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Speaker 1: Ah, beaut Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not

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Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio Special Operations, military

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Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community

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Speaker 1: softwarep dot com on time on Target. I am Ian Scotto.

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Speaker 1: Jack Murphy is not with me, but on the line

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Speaker 1: is Luke Ryan, former ar, former Army ranger and regular

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Speaker 1: writer for the site. And you've only been on once.

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Speaker 1: I was like, we gotta get Luke back on. Yep,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me him absolutely, dude. So yeah, Jack

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Speaker 1: is currently very busy today. I don't know if I

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Speaker 1: could say where he is, but he's doing an interview

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Speaker 1: h for a more mainstream publication about one of our

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Speaker 1: favorite subjects. I think you're familiar Luke that and that

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Speaker 1: being Wayne Simmons. Oh yeah, yeah, Wayne is uh a

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Speaker 1: lot of you guys who listening to the show are

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Speaker 1: familiar with. But interesting guy that he claimed to be

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Speaker 1: CIA aked all his credentials And for those who don't know,

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Speaker 1: like I haven't mentioned it in years, like I still

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Speaker 1: have Wayne's number on my phone. I have no idea

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Speaker 1: if it's the same number, but like I booked him

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Speaker 1: for shows when I was working at Sirius XM and

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Speaker 1: people told me, yeah, he's legit, and he's got like

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Speaker 1: a quote from Donald Rumselled on his book, and you know, like, dude,

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Speaker 1: we don't have people who who go that far into

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Speaker 1: vetting people. And it's like, if you have a rum

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Speaker 1: Selled quote in your book, people just assume, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're legit, just like everybody at Fox News did. And

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Speaker 1: Jack told me years before it came out. He was like, dude,

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Speaker 1: don't book this guy. He's full of ship. Yeah, man,

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Speaker 1: Jack knew. He told me years before, and I was

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Speaker 1: like all right, and then sure enough, a couple of

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Speaker 1: years later, you know, article not just one article, many

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Speaker 1: articles pop up over the internet about this guy being

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Speaker 1: basically full of crap and being arrested for various other things. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know a whole lot about what's

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Speaker 1: going on in that situation. He's getting sentenced to a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of years in prison, right, Yeah. I don't

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Speaker 1: know enough either. I just know that he was like, hey, dude,

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Speaker 1: I'm doing an interview with about one of our favorite people,

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Speaker 1: Lane Simmons. Yeah yeah, yeah, I don't know the specifics

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Speaker 1: to that, but man, you know, I really, uh you

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Speaker 1: can you kind of start to get an eye for

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Speaker 1: for people who are you know, facing fake and stuff,

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Speaker 1: for exaggerating different things. You know, you just there are

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Speaker 1: certain ways that people like that talk. They talk like

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Speaker 1: they're reciting a bad movie script or something that you

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Speaker 1: might see from movies or books or something like that.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. And the thing, most media outlets are

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Speaker 1: not like us, Like they don't have guys who have

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Speaker 1: been a part of the community, So it's pretty easy

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Speaker 1: to to basically get one over on most people in

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Speaker 1: the media, myself included on some level, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean, Like he seemed legit to me. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean I would personally when it comes to C I

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Speaker 1: A stuff. I mean, I don't know a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of CIA people, so I might be able to tell

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Speaker 1: the type of person that's that is making exaggerations like that,

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Speaker 1: but when it comes down to operational specifics, I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to know the difference between one acronym over another acronym.

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Speaker 1: If there are a lot of it's confidence to you know,

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Speaker 1: you can get away with a lot just by being

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Speaker 1: super confident. And the whole difference between the stolen valor

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Speaker 1: thing if you were in the CIA versus like what

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Speaker 1: you guys did. If someone goes on Fox News and

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Speaker 1: says I'm an army ranger, they will be called out immediately.

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Speaker 1: It's not so simple when you say I'm a black

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Speaker 1: ops CIA dude right right by definition, nobody knows or

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Speaker 1: can corroborate anything that I say, So therefore, listen to

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Speaker 1: what I say exactly. Um so, yeah, you know it's funny.

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Speaker 1: I I I'm like more energized right now, I guess

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Speaker 1: on some level. But because I got an early morning

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Speaker 1: workout in. I'm used to working out at night, but

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Speaker 1: I had I had a cold over the weekend, so

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Speaker 1: my whole sleeping patterns were off. And it was one

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Speaker 1: of those things where I woke up at five am

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, am I gonna lay in bed or

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Speaker 1: just get a fucking work at it right now? And

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Speaker 1: I did. Uh So I feel good the on that note,

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Speaker 1: by the way, um, well, two things I was gonna say.

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Speaker 1: I feel like, when you get a cold, just take

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Speaker 1: it easier for a couple of days, eat insane amounts

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Speaker 1: of food and you'll be good. That That seems to

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Speaker 1: work for me like every time, and I bounced back

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Speaker 1: pretty quick. Um. The other thing I was going to

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Speaker 1: say they're related to that. I've mentioned before that I

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Speaker 1: had this, uh article, my first ever article up on

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Speaker 1: the website, the Mind Muscle Connection, and I may have

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Speaker 1: told you, Luke, that it got fucking stolen from another website.

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Speaker 1: They played drized by article Jed didn't credit to me,

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Speaker 1: and it's this website called Verified Tests. So the crazy

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Speaker 1: thing is, I was like looking them up. Their headquarters

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Speaker 1: are in New York, so I was like, do I

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Speaker 1: just march over this building and say what they but

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Speaker 1: um I I just emailed them and sent them an

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Speaker 1: email that was like I don't want to take legal

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Speaker 1: action and please take this down. And they did. But uh,

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Speaker 1: I guess that's kind of cool. My first ever article

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Speaker 1: got uh plagiarized, right, Yeah? I mean, and if I

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Speaker 1: remember right, I mean it was a word for word

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Speaker 1: copy and paste. And the first sentence was even like

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Speaker 1: a reference to soft Rep Radio, wasn't it. Yeah? The

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Speaker 1: first reference was like many of you know me as

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Speaker 1: the producer and one of the hosts on soft Rep Radio.

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Speaker 1: And and the crazy thing is the guy's bio. He

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Speaker 1: had a bio like the way that we do on

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Speaker 1: soft Rep. On the article and it was like, whatever

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Speaker 1: his name is is a trustworthy guy. He has a

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Speaker 1: heart of gold and can always be counted on. And

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know if I considered that trustworthy

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Speaker 1: of he's copying and pays things my article. But um,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, if you have, if you guys listening, I

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Speaker 1: haven't checked it out yet. It's called The Mind Muscle

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Speaker 1: Connection you and it's up on soft rep dot com. Um.

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Speaker 1: Before we get into everything that I want to get

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Speaker 1: into with you, which you've been writing some awesome pieces,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to address this one email really quick sent

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Speaker 1: to soft Rep dot Radio at soft rep dot com

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Speaker 1: since it's in reference to a show that I did solo.

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Speaker 1: So this is from Owen Johnston, UM, and he wrote me,

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Speaker 1: you guys drive me nuts. Sometimes you have a guy

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Speaker 1: who was inside get Mo, possibly the hottest topic of

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Speaker 1: the last twenty years, and all you talk about is

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Speaker 1: his dog. Do you really think we care more about

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Speaker 1: his dog and than get Mo? Al Right, So, in

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Speaker 1: response to that recent episode, you guys have to keep

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Speaker 1: in mind I shouldn't say you guys this guy, Um,

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Speaker 1: he has a brand new book out that's the best

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Speaker 1: seller about the relationship with his dog that he rescued

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Speaker 1: from Afghanistan, So it would honestly be a disservice to

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Speaker 1: him to just start talking about guantanam Obey the whole time,

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Speaker 1: as as interesting of a subject as it is, and

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Speaker 1: because the book is like a feel good, family friendly book,

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Speaker 1: I actually wasn't even sure if I should get into

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Speaker 1: the get most stuff, but I did and kind of

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Speaker 1: proceeded cautiously, and you know, we talked about it for

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Speaker 1: a little bit. But anybody who comes on the show,

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Speaker 1: they're here because they have a book out there promoting something,

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Speaker 1: or you know, in the case of someone like Mike Vining,

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Speaker 1: it's just a great contact and we could talk about

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Speaker 1: whatever we want because they trust us in that way.

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Speaker 1: But if it's someone I reached out to because they

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Speaker 1: had a book, you know, I'm going to help promote

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Speaker 1: their book and get an interview about the book. But

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Speaker 1: I think we did touch on some other stuff. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: I emailed Owen back, and I think, you know, I

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Speaker 1: obviously didn't send like a dick email, like what the funk, dude,

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Speaker 1: And he wrote me back. He actually was like, Wow,

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Speaker 1: is this really ian? Nice? Thanks man? Yeah, I was annoyed.

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Speaker 1: Because I wanted to hear a different topic and then

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Speaker 1: he wrote thanks to the podcast, So like, look, I

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Speaker 1: appreciate anyone who listens, even if they're um not happy

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Speaker 1: about the subject of an interview. But I think that

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Speaker 1: uh kind of narrows it down, man, Like you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, right, Luke, Like, if we have

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Speaker 1: Curtis Albert's on and he and he ends up having

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Speaker 1: a movie out, we want to talk about that movie.

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Speaker 1: We want to talk about whatever project they're promoting, and

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Speaker 1: and weigh on some other subjects right well, and you

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Speaker 1: probably want to delve into things that you know that

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Speaker 1: are new and that are happening now. I mean a

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Speaker 1: lot of the other stuff you can read about or

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Speaker 1: talk about on other times, and they're they're on with

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Speaker 1: you for whatever reason, whatever they're doing right now. And

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Speaker 1: and not everybody's lives necessarily center around, you know, singular

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Speaker 1: major events. Sometimes you just want to talk about your dog, exactly.

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Speaker 1: I'll talk about my dog all day. And there's not

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Speaker 1: enough like feel good stories that come out of the military.

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Speaker 1: So I actually think it's just us in the world

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Speaker 1: in general, you know, Yeah, I agree, And we don't

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Speaker 1: normally do those types of stories. So to me, it

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Speaker 1: was like, Wow, this is cool. It's something different, and

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Speaker 1: I think overall was a good interview. But um, send

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Speaker 1: that an email too, soft up dot Radio at softrep

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Speaker 1: dot com. Alright, getting into what you're up to, Luke.

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Speaker 1: Before um, we talked about like some of the main subjects.

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Speaker 1: I actually wanted to mention that you wrote a recent

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Speaker 1: article about the children trapped in Thailand, which you formally

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Speaker 1: used to live in, right, Yeah, I lived in chang My, Thailand,

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Speaker 1: which is a little bit south of the caves where

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Speaker 1: the kids were trapped, but still in northern Thailand. I

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Speaker 1: lived there for five years and my parents still lived there.

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Speaker 1: My parents have lived there since two thousand and two,

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Speaker 1: so quite quite a while. So the great thing though

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Speaker 1: is that these kids are freed now. But that has

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Speaker 1: to be like such a traumatized and experience. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how what were your feelings on it as you were

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Speaker 1: writing about it, because you've been writing about this before

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Speaker 1: the rescue. Yeah, I mean it's got to be just

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Speaker 1: an insane experience for all of them. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: know that time can get seriously distorted and when when

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Speaker 1: you're just confined into a space with no perception of

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Speaker 1: night or day. I remember reading about someone who was trapped.

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Speaker 1: I think it wasn't the the thirty three miners that

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Speaker 1: were trapped. It was another instance. But somebody was trapped

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Speaker 1: for several days and when they asked him how long

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Speaker 1: they thought he was in there, he thought, he said

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Speaker 1: like eleven or twelve hours. There is perception at time

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Speaker 1: was totally skewed. And these kids, I mean they they

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Speaker 1: obviously weren't eating for the whole first stretch nine ten

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Speaker 1: days that they were stuck in there. They didn't have

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Speaker 1: access to any healthcare. I mean their kids, I think

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Speaker 1: the youngest one was eleven. Um just absolutely an insane experience.

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Speaker 1: And then and to not have any idea of people

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Speaker 1: are not only canna find you, but if they're even

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Speaker 1: looking for you, or if they even know where to look,

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Speaker 1: so all of these things, and then of course then

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Speaker 1: you get found and probably the automatic assumption is, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is over, and it's not over. And that whole

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Speaker 1: huge rescue effort and those guys, you know, just every

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Speaker 1: it was. It was pretty cool to see the entire

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Speaker 1: talking about feel good stories. You know, It's pretty cool

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Speaker 1: to see the entire international community really come together for

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Speaker 1: that whole thing. I mean, you've got we had. We

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Speaker 1: had US military guys including some PJS and some other

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Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of like cave experts and from

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Speaker 1: you know, and then the British divers who actually found

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Speaker 1: the kids, and Australian federal police I believe, I'm not

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Speaker 1: exactly sure what their name was, a whole whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of It's just cool to see all of these countries

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Speaker 1: come together like that. Yeah, I agree entirely. Um, so

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Speaker 1: it does turn from a tragic story into somewhat of

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Speaker 1: a feel good story. I mean, these kids will still

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Speaker 1: h have to find a way to cope with what

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Speaker 1: they experienced. I'm sure, um getting into the main stuff

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Speaker 1: you wanted to talk about, though, And this is the

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Speaker 1: type of thing that you are far more um invested

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Speaker 1: in and well researched on than me. So I just

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Speaker 1: want to hear all about it because so everybody who

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Speaker 1: comes on this show, I think I shouldn't say everybody.

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Speaker 1: A lot of guys who come on this show who

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Speaker 1: have dealt with the v A have horror stories and

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Speaker 1: have their complaints with the v A. And once again

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Speaker 1: I shouldn't say everybody because there's been guys who have

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Speaker 1: come on before who have had relatively positive and very

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Speaker 1: positive experiences with the v A. But you've been doing

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Speaker 1: a ton of research and digging into the corruption there

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Speaker 1: in terms of contracts and bids, and I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear all about it. Yeah, you know, I'm a little

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Speaker 1: bit of of the type of person who might not

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Speaker 1: initially have been so inclined to get into these stories

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Speaker 1: because I've actually had an extremely positive experience with the

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Speaker 1: v A. I've been to two v A s in

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Speaker 1: the Tampa area, the one in St. Petersburg and the

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Speaker 1: one in Tampa, and I've been to one in San Francisco,

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Speaker 1: and those are the three places that are the two

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Speaker 1: real places that I've lived since you know, I've been out,

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Speaker 1: and I've had a positive experiences across the board. I

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Speaker 1: mean I've had some you know, you have some snarky

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Speaker 1: person that works at the desk or something, but overall,

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Speaker 1: you know, I've been to the emergency room there a

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Speaker 1: couple of times. I got a minor chemical burn in

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Speaker 1: my eye one time, and you know, everything they dealt

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Speaker 1: with it fine, it was it was, everything was good.

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Speaker 1: So initially, you know, I've been coming into this stuff

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Speaker 1: not blind to everyone else's problems that they get when

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Speaker 1: they when they that you know, you always hear about

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Speaker 1: when they go for the VA for medical care. But

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Speaker 1: you know, coming from a standpoint of having positive experiences

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Speaker 1: from I broke my finger, like just straight up, like

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Speaker 1: a clean break last year. I believe it was about

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Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, and I was just

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Speaker 1: climbing up something at a house party. Really no glorious

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Speaker 1: way of breaking it. But yeah, so, and I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, so I guess I'd say that I was

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Speaker 1: coming from that perspective. You know, I had heard there's

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Speaker 1: like there's different levels of of problems within the v A.

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Speaker 1: You have problems that people run into when they just

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Speaker 1: go there for their medical care, they go to the er,

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Speaker 1: or they go to their general practice doc or wherever

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Speaker 1: they go, or they break a bone and something, and

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Speaker 1: that's that's sort of one set of problems. Then you

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Speaker 1: have like the levels of corruption where people are you know,

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Speaker 1: putting out contracts and then awarding those contracts to family

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Speaker 1: members or friends or somebody they've got to deal with

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Speaker 1: and getting kickbacks. And that's sort of what I've been

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Speaker 1: writing about and I'll get into in a second. And

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Speaker 1: then you've got problems with for exactly like huge logistical

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Speaker 1: problems that are like the transplant issues. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of issues with just the system of transplants throughout the

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Speaker 1: v a If you need to get an organ transplant,

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Speaker 1: it's it can be really complicated and overly convoluted process

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Speaker 1: and overly convoluted process. So all of these issues, people

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Speaker 1: generally conflate them all together. You know, people love to

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Speaker 1: hate the v a UM, sometimes for a good reason,

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Speaker 1: sometimes just because you know, people like to complain whatever.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's a mistake to conflate all those

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Speaker 1: issues together because it kind of oversimplifies the problems that

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Speaker 1: are very real problems. And what I've been getting into,

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Speaker 1: and and I have a theory that all of these

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Speaker 1: issues stem from the contracting corruption problems. So I think

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Speaker 1: that even day to day patient care besides you know,

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Speaker 1: of course you might just have a a doctor or

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Speaker 1: a front desk person that just sucks, I guess, But

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Speaker 1: in general, like the systemic issues of day to day care,

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Speaker 1: that the problems with the transplant system, all of these

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Speaker 1: issues that people talk about, I think they all stem

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Speaker 1: off of this these career VA guys that that scam

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Speaker 1: the v A and the taxpayer's money through this contract

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Speaker 1: system because that it all comes down to that is

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Speaker 1: where these guys are making money. So it's hard to

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Speaker 1: fight all of these other battles when when people are

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Speaker 1: making money off of contracts, they have vested interests. You know,

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Speaker 1: they're not going to try to fix a system that

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Speaker 1: is paying them money. You know what I mean, it

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Speaker 1: was sit money. So how that works generally is you know,

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Speaker 1: you say you run A and this is this is

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Speaker 1: the story that I wrote about UM. The I wrote

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Speaker 1: about a whistleblower named Dan Martin and basically he started

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Speaker 1: calling out different names in the North Indiana v A

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Speaker 1: the hospital there. So but say you run A. You're

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Speaker 1: running a v A and you're in charge of all

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Speaker 1: the contracts for the VA. So that means things like

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Speaker 1: UM landscaping, for example, you need to get some landscaping done.

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Speaker 1: So what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to

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Speaker 1: put out a contract, right, you know, a government contract,

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Speaker 1: and people will put bids on it. You know, different

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Speaker 1: landscaping companies will put put their different various bids and

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Speaker 1: they'll end you're supposed to take all of their bids,

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Speaker 1: and you look at you build a file on each

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Speaker 1: company that's bid, and you know, you look at those

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Speaker 1: files and you figure out what's the best deal. You know,

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Speaker 1: how can we use this money efficiently? But also you know,

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Speaker 1: get a good job and those and whoever has the

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Speaker 1: best deal and will do the best work gets awarded

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Speaker 1: the bid. And so then they get you know, that's

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Speaker 1: good for them, good for that company, and they get

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Speaker 1: hired and they go to your landscaping for you. So

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Speaker 1: what ends up happening, though, is a bunch of people

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Speaker 1: put in their bids and then say, your brother's company

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Speaker 1: puts in a bid that's like ten million dollars over

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Speaker 1: everyone else's bids. But if you're the one in charge

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Speaker 1: of awarding the contract, you award that contract to your

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Speaker 1: brother's company, even though it's obviously not the best option

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Speaker 1: money wise. So but you just awarded to your brother

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Speaker 1: and he gives you, you know, dollars off to the side.

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Speaker 1: So then that's called a kickback. So and this is

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Speaker 1: happening all the time. It happens, and a ton of

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Speaker 1: e a's and it's a serious problem. And so that's

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Speaker 1: what I'm talking about when I say, at these guys

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Speaker 1: awarding the contracts have a vested interest in keeping the

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Speaker 1: v A system the way that it is right now.

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Speaker 1: So all of these problems that we have, they require

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Speaker 1: a lot of changes and it's just not going to

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Speaker 1: happen while these people are making money using the the

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Speaker 1: VA bureaucracy to their advantage financially, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: Um so what do you think is being done to

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Speaker 1: fix this or do you think this is just like

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Speaker 1: a systematic problem that that isn't going to be solid

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Speaker 1: anytime soon. Well, so there is a sort of a

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Speaker 1: changing culture when it comes to whistleblowers, and every whistleblower

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Speaker 1: in the v A that I've ever talked to so

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Speaker 1: far for these articles hate they hate the term whistleblower.

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Speaker 1: You know, they don't they don't want to sound like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just it's just not truth or

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Speaker 1: it's up Edwards Snowden or I'm thinking of what's his

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Speaker 1: name as well, the the wiki weeks. Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: you're conflating, Yeah, you're conflating them with with all of

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Speaker 1: these controversial figures, some of which you know, maybe justified,

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Speaker 1: some of which may not be. But you know, all

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Speaker 1: a lot of these v eight quote unquote whistleblowers, they're

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Speaker 1: they're just, I mean, all all they're doing is they

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Speaker 1: see wrong They see someone literally scamming the v A,

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Speaker 1: the veterans taxpayers people who are all siphoning all this

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Speaker 1: money into the v a's and they're just saying, hey man,

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Speaker 1: that's that's not right. Um, that's all they're doing. They're

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Speaker 1: just calling them out. And what happens to these guys

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Speaker 1: is they get shut out. Basically, they don't get fired

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Speaker 1: because if they were just a fire them, it bring

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Speaker 1: too much attention on themselves. They they don't. They just

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Speaker 1: they basically sees this whistleblower all responsibility and they put

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Speaker 1: them off into some side office or they transfer them

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Speaker 1: to someplace where they just can't do anything. And it's

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Speaker 1: it's really terrible, I mean, and it really affects a

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Speaker 1: lot of these guys negatively in a mental health aspect

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Speaker 1: and of mental health respect because I mean, they go

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Speaker 1: these are the types of people, a lot of them

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Speaker 1: are veterans themselves, and they're here to serve veterans and

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Speaker 1: they see scams or wrongdoings and they try and do

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Speaker 1: something about it. They try and say something, and you know,

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Speaker 1: they might expect a huge court case, they might expect

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Speaker 1: to get fired because of it. A lot of them

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Speaker 1: are willing to take on the responsibility of being a whistleblower,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of them don't realize that the worst

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Speaker 1: fate is just getting shuffled into a side office where

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Speaker 1: you just can't do anything. I mean, the guy I've

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Speaker 1: talked to, he hasn't done the Dan Dan Martin, the

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Speaker 1: guy Who've been talking to the most, he hasn't done

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Speaker 1: anything for months. And you know, he they just want

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Speaker 1: him to quit quietly, basically, and he won't quit because

390
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Speaker 1: he's still fighting the fight. But um, as far as

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Speaker 1: he's an engineer and his as far as his engineering

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Speaker 1: job goes, he hasn't really had any responsibility for a while.

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Speaker 1: And that's just I mean, that's the worst for a

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Speaker 1: guy like that who just wants to help and just

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Speaker 1: wants to serve and wants to be there too, to

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Speaker 1: do the right thing and to serve veterans. I mean,

397
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Speaker 1: the VA has got a lot of problems as it is,

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Speaker 1: and he can't even contribute any of those now because

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Speaker 1: he the right thing. So to answer your question. I

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Speaker 1: think there's a shifting culture that is starting to realize

401
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Speaker 1: that these whistleblowers are out there and what they're doing,

402
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Speaker 1: and I think to bolster those efforts, to try to

403
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Speaker 1: encourage more people to come forward, to basically make it

404
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Speaker 1: a completely hostile environment for the corrupt career VA people

405
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Speaker 1: who are are made who are only in it literally

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Speaker 1: to make money, um, And to bolster the efforts of

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Speaker 1: those people who are calling them out. That's that's really um.

408
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Speaker 1: That that is one positive direction that things are headed.

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Speaker 1: I think every few years, you know, we get rid

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Speaker 1: of the v A secretary and replace them, and I

411
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Speaker 1: remember people saying like, oh, Shinseki, this guy is the problem.

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Speaker 1: We've got to get someone new in there. And at

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Speaker 1: least as far as I've seen and you would know

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Speaker 1: better than me, it doesn't seem to make that big

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Speaker 1: of a difference. And it's more of just something that's rooted, uh,

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Speaker 1: that's been rooted in the VA for a long time,

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Speaker 1: and until you change the entire culture of things, who

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Speaker 1: the v A secretary is doesn't have as much of

419
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Speaker 1: an impact as people might think. Yeah, I think I

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Speaker 1: would agree with that assessment, especially with the issues that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about here. You know that they really don't.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that I've seen an insane amount of

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Speaker 1: change from one to the other. I mean, they tout

424
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Speaker 1: different policies and different different um strategies and whatnot. But

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Speaker 1: I mean a lot of these problems aren't issues with

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Speaker 1: a top down strategy like that. There are problems with

427
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Speaker 1: the culture of the v A, the the just the

428
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Speaker 1: people that are in mid to higher level positions at all.

429
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,399
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure that a really great secretary of

430
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 1: that affairs could have a really positive effect, but I

431
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 1: don't know yet. Yeah, I would have, I would agree

432
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:45,679
Speaker 1: with that assessment. You know, it's it's a people just

433
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,639
Speaker 1: get fixated on on the name in the face. You know.

434
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:50,800
Speaker 1: They do that with politics a lot. You want a

435
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 1: singular person that you can either love or hate and

436
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: and now all responsibility of the entire organization on their shoulders,

437
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: which which as a leader, you kind of have to

438
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:05,719
Speaker 1: see it that way for yourself. But I think if

439
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:07,960
Speaker 1: you're trying to realistically look at the problem of the

440
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: v A, it's a lot more complicated than that. I'm

441
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:12,840
Speaker 1: sure most of these guys are all of them go

442
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,639
Speaker 1: into the position of v A secretary with high hopes

443
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 1: thinking I'm going to change the culture, We're going to

444
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 1: fix the whole backlog issue, and it's probably a lot

445
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,120
Speaker 1: more than they expect. But I don't think anybody goes

446
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:30,400
Speaker 1: into that position maliciously trying to make things worse. I mean,

447
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: we'd love to see this problem fixed, especially there's certain

448
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: vas in the country that are just a lot worse

449
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 1: off than others. Yeah, and I'd say at that level,

450
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 1: it would be really hard to be that sort of

451
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: mid level scammer type dude and to get away with it.

452
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: So the money part isn't there. And their politicians so

453
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:55,359
Speaker 1: and as a politician, all of them, at the at

454
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:57,400
Speaker 1: the very worst, are going to realize that it would

455
00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 1: make them look good if they cleaned up the VA.

456
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: And at the very best, you know, like you're saying,

457
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: they want to have an honest effort. So it's it's

458
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: very hard to discern intentions of politicians these days. So

459
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 1: is there a certain fact I'm just wondering, is there

460
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: a certain background that you think a v A secretary

461
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,680
Speaker 1: should have that would that would make a difference, or

462
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,159
Speaker 1: do you think that it doesn't even matter who the

463
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:26,919
Speaker 1: v A second is I'm not familiar enough with the

464
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:32,400
Speaker 1: day to day responsibilities of the v A secretary to

465
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: to talk really about practical experience. I would say that

466
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:43,119
Speaker 1: most politicians these days are lacking in an ethical backbone,

467
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: and that is one of the most I think should

468
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:51,199
Speaker 1: be one of the most sought after qualities and in

469
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:56,360
Speaker 1: a person at that high level of politics in our

470
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: government system. I mean, just like a really strong ethical

471
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:04,160
Speaker 1: backbone that that won't take you know, the sort of

472
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: Bruce Wayne john Snow type person that that is completely

473
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: concerned with doing the right thing over something else. And

474
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: and I think practically, I guess being a veteran would

475
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,160
Speaker 1: probably help. I mean, most most of them have been

476
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:29,639
Speaker 1: veterans in the past, but yeah, I guess, and you know,

477
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 1: probably being familiar with the bureaucracy would be a really

478
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:35,880
Speaker 1: good trait because a lot of these guys, when they're

479
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: silencing whistleblowers, they used the bureaucracy to their advantage. The

480
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: process of investigating a whistleblowers claims the career v A guys,

481
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 1: who are you know, scamming the v A pretty much,

482
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 1: they use the bureaucracy to their advantage. They make the

483
00:28:55,560 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 1: investigations so convoluted that they just take years until they

484
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 1: just kind of stall out and then nothing really happens.

485
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 1: I mean, and it's this eternal process of just stalling

486
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 1: and long bureaucratic processes, and you know, all all of

487
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: these things, and they use it, you know how. I mean,

488
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: that's just how the government is. But they use it

489
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: to their advantage and they make things take as long

490
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 1: as possible. So probably someone who's really fundamentally familiar with

491
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: how that bureaucratic system works throughout, especially throughout the v A.

492
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: You know, I know how like the lower levels of

493
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 1: the army bureaucracy works, but I don't have no idea

494
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,719
Speaker 1: how the the actual day to day inner workings of

495
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: the bureaucracy of the v A works, you know, I don't.

496
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,920
Speaker 1: I don't really know about that. So as someone who

497
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: is really familiar with that, who can actively combat against

498
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: people using the convoluted bureaucracy as a weapon to their advantage,

499
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: you know, So somebody who could maybe fight it, fight

500
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,080
Speaker 1: back against that, I think that might be a good

501
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 1: quality to of. So what you're trying to say is

502
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: that you don't have any hopes of being the next

503
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 1: VA secretary. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, no way, man, Are you

504
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 1: currently interviewing any more of those people? Are like? Is

505
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: there an article on the horizon regarding this um? Not

506
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 1: right now. I might do a couple of follow up

507
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 1: ones with Dan Martin. I I would like to get

508
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: into more some more research heavy stuff with the with us,

509
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 1: like I said, using the bureaucracy as a weapon, and

510
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: maybe more of a historical type article that kind of

511
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: explores that and shows how that can work, because I

512
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: think a lot of people don't understand the way that

513
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: that actually works, or the fact that that can actually

514
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: be used as a weapon to silence any voices of descent.

515
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: You know, when you do something wrong, somebody comes forward

516
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: and calls you out. You just put that dude in

517
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: some office in a back room. You started to investigate

518
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: shot into the claims he made, so no one can

519
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 1: really say you never investigated it. But then you make

520
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: that investigation take like one year, and then something happens,

521
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 1: like something always does, so it gets delayed another year,

522
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: and you know people are coming in and you schedule

523
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 1: an interview for two months from now, and then you

524
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:20,480
Speaker 1: know it's this this crazy long way, and and and

525
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 1: when I was so when I was first writing the

526
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: article with Dan Martin. Um, I mean, there's just so

527
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 1: many company names when it comes to all these contracts

528
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: and bids, there are so many different company names. It's

529
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 1: a different company that's winning all of these separate bids.

530
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: So but then they're all owned by, for example, the

531
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: same person. So the same person is winning all the

532
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 1: bids for different things that have nothing to do with

533
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 1: each other. So like the guy who's winning a bid

534
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 1: for a water filtration system at a hospital is also

535
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: winning a bid for like a patient security system, you know,

536
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: like security cameras. I mean, these companies have nothing to

537
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 1: do with each other, but the guy owns all the companies.

538
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 1: But then so using the bureaucracy to your advantage, you're

539
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: taking like all of these different companies and you're just

540
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:12,640
Speaker 1: you know, you've got ten different names there, you know

541
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 1: what I mean, And they've all got their own representative

542
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: or whoever. So you've got ten different company names, you've

543
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: got ten different people, and it becomes a super complicated,

544
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 1: really difficult to understand process, and so many things just

545
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 1: get lost in that heap or tidal wave of information.

546
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: And I mean, so I'd like to get more into

547
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: how to really understand the how these guys are using

548
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: the v A bureaucracy as a weapon to keep themselves profiting.

549
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: Right on now, I'll be sure to link to the

550
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 1: original article on the article for this podcast so people

551
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 1: could check that out, because I think more people want

552
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: to read about that and um, here what's going on

553
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: and hear about these people coming out and calling out corruption. Um.

554
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:07,720
Speaker 1: The other thing I know we wanted to get into

555
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 1: here is your take on the future of the war

556
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. And we talked about recently on the podcast

557
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,880
Speaker 1: with Kurt Schroeder that you know, the war in Afghanistan

558
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: is underreported compared to how it was just a couple

559
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: of years ago, but obviously there is still a lot

560
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 1: going on there. Yeah, man, there's a ton going on.

561
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of new changes have been happening

562
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:33,719
Speaker 1: at people. I see so many articles online that's just

563
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: like they they're so reductive about the war in Afghanistan.

564
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,719
Speaker 1: It's why are we still there? And or you know,

565
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 1: nothing's changed. It's you know, it's been all of these

566
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: years and everything's the same and all this stuff and

567
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: and you know, I definitely share the frustration of still

568
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: fighting in the same war, you know, the longest war

569
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: we've been involved in US history. But absolutely share that frustration.

570
00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: But I don't to to deuce it to just sort

571
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,480
Speaker 1: of like what a lot of these articles reduce it

572
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: to is kind of ridiculous in my mind. And yeah,

573
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:10,640
Speaker 1: I mean there's there have been a lot of changes.

574
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: Uh so one of the bigger so the the path

575
00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: forward right now, as laid out by a lot of

576
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:26,280
Speaker 1: US officials, Afghan officials and even have been the Taliban

577
00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 1: have even expressed interest towards this path is setting up

578
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 1: some sort of peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban,

579
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 1: which which sounds crazy. It does not, Yeah, exactly, it

580
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 1: sounds crazy. And I started catching onto that idea when

581
00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: um UH Secretary Defense Maddis he said, I remember the

582
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 1: interviews on a plane and he said something about setting

583
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:55,919
Speaker 1: up a reconciliation between the two of them, and and

584
00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: from then I've been watching this grow, this plan basically grow,

585
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 1: which setting up yeah, you know, like a crazy sounding

586
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: piece between the Taliban and the Afghan government, But it

587
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:11,919
Speaker 1: starts sounding a little less crazy when you really start

588
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 1: dissecting it. I mean you can if you read the

589
00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:19,799
Speaker 1: Taliban statement's on their website. They they they always leave

590
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 1: they they use you know, ridiculous terminology. They call the

591
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: Afghan government and the Afghan military um puppets, you know,

592
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 1: and you know, infidel they call it, you know, the

593
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: Americans infidels or invaders, um. And but if you kind

594
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:42,840
Speaker 1: of read between the lines, they always leave a possible

595
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,719
Speaker 1: saving grace for the Afghan government as if they're going

596
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:49,320
Speaker 1: to like, you know, oh, I if only they weren't,

597
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,279
Speaker 1: you know, under the thumb of the U S. Then

598
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: then you know, we would show them mercy or something

599
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 1: like that. They always it's it's always still you know

600
00:35:56,719 --> 00:36:03,320
Speaker 1: that you're asshole Taliban guys making ridiculous statements and promising

601
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,760
Speaker 1: a whole lot of violence. But like I said, reading

602
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 1: between the lines, they always they always allow for some

603
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: sort of like I don't know, they always they always

604
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,839
Speaker 1: have that sort of olive branch extended to some degree. Yeah,

605
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 1: you kind of have to read between the lines sometimes

606
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: to really see it, but um, it's always there anyway.

607
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 1: So and there have been there have been a few

608
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 1: steps in making that a reality. I mean, you know,

609
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 1: you've got the three day truce that was only ever

610
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: supposed to be a three day truce but over ead

611
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 1: which marks the end of the of Ramadan, and that

612
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 1: actually happened. You know, that was that was a huge deal. Um.

613
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 1: And as soon as it ended, they went back to fighting,

614
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 1: just like everyone said and knew that they would. Um,

615
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:57,239
Speaker 1: it's not you can't expect these things to have like, oh,

616
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 1: there's a truce and now just last for ever. I mean,

617
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: it's kind of ridiculous to expect something like that to happen,

618
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:09,120
Speaker 1: but I mean it's definitely not nothing. And on top

619
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:13,320
Speaker 1: of that, and then you had the fatwa. UM, basically

620
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:20,800
Speaker 1: the the religious the upper echelon Muslim religious dudes getting

621
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 1: together and outlawing suicide bombing, which I mean there was

622
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 1: literally a suicide bombing on that site on that day.

623
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: But just these these steps forward in in sort of

624
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: unifying or trying to unify these two warring parties. Um,

625
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:43,839
Speaker 1: they they've been happening, and they're not there's it's still

626
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 1: baby steps. I mean, there's still a whole lot of

627
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: fighting going on. But to ignore those steps is a

628
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:55,319
Speaker 1: bit disingenuous in my mind. And from so, I lived

629
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 1: in Pakistan for nine years when I was a kid,

630
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,799
Speaker 1: and I was I was pretty my My parents did

631
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,839
Speaker 1: aid work there and I lived there up until two

632
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,279
Speaker 1: thousand and two, So right, you know about I left

633
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: about a year after nine eleven, and a lot changed

634
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: during that time, but one one thing that I think

635
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,400
Speaker 1: just during and so I deployed a few times to

636
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 1: Afghanistan as well when I was in Ranger that and

637
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 1: I think people don't really understand how fundamental Islam is

638
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 1: to the Afghan people, to the Taliban, and to the

639
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:35,319
Speaker 1: to the average Afghan citizen and to most of the

640
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: people in the Afghan government. So to try to install

641
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: a secular government entirely that has nothing to do with Islam,

642
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 1: it just it just isn't gonna work, and it hasn't

643
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:55,040
Speaker 1: hasn't really worked. But when since we've been trying to

644
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:57,759
Speaker 1: foster this piece or reconciliation and what you want to

645
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:03,360
Speaker 1: call it between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the

646
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: things that have really built bridges have been there shared

647
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: religious beliefs. They have a lot of different religious beliefs,

648
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 1: like sharaia Labby being the main one. But the thing

649
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 1: that really builds bridges is like, hey, we're still going

650
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 1: to be a Muslim government pretty much, And and that's

651
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: something that that maybe enough, not not for sure, and none,

652
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:30,319
Speaker 1: none of this is for sure. I mean, these things

653
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 1: can change on time. But it might be enough to

654
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:36,839
Speaker 1: convince the Taliban that they're willing to be a recognized

655
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: political party on a piece on peaceful terms with with

656
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 1: the Afghan government. And I mean it's it's a possibility.

657
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,400
Speaker 1: Which the good thing about that is and this is

658
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 1: me being extremely optimistic, so we'll see. But the good

659
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 1: thing if that happened, the Taliban would only do that

660
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: if the US left, they would only they would only

661
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 1: agree to a peace agreement like that for sure. Uh

662
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 1: if the the U s would have to be on

663
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,240
Speaker 1: in order for that to happen. But if that did happen,

664
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,239
Speaker 1: what we would see. One big concern is sure, I

665
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 1: a lot Taliban and they're they're all about it. And

666
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that I've seen in my life that

667
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: can combat fundamentalist or extremist ideas is education. And changes

668
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,240
Speaker 1: like that don't happen in a year or two years.

669
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you have to change an entire generation

670
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: or two generations. So if we could just get these

671
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: guys on peaceful terms and so they're not fighting each other,

672
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 1: Education will slowly make its way in. I mean, we

673
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 1: live in a very global you know, very globalist kind

674
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 1: of world. We're all connected to each other. The Internet

675
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,319
Speaker 1: is a huge contributing factor. It's the Internet can bring

676
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 1: a whole lot of education to even people out in

677
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 1: the remote mountains of the Himalayas, out in Afghanistan and Pakistan,

678
00:40:57,200 --> 00:41:01,800
Speaker 1: and that could do a lot of damage to the

679
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 1: Taliban ideology long term, which is what we want obviously,

680
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 1: and that could really affect sure I Alaw as long

681
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 1: as we give them that access. I mean everything from

682
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:20,800
Speaker 1: just a kid growing up watching different shows, are watching

683
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:24,319
Speaker 1: different videos or reading different things from from countries with

684
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: different ideologies than than what's directly around them. That can

685
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: have a huge effect on someone who's who's growing up,

686
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, maybe not this generation, but

687
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: but future generations. Uh, little girl who reads or sees

688
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: pictures about entire other countries where people don't have to

689
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:45,000
Speaker 1: where where they're not treated like you know, an object

690
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: that can have a profound effect on a on a

691
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:50,319
Speaker 1: little girl growing up, um to know that you know,

692
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: maybe they are in fact just as human as the

693
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: dude that you know, the dude that's next to them, um,

694
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 1: and all of these things can have Education is so important,

695
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,440
Speaker 1: and that can only if that's only ever gonna That

696
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,439
Speaker 1: can't happen in a time of war. So if if

697
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:13,520
Speaker 1: peace can be fostered, than I think you could we

698
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 1: could see a lot of change over the next ten

699
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 1: twenty years. It's still it's still really hard I have

700
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:23,479
Speaker 1: to say to hear this and feel that if if

701
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 1: we knew that this would be the outcome of where

702
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,480
Speaker 1: we were at, that we would be comfortable going to

703
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 1: war there. And you think about the guys who have

704
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 1: lost limb has lost their lives, and if you were

705
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:37,239
Speaker 1: to say, yeah, we're we're gonna make some type of

706
00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:41,240
Speaker 1: peace with the terrorists over there and still have a

707
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:45,880
Speaker 1: you know, a Muslim dictatorship possibly but not you know,

708
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 1: a lighter Muslim leadership there. Maybe not a dictatorship, maybe

709
00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 1: some form of democracy. I I don't think most like

710
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 1: I feel like the reaction be why are we bothering

711
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 1: going over there? So I know that ties into what

712
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 1: we originally said when we're talking about the articles that

713
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:06,960
Speaker 1: are often written about why are we still there? Et cetera.

714
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 1: But it's hard not to look at it that way

715
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:11,960
Speaker 1: with even just what you're saying right now. Yeah, I mean,

716
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:14,080
Speaker 1: I know you're putting a more positive spin on it,

717
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,319
Speaker 1: but it's like, is this really the reason that we

718
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,880
Speaker 1: went there? Yeah? Every well, everything I've said is like

719
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:26,359
Speaker 1: super mega optimist outcome. Um, you know, one one very

720
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 1: realistic possibility is that even if peace is fostered, is

721
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 1: that at least part of the Taliban might fracture off

722
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: because they might believe that just because America's gone, they

723
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 1: might still see an American installed government as essentially a

724
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 1: puppet government, so and then continue fighting. That could be

725
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 1: a very realistic option. But yeah, no, yeah, I mean

726
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:51,319
Speaker 1: you're totally absolutely right. I mean it's they're not gonna

727
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: be happy with no matter what government selected, I would think. Yeah,

728
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:59,680
Speaker 1: I mean you know that's definitely yeah, it's there there.

729
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 1: I meanly and unforeseen, unforeseeable outcomes, and you know, you pick,

730
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 1: you pick the most realistic and ideal one, and you know,

731
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,279
Speaker 1: you just go for it. But I what what you

732
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:17,319
Speaker 1: were saying before, I think it's important that and you

733
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:20,040
Speaker 1: could actually make this argument on a lot of different

734
00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:22,640
Speaker 1: about a lot of different conflicts. You have to decide,

735
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 1: first of all, what you really want do you want

736
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:32,600
Speaker 1: a lot of times justice and peace are um they're

737
00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 1: mutually exclusive a lot of times, not always, but sometimes,

738
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,280
Speaker 1: you know, like a family feud is a good example

739
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:40,880
Speaker 1: of that. You know, when do you stop a family feud?

740
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:42,879
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Someone kills your family member,

741
00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 1: you kill their family member. You know, it just keeps

742
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:47,200
Speaker 1: going back and forth. At what point do you stop?

743
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:49,920
Speaker 1: You know, you continuously want justice for something that's happened,

744
00:44:50,719 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: and at what point do you just say we want peace?

745
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: I mean, I've lost friends in Afghanistan, and um, I

746
00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:59,719
Speaker 1: don't know. I think at some point you just have

747
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:03,600
Speaker 1: to be able to stop and say, well, you know,

748
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,959
Speaker 1: at some point, we just we you know, this war

749
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,080
Speaker 1: has to end. You know, it's not going to end

750
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,400
Speaker 1: if we just keep fighting the Talban. Why they have

751
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:15,960
Speaker 1: Dave Haven in Pakistan, so you know that that's I mean,

752
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: if the Talban we're only confined to Afghanistan, this whole

753
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,120
Speaker 1: thing would be a completely different story. But they're not.

754
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:24,839
Speaker 1: And that's the reality. So what do we do? And

755
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: that the reconciliation plan is probably the most likely outcome

756
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 1: that that will actually be positive that I can see.

757
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 1: You know, maybe there's another one that I'm not seeing.

758
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,960
Speaker 1: But it's what US officials are working toward, it's what

759
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:45,160
Speaker 1: Afghan officials are working toward, and it's what Um the

760
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,280
Speaker 1: Talban have expressed interest in, not only in their statements

761
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:50,880
Speaker 1: but also in this truth that they agreed to and

762
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 1: you know, honored UM at least for the three days.

763
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 1: So yeah, but I mean, man, yeah, I mean it's

764
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 1: frustrating and and the idea of not just obliterating all

765
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: of them, and you know, in an awards it's hard

766
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 1: when you you know, when you've a lot of a

767
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:14,799
Speaker 1: lot of people have given a lot for this this war.

768
00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 1: I think I think the US government and a lot

769
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:21,000
Speaker 1: of I know that a lot of soldiers and a

770
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,759
Speaker 1: lot of service members don't feel this way, but the

771
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:29,400
Speaker 1: the US government, at least publicly feels that they because

772
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 1: the war has been so protracted, they are now responsible

773
00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 1: for the fate of Afghanistan because we've been there for

774
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:39,839
Speaker 1: so long and we've we've been you know, we've this war.

775
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,839
Speaker 1: We've been fighting this war for so long, so they

776
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 1: feel responsible and UM and to just shirk that responsibility

777
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,719
Speaker 1: and say, oh, you know whatever, this is like too much.

778
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: That's they're not going to do that. Whether that's because

779
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:56,839
Speaker 1: just the politicians trying to save public face or whether

780
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,359
Speaker 1: they actually feel responsible. You know, it probably depends person

781
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:04,640
Speaker 1: to person, but um, yeah, yeah, it's a really tough

782
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,080
Speaker 1: situation and I really think that people need to stay

783
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: on top of it. I mean, we're a society that

784
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:14,520
Speaker 1: we're a country that alects our officials, who in turn

785
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:20,200
Speaker 1: send dudes overseas to fight. So if we're sending people

786
00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:23,960
Speaker 1: overseas to fight, you know, we have to we have

787
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:26,440
Speaker 1: to stay informed. And that's a lot of day to

788
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 1: day stuff. You can't just read some opinion article from

789
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 1: from you know, one or two places and that just

790
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:38,120
Speaker 1: bolsters your pre existing ideas of you know, what you

791
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 1: already think about the war. You know, you gotta stay

792
00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: stay up to date as far as like just different conflicts,

793
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 1: different fights. You know that suicide bombing here isis is,

794
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,799
Speaker 1: presence in Afghanistan is another one. You know, all these

795
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: different factors that that that matter because we're sending guys there,

796
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:01,359
Speaker 1: and I mean personally growing up in AID world, you know,

797
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:05,520
Speaker 1: the missionary aid world. I think a lot more conflicts

798
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:09,360
Speaker 1: should matter to Americans than they do, but as certainly

799
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 1: they should matter when we are voting in officials who

800
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,840
Speaker 1: are sending people over there that that that should absolutely

801
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:20,479
Speaker 1: matter to us. Every step of that war, no matter

802
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 1: how long or tiring it gets, I think should matter

803
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:25,799
Speaker 1: to us. And and I've I've I've dropped the ball

804
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 1: in that respect a lot, you know, I've I've gotten taxed,

805
00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:33,880
Speaker 1: not kept up with certain things, and but I just

806
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 1: think it's important. So, you know, I gotta put a

807
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:38,040
Speaker 1: boot in my own us as much as as much

808
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 1: as anyone else. But I think it's important. I hear you, man,

809
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:43,800
Speaker 1: And it's safe to say with you know, just listening

810
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:46,640
Speaker 1: to you talk about this, that it's not only a

811
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:51,000
Speaker 1: subject you take very seriously. It's great that you're reporting

812
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 1: on this type of stuff at soft rep dot com

813
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:56,359
Speaker 1: because it's I could tell that you're very fair on this.

814
00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: You know, you're being that that you are a combat veteran.

815
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:03,640
Speaker 1: You probably have your own biases on this, but listening

816
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:05,440
Speaker 1: to talk about it, you're able to see things a

817
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:10,759
Speaker 1: little bit more objectively. Yeah. And I think I was

818
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:14,839
Speaker 1: talking to somebody about this this morning. Actually, Um, it's

819
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 1: helped me to have obviously to live, to have lived

820
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:20,279
Speaker 1: in Pakistan for for so long when it comes to

821
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,200
Speaker 1: my journalism, it didn't actually really help me a whole

822
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 1: lot when I was a ranger. Um, you know, the

823
00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:28,280
Speaker 1: language was different. They spoke or to Do in Pakistan

824
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:30,720
Speaker 1: and they spoke pushed too, and most of the places

825
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 1: I was at in Afghanistan, so like, you know, it

826
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 1: didn't really help. We were just going on missions chasing

827
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:40,439
Speaker 1: people down. You know. The one time I almost used

828
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 1: or to do is you know, we're on a on

829
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 1: a mission, heard a guy speaking or to Do and

830
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:47,880
Speaker 1: I was like that guy speaking to Do and the

831
00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:50,360
Speaker 1: interpreter was like, yeah, no, ship, Like I know, obviously

832
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:53,799
Speaker 1: I'm an interpreter. I was like, oh yeah, So I

833
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:55,759
Speaker 1: mean it really didn't help me much. But I think

834
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:58,040
Speaker 1: just writing about it, it's helped me a lot to

835
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 1: have an understanding of of why these why a lot

836
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:07,000
Speaker 1: of people, why why a why building bridges that are

837
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 1: based off of religion matters so much to them, you know,

838
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:13,279
Speaker 1: things like that. I think it's it's really helped to

839
00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:16,319
Speaker 1: have a basic understanding of of sort of the way

840
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 1: those things tick. Yeah, you know, I'm not sympathetic to

841
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:25,880
Speaker 1: the Taliban, cause of course I would really standing it.

842
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:29,960
Speaker 1: I think, you know, absolutely and and also that's just

843
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,520
Speaker 1: part of being a good journalist. Yeah, yeah, you gotta,

844
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:36,799
Speaker 1: you gotta understand something. And yeah, in order to combat it.

845
00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:42,680
Speaker 1: So many people are just ready to resign an enemy

846
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 1: or like these corrupt VA officials or you know, any

847
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,759
Speaker 1: any other side of a conflict. Even when people are

848
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,480
Speaker 1: you know, they're really bad people, it's so easy to

849
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 1: just resign them, as you know, or just to describe

850
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:56,759
Speaker 1: them as just they're just bad people. You know, they're

851
00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:00,440
Speaker 1: just terrible people. Now they're there. They are bad people,

852
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,719
Speaker 1: but they're not. That's not it. There, there's there's a

853
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 1: whole host of reasons why they are the way that

854
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:09,040
Speaker 1: they are. Doesn't make it excusable, of course, but you

855
00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:11,080
Speaker 1: gotta understand it if you're going to fight them effectively,

856
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 1: well said man Um. And then the last thing before

857
00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 1: we wrap things up here, you're you're working on a book.

858
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:23,960
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so yeah, it's called The First Marauder. It's

859
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:27,120
Speaker 1: a novel. It's not super long, and it's just about done.

860
00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 1: I should be should be on the air here and

861
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:32,799
Speaker 1: about a couple of weeks, so we'll definitely we'll do this. Yeah,

862
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:34,880
Speaker 1: well we'll we'll do this again. When you have the

863
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:36,520
Speaker 1: book out so that we could talk a little bit

864
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 1: more in depth about it. Absolutely. Yeah, man, definitely, it's

865
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 1: been exciting. It's my first novel, so it's it's uh.

866
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:46,520
Speaker 1: I put a lot of Karen Love into it. But uh,

867
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: at some point you just gotta stop editing the same

868
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:51,360
Speaker 1: thing over and over there. What is it going to

869
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:54,440
Speaker 1: be available for pre order? Um, I'm not doing pre

870
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:56,319
Speaker 1: order with this one. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna

871
00:51:56,360 --> 00:51:58,560
Speaker 1: put it up at some point, probably within the next

872
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:00,920
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and I'll just roade on social media

873
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:04,160
Speaker 1: and start doing marketing for their that's all their men

874
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:08,719
Speaker 1: and and like hardcore harder soft copy as well as

875
00:52:08,719 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 1: any book or Yeah, it's gonna be an e book

876
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 1: and uh favorback right, it'll be available for both. Awesome. Man. Well, um,

877
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 1: I do have a throat punch of the week that

878
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 1: I want to get to and I'll get your take on.

879
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Speaker 1: for the Android as well as iOS um. With that,

918
00:54:31,239 --> 00:54:33,640
Speaker 1: here's my throat punch of the Week, which I did

919
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:37,799
Speaker 1: not inform you about prior to recording luke Um, but

920
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:39,640
Speaker 1: I wanted to give it to this guy who I

921
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:46,640
Speaker 1: actually personally know, uh Dean Ovidalla was on CNN and

922
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:50,520
Speaker 1: so I know Dean from working as uh Serious XM.

923
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:53,480
Speaker 1: And the reason I'm giving him throw a punch of

924
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:56,239
Speaker 1: the week is not the reason that you might want

925
00:54:56,280 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 1: me to. So I feel like Dean is is the

926
00:55:00,680 --> 00:55:03,000
Speaker 1: left wing version of a lot of these people in

927
00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:04,880
Speaker 1: the media. And I see them on the right and

928
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:08,319
Speaker 1: the left who just say ship to piss off the

929
00:55:08,320 --> 00:55:13,040
Speaker 1: other side, and um, you know, it's just it. They

930
00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:16,880
Speaker 1: they want the attention of saying something outrageous. So the

931
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:18,800
Speaker 1: recent thing was Dean I believe it was on h

932
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,400
Speaker 1: l N, might have been CNN, um, but he was

933
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,480
Speaker 1: debating Steve Diese and they were talking about the next

934
00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:28,640
Speaker 1: Supreme Court justice and Dean was saying that Christian conservatives

935
00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:31,839
Speaker 1: are trying to change America into the Christian version of

936
00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:35,960
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, which is a ridiculous statement. Uh. And so

937
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 1: here's the thing, in my opinion from personally having conversations

938
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:45,120
Speaker 1: with Dean, I don't think he actually believes this. What

939
00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:48,440
Speaker 1: I'm just tired of is people saying outrageous ship to

940
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:51,239
Speaker 1: get attention, and the fact that I'm giving it attention

941
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:56,200
Speaker 1: kind of uh, you know, validates that point. But I

942
00:55:56,320 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 1: just I feel like it needs to be pointed out

943
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 1: and people go out there in the media and they're

944
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,600
Speaker 1: just like, let me say something ridiculous so that you know,

945
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:08,239
Speaker 1: I will get more Twitter followers, Your people getting outraged

946
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 1: at me on Twitter, like they they love the outrage.

947
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:14,439
Speaker 1: So I'm not outraged. I'm just like I've had enough

948
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:17,120
Speaker 1: of it on both sides. And I pointed out when

949
00:56:17,120 --> 00:56:20,080
Speaker 1: conservatives do it and when liberals do it, and like,

950
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:23,360
Speaker 1: I do not think it is a mainstream view of

951
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 1: Christians in America that they want to see their own

952
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:28,359
Speaker 1: version of surial law over here when you talk about

953
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:31,759
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. Yeah, man, I mean there are a

954
00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:35,600
Speaker 1: ton of people that are profiting immensely off of being angry.

955
00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: Um and and a lot of people don't enjoy being angry,

956
00:56:41,600 --> 00:56:43,640
Speaker 1: but they want to be angry. You know, a lot

957
00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:46,320
Speaker 1: of things are wrong, and they want to be angry

958
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:50,080
Speaker 1: at very reductive, simple ideas that are easy to digest,

959
00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:53,800
Speaker 1: that you can read in you know, on fifteen seconds

960
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:56,000
Speaker 1: on your phone around your computer. And they want to

961
00:56:56,760 --> 00:57:02,200
Speaker 1: really reduce these very complex things into into or issues

962
00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:08,080
Speaker 1: into one singular you know, evil easy evil, bad guy

963
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: or evil cause and it's very you know, very simple thing,

964
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:13,000
Speaker 1: which is just not It's never been like that and

965
00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 1: it's not like that now. I think the reason the

966
00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:19,880
Speaker 1: left is going nuts over Trump possibly appointing well, he's

967
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 1: going to end up appointing another Supreme Court justice. Is yes,

968
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,240
Speaker 1: there are people on the left that believe that it's

969
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:31,280
Speaker 1: going to be like a Christian um fundamentalist rule over

970
00:57:31,320 --> 00:57:34,280
Speaker 1: the country. And the biggest example of that that they

971
00:57:34,280 --> 00:57:36,840
Speaker 1: always point out is they're like, well, you know, ro

972
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:39,919
Speaker 1: versus Wave could be overturned. I'm not going to get

973
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:43,240
Speaker 1: into the complexities of the whole argument, because, like you know,

974
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:47,240
Speaker 1: abortion is literally the most controversial topic you could possibly cover,

975
00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:49,360
Speaker 1: and I'm sure there's people in the audience who are

976
00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:52,160
Speaker 1: on both sides when we have talked about the issue before,

977
00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:55,080
Speaker 1: like people have gotten pissed at different guy's views on

978
00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:57,120
Speaker 1: the show. But here's the thing. I'm just gonna lay

979
00:57:57,120 --> 00:57:59,240
Speaker 1: out what would happen. Like, let's say we get a

980
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:01,560
Speaker 1: right wings in courts justice in there, which we will

981
00:58:02,360 --> 00:58:05,520
Speaker 1: um and they do overturn Row versus Wade, which I

982
00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:07,840
Speaker 1: don't know if that will happen, but let's just say

983
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:11,400
Speaker 1: it does happen. What would essentially be the outcome of

984
00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:14,120
Speaker 1: that would be that abortion laws would go back to

985
00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:16,360
Speaker 1: the states, so they would essentially be the same as

986
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 1: gun laws. So I just feel like, if you're one

987
00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 1: of these people on the left saying, wow, gun laws

988
00:58:21,080 --> 00:58:24,400
Speaker 1: are way too open in this country. We need to

989
00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:27,680
Speaker 1: have stricter gun laws. Well, abortion laws would be just

990
00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:29,440
Speaker 1: as open. So it would be that if you live

991
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:32,080
Speaker 1: in where I live in New York, you would might

992
00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:35,000
Speaker 1: you would most likely be able to have abortion on

993
00:58:35,080 --> 00:58:38,040
Speaker 1: demand and pretty much any trimester. And then if you

994
00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:40,760
Speaker 1: live in a state like Georgia, you know, there they

995
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:42,960
Speaker 1: are going to be stricter on that law. But I

996
00:58:43,040 --> 00:58:46,160
Speaker 1: was even thinking this, if that were to happen, if

997
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:49,479
Speaker 1: you have an over overturning of Row versus Wade, there

998
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:52,600
Speaker 1: are a ton of pro abortion or they would say

999
00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:57,640
Speaker 1: pro women's reproductive rights UH groups and political action committees

1000
00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:01,160
Speaker 1: in this country. That would probably raise a ton of funds,

1001
00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:03,200
Speaker 1: and they would probably make it so that if you

1002
00:59:03,240 --> 00:59:05,720
Speaker 1: live where the laws become more strict, they would probably

1003
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:09,120
Speaker 1: have a ton of donations to fly people out, you know,

1004
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,960
Speaker 1: for free, to another state to be able to have

1005
00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:15,160
Speaker 1: an abortion. I actually don't think if even if we

1006
00:59:15,160 --> 00:59:17,880
Speaker 1: were to overturn Roll versus Wade, it would be this

1007
00:59:18,120 --> 00:59:20,400
Speaker 1: giant impact on the country that they would like to

1008
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:24,680
Speaker 1: make it sound yeah, well, you know, and abortion is

1009
00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 1: definitely a hot topic, because not only is it one

1010
00:59:26,680 --> 00:59:30,920
Speaker 1: of the most controversial topics that we have around right now,

1011
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:34,960
Speaker 1: but it's it's the I think it's the worst argued topic.

1012
00:59:35,240 --> 00:59:38,120
Speaker 1: So I keep my political ideas on this kind of

1013
00:59:38,160 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 1: stuff to myself or to people that I know and

1014
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:44,440
Speaker 1: and speak to, you know, personally. But but I think

1015
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:46,440
Speaker 1: one of the biggest problems that we have is our

1016
00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:49,720
Speaker 1: inability to debate certain things, and a big part of

1017
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:53,560
Speaker 1: that is is a lack of personal responsibility. You know,

1018
00:59:53,600 --> 00:59:56,320
Speaker 1: if you have a conversation with someone about any of

1019
00:59:56,320 --> 01:00:00,200
Speaker 1: this stuff and they just aren't seeing your perspective. If

1020
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:03,400
Speaker 1: people are, it's it's because they're dumb and they don't

1021
01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:06,120
Speaker 1: get it, or it's their fault, or they're close minded,

1022
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:09,560
Speaker 1: or they're not understanding um. And as a as a writer,

1023
01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:13,360
Speaker 1: if somebody's if somebody isn't getting what you're saying, it's

1024
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:15,240
Speaker 1: it's not their fault. It's your fault for for not

1025
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:20,320
Speaker 1: communicating it correctly. So and and this, you know, it's

1026
01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 1: something that's a lot like that. And but you're right,

1027
01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:25,200
Speaker 1: I think it would people would definitely see it in

1028
01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:29,040
Speaker 1: the ways they're describing. And because I'm focusing on Dino Bidala,

1029
01:00:29,120 --> 01:00:32,200
Speaker 1: who is way over on the left. You know, I'm

1030
01:00:32,280 --> 01:00:37,120
Speaker 1: thinking of like the two examples of liberal outrage over

1031
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:39,880
Speaker 1: you know, someone's political views, and the two that I

1032
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:42,120
Speaker 1: could think of off the top of my head that

1033
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 1: you know, the Twitter sphere and everybody in the mainstream

1034
01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:48,480
Speaker 1: media went not sober. We're you know Dan Cathy, the

1035
01:00:48,480 --> 01:00:50,840
Speaker 1: owner of Chick fil A, who is who is a

1036
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,960
Speaker 1: proponent of what he would call traditional marriage, and he

1037
01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:57,000
Speaker 1: donates to political action committees that are the same way,

1038
01:00:57,160 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 1: or the example of um, I'm thinking the three actually

1039
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:04,080
Speaker 1: now as I'm talking, the example of the bakery shop

1040
01:01:04,080 --> 01:01:06,920
Speaker 1: owner not making the gay wedding cake. Or then the

1041
01:01:07,400 --> 01:01:12,200
Speaker 1: third example was hobby lobby opting out of I guess

1042
01:01:12,200 --> 01:01:16,240
Speaker 1: it was birth control in their healthcare plan. Now you

1043
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:19,880
Speaker 1: could argue those either way of of how you feel,

1044
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:24,760
Speaker 1: but none of those to me ring of a Christian

1045
01:01:24,840 --> 01:01:28,200
Speaker 1: version of Saudi Arabia, as Deano Medala said, you know

1046
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:31,440
Speaker 1: what I mean, These are people making free choices, and

1047
01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:34,680
Speaker 1: in that society you could say, I'm not gonna bring

1048
01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:36,640
Speaker 1: my business to Chick fil a, I'm not going to

1049
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:39,000
Speaker 1: go to this bakery shop. I'm not gonna shop at

1050
01:01:39,040 --> 01:01:42,320
Speaker 1: hobby lobby, but like to compare that to Saudi Arabia,

1051
01:01:42,360 --> 01:01:46,800
Speaker 1: where it is like a extreme infringement on gay rights,

1052
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,880
Speaker 1: on women's rights. To me, is like the most absurd

1053
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:54,120
Speaker 1: wing of hyperbole have ever heard. And that's why I

1054
01:01:54,120 --> 01:01:57,280
Speaker 1: don't believe Dino Badala actually thinks this. I think it's

1055
01:01:57,320 --> 01:01:59,919
Speaker 1: just his way of getting attention. And I think all

1056
01:02:00,080 --> 01:02:02,360
Speaker 1: these people in the media like you know Badala and I,

1057
01:02:02,600 --> 01:02:04,600
Speaker 1: like I said, I actually liked the guy when I

1058
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:07,120
Speaker 1: talked to him, But I would call this being an

1059
01:02:07,160 --> 01:02:10,800
Speaker 1: attention for Yeah. I mean a lot of people aren't

1060
01:02:10,800 --> 01:02:13,439
Speaker 1: interested in fixing the problems we have, not really. I mean,

1061
01:02:13,720 --> 01:02:17,200
Speaker 1: if you're if you are trying to if you're having

1062
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:22,000
Speaker 1: an argument with someone and you're trying to fix something,

1063
01:02:22,120 --> 01:02:24,200
Speaker 1: you're going to talk to them a lot differently than

1064
01:02:24,240 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 1: if you're arguing with someone and you're just trying to

1065
01:02:26,200 --> 01:02:28,560
Speaker 1: show them that you're right and they're wrong. I mean

1066
01:02:28,560 --> 01:02:31,240
Speaker 1: that that's a big difference, you know, it's it's it's

1067
01:02:31,240 --> 01:02:34,200
Speaker 1: a lot of people are more interested in defining sides

1068
01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:40,840
Speaker 1: then they are actually building a bridge and trying to

1069
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:44,600
Speaker 1: come to an understanding and trying to like continuously trying

1070
01:02:44,640 --> 01:02:47,640
Speaker 1: to really like make things happen. I mean people always say, well, well,

1071
01:02:47,640 --> 01:02:49,640
Speaker 1: I tried to convinceit this guy, you know a bunch

1072
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:51,880
Speaker 1: of times and he just won't listen, or something like that.

1073
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:54,360
Speaker 1: He's just super hard headed, you know, like which is

1074
01:02:54,560 --> 01:02:57,240
Speaker 1: ironic coming from usually the people that say that. But

1075
01:02:58,160 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 1: you know, people making wild statements like that generally they're

1076
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:06,720
Speaker 1: they're more concerned with just being outraged than they are

1077
01:03:06,880 --> 01:03:10,520
Speaker 1: actually trying to trying to fix something. You know what

1078
01:03:10,600 --> 01:03:12,360
Speaker 1: I mean. I mean, there are people out there trying

1079
01:03:12,360 --> 01:03:14,200
Speaker 1: to fix something. You know, it's the whole, it's the

1080
01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:18,120
Speaker 1: it's the same debate that people had, you know, people

1081
01:03:18,120 --> 01:03:21,120
Speaker 1: have had over and over and over again. You know,

1082
01:03:21,160 --> 01:03:25,200
Speaker 1: book or T. Washington is a hero of mine. Um

1083
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:28,440
Speaker 1: and his I forget the exact quote word for word,

1084
01:03:28,480 --> 01:03:34,960
Speaker 1: but his philosophy was to two lower lower your bucket. Again,

1085
01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:37,440
Speaker 1: I forget the exact word for word quote, but it

1086
01:03:37,560 --> 01:03:41,720
Speaker 1: essentially means start building bridges um and and he took

1087
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:44,880
Speaker 1: that very seriously. And I definitely believe in that philosophy

1088
01:03:44,960 --> 01:03:47,960
Speaker 1: as opposed to you know a bunch of people shouting

1089
01:03:47,960 --> 01:03:50,200
Speaker 1: at each other from two ends of a cliff talking

1090
01:03:50,240 --> 01:03:54,000
Speaker 1: about how their sides you know, better. Even if they're right,

1091
01:03:54,040 --> 01:03:59,360
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter. That's the thing. Coneversity like an outrage. Yeah,

1092
01:03:59,400 --> 01:04:04,880
Speaker 1: they controversy and outrage just sell and people like to

1093
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:07,600
Speaker 1: watch this type of rhetoric on TV as opposed to

1094
01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:11,400
Speaker 1: someone saying, to be honest, I'll pet myself on my

1095
01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:13,960
Speaker 1: own back and say, the way that I laid out,

1096
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:16,520
Speaker 1: what would happen if ro versus way to be overturned.

1097
01:04:16,560 --> 01:04:18,160
Speaker 1: It would not be the end of the world as

1098
01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:20,680
Speaker 1: we know it. It would be, like I said, very

1099
01:04:20,720 --> 01:04:23,840
Speaker 1: similar to gun laws in the United States, and the

1100
01:04:23,920 --> 01:04:26,080
Speaker 1: states would choose. And if you want to live in

1101
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 1: a state where you know that abortion rights or however

1102
01:04:29,720 --> 01:04:33,160
Speaker 1: you'd like to phrase it um are more accessible, you'd

1103
01:04:33,160 --> 01:04:35,520
Speaker 1: be free to and if not, you'd be free to

1104
01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:37,880
Speaker 1: go somewhere else. And and I, like I said, I

1105
01:04:37,960 --> 01:04:41,720
Speaker 1: definitely believe that political action committees on that side of

1106
01:04:41,760 --> 01:04:45,360
Speaker 1: the aisle would do a great job probably in rowing

1107
01:04:45,400 --> 01:04:50,120
Speaker 1: their base, getting donations, and making it so that, you know,

1108
01:04:50,200 --> 01:04:51,760
Speaker 1: if you lived in one of those states and you

1109
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:54,720
Speaker 1: were underage, you'd be able to go somewhere else. You know.

1110
01:04:54,840 --> 01:04:57,160
Speaker 1: But it's just it's so much easier to tell people

1111
01:04:57,200 --> 01:04:59,080
Speaker 1: that a new Supreme Court justice is going to be

1112
01:04:59,160 --> 01:05:01,560
Speaker 1: the end of America as we know it. And uh,

1113
01:05:01,680 --> 01:05:03,440
Speaker 1: you know, as Jack often says on the show, like

1114
01:05:03,800 --> 01:05:06,320
Speaker 1: this is the last election we're gonna have. It's all

1115
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:08,720
Speaker 1: over after this, which, as Jack said, like he's been

1116
01:05:08,760 --> 01:05:13,960
Speaker 1: hearing that since the early nineties. Yeah, yeah, you can

1117
01:05:14,280 --> 01:05:16,520
Speaker 1: if you really like get into that. I haven't done

1118
01:05:16,520 --> 01:05:18,720
Speaker 1: it a whole lot, but a little bit you really

1119
01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:23,040
Speaker 1: get into like some of the more controversial elections throughout history. Um,

1120
01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:25,600
Speaker 1: you know you never wanted just to sare you know

1121
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:27,120
Speaker 1: what I mean? It always takes a lot of work

1122
01:05:27,120 --> 01:05:28,880
Speaker 1: to uphold the things that we have. But at the

1123
01:05:28,920 --> 01:05:33,280
Speaker 1: same time, um, you know that it's not the first

1124
01:05:33,840 --> 01:05:38,480
Speaker 1: major controversy that people I knew, they just knew it

1125
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:41,040
Speaker 1: was the end of the country. Um, and they've people

1126
01:05:41,040 --> 01:05:44,800
Speaker 1: have known that for a long time and you know,

1127
01:05:45,160 --> 01:05:49,680
Speaker 1: still around because of other people who are actually working forward,

1128
01:05:50,360 --> 01:05:53,880
Speaker 1: building bridges towards building our you know, building our country,

1129
01:05:54,320 --> 01:05:56,919
Speaker 1: keeping good things that we have and changing the bad things.

1130
01:05:56,920 --> 01:06:01,280
Speaker 1: And yeah, and we also live in a institutional republic.

1131
01:06:01,400 --> 01:06:03,760
Speaker 1: You know, we don't have someone who's elected as a

1132
01:06:03,800 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 1: dictator and they get to change everything. Yeah. Yeah, thank god,

1133
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:10,720
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, and and that actually goes back to

1134
01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:12,880
Speaker 1: what we were talking about earlier. I mean that's why

1135
01:06:12,960 --> 01:06:15,360
Speaker 1: I just, you know, I don't know if the p

1136
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:17,280
Speaker 1: of the powers that be thought we were going to

1137
01:06:17,360 --> 01:06:22,040
Speaker 1: go into Afghanistan and have this similar like Jeffersonian republican

1138
01:06:22,160 --> 01:06:26,880
Speaker 1: style democracy, but it just isn't realistic. Yeah, oh yeah,

1139
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:32,200
Speaker 1: for sure. Yep, there's a there're absolutely no. Well, this

1140
01:06:32,280 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 1: has been awesome, men. We covered a lot of great stuff.

1141
01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:37,920
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, Um, the last time you were on

1142
01:06:38,160 --> 01:06:41,480
Speaker 1: you could follow Luke on Twitter at and it's the

1143
01:06:41,480 --> 01:06:46,640
Speaker 1: most ridiculous Twitter handle at la Ginger or ginger rob.

1144
01:06:46,840 --> 01:06:53,560
Speaker 1: But I'll exactly so it's at l e S underscore

1145
01:06:54,040 --> 01:06:57,640
Speaker 1: Ginger a b l e S at l e s

1146
01:06:57,720 --> 01:07:01,320
Speaker 1: underscore g I n g e r a b l

1147
01:07:01,400 --> 01:07:03,919
Speaker 1: e S. And then on Instagram this is a little

1148
01:07:03,920 --> 01:07:07,000
Speaker 1: bit normal, more normal of a Twitter of a Instagram

1149
01:07:07,040 --> 01:07:10,920
Speaker 1: handle at Luke dot Ryan dot l l t B

1150
01:07:11,680 --> 01:07:15,640
Speaker 1: at Luke Ryan dot l l t b. Um. So

1151
01:07:15,680 --> 01:07:17,800
Speaker 1: with that, other than the book, what else is on

1152
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:22,240
Speaker 1: the horizon for you? Um? Yeah, Well, I live in Tampa.

1153
01:07:22,280 --> 01:07:24,480
Speaker 1: Now I'm moving to upstate New York. That will be

1154
01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:30,080
Speaker 1: a change different dude, I would much rather be in Tampa. Yeah. Well,

1155
01:07:30,160 --> 01:07:33,720
Speaker 1: you know it's I'm a little bit of a wanderer,

1156
01:07:33,800 --> 01:07:36,120
Speaker 1: So I like, I like changing the scenery every once

1157
01:07:36,120 --> 01:07:39,480
Speaker 1: in a while, you know. Um, I like, I like

1158
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:42,080
Speaker 1: moving around the US. I've lived in in the U S.

1159
01:07:42,120 --> 01:07:47,520
Speaker 1: I've lived in Arkansas, Georgia, San Francisco, Tampa, and now

1160
01:07:47,640 --> 01:07:51,520
Speaker 1: it'll be upstate New York. So I've had a variety. Yeah,

1161
01:07:51,720 --> 01:07:55,280
Speaker 1: that's a culture shock of sorts for most for something new. Yeah, well,

1162
01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:56,720
Speaker 1: and you know, I've lived in the city here for

1163
01:07:56,760 --> 01:07:58,680
Speaker 1: a while and I'm I'm excited to get back out

1164
01:07:58,680 --> 01:08:01,160
Speaker 1: in the bunneys for a little bit, you know, at

1165
01:08:01,200 --> 01:08:04,840
Speaker 1: least for a while, and just enjoy being away from stuff.

1166
01:08:04,880 --> 01:08:08,320
Speaker 1: You know. That's cool, man. And you also have your

1167
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:13,280
Speaker 1: hand in the film world. Anything new on that front, Um,

1168
01:08:13,320 --> 01:08:17,000
Speaker 1: not right now. I think when i'm when i'm I write,

1169
01:08:17,040 --> 01:08:19,639
Speaker 1: I like to write a lot of screenplayers. I'm working.

1170
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:23,479
Speaker 1: I'm working on one now since we're I'm finishing up

1171
01:08:23,479 --> 01:08:25,760
Speaker 1: the touches of the book, but the last touches on

1172
01:08:25,840 --> 01:08:28,599
Speaker 1: my book, But then I'll write on another, knock out

1173
01:08:28,600 --> 01:08:32,960
Speaker 1: another screenplay, and then work on my next book. But Um,

1174
01:08:33,240 --> 01:08:36,200
Speaker 1: that's really all I'm doing now. I'm thinking about making

1175
01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:38,639
Speaker 1: a short film here soon, just sort of an artsy

1176
01:08:38,840 --> 01:08:44,839
Speaker 1: type thing. Um. But yeah, right now I'm mostly working

1177
01:08:44,880 --> 01:08:48,280
Speaker 1: on I'm just writing articles about classic films. And man,

1178
01:08:48,280 --> 01:08:51,320
Speaker 1: I've loved doing that, you know. I've I've watched I

1179
01:08:51,360 --> 01:08:53,679
Speaker 1: went through and watched every Best Picture winner from nineteen

1180
01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:56,559
Speaker 1: nine to now, and then I now I've been just

1181
01:08:56,600 --> 01:08:59,200
Speaker 1: going back and and going down the list of the

1182
01:08:59,280 --> 01:09:03,280
Speaker 1: IMDb Top two d the ones that I haven't seen. Um,

1183
01:09:03,320 --> 01:09:08,440
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm probably twenty movies in on that one. UM.

1184
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:10,680
Speaker 1: And That's been a very interesting experience and I've really

1185
01:09:10,760 --> 01:09:12,880
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. And I've really enjoyed writing about it, you know,

1186
01:09:13,360 --> 01:09:16,040
Speaker 1: looking at not critiques or movie reviews, but more like

1187
01:09:16,160 --> 01:09:19,120
Speaker 1: just talking about the things I really love about these

1188
01:09:19,200 --> 01:09:22,040
Speaker 1: various movies and and watching them not as like a

1189
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:25,320
Speaker 1: snobby film critique you know type dude, but just as

1190
01:09:25,360 --> 01:09:30,639
Speaker 1: someone who you know, like anyone would watch it when

1191
01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:34,960
Speaker 1: they were released. I've really enjoyed doing that too. Very cool, man. Well,

1192
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:40,439
Speaker 1: next episode, I'm very excited for very big name guests.

1193
01:09:40,439 --> 01:09:42,920
Speaker 1: We have Nate Boyer coming on the podcast, and for

1194
01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:45,800
Speaker 1: those who don't recognize the name. Nate is the Green

1195
01:09:45,880 --> 01:09:49,559
Speaker 1: Beret who met with Colin Kaepernick. And for those who

1196
01:09:49,560 --> 01:09:52,160
Speaker 1: don't know, because I feel like the media doesn't really

1197
01:09:52,160 --> 01:09:55,320
Speaker 1: tell this side of the story. Colin Kaepernick was originally

1198
01:09:55,360 --> 01:09:59,240
Speaker 1: sitting during the national anthem um, and you know, he

1199
01:09:59,280 --> 01:10:01,439
Speaker 1: was saying he didn't want that to be interpreted as

1200
01:10:01,520 --> 01:10:05,400
Speaker 1: disrespectful to the military. So Nate Boyer, Greenbrain, met with

1201
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:08,519
Speaker 1: him and he suggested that he kneel rather than sit,

1202
01:10:09,160 --> 01:10:12,320
Speaker 1: which as we know, has continued to be controversial. But

1203
01:10:12,479 --> 01:10:17,240
Speaker 1: that was really from Nate Boyer's input, and Kaepernick felt

1204
01:10:17,320 --> 01:10:19,160
Speaker 1: he was doing the right thing at that time and

1205
01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:23,080
Speaker 1: listening to a special obs military veteran. So yeah, that'll

1206
01:10:23,080 --> 01:10:26,360
Speaker 1: be that'll be the next show on the Horizon. Well,

1207
01:10:26,400 --> 01:10:29,160
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on. I appreciate it. This was a

1208
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:31,760
Speaker 1: great show, covered a lot of ground and I look

1209
01:10:31,800 --> 01:10:35,760
Speaker 1: forward as always two more articles from you, Luke. Yeah, absolutely, man,

1210
01:10:35,760 --> 01:10:39,960
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. It's been good. You've been

1211
01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:44,400
Speaker 1: listening to self rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday

1212
01:10:44,400 --> 01:10:47,439
Speaker 1: and Friday for all of the great content from our

1213
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:50,960
Speaker 1: veteran journalists. Join us and become a team room member

1214
01:10:51,000 --> 01:10:54,479
Speaker 1: today at soft rep dot com, follow the show on

1215
01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:58,719
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at slt rep radio, and be sure

1216
01:10:58,760 --> 01:11:02,439
Speaker 1: to also check out the Power of Thought podcast, hosted

1217
01:11:02,680 --> 01:11:08,040
Speaker 1: by Hurricane Group CEO and Navy Seal Sniper instructor Brandon Webb,

1218
01:11:29,040 --> 01:11:29,080
Speaker 1: M