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Speaker 1: So this heg Seth meeting is a mystery, and I

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Speaker 1: can appreciate people saying, what is all of this about

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Speaker 1: Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, good to be with you.

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Speaker 1: You've got the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth saying allegedly

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Speaker 1: putting together this meeting of generals, generals and admirals. There's

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Speaker 1: like eight hundred generals and admirals we have in the

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Speaker 1: United States. It's okay, what are you, what are you

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Speaker 1: getting together for? What is the purpose of the meeting?

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Speaker 1: And the answers? I do not know. I have no

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Speaker 1: idea why there's this meeting got reported by the Washington

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Speaker 1: Post yesterday, it's now everywhere. I'm kind of bothered that

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Speaker 1: it's reported, because if indeed they're gonna get together, I

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Speaker 1: don't think I want everybody knowing about it. I don't

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Speaker 1: think it should be so much a story of a

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Speaker 1: public consumption. Get together for the meeting without letting anybody know.

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Speaker 1: But it got leaked, and now there's this question of

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Speaker 1: this mystery meeting. As with all things, people get incredibly

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Speaker 1: what's the word I'm looking for, dumb? And there is

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Speaker 1: a guy who I do not know by the name

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Speaker 1: of Ben Hodges, a general former US Army Europe, and

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Speaker 1: he's on social media and he tweets out. July nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty five, German generals were called to a surprise assembly

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Speaker 1: in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the

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Speaker 1: Weimar Constitution was void and that they would be further

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Speaker 1: required to swear a personal oath to the Furor. Most

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Speaker 1: generals took the new oath to keep their position, to

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Speaker 1: which Pete Hegseth responded, cool story, General, is that really

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Speaker 1: how we're going to be engaging things? The only reason

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Speaker 1: for this meeting is because Trump and heck Seth want

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Speaker 1: the generals to swear an allegiance to Trump. Continuing this

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Speaker 1: push of Trump autocrat, Trump deskpot, Trump dictator, Trump threat

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Speaker 1: to democracy, Trump takeover. It continues, over and over and

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Speaker 1: over again. No turning down the rhetoric, no toning down

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Speaker 1: the rhetoric. This is certifiable. I assume that this general

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Speaker 1: is retired the United States Army certifiable. These people are broken.

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Speaker 1: Why in the world would I even consider or you

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Speaker 1: or anybody believing anything they say? For what purpose would

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Speaker 1: you do that? I'm curious about this meeting too. I

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Speaker 1: do not quite understand what it is. Maybe we'll find out.

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Speaker 1: I think the argument of do you really want all

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Speaker 1: these senior officials in one place? I think that's actually

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Speaker 1: a very good argument. I think that is a near

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Speaker 1: compelling argument. Is this the right thing to do? And

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Speaker 1: then you have Trump and and he was in the

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Speaker 1: in the oval yesterday. You've got Trump and you have JD.

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Speaker 1: Vance there and they were asked about this, and they're like,

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Speaker 1: not a big deal. Why are we even why are

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Speaker 1: we even talking about this? Why such a big deal?

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Speaker 1: You act like it's a bad thing. I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: it is a bad thing, but are we going to

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Speaker 1: to pretend that there's there's not the possibility of a

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Speaker 1: problem with everybody being in one place. It's okay to say,

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Speaker 1: it's okay to note It's like when you had the

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Speaker 1: memorial service for Charlie Kirk. I understand we could do

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Speaker 1: security pretty well. The president, the vice president, the the

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Speaker 1: the the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense all

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Speaker 1: in one spot. It's yes, you can be concerned about that,

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Speaker 1: but we have them all one spot, and for example,

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Speaker 1: at least many of them, for example a Republican conventions,

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Speaker 1: they're Democratic conventions. It's okay to say, is this the

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Speaker 1: best idea? I just don't know what the meeting is for.

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Speaker 1: But if there's a conversation about a reduction amongst the generals,

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Speaker 1: well I'm absolutely fine with that. Eight hundred generals and admirals.

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Speaker 1: Do you really need that many people with stars? Does

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Speaker 1: it really take that many stars to get the job done?

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Speaker 1: Or do we promote people to general because you know

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Speaker 1: somebody has a brother in law, and well, you know

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Speaker 1: that is often times the case. You don't think the

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Speaker 1: military is political. How do you think you get to

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Speaker 1: be a general? You're a great leader. That's not always

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Speaker 1: how it wor and we are all fully aware of that.

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Speaker 1: So as for what this meaning is, I do not know.

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Speaker 1: But if we're going to fire some generals and some admirals,

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Speaker 1: I'm okay with that. I am fine with it. And

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Speaker 1: the idea that we can't fire admirals and generals. This

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Speaker 1: goes back to that conversation do the institutions exist for

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Speaker 1: the citizenry or do they exist to keep the institutions

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Speaker 1: in existence. Then there's the story of the farmer. So

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Speaker 1: you have got the Trump administration saying that tariff money

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Speaker 1: is going to be used to help bail out farmers,

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Speaker 1: not all, but some. Now Taiwan is pledging to buy

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Speaker 1: six billion dollars in US corn and soybeans. This is

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Speaker 1: the first story that I have seen where there is

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Speaker 1: some kind of movement based on the tariff war, the

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Speaker 1: idea that yes, indeed, it's not just a conversation of well,

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Speaker 1: we'll open up our markets to these things that you

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Speaker 1: sell in America. Opening up the market is inconsequential. Are

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Speaker 1: they going to buy? Yes or no? So you have

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Speaker 1: this deal regarding the state of Indiana, leaders of Indiana's

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Speaker 1: corn and soybean lobbies signing letters of intent with officials

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Speaker 1: from Taiwan that call for Taiwan to purchase close to

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Speaker 1: six billion dollars worth of US agricultural products over the

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Speaker 1: next four years. Now, I would want to know exactly

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Speaker 1: how much of this stuff do they buy. Already the

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Speaker 1: letters that they're committed to buying eight point five metric

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Speaker 1: tons of US corn products and six and a half

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Speaker 1: to eight metric tons of soybean products by twenty twenty nine.

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Speaker 1: That's a little over two billion dollars worth of corn

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Speaker 1: and three and three quarter billion dollars worth of soybeans. Now,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't discuss how much is coming out of Indiana specifically,

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Speaker 1: but we'll leave that as a secondary point. If this

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Speaker 1: is something in addition to what is already being purchased,

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Speaker 1: specifically purchased because of trade deals, this is the kind

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Speaker 1: of thing you cheer and celebrate and say, my gosh,

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Speaker 1: the first actual fruits of one of these trade deals.

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Speaker 1: That's good news. But if now we're going to say,

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Speaker 1: going back to the other side of this tariff money

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Speaker 1: is tereed to bail out the farmer. I like the farmer.

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Speaker 1: I support the farmer. I want these trade deals to

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Speaker 1: be able to help out the farmer in every single way.

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Speaker 1: But the but the tarrors being used to bail out

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Speaker 1: the farmer. I thought that we had a use for

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Speaker 1: the tariffs, and that was paying down debt. I thought

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Speaker 1: that was its purpose, get rid of this insane debt

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Speaker 1: crushing Americans. That because we don't stop spending because we're fools,

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Speaker 1: that was the goal. That's not the goal. Now we're

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Speaker 1: going to use it for specific pet projects. I opposed

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Speaker 1: the tarer of money going back to the people some

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Speaker 1: level of rebate. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: this is all getting silly. Don't get me wrong. I

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Speaker 1: love it when Americans get their money back. I want

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Speaker 1: my money back too. Pay down the debt if that's

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Speaker 1: what you're gonna use, If you're gonna have these ridiculous

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Speaker 1: for cocka tariffs, pay pay down the debt, be done finished.

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Speaker 1: Paying down the debt is better for me. I need

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Speaker 1: this debt gone. This is crushing, this is gonna destroy us.

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Speaker 1: My gosh, it's the tea party all over again. But

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Speaker 1: we're gonna bail out the farmers. Trump saying in the

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Speaker 1: Oval Office, We're gonna take some of that tariff money

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Speaker 1: that we've made. We're gonna give it to our farmers,

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Speaker 1: who for a little while are going to be hurt

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Speaker 1: until it kicks in. The tariffs kick in to their benefit.

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Speaker 1: I do like the admission that the tariffs cause a problem.

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Speaker 1: If this trade deal works where it's above and beyond

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Speaker 1: what is already being purchased by Taiwan, then yes, the

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Speaker 1: first real good news. Now let's see others do this

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Speaker 1: and start buying. By the way, there's only so many soybeans.

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Speaker 1: We have so much corn that we have, Oh, we've

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Speaker 1: got a lot of it, But there's only so much.

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Speaker 1: There are only so many places you can go and

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Speaker 1: sell the things because you I only have so much

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Speaker 1: to sell. This is a good result, not one hundred

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Speaker 1: percent sure how I feel about kind of peace meeling

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Speaker 1: it out with this group is hurt, and that group's hurt.

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Speaker 1: The other group's hurt. You said you're gonna pay down debt,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's what you should do, the other

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Speaker 1: part of it is, did the tariffs actually lead us

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Speaker 1: to this place talk with this deal with Taiwan? Did

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Speaker 1: take the tariffs to do this? We couldn't have done

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Speaker 1: it any other way? Maybe not? But do the tariff

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Speaker 1: still provide us any value? Because there are attacks on us?

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Speaker 1: I still say no, but a trade deal. I will

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Speaker 1: cheer a trade deal that actually sees an economic result.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not mad at farmers, I understand. I'm just

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Speaker 1: saying this tariff money was supposed to go to debt,

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Speaker 1: and I would if we're gonna collect the crap, I

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Speaker 1: would still like to see that be the thing that's

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Speaker 1: paid down. This is Tony Katz today,