Palmer Luckey, Katherine Boyle, and Joe Lonsdale on the defense tech they’re building to keep our country safe—and the threats that keep them up at night.
Okay, so Israel has about 9M citizens, which would make the US 40 times larger.
If some Mexican Cartels decided that they were going to push back against US border policies, and attack the border cities of McCallen, Juarez and wherever else, in a similar campaign to Hamas’ in Israel, they’d kill, rape mutilate almost 50K US citizens, and take 5K back across the border as hostages. Do you think we’d give a flying fuck what any of the rest of the world said about ‘genocide’ against Mexicans?
We would most likely start an extermination of cartels in Mexico. It wouldn’t be genocide, apartheid, or anything else, other than improving civilization.
That’s what Israel is doing.
And frankly, I believe we're going to end up with something akin to this in the future. The Cartels are to Mexico what Hamas is to Palestine, Hezbollah is to Lebanon and the Houthis are to Yemen. Their motives may be different, but they are criminal organizations that have taken over countries.
This was interesting, but my abiding sentiment or question is: Does anyone feel comforted knowing that Biden-Blinken-Sullivan-Austin are leading the way into these foreign entanglements? Setting Austin aside, these men were part of that crack Obama-era foreign policy team that delivered the ISIS, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, & Ukraine FUBARs. They're up to the same horseshit in meddling in the Israel/Hamas conflict. Their strategy with Afghanistan was a satire of The Art of War by Lao Tzu Joe (aka Dork Brandon):
"Confuse your enemy by abandoning all of your weapons and withdrawing in the middle of the night."
Whereas, their current strategy appears to be:
"Surprise your enemy by announcing a secret attack five days in advance."
That was my overriding thought while listening to this podcast. I was blown away by the level of intellect and optimism expressed but could not get the thought out of my mind that we have Biden, Blinken, Sullivan et al to navigate us through these conflicts. I fear their lack of judgement more than I fear our foreign adversaries.
Agreed. But it's the failure of our public/government institutions that has created this fragility. The private sector continues to work hard, innovate and improve in every imaginable way. The public sector adds regulations and jobs (one of the largest "employers" in the current post-COVID recovery), collects massive sums to attain elective office, then distributes the prizes to key supporters via contracts, appointments and favorable legislation. There is no serious attempt by either party to govern seriously, to live within their (our) means, to solve problems. They magically get rich, go on book tours and retire to the Hamptons. It makes me sick, and it would make our ancestors even sicker.
TERM LIMITS!!! Cronyism is rampant and it’s more like America Inc. where they sell us out using our $. With the weaponization of federal agencies esp the DOJ and its subsidiaries like the FBI the corruption of our voting system (or lack there of) has most people resigned to believe we can’t effect real change, we never see accountability (unless it’s fair skinned conservatives, the horror)and they dismiss the constitution when it suits them.
The Patriot Act should have been abolished but instead it was expanded.
Term Limits; Prohibition against insider trading for government employees & prohibit nepotism, especially political appointees; make the leaders live the values of average Americans. Stop private plane flights & private security for elected officials.
Term limits, pass that bill that prohibits trades based on info learned while serving (which is a long-winded way yo say penalize the inherent conflict of interests), and overturn Citizens United because corporations are NOT PEOPLE, they are entities..
The example of California indicates that term limits only make the revolving door spin faster. Legislators have even less incentive to learn their jobs and govern seriously.
I don’t think it’s been very bipartisan for well over a decade. The entire military machine has become a cesspool of left leaning, incompetent, circle jerking desk jockeys. We need a MacArthur or a Patton but instead we have silly Milley and (mister) Levine as leadership models.
I have a brother in law who is an engineer for Lockheed and he is wary of too much reliance on AI. He recognizes the need to move forward with the application of it but has concerns. It needs strict, competent oversight with guard rails in place to insure there are effective checks. Arrogance in indiscriminate use is where things can really go wrong.
I am very encouraged to learn of young enterprising patriots who understand the place America has as the leader of the free world. We need to stop this destructive narrative that America is inherently a bad country because past policies were bad. Human history is rife with poor leaders, terrible people, corrupt officials and that hasn’t changed. Humans apparently continue to be human.
Who knew?
But decent ppl have pushed and succeeded to affect course corrections. We make mistakes and then try to fix what we can to endeavor not to repeat them.
Authoritarianism isn’t a good way to seek social change. It is oppressive and destructive, not an atmosphere that encourages innovation or real progress.
Open and free discourse needs to be returned to academia especially, but also to the public square. The open exchange of ideas is paramount in staying a step ahead in every sector of the sciences. That’s a no-brainer.
The campaign for eliminate ISIS is an interesting model. It began in 2014-2015 with targeted bombing of ISIS positions in Iraq by the Obama administration and as they saw success they built a partnership between US special forces and local militias headed by Mazloum Konami Abdi that expanded into Syria. The Obama administration quietly increases the US Special forces in Syria. Initially the Trump administration continued this strategy but when Erdogan kept objecting and pushing N back against the US alliance with militias, the US backed down, a unilateral decision by Trump, The militias finished the job on their own. James Mattis quit over this.
That all may be true…I’m just laying our the facts for all those craving direct and dramatic action against Mexico, the cartels, and are perhaps believing Trump’s assertions that he has any clue how to make American strong.
Trump didn't have a choice. Turkey invaded Syria and occupied the western border region in 2015 with no pushback from either Assad or Obama. When Turkey moved east, the U.S. could not risk a hostile exchange with Turkey because they are our NATO ally. The U.S. had no treaty with the Syrian/Turkish Kurds. Their militias were our comrades in arms against ISIS and Assad, but they were still Syrian citizens. Trump established that he would not tolerate chemical weapons by enforcing the red line Obama/Biden had set, then abandoned. Trump did the same with Russian mercenary forces, inflicting a high cost on both Assad and Wagner (Putin proxy).
Diplomacy is complicated. Right? So many factors to be weighed, including, yes, other alliances like NATO. But the issue here is that Trump acts unilaterally and impulsively. Erdogan called him up on day in 2017 in Florida, asks him to stop supporting the Kurds, and he promises right then and there to do it. Then he renigs on that promise when pressured by his advisors, but then under pressure again from Erdogan later changes his mind. The key here is "changed his mind" again unilaterally based on intervention from Erdogan, no consultation or conferring with others who were involved. (The prevailing view among commenters here seems to be that conferring is a pussy's game. But I would suggest that it's what adults do...) Anyway, it came down to Trump and Erdogan...as if he were in a playground standoff. You say Trump had no choice. But true diplomacy, effective diplomacy, involves the kind of informed give and take that Trump has no patience for. He did have a choice. And he chose to support the guy who kept calling and bullying him. He tweeted that he we had vanquished ISIS, even though they hadn't been vanquished then, and made it sound like that is why we were pulling out of the alliance in Syria... Any success that happened against ISIS was due to the Obama administration, the various alliances and local militias, in other words--diplomacy. Good old, boring, tedious and slow, diplomacy.
Meddling? I think a case can be made that Iranian aligned Hezbollah has not assaulted Israel since Oct 7 because of American military assets very close nearby. Good 'meddling' in other words..
Go ahead and make that case. If it's not Hezbullah, which Islamist militia is attacking Israel on the Lebanon border?
By meddling, I meant the political influence that our State dept. has been exerting on Netenyahu since the previous election campaign and by making demands on the strategy of the IDF in Gaza, West Bank, and the northern border. Where do you think Iranian proxies are practicing restraint?
Re practicing restraint no Iranian proxies are, other than the Hezbollah bad boys which I mentioned above. Which is pretty much why B1 bombers flew in three days ago to bomb sites in Syria and Iraq and the Yanks/Brits attacked the Houthis again. Will it deter? Who knows. Will it continue? The short answer is yes.
You say the word 'demands' re the American attitude towards Israel's strategy - I prefer to use the word 'advice'. Which Israel is free to refuse, and to a large extant so far, largely has.
Biden just signed an executive order sanctioning Israelis in the West Bank by seizing any assets they own in the U.S. In his EO, he demands a two-state solution.
As if that's going to happen in his (or our) lifetime. And he knows that. It's called shoring up his domestic base, the leftie kids are pretty wobbly right now. Trump does the same thing with his America Firsters.
The relationship between the USA and Mexico is more complicated than the relationship between Israel and Gaza: Mexico supplies half of the US’s fruits and vegetables, for example. The cross-border trade is win-win to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
But the most significant thing about that economic interdependence is that the cartels own a piece of it. The cartels are interwoven with the government at every level from the federal government to the tiniest municipalities. Some policía moonlight as cartel members. This means that the cartels have a vested interest in keeping things peaceful with the US. This is why an American in Mexico is safer than a Mexican.
It also means that, similarly to the US-sponsored Israeli offensive in Gaza, there is no way to eradicate the cartels without a wholesale scorched-earth invasion of Mexico followed by an occupation similar to that of Iraq. What effect that might have on the rest of Latin America is unclear, but offers some nightmare scenarios of jungle warfare that would be reminiscent of Viet Nam and offensive mountain warfare that might be comparable to Afghanistan, all carried out with support from China, who has been busily creating ties with Latin America via the Belt and Road initiative.
A better solution is to control our border 100% which, as Bari's guests point out, is doable if we have the will. The Mexican people will have to uproot the cartels at some point, and we need to stay out of it. It will be a bloodbath, and the cartels may well win. But during such an upheaval, the border needs to remain controlled by us, and quite possibly closed.
No argument from me on that. But check this out: in California, gun trafficking is a misdemeanor - the same penalty as stealing up to $950 of retail goods. 6 months and/or $1,000. Do you think that's going to deter anyone? They don't even prosecute misdemeanors here.
I believe you underestimate the surveillance tech we have on hand. I we were serious about destroying the cartels, our satellites should already know where the cartels are headquartered and we call in air strikes and hit them all at once. We won't get them all but we will put the fear of God in them.
Right now, the Mexican military is outgunned by the thugs. They can't outgun us.
BTW the total coastline is about 5,831.25 miles and the border with Guatemala is abou 571 miles. That is still a lot but I think we can overcome that
As soon as the USA starts bombing the cartels, the USA becomes the monsters committing genocide against the Mexican population. The cartels are thoroughly integrated vertically and horizontally into the Mexican society and economy.
Not only that, but several components of the USIC depend on the cartels for undocumented funding, goods, and services and thus take a strong interest in undermining US anti-cartel initiatives.
Even if the US’s surveillance and interdiction technology is as omnipotent and omniscient as you apparently believe, that still leaves the southern land border, which is as sieve-like as the US’s. This is why so many people crossing the US border are from Central and South America (Biden bribed Mexico to set up temporary holding camps for them at US expense in his “remain in Mexico” immigration policy, but the camps quickly overflowed).
You have some great points but what would be your solution? A simple solution but one that failed in Oregon, is to legalize drugs and take the profit out of the trade.
I don’t agree that the cartels are particularly interested in anything other than the drug trade and human trafficking. They have discouraged farmers from growing anything other than the plants they extract drugs from because the drugs make them more money than produce.
Securing the border completely is the only solution. You are right that China would try to tip the scales and they already do by supplying the raw materials to make fentanyl. The drug smugglers cut the heroin with it because it’s cheaper than heroin and they replicate prescription meds for sale that are indistinguishable from the legitimate form. Seasoned heroin users are more likely to tolerate a little fentanyl but the imitation pills are purchased by weekend warriors and kids who are more likely to have severe reactions.
It’s all bad and clearly an attempt by the Chinese to weaken our youth making a future conflict easier. They have been busy wooing South American nations so there is an agenda. Xi is cunning and patient. If we don’t take measures to thwart his long game then it may well bite us later.
It is imperative that global condemnation of chinas ruthless treatment of its own citizens be loud and clear. There should be sanctions and maybe barring them from continued participation in the UN. That is the only thing that might rattle them enough to step back from the open cruel and abusive government sanctioned reign of terror they display. It would be helpful if there could be some physical evidence too so that their attempts to deny this activity are easily countered.
I read that Xi’s possible political enemies have been arrested as of late. He’s an old school CCP guy and is a monster.
As someone who lived in Mexico for 4 of the past 8 years, I can assure you that the cartels have their finger in every pot. Anywhere money is made, the cartels are involved. In that regard and in other ways, it’s probably more accurate to consider Mexico as a country under the jurisdiction of multiple competing governments, only one of which is internationally recognized.
The cartels directly kill over 100,000 Americans per year with fentanyl, alone. In addition to spawning both an illegal invasion and crime wave in America. We need to deport all illegals currently in our nation and establish a no-man's land border strip miles wide. While our troops hunt down and eliminate the cartels operating in northern Mexico.
Mexico is not our friend. They hate us and always have. Most if not all Latin American countries feel the same way. Even though it would destroy them, they would revel in our fall.
Mexico along with Central America and Columbia are complicit in the illegals invading the U.S. It is time we said, "Enough!" and took economic sanctions against them. Don't allow people with passports from these countries entry into the U.S.
We tell Mexico, "If you can't move against the cartels, we can and will!".
Tell U.S. corporations to start building manufacturing plants here in the U.S. or Indian because we are about to serve ties with China for a multitude of reasons. China has threatened our allies in the pacific, including Australia and the U.S. with war if we try and interfere with their imperialistic behavior. Also because of their brutal behavior against their citizens. This behavior include genocide against the Uigurs.
Perfect analysis. Not Peri's (couple comments above this one). Mexico and Central Am countries don't like, trust or care about the US. And only want to take advantage of our riches. Long past time to remember these countries only respect/fear US strength.
We also need to stop lining the pockets of the despotic leadership in these countries. The notion that throwing $$ (our hard earned ones to boot) has proven totally ineffective and we get no accountability for the funds we provide.
The fact that we fucked most of those countries multiple times in the interests of our corporations probably has nothing to do with any feelings about the US. They just want our dinero. Riiiiight.
It is more than that. One of the reasons they hate us is we can and we do. They can but they don't.
The Spaniards came to the new world over 100 years before the British came to Jamestown. Look at the difference. We are a prosperous, powerful nation. They aren't.
"We" did not fuck anyone over. Some Am corporations may have or did. Some administrations may have or did. I didn't. You probably didn't either. That's history and as history has shown, it's how man behaves. We can only deal with the here and now. And it, the here and now, sucks for the US re the illegal alien invasion. We should bend over backwards for no one... REGARDLESS of past wrongs. What we do today is all that matters. And yes, they just want our dinero.
Sure. Maybe you did but “we” didn’t . US foreign policy in Central America has been to subsidize their economies in the states hopes of improving the lives of the impoverished populace. That cash seems to evaporate with no clear /real benefit to the ppl it’s intended to help. They are just as greedy, just as corrupt as many a “leader” around the globe.
Nah, I think we should stay on our side of the border. If we cut off the U.S. market for all cartel products (drugs, people, etc.) their market opportunity will shrink and they'll turn on each other and perhaps the Mexican government. Let them shoot it out, and don't let 40m "asylum seekers" into our country. It's time they own their own problem.
But we have to own ours. Turkey, Colombia or someone else will fill the gap and find ways to provide the crap that Americans happily consume. The cartels don't make any money off of healthy, well-adjusted and law abiding residents. We need to get serious about law enforcement in a way that will make many Americans uncomfortable, but it's better than starting a war with Mexico to defend the habits of lazy ass Americans who are getting high and who get by thanks to U.S. government entitlement giveaways. Without these losers (and I'm including prostitution johns and trafficking) the cartels have no customers.
The cartels are ruthless, brutal, and cruel, but fundamentally they're profit-motivated. Starting a military conflict with the US would be bad for business.
So by your math, we would have killed 1,400,000 Mexican civilians by now. And you think we wouldn't care what the rest of the world thought if we killed well over a million innocent Mexican civilians.
How did our revenge tours go in Afghanistan and Iraq?
I see your analogy. But Hamas or other radical.Islamic group would be a better comparison. And because of the fecklessnrss of American policy may soon be an actual event. But to be clear, the cartels are criminal business organizations and do not want to get rid of anything. They want to profit from essentially black market operations. They are here already. The US is being divided up into cartel territory as we write. And so help me I believe they already have US politicians beholden to them. What do y'all think dark money means?
This was a great listen. I felt some level of relief learning there is an intelligent, socially astute younger generation picking up the drive to maintain The USA’a position in the world and with that our security and culture at home. Please, TFP, keep highlighting individuals like this. I learned so much.
You can add Elon Musk who inspired thousands of young engineers to build Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and put X on the right path to freedom of speech. And there are now many rocket building companies competing and inventing new technologies. It is up to all of us to keep the globalists from destroying the American spirit.
Note that these are mostly engineers. The mission of engineering is to facilitate safe and comfortable human existence. I worry about the rest of university education.
The rest seem to be consumed by litigation of one sort or another. Someone is still suing over the famous Mann Hockey Stick timeline of global temperature. Meanwhile armies of advocates, the vast majority with little or no formal science education, clog up the decisional pipeline for every sort of progress.
My biggest takeaway is that MERIT BASED EMPLOYMENT AND MERIT BASED EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES are the keys to better life, better governance, and a better world. Anyone who has ever built or accomplished anything worthwhile knows this.
IKR? And you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know this. Common sense (which they now say doesn’t exist and never truly did) should be returned to society. We cannot afford to dumb things down further and the increase in marijuana use will certainly do just that.
Drugs and escapism never really helps overcoming psychiatric issues. We should also rethink the constant selling of all pharmaceuticals to the public. This isn’t permitted in most of the rest of the world. Some drugs are needed but our propensity for seeking remedies to poor lifestyle choices/consequences only exacerbate the problems but with deadly adverse reactions. The FDA used to be our guardians against bad or dangerous prescription meds but I guess the legal “cartel”of US drug companies has too much sway. The whole lobbying industry undermines our gate keepers in DC. It’s past time to put the brakes on this form of corruption. Business is essential to a healthy economy but with checks and balances and I hate over regulation too so saying this is painful.
You touched on a lot of issues that plague our society. Too much coddling and not enough real life consequences to make folks change their ways.
As for lobbyists, they are needed to pass new and pertinent information on to legislators, but I blame the receiver of the bribes and favors. They allow the corruption and should be punished.
Absolutely. The elected swamp creatures in DC are too easily given to corruption. Temptation is the road to get there. Corporate America has zero principle. Bribery is as old as we are so it’s a lesser human attribute and a road to perdition for both the tempter and taker.
I haven’t heard this yet. I am tired! We are now embroiled in various new conflicts costing billions. We have a senile president and daffy Vice President. Yet the Free Press always has favored Biden, while subtly or not so subtly dissing RFK Jr. and Trump, both of whom seem preferable to me despite my lifelong history as a Democrat. I haven’t seen the column yet that even asks, Why was the US funding bioweapons research in China? I don’t care about Taylor Swift or the Grammys when I see intelligent journalists contributing to a possibly disastrous future. I hope I am wrong.
Like one commenter gave us earlier this week -- TFP is "Democratic Party Rehabilitation Program." They waver, they bounce, they "slip" (AA term); they are trying and they're "trying." They're a hell of a lot better than Townhall, and the commenters are way way better. I'm glad to be here to complain, sometimes.
It's odd to me that anyone would discuss foreign threats without discussing Joe Biden not only not doing the job he swore to do--uphold the laws passed by Congress--but actively preventing anyone else from doing the job he refuses to do.
We fought a Global War on Terror for something like 20 years. The intent was to protect the American homeland from foreign threats by preempting them where they originated.
But our southern border is open. We have to assume Iran, China, North Korea, Al Queda, ISIS affiliates, Hezbolah, Hamas, and anyone else you can think of has sent over AS MANY PEOPLE AS THEY WANTED TO.
Our counterintelligence agencies have been ordered to focus on those Americas who publicly continue to ask our national government to do its job and obey the law, so the only thing preventing mass terror attacks--on our malls, our power grid, our bridges, our schools, and anything else you want to add--is that it is not currently to the tactical advantage of our enemies. That's it. Full stop. The people who should be tracking them are almost certainly not doing so. The FBI is a political organization that seems, in the main, to operate as muscle for illegal left wing operations. They probably do some good things too, but what is obviously bad is bad enough.
America has long been much stronger than our enemies. We won in Vietnam. But we retreated, after Nixon was successfully kneecapped, and not only hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese who had trusted us were murdered (which is more or less what happened in Afghanistan), but the stage was set for the Khmer Rouge and the murder--often by torture--of roughly a third of the country.
So in my own view the only enemy we have that matters in the least is the Democrats. They are the enemies of truth, effective and consistent foreign policy, rational deterrance, and in most cases rational dialogue itself. Those problems cannot be fixed with better weapons, and I speak for many in saying that the better weapons being developed will be turned on people like me if we stay on the path we are on.
“But our southern border is open. We have to assume Iran, China, North Korea, Al Queda, ISIS affiliates, Hezbolah, Hamas, and anyone else you can think of has sent over AS MANY PEOPLE AS THEY WANTED TO.”
Listen to Tucker Carlson interview Bret Weinstein about Bret’s recent trip to Panama to get an idea of who is migrating through (i.e. invading) our southern border. Hint: it’s not just Central and South American families seeking a better life.
RFK Jr. went down there and apparently the way it works is the Cartels offer a more or less inclusive trip to America from anywhere in the world. They seem even to act as travel agents. They will book you a flight from anywhere in the world to Mexico, put you on a bus, then get you over the border.
Literally anyone, anywhere in the world, can walk over our border with impunity.
Sad but true. Bret Weinstein describes two camps for “immigrants” in Panama with one holding mostly South American families and the other seemingly inhabited almost entirely by young Chinese men. Those men will be among us at some point. What do you suppose their ultimate intent might be?
Could be agents, but most likely they are just Chinese trying to escape the Chinese fascists. Actual agents could be inserted much more efficiently. I can't believe most Chinese like the Chinese government either, any more than actually woke Americans trust our own government.
The difference is they can come here. If we lose America, there will be nowhere to go.
I understand the fear that underlies the willful naivete of people like many of those writing for the Free Press. But to paraphrase Ayn Rand, you can avoid awareness, but you cannot avoid the consequences of your blindness.
One of the best phrases in this discussion: "If we lose America, there will be nowhere to go." Europe knows it. East Asia knows it. Latin America even knows it. If only more Americans understood this.
I might, but I'm listening to War and Peace. No joke. I really am. We just got through Austerlitz. The number of podcasts is staggering, and a good number are pretty good.
What I know about our border makes me angry enough. Knowing more details would probably only make me angrier.
And what's really astonishing is that I know NOW that if there are major terrorist attacks, Democrats will blame someone else, and most of their idiot voters will buy whatever BS they are shoveling. One of the talking points will certainly be that Americans are too free and we need more government surveillance.
It's not unreasonable to assume that there are hundreds of recent immigrants just waiting for the order to attack soft targets in the U.S. and create chaos.
If having an open border in times of geopolitical struggles with multiple enemies isn't treasonous, then the word should be struck from the dictionary.
Why are there so many people unworried about this? How can Bari say that "the Jews are Ohio" (meaning that Israel is a microcosm of the west and that what happens to them will soon happen to more of the west) and yet say that the open borders for the US have been just fine for the last three years and yet the borders to Israel must be closed. The United States has the right to be concerned about their borders just like any other country - especially as the world has grown so unstable.
I couldn't agree more, T. An open border is beyond crazy in today's world. I think Bari and Nellie are still struggling between their hard-wired if misguided Democratic Party allegiance and what they see and report on week after week after week. It's like the subconscious vs. the conscious. My experience is that the subconscious usually prevails at the voting booth. With them, the jury is still out.
Bari asks "If we had to fight for our country, who would actually show up?"
We know the answer to that because our Democrat "friends" already told us they'd run away.
Jon Lonsdale presciently notes "I think our country in general has this crisis of incompetence."
Should anyone be surprised when the person installed in 2020 to rule over us is a corrupt, senile imbecile who hasn't been right on foreign policy in decades and whose own boss warned to never underestimate his ability to fcuk things up? What sort of people "voted" for such towering incompetence?
I am not at all obsessed with this issue. My comment was directed at those who are, namely the vast majority of Dem women, independents and even some republicans. The comment by a Mr. Glass regarding this and it’s impact on the last election (midterms) as it stopped what should have been a red wave and reduced it to a red ripple. It will impact this years elections as well which is why the WH has made it a center concern again hoping to deflect ppl from focusing on recent admin failures.
I found it slightly concerning that when SCOTUS began its review of Roe and the draft opinion was leaked at just the right time to tip the scales, there was a statement by the high court that there would be a full investigation to uncover the source of this egregious deviation from protocol. The results of that investigation were never revealed and the media dropped it like a rock. This should have been reported on and it leads me to wonder if this alleged intern leaker wasn’t actually one of the dissenting judges. That would incite an earthquake in DC.
Still though, whatever the truth is should be revealed. The public has a right to know. They supposedly work for us and we need to trust in their integrity.
No I think the most important issue is the invasion at our border followed closely by the subject matter of this article/podcast.
Even though I lean toward right to life I think that there needs to be some measure of regulated middle ground. It’s the leftists that freak out at the mere mention of restrictions to on demand abortion. I don’t get their callous indifference to third trimester babies being literally disassembled (murdered) because they are too developed to just abort.
Abortion may be relatively safe for women but it’s fatal for the developing human 100% of the time.
But I digress, this issue is something that matters to me but it’s kinda far down the list of priorities.
I don’t know what your position is on this but from your decidedly critical response I guess you either don’t care or are of the no-holds-barred camp. No matter, I really don’t care what you think and I see you don’t care what I think about it.
I was replying to a comment above that referenced abortion. I’m NOT confused about the nature, meaning or intent of this podcast. Maybe you should read my comment again. You misinterpret what I wrote sir.
Well I have to say that your first comment confused me. I reread it several times. Did you mean to say that you don’t understand how the willful killing of developing human beings DOESN’T keep those people up at night?
Your comments are always right on. You make sense. The sort of people who voted for such towering incompetence like chaos and lack common sense. I am so unhappy about the state of affairs in our country. These people do not want a better world for their children and grandchildren.I'm very afraid.
We know that our military services can't meet their recruiting goals, most likely because our armed forces are woke and our young people have been taught that America isn't worth fighting for.
I was a Zone Supervisor over Navy recruiting in the early 80s. It was a very difficult task in recruiting quality candidates especially for the nuclear power program and all officer programs. Even finding potential applicants for high tech jobs was extremely difficult. I can't imagine the life of a Navy Recruiter in today's environment. I recently read several articles on how 80% of the applicants for military service cannot pass the entrance requirements for either testing or medical reasons. No idea how this major problem can be resolved. It seems like a real mess. (Really enjoyed this Free Press article.....)
The qualified people I know who might have enlisted no longer have any desire to do so. primarily due to the DEI push, the don’t see the opportunity to learn and advance nbased on their ability and hard work. Don’t remember names, but that mental case of a “man” who is an officer and routinely wears dresses would have killed it for me.
And let's not forget about that other sick, twisted, lisping, gerbil-stuffing, luggage stealing, cross-dresssing freak Sam Brinton.
Now, when you think about these Biden appointees, doesn't it become a little clearer why it took the better part of a week for the military to respond to the attack on tower 22?
Also the vaccine mandates turned already trained pilots and soldiers off they decided it would be better to resign than chance heart damage over an experimental gene therapy that didn’t provide immunity and wasn’t likely to cause them life threatening illness.
All those who left reluctantly should be reinstated with back pay and a restoration of rank and benefits. The whole COVID debacle turned normally rational people into crazed maniacs. Even my own sister, who knew I didn’t get vaxxed, declared to me that anyone (unvaccinated) who transmitted COVID to someone else and they died should be charged with manslaughter. I was truly astounded she thought that given her education and intellect. She’s a lawyer and a first class RINO. College really twisted her world view and she went to law school back in the 80’s. Ppl were beginning the indoctrination even then.
This conversation took place well after it was widely known that the jab was not safe or effective. Ppl who needed hospitalization were subjected to Remdesivir another poison cocktail from Pfizer. If COVID didn’t kill you that was likely to. The overuse of ventilators were also detrimental to many patients.
All the while a safe and effective alternative, Ivermectin, was readily available and had few adverse side effects. It just didn’t make the pharma people as much bank.
So should anyone who mandates vaccines be charged with manslaughter when there is a deadly reaction to the vaccine? Or child abuse if your child has an adverse reaction?
Now project your observations onto a naval war in the western Pacific ocean over Taiwan, with our sailors many hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles from logistical resupply. A likely defeat would cause a collapse of the world order the likes of which most cannot imagine.
I am a veteran. I have several family members and friends who are as well. When I hear these people lament the fact that so many young people feel no impulse to join the military, I cannot help but think, "After what happened in Afghanistan, how can we blame any young person for staying away from military service? It is like our leaders have made fools of our heroes. We absolutely must have someone in charge who will give our warriors their due. That means not leaving our allies and friends at the mercy of evil regimes like the Taliban.
Good idea to leave them well supplied with US weaponry! I don’t understand how a ten million dollar fighter jet isn’t worth the cost to fuel and transport out of reach. Does jet fuel cost more than our jets? Is Milley smoking dope too?
Yes, it is a shame that all of that equipment was left behind in Afghanistan. But was it ever sent there with the intention of someday being returned? Was it only going to stay there as long as American soldiers were going to be there indefinitely? If I recall, President Trump also planned to eventually withdraw American troops at some point. Would he also have removed all of that defensive equipment? Because if he had, the country would still have easily been taken over by the Taliban. So I don’t know what the solution would be, since the Afghanistans caved in so easily without the American presence there.
Trump wanted to withdraw as long as they could do so without endangering our troops, get our allies out and no, I doubt he would have approved of leaving all that equipment behind. The Taliban would have resumed control under any circumstances. The Russians were in Afghanistan for 20 years fighting the Taliban and they didn’t get anywhere either. They finally gave up and withdrew.
I've known many Raytheon employees over the last thirty years, and the picture from the inside is bad.
They started explicitly discriminating against white men years ago, openly telling their employees that race and sex are factors in both hiring and promotion. They did this despite the fact that most of their engineers were white men - it stopped being about ability, and became about identity instead. This is illegal by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights act, but virtually all of corporate America is getting away with violating this law.
Raytheon went 'woke' before there was a word for it; none of their senior leadership have any engineering expertise whatsoever, they killed all the most important research programs they should have supported 20 years ago, they have no vision for the future, and their primary concern is playing politics to make more money for themselves. The military generals they interface with are nothing but bureaucrats, and between the two they fleece taxpayers for money while falling behind in the tech.
Corporate socialist bureaucracy at its finest! And they're totally unaccountable.
I worked for a Fortune 500 tech company that went heavy into DEI hiring, making hiring minorities an element of job performance. A senior executive told me he was in a quandary. Since his annual review was based on how well his team performed, how could he justify hiring a less qualified minority rather than whoever would be the best hire. Sad.
So you're telling me a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company testified to you that he and his company were in violation of Title VII. You could be a witness in court.
If we're going to stop it, it's time to take this seriously.
I agree that incompetence from within is the biggest threat. In the face of an attack, I would see a lot of dithering and hand-wringing. However, I also think there are enough people in this country, including people with enough power, that we'd eventually respond appropriately. The thing that scares me the most is the cyberthreat from China (outline to Congress recently by Christopher Wray, but which has been in the wind for awhile). China has a lot of manpower and smarts, and they're ruthless. Even scarier, though, is the fact that they're desperate. Their economy is tanking, Xi's attempts to centrally control the economy are failing miserably, and history shows that desperate nations go to war to distract the public. China has a ready-made war waiting for them that would be guaranteed to rile the public in Xi's favor--Taiwan. The possibilities for patriotic propaganda around an invasion of Taiwan are endless, and despite Biden's proclamations, I don't see the US or anyone else in the West actually coming to Taiwan's defense. If we couldn't fully support Ukraine, why is there any reason to think we'd support Taiwan? I'm sorry, I'm not impressed by the response of the US to attacks on US facilities in the Middle East.
This was a great talk! As a longtime Navy civilian, I felt myself wanting to defend some of the old guard style, and I’ve seen lots of smart people whip up cool new tech that does t really satisfy military needs, but I’m old now and I’m happy there are energetic smart people and new companies beating down the door to DOD with new ideas.
Yes, but is DOD listening and receptive?? I have read that there were some Israelis who tried to warn their defense ministers of an impending invasion which did happen on Oct 7, but they were ignored.
One big problem for DOD is that everybody wants them to buy different stuff. Within navy, they’re getting beat up over funding too few new ships and for slow submarine construction, which leaves relatively few dollars for buying much emerging tech such as that provided by Andruil and Palantir.
The truth is probably they need both,and finding the balance has been difficult.
Yes well…. Billions for Ukraine, billions for illegals flooding into our country…I can see why it is hard to come up with money for our national defense!!
These young people are doing a great job, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the current admin says, if they don’t meet the DEI guidelines then they won’t do business with them!
Thank you, Bari, for finding these entrepreneurs. Their comments are like a breath of fresh air and a spark of optimism at a troubled time. I truly believe Americans evaluated and advanced upon merit rather than DEI and ESG can stay ahead (or catch up then stay ahead) of any one-party government planning system. Three cheers.
I was a huge fan of Admiral Stockdale until I learned that he knew full well from day 1 that the Gulf of Tonkin was a lie, and just kept on flying missions and dropping bombs. I'm not saying I would have had the courage to do any differently.
Sam was only in charge of nuclear material. No biggie…. Right?? .DEI has to be the most demoralizing, talent bleeding, idiotic notion ever adopted. For excellence , you hire or recruit not because of sexual orientation, gender, color, or race. You hire or recruit the best in spite of those characteristics. Youhave to be brain dead, spiteful, racist, or clueless to think otherwise.
After what happened in Afghanistan, can you blame anyone, young or old for staying away from the military? Our bravest were treated like saps and suckers.
Okay, so Israel has about 9M citizens, which would make the US 40 times larger.
If some Mexican Cartels decided that they were going to push back against US border policies, and attack the border cities of McCallen, Juarez and wherever else, in a similar campaign to Hamas’ in Israel, they’d kill, rape mutilate almost 50K US citizens, and take 5K back across the border as hostages. Do you think we’d give a flying fuck what any of the rest of the world said about ‘genocide’ against Mexicans?
We would most likely start an extermination of cartels in Mexico. It wouldn’t be genocide, apartheid, or anything else, other than improving civilization.
That’s what Israel is doing.
And frankly, I believe we're going to end up with something akin to this in the future. The Cartels are to Mexico what Hamas is to Palestine, Hezbollah is to Lebanon and the Houthis are to Yemen. Their motives may be different, but they are criminal organizations that have taken over countries.
This was interesting, but my abiding sentiment or question is: Does anyone feel comforted knowing that Biden-Blinken-Sullivan-Austin are leading the way into these foreign entanglements? Setting Austin aside, these men were part of that crack Obama-era foreign policy team that delivered the ISIS, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, & Ukraine FUBARs. They're up to the same horseshit in meddling in the Israel/Hamas conflict. Their strategy with Afghanistan was a satire of The Art of War by Lao Tzu Joe (aka Dork Brandon):
"Confuse your enemy by abandoning all of your weapons and withdrawing in the middle of the night."
Whereas, their current strategy appears to be:
"Surprise your enemy by announcing a secret attack five days in advance."
That was my overriding thought while listening to this podcast. I was blown away by the level of intellect and optimism expressed but could not get the thought out of my mind that we have Biden, Blinken, Sullivan et al to navigate us through these conflicts. I fear their lack of judgement more than I fear our foreign adversaries.
Me too. The fragility of our society in general is unsettling to say the least.
Agreed. But it's the failure of our public/government institutions that has created this fragility. The private sector continues to work hard, innovate and improve in every imaginable way. The public sector adds regulations and jobs (one of the largest "employers" in the current post-COVID recovery), collects massive sums to attain elective office, then distributes the prizes to key supporters via contracts, appointments and favorable legislation. There is no serious attempt by either party to govern seriously, to live within their (our) means, to solve problems. They magically get rich, go on book tours and retire to the Hamptons. It makes me sick, and it would make our ancestors even sicker.
TERM LIMITS!!! Cronyism is rampant and it’s more like America Inc. where they sell us out using our $. With the weaponization of federal agencies esp the DOJ and its subsidiaries like the FBI the corruption of our voting system (or lack there of) has most people resigned to believe we can’t effect real change, we never see accountability (unless it’s fair skinned conservatives, the horror)and they dismiss the constitution when it suits them.
The Patriot Act should have been abolished but instead it was expanded.
Nothing new under this sun...
Term Limits; Prohibition against insider trading for government employees & prohibit nepotism, especially political appointees; make the leaders live the values of average Americans. Stop private plane flights & private security for elected officials.
Term limits, pass that bill that prohibits trades based on info learned while serving (which is a long-winded way yo say penalize the inherent conflict of interests), and overturn Citizens United because corporations are NOT PEOPLE, they are entities..
The example of California indicates that term limits only make the revolving door spin faster. Legislators have even less incentive to learn their jobs and govern seriously.
How about Schmucks like Al Gore and John Kerry and their climate scam? And people believe these scam artists.
And, if you don’t like the Biblical take, listen to Marc Andreesen: “ it’s not a failure of leadership. Leadership is fully on board”
Not just them, the entire bipartisan pentagon leadership has lost every war it fought in the last 20?years
I don’t think it’s been very bipartisan for well over a decade. The entire military machine has become a cesspool of left leaning, incompetent, circle jerking desk jockeys. We need a MacArthur or a Patton but instead we have silly Milley and (mister) Levine as leadership models.
I have a brother in law who is an engineer for Lockheed and he is wary of too much reliance on AI. He recognizes the need to move forward with the application of it but has concerns. It needs strict, competent oversight with guard rails in place to insure there are effective checks. Arrogance in indiscriminate use is where things can really go wrong.
I am very encouraged to learn of young enterprising patriots who understand the place America has as the leader of the free world. We need to stop this destructive narrative that America is inherently a bad country because past policies were bad. Human history is rife with poor leaders, terrible people, corrupt officials and that hasn’t changed. Humans apparently continue to be human.
Who knew?
But decent ppl have pushed and succeeded to affect course corrections. We make mistakes and then try to fix what we can to endeavor not to repeat them.
Authoritarianism isn’t a good way to seek social change. It is oppressive and destructive, not an atmosphere that encourages innovation or real progress.
Open and free discourse needs to be returned to academia especially, but also to the public square. The open exchange of ideas is paramount in staying a step ahead in every sector of the sciences. That’s a no-brainer.
I think the Trump admin, along with allies in Iraq and Kurdish Syria, waged a very successful campaign against ISIS in their region.
The campaign for eliminate ISIS is an interesting model. It began in 2014-2015 with targeted bombing of ISIS positions in Iraq by the Obama administration and as they saw success they built a partnership between US special forces and local militias headed by Mazloum Konami Abdi that expanded into Syria. The Obama administration quietly increases the US Special forces in Syria. Initially the Trump administration continued this strategy but when Erdogan kept objecting and pushing N back against the US alliance with militias, the US backed down, a unilateral decision by Trump, The militias finished the job on their own. James Mattis quit over this.
James Mattis is a self-serving, egotistical, careerist
That all may be true…I’m just laying our the facts for all those craving direct and dramatic action against Mexico, the cartels, and are perhaps believing Trump’s assertions that he has any clue how to make American strong.
I forgot war mongering neo con,deep state swamp swimmer.
Any evidence of this? Beyond the guy spending several decades with multiple combat tours in uniform?
Trump didn't have a choice. Turkey invaded Syria and occupied the western border region in 2015 with no pushback from either Assad or Obama. When Turkey moved east, the U.S. could not risk a hostile exchange with Turkey because they are our NATO ally. The U.S. had no treaty with the Syrian/Turkish Kurds. Their militias were our comrades in arms against ISIS and Assad, but they were still Syrian citizens. Trump established that he would not tolerate chemical weapons by enforcing the red line Obama/Biden had set, then abandoned. Trump did the same with Russian mercenary forces, inflicting a high cost on both Assad and Wagner (Putin proxy).
Diplomacy is complicated. Right? So many factors to be weighed, including, yes, other alliances like NATO. But the issue here is that Trump acts unilaterally and impulsively. Erdogan called him up on day in 2017 in Florida, asks him to stop supporting the Kurds, and he promises right then and there to do it. Then he renigs on that promise when pressured by his advisors, but then under pressure again from Erdogan later changes his mind. The key here is "changed his mind" again unilaterally based on intervention from Erdogan, no consultation or conferring with others who were involved. (The prevailing view among commenters here seems to be that conferring is a pussy's game. But I would suggest that it's what adults do...) Anyway, it came down to Trump and Erdogan...as if he were in a playground standoff. You say Trump had no choice. But true diplomacy, effective diplomacy, involves the kind of informed give and take that Trump has no patience for. He did have a choice. And he chose to support the guy who kept calling and bullying him. He tweeted that he we had vanquished ISIS, even though they hadn't been vanquished then, and made it sound like that is why we were pulling out of the alliance in Syria... Any success that happened against ISIS was due to the Obama administration, the various alliances and local militias, in other words--diplomacy. Good old, boring, tedious and slow, diplomacy.
Lots of typos in the above…sorry about that. Typing on my phone.
No worries. Ppl can interpret your intentions/meanings so typos are not consequential.
Meddling? I think a case can be made that Iranian aligned Hezbollah has not assaulted Israel since Oct 7 because of American military assets very close nearby. Good 'meddling' in other words..
Go ahead and make that case. If it's not Hezbullah, which Islamist militia is attacking Israel on the Lebanon border?
By meddling, I meant the political influence that our State dept. has been exerting on Netenyahu since the previous election campaign and by making demands on the strategy of the IDF in Gaza, West Bank, and the northern border. Where do you think Iranian proxies are practicing restraint?
Re practicing restraint no Iranian proxies are, other than the Hezbollah bad boys which I mentioned above. Which is pretty much why B1 bombers flew in three days ago to bomb sites in Syria and Iraq and the Yanks/Brits attacked the Houthis again. Will it deter? Who knows. Will it continue? The short answer is yes.
You say the word 'demands' re the American attitude towards Israel's strategy - I prefer to use the word 'advice'. Which Israel is free to refuse, and to a large extant so far, largely has.
Biden just signed an executive order sanctioning Israelis in the West Bank by seizing any assets they own in the U.S. In his EO, he demands a two-state solution.
As if that's going to happen in his (or our) lifetime. And he knows that. It's called shoring up his domestic base, the leftie kids are pretty wobbly right now. Trump does the same thing with his America Firsters.
No. Not comforted. Not convinced.
The relationship between the USA and Mexico is more complicated than the relationship between Israel and Gaza: Mexico supplies half of the US’s fruits and vegetables, for example. The cross-border trade is win-win to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
But the most significant thing about that economic interdependence is that the cartels own a piece of it. The cartels are interwoven with the government at every level from the federal government to the tiniest municipalities. Some policía moonlight as cartel members. This means that the cartels have a vested interest in keeping things peaceful with the US. This is why an American in Mexico is safer than a Mexican.
It also means that, similarly to the US-sponsored Israeli offensive in Gaza, there is no way to eradicate the cartels without a wholesale scorched-earth invasion of Mexico followed by an occupation similar to that of Iraq. What effect that might have on the rest of Latin America is unclear, but offers some nightmare scenarios of jungle warfare that would be reminiscent of Viet Nam and offensive mountain warfare that might be comparable to Afghanistan, all carried out with support from China, who has been busily creating ties with Latin America via the Belt and Road initiative.
A better solution is to control our border 100% which, as Bari's guests point out, is doable if we have the will. The Mexican people will have to uproot the cartels at some point, and we need to stay out of it. It will be a bloodbath, and the cartels may well win. But during such an upheaval, the border needs to remain controlled by us, and quite possibly closed.
Control the border 100%, okay. That should also mean controlling it the other way and stop the flow of weapons south which said cartels use.
No argument from me on that. But check this out: in California, gun trafficking is a misdemeanor - the same penalty as stealing up to $950 of retail goods. 6 months and/or $1,000. Do you think that's going to deter anyone? They don't even prosecute misdemeanors here.
Absolutely.
That is truly depressing.
Unlike Vietnam who was supplied by Russia and China we can close down Mexico tighter than a drum. No one could resupply them.
I seriously doubt that anyone can close down Mexico’s 10,000-km coastline, much less its rugged, mountainous, southern border.
I believe you underestimate the surveillance tech we have on hand. I we were serious about destroying the cartels, our satellites should already know where the cartels are headquartered and we call in air strikes and hit them all at once. We won't get them all but we will put the fear of God in them.
Right now, the Mexican military is outgunned by the thugs. They can't outgun us.
BTW the total coastline is about 5,831.25 miles and the border with Guatemala is abou 571 miles. That is still a lot but I think we can overcome that
Yes, 10,000 km was just a rough estimate.
As soon as the USA starts bombing the cartels, the USA becomes the monsters committing genocide against the Mexican population. The cartels are thoroughly integrated vertically and horizontally into the Mexican society and economy.
Not only that, but several components of the USIC depend on the cartels for undocumented funding, goods, and services and thus take a strong interest in undermining US anti-cartel initiatives.
Even if the US’s surveillance and interdiction technology is as omnipotent and omniscient as you apparently believe, that still leaves the southern land border, which is as sieve-like as the US’s. This is why so many people crossing the US border are from Central and South America (Biden bribed Mexico to set up temporary holding camps for them at US expense in his “remain in Mexico” immigration policy, but the camps quickly overflowed).
You have some great points but what would be your solution? A simple solution but one that failed in Oregon, is to legalize drugs and take the profit out of the trade.
I don’t agree that the cartels are particularly interested in anything other than the drug trade and human trafficking. They have discouraged farmers from growing anything other than the plants they extract drugs from because the drugs make them more money than produce.
Securing the border completely is the only solution. You are right that China would try to tip the scales and they already do by supplying the raw materials to make fentanyl. The drug smugglers cut the heroin with it because it’s cheaper than heroin and they replicate prescription meds for sale that are indistinguishable from the legitimate form. Seasoned heroin users are more likely to tolerate a little fentanyl but the imitation pills are purchased by weekend warriors and kids who are more likely to have severe reactions.
It’s all bad and clearly an attempt by the Chinese to weaken our youth making a future conflict easier. They have been busy wooing South American nations so there is an agenda. Xi is cunning and patient. If we don’t take measures to thwart his long game then it may well bite us later.
It is imperative that global condemnation of chinas ruthless treatment of its own citizens be loud and clear. There should be sanctions and maybe barring them from continued participation in the UN. That is the only thing that might rattle them enough to step back from the open cruel and abusive government sanctioned reign of terror they display. It would be helpful if there could be some physical evidence too so that their attempts to deny this activity are easily countered.
I read that Xi’s possible political enemies have been arrested as of late. He’s an old school CCP guy and is a monster.
As someone who lived in Mexico for 4 of the past 8 years, I can assure you that the cartels have their finger in every pot. Anywhere money is made, the cartels are involved. In that regard and in other ways, it’s probably more accurate to consider Mexico as a country under the jurisdiction of multiple competing governments, only one of which is internationally recognized.
Nicely outlined and rational assessment. The two are like comparing apples to oranges
The cartels directly kill over 100,000 Americans per year with fentanyl, alone. In addition to spawning both an illegal invasion and crime wave in America. We need to deport all illegals currently in our nation and establish a no-man's land border strip miles wide. While our troops hunt down and eliminate the cartels operating in northern Mexico.
Mexico is not our friend. They hate us and always have. Most if not all Latin American countries feel the same way. Even though it would destroy them, they would revel in our fall.
Mexico along with Central America and Columbia are complicit in the illegals invading the U.S. It is time we said, "Enough!" and took economic sanctions against them. Don't allow people with passports from these countries entry into the U.S.
We tell Mexico, "If you can't move against the cartels, we can and will!".
Tell U.S. corporations to start building manufacturing plants here in the U.S. or Indian because we are about to serve ties with China for a multitude of reasons. China has threatened our allies in the pacific, including Australia and the U.S. with war if we try and interfere with their imperialistic behavior. Also because of their brutal behavior against their citizens. This behavior include genocide against the Uigurs.
We need to grow a backbone!
Perfect analysis. Not Peri's (couple comments above this one). Mexico and Central Am countries don't like, trust or care about the US. And only want to take advantage of our riches. Long past time to remember these countries only respect/fear US strength.
We also need to stop lining the pockets of the despotic leadership in these countries. The notion that throwing $$ (our hard earned ones to boot) has proven totally ineffective and we get no accountability for the funds we provide.
Our foreign aid only makes the Swiss banks and the Mercedes Dealerships happy. The country sees little or none of it.
The fact that we fucked most of those countries multiple times in the interests of our corporations probably has nothing to do with any feelings about the US. They just want our dinero. Riiiiight.
It is more than that. One of the reasons they hate us is we can and we do. They can but they don't.
The Spaniards came to the new world over 100 years before the British came to Jamestown. Look at the difference. We are a prosperous, powerful nation. They aren't.
"We" did not fuck anyone over. Some Am corporations may have or did. Some administrations may have or did. I didn't. You probably didn't either. That's history and as history has shown, it's how man behaves. We can only deal with the here and now. And it, the here and now, sucks for the US re the illegal alien invasion. We should bend over backwards for no one... REGARDLESS of past wrongs. What we do today is all that matters. And yes, they just want our dinero.
Sure. Maybe you did but “we” didn’t . US foreign policy in Central America has been to subsidize their economies in the states hopes of improving the lives of the impoverished populace. That cash seems to evaporate with no clear /real benefit to the ppl it’s intended to help. They are just as greedy, just as corrupt as many a “leader” around the globe.
Nah, I think we should stay on our side of the border. If we cut off the U.S. market for all cartel products (drugs, people, etc.) their market opportunity will shrink and they'll turn on each other and perhaps the Mexican government. Let them shoot it out, and don't let 40m "asylum seekers" into our country. It's time they own their own problem.
But we have to own ours. Turkey, Colombia or someone else will fill the gap and find ways to provide the crap that Americans happily consume. The cartels don't make any money off of healthy, well-adjusted and law abiding residents. We need to get serious about law enforcement in a way that will make many Americans uncomfortable, but it's better than starting a war with Mexico to defend the habits of lazy ass Americans who are getting high and who get by thanks to U.S. government entitlement giveaways. Without these losers (and I'm including prostitution johns and trafficking) the cartels have no customers.
The cartels are ruthless, brutal, and cruel, but fundamentally they're profit-motivated. Starting a military conflict with the US would be bad for business.
Pretty much , and at the first sign of weakness they would cut each others throats or be smashed by Mexicans tired of their crap
So by your math, we would have killed 1,400,000 Mexican civilians by now. And you think we wouldn't care what the rest of the world thought if we killed well over a million innocent Mexican civilians.
How did our revenge tours go in Afghanistan and Iraq?
I see your analogy. But Hamas or other radical.Islamic group would be a better comparison. And because of the fecklessnrss of American policy may soon be an actual event. But to be clear, the cartels are criminal business organizations and do not want to get rid of anything. They want to profit from essentially black market operations. They are here already. The US is being divided up into cartel territory as we write. And so help me I believe they already have US politicians beholden to them. What do y'all think dark money means?
This was a great listen. I felt some level of relief learning there is an intelligent, socially astute younger generation picking up the drive to maintain The USA’a position in the world and with that our security and culture at home. Please, TFP, keep highlighting individuals like this. I learned so much.
You can add Elon Musk who inspired thousands of young engineers to build Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and put X on the right path to freedom of speech. And there are now many rocket building companies competing and inventing new technologies. It is up to all of us to keep the globalists from destroying the American spirit.
Note that these are mostly engineers. The mission of engineering is to facilitate safe and comfortable human existence. I worry about the rest of university education.
And they do it through the logical application of science and the physicals laws
The rest seem to be consumed by litigation of one sort or another. Someone is still suing over the famous Mann Hockey Stick timeline of global temperature. Meanwhile armies of advocates, the vast majority with little or no formal science education, clog up the decisional pipeline for every sort of progress.
My biggest takeaway is that MERIT BASED EMPLOYMENT AND MERIT BASED EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES are the keys to better life, better governance, and a better world. Anyone who has ever built or accomplished anything worthwhile knows this.
IKR? And you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know this. Common sense (which they now say doesn’t exist and never truly did) should be returned to society. We cannot afford to dumb things down further and the increase in marijuana use will certainly do just that.
Drugs and escapism never really helps overcoming psychiatric issues. We should also rethink the constant selling of all pharmaceuticals to the public. This isn’t permitted in most of the rest of the world. Some drugs are needed but our propensity for seeking remedies to poor lifestyle choices/consequences only exacerbate the problems but with deadly adverse reactions. The FDA used to be our guardians against bad or dangerous prescription meds but I guess the legal “cartel”of US drug companies has too much sway. The whole lobbying industry undermines our gate keepers in DC. It’s past time to put the brakes on this form of corruption. Business is essential to a healthy economy but with checks and balances and I hate over regulation too so saying this is painful.
Ah well...
You touched on a lot of issues that plague our society. Too much coddling and not enough real life consequences to make folks change their ways.
As for lobbyists, they are needed to pass new and pertinent information on to legislators, but I blame the receiver of the bribes and favors. They allow the corruption and should be punished.
Absolutely. The elected swamp creatures in DC are too easily given to corruption. Temptation is the road to get there. Corporate America has zero principle. Bribery is as old as we are so it’s a lesser human attribute and a road to perdition for both the tempter and taker.
I haven’t heard this yet. I am tired! We are now embroiled in various new conflicts costing billions. We have a senile president and daffy Vice President. Yet the Free Press always has favored Biden, while subtly or not so subtly dissing RFK Jr. and Trump, both of whom seem preferable to me despite my lifelong history as a Democrat. I haven’t seen the column yet that even asks, Why was the US funding bioweapons research in China? I don’t care about Taylor Swift or the Grammys when I see intelligent journalists contributing to a possibly disastrous future. I hope I am wrong.
Like one commenter gave us earlier this week -- TFP is "Democratic Party Rehabilitation Program." They waver, they bounce, they "slip" (AA term); they are trying and they're "trying." They're a hell of a lot better than Townhall, and the commenters are way way better. I'm glad to be here to complain, sometimes.
👍
It's odd to me that anyone would discuss foreign threats without discussing Joe Biden not only not doing the job he swore to do--uphold the laws passed by Congress--but actively preventing anyone else from doing the job he refuses to do.
We fought a Global War on Terror for something like 20 years. The intent was to protect the American homeland from foreign threats by preempting them where they originated.
But our southern border is open. We have to assume Iran, China, North Korea, Al Queda, ISIS affiliates, Hezbolah, Hamas, and anyone else you can think of has sent over AS MANY PEOPLE AS THEY WANTED TO.
Our counterintelligence agencies have been ordered to focus on those Americas who publicly continue to ask our national government to do its job and obey the law, so the only thing preventing mass terror attacks--on our malls, our power grid, our bridges, our schools, and anything else you want to add--is that it is not currently to the tactical advantage of our enemies. That's it. Full stop. The people who should be tracking them are almost certainly not doing so. The FBI is a political organization that seems, in the main, to operate as muscle for illegal left wing operations. They probably do some good things too, but what is obviously bad is bad enough.
America has long been much stronger than our enemies. We won in Vietnam. But we retreated, after Nixon was successfully kneecapped, and not only hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese who had trusted us were murdered (which is more or less what happened in Afghanistan), but the stage was set for the Khmer Rouge and the murder--often by torture--of roughly a third of the country.
So in my own view the only enemy we have that matters in the least is the Democrats. They are the enemies of truth, effective and consistent foreign policy, rational deterrance, and in most cases rational dialogue itself. Those problems cannot be fixed with better weapons, and I speak for many in saying that the better weapons being developed will be turned on people like me if we stay on the path we are on.
“But our southern border is open. We have to assume Iran, China, North Korea, Al Queda, ISIS affiliates, Hezbolah, Hamas, and anyone else you can think of has sent over AS MANY PEOPLE AS THEY WANTED TO.”
Listen to Tucker Carlson interview Bret Weinstein about Bret’s recent trip to Panama to get an idea of who is migrating through (i.e. invading) our southern border. Hint: it’s not just Central and South American families seeking a better life.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tucker-carlson-podcast/id1719657632?i=1000643872659
RFK Jr. went down there and apparently the way it works is the Cartels offer a more or less inclusive trip to America from anywhere in the world. They seem even to act as travel agents. They will book you a flight from anywhere in the world to Mexico, put you on a bus, then get you over the border.
Literally anyone, anywhere in the world, can walk over our border with impunity.
Sad but true. Bret Weinstein describes two camps for “immigrants” in Panama with one holding mostly South American families and the other seemingly inhabited almost entirely by young Chinese men. Those men will be among us at some point. What do you suppose their ultimate intent might be?
Could be agents, but most likely they are just Chinese trying to escape the Chinese fascists. Actual agents could be inserted much more efficiently. I can't believe most Chinese like the Chinese government either, any more than actually woke Americans trust our own government.
The difference is they can come here. If we lose America, there will be nowhere to go.
I understand the fear that underlies the willful naivete of people like many of those writing for the Free Press. But to paraphrase Ayn Rand, you can avoid awareness, but you cannot avoid the consequences of your blindness.
One of the best phrases in this discussion: "If we lose America, there will be nowhere to go." Europe knows it. East Asia knows it. Latin America even knows it. If only more Americans understood this.
I'm more or less quoting Michael Flynn, who also understands this.
Listen to the programme, you might learn something.
I might, but I'm listening to War and Peace. No joke. I really am. We just got through Austerlitz. The number of podcasts is staggering, and a good number are pretty good.
What I know about our border makes me angry enough. Knowing more details would probably only make me angrier.
And what's really astonishing is that I know NOW that if there are major terrorist attacks, Democrats will blame someone else, and most of their idiot voters will buy whatever BS they are shoveling. One of the talking points will certainly be that Americans are too free and we need more government surveillance.
It's not unreasonable to assume that there are hundreds of recent immigrants just waiting for the order to attack soft targets in the U.S. and create chaos.
If having an open border in times of geopolitical struggles with multiple enemies isn't treasonous, then the word should be struck from the dictionary.
Why are there so many people unworried about this? How can Bari say that "the Jews are Ohio" (meaning that Israel is a microcosm of the west and that what happens to them will soon happen to more of the west) and yet say that the open borders for the US have been just fine for the last three years and yet the borders to Israel must be closed. The United States has the right to be concerned about their borders just like any other country - especially as the world has grown so unstable.
I couldn't agree more, T. An open border is beyond crazy in today's world. I think Bari and Nellie are still struggling between their hard-wired if misguided Democratic Party allegiance and what they see and report on week after week after week. It's like the subconscious vs. the conscious. My experience is that the subconscious usually prevails at the voting booth. With them, the jury is still out.
Well said, saint, well said.
🤔whoa bruh. Great points all.
Imma elevate you to Saint Finbar
Bari asks "If we had to fight for our country, who would actually show up?"
We know the answer to that because our Democrat "friends" already told us they'd run away.
Jon Lonsdale presciently notes "I think our country in general has this crisis of incompetence."
Should anyone be surprised when the person installed in 2020 to rule over us is a corrupt, senile imbecile who hasn't been right on foreign policy in decades and whose own boss warned to never underestimate his ability to fcuk things up? What sort of people "voted" for such towering incompetence?
Once an entire generation of American women bleeds and dies in defense of their country, we can revisit the conversation about "male privilege".
Don't you just love all the new female superheroes? That mythology meant something once. And soon it will again.
This war is on you, ladies. Better gear up. The future is female.
Any woman claiming to be a man should be required to register for the Selective Service.
A lot of them voted that way because Biden is Pro-Choice. The Dems have said as much.
I don’t understand how the willful killing of developing humans keeps these folks up at night. It seems gruesome ..?..
Do you think that abortion is the most important issue facing the USA? Go back and read the article. Try to get over your obsession.
I am not at all obsessed with this issue. My comment was directed at those who are, namely the vast majority of Dem women, independents and even some republicans. The comment by a Mr. Glass regarding this and it’s impact on the last election (midterms) as it stopped what should have been a red wave and reduced it to a red ripple. It will impact this years elections as well which is why the WH has made it a center concern again hoping to deflect ppl from focusing on recent admin failures.
I found it slightly concerning that when SCOTUS began its review of Roe and the draft opinion was leaked at just the right time to tip the scales, there was a statement by the high court that there would be a full investigation to uncover the source of this egregious deviation from protocol. The results of that investigation were never revealed and the media dropped it like a rock. This should have been reported on and it leads me to wonder if this alleged intern leaker wasn’t actually one of the dissenting judges. That would incite an earthquake in DC.
Still though, whatever the truth is should be revealed. The public has a right to know. They supposedly work for us and we need to trust in their integrity.
No I think the most important issue is the invasion at our border followed closely by the subject matter of this article/podcast.
Even though I lean toward right to life I think that there needs to be some measure of regulated middle ground. It’s the leftists that freak out at the mere mention of restrictions to on demand abortion. I don’t get their callous indifference to third trimester babies being literally disassembled (murdered) because they are too developed to just abort.
Abortion may be relatively safe for women but it’s fatal for the developing human 100% of the time.
But I digress, this issue is something that matters to me but it’s kinda far down the list of priorities.
I don’t know what your position is on this but from your decidedly critical response I guess you either don’t care or are of the no-holds-barred camp. No matter, I really don’t care what you think and I see you don’t care what I think about it.
Hope you have a great day Mr. Davidson.
I was replying to a comment above that referenced abortion. I’m NOT confused about the nature, meaning or intent of this podcast. Maybe you should read my comment again. You misinterpret what I wrote sir.
Well I have to say that your first comment confused me. I reread it several times. Did you mean to say that you don’t understand how the willful killing of developing human beings DOESN’T keep those people up at night?
Who voted for the lying, demented corrupt fool? Apparently, or allegedly, 81 million Trump -deranged morons.
Alleged or not. Anyone who voted for that demented, crooked fool deserves the chaos we're in
But the rest of us don't deserve the chaos.
Your comments are always right on. You make sense. The sort of people who voted for such towering incompetence like chaos and lack common sense. I am so unhappy about the state of affairs in our country. These people do not want a better world for their children and grandchildren.I'm very afraid.
Lots of dead ones apparently. Fascinating accomplishment!
We know that our military services can't meet their recruiting goals, most likely because our armed forces are woke and our young people have been taught that America isn't worth fighting for.
Not to mention their purging of all those white guys special ops guys who actually do most of the fighting.
Oh wait, I just did.
I was a Zone Supervisor over Navy recruiting in the early 80s. It was a very difficult task in recruiting quality candidates especially for the nuclear power program and all officer programs. Even finding potential applicants for high tech jobs was extremely difficult. I can't imagine the life of a Navy Recruiter in today's environment. I recently read several articles on how 80% of the applicants for military service cannot pass the entrance requirements for either testing or medical reasons. No idea how this major problem can be resolved. It seems like a real mess. (Really enjoyed this Free Press article.....)
We're definitely in the "weak men create hard times" part of the cycle.
The qualified people I know who might have enlisted no longer have any desire to do so. primarily due to the DEI push, the don’t see the opportunity to learn and advance nbased on their ability and hard work. Don’t remember names, but that mental case of a “man” who is an officer and routinely wears dresses would have killed it for me.
I think you're referring to Rachel Levine.
And let's not forget about that other sick, twisted, lisping, gerbil-stuffing, luggage stealing, cross-dresssing freak Sam Brinton.
Now, when you think about these Biden appointees, doesn't it become a little clearer why it took the better part of a week for the military to respond to the attack on tower 22?
Also the vaccine mandates turned already trained pilots and soldiers off they decided it would be better to resign than chance heart damage over an experimental gene therapy that didn’t provide immunity and wasn’t likely to cause them life threatening illness.
All those who left reluctantly should be reinstated with back pay and a restoration of rank and benefits. The whole COVID debacle turned normally rational people into crazed maniacs. Even my own sister, who knew I didn’t get vaxxed, declared to me that anyone (unvaccinated) who transmitted COVID to someone else and they died should be charged with manslaughter. I was truly astounded she thought that given her education and intellect. She’s a lawyer and a first class RINO. College really twisted her world view and she went to law school back in the 80’s. Ppl were beginning the indoctrination even then.
This conversation took place well after it was widely known that the jab was not safe or effective. Ppl who needed hospitalization were subjected to Remdesivir another poison cocktail from Pfizer. If COVID didn’t kill you that was likely to. The overuse of ventilators were also detrimental to many patients.
All the while a safe and effective alternative, Ivermectin, was readily available and had few adverse side effects. It just didn’t make the pharma people as much bank.
So should anyone who mandates vaccines be charged with manslaughter when there is a deadly reaction to the vaccine? Or child abuse if your child has an adverse reaction?
Now project your observations onto a naval war in the western Pacific ocean over Taiwan, with our sailors many hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles from logistical resupply. A likely defeat would cause a collapse of the world order the likes of which most cannot imagine.
I am a veteran. I have several family members and friends who are as well. When I hear these people lament the fact that so many young people feel no impulse to join the military, I cannot help but think, "After what happened in Afghanistan, how can we blame any young person for staying away from military service? It is like our leaders have made fools of our heroes. We absolutely must have someone in charge who will give our warriors their due. That means not leaving our allies and friends at the mercy of evil regimes like the Taliban.
DeSantis would have been that person, but he had a funny smile and his shoes were weird.
Amen. That was just berserk.
Good idea to leave them well supplied with US weaponry! I don’t understand how a ten million dollar fighter jet isn’t worth the cost to fuel and transport out of reach. Does jet fuel cost more than our jets? Is Milley smoking dope too?
Yes, it is a shame that all of that equipment was left behind in Afghanistan. But was it ever sent there with the intention of someday being returned? Was it only going to stay there as long as American soldiers were going to be there indefinitely? If I recall, President Trump also planned to eventually withdraw American troops at some point. Would he also have removed all of that defensive equipment? Because if he had, the country would still have easily been taken over by the Taliban. So I don’t know what the solution would be, since the Afghanistans caved in so easily without the American presence there.
Trump wanted to withdraw as long as they could do so without endangering our troops, get our allies out and no, I doubt he would have approved of leaving all that equipment behind. The Taliban would have resumed control under any circumstances. The Russians were in Afghanistan for 20 years fighting the Taliban and they didn’t get anywhere either. They finally gave up and withdrew.
I've known many Raytheon employees over the last thirty years, and the picture from the inside is bad.
They started explicitly discriminating against white men years ago, openly telling their employees that race and sex are factors in both hiring and promotion. They did this despite the fact that most of their engineers were white men - it stopped being about ability, and became about identity instead. This is illegal by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights act, but virtually all of corporate America is getting away with violating this law.
Raytheon went 'woke' before there was a word for it; none of their senior leadership have any engineering expertise whatsoever, they killed all the most important research programs they should have supported 20 years ago, they have no vision for the future, and their primary concern is playing politics to make more money for themselves. The military generals they interface with are nothing but bureaucrats, and between the two they fleece taxpayers for money while falling behind in the tech.
Corporate socialist bureaucracy at its finest! And they're totally unaccountable.
I worked for a Fortune 500 tech company that went heavy into DEI hiring, making hiring minorities an element of job performance. A senior executive told me he was in a quandary. Since his annual review was based on how well his team performed, how could he justify hiring a less qualified minority rather than whoever would be the best hire. Sad.
So you're telling me a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company testified to you that he and his company were in violation of Title VII. You could be a witness in court.
If we're going to stop it, it's time to take this seriously.
I agree that incompetence from within is the biggest threat. In the face of an attack, I would see a lot of dithering and hand-wringing. However, I also think there are enough people in this country, including people with enough power, that we'd eventually respond appropriately. The thing that scares me the most is the cyberthreat from China (outline to Congress recently by Christopher Wray, but which has been in the wind for awhile). China has a lot of manpower and smarts, and they're ruthless. Even scarier, though, is the fact that they're desperate. Their economy is tanking, Xi's attempts to centrally control the economy are failing miserably, and history shows that desperate nations go to war to distract the public. China has a ready-made war waiting for them that would be guaranteed to rile the public in Xi's favor--Taiwan. The possibilities for patriotic propaganda around an invasion of Taiwan are endless, and despite Biden's proclamations, I don't see the US or anyone else in the West actually coming to Taiwan's defense. If we couldn't fully support Ukraine, why is there any reason to think we'd support Taiwan? I'm sorry, I'm not impressed by the response of the US to attacks on US facilities in the Middle East.
You weren't impressed by the bombing of empty warehouses and tents, vacated days ago after Biden's heads-up? How cynical!
At least 40 people killed in your "empty warehouses" in Iraq and Syria.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-launches-retaliatory-strikes-iraq-syria-nearly-40-reported-killed-2024-02-03/
Like I care or even believe Iran proxy media.
This was a great talk! As a longtime Navy civilian, I felt myself wanting to defend some of the old guard style, and I’ve seen lots of smart people whip up cool new tech that does t really satisfy military needs, but I’m old now and I’m happy there are energetic smart people and new companies beating down the door to DOD with new ideas.
Yes, but is DOD listening and receptive?? I have read that there were some Israelis who tried to warn their defense ministers of an impending invasion which did happen on Oct 7, but they were ignored.
One big problem for DOD is that everybody wants them to buy different stuff. Within navy, they’re getting beat up over funding too few new ships and for slow submarine construction, which leaves relatively few dollars for buying much emerging tech such as that provided by Andruil and Palantir.
The truth is probably they need both,and finding the balance has been difficult.
Yes well…. Billions for Ukraine, billions for illegals flooding into our country…I can see why it is hard to come up with money for our national defense!!
These young people are doing a great job, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the current admin says, if they don’t meet the DEI guidelines then they won’t do business with them!
Thank you, Bari, for finding these entrepreneurs. Their comments are like a breath of fresh air and a spark of optimism at a troubled time. I truly believe Americans evaluated and advanced upon merit rather than DEI and ESG can stay ahead (or catch up then stay ahead) of any one-party government planning system. Three cheers.
Joe, Katherine, and Palmer are legends. DIE and government incompetence are more dangerous than our foreign adversaries. In these perilous times, it is worth revisiting Vice Admiral James Stockdale's essay on "Moral Leadership": https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/moral-leadership-admiral-james-stockdale-vietnam
I was a huge fan of Admiral Stockdale until I learned that he knew full well from day 1 that the Gulf of Tonkin was a lie, and just kept on flying missions and dropping bombs. I'm not saying I would have had the courage to do any differently.
Sam was only in charge of nuclear material. No biggie…. Right?? .DEI has to be the most demoralizing, talent bleeding, idiotic notion ever adopted. For excellence , you hire or recruit not because of sexual orientation, gender, color, or race. You hire or recruit the best in spite of those characteristics. Youhave to be brain dead, spiteful, racist, or clueless to think otherwise.
I think ALL of the above and it seems they are. Maybe they just want to surround themselves with equally foolish ppl.
After what happened in Afghanistan, can you blame anyone, young or old for staying away from the military? Our bravest were treated like saps and suckers.
I love these three people!