that's one of the greatest threats that we have. It's not Russia is a threat, of course, it's they bring Russian. But we found out that Russia in the Ukraine did not did not have the where to to really fight a world war.Chuck Warren: Right.Ambassador Don Tapia: That's some of the things that you look at as an ambassador, because you were involved looking at what's taking place around the world. These are some of the things that that I think the American people in the Caribbean is seek the Caribbean actually is our first line of defense. When you look at it, the first line of defense. And during the Cold War, we put a lot of money and a lot of effort into the Caribbean. Once the Cold War was over, after after Reagan, we more like took him, took advantage of them. We we didn't pay attention to them. We paid more attention to to Europe, in South Africa and so forth than we did to our own home base. You might say to the beaches that that really protect us in the long run.Chuck Warren: What should we do? What should be the policy going forward in the Caribbean from the United States government?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, I think there's a certain areas that that need to be that need to be beefed up. You know, whenever you get down to El Salvador, down in that area and so forth, that the people that are coming from El Salvador, El Salvador, what you found out that just crossed over the border just about two weeks ago ago, about 50,000 Venezuelans that are coming into the US. So when you turn around and you start taking a look at who is coming across our border today, it's very scary because there's busloads of Chinese. How did the Chinese get to get to Mexico?Chuck Warren: Yeah, they didn't walk. They didn't.Ambassador Don Tapia: Walk. So you so when you start taking a look at the people that are crossing the border, we have no way to vent those people. No way to vent. Thousands of people crossing the border on foot. So we have a we have a major security line. And I always say that a country is not a country without a border. We are not a country today. We have no border to the south.Chuck Warren: No, we do not. We do not what right now, there's a there's a number of countries that do not have a United States ambassador for various reasons. And I'll get into all those. But what does it mean when a country does not have a United States ambassador in it? Who's running the the.Ambassador Don Tapia: Charge d'affaires is he's the second. Normally when the ambassador there you have what they call a DCM, which is actually the deputy commander, your deputy chief of staff is what they call him. Once that once the ambassador leaves, his title changes to charge d'affaires, which means that he is in charge. Charge of thee takes the place of the ambassador. He didn't have all the authority that the ambassador would have, but he has the authority to run the embassy and to take care of the day to day business.Chuck Warren: But to the president of a country or so forth. It's not the same as having the actual ambassador there. They know there's somebody, they know there's a manager at the place, at the business. They know there's somebody there, maybe an assistant manager. But the person who really can give yes or no is not there. And that and that has to play some role.Ambassador Don Tapia: That's exactly right. Is that without the ambassador, the ambassador in many countries, believe it or not, the ambassador has the same voice as the prime minister or the president of that company, that country. Because the fact is, he is the representative, the direct representative of the United States. So his words and what he says is taken very seriously. In a lot of times you can get yourself in trouble. So you've got to watch. You've got to watch what you're saying, too.Chuck Warren: How many how many countries had ambassadors in Jamaica when you were there?Ambassador Don Tapia: You know, that's a good question. I'm not sure, but we I know that I could be out probably 17, 17 or 18.Chuck Warren: Did you did you become close to to any particular ambassador from another country?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, the Chinese ambassador kept trying. The Chinese ambassador kept trying to meet me. And of course, my my detail. Your detail comes up and whispers in your ear as you see that the the Chinese ambassador would like to to meet with you and shake your hand. And I my comment was, I don't believe that I need to shake his hand, you know so so. But the differ the different embassies had would have certain kind of affairs and so forth that you were invited to. And a lot of times you sent your deputy instead of instead of you.Chuck Warren: Interesting, interesting. Well, ambassador, we sure appreciate you coming on the show today. You've been fantastic.Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, thank you very much. I wonder how I looked before.Chuck Warren: You look fantastic, and I appreciate your service. Would you do it again if they called you tomorrow? Would you do it again?Ambassador Don Tapia: You know, that's a that's a question that I get asked a lot. And it'd have to be depending on the, on the country and so forth in which you're going to. The reason at my age is I had a choice of a couple of countries, but I went to pick when they gave me Jamaica, I thought, you know, at my age I'm not that far away from the US. If something happened, I could be flown back to the US. So you take a look at things. I always, I always like to say that I'd like to be the ambassador to to Iceland, but that's. But that is covered by a different. There's three countries that are in there Iceland, Newfoundland. And I forget what the other. It's either Finland or one of them that actually has the responsibility. Oh, Norway. Norway actually has the responsibility for for those three areas.Chuck Warren: Oh, fascinating. Well, ambassador Don Tapia, thank you so much for coming on our show today.Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, thank you for the invite. And I'm.Chuck Warren: Anytime.Ambassador Don Tapia: We're happy to come back and give you you know, I had I get a lot of calls from still from around the world of people that I know, ambassadors and so forth. And we talk about the systems, the things that are taking place. And like in Israel, we it's been a lot of chatter on that one, I bet.Chuck Warren: What are they saying about it?Ambassador Don Tapia: Well. That you've had so many, you know, upstarts with Jamaica in the in the I'm sorry, the Israel and the Palestinians, you know, you've got to come to some some conclusion and let it and run its course. That's a heck of a thing to say, because that means that there's going to be a lot of a lot of deaths and so forth, a lot of innocent life, a lot of innocent life, a lot of innocent people that are going to that's going to suffer. But at the same time, are we going to continue? Are you going to let Israel and the Palestinians fight this battle every 10 or 15 years and so forth? This one seems, from what I from what I've been reading and what I've been told by some people that are actually in Israel, that this has been planned out for for quite a long time.Chuck Warren: Sounds like a year or two where I've been reading this morning. It's been coming out. It's you know, it is. We have the Wall Street Journal reporter on last week who covers Eastern Europe. So he's been covering the Ukraine war. And we asked the question, how does this come to a resolution? And his comment was someone has to win. That's and I feel sadly you brought up. I appreciate you bringing up the stark reality and not talking a word salad here. Somebody has to win for this to sort of end. And I was sort of stunned. He took it was, you know, a very unreported like statement. But he's been there for 12 years, speaks Russian and just says someone has to win. You know, you could do a peace agreement, but it's basically a recess. They'll be back at it in a year or two again. And that's what we're seeing in the Middle East and our prayers are there. Sadly, a lot of innocent people are going to lose their lives on this.Ambassador Don Tapia: That's a very dangerous spot in the world, because if that place explodes, keep in mind you've got Egypt, you've got Iran, you've got Syria, you've got Jordan. Well, you're talking now. You're talking about not just one country that can that the explosion can take place. And if it does World War, World War two will look like it. It was a training.Chuck Warren: Well, we can pray for some wiser heads prevail. And everything right now is what we definitely need in the world.Ambassador Don Tapia: All right, I know our prayers. I'll tell you. You have to pray. Pray for the people that are suffering, the people that are going to suffer, you know, and and of course, our people, that we have to pray for them and hope that we can work our way through this. But we haven't been able to. So I somebody would call me a hawk because the fact is, I say, let's get let's get the job done one way or the other. Like you say, somebody has to win, right? Let's get this. Let's find out who's going to win and move on from there. We haven't done that. It's over the last 50 years. We have not done it since the young Kippur War.Chuck Warren: Exactly. Well, ambassador, thank you for joining us today.Ambassador Don Tapia: Well, thank you for the invite.Chuck Warren: This is Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be right back.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.Chuck Warren: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck. Weren't my co-host, Kiley Kipper today. Kiley. Thanks. You've done fantastic today.Kiley Kipper: It's very exciting to be here.Chuck Warren: Very, very exciting here.Kiley Kipper: The big.Chuck Warren: Roll. Kiley and I before the show were harmonizing, trying to figure out a closing song. We'll get with you on that in a couple of weeks as we practice a little bit more. So Kiley  what do we have on Kiley's corner today?Kiley Kipper: Well, I felt since today's Friday the 13th a little spooky season. October I wanted to talk about the world's largest pumpkin. Okay, so Travis Gienger, he has been growing enormous pumpkins for 30 years now. It's one of his hobbies. He grew one so large that this year it was the it weighed as much as a small car.Chuck Warren: Really?Kiley Kipper: Yes. But in his previous year. So in 2020, he grew a pumpkin named Tiger King, which weighed £2,350. Last year, Maverick, his pumpkin was £2,560. Still hasn't did not beat any world records, however. This year it was the 50th annual World Championship pumpkin Weigh-off and he has been growing Michael Jordan for six months now, and he is the world's largest pumpkin, officially weighing £2,749. And he transported this. He drove 35 hours to this competition with this pumpkin in the back of his truck.Chuck Warren: How how did he grow them so big? I mean, what's different from, say, you and I go in our backyard and grow pumpkin? What does he do that gets them so big? Is there a certain a certain seed he's using? What does he do?Kiley Kipper: You know he does not tell his secrets. However, he did say this pumpkin. He sat out there and he watered him every 30 minutes. I'm not really sure what his day job is. However, he sat out there. Well, he's probably even watered him.Chuck Warren: Does he look older? Is he retired? Maybe.Kiley Kipper: No, he's not retired every 30 minutes.Chuck Warren: Huh?Kiley Kipper: Yeah, every 30 minutes. He was watering because he really wanted Michael Jordan to beat it this year.Chuck Warren: So what we're seeing is he's the poster child for the termination of remote work and get back in the office. Is that what we're telling us?Kiley Kipper: Yes, yes, yes, yes.Chuck Warren: Every time they said he says I'm on a conference call or something. We know he's out watering his pumpkin.Kiley Kipper: He's on mute, but he says that he names all of his pumpkins fantastic. But he names all of his pumpkins off of what's happening in this year. So this year it's 2023, so named after Michael Jordan. But you know Tiger King in 2020 and so so be it. That's how he names him.Chuck Warren: Well Kiley I think this was a needed ending today to our show where there's a lot of chaos going on in the world. Folks, this is breaking bad grounds. We hope you have a great weekend. You can of course find us on Breaking Battlegrounds dot vote. We also ask you to go to anywhere you get your podcasts, or listen to one of our 12 stations that has our radio show on every week. We hope you have a great weekend! Stay safe!- Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Breaking Battlegrounds Radio! In this week's episode, we dive deep into a range of thought-provoking topics with our fantastic lineup of guests. First up, we have Thomas Grove, a renowned WSJ reporter, who provides valuable insights into the latest developments in Russia and Ukraine. Then, our friend of the show, Dan McLaughlin, also known as the 'Baseball Crank' on Twitter, joins us for an engaging conversation. Dan shares his thoughts on how to refocus the media's attention on critical issues beyond Trump, including discussions on polling trends for both Trump and Biden, the upcoming presidential election next year, and his insights into the Speaker's race.And, of course, we can't forget Kiley Kipper in Kiley's Corner! Tune in to hear Kiley's unique take on various subjects this week, including the mysterious world of Tupac, the Citizen app, and the enchanting puffin season in Iceland. Join Kiley as she unravels the story and discusses its implications, all from her corner of the studio.-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 GUESTSThomas Grove covers the confrontation between Russia and the West for The Wall Street Journal. He is based in Warsaw. Before that Thomas covered Russia for more than a decade and he has traveled to Ukraine regularly since Russia's invasion. He writes on Russia's military, the arms trade and the Russian defense sector as well as great power competition.He started his career in Istanbul with Reuters writing about the economy and the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP. Thomas has since reported from across Central Asia, the Caucasus region and the Middle East.-Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute. He was formerly an attorney practicing securities and commercial litigation in New York City, a contributing editor of RedState, columnist at the Federalist and the New Ledger, a baseball blogger at BaseballCrank.com, BostonSportsGuy.com, the Providence Journal Online, and a contributor to the Command Post. His writings on politics, baseball, and law have appeared in numerous other newspapers, magazines, websites, and legal journals.-Transcription Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. As always, fantastic guests up for you today, folks. We're going to lead things off with Thomas Grove of The Wall Street Journal. He's been covering in depth the confrontation between Russia and the West. And obviously he is based in Warsaw, previously covered Russia for more than a decade. He's traveled to Ukraine regularly since Russia's invasion, writes on Russia's military, the arms trade and Russian defense sector, as well as great power competition. Thomas, thank you for joining us. Welcome to the program.Thomas Grove: Great. Thank you so much for having me.Chuck Warren: Thomas How did you get started in this business? It seems like you've done great reporting, starting with Reuters and now you've just planted your flag out there in Eastern Europe. Was this a career path you wanted or you just sort of fell into it by doing various stories?Thomas Grove: That's a really good question. I studied Russian in college, and I was just fascinated by kind of what was the kind of referred to more frequently at the time as the kind of the post-Soviet space. So all of Central Asia, the caucuses, Russia itself, you know, it was all just wild and fascinating. And I couldn't get enough of it coming out of college. So I basically after that just basically washed up, started with Reuters, and things just kind of took on a life of their own, really. So spent spending ten years in Russia, you know, we left just right before the war, just a few months before, luckily. And I went to I was going to Israel just to kind of start something completely new, turn a new page. And that lasted about 4 or 5 months. And before I knew it, I was back in Ukraine again. I'd covered the 2014 war and and now it was kind of I really didn't expect. However, when I went back in 2022 that I'd be seeing the biggest land invasion in Europe since the Second World War. It was obviously a surprise. At least it was for me. You've been so much for others.Chuck Warren: You've been to Ukraine a lot in person. Do you feel sort of like you're reliving a World War One video from junior high? I mean, is it you know, here's one thing you see on our side. You see these you don't get to see many photos, but you see some about the trenches and the the bloodshed. And then you see Ukraine where it doesn't look like anything's going on. And there are some on the conservative side who say, see, this isn't a big deal. Tell us a little about what you see on the ground when you go.Thomas Grove: Well, I mean, that's a really that's a great question. I think probably the best way of explaining it is is explaining the journey. You know, you have to take to get there. You know, there's no airports in Ukraine. So anybody who who makes that trip, they come from most of the time from Poland. You know, we're just based to and you cross the border and you're in western Ukraine and everything feels, you know, you're in Lviv and things are bustling. You know, stores are open. It's a, you know, a beautiful city full of, you know, 17th, 18th, 19th century buildings. You know, it's it's gorgeous. And you think, well, you know, it is hard to reconcile that with what, you know, lays ahead. And obviously, you know, the closer you get east, closer you the further you get south, you know, it becomes that that reality becomes a lot more dramatic and the scenes are a lot more dire as well. And, you know, it doesn't take long, you know, until. You are in Bermuda and you see things that you simply can't imagine happening in the in Europe in the 21 century.Chuck Warren: That would that would seem to me to be a very interesting article for you to work on, because I think there is this this disconnection here with the American public.Sam Stone: There's definitely not much understanding of what the real conditions.Chuck Warren: And so and I think it's part of the problem with the funding, to be honest with you. I think if more Americans knew what was really going on in the Eastern and south and there was more pictures because we live in a very social media picture, visual society, I think there'd be some difference there because what you see, especially on conservative media, because, you know, Sam and I always have this conversation with people, look, both, you know, Korean Ukraine has corruption and Russia is bad. They're not mutually exclusive. You know, you just can't let a country do this to another country. And people say that and they sort of, you know, nod their shoulders and say, yeah, you're right, you know, But I think that type of thing would happen. So let me talk about something's happened this week, which has been quite amazing, actually. And you wrote about it on October 4th. Russia Withdraws Black Sea fleet vessels from Crimea base after Ukrainian attacks. And my understanding is in your articles is because Ukraine can't use the drones or the missiles from France or England or even the United States to attack outside of certain areas, and especially in the sea Black Sea, that the Ukrainians have created their own missiles. And, you know, tell us about that.Thomas Grove: Well, I mean, what we're seeing is kind of the culmination of a few things here. And, you know, on one hand, you know, we have to think about the fact that in the first weeks of the war, much of the Ukrainian navy was was destroyed. And so, you know, it didn't have the kind of it was certainly not on an equal footing with Russia beforehand in the Black Sea. I mean, the Black Sea fleet. If we could just take a moment to talk about what this is. I mean, this is kind of a jewel in the crown of Russian naval power. You know, it's kind of it is what it is. It is the the Russian empire's power projection, the most important power projection it probably had in kind of the latter part of the Russian empire. So it's in the Russian narrative and the Russian myth. It's an incredibly important fleet. Um, you know, started under Catherine the Great, you know, if you can imagine kind of what that means for people. And so it's only been, you know, vessels have only been withdrawn from Sevastopol three times as far as we know, you know, um, since, since they started to base there and twice during the two World wars, one in the First World War, just after the First World War and the other one right in 1942.Thomas Grove: So you have this incredibly important symbolically and just in terms of capabilities as well, naval power that's there in the Black Sea, which Russia's, you know, has been very proud of. And then you have, you know, the Ukrainian navy, which, you know, they mentioned before, was was kind of wiped out. And so what the Ukrainians have done is they've just been improvising, basically, you know, and I think they kind of did this very early on that was kind of, you know, one of their first impetuses was to to really try to to improvise. They didn't have the the defense industry that that Russia had. So they had to basically kind of try to make things that that would work on the fly. Right. And so what we've seen is these Neptune what are anti-ship missiles but have you know and was used effectively against the Moskva you know Russia's flagship last year, we've seen them start launching their own kind of naval drones, these kind of unmanned surface drones. And so, you know, they have some capabilities of their own. But, you know, two of those, you know, they've added what the British and the French have given them.Thomas Grove: You know, the the storm shadow missiles. And so I think it was a very potent kind of mixture that sorry here, the terrain behind me apologize for that. But yeah, so you had a very potent mixture of of of of weapons that Ukraine was using against Russia in the Black Sea. And so, you know, it made the officers on the ground feel unsafe because they flattened and flattened it. But they, you know, sent, I think, two rockets right through it, the Black Sea fleet headquarters. And then you saw an attack on a submarine and a landing vessel not too long ago as well. And so I think it was it was really a calculation made by the Russians that this is just it's not worth it right now. They weren't really the Russian ships weren't able to affect the grain corridors along the sea as much as they hoped they would. Be able to. And apart from that, I think they realized that if they were to just withdraw a little bit further east, it really wouldn't hurt their capabilities in terms of doing what they were doing before in terms of sending missiles into Ukrainian cities. It doesn't really make a lot of difference.Sam Stone: Their weapons have the range from those ships, regardless of if you move them a little bit.Chuck Warren: With Thomas Grove. Exactly. Thomas Grove, Wall Street Journal reporter. He's based out of Warsaw, Poland. We're going to call him the Indiana Jones of The Wall Street Journal because he seems to be going all the hot zones here in Eastern Europe. Let me ask you a question. In your article that we talked about, about Russia withdrawing from the Black Sea. They moved their ships to, you know, a new port in the Black Sea. And you made a comment that I thought was really interesting. You wrote, While the move may represent only a temporary measure to safeguard against further Ukrainian strikes, the logistical headache of relocating some of Russia's heaviest ships underscores the threat of Ukraine's strike capabilities. Why is that such a logistical headache? And I ask this because I think most people are like, I get on a boat, I turn the key, I leave the dock. Why? Why is this why is this such a logistical headache?Sam Stone: People do not realize.Chuck Warren: Oh, no. So, you know, it's like you always hear the old saying. It's like turning the Titanic. Why is it so hard? Why is it such a logistical headache to move them, though?Thomas Grove: Because I think basically you're talking about several kind of docking issues and you're talking kind of diverting the fuel and the supplies that you would need for for these crews to stay on ship or stay stay on board and maintain the ships. You know, we're talking you know, you're rerouting trains, you know, and you're trying to figure out exactly when that happens, where they come from, where those supplies come from. And, you know, this this is all and as we've seen, logistics has been has been a sore spot for the Russians.Sam Stone: Yeah, there's a there's the very famous military quote, and I don't know who came up with it but but said that bad generals talk tactics, good generals talk strategy and great generals talk logistics. As we're we're coming to the end, We have about a minute and a half left in this segment. We're going to be coming back with more from Thomas Grove, The Wall Street Journal, covering this. One thing I want to get into. Thomas When we come back, is, is there or do you see a solution to this that isn't a negotiated solution that costs Ukraine some territory they had before this invasion? And the reason I ask that and I apologize for kind of springing a lengthy question on you as we come to the end of this segment. But the reason I ask that is, is you just look at the demographics and, you know, there are as many military age males in Russia as there is, you know, total population in Ukraine. That's a really big mismatch long term in a war of attrition. How does Ukraine account for that?Thomas Grove: Well, I mean, I think if you were to talk to the Ukrainians, I mean, they would say that it's about defending your homeland and, you know, basically trying to fight off somebody who is trying to take your, you know, your very house from you, so to speak. So, I mean, I think there's no shortage of guts, as we've seen on the Ukrainian side. But I mean, I think, you know, we do have to acknowledge and I think I think the Ukrainians have acknowledged in conversations with Western officials that it is absolutely necessary to kind of maintain the flow of weapons if they're going to continue fighting. Otherwise, it really does become just just very difficult for the Ukrainians.Sam Stone: There's there's no way for Ukraine to supply its own armament needs in this war. We're going to be coming back with more in just a moment. Breaking battlegrounds. Back in just a second.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, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone continuing on the line with us in just a minute, Thomas Grove of The Wall Street Journal. But folks, you've been hearing me talk about Y refy for a while now? A lot of people are talking about this investment. So I'm going to just quickly review the basics with you. 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. There is no attack on your principal. If you ever need your money back and you'll get your monthly statement each month, No surprises if you're not sure. If you trust this economy, this secure collateralized portfolio may be a good option for you. 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  tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. Thomas Continuing on, I hit you with a big long question. At the end of that, here's 30s. Yes.Chuck Warren: Solve the war for us.Sam Stone: Go ahead. Right. But just continuing on in terms of, you know, without Western support, as you as you alluded to at the end in terms of military support, supplies, civilian and military, there's really no way for Ukraine to stay in this war. They definitely have, as you you mentioned, a significant will to war, which is obviously a big deal when you're being invaded. You have much higher will to war. That historically has been a big decider in these type of contests. But Russia is still a behemoth with manufacturing, with a huge population base and a manufacturing base that far exceeds anything Ukraine has. So continuing on with that, how does Ukraine get out of this eventually?Thomas Grove: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, it's a really important question. And I think one that, you know, everybody is probably thinking about right now. I mean, you have I mean, Russia's economy has basically switched to a war footing. And so, you know, you you had you had factories in Russia that were, um, you know, producing, say, a hundred train wagon cars a year and maybe two tanks. And now they're producing no wagon cars and nothing but tanks. So obviously, you know, there's a there's a great industrial capacity here. You know, all of Russia, just like much of the Soviet Union, had a kind of dual use capacity. Everything was there was a civilian capacity to most factories and there was a military capacity. And so you could kind of you could switch back and forth between them. Russia's obviously gone all in with the with the military capacity at this moment. So obviously that leads has left a lot of people wondering about what we do going forward. And so I think, you know, one of the things that's been talked about is a negotiated end to the fighting. And I think whenever we look at that, you know, on both sides, both sides see that as nothing but a pause in fighting. I mean, it's I think it's ultimately unacceptable for the Ukrainians to have Russians on their territory. And I think it will always be unacceptable for Putin and for Russia to have anything less than all of Ukraine. You know, unfortunately, I think a negotiated settlement will help stop things, maybe ease the burden for some time, unfortunately. I mean, I think I think unfortunately for Ukraine, I think a cease in fighting would probably favor Russia more, but it would just buy time for the next round of fighting, which, you know, could turn out very different differently from what we're seeing, you know, last year and this year.Chuck Warren: What a wonderful way to live, really in my eyes. Let's talk briefly here. You wrote about really interesting piece. I mean, you wrote about this in your article that Russia is constrained in the Black Sea due to the decision by Turkey last year to implement an international treaty that bans warring states from bringing additional warships through the Turkish straits, which is a strategic checkpoint, which means Russia can't bring ships that are based in the Pacific or elsewhere in. Right. And exactly. It's always amazing how Turkey pops up in all these conversations now, isn't it?Thomas Grove: Isn't it?Chuck Warren: I mean, it is. It's fascinating. It's fascinating.Sam Stone: They have always been really good at using their geographic centrality to European and Asian conflictChuck Warren: Everything you read about Middle East, the Ukraine war. Turkey is in there somewhere, right?Sam Stone: That's their location. Their literally central. Yeah.Chuck Warren: So. Yeah, exactly. So how has this hindered Russia?Thomas Grove: Well, I mean, so basically what you have to do, I mean, because because Ukraine has been so focused on the Black Sea fleet, I mean, obviously there's a lot of ships that are being that have been damaged right now. Well, you only have so many shops that can repair those various ships that have been hit, you know, And so if you're if you're backed up, if you're if you're if you're backed up, you know, you are it's like, you know, it's like playing a hockey game and you have three, three players out, right? So it's like, you know, quite honestly, if you can't bring more people in, more, more guy. Let me think back to the to the war. If you can't bring more ships in, you know, you're stuck with this huge disadvantage. I mean, you know, Russia has the ships that it needs to continue bombing Ukraine. I mean, let's not forget that. But in terms of what could do operationally in the Black Sea, it's been greatly hindered. And I think part of that speaks to why Russia has been not as effective as it would would like to have been in terms of stopping Ukrainian grain shipments, exports out of out of out of Ukraine and through the Black Sea.Sam Stone: Thomas This is a little bit of a tangent, but our navies around the world, looking at what's happened to Russia with this asymmetrical warfare and the the hits they've taken on so many of their warships from these drones and that sort of thing, are they looking at this and starting to reconsider how they're going to defend their own ships at sea?Thomas Grove: That's a fantastic question. I mean, I think I mean, I think the use of drones here has kind of revolutionized the way we think about a lot of things. And I think, you know, obviously, this isn't the only theater in which we've seen kind of naval drones pop up, but they've they've been pretty effective. And so I think people do have to account for that down the line. I have to admit, I'm an expert in naval power, but I would have to imagine that this is this is something that people who are much more intelligent than I am are thinking about a lot.Chuck Warren: So Russia pulled out of this grain treaty we had so we can ship Ukrainian grain throughout the world and alleviate poverty and food inflation and so forth. So my understanding from reading and I wish everybody here could just have a map of the Black Sea in front of them, which we're doing this on video. So basically the grain export now is they take they hug the coast of Ukraine, right? And then they go past Bulgaria and Romania, which are members of NATO. So Russia can't really do anything, right?Thomas Grove: Exactly. I mean, Russia has played it has played it a little bit dangerous and they've gone very close. Right. I mean, we have seen strikes on Ukrainian grain terminals that literally are miles away from Romanian territory, for example, right on the Danube River. So, I mean, they're they're not they've made some pretty risky moves. But so far we've seen, you know, whether or not it's because of NATO or whether it's, you know, for other reasons there. Yeah, we've seen them. We've seen them back up, but the ships have hugged the coast and that's exactly what they have to do.Sam Stone: Yeah. We have just about a minute left here. Thomas. How do people follow you and your work? Obviously, folks, you should be subscribing to the Wall Street Journal if you're not already. I think that's one of a handful of papers that if you want to be informed, you need to have in your inbox. But Thomas, how can folks follow your work specifically?Thomas Grove: I mean, you know, we still use is it Twitter that X.Sam Stone: I started calling it Twix.Thomas Grove: Twix. I think that looks pretty well. I'm You drove.Chuck Warren: TG Grove. Perfect. Perfect. Thanks. Thomas. Thanks a million. And stay safe out there. And we hope you'll join us again in the near future.Sam Stone: Yeah. Chuck, we're going to be coming back here in just a moment, folks. We're going to have a friend of the program, Dan McLaughlin. He is the baseball crank at baseball crank coming.Chuck Warren: On and National Review, the primary job, baseball, just a hobby. National Review.Sam Stone: Let's talk about the important stuff here, Chuck. We're going to have this guy on and.Chuck Warren: Thomas Grove is fantastic. Oh, he was phenomenal. We got to have him back on. And literally, people really should look at the Black Sea map today. You'll understand a lot more of what he's talking about in Turkey. We got to we got to get flake on. We got to get Ambassador Flake on talking about.Sam Stone: Turkey in just a moment. All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Moran and Sam Stone. Thank you to Thomas Grove of The Wall Street Journal. Fantastic information about Ukraine there. And up next, friend of the program. And it's the right time to have this gentleman on. Dan McLaughlin, senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at the National Review Institute. He's also on Twitter as at baseball crank, which gives you an idea of the most important topic we're going to discuss today. Chuck and Dan, who's winning this next round of playoff series and who's your World Series pick? Dan McLaughlin: I mean, you know, I think this is one of those years when your presumption has to be that the favorites are going to win, that we're going to end up with the the Braves and of all teams, the Orioles. You know, certainly you can't count out, you know, the real veteran teams like the Dodgers and the Astros, but the Dodgers in particular are just awfully banged up.Sam Stone: The Dodgers pitching is a is a nightmare right now. Like they have nobody. Dan McLaughlin: Yeah, No, they're they're a mess. They're a mess. Um, and you know, I mean, you just you don't want to get into October having felt like you've already burned most of the gas in your tank.Sam Stone: I see. Chuck I'm actually calling it for the Orioles. I think that's just the team that's just scrappy, fiery, tough right now.Chuck Warren: I wouldn't be surprised. I think it's going to be the Braves or Phillies that win it all. All right. So let's talk a little politics here. So last night and this morning, if you turn on any of the cable news or broadcast news, it's all about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. But, you know, we have Iranian spies infiltrating the White House. We got bond yields soaring, China's economic downturn. We've got Ukraine. People can't buy a home. It's 8% mortgage Now. I'm guessing by the end of the year it could be nine. But we just keep talking. Trump How do we get the press serious about serious things? Dan McLaughlin: Um, you know, I think that I think as long as Trump is there, they're not going to be and they're going to be caught by surprise by a bunch of things. I mean, the polling the polling at this point is just comical if you look at the general election matchups. Right? Because on the one hand, you look at like, you know, you look at these polls that are like, oh, you know, Trump versus Biden on the economy. It's like Trump plus 30, right? Trump versus Biden on national security, like Trump plus 25. What's the bottom line of this poll? Biden's ahead of Trump by two, you know, or you get on the other side, you get like voters, you get you know, you get an electorate where they're like. So 67% say that Trump should be in jail. So what if we ask these people who should win? Oh, it's like, you know, Biden 46, Trump 46. Right. So literally, people are just they're looking at the economy and everything that this White House is doing. They're looking at Joe Biden and saying anybody but him. And then they look over at Donald Trump and all the drama and just everything with Trump and they're like just anybody but him. And then you ask them to choose between the two and they're like, Oh, man.Chuck Warren: I literally saw this morning before we started the show a poll that was done of new registered voters the last six months in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada. And they have their Trump's winning by five with these new people who moved into the state and registered to vote. So Trump's winning by five in Georgia. He's losing by five of these people. And Arizona, he's basically even with them in Nevada. But what was interesting, the next question was, do you support a Republican majority or Democrat majority in Congress? It was like literally 15 to 20 point Republican majority in each of those three states. So people really.Sam Stone: Are Trump is an enormous drag and people.Chuck Warren: Really are making a decision. I think I mean, I think you're going to see so many split tickets this time unless something dramatically changes. I don't think we've seen it before. And it's going to make every political scientist lose his mind. Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. And I mean, it is entirely possible that that if it's Trump, Biden, you're going to get more money and energy than usual behind third party tickets. I mean, you could easily have three of those tickets, right? Because you got Cornel West, you got RFK Jr, you got the No Labels people who are talking about maybe running Larry Hogan or Joe Manchin. And, you know, it could end up looking like, uh, I mean, you know, I remember the what was it, the Texas governor's race, I think, in 2006 when Rick Perry was running for re-election. They had a four way race. They had Kinky Friedman in there. It was like this wild thing. But, you know, of course, our history with four way presidential races is not good, right? So those have typically ended in chaos or worse.Sam Stone: Yeah. I mean, one one thing, Chuck, is we're heading into this and everyone's pointing at RFK. He seems to be pulling more from Republicans and libertarian leaning folks than he does from Democrats.Chuck Warren: It seems like it.Sam Stone: Is that. Is that. Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. I mean his, his his he he really has succeeded in alienating, I think the Democratic base.Chuck Warren: 100%.Sam Stone: Well, and unless you tow the line 100%, you're going to alienate the Democrat base. I mean, Kirsten Sinema has voted literally like twice in her life outside of outside of the Democrat majority, and they ready to burn her at the stake for it. Folks, we're going to be coming back with more in just a moment from Dan McLaughlin, senior writer at National Review and National Review Institute. He's a fellow there, formerly an attorney practicing securities and commercial litigation in New York, a contributing editor at RedState, columnist at The Federalist and the new New Ledger. I can't speak today. And a baseball blogger at baseball Frankcom That's what we're saying is the important stuff and breaking battlegrounds. We'll be 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 Bad with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Folks, I can't say enough about investing with Y refi. This is a fantastic opportunity. You need to just go and check it out for yourself. Go to their website, invest Y Refy.com. That's invest the letter Y, then refy.com or give them a ring at 888. Y Refi 24. Learn how you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's not correlated to the stock market, where you'll know what each monthly statement is going to look like, but no surprises. Again, that's invest refi.com or give them a call at 888 refi 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: Dan, you recently came out with an article in the National Review entitled What's a Ban? What's Not a Ban? Talking about what progressives call everything a ban. Now, could you give us a little overview about it? And what, for example, on books, what do they consider a ban? And we'll go from there? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. I mean, one of the leading sources on book banning and there's all this alarm. Oh, book banning. There's all this book banning going on is a group called Pen America, which has at times in the past been a more reliable kind of just pro-free speech group. But they've clearly taken a very partisan tack on this one. And their definition of a book ban extends all the way to anything that is age restricted for very young children. That book has been banned even if they have a book that was already age restricted. And they say, well, you slightly changed what grade it was, you know, it was appropriate for. That's considered a ban, which is ridiculous, particularly when you consider that, you know, I mean, you've got a lot of the books that there are controversies about, you know, sexually explicit books or books that, you know, are otherwise just you would think that everyone acknowledges that these are books that are inappropriate for very young children, you know, and yet somehow this is getting turned into a ban. And my point is that that's, you know, this extremely vague and broad definition of ban not only misleads the reader of these reports when they give statistics, it's also inconsistent with how, you know, left wingers look at what is and isn't a ban in other contexts.Sam Stone: Dan They also want to pretend, I think I think I have two points here, but they also want to pretend that these books are the equivalent of, say, The Catcher in the Rye. But I've been actually getting a bunch of them because this is relevant to a lot of the campaigns here. Reading through them myself, these are not exactly profound literature for the most part that they're talking about. And quite frankly, I can't read any of them on the air here with you. I mean, right now with our adult audience, the Federal Communications Commission would throw this program off the air if I read these things. How has this discussion gotten so out of hand, that saying that that type of book can only be read by a ninth grader and up becomes a ban? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah, No, it's ridiculous. And it's yeah, I remember Ron DeSantis did a press conference on this where he was reading out some of the books that were in, you know, lower grade children's libraries. And literally all the TV stations were like, whoa, we got to cut out from this because we can't have him say this stuff on the air. Um, it's it's nuts, but it's, you know, part of it is I think that simply the hunger for partisan point scoring, but part of it is also that there is kind of a, you know, an ideological faction that genuinely wants to indoctrinate kids in a certain sexual ideology. And so, you know, they really, really don't like it when these books get taken out of circulation because they want to push this on kids.Chuck Warren: Which is just weird, right? I mean, let's just call it for what it is. That's weird. The sexualization they're trying to do with kids.Sam Stone: Sexualization of other people's children.Chuck Warren: Yeah, it's.Sam Stone: Really, really odd. Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. No, it is weird and creepy, and we shouldn't be afraid to call it weird and creepy.Chuck Warren: You know what we should do? Dan, we need to fly you out here to Arizona. Then the three of us on a show will start reading. We'll pick 50 of their top books that are banned and start reading, and we'll have an FCC former employee in here and some of the producers of the local TV stations and tell us what we could put on air and what we couldn't. That would be a real interesting show. That actually would be fun. Just tell us, would this pass could you put this on the 6:00 news? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. You know, do it, do it live. So the cops come up and raid you in the middle of it.Chuck Warren: I think we're going to look at doing that. We may get you out here to do that. That'd be fun for us. All right. So Hillary Clinton being the menace. She is came out and said there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the Trump cult members. Your thoughts? Dan McLaughlin: You know, look, I give Donald Trump credit for the one thing that he has genuinely done for the the quality of American politics was to finally put the Clintons out of business. So it is good it is a good thing that she's just giving these interviews instead of, you know, having being speaking from the Oval Office or anything. She's weird and creepy in her own way, in a sort of more menacing way. But it's also she's bitter, you know, She's just bitter. And look, you know, are there people who are Trump supporters who are, you know, absolutely could use to be to be unplugged a little bit from how they follow? Trump? Absolutely. But, you know, when you start talking about it in phrases like, oh, you know, we need formal deprogramming of these people, and you've been in the government for years, that's that takes on a much more menacing cast.Chuck Warren: Oh, very much so. Very, very much so. All right. Let's talk about Biden did a 180 on the border wall and it's been fascinating to listen and watch the various Democrats try to explain this. And first of all, what do you think would have happened if Trump said, I am waiving 26 laws to build the wall just unilaterally? What would been the press reaction? Dan McLaughlin: Oh, yeah, no, there would have been all sorts of stuff about tyranny. And there was I mean, at the time when Trump was trying to do various things to get, you know, a modest, fairly modest amount of the wall built. And Biden is is also building only a fairly small section of wall here. Let's not. Right. Let's not kid ourselves. It's not he's he's just doing what he thinks is the bare minimum.Chuck Warren: But even but even 100 yards is a wall. I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, he's doing everything he's complaining about all the time. Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if your position is well, you know, there are better ways to cover the border than a wall, and then you rethink that. Well, okay, that's a bit of a change of position. But people reassess the situation. But when you're like, oh, you know, the wall is like a violation of the poem on the Statue of Liberty. And this is like, you know, fascist, fascist knight falling over the country and everything. Maybe, maybe that's a little bit of a problem when you go turn around and have to do it yourself.Chuck Warren: Well, Dan McLaughlin, he's with The National Review. Dan, Speaker's race, what's going to happen? I mean, this has been sort of a complete cluster in a very untactful way of saying it. But what happens with the speaker's race? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah, I can think of a number of ways to describe what's going on, none of which one could say on air. I mean, now. Well, of course Trump had to had to wander his way into that first. He was of course, he was taking in the accolades of a few people who were like, Why don't we draft Trump for speaker? And then he threw his support behind Jim Jordan, who I think is not really well suited to the job and probably not a guy who's going to get the support of the caucus. I mean, we're in a weird position, right? Because if you held a vote just among the caucus, you'd get 210 votes for McCarthy because that's what you just got and eight votes against him. And so it's this it's this weird math where, you know, you can't get anybody elected unless you've got everybody on board. You know, I think Steve Scalise is the most naturally unifying figure there. Obviously, there are some concerns about his health. He's being treated for cancer. But, you know, he seems to feel that he's up to doing this. And, you know, but but now they're going to they're going to have a TV debate, which is just ridiculous. So this is just no way to you know, it's no way to run a circus.Chuck Warren: Well, I mean, how this never was going to end. Well, former Speaker McCarthy, I mean, when you go on, say, one person who has a bugaboo on his tail about it, it's never going to end well. Right? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. I mean, the problem from the start was, I mean, first of all, they have such a small majority that they need to get everybody to agree, which gives an enormous amount of power and leverage to anybody who wants to be disagreeable. And then one of the conditions he agreed to as a condition of being elected speaker was that anybody could bring a vote to the floor at any time to unelect him. And that just that just gave everybody a veto over him, and particularly the people most likely to use it.Sam Stone: You know, and I agree with everything, Chuck, you're getting at there. My one point with this is that the major condition McCarthy agreed to was doing the spending bills individually and in order. And then his leadership, they did not move those forward in a timely fashion.Chuck Warren: And he quickly blamed them for it, by the way.Sam Stone: Yeah, but but at the end of the day, we didn't hear anything about it. So if that's a failure of communication on McCarthy and the leadership's part, okay, but they need to rectify that. I mean, at some point the getting back to regular order was a very legitimate thing for that caucus to demand, and it would be hugely beneficial if they do. What kind of commitment are you going to get from the next speaker to follow through with that? I guess that that would be my question. Is it going to get better or is this just a totally pointless fight? Dan McLaughlin: Well, and the problem is, you know, I think McCarthy was making progress in that direction. I don't think he was meeting all of his deadlines. But, you know, again, you can't meet all your deadlines without the cooperation of a whole lot of people, some of whom threw sand in the gears because they wanted to stop this. I mean, you know, I think it's kind of telling that Chip Roy voted to keep McCarthy because Roy was really among the people who were holdouts in January. He was sort of the leader of the people who were very serious about imposing particular process. Right.Sam Stone: Gosar and Schweikert here in Arizona, same story.Chuck Warren: Yeah. Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. And Roy has been kind of vocal about, you know, obviously he has some things he thought McCarthy should be doing that he wasn't. But, you know, the fact that he voted to keep him suggests that that, you know, he thought that they could still make some progress on the budget.Chuck Warren: Presidential race. So Trump has this huge double digit lead. Okay. Who do you see possibly being the two other candidates right now that could have the possibility of something happens of becoming the nominee that that names, not Trump? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah, I mean, I think it seems now pretty clear that I mean, Ron DeSantis is obviously still in the number two slot he has held by any realistic measurement, the number two slot all along. Obviously, there's always the question of whether people are going to drop out if they, you know, somebody like DeSantis decides that he doesn't have the, you know, as many resources as he expected. But but, you know, he's got a lot of money. And I think right now, the person who has edged out everybody else for the number three slot is Nikki Haley. You know, I think she has really used the debates and used her focus on New Hampshire to effectively push Mike Pence, Tim Scott and Chris Christie off to the side. And they're the only other people running who are actually running to win in any sense. I mean, you know, Vivek Ramaswami is really there to to help Trump, to try to improve his brand, to maybe get in a spot in a Trump administration if he's not running to win.Chuck Warren: Right. Right.Sam Stone: With Haley in particular. And I think this truck is Chuck and Dan has plagued DeSantis also. We have just about two minutes before we come to the end of the program here. But has she done enough or have any of these people done enough to actually outline a positive future vision for America? It seems like it's kind of like set talking, stayed talking points and attacks on Trump and not much of a where's the Reagan, where's the hopeful positive future? Dan McLaughlin: Yeah. And I mean, granted, you know, Reagan Reagan established himself as a tough guy before he got around to reminding people that he was also, you know, a genial and optimistic character. I mean, one of the things DeSantis certainly has done and I think that he can do more effectively than Haley, is to just say, you know what, I'm going to govern the way I've governed in Florida. Look at my record, which is sometimes a good predictor, right? I mean, George W Bush, for example, on domestic policy, his agenda in Washington was pretty much exactly what he did in Texas. But I think, you know, I'm not I don't think that DeSantis or Haley has really been ambitious enough in really laying out a full view of what their presidential agenda would be. But frankly, I think, you know, I think the voters I think the voters are at the point where they deserve to have a smaller debate stage where they. Can push the major candidates on that and they deserve to hear from Trump.Sam Stone: Yeah, I thought it made a lot of sense for Trump to skip the first debate, but I was bitterly disappointed in him skipping.Chuck Warren: He's not he's not joining he's not joining any of these debates ever. Dan, thanks a million for joining us again. Dan McLaughlin, senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute. You can visit him on Twitter at baseball crank and follow his writings. He does great stuff and really suggests you take a look at the piece on book banning and just the word banning being used by progressives and conservatives and so forth. Yeah, and.Sam Stone: Make sure you stay tuned, folks. We have a podcast segment coming up, if you like our podcast, if you like our show, make sure you're downloading that podcast. It's available wherever podcasts are available. You can also find us at Breaking Battlegrounds. Vote and stay tuned because we've got Kiley's corner coming up. The irrepressible Kiley Kipper, she found good news.Kiley Kipper: I did. I did.Chuck Warren: Dan, thanks a million. Have a great weekend.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. We're going to lead off with Kiley's Corner here in just a moment. And then, Chuck, I want to get to something that's happening here in Arizona. You sent me the article. I'd actually already read it this morning. Arizonans are soon going to be drinking their own pee.Chuck Warren: Yep, that's true. Yeah. Kiley, pick up your newspaper and read it every morning. You'll learn things.Kiley Kipper: This was not part of Kiley's corner.Chuck Warren: No, drinking your urine is not part of Kiley's corner.Kiley Kipper: But continue. Okay. Well, the first story I want to start with is I was in Seattle this weekend, and last week I had downloaded an app called the Citizens App, which I've had like a couple of years before, but I don't think it was like as developed as this is now. But you can pretty much see like all the crime that's going on around you and all the registered sex offenders and everything like that. So naturally, first of.Chuck Warren: All, why did you download it?Kiley Kipper: Because someone was telling me how you could see the the sex offenders that are around you because my mom just got a notice in the mail that a sex offender moved into the neighborhood. So I wanted in Arizona or Washington in Arizona. So I wanted to see if there was any that lived in my neighborhood. So was there. Yeah, there's one there's one from a crime in 1990. Um, so I, you know, got to keep my head on a swivel. So naturally, I open it up.Sam Stone: You know what? Look, honestly, if you committed a crime in 1990 and you've done nothing since, you're.Chuck Warren: Probably okay.Kiley Kipper: Well, that's a sexual crime. I don't know about the other crimes.Chuck Warren: That's true. That's true. Right. Don't generalize. All right. Go ahead Kiley.Kiley Kipper:  And it was on children, which.Sam Stone: Yeah, okay. Not.Kiley Kipper: No, but good.Sam Stone: I'm all for just castration, and then we can solve this problem.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. So I open up my app when I'm in Seattle, and I just want to read what was all within less than a mile from me that was occurring.Chuck Warren: And this was at a hotel, right? Yes.Kiley Kipper: So I was at a coffee shop technically, but it was like right downtown.Chuck Warren: But downtown Seattle. Yeah. Okay.Kiley Kipper: Right next to the baseball and football stadium. It says Person fighting security guard at Central Library Report of woman wielding a knife. Body found report of a man armed with a knife steals items from a shop and shoplifting suspect threatened to kill employees at the drugstore.Chuck Warren: You feel like the body found would get a little more detail?Kiley Kipper: Yeah. No, it just says police are responding to a report of a body found.Sam Stone: You know what, though? That's so in the age of fentanyl. Oh, yeah. The police reporting and responding to bodies found. I can tell you from talking to my cop friends here in Phoenix, it's every day.Chuck Warren: It's just a body from a drug or from a drug overdose.Sam Stone: Yeah, there's a body every day somewhere. Basically.Chuck Warren: You have to put that screenshot on.Kiley Kipper: Yeah, I will. But I just thought that was I was just I mean.Sam Stone: One of the things so, so one of the things I actually, I was reading another piece about Seattle and they were talking about the significant rise in ODS and they're going to start having like everybody in the city, they want to start carrying Narcan basically, right?Kiley Kipper: Oh, yeah. Yeah.Sam Stone: And here's the thing. This did not this was not the case five years ago. These new drugs are totally different and they're trying to use these death tolls, whether it's here in Arizona for the heat issues, whether it's in Seattle. They're trying to get in any little litany of liberal policies out of this. But at the end of the day, I got to tell you, Chuck, I have a lot less sympathy for this issue than I used to in that there's resources, there's help available, there's ways to get off the street and get. I don't want it. No, they're not. They're choosing this lifestyle and this lifestyle ends in death because.Chuck Warren: And they don't want to change because they don't want to know. I mean, I mean, you know, some that is going to sound harsh to the audience, but there are people who literally just say, I don't want to.Sam Stone: All the time.Chuck Warren: Yeah. And and what do you do to force somebody saying, but we don't want you to die. Right. Right. We like you around.Sam Stone: Well, this is where and so interestingly for all the bagging on Trump, one of the things I appreciated when he was president was a lot of his policies actually worked. They were kind of common sense. A lot of them work. If you go and look at his current platform, one of his things on on this drug addiction is, look, we need ways to put people in treatment against their will. That is common sense. The left will lose their mind over the idea they have when we put it in Kari Lake's platform here, they have another. But at the end of the day, that's the only solution here to this problem other than just letting them die.Chuck Warren: Yeah, correct.Kiley Kipper: But a great lead way is we were asking about the sex offender that's in my neighborhood is the it was a child crime. So if you guys follow us on Facebook and Instagram or Twitter, you should if you don't. But I posted a poll this week because.Chuck Warren: I then I talked one morning. We want to see if people supported capital punishment for kidnapping a child that they don't know. It's not even a relative.Kiley Kipper: But I said so the question was, do you think kidnapping, abuse, touching a child in any inappropriate way? And I posted this on social media, Twitter. I got. 89% say, yes, they support the death penalty. 5.6 say no and 4.9 said undecided. And then on Facebook, 97% said yes and 3% said no. And as I was reading, because for the no, there was an option to say why. And on Twitter I got no depends or like I didn't get great explanations. But on Facebook they still lean in like no, he should suffer an entire life sentence. Why take him out of his misery or yes, life without parole? Most people, you know, stuff like that. Why are we taking him out of his misery? Make him stay there. So those were the knows where Twitter was. I had some people try to explain it to me. I said, okay, explain it. They want it. But I thought those numbers were.Chuck Warren: How many people replied to the poll?Kiley Kipper: A total of 490 between Facebook and Twitter.Chuck Warren: It's funny about explaining things on Twitter. I got Sam involved in a little discussion this week because, as you know, my big thing right now is this national debt. I think everything that is that is the hub. Everything else is spoke to the wheel, right?Sam Stone: Like, for instance, we were talking about Ukraine in the first segment with Thomas Grove and continuing to fund their operations. Right. Right. That's tied up in our debt discussion right now. That's tied up. If we did not have the national debt crisis, we have funding, Ukraine would be a nothingburger.Chuck Warren: So so Sam and I sometimes I respond to people and I especially do they have a Ukraine flag on it. Now, folks know I'm a conservative who does not think Russia should be in Ukraine. So I'm not going to back away from this belief. But we talk I put a comment on somebody saying we need to focus on the debt. Right. The national debt. And so this person goes and starts. He says we need to raise taxes on the rich and raise taxes, period, primarily on the rich, but we want to raise taxes.Sam Stone: He was very specific on the rich. He did not want middle classes because we.Chuck Warren: So then so I asked the follow up question, what would you cut? And they were they were just so minor and so dumb that immediately understood as all these people who I engaged with don't understand the crisis at all. Right. So, of course, Sam jumped on Shea, jumped on the guy.Sam Stone: So he ran into a more intellectual set of Republicans than he was planning.Chuck Warren: But my favorite thing of it was he was going to cut defense as he has a Ukrainian flag and his profile. And does he not understand where that money's coming from?Kiley Kipper: Wanted to cut it in half.Chuck Warren: So it's like these.Kiley Kipper: More than half. Yeah.Chuck Warren: It's like. So I like to ask these questions to see where people are and the lack of knowledge on the most basic fundamental issues facing our country is horrifying.Sam Stone: Oh, it's amazing to you know, he actually brought up something new or that I haven't seen in a while, which was Right. We need to get rid of sugar subsidies. Well, there's no such thing. We have price supports. Right. So so we set minimum prices and then we tax sugar coming into the US.Chuck Warren: And the sugar subsidies are a big deal for liberals because it goes to climate change, right? So what they want to do is get rid of the sugar down in Florida. So when you talk to the people opposed to sugar harvesting down in Florida, where do we get sugar? We'll go from Mexico. Well, don't they have the same problems? Well, yeah, but it's a Mexico. They literally don't care.Sam Stone: No, this is this is a trope. And then he pointed out oil, which, by the way, folks, oil is not subsidized by the federal government. No.Chuck Warren: He just wasn't bright.Sam Stone:  No. You know, but but this is a bigger point when it comes to oil, like liberals all the time use. Oh, there's $30 Billion in oil subsidies. You know what subsidies they're pointing to? They're pointing to the same business tax deduction as everybody else. So, like, if I spend $1 million in improving my business and buying equipment, it's a write off. What's a write off for the oil company, too? But there's no difference. But somehow they think this is like handing away the cookie jar and then they think they can tax the rich. The taxing the rich is literally a swimming pool and they're demanding an ocean.Chuck Warren: Yeah, 100%.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. He was a no on my poll as well, he commented. He doesn't follow us, but he's sure.Chuck Warren: We've engaged him. He's a follower. I hope he's downloaded. Yeah.Sam Stone: He's got us listed somewhere.Kiley Kipper: He does. Okay. But I want to talk about this Tupac stuff. Okay. Arrest because he's been.Chuck Warren: Dead since the 90s, correct?Kiley Kipper: 1996, Maybe I yeah, maybe I was two years old, so I never like super got into the Tupac like conspiracies, which surprises me. Oh, no, I was.Sam Stone: I was. I was exactly.Chuck Warren: That. It is a true it's a conspiracy like Elvis being alive and living in Mexico.Kiley Kipper: Yeah, it is. Yes. Yes. But they made an arrest last Friday. And as they described it in a long awaited breakthrough in one of the hip hop's most enduring mysteries. So they arrest Keef D and he was a gang leader, but they don't believe he was the actual one that made the shot. Oh, they describe him as he was the ringleader. So he ordered the shot and provided the gun.Chuck Warren: He did the planning.Kiley Kipper: Yes. Which. So I'm going to go back to the long awaited arrest breakthrough in 1998. So a year later, two years later, he doesn't interview, telling a cable channel that he was in the front seat driving the car and he slid the gun into the back seat, of which that's where the shots were fired that killed Tupac. So he didn't Tupac didn't die immediately. He died a week later in the hospital. But. Then he goes on and he releases a memoir a couple of years ago, 2019, a tell all memoir, where he, again admits to these interviews, says he was the one that provided the gun. It was a drive by shooting and basically talks about what happens. So if he hadn't made so he's been talking about it publicly for a while now. So to me, I'm like, where is this mystery up? Because the dude's been talking about it.Sam Stone: But investigators apparently were sitting on it, right? Like letting him incriminate himself further.Kiley Kipper: Yes. So they basically said Davis's own public comments revived the investigation and he and it proved that it was premeditated. So that's what they were trying to prove. That was premeditated, that it was planned. Yeah, because prior to Tupac being shot, he had beat up Davis's nephew.Chuck Warren: But he was shot in a car right.Sam Stone:  No, he was leaving a casino. So he was.Kiley Kipper: Shot in a carjacking?Chuck Warren: No, no. He was shot in a.Sam Stone: Car outside the vehicle when he was shot? No, he was in it. No, no, no. I remember that from the time the photos and all that kind of thing. He was outside.Kiley Kipper: So how everyone's describing it right now, he was shot in a car. Is he was in a black BMW being driven by his record producer. And he was also hit with one of the shots but didn't die. And now he's serving 50 years in jail. This is all gang, by the way, like two gangs, Right?Sam Stone: Right, right. This is a Bloods and Crips rivalry that goes back.Kiley Kipper: So then they say that the white Cadillac, which had four people in it, Davis being the driver or at least described as in the front seat, he and the two people in the back seat shot Tupac in a BMW, a black BMW. That's all I keep finding. So but he's claiming now that he made a deal with La PD that he could make these comments publicly, which is why he's been so public about it and that they couldn't incriminate him because they wanted more information on it.Chuck Warren: I think there was a movie on it this past year.Kiley Kipper: It was 2019.Sam Stone: It was, yeah, a major motion picture.Kiley Kipper: Oh, yeah, yeah.Chuck Warren: No, I mean, it wasn't even an independent.Sam Stone: Documentary type thing. Like.Chuck Warren: Like real actors, you know? Yeah. Sorry for all you struggling actors out there, but people who make a living acting. But yeah.Sam Stone: So that's really it's kind of one of the really interesting thing, not about the origins of rap, which were not really truly gangster. Yeah. But in the 90s there was this breed of actual gangster under Suge Knight and all those folks that really invaded the industry. And that's where this all came with.Kiley Kipper: Because as I'm reading this, they all have the nicknames, the rap names that I, I've never even heard of them before. But when you.Chuck Warren: Get your rap name.Kiley Kipper: K Swizzle.Chuck Warren: Put up on, let's put up on our social media. The survey Is Tupac still alive? And if so, where is he living? All right, all right, all right.Kiley Kipper: So maybe so. Okay, I guess. You saying you remember that he was walking out and it was outside and then now all these reports of them saying he was in a car?Chuck Warren: I've always I've always heard I've always read and heard he was in a car. I mean, I wasn't there. So I don't know.Sam Stone: He was he was going into his car. So the car was pulled out. They watched him walk out and and shot.Kiley Kipper: Him because this was right after he had just beat.Chuck Warren: Up working. He had Sam assignment for next week for you to find the actual documentation. Was he walking in or out of a car? Was he shot in a car? Was driving? Because I think everybody who somewhat knows about this believes he was shot in a car drive by a show. So I'll find out.Sam Stone: But one of the interesting things so I didn't know that he hung on for a week because they announced if I remember, they announced at that time that he had died on the scene. Now, that might have been to protect him, right. Thinking that, you know, a follow up hit would come through so he.Kiley Kipper: Could get away and go live in.Sam Stone: So he could get away and go live in Antigua.Chuck Warren: Yeah, exactly. So.Sam Stone: And drop 75 new albums. Yeah.Chuck Warren: This is fantastic. I want to talk to you about this one last subject. So you probably get it too. I'm pretty stringent when people try to follow me on Twitter. Like you get a lot of these bots. So for example, if you have below 50 followers, I just I block you. I don't want you on. I don't care if you're on my side or not, but I had this person try to jump on Mary DeMaria. She had 2700 following 44 followers. So I go and quickly look at who they are. And I don't mind Democrats. I just don't want insane people. Her first post that I pull up anthropological literature frequently refers to third gender Native Americans.Sam Stone: But blocked.Chuck Warren: Marianne's blocked. Right. I'm just done with her. Really. But that brings me to a case here. The Free Press had a little snippet here that Larry Sanger, the creator of Wikipedia, went on Unheard podcast to slam the website he made. Sanger talked about how Wikipedia had been taken over by a small group of ideological aligned editors who assert their worldview over each entry. Quote, Eastern medicine is basically called quackery in dismissive, quite judgmental language and so forth is done, apparently without any compunctions at all. Then when it comes to Christianity, the viewpoint on Christianity given is the liberal one that would be found in mainline denominations and liberal Catholicism as opposed to the actual by Bible believing fundamentalism. And he goes on and on on. He's right. So, you know, we've talked about Sam's heard me. There's three pillars conservatives have just blown it on public schools, which you can easily take over by winning school boards. That's a that's a two for 2 to 3 cycle.Sam Stone: Thing that and governors.Chuck Warren: Right. But but.Sam Stone: But.Chuck Warren: But still but still school board school boards are a big deal. I mean, especially like state like Arizona and so forth. You should have the school boards, Right.Sam Stone: The one difference, though, is the governor can affect the schools of education in the university. Very true.Chuck Warren: Very true. So that brings me up. The second one is universities. We have just simply what you have is a lot of conservative donors, small business guys who love it. For example, ASU has got a lot of people who went there who have made money there, moderate to conservative. And I've seen it because I give a lot of money. I sit on these committees and they just go and they give money and say, Well, I'm gonna put my secretary on there or something. And they're not representing their values and donors have got to get more, you know, that would be a harder change. But you can start dictating what your money is doing. Well, liberal donors do.Sam Stone: Right? They are very, very specific.Chuck Warren: No, they go through it. They make it their own. And the third one is the third one is journalism. So, you know, they've gone and have a whole industry of putting these young progressives on papers. And what has to happen is conservatives need to do this. But it's not it's not that they just go to like The Daily Caller, National Review. They have to go work at The Arizona Republic, the Provo Daily Herald, The Colorado Springs Gazette, because that's where your news comes from a lot of times and people don't get that. And then the fourth thing is this social media online trolling thing like I'm ever going to accept. I mean, once you start telling me anthropological literature talks about, you know, the. Have a third gender. You're smoking crack. Yeah.Sam Stone: Yeah. No, you are in the service.Chuck Warren: Can really get involved. I mean, I think you can make the quickest change in public schools. And more than people realize. Sam's right about the universities, but the school boards do a lot.Sam Stone: Yeah, school boards do the two things. I mean, look, school boards can do a lot, but you're you're drinking from a poisoned well on two fronts because the teachers are getting from the various education schools are being trained for to be highly liberal. But also the textbooks. Yeah, that's a big textbooks are a big problem. There's basically only three textbook companies that provide the textbooks, and the left made a concerted effort to take them over for their ideology. They've been they've.Chuck Warren: Been smart about it. They've been smart about it.Kiley Kipper: I have one more story.Chuck Warren: Oh, okay.Kiley Kipper: A feel good story. So I can end on a happy note.Chuck Warren: Going to end on a happy note here.Kiley Kipper: Who knew? After listening to last week's episode in the week before, I was like, Man, I'm a Debbie Downer sometimes. So my feel good story. After reading this story, I was like, okay, now I have a new item on my bucket list, so I thought I'd share it with you guys. It's um, so every August and September it's called Puffling season in Iceland. Puffling season Puffling. Yeah, Puffin. So if you don't know. Heard of this? If you don't know what a puffin is, it kind of looks like a penguin. Okay? But basically they hatch on top of a hill and how they get how they live their life is once they hatch, they go into the out to sea and then they live there for like 2 to 3 years. And then they come back and they then they're safe for babies.Sam Stone: Because they're flightless.Kiley Kipper: But because they're flightless. Yes. Yeah. But because the lights in Iceland started confusing them because they would find the ocean by the moonlight. But all the lights from the city are confusing to them. So they'll fly into the city on accident instead of flying out to sea. So they have puffling control patrol where they run around like little families run around. And when you're on puffling patrol, you run around in any puffling you find you take them to a vet to make sure that they can survive before you just throw them off a cliff. But then you take them to the top of a cliff and you throw them off the cliff and then they fly into the sea and you basically save their life.Chuck Warren: Why aren't we doing this?Kiley Kipper: I know.Chuck Warren: I mean, Kiley and I want a baby elephant. Are we going to get a puffling now, too?Kiley Kipper: Yeah.Sam Stone: I saw I saw a network piece on this that was so fantastic. So they're interviewing and it's like it's almost all women that are rounding up the pufflings and tossing them.Chuck Warren: Then count me in there.Sam Stone: And so, yeah, so here's the great part, though. They interview some guy who does it, you know, they see him doing it and they're like, Hey, you're one of the few guys. And he was like, I'm single. Why do you think I'm here?Kiley Kipper: But it's so important. The guy.Chuck Warren: That takes a dog to the park, it's so.Kiley Kipper: Important because they only mate with one puffin the entire their entire life. They're monogamous and they only lay one egg a year. So, like, if they die or if they don't make it out to sea and come back, then they are they could go in danger.Sam Stone: A huge percentage get eaten out at sea anyway. I mean, really.Chuck Warren: Find some clips on that on YouTube and let's post on our social media so we know a puffin is.Kiley Kipper: Yeah they're so cute. Westman Islands is the the most populated one so that's I think where I have to go.Chuck Warren: Who is, who is the natural critter critter that tries to harm them and eat them.Sam Stone: Everything.Kiley Kipper: Probably like meat. Yeah. Anything out in the water.Chuck Warren: That's a tough they're.Kiley Kipper: Not great at.Sam Stone: Raptors, you know what I mean?Chuck Warren: Like that's a tough lie.Kiley Kipper: They're like basically penguins, so they're not great at flying. Like they got a short, but like, you can just throw them like a football.Chuck Warren: They said, Are they as cute as penguins?Kiley Kipper: Oh, yeah. They're might they might be cuter. They have like these big old colorful beaks.Chuck Warren: Why aren't we talking about puffins more?Kiley Kipper: I know what's.Chuck Warren: Going on here. Well, this is a wonderful Kiley Kipper Kiley's corner today to end it on. I appreciate it.Kiley Kipper: You have a big smile on your face. Well, I do now.Chuck Warren: I know there's a puffling out there. Anyway, folks, thank you. We hope you'll go and share the podcast with your friends and family and co-workers. Our episode today is fantastic, especially if you want to learn about Ukraine. I thought the information there was fantastic. This is breaking battlegrounds. You can also find us at breaking battlegrounds dot vote or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great week. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Congressman Ralph Norman discusses the impact of housing interest rates, inflation, and the looming government shutdown. Political reporter Jon Levine shares his experiences dressing as Senator Fetterman and delves into the complex world of Hunter Biden and the Biden Administration. The show also explores intriguing cases in Kiley's Corner and discusses the unaffordability of homeownership and the importance of accurate statistics.

Welcome to this week's episode of Breaking Battlegrounds! First on the show is Congressman Alex Mooney, Representative from West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District. He'll be diving into pressing topics such as federal spending, the looming specter of a government shutdown, and the pivotal Senate race in West Virginia. Stay tuned as we unravel why this race carries not just statewide significance but also national importance. In our second segment, we welcome back friend of the show, Alexander Raikin. With a focus on medical ethics and a keen eye for statistics, Alexander delves into his latest research, featured in the National Review, titled 'The End of Medicine: How death care replaced health care.' He exposes the proliferation of euthanasia within healthcare facilities in Australia and Canada with reports of silencing whistleblowers, inappropriate discussions about sedating a patient into euthanasia, and the expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) to vulnerable populations, including the homeless and children, particularly Indigenous children. Our final guest of the show is Ken LaCorte where he joins to discuss Lachlan Murdoch, soon to be the new chairman of Fox News. Stay tuned for Kiley’s Corner, where Kiley Kipper serves up the week's most intriguing stories. In this episode, Kiley delves into the recent controversy surrounding Dave Portnoy, the President of Barstool Sports, who exposed a Washington Post food critic's eyebrow-raising practices. Uncovering the critic's efforts to engage sponsors by making claims of misogyny and racism, Kiley discusses the implications for journalistic integrity and ethics. She also dives into the gripping Karen Read murder case, where Read faces charges of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend, all while asserting her innocence amidst allegations of framing. -ABOUT OUR GUESTSCongressman Alex X. Mooney and his wife, Dr. Grace Mooney, live in Charles Town in Jefferson County with their three children. The son of a Cuban refugee and Vietnam veteran, Alex grew up with a deep sense of appreciation for the American ideals of individual freedom and personal responsibility.Alex’s mother, Lala (Suarez) Mooney, was born and raised in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, where she was thrown into jail for seven weeks for opposing Castro’s communist regime. When she was 20, Lala escaped Cuba and fled to America to restart her life.Alex’s father, Vincent, was sent to Vietnam when Lala was expecting their first child. He served as an Engineering Captain and was awarded the Bronze Star.Listening to his parents’ inspiring stories, Alex knew from a young age that he wanted to spend his life fighting for the American ideals set forth by our Founding Fathers.Alex played football and rugby at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1993 with a major in Philosophy.Alex was first elected to Congress in 2014 and re-elected in 2016 and 2018. He is a principled conservative fighting for lower taxes and less government regulations on businesses to create more jobs in America.Alex believes in the American values of hard work, faith, and freedom that have made our country great. With a proven record of fighting for conservative values, Alex is working to defend traditional values, protect the Second Amendment and promote respect for all human life.Congressman Mooney serves on the House Financial Services Committee which oversees some of the most important economic issues facing West Virginia, such as our banking, insurance, housing and investment policies.-Alexander Raikin is a freelance journalist and a writer interested in medical ethics and bad statistics. His writings have been published in City Journal and The New Atlantis. Alexander is also a research fellow with Do No Harm. He can be found on Twitter at @AlexanderRaikin -Ken LaCorte is Host of Elephants In Rooms and Former Fox News behind-the-scenes. He writes on Substack about censorship, media manipulation, and honest insight for people curious about how the world works.-TRANSCRIPTIONSam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. As always, we have a couple of great interviews lined up for you today. We are leading off the program with Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia's second Congressional District. Congressman Mooney and his wife, Dr. Grace Mooney, live in Charles Town in Jefferson County with their three children. He is the son of a Cuban refugee and a Vietnam veteran and grew up with a deep sense of appreciation for American ideals of individual freedom and personal responsibility. And right now, Chuck, he is getting out on the campaign trail, looking at the Senate seat in West Virginia and taking on Joe Manchin.Chuck Warren: It's unbelievable. Congressman, thank you for joining us on the show.Ken Lacourt: Hey, man, great to be with you guys.Chuck Warren: So you're running for us Senate. You've been out on the campaign trail. What are what are voters most interested in versus what the media wants us to think they're interested in?Ken Lacourt: Well, the voters are most interested in keeping their freedoms, not being controlled by their government, being censored or frankly, being even jailed by their government just for being patriotic Americans. That's what I'm hearing. And they want people who do what they say they would do. My good friend, Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, who, by the way, has endorsed me for my Senate race, he wrote a whole book. It just said, Do what you say you would do. Said you would do just the whole book. Just do it. And people get really upset because they elect oftentimes conservatives and conservatives don't don't follow through. Repeal Obamacare, for example, cut taxes and rein in this two tier system of justice that we're seeing these days. So that's what I'm hearing. They want a fighter and that's what I'm going to give them.Sam Stone: Congressman, I love that you made that point because one of the things I've been saying for a while now is Democrats run center and then govern left, Republicans run right and have not made not fulfilled those commitments. A lot of them have moved to govern center. And I think that's created a lot of the distrust and division within the party right now. Is that specific dynamic?Ken Lacourt: Yeah, I mean, it's a willingness to fight. It has created that. There are some Republicans you just give up. They get down there. The Democrats fight real hard. I mean, the Senate will filibuster and shut down government, then try to blame Republicans for what the Democrats are doing. And it is a fight. I mean, we have to go on shows like this and other shows and explain to the American people the truth. They're not. The American people will get it, but they have to be told the truth. And frankly, too much of the mainstream media that report on this stuff obsessively do not report the actual facts of what's happening. They're almost like mouthpieces for the far left. And so you've got to you got to work a little extra hard for us conservatives to tell our constituents what's actually happening. So it's a it's a worthy fight. As you mentioned, my mother fled a communist country. And those countries, they declare people guilty until proven innocent. And the government censors what can be said. And we're fighting for that here. And you mentioned, you know, I'm running for Joe Manchin seat. Senator Joe Manchin voted to impeach Donald Trump twice, throw him out of office for nothing for a phone call to the Ukraine to make sure our money is being spent correctly. So, frankly, he's part of the problem.Chuck Warren: With Congressman Alex Mooney. He is serving West Virginia's second District. For those of you in West Virginia, you can catch him on the station, 1170 a m in Wheeling, West Virginia. Congressman, so as you've gone around, you've done these meetings and we want to go here to the possible shutdown in a minute. But as you go around and you meet with donors in West Virginia versus town halls in West Virginia, is there any difference of what the priorities are, what they supposedly think of the donor class in West Virginia versus your small business, your people going to town halls? Is there any difference? They both see the same problems.Ken Lacourt: Oh, honestly, I'm hearing the same problems now. Most of the donors I'm talking to are conservatives. They wouldn't be donating to me to begin with. Right. And when I when I tour businesses, a lot of the businesses are related to oil and gas. Coal here and small business people are the backbone of our economy and they're struggling under the weight of high taxation lawsuits. And frankly, the most harmful is just these regulations, these well, well written in the cleverly written, I should say, regulations that just make it hard to make money and the wokeness into the banking system where they want to bank gun stores or coal companies. I mean, the left is really obsessed with pushing these things. And I don't think a lot of Republicans understand that, that we really have to fight back. They're not going to go away easy.Chuck Warren: No, they're not. And yeah, as a matter of fact, the you're on the financial committee. What they're doing on the banking system is just it's like a dictator. It's unbelievable what they're doing to the financial institutions of this country.Ken Lacourt: Yeah. I mean, they shouldn't even have a right to ask. They're just asking how much of your money goes to green new energy? How much of your money goes to coal? Do you bank guns? And it's freaking everybody out. Like, why are they even asking the question? There is no government mandate as to how much money private investors can give the energy sector for coal, oil and gas. There's no there's no requirement that they only invest a certain amount or have to give to green energy. That's not a mandate that they're trying to push it and they're abusing their powers. President Biden tried to tried to forgive everybody's entire college loan debt in the whole country, trillion dollars.Sam Stone: Well, in the downtown.Ken Lacourt: You can do whatever he wants.Sam Stone: The downstream of that is d. Banking of unfavored individuals, businesses and institutions.Ken Lacourt: Exactly. You know, you know, these policies have the opposite effect. They actually make it harder for someone who needs a loan for a home or a small business to get one because the regulations take away the money.Chuck Warren: Congressman Mooney, we're looking at a possible government shutdown. Would you first explain before we get into the weeds on what's going on in DC? I understand Speaker McCarthy has sent everybody home for the weekend to take a deep breath and they told to be on alert, to be called back. And I want to talk about that. But what I want to ask is if the government shuts down, what does this mean for the taxpayers of West Virginia? The small business owner, for the taxpayers of this country? Is America falling apart? Then? Do dogs and cats start raining or is it just overblown by the press?Ken Lacourt: Well, first and foremost, most of the money coming out of DC is mandatory. So programs, Social Security that is not affected by a government shutdown, that's an automatic program. The checks go out every month. So any scare tactics you might hear about people not getting their Social Security benefits is just not true. Social Security checks go out and Medicare and Medicaid are still programs that continue to exist because they're they're not something we vote on in the regular budgets. Then I mean, the way it's supposed to, the way we do it is we would fund one agency at a time. Don't mix them all together. Do you deal with one topic at a time? Single subject is a way to say it, and most of the funding is frankly the military to fund our troops, their pays and their activities. That's the big one. That's the one we're working on this week and we've not gotten it through yet. I did vote for that one, of course, and we're just a couple of votes away from passing that. But that's the biggest one. That's most of the spending. Then it goes to transportation and health care. And at some point you'll get to, like the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, which frankly, if that shut down, it wouldn't be the worst thing.Sam Stone: I one of the things that I think the media, certainly The New York Times, Washington Post style media would like to forget is that a lot of the speaker's battle, the leadership battle, centered on return to regular order and handling these bills individually rather than as omnibus or continuing resolutions. And even the Democrats at that time were saying, well, that sounds like a good idea. Why? Why are we so behind, it seems, in this process?Ken Lacourt: Gosh, I mean, there's no excuse for it. We've had eight months to pass these bills. We have a very slim majority. There's 222 Republicans. So if five Republicans don't want to vote for the bill, you have a problem. And those could be people who have certain specific concerns or cuts. Too much doesn't cut enough. We have a very slim majority. We've known that all along. We saw the speaker's battle. It took a really long time to put Kevin McCarthy in there as speaker. And I think that sort of showed our Republican majority are slim Republican majority, how we could get things done, how we need to actually just have a conservative product is what it is. If it's a good conservative product, I think it would pass. And we only 1 or 2 votes short at this point for passing it. So I guess we could have stayed. I would I would have been for staying in continuing to vote if we work it out. But we have this deadline and we've had eight months to get there. We've known it's there. I've seen this over and over again. This is my ninth year in Congress. And this is this happens like every year. You wait till the last second. And it's a bad tendency. We need to get back to what you just said, regular order. We're supposed to have this all done by June and over to the Senate and you negotiate it. I'll tell you, the Senate is Democrat and the things that we want to do in our bills like ban transgender surgeries in the military, ban taxpayer funding of abortion, the things that we want to do. The Senate doesn't want to do that. So there's going to be some differences there.Sam Stone: Yeah, there's a reality that Republicans need to win these seats to have our way. Otherwise, you are in a position, you're required to compromise and come up with something that everyone can agree on.Ken Lacourt: Right? Right. But what I've seen is if you go to this continuing resolution idea where you just you put all the money in there and you try to add a couple a couple of things. I think one of the proposals said border security. I'm all for border security, but that doesn't stop the wokeness in the banks. It doesn't stop the transgender surgeries. It doesn't stop the war on coal and the war on oil and gas in my state. So we really just do it all. We should do it. All of it. At least pass it in the House, see what the Senate will do. I mean, the Senate, these things require 60 votes in the Senate because either party can filibuster, can can require a cloture motion and require a filibuster. So you have the Senate. It has to be more bipartisan. And that's tough. That's really tough for the Senate. I mean, it's tough on us for us. And we have a majority here. We don't have the filibuster. We can just pass it with a majority vote. They require a supermajority of 60 votes. So it actually is you know, what normally happens, sadly, is 10 or 12 Republicans vote with all the Democrats for a more liberal product for more spending. But then we should still go that go to conference committee. They need to teach us in fifth grade. Then you go to conference committee and you reconcile the differences there. And yeah, there's some give and take, but it's all too all too often we just give up on the whole thing. We pass what's called this continuing resolution so there's no checks and balances on the money. The two tiered justice system continues. No border. I mean, we just give up. Basically, we're giving up. And that really upsets the voters. That's your first question. Yeah. The voters want to see us actually do something.Chuck Warren: We're with Congressman Mooney from West Virginia. Congressman, we got a couple of minutes left here to our next segment. And when you come back on that next segment, we want to talk about your mother's story about Fidel Castro, Cuba, and how she was thrown in prison. I think voters would like to hear that and how it affects you. You played football and rugby at Dartmouth College. Which would you prefer and which do you still watch?Ken Lacourt: Rugby? I prefer rugby. Do you really was my dream sport. I did, yeah. Well you know in football is offensive line so most I'm just blocking people right when I switched to rugby you get to run the ball. Everybody, all 15 players get to run the ball. You're like a running back, which I always wanted to be a running back and they wouldn't let me do it. And on the football team. And then when you're not running the ball, guess what? You're tackling the guy running the ball. So you're like a middle linebacker at that point. I mean, that's a dream, your middle line. And those are the two positions I always wanted to play Big guys, probably true of most football players. You want to be a quarterback running back at least to wide receiver, right?Chuck Warren: Right.Ken Lacourt: It's every every lineman's dream.Chuck Warren: Yeah. What was your what was your nickname? What was your nickname on the rugby team? Did you have a nickname? Well.Ken Lacourt: Well, what did they call me? They only played football my freshman year. They called me Mooney in the bank instead of money in the bank? Mooney In the bank. It was nice. It was complimentary. Oh, God. They called me Moondog. All sorts of things.Chuck Warren: On the football. That's great.Ken Lacourt: On the rugby team, we at Dartmouth College had a very active rugby team and we were we were we often were Ivy League champions. We were ten. And over my senior year, I mean, we took it we took it real seriously up at Dartmouth.Chuck Warren: All right.Sam Stone: Love it. Congressman, We're going to be coming back with more in just a moment with Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia. Folks, stay tuned. We've got a great second guest coming up today. Alexander Rankin talking about Canada's medical euthanasia program. Stay tuned.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 going to be continuing on with Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia's second Congressional District here in just a moment. But folks, how are you feeling about your portfolio right now? Stock market's been going up and down with Joe Biden's economy. You just cannot trust it if you are looking for a fantastic opportunity to earn a great return on your money. A fixed rate of return up to 10.25%, you need to call our friends at refy and talk to them about the fantastic opportunities they offer. Go to invest. Y refy.com that's invest the letter. Why then refy.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: So, Congressman, you have a you know, all families have stories, have narratives. Your mother is a Lala. Is that how you pronounce it? Lala, Lala, Lala. Yeah. She was born and raised in Fidel's Castro, Cuba, and she was thrown in jail for seven weeks for opposing Castro's communist regime. What was she doing? Her opposition. How did she get thrown in jail? How has this influenced your view of those seeking asylum, say, for those from Venezuela right now? And how has it affected your view of national security?Ken Lacourt: Yeah. Yeah. So she actually wrote a book about it a couple of years ago. Oh, wow. "My story". Yeah. Lala Money. You can look it up. And the first chapter of that book talks about how when the Bay of Pigs invasion was coming up, the chance to free Cuba from the communist regime and it failed because John F Kennedy canceled the air support anyway, that was coming up. So the communists started putting in jail. Everybody they suspected, right? No. No rights, no hearing, no trial, no chance to defend yourself. You just went to jail if you were even suspected of not being a communist supporter who might sympathize with the freedom from communism and not side with Castro. So they put her her siblings, her, her father all in jail. It was seven weeks long. Unfortunately, the Bay of Pigs invasion didn't did fail. And so, of course, they let people out. And, you know, they wanted to frankly, they let people leave for a period of time. So fortunately, my mother and her brothers and sisters, she's one of 14 children. So her brothers and sisters and parents all got to leave. And then, of course, everybody kept leaving. So then they lock you in. That's the way communists are. They lock you in. People want to come to our country in communist countries, they won't let you leave. You know, it's the opposite issue. But she came here legally because she was a political political refugee.Ken Lacourt: So she came here legally. And the immigrants that come here. The rule of law is important. They come here because of the rule of law, because the Constitution applies to everybody the same, regardless of when you came, what race you are, anything. It's the rule of law. And my mother is a big believer in that. She's a big believer in political participation. She's 82 years old, lives near near me here, a couple of miles away in Charlestown, West Virginia. Very blessed to have her here. She loves the political process. She would never run, but she's she did raise us to believe in participating in elections because she saw what's happened. She saw firsthand what happens when the bad guys take over. They lock you down, man. These Covid lockdowns that were going on, waiving our rights, emergency powers being abused, you know, people being forced to vaccinate or wear masks. Man, that is that is totalitarianism. That's the type of stuff we do not believe in and cannot get to that point. So that's who raised me. My father passed away many years ago. He did fight in Vietnam. He was an army captain behind the advance of Vietnam, the advance of the communism in Vietnam. And he was proud of doing that. But now I feel that the good Lord has called me to fight within this country, those same types of policies, frankly.Chuck Warren: Well, that's that's a fantastic story. And I'm sure you're proud of your mother and your your kids are as well.Sam Stone: And we're going to actually get the link to that book and put it up on our Twitter and our social media. So people want to check that out. They they can get Lola Mooney's book.Chuck Warren: So, Congressman Mooney, thinking about your mother's story, if I'm a cynic, which I sometimes in and I'm on a comedian show, I would say your mother would be in prison and would put her hands on Joe Biden's face and say, Joey, let me tell you how bad communism is. I mean, that's the way Joe Biden would tell if it happened to his family. Right, Right, right. Tell us tell us about the impeachment inquiry. What should people know about it? Yeah.Ken Lacourt: I was livid when when Adam Schiff had his secret little star chamber down there and was deposing witnesses in secret without Trump or his attorneys able to even be present, selectively leaking information. I was so upset, I said, this is what the communists do. This is actually what they do. So you may recall I helped lead a group of about 60 congressmen who went into the skiff at one point. We just walked in there, even though they told us we weren't allowed in and we occupied it for the entire day. That got so much media. See, that's the type of fighting back I'm talking about. That's why I'm running for the US Senate because I am a fighter and I think West Virginia is deserve a conservative US senator. I'm the only one running and I'm a fighter. And I walked in there. We shut that thing down. We got so much attention. I did. I did media for basically the next day to explain why it was so important we had to go in there even though they told us not to, and it got so much attention. Then they moved the impeachment trial to the for the whole country to see and the full Judiciary Committee and the country turned against it because it was so unfair. But we had a fight. We had a fight. We couldn't just sit there and let them keep abusing their powers. And that's the way I was raised. I was raised to fight because if we don't fight those little battles, it gets worse and worse. Frankly, you're seeing it now because the Democrats want to shut down the government and blame Republicans and create a two tier system of justice right here under our nose.Chuck Warren: Yes, they do.Sam Stone: Yeah. How much has your mother talked at all about seeing any parallels in what Democrats are trying to do here now versus what she experienced when Fidel came to power?Ken Lacourt: Absolutely. Yeah. The parallels are everywhere. And it's not just that. I mean, that's the two tier system of justice, but even things like we're a family of faith. Faith is very important to us, our religion. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the Bible and for people of faith, even that even that's in jeopardy. Now, if you don't want to I don't know you don't want to participate in a transgender surgery. The Democrats want to get you fired. People, you know, you don't want to bake a cake for a gay wedding. They want to shut down your business. Yeah. So.Sam Stone: Congressman, I look at like what's going on in some of these other countries, too, like Canada, New Zealand and some of these others that have gone further. And, you know, I was just reading a piece and we're going to be talking about it a little bit with our next guest. But but Canada actually went in and just government took over a Catholic hospital because it was Catholic and they didn't want to allow that. I mean, that we're not that far from that here, are we?Ken Lacourt: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one of one of the scarier things that happened two years ago when the Democrats had total control, they actually removed the historical religious freedom protections that were in all the spending bills used to be any money given to a hospital. It was a standard language that you're sincerely held. Religious beliefs can never be violated. That was just a standard actually passed in 1990s. Bill Clinton signed it. Chuck Schumer supported it. They started taking those out. They literally were subjugating faith to government, which had never been done in this country before. We always had said, your faith comes first. And they want to they want to subjugate that. It is scary. And that's what they'll do if we give them total control. And that's why the House of Representatives that's now Republican. That's why I'm running for the Senate. We're one seat away from taking the US Senate over, you know, getting those like Joe Manchin didn't vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett. But he did vote to confirm. Jackson Brown, the most radical one we've ever put on there. So it does matter who we put on these courts, and that's the job of the US Senate. And I'm the only you know, I'll vote for conservatives, not liberals.Sam Stone: We need more conservative fighters. Congressman, thank you so much. We really appreciate your service. We've got just about one minute left here. How do folks get behind you and support you and your campaign and stay on top of the work you're doing?Ken Lacourt: So thanks. My is Mooney, my last name M-o-o-n-e-y Mooney for F or WV, West Virginia Mooney forwv.com. And we run a grassroots campaign. Please sign up there. We'll door knock phone bank, get some yard signs out, have some rallies, Please sign up Mooney for WV. You can donate through there as well. And we appreciate whatever help you can give us. We are going to take this message right to the voters.Sam Stone: And folks, if you're out there thinking, hey, that's not my state, maybe you're in California where we're on the air, maybe you're in one of the other markets where we're on the air and you're not going to have a Republican opportunity to put a Republican in the Senate. You can phone bank for these guys. You can contribute as a volunteer for these folks like Alex Mooney, who are going to be our conservative fighters. Congressman Mooney, thank you so much for joining us today. We look forward to having you back again in the future. All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren and Sam Stone. Coming up next, friend of the program, Alexander Raikin coming back on. He is a freelance writer interested in medical ethics and bad statistics. And unfortunately, Chuck, medical ethics are in decline and bad statistics are increasing like crazy. And he's joining us today to discuss his continued research into assisted suicide with his newest piece in the National Review, The End of Medicine How Death Care Replaced Health Care. Alex, I would say I love having you on this program to talk about this stuff because you were like the only one doing this. I wish we didn't have to have you on this program to talk about it because it wasn't happening. But it is some of the stuff you reported. I was hot under the collar yesterday, so he called me.Chuck Warren: I was in a meeting and he was off the hook.Sam Stone: I mean, let's just start with the fact that someone in Canada can call a suicide hotline. Alex They can call a suicide hotline and be offered assisted suicide instead of help. How is that even?Alex Raikin: It is much more. It is much more frugal.Chuck Warren: Yes, it is. Yeah, it is.Alex Raikin: It's really hard to believe just how quickly all of this has escalated. I mean, we're talking about a practice that was illegal in 2015. And now again, the people who are most impacted by this are not physicians. They're not the hospitals. So imagine if you are a physician in Canada right now and you see what your colleagues are doing right, or you're working in a hospital where you know that euthanasia is being provided to people who otherwise would get better if they actually had proper health care. Right. But the people who are most impacted by this are exactly what you say, Right? There are people with disabilities, people with serious illnesses who are trying to get medical care and they're being denied. Right. Long wait times in Canada have continued to get worse at the same time as you have this massive normalization of death care.Sam Stone: Yeah. Astoundingly, I mean, you you documented the first case of physicians in Canada, and apparently this has happened previously in the Netherlands as well, talking very flippantly about sedating a patient in order to prevent the patient from resisting. This made assisted suicide program.Chuck Warren: Can you imagine someone saying no in a let's use me too, as an example. Someone saying no, say, well, I'm just going to sedate you. It's not what you really want. I mean, that may be a crude analogy, but is that far off from what they're doing?Alex Raikin: It's it's crude, but it is exactly what they're doing. Right. And this is a conversation. So this is a conversation that's recorded where physicians are openly discussing what to do if a patient is and here's a quote, is a patient who has lost capacity with a waiver in place and is now delirious, shouting, pulling their arm away as one tries to insert the IV to provide made. So the waiver for final consent is this completely cryptic agreement, right? It's unsigned agreement with only one of the two made physicians. That's how they describe themselves, made providers or made assessors. It's an unwritten agreement. There doesn't need to be any witnesses. Family does not need to be informed. And yet, as soon as they enter into this cryptic agreement, Right, a physician can sedate you essentially to make sure that you're not shouting, pulling your arm away. It is absolutely absurd. And yet these physicians are openly discussing this and laughing about it.Chuck Warren: Well, how many people maybe you know this fact, If not, maybe you can find out. Be good for an article. How many people think about suicide? Get to the point where they do the preparations, but don't go through with it. I'm sure it's not one. I'm sure it's not 5%. I'm sure it's double digits. What? What do you think that percentage is?Alex Raikin: Right. So this is the part where it gets interesting. A lot of these statistics are. Intentionally made secret. So we know from the beginning that when euthanasia was first legalized in Canada, there was a physician in Toronto who claimed that only 10% of made requests went through. And obviously there were media articles about this, like what a travesty it is. Right now, only 4% of cases are actually rejected based on capacity or based on the illness. And the majority of those cases are because the patient is only suffering from a psychiatric illness, which will be a qualifying condition this march. So in six months. So we don't really know what the true number of people who would otherwise still be alive. Right. All that we know is that there is a few percentage of cases that are, you know, where people do change their minds. Right. But we're literally living in a time. So if you look at Quebec as the only province that publishes this data and they show that 50% of the time between requesting made and dying for made in Quebec in 2021, 50% of cases was in under ten days. I don't know any other medical service where goodness get that done so quickly.Sam Stone: Oh, okay, folks, we're going to be coming back with more from Alexander Raikin here in just a moment. If you haven't, you need to check out his piece on National Review. We have that up on our social media feeds for breaking battlegrounds. We'll be 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, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Folks, you probably heard me talking about why wi fi for a while now, they've been getting a ton of phone calls and I thank you for supporting an investment that actually helps people. First off, let me give you some some facts about this. It's true. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return that's not correlated to the stock market of the Fed. You can turn your income on or off, compound it, whatever you choose. There are absolutely no fees and there's never any attack on your principal. If you need your money back, you'll get your monthly statement each month with zero surprises. If you're not sure if you trust this economy, this secure collateralized portfolio may be a good option for you. So go to invest 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.Chuck Warren: Before we go back to a new question, I just looked it up. The University of Washington did a study with teenagers from 2019 through 21, and they found in their studies that there were 38%. Who were suicidal. Who had planned suicide. Went through the steps but did not attempt it.Sam Stone: Well, in a lot more we know from all the literature.Chuck Warren: But can you but can you imagine if they're doing it saying, no, no, no, Look, you made you sign something. You made a commitment. We're going to.Sam Stone: Yeah, we're going to sedate you. We're going to sedate you.Chuck Warren: I mean, that's what they're doing. You have 38% and then you have the, you know.Sam Stone: A lot of suicide attempts are cries for help. Right?Chuck Warren: Right. But there's just incredible. That's what they're doing. So let me ask you a question. Since Canada is quickly becoming one of the biggest serial killers in the world and that's what they are. Let's not pretend otherwise. And Australia seems to be joining in on the fun. They are defunding and threatening hospitals who will not go with this madness, aren't they?Alex Raikin: Yeah. And so the first victims were those who were public hospitals. So secular hospitals, they overwhelmingly were the first to cave in. There are still some holdouts. So the largest mental health hospital in Canada, they still do not allow euthanasia on site, but that might change in six months. They haven't issued any statements. There were secular palliative care clinics in Quebec that refused to sign on. So the government essentially passed legislation forcing them to before they were just threatening to cut their funding. But now they just force them through legislation. So the remaining targets are Catholic hospitals or other faith based institutions that are trying to say, no, we will not be part of this madness. The Guardian. Also just recently, I just looked earlier today, The Guardian has issued essentially a hotline where you can report cases of physicians turning you away from euthanasia.Chuck Warren: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.Sam Stone: It's hard for me to understand this. I mean, I think coming from any kind of moral perspective, but but reading and this is where maybe maybe you have some insight into these people, Alex, and why they're why they're doing this. Because as I as I read through your piece and looked at the quotes and then clicked on some of the links and watched some of the videos, the absolute callousness for human life displayed by these supposed doctors, I think was the most shocking thing. As you're watching that, you know, they really sort of revel in what they're doing. And my question is, why? Why why would anyone be so eager to kill other human beings?Alex Raikin: That actually reminds me. I interviewed a forensic psychiatrist. She told me that in her work she has dealt with the most vile people in our society. She has dealt with mobsters. She has dealt with child abusers, serial killers. And yet she told me that the people who who she is most afraid of are none of them. It's instead physicians who provide assisted suicide in the hundreds and thousands, by the way, in the Netherlands.Chuck Warren: Oh, my gosh.Alex Raikin: These people legitimately believe that what they're doing is medically therapeutic. They legitimately believe that some people's lives are not worth living and they want to be the people to get them to the other side. That's why Stephanie Green, for instance, who's the head of the Canadian Association of Made Assessors and Providers, she delivered babies before and then she decided to have a career change and she decided to perform at least 3 or 400 made made deaths. And she still calls them the exact same thing. She also calls them deliveries.Chuck Warren: Oh, she's an evil mindset.Sam Stone: I mean, I don't see many of these people being religious, so what the heck do they think they're delivering them to? I mean, you can almost say, like, if you don't believe in heaven, then where's the where's the good outcome from this?Chuck Warren: It's just a burden on society. That's the only way I can view them viewing it. Is that right, Alexander?Alex Raikin: They have almost this quasi religious worldview where so I have this document from 2018, so it's of Camps annual conference. So again, the Canadian Association of Maid Assessors and Providers and they openly discuss and they describe Maid as sacred. That's the word that they use. So it's almost as if they do have this alternative religious out view and it's not that they're against religion. They're only against religion. If you take thou shalt not kill seriously. Otherwise, though, they'll gladly sign you on.Chuck Warren: I think that's I think that's called a cult. It sounds like it's cultish behavior.Sam Stone: It's a death.Chuck Warren: Cult we are with  Alexander Raikin, we're talking about Canada's medical assistance and dying or made law. Alexander One thing that has alarmed me as I've read your your work on this is physicians who are basically voicing opposition to this, voicing concern they're being threatened with their medical licenses. Can you talk a little bit about that?Alex Raikin: Yeah, I mean, it's quite explicit. If you so many provinces and in many countries. So this is also happening in Australia. This is happening in New Zealand. This has already happened in Netherlands and Belgium. And of course, as with everything else on this file, Canada is going at the forefront. If you do not provide a referral for medical assistance in dying, right, Even if it's in cases where you think that the patient can't qualify, it's not legal for them to qualify. The patient doesn't have the capacity to consent. The patient doesn't have an illness that is serious enough. Many different medical colleges have instituted effective referral requirements. If you do not refer the patient, you are at risk of losing your medical license. If you're outspoken about this, you are getting threatened by a college. One of the cases that I had was of a geriatrician in Quebec who spoke to a parliamentary committee. So remember, freedom of speech. You're literally testifying to parliament, right? The the site where defamation laws do not even apply because it's considered to be a breach of of free speech laws. Right. He testified to a parliamentary committee saying that Canada was not ready to allow made for cases of dementia. What happened was that his colleague from his hospital, he claims, filed a complaint with the medical college. And even though it should have been dismissed outright because they do not have jurisdiction over parliament and who gets to testify to a parliamentary committee, he instead was threatened with this massive investigation and it took him hiring a lawyer and going through this multi-month ordeal for him to actually to clear his name. And all of the time he knew what was the reason. It was because he testified to parliament. He claimed and he claimed what he saw. Right. Which is that the the current law is not working and it shouldn't be expanded. So, yes, these physicians are being threatened with their livelihoods.Chuck Warren: I. What they're doing sounds a lot like what Iceland did with Down's syndrome Baby Sam. You know, if you're identified as your pregnancy is possible Down syndrome, you know, I mean, magazines like CBS News has talked about how Down's syndrome in Iceland is almost disappeared. Well, it's disappeared because you're killing them. It's eugenics. There's nothing here. What Alexander has been reporting that does make believe that they would have no problem. Say, look, you're homeless. You know, you're you're you're a burden on society. You have autism. You're a burden on society if you're broke, you know, so you know, you're a burden on society. One of the things.Sam Stone: He reports and this really blew my mind is that they are advocating expanding made to indigenous people because of poverty that they've already qualified. As I understand it, Alex, based on your reporting, they've already qualified people for this based on credit card debt. And then then this line just threw me for a loop. And to Indigenous children since they are quote, are considered wise because they are closest to the ancestors. What the.Chuck Warren: Well, that's the cultish behavior. Alexander What does that mean? What is the indigenous tribe saying about this? Are they getting upset about it?Alex Raikin: That's a good question. It's a random delegate to camps conference in 2018. Right. Just two years after legalization. And they're already discussing plans on how to expand it to children and especially to indigenous children. I mean.Chuck Warren: Where are the progressive groups? Where are the progressive groups on this?Alex Raikin: Well, that's a very good question. Disability groups are an uproar. The Indigenous Disability Alliance, they're an uproar.Chuck Warren: But that doesn't get reported and it doesn't get reported, right? Yeah.Sam Stone: I mean, it's it doesn't get reported.Alex Raikin: It doesn't get reported.Sam Stone: It's crazy. You know, if you run an oil pipeline through a a native reservation or tribal area and you pay them a bundle of money to do it with really no effect on anybody. The liberal groups will be out in the tens of thousands marching and screaming and leaving a giant mess behind. And here they're. They're silent. They're gone. This, this, this just none of this makes any sense to me at all. Have you. Have you, Alex, have you tried? Like, how do you even comprehend the mindset of the people that are pushing this? Because I just. I still struggle with that. I think you can tell by my questions this is so foreign to to any kind of morality that I've ever experienced or thought of or expected in any Western democracy.Alex Raikin: Right. It's I'll be honest, I struggle with the exact same thing. There was a bioethicist or excuse me, a clinical ethicist, right. So he actually deals with patients in hospitals. He's the one who helps hospitals decide when they need to ration ventilators. Right? So he has a real job with real impacts. He wrote an article in a Canadian newspaper recently trying to claiming that Catholic hospitals should be forced to provide made on site. And he's also the same individual who wrote who wrote an entire article justifying infanticide. And the reason that he used is because you can abort as many children as you want. Some children are going to be born and some children are going to be disabled during childbirth. That is his worldview. And that's why you need to legalize infanticide.Chuck Warren: Oh, my gosh. Alexander, we have we have a minute left here with you. First, I'm going to give you an assignment. I'd like you to come back on next week and explain to people what the government shutdown, if we have one in D.C., really means. You're a numbers guy. What does it really mean to the average taxpayer? Can you do that for me? Yeah, we'll do. Okay, Perfect. Second, first time we had you on, I was quite adamant and said that this is evil. You took the proper course, and we're not as quite dogmatic as I was about it and being a good journalist. Since our first conversation now. And you've written more. You've investigated more. You've interviewed more. Would you view this? What they're doing is simply just evil, demonic.Alex Raikin: Yeah. I mean, at this point it is evil. I do not understand how they are not even pretending to abide by the legislation and the fact that they are openly lying. This is an organization and these are physicians who testified to parliament saying that this is the first time that the first time they've ever heard that euthanasia was being granted to patients because of poverty was in 2020 or 2021, because that's what the that's when the media started reporting about it. That's what they claimed. Yet in reality, they were already discussing it in 2018. It took them two years to figure it out.Chuck Warren: Yeah.Alex Raikin: And then they just lied.Chuck Warren: So, Alexander, tell our folks where they can find you and they can find your most recent article. We'll also post it on our social media, folks. Go ahead, Alexander.Alex Raikin: Yes. Feel free to follow me on X. I'm Alexander Raikin. Raiken is Raikin. You can find my work on National Review or the New Atlantis.Chuck Warren: Alexander, thanks a million. Stay tuned for bonus podcast section Kiley's Corner. We're going to talk about Fox News changeup, other fun things. Alexandra, thanks. A million, folks. Have a great weekend. Bye now.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: Welcome to the podcast segment of Breaking battlegrounds. Folks, stay tuned because we're going to have Kiley's Corner coming up, everyone's favorite segment where we alternately make fun of Kiley and she tells us all sorts of fun stuff. But right now, we have Ken Lacourt, our media expert and friend of the program, returning to talk about the big news at Fox, which, Chuck, it may be an earthquake in the conservative media world happened yesterday and it doesn't seem like a whole lot of people know it.Chuck Warren: Talk about it, Ken. Tell us what you know.Ken Lacourt: Well, on one hand, it's really not a radical change. I mean, Lachlan Lachlan is now the the chairman of News Corp, the overall overall entity which runs Fox, Fox News, and I think executive chairman of of Fox News. He was CEO before, but his dad.Ken Lacourt: Was always somebody, you know, for the last several years Lachlan had been in that seat, but his dad was probably driving or at least certainly around for most of those decisions. So they've done a they've done a gradual move of power over the past handful of years to get Lachlan running it. So and he's a mixed bag. On one hand, he's very good, if you like, the Fox News Channel because unlike his siblings, he doesn't hate the Fox News Channel.Chuck Warren: You know.Ken Lacourt: I mean, you know, James, James was is a is a very James's brother is a very shrewd, aggressively business guy. Lefty always talked about trying to make it more responsible, which you know what that means. It means make it look as much like MSNBC as you can without losing our audience. And the sister was the sister was was out in out in left field as well. The trickiest part right now is, is I don't think the external kind of challenges that Fox has and they've got a few they've they've got another big Smartmatic lawsuit which might cost them another half a billion. They've got some other lawsuits by some pension funds, which I think are nonsense, political driven, driven things. I think I think Lachlan's biggest problem is that that he came out of such a privileged position. And I say that not not not as an insult. I mean, I mean, Lachlan has been groomed for this most of his life. He's worked in various News Corp entities around the world. He's had dinner with US senators and governors on a routine basis. He's he's shadowed his father for for much of his life. He's been well trained for it.Ken Lacourt: But there's a serious question is, does he have the grit and does he have the drive that his dad had? I mean, his dad was very much like a shark. I mean, he just wanted to keep eating and growing. And even when he was worth $5 billion and had a a media conglomerate that was X size, he always wanted it to be double sized. Lachlan Not so sure. Lachlan You know, look, he's, he's tan. He's got the tribal tattoos on his arm. He's got a gorgeous ex-model wife. He lives in a $30 million house down in Australia. He bought when he bought his LA mansion. It was the it was the most expensive house in Los Angeles ever sold, $150 million. 11 bedrooms, one of those. So and from from what I hear in the past year or so, he's hard to reach. He's he doesn't have his fingers on the pulse of it. He's still down in Australia. He's so on one hand, all decisions need to go through him and they haven't given the current CEO like Roger Ailes type powers. On the other hand, he's just not as invested in it. And that's a recipe for problems.Sam Stone: Yeah, One of the things that I've noticed Chuck and Ken over the years is there's a huge difference with these giant companies that have been created by a singular founder or personality driving that company. And I think the best example is is Apple with Steve Jobs, which was an innovation machine. And then after Steve Jobs death, it's it's a moneymaking machine, but it's not an innovation machine in the same way.Chuck Warren: Well, for example, they had Mr. Cook, who was the CEO or chairman or whatever he is, of Apple. They had him on CBS Sunday Morning show, which I like because they do pretty good interviews. His big thing was the innovation is that they've done a bunch of solar power to replace the usage of iPhones. I mean, that was his big innovation. Right? Right. And that's not innovation. I mean, that's nice. I'm not discouraging it, but that's not innovation. So, Ken, so what do you see him doing long term with Fox News?Ken Lacourt: I think, well, long term, their biggest issue isn't. The issues that I talked about long term is the fact that cable news viewers are dying. And for every 80 year old cable news subscriber who died, there's not a 25 year old jumping into that pipeline. Our kids aren't going to write checks out to Comcast to to maybe for Internet service, but not for this whole kind of of, oh, you know, I'm waiting for the 6:00 news or Hannity's coming on at eight and I'm going to sit in front of this this screen and wait till they start it for me and then roll commercials into the middle of it. So the biggest long term challenge for all of the cable systems is at some point in the next decade or so, that model will become unsustainable, that they are paying huge amounts of money. They are earning still just gobs and gobs of money. I mean, Fox News Nets probably about a billion and a half a year. That's net, which is just mind boggling. But when that starts to change, that will change. And they will they will contract in power. And the ones that have put smart bets out in the digital world and expanded their their audience there, which Fox hasn't done a good job of, they'll be the future. So that's the long term challenge. The middle term again, the big challenge for them is that Lachlan is still hanging out at yacht races and and is ostensibly in charge that that the CEO, Suzanne Scott isn't doesn't have the ability to make bold decisions even if she was even if she was inclined to making the right ones and that it kind of meanders along as I think we've seen it happen as basically as it's happened since since Roger Ailes left. And it's still got an almost an almost monopoly situation in the sense that what else are you going to watch? You're not going to say, I'm done with Fox. I'm going to go watch CNN. Maybe you go to Newsmax. But Newsmax is still just it's just.Chuck Warren: Yeah, no.Ken Lacourt: It's a small audience because they're very, very conservative. And but it's the Junior League. It's like watching high school TV.Chuck Warren: Exactly. I mean, I know everything about the person. When they tell me watch Newsmax like the same person who still wears a mask in public. I know everything I need to know about both people. One last question here. We're going to let you go. So there seems to be a trend upon the corporate media that we need to we need to save democracy. That's what a lot of these reporters seem to think, You know, and it doesn't seem.Sam Stone: Like they have much idea of what democracy.Chuck Warren: Is. And so, therefore, one of their rules that seems to be is you can't criticize Biden. And I'll give you an example. NBC       's Ben Collins was concurring with Guardian columnist Margaret Sullivan this week. Quote, With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways, arguing both sides reporting misinforms the public. Since it's not two parties, but democracy versus something maybe illegal. Do you see this being a trend, this election, that they're just simply saying it's our way or the highway? Or is this just am I just picking 1 or 2 people and being unfair?Ken Lacourt: No, no. I mean, if anything, it's the continuation of a trend that has started ten years ago and probably peaked or at least hit full throated ridiculousness with Trump. And there it was open. It's like he's Trump, Hitler, we're all going to die. And therefore we have to put our values of being an American over our journalistic values. And so and the largest problem with the press is that they're still pretending to be referees when they have long thrown away their referee notions and they put players jerseys on. Right. And and it's like, that's my look. I don't I'm not bothered at all by the Huffington Post being The Huffington Post or at this point, even MSNBC being MSNBC. We all know what that is. The larger problem that I think that we face as a democracy and we face as news consumers is that so many people still think when they're reading The New York Times or the LA Times or watching CNN, that they're getting a relatively unbiased point of view. And they're not. They're getting hard core, hard core narrative that's that's specifically excluding conservative thought on things and pretending it doesn't exist and that that tweaks out the whole system when people are lying like that and they have so many news consumers still believing them, it's getting less every year, but it's still exists.Sam Stone: Even, you know, the conservative icing out conservative thought is one thing. But I've actually been going back and forth with a guy that, you know, has followed me and interacted with me on Twitter for many years as more of a centrist Republican. And we're talking about something here where the mayor of Phoenix is the co-chair of the C40 cities. She's a signatory to all their programs, which include, you know, no cars, you know, getting rid of cars and meat and all this other stuff. And I mean, she's co-chair, she's signatory. I've told this guy, you know, this is what she she stands for. She's done this. And he literally said, no, I can't find it on our local. Npr, our local affiliates, our local paper. I don't believe you. Yeah, that's a hard thing to get around.Ken Lacourt: Yeah, And I've got some very good friends who in most lives are smart people, but they just, you know, they grew up not being lied to by the groups that are now and I'll call it a lie, because when you misrepresent something enough and you do it intentionally and you keep certain things away from people and you blow up certain certain aspects, that's a misleading that's close enough to a lie. And your friend, like some of mine, just doesn't realize that that again, they they change their somewhat biased referee clothes for players. And he just hasn't figured that out yet and hopefully he will.Sam Stone: Yeah that's that's going to be a long road. And it's one of the key battles for Republicans going forward over the next few years. Ken Lacourt, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program again and looking forward to having you back very soon. Terrific.Chuck Warren: My pleasure. Thanks, buddy. Have a great weekend.Ken Lacourt: All right. Take care, guys.Chuck Warren: Kiley's corner folks. She has a stack of paper. She is fired up today and she is ready to air her gripes.Sam Stone: She's got like, war and peace in her hand right here. Chuck, she's made more notes than I do in in a year.Chuck Warren: Kiley I think a couple of years you'll have a book, just Kylie's Gripes, a book with which every podcast episode with your gripes.Kiley Kipper: I know I couldn't even narrow it down this week. There was I have a whole notes page of just links like I have a murder section. I got a, you know, my opening statements missing Jets, Pornhubs doing crazy stuff. But we're not talking about any of that. All right, let's go.Sam Stone: Can I tell you how much I love the meme about it was a bad week for expensive jets.Kiley Kipper: The the 911 call from the guy that ejected, he's like, I don't know where it's at, but.Chuck Warren: Did they find it?Kiley Kipper: No. No.Chuck Warren: What the hell? All right. Well, that sums up America again for the week. Or just crying out loud. Skip that. It doesn't sum up America. It sums up the world. Yes. I mean, folks who think we're cluster just go outside of the United States. The cluster grows significantly. Kylie, go ahead. What do we got?Kiley Kipper: Okay, So my first topic short, we have to acknowledge it because it's Dave Portnoy and Barstool and it's just like such a great story.Chuck Warren: He always needs to be acknowledged.Kiley Kipper: Yeah, yeah. So this week in New York, Saturday. So tomorrow I guess people are listening to it today. So he is hosting a pizza fest where he has over 35 pizza parlors all joining together. There's music, all of this stuff, party, whatever. In the past, he's like, it raises money. He's raised $50 Million for Small Businesses to Stay Open.Sam Stone: Dave Portnoy leading it. You know, none of those 35 are bad pizza.Kiley Kipper: Exactly. Yeah, you can trust him with the pizza. So he gets wind of a sponsor, forwarded him an email from a Washington Post reporter. Basically, she's saying, I'm going to write an article about this pizza fest, but she didn't really state it in that way. She started saying that he was misogynistic and racist. Do you want to defend your sponsorship? So I actually have a clip because Dave calls her out, so calls her and is like, this is Dave Portnoy. Why are you emailing my sponsors? You're calling me misogynistic. He's and he pronounces it wrong, but ignore that part in racist and whatever. So he's he's calling her out and she's trying to deny it. But Jeremy has the clip, so I want you to hear this.Washington Post Reporter: Not. I haven't said anything like that.Dave Portnoy: Well, I can. I can read if you want. If you want, I can read what you actually sent. I have it.Washington Post Reporter: Yeah. Yeah. Because I sent a bunch of notes, so I want to make sure I know which one.Dave Portnoy: Okay. We are planning to write about the festival and how and how some of the sponsors and participants have drawn criticism by seemingly to associate themselves with Dave Portnoy, who has a history of Misogynic comments and other problematic behavior. I want to make sure that Blank had a chance to respond to this, since the company is the most prominent in their partners of his festival.Washington Post Reporter: Oh, that's the one I sent. It was definitely the most pointed of them because I really did want them to respond and I was hoping to get something from them.Dave Portnoy: Do you think that's fair? Like, I totally disagree with the assertions of what you said, that misogynic and all that stuff. So like it kind of backs people into a corner. So I'm happy to go over anything. I mean, you have that is pretty pointed. You said you didn't do it then. I have the exact evidence of you doing it, so.Washington Post Reporter: I didn't say I didn't do that. I said I did. That was the one that was the most well.Dave Portnoy: Know before I before I provided proof. You said you didn't really remember doing that. And then I read it to you and you're like, Oh, yeah, I did at that one time. So you did do it.Kiley Kipper: So this call goes on for 12 minutes. It's on his it's on his Twitter. I'll reshare it on breaking battlegrounds, Twitter, so you guys can read it or listen to it. But it.Sam Stone: Goes on. It's a fantastic call. I've listened to the whole thing and it's it's worth your time, folks.Kiley Kipper: She goes on and says, Unfortunately, this is I have it in quotes. Unfortunately, this is standard journalistic practice. And he responds and goes, Unfortunately, yes, it is. So her background is she's a Washington Post food critic.Chuck Warren: Oh, my God.Kiley Kipper: She's starting out these emails to these sponsors saying he's misogynistic, racist. Do you want to defend yourself? Basically trying to get them to pull out of the pizza fest.Chuck Warren: But she's a food critic. She's supposed to be doing reviews of restaurants and food and dishes and things of that nature. Instead, she's taken The Washington Post, woke Culture and applying it to these 30 plus pizzerias. Yep. Yep. So what's been the public reaction to her lie since she since she clearly lied? I mean, this is awfully we'll just call it. She's a horrible human being. What does people's reaction been to her?Kiley Kipper: Well, I'm assuming well, everyone's on Dave's side. They're all attacking. I'm assuming she's getting lots of messages because she has gone private on social media.Chuck Warren: She should be fired. Yeah, 100% be fired. Once the press starts doing this a couple of times, this crap will stop. Yeah. Yeah. It's not it's not part of her mandate. It's not part of her lane. She should be doing food. And then she's just making. I mean, if she wants to go do that, she should go work for some pod, you know, some something. Some do her own podcast or work with National Enquirer or something just make unfounded.Sam Stone: Well, I mean, look, I think Dave Portnoy is handling this exactly the right way. He's fighting back, using his platform, calling her out by name with the recording, just saying this is garbage. And people can judge that for themselves and they see it's garbage. That's how we stop this. You're right, Chuck. You just got to smack them.Chuck Warren: Let's make sure we put that and boost that on our social media.Sam Stone: Yeah, All right. I mean, congratulations, Dave. You. You're playing this perfectly, man. Don't give up. Don't stop.Chuck Warren: Kiley has more.Kiley Kipper: I have so much more. Not just kidding. All right. So I wanted to bring this case up now because the the it's a murder case and the trial is going to be in March, I believe it was. And so I want to discuss it now because it's there's a woman named Karen Reed, and she's being accused of killing her boyfriend, who is a Boston police officer. So she's charged with the killing of him. Right. She's saying she's being framed by Boston police. Two sides of the story here. Okay. So this is these are the facts. That night, her and her boyfriend, uh, John O'Keefe, they go out to the bars having a good time. There's video footage of them, like from the bars. They're hugging, kissing, totally normal, whatever. They then leave to go to another Boston police officer's house where she says now, this is based on what she told the officer who came in the morning. I dropped him off. My stomach was hurting, so I went home. So I just dropped him off the party and I'm going home. So then in the morning at 5 a.m., this is where the timeline all starts. She starts calling her friends, saying, John never came home last night. Where is he? Blah, blah, blah. Um, so then one of the friends goes to her house and she describes her as hysterically crying and is saying, What if I hit him? Is he dead? It's snowing out. Where is he? Blah, blah, blah. So then her that friend and another friend go back to the house where he had dropped him off and they found him in the snow, dead. So to her and another friend, start giving him CPR. Call the police, obviously. Where had.Chuck Warren: He been shot or.Kiley Kipper: Something? No, he just looked like. So according to her, the defense, he it looks like he got beat up. Okay. The prosecutors are saying he got hit by a car. So when the when the investigator showed up that day, she was supposedly hysterical, yelling, could I have hit him? Did I kill him? Did I hit him with my car last night? Blah, blah, blah, blah. She has a broken tail light, to which her father said was in the morning when she was, which there was no report on either. Friend has said anything, but the dad said that she, when she was backing out of the driveway, hit John's car because she was frantically leaving. And that's where the tail light broke, which.Sam Stone: Is actually plausible, which.Kiley Kipper: Could.Sam Stone: Yeah, I mean, sure.Kiley Kipper: So she's so this is like what we know now. She's she was out on bail, but there's like a whole group of people that think she's that this is she is being framed like there's a website. They've raised almost $200,000 for her for legal fees and she's done all of these interviews. So like this is where I kind of believe her because if you're going to, like, premeditate to kill your boyfriend or husband or whatever it is like you're going to, I don't believe you'd be yelling. Like, did I hit him or was this me? Or maybe you do. But but she's doing a bunch of interviews now, too.Chuck Warren: I agree. But the problem with this and I agree, you know, just all.Kiley Kipper: Play it off. Yeah. I mean.Chuck Warren: But I agree. The problem is you can't view it that way because unlike a physician in Canada who does euthanasia, we don't have those minds. Right. So I don't you know, I don't know what psychosis is if someone like this. But right now, that does not sound like enough evidence to me to to indict someone.Kiley Kipper: Well, she was indicted.Sam Stone: I feel like you do need more. And actually, the fact that they indicted her on what appears to be flimsy evidence to me is actually the best argument for her case.Chuck Warren: Exactly right.Sam Stone: Exactly that. You know, look.Chuck Warren: But she's always tagged with it innocent. She's always tagged now. Oh, there's well, there's the neighbor that killed 56.Kiley Kipper: Pieces of evidence that the defense is not able to look at. So the prosecutors haven't allowed them to look at it, which they've said, oh, we found the tail light in the like part of her tail light in the snow near John. But they haven't been able to see the tail light test. The tail light to make sure it's her tail light or anything like this. So everyone's saying because it was at a Boston police officer's house with another Boston police officer and this woman, that they think that when she was saying, oh, my gosh, could I have hit him with my car, that they then took that story, ran with it, And it's all like a whole framing.Chuck Warren: I'm thinking some police officers of another police officer or police officer's wife.Kiley Kipper: Well, and there's you know, people being interviewed is like highly possible.Chuck Warren: This is this is where I'm going with today on on Chuck's Conspiracy Corner. This is where I'm going.Sam Stone: I know a lot of police officers. Most of them are excellent people in a few of them are dogs.Kiley Kipper: I'll share this on our social media, too. But there's a photo of people outside the courthouse in free Karen shirts. Like they are going all out for her.Chuck Warren: Wait, wait. Her name's Karen. All right. Next story for you. Wrap up. No, no, no, no.Kiley Kipper: I just narrowed it down to two today.Chuck Warren: All right, well, that you'll keep us up to date on Karen. Oh, absolutely. All Karen's are just this.Kiley Kipper: Karen. Karen Reed. Just one. Karen.Sam Stone: Well, just. Just. Just Karen. The accused killer?Chuck Warren: Yeah.Kiley Kipper: The accused.Chuck Warren: Murderer. Folks, thank you for joining this week. We hope you enjoyed it. Please pay particular attention to what's happening in Canada and Australia. Make no mistake about it, I believe there's ten states in our country that allow it. It's 11 now, 11 that allow it. Folks, this is just not a whole we need to go down. It's bad. It is evil. If you don't think it's evil, you probably shouldn't listen to the show. This is Chuck Warren. You can follow us on all podcasts and also follow us on breaking battlegrounds. Upvote or wherever you find your social media. Have a great weekend. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

John Pudner, President of Take Back Our Republic Action, discusses the GOP's future and topics like campaign contribution and faith-based voters. Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, highlights big tech's role in sexual exploitation. They have initiated lawsuits against big tech to bring about necessary changes.

In this week's episode of we kick off with a dynamic duo. Join us as we sit down with Kimberley Strassel from The Wall Street Journal and Ross Douthat from The New York Times. Together, they'll provide unique insights into the ever-evolving landscape of media, as well as, share their perspectives on the Republican Party, Joe Biden and more.Later in the show, Chuck and Sam take the microphone to delve into some pressing current news, including VP Kamala Harris, Larry Sinclair’s appearance on Tucker Carlson and New York’s migrant “crisis.” In a brand-new segment, we introduce "Kiley's Corner," hosted by the irrepressible Kiley Kipper. Kiley delves into current news stories, offering her unique perspective on the headlines. This week, she takes a deep dive into the Ruby Franke case, a shocking incident involving a Utah mother and YouTuber from "8 Passengers." Join Kiley as she unravels the story and discusses its implications, all from her corner of the studio.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska.Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Co. in 1994, working in the news department of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels, and then in London. She moved to New York in 1999 and soon thereafter joined the Journal's editorial page, working as a features editor, and then as an editorial writer. She assumed her current position in 2005.Ms. Strassel, a 2014 Bradley Prize recipient, is a regular contributor to Sunday political shows, including CBS's "Face the Nation," Fox News Sunday, and NBC's "Meet the Press." She is the author of "The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech," which chronicles recent attacks on conservative nonprofits, businesses and donors.An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University. She lives in Alaska with her three children.-Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. His column appears every Tuesday and Sunday. He is also a host on the weekly Opinion podcast “Matter of Opinion.” Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website.He is the author of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery,” which was published in October 2021. His other books include "To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism,” published in 2018; “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” (2012); “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class” (2005); “The Decadent Society” (2020); and, with Reihan Salam, “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008). He is the film critic for National Review.He lives with his wife and four children in New Haven, Conn.-Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. First up today, folks, we have to apologize a little bit. We had two longer interviews that were supposed to frame this show with Ross Douthat. Douthat of The New York Times. I'm so bad at last names, folks. My apologies there. And Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal. Chuck interviewed both of them last night at an event here in Arizona was fantastic. We were going to open and close the interview with that. We had a technical difficulty in the last half of each interview basically got wiped out by the electronic gods. Chuck. And so we're kind of scrambling a little bit. We pasted the two of them together. You're going to hear them in this segment. And then we're going to continue on with just Chuck and I talking about some of the issues of the day and some about this.Chuck Warren: Yeah, the event last night was Center for American Institutions of ASU. And the the whole the whole point was to have them in a forum. And they're about the responsibilities of the media and the age of polarization. The one thing Ross said that was really interesting to me is it conservatives really want to go and change the media. They need to start getting some conservative foundations that start financing journalism, that start buying some papers and making them nonprofits.Sam Stone: This is what you and I have talked about forever.Chuck Warren: And he was very specific about it last night, saying you've got to be serious about it. And you and I talked about this, about the Koch brothers, how much difference they would have made if they had gone by 5 or 6 major daily newspapers. And so he brought that up. I was it was I was like listening to you and I talk. I found that very interesting. And then Kimberly was wonderful. She started as a reporter in Europe for The Wall Street Journal, now the editorial page. So folks, you'll find this interesting. We're going to get them both on here within the next month to talk more about it. And we hope you'll enjoy this clip. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds Today, this segment we are honored to have with us Kimberly Strassel. She is a columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal. You can also catch her on her podcast with Potomac. Potomac. Potomac. I can't pronounce Potomac. Watch.Kimberly Strassel: Watch Potomac Watch.Chuck Warren: And she has written a new book called The Biden Malaise.Kimberly Strassel: Well, it's so great to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah.Chuck Warren: So is Joe.Chuck Warren: Biden worse than Jimmy Carter? About the same?Kimberly Strassel: No, I think he's worse. And here's why. And because I think the comparison is utterly unfair to Jimmy Carter. And that's why I ended up writing the book. Right. That's fantastic.Chuck Warren: And.Kimberly Strassel: Timely. Yes. And that's that is exactly why I did it, because, you know, we had all these comparisons the minute inflation popped up, the minute we had the horrible Afghanistan withdrawal, the minute that we had an energy problem. But the difference is Jimmy Carter, he was he was not a great president, but he inherited a lot of his problems. Right? Yes. We were already in the 70s in the middle of the great inflation, OPEC, all that OPEC oil shocks, you know, Cold War turmoil. Et cetera. Joe Biden created all of his problems. And that's a really important for spite, for spite or just because he lacked the backbone to push back against progressives in his party.Chuck Warren: The ActBlue segment of his party. That's right. That's really what it is.Kimberly Strassel: You know, And if you and that's the other thing. If you go and look at Jimmy Carter, he was an unpopular fellow, in part because he pushed back on parts of his party and didn't always do what they wanted him to do.Chuck Warren: I also think Jimmy Carter was just a better person. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, I'm stunned with the past or the press has tried. I mean, so tonight I was watching NBC Nightly News and we were talking earlier about the number one story in NBC Nightly News was the migrant problem in New York. And, you know, a lot of people in the Republican governors did it. Abbott as an example. It was a stunt, right? And now it's put a focus on it where Mayor Adams is saying, where's the federal government, which Texas and Arizona have been saying forever? Yeah, sure. Right, right, right, right. But I noticed tonight the third or fourth story was about Hunter Biden and Biden's connection, finally. So finally, they're starting to do it. I'm interested when it becomes number one. But the fact that it was in the segment number 3 or 4, the first third, I found that interesting, which you would not would have had a month ago.Kimberly Strassel: No. And I think the only reason they're doing it, though, I mean, let's not give anyone too much credit. They're doing it because when you have a US federal prosecutor, special counsel, as it is now, David Weiss saying that he has an intention to file indictment prior to the end of September. That's kind of news. And so we're going to see. But that's a really good point. I mean, Jimmy Carter, again, a lot of faults, but could you imagine him? And I mean, this is not a man who would engage in graft. He was deeply religious. He had great respect for the office of the presidency. Correct. It just there's no comparison with Joe Biden.Chuck Warren: No, none whatsoever. So what are the three takeaways for our audience who we're recommending they get the book? Yes. What are the three takeaways? And let me let me start first this. What surprised you when writing the book?Kimberly Strassel: Well, just how bad Biden is. Worse. Worse than you thought. Yeah. No, just you know, again, because people on the surface make these comparisons, you know, it's like, oh, my God, the worst president since Jimmy Carter. And I always say, like, that's not fair. Jimmy Carter Because you you realize when you go through the stories of what happened to Carter and what happened to Biden, the many and deliberate efforts that were taken to end us up in the situation that we are now. I mean, let's just be really clear. We shouldn't have any inflation at the moment. No, it's entirely the purpose, both of the fault of both the extraordinary overspending, but also the pressure the Biden administration and progressives in Congress put on Jerome Powell to keep interest rates low for too long. And, you know, we wouldn't be dealing with rising gas prices right now. I mean, look what just happened this week.Chuck Warren: 3 million acres wasn't a 40 million acres. So they out of a federal lease is gone.Kimberly Strassel: And by the way, can I just point out that a number of those millions of acres are on something called the National Petroleum Reserve, which when Alaska, they were setting up all these different areas, it was a specific agreement and deal that was made is that the federal government would lock up some of this in national parks, but this would be remained to do drilling on. And they're reneging on that. They're reneging on the leases that were duly issued at the very moment that OPEC is squeezing our necks. So, you know, by the way, Jimmy Carter would have killed to have had a domestic energy industry. Oh, 100%. He didn't have it, but he did good work. He started to deregulate the natural gas industry. He did everything he could to support oil and coal. You know, he really wanted us to be independent. And Joe Biden just wants other people to drill oil and send it here.Chuck Warren: Welcome to breaking battlegrounds. Today, we are honored to have with us New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. Douthat. Douthat.Ross Douthat: It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for having me.Chuck Warren: So did you get in today.Ross Douthat: Just two hours ago? Oh, my gosh. Take off tomorrow and I take off tomorrow. Yes, we have I have four kids at home and one of them is starting middle school and one of them is starting pre-K. So I can't be gone too long. I can't take any camping trips into the desert or anything like that. It seems like the right weather for it, but maybe next time.Chuck Warren: That's fantastic. So you've been in New York Times columnist for four years now.Ross Douthat: No, for I've been in New York Times columnist since, amazingly, 2009. So I started in Barack Obama's. Oh, my goodness. Very first year. Yes.Chuck Warren: So how do you how do you get along with your colleagues? I know there's a lot of independent thinkers there. Probably many of them sort of lean left to a degree.Ross Douthat: I think that's fair. That's probably fair to say. Yes.Chuck Warren: How has that been for you intellectually and as a work environment? And how have they accepted you?Ross Douthat: I mean, I think the you know, the work environment has always been good. I mean, I was you know, I was a conservative when I was hired. I don't think there's sort of any secret that I'm there to sort of represent views that are not shared by all of the New York Times readership, to put it mildly. Right. Our audience tends to be more more liberal leaning. But I think there's a lot of support for that work institutionally in the paper. You know, I think that the challenge is like everything in American politics, everything has become more challenging over the last 5 or 10 years than it was when I started. You know, in hindsight, the Obama Romney race in 2010, 2012. Right. Was a relatively low key presidential election. Very much so. Well, it didn't I mean, it didn't necessarily feel that way at the time, but compared to the Trump era. Right. And so everything has been sort of higher stakes in the last in the last 6 or 7 years. And obviously Covid wokeness, everything else has, you know, it's sort of made the job of writing for an audience that disagrees with you, somewhat challenging in new ways. But at the same time, I consider myself very lucky because we live in a very polarized media environment where it's not just that most readers are reading people they agree with. Most writers are sort of writing almost exclusively for people who agree with them. And, you know, at least in theory, the point of arguing in public is to convince at least some people, correct, push them a little bit in your direction. And I'm not sure whether I succeed at that or not, but just getting the opportunity to try on a consistent basis is, you know, it's a it's a dream job with with all of the challenges that dream jobs entail.Chuck Warren: I do know with my college educated Republican friends that your articles probably get forwarded the most.Ross Douthat: That's good to hear.Chuck Warren: That's good. They enjoy your writing. It doesn't mean they always agree, but they enjoy your writings. It brings me a point. So Mike Pence gave a speech today about conservatism. Yes. What are your thoughts on that? Is he talking about an era that's gone or is an era that needs a new champion?Ross Douthat: I think he's mostly talking about an era that's gone. I think that, you know, there's always continuity as well as change in American politics. And there are ways in which, you know, you can go back to the Reagan era and see some surprising. Commonalities with the Trump era. Donald Trump, for instance, was not the first Republican president to use tariffs and fight trade wars and these kinds of things. Right. He was not the first Republican president to try and get America out of foreign wars. So there is there is more continuity sometimes than you would think. But the broad vision that Pence stands for, I really think belongs to an era when Republicans and conservatives were just fundamentally a lot more optimistic about the condition of the country. There was a moment at the first Republican debate that where Vivek Ramos sorry. Vivek Ramaswamy was talking about sort of depression and malaise and mental illness in America. And Pence broke in and said, no, no, there's you know, the only thing wrong with America is that we need leaders who are worthy of our country. Right? And this is a sort of long running, sort of old school conservative view that the country is in great shape. The problem is just liberals in Washington, D.C. And I think Trump's election was itself a sign that Republicans didn't really believe that anymore, that they were willing to, you know, elect someone who who would sort of, you know, break things, for want of a better term, because because the country was going in such, from their perspective, a dire direction. And I think that's still where Republican voters are now. The you know, I don't think it's clear where the party goes from here, but I think the sort of the the basic optimism that the country is all right and just the leadership needs to change that Pence embodies. That's not where I think most Republican voters are anymore. They think things are more dire than that.Chuck Warren: Generally, we're not happy warriors anymore.Ross Douthat: No. And I mean, we're just warriors.Chuck Warren: We're not.Ross Douthat: Yeah, exactly. The mentality is, you know, there's a battle for the future of the country and we need to win it. But it's not, you know, it's a tough battle and things are not necessarily going our way. I think that that's the sense Republicans have.Sam Stone: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. This is Sam Stone with your host, Chuck Warren and Kylie Kipper. Thank you to Chuck and Kip for the fantastic interviews that are leading and finishing this program today. But in the meantime, folks, how is your portfolio doing? How's your. How's your finances doing? If you have not gone to check out our friends at Invest Yrefy.com, you really need to do that. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right. 10.25 fixed. You can turn your monthly income on or off, compound it, whatever you choose. There's no loss of principle if you need your money back at any time. It's a fantastic opportunity. We've talked about it quite a bit. It's time for you to go there and take a look. Invest. y Refy.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: Well, first of all, we have a clip I want to talk about. There's been some conservative media has gone hypersonic that Kamala Harris says she's ready to take over the presidency. Jeremy, go ahead and play this clip, please.unknown: Question about the president's age often go hand in hand with questions about how he would step into the role if necessary. Do you feel prepared for that possibility and serving as vice president prepared you for for that job?Kamala Harris: Yes.unknown: And how would you describe that, that process?Kamala Harris: Well, first of all, let's. I'm answering your hypothetical, but Joe Biden's going to be fine. So that is not going to come to fruition. But let us also understand that every vice president, every vice president understands that when they take the oath, that they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president. I am no different.Chuck Warren: Sam.Sam Stone: Well, first off, she had to say that. Well, first of all.Chuck Warren: She had to say it. And no vice president would not say it, Of course. I don't want this job. Are you kidding me? I mean, this is dear conservative listeners. Sam and I are conservative. We have been in the trenches. We have skin in this movement. You cannot cry wolf about everything for a statement that, frankly, I don't know what she could say differently than what she said If she's vice president of the United States. And we seem to go on to keep we have a conservative journalistic sphere. That wants clickbait, for example. So Tucker Carlson interviewed this guy this week, Larry Sinclair, that had smoked crack and had sex with Obama. Right.Sam Stone: Allegedly. Who says he did? Allegedly.Chuck Warren: Right. Allegedly.Sam Stone: So part of the backstory about this, by the way, and I'm not sure why Tucker had this guy on, he is a a known fraudster. I mean, you know, he's got a long.Chuck Warren: Rap sheet, a long rap sheet. He's been he served jail. He filed an affidavit 20 years ago saying he couldn't stand trial because he was terminally ill. He's still alive. Right? Right. Colorado records him having 13 aliases. He has failed polygraphs over this claim. Tucker did about matter of fact, Barstool sports founder Dave Portnoy said.Sam Stone: I'm a huge fan of said.Chuck Warren: I met Larry Sinclair when I was doing my Tucker thing a couple of weeks ago. I would trust Anna Delvey before I trusted anything, Larry Sinclair said top to bottom may be the least trustworthy human I ever laid my eyes on. So my point is, here's the thing.Sam Stone: Dave Portnoy has a very good b you know what detector? Yes, he does. He really does. He does.Chuck Warren: He does. Very much so. Very much so and so, folks. We have a responsibility, what you share on social media, what we give clicks to a vice president of United States that neither Sam and I in a million years would vote for. I think she is not the brightest bulb in town. I think she's ill prepared for the job. I think she does not represent any views whatsoever I represent or want in my country to have.Sam Stone: And you can make that judgment. The majority of the country agrees with you.Chuck Warren: She's the lowest. She has lower approvals than Biden and Biden's are horrible. Yeah, but when you're asked a question by a foreign correspondent where she did this interview at about are you ready to of course she's supposed to say it the rural news would be if she said, oh my God, no, I don't want this. Right. That's the news. That would be the news.Sam Stone: Right? Then the question is, when is your resignation coming, Madam Vice President? Exactly. And you know, look, at the end of the day, too, and not that, you know, dear God, I would be terrified for this country with Kamala Harris as our 100%, 100%. But on a foreign international stage, if you're if you're the vice president and you don't say that you have just weakened and made this country more vulnerable, if you don't come out and just say, yes, of course I'm prepared.Chuck Warren: So what we're doing on the right is we're be clowning ourselves. We have to start being more serious about what we put out there in the social media sphere, what we think is actually worthwhile. Larry Sinclair is not worthwhile. Even if it's true, Obama is not current occupant of the Oval Office. It would happen 30 years ago. I don't care.Sam Stone: Well, and let me expand on that, Chuck. I do not care at all about a politician's sex life. No, it does not make any difference or interest to me whatsoever.Chuck Warren: No, not me. Once over. So, folks, let's start being a little more serious about what we look at. Jeremy's gonna play another clip here from Mayor Adams. Folks, as you know, before we play it, Governor Abbott, Governor DeSantis bussed migrants to New York City and other areas.Sam Stone: Governor Ducey, Let's give him some credit to do. He got in on the act. Yep.Chuck Warren: And all the press said this was a stunt and folks, it was a stunt. But the stunt purpose was knowing the hypocrisy of these mayors, of these sanctuary cities, the ones that go and claimed all of these border state governors are racists. And so they said, fine, you're a sanctuary city. You have promised these social services, therefore you take care of the problem. So what they did is they shipped them to New York City, a city where Mayor Adams says was a sanctuary city. Jeremy, go ahead and play this clip.Mayor Adams: I'll support. And let me tell you something, New York is never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an end to. I don't see an end to this. I don't see an end to this this issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City. We're getting 10,000 migrants a month. One time we were just in Venezuela. Now we're getting Ecuador. Now we're getting Russian speaking coming through Mexico. Now we're getting Western Africa. Now we're getting people from all over the globe have made their minds up that they're going to come through the southern part of the border and come into New York City. And everyone is saying it's New York City's problem. Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We got a $12 billion deficit that we're going to have to cut. Every service in this city is going to be impacted, all of us. And so I say to you as I turn it over to you, this is some of the most educated, some of the most knowledgeable, probably more of my commissioners and deputy commissioners and chiefs live in this community. So as you ask me a question about migrants, tell me what role you played, how many of you organized to stop what they're doing to us? How many of you were part of the movement to say, we're seeing what this mayor is trying to do and they're destroying New York City? It's going to come to your neighborhoods. All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000. And I'm telling you now, with 110,000 the city we knew.Sam Stone: So obviously, we're going to break right now. We're going to be coming back with more in just a moment here. But, you know, look, 10,000 people, he's complaining about 10,000 people. 10,000 people is a slow day on the border. Biden's been president for two and a half years. So you're talking about something like eight, nine, almost 900 days he's been. An office. So now let's multiply that 10,000 by all those days. And now ask yourself how people are dealing with the rest of them and the rest of this country.Chuck Warren: Exactly. This is breaking battlegrounds. We'll be right back to talk more about Mayor Adams, New York and Biden's lousy border crisis.Sam Stone: All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, folks. Check out our friends and invest. Why refy.com. You can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right, 10.25% fixed. This operates a lot like a CD, folks. So if you need your principal back at any time, 100%, you can get it. This is a secure collateralized portfolio with an extremely high rate of return. And by doing well for yourself, you're actually doing good. Helping college students get their lives back on track by refinancing their their private student loans. This is a fantastic opportunity. Check it out. Invest. y Refy.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: Sam, you. You've worked a lot on the border crisis here in Arizona. You've done a lot of policy. You've done a lot of research. Talk more about it. So Mayor Adams is complaining now. Now, part of the problem for Mayor Adams is being a sanctuary city. They have promised so many social services. My understanding what's interesting about this is last night NBC Nightly News led with this story. It was the first day of school and 20,000 new migrants were going to school. And they were explaining this, the cost of this. But again, this would not have happened without Ducey, DeSantis and leadership on this by Abbott. This never would be a front page story. And now it is.Sam Stone: It is. And that was the intent all along. It was the right move. Look, the first major race I worked on was a congressional race in southern Arizona on the border. So we had about 140 miles of the border in that congressional district. We went down there. We met with the farmers and ranchers. I'll never forget the story I got from one of them who he was getting older. His kids had moved out of the house, gone off to college. So it was just him and his wife there. And his house had been broken into 16 times that year. 16 times. Now, what he had actually done was go ahead and put out food and drinks and all this stuff, put refrigerators so they wouldn't break in.Chuck Warren: So go take some water, take some food and get on your way.Sam Stone: And so then they did stop actually breaking in. Right. But but that's the impact on one person. You're talking about an issue where we have millions of these folks coming here. And what Adams has done and what New York and some of these other cities are doing by by treating them the way, quite frankly, they treat the black population, which is we're going to keep you in a very minimal living. Right. And not expect you to actually do any work or any sort of thing like that. They are exacerbating the costs of this dramatically. They're increasing the number of dependent type people who are coming here for this. You know, look, this is there are so many elements of this. Nobody comes across the border without the permission of the cartels. So these people are all being trafficked in one sense or another. They've either paid directly or now they're here as indentured servants or sex trafficked. This is a problem that thank God for those governors who stood up and did this. It might have been grandstanding. The news might have might have thrown a little hissy over it at the time. But you know what?Chuck Warren: It worked. They were throwing a hissy as of six weeks ago. Right. I mean, I will say this. God bless Mayor Adams for Elise being blunt about it, not caring. He offends the administration and saying this is a problem. It's a problem in Chicago now they're complaining about it.Sam Stone: As long as the problem was in Phoenix and Dallas and in places like.Chuck Warren: Tucson, who cares? Who cares?Sam Stone: Yeah, but now that it's affecting these big national Democrats in the coastal cities where there's real Democrat media there that has to now be forced to cover this story. The the the sense of indignation coming from the left that this is a story now is just entertaining as hell.Chuck Warren: Well, I think one thing to for our listeners to understand, this is not going to slow down. The world is in chaos. So there's not it's not folks it's not like ten years ago, 20 years ago, where they came from, Central America, Mexico. These are folks coming from Russia, Ukraine. They're coming from the Middle East. They're coming from Africa. They're coming from Cuba, They're coming from Venezuela. This is not slowing down. So you got to get a border policy that actually works done.Sam Stone: What was the Pew study a couple of years ago that said something like 60% of the world's population would move to America if they.Chuck Warren: Could, and I would, too. I mean, that's why that's why you always see these moronic progressives saying what a horrible country. Hey, jackass, over 5 billion people in the world would come to America if just given the chance right now, right this very minute. You want to.Sam Stone: You want to talk about housing crisis. I mean, gosh. So that's the other thing. So the lowest estimate out there is that there are two plus million people who have come here illegally or claimed asylum status under the Biden administration. I think it's quite a bit more than probably double. It's probably more than double. It's probably double. But let's say it's 2 million. We have not built 2 million new housing units in the last two and a half years. We probably not built 200,000 new. Housing unit.Chuck Warren: We're behind several years of housing just to.Sam Stone: Catch up behind by more than a decade. So, I mean, so and you look at the issues with schools, you're complaining about Democrats always complaining about school funding. Well, you're bringing kids here who require a vastly higher rate of spending to to get them caught up. You are stressing every level of your social service system. You have a lot of kids who are coming here who are kids in our definition because they're 13, 14, 15, but they're not in Mexico. Right. Absolutely. And so then we're taking them in under a system, folks. We're going to go to the next interview here. Chuck, I didn't even catch which order we're doing them in, do we?Chuck Warren: Kimberley Strassel was the first one. Ross from The New York Times will be the next.Sam Stone: Is the next one, folks. Stay tuned for that and then stay tuned for the podcast segment afterwards. We're coming back with.Chuck Warren: A new segment.Sam Stone: All right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, the scramble show where we are making up for our electronic foibles.Chuck Warren: We had one more. We would have a scramble.Sam Stone: Well, look, we're Gen-Xers. We do not we should not be expected to be good with technology. I'm just saying, like all the younger generations have an advantage on this front that we are not allowed to have. Exactly. Because we grew up with. Did did you have a computer growing up?Chuck Warren: No, no, I started college with a typewriter. So I and I remember and I remember my friend Darren Richards, who was the top public defender for Clark County, Nevada. Folks, if you don't know Las Vegas, I remember when the computer came out, he goes, This is a fad. This will never last.Sam Stone: So I can I can actually top you on that one, Chuck. My father wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal. At that time.Chuck Warren: They said it was a fad.Sam Stone: Yeah. That this was never going to this is never going to work in business.Chuck Warren: It won't stick. He won't.Sam Stone: Stick. His two most famous articles are the two he was most wrong on. He said the computers would not make it. And then number two, he said Amazon was a fad.Chuck Warren: Well, you can't be a bold prognosticator unless you're willing to make bold.Sam Stone: He was right about many, many things in his life. Not those.Chuck Warren: Not those. Well, it's like my friend who was invited to invest in the first KFC, and he said, no one's ever going to buy chicken going through a fast food. And then his second opportunity was to invite in the storage units. You know, he goes, Oh, yeah, no one's going to take their stuff out of a garage and put it in a storage unit. So those are his two things that he's failed on. Anyway, we.Sam Stone: Anyway, we have as as always, the irrepressible Kiley Kipper is in studio with us here and we were planning in going forward, it's going to be a new feature on the podcast segment, a new feature program with Kiley's Corner. This is a conspiracy theory based.Kiley Kipper: Not necessarily conspiracy theory, but more. I wanted to for those that have been around for a while listening to us, it used to be the sunshine moment, but you know, the world's not always sunshine and I like to talk about other topics. So sometimes Kiley.Chuck Warren: Has gone down the hole of gloom and doom.Sam Stone: Kiley is. Kiley is the captain of sunshine and murder.Kiley Kipper: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So this one's not actually a murder case that I'm talking about today. This is a case up in Utah where this this mother was just arrested, I think it was this week or maybe last week. Ruby, Frank, Frankie, there's been pronounced twice, but she's a Utah mom who is a big YouTuber, so she has 2 million followers on YouTube.Sam Stone: Oh, I saw.Kiley Kipper: Something about this. Yeah, they're called eight passengers because there's eight of them. Six kids. And she she was basically known for her tough love and putting this in air quotes of why people would watch her. So she was recently just arrested for child abuse. So what had happened was her kid escaped from a window and ran to a neighbor's house and said, I need food, I need water. He was duct taped on his wrist and his arms and had I listened to the 911 call from the guy that whose house he ran up to and he just broke, he was breaking down. Crying was like, this kid's been tied up like there's lacerations on his arms from ropes. Oh, my God. And so I had never even heard of this woman before.Sam Stone: I do. How many followers did she have on YouTube? 2 million.Kiley Kipper: 2 million? Yeah. So 2 million people are watching her parenting advice.Sam Stone: You make really good money when you have that kind of followers. Like that's a that's a significant Well.Kiley Kipper: They would do meet and greets so people were posting photos of like them actually going to like meet the family which was weird in my mind.Chuck Warren: Wow. Very weird.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. Which I'm not. I don't have kids, so there was no need for me to watch a mommy blogger. But 2 million people apparently did think that. So I went back and I watched some of the videos and there were over time, you could see it get worse. So in the beginning, it was just like, I'm a strict parent, no sleepovers, which is I get in this day and age like very normal. Right?Sam Stone: I you know, there's a line I think it's a little bit like what was the the the justice who said I you know, I can't tell you what pornography is. I know it when I see it. Right. It's the same kind of thing. It's really a judgmental line. Yeah. But in this day and age, it's hard to criticize someone for being a strict parent.Chuck Warren: Yes. Yes.Kiley Kipper: So, Chuck, Chuck's looking at me because I just switched to my next note page, but where I saw it, we.Sam Stone: Have audio issues on this page.Kiley Kipper: No, no, no. This is all good. So where I saw it going south was when she started using food as her main, like, I guess, punishment. So in many times.Chuck Warren: It was a carrot and stick situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah.Kiley Kipper: So many times she would say food is a privilege, so you have to earn it. So there would be many like mornings where she'd say her kid would be like, Mom, I'm really hungry. And she's taping all of this and putting it on YouTube for years now. And she's like, Did you do the dishes? She's like, Yeah. Did you do the laundry? Yeah. Her kids six, by the way, in this video, she's like, Yeah, I did. She's like, Did you clean the toilets? She's like, Yes. She goes, Did you mow the lawn yet? And she goes, No, mom, I'm really hungry. And she was like, Well, you can't eat until you mow the lawn. Get out there.Chuck Warren: Didn't her audience. Excuse me? Didn't her audience feel like they were enabling her?Kiley Kipper: Yeah. I mean, so some people there was like a very people would report her videos. Neighbors have have said that they've called the cops on this family and they've just they've done nothing, which I don't I think. So They recently joined when I say recently, like five years ago, the oldest daughter, she's 20 now, so she's out of the house. She's going to college. She said that they joined this group called Connections, which is a mental health podcast. It's spelled with an X, and the woman, the host of that was also arrested, Jodie, because the kid when he escaped was in Jodi's house. So not actually the family's house. So it's a little confusing, huh? Um, so this woman has been arrested, too, because it was occurring in her house as well. But the 20 year old daughter, who's now in college said that when they joined Connections, they started getting she didn't use this word, but I'm going to say cult like they were. It was a really strict following. That's when she separated from her family. So the oldest 20, who probably endured some of this abuse when she was younger, but.Chuck Warren: Not not to the level probably.Sam Stone: Sounds like it was escalating. Yeah.Kiley Kipper: So she said since this in 2018 when they joined, it's gotten really bad. The dad used to be a professor at BYU. He's kind of like he's not arrested. He's supposedly they were separated for the past year, so I don't know if maybe that's when it got really bad was this past year. But basically this case is open. One of the daughters was talking about how they have limits of how much food they can eat. So Fridays and Mondays is 1900 calories. Tuesdays and Thursdays is 1700 calories.Sam Stone: That's not enough for a kid.Kiley Kipper: And then Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, it's 1500 calories.Sam Stone: Oh, no, that's no.Chuck Warren: I mean, not enough.Sam Stone: At all. No, that's that's not enough.Chuck Warren: Well, I will tell you, Utah will pounce on this. She will be serving jail, if not prison time on this. And good.Sam Stone: Yeah. And good.Chuck Warren: And she should. They will.Kiley Kipper: But so Alex Murdaugh did the same thing. They have all these calls and then like the calls in jail are still like, you can request them and hear them. So supposedly one of the calls I say supposedly I listened to it. So one of the calls, unless it wasn't Jodi's voice, she was talking to her husband or the who she's been separated with for a while now about there was apparently a flood in their house and they were discussing the. So while she's in jail, they were discussing renovations of the flood that was that happened in their house over like anything else that's more important in their life, which apparently not the kids.Sam Stone: Wow.Chuck Warren: The world is really screwed up. Yes, very. And I do feel like this woman. I don't think that's going to be something abnormal. I think as people try to find purpose to a confusing, chaotic world, I think we're going to hear more stories like this over and over and over because people are trying to find meaning. They're trying to find purpose or trying to find structure because it's not out there.Sam Stone: Well, I think all of that. But I think then it goes to a different and dangerous level with social media because one driver behind behind these social media accounts is you have to keep building. I mean, who's who's watching?Chuck Warren: Who are the 2 million? I'd love to know the demographics of the 2 million people watching this woman. I mean, me too. I mean, what makes that worth your time?Sam Stone: Well, I mean, look, in a certain sense, I think you can see it because for parents, the advice they're getting from the official sources appears to have failed in so many ways.Chuck Warren: It happens all the time, too, right? I mean, it's unique. I mean, that's the hard part. We are in the country that want to protect parental rights. Right. And there is a danger on overboarding that so much. But, you know, so they're always going to take, I think, the parents side on a lot of things, unless you have some real, real proof or evidence.Sam Stone: Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. And look, one of the things when you're dealing with whatever your state calls Child protective services, one of the things you realize is the situations they routinely see are so beyond the the understanding of the average human being, even far beyond what. Kylie, you're describing in this. I mean, because from working at the city of Phoenix, I know I've seen some of the police reports that are attached to these things. You're talking about, you know, kids this is sick, folks. But kids being kept in cages is not as uncommon as we'd all like to believe. Kids being starved. Yeah. For for really unfathomable reasons is not uncommon.Chuck Warren: And the problem is it gets passed down from generation. Yes. Generation to generation, which creates a whole culture of psychopaths.Sam Stone: It's it is consistent. I mean, you really do see the generational trauma, the effects of it, and a lot of stuff right now tied to the generational poverty that we've created with government programs, which becomes so hopeless that it increases the frequency of those traumas because people are lashing out and even at their own families for things that are affecting their lives.Chuck Warren: Well, and the three of us in this room, we hit the lucky sperm club by being born into the families.Kiley Kipper: I was going to say.Sam Stone: This is Chuck's second statement of the day that I'm not sure won't get bleeped on Christian radio here. But but it's.Chuck Warren: True. It is true. We, the three of us in the room. And, you know, when I was growing up there until ten years ago, I thought my upbringing was somewhat average American upbringing. I grew up in a middle class home. My parents worked hard, did dinner. You know, there was no abuse. There was nothing like that. They were supportive and, you know, prepare you for the future. The older I get what I was, what was available to me is rare. Yeah. And you wonder why we have problems in this country and throughout the world. It's not it's not unique to America. This happens everywhere. It's one.Sam Stone: Of the reasons I was disappointed that friend of the show, Larry Elder, was not allowed to go on, you know, to to participate in the debate, to talk.Chuck Warren: About that, to.Sam Stone: Talk about that issue specifically.Chuck Warren: One other item, Kylie from Kiley's Corner. Before we move on to the next subject, what's going on in Idaho? Is he going to get off?Speaker10: What's going on in Idaho?Kiley Kipper: You know, if he does, I think there'll be a lot of people that riot. However, if he.Sam Stone: Does, he's probably got a slam bang.Speaker10: Lawsuit. Yeah.Kiley Kipper: Yeah. So he waived his right to a speedy trial. So we will not see this in court for a long time. They say it could be years, years, years, years. During that hearing, though, Kaylee, one of the victims her. One of her family members. They don't show it because they don't show. The audience in the courtroom wrote wore a pro-death penalty shirt to kind of taunt Brian.Kiley Kipper: Um.Kiley Kipper: And they also he was so cameras will be allowed in the courtroom. However, I don't think that I think the judge ruled that they they won't report on the case. So there will be cameras. I'm assuming, you know, at the end of it there will be a documentary and whatnot. However, there won't be live reporting. And one one this one's funny. One of Brian's arguments against it was they kept focusing on his crotch. So supposedly I. I haven't seen any of those photos, but the judge agreed.Kiley Kipper: That.Kiley Kipper: Something fishy was going on.Sam Stone: Oh, okay.Chuck Warren: All right. So let's let's Sam, let's talk about Salman Rushdie. As you know, a fanatical jihadist attacked him on the stage, stabbed him. He lost an eye. Right. Do you have to So I guess you only need one. According to the Biden administration, you only need one eye.Sam Stone: Now, this is amazing. So Barry Weiss, Free Press reporting today, Salman Rushdie's attacker. I'm just going to read this, folks. Salman Rushdie's attacker getting treated with kid gloves. Sure. A crazy jihadi ran on stage and stabbed Salman Rushdie, who lost an eye. But have you considered that the Biden administration really wants to make a deal with Iran? And so maybe Rushdie is being a little dramatic. Did he really need both eyes? This is a real quote from Jason Schmidt, the district attorney overseeing the case, arguing that some of the prosecution depends on Biden's Iran agenda. Quote, the US attorney's office. I know they are engaged in their own investigation and potential prosecution, and they've been looking at this as well. I do think it does have political considerations and recognizing, for instance, that the Biden government is trying to negotiate with Iran now to bring them back into a nuclear treaty. I understand that there's a lot of considerations here that, you know, that are way outside my pay grade.Chuck Warren: I'm telling you, this administration, what they decide, needs to receive the punishment of the law and what needs to be handled with kid gloves is a decision they make every day now.Sam Stone: Well, let's add the fact that this nuclear treaty is literally just a way to hand Iran a nuclear bomb 100%. I mean, nothing more. It's handing them money and a bomb. And that's what you're saying, that Salman Rushdie's attacker should be let off, should be should be allowed to skate on.Chuck Warren: It's just not a justice system I want in my country.Sam Stone: It's not a justice system.Chuck Warren: No, it's not at all. Folks, thank you for spending time with us this weekend. And this is breaking battlegrounds. You can see this clip and more at breaking battlegrounds. Dot vote or pick us up wherever you listen to podcasts and in addition to all our other markets. So check out our website again, Breaking battlegrounds dot vote on behalf of Sam and I and Kiley's Corner. Have a great weekend. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we've lined up a trio of compelling guests to keep you informed. First, Congressman Russell Fry, representing South Carolina's 7th District, joins us to discuss critical topics, including the border crisis, Hurricane Idalia's impact on his district, and his bipartisan bill, the Fentanyl Crisis Research and Evaluation Act. Plus, we'll explore the latest developments in the Biden family investigations.Then, we'll shift our focus to New York's 3rd Congressional District with congressional candidate Kellen Curry where he discusses his bid to unseat incumbent George Santos.Lastly, friend of the show, Henry Olsen, a Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, will provide insights into the ever-evolving political landscape, including his recent analysis of Trump._Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-Congressman Russell Fry is proud to serve the Grand Strand and Pee Dee as their Representative for South Carolina’s Seventh Congressional District.Russell is a true believer in the American Dream. Growing up he watched his parents work hard for every penny they earned, and since then Russell has been doing the same. He put himself through his undergraduate education at the University of South Carolina and law school at the Charleston School of Law, where he served as president of the Student Bar Association, helped the school achieve its American Bar Association accreditation, and also received the prestigious Civility Award. After this, he practiced law along the Grand Strand for over a decade.As an Eagle Scout, Russell shares the sentiment that “you should leave your campsite better than you found it.” Every day he strives towards a goal that  “we should leave our country better than we found it.” Growing up, he saw first-hand how government’s actions directly affect families living paycheck to paycheck, and he is committed to fighting for those who don’t always have a voice.Russell is a public servant and active member of his community. Prior to this role, he represented State House District 106 (Horry County) in South Carolina’s General Assembly for seven years. He served as Chief Majority Whip, where he fought for lower taxes, less government, pro-Second Amendment legislation, and pro-life legislation. Russell also chaired the House Opioid Abuse Prevention Study Committee, which resulted in 18 policy initiatives being signed into law and record funding for opioid prevention, education, and treatment.Russell is a loving husband to his wife, Bronwen, and dedicated father to their son, James. The family lives in Murrells Inlet with their chocolate lab, Jasper.  -Kellen CurryAs a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy Kellen spent eight years on active duty delivering critical cyber security technology for our country’s military and completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan. After completing his Master of Business Administration degree at George Washington University, Kellen went on to work at J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Banking Division in New York City. Kellen believes his extensive experience working in national security and in our national economy will serve him well in his bid for Congress. Kellen continues to serve our nation in the Air Force Reserves and is a student at Columbia University pursuing a Master of Science in Sports Management where he also volunteers with Positive Coaching Alliance, a non-profit organization which strives to create a positive youth sports environment in communities across the country.In his campaign, Kellen will be focusing on core issues including national defense in the face of rising global threats, economic insecurity due to persistently high inflation, increasing affordability on Long Island and raising the accountability bar in D.C. through ethics reforms.He will also be working to achieve what he calls ‘the gold standard of constituency services’ which has been absent but is critical to improving the lives of NY-3 residents.-Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist and 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.-TRANSCRIPTIONSam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Our first guest up today, Congressman Russell Fry, represents South Carolina's seventh District. Prior to going to the US Congress, he represented the state House in South Carolina's General Assembly for seven years, served as chief majority whip. And Chuck, we always love Congress members and senators who have served in their local, state house or local government because you just get a perspective that Washington does not offer. So we're very excited to talk with him. He is a fighter for lower taxes, less government, pro-Second Amendment legislation and pro-life legislation. Chuck, if you're pro-life today, you've got to be fighting this fentanyl epidemic, this crisis that is tearing the country apart.Chuck Warren: 100%. Congressman, you have introduced a bipartisan bill called the Fentanyl Crisis Research and Evaluation Act to learn more about how the fentanyl crisis is impacting America in South Carolina in 2021, you had 1494 deaths due to fentanyl. I mean, that's we can multiply that by 1020 because of the family members it affects, right? Their loved ones, things of that nature. What do we need to do to turn the tide back against this fentanyl crisis?Congressman Russell Fry: Oh, gosh, there's just a lot. And quite honestly, I don't even know that we have enough time in this segment, but we'll try. The first thing I think is and the first thing is you've got to stop the flow that's at the border. You've got to stop that. You've got to address that. But beyond that, what you have to realize is you need access to care. You need the ability of families to get the resources and the help they need. You need to strengthen law enforcement. And what frustrates me is this is the biggest one of the biggest health care problems that we have in this country. But beyond that, Congress doesn't know a lot about the impact on the economy, on the labor market, on housing, the impact on the Treasury, I mean, all these different things. And the fact that we don't know those frustrates me. I just got there. I'm like, wait a second, y'all don't know these data points that would help dictate good policy. So you got to stop the flow. But beyond that, you need to give lanes for recovery so that people can get back on their feet and get back to work, get back to being normal people. And fentanyl just I mean, we see it every day. 70% of the overdoses in this state are associated with fentanyl alone. And it's similar like that across the country. It's just sad to see.Chuck Warren: Well, what's so frustrating about this fentanyl crisis is a there is a role for government closing the border, finding out what these data points are, the things you're trying to investigate.Sam Stone: And pushing people into treatment.Chuck Warren: Pushing people in treatment. But what's also frustrating for me is just don't take drugs. I mean, you know, I mean, it's that's what's hard about it. Right? And so there's you know, the government has a role in this. And I don't want to pretend it does not law enforcement has a role in this. But there's also a lot of personal responsibility. And I think that's something the communities and churches I mean, the old Nancy Reagan slogan, just say no, which was mocked. I don't know. Maybe we need a campaign like that again.Congressman Russell Fry: Well, maybe. Look, and I do know that prevention for every dollar that you invest in prevention, you save, I think, $4 in health care costs and $7 in criminal justice costs. So the messaging, the PSA that people put out there, that that education component is just so big. And what's crazy look, I'm 38 years old and we all know people who partake in a little bit of marijuana or whatever. People just do that. And and in some states, it's allowed. Some states it's not. But you know what's crazy? They lived to tell the tale until recently. I mean, it's laced in everything. And that's the that's the crazy people don't go out and seek, you know, let me get some fentanyl. It's usually added into other things. And you hear about West Point cadets, you hear about students, you hear about just really everybody in all walks of life that have to deal with this. And they never live to tell the tale to get back on the recovery. So the prevention side, which you just talked about, that's critical to this.Sam Stone: Well, and and, Congressman, this is Sam. One of the things that so I've worked a lot with the city of Phoenix. And one of the things that that we know that I don't think the public is fully aware of yet is that Narcan loses effectiveness after a person has had to use it a couple of times. So the more the more someone has overdosed. And right now, we're keeping a lot of these folks alive by having Narcan everywhere. But there are limitations on that. And that's going to result in a increased death toll over time.Congressman Russell Fry: I'm right. Right. And you know what's frustrating to to that point, we just did this pilot program in South Carolina that I think other places can do. But say you say you overdose, you go to the hospital, you're recovered, you revive, you come around again, and you know what? You have this moment of clarity. At that point. A lot of people do, and they go, I need to get help. And so then they try to go get into a place to get help. And guess what? You got to wait two, three, four weeks to get into a place. Well, guess what? By that time, that addiction has already started to pull you back in and you're back doing the same thing you are again. What we've done in South Carolina, at least here locally, is fast track those people. So when these things happen. But that's one of those barriers to access that just when there's that clarity because everyone hits that point, when there's that clarity and you go, I need to get help, I need help, you got to wait around for 4 or 5, six weeks. If you can even get in somewhere.Sam Stone: You have to have help available right then and there, right?Congressman Russell Fry: So you need it. And if you don't have that peer to peer help, if you don't have, you know, medication assisted treatment or whatever, whatever options are out there, if that's not available to you, you're doing the same thing again. And you might not get a second, third and fourth chance in the future. You might overdose and pass away. And that's what we're seeing right now.Chuck Warren: With Congressman Russell Fry. He represents South Carolina's seventh district. You can catch this interview this weekend in Florence, South Carolina, on Am 1400 and of course, nationwide on other outlets. Congressman, have you talked to local law enforcement about this issue? And what are their what's their feedback to you?Congressman Russell Fry: Well, I have and unfortunately, in your listening area in Florence, there's a sheriff whose daughter just recently passed away from a fentanyl overdose. And so, again, it affects everybody, but they're seeing just the dramatic growth in it. Their officers are equipped with Narcan. They're seeing it. They're seeing the growth of this drug in rural communities, in urban centers, really everywhere. And it's and it's worse than it's ever been. So they feel frustrated. South Carolina did fortunately pass a law last year. I had when I was in the General Assembly, I was had brought it up. And sometimes these things take a couple of years to get done. But in this one, it just gives tools to law enforcement to be able to crack down on this, to be able to, you know, to unwind some of these some of these drug rings that are that are around. And so that's a big component to this, too. But they're feeling it and they see it every day. And they have to train their officers on how to deal with it because it's a dangerous substance that if it gets on your skin, one of their own might go down.Sam Stone: Yeah, we've seen that across the country with police officers who have been overdosed from from very minor exposure to fentanyl during their interactions with the public. So it's a huge issue. But Congressman, one of the things and I know you've been a big fighter for a secure border, but it seems like this is not a problem we're going to be able to address unless we start getting control of the border. And the data that just come out shows that not only are we not doing anything realistically to get control of the border, the problem is worse than it's ever been. Over 90,000 people detained by Border Patrol last month, you know, beating a May 2019 record.Chuck Warren: And that's who they.Sam Stone: Caught and that's who they caught. The fentanyl dealers are not the ones those are the ones who are turning themselves over to Border Patrol to begin the asylum process. The people were not catching are the fentanyl traffickers, the dealers, the cartel members. Right. How do we address this unless we start really securing our border?Congressman Russell Fry: Well, you can't. And that's been my message even before I got to Congress. And just doing dealing with opioids in the state level, you cannot begin to address the issue until you shut off the hose, until you shut off the flow. And it doesn't mean you can't start start trying and keep trying. South Carolina's always going to do that. Local governments are always going to keep trying to address it, but they're not in the position that the federal government is to deal with the flow. And when you have the administration touts the record amount of fentanyl that they've seized, that's great. But there's so much more that's coming through the border. We know that. We know the precursors, the chemicals are coming from China. We know that they're being manufactured. And just south we know that the cartels are shipping them up and they're not dummies. They will flood an area with 100 200 migrants and then two miles up the road, they'll sneak a you know, they'll sneak fentanyl across the border or, you know, human smuggling or human trafficking. They'll do that because all the resources are dealing with the 200 people that are just sitting there in this section of Yuma or wherever they might be. It's obscene.Chuck Warren: Well, with Congressman Russell Fry, you can get him on Twitter at Russell Fry, SC. Congressman, you you're your district was just hit by the hurricane. How is everybody doing? How's everybody coping out there?Congressman Russell Fry: I think okay. I mean, we were very fortunate. I mean, there was some tornadic activity up in the Cherry Grove section along the coast. And so you had some homes that were damaged. You have a road that that looks like it took some damage. But I would say overall, we were very fortunate. I think the storm, you know, there's never a. A great time for a storm to hit. But when it's low tide and the storm arrives, you don't have the storm surge. It was moving very quickly, so it didn't stay here long. You know, it rained five and a half, six inches, which is a lot. But it was able we were able to largely absorb it. So I think overall, we were very blessed in dealing with it. And so some some things to recover from, but not as bad as Florida and not as bad as prior storms in our area.Sam Stone: Congressman, we have just about two minutes before we go to break. And folks, we're going to be coming back with more from congressman here in just a moment. But one of the things I kind of Chuck and I have been kind of talking about these last couple of days watching this hurricane is that I think the almost every American citizen would would give thanks to God that this did not end up being a worse situation than it was, that it was not the catastrophe that was predicted. But what is kind of disconcerting to me is that it seems like the corporate media, the left media, even some Democrat officials, there was almost a palpable sense of disappointment that these two hurricanes that we've just had, the one on the West Coast and this one neither delivered the kind of catastrophe that that they almost seem to be hoping for.Congressman Russell Fry: No, it's it's it's wild. And they drive clicks and they spin up fear. We actually had some and I won't tell you who, but we had some news interviews that were canceled. And I just have to assume that it was it wasn't it wasn't chaotic enough for them. But regardless, I think I think you're right. And and it's sad to see people get spun up. We've been dealing with storms since forever. And in 1957, we had Hurricane Hazel that wreaked havoc. It was way before my time. But you talk to people, it was, I think, a Category 4 or 5 that hit this area directly. These storms are you know, they they are problematic. But what makes it worse is just the the doomsday scenarios from the media. People just need to be prepared. They need to listen to their, you know, their local local officials and state officials on how to deal with this. But then that's when FEMA comes in on the back end, is to help the recovery.Sam Stone: Yeah, absolutely. Breaking is going to be back in just a moment with more from Congressman Russell Fry.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 going to be continuing on in just a moment with more from Congressman Russell Fry of South Carolina's seventh District. But first, folks, how's your portfolio doing? Been an up and down, another up and down week in the Biden stock market. What if you could earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return instead of taking all that risk up to 10.25% fixed? It's a fantastic opportunity from our friends at  Y refy. Check them out, invest, yrefy.com or give them a call at 888 y refy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. All right, Congressman, before we went to break, we were talking a little bit about the issues with fentanyl, the border. And you mentioned that something I think a lot of people are becoming aware of is that the precursor chemicals for the fentanyl that we're seeing coming into the country for the meth, that is vastly more powerful than it was just a few years ago. That is coming into this country with the the tranq and other new designer drugs, the precursor chemicals are all coming to Mexico where they're turned into drugs. They're coming from China. What can we do to try to stop that pipeline?Congressman Russell Fry: Well, I think I think you've got to have a realistic one. I think that there are and we we saw this a little bit with with the Trump administration in the early stages. But you've got to stop that flow. You've got to be able to sanction those companies, stop the flow, take, you know, and look, China needs to be a willing participant here, too. And that's the frustration that I have right now, is that there was a there was an op ed the other day talking about fentanyl from a Biden administration official, but they never mentioned China. Well, they have a big role here. These chemicals are manufactured over there and they're shipped across to the cartels who put it all together and make fentanyl. And so they've got to be a willing participant. But you've got to have an administration that actually wakes up and says, we know this is coming from our southern border. We know the chemicals are coming from China. And up to this point, they're not really talking about that. And I think that's the big that's the biggest frustration.Sam Stone: You're asking Joe Biden to wake up. There's no evidence that's possible.Chuck Warren: I mean, look, if you're China and you want to hurt your competitor, I won't say we're there. Amy, let's say were their number one competitor. What do you do? You flood their country with things that will cause devastation, Right? It's an unseen war that.Sam Stone: Fentanyl, meth.Chuck Warren: Tiktok, it's not the same as firing a missile, but it has the same effect. All due respect.Congressman Russell Fry: Well, in a lot of these companies, too, I mean, they have multiple locations in different spots, right? I mean, they're just they're usually not just isolated in China. You know, these are big companies. And so they need to have some skin in the game. You need to be able to you need to be able to leverage influence there, maybe even tariff or sanction them. But at the end of the day, the flow, you know, China has a spot there. And you know what? Maybe there's there is a nefarious purpose behind this. I believe you're probably right about that. But there are ways to address it. And if they won't, then we need to there are other ways that we can force them to the table. And we need to we need to take a look at that. 300 Americans die every single day from this drug. I mean, it's just astronomical. And, you know, we've used the term poisoning because that's really what it is. It's not an overdose as much as it is fentanyl poisoning in our country. So pulling them to the table, even if they don't want to come, I think has got to be a priority of this administration.Chuck Warren: With Congressman Russell Fry of South Carolina's seventh District, you can join and help us campaign at Russell Fry SC.com or visit him on Twitter. Russell Fry, SC. First, I have two questions. First, is it true you're the eighth grade ping pong champion?Congressman Russell Fry: Oh, yeah. I still got the trophy. It wasn't it wasn't a participation trophy either. It was a real trophy.Chuck Warren: And and and the person you you, you beat, is that person still bitter about that or has he given up? Given up?Congressman Russell Fry: They probably given up. I don't know. Maybe they're bitter. I haven't talked to that person in a while.Chuck Warren: But, you know, I think I think we need a social media post with that trophy.Sam Stone: We'll be coming We'll be coming back with with more from from Congressman Gump here shortly.Chuck Warren: Exactly. All right. We have Hunter Biden and, you know, the press, which is gives the ultimate cover to the Biden administration. First of the laptop two years later, they admit it. Now we have all these alias names, 5000 emails and archives. Tell our audience what on earth is going on. I saw a tweet this morning. I just replied, The easiest way for Biden to solve this just release all the emails if there's nothing there. Right? I mean, just transparency. So tell people a little bit about it and what House Republicans can do to flesh this out more since the press is going to do everything they can to protect President Biden and Hunter.Congressman Russell Fry: Well, they're finally starting to pay attention. And I think that's maybe begrudgingly, maybe they don't want to pay attention, but they're finally starting to take notice of what's going on. But the new the new revelation, you know, look, Hunter Biden or Joe Biden had aliases that they used and that's what the Oversight Committee had subpoenaed. They used aliases, you know, Robin Wear and Robert Peters and, you know, different names that they would use. And so we subpoenaed anything that had to deal with those names or those email addresses. And again, it just shows a pattern of conduct with this family. You look at the text messages, you look at the emails, you look at the use of the term the big guy. You look at the 1023 that was released, you look at the the bank transactions and the money that flows from, at this point, four companies ultimately layered through kind of a series of money laundering actions and funneled into 20 LLCs that are all connected to multiple members of the Biden family. So this this again, just shows a course of conduct.Chuck Warren: And what people, family and what people don't understand is I own several companies, so I have various LLCs for various things. Correct. It takes a lot of work to manage 20 LLCs. You get filings, you get taxes. I mean, so this wasn't done just. To be. I mean, it was done more to be clever and hide something. They don't seem done.Sam Stone: Admittedly, they don't seem to have paid a lot of attention to the taxes part.Chuck Warren: No, but would you agree with that? I mean, doing 20 LLCs. I mean, it takes a lot of work.Congressman Russell Fry: Oh, it's a headache. And most of these LLCs were actually formed while Joe was vice president. That's that's kind of alarming. But to see and I think there was a quote in the 1023. You all have seen it. Your listeners have seen it as well. But it was toward the bottom. And the guy says it will take investigators ten years to figure out what's going on. And that's kind of proven true. I mean, we're on year I think, eight at this point, but it's taken that long because no one, DOJ and others didn't want to actually investigate this. But to when you're dealing with financial stuff, it's just so nebulous and it's hard to follow and it's hard to track and it's hard to keep people's attention. But there is enough smoke here that people realize what's going on. And I think that's why the work that we've done so far has been incredibly important on this and also why I think that this is headed toward an impeachment inquiry. It doesn't mean impeachment. You still have to do your homework and make sure you do your job. But at this point, there's just enough there. There's way more than enough to launch that process.Chuck Warren: We have about 30s left with you. Tell our audience, tell your constituents why you have faith in America's future.Congressman Russell Fry: Because I have faith in the American people and their resolve and their ability to take large amounts of information, synthesize them and make an opinion. We're seeing people wake up in a powerful way right now. And and it's not just Republicans. It's really everybody realizing what's going on. The people control this country. They always have. And they see what's going on is is, you know, shameful. But they're ready for for a better tomorrow.Sam Stone: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Congressman. We very much appreciate your time today. Folks, you can follow him. Chuck, what was that?Chuck Warren: You can follow him on Twitter, Russell Fry, SC, or you can also visit his website. Russell Frysc.com contribute, volunteer, get involved. He's doing the great work and help him out. Congressman, thank you.Congressman Russell Fry: Thank you all.Chuck Warren: Have a great weekend.Sam Stone: Folks, more from breaking battlegrounds. We're back in just a moment. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with the host Chuck Warren and Sam Stone. Big thank you to our first guest up today, Congressman Russell Fry. Fantastic discussion with him. And now we're talking to someone. Frankly, Chuck, I think this is going to be one of the most important congressional races for for Republicans in the country in this coming year. It's going to be close. Well, if you.Chuck Warren: Like honesty in public elections. Yes.Sam Stone: Yeah, Well, some of us still do. Some some of us believe in truth telling, even even on the air here where almost everyone else wants to lie to you. But, folks, we're not doing that. And that's why we have today Kellen Curry, congressional candidate running against Jorge Santos for New York's third Congressional District. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, one of those places where they don't take liars lightly and spent eight years on active duty delivering critical cybersecurity technology for our country's military. After completing two tours in Afghanistan, Kaelin went on to work at J.P. Morgan's corporate and investment banking division in New York City. Kaelin Curry, welcome to the program.Kellen Curry: Hey, how are you? Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be talking with you guys this afternoon.Chuck Warren: So tell us, what did the Air Force do to prepare you to run for Congress and to serve in Congress eventually?Kellen Curry: Absolutely. I think, you know, every every part of my experience in the Air Force was extremely positive. You know, the culture of serving the country, which, you know, is a culture that I come from my my you know, I'm a third generation veteran. My parents were public servants. Dad was a retired naval officer. Mom is a is a continues to be a decades long federal civil servant. And so just grew up watching them and and they both worked at Tinker Air Force Base right outside of Oklahoma City. And just, you know, I always wanted to have my own story of service. And so I think it was always in my future and going to the Air Force Academy and serving in the Air Force as an officer, you know, just the lessons of leadership, the lessons of of of being in a team and a group where you don't know who's who's a Republican or who's a Democrat, you just your mission focused. And that's the kind of perspective I bring to politics.Sam Stone: Kellen Considering especially mission focus, one of the things I like about your background, your resume, is the experience in cybersecurity. There are a few people in Congress, in the Senate who are starting to become more aware of that issue. But it's not an area where there's a lot of elected expertise. You talk about mission focus. How much do you think you'll be able to make that your mission to help educate your colleagues about the various issues related to cybersecurity on both sides of the aisle?Kellen Curry: Absolutely. I think the country has been going through and really all of society has really been going through a learning curve when it comes to cybersecurity. And it's really just a matter of how do we defend and safeguard the information that's that's on that's on our networks. And we're so we're such a networked people in in society today. And so, you know, the first and foremost is just, you know, your hygiene on the Internet. You know, when you use the same password for every website. I know some of us are guilty of that. I know I am sometimes, too. It seems like I'm.Sam Stone: Looking across at Chuck right now and laughing. Yeah.Kellen Curry: Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, we live in a in a culture in a society where you got to have a password and login for like everything you touch. And so, you know, that's the first and foremost. And then the other thing is that I think from a national security standpoint is that we just have to invest, we have to invest, and we have to nurture innovation. One of the best things about America is our is our innovative economy, and that flows into our national security. I mean, to the extent that we can nurture that, that innovation in the private sector and then leverage it to use in military applications is what my time in the Air Force was all about. And so, you know, like you said, being able to educate, you know, our lawmakers on how to procure those those technologies, how to make sure that we don't pass regulation, that that stifles that technology is really the biggest thing.Chuck Warren: What do we do about China? I mean, you were in the military, two tours in Afghanistan. What do we do about China? What do your colleagues you worked with, what what do people actually who defend this country think we should be doing with China? Yeah.Kellen Curry: Yeah. Well, first and foremost, we have to not overreact. China for sure is a is a near-peer competitor, as we say, in the military. And so they absolutely should be taken serious. But they have a lot of issues and challenges, social challenges on their end, you know, so so it's not like we're going up against an adversary that we cannot be successful in. I think, you know, going back to the innovative economy that I mentioned earlier, we have to make sure that we remain an innovative and capitalistic economy that can produce technologies of the future. You know, you think about you think about China, so much of what they want to you know, how they want to. Place American superpower is, is really through AI and quantum computing and biotechnology and these other things. So we have to continue to make those investments. We also have to do things. For example, the Merchant Marine Academy is located here in my district. And so when you think about how do we sustain naval power in the South China Sea, the merchant Marines are on the front lines of making sure that we're able to do that because they transport so much equipment and personnel into the South China Sea. So those are just a few things, a couple of things I would say. And then maybe the last is that we have to reinvigorate our all volunteer military force, which is at an all time low in terms of our propensity for people to serve.Sam Stone: And I want to talk more about that. And and the merchant Marine issue you brought up Kellen Curry. We're coming right back with more from him. He's running against Jorge Santos in New York's third Congressional District, 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 Moran. I'm Sam Stone. We're going to be continuing on in just a moment with more from Kellen Curry, congressional candidate running against Jorge Santos in New York's third Congressional District. But before we do, folks, how's that portfolio of yours doing? Are you making money in this stock market, this Biden economy working out for you? It doesn't seem to be working out for most people. That's why Chuck and I recommend you check out our friends and invest. Why refy.com Go to their website. Invest y refy.com Learn how you can earn up to 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right up to 10.25% fixed. You can turn your monthly income on or off, compound it, whatever you choose. There's no penalty to your principal if you need to withdraw your money early. This is a fantastic opportunity. So check it out. Go to investyrefy.com or give them a call at 888 yrefy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: Well, we're with Kellen Curry here. He is running for Congress in New York, three against Jorge Santos. And you can learn more about him at Kellen Currycomb. Sam wants to follow up with some questions on the Merchant Marines.Sam Stone: Go ahead, Sam. Yeah, so that's actually Kellen, thank you for bringing that up because that's actually something that hasn't come up here before. I know a little bit about it from a friend who went through the Merchant Marine Academy. But one of the big underlying issues to national security that I don't think most people understand is our ability to transport goods and troops in wartime crisis. And to do that, you need US flagged carriers and we don't have many of them. And that's a huge issue. And we don't have enough merchant marine sailors. And that's another huge issue.Kellen Curry: Absolutely. I mean, if you if you think about it, over 90% of the ships that come in and out of American ports are, you know, our foreign crews. And so you could expect that in a conflict that China, they will do all they can to put pressure on those foreign crews and on those host governments not to make good on deliveries to our ports. And we saw what can happen with this during the pandemic. You know, when store shelves went bare and, you know, the American economy was crippled, supply chains became dislocated. So we have to be able to continue our economy even if we do get into, you know, a a hot war, if you will, in the South China Sea with with China. But, you know, to your other point, the vast majority of the military's equipment and personnel actually moves on sea. And so we have to have that capability. It has to be something that's real and that's a deterrent effect and that China understands that we can sustain ourselves in a in a naval, you know, in a naval conflict or just a naval operation in in the in that region, particularly in the South China Sea. And so, so much of this capacity over the last, you know, three or 4 or 5 decades has really left our country. And it's it's been outsourced. And so we have to work and think about how we bring more of that capability back to America. You know, we've seen industrial policy in the microchip space, and we're going to have to do a industrial policy to bring the merchant marine presence back to our country, increase the number of sealift officers, the number of merchant Marine officers, which the Merchant Marine Academy produces. And this is you know, this is one of the crown jewels of our district. It's one of the crown jewels of the nation. We need a strong federal partner for that academy. And I look forward to being that in Congress.Sam Stone: You know, one of the things I think that's underreported also, we had a different congressman on our program. Hopefully you'll be joining him in office fairly soon. But one of the things he pointed out was China's aggressive efforts via both partnership and intimidation to essentially deny that chain of Pacific islands that the US used in World War Two to eventually get to Japan. But China realizes that that chain is is our ladder in a Pacific war with them, and they're really doing a lot to take it away. You talk about that ability to deliver equipment that becomes doubly critical in this situation where we can't count on our ability to fly troops and resources into those islands.Kellen Curry: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so much of so much of how we posture to be successful against China is really going to depend on our allies in that region to make sure that we have basing options, that we have places where we can stage and host our troops and our and our equipment in a way that that China can't can't penetrate. And so it's positive that we recently had a trilateral at Camp David with some of the nations there, mainly Japan and South Korea and America. Of course, Japan and South Korea have been, you know, at odds for quite some time. And so our ability to bring those nations together is extremely important. The administration just you know, we did a big bill out of the House that eventually passed the Senate and was signed into law to. To deliver more aid to Taiwan in a way that we haven't done in the past. And so I think the administration just released about two. 2 billion or so to make sure we operationalize that that that that legislation. So that's that's a good thing. I mean, one thing about America that's unrivaled is our alliances around the world. I mean, it's a tremendous source of soft power, the ability of an American president to pick up the phone and call somebody anywhere in the world. And, you know, eight, nine times out of ten get a favorable response is is really, really important. It's going to be important against against the fight against China. So it's good that we have an administration that recognizes that. And that's one area that I do support this administration on.Sam Stone: See, Chuck, I love it when we get congressional candidates and people running for office for the first time who can talk about this whole variety wide range of geopolitical issues, because that kind of knowledge. Kalen Curry that you're just displaying is is rare for people who are entering Congress. And folks, you need to check him out and follow him at Kellen Kellen underscore Curry on Twitter. You can go to his website. Kellen Curry.com Definitely go and check him out there and support this man because we need to bring we need to retain control of Congress. We need smart people there who can talk about issues like we've been talking about. And also we need to restore some integrity to this specific seat, because, quite frankly, Jorge Santos is an embarrassment to every Republican in this country.Chuck Warren: He's a bad Saturday Night Live Saturday Night Live skit. Kellen, let me ask you this question. There's two reasons. There's a couple reasons why you said you were running for office besides obviously your service in the Air Force and your tours in Afghanistan. One was running against Jorge Santos because he's ineffective. But number two, you've cited Joe Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan and you called it a disastrous withdrawal. Talk about it a little bit, what that meant to you and the people you served with over there.Kellen Curry: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was it was heart wrenching, you know, I mean, I spent two tours there. I worked, you know, actually I worked on an old Russian base we were embedded with with our Afghan allies working shoulder to shoulder. It was a very interesting unit. I was I was attached with, you know, we had actually bought about 30 helicopters from the Russians, actually when relations were good in the early 2000. And we were trying to outfit these with new armaments for what was essentially the Afghans, like 82nd Airborne helicopter unit. And so we were doing that work. My job was to do all we could to keep these things in the air and provide all the procurement necessary to do that and to teach the Afghans how to do that as well. And so, you know, you go through things like that. You travel the country doing that work, and then you turn on and you come home and you turn on CNN and you see, you know, people clinging from planes and just the chaos and certainly the 13 Marines that we lost. And there was just there was a better way to exit that country that did not leave, you know, America diminished on the global stage.Kellen Curry: And I think watching that, certainly every veteran that spent time there watching that and then, of course, you know, by going to the Air Force Academy, I had friends that went there that unfortunately did not come back home. And, you know, you internalize all that and and it moves you, you know, emotionally. And then you look over and you see we have somebody here in Congress who's just wholly unfit. And the fact is that our veterans and the American people writ large, they deserve the best leadership that our country can provide so that we can avoid those situations, but also so we can have trust that the agenda that our elected representatives are pursuing is, is the agenda of the people and not their own personal agenda. And so, you know, all of those things, I think moved me to to think about how I could serve again. And and this was something that that that came up. And I did a lot of the research and asked a lot of the questions and eventually got to the point where I decided to go for it. And here I am.Chuck Warren: Well, we certainly need more leaders like you in Congress and you've had some great life experiences. So, for example, you ran the 60m at the Air Force Academy. What did track and field teach you about leadership?Kellen Curry: Yeah, you know, I've always been active in sports. And I think, you know, for me as an athlete, you know, you've got mom and dad there to, you know, to make you into the person that that you that you eventually become. But but something happens in that relationship with coaches and with athletes that's just special. And it enriches the life of a young person. You know, Track did that for me. High school football did that for me. I still stay in touch with coaches from high school. Wait, what.Sam Stone: Position did you play? We got to we got to get the important stuff in here.Kellen Curry: Yeah, I was a I was a defensive back. I didn't have any hands, so I couldn't catch anything. So they put me on that side of the ball. But. But yeah, man, I enjoyed sports of all kind and just the relationship building. Being in the team building and in the lessons that you learn from those experiences, they just make you a well rounded person and and enjoy traveling the country and running track at the Air Force Academy. It was a real highlight for me.Sam Stone: All right. So so now we know you were a DB. So the important question becomes, are you a Deion Sanders DB or are you covering everybody, locking them up or are you Troy Polamalu? You're coming in there to knock their head off?Kellen Curry: I'm covering them up, man.Chuck Warren: Yeah, Yeah. You're a blanket.Kellen Curry: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was only like £160 soaking wet, so there wasn't a whole lot of hitting I could do, but. But I could run and I could run and chase and cover folks. And so, so really enjoyed the ups and downs of what you learn in that sport and just in sports in general. So really enjoyed competing.Chuck Warren: You worked in investment banking after the Air Force One issue you're going to have to deal with when you're elected is our deficit in national debt are it's just not a path we can continue. What do you propose we do on it? How do we pay down our debt? How do we get our finances in order?Kellen Curry: Yeah, I think the first thing we have to do is we have to be honest with the American people about where we are. I mean, the fact is we're not going to cut our way out of this hole. We're not going to, you know, grow our way out of the hole in terms of, you know, achieving, you know, astronomical GDP growth rates year over year. I think in order to bend the curve on the debt, we're going to have to get away from annual deficit spending at some point. And and listen, we are transitioning right now from a low interest rate environment to a high interest rate environment. So the interest on the debt is going to become more material than what we've seen in the past, and it's going to create more pain. So, you know, some of the first things that I think we're going to have to do is we're going to have to get our arms around how do we make our entitlement programs more solvent. We know that Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, these programs are going to become insolvent here in the next ten, 15, 20 years. And so we've got to get serious about how do we restructure these things and do it in a way where Democrats aren't going to go out and say, oh, here comes the Republicans again. They're going to end these programs as you know it and all that. So so we have we need presidential leadership on this issue to move the country in this direction and get serious about it, because it will become something that that begins to crowd out what we can do in the defense space, the investments that we have to make there, and certainly the investments that we have to make on the domestic side as well. But but the entitlement programs is something that's going to be a forcing a forcing function that makes us get real about how we spend and how we allocate money. We definitely need more members of Congress who are going to hold the line on spending as we go forward here in the next several decades.Sam Stone: Kellen, we have only about two minutes left here before we let you go. What has been the initial response from folks on the ground there in the third Congressional District in New York? You know, as they're learning about you and that you're taking on Santos in this race.Kellen Curry: You know, it's been tremendously positive. I think a lot of a lot of what was in the trajectory of the Santos story, I think at this point here, you know, people on the ground are just kind of sick and tired of hearing about the guy.Chuck Warren: So.Kellen Curry: You know, they they are they are hungry for what comes next. We are the first campaign that's been out there on doorsteps and the reaction has been positive. They want to know who the candidates are, what they're talking about, what their ideas are for moving the district forward. And they're ready for the stain of of of Mr. Santos to be removed. And so I think at this point, we've all kind of learned our lesson, that we have to wake up and make sure we're paying attention in these elections, that we get out and vote and that we know who we're voting for. And so I think you're going to see a lot of people who are just excited about about doing that work as citizens and taking responsibility to make sure that they get to know the candidates. They're getting to know me. I think they like what they hear and what they see, and I think we're going to be successful here.Sam Stone: I love that folks. Thank you so much, Kellen Curry. We really appreciate having you on the program today. Folks. You can follow him at Kellen underscore Curry on Twitter at Kellen Currycomb. Make sure you tune in to breaking battlegrounds next week when we're back on the air. But in the meantime, we always have a little extra segment for our podcast listeners. Go to all your favorite podcast places, download us subscribe, and we'll see you 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 podcast. Only segment of breaking battlegrounds. Folks. Thank you for tuning in as always. And special thanks to Congressman Russell Fry and Kellen Curry for their appearances today. Fantastic discussions from them. But now we're continuing on with somebody that, frankly, Chuck, I always loved talking to him more than almost any of our guests, friend of the program and repeat returning guest Henry Olsen, Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Henry, thank you so much, as always, for joining us.Henry Olsen: Well, thank you, as always for having me back.Chuck Warren: Henry, Tell us about your new podcast, by the way. Let's get a plug for it. Tell us about it. Sure.Henry Olsen: My new podcast is called Beyond the Polls, and I interview leading election analysts and poll analysts every two weeks. And we talk about all things political. We talk about the Republican race and we talk about where Biden is. And I always have somebody from one of the key swing states in my segment called State of Play, where the person who's on the ground knows the state best can give you the lowdown. So it's every two weeks you can find it on all the podcast formulas.Chuck Warren: So since you've been doing that, tell us something that has stood out to you, talking to your guests, a little nugget that has stood out to you.Henry Olsen: The importance of what I'm calling the double doubters, that if you go back to 2016, the reason the polls were upended is that 18% of Americans didn't like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and they switched in the last week from being undecided or third party voters to backing Trump over 20%. My pollsters, analysts are telling me, are double doubters with respect to Biden and Trump. And that's before the mudslinging between them really starts in earnest. That sounds to me like if we do get the rematch that the polls suggest, we're going to get the same sort of late break that may confound the experts.Chuck Warren: So that perfect segue into your your column this week. Trump might have the lead in Iowa, but he has one big weakness. What is that weakness?Henry Olsen: That weakness is churchgoing evangelicals, that they are the group that has swung behind one candidate and propelled them to victory in each of the last three caucuses. Actually, the last four. They gave George W Bush a narrow plurality in 2000. And I spent a week there. And the polls say he's got a lot of support among evangelicals, but the people on the ground may be willing to back him, but they're looking around. They want to see is there somebody better, somebody who supports our values, supports our issues and doesn't have the baggage? Iowa evangelicals historically break late. They wait until the last few months to make a decision. So it's not saying Trump isn't going to win, but don't be surprised if you see them switch to somebody who they think can give them 80% of the fight with 10% of the baggage.Sam Stone: Now, is it just the baggage or are there specific policies that Trump is weak with them on? The one that popped to my mind was Covid and allowing the closure of churches. Is there something like that that's playing?Henry Olsen: I'll tell you, I was surprised in my conversations at the lack of policy disagreements. I would have expected more of the evangelicals to note things like that, but also note his backing away from a strongly pro-life stance, saying that the whole point of overturning Roe was to negotiate without saying what he actually stands for. I did not get that from anybody. I really got a question of that. His long standing concerns about his character remain. And the question of is this guy so tied down by his character and legal problems that he can't effectively beat Joe Biden. And they're really scared of Joe Biden.Chuck Warren: They should be. They should be. Let's do a little switch here and let's talk about the Hunter Biden stuff. Do you feel look, you're in D.C.. You're a columnist for The Washington Post. Do you feel what people call the legacy media is really starting to pay attention to this issue or are they still trying to just sweep it under the floor mat?Henry Olsen: You know, I would say it's between and it depends on which legacy media outlet you're talking about. There's beginning to be enough there, there. Right. You know, in the sense that you just can't ignore some of the things that are now being said under oath as opposed to things that were being speculated about or which relied on, you know, on emails, copies of emails found on laptops. And so I think we're only 1 or 2 revelations away. If those revelations exist of the legacy media actually having to pay much more attention to it. I think they're no longer in the sweep under the rug. They hope that it goes away. But if it doesn't, I think there's been enough there that they actually will have to turn their attention to it.Chuck Warren: Do you find any reasonable explanation why he would have 5000 emails under an alias?Henry Olsen: A reasonable explanation? Yeah.Chuck Warren: I mean, look, I mean, the easy way to handle this is just release them all. If there's nothing there, there's nothing there. Just make it transparency and embarrass the Republicans. That's an easy way to handle this, right? If there's nothing there.Henry Olsen: Yeah, well, I never want to get into the argument that stereotypically is offered by autocratic police departments. If you have nothing to fear, you have nothing to hide.Sam Stone: Guys, guys, I don't know this. I've got to say, this is like going when you've got this. This is like going to the ATM after 3 a.m. Nothing good is going to come from this. When you have fake email addresses and you're in office, nothing good is ever going to come from that.Henry Olsen: Yeah.Henry Olsen: You know, the thing is, I can imagine reasons you would want to do it like evade, you know.Sam Stone: Like did you see Gretchen Whitmer's guy communicating with her in Greek alphabet letters?Chuck Warren: Oh, that's cool.Sam Stone: To avoid FOIA.Henry Olsen: Yeah. No, I hadn't. I hadn't heard about that one. You know, just goes to show they all should have been watching Bill and Ted because I.Chuck Warren: Think there's.Henry Olsen: Greek alphabets when Bill interviewed Socrates. But.Henry Olsen: You know.Henry Olsen: I can imagine good reasons for 5000 emails under multiple aliases, depending who he's communicating with. But again, the thing is, at some point, we're going to find out at least some of them. And if they aren't benign, you know, like personal stuff, that you just don't want to have somebody you know, somebody who's you're concerned about hacking and they'll looking for the words Joe Biden. I could imagine that if you were a foreign government and you might want to have malware placed on Joe Biden's personal friends and anything that says Joe Biden gets sent to Beijing. Yeah, I can imagine that as a vice president and wanting to avoid things like that. But again, we'll see whether eventually some of these will be produced. May not be 5000, may be 200, maybe 500. And we'll see what they say.Chuck Warren: Interesting. If we wrap up here, anything you think we should be looking for here in news the next month or two? Something that's going to pop up that you feel we should keep our eyes on?Henry Olsen: You know, I think there's the usual, you know, who knows what's going to happen in the counteroffensive in Ukraine? Who knows what's going to happen with the Chinese economy. I would say, though, that, you know, the second debate is going to take place at the end of the month, September 27th, out at the Reagan Library. And it's going to be make or break time for some of these people. You know that the one in Milwaukee was really kind of first impression, kind of like speed dating. The second one is going to find out whether anybody wants to return the phone call. And so I think you're going to see a little bit more fire, a little bit more opposition. And it could be that somebody breaks out or somebody crashes to the earth.Sam Stone: I would like to see a couple more people drop out before then. I would narrow it to 4 or 5 maybe.Chuck Warren: I think what's really impressive is the cultural references Henry's used today speed dating and Bill and Ted. That's the most amazing thing of this aspect today. One last question. One last question, Henry. I think Republicans have a really good chance of taking the Senate. What are your thoughts?Henry Olsen: Absolutely. I think they should be the favorites. Even if Biden wins re-election. That has to do with the math. Yes. You know, so poll came out today or yesterday from a respected pollster showed Jon Tester only getting 43% against either of his opponents, Sherrod Brown. There's been polls show that Brown's in a neck and neck race. But the important thing is where is the longtime incumbent? And he's sitting at 45%, which is roughly around where a Democrat should get flip those two seats. The Republicans control the Senate. And then you've got all the other seats. This is a map that heavily favors Republicans. Joe Manchin haven't even mentioned him. You know, these are three states that Trump carried by between 6 and 30 something points. It's just hard to see where Republicans don't get those 2 or 3 seats. And then it's very hard to see how they would lose other seats that they hold given what are up to throw control back to the Democrats?Chuck Warren: Well, being a Republican, I have complete faith my party can blow it one way or another. So amen.Sam Stone: Amen. Our skills are legendary.Chuck Warren: Henry Olsen, thanks a million for visiting with us today.Henry Olsen: Thanks for having me on.Chuck Warren: Folks. This is breaking battlegrounds. We hope you've enjoyed this week's show and we'll be back next week. And if you can visit us at Breaking Battlegrounds or anywhere you find your podcasts. Have a great weekend. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Join hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone this week on Breaking Battlegrounds for a dynamic lineup of discussions. Our first guest, Governor Joe Lombardo, gives an exclusive update on his journey as Nevada's Governor and shares his perspective on the state's progress and his vision for the road ahead.Later in the show, we shift gears to explore the complex world of technology with David Sinclair. Sinclair delves into the intricacies of data gathering and behavioral manipulation by tech giants. Gain a deeper understanding of how these companies collect and leverage user data.Concluding the episode, Rachel Walden, Mesa Public Schools Governing Board Member, brings a crucial dialogue on school safety to the forefront. Gain insight into the latest agreement in Mesa, AZ, where a significant step has been taken to enhance student safety. Every junior high and high school campus now benefits from the presence of school safety resource officers, fostering a secure learning environment._Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-Governor Joe LombardoBorn in Japan in a military family, Governor Joe Lombardo spent his childhood growing up across the world, until his father was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base and his family put down roots in Las Vegas.Governor Lombardo attended Rancho High School in North Las Vegas, before going on to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree. After graduating, he served in the United States Army and in the Nevada National Guard.Following his military service, Governor Lombardo joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), where he quickly rose through the ranks and served on nearly every level of LVMPD, from detective to assistant sheriff. While serving at LVMPD, Governor Lombardo earned his Master of Science in Crisis Management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2006.After 26 years on the force, Governor Lombardo was elected as Sheriff of Clark County in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. As the sheriff of Nevada’s largest county, he oversaw a $1.3 billion dollar budget, 6,000 employees, and LVMPD’s efforts to protect millions of Clark County residents and visitors each day.Governor Lombardo was elected as the 31st Governor of Nevada in November 2022 and sworn into office in January 2023. Governor Lombardo is focused on diversifying and revitalizing Nevada’s economy, restoring law and order in communities across the state, and bringing excellence, school choice, and accountability to Nevada’s education system.More important to him than anything, Governor Lombardo is a devoted husband to First Lady Donna Lombardo, a dedicated father to his daughter Morgan, stepdaughter Lacey, stepson Jackson, and a grandfather to his 1-year-old grandson Teddy-David Sinclair is the founder and CEO of 4FreedomMobile. A secure mobile service platform that provides secure, unlimited talk, text and high-speed data worldwide, while preventing tech companies, network operators, and others from tracking users' location, identity, communications, internet activity, payments, and more.-Rachel Walden is a member of the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board, the largest school district in the state. As a Governing member she has prioritized academic achievement, parental rights, fiscal responsibility, and transparency.TRANSCRIPTIONChuck WarrenWe met with Governor Joe Lombardo today. He is the governor, the 20th most popular governor in the United States. How does it feel to be in the top 20?Gov Joe LombardoWas it 20 or 27? 20th?Chuck Warren20th, 57% approval, 20th. Most popular. You should. It feels.Gov Joe LombardoGood. I just don't know how comprehensive the poll is. Right. I mean, but it's good that in the short tenure seven months. Right. That people the word is getting out. What we're trying to achieve here in the state of Nevada and what we're trying to achieve for the conservative side of the Republican Party and and the decisions we're making along the way and how we're competing with the state legislature that's in the verge of a supermajority. And and and yet we're still getting work done. So I think people recognize that.Chuck WarrenThat's fantastic. I flew out from Milwaukee this morning and I was talking to a gentleman doing my shoeshine, and he said, I said, Who is your favorite politician? Because he knew that there were RNC meetings there. Where were you at? Milwaukee.Gov Joe LombardoYou were in the airport in Milwaukee. Okay.Chuck WarrenAnd I said, Who's your favorite politician? Because he was asking a lot of political questions. And he said, Tommy Thompson. And I said, Why is that? He goes, I could just trust him. And it seems like something we're facing now as people don't trust their elected officials anymore. So how do you being truly outnumbered in the legislature develop this trust not only with the voters of Nevada, but the legislature, so that they know that when I deal with Governor Lombardo, his word means something?Gov Joe LombardoYeah, that's a good point. Well, hopefully part of it and the trust factor is my previous career. Right. Being a law enforcement official for 34 years, almost 35 years, and and being the sheriff, the top dog in Clark County, Nevada. You know, we went through a lot of crisis during my tenure and our response and leadership and doing what I say I'm going to do and actually doing it is a big deal for politicians. You know, it's quite often you hear people complain that they say they're going to do stuff, especially during the campaign periods, and it actually doesn't get done right. It's just a sound bite to garner votes. And I think it's important that you do exactly what people say, and that's what we've done or not say but expect. And that's what we've done in our short tenure. And I made that promise on the campaign trail. You know, I'm not going to make these flamboyant statements thinking it's just going to be arbitrary statements to garner votes. Right. You know, an example I'll give you is we had a debate here. There was. Can believe it was either 6 or 7 Folks were vying for the Republican nomination for the governorship, and one of the questions was presented about bringing the National Guard to the border states.Gov Joe LombardoOkay. And whether I would support that. And that was the only one dissenter on that question. And the reason being is I know how you use the National Guard. I know the cost of the National Guard and its intent. You know, it's for protection of your own borders within your own state. And you have those individuals are tasked with personal jobs that are usually part time soldiers and and they have their careers. And so you can't arbitrarily willy nilly make decisions on that kind of resource for something that is, they say it's not in our backyard. Right. And people trust that. And you have a knowledge of exactly what you're talking about and not just, you know, spitballing. Correct. And and so they appreciate those those kind of decisions. But it's all the proof in the pudding per se, right? You know, you do what you say you're going to do and you actually do it.Chuck WarrenHow has it been trying to diversify Nevada's economy? You always hear that is the goal, right? It's always the goal. You have no income. You have no income tax here. So but it's always the goal. But we know the strip commands a lot of attention.Gov Joe LombardoYou know what it is, is. Well, first and foremost, every governor and every state in the nation in history has always had that in their platform. Right. Right. Because that's their job. The governor's job is the economy. The environment, education. Right. The economy is diversifying the economy and ensure that you don't have all your eggs in one basket. And that you don't suffer in times of crisis. So unfortunately. But fortunately, you got to take advantage of a crisis, correct? Right. You can't put your head in the sand and say, I'm going to go away. I hope he goes away and then you'll deal with the aftermath. But the important thing is take advantage of it when you can. And what I'm alluding to is Covid. So in the state of Nevada, throughout our history, we've survived. Our economic engine has been gambling and entertainment. And we have all those eggs in that one basket. In previous years, we've seen some certain crises, you know, the Great Recession, you know, part of the the housing crisis and all that, you know, we suffered because that, you know, it's disposable cash that they use in the state of Nevada. And that's the first to go away during times of economic strife. And so we saw some errors in our economic engine or our profile or our program in the state of Nevada, because we were always the first one out and the last one back in in economic recovery. So when you say your goal is to diversify the economy, it's got to be true. It's got to be accurate and you got to put a concerted effort into it getting past an election. Now, repeat what I said earlier. Every governor says that.Chuck WarrenYou have to or you're not going to win.Gov Joe LombardoRight. Right. And and that's one of the responsibilities of government is the economy. And so Covid happens. And once again, we're the first out and the last to come back. And what I mean by last comeback is the last to recover. And butfortunately here last month, we've had a 4% increase overall since the beginning of my tenure and economic numbers, employment numbers. So that's that's proof that we're getting what we say we're going to do, get it done. So back to your original question, diversifying the economy. We have to expand upon the gambling space. And people realize that now. Now it's not just rhetoric. They're saying, Oh, s**t, we got to do something to fix this. And what I've done in that you talked about our there's no state income tax. Our sales tax is very low or modified, business tax is low and every other revenue source that we utilize in small business and big business is state of Nevada is low across the board. So how can we get track more people? Well, now we start getting into tax incentives. You know, Tesla is the perfect example of that 4 to 1 on return, on dollar, on investment in return. So people see that, oh, you know, that is a good, viable functionality of the economic package that we are able to offer. Every state is offering an economic package in recent legislative session. We're talking about film tax credits. Okay. That's a new hot button item in the economy. Now, film getting the film industry in your state. Education drives the economy. Education drives the companies that want to transfer and and have the labor force available for their companies once they put their roots down. So all that is all part and parcel of what we're trying to achieve.Chuck WarrenPart of the diversity.Gov Joe LombardoYeah, that's the.Chuck WarrenDiversity school choice. Does it have a.Gov Joe LombardoFuture that does.Chuck WarrenSchool choice have a future here? I mean, I.Gov Joe LombardoKnow.Chuck WarrenTeachers unions, they just think like you're asking for the end of the world. If you give kids a choice.Gov Joe LombardoYou know, I got to I got to be frank with you on that. You're you're that's usually an accurate statement. But here in southern Nevada, the Clark County Education Association, which is the teachers union here, they I've been working hand in hand with them. They are not opposed to school choice. They're not opposed to school choice. Their primary driver is teacher salaries. Right. And they can't argue against school choice. For one, it polls in the 70th percentile across the board here in the state of Nevada. And two is. Our curriculum is bad. I mean, we're continually ranked at the bottom of the barrel in education, availability, environment and curriculum. So how do you change that? And it's been proven across the United States, in the states that have adopted school choice and the success associated with it. So the unions not necessarily isn't pushing back against that. So they're more defined in how we fix the teacher pipeline. So it's a little bit transactional.Chuck WarrenWe need higher salaries. Then we'll we're not going to stand in the way of this.Gov Joe LombardoYeah, exactly. And it's, you know, in the. It's a good thing, right? So now so what is preventing it from happening here?Chuck WarrenYou're outnumbered in the legislature, legislature.Gov Joe LombardoWe bring it back to the legislature. There's a mechanism here in state of Nevada called Opportunity Scholarships. It's a it's a different form of education savings accounts, where there's a tax benefit of organizations that participate in into the into the program. And, you know, we have 400,000 students in totality in the state of Nevada. It only affects 1400 students. But something as simple as that, you're like, that's pixie dust. As far as budgetary costs, the legislature, legislature pushed backon it, wanted it to default to the statutory regulation of amount provided to that program. And so as a result, 600 kids were going to lose their scholarships as part of school choice. And so I had to fight tooth and nail, find different funding mechanisms to support that. And it was all the result of the legislature pushing back on it. It's that it's the the left decision in point of context. With school choice, they don't support it. I think it's a detriment to public dollars for private institutions. And if you look at it and understand it and know both sides of it, that's absolutely opposite. It's nothing more than an opportunity for our kids to get educated.Chuck WarrenYour families used to you being in the spotlight. We have a minute left. How do they like. We only have a minute. A minute left. Yeah, you had lots of say. They're in the spotlight again as governors in 20 years. Clark County sheriff. Now they're governor first, the first family in Nevada. How are they liking it?Gov Joe LombardoDid you say 20 years? As the Clark County sheriff?Chuck WarrenIs that what you were?Gov Joe Lombardo20 years? I was on the department in totality.Gov Joe Lombardo35 years.Gov Joe Lombardo35 years. But I was the sheriff for eight years.Chuck WarrenOkay.Gov Joe LombardoI want to make sure you're accurate.Chuck WarrenI was not. I was.Gov Joe LombardoNot. I'll read it.Chuck WarrenI was not I was not accurate. So how do they like how has it been for them?Gov Joe LombardoUm, that's a great question. And to be frank with you, it's so so, you know, it's on a different level of transparency and public. I as the governor, as compared to the sheriff. And, you know, and there's a lot of event driven schedule issues as the governor. And so there's a balance of what what's important for the to the family to show face and and ensure that they're part of what we're doing here. You know, as the governor within the state of Nevada and what's important in the family unit. And so it's a balancing act. It's still early in it. It's overwhelming, I would say, for the family at this point. But we'll work out the schedule. We'll get it worked out. And your uniqueness in the state of Nevada, you know, opposite of where you're from, you know, down in the Phoenix is, you know, the largest metropolitan area is obviously Phoenix. And your capital is there, right? Well, it's opposite here in the state of Nevada. So we got Carson City, where the state capitol is, but the largest metropolitan area is in southern Nevada, Clark County, Las Vegas. So it's a balancing. I have to spend time in both places. I enjoy both places. So that's probably the hardest part for them. Separation.Chuck WarrenGovernor, we appreciate your time today.Gov Joe LombardoYeah, absolutely.Chuck WarrenGood luck. Thank you.Gov Joe LombardoThanks for making the effort to come out and see me.Chuck WarrenAppreciate it.AdvertisementAt 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 StoneAll right. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Up next with us, David Sinclair, founder and CEO of For Freedom Mobile, a secure mobile service platform that provides secure, unlimited talk, text and high speed data worldwide while preventing tech companies, network operators and others from tracking users location, identity communications, internet activity payments and more. Folks, I think you'd be shocked at how much data your phone company is collecting on you and what gets done with it. So, David Sinclair, welcome to the program. I had a great time meeting this guy at Freedomfest this year in Memphis. And, you know, he has a wealth of knowledge and background experience that both led him to start this company and then lends expertise to a number of related issues. So, David, thank you for joining us and welcome to the program.David SinclairThank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.Sam StoneWhat made you decide to go start for Freedom Mobile?David SinclairSo I spent most of the last 30 years living outside the US, primarily working in emerging markets. So countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and other countries like that. And what I was doing there was implementing large, complex IT projects for government agencies, nationally owned companies, that sort of thing, some of which included surveillance systems. So we were implementing systems at large mobile operators to track people through their mobile phones, track their locations, monitor their communications, even enable people to, for example, turn on your phone's microphone when you weren't using your phone and listen in to your conversation. Yeah. So implementing these types of surveillance projects in these emerging markets, we saw the way that government agencies could utilize this data. And when I moved back to the US after spending almost 30 years abroad doing this, I was shocked to discover I'm surveilled more in the US than I ever was when I was living abroad. It's crazy. And so that was when I realized, wait a minute, I didn't move back to the land of the free. You know, in the 30 years that I was gone, things have changed. And so I decided that there must be a way to try to stop some of this surveillance. And since I've been implementing it for so long, I began working on technologies to help stop it.Chuck WarrenHow does this compare to other countries you've been in developing countries. How does the surveillance in the United States compare to other countries, these growing markets you've been in?David SinclairUm. I would say that there is much less awareness of the level of surveillance in the US than there is in other countries. Interesting. You know, I will tell you, I had a conversation at the CS, the consumer Trade show in Las Vegas with a woman from Hong Kong, and she flat out said to me. I fully expect that the Chinese government is listening to my conversation through my phone right now with you. And therefore, she didn't want to discuss my topics with me because she was afraid.Sam StoneYeah, that I think, is stunning. And something you said a minute ago, David. We're talking with David Sinclair, founder and CEO for Freedom Mobile. I think people don't realize that this is absolutely true. So somebody in government, whether theyhave a warrant or not, they can access, whether it's truly legal or not, they can access your phone, turn on your microphone, turn on your camera, download everything in there right now without you knowing it.David SinclairIt is absolutely technically possible to do that. I've personally seen it done. The the thing to understand here in the US is there is a law that requires the mobile operators to collect their subscribers, location, identity, keep a record of every phone call they make and receive, keep a copy of every text message they make and receive, you know, track their internet activity, etcetera. Beyond that, the mobile operators have access to an enormous amount of sensors inside your device. And I'll give you one example. There's a effectively a gyroscope inside your phone. So your phone tracks, whether it's laying on a table or it's moving horizontally, or maybe you're going in an elevator and it's moving vertically, that sort of thing. Using that, they can tell. What time did you wake up this morning? Because the first thing we do, we pick up our phone, right? Sure. So so, you know, mobile operators know your sleep habits. They know that makes sense in your home.Chuck WarrenMakes sense.Sam StoneIt's really stunning.David SinclairThe amount of data that they have.Sam StoneNow. It's not just the gathering of this data, for instance, like for some sort of criminal investigation, But one of the things that you touched on when I was talking with you is behavioral manipulation. And the more data someone has, the easier that becomes. But let's talk about what is behavioral manipulation in the digital world.David SinclairThe simplest example of that is manipulating your search results. So back between 2000 and 5 and about 2015, Facebook and Google both were running experience experiments and actually publishing the results to the public in which they showed how by changing people's search results. They could change the actions that those people took. They could change because what do they do? They show you only certain information and they hide from you. Other information that changes the way you think. And as a result, it changes the way you act. And these reports are available on the Internet still to this day. This is something they prove they can do. And today they do that.Sam StoneHow much are they doing that today? Because I know there have been a lot of people who have said that occurred during, for instance, the last election, and then we should expect it during the next one. But how pervasive is this? I mean, even beyond politics, how much does this stretch into other areas of human behavior?David SinclairSo there is a value to the social media companies. I'll give you this. The social media as an example, their business model is the traditional advertising business model. It's driven by eyeballs on ads, right? So they need to drive engagement. A part of the experiments that they ran in the early 2000 was to see if I show people rainbows, unicorns and butterflies. They figured out people stop looking at their app and walk away happy. But if they throw in items that play on people's fears, uncertainties and doubts, those drive a negative emotional response. And guess what? Negative emotional response drives greater engagement. You stay on the app longer. And so while they may show primarily things that you're happy to see and that sort of thing, they also throw in a certain amount of FUD fear, uncertainty and doubt in there to keep you engaged, to keep you emotionally engaged in what you're looking at and keep eyeballs on the screen. And so, you know, I don't have anything against the social media companies doing this because it's a part of their business model. But what people need to recognize, though, is that they are doing this. And what have they begun doing really in the last ten years? A lot more is they play a lot more on people's fears, uncertainties and doubts around topics that have been politicized. And so I believe that a lot of the political fragmentation that we see in our country is driven by the social media companies because they have a commercial vested interest in driving that fragmentation, pitting one group against the other.Sam StoneWe're going to be coming back with more in just a moment with David Sinclair, founder and CEO of Four Freedom Mobile. Folks, check that out. I believe. David, it's for freedom. Mobilcom. Go on there. You know, it's you need to protect yourself. You need to protect your data. You need to try to limit what some of these foreign and domestic actors have access to because they've proven they're not responsible. Breaking battlegrounds will be coming back with more in just a moment. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren on the line with us right now, David Sinclair, founder and CEO for Freedom Mobile. We were talking before we went to the break about all the ways that you can your data can be gathered from you, from your mobile device, from any electronic device, and then talking a little bit about how data can be used to manipulate and manipulate behavior. We're seeing that with the social media companies. David, Obviously, I think this can and should be concerning to a lot of people. What do folks need to do to start taking better control of their privacy and protect their their data?David SinclairYou know, I'm glad you asked that because there's a low awareness amongst people about how their data is collected and used and often used against them. Things like banks collecting your data in order to determine what interest rate to give you on a loan, How risky an investment are you? Right? And most people don't even think about the things that they could do. There's even less awareness around what people can do to protect their information. Let's start with the simple stuff. Most people have heard of the term VPN. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that, well, if I use a VPN, well then my data is secure. What a VPN does is it encrypts your internet activity. And that's about it. It hides your IP address. Right. Which is often used to determine your location. But it doesn't do any more than that. Your communications are not secure. Your app usage is not secure. Your operating system on your phone is still collecting all this data and sending it back to the people who made your phone. You know, I'll give you a simple example here. The FCC ran a test on iOS and Android phones. And discover that on average, an iOS device sends data on you back to Apple 52 times a day. And Android device sends data on you back to Google 14 times an hour.Chuck WarrenOh, my gosh.David SinclairThat's more than 300 times a day.Chuck WarrenOh, my gosh.Sam StoneThat's astounding.David SinclairIt's shocking. It really is. And Apple has spent, you know, 150, $200 million promoting themselves as Apple equals privacy. I honestly don't believe that.Chuck WarrenI don't either.David SinclairApple prevents other apps maybe from collecting your data, but Apple is still collecting your data. Apple is all about creating a unique data set. Who is the Apple consumer generally? They're they're better off. Right. Generally, they're the kind of people companies want to market to.Sam StoneRight. Mhm. Well, and regardless of what they intend to do with your data, even Apple isn't truly secure from having that data breached and then, you know, collected by others. Right.Speaker7Absolutely.David SinclairAny company that collects any data on you, they're at risk of getting breached. Absolutely. And frankly, that's part of the reason why my company for Freedom Mobile, we don't collect any data on anybody. So people sign up anonymously. All we have is an email address, a phone number, and that's it. So we don't collect their location, we don't collect their identity. We don't collect their communications, internet activity, etcetera. And we provide them with software applications that they can put onto their phone to help prevent anybody else from being able to collect that data either.Sam StoneNice. Nice.David SinclairThe other big thing that we do, you know, we started as a software company, just a pure software player, right? Get our apps, put them on your iPhone, get them, put them on your Samsung Android phone. Prevent other people from collecting your data. What we figured out is that the mobile operators themselves, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Are actually some of the biggest data collectors there are in the world. Right. And by the way, each of those three companies has been fined for selling their subscribers real time location data in real time, meaning somebody would go out on the Internet and pay $19 a month and enter a phone number and they would be able to track the location of that phone number, that device, 24 by seven in real time. And that's against the law in the US to sell that. And they've been fined for doing it. They pay the fines. Yeah, I'm sure if they've actually kept doing it. No, no, they'll.Chuck WarrenKeep doing it because it's just it's a rounding error for them. It doesn't mean anything.Sam StoneIt's Michael Jordan's shoe. Yeah, right. You pay the fines because you're going to end up making so much more money from what you're doing. We're going to.Chuck WarrenPay the fine for each NBA games because they'll make more money on the shoe. Absolutely.Sam StoneDavid, before we go, we have just one minute left. How do folks I think I gave the website earlier, but give that and tell us a little bit more about how people can get connected with for Freedom Mobile.Speaker7Sure.David SinclairSo the website is for Freedom Mobile. That's the number for Freedom Mobilcom And they can go out to the website and learn all about how they're being, how they're being tracked, how their data is being collected, how hackers are breaking into their phones and stealing their data. And they can also learn about the solutions that we have to help prevent that, including, by the way, helping prevent network operators from being able to track you even.Sam StoneI love that. David Sinclair, thank you so much. Folks, check them out for free, T-mobile.com. We're going to have David on from time to time as we go forward, talk about some of these technical issues, because obviously he has a wealth of experience and knows a lot about what's going on that I think the average person needs to know. Breaking battlegrounds. Back with more in just a moment.AdvertisementAt 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.Chuck WarrenWelcome back to the final segment of breaking battlegrounds. I'm your host, Chuck Warren. And Sam Stone is with me here. And we're going to take this time to talk about just some highlights and issues of the day. We appreciate our twoguests. We had David Sinclair, A for Freedom Mobilcom, and then.Sam StoneBefore that, Chuck.Chuck WarrenWe need to read.Sam StoneI got to we got to pay the bills.Chuck WarrenPay the bills. Sam, go ahead and talk about why.Sam StoneFolks, if you want to pay the bills, you've been hearing us talk about why refy a lot.Chuck WarrenThat's well, it's important people are paying $705 more per month for basic goods. So you've got to have your retirement money and something that's going to keep up with inflation.Sam StoneWell, and if you need a way to generate extra income on a monthly basis, this is it. You need to check out our friends at invest y refy.com that's invest the letter Y then refy.com Because it's true, folks, you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's not correlated to the stock market. You can turn your monthly income on or off, compound it, whatever you choose. There's no fees, no loss of principal. If you need your money back, if you're not sure, you know, look, if you're just unsure in this economy, this is a great secure, collateralized portfolio that you can earn a fantastic return for yourself. And when you're doing it, you're helping you're.Chuck WarrenHelping college students who have bad debt from college loans.Sam StonePrivate student loans that they can't discharge in bankruptcy. They're getting them refinanced. They're getting their lives back on track. And you're making a fantastic return. It doesn't get better than that. Check them out. Invest y refy.com or give them a call. 888Y Refy 24. Tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck WarrenI appreciate the opportunity the other day to go down. Kiley and I were interviewing Governor Lombardo of Nevada. He was a guest on our show, and he was Sheriff Lombardo, candidate for governor. You know, the one thing I took from him, he's a very blunt man. I think he has a clear vision of what he wants to do. I get the sense when we were talking about school choice, that he understands how to work within the confines of public sector unions because of, you know, being over the sheriff when the largest sheriff's departments in the country.Sam StoneRight. Yeah. You're dealing with a huge union presence, multiple unions.Chuck WarrenI found it interesting and I've said this for years, so it's sort of hit me, hit me hard. I've been saying that the way you take care of the school choice issue is make sure teachers get a great salary. Then they just really don't care. And he said when I made a comment about that and he corrected me quickly, he said, The teachers unions in Clark County are not the problem. It's the legislature. They just simply want higher teacher salary. So he said it's, you know, and they've got almost a supermajority in Nevada for the assembly and State Senate, which is another point. You're going to have some conservatives moaning and groaning about Governor Lombardo's decisions on some things. I think he's taking the Ronald Reagan approach. If I can get 70 or 80% of something, I'm taking it right.Sam StoneHe's dealing with Democrat, big Democrat majorities in his House and his Senate. You don't get you're not a dictator. You're a governor. Exactly.Chuck WarrenSo I think he's doing a great job. It's going to be interesting to watch him. He is the 20th most popular governor in the country.Sam StoneWhich is astounding because none of the other swing state governors are that high except for Youngkin.Chuck WarrenYeah, he's just he's just done a good job. And I think people appreciate him in Nevada. I think Nevada has changed a little bit. It's probably more getting more towards center like. But they've got a they've got issues out there, party wise organization as almost every state has. So there's that. Um, let's talk about the debate in Milwaukee this week. It got 12.8 million viewers, which is darn good. It's a lot. It is. You know, we keep hearing that the Tucker Trump thing had 180 million views, Folks, that's a lie. It never had that many. First of all, it's not mathematically possible.Sam StoneWell, so so I actually saw a really good breakdown on this. And I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to credit Tim Pool of pool Cast, who. Thank you. I think is a very, very good analyst on this kind of stuff because he did a nice job. He said, look, out of those 180 million impressions. Right. Typically what we see on a video is 20% will watch a few minutes. Correct. And then 10% will watch 15, 20 plus minutes and a much smaller number will actually get to the end. So if you watch every every Internet video, viewership starts out much higher and then drops off pretty quickly. So you have.Chuck WarrenAll right, so let's go. So let's go to those numbers real quick. So 200 million, let's say 200 million, 200 million. Okay.Sam StoneSo 40 million saw at least a couple of minutes of that video. Okay.Chuck WarrenAnd then how many saw less than that? So.Sam StoneSo 160 million. Who just scrolled Buy it on Twitter.Chuck WarrenDo TV ratings have 12 points? So basically, long story short, folks, more people watch the debate in whole in totality than they ever watch the Tucker Trump debate.Sam StoneBut more individual eyeballs touched, at least for a few minutes. The Trump thing. Yeah, but.Chuck WarrenThat's just it's.Sam StoneNothing. Look, but I don't want to dismiss that.Chuck WarrenI don't want to dismiss it. But people are smoking again, Hunter Biden crack pipe. If they think that there's actually 200 million people watching that whole interview.Sam StoneOh, no, that's not the case.Chuck WarrenIt didn't get close. So you probably had 5 million. 6 million watch it in its entirety, probably less.Sam StoneWho actually made it to the end? Yeah.Chuck WarrenBased on the. So again. Aggressive numbers for Trump. Trump did a great strategy. It's the same strategy that Biden used in 2020. You know, he's he's a clear frontrunner. I think the indictments are going to you know, look, I think it's very hard for him to lose the nomination right now.Sam StoneI thought he made the absolute right decision in not going into that room.Chuck WarrenHe made it politically right decision.Sam StonePolitically right decision. I would add, though, that I actually thought it was a good decision for the country because it changed that debate entirely and it became a much more open, free flowing debate. And one of the things I really like, Chuck, is you had a range of opinions and ideas on that stage.Chuck WarrenYes. Yes. I mean, for example, I thought, hey, Nikki Haley was the best one. If you're just basing on poor performance, I mean, you don't have the griefer issues or anything. I just think she was the best performing one.Sam StoneI thought she performed very well. Yeah, she.Chuck WarrenDid.Sam StoneShe performed well.Chuck WarrenVivek has lots of energy. And I think, look, if I was going to if you and I were going to Vegas tonight and saying, put down who's the VP for Trump nominee, I think it's Vivek.Sam StoneI would agree with that. I think you know what what I like about Vivek, he's young and inexperienced. He'll say some things sometimes that aren't, you know, don't make much sense or that are kind of wacky. But he's also talking about a vast range of issues all the time. And I don't expect somebody to know everything about everything.Chuck WarrenOh, no. I mean, you know, it's funny. The press has been trying to attack him on various issues. Boy, they do not hold Biden to the same accountability for the wackadoodle things.Sam StoneHe says no. And one of the things I kind of like about Ramaswami, but that is a weakness in this sort of media environment is that he very carefully chooses words. So like, for instance, when he said the climate change agenda is a hoax, right?Chuck WarrenNot climate change, the agenda. Right.Sam StoneThe agenda is actually very specifically not saying climate change is a hoax. He's saying the agenda behind it is a hoax and most.Chuck WarrenLiberals are too stupid to pick that.Sam StoneUp. Almost nobody seemed to.Chuck WarrenPick that up, which is sad. I think he did well. Um, look, Asa, who's been a guest on this show and a friend of the show, he should not be in this. I love the North Dakota. The North Dakota governor is dedicated to federalism. That's the one thing I really took from the debate. You agree? And I and you and I've talked about this. I think that's really an alternative, truly federalism in our country versus what we're heading towards. You and I have discussed this, and I think he's right about it.Sam StoneI think he's 100% right about it. And I think that was something if you looked up there. The governors, including DeSantis, have a very different kind of outlook than the people who are not governors, because I think they've dealt with this federal overreach in a very personal way. Right. And that includes, to some degree, Chris Christie, who I was very impressed with his performance.Chuck WarrenWell, he's just you know, look, Chris Christie is very good. And, you know, the right just, you know, because he's gone and turned on Trump, he's.Sam StoneGot a very low rating, you know, high negative.Chuck WarrenBut would there be a better AG in this country than Chris Christie?Sam StoneI tell you what, he'd be a good AG and you know what I like. And and look, folks, I'm an old school Easterner in this sense. I like that he's a brawler and he doesn't have a glass jaw.Chuck WarrenThe chat GPT comment was just incredible. You know what the.Sam StoneBest part about that was? Ramaswami had a better comeback, but Christie delivered his line so well that no one even knows Ramaswami hit him back.Chuck WarrenYeah, no, absolutely. 100%. So let's talk briefly about how bad the Biden administration example 5428 And today we've got. Is that.Sam StoneAll? I thought it was much more than that.Chuck WarrenSo based on Bloomberg us and talks with Venezuela over sanctions relief in return for fair elections. So basically, energy expert Phil Flynn explains the hope is lifting the sanctions on Venezuela will be better able to export that now coveted heavy blend of dirty oil that is so good in yielding diesel that is globally undersupplied. Basically, we're making deals with Venezuela, a country that has absolutely been a monster on human rights comparable to Iran.Sam StoneYeah, well worse since in in its recent history is is as bad as any place on the planet.Chuck WarrenBut we're not going to go to Alaska, Texas or Oklahoma. Let's go to Venezuela. It reminded me, Sam, when you and I worked on a sugar project years ago in Florida and the environmentalists did not. They wanted to get rid of all the sugar, Right.Sam StoneAll the sugar farming in.Chuck WarrenFlorida and Florida and say, where do you get well, Mexico. Well, I remember us asking, well, don't they have the same pollution? Well, yeah, but it's a Mexico. I just sort of feel this is their talking point, right? It's just like they're really notconcerned about it. Let's talk about mortgage rates. So when Trump left office, mortgage rates were 2.9%. Today, they're 7.1 that the higher mortgage rates are going to cost people about $32,000 more or $900 per month.Sam StoneYou know what? I was seeing two things to that point that I found interesting and troubling. Well, one is troubling. I think the other is actually a great thing. The housing sales. Right now, the vast majority of housing sales right now are people who are being paying cash. So whether it's the BlackRock Vanguard, big companies or it's people who are wealthy enough to just pay cash, the houses that are being sold are only the ones that basically people can buy for cash. Right. And to and I think that's a really bad thing that that speaks to a huge distortion in a market for first time homebuyers.Chuck WarrenAbsolutely. Absolutely.Sam StoneA really good thing is a new development that people are finally realizing that you don't have to sell your house with a mortgage financed by a bank, that you can sell your house to somebody, issue a mortgage yourself. And as the homeowner, you can make the interest off it.Chuck WarrenWell, you're going to see a lot of stuff like that. Michelle Ugenti was telling me a conversation that she feels we're getting to the point on home ownership because of the cost as well, that you're going to see sort of a European style where you're just like, I'm just handing it down to my kids, I think.Sam StoneAbsolutely.Chuck WarrenYou know, and that's.Sam StoneUh, here's one thing in that vein.Chuck WarrenI don't want to live with my family. Do you know?Sam StoneI know I kind of don't. Um, one of the things we're seeing here, like, people don't realize if you haven't really traveled outside the United States, but the size of every living space in the United States is so much vastly larger. Like you go, the bathrooms in European and Asian countries are tiny, the bedrooms are tiny, you know.Chuck WarrenBut they're used to it. They're used to. So we're not. Remember when we were working on a campaign in Florida, down in Miami Dade and the campaign manager, we were driving, if you remember this, and he said he had worked at Publix and Publix lets employees take part of equity. So he sold out his position, had enough money to buy a home. So he was living with his mom and some other relatives. So I said, being a gringo, I said, Are you excited to go and live on your own with his upcoming wife? He goes, Well, no, my mom's going to live with me too. So there are certain cultures just used to it. I think this would be a big adjustment for gringos.Sam StoneI think it's a huge adjustment for the gringos, for all of us. And and not only to the crowding, but to frankly, the time has come for us. Housing spaces to shrink.Chuck WarrenYeah. By the way, Vivek raised 450 grand the night of the Republic after the Republican debates. Small donors.Sam StoneExcellent.Chuck WarrenHall Yeah. No, it's a good hall One more thing. Let's talk to Bloomberg here. So the outlook for the federal budget right now is essentially unprecedented crisis sized deficits as far as the eye can see, even through even though the economy appears to be in good health, that prospect is making investors uneasy, as demonstrated by yields on benchmark. Ten year treasuries climbed to 4.3% this week, the highest since 2007. Investors worry that sustained fiscal shortfalls on the scale projected by the CBO could push rates higher, which only puts more pressure on public finances by adding to the government's ballooning interest. Bill's concerns and testified this month after A12 punch, Treasury ramped up debt issuance, heralding a supply deluge that likely will last several quarters. And Fitch ratings unexpectedly downgraded America's sovereign credit rating. Folks, if we don't take care of this, you are going to pay the price. This isn't this isn't monopoly money. You're going to see in higher interest rates, higher inflation. Your paychecks are going to be hit and they're going to come after more taxes. You're going to we just can't do everything.Sam StoneAnd it's going to get a lot worse because we're going to lose reserve currency status. And that's coming, you know, BRICs, which is the alternative now to sort of the Western alliance built around the dollar, Brazil, Russia, India, China, they just added six new members.Chuck WarrenSaudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, among six countries invited to join BRICs, you know, so they've also invited Ethiopia. Argentina have them. Those are train wrecks. But, well.Sam StoneEthiopia, though the problem is Ethiopia has a huge reserve of rare earth minerals. Yes, that's why they added them.Chuck WarrenYep. Yep. It's basically become an anti-Western bloc. Right. Folks, we we appreciate it. We hope you join us for our podcast portion. We're having Rachel Walden on to discuss school boards and resource officers in Mesa. They've made some changes there. And she'll also discuss why school boards important. If you want to get involved, show up at the minimum to your school board meetings, if not, run for school board.Sam StoneRachel's the only Republican on the Mesa Public Schools Board, and it's made a huge difference. Make sure you download and tune in and hear about it.Chuck WarrenBreaking battlegrounds dot vote. We'll talk to you next week.AdvertisementThe 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 StoneWelcome to the podcast segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Chuck, a story you and I both glommed onto in the Arizona Republic came out very recently, showed Mesa public schools had finally will be adding a school resource officer for every single school in the school district. And that's something I know parents and others have been fighting for for quite a while. But one of the changes that instantly jumped to my mind and frankly, it's been tough. We've had a tough time getting resource officers into all those schools. We've gotten pushback from some of the schools, school leaders, some of the school boards, just like we have with Phoenix Union, Tempe, the Tucson school districts, Flagstaff, some of the others that have trended more liberal. But there was a change last election cycle on the Mesa Public School board. And we now have school board member Rachel Walden on the line with us. Rachel is a Republican. She was as I understand it, Rachel, the only Republican elected to that school board.Rachel WaldenCorrect? Yeah. In 2022.Sam StoneYep. And so I really felt like when I saw that story, I said, you know, that's the impact a single school board member canhave that if conservatives go out and get people on these boards.Chuck WarrenWell, one thing people don't understand is if you really want to change public education, elect a new school board. I mean, I think everybody thinks the legislature and the governor control that. But the you know, the rubber meets the road at the school board. Is that right, Rachel?Rachel WaldenYes, it does. The school board has a lot of authority. They direct the entire tone of the district. They oversee the superintendents so they can oversee the goals of the district, the priorities of the district. And they call the shots on what the agenda is every meeting.Sam StoneAnd your role when you came in there, I know you've you know, you're working. Frankly, everything I've heard is you're working very well with your colleagues. But it's very different when someone like you is in that room and on that board and when they're not. Right.Rachel WaldenYes. I think I'm the most outspoken board member. A lot of the past meetings, there wasn't much discussion. It felt like the board was a rubber stamp. And people were surprised to know that the board didn't ever meet outside of those meetings because there were so little discussion, so few questions would be asked in those meetings.Sam StoneHow many people do you think they're just viewing? I see this on the left more than the right, and maybe that's just part of the focus we need to redo. But a lot of folks on the left seem to just be using these as their first step up the political ladder. And it's not really about the kids.Rachel WaldenI think that we've seen that in school boards. A lot of people that ran for school boards for Mesa were asked to run. It was almost like a community service where people were tapping in and saying, well, we want to make sure these projects get through and keep the status quo. And they'd ask certain people to run. And then on the flip side, too, you do have the people that run as a political stepping stone. And we've seen that with a lot of our elected officials where they often start at school board. At the same time, someone like myself has gotten into school board and then realized that I'm good at government, I have a knack for government. And then there may be other opportunities that come from that too.Sam StoneAnd I think you're earning those opportunities. But one of the differences is you didn't run to start your way up the political ladder. People have been reaching out because you're effective and like, Yeah.Rachel WaldenYeah, that's absolutely true. I didn't I had no political ambition whatsoever. When I ran. I was still a stay at home mom. I had left my career and it was all about trying to save the rising generation. It still is. That will always be priority one for me.Chuck WarrenRachel, do you feel there's a more important office that people should get involved in? Parents should get involved in the school board.Rachel WaldenA more important office? Yeah. No, I mean, school board is everything. That's where if you've got kids in the district, if you're concerned about the future of this country, then you absolutely should be involved in school board. It is for everybody. We need every voice speaking out about this, because the boards right now across the state, across the country, are not focused on academic achievement.Chuck WarrenDo you feel that there's outside groups on the left, like teachers unions, that are really that really go and push to get people to run for school boards here in Arizona?Rachel WaldenOh, absolutely. The teacher union is very organized. We had 45 speakers at our last meeting. 45 people signed up for public comment. We haven't seen that since the school shut down and they were all there to just parrot the same talking point. They were teacher unions. They were wearing their matching shirts. They definitely have their own agenda. They definitely have their own people. They want to run.Sam StoneYou know, one of the things so school resource officers, obviously school safety has become a really big issue. Right. But I you know, and obviously, I think it's a great thing to have an officer there who can help protect the students, but they play a much bigger role than that, too, right? I mean, this isn't just about stopping a school shooting.Rachel WaldenYes. Yes. They're often involved in somebody bringing a weapon to school, into vaping and to drugs and to overall discipline where they get called in to to help with with those issues.Sam StoneIn discipline is actually if you if you look at real surveys of teachers, Chuck. Classroom discipline and the ability to maintain order in their classroom is at least as important as salary when it comes to the conditions that are driving teachers out of schools.Rachel WaldenThat's completely.Rachel WaldenTrue.Rachel WaldenCompletely true.Sam StoneRachel. How many? I mean, you know, I obviously, I'm not asking for straight numbers, but how much does that resource officer change the environment in the school when they're there?Rachel WaldenI think overall, everybody feels better knowing that there is that authority there and that comes from parents that have requested it. People in the community that go. This just makes sense that we have somebody on there with that authority to to help provide safety. And the teachers like it. The principals of requested it. The elementary schools even would like to have school resource officers. We have them in all the junior highs and high schools. But the elementary schools want it too. I mean, we have issues where kids are suspended from school, for example. They still show up at campus. So who's going to who's going to remove that student from campus? Right. We need SROs.Sam StoneHow when the vote for this to expand them to all the schools came down, was there a lot of opposition? Did you have a bunch of people speaking against it?Rachel WaldenNo, not at all. I don't think anybody spoke out against it.Sam StoneThat's honestly, I'm surprised to hear that. And I think that's fantastic. Yeah.Rachel WaldenWell, because the I think part of it is the whole agenda of of the left to to try to make guns a big focus of even though there's way more problems than that. So they kind of can't speak out against it because it goes against the left narrative.Sam StoneWell, I mean, frankly, I'm glad to hear that they're starting to take this more seriously because every time we had this when I was with the city of Phoenix, every time there was a request or a push to get more SROs into the Phoenix Union schools, it was, you know, we don't feel safe having somebody with a gun on campus. And this you know, these officers are huntingour children kind of thing. I'm glad to hear that didn't come up.Rachel WaldenYeah, I think there's a lot more stronger voice in Mesa from the community that that does feel safer. I agree with you. I think if we got some of the teachers union people on, they would voice that that same concern. But they're a minority in Mesa.Sam StoneHow much how much has your being on that board shifted? You know, shifted the school district back to a focus on educational basics.Rachel WaldenWell, I think it's helped quite a bit because my being on the board has helped a lot of parents get involved and come to the meeting because they feel like there's somebody that represents them. So I hear that all the time from the community. They're more engaged now in what the board is doing. So this time when we did our board goals, they were completely academically focused. That's the first time that's happened. Usually they have other goals in there, maybe something about social emotional learning or counseling or but every every single topic was just graduation rates, proficiency, student outcomes. And I felt like that was a big win for us because it was it was very new to only have those goals.Sam StoneThat's a big deal, Chuck. I mean, just it's a.Chuck WarrenHuge deal and people just need to make it part of their daily life to go to these school boards. You can't have teachers union showing 40 people up and we've got to get more. Rachel's on the school board, so we're going to focus on what education is supposed to be. The basics, reading, writing, math.Sam StoneRachel We we do kind of a short segment for the podcast here. We're going to wrap up in just a moment. But how do folks stay up with with the work you're doing at NPS? And then I know you are eyeballing a run at the corporation commission and keep me in. I'm planning to keep that school board seat, which you can do, and I think that'd be great. We need great people on the on the Corp also. But tell folks how they stay in touch with you and your work.Rachel WaldenSo you can follow me online. My handle is at Walden Patriot and. And I post what's going on with the school boards and upcoming meetings and then just put it in your calendar. Right. Everybody's got a smartphone now. Put second Tuesday and second Thursday of the month at 630. It doesn't change except that fall break. That's the only time. And and just make it a point to go even just once a month the last meeting of the month, which is the fourth Tuesday that's open comment so you don't have to know what's going on. You can just come and comment of what you think is important or what you want to see in the schools.Sam StoneLove it. Thank you so much. Rachel Walden, member of the Mesa Public School District Board. Really appreciate having you on there. And I love hearing good news about schools, Chuck, because we don't get that enough anymore. We do.Chuck WarrenNot. Thank you, Rachel. We hope you have a great day.Rachel WaldenGreat. Thank you so much.Chuck WarrenThank you. Bye bye.Sam StoneBye now. That was really good, Chuck. I like that. You know, we don't put enough focus on school boards on our side of the aisle. Democrats are so organized from the very, very base up.Chuck WarrenWe have talked you and I have talked many times. There's three areas of influence, the United States that conservatives have simply ignored. Okay. One is universities. And I think it's going to take a while, But but that's going to take a while. But, you know, at the end of the day, you can go and get more of the wealthy. Donors say, I'm going to endow this chair in economics. I mean, you can change that. It's not going to be rapid, but you can really start making a difference on that because at the end of the day, universities are just money horse. And if you go in with $1 million check, they're going to let you do what you want. And it's a simple reality. And I explained this to conservatives all the time. They complain about so- and-so charity, go. Universities are money w****s. They are simply going to go and take the check.Sam StoneWell, and that's what I liked about Tom Lewis's move, following all the stuff with Ann Atkinson that we've been talking about and the suppression of free speech at ASU pulling his money out and walking away from them. I think more donors need to use that power, that lever.Chuck WarrenYeah, I agree. The second one is journalism. We need to start setting up scholarships, pushing creative and thoughtful conservative college students to get into journalism. But it can't be the journalism where you just go, I'm going to work at the Daily Wire and National Review. Right. You got to you got to go work at the daily papers. You got to go work at Arizona Republic, Las Vegas Review Journal. You got to go look because.Sam StoneYour local broadcast Nightly.Chuck WarrenNews, because that is where well, even more so than that, the newspapers, only 6% based on polling get their news on candidates and things from the newspaper. But 2,526% get it from their local news. Well, where's the local news? Get it from from the newspaper?Sam StoneYeah.Chuck WarrenSo it really is 30%. So we really have got to get involved in that. And again, you and I have discussed this. I'm not looking for slanted news. I just want both sides put into it.Sam StoneYou know, you don't find in almost any publication.Chuck WarrenNo, no, no, they don't. And then the third item is public schools. We've talked about this. Teachers unions are truly one of the greatest threats to our country. I believe that. And frankly, the test results prove that. Now there is a role for parents. They're not doing their job. There's lots of things. But teachers unions are in. For one thing, they're a union representing teachers. If you think the kids are their first priority, then you are smoking Hunter Biden's crack pipe because this is just not reality. And how do you solve this? People think, well, Doocy go and gave a 20% raise in the legislature to teacher salaries. We both know those teachers do not get a 20% salary because it goes elsewhere.Sam StoneThey got like eight, nine, 10%.Chuck WarrenSo if you want to affect change and it's easy, go run for school board and win. Yeah, I mean, just look what Rachel's done there and she's still in the minority. But there's one reasonable voice there that brings people and then you have to show up. Teachers unions continually pack these meetings with public comments. It's a charade. Everybody should know it, but you need to show up and counter it.Sam StoneYep, absolutely you do. Folks, if you enjoy this, make sure you share it with friends. Get on our subscriber list so you get our content in your email box every single week. And be sure to tune in again next week for Chuck. This is Sam. We're back next week. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds. First up is Orlando Sonza, a U.S. Army Veteran and dedicated Ohioan running in Ohio's First Congressional District. Raised in New Jersey and a West Point graduate, Orlando's journey is a testament to his diverse background and commitment to service. Our second guest is Jason Willick, an Opinion columnist at The Washington Post where he primarily writes about legal matters, political ideas, and foreign affairs. In this episode, he delves into the timely topic of Hunter Biden and the Trump indictments. Don't miss this engaging conversation that brings thought-provoking insights and expert analysis to the forefront._Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-Orlando Sonza is a proud Ohioan. A second generation Filipino American, Orlando was raised in New Jersey and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. While there he met his wife, Jessica, a Mexican/Filipino American, fellow Academy classmate, and Cincinnati native.Orlando graduated top ten in his class at West Point where he majored in political science and minored in systems engineering. Upon graduation, he and Jessica both commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. Orlando served on active duty as an Infantry Officer and Finance Officer with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia.Jason Willick writes a regular Washington Post column on legal issues, political ideas and foreign affairs. Before coming to The Post in 2022, he was an editorial writer and assistant editorial features editor for the Wall Street Journal, and before that a staff writer and associate editor at the American Interest.-TranscriptionSam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone, Chuck Warren out of the studio for the moment. He will be joining us, we hope, within a few minutes. But we wanted to get rolling with our first guest today, frankly, because he has an amazing background. I'm really looking forward to chatting with Orlando, Sonza, candidate for Ohio's first congressional district and proud Ohioan, second generation Filipino American, raised in New Jersey, attended West Point, graduated top ten in his class, majoring in science, majored in political science, minored in systems engineering. So folks, this guy is no dummy. That is for sure. Orlando, Sonza, welcome to the program.Orlando Sonza: Sam, Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Great to be here.Sam Stone: So what made you decide to go to West Point or to try to go that route?Orlando Sonza: Yeah. You know, I always knew, I think early on in my life that I wanted to join the army. I mean, call it whether it was playing Army men as I was a little kid or that.Sam Stone: Now are we talking about the little green plastic guys or did you have the metal ones? That's right.Orlando Sonza: Oh, no, no. It's definitely the little green guys, you know, kicking it back old school, too. Toy Story one, you know, to to those guys. But no, there was a fateful trip that my family and I took. I remember distinctly when I was in eighth grade, of course, growing up in New Jersey, I was just an hour away from Bear Mountain, West Point country. And so we went up there and I saw the cadets in uniform. I saw them marching. I looked out over the Hudson River and I was like, this is the place where I'm going to, this is where I'm going to. And so I made it my commitment. And, you know, I was involved with Junior ROTC in high school, and that kind of just charted the path. And that's how I ended up at the at the academy now.Sam Stone: So because a lot of us out here are dummies, what exactly is systems engineering?Orlando Sonza: So systems engineering, you know, is another name for it is industrial engineering. At at West Point every cadet had to minor in an engineering, whether it was nuclear engineering, mechanical, electrical. I didn't know that love kind of. Yeah, yeah. So I really gravitated towards problem solving. And really that's all systems engineering. Industrial engineering is it's how do you solve complex problems, whether it's in business or in manufacturing. And so that's what I chose, not just me, but actually my wife. I don't know if you knew this, Sam, but.Sam Stone: Folks. Sorry about that. We had a very short technical glitch. We are continuing on with candidate or Lanzo Sansa running for Ohio's first Congressional District, Orlando. When we rudely technologically disconnected you there briefly, you were telling us your wife also, I think, actually went to West Point. So this is an amazing family.Orlando Sonza: Yeah, that's right. I mean, look, public service and servant leadership that's in our blood. I mean, that's in the signs of blood, whether it's it's me and my story. But my wife, too, is an incredible person because she grew up in Cincinnati, you know, native here in southwest Ohio. And she also found her way to the academy. And that's where we met. We were classmates. We commission together. We graduated together. We served our country for about five years together. And yeah, we're my best friend and also my my co fighter in this thing.Sam Stone: So and now after that, as I understand, after you both left the military, you moved back to her hometown in Cincinnati. So there's an important question I think we need to ask you here. Ah, yeah. No.Orlando Sonza: Go ahead. You know it's coming. It's coming.Sam Stone: Have you become a fan of eating chili on spaghetti?Orlando Sonza: Look, Sam, I will tell you this, all right? It is Skyline all the way. I don't think I've yet to even taste Gold star, but it's Skyline all the way. But I had the luxury of tasting skyline for the first time, wearing a bib in front of my now father in law, asking for his blessing to marry Jessica. So when I put that coney in my mouth and tasted cinnamon in my chili, I was like, What in the world is this? This is awful. But I got his blessing and I've since acquired the skyline taste.Sam Stone: So and so. So you actually got a photo of that from that that evening?Orlando Sonza: No, because I think I spit it all on my bib, so, you know, know it well, but it's ingrained in my memory and so in John's as well.Sam Stone: So I love that. So Orlando, just a heads up. Chuck is just now rejoined us in studio here, so we'll be continuing on with the both of us. But. All right, great. Hello, Orlando. Orlando.Orlando Sonza: Good to meet you. Nice to.Chuck Warren: Meet you.Sam Stone: One of the things I wanted to get at in your bio, it says you're a second generation Filipino American. One of the things Chuck and I have talked on this program about is, frankly, the patriotism of people who have come to this country and then served in the military and how in many ways we're finding that recent immigrant families are as or more patriotic than than people more so here for generations. They're more so. More so.Orlando Sonza: Oh, 100%, Sam And, you know, that's something that I grew up. Knowing, you know, and seeing it's, I think, just a false narrative that has been perpetrated by left wing media to showcase that this is something just recent. You know, it is truly immigrant families or that have that life story that showcases that. It is this sense of patriotism, love of country. Commitment to hard work, you know, love of freedom that this country has and the ability to go from nothing to achieving the American dream. That's something I grew up with and saw in New Jersey. It's something that my wife also, you know, that she's she's coming from a parents that have a Mexican American lineage, then also a Filipino American lineage. She saw that as well. So, yeah, that's 100% true today for sure. But it's also been true, you know, for for decades also in our country.Sam Stone: I like that you brought up the American dream because if you're running for Congress, another thing we've talked about, Chuck, a lot on this show is that the American dream isn't dead, even if there's a lot of people out there who who seem to think it is but one group that across doesn't matter where they came from. But immigrants believe in the American dream.Chuck Warren: They're the demographic that believes in it.Sam Stone: Yeah, absolutely. Orlando.Orlando Sonza: That's right. Yeah.Chuck Warren: Let me ask you a question. So you're running for Congress now out there in Cincinnati. You've had a very illustrious career. You've had some many opportunities to to learn certain aspects of a career. So, for example, I want to ask you what each job has prepared, how each job has prepared you to be in Congress, for example, by going to West Point and serving the military. What? Talents that you acquire and develop that will benefit your constituents in Cincinnati. If you're in Congress.Orlando Sonza: Yeah. You know, talking specifically to buy West Point and military background, I remember distinctly, you know, every week I would go to the Cadet Barber shop, get a haircut, and there was this poster in one of the, you know, one of the walls at the barber shop and it said West Point, where leaders aren't born. They're made. You know, it's kind of a cliche. It's a it's a funny thing, but it's just so impacted me the first time I saw it, because what I realized was leadership is about going through experiences and challenges and formulating this ability to lead people and lead them well. You know, the good leaders that we've seen in our country, they're not born. They were made by the crucible of adversity. And so whether it was at West Point, but then being able to translate and apply what I learned at the Academy, which was truly a premier leadership institution and applied it in the military, that's what I gleaned back. And I knew that in the military, whether I was leading infantry soldiers or leading finance soldiers in the second half of my military career, what it came down to is how do you motivate, train and inspire people to achieve a common goal but do it in a way that's transformational. And so I took that and then translated it into a post-military career. But I would say first and foremost, it is leadership that I learned at West Point and the military. And that's quite frankly, what we are seeing the lack of today. Right. Whether it's in Congress or at the White House, just Washington and its lack of good leadership is what's crippling for our nation and what people are tired of seeing. They want good, serious leadership that can solve complex, serious problems. That's what I seek to do when elected to Congress.Sam Stone: It does seem, Chuck, like there's a lack of I was going to say, like Congress and the White House often these days seem rudderless, but I guess that would be more of a Navy analogy. They're bad pathfinders, right? They're not good at following the trails that they need to follow to get where they need to go.Chuck Warren: No, not at all. You also served as an associate prosecutor for Hamilton County prosecutor's office. What, while serving in that role, what talents can you take to Congress that you learn from there?Orlando Sonza: You know, it's a lot of problems, right, that are impacting our nation, not just southwest Ohio, but specifically, you know, drawing from my experience as an assistant prosecutor, as an attorney. The problem that we're seeing in southwest Ohio, whether it's the crime that is just continue to escalate the rate of violent crime, that's continuing to escalate across our big cities where Cincinnati you know, I just saw the numbers recently that we've got more juvenile homicides in in years, in decades in Cincinnati, or it's the fentanyl crisis, the opioid epidemic that is impacting southwest Ohio and across the country. You we need someone that can understand how to advocate for the right legislation necessary to reduce the crime in our cities and stop the wave of harmful drugs like fentanyl from destroying more lives. Look, that's that. That goes to the heart of having the right type of laws. And we don't need an actual, you know, legislator that has a law background, but certainly would help, right. Because it is laws and having constitutional laws that would then advance the good goals that we need in order to fix those problems. But as a prosecutor as well, I can speak firsthand to what I saw Fentanyl was doing and the the opioid epidemic was doing for our city and also what violent crime was doing in our city. And so that's what I'm seeking to actually fix and drawing from that experience.Sam Stone: Yeah, I think that's actually one of the most important things right now for Congress to truly understand is how dramatic a shift fentanyl and then sort of the post 2020 lawlessness has created in this country. It's a really critical issue. We have only about 45 seconds before we go to break here. We're going to be continuing on after the break with Orlando, Sonza, candidate for Ohio's first Congressional district. And folks, make sure you stay tuned for the second half of our program. We're going to have Jason Willick, regular Washington Post columnist, talking about all the legal issues with Hunter, with Trump, all that kind of stuff. So make sure you stay tuned for that. And folks, if you're not already subscribed to our substack, go on our website. Make sure you get all the new episodes of breaking battlegrounds right when they come out for Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. 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 Moran. I'm Sam Stone. We're going to be continuing on in just a moment with Orlando Sansa, candidate with an amazing background running for Ohio's first congressional district. But before we do that, folks, how is your 401. K doing these days? The market's been up. The market's been down. This Biden economy is not helping folks. It is maybe time for you to consider diversifying your portfolio. You need to check out our friends at invest  Y refy. Go to their website, invest the letter Y, then refy.com check them out because you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right. A 10.25 fixed rate of return in this economy is a fantastic opportunity. So go to that website. Check them out. You're not going to regret it. Invest the letter Y, then refy.com.Chuck Warren: So you're running for Congress. What is it? Why should people vote for you versus the Democrat incumbent?Orlando Sonza: Yeah, you know, it comes down to really what we've seen that Ohioans want today. They don't want the identity politics. What they want is serious leadership representing them in Washington. Who has the background and experience as a problem solver capable of understanding the complex issues impacting our nation? And, you know, unlike my opponent, I'm not interested in focusing on attention grabbing headlines like, for example, posing shirtless on the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer to show off personal tattoos as a sitting US congressman.Sam Stone: Was he riding behind Vladimir Putin on his horse?Orlando Sonza: I don't know.Orlando Sonza: About that, but he was on top of a rooftop and that was his first headliner as a US congressman. It's like, are you kidding me? You know, it's like, what about highlighting weird times?Chuck Warren: What times? You know what?Chuck Warren: Weird times.Sam Stone: Yeah, that's, you know, that's really bizarre. Orlando.Orlando Sonza: Well, you know, I say it. I wish I could make it up. But what it really highlights is the the leaders that we have in Washington, Greg Landsman is no exception. He's just completely out of touch for his role as a congressman and how he seeks to actually solve these complex issues of today. We're talking about a guy who is completely off when it comes to trying to fix inflation. You know, yesterday or two days ago, he decides to highlight on Twitter, you know, this infrastructure bill that got passed last year and how because of.Sam Stone: His call that the pedestrian bridges to nowhere bill.Orlando Sonza: Yeah right and and you know yeah it's great if we have a new Brent Spence Bridge here in Cincinnati connecting northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. But look, if our city continues to be crime ridden, if fentanyl continues to be in our streets, if our wallets are still being wreaked by inflation, then what? What good is a bridge? And my question to Landsman is, you know, why was your first position when this whole debt ceiling debacle unfolded? Why was your first position to increase government spending with no cut, with no cuts in spending? It's like, are you are you kidding me? It's like, you know, let's perpetuate the problem to solve the problem.Sam Stone: You know, your experience as a prosecutor, you see a lot of people on a day to day basis who are really living on the edge, who a few hundred dollars a month can be the difference between them potentially participating in crime or ending up on the street or having all sorts of issues. And here we have an economy that news just came out $700 per month per family is the cost of the Biden inflation that Landsman and these others are are cheering on. That's right. How much of an impact does that have on the people of your district?Orlando Sonza: It it has a huge impact. And look, it doesn't take a CPA like me, you know, with a master's in tax to realize that inflation has a direct impact on the wallets of Americans, everyday Americans, middle class Americans, especially me. Where to your point, I saw the same statistic $700 more a month than two years ago. And what is that actually speaking of? That's the rise in just the cost of living of our utility bills. I mean, we are talking about, you know, Greg Landsman being one of the ones that voted no on the very bill, H.R. one, that seeks to reduce our monthly gas and electric bills. Well, that's contributing to the $700 more a month than Americans are spending. It's the fact that we even have this thing called, you know, an electric and energy poverty in our country. And he doesn't want to fix it by the very bill that can lower the cost of gas and electricity for everyday Americans, completely out of touch. And so ultimately, what I'm seeking to do is to showcase to southwest Ohio that we have the opportunity here to bring back serious leadership. Not a. Attention grabbing antics. Back to Washington for southwest Ohio. Let's roll up our sleeves and let's actually get things done and achieve the things we want to achieve for Ohioans.Sam Stone: We have about 3.5 minutes left. Chuck, you have experience as a chief of staff on Capitol Hill. I've worked at the city of Phoenix. I think one of the things that we would both probably agree on is that when you find a member of Congress or any elected body who has that one issue that they are passionate about.Chuck Warren: You can tell you can tell it's sincerity when they talk about it.Sam Stone: Orlando, what for you is that issue that drives you?Orlando Sonza: Yeah, you know, we haven't touched on it yet. Right. But my ultimate motivation for jumping in this race is my four kids. You know, I'm raising alongside Jessica, four kids under the age of eight, seven, five, three and one. So when we're talking about protecting them and also achieving an America that is safe and secure for them, it also speaks to my parenting and the ability to make the best decisions for them. So what's the issue that's near and dear to my heart that's resounding with a lot of Southwest Ohioans? It's standing up for the family, whether it's the parents or the kids, and whether it's just simply standing up for parental rights with the the the Parents Bill of Rights, where you have landsmen voting no on simply affirming that we parents have a right to know what happens in our kids schools or to make the best educational decisions for our kids. I mean, that's bar none. First and foremost, we need to stand up for our parents and then also stand up for the safety and well-being for our kids so that they thrive. That is the number one issue that I think transcends all these other issues, whether it's fixing our economy for them, securing America for them, or just making sure that they thrive as they grow up in this country. That's what's motivating me to get into this fight. Get into this fight with no district map, Right. I'm not a candidate of convenience, right? I don't know if this map is going to be blue or red, but we'll find out in a month. But look, I didn't hold out. What? What? Southwest, Ohio, Cincinnati, Warren County, Hamilton County needs as a fighter. Someone who's willing to fight and lead from the front, no matter what this district may look like in terms of map lean. And I'm committed to do that. I'm committed to fight for my kids, my community, and this country will win in November. And I just urge everybody to join the fight alongside with us.Chuck Warren: Where can they reach you at? Where can they find you? And learn more about your campaign? Where can they donate all that fun stuff.Orlando Sonza: Yeah, absolutely. Orlandosonza.com Orlando like one of your favorite places in Florida Sonza Sonza.com come join the team come volunteer this this movement is just starting chip in if you can and we're just excited to to do this alongside other strong Americans that love this country, love their community.Sam Stone: That's fantastic. Folks, we have just about a minute before we go to break. And we are going to be coming right back with Jason Willock of The Washington Post. Orlando, we really want to thank you for coming on the program today, folks. You know, Orlando is one of those candidates we have out there that are really highlighting the growing diversity of the Republican Party. But also what you hear from our guests week after week is the intellectual diversity, the variety of views and issues that are important to them in Orlando. We want to thank you again for taking the time to join us in our audience today. We really appreciate having you. We'll look forward to getting some updates on your campaign as it goes forward. And we're wishing you the absolute best.Orlando Sonza: Thank you, Sam. Chuck, Thank you for having me.Chuck Warren: Have a great weekend, folks.Sam Stone: Breaking battlegrounds will be back in just one moment. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Up next with us today, Jason Willick writes a regular Washington Post column on legal issues, political ideas and foreign affairs. Before coming to the Post, he was an editorial writer and assistant editorial feature features editor for the Wall Street Journal, and before that, a staff writer and associate editor at American Interest. Jason, thank you for joining us. Welcome to the program.Jason Willick: Good to be with.Chuck Warren: You, Jason. We want to talk about the legal mess our country's in right now with both Hunter Biden and former President Trump. I want to first start with this. So it was announced this week that Germany is not going to meet their commitment on 2% of GNP towards defense spending. Poland is now spending 5% of their GNP towards defense. Should we just move our troops and everything over to Poland?Jason Willick: Well, I ah, you know, the post Cold War. Arrangement is really sort of getting unsettled, isn't it, with. Yes. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I mean, Germany is the biggest economy in Europe. I think there's a growing consensus in Washington that we need to be focusing on Asia, on China, that that's the bigger threat to American interests. And Germany's the richest country in Europe. So they're clearly going to need to foot the foot the bill for maintaining security in Europe. And it looked for a moment like they might do that with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Berlin was really freaked out and starting to rethink all of its priorities. And I think they're starting to fall back to a it'll be okay. The Americans will take care of it. The Eastern Europeans will deal with it. We don't we don't really need to fundamentally rethink things. And I think it's definitely a priority for a US administration to talk some sense into the Germans on this.Chuck Warren: I hope they bring it up at the RNC debate for the presidential candidates on Tuesday night, because I think this is a real issue going forward for national security. All right. Let's talk about this. You wrote a column recently called Written said why the Hunter Biden plea fiasco will be a drag on Democrats. And since you wrote that, we now have a special prosecutor, the same prosecutor who gave the sweetheart deal to him on the plea arrangement. Talk to our listeners, explain to them exactly what's happening.Jason Willick: Well, there was this astonishing situation a few weeks ago where the plea deal, which we were all told, you know, this is a very normal plea deal. The Merrick Garland says everyone is treated alike. And my Justice Department, we treat like cases alike. How dare anyone question that? And then they put the plea agreement in front of a judge and she said, this is very irregular. I've never seen anything like this. What is going on here? She didn't even say, I'm not going to accept it. She just said, Can you explain to me what the deal is? What's the immunity? How much immunity does he get in exchange for pleading guilty to these charges? How does it work on this gun charge, the diversion agreement that you guys have entered? And then the two parties that turned out didn't even agree what was in the deal? Because the defense for Hunter Biden thought it was very generous and the prosecutors were like, no, no, no, it wasn't that generous. So the whole thing, the whole thing blew up and they weren't able to reach.Jason Willick: And then she said, Come back to me in a few weeks, work this out. And then it seems that they've tried to go back and work it out and they couldn't come to an agreement about a plea deal. And I think what basically happened is the Justice Department was trying to give Hunter Biden a very generous deal. But when they were asked to explain it in public, it became politically embarrassing to admit how generous it was. So then with all this scrutiny, the thing fell apart. The Justice Department realized politically, we can't do this. We can't look like we're giving such a generous deal to the president's son. And so now Merrick Garland thinks that he's resolving this by appointing a special counsel, which, you know, it's true that if he would have appointed a special counsel a while ago, that would have, I think, made people less concerned about what was going on. But now you're appointing a special counsel, the same prosecutor who gave this deal in the first place. So I don't think it's it's really solving the issue.Chuck Warren: Jason, wasn't there anybody Look, I don't think Garland made this decision just by himself on his desk one day. So he obviously had some people that he trusts that he talks to. Right. Do you think anybody said, you know, we probably shouldn't appoint the same guy that just gave this what most Americans think is a sweetheart deal? Do you think there's anybody advising him that's playing devil's advocate, saying, you know, this may not look right?Jason Willick: I think, you know, it's Republicans were calling for David Weiss, who's the United States attorney for Delaware, who was appointed by Trump. But, you know, Delaware is a Democratic state, has has two Democratic senators. So it was approved basically by Democrats as well as Trump to become the special counsel. And Republicans initially said, why isn't he a special counsel? And some of the whistleblowers in this case said, you know, he needed these powers of special counsel that he didn't have. So I think Garland's like, you know, a few months ago, this was the debate was, should David Weiss be a special counsel? I think so. And I think Garland is trying to hold the thing together, satisfy critics by making him a special counsel. But you're absolutely right. It's you know, it's too little and too late.Chuck Warren: It stinks to high heaven with Jason Willock. He is a Washington Post columnist. We're going to have him back on our next segment. You can find him on Twitter at Jay Willock. And this is breaking battlegrounds. You can find us at breaking battlegrounds dot vote. We'll be right back with Jason. Talk more about Hunter Biden and all the fun Donald Trump appointments, indictments. We'll be back.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. Folks, if you're looking for a fantastic investment opportunity where you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return, 10.25 fixed rate of return in this market is absolutely phenomenal. And when you invest with refy, you actually benefit while doing good for others. They're helping refinance distressed private student loans, and they've turned that into a fantastic opportunity for you to make money while they're doing it. So it's a win win. Check them out. Invest. Why Refy.com that's invest the letter Y, then refy.com or give them a call at 888 y refy 24. Make sure you tell them Chuck and Sam sent you.Chuck Warren: We're with Jason Willock. He is a Washington Post columnist. He goes over law, politics, foreign policy. You can find him on Twitter at Jay Willock, W.i.l.l. Ike All right. Going back to Hunter Biden, can Congress do anything to have them appoint a new special prosecutor, special counsel, or are they just sort of stuck with this same old, same old?Speaker6: I think.Jason Willick: They're stuck. I mean, they can they can do subpoenas and conduct, try to do their own investigation. But I think that the Justice Department, they can't compel the Justice Department really to do to do something different. Merrick Garland's in charge of the Justice Department. They and I think that they're they need to conduct their own parallel investigation if they want to if they want to.Chuck Warren: Mitch McConnell does not get enough credit for keeping Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court. Not at all. But that's a conversation for another day. All right, Jason, you wrote an article this week called Trump Triggers the Politics of Emergency. Talk to us a little bit about that article and explain to our audience what you see as the most difficult indictment on Donald Trump. What's the most dangerous for him? What's the least likely to produce anything against him?Jason Willick: So on the article on the Politics of Emergency, I wrote that after some of you may have remembered that people wanted to disqualify Trump from the ballot from running again under the 14th Amendment's Section three, which disqualifies someone who engaged in insurrection against the United States as a Civil War era provision of the Constitution meant to disqualify Confederates. And so the House impeached Trump for incitement to insurrection and wanted the Senate to disqualify him. But he was acquitted in the Senate trial. But what I'm saying in this column is I think that among Trump's opponents, we're going to see this idea getting momentum again. What what triggered that was there was a long article by two law professors sort of arguing that he needs to be disqualified. It's not even close. And and it's in effect automatically so people can go to court or secretaries of state can take him off the ballot and and it can be challenged in court. But this is this has to happen. This is what is constitutional. And my point is just we're really getting into a politics of emergency here. I think as the as Trump's political momentum increases, he seems likely to get the Republican nomination. I think that's why part of the reason at least we we saw the decision to indict him. There was this sense that we have to do something about January 6th. And I think in the next year or so, we're going to see some efforts to try to disqualify him from the ballot, because just if one state disqualifies him from the ballot, that would then go to the Supreme Court and it would become a national issue. It's been something that most serious people would not have taken seriously before, But who knows, maybe in six months they will start taking it seriously and will start lobbying for this to happen.Sam Stone: In this piece, Jason, written by these professors, are they arguing that, for instance, a secretary of state or high state elections official could simply they don't have to go to court to get Trump thrown off the ballot? They could simply make the decision to just leave him off the ballot and then it would actually be in Trump's camp or the RNC camp to try to sue to restore that access.Jason Willick: Pretty much there. You know, the procedure varies by state who has standing to do what, what the power is of various election officials. But they're basically saying, yes, someone can try to enforce, in their view, the 14th Amendment and then Trump can take them to court and challenge them.Sam Stone: See, here in Arizona, for instance, you have a Democrat secretary of state who's been very vocal about Trump. You have a Democrat AG who's been vocal about Trump. You have a Democrat governor who's called for them to prosecute Trump here. I think very easily they could throw it off the ballot. But you're talking about the politics of emergency. This that kind of thing is what worries me, Chuck, more than anything else right now.Chuck Warren: That's nothing goes right to the.Sam Stone: Supreme Court environment.Chuck Warren: Yeah, no, absolutely.Jason Willick: I agree. I mean, look, I think this is not normal politics. This is we're talking about having an election. We're. Where we have a candidate who's under indictment in four jurisdictions. The judge in D.C. is basically telling him to stop talking about the case in the way that he is or she might have to take action against him. Meanwhile, in parallel, you might have efforts to take him off the ballot. And like I said, I don't see how at least somebody doesn't try to take him off the ballot in some blue states such that this gets to the courts pretty quickly. This is just an extraordinary situation. And I have I have worries for how it will affect our legitimacy of our of our political system.Chuck Warren: If you have an office pool, look for Arizona's AG to try this trick. I'm convinced of it. I would. She is she is an activist and she wants that headline. It's amazing. Okay. Trump's been indicted now on four separate, you know, many indictments, but many counts. But there's you know, there's basically four big things. What do you view as the most dangerous to him of actually being convicted on in order You can rank him in order. What you think? One, two, three, four?Jason Willick: Well, I think I mean, what I think he's likely to be convicted on is different from what I think is likely to actually hold up on appeal and and what I think is actually the strongest. I mean.Chuck Warren: So so go through each case. Go through each case. Let's start first with J six. Go ahead. What do you think on that?Jason Willick: Well, I think, you know, on January 6th, you're talking about a Washington, DC jury, which is know roughly 95% Democratic. And I think if you give a jury like that permission to convict Donald Trump, you say, look, if you find that he acted corruptly, you can convict him. I think most you know, I think he has really long odds to get an actual acquittal. You know, a hung jury is possible. I do think the statutes that are being used in that case, fraud and obstruction and conspiring against rights are sort of strange uses of these statutes. I think they're they're aggressive uses of the statutes. And I think that there's definitely a chance that on appeal, one or more of those could be invalidated as No, that's not what this statute means. But I think Jack Smith is racing to get to trial, to get a conviction before the election. And, you know, appeals would take much longer than that. I think in Florida, the Mar a Lago case, that's clearly the strongest case. I think Trump did mishandle the documents. I think if what Jack Smith says is true, he obstructed the efforts of the government to get back the documents that said in Miami, he's got a much more, you know, friendly, friendly terrain.Chuck Warren: Friendly terrain down there.Jason Willick: Much, much more politically friendly terrain. It's possible for me to imagine one juror saying, no, this is politically motivated. I'm not going to convict him and getting a hung jury because, remember, even a hung jury would be a big defeat for the prosecution in any of these. But I do think that's the strongest case by far down in Florida. And then you've got this New York case that I think is kind of ridiculous about about paying. But but again, you're talking about a Manhattan jury is not is not very popular there.Sam Stone: No. I mean, look, I, I absolutely expect that whatever Manhattan jury is to convict him. But I would love to see them prosecute all the other New York politicians who have paid off mistresses over the years, because that could be fun, right?Jason Willick: I mean, it's a little bit you know, it's a little bit ridiculous. And on appeal, you know, on some of these, you know, appellate courts are going to look at it in probably a less political way and be like, hold on a second. This isn't a proper use of the law. So I could on a lot of these, I could see one thing on conviction, something else on appeal. Then down in Georgia, you know, I think Fulton County, again, a fairly Democratic area, Trump's going to try to remove the case, the federal court, which would be a little bit of a different jury pool, maybe a more favorable jury pool. I think some parts that that one is a mixed bag. I think some parts of the case are stronger. I think the Rico, the idea of using Rico is is a little is a stretch and may not hold up. But Georgia has sort of more straightforward laws like it's not like this was fraud and fraud means this in some broad sense. It's like it's more straightforward, like soliciting an officer to do something that they shouldn't do. It's more broken down. You know, this particular phone call is a crime. So I think it's a little more straightforward. But I think the whole Rico framing is flawed and that that one's a mess. It's a huge case, huge numbers of people. Some of them are going to try to remove it to federal court. That one is not going to go to trial before the election, I don't think.Chuck Warren: Well, yeah, I mean, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp today said that, quote, This trial, despite what dates anybody is asking for, it's not going to happen before the election.Jason Willick: Oh, did he?Chuck Warren: Yeah. That came out this morning. That was like a couple hours ago. So Kemp has just said this is not happening before the election, so. You know what, Jason? If. If Peacock or Netflix came to you and said, Write us the craziest experience about an ex-president getting in legal trouble, Could you have made this up?Jason Willick: Uh.Jason Willick: I would need more imagination. I would need more imagination. But, you know, he's, uh. I think it's important to note, you know, he's he's given, you know, he's in a real way. He's brought this on himself. Yes, he has. He did. On January 6th. On January 6th, I, you know, I'm on the fence and I and I, you know, I don't I'm not I don't really think that it fits the criminal statutes. I think they're trying to create criminal statutes to fit his terrible conduct. But I think it's basically terrible political conduct that that voters should judge. And, you know, but that's that's not happening. And instead, we're trying to use the legal process. And, you know, I think, you know, who knows what kind of precedents are going to be set by this legal process? I really do do worry about that.Sam Stone: Jason, which of the charges do you think you've talked about? Some of them. They may have different fates in front of a jury. And then on appeal, which of these charges is the one that is most likely to make it all the way through and stick?Jason Willick: All the way through and thick. Well, I mean, I'd say if if a jury in Florida convicts Trump of mishandling the documents or of obstructing the investigation, that will stick. That's not something I don't think that the appellate courts will reverse.Jason Willick: So I.Jason Willick: Probably have to say that one, that's ultimately the strongest, clearest case alleging sort of a straightforward violation of the.Jason Willick: Law.Sam Stone: Yeah. It seemed that way to me. I think one of the the questions I had, especially looking at the Georgia indictments that I felt frankly, in some ways angered me most, was that they're targeting Trump's lawyers and. Right. And that sort of thing, that that's a really dangerous precedent to be setting in our legal system.Jason Willick: Yeah.Jason Willick: Yep. Um, you know, to some extent they don't prosecute the lawyers in the January and Jack Smith's January 6th case in Washington, but they're named as co-conspirators, you know, without naming them. But it's clear that they're co-conspirators. I mean, the line between a nutty legal theory and and a fraud, you know, we want people to be allowed to raise nutty legal theories in general. I mean, and that's why I made the comparison in the piece. What if somebody says I have the right to take Trump off the ballot because it's constitutionally required? And so you take him off the ballot and then he wins, Can he turn around and say this was election interference? Your theory was in bad faith and it was completely wrong and you're taking me off the ballot was, you know, interfering with the election process illegally. I mean, the these are the kinds of things that we want to be very careful with. And I think this is what gets to the sense of emergency. People are normally careful with these things, but they feel now we're in an emergency. We have to throw caution to the wind. And we we have to stop this.Chuck Warren: Democrats are going to create a whole new precedent. It's like when Harry Reid did with the judges in the Senate and then we go around and use it and they have a cow and a conniption. Quickly here, we got about a minute left with you, Jason, and we want to have you back on because I'm sure this topic will be continuing for a while. President Biden today is having a summit with Japan and South Korea. I think that's a good move for the country. Your thoughts?Speaker6: Absolutely.Jason Willick: You know, we have treaty commitments to defend South Korea and Japan. We've you know, we've fought a war in the last century and in both countries, in World War II and in the Korean War. These are important strategic countries that are rich, powerful countries that we need to check China. They have, you know, a tough history together. You know, Japan invaded Korea. There's no love lost between them on some issues. So to the extent that we can bring them into an alignment as opposed to being pried apart, you know, our alliance structure will be stronger.Sam Stone: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Jason Willick of The Washington Post. We really appreciate having you on again today, folks. You can follow him at I believe it's at JA Willick on Twitter.Chuck Warren: That's correct.Sam Stone: That's correct. Okay. Follow him, folks at Jay Willick on Twitter and subscribe to The Washington Post. Let's keep the good journalism rolling, breaking battlegrounds coming back, not on air. You got to tune in for our podcast segment, Go to breaking battlegrounds dot vote. We'll see you on air 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.Chuck Warren: Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds podcast. Only extra innings. Glad you're with us here today. And Sam, I are going to talk about three issues on this portion of the podcast today and we'll probably talk baseball.Sam Stone: Now you got me drooling over this extra innings.Chuck Warren: I I'm a changeup baseball podcast is now extra innings podcasts now for breaking battlegrounds is extra innings so that's where we're at. All right, folks, you were here first. All right. First, the average rate of most common type of mortgages in the United States is now 7.1%. That's 30 year fixed loans. Wow. That's the highest since December 2001. And folks, most of you remember what happened in 2001, right? We had nine divided by 11 and September 2001. Yeah. So, um, the 2% past year, that's more than 4.4 points from the all time low seen in January 2021. That's how much mortgage has gone up under a Joe Biden presidency. They don't want to talk about it. But here's here's what the reality of this is. With a 20% down payment. And Sam, there's a lot of people who do not have a 20% down payment for a home.Sam Stone: Now, a lot of people are putting 3% maybe if that.Chuck Warren: But our mortgage companies, because of these, they're probably going to start requiring there's no more going to be this 3% stuff. I'm telling you right now, unless you do a 50 year mortgage.Sam Stone: Or your Fannie Freddie back. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah.Chuck Warren: So so a median priced house is $465,000. No, excuse me. Sorry about that. With a 20% down now on a median priced home, you will pay $465,000 in interest over 30 years. Now.Sam Stone: Up from from how much? I mean, it had to. It was 200. Yeah. 200. Right.Chuck Warren: A year and a half ago. So when Biden talks about the economy's doing great, it's it's an interesting scenario. A lot of people work. That's true. I don't feel we're in this crippling recession, but we are in as our guest Oscar talked earlier, we have things like electric poverty now. We have food poverty now. I love gas. Poverty now. Right. And so that's where we're at. And, you know, I don't know, you know, this extra $700 a month, Sam, where are people getting it? We know, for example, that 60% of people don't even have $1,000 in savings. They couldn't come up with 1000 for emergency. Were people getting this extra $70 a month? They're doing it from credit cards.Sam Stone: Which is running.Chuck Warren: Out. Which is running.Sam Stone: Out. I mean, we're we're hearing already from the credit card companies that the defaults are going way up. Yep. You're hearing from the auto loan companies, the defaults are going way up. If you want to talk about the risk of a real recession, it's not the job situation now, but it's the home and living situation with these folks being displaced because of these increases. And then how do you maintain a job?Chuck Warren: Well, and this is the dishonesty of our mainstream media. If this was a President Reagan or President Bush 41 or President Bush 43 a Trump, we would see front page stories in the Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, San Diego Tribune, weekly of people standing in food lines.Sam Stone: Every single day. You would see teasers throughout the day on all their commercials for the big piece that night attacking, you know, Trump, Reagan, whichever Republican for these conditions. I mean, this is $700 a month per household. You know, folks, do the math, right? You're talking $8,400 per year. Yeah. Where's the average American getting an extra $8,400?Chuck Warren: Right now they're big borrowing still and it's a problem. So let's talk now about another problem that the Maui fires.Sam Stone: The response to the fire.Chuck Warren: The response has been horrible. I talked to a friend a couple of days ago who used to be an employee of mine who now lives out there. And we were talking about I said, so do the deaths get over 100? This is a couple of days after, and she's homeless, lost her house, but she has some in-laws that she's been able to stay with on the island. And she said, Chuck, there's a thousand people missing. I mean, you're going to get to a thousand people dead here because it happened so fast. And there's a story today which I have posted on our social media of a woman trying to go back and rescue her son, and they found him charred. I mean, he was he was dead with the family pet. And it's just and so the real question is, and Sam, why don't you describe it, there was an administrator who's in charge for five hours, did not allow them to have water that they needed.Sam Stone: Yeah. Did not release water that, you know, that Maui has stored and didn't allow homeowners to get that water to be able to, you know, protect their properties at all, even for the firefighters to hook up to and fight the fires. This administrator literally hemmed and hawed because he said that due to environmental considerations, water had to be treated as a precious resource. Let me add a couple other things, because the the emergency response from Hawaii, the state of Hawaii, the officials of Hawaii, Chuck, I believe are guilty of mass murder.Chuck Warren: Well, they should be held up for manslaughter. Yeah, I mean, they really should.Sam Stone: For for a thousand counts by the end of this thing of manslaughter.Chuck Warren: Absolutely. What he did was criminal.Sam Stone: Well, how about the power companies which left the power on for five hours in all their lines when they knew they were sparking fires? And why would you do that? The only thing I could think I haven't seen much investigation on this, Chuck, but the only thing I could think of was they didn't want to turn off power to the big resorts.Chuck Warren: Maybe so. Maybe so.Sam Stone: I mean, because I mean.Chuck Warren: There's no there's no reason for.Sam Stone: It. Look, I know from here in Arizona and I know from situations in California now, the power companies have just made a decision, look, if you get winds over a certain amount, that's likely to be starting to down, shut them down, you just shut them down. You just shut them down because the risk of fire and the risk to to civilian life from that kind of situation is too great. So he shut them down. They did not do that. Then they denied them water. Then they're not letting them into their homes. They didn't activate the sirens to let people know there was a problem. I mean, there are so many things that Hawaii did wrong here and they're being kind of given a pass again by the national media on this. Well, what's.Chuck Warren: Amazing is Hawaii's governor asked the press to do their job to investigate the water. He did that yesterday. Just saying basically, why don't you guys do your job and find out why this wasn't released?Sam Stone: Well, and why aren't they asking questions about the electricity? Why aren't they asking questions about some sort of organized rescue that never came together?Chuck Warren: So, Mr. Manuel, he's the deputy director of Hawaii's Commission on Water Resource Management. Whenever you have a long title like that, you're fairly worthless anyway.Sam Stone: Guaranteed.Chuck Warren: I think he should be charged with manslaughter.Sam Stone: I agree.Chuck Warren: And I'm not saying that to make a political point. I think what he did was putting the needs of people as a very secondary measure on this.Sam Stone: I think there are numerous, numerous officials there that need to be looked into very carefully and criminal prosecution considered in a number of cases based on how they handled this. And he's number one at the top of that list.Chuck Warren: I agree. All right. Well, let's talk about a headline grabbing politician. Katie Hobbs thinks Donald Trump should be prosecuted. You know, view that for what he was. I don't know if the country needs a fifth one and ag mains, which you and I said when the elections were over, that was going to be worse for Arizona than Katie Hobbs. I still stand by that.Sam Stone: Because Chris Mayes is smarter than Katie Hobbs.Chuck Warren: And she directly has and she has an agenda. She has an agenda. I don't. I think that's just very bad for the country. And I think that is going to cause a real problem of Arizona. They do it, and I'm pretty convinced they're going to try to do it.Sam Stone: I think they are going to I think they're going to prosecute him for sure. And again, going back to some of the things Jason said, write your jury here isn't going to be an easy jury.Chuck Warren: No, it's a hung jury here.Sam Stone: It's a hung jury here for sure. You're not you're almost certain not to get it through. This is Arizona still. It's still despite all the election laws, it's still a lightly center right, light red state. So you're not going to do that. But what does concern me, what he was talking about, that state of emergency, I fully believe and expect that Mayes, Adrian Fontes and Hobbs will conspire to remove Trump from the ballot. And given the timelines here in Arizona, they'll do it after the preferential the presidential preferential election, right. So when Trump is the nominee. Right. They'll wait because until then, you can't. I mean, really, you have nothing to remove. They'll do that. Our timeline is so tight between that and when ballots go out for the general election, there's barely time to print them. So they're basically going to ensure that there's no way that Trump's name appears on a ballot in Arizona. If they do that and.Chuck Warren: Does that.Chuck Warren: Does that if that goes, does that go up to the US Supreme Court or are Arizona State Supreme Court?Sam Stone: Well, it's going to have to go through the Arizona Supreme Court first. I mean, it's going to be a state court case first and then potentially could be appealed to the US Supreme Court. Now, I do think, frankly, the Arizona Supreme Court will rule to put him on the ballot. I agree. But let me let me just say this. The minute they make that move. I'm putting on body armor. It's going to be because this the chance that that will create an actual insurrection. And real violence to me is here in Arizona and in many other places in this country, to me would be almost 100% if they do that.Chuck Warren: Well, I hope it doesn't happen. I hope their political ambitions take a back seat. Let the current four cases play out.Sam Stone: Well and let the election play out. I mean, at the at the end of the day and Jason Willick alluded to this, is that there is a role for judging the actions of politicians when they're legally questionable but aren't clearly over a line. Correct. And that mechanism is elections. Correct. And we're going to have one.Chuck Warren: Yeah. Let it play out. Yeah, let it play out. Well, folks, this is breaking battlegrounds. Please share our show with your friends and family and colleagues. You can find us at Breaking Battlegrounds dot vote or wherever you download your podcast. This is Chuck and Sam. We look forward to having you next week.Chuck Warren: Have a great weekend. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe