Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the strategy session.
Speaker 2: I won't say we were having technical difficulties, but the
Speaker 2: three old guys were trying to adjust their cameras.
Speaker 1: To make our giant heads look sort of the same size.
Speaker 3: It didn't work out too well.
Speaker 2: I'm actually sitting 12 feet back from the camera right now.
Speaker 2: But welcome to the strategy session, everybody. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff to cover tonight because the world is,
Speaker 2: as you know, on fire, as always. We're going to
Speaker 2: start out tonight. with a clip for a little comic
Speaker 2: relief in the beginning here. I just want you guys
Speaker 2: to be aware, Stu and Joe, of the new threat
Speaker 2: to America that Mark Wayne Mullen identified today.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, so the Democrats want to, they throw out
Speaker 4: all these fear mongrels to try to make ICE and
Speaker 4: President Trump's administration.
Speaker 1: Look as worse as possible.
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, we have the left media.
Speaker 2: Yes, that would be Mark Wayne Mullen prop sing. fear
Speaker 2: mongrels it is the it is the greatest maga portmanteau
Speaker 2: i've ever heard in my life but the fear mongrels
Speaker 2: are after all of us guys just i want you
Speaker 2: to be aware of that they're much like they're a
Speaker 2: division of antifa i believe you cannot make it up
Speaker 2: although he you cannot you cannot as i joked somebody
Speaker 2: right after i saw that the you know trump the
Speaker 2: trump administration is not sending their best when it comes
Speaker 2: to running dhs in this era God.
Speaker 1: Crazy.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 1: Let's see. What do we got next? Sam, pop up
Speaker 1: that next bit for us. Okay.
Speaker 2: Well, the children today cannot, they feel like they can't
Speaker 2: go into the election without a short-term funding bill, which
Speaker 2: that's probably a good idea.
Speaker 1: But, I mean, guys, this is sort of like, it
Speaker 1: feels like a band-aid to me, right?
Speaker 2: This doesn't seem like it's going to make America go, well,
Speaker 2: everything's under control with the economy now that we've passed
Speaker 2: another CR.
Speaker 7: No, and the other thing is, again, kicking the can
Speaker 7: down the road, but you kick it to after the election.
Speaker 3: And, you know, it's going to be interesting to, I mean.
Speaker 7: What they try to do, what's possible after the election,
Speaker 7: depending on, you know, particularly when they lose the House.
Speaker 7: So it does, it's, you know, it's the, the easy
Speaker 7: way out, but it could cause a bigger problem later on.
Speaker 7: Because I think, by the way, the economy is just
Speaker 7: going to be even worse and nothing that they do budget-wise.
Speaker 3: I mean, by then, what do you think?
Speaker 7: $ 50 trillion debt by the time they think?
Speaker 2: We're going to hit $ 50 trillion by the end of
Speaker 2: the year, according to most estimates right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy. Crazy. They're not doing a damn thing.
Speaker 5: No. No. Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, at a
Speaker 5: certain point, you know, Haley Barber used to say at
Speaker 5: a certain point, it's good to be for something people like.
Speaker 5: And I don't see what they're doing that people like.
Speaker 5: Somebody's going to make an ad. We passed the CR. Right. Like,
Speaker 5: you know, what the fuck?
Speaker 3: Pat yourself on the back, boys. It's all good now. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, and I think one of the things
Speaker 2: I saw today was a clip of Mike Johnson saying,
Speaker 2: we're going to defy the odds. And we're going to
Speaker 2: actually win back more seats in the House. We're going
Speaker 2: to expand our majority. And I'm sorry, you know, I
Speaker 2: get having a game face on, right? I get having a,
Speaker 2: you know, doing some motivation for the troops. But right now,
Speaker 2: they're depending on one big thing in Texas and now
Speaker 2: in Maine. And I'm also told that now in Michigan,
Speaker 2: they're all depending on Elon Musk coming in and giving
Speaker 2: them $ 100 million apiece.
Speaker 1: Guys, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 2: do you guys, I mean, Elon's presence in Wisconsin backfired
Speaker 2: during the special during the, uh, or the, the Supreme
Speaker 2: court races. Talk to me about where you see Elon
Speaker 2: coming in. I'll start with Texas Stewart because you know,
Speaker 2: our old buddy John Cornyn is out there sort of
Speaker 2: sniping from the weeds now on, uh, on that race.
Speaker 2: I'm curious what you, what you think about Willie, Willie lawn,
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 1: And will it blow back?
Speaker 5: Yeah, look, um, I think at a certain point in
Speaker 5: a race that much money is being spent, and we've
Speaker 5: talked about it as far as the Lincoln Project getting involved.
Speaker 5: More money doesn't matter. You know, if you have, like,
Speaker 5: static and you turn it up louder, it's just more annoying.
Speaker 5: It doesn't deliver any kind of message. You know, there's
Speaker 5: a behind-the-scenes war in Texas that really is a lot
Speaker 5: more than between you know, Tallarico and Paxton, within the
Speaker 5: Republican Party, there still is a Bush faction.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes.
Speaker 5: And, you know, this goes back to the 90s when
Speaker 5: there was a conservative faction and they opposed Bush. They
Speaker 5: opposed Karl Rove. Don't know how to tell them this,
Speaker 5: but Bush won.
Speaker 1: Several times.
Speaker 5: And that still is being played out. And, you know,
Speaker 5: Bush hates Paxton. Cornyn is a Bush guy. I think
Speaker 5: nothing would make Cornyn and Bush happier at this point
Speaker 5: than for Paxton to lose. So it has a lot
Speaker 5: to do, I think, sort of with the future of
Speaker 5: the party. And, you know, these suburban voters, the role
Speaker 5: for Kim Paxton, I don't know, man. Well, I don't
Speaker 5: see it. I don't see where Paxton is getting more
Speaker 5: votes than he has today.
Speaker 1: No, no.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's the thing that I don't understand. Maybe whether
Speaker 3: you could explain it to me, right?
Speaker 7: So there's two people on the planet, two things that
Speaker 7: are pretty low in the popularity scales these days.
Speaker 3: One would be Donald Trump on his approval rating. The
Speaker 3: other would be data centers.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: So- Trump is going to spend a half.
Speaker 7: A billion dollars evidently touting his own accomplishments and the
Speaker 7: great job he's done in all these places, Texas, Michigan.
Speaker 3: Et cetera.
Speaker 8: And then these guys are hoping for $ 100 million each
Speaker 8: from the king of data centers and tech crap, Grok,
Speaker 8: Elon Musk.
Speaker 3: And I think.
Speaker 7: I think that's all going to like hurt them more
Speaker 7: than help them. And because if you're, I don't care
Speaker 7: if you're El Sayed or, or Tallarico, it's like, here
Speaker 7: comes the data center guys to the rescue for Rogers
Speaker 7: or for, for Paxson. And Oh, it wasn't just the
Speaker 7: data center guys. Here comes Donald Trump. I mean, I
Speaker 7: don't see how any of that, I mean, I look in,
Speaker 7: in 1998, if, Bill Clinton, we lost 54 House seats
Speaker 7: and a bunch of Senate seats, and if Bill Clinton
Speaker 7: had told the party, hey, I'm going to go spend,
Speaker 7: I don't know, back then in those dollars, $ 200 million,
Speaker 7: saying what a great job I've done.
Speaker 3: I mean, fair enough.
Speaker 1: They would have run him out of town on a rail.
Speaker 3: We were running away from it. Everybody was just trying
Speaker 3: to keep the race as local as.
Speaker 7: Possible, you know, and push it, get into a fight
Speaker 7: with the candidate they were against, not... stay away from Washington,
Speaker 7: stay away from Clinton. That's where these guys have to be.
Speaker 7: But of course that's not what we're, we're Trump and,
Speaker 7: and they need the money. So they'll take it from
Speaker 7: Elon Musk or any of the other, uh, hyperscale folks.
Speaker 3: And that's not going to help them. There'll be on
Speaker 3: the 25 side of a 75, 25. And that doesn't
Speaker 3: usually turn out too well.
Speaker 2: You know, there are only a couple of candidates in
Speaker 2: the country right now or, or, or political figures in
Speaker 2: the country now embracing data centers. And, uh, Now that
Speaker 2: Trump has insisted that they do it, you're going to
Speaker 2: see more of them doing that. I mean, in Florida,
Speaker 2: Byron Donalds is now the data center champion in a
Speaker 2: state where 72% of voters in the state of Florida
Speaker 2: are strongly opposed to data centers, where red counties are
Speaker 2: closing down data center planning operations and moratoriums are popping
Speaker 2: up in the most conservative parts of the state and
Speaker 2: the most liberal parts of the state. And Donalds not
Speaker 2: only is running on data centers, he's selected as a
Speaker 2: running mate The guy who did the bill in the
Speaker 2: Florida Senate that let data centers do all their planning
Speaker 2: in secret and take over eminent domain without the normal
Speaker 2: process and all this other crap. I'm like, this is
Speaker 2: an all in bet on a dumb, dumb idea.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is crazy.
Speaker 2: I mean, even Greg Abbott, who can feel Gina Hinojosa
Speaker 2: sort of catching up with him all of a sudden
Speaker 2: is like, oh, data centers are bad.
Speaker 1: Greg Abbott, y'all.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, and Tuberville's doing the same thing as Donald's
Speaker 7: in Alabama. I mean, doubling down, you know, they're signing NDAs,
Speaker 7: the same stuff, you know, keep it secret what they've approved. So, look,
Speaker 7: and I keep saying this. I know we've talked about it.
Speaker 7: People should, you know, should not go to sleep on
Speaker 7: the South, from David Jolly all the way over to
Speaker 7: Ossoff in Georgia.
Speaker 3: Stuff is happening there, Mississippi even.
Speaker 7: I mean, you just cannot– I mean– I'm not saying
Speaker 7: all of them are going to win, but there is
Speaker 7: a real energy down there. And so many of these
Speaker 7: candidates they put forward are flawed or on the wrong
Speaker 7: side of data centers or whatever.
Speaker 3: Don't go to sleep on the South. I think we're
Speaker 3: going to be surprised.
Speaker 7: I think some of them are going to break through
Speaker 7: and win anyway.
Speaker 3: We need a foothold in the South.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think that's, I mean, for my speaking
Speaker 7: as a Democrat, the party turned its back on the
Speaker 7: South a long time ago and it's cost us.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I could see Jolly winning.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Easily. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, right now, 18% of Republicans are saying in
Speaker 2: the last survey, in the DGA survey, that they're going
Speaker 2: to vote for, for David Jolly, 18% of Republicans.
Speaker 1: That is a earthquake.
Speaker 5: You know, you go back to that spread between Trump's
Speaker 5: very favorable and very unfavorable. And, you know, it is
Speaker 5: so huge now. And I think a lot of these
Speaker 5: people who just kind of have a favorable view of Trump,
Speaker 5: why are they going to vote?
Speaker 2: I don't, 13% have a very favorable view of Trump
Speaker 2: and 52% have a very unfavorable view of Trump.
Speaker 7: Iowa, Texas, Florida, again, going across a lot of these places.
Speaker 7: The Cattlemen's Associations are all going crazy because he dumped 300,000
Speaker 7: metric tons of cheap Argentine or wherever it's coming from,
Speaker 7: bad stuff that even China said no to.
Speaker 3: Um, so that doesn't help them. And then on top
Speaker 3: of it, okay.
Speaker 7: Well, there's no beef in Michigan, Wisconsin, Alabama, I mean,
Speaker 7: Alaska or Maine. So what could I do to help my,
Speaker 7: my Republican or help Rogers and Collins.
Speaker 3: And those folks? Oh, I know I'll get into it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to attack Canada. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Get into a trade war with Canada. And I think
Speaker 3: we've got it.
Speaker 7: Call Apple, um, to, to tell them to, to make
Speaker 7: the map say, uh, Lake America or whatever.
Speaker 1: Let's play that clip of, uh, Oh, yeah. Well, first off,
Speaker 1: let's actually go bring that back up.
Speaker 2: People hate the Canada tariff war and they hate renaming
Speaker 2: the lake. People are absolutely not playing.
Speaker 1: Trump's game anymore.
Speaker 2: 63% oppose renaming Lake Ontario. 57% oppose the new Canada
Speaker 2: trade war. You know, guys, I think five years ago, well,
Speaker 2: let's say in Trump's first terms, more generically, This would
Speaker 2: have been a 50-50 issue because MAGA and conservative-leaning independents would.
Speaker 1: Have all been like, yeah, it's just Trump, man. He's–
Speaker 1: that was fun.
Speaker 2: Now, with the economy burning down around them, people are pissed.
Speaker 2: And I think, Joe, I mean I think that taxes
Speaker 2: on Canadian imports number in all those northeast or northern
Speaker 2: tier states we've been talking about in New York and
Speaker 2: in Vermont and in Maine and in Michigan and in
Speaker 2: Wisconsin– those folks who have an actual economic relationship with Canada,
Speaker 2: I'm going to guess that number on approve is somewhere
Speaker 2: in these single digits.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's way. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It, that's, what's crazy.
Speaker 7: So you like got him messing with, uh, you know,
Speaker 7: beef producers in some of the key States like Iowa
Speaker 7: and Texas. And then at the same time, uh, messing with, well,
Speaker 7: you know, whether it's, uh, uh, Michigan with all the
Speaker 7: trade that goes back and forth with automobile manufacturing and
Speaker 7: all that stuff. It's just, uh, It's really thrown a rant.
Speaker 7: And by the way, both of these happened this week.
Speaker 7: And so a lot of these polls that show like
Speaker 7: Turek up by two or Tallarico up by one or,
Speaker 7: you know, I just think it's going to get worse.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just doesn't make any sense. Although, you know,
Speaker 3: there's not a lot of Trump does that does anymore.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about something that is very popular
Speaker 2: with Donald Trump in his own head. And that is
Speaker 2: his forever war with Iran, which is definitely, definitely going well.
Speaker 2: And we totally want it. And it's been completely obliterated.
Speaker 2: Let's bring up that Trump tweet guys.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk about that for the flip side.
Speaker 2: Iran is a failed nation. It is dead and on
Speaker 2: and on and on and on and on guys. I've
Speaker 2: never seen anything like this. And I've been through a
Speaker 2: couple of these middle Eastern excursions before. I mean, Stuart,
Speaker 2: you and I saw the impact in 2006 of a
Speaker 2: very unpopular war with some mild inflation and some slightly
Speaker 2: bumped up gas prices, how badly it turned out for
Speaker 2: both for president Bush and for the Republicans in the
Speaker 2: 2006 election cycle. I mean, does Trump's hallucination in this
Speaker 2: whole thing. I mean, I don't think it helps anybody
Speaker 2: in terms of the Republican party get out from under
Speaker 2: this war.
Speaker 1: It is so unpopular.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I mean, If you go back to
Speaker 5: Afghanistan and Iraq, like you're talking about, the impact on
Speaker 5: individual Americans was pretty small, which is sort of one
Speaker 5: of the tragedies of it, because you had this small
Speaker 5: percentage of the population in the military that was making
Speaker 5: these tremendous sacrifices. And no one seemed to know it.
Speaker 5: But now, every time you fill up your car, you're
Speaker 5: aware of the fact that, you know, we lost a
Speaker 5: war to Iran. And it affects everybody. It affects the
Speaker 5: total economy. And, you know, I just got to say,
Speaker 5: one of the things that really this is exposed is
Speaker 5: just how unprepared the American military is for modern war.
Speaker 5: It's tragic the way they had no drone defense in
Speaker 5: these mini spaces. They've now had to move people out.
Speaker 5: And You know, let me tell you, you know, having
Speaker 5: just been in Ukraine, this whole idea, like, how unprepared
Speaker 5: we are. And HEGSET is canceling these drone units. And
Speaker 5: just take one thing. And, you know, Rick, you work
Speaker 5: for the idea. The sort of basic principle of American
Speaker 5: casualty survival is being able to use helicopters.
Speaker 1: 100%.
Speaker 5: To go in and get them in the golden hour.
Speaker 1: Golden hour.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So you try that today in a war with drones.
Speaker 5: You send a helicopter into a drone zone? I mean,
Speaker 5: they're literally going to have 400 drones.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And it's going to have a survival time of seconds. Seconds.
Speaker 5: And, you know, you don't do it. So the Ukrainians
Speaker 5: are coming up with these new land-based drones that are armored,
Speaker 5: that they can get people out of. That stuff's just
Speaker 5: being invented in Ukraine. The Russians just don't give a fuck.
Speaker 5: You know, the average life expectancy of a Russian now
Speaker 5: is under 30 minutes on the front line. And so,
Speaker 5: I mean, what are we going to do? It just
Speaker 5: seems to be so in that report that you really
Speaker 5: have a good feel for this, Rick, of these commanders
Speaker 5: giving their... Saying, I'm familiar with this document.
Speaker 2: I have dealt with this exact stuff. Way back in
Speaker 2: the day, but I know what this thing is. And
Speaker 2: when all the combatant commanders, South Com, Cent Com, Special
Speaker 2: Operations Command, North Com, Indo-PAC Com, when they're asked by
Speaker 2: the secretary, are you prepared to carry out X or
Speaker 2: Y set of missions?
Speaker 1: And they say, concur or non-concur? And they're all saying non-concur.
Speaker 2: We have burned through our people, our stockpiles of missiles,
Speaker 2: both offensive and defensive. We have lost most all of
Speaker 2: our bases in the Middle East now, in the Gulf,
Speaker 2: are inaccessible to us in some greater or lesser degree.
Speaker 3: But, you know, that's why I'm so glad to know
Speaker 3: that China's now on our side.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was great news. Let's play that clip.
Speaker 6: After 47 years, it is over. And we are telling
Speaker 6: people either you are with us or against us. And
Speaker 6: everyone says to me, well, what about China? I said,
Speaker 6: we have more in common with the Chinese on Iran
Speaker 6: than we disagree with on the Chinese.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Man, I want to play cards with that guy.
Speaker 7: You know, the other thing, though, about the drone thing is,
Speaker 7: you know, assuming China has gotten the idea that, hey,
Speaker 7: cheap drones are a really good thing. I actually think
Speaker 7: China could make a quadrillion cheap drones. So while we're
Speaker 7: shutting down drone units, et cetera, et cetera, again, we
Speaker 7: don't have a naval presence anymore. We don't have the
Speaker 7: capacity with missiles, et cetera, that we had because we've
Speaker 7: drained everything down. And then on top of it, we're
Speaker 7: not pursuing what may be the future of modern warfare
Speaker 7: with something that China actually could probably do fairly well.
Speaker 1: They are.
Speaker 3: No, but that's my point. But they're on our side
Speaker 3: in Iran, I thought.
Speaker 5: They're helping the Russians.
Speaker 2: They're helping the Russians and the Iranians. I mean, they're
Speaker 2: our greatest ally these days.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, the Ukrainians last.
Speaker 2: Year, in 2025, the Ukrainians built about a million drones,
Speaker 2: about one million drones. They're going to scale that to
Speaker 2: two million this year. They don't have one one-hundredth of
Speaker 2: China's infrastructure technologically. And I'm sure if China wanted to
Speaker 2: put a hundred million drones into the air, they could
Speaker 2: probably do it.
Speaker 1: I would just like everybody to know that.
Speaker 5: These drones are really changing. Just in the last couple
Speaker 5: of weeks, the Russians have used predominantly these jet-powered drones.
Speaker 5: They're two times as fast as the other drones. And
Speaker 5: you know, Ukrainians will adapt, but they're a lot harder
Speaker 5: to shoot down. And your warning time is a lot
Speaker 5: shorter because it's three times as fast. And where are
Speaker 5: we now? I mean, with the United States?
Speaker 2: Oh, just so you guys feel good about this, Pete
Speaker 2: Hex has Pentagon we're going to build 60,000 drones this year, 60,000,
Speaker 2: which y'all, I mean that 60,000 drones get used in,
Speaker 2: in Ukraine probably in a couple of days. Yeah.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 3: And they're probably good friends with somebody. So I'm sure.
Speaker 5: Oh, of course.
Speaker 3: I'm sure they'll be really good.
Speaker 2: Like one of the Trump boys is a, as a
Speaker 2: board member or a shareholder or some, some BS, right?
Speaker 1: Crazy. Um, all right, let's, let's keep moving here, folks.
Speaker 2: Um, want to get down the list here speaking of
Speaker 2: the military uh the army secretary dan driscoll is leaving
Speaker 2: um i was told this afternoon by somebody in that
Speaker 2: process in the defense world the number one thing pete
Speaker 2: hegseth couldn't stand about dan driscoll was that dan driscoll
Speaker 2: was an army ranger and pete hegseth never made the
Speaker 2: selection cut.
Speaker 5: For rangers well funny that is the secret.
Speaker 1: Sauce underneath the whole goddamn fight.
Speaker 5: You know i was when i was in ukraine um
Speaker 5: I was with a guy, one of these extraordinary guys
Speaker 5: who went through ranger school and was talking about this,
Speaker 5: that no, you don't have to have a ranger tab
Speaker 5: to be an infantry officer. But the separation between those
Speaker 5: that do and the way they're viewed and those that don't.
Speaker 1: Is meaningful.
Speaker 5: And he said that. It's the first time I've ever
Speaker 5: heard anybody talk about this with a headset. It's kind
Speaker 5: of running on my radar screen that he never went
Speaker 5: through ranger school.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 5: And, you know, you can do all the bad pull-ups you.
Speaker 1: Want, but... He's not the guy.
Speaker 2: And, you know, all the PT in the world doesn't
Speaker 2: get you through ranger school. You have to have a
Speaker 2: mental discipline and you have to have physical and mental discipline, uh,
Speaker 2: combined to get through that, that process. And it is not,
Speaker 2: it is not, it is, it is never, it has
Speaker 2: never left Pete Hex's mind that, that, that those guys
Speaker 2: look down on him.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And so he hates the army.
Speaker 2: He went after all these guys who, who, uh, all
Speaker 2: these senior, uh, officials in the army, um, who were,
Speaker 2: were highly accomplished, highly educated, highly regarded, got rid.
Speaker 1: Of them because they're all Rangers.
Speaker 2: Um, and, and he's replaced them with a lot of
Speaker 2: these sycophantic, you know, younger, younger colonels who are playing
Speaker 2: the Trump game. And of course now he's got his
Speaker 2: own little troll army of, of special government employees, um,
Speaker 2: who go there specifically to tweet nice things about Pete Hexen.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's one of the, it's like, I was like, look,
Speaker 1: it's always one of those.
Speaker 2: He's like, if Barack Obama or Joe Biden had done this,
Speaker 2: what would Fox news say? Yeah.
Speaker 1: The world would be on fire if that had happened.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and, you know, what's Roger Wicker, chairman of the
Speaker 5: Armed Services Committee, doing? Absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: Absolutely nothing.
Speaker 5: The worst chairman of the Armed Services Committee in modern history.
Speaker 1: He's not fit to, like, stand inside one of Sam
Speaker 1: Nunn's shoes.
Speaker 2: This guy is a nobody.
Speaker 1: I mean, just a chicken shit.
Speaker 5: It goes to, you know, Roger is somebody who used
Speaker 5: to be a staffer, and I think he really sees
Speaker 5: himself in a staff role. He has an opinion. He
Speaker 5: offers it to his boss. That's Trump. Boss doesn't agree. Okay,
Speaker 5: then it's your obligation to support the boss.
Speaker 1: I'm going to salute smartly and move out.
Speaker 5: As a United States senator, that's just a terrible role model.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's awful.
Speaker 5: I mean, I ask you this, Rick. Rick, let me
Speaker 5: just ask you. You know a lot about the military.
Speaker 5: How long is it going to take the military to
Speaker 5: recover from this?
Speaker 2: Oh, this is a generational problem now, Stuart, because all
Speaker 2: those young captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels who 10 years
Speaker 2: from now will be brigadier generals, they're growing up in
Speaker 2: a system right now that rewards political affinity to the
Speaker 2: Secretary of.
Speaker 1: Defense of the President of the United States.
Speaker 2: There's going to have to be a washout in professional
Speaker 2: military education for 10 years to say to all these
Speaker 2: up and comers and all these, and, and to all
Speaker 2: the young lieutenants that are, that are just entering their
Speaker 2: service arc. Now we serve the constitution, not the president.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: That, that is, it is.
Speaker 2: And I know there are military leaders who are still
Speaker 2: inside and we're thinking about this problem already. I know
Speaker 2: there are recently retired senior military officers thinking about this
Speaker 2: problem already. But the next president and the next secretary
Speaker 2: of defense, to reprofessionalize the military and to purge this
Speaker 2: political taint out of it, it's going to take a minute.
Speaker 2: It's going to take a minute. But luckily, speaking of allies,
Speaker 2: Russia's back in the G20. Who knew? I mean, it's
Speaker 2: not that they're genocidal maniacs waging war throughout Europe, but
Speaker 2: it's okay. Let's bring them to Asheville, North Carolina at
Speaker 2: the Grove Park Inn for a summit. Our European allies
Speaker 2: are pissed. I mean, Stuart, you always say this, and
Speaker 2: it's so right. At the end of the day, the
Speaker 2: thing that people underestimate is the Russian influence on the
Speaker 2: Republican Party is you cannot overscore that. You cannot underestimate
Speaker 2: how powerful that is in the GOP.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know, it started at key places like,
Speaker 5: you know, the NRA, Heritage Foundation, and the Russians got
Speaker 5: a president.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 5: It's the most extraordinary thing. And the impact on America's...
Speaker 5: Think about it. You're growing up as a kid in
Speaker 5: America now. You're not going to see America as leader
Speaker 5: of the free world.
Speaker 1: Oh, hell no.
Speaker 5: I mean, how could you? And we've lost the war
Speaker 5: in Iran. It's probably not going to be the only war.
Speaker 5: I mean, Russia moves into... Estonia?
Speaker 2: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are one eye open these days.
Speaker 5: Are we going to activate Article 5? I don't know.
Speaker 2: Europe will ask, but if they go into Latvia, Lithuania,
Speaker 2: and Estonia, Poland hits Russia on the flanks. Even the
Speaker 2: Germans came out today after over a week and said, yes,
Speaker 2: Russia is attacking our military facilities in germany and are
Speaker 2: attacking our aircraft with drones and sabotage and and having
Speaker 2: done some german politics i will tell you folks they
Speaker 2: love russia so fucking much they don't want to believe
Speaker 2: it the leadership class does they love them so much
Speaker 2: they want that gas back flowing cheap and plentiful again
Speaker 2: and they hate admitting it but if germany has to
Speaker 2: admit that russia's at war with them they're at war
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 5: They're sending drones to the leipzig airport.
Speaker 1: What the hell?
Speaker 5: It's like Mexico sending a drone to Atlanta airport.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just a mistake.
Speaker 5: Maybe he just took a wrong turn.
Speaker 2: As I like to steal the William Gibson quote about
Speaker 2: the future and repurpose it, World War III is here,
Speaker 2: it's just not evenly distributed quite yet.
Speaker 5: That's a great quote.
Speaker 1: Well, at least we're going to have a ballroom, folks.
Speaker 1: At least Trump's going to get a ballroom.
Speaker 3: Incredible.
Speaker 1: My God.
Speaker 2: What other priorities should we have right now in a
Speaker 2: time of international peril and economic crisis at home, but
Speaker 2: a goddamn ballroom. Well, folks, we've got a tight schedule tonight.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to wrap it up here. You can
Speaker 2: catch us here on Tuesday nights. You can catch me
Speaker 2: on Thursday nights on the breakdown on Tuesdays, Lincoln project
Speaker 2: podcast on Thursdays, breakdown on friday's uh elephant in the
Speaker 2: room uh and our polling show andrew will be coming
Speaker 2: back from paternity leave very shoot very shortly now i got.
Speaker 1: To see the baby this weekend he's.
Speaker 3: Large red hair um cool.
Speaker 2: And uh and he's got the family ears um and
Speaker 2: you can also catch me on sundays with molly jung
Speaker 2: fast on fast politics and uh catch stewart joe and
Speaker 2: me all at lincoln project lincoln square and a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of other places All right, everybody.
Speaker 1: Have a great night. Stay safe. We'll see you all
Speaker 1: next week.