1
00:00:41,719 --> 00:00:44,560
Hey everybody, welcome, here we
go. It is that time again,

2
00:00:44,759 --> 00:00:50,520
Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are live
from the studios of w m n H

3
00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:55,960
five point three FM and Glorious Downtown
Manchester, New Hampshire, also on cong

4
00:00:56,039 --> 00:00:58,920
Pass ninety seven if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our online

5
00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:00,920
listeners across an Asia and around the
globe. You can go to my website

6
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,719
Matt Connerton dot com for all of
your live streaming options, social media links,

7
00:01:04,719 --> 00:01:11,079
contact infolk show archives, etc.
Etc. Today is Thursday July thirteen,

8
00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,959
twenty twenty three, so nice to
have you all with me. By

9
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,640
the way, played a couple couple
songs there to open the show today.

10
00:01:18,159 --> 00:01:23,280
We started with bleed Lines, the
single from our friends in the band sepsis.

11
00:01:23,239 --> 00:01:26,640
Part of why I played that is
they've got a brand new video and

12
00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,319
in fact, if you happen to
be in Facebook in the chat room,

13
00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:34,079
Jenny shared the link they've just released. Actually it went up last night on

14
00:01:34,239 --> 00:01:38,040
YouTube. The brand new video from
sepsis for the song bleed Lines. It's

15
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:42,239
really cool features the brand new lineup
of the band, so I recommend checking

16
00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,400
that out. And I really like
that song A lot, so I figured

17
00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,400
i'd play that today and it's a
good excuse to let everybody know about the

18
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,159
new video. And of course I
also played don't Cha, a little bit

19
00:01:52,159 --> 00:01:56,040
of garage rock from our friend grim
Rock, who joined us yesterday on the

20
00:01:56,079 --> 00:02:00,719
show for the world radio premiere of
his new single Don't Cha. He is

21
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000
from the great state of Pennsylvania and
he's by the way, he's been doing

22
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:06,200
a lot. If he's listening,
thank you. He's been doing a lot

23
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,639
for a lot to really kind of
promote the show and his appearance on the

24
00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:13,840
show yesterday, and he's got a
lot of people talking about it on Twitter,

25
00:02:13,879 --> 00:02:17,080
which is really cool. So we
appreciate that very very much. Tomorrow

26
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:21,400
on the show, we've got a
busy show. Tomorrow we have, of

27
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:27,240
course Eric Pilch's classic film review and
this week the subject is National Lampoon's Vacation,

28
00:02:27,439 --> 00:02:32,000
very appropriate of course for the summertime. And then at five pm tomorrow

29
00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:36,159
we're going to be joined by Dave
Wally And this is kind of a special

30
00:02:36,159 --> 00:02:38,800
one for me because Dave and I
went to high school together and I've always

31
00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:42,639
had a tremendous respect for him.
Not only is he a great guy,

32
00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:47,000
but a very talented musician, and
so he's got this band, Satellite Union,

33
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,360
really really good. So he's going
to be skyping in from Chicago.

34
00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,840
That's where Dave is and that's where
the band is based. I spent a

35
00:02:54,879 --> 00:03:00,400
lot of time in Chicago as a
kid because when I was when I was

36
00:03:00,439 --> 00:03:02,240
a wee lad, a young urchin. Uh, you know, when my

37
00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:06,439
parents split up, my mom ended
up moving back to Chicago, where she

38
00:03:06,719 --> 00:03:09,800
where she was from originally, so
every summer I would get to spend spend

39
00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:14,520
the summers out there with her.
So I know that city pretty well myself.

40
00:03:14,599 --> 00:03:15,800
But oh, I haven't been there
in a while, I'll admit,

41
00:03:15,879 --> 00:03:21,479
but it'll be it'll be really cool
to talk to day of tomorrow and catch

42
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:23,280
up with him. So that will
be tomorrow on the show. In fact,

43
00:03:23,319 --> 00:03:25,840
I might even, uh, at
the top of the hour today,

44
00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:30,439
I might give a little sneak preview
of a Satellite Union song. Not one

45
00:03:30,479 --> 00:03:34,360
of the ones that Dave sent me. I'm going to save those for tomorrow.

46
00:03:34,439 --> 00:03:38,560
But there's another Satellite Union song.
I found online a video of a

47
00:03:38,599 --> 00:03:42,800
performance from twenty twenty two, and
I said, oh, I really like

48
00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:47,520
this, So Melanie says, were
you a crip or a blood No,

49
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:51,400
no, not in not in Chicago, Melanie. You're thinking of back when

50
00:03:51,439 --> 00:03:57,840
I when I was in Compton,
you know, Seetown, I was actually

51
00:03:57,879 --> 00:04:00,199
a member of both the Crips and
the Bloods. But uh, you know

52
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,800
I was pretty thug. That was
a different time, though. Boy.

53
00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:06,919
I'll tell you what if if you
knew me back then, you'd be you'd

54
00:04:06,919 --> 00:04:15,639
be afraid. You'd be afraid of
me anyway. Uh, six zo three

55
00:04:15,719 --> 00:04:17,680
two five O six ZO seven as
a studio line six zo three two five

56
00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:20,519
O six Z seven. I'm never
quite sure how to go with that.

57
00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,360
That's an old joke. I'm never
quite sure how far to go with it.

58
00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,079
I don't go as far with it
as I used to. Um,

59
00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,279
it's different, different times. Six
zo three two five six Z seven.

60
00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:33,160
You can also text me at six
one seven nine one seven four four seven

61
00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:38,240
six. I'm on social media at
Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt

62
00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:42,639
at Matt Connerton dot com. And
of course you can interact endo Pine in

63
00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:46,720
the Facebook live chat. But the
melody's making me laugh in the chat room.

64
00:04:46,959 --> 00:04:48,240
But the best thing to do so
that we can hear and enjoy your

65
00:04:48,319 --> 00:04:51,959
dulcet tones is to give us a
call at six zoo three two five zero

66
00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,759
six zero seven. Speaking of dulcet
tones, we have a little bit of

67
00:04:56,759 --> 00:05:02,800
a mystery um. Usually on Thursday
afternoons, we are joined via phone by

68
00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:10,319
our friend EASYG for his entertainment report. However, I realized today that I

69
00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:15,120
haven't heard from him. And usually
I hear from him in advance of his

70
00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:19,680
entertainment report because he typically has a
song request that he would like me to

71
00:05:19,759 --> 00:05:26,199
play at the end of his entertainment
report. It's usually something by either Amanda

72
00:05:26,319 --> 00:05:30,439
McCarthy, Katie Dobbins or April Cushman, one of those three, because those

73
00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:35,759
are the three entertainers he speaks about
during his entertainment report. It's really the

74
00:05:36,639 --> 00:05:41,279
it's really more of an Amanda McCarthy, Katie Dobbins, April Cushman report,

75
00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,839
to be very precise about it.
But I realized today, and I was

76
00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:47,199
saying to Jenny earlier, you know, I haven't heard from I haven't heard

77
00:05:47,199 --> 00:05:53,600
from EASYG. So we'll see if
he calls at four fifteen, but I

78
00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:56,879
don't know, and I don't see
him in the chat room either, So

79
00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,639
hopefully everything's okay. If we don't
hear from him, he'd does have I

80
00:06:00,759 --> 00:06:03,439
was. I ran into Kyle Heavy
earlier. Of course, Kyle part of

81
00:06:03,439 --> 00:06:06,199
the W M and H family.
He ows his own show called Off the

82
00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:14,439
Mark Sports on Sundays from I believe
it's ten am to noon. But Kyle

83
00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:21,319
and I were talking earlier, just
stob briefly, and I said that Jenny's

84
00:06:21,319 --> 00:06:27,720
saying Eric Agnet, Yes, easyg
Eric Agnet. I was saying, you

85
00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,680
know, Easy has a He has
a little bit of a history of disappearing

86
00:06:30,759 --> 00:06:35,519
for for months at a time.
So I don't know. I don't know,

87
00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:42,800
So we'll see, we'll see if
we hear from him. But we'll

88
00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:45,279
go ahead and say a load everybody
on the Facebook live chat, and we

89
00:06:45,319 --> 00:06:48,920
do have some something to get into. There's a particular a news item that

90
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,399
I think is being somewhat underreported.
Shall we say that we're gonna get into

91
00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,319
today, But yes, I did
mention. Melanie is in the chat room.

92
00:06:57,319 --> 00:06:59,480
And by the way, Melanie,
I hope everything is good where you

93
00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,639
are. Also, Jay Fed joins
us in the chat as well and says,

94
00:07:02,639 --> 00:07:06,399
good afternoon everyone, Good afternoon,
j Fed. My thoughts are with

95
00:07:06,439 --> 00:07:11,439
the two of you. Of course
you are in Vermont and Vermont areas of

96
00:07:11,519 --> 00:07:15,439
Vermont, I mean the pictures.
I'd seen something Melanie had posted on Facebook,

97
00:07:15,439 --> 00:07:20,680
and it's been in the news,
of course that the terrible torrential downpours

98
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:26,800
of rain that left that area flooded. And to see the flooding in mont

99
00:07:26,839 --> 00:07:31,160
Pelier is. I saw one news
report that said it's actually worse than when

100
00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:38,240
Hurricane Irene had hit. So it's
pretty bad there. So I hope every

101
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,959
hope everything's okay. I hope you're
both all right. It sounds like you

102
00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,720
are, but boy, hopefully that
that water recedes soon. And I did

103
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,920
even hear something about another storm system
is moving in, so our thoughts are

104
00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:56,759
with you there and everyone in the
great state of Vermont. Jenny of course

105
00:07:56,839 --> 00:08:00,720
is in the chatroom and says shalom
peeps, and she did. She did

106
00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,800
share a link, like I said, to the new video from Sepsis for

107
00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,480
the track bleed Lines, really great
great song. Eric Street joins us in

108
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:11,120
the chat and says, I thought
Kyle could be the new entertainment reporter since

109
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,399
he sat at the desk the other
day. Ah. Yes, Kyle Clayton

110
00:08:15,839 --> 00:08:18,720
of the morning show. It was
great to see him. He hadn't been

111
00:08:18,759 --> 00:08:22,399
on the show in quite some time, but he came in the other day

112
00:08:22,439 --> 00:08:26,720
because we had the try Combs here
and he's really close friends with Ian from

113
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:28,319
the try Combs. And it turns
out they had been in a band together

114
00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:31,480
back in the day, which I
meant to look up online. I wanted

115
00:08:31,519 --> 00:08:37,279
to find that band, and I
there might not be anything available anyway online,

116
00:08:37,279 --> 00:08:41,320
but I am super curious. But
DJ Steve is in the Facebook live

117
00:08:41,399 --> 00:08:46,840
chat. Hello. DJ Steve of
course joins us Friday Nights for Retro Spectrum

118
00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:50,720
Radio with Paul c every Friday night
from eight to eleven pm here on WMNH.

119
00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,360
I have the honor and privilege of
being one of Paul's co hosts on

120
00:08:54,399 --> 00:08:58,559
that show, along with DJ Steve
and of course Mike from Queen City Cabinetry.

121
00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:03,279
Melanie says, Yep, governor is
encouraging no one is on the roads

122
00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:07,879
after four pm today risk of flooding
and extreme wins. It just saysn't stop,

123
00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:13,159
does it. I'm sorry to hear
that. Melanie and Saturn, who

124
00:09:13,279 --> 00:09:18,519
is from of course Greensboro, North
Carolina, says, we say good afternoon,

125
00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:24,000
hashtag Matt yesterday hashtag Matt Connerton.
We say that new force of the

126
00:09:24,039 --> 00:09:31,720
spark just comment to you yesterday.
Alrighty, we are watching you from Greensboro,

127
00:09:31,799 --> 00:09:35,120
North Carolina. I suspect it as
much, I have to say.

128
00:09:35,159 --> 00:09:39,960
I did kind of assume that that
might be where you are watching us from.

129
00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:43,240
Oh I do see sepsis as is
in the Facebook live chat. Hello,

130
00:09:43,919 --> 00:09:46,200
let me give the number again and
then we're gonna get into something.

131
00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:54,200
It's obviously EASYG is not called,
so I guess he's probably disappeared once again.

132
00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:58,159
Oh, Melanie says, I think
a virgin or two should be thrown

133
00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:03,799
into a volcano. You never know. It could work. Um, yes,

134
00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:09,919
um, it could, but we
don't know. Is there an active

135
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,759
volcano available to do that? Is? That would be my first question,

136
00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,000
just, you know, because we
have to approach these things, uh from

137
00:10:16,039 --> 00:10:22,039
a pragmatic and practical standpoint. Oh
my god, I just thought of something.

138
00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:26,159
What if something happened with e ZG
And Bruce. Maybe that's why I

139
00:10:26,159 --> 00:10:30,919
haven't heard from him. So let
me give the studio line again and then

140
00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:33,440
we'll we'll get into uh. Oh, Rondo Favero joins us in the Facebook

141
00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:37,000
lift had all the way from California, She says Callie in the house.

142
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,639
Uh six three two five six z
seven is a number six H three two

143
00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:46,399
five six zero seven. That is
the studio line. Um, what I

144
00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:54,519
wanted to get into today. And
uh I this is one of those things

145
00:10:56,039 --> 00:11:01,399
that it's not that the media is
ignoring it. Sometimes when people talk about

146
00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:05,399
things that aren't getting what they feel
is a significant amount of attention in the

147
00:11:05,799 --> 00:11:07,720
mainstream media, they'll say, oh, the mainstream media is ignoring this story.

148
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:11,960
You hear that a lot, and
it's like, well, no,

149
00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:15,399
the mainstream media is not ignoring it. I knew about that, and the

150
00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,279
reason I knew about it is from
the mainstream media. But this is a

151
00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:24,279
particular item that I think is being
not covered enough, and I'm a bit

152
00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:30,200
alarmed by by what is happening.
And it involves foreign policy. Obviously,

153
00:11:30,879 --> 00:11:35,759
in the times that we live in, when we talk about foreign policy,

154
00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:39,840
the first thing that people think about
and discuss is of course Russia and the

155
00:11:39,919 --> 00:11:46,240
invasion of Ukraine and NATO, and
it's been a pretty big week on that

156
00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:50,200
front. Of course, the announcement
being made at the G seven that Ukraine

157
00:11:50,399 --> 00:11:56,399
will be joining NATO in the future, not until after the current war is

158
00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:58,799
over, you know. So we
talk about that, and we talk about

159
00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:05,559
the the decision by the Biden administration
to give Ukraine cluster bombs to use,

160
00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:11,559
which is very controversial. They're taking
a lot of criticism from that, to

161
00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:15,919
a large degree, from his own
party, Biden's own party, the Democrats.

162
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:20,320
A lot of Democrats are criticizing him
for it. I actually agree with

163
00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:24,600
the decision. I think it's necessary
to do, but I understand it's,

164
00:12:24,919 --> 00:12:31,480
as we say, it's something upon
which reasonable people can disagree. So there's

165
00:12:31,519 --> 00:12:35,320
been a lot of news lately,
but there's something that is connected with all

166
00:12:35,399 --> 00:12:39,759
of this that is not getting talked
about that much. So again, it

167
00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:46,200
is being reported on. For example, if you go onto the Google and

168
00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:52,879
you type in Cuba, Russia,
China, you will in fact find search

169
00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:58,559
results on mainstream media outlets. Oh
hello to Dylan Reynolds who joins us in

170
00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:03,279
the Facebook live chat. It's been
a great musicians. So you will find

171
00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:07,720
stories. The mainstream media is covering
this. But again, you know,

172
00:13:07,919 --> 00:13:15,000
at any given time, there's only
so much oxygen. Yeah, because there's

173
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:16,879
only so much time you have in
a newscast and on these shows. And

174
00:13:20,279 --> 00:13:26,600
but you'll notice again I mentioned Russia, China, and Cuba. So we

175
00:13:26,759 --> 00:13:28,759
talk a lot about Russia these days. Obviously when we talk a lot about

176
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,279
China, we're always talking a lot
about China. We don't talk much about

177
00:13:31,279 --> 00:13:33,960
Cuba. Now, why is that? Well, just not much to say

178
00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,000
about Cuba, right, Well,
here's the problem. Actually there is,

179
00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:43,759
and this is the part that I
think is being not discussed enough. What's

180
00:13:43,799 --> 00:13:54,159
happening right now with Cuba. And
I'm pretty bothered and I'm upset that this

181
00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:58,799
is happening. And I'm going to
explain you in some detail in a moment,

182
00:13:58,919 --> 00:14:05,279
but it's these current conditions were avoidable, and there's a significant amount of

183
00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:11,039
blame to go around, and the
blame that I will be assigning today for

184
00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:15,600
the current situation, as I see
it, will be bipartisan in nature.

185
00:14:15,639 --> 00:14:20,360
I can assure you of that.
But the problem is, and if you

186
00:14:20,399 --> 00:14:24,840
saw my post on social media earlier, you might have an idea of where

187
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:31,879
I'm going with this and why I'm
thinking about Cuba. Two things. So,

188
00:14:31,519 --> 00:14:37,639
China has been really cozying up to
Cuba, and they seem to be

189
00:14:37,759 --> 00:14:46,320
developing quite a relationship, and China
seems to be using Cuba to spy on

190
00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:50,840
the United States, or that seems
to be their intention. At least Cuba

191
00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:56,679
not too far. I don't remember
offhand how many miles it is off off

192
00:14:56,759 --> 00:15:00,600
of the coast of Florida, but
you know, Cuba's not far, not

193
00:15:00,759 --> 00:15:03,559
far at all. Uh. Strategically, if you are an enemy of the

194
00:15:03,679 --> 00:15:07,960
United States, and we have seen
this in history, if you are an

195
00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:13,679
enemy of the United States, if
you can somehow get yourself set up in

196
00:15:13,799 --> 00:15:18,759
Cuba where you can do things like
spy on the United States because of the

197
00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:24,159
close proximity of Cuba where you can
spy on the United States, well you're

198
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,639
you're you're in a pretty good position
there. That's a that's a good thing

199
00:15:26,679 --> 00:15:30,960
for you to have, right Or
if you're in an if you're an enemy

200
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:35,320
of the United States and you would
like to well it's been a long time

201
00:15:35,399 --> 00:15:39,320
since we've used a phrase like this, but if you're an enemy of the

202
00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:43,720
United States and you would like to
potentially be able to launch a first strike

203
00:15:43,799 --> 00:15:48,320
in a nuclear standoff on the United
States, boy, having some having some

204
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:52,799
missiles in Cuba would sure media or
advantage wouldn't it. Kruschev certainly thought so,

205
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:58,159
and Kruschev is long gone. But
well, we'll get to that.

206
00:16:00,159 --> 00:16:00,919
By the way, though, before
I go any further, I want to

207
00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:06,120
alarm anybody. There's no I'm not
saying that they're actively putting, once again,

208
00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:10,559
putting nuclear weapons in Cuba to hit
the United States. I'm not saying

209
00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:12,240
that. No, no, no, Just to be clear, no,

210
00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:18,519
no one is reporting that, nothing
like that. But I'm concerned because so

211
00:16:18,879 --> 00:16:23,799
not only is Cuba getting very cozy
with China, but we seem to have

212
00:16:25,039 --> 00:16:32,200
a rekindling of an of an old
relationships, shall we say, with Cuba

213
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:41,080
and Russia, and in fact a
navy Russia just sent one of their navy

214
00:16:41,159 --> 00:16:47,120
ships to Cuba, and Russia is
helping them out with their oil situation.

215
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:52,879
Apparently Cuba needs oil, and so
we seem to be we seem to be

216
00:16:52,919 --> 00:16:59,679
seeing a great strengthening of that relationship, a restrengthening of that relationship. That's

217
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:06,319
a big problem. We'll get into
more details, but just looking at it

218
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:14,160
in a broad sense, we don't
need our two greatest adversaries in the world,

219
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:23,720
China and Russia, to be having
a strategic relationship with Cuba, the

220
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:30,039
island that is not far from the
coast of Florida. This is a problem.

221
00:17:30,519 --> 00:17:33,559
And again, this is something that
I think is going largely unnoticed.

222
00:17:33,599 --> 00:17:37,839
It's not that it's not being reported. Obviously, how did I know about

223
00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,759
it if it's not being reported.
It is, but I think it's a

224
00:17:41,799 --> 00:17:45,759
bigger problem. I think it's a
bigger danger than people might realize. And

225
00:17:45,839 --> 00:17:51,640
I'm a little bit frustrated that it's
not getting more attention because I would like

226
00:17:51,799 --> 00:17:56,160
to know what the Biden administration is
doing about this, and I'm not getting

227
00:17:56,160 --> 00:18:00,880
any particular impression that they're doing much
now in terms of blame, I said,

228
00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:03,640
the blame is bipartisan. Well,
here it is. And we'll again

229
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:07,720
we'll get into some more details about
it, but just speaking about it broadly.

230
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:12,880
So the Obama administration, and we'll
go through the timeline in a moment,

231
00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:21,640
but just just broad strokes to start. So, the Obama administration really

232
00:18:21,839 --> 00:18:27,119
tried to sort of normalize relations and
really sort of an outreach program with Cuba,

233
00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:32,359
involving, in fact, not without
a lot of controversy and criticism,

234
00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:36,200
but President Obama at the time actually
going and visiting Cuba. When was that

235
00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:41,720
in twenties, toward the end of
his presidency. We'll look at the timeline,

236
00:18:41,759 --> 00:18:45,559
but actually, some really cool pictures
that came out of that. Actually,

237
00:18:45,559 --> 00:18:49,279
it was pretty amazing to see President
Obama on the streets of Havana or

238
00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:52,079
Havannah, depending on how you say
it. How does Urge Overkill say it.

239
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:56,039
In that song they say sister Havana, I think they say Havanah.

240
00:18:59,599 --> 00:19:04,119
And I supported that. Again,
I understood some of the criticism, but

241
00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:12,440
I supported it because I felt that
strategically, again, we want to doesn't

242
00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,839
mean we have to like them and
buy them. I mean, I don't

243
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:19,599
mean anything against the Cuban people,
not at all, not whatsoever. But

244
00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:22,880
it doesn't mean we have to like
Castro. Of course, Fidel Castro is

245
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:27,240
dead and he was replaced by Raoul
Castro. And you know, people get

246
00:19:27,559 --> 00:19:33,920
people got very uneasy about images of
Obama hanging out with Castro at a baseball

247
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:38,079
game, and you know, these
are things that really bothered some people.

248
00:19:38,599 --> 00:19:41,960
But I felt at the time,
from a practical and a pragmatic standpoint,

249
00:19:42,039 --> 00:19:45,559
it made sense and it was probably
long overdue, to be honest with you,

250
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:56,720
and I thought so because the Cuban
missile crisis, even though it happened

251
00:19:56,759 --> 00:20:00,559
before I was even alive, which
I'm really glad about. I would not

252
00:20:00,759 --> 00:20:07,119
have wanted to live through that because
well, we'll get to that, but

253
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:11,240
but I thought it made sense.
Unfortunately, and here's where the blame starts.

254
00:20:12,079 --> 00:20:18,599
After Obama, Trump administration comes in, predictably, they start trying to

255
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,960
undo much of what Obama did.
And you know, historically, you see

256
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,839
that that's not that unusual, right
when a new president comes in who's a

257
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,920
different party, of a different party
than the previous president, they try to

258
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:34,160
undo a lot of things that the
previous president did, so not surprising in

259
00:20:34,279 --> 00:20:38,160
that sense. But one of the
things that the Trump administration immediately undid was

260
00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:47,839
most of the if not all,
of the progress and goodwill and all of

261
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:52,920
it that this new relationship that Obama
had established with Cuba. They Trump came

262
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,160
in and they basically undid it all. So back to square one there.

263
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:02,559
And then the Biden administration came in, and I remember at the time thinking,

264
00:21:02,759 --> 00:21:04,960
you know, hopefully they can reset
things with Cuba. That would be

265
00:21:06,039 --> 00:21:11,279
wonderful because I thought that what the
Obama administration did was very positive. Nope,

266
00:21:11,799 --> 00:21:18,680
the Biden administration came in, and
they did actually try to reinstate some

267
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:23,759
of the Obama era policy, but
I'd say overall a pretty meek and meager

268
00:21:23,799 --> 00:21:30,519
attempt at it. I understand coming
in they had their hands full with the

269
00:21:30,599 --> 00:21:33,640
pandemic and this and that. But
you know, I would kind of think

270
00:21:33,759 --> 00:21:42,279
that once Russia started indicating that they
were about to because it wasn't a huge

271
00:21:42,279 --> 00:21:47,759
shock when they invaded Ukraine. It
was looking like it was going to happen

272
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,680
months before it did. You know, you would think it might occur to

273
00:21:51,799 --> 00:21:59,720
somebody, Hey, Russia's really getting
out of control here. Maybe we need

274
00:21:59,799 --> 00:22:04,039
to make sure that things are stable
with Cuba so that the Russians don't try

275
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:11,759
to try to rekindle that relationship with
Cuba because it seems like we're about to

276
00:22:11,799 --> 00:22:17,160
be at odds with Russia. But
no, the Biden administration didn't do a

277
00:22:17,279 --> 00:22:21,240
whole hell of a lot in terms
of that. So there's plenty of blame

278
00:22:21,279 --> 00:22:27,759
to go around. And some of
you might think, Matt, is this

279
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:37,400
really a big deal. Why are
you so concerned about Cuba. You're overreacting,

280
00:22:40,839 --> 00:22:45,359
It's not really a priority. Well, you know, if you know

281
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:52,440
anything about the Cuban missile crisis.
Some people thought that too back in during

282
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:56,640
the JFK administration, nobody cares about
Cuba. What do we care about Cuba?

283
00:22:56,039 --> 00:23:06,799
Yeah, nobody cared about Cuba until
there were images aerial photography of the

284
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:11,359
Russians installing nuclear weapons on the island
of Cuba, and all of a sudden,

285
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:15,519
everybody cared a whole hell of a
lot about Cuba. Now, part

286
00:23:15,559 --> 00:23:18,920
of why I might be a little
extra sensitive to this is so I wasn't

287
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,160
alive when the Cuban missile crisis happened. And again I'm very glad for that,

288
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:27,440
because that would have been something frightening
to live through. I especially probably

289
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:30,960
would not have handled it particularly well. Oh hello to Amiriam Banish in the

290
00:23:32,039 --> 00:23:37,480
chat room. I would have been
pretty freaked out because I grew up growing

291
00:23:37,559 --> 00:23:44,200
up in the eighties, you know, I grew up with obsession is too

292
00:23:44,279 --> 00:23:49,319
strong a word, but an unhealthy
preoccupation, shall we say, with the

293
00:23:49,519 --> 00:23:55,400
threat of nuclear war. I was
very worried, and I did let it.

294
00:23:57,279 --> 00:24:00,400
I expended a lot of mental energy
on it. I'm worrying about it.

295
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,400
Some of that is human nature.
We all tend to worry to varying

296
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:11,759
degrees about things that we can't control. That was my big thing growing up.

297
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,119
And my dad, who you know, he listens to the show.

298
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,640
I mean, he can attest to
that. I remember having conversations with him

299
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,640
about it, with my mother about
it, with my stepmother about it.

300
00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:30,319
It was it was something that was
on my mind a lot more than it

301
00:24:30,319 --> 00:24:36,359
should have been. This may be
part of why I was so um.

302
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:44,119
I've always been so fascinated by you
know, obviously I love history, but

303
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:48,480
if you were to ask me,
is there a particular aspect of history that

304
00:24:48,599 --> 00:24:52,960
I'm you know, sort of that
I find more interesting than any others?

305
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,400
You know, anything Cold War related
is really interesting to me. I'm fascinated

306
00:24:56,440 --> 00:25:02,039
by anything related to the Cold War. And if I were to pick a

307
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:07,000
particular point during the Cold War that
I'm especially fascinated by, it's the Cuban

308
00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:10,480
missile crisis. I'll read any book, watch any documentary, you know,

309
00:25:10,559 --> 00:25:14,799
whatever it is about. The Cuban
missile crisis just absolutely a fascinating moment in

310
00:25:15,279 --> 00:25:22,400
history to me. And thank god
JFK was there to get us through that,

311
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,880
and he had some really good people
around him. He also had some

312
00:25:27,039 --> 00:25:33,119
people who maybe didn't have the best
judgment, but fortunately their voices were not

313
00:25:33,279 --> 00:25:37,519
ultimately the ones that JFK chose to
listen to. That's why you might have

314
00:25:37,599 --> 00:25:41,160
heard me say it on the show. Whenever I hear somebody start talking about,

315
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,039
Oh, we need to be doing
so much more, and we need

316
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:47,480
to get NATO right in there and
confront Russia directly, and we need to

317
00:25:47,559 --> 00:25:49,160
send in American troops and push rush
out. You know, I hear people

318
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:56,519
say some things that I think sound
completely irrational and insane and potentially self destructive

319
00:25:56,599 --> 00:26:03,839
and armageddon inducing. I'll often refer
to that as Curtis LeMay syndrome. And

320
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,440
if you know anything about the Cuban
missile crisis, and you know who General

321
00:26:06,559 --> 00:26:10,920
Curtis LeMay was, he was probably
the number one guy who was in Kennedy

322
00:26:11,039 --> 00:26:14,200
Zier telling him, Hey, look, let's let's just do this. Let's

323
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,680
just go and start bombing. We
gotta bomb Cuba, we got to take

324
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:21,759
out those missiles. Let's just do
it now. We're not gonna We shouldn't

325
00:26:21,799 --> 00:26:25,559
be waiting for them to uh,
you know, we shouldn't be doing all

326
00:26:25,599 --> 00:26:29,279
this back channel negotiation and whatnot.
We should just go in and let's let's

327
00:26:29,319 --> 00:26:36,720
hit him. And Kennedy said,
well, if we do that, how

328
00:26:36,759 --> 00:26:41,720
are they going to respond? And
by the way, Dean Atchison said at

329
00:26:41,759 --> 00:26:47,880
the time, well, what they
will probably do is they will probably confront

330
00:26:48,039 --> 00:26:56,880
us in UH, in Germany and
UM and then it just escalates from there,

331
00:26:57,599 --> 00:27:00,799
the point being it would ultimately ask
scalate in a nuclear exchange and that

332
00:27:00,839 --> 00:27:07,400
would be it. None of us
would be sitting here. So but yeah,

333
00:27:07,559 --> 00:27:10,880
you know, General LeMay was you
know, and I'm sure he was

334
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,039
a good man, but he was
like, yeah, let's just because he

335
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:19,559
told Kennedy he doesn't think that they
will respond, because if they respond,

336
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,119
then things will escalate and we know
where it ends up. So but he

337
00:27:23,279 --> 00:27:27,599
was just itching. LeMay was itching
to go in, and thank god Kennedy

338
00:27:27,799 --> 00:27:33,200
was, you know. And Bob
McNamara too, who, of course is

339
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:40,799
takes an incredible criticism for his role
in the Vietnam War, criticism that I

340
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:45,400
think is warranted. And if there's
a great documentary about McNamara called Fog of

341
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,599
War where he's interviewed throughout the documentary
and it's really good and really compelling.

342
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,079
You should see it. If you
haven't. I highly recommend it. But

343
00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:56,759
McNamara was one of the cooler heads
again during the Cuban missile crisis who helped

344
00:27:56,799 --> 00:28:02,279
get us through that. So McNamara
deserves credit too for his role there,

345
00:28:02,799 --> 00:28:06,559
not for his role in Vietnam however, in my view, that's my opinion.

346
00:28:08,799 --> 00:28:23,720
But um, we obviously were caught
off guard by what was happening in

347
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,599
Cuba and the fact that those missiles
were being put in and you know,

348
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:40,640
JFK and his administration got us through
that. But a lesson that obviously,

349
00:28:40,759 --> 00:28:45,519
some people did learn from it because
we've been warned about this over the decades.

350
00:28:45,559 --> 00:28:47,599
We've been warned about this by some
people who've said, you know,

351
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:53,960
we might want to do something about
strengthening our relationship with Cuba, even though

352
00:28:55,720 --> 00:29:00,960
Fidel Castro and again he died and
then was replaced by Raoul Sroin, even

353
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:07,839
though Castro is a bad guy,
and we don't ever want to look like

354
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:11,079
we're from a human rights perspective,
we don't ever want to look like we're

355
00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:17,680
approving of anything going on there.
But you know, we have an embassy

356
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:22,079
there obviously, but we might want
to be making a little extra effort to

357
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:29,960
keep things very copasetic with Cuba,
because if we don't, someone else may

358
00:29:30,039 --> 00:29:33,480
come in. The Russians may come
back, or China might come in and

359
00:29:34,079 --> 00:29:38,960
fill that void that we're not filling, and we're not showing any interests or

360
00:29:40,039 --> 00:29:48,160
inclination to ever compromise. Not compromise, but but you know, in terms

361
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,400
of lifting some trade restrictions or whatever
it may be, you know, maybe

362
00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:56,960
some sort of an olive branch needs
to be extended to keep history from repeating

363
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:06,200
itself as history often will. And
I'm worried that that's where we're ending up

364
00:30:06,319 --> 00:30:11,200
now. Chris Porrior was also known
as Crispy, a comedian. He says,

365
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:14,960
we need to stop the posturing by
Russia and China, and if Trump

366
00:30:15,079 --> 00:30:21,599
was still in he just would have
handed handed us over and still might if

367
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:26,160
Trump if Trump's are elected. Oh
do you mean Ukraine handing Ukraine over?

368
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,720
Well? Trump has said that he
could have that solved within twenty four hours,

369
00:30:32,279 --> 00:30:36,000
but the problem is we all know
what that means. Well, how

370
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,960
would you possibly just have that solved
in twenty four hours. There's only one

371
00:30:40,039 --> 00:30:41,839
way you could do it. You
could tell putin you can have it,

372
00:30:42,559 --> 00:30:47,279
and that's it. Trump was never
a fan of NATO to begin with,

373
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,440
which means if he gets elected in
twenty twenty four, he might then have

374
00:30:53,519 --> 00:30:56,759
to deal with the reality that Ukraine
is at that point now a part of

375
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,519
NATO. If if the war is
even over by the which I'm actually skeptical

376
00:31:00,599 --> 00:31:03,319
that it will be. I think
it's going to drag on, potentially for

377
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,359
years. I really do. I
don't see any evidence of the contrary,

378
00:31:08,079 --> 00:31:17,079
but that's that's me. Melanie says, I have a preoccupation with the Dead

379
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,480
Rising since watching Night of the Living
Dead in the third grade. Yes,

380
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,039
I can understand that. You know, what film I did see when I

381
00:31:25,119 --> 00:31:27,319
was a kid was not in the
third grade, certainly, but um,

382
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:34,000
I was pretty young actually the day
after, and I remember a conversation my

383
00:31:34,119 --> 00:31:41,720
dad probably will remember this too,
a conversation with him and my stepmother about

384
00:31:41,839 --> 00:31:48,200
whether or not to let me watch
it. But I'd say it's a good

385
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,119
film. But it's weird to say
it's a good film considering what the subject

386
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,480
matter is. I mean, it's
frightening, but I don't think it.

387
00:31:53,559 --> 00:31:57,480
I don't think it did any harm
seeing it because I was already so preoccupied

388
00:31:57,519 --> 00:32:00,559
with nuclear war. What you know, I don't think it made me any

389
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:05,920
more afraid. Certainly didn't make me
any less afraid either. I think it

390
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,200
was a wash. And Saturn says, in the chat room, Trump Trump,

391
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:15,720
Trump, We say, Melanie says, true story. I've always mapped

392
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:19,799
out at least two escape routes to
escape zombies everywhere I have ever lived.

393
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:28,799
Well, that's very m That's like
a survivalism, except instead of planning to

394
00:32:28,839 --> 00:32:32,240
go into an underground bunker, you
plan to escape your You plan your escape

395
00:32:32,359 --> 00:32:37,920
from zombies. And Saturn says,
Trump just got something going on. We

396
00:32:37,119 --> 00:32:43,200
say, we ain't going to like
it. We said, all right,

397
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:47,240
Melanie says. My therapist says,
I'm doing much better. I'm just kidding.

398
00:32:47,279 --> 00:32:52,119
She doesn't say that. Roni Favero
says, the day after gave me

399
00:32:52,319 --> 00:32:53,920
nightmares. Yeah. See, in
my case, I was already having those

400
00:32:54,039 --> 00:33:00,720
nightmares. So I don't I don't
think it much mattered. But so the

401
00:33:00,839 --> 00:33:02,720
point is, the broad point is, and then we'll get into some some

402
00:33:02,839 --> 00:33:07,200
of the details on what is happening
right now with Cuba. This is being

403
00:33:07,279 --> 00:33:16,400
overlooked to a large degree, and
I'm very concerned. Let's well, let's

404
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:22,440
look at China first. We've got
a couple of things on this. Oh

405
00:33:22,519 --> 00:33:30,000
you know what this is from the
Hill dot com. Now this is actually

406
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:38,759
this is an opinion piece written by
Arturo mcfield's who writes for the He writes

407
00:33:38,759 --> 00:33:45,519
a national security column, an opinion
column for The Hill. Let's see what

408
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:47,960
he has to say about this.
For the last sixty four years, the

409
00:33:49,039 --> 00:33:52,559
Cuban dictatorship has been one of the
main threats to democracy in Latin America into

410
00:33:52,599 --> 00:33:57,960
the security of the US. Since
the nineteen sixty two Cuban missile crisis,

411
00:33:58,079 --> 00:34:06,039
following the Russian spy based establish in
lords the Bejucal I'm sure I'm not saying

412
00:34:06,079 --> 00:34:14,119
that correctly facility, and finally,
with the twenty nineteen chapter involving Chinese espionage,

413
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:19,199
Havana's regime has continued to open its
stores to America's most dangerous geopolitical enemies.

414
00:34:20,039 --> 00:34:23,519
In nineteen sixty Cuba became the first
country in Latin America to establish diplomatic

415
00:34:23,599 --> 00:34:30,559
relations with Communist China. Since then, political, military, and economic exchanges

416
00:34:30,639 --> 00:34:36,159
have been increasing, particularly since the
fall of the Soviet Union. Last November,

417
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:42,159
China approved one hundred million dollars to
rescue Cuba from itself inflicted economic collapse.

418
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,079
By the way, I didn't see. I didn't even realize that.

419
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:50,119
That totally got past me. I
did not know that. I knew that

420
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,840
Cuba had a diplomatic relationship with China
going back to the sixties. I did

421
00:34:54,920 --> 00:35:00,960
not realize this though, about the
one hundred million dollars rescue package that China

422
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:06,960
had approved for Cuba. That completely
got past me. Oh, hello to

423
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,639
Greg Joseph in the Facebook live chat, he says, sending love and respect

424
00:35:10,039 --> 00:35:14,119
for the work you are doing educating
the people. Thanks a million, thank

425
00:35:14,199 --> 00:35:16,719
you. Yes. Greg Joseph,
of course from Clemento's another one of our

426
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:22,320
great sponsors here at WMH ninety five
point three, and he's a frequent contributor

427
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:24,039
on the Morning Show as well.
I love hearing Greg on the Morning Show.

428
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:29,280
He's got he's got kind of an
understated sense of humor that I find

429
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:35,480
very funny. Says here last November. Okay, so we covered that.

430
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:39,480
Okay. So, although Havana and
Beijing have maintained a spy base since twenty

431
00:35:39,599 --> 00:35:44,719
nineteen, and by the way,
I didn't know that either. I didn't

432
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,960
realize that either. I thought that
that was a more recent development, but

433
00:35:49,039 --> 00:35:53,719
it's not. Intelligence cooperation between the
two countries has continued above and beyond that.

434
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:58,599
According to the Wall Street Journal,
the two regimes are negotiating the establishment

435
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,559
of a joint military training base on
the island, just one hundred miles away

436
00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:13,639
from the Florida coast. Yeah,
that's not good. That's really not good.

437
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:25,400
The US has also reported the activities
of the Chinese cele communications giants Huawei

438
00:36:25,599 --> 00:36:30,320
and Zte in the same area where
the spy base is supposed to be located.

439
00:36:31,199 --> 00:36:36,960
This century, the Castro dictatorship and
its progeny have helped forge and maintain

440
00:36:37,079 --> 00:36:42,480
the current dictatorships of Venezuela and Nicaragua, both politically and militarily. Cuban advisors

441
00:36:42,519 --> 00:36:45,880
are present in these two countries to
pull the strings, offering intelligence support and

442
00:36:45,159 --> 00:36:52,119
training to their policies. I'm sorry
to their police and armies. Cuba also

443
00:36:52,199 --> 00:36:58,519
maintains a close political and ideological relationship
with leftist presidents in Brazil, Colombia,

444
00:36:58,599 --> 00:37:05,280
and Mexico. Brazil and Mexico have
supported the Cuban medical brigades, considered a

445
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:10,320
model of modern slavery. According to
the human rights organization Prisoners Defenders. The

446
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:16,239
regime keeps ninety four of the salaries
received by fifty thousand doctors in different parts

447
00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:20,039
of the world. Yeah, I've
read. I've read some about that.

448
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:29,239
We have a Oh thought we had
a call? Do we have a call?

449
00:37:29,599 --> 00:37:35,199
Nope? Go Yeah, I've read
some about that. And by the

450
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:39,760
way, it's things like that that
I understand make it difficult, make it

451
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:49,280
difficult for us to extend that olive
branch. I understand that. But I

452
00:37:49,519 --> 00:37:57,440
just wish if I could turn back
time to quote share that we could have

453
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:06,519
at least maintained that sort of normalization
of a relationship that the Obama administration had

454
00:38:06,639 --> 00:38:14,079
established, because I cannot help.
But wonder had that not continued, even

455
00:38:14,119 --> 00:38:20,800
if it didn't necessarily progress, but
just continued, Maybe, just maybe in

456
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,800
the year of twenty twenty three,
we wouldn't be sitting here talking about the

457
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:30,679
Chinese having a military base on an
island one hundred miles off the coast of

458
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:43,719
Florida. Maybe it says here.
Since the early days of the Cuban Revolution

459
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:47,559
and the Missile Crisis, Russia has
been the main military partner of Cuba's regime.

460
00:38:49,039 --> 00:38:53,719
Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei
Shogu met with his Cuban counterpart,

461
00:38:54,280 --> 00:39:04,760
Alvero Lopez Miera. After the abort
of rebellion by Wagner mercenaries in Russia,

462
00:39:05,199 --> 00:39:08,159
Putin has reportedly looked to Cuba for
more soldiers to continue his war of aggression

463
00:39:08,199 --> 00:39:15,320
against Ukraine. According to prisoners defenders, Russia and Cuba have reached an agreement

464
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:20,760
that would send Cuban soldiers to Ukraine, paying each of them two thousand dollars

465
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,719
per month, but the island's dictatorship
would naturally keep between seventy five percent to

466
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:32,119
ninety five of their income, since
this is how dictatorship's work. While China

467
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:37,280
advances its commercial relationships in Latin America, seizing key industries such as lithium,

468
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:43,599
copper, and telecommunications, Cuba has
an extensive political and ideological network throughout Latin

469
00:39:43,679 --> 00:39:50,320
America and even in the US through
the Salpolo Forum and the so called Solidarity

470
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:58,400
Networks. Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat
of New Jersey and Congressman Michael McCall,

471
00:39:58,559 --> 00:40:05,280
Republican of Texas are calling on the
Biden administration to give a classified briefing regarding

472
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:10,119
the reported Chinese spy facility in Cuba. Okay, well thank you Senator Bob

473
00:40:10,159 --> 00:40:15,079
Menendez and Congressman Michael McCall. I'm
glad that somebody in the government is paying

474
00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:21,559
attention, and I would support them
in that. I would hope that the

475
00:40:21,639 --> 00:40:27,239
Biden administration will give them that briefing. Giving the political, economic, and

476
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,440
security threat posed by Cuba and China, a comprehensive response is urgently needed.

477
00:40:31,519 --> 00:40:36,960
Partnerships with other democratic nations in Latin
America should be strengthened, both in the

478
00:40:37,039 --> 00:40:40,400
field of security and in commercial matters. It would be a very big mistake

479
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:47,599
to neglect such hemispheric threats or underestimate
the dangerous strategies of such regimes as Cuba,

480
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:57,519
China and Russia. So that's the
opinion piece on the hill. And

481
00:40:58,679 --> 00:41:04,199
let's also look at this. Let's
continue on the China portion of this,

482
00:41:04,519 --> 00:41:08,599
and we'll get to the Russian part, probably in the second hour. This

483
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:20,440
is a big topic, obviously,
so we will continue. Actually, no,

484
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,800
I think change change of plans.
All right, let's look at this.

485
00:41:25,679 --> 00:41:30,679
We'll go ahead and get to the
Russia part. Here. Um,

486
00:41:32,159 --> 00:41:38,320
this is from the Havanah Times.
This is from right out of Cuba,

487
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:46,800
right out of Cuba media. Here
it's an article titled relaunching relations between Cuba

488
00:41:46,960 --> 00:42:02,199
and Russia. Just that phrase gives
me a chill. Um. Let's see

489
00:42:04,639 --> 00:42:10,360
Cuba and Cuba and Russia have announced
plans to strengthen their economic and trade relations,

490
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:15,440
but experts doubt that they can achieve
a new bilateral golden age, and

491
00:42:15,599 --> 00:42:21,840
they glimpse geopolitical interests in difficult times
for both countries. This week, the

492
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:30,000
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero is in
Russia for the Eurasian inter Governmental Council in

493
00:42:30,199 --> 00:42:36,480
the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, while the opposition warns of a new

494
00:42:37,079 --> 00:42:44,719
Russification quote unquote. The visit,
the last after those of several ministers and

495
00:42:45,079 --> 00:42:52,000
President mcguel diaz Canal himself last November, comes shortly after Havana announced preferential treatment

496
00:42:52,039 --> 00:42:59,239
for Russian investors from transfers of agricultural
land for thirty years to tax exemptions.

497
00:43:01,199 --> 00:43:06,519
These measures complete a flight of announcements, including the entry of three Russian ruble

498
00:43:06,639 --> 00:43:13,400
banks on the island and the presentation
of a package of reforms. This kind

499
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:16,559
of gets into the weeds a little
more than I want to. You know

500
00:43:16,639 --> 00:43:25,599
what, I never liked the Havana
Times anyway, I'm kidding, I've never

501
00:43:25,679 --> 00:43:29,920
had any opinion. I do want
to look at the timeline though, and

502
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,199
then probably in the second hour,
we'll get more into the Russia part of

503
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:39,559
this, with um, the Russians
now supplying oil to Cuba. But there's

504
00:43:39,599 --> 00:43:45,639
a great this is from CFI dot
org Council on Foreign Relations dot org.

505
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:53,760
It's a timeline of US Cuba relations
and it's pretty pretty informative. But where

506
00:43:53,800 --> 00:44:00,079
I want to actually pick this up
is twenty eleven to twenty thirteen, and

507
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:04,000
we'll go forward from there because I
want to look at again, Um,

508
00:44:06,119 --> 00:44:12,880
well, we could go back.
We actually could go back to nineteen sixty

509
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:29,400
two. Now maybe we should actually, now you know what, we should

510
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:44,679
go back to nineteen Let's go back
to nineteen sixty growing antagonism between the United

511
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:46,960
States and Russia. I mean,
I'm sorry, the United States in Cuba.

512
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:53,639
Just just we'll kind of speed through
part of this. But I want

513
00:44:53,639 --> 00:45:00,320
to get to because ultimately where I
want to end up is U when you

514
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:06,599
know, we had an opportunity to
really kind of improve things long term and

515
00:45:06,679 --> 00:45:08,119
then we didn't. But we have
a call. Hi, Welcome to Matt

516
00:45:08,159 --> 00:45:12,679
Connerton. Unleash. Who is this? Oh knee, how mom, Matt

517
00:45:13,199 --> 00:45:20,920
oh Bosha? Ridley pancha bhaja?
Uh? Is that Cantonese? What is

518
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:24,519
that? Oh? That's Mandarin.
I just think I'm Ridley, but I'm

519
00:45:24,559 --> 00:45:29,719
a beginner, Ridley. I I
yes, I'm sorry, Dave Ridley.

520
00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:32,519
You know I often, uh,
this is a failing of mine. I

521
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:39,880
often get Cantonese and Mandarin confused.
Yeah. I don't really know much of

522
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:43,639
anything about Cantonese. In fact,
I don't really understand. You know,

523
00:45:43,679 --> 00:45:47,480
whenever you search, like when I
if you want to say so much,

524
00:45:47,639 --> 00:45:51,760
well, what happens is when you
try to figure out what you're speaking or

525
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:54,280
what you're listening to, it will
tell you that you're speaking Chinese or you're

526
00:45:54,360 --> 00:46:00,559
here you're listening to Chinese, and
then it called it Chinese simplified in Chinese

527
00:46:00,599 --> 00:46:04,480
traditional. I know that Chinese traditional
as Mandarin, but I don't know what

528
00:46:04,599 --> 00:46:09,679
the difference is between Cantonese and Chinese
simplified. Do you uh? You know?

529
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:14,199
I actually I do know, but
it's just too much to get into

530
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:20,360
here. Yeah. Well, anyway, I'm just gonna say I told Cold

531
00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:22,000
War two, Cold War two point
zero, I don't know how to say

532
00:46:22,039 --> 00:46:27,079
that in Mandarin. I have no
idea. Ah, yes, yes,

533
00:46:27,199 --> 00:46:30,639
I go ahead, Dave, I
am surious, serir thoughts. Well,

534
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:32,679
yeah, so this is really tough. You know. Look from a pro

535
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:38,719
freedom standpoint, if you look at
the history of the First Cold War,

536
00:46:39,519 --> 00:46:44,920
the United States was more of a
pro freedom place than the Soviet Union was.

537
00:46:45,679 --> 00:46:49,880
But in finding the Soviet Union,
it eviscerated some of its own freedoms

538
00:46:50,079 --> 00:46:53,400
and we haven't gotten those backs yet. In addition, obviously it committed a

539
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:57,719
lot of abuses in in beating the
Soviet Union. Does that make sense?

540
00:47:00,639 --> 00:47:05,079
Say it again, Dave, I
just, I just I'm not sure I've

541
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:07,719
quite followed all of it. I
definitely got part of it. But yeah,

542
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:12,000
say it again if you would.
I guess what I'm trying I guess

543
00:47:12,039 --> 00:47:14,880
what I'm trying to say is what's
happened before is what will happen again.

544
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:19,960
The US will be more pro freedom
than China, but it will lose some

545
00:47:20,079 --> 00:47:24,559
of its freedoms in fighting China.
Does that make sense? The US will

546
00:47:24,639 --> 00:47:29,719
lose some of our freedoms in fighting
China. Yeah, just the way we

547
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:34,400
lost some of our freedoms in fighting
the Nazis and then fighting the Soviets and

548
00:47:34,519 --> 00:47:38,199
we never get them back. Can
you expand on that, because I'm actually

549
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:43,800
not sure exactly what you mean.
Well, I hope I'm not starting to

550
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,480
drift off topic here. But just
for example, the reason we have income

551
00:47:46,559 --> 00:47:51,960
tax withholding is because they started withholding
income taxes to paper World War two,

552
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:57,000
because its temporary wartime measures that's been
in effect since I think nineteen forty two,

553
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:02,639
So we can expect that kind of
thing to happen again in fighting this

554
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:07,880
actual legitimate threat from China. It's
just it's gonna they're gonna use that as

555
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:12,960
an excuse to take our freedoms away
here. But do you think that it's

556
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,960
Some people think it's inevitable. I
actually don't call me an optimist. I

557
00:48:17,079 --> 00:48:22,159
think there are a lot of reasons
to believe that it's actually not inevitable war

558
00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:27,360
with China. But do you think
that it is because you sound like you're

559
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:32,760
pretty concerned. Well, yeah,
I mean cold war is inevitable and we're

560
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:37,119
already in one. Yes, but
there are solutions. They're all kinds of

561
00:48:37,199 --> 00:48:40,760
solutions. It don't cost taxpayers a
dime, and the government wants to cover

562
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,360
those up. They don't want anyone
talking about it, and no one does

563
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,039
talk about it, it seems like, and that the obvious one is just

564
00:48:47,159 --> 00:48:55,800
to let us defend ourselves. They've
got the American people so twisted into not

565
00:48:57,199 --> 00:49:01,280
over what guns they can even own, and and all the permissions they have

566
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:05,679
to get to own a gun or
to carry a gun, and so for

567
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:09,320
some you know, that just all
needs to go away, and then we

568
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:19,840
don't have to worry about having this
expensive, federally funded centralized defense. So

569
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:23,079
you're not interested in So I assume
you're not interested in defending Taiwan if it

570
00:49:23,159 --> 00:49:30,000
comes to that, Well, anyone
who wants to help defend Taiwan should have

571
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:34,559
the full moral support of the federal
government. I think they shouldn't. They

572
00:49:34,559 --> 00:49:37,159
should, you know, that should
probably be encouraged. But people, there's

573
00:49:37,199 --> 00:49:42,800
no it's not right to steal from
taxpayers to send the money off to Taiwan.

574
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,639
It's just it's not right for the
federal government to centralize the process of

575
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:52,320
defending Taiwan. It's something to be
done by individuals, companies, organizations,

576
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:59,760
militias, that sort of thing.
Yeah, well, I understand what you're

577
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:06,639
saying, but it's not that's never
going to be the reality of how any

578
00:50:06,679 --> 00:50:09,920
of this works, so well as
not as long as the federal government is

579
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:15,480
monopolizing defense, right, which is
what I mean by that's not ever going

580
00:50:15,559 --> 00:50:17,960
to be the reality of how any
of this works, because that's never going

581
00:50:19,039 --> 00:50:23,199
to change. What's the reality of
how it works in Switzerland. But this

582
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:28,159
ain't Switzerland, and it's never going
to be. That's the whole point,

583
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:30,239
and that's why we have these problems. Right. Switzerland is not having these

584
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:35,360
problems with China. And by the
way, either is Closta Rica, which

585
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:40,480
has no military at all and no
and no allies. But when you say

586
00:50:40,559 --> 00:50:45,559
are problems with China, what do
you mean exactly? Because when I think

587
00:50:45,559 --> 00:50:47,119
of problems with China, I think
about things like them. See you know,

588
00:50:47,199 --> 00:50:52,320
they seel our intellectual property, they
spy on us. They Um,

589
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:55,000
I mean, what do you what
do you mean by problems with China?

590
00:50:57,599 --> 00:51:00,719
Well, I'm more concerned about their
interference with free speech in America, which

591
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:07,159
it's not very intense yet, but
there have definitely been some high profile cases

592
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:12,280
where they interfered with people's ability to
speak against their government, even though they're

593
00:51:12,599 --> 00:51:16,239
like Anglo Americans living in America or
African Americans living in America. They have

594
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:22,400
nothing to do with China except opening
and closing their mouths in criticism of its

595
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:27,199
government. Are you talking about those? Uh? Well, give me an

596
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:31,760
example. Well, it wasn't there
an NBA guy who made some pro Taiwan

597
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:36,400
statement or made pro Hong Kong statement
or something that he was forced to retract

598
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:43,599
it, right, right? I
somewhat remember that, Yes, yeah,

599
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:47,360
And there was also I think,
well there's an NBA official who was forced

600
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:52,280
to do that, or I think
there was also a player, and you

601
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:55,960
know, we're there's there was also
that example of the there was a student

602
00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:04,880
in Australia who just led this really
minor, like twelve person sign wave in

603
00:52:05,079 --> 00:52:10,280
support of Hong Kong or something like
that at university. And he was he

604
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:14,719
was such a small event and such
an unimportant thing. I don't even think

605
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:16,519
he was on time to his own
protests, right, It was just almost

606
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:22,559
a non event. And suddenly,
out of the blue, these these goons

607
00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:25,719
show up and start beating up the
protesters, like the the you know,

608
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:30,199
the the twelve point five you know, twenty year olds holding a little sign.

609
00:52:31,679 --> 00:52:38,960
And it turned out in the Beijing
embassy got involved in the university ejected

610
00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:45,000
the young man who organized up the
sign wave instead of coming after the people

611
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:47,760
who beat him up for no particular
reason. This is all videotaped. They

612
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:53,719
ejected the student because the university was
bought by the bought and paid for essentially

613
00:52:53,760 --> 00:53:01,400
by the Chinese government. And so
that's just an example of how free speech

614
00:53:01,519 --> 00:53:07,079
is interfered with closer to China,
and they're they're expanding their interference with free

615
00:53:07,119 --> 00:53:13,119
speech to the US. UM.
I do remember you talking about that story

616
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:17,239
with the protester and getting beaten up, and uh, pretty wild. Um

617
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:22,760
well, I mean, you know, the reality is that there's a larger

618
00:53:23,599 --> 00:53:28,480
reality and part of this is part
of why I don't think war is inevitable.

619
00:53:29,119 --> 00:53:37,159
Uh particularly but um, we are
so economically interlocked with China. Um.

620
00:53:37,599 --> 00:53:40,280
I think probably more than a lot
of people realize. Um, So

621
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:45,119
there's no it's not like it's not
like our relationship with Russia, for example,

622
00:53:45,199 --> 00:53:47,639
where we can just say, well, you know, screw you,

623
00:53:47,719 --> 00:53:51,480
we don't want your oil, you
know, we being NATO, I guess,

624
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:55,440
um. But with China, it's
it's very very complicated and and we're

625
00:53:55,559 --> 00:54:00,840
very economically dependent on each other,
and the Chinese are much more economically dependent

626
00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:04,519
on the United States. And I
think people realize too, some people I

627
00:54:04,599 --> 00:54:07,400
heard. I heard one analyst saying
that, you know, people think of

628
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:09,960
China as like, you know,
like like the US is six feet tall

629
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:13,639
and China is like ten feet tall, and it's really the other way around.

630
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:19,760
But um so, I don't know
what the solution is. They're always

631
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:22,880
They're always going to have influence here. Dave, Are you the one who

632
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:27,599
originally brought up the the Chinese police
stations operating in the United States? Was

633
00:54:27,639 --> 00:54:31,880
that you they're not well the ones
I was talking about, or not police

634
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:36,519
station, you were talking about the
Confucius Confucius Center. That's right, the

635
00:54:36,599 --> 00:54:38,559
Confucius centers. Okay, it was
my dad who brought up the police stations.

636
00:54:38,639 --> 00:54:44,000
Yeah, that that really shocked me. But um so, what's what

637
00:54:44,159 --> 00:54:47,639
what's the answer, Dave? If
realistically, now I understand what you would

638
00:54:47,679 --> 00:54:52,760
like to happen, but realistically,
knowing that we are economically interdependent, and

639
00:54:53,000 --> 00:55:00,199
knowing that, uh, you know
that the situation is what it isn't terms

640
00:55:00,239 --> 00:55:04,480
of the federal government controlling defense,
what what do you think should happen?

641
00:55:06,519 --> 00:55:10,000
Well? The realistic thing to hope
for is that the United States government does

642
00:55:10,119 --> 00:55:16,840
not make any new steps to limit
gun rights. Right, so just make

643
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:22,559
sure making sure that Americans maintain at
least what rights they still have in terms

644
00:55:22,559 --> 00:55:29,280
of the ability to defend themselves.
That would probably be the realistic thing to

645
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:37,400
hope for. Um. Well,
that's the that's not going to change.

646
00:55:37,440 --> 00:55:39,280
I mean, you know, we're
not going to continue We're we're not going

647
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:43,639
to not have gun rights. Uh, certainly, even even if they are

648
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:47,079
somewhat more regulated. But um,
but I don't think that has any effect

649
00:55:47,159 --> 00:55:52,320
on our foreign policy with China.
I mean it doesn't. Well it's it

650
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:58,559
should you know, the gun gun
rights are a key element of any sort

651
00:55:58,559 --> 00:56:05,119
of domestic defense. Oh, domestic. Yes, that this is the reason

652
00:56:05,199 --> 00:56:08,480
why this is the reason why Ukraine
was invaded was because they didn't There's a

653
00:56:08,679 --> 00:56:12,480
key reason. I think it was
a deciding factor was if there were not

654
00:56:12,719 --> 00:56:17,639
enough guns in the hands of civilians. Seven seven guns civilians. Yeah,

655
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:22,599
in New Hampshire. It's in New
Hampshire. It's one hundred and twenty guns

656
00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:27,639
for hundred civilians. You can't imagine
that that doesn't have a big impact on

657
00:56:27,719 --> 00:56:30,760
the decision of anyone to invade.
I understand, Dave. I think I

658
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:37,000
think we might have been talking about
two different things because I'm not I'm not

659
00:56:37,079 --> 00:56:39,639
talking about invasion. I'm talking about
a war with China. But I'm not.

660
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:43,719
I'm not talking about China trying to
invade the United States. I can't

661
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:47,320
imagine any circumstance under which that would
happen. That would be uh. I

662
00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:51,440
understand their long term planners. You
know, they've got fifty year plans,

663
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:53,159
one hundred year plans and whatnot.
But I don't think they're planning to invade

664
00:56:53,159 --> 00:56:57,800
the US. I'm not. I'm
not when I talk that's yeah, go

665
00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:01,400
ahead. That's the reason. That's
a reason why they're not planning on hitting

666
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:07,239
the United States. They would be
able to do something like that in certain

667
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:10,920
there'd be certain circumstances where they could
if United States people didn't have gun freedom.

668
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:14,599
Does that make sense? I disagree
with you there. I mean,

669
00:57:14,679 --> 00:57:19,280
I'm pros I'm pro two A and
I support gun freedom. But um,

670
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:24,119
we've got quite the nuclear arsenal.
So even if even if we were to

671
00:57:24,199 --> 00:57:30,480
do something like what Australia did and
confiscate guns, we've still got a whole

672
00:57:30,519 --> 00:57:32,000
lot of nukes, So I don't
think China would be I don't think anyone

673
00:57:32,039 --> 00:57:36,159
would be interested in invading the United
States. I think if if we were

674
00:57:36,159 --> 00:57:37,480
to get into some sort of a
war with China, it would be over

675
00:57:37,559 --> 00:57:44,320
Taiwan. It wouldn't be the Chinese
coming to American soil. Yeah, but

676
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:49,719
just just bear in mind how how
much it frees up the US military for

677
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:53,880
individuals in the United States that we've
kind of got their back here right Like

678
00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:58,880
the United States military could they could
send all the US military out of the

679
00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:01,239
United States if they want wanted to. Every last soldier could be sent away

680
00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:05,760
from the United States and it would
still be able to defend itself because of

681
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:07,639
the gun freedom and the large number
of firearms. Does that make sense?

682
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:13,280
That does no? I understand what
you're saying logically. Mike from Queen City

683
00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:15,039
Cabinetry points out in the chat room, they would be too tired to fight

684
00:58:15,119 --> 00:58:21,840
from swimming all that way. That's
a good point. I don't know how

685
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:27,320
many boats they have. I know
they've got a huge army, because you

686
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:31,079
know, it's a lot of they
don't have. I think India now has

687
00:58:31,119 --> 00:58:35,800
the largest global population. If I'm
not mistaken. I think China's second.

688
00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:38,880
Is that correct? Do you know, Dave? Actually, I don't know

689
00:58:39,119 --> 00:58:44,119
if India history pasted him yet.
I think India has, but I could

690
00:58:44,159 --> 00:58:49,800
be wrong. Okay, Now what
about so what about Cuba? Any any

691
00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:58,519
thoughts there? Well, I'm not
sure exactly what you know should be done.

692
00:58:58,719 --> 00:59:00,400
Just as long as it's not an
act of aggression, go for it.

693
00:59:00,519 --> 00:59:06,679
Anything it's not an active aggression,
It's fine to do against this Chinese

694
00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:14,239
base or against the government of Cuba
or anyone else. The problem is if

695
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:22,920
the federal government is taking action against
some base in Cuba using your tax dollars,

696
00:59:22,079 --> 00:59:29,719
that's an active aggression against you.
Yeah, well, I know you

697
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:31,519
and I see that differently, both
in a broader sense, and I would

698
00:59:31,519 --> 00:59:36,199
say, more specifically, if if
something is being done using my tax dollars

699
00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:42,360
and to protect to protect me,
and you might say, well, how

700
00:59:42,440 --> 00:59:46,719
is it the government's job to decide
for me? What is it or is

701
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:52,800
not in the best interests in terms
of my protection? I understand, But

702
00:59:54,440 --> 01:00:00,840
but I guess what I'm thinking about
and what I've been taught about today really

703
01:00:00,960 --> 01:00:06,880
is I just wish that that this
wasn't even on the table in terms of

704
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:10,519
China potentially having I mean, I
guess it hasn't happened yet, but potentially

705
01:00:10,559 --> 01:00:15,480
even having a base in Cuba,
because I wish that we had continued the

706
01:00:15,559 --> 01:00:22,639
Obama administration policy with Cuba where we
were kind of trying to normalize relations and

707
01:00:22,960 --> 01:00:28,280
get things to a more positive place
where someone like China or Russia would not

708
01:00:28,480 --> 01:00:30,880
come in and kind of fill that
vacuum, you know what I mean.

709
01:00:31,679 --> 01:00:37,199
Yeah, Well, but again,
it's also important to keep things in perspective.

710
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:40,920
Look how many military bases? Well, I don't know what you tell

711
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:45,199
me, what is the number of
military bases that the United States has within

712
01:00:45,679 --> 01:00:51,800
one hundred miles of China. I'm
not sure. I'm not sure what that

713
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:54,880
number is. I don't either,
But the US has eight hundred military bases

714
01:00:54,960 --> 01:01:01,280
overseas and constantly putting military bases right
X two countries that it's hostile towards.

715
01:01:01,400 --> 01:01:05,679
Right, there's that saying. You
know, you know, obviously Iran is

716
01:01:05,719 --> 01:01:09,480
the aggressor because look how close they
put their country to our eight hundred military

717
01:01:09,519 --> 01:01:15,920
bases. Right. I understand your
point, Dave, I do um,

718
01:01:15,920 --> 01:01:22,239
But again, I just I think
back to um I don't know how much

719
01:01:22,280 --> 01:01:24,039
of the show you heard earlier,
but I talked a lot about the Cuban

720
01:01:24,119 --> 01:01:30,519
the Cuban missile crisis earlier. And
um, when you're talking about putting,

721
01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:35,159
when we're talking about a Chinese base
one hundred miles off the coast of Florida,

722
01:01:35,639 --> 01:01:39,159
UM, I get very very concerned, and I just feel and that's

723
01:01:39,239 --> 01:01:42,920
I mean, that's how that's how
China looks at Taiwan. They said,

724
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:46,519
that's that's the American military base,
you know, ninety I guess, about

725
01:01:46,599 --> 01:01:53,000
ninety miles off the coast of mainland
China. We don't have an actual base

726
01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:58,320
on Taiwan, do we, Well, not a big one. I don't

727
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:01,760
think there's US troops there, but
I don't think there's a de facto like

728
01:02:02,159 --> 01:02:07,079
official US MILITI. There's not an
official US military base on the island of

729
01:02:07,159 --> 01:02:10,199
my knowledge. Yeah, I didn't
think so that would be because I don't

730
01:02:10,239 --> 01:02:15,119
I don't think the Chinese would tolerate
that. UM. I think if we

731
01:02:15,239 --> 01:02:19,400
tried to put an actual military base
on Taiwan, UM, I do think

732
01:02:19,480 --> 01:02:23,639
it would be uh, that would
be akin to actually them putting a military

733
01:02:23,719 --> 01:02:29,519
base on Cuba. UM. But
I'm very worried about that. Well,

734
01:02:29,719 --> 01:02:31,320
I'm sorry, oh I was saying, but I'm very worried about this go

735
01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:37,679
ahead. Well again, that's the
other solution is for the Taiwanese government to

736
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:43,159
stop taking its people's guns, and
they have its situation as Taiwan is much

737
01:02:43,239 --> 01:02:47,000
worse than than the one in Ukraine
was before the invasion in terms of in

738
01:02:47,119 --> 01:02:52,760
terms of guns freedom. You know, Ukrainians had seven guns per one hundred

739
01:02:52,760 --> 01:03:00,440
civilians and Taiwan has officially zero guns
in the hands of civilians per hundred civilians.

740
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:07,239
So their government has brought their their
bad defense on itself, their lack

741
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:10,960
of defense on itself. I see, yeah, I didn't know that about

742
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:15,400
Taiwan. It doesn't surprise me,
but I didn't know that what the policy

743
01:03:15,480 --> 01:03:19,280
there was. And obviously the Thaiwan
they do have a Taiwanese military, but

744
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:23,559
it's it would be no um,
no match for for for China. Uh,

745
01:03:23,639 --> 01:03:27,159
that's uh, that's for sure if
they do ever decide to move on

746
01:03:27,239 --> 01:03:29,440
Taiwan. Well, what do you
think about that? Do you think that's

747
01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:32,800
inevitable that the Chinese decide? I
know Ji Jingping has said it will happen,

748
01:03:34,360 --> 01:03:38,719
but he never says when, And
again I remain cautiously optimistic that it

749
01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:43,840
won't. But what do you think
do you think it's inevitable? No,

750
01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:50,000
I don't think it's inevitable. Uh. The Chinese revert they're sort of reverting

751
01:03:50,079 --> 01:03:54,000
to the reverting to totalitarian, isn't
now. So that's going to start damning

752
01:03:54,360 --> 01:04:00,679
their economy and shutting down the progress
that they made, So they will start

753
01:04:00,760 --> 01:04:04,480
following. Probably eventually this move will
catch up with them, and it'll start

754
01:04:04,519 --> 01:04:11,360
affecting their technological lead wherever they have
one, because you can't be totalitarian and

755
01:04:11,519 --> 01:04:15,519
have a you know, decisive technological
lead, you can't maintain that. I

756
01:04:15,559 --> 01:04:18,119
think I think it's going to start
a rooting. I'm not sure, but

757
01:04:18,360 --> 01:04:21,679
that's what I hope will happen.
Their economy, as pretty fragile as it

758
01:04:21,840 --> 01:04:26,840
is, they've did a horrendous job, as we all know, managing COVID,

759
01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:30,559
and uh, they're they're in a
lot of they're in a lot of

760
01:04:30,639 --> 01:04:34,599
economic trouble right now, by the
way, and I hope you'll take this

761
01:04:34,639 --> 01:04:39,360
as a compliment. Dave Rondo Ferverro
in the chat room says, Uh,

762
01:04:39,519 --> 01:04:44,000
the guy on the phone sounds exactly
like the back in the day talk show

763
01:04:44,079 --> 01:04:47,559
hosts Dick Cavett. And I never
noticed it before until Ronda pointed it out.

764
01:04:47,599 --> 01:04:54,960
But you do sound like Dick Cavett. Oh great, you're you know

765
01:04:55,079 --> 01:04:59,519
Dick Cavett. Right, Well,
I saw just a couple episodes that I'm

766
01:04:59,559 --> 01:05:01,679
not very with him. My dad
used to watch Dick cave It when I

767
01:05:01,800 --> 01:05:04,599
was a kid. He would he
would watch him every night. And um,

768
01:05:05,360 --> 01:05:10,119
yeah, I like to have it. But you do sound like him.

769
01:05:10,159 --> 01:05:13,199
You do have a very similar voice, You're you you speak a little

770
01:05:13,239 --> 01:05:16,320
bit faster than he does. Dick
cav It kind of um speaks a little

771
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:21,440
more slowly, but but your your
actual voice is h is very very close.

772
01:05:23,199 --> 01:05:27,079
Um, well, Dave, we're
we're we're well past the top of

773
01:05:27,079 --> 01:05:29,360
the hour, so we should we
should let you go and we we've got

774
01:05:29,400 --> 01:05:31,639
to get to a break. Did
you have anything to add? No?

775
01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:35,639
Thanks? Okay. Oh by the
way, pork Fest that's already coming,

776
01:05:35,719 --> 01:05:41,599
gone right, yeah, I could
bosh you just call him separately about all

777
01:05:41,599 --> 01:05:46,559
the Porkfest news. Well, now
I'm curious did anything because when you had

778
01:05:46,599 --> 01:05:51,280
called before, you said there was
some controversy about involving a couple of the

779
01:05:51,360 --> 01:05:56,079
speakers like RFKA didn't want any guns
in the room, and some other guy

780
01:05:56,320 --> 01:06:01,119
was threatening to cause a problem if
there were trans people or something. Did

781
01:06:01,159 --> 01:06:09,360
anything, Did anything happen the rf
case thing went smoothly. Carla Garrick,

782
01:06:09,440 --> 01:06:14,320
the president of the Foundation for New
Hampshire Independence or the former president of it,

783
01:06:15,199 --> 01:06:17,719
was able to heckle him a little
bit or something, or she jumped

784
01:06:17,760 --> 01:06:21,480
up and asked him a question about
New Hampshire declaring independence and whether he would

785
01:06:21,840 --> 01:06:27,960
whether he would fight us militarily if
we did that, right, and he

786
01:06:28,159 --> 01:06:32,079
answered kind of evasively, he said
that he wants to bring people together.

787
01:06:34,000 --> 01:06:40,519
And the other thing that happened with
regard to the guy that was the guy

788
01:06:40,599 --> 01:06:43,519
that was making threats against like he
said, if there anyone tries to do

789
01:06:43,599 --> 01:06:45,880
a drag Queen story hour, I'm
going to come get him, you know,

790
01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:47,920
or something. He didn't sound like
he was going to physically do something

791
01:06:47,960 --> 01:06:55,559
to them. Yeah, So this
resulted in someone having like a transit story

792
01:06:55,639 --> 01:07:01,199
hour or whatnot. Uh. The
guy who was making the threats, like

793
01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:04,880
this big speaker who was going to
come in and like a paid speaker,

794
01:07:05,159 --> 01:07:09,440
I guess he just never like he
never showed up. And I think he

795
01:07:09,559 --> 01:07:13,960
was like arrested them the week before
the fork Fast or something like that,

796
01:07:14,360 --> 01:07:16,239
really, and I think it was
an unrelated arrest. He was in an

797
01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:19,119
event or something like it. So
I think he was in jail or something

798
01:07:19,199 --> 01:07:25,280
when when fork Fast happened, or
that's my understanding. So that's pretty dramatic,

799
01:07:25,400 --> 01:07:27,440
and there's other stuff that happened.
But I should just call it in

800
01:07:27,559 --> 01:07:30,800
separately enlisted all. Yeah, I
am. I am very curious to hear

801
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:34,400
about it, so please, yeah, call call back soon about that.

802
01:07:34,519 --> 01:07:41,360
But do you do you know the
identity of the person yet or or no?

803
01:07:41,880 --> 01:07:45,920
I feel like it's something like I
just I never can say it correctly,

804
01:07:45,960 --> 01:07:49,239
but I'm just afraid I'll say the
wrong name and implicate the wrong person.

805
01:07:49,519 --> 01:07:53,920
Yeah, I have it, I
have it in my head, but

806
01:07:54,000 --> 01:07:56,760
I'm just afraid to say it.
Is it a long name. It's not.

807
01:07:57,960 --> 01:08:03,159
It's like a two syllable thing.
Okay. I keep meaning to know

808
01:08:03,400 --> 01:08:06,119
that before I call you, and
keep forgetting to look it up. I'm

809
01:08:06,159 --> 01:08:10,559
just super curious. I tried to
find out myself. I just I looked

810
01:08:10,599 --> 01:08:14,039
online and I couldn't. I couldn't
figure it out. But I'm just very

811
01:08:14,280 --> 01:08:15,720
I'm just very very curious. Well, all right, Dave, did you

812
01:08:15,760 --> 01:08:19,199
want to plug anything Ridley Report or
an NH exit or anything before you go?

813
01:08:19,439 --> 01:08:23,920
All I've taken enough of your time, all right, Dave. Well,

814
01:08:23,920 --> 01:08:28,159
I do enjoy talking with you,
and I appreciate the call. Thanks,

815
01:08:28,199 --> 01:08:30,720
Matt, all right, you got
it? Bye bye? All right.

816
01:08:30,760 --> 01:08:38,279
That is Dave Ridley from the Ridley
Report and NH Exit. We will

817
01:08:38,920 --> 01:08:43,039
let's do this because yes we are
late for Oh actually we have another call.

818
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:46,359
Let's see. It looks like our
friend Ron is on the line,

819
01:08:46,359 --> 01:08:50,039
so we always have time for Ron. Hey, Ron, Hey, Matt.

820
01:08:50,119 --> 01:08:54,359
I'll try to be brief. I've
got kind of questions and thinks that

821
01:08:54,439 --> 01:08:57,600
I can, you know, take
answers off the year. I'm sure I

822
01:08:57,760 --> 01:09:02,840
was misinterpreting what Dave was heading at
with arming the civilians. Um, you

823
01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:06,479
know, wars are just fought conventionally, not by you know, a handguns

824
01:09:06,520 --> 01:09:11,359
and back guards. But that's I
think that would only cause anything. I

825
01:09:11,399 --> 01:09:14,720
think he knows it would only cause
walm and good. Even if everybody,

826
01:09:14,840 --> 01:09:18,199
every family had guns, it would
just cause Woma good he does. What

827
01:09:18,279 --> 01:09:25,399
I wanted to ask, so,
is um with Cuba setting up, with

828
01:09:25,640 --> 01:09:32,159
China setting up a base in that
sort of up only one hundred miles from

829
01:09:32,199 --> 01:09:38,199
my from from the US? What
we would just talk about is that really

830
01:09:38,520 --> 01:09:44,600
matter? Because the United States has
more nuclear vessels than anybody else, and

831
01:09:44,840 --> 01:09:48,159
like a large of quantities of nuclear
vessels, So we kind of already have

832
01:09:48,760 --> 01:09:55,119
a base at sea anywhere any time
between the air, between the carriers and

833
01:09:55,239 --> 01:09:58,399
the fighters and and all of the
above. So I don't know, it's

834
01:09:58,399 --> 01:10:01,520
just there's one hundred miles away be
matter because well, you know what,

835
01:10:01,720 --> 01:10:04,479
what does that matter? You could
get a plane in the year I'll kind

836
01:10:04,520 --> 01:10:10,439
of shoot down anything kind of rapidly
from if they're only a hundred miles away.

837
01:10:10,520 --> 01:10:13,399
I mean, I don't know.
I'm just saying this. We don't

838
01:10:13,439 --> 01:10:16,479
need to have a base that close
because our basis are all over the seas

839
01:10:16,720 --> 01:10:21,680
between the submarines and everything else,
right, you know. So, And

840
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:26,720
the last thing I wanted to say
was this wasn't even commented. I wanted

841
01:10:26,760 --> 01:10:31,319
to ask Um, I hear all
these countries you know where this one I

842
01:10:31,399 --> 01:10:33,600
wrote that just wore, and this
one and this one and this one.

843
01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:39,000
But it is Japan falling all of
us. I haven't heard much about Japan.

844
01:10:41,600 --> 01:10:45,119
Yeah, I mean just this,
Um, there was a dumb question.

845
01:10:45,399 --> 01:10:48,159
No, No, not at all. There was something about Japan recently.

846
01:10:48,840 --> 01:10:55,600
Actually, um, I forget what
it was now, though I might

847
01:10:55,680 --> 01:10:58,319
look that up during the break.
There was something. I mean, we

848
01:10:58,399 --> 01:11:00,640
don't hear a lot about Japan.
You know, they don't go to war

849
01:11:00,760 --> 01:11:04,319
with anybody. Um, they do
have nuclear weapons, but um, we

850
01:11:04,399 --> 01:11:10,359
don't hear a lot about Japan.
But there was something recently foreign policy related

851
01:11:10,399 --> 01:11:14,760
that was important regarding Japan. And
I can't remember what it is, but

852
01:11:14,920 --> 01:11:17,399
I will look it up. Ron. I'm glad you asked about that because

853
01:11:17,399 --> 01:11:21,680
it was okay. And last pace, Yes, the sanctions that got imposed,

854
01:11:23,239 --> 01:11:29,439
do they affect I'm not saying US
Japan. Are any of the sanctions

855
01:11:29,479 --> 01:11:33,199
that we have polls on these other
places. Does that affect Japan's ability to

856
01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:39,760
get products and manufacture and create?
I mean, I don't know. The

857
01:11:39,880 --> 01:11:42,720
sanctions would seem like they were doing
good, but I don't hear anything about

858
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:49,479
it anymore. Sanctions on who um, Oh my god, I'm nervous,

859
01:11:49,479 --> 01:11:51,640
and now you get me on this
spot. Oh that's okay, I mean,

860
01:11:53,479 --> 01:11:57,600
yeah, go ahead. No.
Um, when Trump was in place,

861
01:11:57,840 --> 01:12:03,800
UM, sanctions were put in place
against I wasn't as a freshet,

862
01:12:03,800 --> 01:12:08,479
I'd tell you, I don't know, just seem the next stanctions were pres

863
01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:13,199
it pulls everywhere and it was affecting
everybody. Um have we and we've been

864
01:12:13,479 --> 01:12:18,439
listening the sanctions under Oh do you
mean that? Do you mean the tariffs

865
01:12:18,720 --> 01:12:23,840
that were imposed on China? Because
Trump was very big on having a trade

866
01:12:23,880 --> 01:12:27,720
war with China, and we thank
you, thank you. Yeah, not

867
01:12:27,920 --> 01:12:32,640
not sanctions, but but tariffs and
um, some of those I think a

868
01:12:32,720 --> 01:12:35,640
few of those have been rolled back
under Biden, but most of those have

869
01:12:35,800 --> 01:12:40,920
remained in place from what I understand, which actually surprises me a little bit.

870
01:12:41,319 --> 01:12:43,840
I thought more of those what would
have been rolled back, but maybe

871
01:12:43,880 --> 01:12:46,920
because things are so tense with China, they're leaving them in place. But

872
01:12:47,399 --> 01:12:50,840
but yeah, there were those tariffs
that Trump did put a lot of tariffs

873
01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:58,199
on China. All right, Matt, I h I really loved you show.

874
01:12:58,239 --> 01:13:01,720
I wish you could want it to
lad Flock today. Me too,

875
01:13:01,960 --> 01:13:04,800
me too, But thank you,
Ron, I appreciate it very much,

876
01:13:04,840 --> 01:13:09,279
and I appreciate the call. All
right, buddy, all right, Ron,

877
01:13:09,359 --> 01:13:12,600
take care bye bye. All right, that was our friend Ron.

878
01:13:12,840 --> 01:13:16,560
Let's get to a break. But
Ron did ask a couple of very interesting

879
01:13:16,680 --> 01:13:20,520
questions that will address on the other
side. But we'll get to a break.

880
01:13:20,520 --> 01:13:27,600
I'm gonna play a track from Where
Did It Go? Oh? Here

881
01:13:27,640 --> 01:13:30,319
it is. I'm gonna play this
song so tomorrow on the show. I'm

882
01:13:30,439 --> 01:13:33,840
very excited because in the second hour, we're gonna talk to my old friend

883
01:13:34,159 --> 01:13:39,039
from high school, Dave Wally,
and he's got this band, Satellite Union,

884
01:13:39,159 --> 01:13:44,359
and we're gonna play. This is
a performance, live performance of that

885
01:13:44,439 --> 01:13:47,199
I found on the website for his
band, Satellite Union, and the website

886
01:13:47,279 --> 01:13:51,520
is Satellite Union music dot com.
Dave sent me some specific tracks to play,

887
01:13:51,720 --> 01:13:55,560
but I'm gonna save those for tomorrow. But I found this and I

888
01:13:55,720 --> 01:13:58,199
really like it. The name of
the song is if You Don't Go and

889
01:13:58,359 --> 01:14:00,479
this is really really cool. So
we're gonna play, and we're going to

890
01:14:00,520 --> 01:14:02,760
show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we will be back with

891
01:14:02,880 --> 01:14:09,239
the balance of our program today and
we'll answer those questions, those other questions

892
01:14:09,279 --> 01:14:54,840
that Ron had. Welcome back everybody, as we cruising our final segment today

893
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:59,640
of Matt Connerton Unleashed, and we
are live from the studios of w m

894
01:14:59,800 --> 01:15:03,720
n H ninety five point three FM
and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire,

895
01:15:03,880 --> 01:15:08,319
also on Comcast ninety seven. If
you're in Manchester and hello to Oliver our

896
01:15:08,359 --> 01:15:11,279
online listeners across the nation and around
the globe. You can go to my

897
01:15:11,359 --> 01:15:15,560
website Matt Connerton dot com for all
your live streaming options, social media links,

898
01:15:15,640 --> 01:15:18,359
contact in folk show archives, etc. Etc. Today is Thursday,

899
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:24,079
July thirteen, two thousand to twenty
three, so nice to have you all

900
01:15:24,399 --> 01:15:27,880
with me. By the way,
that song I played as a live performance

901
01:15:27,920 --> 01:15:32,359
of If You Don't Go from the
band Satellite Union, and tomorrow on the

902
01:15:32,479 --> 01:15:36,800
show in the second hour, my
friend Dave Wally will be skyping in all

903
01:15:36,840 --> 01:15:42,520
the way from the Windy City,
Chicago to talk about the band, and

904
01:15:42,640 --> 01:15:45,159
Dave and I will get caught up. We're old friends. I actually went

905
01:15:45,199 --> 01:15:47,000
to high school with Dave, so
I'm really looking forward to this. Dave's

906
01:15:47,000 --> 01:15:51,039
a great guy and enormously talented,
and he sent me some tracks for tomorrow.

907
01:15:51,079 --> 01:15:54,960
But I found that live performance online
of that song and I said,

908
01:15:55,000 --> 01:15:57,720
you know what, I think I'm
gonna play that today, kind of give

909
01:15:57,760 --> 01:16:00,800
everybody a little sneak peak. So
that'll be tomorrow on the show. And

910
01:16:00,840 --> 01:16:04,640
of course we also have tomorrow because
it will be Friday, Eric Pilcher's Classic

911
01:16:04,720 --> 01:16:11,079
film review and this week the subject
is National Lampoon's Vacation, so that will

912
01:16:11,119 --> 01:16:13,960
be tomorrow as well. So we
have a busy, busy show tomorrow.

913
01:16:14,880 --> 01:16:17,039
But if you'd like to join us
today, six ZO three two five six

914
01:16:17,119 --> 01:16:21,000
Z seven is a studio line six
ZO three two five six seven. You

915
01:16:21,039 --> 01:16:30,039
can also text me at six I'm
sorry six one seven. Uh see,

916
01:16:30,119 --> 01:16:33,680
I screwed myself up. Wow,
I never do that. Six one seven

917
01:16:33,760 --> 01:16:36,960
nine one seven four four seven six. I never screw up the phone number.

918
01:16:38,199 --> 01:16:42,000
Six one seven nine one seven four
four seven six. I'm all worried

919
01:16:42,000 --> 01:16:49,600
about this whole Cuba stuff. I'm
distracted. Let's see. I'm on social

920
01:16:49,680 --> 01:16:54,359
media at Matt Connerton. You can
email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com,

921
01:16:54,439 --> 01:16:57,840
and of course you can interact and
no pine in the Facebook live chat.

922
01:16:57,920 --> 01:16:59,880
But the best thing to do so
that we can here and enjoy your

923
01:17:00,039 --> 01:17:02,560
dulse at Tones is to give us
a call at six three two five H

924
01:17:02,680 --> 01:17:05,439
six Z seven. By the way, speaking of the Facebook lap chat,

925
01:17:05,439 --> 01:17:09,439
I see a new name in there. Lewis Tivee joins us in the chat.

926
01:17:09,560 --> 01:17:14,720
Hello, just uh and again just
to follow up. Oh, and

927
01:17:14,840 --> 01:17:18,239
Joe Friday joins us in sus Aloha
peeps, Aloha to you. Joe Friday.

928
01:17:19,720 --> 01:17:28,560
Ron had asked some questions during his
when he called in earlier regarding Japan.

929
01:17:29,920 --> 01:17:31,279
Mike from Queen City Cabinetry set in
the chat room. I think it

930
01:17:31,359 --> 01:17:36,520
was either we were sending troops there
to train their troops or we are having

931
01:17:38,960 --> 01:17:43,600
our troops there. Yeah, we
um. You don't hear Japan come up

932
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:48,479
a lot in foreign policy discussions,
but I do know that Japan gets very

933
01:17:48,640 --> 01:17:53,800
nervous about and we're not gonna get
into this today in detail. We won't

934
01:17:53,800 --> 01:17:58,920
have time. But North Korea,
of course constantly saber rattling every now and

935
01:17:58,960 --> 01:18:04,640
again, and sometimes I get concerned
that it's becoming increasingly common, these test

936
01:18:04,760 --> 01:18:11,840
launches of missiles and shooting them right
over Japan. And you know, Kim

937
01:18:11,960 --> 01:18:17,520
Jong un, we have to figure
out how to contain him and control him,

938
01:18:17,560 --> 01:18:23,199
and that can just keeps getting kicked
down the road, doesn't it.

939
01:18:23,319 --> 01:18:27,279
But uh yeah, so Japan is
always very nervous. Another thing that Ron

940
01:18:27,359 --> 01:18:30,119
had asked about, by the way, was what Dave Ridley was saying about

941
01:18:30,199 --> 01:18:35,079
guns. No, you you did
not misunderstand him. Ron. What the

942
01:18:35,239 --> 01:18:40,079
argument that Dave was making. And
this is something that you often hear.

943
01:18:40,119 --> 01:18:43,840
You'll hear Second Amendment activists say this, and you know, and I'm a

944
01:18:43,920 --> 01:18:45,720
I'm a pro Second Amendment guy.
That's an issue where I tend to be

945
01:18:45,840 --> 01:18:51,520
more conservative. But of course we
live in New Hampshire. Where you're in

946
01:18:51,560 --> 01:18:57,239
New Hampshire, we're one of the
most heavily armed states in the entire country,

947
01:18:57,279 --> 01:19:02,960
but we're also one of the safest, interestingly enough, But you'll often

948
01:19:03,079 --> 01:19:08,600
hear activists say that part of the
reason why the United States never gets invaded

949
01:19:09,159 --> 01:19:12,760
is because so many people here have
guns. So if anyone tried to invade

950
01:19:12,800 --> 01:19:15,359
the United States, there would be
somebody hiding behind every bush with a gun

951
01:19:15,479 --> 01:19:21,439
waiting to shoot them. Now,
the context that Dave Ridley was bringing that

952
01:19:21,560 --> 01:19:25,960
up in, though I thought,
was a little again, I had to

953
01:19:26,000 --> 01:19:29,439
push back on it a little bit
because I understood what he was saying.

954
01:19:29,439 --> 01:19:33,880
I understood his point but and it's
not that he's wrong. From a logical

955
01:19:33,960 --> 01:19:38,680
standpoint, of course, it would
be difficult to invade the United States because

956
01:19:38,760 --> 01:19:44,520
not only do we have the largest
military in the world, exponentially larger than

957
01:19:44,560 --> 01:19:47,239
any other military, certainly with what
we spend on it, but we are

958
01:19:47,359 --> 01:19:53,920
also a such a heavily armed populace. But the thing is, even with

959
01:19:54,119 --> 01:19:59,439
us being so heavily armed as individuals
gun owners in the United States, we

960
01:19:59,560 --> 01:20:02,439
still have the largest military in the
entire world. No one is ever,

961
01:20:02,560 --> 01:20:09,239
ever, ever going to invade us, regardless of whether the citizen re is

962
01:20:09,399 --> 01:20:14,960
armed or not. Joe Farriday says, shout out to firefighters, police and

963
01:20:15,079 --> 01:20:20,439
first responders. God bless them,
be safe. So I think that answers

964
01:20:20,520 --> 01:20:24,760
Ron's question. Oh no, I'm
sorry. So the other thing that's right.

965
01:20:24,800 --> 01:20:30,039
There was another thing Ron brought up, and it's it's a he makes

966
01:20:30,039 --> 01:20:38,000
a good point. Does it really
matter if the Chinese do establish a base

967
01:20:38,119 --> 01:20:41,640
on Cuba because we have bases all
over the world and we have the military

968
01:20:41,720 --> 01:20:46,680
capability to shoot anything down, to
fuse any situation, etc. In other

969
01:20:46,760 --> 01:20:49,600
words, even if they do have
a base in Cuba, is that really

970
01:20:49,640 --> 01:20:54,920
a threat to US. Now,
my response to that would be whether it

971
01:20:55,319 --> 01:21:00,560
is a direct threat or not.
First of all, I think it could

972
01:21:00,600 --> 01:21:04,640
be. But I'll circle back to
that the broader point that I would make

973
01:21:04,680 --> 01:21:10,479
about that, and this is kind
of the underlining point of what I've been

974
01:21:10,520 --> 01:21:16,800
talking about today in terms of Cuba
and they're ever growing relationship with China and

975
01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:24,800
of course the rekindling, to an
extent of their relationship with Russia. The

976
01:21:24,920 --> 01:21:31,439
broader point is that we don't need
our enemies being able to set up shop

977
01:21:33,000 --> 01:21:40,680
and spy on us or established themselves
in any way militarily one hundred miles off

978
01:21:40,720 --> 01:21:47,399
the coast of Florida. Even if
even if what happens there and what is

979
01:21:47,560 --> 01:21:53,640
established there is not necessarily a threat
in the sense that it's not anything that

980
01:21:53,760 --> 01:21:58,399
we can't handle, it certainly doesn't
feel very good, and I think it

981
01:21:58,439 --> 01:22:06,720
would be destabilizing. Sorry, I
just got a weird pop up on my

982
01:22:06,840 --> 01:22:14,680
computer that distracted me. But going
back to would it be a direct threat,

983
01:22:15,119 --> 01:22:18,359
Well, what if the Chinese,
the Chinese, they have nuclear weapons.

984
01:22:19,039 --> 01:22:23,119
What if the Chinese, in the
course of setting up their base there,

985
01:22:23,279 --> 01:22:27,520
they put nuclear missiles there? Allah
the Cuban missile crisis and what we

986
01:22:27,600 --> 01:22:30,720
had to deal with with Russia.
Now that is a direct threat. The

987
01:22:30,840 --> 01:22:34,279
whole reason in sixty two with the
Cuban missile crisis, why that was so

988
01:22:34,720 --> 01:22:39,800
harrowing and so dangerous, And again, as I talked about in the first

989
01:22:39,840 --> 01:22:42,319
hour of their show, thank god
we had a president at the time,

990
01:22:42,880 --> 01:22:48,279
JFK who was able to you know, Shepherd and stewarts us through that that

991
01:22:48,439 --> 01:22:51,079
terrible time. I mean us,
I say us as in America. I

992
01:22:51,159 --> 01:22:54,520
wasn't here yet, And like I
said, I'm glad I wasn't. I'm

993
01:22:54,520 --> 01:22:58,760
glad I wasn't alive for that because
that would have been terrifying. So I'm

994
01:22:58,840 --> 01:23:01,000
glad that. You know, if
you talk to somebody who does remember it,

995
01:23:01,680 --> 01:23:05,079
yeah, they'll tell you it's pretty
pretty scary because at any given moment,

996
01:23:05,239 --> 01:23:11,520
you know, they knew it could
be the end. But the reason

997
01:23:11,640 --> 01:23:17,159
that was so massively destabilizing was because
that gave the Russians first strike capability to

998
01:23:17,279 --> 01:23:21,880
the extent that first strike capability matters
in the terms of global thermonuclear war.

999
01:23:23,840 --> 01:23:28,439
If nuclear war breaks out, you
know, it'll ultimately even if you're not

1000
01:23:28,560 --> 01:23:31,079
in a blast zone, there's going
to be radiation, and there's going to

1001
01:23:31,079 --> 01:23:34,359
be a nuclear winter that will kill
everyone on the planet anyway, So it

1002
01:23:34,640 --> 01:23:40,479
almost doesn't matter who has first strike
capability. But if you've got nuclear missiles

1003
01:23:40,640 --> 01:23:44,560
one hundred miles off the coast of
Florida, you can probably get those in

1004
01:23:44,600 --> 01:23:47,319
the air pretty quickly and hitting the
United States before we have any chance to

1005
01:23:47,439 --> 01:23:57,359
respond. And that's scary to think
about. So it does matter in the

1006
01:23:57,520 --> 01:24:04,079
sense that. Look, and I'm
not naive, I understand that even if

1007
01:24:05,000 --> 01:24:09,239
there is not a military base near
the United States it is occupied by a

1008
01:24:09,600 --> 01:24:15,560
foreign power, there are nuclear submarines
that can launch missiles, that can sail

1009
01:24:15,680 --> 01:24:19,399
up nice and close, not sail
what do you call it sailing, You

1010
01:24:19,439 --> 01:24:26,239
don't sail underwater, But anyway they
can get in there. You can get

1011
01:24:26,279 --> 01:24:30,359
in with a nuclear submarine, probably
largely undetected, and you can launch something

1012
01:24:31,119 --> 01:24:34,039
right off the coast and hit US. I understand that. I'm not naive

1013
01:24:34,119 --> 01:24:39,880
to it. But again, the
idea of the Chinese having a base,

1014
01:24:40,520 --> 01:24:46,279
because once that military base has expanded, remember when the Russians first started putting,

1015
01:24:46,680 --> 01:24:49,800
they hadn't become operational yet. Okay, they had to set them up

1016
01:24:50,479 --> 01:24:56,159
and I'm sure the technology has changed
over the decades. But when the United

1017
01:24:56,199 --> 01:25:01,479
States first detected that there were Russian
missiles on the island of Cuba via that

1018
01:25:01,600 --> 01:25:09,439
aerial photography, it's not like we
knew. I mean, obviously we knew

1019
01:25:09,680 --> 01:25:15,920
that the Russians we're bringing something to
Cuba. Anyone could see that, could

1020
01:25:15,920 --> 01:25:18,720
see those ships. But we didn't
know what was on those ships. And

1021
01:25:19,000 --> 01:25:20,960
you know, it could have been
could have been anything, could have been

1022
01:25:21,760 --> 01:25:26,119
food, you know, grain for
food, could have been anything. Right,

1023
01:25:26,399 --> 01:25:30,359
we didn't know they were missiles until
they were spotted from the air.

1024
01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:38,920
Now you could see it with a
satellite. I mean, I think we

1025
01:25:38,960 --> 01:25:41,880
had satellite technology then too, but
not like now. But you know,

1026
01:25:42,000 --> 01:25:45,840
but there were flyovers that were done
by the military to they were able to

1027
01:25:45,960 --> 01:25:51,920
take those pictures, and then those
pictures were you know, those were clearly

1028
01:25:53,479 --> 01:25:57,359
missiles. Again, they weren't operational
yet, and then it became a race

1029
01:25:57,439 --> 01:25:59,760
against time. Well, you know, what do we do. Do we

1030
01:26:00,479 --> 01:26:05,800
go and bomb Cuba and bomb those
missiles where those missiles are and wind up

1031
01:26:05,880 --> 01:26:10,319
killing a whole lot of Russians in
the process. Do we do that?

1032
01:26:10,800 --> 01:26:16,039
Because those missiles were going to become
operational. And by the way that that

1033
01:26:16,439 --> 01:26:20,199
timetable kept getting moved up, where
you know, JFK was told, okay,

1034
01:26:20,239 --> 01:26:26,159
well we've got we've only got so
many days until those missiles are operational,

1035
01:26:26,680 --> 01:26:30,159
and then it became actually, probably
within the next forty eight hours,

1036
01:26:30,239 --> 01:26:36,479
those missiles are going to become operational, and thank god, you know,

1037
01:26:38,079 --> 01:26:41,359
we're not for the back channel communication
that was happening, you know, thank

1038
01:26:41,439 --> 01:26:45,439
god Khruschev back down and that was
the end of that. In exchange for

1039
01:26:46,600 --> 01:26:51,279
the Jupiter missiles in that we're in
Turkey at the time, I think that

1040
01:26:51,640 --> 01:26:59,199
we had there. Those were actually
scheduled to be decommissioned anyway because they were

1041
01:26:59,239 --> 01:27:02,399
outdated, so they need needed to
be taken down and disassembled. But the

1042
01:27:02,520 --> 01:27:08,159
Russians didn't know that. So that
was something that JFK could offered a cruse

1043
01:27:08,239 --> 01:27:12,960
chef, We'll take those missiles out
that you don't like sitting there on your

1044
01:27:13,039 --> 01:27:17,640
doorstep in exchange for you taking your
missiles out of Cuba before they even become

1045
01:27:17,680 --> 01:27:25,279
operational. And that's ultimately what happened. But yeah, the idea of the

1046
01:27:25,439 --> 01:27:29,920
Chinese having a base on the island
of Cuba again one hundred miles off the

1047
01:27:30,000 --> 01:27:36,560
coast of Florida is unacceptable and we
cannot We cannot have that. Lots of

1048
01:27:36,640 --> 01:27:40,800
comments in the Facebook live chat,
so I do want to get to some

1049
01:27:40,920 --> 01:27:47,199
of these. Crispy says, China
needs us and we need China, but

1050
01:27:47,439 --> 01:27:54,880
NATO now out guns everybody. China
needs us and we need China, referring

1051
01:27:54,920 --> 01:27:58,239
to of course, says Dave and
I were talking about the interdependence economically,

1052
01:27:59,199 --> 01:28:08,920
we are intertwined and which I hope
will will prevent ultimately prevent war. And

1053
01:28:09,159 --> 01:28:13,840
Saturn says, we hashtag Matt Connerton. We have to take a shower and

1054
01:28:14,039 --> 01:28:16,840
so enjoy your afternoon show. Thank
you, en Saturn, you enjoy your

1055
01:28:16,880 --> 01:28:25,359
shower. Crispy says, sorry,
but guns are nothing compared to bombs,

1056
01:28:25,399 --> 01:28:28,880
and China can't afford to attack us, and we can't afford to attack China.

1057
01:28:29,399 --> 01:28:32,199
But we do need to protect Taiwan
at all costs. After all,

1058
01:28:32,279 --> 01:28:39,920
a bully regime won't be stopped until
they are stopped. Yeah, I,

1059
01:28:40,680 --> 01:28:45,359
and that is something that we've talked
about on the show too. I had

1060
01:28:45,760 --> 01:28:56,199
some criticism of President Biden when he
said flatly that yes, we would defend

1061
01:28:56,239 --> 01:29:00,319
Taiwan when he was asked, This
was months ago, when he was asked,

1062
01:29:00,640 --> 01:29:02,560
if China were to move on Taiwan, would we defend Taiwan? And

1063
01:29:02,720 --> 01:29:10,920
Biden said yes. I'm personally a
big fan of strategic ambiguity. Although I

1064
01:29:11,119 --> 01:29:15,119
also found it fascinating that in that
moment, you know, when people were

1065
01:29:15,279 --> 01:29:18,600
kind of pulling their hair out saying, Wow, I can't believe Biden just

1066
01:29:19,079 --> 01:29:24,720
discarded strategic ambiguity. Strategic ambiguity,
of course, being where you keep your

1067
01:29:24,840 --> 01:29:29,359
opponent off balance by not letting them
know exactly, by not telegraphing or saying

1068
01:29:29,399 --> 01:29:32,960
outright exactly how you might respond to
whatever move that they make. You know,

1069
01:29:33,039 --> 01:29:35,960
it's a bit of a chess game. It all is right in terms

1070
01:29:36,000 --> 01:29:40,359
of foreign policy, and you don't
want to You don't want your opponent to

1071
01:29:40,439 --> 01:29:43,079
know what your move will be in
response to their move if you can help

1072
01:29:43,119 --> 01:29:45,840
it. And I had some criticism
of Biden for that, but it was

1073
01:29:45,920 --> 01:29:51,760
interesting how when everybody was so upset, everybody just kind of collectively forgot that

1074
01:29:51,880 --> 01:29:56,520
George W. Bush had done the
exact same thing. When George W.

1075
01:29:56,720 --> 01:29:59,680
Bush became president. It was very
early in his presidency, so early I

1076
01:29:59,720 --> 01:30:01,560
believe it was before nine to eleven
happened. It was within that first eight

1077
01:30:01,640 --> 01:30:05,000
months he was asked the same quite
almost the exact same scenario. He was

1078
01:30:05,039 --> 01:30:10,159
asked by somebody, what will you
do? What will the response be if

1079
01:30:10,439 --> 01:30:13,840
China were to attack Taiwan? Will
you defend Taiwan? And he said yes,

1080
01:30:14,359 --> 01:30:16,399
and same thing. People people went
nuts, well, what about strategic

1081
01:30:16,479 --> 01:30:18,920
ambiguity? He just went said it
out loud, he can't do that,

1082
01:30:19,079 --> 01:30:27,079
but so it had already been done
by a previous administration. Strangely enough,

1083
01:30:27,279 --> 01:30:32,880
I thought Trump recently in an interview
was it with Bret bare That interview with

1084
01:30:33,000 --> 01:30:38,920
Bret Bair I thought was disastrous for
Trump in a lot of ways legally.

1085
01:30:39,680 --> 01:30:42,800
But one thing I did give Trump
credit for. I thought he gave a

1086
01:30:42,880 --> 01:30:45,560
smart answer. And you won't hear. Look the list of things that I

1087
01:30:45,640 --> 01:30:48,279
give Trump credit for, and if
you're a regular listener, you know how

1088
01:30:48,319 --> 01:30:51,800
I feel about Donald Trump. It's
a short list. But I did think

1089
01:30:53,840 --> 01:30:59,439
something really smart that he said during
that interview was when Brett Baer asked him

1090
01:30:59,479 --> 01:31:02,199
about what would your policy be on
if China were to move on Taiwan.

1091
01:31:02,760 --> 01:31:08,800
Trump said, well, I'm not
going to answer that. But but Jijing

1092
01:31:08,880 --> 01:31:13,640
Ping he knows what I would do. I thought that was a smart because

1093
01:31:14,600 --> 01:31:17,640
that is strategic ambiguity. I'm not
going to answer that hypothetical, but he

1094
01:31:17,840 --> 01:31:21,159
knows what I would do, so
it's strategic ambiguity, but with a little

1095
01:31:21,159 --> 01:31:26,000
bit of a threat underneath. I
thought that was I thought that was a

1096
01:31:26,319 --> 01:31:39,159
smart uncharacteristically, so let's see.
Oh my goodness, Scott Robinson said in

1097
01:31:39,199 --> 01:31:42,239
the chat room. Now, this
is in response to what Ronda said about

1098
01:31:45,760 --> 01:31:48,079
Dave Ridley. Sounds like Dick Cavett, which I'd never noticed before. But

1099
01:31:48,199 --> 01:31:53,079
Scott Robinson said, the difference being
with Dick Cavett. Dick Cavatt didn't hate

1100
01:31:53,119 --> 01:31:58,239
America. I don't think Dave Ridley
hates America, but he does want to

1101
01:31:58,359 --> 01:32:01,960
leave America. He wants for newer
listeners who don't know the reason Dave Ridley

1102
01:32:02,039 --> 01:32:05,720
mentioned Nhxit, or maybe I mentioned
it. He didn't want to be a

1103
01:32:05,800 --> 01:32:12,680
shy about plugging anything. Today.
Dave Ridley is part of a secessionist movement

1104
01:32:12,960 --> 01:32:15,319
called nh Exit, and they want
to secede from the United States and have

1105
01:32:15,479 --> 01:32:18,680
New Hampshire be its own country.
But I don't think he hates America.

1106
01:32:20,000 --> 01:32:25,399
I wouldn't. I wouldn't characterize it
quite that way. Crispy points out US

1107
01:32:25,520 --> 01:32:30,159
dollar is strongest dollar than any other
country. That is true. Chrispy also

1108
01:32:30,199 --> 01:32:34,760
points out our nuke submarines are everywhere. That is also true. And I

1109
01:32:34,840 --> 01:32:42,960
think that goes to Ron's point.
Joe Friday says, bad guys will get

1110
01:32:43,039 --> 01:32:45,840
weapons. Responsible weapon owners don't need
to secure them, don't leave them in

1111
01:32:45,920 --> 01:32:51,359
an unlocked car or a closet.
Absolutely, we only have a little bit

1112
01:32:51,399 --> 01:32:54,640
of time left, but if you'd
like to get in with a quick call

1113
01:32:54,720 --> 01:33:00,199
six three two five six seven six
three two five six seven. I did

1114
01:33:00,279 --> 01:33:05,079
want to go through this timeline just
quickly. This is from CFR dot org,

1115
01:33:09,760 --> 01:33:13,000
This timeline of our relationship with Cuba, which has been the subject today

1116
01:33:13,039 --> 01:33:16,840
on the show. But we're gonna
pick it up at nineteen fifty nine,

1117
01:33:17,640 --> 01:33:20,000
and we're gonna try to get all
the way into the present day with this

1118
01:33:20,119 --> 01:33:26,439
time permitting. So in nineteen fifty
nine there was growing antagonism. Castro nationalizes

1119
01:33:26,479 --> 01:33:30,439
all foreign assets in Cuba, hikes
taxes on US imports, and establishes trade

1120
01:33:30,479 --> 01:33:34,199
deal with the Soviet Union. So
this is prior to just a couple of

1121
01:33:34,279 --> 01:33:40,039
years prior to the Cuban Missile crisis. So Castro is getting cozy with Cuba

1122
01:33:40,760 --> 01:33:45,199
and antagonistic toward the United States.
We're going to kind of speed through this,

1123
01:33:45,279 --> 01:33:47,079
so I'm gonna leave a lot of
this out. But nineteen sixty one,

1124
01:33:47,119 --> 01:33:51,119
of course, the Bay of Pigs
invasion, Executing a plan developed and

1125
01:33:51,159 --> 01:33:57,359
approved by the Eisenhower administration, JFK
deploys a brigade of fourteen hundred CIA sponsored

1126
01:33:57,399 --> 01:34:01,279
Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro.
The Cuban military defeats a force within three

1127
01:34:01,359 --> 01:34:08,880
days after several mishaps, disadvantage the
invaders and reveal US involvement. Despite the

1128
01:34:08,920 --> 01:34:13,840
failed invasion, US administrations over the
next several decades conduct covert operations against Cuba.

1129
01:34:14,039 --> 01:34:18,760
Okay, here we go the main
event, or at least we're getting

1130
01:34:18,800 --> 01:34:25,600
to it, Okay, So nineteen
sixty two. In February of sixty two,

1131
01:34:25,640 --> 01:34:30,239
the Kennedy administration imposes an embargo on
Cuba that prohibits all trade. Cuba,

1132
01:34:30,279 --> 01:34:33,960
whose economy greatly depended on trade with
the US, loses approximately one hundred

1133
01:34:34,079 --> 01:34:41,279
thirty billion dollars over the next sixty
years according to Cuban government and UN estimates.

1134
01:34:42,039 --> 01:34:46,960
All right here it is the Cuban
missile crisis from October fourteen to October

1135
01:34:47,079 --> 01:34:53,039
twenty eight. This is this is
the big one. This is again to

1136
01:34:53,199 --> 01:34:57,520
me, this is the single most
fascinating moment in American history and also the

1137
01:34:57,560 --> 01:35:01,159
most terrifying. US spy Saddle I
discover the Cuba has allowed the Soviet Union

1138
01:35:01,199 --> 01:35:05,760
to build nuclear missile bases on the
island. In response, Kennedy demands the

1139
01:35:05,840 --> 01:35:12,560
Soviet weapons be removed and orders a
naval quarantine of Cuba, igniting a thirteen

1140
01:35:12,640 --> 01:35:15,520
day standoff. By the way,
they were very careful to call it a

1141
01:35:15,600 --> 01:35:19,319
quarantine and not a blockade, even
though it really was a blockade. But

1142
01:35:19,439 --> 01:35:25,720
a blockade is considered an act of
war, so they were very careful,

1143
01:35:26,600 --> 01:35:30,079
you know, a little semantic game, but they called it a quarantine for

1144
01:35:30,239 --> 01:35:33,560
that reason. With the threat of
nuclear war on the horizon, the US

1145
01:35:33,640 --> 01:35:41,119
negotiations with Russia. Negotiates with Russia
via back channels. As the crisis nears

1146
01:35:41,159 --> 01:35:45,159
its third week, Kennedy secretly agrees
to withdraw US nuclear missiles from Turkey within

1147
01:35:45,199 --> 01:35:49,239
a few months if the Soviet Union
withdraws its missiles from Cuba. And again

1148
01:35:49,640 --> 01:35:55,439
those missiles were outdated anyways, and
they were already scheduled to be decommissioned.

1149
01:35:55,479 --> 01:35:59,800
But Krushchev didn't know that, didn't
need to know that. Kennedy also pledges

1150
01:36:00,119 --> 01:36:02,279
to invade Cuba. Soviet Premier Nikita, by the way, and you know

1151
01:36:03,439 --> 01:36:08,600
the reason that he needed to say
that was because of the Bay of Pig.

1152
01:36:08,720 --> 01:36:11,319
Had the Bay of Pigs not happened, maybe there would never have been

1153
01:36:11,319 --> 01:36:16,079
any paranoia regardless. Okay, So
Nikita Khrushchev accepts the deal and announces that

1154
01:36:16,119 --> 01:36:20,159
he will order the missiles removed.
The following July, Kennedy prohibits US nationals

1155
01:36:20,239 --> 01:36:25,920
from traveling to Cuba. So we're
going to kind of skip forward here.

1156
01:36:28,560 --> 01:36:33,159
There was a little bit of diplomacy
here and there, but in March of

1157
01:36:33,279 --> 01:36:43,920
nineteen eighty two, US labels Cuba
a terrorism sponsor nineteen ninety two US titan

1158
01:36:44,039 --> 01:36:53,279
sanctions after Soviet collapse. Um,
I'm skipping ahead because we're so low on

1159
01:36:53,520 --> 01:37:00,800
time. We're gonna go although,
oh remember the nine ten ninety nine,

1160
01:37:00,880 --> 01:37:06,960
Wow, that was all the way
back then, the Elian Gonzales controversy,

1161
01:37:08,119 --> 01:37:11,239
I always thought they shouldn't have sent
him back. They took him to Disney

1162
01:37:11,279 --> 01:37:13,920
World. How could they send him
back after taking him to Disney World.

1163
01:37:15,880 --> 01:37:21,479
Okay, we're gonna skip all the
way forward to the Obama administration. Okay,

1164
01:37:21,560 --> 01:37:26,600
So December of twenty fourteen, A
moved to restore diplomatic ties. Barack

1165
01:37:26,680 --> 01:37:30,439
Obama and Raoul Castro announced they will
restore full diplomatic ties following the exchange of

1166
01:37:30,479 --> 01:37:35,960
a jail US intelligence officer for the
three remaining Cuban five prisoners. All right,

1167
01:37:36,199 --> 01:37:41,279
So that was the beginning of that. And in twenty fifteen, Cuba

1168
01:37:41,399 --> 01:37:45,680
was removed from the terrorism list in
twenty fifteen July of that year, US

1169
01:37:45,720 --> 01:37:50,840
and Cuba reopen embassies. In twenty
sixteen, Obama made in March of twenty

1170
01:37:50,880 --> 01:37:57,840
sixteen, Obama makes a historic visit
to Cuba. In November, Fidel Castro

1171
01:37:58,119 --> 01:38:00,800
dies, but Raoul was already running
things because Fidel was in poor health.

1172
01:38:03,760 --> 01:38:10,039
And then Trump came in and in
June of twenty seventeen, Trump reinstated travel

1173
01:38:10,159 --> 01:38:15,359
and business restrictions, and in September
of twenty seventeen, US cuts embassy staff

1174
01:38:15,439 --> 01:38:20,520
in Cuba. This is what I
was talking about at the top of the

1175
01:38:20,560 --> 01:38:32,520
show. There was a lot of
work done during the Obama administration to re

1176
01:38:32,760 --> 01:38:39,880
establish diplomatic ties and try to normalize
things. And Trump came in and they

1177
01:38:39,960 --> 01:38:47,439
dismantled all of that. And then
Biden came in and you know, made

1178
01:38:47,479 --> 01:38:53,600
a pretty meager attempt at re establishing
some of it, but really didn't do

1179
01:38:53,760 --> 01:38:59,319
much. In May of twenty twenty
two, Biden eased Trump era sanctions.

1180
01:39:00,560 --> 01:39:04,640
But that's about it. So the
point of all that, and again,

1181
01:39:04,880 --> 01:39:08,479
it was a long way to get
there, I know, because I started

1182
01:39:08,479 --> 01:39:12,119
this all the way at the beginning
of the show today. But I go

1183
01:39:12,239 --> 01:39:14,720
back to my original point, and
if you've hung in with me for the

1184
01:39:14,760 --> 01:39:19,640
whole thing, I appreciate it.
But my original point was we're at a

1185
01:39:19,920 --> 01:39:27,640
point now where we're worried about Cuba. They're growing relationship with China, and

1186
01:39:27,840 --> 01:39:33,399
they're sort of a re establishment of
a strong relationship with Russia. Cuba this

1187
01:39:33,600 --> 01:39:39,760
island that is one hundred miles off
the coast of Florida, and this is

1188
01:39:39,800 --> 01:39:45,079
strategically very bad for US. And
this is being not covered enough in the

1189
01:39:45,159 --> 01:39:47,600
media in my opinion. It is
getting mainstream media coverage, but not enough.

1190
01:39:47,800 --> 01:39:53,399
This is an important moment in this
whole as as as we continue to

1191
01:39:53,520 --> 01:39:58,560
have problems with our two greatest adversaries
currently in the world, Russia and China,

1192
01:40:00,000 --> 01:40:05,159
and we've got this island of Cuba, who during the Obama administration made

1193
01:40:05,199 --> 01:40:11,640
a good faith attempt and made some
real progress in terms of re establishing our

1194
01:40:11,760 --> 01:40:16,760
relationship with Cuba in a very positive
way. Trump administration come in and came

1195
01:40:16,800 --> 01:40:24,279
in and dismantled that. Biden administration
came in, failed to re establish most

1196
01:40:24,319 --> 01:40:29,760
of what Obama had done, and
so there's blame to go around. I

1197
01:40:29,920 --> 01:40:34,479
blame both the Trump and the Biden
administrations for the fact that now again without

1198
01:40:34,640 --> 01:40:42,800
us having a positive strategic relationship with
Cuba, of course, of course our

1199
01:40:42,880 --> 01:40:47,680
adversaries fill that vacuum, and we
didn't even get to a lot of what

1200
01:40:47,840 --> 01:40:51,159
Russia's doing right now. We talked
a lot about China, we didn't even

1201
01:40:51,199 --> 01:40:58,600
get to what Russia's doing with Cuba. And it's I mean, we did

1202
01:40:58,640 --> 01:41:00,600
a little bit, but you know, in terms of supplying them oil and

1203
01:41:00,760 --> 01:41:03,560
so forth, because Cuba's having a
rough time right now, kubas having a

1204
01:41:03,640 --> 01:41:11,720
very difficult time. They're having their
own energy crisis. Maybe we could have

1205
01:41:11,800 --> 01:41:16,720
helped with that and had a good
strategic relationship with that little island that sits

1206
01:41:16,720 --> 01:41:21,600
one hundred miles off the coast of
Florida, But no, we let somebody

1207
01:41:21,680 --> 01:41:31,920
else do that. And I think
that this is a very dangerous moment and

1208
01:41:32,680 --> 01:41:35,880
it's probably too late for us to
do anything about it now in terms of

1209
01:41:36,000 --> 01:41:45,079
Cuba. But none of this had
to happen, as my point, and

1210
01:41:45,199 --> 01:41:48,239
I blame both the current administration and
the previous administration for allowing this to happen.

1211
01:41:48,880 --> 01:41:53,880
And it didn't have to be this
way. That's my view of it.

1212
01:41:54,439 --> 01:41:58,359
All Right, we are out of
time, don't forget tomorrow. We

1213
01:41:58,399 --> 01:42:00,880
got a big show tomorrow. Of
course, we have Eric Ulter's classic film

1214
01:42:00,960 --> 01:42:05,039
review National Lampoon's Vacation, the original
Vacation film, and then and then in

1215
01:42:05,079 --> 01:42:10,279
the second hour tomorrow we have Dave
Wally from the band Satellite Union skyping in

1216
01:42:10,399 --> 01:42:16,119
from Chicago. Really looking forward to
that. And if you miss any part

1217
01:42:16,159 --> 01:42:19,720
of today's show, it'll be up
in just a little bit at WMH radio

1218
01:42:19,880 --> 01:42:25,720
dot org and on my website Matt
Connerton dot com. And thank you to

1219
01:42:26,159 --> 01:42:29,560
Dave Ridley and Ron of course,
both for calling in and everybody in the

1220
01:42:29,640 --> 01:42:32,520
chat room and easyg if you're listening, I hope everything is okay. He

1221
01:42:32,640 --> 01:42:36,479
might be taking another break. There
was no entertainment report today and I haven't

1222
01:42:36,520 --> 01:42:40,319
heard from him, so hopefully he's
all right. Hopefully all as well.

1223
01:42:40,800 --> 01:42:42,800
But that's gonna do it for us
for now. I'll leave you with a

1224
01:42:42,800 --> 01:42:45,840
little more Satellite Union, a little
more, a little more of a preview

1225
01:42:46,640 --> 01:42:48,880
for tomorrow's show. Really looking forward
to that. And I'll talk to y'all

1226
01:42:48,880 --> 01:42:51,960
a little bit later. Oh and
if you're listening live on Thursday, coming

1227
01:42:53,039 --> 01:42:56,520
up next immediately after this show,
Through the Stage Door, hosted by the

1228
01:42:56,560 --> 01:42:59,560
Great Rob die On. All right, I'm out of here, by everybody,
