WEBVTT - It's Hard To Fight On Ice 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:06.120 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:10.720 Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Shoe Getty arm Strong 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:17.279 and get Ki and he Armstrong and Getty. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.439 But he should have taken it serious in allowed the 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:27.800 United States to engage. President Trump is the only one 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.080 that could have prevented this war from taking place. And 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.320 President Trump now is cleaning out the mess of Biden 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.360 left behind and and President Trump will get it done. 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.000 He will negotiate an end to this war. He wants 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.400 to see the war ended, regardless of how that takes place. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.040 He wants to see a win for Ukraine and a 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.839 win for Russia at the same time, because there's a 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:49.519 lose lose going on for both growth countries. 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:49.880 Right now. 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.920 People are dying, and the President said he wants people 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:53.680 to stop dying. 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.400 As Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, friend of the Armstrong and 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:02.080 Getty Show, we're in the stage of Trump communication where 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.440 Trump says something outrageous and sometimes ridiculous, and then his 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.040 allies reinterpret it for us in a more sane way. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.200 And I want to talk about, you know, some of 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:14.920 the things Trump said and done lately is they try 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.360 to move toward a solution of the Ukraine Russian conflict specifically, 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.880 but first a general discussion with Mike Lyons, military analyst 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.840 to Mike served with various military organizations in both the 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.280 US and Europe throughout his career and joints US. Now, Mike, 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:29.800 how are you. 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:31.600 Good? Good? 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:32.400 Thanks for having me back. 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.640 Oh, it's always a pleasure, thank you. So before we 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:37.959 get into some of the specifics of the Ukraine Russia 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.200 thing right now, you're a student of history as we 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.640 know it is, I think beyond question that there is 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:50.800 a serious change in the chemistry the magnetic fields. However 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.480 you want to describe it post World War Two, NATO 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.280 and the Western Powers. Where would you start in you know, 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:01.520 telling a class about that. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.080 I'd start at nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety when the 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:10.880 Soviet Union falls as the West completely screws up what 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.400 happened of the Russian Empire back then? And you go 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.080 back at that point, had you know, NATO wins the 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.880 Cold War and Russian's bankrupt. Ronald Reagan a lot of 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:23.640 it has to do with what he wanted to do 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.880 with Russia and decides and the Soviet Union breaks up, 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.520 and instead of managing that properly and making sure that 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.160 the Russian Empire had zero chance of ever coming back again. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.240 The West decided to bring countries into NATO one at 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:41.880 a time or so over the course of the next 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.000 thirty years since then, and thinking that that was going 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.560 to be a stable way to go, as opposed to 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.920 recognize not recognizing that you can't have every member of 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.000 NATO to be everybody except Russia, because that's how the 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.800 First World War started. So we're seeing now the effects 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.280 of lack of NATO doing anything in six when Georgia 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.799 gets invaded. We're definitely seeing the effects of fourteen when 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.800 Obama and Merkele does do nothing when Crimea is taken. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.680 And then very clearly Joe Biden when he was president, 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.320 was the reason why Vladimir Putin decides to go after Ukraine. 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.640 And now we're faced with a NATO that's disarmed on 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:19.560 the continent that if not but for the United States 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.840 nuclear umbrella, that the defenses don't happen. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:23.440 The last twelve years. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:25.480 Historians are going to look back at the European countries 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.960 and say they had multiple warnings to rearm and remobilize 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.639 their forces to put some kind of leverage behind any 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.200 kind of military operations, and they didn't. And I think 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.000 that's where we're at right now, and that's why the 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:39.160 messag is being cleaned up. 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.880 Which leads me beautifully to the next topic I'm on 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.680 to address, and that is I've been reading a lot 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:48.080 about the domestic politics and economics a lot of the 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.160 European countries now, particularly because several of them are having 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.800 important elections. Virtually all of the biggies are. And it 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.800 strikes me, whether you're talking about technology or the economy 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:03.880 in general, the politics, the freedom of speech policies in Germany, 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:12.080 which has been much discussed lately, it all feels like shrinking, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.680 not growth. Europe just feels like a diminished force that's 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:21.440 continuing to be diminished with few signs of life. 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.360 Yeah, And the thing is, we needed each of those 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:30.159 individual countries to have their own individual leaders that had 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.320 that same vision with regard to where they were going, 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.279 but instead each of them have been more aligned with 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:41.480 i'll just say, more liberal tendencies of unlimited immigration. The 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.320 free speech conversation that's taking place in Germany right now 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.640 is appalling. I mean, what happened over with the sixty 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:53.440 minutes interview and they're arresting people for putting memes on 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.599 the Internet and then trying to equate that summer reason 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.400 like because of free speech, that's why we had the Holocaust. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.400 I can't even connect these dots, or whoever thought they 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.480 were going to get connected is just virtually insane at 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:05.120 this point. 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.000 But what's happened is and then go back to Germany. 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.400 You know, they've they've gotten rid of all their nuclear 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:12.320 energy power plants. 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.440 The world runs on energy. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:15.839 You have to you can't have a country unless you 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.160 have that, so they rely on Russia. 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:19.760 So you kind of bring all this together. 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.560 I saw a good quote the other day that talked about, 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.159 you know, when the Roman Empire fell, it's not because 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.360 of the elites, you know, didn't improve their their their 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:29.880 cost of living, or didn't improve their their lifestyles. It 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.520 fell because the barbarians had hatchets. And that's still the 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.000 same for today. You've got to have a military presence 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.040 and show leverage and show capability of doing things. 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.400 And all of those countries, to include England. 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.040 England is no less guilty in any of these countries 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.719 right now, and they really risk Europe in particular England, France, Germany. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.080 Some of these countries really risk losing their cultures, losing 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:52.040 everything that's about. 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:55.279 Them well, and every sign is that they have no 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.560 inclination whatsoever to do the things that need to be 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.480 done to fix it. In fact, the minute somebody suggests, 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.040 for instance, hey, our welfare state is draining our coffers 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:06.840 and we don't have the money to defend themselves, they 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.880 get voted out of office. So I don't have a 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:11.880 lot of hope. So let's get a little more specific 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.120 about Ukraine and Russia. You can either address some of 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.640 the incendiary things Trump has said lately or not. It's 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.720 up to you. But as the folks gather for various 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.880 peace talks, how does the whole thing strike you overall? 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.080 Well, yeah, he said some outrageous things. Obviously, you know, 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.520 the dictator here is Prutin, and Russia did invade Ukraine. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.520 It's unjustifiable, and the Russian aggression is something that has 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.880 to be dealt with. The question is how what's the 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:43.960 leverage that we can apply back in order to have 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.880 them not do it again? And Trump's transactional view of 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.960 this whole thing is it has to stop. Once it 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.200 does stop, we create an armacist, but he's afraid of 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.520 the same thing over and over again. We land European 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.720 troops there, we put American troops there. American troops will 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.440 before this and they became really what will be a 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.960 trip wire. I mean, again, I appreciate what the British 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.840 Prime Minister was talking about sending troops to Ukraine. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:10.600 I'd like to know exactly which troops. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:12.960 There's less than one hundred thousand active duty troops that 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.120 are in the UK Army right now, which is ridiculous 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.160 for a country of that size for once was once 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:18.840 a great power. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:20.920 I mean, they might as well be Portugal, they might 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:22.200 as well be you. 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.040 Know, some some mid Atlantic uh, you know, the Middle 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.440 Eastern country right now. So so again, none of these 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.960 countries have got really any capability to do this. But 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.400 I think I think the question is I think we're 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.640 going to get to the spot that everybody is you know, 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:38.800 Pete Heiks that said the quiet part out loud. Russia 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.520 will contain, will have the twenty percent of that they've kept, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.120 they'll likely keep CRIMEA, they will put up a border. 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.520 Lato won't be won't be bringing in Ukraine anytime soon, 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.880 and they'll be lucky to get some some EU you know, 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:54.800 kind of money they're going forward and to try to 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:56.520 get the fighting to stop. I think that's where it's 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.360 going to go, and that's that's where it should have 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.960 went back when the first thing started four years ago, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:02.080 three years ago at this point. 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:04.440 And honestly, whatever's next is not going to play out 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:05.680 in the next year. It's going to play out in 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.880 the next thirty years. So we'll all find out together. 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.880 Military analyst Mike Lyons online, Mike, we're really putting you 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:15.040 through the paces today, and we appreciated another topic speaking 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.120 of Pete Hegzeth and in Trump's order to take a 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.600 serious look at the Pentagon, cut budgets, cut the fat. 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:24.440 What do you think of that in general? And you, 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:30.440 as an experienced Pentagon hand, tell us about the efficiencies 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.400 and inefficiency of the Pentagon. 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.959 Yeah, they go through this every once in a while. 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:38.720 They've tried a couple of different administrations. 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.200 What you're seeing though, is Pete Heggsuff being very overly transparent. 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.000 He put about an eight minute video out. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:45.959 Last night with regard to what that was going to 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.800 be about, specifically left certain things out of its certain 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.280 domains that won't be cut. But like anything else, there 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.880 are things that are redundant within the Pentagon that it's 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.120 an easy place for fivictoms to be built and for 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.120 for kingdoms to kind of move forward as people try 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.800 to stay in one location and don't change their jobs. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:07.640 So I think he's looking to knock down some of 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:08.160 those stilos. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.200 Some of those stilos are calcified, I'll put it that way, 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.880 in terms of where they don't talk and now eleven 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.679 did actually a pretty good job of knocking those silos 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.640 down when it came to information and communication, but they 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.959 still get rebuilt and they still get re established, and 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.640 I think that's what Pete wants to do. Up He's 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.040 up against a very strong momentum on the other side 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:28.720 because there's people that are going to dig in pretty 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.680 deeply and they're going to want to keep their victems 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:32.800 and keep their dollars. 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:34.400 But when you think about if the Pentagon is the. 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.760 Most the largest discretionary budget that we have right now, 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.880 and so if we can get some savings out of 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.360 their ten percent, then I think that'll be a win, right. 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:43.959 And we have always said around here at the A 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.839 and G Show that the kindest, best thing we can 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.600 do for our actual fighting men and women is to 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.880 ensure there's efficiency at the Pentagon. And the idea that 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.959 scrutinizing the Pentagon or re ordering budgets to somehow weakening defense, 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.719 I think is foolish. Final question, speaking of our military 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.199 in these turbulent times, what do you see as our 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:09.240 greatest strength right now as our forces exist? And what's 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.480 your greatest concern or our greatest weakness. 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.600 I think our greatest strength remains this intangible of being 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:16.160 an American. 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.240 I think anytime you see. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.400 Americans in a situation where they have to rally and 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.000 put themselves together, not just in the military, you see 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.560 it in corporate America sometimes. But but there's this thing 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:28.599 about being an American, which is why everybody wants to 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:29.760 come here, why everybody. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:30.600 Wants to be part of this thing. 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.120 When when when push comes to shove, when a mission 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:35.880 has to get done, I remember, you know, my time 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.120 in active duty, that that people would say, you know, 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:40.320 this is we're going to get this done. 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:41.960 We're going to you know, look left and look right 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:42.720 and take care of each other. 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.640 So I think our greatest strength is this tangible that 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.000 runs in our DNA of of being an American and 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.000 what that means and being on the high on the 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.760 high ground and doing whatever it takes. I often think about, 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:57.720 you know, I look at these videos and I watch 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.920 the Russians leave their soldiers behind and things like that. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.559 I remember being in when I was at combat, thinking that, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.280 you know, you never see Americans surrender and things like that. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.720 So we have this intangible that's there, But then that 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.600 greatest strength is a weakness. If we still don't have 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:13.840 the technology and don't have the equipment, and if we 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.160 come up with somebody that has better, better kind of things, 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.320 we're not going to no matter no matter how great 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.320 that intangible is, it's not going to overcome that. So 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:24.959 we still have to have military might, we have to 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.480 have material might, and be able to put our money 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:28.160 where our mouth is. 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.320 I think those are the two biggest things. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:32.480 Right, And that's so perfect. I was just going to 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.480 interject it. In reading about Germany and the elections and 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.800 that sort of thing, a German analyst was saying, what 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.160 really weakens us and strengthens the Americans is that we 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.640 have a culture of we'd better be careful, we'd better 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.400 not Here are the things that can be wrong, that 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.640 could go wrong. Rather, whereas the Americans have a spirit 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.760 of let's try it and see what happens, learn from 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.320 it and go from there. And yeah, if we ever 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.400 lose that including technologic as you're saying, and you know, 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.000 we're screwed. Uh. Military analyst Mike Clons Mike, great to 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:06.400 talk to you. Thanks so much for the time. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:08.199 Yeah, thank you, thanks for having me. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.679 Absolutely. Coming up in just a moment or two, a 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.280 couple of interesting perspective studies I've come across in the 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.600 last few days about the technical world, what it's doing 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.400 to our brains, and how to unplug from it. I 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:23.760 think you'll find it interesting. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:30.439 Stay with us, very stars. 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:34.080 What's that for? 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:46.040 Call future done it again inside the Tady garden. 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.840 Well, look back on that moment and understand that's what 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:55.400 started the Great Canadian American War Canada viciously and unprovokedly 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.440 is that a word, Uh, scoring against our poor goalie 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:05.040 in overtime and brutally winning the hockey game, which did 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:06.800 not start with a bunch of fights. By the way, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.960 I was hanging out with my buddy Gordy, who is 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:14.640 a former elite hockey player, not quite NHL, but very 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.959 very good hockey player and still as part of the 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.319 world of sports. And I said, hey, they're going to 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.160 be a bunch of fights to the night. And he said, no, no, no, no, 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.200 too important a game. It'll come out just win. Scores 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.160 have been settled. Now let's play hockey. And he was 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.960 absolutely right. He also pointed out that hockey is the 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:34.160 only sport where there are absolutely rock solid rules unwritten 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:40.679 but you cannot violate. About fighting. You watch an NBA fight, 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.280 guys are are sucker punching each other and punching each 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:50.319 other from behind and swinging wildly like lunatics. In hockey, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:56.240 you tell the guy we're fighting, he says, yes, you 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.160 drop your gloves, you slug each other in the head. 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.920 If you can, you can't. It's very hard to fight 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.160 on ice. If you've never tried it, don't, but trust 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.680 me when I tell you it's very difficult, especially when 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:09.839 somebody's grabbing your jersey and pulling it up and the 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.679 rest of it. The minute anybody's getting hurt, the referees 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.200 dive in and break it up. And the minute anybody 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.400 goes to the ice, the other guy says, oh, it's over, 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.640 and they back off. You'll never see an NHL player 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.920 like pounding another guy who's down. They just don't. It's 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.400 very honorable. It's like the dueling culture thing we were 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.000 talking about yesterday. You don't have to be in favor 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.400 of it. But it's not like straight thugs beating each 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.440 other to death on the pavement or anything like this. 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.240 Very very different than that. It's a gentlemanly punching another 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.720 man in the face. Anyway, I thought this was good, interesting, 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.720 thought provoking because I worry about this all the time, 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.000 not just for the younger generation, although I certainly do, 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:58.200 but also about myself, and that is our addiction to 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.360 the endorphin bursts of in put after input after input 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.040 from smartphones in particular, technology in general. Here's a story 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:13.520 about how popular these unplugged nights are among young Brits. 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:19.400 Offcom is the name of the organization. They unplug and 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:24.640 they get together for offline nights, they call them, and 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:29.920 they do whatever, whether it's drinking or dancing or even 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.080 playing games or whatever, just talking to each other, no 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:42.680 tech allowed. Katie joins us, Yeah, I love this idea. Yeah, yeah, 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.320 me too. And they you know, anybody old enough to 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:50.480 remember this doesn't need a description, but they mentioned one 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.160 group that was playing games and scattered around the room 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.240 table stacked with board games is an excited hum echoed 0:15:57.240 --> 0:15:59.960 around the walls. Here's this twenty five year old engineer 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.200 that he found leaving his phone at the door, freeing. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:04.680 I didn't realize the addiction. Then too often I feel 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.280 the urge to look at my phone and scroll. He 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:12.040 talked about fomo, but this is growing in popularity. I 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.000 don't know if it will achieve any sort of critical mass, 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.680 but it's definitely a response to what we're all feeling. 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:23.359 I think. And then this, which is of similar content obviously, 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:28.240 but a big study out multiple universities across the USA 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.120 and Canada worked with hundreds and hundreds of iPhone users, 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.160 average age thirty two to test how we're moving Constant 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.040 internet access would affect their daily lives. And I'll squeeze 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.400 in the analysis real quickly as we look forward to 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.200 a chat with Lanhi Chen in just a moment or 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.880 two about domestic policy. Blocking mobile internet for two weeks 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.680 led to mental health improvements with an effect size larger 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:54.920 than typically seen in antidepressant studies. Improved sustained attention comparable 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.480 to reversing ten years of age related decline and increased 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.080 well being in ninety one percent under participants in at 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.840 least one key area. There's more to it, and we'll 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.560 dip back into it. But it's like better for depression 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.680 than drugs and better for memory than being ten years younger. 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:17.159 Holy cow, stay with us, Lanhi chennext, Armstrong and Getty. 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:22.080 Cut jobs, save the government money, sant Americans a check 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.879 for the difference. That's the Trump plan being floated at least, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.840 But is it realistic? Is it feasible? And might it 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:30.560 hurt your wallet more than it would help? 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:32.440 Where He's gone too far? 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.000 A slim majority using presidential power fifty two percent say 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.640 he's gone too far There cutting federal programs. 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.600 Fifty one percent of Americans say gone too far. This 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:43.840 is the. 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:51.879 Chainsaw for bureaucracy, turns off change saw a variety of 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.440 opinions and thoughts there having to do with domestic policy, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.560 budget cutting, bureaucracy taming, et cetera, which is one of 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.920 the major initiatives going on in the Trump administration right now. 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.000 Who better to discuss this with than Lanhi Chen, David 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.600 and Diane Steffi fellow in American Public Policy Studies at 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.760 the Hoover Institution and the Director of Domestic Policy Studies 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:13.399 at Stanford University Lanai. 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.240 How are you great to be with you? 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.040 How are you just terrific? Thank you. Earlier in the show, 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.439 we were comparing and contrasting the democratic reaction to a 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.880 lot of the cutting and restructuring and examining the giant bureaucracy, 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.760 which has been essentially any cuts are a horror in 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:37.760 a constitutional crisis, with Lincoln's statement that we absolutely have 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.399 the right to amend to reconstruct and you know he 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.359 didn't say this supposedly, but cut or grow government in 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.120 the way we the people see fit. 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.879 It's quite a contrast, it is, And I would just 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.359 say this, I mean, I think there is a fair 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:58.359 amount of hysteria over some of the activity that we're seeing, 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.920 and the effort I think that's underway by some in 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.400 the media is to try and define some of these 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.720 cuts as existential. We're deeply problematic. So let's just step 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:10.320 back and take a look at one of them that 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.520 they talk about. For example, the IRS. This is one 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.800 of my favorite ones. The IRS has reached record levels 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.680 of staffing in the last couple of years, and they 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.400 have significantly expanded their workforce. So they went from about 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.679 seventy thousand employees to one hundred thousand employees over the 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.520 course of a couple of years. Now, the cuts that 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.760 DOZE is talking about sixty eight hundred employees, we're talking 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:39.359 about sixty eight hundred probationary recent hires that they're looking 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.440 to essentially trim from the IRS bureaucracy. We're talking about 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.919 between six to seven percent of the workforce. And it 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.399 doesn't even account for this significant, as I said, increase 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.040 in the workforce we've seen recently. So people just need 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.399 to look at the facts and try to figure out 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.480 exeguly what's going on here, because fundamentally there is this 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.240 notion and that well, no, we can't cut anything. This 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.840 is going to cause a degradation of service. Look, the 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.119 service of the IRS wasn't all that great before. So 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.520 the notion that we have this challenge that's being created 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:12.600 because of the things that government is doing, the things 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.320 that DOGE is doing in particular, it's just not true. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:22.560 Well, and the idea that to even autit something is 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:27.679 improper or threatening is just it's it's obscenely backward. One 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.560 of the things Kim Strassel's writing about is how the 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:38.680 Trump administration is taking a serious look at the agencies 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.399 that Congress created to perform executive functions, Like, well, they 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.520 administer laws, but they're free from the executive branches control. 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.000 It's like Congress created its own executive branch. And any 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.159 thoughts on where we are as a country with that, 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.919 and what are the chances of doing something about it. 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.760 Yeah, that's another great question, because you've got a whole 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.000 host of agencies that are they're called into pendent agencies, right, 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.560 they're created Usually they end in a B or a 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.840 C so commission or board, and these are the organizations 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.920 that essentially are part of the executive branch, but they 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.480 have some independent authority. So they've got, for example, board 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.400 members or commission members who are appointed by a president 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:20.919 for a set amount of time, confirmed by the Senate, 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:23.400 and they're supposed to sit for that set amount of time. 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:25.840 And the idea was, well, you've got some of these 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:30.720