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go to episode 323 of the behind the shield podcast
with joel totoro and wes barnett welcome to the
behind the shield podcast as always my name is
james gearing and this week it is my absolute
honor to welcome back onto the show former green
beret and founder of we defy foundation alan
shabaro Now, Alan was first on the show on episode
900, and we dove into a bunch of topics from
jujitsu to the conflict in Gaza and everything
in between. Now, what I really admire about Alan
is the courage of his voice. And what I mean
is during this conflict, especially in Gaza.
There have been very few people speaking out
against it, which from a human point of view,
I think is horrendous. So we are going to revisit
that situation. He was actually in the West Bank
and witnessed many things with his own eyes.
We're going to talk about immigration and ICE,
the conflict with Iran and so many other areas.
So before we get to this incredible conversation,
as I say every week, please just take a moment.
Go to whichever app you listen to this on. Subscribe
to the show. Leave feedback and leave a rating.
Every single five -star rating truly does elevate
this podcast, therefore making it easier for
others to find. And this is a free library of
over 1 ,100 episodes now. So all I ask in return
is that you share these incredible men and women's
stories so I can get them to every single person
on planet Earth who needs to hear them. So with
that being said... I welcome back onto the show,
Alan Shibarro. Enjoy. Well, Alan, I want to start
by saying. Welcome back onto the Behind the Shield
podcast. We spoke a little while ago. I actually
didn't look up the episode number, so I'll put
that on the show notes. But I want to start by
welcoming you back onto the Behind the Shield
podcast today. Thanks so much, man. Happy to
be here. So where on planet Earth are we finding
you today? I actually am in Poland right now.
Brilliant. So, well, let's start with... Yeah,
I think you and I spoke about a year ago, if
I've got that right now, maybe just a little
bit less. So I'm going to put it to you first.
Talk to me about the things that you've seen
over the last 12 months. And let's start highlighting
some of the things, the actionable things that
we can do to start righting some of these wrongs
collectively. So I think actually we spoke before
I went to the West Bank. And let me just say,
it wasn't just an eye -opener, but it was beyond
that. Honestly, I was expecting it to be bad.
I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. And
it just kind of blew my mind. So initially, I
went there. I got on with this company. I volunteered.
To go provide security for surgeons that were
going to Gaza. And I was staging out of the West
Bank. So I was there for about two months. And
I never got to go to Gaza. So I stayed in the
West Bank the whole time. Primarily in Hebron.
So I spent some time in Bethlehem. But most of
it was in Hebron, the largest city that they
have down there. Pretty conservative town. I
didn't know what to expect. The last time I was
in the Middle East, well, the last time I was
in the Middle East was in Iraq. So I didn't know
what to expect and how I was going to be received.
And I think that was actually part of it. With
everything that I've heard, you know, you hear
a lot of conflicting things, especially in the
beginning of it. And so I was honestly, I was
curious to see how it was going to happen. And
so I went through Jordan. And then I went and
crossed the border into the West Bank. And man,
it was it was an eye opener. The people were
more than so much more welcoming than I ever
expected. I mean, they're truly like the most
the nicest people I ever met in my life. The
most well, I never heard the word welcome more
in my life than I did when I was there. I never
drank more coffee in my life than I did when
I was there either. Just because everywhere I
went, I mean, I don't really blend. So if I walk
by and they're like, they knew I was a foreigner.
They're like, come down, come, come. And so I
tried to initially try like, oh, no, thank you.
I appreciate it. I got to get going. But no,
no, no. That's it. Come. Okay. All right. Never
mind. So I sat down with them. They spoke, most
of them spoke pretty good English, at least enough
to conversate. And they just honestly just wanted
to know what I was doing there and, you know,
and wanted to see them. You know, of course,
the two most common questions is if you're married,
do you have kids? Half of them try to hook me
up with someone in their family. But truly just
phenomenal, gentle, and nice. Human beings. I
mean, it's welcoming. Honestly, I can't stress
that word enough. Now, on the flip side of that,
in Hebron, there's massive settlements that are
there. And the only time that I actually felt
threatened was when I had guns pointed at me
by the Israelis. And that happened nine times
in two months. Sometimes at checkpoints, sometimes
just standing there. I think you've seen it on
my profile. I got one picture. I'm literally
just standing there with my hands crossed. And
I was just looking. And this guy literally had
his gun on me for about six or seven minutes.
And I wanted to make sure that was the case.
So I actually got up and walked a little bit
just to see if it was like maybe he just doesn't
know how to handle a weapon. And he just followed
me, keeping the muzzle pointed at me. So it was
intentional. And it was meant to intimidate,
but, you know, I'm from Texas, dude. I mean,
getting a gun pointed at me happens like every
week on I -35 during rush hour traffic. So there
really wasn't. I'm like, it's my first time,
man. I'm probably going to be my last. So it
was, you know, walking the apartheid wall and
seeing everything. Man, there was a lot of things
that I started kind of thinking about. And one
of the things is, I don't even think that a lot
of the Israeli citizens have an idea of who they
hate. And I think that that's there more for
a psychological reason, so that people won't
ever get into a conversation. You know what I
mean? I truly believe that, that it's one of
the big parts of it, just so they never get to
know each other, so they can keep up this. this
facade of uh you know they hate us from from
the get -go and they they study that and in their
schools and all their books have you know anti
-jewish um anti -israeli and i went to the schools
i went to i went through the books from like
third grade to like eighth grade um there's nothing
in there and i don't know why i was thinking
there was but you know just to say i did i did
um so Man, it was, you know, seeing the settlements
and how the settlers were. It's truly like dehumanizing
on a daily basis. Just to get to the Ibrahimi
Mosque, you know, for them to make prayer, they
got to go through. I went through three checkpoints
just to get through to that. They just do random
questions. Pat you down and makes you go through
like a metal detector and all that. And they
just, it truly is dehumanizing. One of the things
I saw was, and I got this on video as well. There
was a Muslim woman and her husband was on the
other side. And I'm sure, you know, by now, like
when, especially wearing the hijab, they stopped
her, they put her, had her sit down. And there
was two men that were literally surrounding her.
And her husband, again, is on the other side
and they're trying to strip search her. So they
grab their hijab and try to take it off. And
she's like fighting them off and saying like,
no, no, no. And the husband's like right there,
like rightfully so, like freaking out, you know,
going like, what are you doing? What are you
doing? What are you doing? I mean, if anyone
could put themselves in that situation, imagine
how they would react. You know what I mean? They're
doing that to try to get them to react. Right.
And he knows this. But at the same time, it's
very emotional because it's his wife. You know
what I mean? I mean, I didn't know the woman.
I didn't know the guy. I was just recording.
But I felt enraged. You know what I mean? I can
I can. If I put myself in that situation, I don't
know what I would have done. You know, he handled
a lot better than I did. Tell you that. But even
then. You know, the guys were just coming over
and yelling and pointing their weapons at them
and threatening them through one of the flashbangs
to try to get them to walk away. It was just
it's hateful. It truly is. And and imagine. And
so I was there for two months. So imagine them
going through a lifetime of that. You know what
I mean? And that's that's truly what what it
was was unbelievable was like how. They can still
be as friendly as they were to me. And. And so
while they're actually dealing with this subjugation,
you know, this apartheid, knowing that they can't
travel, they have to be subjected to these checkpoints.
They're constantly with their boot on their neck.
You know what I mean? I don't know. And trying
to explain this, especially to like Americans,
like, you know, and I just try to use it like
an X or X or Y, you know, if. If X was here and
they were occupying your home, how would Y react?
You know what I mean? Try to put in those terms.
Because for some reason, when it comes to Israel,
no one actually was like, well, they have their
reasons. Well, actually, no, they don't. It's
literally just, it's an occupation, bottom line.
And the way they're reacting, again, is all in
response to things. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Sorry, wrong tangent on that. No, no, no. Well,
it's interesting because I've had several different
perspectives. I had a firefighter on, Brian.
I'm blanking on his last name at the moment.
But he is married to a Palestinian -American
woman, and they went back to the West Bank. And
he was an eyewitness to these forced occupations.
And I've had Dr. Thayer Ahmad on, I think, three
times now. And he was over there doing humanitarian
work in Gaza in some of these hospitals that
no longer exist now. And, you know, so you get
these boots on the ground, you know, eyewitness
accounts rather than Fox or CNN or whatever fucking
mouthpiece that people, you know, believe like
the gospel. And so it's so important to hear
this. You know, we've got a Green Beret who fought
for his country, who'd fought in the Middle East,
who's now boots on the ground, didn't have any
initial allegiance to one specific religion or
nation. And you're just literally saying this
is how it is. Yeah, I caught a couple of those
episodes, man. They were great. And again, being
there and again, Hebron being the most conservative
places, here was the crazy part. I was there
doing aid, and I rented an apartment in the building,
and during aid, there was one of my neighbors,
and she had a seven -year -old daughter came
up and had a plate of fruit and some snacks on
there and some sweets, and just, here you go.
She didn't speak English, and my Arabic is atrocious.
I had dinner with somebody from that apartment
building at least once or twice a week. On average,
twice a week, honestly. They would just invite
me to their home, cook me dinner, treat me like
family. And they don't know who I am. You know
what I mean? It's just, that's how they are.
One of the craziest things I noticed as well
is that there's no homelessness. There aren't
any homeless people. It's like, you know, why?
If you don't have a place, we'll find a place
for you. And that's it. You know, it's very simple.
I remember in Bethlehem, I was actually telling
the story to a friend of mine today. There was
like a little shawarma stand. And I remember
going there and there was clearly like this.
He was probably like in his late teens, early
20s. He had some type of mental disability. And
he was kind of dirty and disheveled. i was like
hey you know let me let me buy him you know like
sandwich and he's like no no no we got it it's
no problem we got it every time you know and
in that solidarity that that kind of community
type feel is um we have this impression that
you know these third world countries and and
these places that you know where more poor people
live that they're there to take advantage of
you, right? They're going to steal your shoes
while you're still wearing them. And it's always
just the opposite. You know what I mean? It's
the people that have a lot of money that try
to steal your funds from your bank account, you
know? And, you know, the politicians that try
to, you know, swindle you to believe in something
so they can spend their tax monies so they can
benefit themselves. But it's just the opposite.
It's just we've been led to believe that for
so long. It's really interesting. I actually
haven't shared it yet, but I saw a thing on Finland
and Finland has no homelessness and Japan has
no homelessness because they were like, well,
let's give them housing and then work on mental
health. And I think once they, if I remember
right, I just kind of scanned it. Once they initiated
this program, like almost immediately, 80 % of
the people, you know, went back to work, you
know, actually got back on their feet. And then
you look at the most affluent country. on the
planet and the homelessness that we have and
obviously my community listening to this i mean
we're the ones that engage with these men and
women that are so desperate whether it's addiction
or mental health you know i think i think 10
of our homeless of veterans have i got that right
you know i mean and yet there you are going these
other nations that arguably looking down on those
are poorer third world if you want to describe
it and they actually got a better sense of community
than we have here um Another place that shocked
me was when I went to Portugal about 10 years
ago. If I see a cop there, I'm like, hey, what
area should I be leery of? What should I avoid?
They're like, there's really not any place. I
was like, well, what's the most common crime?
They're like, pickpockets. Look out for pickpockets.
That's about it. And then come to find out they
literally have the lowest crime rate in all of
the EU. But here's the crazy part. They decriminalize
all their drugs. But before that, they set up
an infrastructure of they treated their drug
addiction as a health problem, not a crime problem.
Right. And so making that change and setting
up rehab centers that were government funded,
that took care of them in the sense where they
got them. to go and be a a a working part of
society again because they realize this is a
health problem you know what i mean but i think
especially with the privatization of of prisons
and we need to keep them filled up but the thing
is is that it costs almost three times as much
to keep someone in prison than it does to get
them rehab you know what i mean especially if
it's a drug addiction you know let's not even
talk about the the cannabis convictions because
that's just absolutely ridiculous in my mind
but um but we continually try to create it uh
create it or or keep it as a uh it's a criminal
problem right and they're all criminals and that's
why they're doing it because they want to do
it when we realize that 83 of the heroin addicted
homeless people that we have out of this almost
700 000 83 % got that way from prescription drugs.
So, and this is kind of like the point that I
was making earlier was it's the rich people that
are taking away from the middle class and from
the rest of the population so they can continually,
those are the biggest drug dealers that there
are, that are around. They're literally like
controlling the entire population based on drugs.
And they've managed to shift the mentality. especially
with Purdue Pharma when they came out with that,
you know, blame the victim, right? And we still
haven't gotten away from that. We still are regurgitating
that. And that was literally propaganda to protect
themselves. But it's still implemented in our
minds that, yeah, they want to be that way. Oh,
they're just lazy. Oh, they just want to be addicted.
When you can't get them the prescriptions anymore
from the doctor and he's cutting you off and
it gives you no other alternative. Your brain
is already rewired. The only thing that it wants
to do is get on that drug again or something
similar to it. And so they'll try to find something
that they can do in order for that to happen
or make that happen, you know, with any other
type of drug that they can find. And so, again,
because people profit off of it, you know, it's
going to maintain, you know, its control on people
and population. It's funny you say Portugal because
my mom and my brother moved there about 25 years
ago, I think maybe a little bit less. And when
I started the podcast, I don't know if we talked
about this last time, but she said to me, hey,
do you know what they did here? And she relayed
exactly what you just told me. And I ended up
going to Lisbon when I was visiting one year
and sat down with Zhao Gulau, the man who spearheaded
that whole initiative. And I visited, you know,
his headquarters and one of the treatment centers.
And like you said, I mean, I've been to Portugal
for two decades now, visiting my family. And
when I think of the cops, they've got these shiny
revolvers, almost like a kind of Roy Rogers holster,
because, you know, the damn things never get
used. And then I come back to the US and, you
know, when I was still working, I just cover,
you know, dead people with yellow sheets over
and over again from gun violence and, you know,
all the ripple effects of addiction. You know,
and then we talk about the government, you know,
are they actually doing the right thing for the
people? Well, most recently, the FDA, obviously,
you know, back in the 90s approved OxyContin.
And my population are the ones that are dealing
with that even to this day, the poor people that
are struggling. But then very recently, MDMA,
which we know is extremely effective in treating
PTSD and, you know, some of the other mental
health issues, especially in our populations,
plural. And it got shut down by the FDA. And
that's not even prescribed. You do it with a
counselor in an actual facility. You're not given
it to take home. So if that doesn't underline
the fact that they don't give a fuck, that they
have no problem. And then Richard Sackler lives
in Boca Raton, Florida, in a mansion to this
day. You know, but how many people are locked
away, like you said, for having a bag of weed
in their pocket in the 90s? I mean, you know,
it is. We need a complete control alt delete
because the way we're doing it, all it does is
just destroy. the average American's homes and
communities. Absolutely. Nailed it on the head.
Absolutely. Going back to when you were in the
West Bank, talk to me about what the people were
doing that you were helping protect and were
there any stories from them, especially on the
medical side? Honestly, I wasn't able to go there
in any other capacity than to be a tourist. I
think that was, to me, like one of the hardest
things to deal with is because as much as I wanted
to help, as much as I wanted to do something,
I literally was, there was nothing I could do.
And, you know, I don't know, I'm sure the, you
know, on my, especially on my Instagram page
and every other podcast that I've done, you see
everything from Palestine plastered on there
and all the things to deal with. And I'm trying
to bring that to light. Because the one thing
that everyone said was, we don't have a voice.
Speak for us. Be our voice. And I took that to
heart. I truly did. And I will continue to do
so for as long as I possibly can. I don't have
any intention of stopping whatsoever. And I mean,
if that's the only thing I can do, that to me
is the very bare minimum for And it's not even
something where you have to have friends or family
there. Just be a freaking human being. You know
what I mean? And realize that the Palestinians
have been living under these conditions of ethnic
cleansing and apartheid and constant dehumanization,
shootings, murder detainees. I mean, it goes
on and on. And what I couldn't wrap my head around
was truly. How I've only been able to experience
this, excuse me, for two months. And then going
through that, I just, that's one thing just like,
I can't believe they, they, they survived this.
I can't believe that they're not so hateful for
to anybody, you know, that comes around. And
one of the biggest misconceptions that a lot
of people have is, is that like, Oh, they just
hate Jews. Let me tell you one thing. The only
Jews that I saw on the West bank were either
settlers who are violent and they go in there
and they try to burn, either burn your crops.
You know, they try to take over your home and
all these small areas from there. And the Israeli
occupation forces. I mean, those were literally
the only two Israelis that I saw. And so when
people are referring to like they hate the Jews.
Yeah. The only Jews that they saw were those.
You see what I mean? And so when they have like
the Star of David and it's crossed out, it's
because they wear that on their uniform. But
people like to twist that around. And try to
say, oh, they hate old Jews. They don't hate
Jews as in Jews like the religion and everything,
the people themselves. They hate the people that
are oppressing them. And rightfully so. Anybody
in their right mind would want to resist against
that. When you have a resistance, you know, if
you want to end a resistance, you got to end
what they're resisting against. That's so simple.
You know what I mean? It's... painful to try
to explain this to people when they like they
don't want to get it they want to and and we've
had propaganda you know kind of pushed in for
the longest time that it's it's literally like
it it's almost insulting them if you're telling
them that they're wrong like no what you're thinking
and what you're saying and what you believe is
wrong and and this is the one thing i've kind
of prided myself on is literally having these
conversations, you know, with these direct messages
in the background and literally having these
small conversations with people. And they're
like, well, I didn't know that. Well, I didn't
know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know
about the history. People don't know about how
it started. People don't know about the Havar
agreement in 1933, you know, between Hitler and
the Zionists, you know, that started the migration
of 33 ,000 Jews, Jewish Zionists between 1933
and 1939. People don't know about the first terrorist
attack that happened in the Middle East, you
know, and. The SS Patria in 1940, where they
were so desperate to keep, you know, the Jews
that were there using them as a front that when
the British were tried to try to deport them,
they literally blew up that ship and killing
like 261 Jews. That was the Jewish Zionists that
did that. You know what I mean? And initially
they tried to blame the Arabs. So it wasn't like
this act of heroism, you know, where they're
trying to like stop them from leaving. If they
try to blame somebody else, that's already like
a false flag operation. And they did it again
six years later, July 22nd, 1946, at the King
David Hotel. But they bombed the south wing of
the hotel, dressed up as Arabs and telling everyone,
yeah, it was Arabs, it was Arabs, it was Arabs.
And that killed Jews, that killed the British,
that killed Palestinians, that killed 91 of a
mixed group. And the crazy part was, is like...
What's his name? Yitzhak Rabin? Yeah. That sounds
right. Sorry. Was actually prime minister later
on. You know what I mean? And so these people,
and Menachem Begin was actually behind the King
David Hotel bombing. This guy not only was a
PM, but he won the Nobel Peace Prize. So not
only are they not held accountable to it, but
they're rewarded for it. You know what I mean?
And this, I think, is one of the worst things
that they have to deal with is that not only
are they doing wrong, but they're being rewarded
by the West because they're able to spin it.
You see what I mean? So the amount of frustration
that I can't even fathom. And it doesn't even
stop there. The Lehi, the Ergon, the Haganah,
all these groups later on joined together, right?
They just banded them together, and they all
absorbed into each other, and they created the
IDF. So literally, you have a terrorist organization,
terrorist cells that united together, and that's
what became the Israeli Defense Forces. And that's
what happened in 1948. Those were the people
that were doing it. So they had a head start
in all this. I mean, these weren't fringe groups,
right? They were the backbone of the Israeli
military. I think we talked before, you know,
when I reflect back to growing up, you know,
I grew up as a young boy in the 80s. I was right
next to a military base in the UK, Ministry of
Defense base. And I remember having to sweep
our car for bombs because of the IRA and, you
know, because there were mainland bombings. But
when I start learning the history of that occupation,
you understand how this became. Now, is it right
that each side is blowing up innocent people
or shooting innocent people in Belfast or whatever
it is? Of course not. But the only way you're
going to stop this domino effect is you've got
to understand the origin and you've got to stop
this to -ing and fro -ing. It's like gang killings,
you know, the Crips and the Bloods. At what point
do you go, hey... There's a lot of young black
people dying here. We need to stop this. So when
I look at this, you know, from an American lens
now, I mean, you and I have heard this over and
over. Oh, but October 7th. I said, well, yeah,
October 7th, you know, and there was provocation
and things. But yeah, it was horrendous. No one
is saying that the innocent people killed on
October 7th wasn't a tragedy as well. It was
another byproduct of this back and forth. To
then turn your head at all the atrocities. I
mean, if you look at the footage now of Gaza,
I mean, there's not a building standing. You
know, we're talking, I know it was 50 ,000. I'm
assuming it's probably 60 ,000 or so people killed
now. I think 20 ,000 of those were children.
You know, we've got so many emergency workers
and doctors and nurses murdered in cold blood.
Why is that narrative? Still so strong and a
lot of countries like the UK were absolutely
cowardly at first and they're finally starting
to come around and have a backbone now. But our
own nation still refuses to outwardly condemn
what's going on. In fact, the opposite. They
still are basically funding and arming the very
oppressor. One of the things that it just if
you look at the origin of how these resistance
groups even were. Why were they created? Why
are they doing this? These are the questions
that they just want to condemn what's happening
right now. People have goldfish memories. So
it's one of those things like, for example, Hezbollah,
right? Hezbollah wasn't even started until 1984.
And no one asks why. Well, they invaded Lebanon
for the first time in 1979. And then they fully,
like, excuse me, they attacked in 1979. They
fully invaded and occupied since 1982. Then Hezbollah
was created. You see what I mean? So you have
these resistance forces that are literally pushing
back on the occupation because it's a foreign
country coming in and trying to take over and
pushing the lines constantly. Israel doesn't
have any defined borders. They do that by design.
That's the kind of crazy part is that a lot of
people don't even know that. And then they just
want to bring up, like, for example, the embassy
bombings in 1982, right? Well, the barracks bombings,
the Marines barrack bombings, and right before
that, the embassy bombings, they just want to
remember that. But again, they don't want to
study history and see why did that happen. And
I think that's one of the most disheartening
things is that you have this massive population
that is supporting these criminals. And they
don't want to know why. If you talk about the
worst slaughter of civilians in Middle East history,
in modern history of this century at least, it
wasn't October 7th by any stretch of the imagination.
People don't want to remember the Sabra and Shatila
massacre, right? Or even the details to it, where
14 ,000 of the PLO fighters actually tried to,
like, okay, we are going to disarm. We are going
to put our weapons down. And we're going to leave.
And so the U .S. brokered that deal, was named
Habib, the ambassador Habib, brokered that deal.
And they literally put down their weapons at
the the suburb refugee camp and the refugee camp
was left with women, children and the elderly.
Right. And right after they left, they left to
Tunisia. And right after they left. This is when
the phalangist Christian group that had partnered
up with the Israelis had surrounded it and just
slaughtered up to 3 ,500 people in two days.
In two days. Then after that is because they
brokered a deal. And so can you imagine 14 ,000
people that said, you know what? We're going
to be the bigger person in this. We're going
to lay down our weapons. We're going to leave
as long as my family is protected. And they give
them their word. Right. The U .S. gave them their
word and the multinational forces that were there
for like peacekeeping mission. They were like,
OK. And but the problem was is they took off,
too. And right after that, like three days later
after that is when that happened. And they were
popping flares. There was really like surrounded
and making sure no one left and pop flares for
them at night. So they continue the massacre.
There was that was the worst, you know, slaughter
of civilians in modern history. And that's what
led to it. You see what I mean? What year was
that? 1982. Yeah. Yeah. So why is it, why do
we not hearing, I mean, you were obviously, you
know, someone, and again, I literally had my
Instagram shut down and they said it was a copyright
violation, but I know, you know, there was a
big bullseye on my back because I actually, you
know, care enough about humans that we're trying
to be a voice for, you know, the atrocities that
are going on. And again, it's not. blindly pro
-Palestinian and anti -Israeli. It's just pro
-human. So whoever is in the crossfire, I'm trying
to advocate for. But I'm not hearing this voice
from many people in the veteran population. Even,
I mean, I had Tulsi on. I'm talking about the
whole industrial military complex and assuming
there's going to be more diplomacy. And then
we get into here and again, zero. So why are
we not hearing more of our veterans speaking
up against these atrocities when they were held
to a very staunch rules of engagement themselves?
That is a phenomenal question, and it's one that
I have yet to figure out. Honestly, it boggles
my mind because it's not only that. And so when
I'm talking to especially Americans that are
completely staunch supporters of Israel, I have
to tap into like how it affects the U .S. Right.
So recently we give we're not recently since
1948, we have given more aid, more money, our
tax dollar money up to three hundred and ten
billion dollars combined to to Israel. For what?
How how does the U .S. citizen benefit from giving
that amount of money since 2000? Was it 2015?
I think it was like 10 years to three point four
billion dollars a year under the Obama administration.
And that was a shitbag move on his part to actually
apply for the to prove that. But three point
four billion dollars a year. That's that's literally
ten point four million dollars a day to Israel.
They have free health care. They have free education.
They don't have it's not a third world country.
Why are they getting all this money? You see
what I mean? What what can we do? This is why
we have. At the same time, we have homeless veterans.
We have a homeless population, period, of almost
700 ,000. We have a drug problem. We have more
people going broke from medical bills having
to file for bankruptcy than anything else. I
mean, 53 % of the U .S. population is literally
going broke from medical bills. They have to
declare bankruptcy from that. And we're just
ignoring that, saying, you know what? You can
have $10 .4 million a day of our tax money. And
where's Doge on this? You know what I mean? Where
are they? What the fuck are they doing with it?
You know what I mean? And this is at the same
time where we've gone in and supported them,
more vetoes for Israel than any other country.
I mean, almost half of the vetoes that we've
had since the inception of the UN, more veto
power. The veto that we've actually used has
been for Israel. You know what I mean? And again,
to save them from their atrocities. We have a
nuclear program. They never signed a nonproliferation
treaty. Right. They don't have inspections. But
all the things that we went to war with and so
much less with Iraq because they were the big
threat. And these are the guys that we said I
was saying was the one that he was like, buddy,
buddy. You know what I mean? We were like funding
him with all the military so they could fight
Iran at the same time funding funding. Iran itself
to fight Iraq. You know, the good old Oliver
North. And that's the crazy part is that, but
people don't want to know the history of that.
People are just saying, oh, they're saying death
to America, death to America. Well, guess what?
North Korea has been saying that for a while.
How come we don't bomb them? They got nukes and
no shit. So how can you blame them for that?
And then when you have like, what is it? Flight
655. Flight 655 that happened in 1988. This is
not ancient history. This is just what happened.
It was a civilian flight and the USS V -I -C
-C -E -N -E -S in the Gulf. The American warship
that was in the Gulf at the time. They mistook
it for an F -14 Tomcat. They literally downed
a civilian um airbus that was full of civilians
from Iran going to Dubai and that you know the
crazy part is is that we never apologized for
that um the the uh the commander got a legion
of merit he got and got and got an honorable
discharge you wonder why they say these things
well just dig you don't have to dig deep at all
you just have to dig a little bit and wonder
why So imagine like all those family members,
right? The 200 and I forgot how many, like 288,
I think it was the number. But, and again, even
when George Bush took over the senior, he's like,
I'm not going to apologize for anything. You
know what I mean? And he made that statement
in general, but everyone knows what he was referring
to. And he was saying this, like, like it's some
bravado, like bullshit. Dude, you fucked up.
Just. account for it, you know, so we can actually,
like, create some type of peace. But this is
what continues ongoing, ongoing. Everything that's
going on with Iran right now, and again, you
know, they're saying death to America. There's
a lot of countries that say that. Probably, you
know, the majority of them, if not all of them,
are the ones that we were part of a coup. Iran
included. Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, Operation
Ajax. We have Kermit Roosevelt, right? The grandson
of Teddy Roosevelt. that started that when he
was part of the CIA to overthrow Mosaddegh. And
that was a democratically elected prime minister
who wanted to nationalize his oil. And he was
actually at the White House, you know, staying
there for like two weeks when he was sick, staying
with Truman. And when the British came to say,
hey, they want to take our profits from this,
and they were making money hand over fist and
treating Iranians like shit. And Truman's like,
no, we're not doing that. and then uh he waited
till like the next presidency and then mi6 in
the u .s conducted this this coup and then put
in um the um the shah the lobby and pivali pivali
pizali whatever that one um and the monarchy
and they they and they're like oh it's modern
you know it's the the u .s of the middle east
um and but they they ignore entirely that the
sabak right the uh the uh the kind of like the
secret police that was torturing, imprisoning,
murdering people, like any type of dissent that
was happening whatsoever. And he was squandering
all the national assets and just for himself,
you know? And then when he had the student revolution
that stormed the CIA, it's because they had everything
there stored and the CIA finally admitted to
it in 2013, right? But they kept that secret
for the longest time. And that's what they went
to. And they found all the proof and they showed
it to the world. And that's the crazy part is
that, you know, it's not just you have to I'm
not taking sides here, but you have to understand
what's going on before you can say they're on
the wrong 100 percent, no matter what. You know,
and what has Iran ever attacked anyone on U .S.
soil? No, never. Not once. Have they attacked
everyone in the Middle East yet? Should we be
there in the first place? And that's what people
fail to realize, is that if we weren't there,
we wouldn't get bombed, we wouldn't be killed.
The USS Cole was another example of that. Why
were we there in the first place? You know what
I mean? If we weren't there, then none of this
would happen. And what right do we have to be
there? We have bases in 88 different countries.
And imagine if Iranian bases were surrounding
the United States. We would feel threatened too.
And then if we shot down... a passenger plane,
how would the U .S. react to that? Do you think
they'd forget about that? But Israel does that
in 1967 with the USS Liberty. Now it's like,
oh, that's just ancient news. No, that's ancient
news. Let's forget about that. Let's just put
that behind us. And they're like, oh, it was
a mistake. No, it wasn't a mistake. I read the
transcripts on that. And I saw all the interviews
from all the people that were actually surviving
from the USS Liberty. And not a single one said
it was a mistake. They had flybys in the morning.
It was clearly marked. Everything about it was
planned and executed to the T. And the worst
part, and I'm not always blaming Israel on this
because the U .S. had a good part in that. They
actually sent a message saying, hey, we need
reinforcements. We need backup. We need some
protection on this. And LBJ responded like, we're
not going to embarrass Israel. So it's not always,
I can't say all of the blame, but they did all
the attacking. You know what I mean? And then
when the life rafts came out, they were shooting
at the life rafts, trying to sink them as well,
because they didn't want any witnesses to see
what they were doing in Syria. No one wants to
talk about that. Let's talk about it. Absolutely.
Well, you talked about taking sides too. I mean,
you've mentioned, you know, Republican presidents,
you mentioned Democrat presidents, Democratic.
This is one thing that I really struggle with
today is that it feels like people have found
themselves where they would adhere to a political
identity more than the shared humanity, more
than the benefit of the nation. So you're actually
a Republican first, American second, or a Democrat
first. american second how have we got to that
point and how the fuck do we get ourselves out
of the absolute shit show that is this deliberate
division that's separating our people man that
that is the question of the century i definitely
think it doesn't start with the current presidency
i think this one's like for division wise it's
like the worst thing that's ever happened um
and again if you were following me uh before
you know how many times I condemned Biden for
the shit. You know what I mean? I called him
out on everything. I was calling the shit back.
He is fucking, he's definitely complicit in what's
happening. You know what I mean? I don't give
him a pass whatsoever, but Trump coming in and
continuing it, you know, but he also received
what, 235 million from AIPAC. So we have foreign
entities that are looking out for the best interest
of a foreign country before our own. That should
end right away. That's the first thing. We have
politicians that literally go into bank off the
laws that they pass, the policies that they pass
in order to benefit the corporations. I think
the Citizens United case was literally like one
of the worst things to happen in history. It
gave corporations so much more power. And I think
that's one of the biggest things that we're not
looking at. To the root of this, the way it's
become. And I truly believe this is when someone's
theology or ideology becomes infused with their
identity. Now, it's not like if you tell me,
like, some of my statements are wrong. No problem.
I got my dates wrong. Like, you're right. My
bad. I can't do that anymore if it's attached
to my identity, because now you're saying I'm
wrong. You see what I mean? And once you're saying
I'm wrong, now I have to double down and protect
myself because now you're attacking me personally.
But I'm not attacking you personally. I'm literally
saying what you're saying is wrong, but they
can't separate that anymore. And so it becomes
like a direct reflection of their identity. And
and you can no longer tell them that they're
wrong. Like, even if I like provide proof and
and citations and resources or like just one
thing after another, they'll ignore it and move
to something else. But Obama, but Biden. I'm
not giving them a pass either. But what can Biden
do right now about the current situation? If
Biden was in office, I'd still be criticizing
him. If Obama was in office, I'd still be criticizing
him. But neither one of them are in office right
now. It's the current person in. And we have
people that consider themselves constitutionalists.
They have the tattoos, we the people all over
the place. But their allegiance is to the president.
No, that should never happen. That's the reason
why we have. such an amazing constitution because
when they knew that it wasn't going to be perfect
and it could be changed. And the problem with
this is, is that this document is as a rules
and parameters that we have lived by. And my
loyalty is to the United States only to the constitution.
Those are, that's, that's who I have. That's
my highest authority is a U S constitution, nothing
else, not another country, definitely not another
country, just the United States. And somehow
this is offensive to some people. When I say
this, this is offensive because I don't put theology
first, because I don't put foreign interests
first. How is this offensive? I literally care
about my country first. I am a fucking patriot
because I believe in the Constitution and the
Constitution is the only thing I'm loyal to.
But somehow I'm not a patriot anymore because
I'm criticizing a foreign government. How the
fuck can I criticize my own country, and it literally
says so in the Constitution that freedom of speech
should do that, but I can't, and all of a sudden
I have to watch what I say when I talk about
a foreign government. That makes no sense to
me. But to get back to your question, sorry for
the rant. Rant away. Man, I don't know. The thing
is, is that we've seen this playbook before.
you know we've seen this happen before in so
many different things these false flag attacks
in order to get you know the you know the the
the majority of people that don't understand
history that don't do their own research that
you know they're easily influenced um just watching
um the congressional hearings on the gulf of
uh gulf of tonkin resolution right i watched
this like a week ago black and white it was in
1964 and if you hear like the things that they're
saying they're like oh the the first attack that
happened um we um we were shooting warning shots
you know to the vietnamese in international waters
well first off you're in international waters
what are you doing warning shots for right and
then they had like little scuffle and then the
second time they said that the vietnamese attacked
but they didn't you know what i mean that's the
crazy part is is that there was just a bunch
of like walking around the the topic and they
were just trying to dodge it and it's so shady
but that is literally what got us involved like
the catalyst for us to get like instead of going
from like an advisory position in vietnam it's
actually full -on blowing boots on the ground
let's go in the whole um that's when they started
talking about the uh the um communist the domino
effect right if vietnam gets taken laos cambodia
and and then the whole world becomes you know
the communists and that was like the big communist
threat they used that you know consistently and
that was like their doctrine to do that It's
the same thing. We've seen this. Man, I hate
sounding like a conspiracy theorist. But holy
shit, dude. For work first, why aren't the 9
-11 files made public? Why are they confidential?
People have so many questions, including myself.
It just doesn't make sense. And if that was the
catalyst for us to go into war, we certainly
should have. We lost enough people at war. I
mean, we lost, what, 7 ,000 people in Afghanistan
and Iraq. Maybe three times the amount were injured,
right? But there was a congressman, I totally
forgot his name, but the first time I heard this
was about four years ago. And since 9 -11, we
have lost 150 ,000 to veteran suicide. A hundred
and fifty thousand, you know, from the accumulation
of all these different wars that we've been into.
And yet we're still hiding that. We're still
like it's still hush hush. We still can't talk
about it. It's like and and I think that's an
absolute disgrace. Right. And so, you know, the
was his name, Spetley Butler, the Marine general.
Right. War is a racket. He had this figured out
like a hundred years ago. He knew that what was
going on. And when you read his book, it's just
crazy, like how spot on he is. We're literally,
you know, sending forces in. The U .S. doesn't
have friends. It has interests. And these interests
always benefit the corporations, never the American
citizen. So why are we doing this? The one thing
that's that's crazy about Iran is that you brought
up Tulsi Gabbard and she said in March they have
no nuclear weapons. They have no capability to
make nuclear weapons. They haven't. And again,
we had inspectors out there. We had people going.
They had 24 -7 access until 2018, until Trump
eliminated that, right? But it's more than oil.
One thing they skipped over is that the last
10 years they've been surveying for antimony,
right? And they found these massive deposits,
like 7 ,000 metric tons of antimony, which is
used primarily in military industrial complex.
This is something that people don't talk about.
And this is the crazy part is that it's like
it's not just oil, but it's also minerals. And
this is a country that isn't protected by next.
And no way am I protecting the government of
Iran. They are oppressive there. I mean, they
have so many human rights violations, especially
against women. It's horrible. And I'm not defending
them. But how is bombing the population going
to help that? You see what I mean? That all it's
going to do is drive them to the government to
do something. And then they're going to bond
and unify to make things worse. So it's literally
the most dumbest idea to send $337 million worth
of fucking bombs in the B -2 to bomb place that
they're going to have up and running again in
a couple of months. It wasn't obliterated. It
wasn't ended. They didn't end it. They're going
to be up and running again in a couple of months.
And what this does is like they're killing civilians.
Israel attacked Iran first. And they didn't expect
them to fire back at this. And it's like, okay,
game on. Let's go. And so they started lobbing
back and forth. And we're the ones that stepped
in. You know what I mean? And then the money
that is spent on their defense on the Iron Dome
is coming from us. If they want to go pick a
fight with every country in the Middle East,
let them. Go ahead. But let's stop funding them
then at the same time. Let's see how far that
goes. Let's see how far that goes. Once the funding
for all that ends and they have to pay out of
their own pocket, let's see how it goes. See,
this is something that just is so blatantly obvious.
Even when we went into Iraq, I remember thinking,
and I'm not well -versed in global politics,
I'm not a military member, but I just remember
going, wait a second, the guy that was responsible
for 9 -11 is a Saudi guy hiding in Afghanistan,
and you're going into Iraq where we had a war
with your dad. This doesn't make any sense. And
we know, you know, the absolute tragedies that
happened on, you know, both air quotes sides
of that. And like you said, I shared a graphic
of casualties of war a while ago, and it was
just staggering because it starts off obviously
with combat casualties. And then the entire pie
chart becomes basically, you know, suicides and
cancers and all the things that our veterans
bring back. It's the war isn't over in a lot
of these places. But when you reflect, even let's
take war out of it for a second. The last 50
years, Americans have got fatter and sicker.
We are to the point now, we are over 70 % obese
or overweight. I think over 40 % obese, clinically
obese. We consume 75 % of the world's opioids,
even though we only make up 4 % of the world's
population. We have, I think, over 20 % of the
world's incarcerated population. Yeah, I think
it was. Yeah, exactly. So my point is that is
either side of the aisle over and over again,
left, then right, then left, then right, then
left, then right. And yet we're still fucking
arguing about who's the best party. The system
is completely broken because in my opinion, if
there's whatever, 330 million of us now in this
country, if we have to say the lesser of two
evils on the final two of a presidential campaign.
You don't think that's a broken system? Alan
wants candidate A. I want candidate B. Alan's
won. I'm like, well, no biggie because they were
both fucking awesome because they're the two
best leaders in the whole country. Instead, we
get these fucking idiots, these sociopaths over
and over again. And then you've got an overworked,
sick, obese population that can't even critically
think because they're stressed. They're made
angry by CNN and Fox. And now they're divided.
And now you've got, you know, as someone said
on the show recently, you've got a village of
peasants fighting with each other instead of
going, well, let's go into the fucking castle.
And so this is what blows me away is when are
we going to have an awakening and go, this is
not benefit in our people. Like our children
have to rehearse their own fucking murders in
their school. you know we i mean all the things
like this is not nothing that has been done is
benefiting the american people it's just take
take take take take oh we started a war american
people we need your kids to go fight it for us
are your kids going oh fuck no we're not sending
them over there like when are we going to finally
go the way we choose people is completely broken
it's corrupt you're lining their pockets from
drug companies and weapons companies and all
the other things and you know it's this just
Like I say, it's not a democracy at all. It's
a demistocracy. You've got to be a millionaire
and zero ethics to succeed in this fucking system.
So until we, the Americans, we the people, I
think it was written in a document that was kind
of important, rise the fuck up and say enough
is enough, this is going to keep happening and
families and neighbors are going to fight with
each other while these people send our children
to their deaths and count the money that they
get from it. You're absolutely right. It's an
illusion that we have a choice. And then people
scream freedom. Well, we're actually what I think
the last rating that I saw is that the U .S.
is 17th in the world or 11th in the world for
freedom. Right. And people just keep thinking
and they want to believe this rhetoric of my
side is the good side. Well. I can, if Trump
actually did something that was good, beneficial
for the people, you know, I would say, yeah,
he did something beneficial for the people. If
Biden or Obama or Clinton, you know, they did
things that's good for the people, I would say,
yeah, they did. If they did something horrible
for the people, then like prison reform from
the Clinton, that was fucking horrible. Right.
The three strikes you're out that that led to
this whole prison problem that we have right
now. That was the catalyst for it. His fucking
policy. You know, the the 10 or excuse me, the
10 years, three point four billion dollars a
year to Israel. That was signed by Obama. But
there's so many like but it's it's so easy to
deflect to saying these are the people that are
bad. These are people are bad. And the thing
is, is that I'm hiding it. We have, you know,
Trump that it's in the front lawn, you know,
doing an infomercial for a car. He has his NFTs.
His family is literally making money hand over
fist. And we're not calling that out. And they're
like, oh, well, you just have TDS. No, you dumb
motherfucker. I'm literally calling out exactly
what's happening here. You know what I mean?
If he's selling gold shoes and Bibles that were
made in China, don't you think there's something
wrong on that? His Trump phone. You know what
I mean? He's literally making money. I'm like,
oh, that's okay. I'm like, how is that okay?
You were literally pissed off for like, you know,
the damn laptop they were talking about because
he was making money. And the thing is, I'm like,
yeah, if he's doing something illegal, by all
means, what are you going to do with that? You've
had the laptop for five years. What are you going
to do with it now? You know what I mean? Do something.
And if you really want to get him out of office,
why don't you commit him like what the UN has
said? You're complicit in fucking genocide. Why
don't you get him for that? Well, you know, that
that has to do with Israel. So we have to back
up. No, that's literally something you can go
after or impeach him for that. Let's do that.
And now it's all behind it. But everyone got
quiet. Everyone got quiet after that. Like, oh,
no, no. Well, you know, he's a pedophile. Like,
dude, you see what he said about his daughter?
You know what I mean? And he doesn't even hide
this shit. That's the thing is that, you know,
we literally have a convicted felon that's there
and they're like, and he's more for the people.
It's just, and again, I think just people just
double down because their identity. has become
their or their ideology has become their identity
and it's become infused and so all of a sudden
that they can't be they can't be told that they're
wrong you know and you know back to your you
know the two -party system i think that's probably
one of the biggest things that's wrong um i was
in germany um a few months ago and um they have
11 parties and they're all like neck and neck
that's that's the choice you know what i mean
that's choice you can actually pick for you have
like a a choice between different diverse groups
and we have two you know i mean and most of the
time they're tied to the same people the same
lobbyists that look out for their own their own
pockets i think that's one of the biggest problems
is that if you can make money while you're actually
and it shouldn't be just a conflict of interest
it should be fucking illegal bottom line So if
I had my say in it 10 years, from the time that
you're actually like you're going, you're running,
like you put out on the ballot saying, yeah,
I'm going to nominate so -and -so and you accept
that nomination. From that point on, you cannot
make money outside of like what you're doing,
you know, for 10 years after you get an office,
period. You have to sign a contract, not just
by the time that you're in, but the entire time,
like after you're out for 10 years. If you want
to write a book and everything else, 10 years
after. People got to wait. If they're still interested
in it, they'll buy it. But all this shit that
we're doing right now is they're literally making
money while they're in office. And I'm talking
about both sides on this. We have shitbags like
the Cash for Kids. Those are two Democrat judges.
You know what I mean? And they were making money
hand over fist by sending fucking kids to juvenile
detention centers to profit the private prison
system. I remember seeing the mother of one of
the kids. He was he was raped while he was in
jail and in the juvenile detention, whatever
you call it, freaking prison. And he couldn't
take it. You know, when he got out, he just he
snapped. He was a kid. You know what I mean?
And committed suicide. That mother was livid.
She was going off on these guys. And I was just
cheering her on, fucking standing up applause.
Go get him. The worst part about it is that they
got pardoned. They got fucking pardoned. And
you know where they were spending their time
because they did get convicted of it. They were
out on fucking house arrest. How are these people
like this is what I don't get about our system.
It's literally designed to benefit the rich.
But we don't see that because it's bread and
circus. Right. If you distract them with their
necessities, they're going to forget about their
liberties. It's it's period. Honestly, I don't
get it. And then we kind of point to the outside
point somewhere else, point somewhere else. And
Memorial Day, the post that Trump gave, Happy
Memorial Day, including all the left -side scumbags.
And he literally went on this two -paragraph
rant. It had nothing to do with Memorial Day.
It was literally just insulting the left -hand,
the progressives, and all these things. How is
that? And then they're like, oh, well, it's the
left that doesn't want unity. He's trying. How?
It's like literally every public post has to
do with the fake news. And saying that, you know,
he was saying like the last one, like, how dare
you say that to me? And remember the interview
with the MS -13? No, it's not Photoshopped. No,
no, it's real. It's real. Well, Mr. President,
I'm saying, you know, we can discuss that later,
but moving on. And he's literally trying to save
his ass and he's doubling down on it, saying,
no, that's real. That's a tattoo that's on there.
It's like. Times New Roman font or whatever,
or Microsoft font. And it's like, and it just
doesn't get it. But people double down on it,
you know, or they don't want to read things or
they don't want to understand things that, you
know, if you say like bring up any type of policies,
any type of, you know, executive orders, you
know, people know like just what they're fed
and that's it. You know, this whole immigration
thing. I'm not an immigration lawyer by any means,
but I can read the fucking constitution. I know
that violates the fifth and the 14th amendment
because it says all persons on us soil have right
to due process. Bottom line. You know what I
mean? And I'm not the type of person that, that
I, if someone's had due process in the here legally,
yeah, you need to get them the fuck out. They
can try again some other time and do it right,
but they've had due process and they've done
if they're criminals and violent criminals, especially,
but why in the fuck are we going after people?
that are in the immigration office waiting for
their appointment and they're getting snatched
up. That to me doesn't make any sense, especially
with Stephen Himmler, that little fucking vermin,
right? Or Stephen Miller, sorry. He bought like
$100 ,000 in Palantir, the technology that they're
using right now to target these people. And if
you're getting them at these courthouses, if
you're getting them at the immigration courts,
this is the problem. There are people that are
trying to go, and through the system legally
to do the right thing. And they're literally
getting picked up there. And the worst part about
it is, is they're defending like covering up.
And now we have the surge of kids getting kidnapped,
of people getting robbed because they're just
imitating ICE agents. Because the ICE agent is
saying, oh, I don't have to give you that. I
don't have to give you a warrant. I don't have
to give you identification. I don't have to give
nothing. So what stops all these people from
doing the same thing? We're going to have a sharp
rise in this. It's just being kept really quiet.
But it's already happening. It's already happening.
And look how easy this is. I'm an ICE agent.
I don't have to give you shit. How easy is it
to get a plate carrier, a mask, and a gun? You
know what I mean? And so they're just loading
them up. They're picking them up at schools.
I've already had instances of this. How are people
defending this? It boggles my mind. I'm just
blown away by this. I don't understand. If someone
could please explain this to me, I would be willing
to listen. and just shut my mouth and listen
to it please explain this to me somebody i don't
get it when i worked in california anaheim i
always i'd never forget this um i was sitting
at the the table that morning and people were
talking about oh the fucking mexicans and you
know and these are firefighters these are good
men in their heart but they've been drawn into
what we're talking about this propaganda in this
case it was the fox news propaganda And, you
know, the fucking illegals, blah, blah, blah.
And then I shit you not, in the same fucking
conversation, I'd say, well, what are you up
to today? Oh, I'm going to go down Home Depot
and get myself some Mexicans to help me hang
drywall. And I'm like, are you fucking joking?
This is the problem. You have this complete double
standard. And I was thinking the other day, just
it's going to be crude, but it is what it is.
Like, if anyone should be but her about. illegal
immigrations, it's someone like me who paid a
lot of money to immigrate the air quotes right
way. Because if you think about it, my son, for
example, all he did to be an American was be
born through his mother's vagina. Zero effort.
He just bloop. That was it. You know, he could
have been Sudan, could have been Syria. He won
the fucking jackpot and landed in Newport Beach,
California. I had to go jump through the hoops,
do AIDS tests, do background tests, you know,
show that I had X amount of money. But then I
came from England. So I wasn't escaping, you
know, genocide or, you know, wasn't getting,
you know, the threat of honor killings or acid
thrown in my face or anything else that some
of these people, you know, escaping the Haitian
gangs that maybe don't have all this money at
their fingertips to do it the right way. But
you look at the backbone of America. It is immigrants.
Some of them came from England and went through
the correct red tape way and became firefighters
like I did. And some of them had to kind of do
the backdoor thing and they became amazing, productive
members of society. And I was their responder
for a long time because Anaheim has a very large
Mexican population. Hialeah, Florida, another
place I work, very large Cuban population. Usually
it's the first place people come legally or illegally.
That's where they land. And these are people
that are working every day. So just like you,
again, it's that middle common sense ground.
If someone's coming here and they already have
a bad background and or they've done something
horrible here, no one is questioning that they
get flung the fuck out of this country. But if
they've come here, like we've seen, I saw one,
I think if I've got this right, he's from South
Korea originally, Purple Heart recipient under
the U .S. Yeah, and just got fucking deported.
Yeah, it was in Nicaragua. So this is my point,
is that we've got people that have proven themselves.
And what is the disadvantage of saying, we're
going to grandfather you in. Now you start paying
taxes. Now you don't have to hide and run from
anyone anymore. And now you are a bona fide American.
But it's that middle ground, because when you
push extremism left and right over and over again,
people lose the ability to critically think and
go, oh, that guy was MS -13, like genuinely,
not Photoshop. He's going back to El Salvador.
This guy's worked in the farms in America for
the last 15 years, and his child is now doing
really well in middle school. We can keep that
family here. I don't understand why people can't
separate those two purely common sense ways of
looking at this. And again, the rights and protections
that the Constitution allows once you're on U
.S. soil, the right to free speech. You can be
a tourist. You're still granted if you're on
U .S. soil. You don't understand that you still
have the right to freedom of speech. You have
these these these rights that are given to you
while you're on U .S. soil. You know, again,
due process. If if if somebody comes here and
they're accused of a crime, they have the right
to due process to defend themselves. Right. And
this is what I think aggravates people is, you
know, they're like, why don't you use the worst
thing? Go back to where you came from. You know
what I mean? And the thing is, is like what burns
me up is that we had sixteen hundred Afghans
that helped U .S. forces, that we were condemning,
you know, Biden for leaving some of them behind,
that we literally fucking kicked them back. You
know what I mean? We ended their protection and
they're going back. What do you think is going
to happen to them? And these are the people that
put themselves and their families on the line
and they made it out. And they thought they were
safe. And now they're saying, nope, you're you're
out. You're going back. You had a bunch of Haitians
that were that are literally they went through
the process. They have their constitutional protections
and they're being stripped of it. These are people
that are hardworking immigrants. You know what
I mean? And they've been this the whole fucking
lie about, you know, they're our pets. I mean,
it was a joke, but it's not a joke anymore when
you're actually deporting people like that. And
it's disgusting. It's vile. I don't understand
this. I just, it's, it's, it's the same playbook
that's been used for, and people kind of like
constantly go back to like Nazis, but literally
that was the entire playbook to blame the immigrants,
to blame them for that. You know, there's, it's,
it's unbelievable how people are so easily manipulated
to believe something. And like, oh, well, just
like Sanjun Park, right? He was a Nicaragua Purple
Heart recipient, been in for 50 years. His drug,
he had like a misdemeanor about like a drug addiction
that was related to his PTSD. You know what I
mean? So the system failed him on that. You know
what I mean? And why can't we just like... What's
he going to do in Korea? He doesn't even speak
the language. He's just he's been here for 50
years. You know, and that's the thing is that,
you know, my father was an immigrant. He came
here and he went into the Air Force. He got his
you know, he got naturalized and he got a citizenship.
And he's been where he worked for the government
for 26 years. You know what I mean? And he's
about as a patriot as anyone else. And he he
literally put his anyone that says. I will put
my life on the line for this country should definitely
have like, OK, let's let's pump the brakes a
second. Let's see what's going on. But they're
not doing it. You know what I mean? They're literally
going in like you can deport yourself or we can
do it for you. You have like two weeks. It's
it's insane. How are we not like separating these
two? And it's literally like and again, I'm going
back to, you know, the people that that are trying
to do the right thing. And in court, in immigration
court, and they're literally picking them off
from there because they have a quota to make.
And this is the same piece of shit that's profiting
off of it. He's doubled his stocks. They have
proof of him. The Rolling Stones came out with
an article just, I think, two days ago about
him investing in Palance here before this whole
thing started. And I don't understand it, man.
Again, I'm not the smartest guy, but please explain
it to me. How does this benefit our society in
a whole? You know what I mean? Because that's
what it's supposed to do. But you have farmers
that are losing their workers that have been
working there for decades. And then because of
the tariffs, they're not buying the soybeans.
The USA has cut off their assistance for that.
So we have like the heart of... of the American
society, you know, there are farmers that are
struggling now that are affected directly, but
everyone just kind of ignores it. Like, ah, well,
it's because of that. Because everyone has this
tiny little bubble. And if it doesn't affect
them in that bubble, well, they don't give a
shit. Right? These damn immigrants. Guess what,
motherfucker? You're an immigrant too. This entire
country, the entire country that is built off
of immigrants. Some that didn't have a choice
and some that did. And the ones that did, especially
like they're escaping something, most of the
time it's from countries that we had destabilized
and put a dictator to serve our interests for
those corporations. South America, all these
people, guess what? We fucked with them too.
We have like in the Middle East, we had Iraqis,
Iranians, Lebanese, Palestinians. Guess what?
We had a hand in all of that. Why is it that
people have such short -term memory that they
can't understand this? And again, we both are
in agreement on this. We both understand this
fully. We both agree that if you have gone through
your due process, you have done something illegal,
you have done something in violent crime, that
it's not going to benefit society. You need to
get the fuck out. And yeah, go get them. They
need to go by all means. Clean yourself up. Try
it again. Whatever you need to do. But don't
come here illegally. By all means, because you've
had your due process. And I think no one that
I've talked to that's on this topic of immigration,
on either side is arguing that. But the only
difference is that I'm saying, and most of the
people that I talk to that agree with me, they
were talking about just giving them due process,
right? That's the big thing. Just allowing them
to have due process and let them have their time
in court to do that. And especially if they came
here and they went through the system, they're
going through the system. And then they're saying
like, oh, they're waving flags for countries.
Go back to that. Guess what? I was in D .C. last
year and I walked through like where all these
politicians have their offices and I see fucking
Israeli flags and go fucking over there then.
Fuck off. But let's say like, again, you're promoting
a fucking country that is committing genocide
and you're. posting that up there and it's literally
taking from taxpayer money to fund and you're
posting it and this motherfucker what's that
guy's name that they showed up in a in a foreign
fucking military uniform and he's and he's supposed
to be how's he representing his fucking constituents
he's wearing a fucking idf uniform dude stupid
fuck i mean honestly that that infuriates me
because how the fuck does that that help anything
that's happening with the u .s benefiting our
society wearing a foreign military uniform it's
horseshit it doesn't make any sense he should
be fucking deported not fucking parked when i
look back at what happened during covid again
which spans two you know parties democrat uh
was it i think trump initially and then um biden
after that again it's the same thing I mean,
you couldn't have seen a more divisive time than,
you know, 2020, 2021. And I remember, again,
standing in the middle going, what the fuck is
going on? And, you know, again, someone asked
me why my Instagram was shut down. I just reconnected
with Julian Pano on there. And I was like, well,
because I stood in the middle. And that's the
most censored voice in America is the common
sense person that just stands in the fucking
middle looking left and right going, what the
hell is going on? Honestly, that's the one that
gets shadow banned all the time and shut down.
You can put porn and violence and extremism on
social media and you'll get all kinds of fucking
ratings. You know, you sell all kinds of books.
You write a book on kindness and compassion and
community. Good luck. I tried it. But, you know,
it's the same that there was one truth in COVID.
The healthier the population, the higher the
chances of that population surviving a virus,
period. Whether you believe it was a Chinese
conspiracy, whether you believe it was something
that only bubble wrap and a vaccine was going
to get you out of, the truth is the healthier
the human, the higher the survival rate, period.
So if either side gave a fuck about the health
of this population, if not before, certainly
during and after COVID. we would have seen soda
machines ripped out of schools, real food being
cooked in cafeterias, PE programs and sports
programs and music and drama being boosted back
in schools, pedestrianizations of downtowns,
public transport being boosted, all the thing,
local farmers being given subsidies rather than
these mega farms to create organic food and grass
fed livestock, nothing. Not a fucking thing.
So it was never about the health of the American
people. If we wanted to address the mental health
crisis and the addiction, then we would remove
the ridiculous failed prohibition of drugs. And
we would see like Portugal and we put it into
the medical community and we'd put in mental
health counseling, addiction counseling, job
creation, housing and get these men and women
back on their feet. So they were paying back
into the country. They're a productive member
of society. So it was never about us. It has
never been about us. And until we have that awakening
that no matter what color you adorn yourself
with every four years, they don't give a shit.
And if you just take a step back, I used to teach
my son this. My whole parenting thing was about,
is it kind? whether he was having a tantrum and
throwing his toys, whether it was the way he
was interacting with another kid, whatever it
is, is what you're doing kind. And that helped,
I hope, raise a pretty sweet young man that's
about to turn 18 now. It's the same thing. Whatever
you hear, is this A, going to benefit the country,
or B, going to be detrimental? And so you are
going to take a step back and realize, oh, shit.
None of these fucking people actually have done
anything that really benefits us. The communities,
the people, the schools, the health, the farms,
the quality of air, et cetera, et cetera. And
until we have that awakening, then you reap what
you sow. You're going to get the same shit bag
every fucking four years with a different colored
tie giving you the same bollocks. Yep. You're
absolutely right. And I think one of the things
that add on to that is just we've been led to
believe that. And I think this is one of the
most detrimental things in our society is, is
empathy is a weakness. You know, I mean, that,
that is the, in order to understand what's happening,
you have to, those are the two things that I
think is missing is understanding and empathy.
But we've, we've become a society that not all
by any means, but if we have just, I even have
a minority is too much. You know what I mean?
How is empathy a weakness? Trying to put yourself
in their shoes, try to understand what they're
going through and people instead of talking to
them. And I think that's one of the hardest things
is like engagement. Um, just to have a conversation,
you know, is you're just trying to, you're, you're,
you're lying to me and you're, I'm like, no,
like whatever I say, I do my research on this.
And again, I may not like, you know, what I find,
because if I find like several sources that say
the exact same thing, like, you know what, I
was wrong on this. And now I got no problem saying,
you know, Hey, you were right. I was wrong. But
this is a reason because I hate saying that is
I do so much research on the things that I'm
talking about to make sure that doesn't happen.
I read books. Most of the, like, for example,
in the Palestine issue, most of the, um, the
authors, you know, that I, um, The books that
I read are actually Israeli, Israeli historians.
You know what I mean? Because the news that I
get like out of Haaretz, Times of Israel, you
know what I mean? And so, yeah, I understand
the other side. But if I'm going to kind of fact
check this, you know, I need to go and find out
the other side as well. And I try to understand
the other side. I may not agree, but I try to
understand. You know what I mean? And I think
that's one of the biggest things that is lacking
is just the lack of understanding and the lack
of empathy and how it's been turned into somehow
that it's a form of weakness. You know, I'm unapologetic.
What the fuck for? You know what I mean? Like,
what does it cost you to say, you know, and again,
I think that goes back to like their ideology
has become their identity because, you know,
for them apologizing, it literally is something
personal, something they don't want to. um ever
have to to say because then they feel that it's
it's like everything they say is wrong no i i
get dates wrong i get people wrong you know i
may speak sometimes and i'm like oh no you called
me on that yes you're right i misspoke my bad
you know what i mean i just move on but then
i and again i try to minimize that as much as
possible by actually reading you know what i
mean and and doing my research and not for confirmation
bias you know type research but literally like
go on both sides to see that and the more that
people will actually do that the more they see
that you know what they're saying is is completely
just you know and and i think they just don't
want to have that realization they'd rather stay
in that tiny little bubble they'd rather stay
willfully ignorant than ever have to admit that
because it's it's like the end of their world
on that It's frustrating beyond belief. It's
aggravating at times. But the one thing that
kind of keeps me going personally is literally
someone had some guy on here that was literally
just trolling me on my page, instant messages.
And I just kind of like one day snapped at him
and like everything he said, I just blew it apart.
I'm like, look this up. And I'm like, well, I
didn't know that much about it. And I'm like,
and so I kind of stepped back. Took a deep breath
and I was like, okay, what don't you know? And
I had this conversation with a complete stranger,
someone I had no idea about. And before I knew
it, he was like, well, I didn't know that. I
didn't know this. I didn't know that. And so
I'm like, here, here's a list of books. You know,
if you're, if you're really wanting to read on
it and if you really want to understand, and
I gave him, you know, whatever you need, you
know, whatever resources. And to this day, we're
still kind of communicating back and forth. And
again, I never met the guy, but. It just takes
that one time for someone to kind of give them
a different perspective on things in order to
change their mind. And I've been fortunate enough
to actually encounter some of these people where
I think they're a complete troll and they're
wrong about everything. And I'm thinking like,
I'm not going to bash them for that because maybe
they just don't know. And again, trying to use
that understanding and empathy. And like, if
you've never been told anything else, if your
bubble only contains that, it has that echo chamber.
How are you ever going to know that, you know,
marijuana, there's never been any death recorded
in history, you know, using with the use of marijuana?
You know what I mean? And how people have come
and replaced that with with excuse me, replaced
antidepressants with marijuana and use that instead.
And how like the majority of law enforcement,
they're like, no, dude, if I get a call and they're
drunk. I know it's going to be trouble. If I
know they're smoking weed, I know they're going
to be sitting there eating Cheetos going like,
what, dude? They just literally want to just
sit there and eat their Cheetos and watch TV.
And it's going to be a much calmer night. But
if they're drunk, then they know they're up for
a fight. They know there's going to be problems.
But a lot of people, they don't know that. And
sometimes it takes a little bit of kind of breaking
through that bubble and popping it through and
just kind of getting through and just kind of
like, hey, man, what don't you know? And sometimes
they're willing, sometimes they're not. It just,
it's a roll of the dice, but I think it's worth
it. Honestly, I think it's worth it. Little by
little, you can start changing minds and changing
directions. And before you know it, we'd start
to have this unity on this. And then, you know,
questioning authority, questioning the, you know,
question everything for fuck's sake. You know,
it needs to happen. Ask me questions. I got no
problem answering. It's when people like say,
don't question this. that's the people you really
have to look at. And that's the people that you
really have to kind of dig into. When Trump's
saying like, don't ever talk to me like that.
Don't ever ask me that. How ridiculous is that?
That's a stupid question. And they fail to answer
that. Yeah, they're probably hiding something.
Speaking of changing your mind, I was kind of
reflecting on the Bible. I'm not a devout Christian,
but that was the religion that I was raised with.
So it's the book that I'm most familiar with.
But when you think about mental health and post
-traumatic growth, you have the Old Testament,
eye for an eye, and then you have this rebirth,
like kindness, compassion, turn the other cheek.
And so we have a pretty good, you know, selection
of holy doctrine, as well as, you know, ancient
wisdom from other areas that give us a pretty
good roadmap on what to do, what not to do. I
would be able to sum it up pretty much. Don't
be a dick is pretty much what it says. But you're
talking about where is compassion and empathy
and kindness and community in a country that
beats its chest so much about its religion. I
struggle to understand why people don't ask that
question that they throw out all the time. What
would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? Would he
say that Narcan was wasted on drug addicts? Would
he would he shoo homeless people to a different
jurisdiction? Would he hunt down elementary kids
and throw them back to the country they came
from, even though they fled it because of the
drug prohibition that we created? You know, I
don't think so. So my question to you is in supposedly
such and I'll just stay with Christianity is
what I know. Christian nation with a very kindness,
compassionate based, you know, New Testament,
Jesus, etc. Why is there such a disconnect between?
the book they supposedly read, but actually not
enacting what this very prophet would have done
if he was here today in 2025? That's a great
question. I read the KGV and the NIV back to
back. And don't get me wrong, there's some really
good poetry in there. There's some things that
definitely people can benefit off of. But I think
the problem is, is when people cherry pick things
and I found myself doing that, too. I mean, there
was a point in time where I was completely like
anti -theist and then atheist. And then I started
actually being an atheist that believed in ghosts.
And I'm like, no, you know, I can't I can't really
accept that either because I don't believe in
anything supernatural. So I just kind of left
it at I'm just one of those people. I don't believe
in anything supernatural. I don't know what label
that is. um when you have a society that and
you just said i don't know if you misspoke but
we're not actually not a christian nation we're
a secular nation and i think that is and i even
as someone who doesn't believe and doesn't have
any religion i will fight tooth and nail for
your right to have it because i think that's
what allows the protections for all of them so
when people isolate and say and and they create
this um um ideology based off their theology
that conforms to their way of life or what they
feel should be a way of life. I think that's
the biggest problem. And when you have people
like Kenneth Copeland that, you know, makes,
I think the last time I read about it, he was
making $320 million a year, has three private
jets, his own airport. And I know this because
he's in Fort Worth, you know, not even like an
hour and a half from where I live. that people
are manipulated through that it becomes a business
and so when it becomes a business what has been
the biggest seller in in recent history is is
selling fear fear -mongering right and so when
you constantly like preach like the prophecy
end of times and you know well i speak of war
or you know possibility of war give me a time
when they haven't you know there's always been
you know talk of war or you know war or talk
of war So it's very vague and ambiguous for a
reason. There isn't a single prophecy that isn't
vague and ambiguous, and that's done on purpose
so you can interpret it that way. And I'm not
by any means siding with any religion. There's
extremists on all sides, but in the U .S. particularly.
Honestly, if you're going to swindle people out
of their money, it's... People get swindled out
of a lot of businesses, you know what I mean?
But that's exactly what they are, they're businesses.
If you are, you know, you're receiving tax -free
for making, like Joel Osteen was making, I read
this in 2019 or, yeah, 2019, he was making $97
million a year with only 1 .2 going toward actual
charities and into the community, everything
else being administrative fees and so forth.
especially when they find like $400 ,000 in the
wall in cash. Remember they passed that law,
I forgot where it was, but where homeless people
couldn't sleep outside and they were going to
be fined or arrested if they were sleeping in
public areas. Well, sure, make that the law,
but have them go to the church. because that's
what they're there for. That's what they're preaching.
You know what I mean? They're like, yeah, we
do good for the community. Okay, we'll prove
it. You know, they should be audited. And if
you're making $330 million a year and there's
still homeless people in your area, well, guess
what? You know, either you contribute to that,
like you said, you know, you preach about, or
you don't get taxed. I think that's more than
fair. And I'm not just talking about any religion.
I'm talking about one religion specifically.
I'm talking about any religion that preaches
that. If you're making that much money and you're
not getting audited and only a small percentage,
like 2 % of your profits, what you're making
tax -free, goes to helping society, that's no
longer a... you know a charitable contribution
that you're making to society that's literally
you're profiting off of it if you got three private
jets in your own airport for fuck's sake dude
i mean why why are you even discussing it why
aren't they being audited for for what they say
in their their you know if you want to sell what
is it um that what's the the one that crazy chick
that's the the faith office for trump that she
was speaking in tongues the blonde lady on passover
she was um um selling an angel a personal angel
for a thousand dollars out of the white house
you know what i mean and she's literally got
her office the faith office in the white house
and she's selling personal angels for a thousand
dollars these are you know how is this like an
acceptable you know again if you want to do this
okay but again you should be classified as a
business and fall under those regulations as
well and if you don't produce what you're saying
or people are not satisfied with it you should
be able to get your money back or selling you
know bottled water that's you know holy water
guess what it is you know guess what you know
you should be taxed on it as well because again
you're making a profit off of this you see what
i mean so If people want to give their money
to a certain organization because they feel it's
doing well, I'm not going to stop them. I'm not
saying that we should stop them from doing it,
even though they're harming themselves or their
family by giving them everything that they have
and not looking in any direction. I think it's
wrong, but it doesn't matter what I think. In
this aspect where if it's a business for them
and if they're profiting that much, then either
A, They need to be audited and taxed and then
held accountable to that. No, actually, that's
it. They need to be taxed on it and treated like
a business. No or. They should be treated like
a business and audited. And if they're not doing
what they say they're doing, helping the society,
then guess what? They need to be held accountable
for it. Yeah, absolutely. I misspoke when I said
Christian nation. I think what I was referring
to is some people project us as a Christian nation,
even though we are multicultural, 100%. We're
definitely a Christian majority, no doubt. But
we have so many faiths in there, and this is
one of the big things. When they want to put
the Old Testament in the classrooms, why? How
does that benefit? How does that benefit the
students by having out there? And it literally
says, you know, in the first commandment, it
literally, the first commandment goes against
the first amendment and vice versa. You know
what I mean? You know, you show no worship, no
other God than me. Well, the first amendment
literally says we shall not respect any other
religion above any other. You see what I mean?
So it's contradicting. So when people say God
and country, I don't believe that whatsoever.
Again, my highest authority is the constitution.
And in the constitution, there's absolutely no
mention of God. There's no mention of Jesus.
And they did that on purpose. You see what I
mean? And so, and this is why I'm like such a
hardcore believer in the constitution, because
again, it's, that's my highest authority. This
is why I abide by and, and this can, you know,
literally violates the first amendment on there
and it shouldn't be there. You know, it doesn't
benefit the student whatsoever. It literally
offends, you know, people that have other religions.
And this is the whole reason why we were kind
of established is, you know, to escape from religious
persecution. That was one of the big, you know,
big things of the founding fathers. And when
we violate that ourselves later on and don't
understand that, and again, the understanding
and empathy are gone. I think this is the result
of that. This is what you get when you take those
things away. is you have like an imposition of
someone else's religion. If you are a Christian
and you tell me, you know what, that goes against
my religion. Like, you know what, I respect that.
Cool, no problem. But if you say you can't do
that because of my religion, now we got a fucking
problem. Go fuck yourself. I don't give a shit.
You know what I mean? I have a lot of Muslim
friends. I have a lot of Christian friends. I
have Hindu friends. I have atheist friends. I
got all different types, you know, and my Muslim
friends don't tell me not to eat pork. You know
what I mean? It's their choice. I'm not going
to force it on them, but they're not going to
tell me what I should do. And no Christian is
going to tell me what I should do either. It's
just that's your belief. That's your personal
relationship with God. And I respect that by
all means. I don't necessarily respect the religion
just because I'm not religious at all. But you
as a person, I try to at least until you start,
you know, spouting off shit like that. And that's
where we kind of start creating this disconnect
and so forth. But if that's your religion, that's
what you want to believe in, by all means. If
it's not harming yourself or anyone else by believing
in it, okay, by all means. How do we get people
to circle back around to we the people, circle
around to love thy neighbor, we are God's children,
whatever, again, the phrases that you really
resonate with that go back to that tribalism?
The village that we grew up in, the kind of community
that we've allowed to be completely ripped from
us. If you were king for a day, president for
a day, whatever you want to call it, how would
you start rebuilding the community and putting
it back to, as you alluded to, the very vision
that our forefathers had or our founding fathers
had 200, 300 years ago? It's definitely not through
religion. Um, and the reason I say this is that,
you know, in the U S alone, we have 240 different
denominations of Christianity. You know, we have
44 ,000 globally. And even within, if you talk
to some of the Protestants, um, especially, you
know, some people I know, you know, they're shit
talking about Catholics, you know, they're like,
they're not Christians. Like, well, you know,
all Catholics are Christian. No Christians are
Catholic, you know what I mean? And. Everyone,
every religion, I think, has their problems,
has their extremists. There's no doubt about
it. This guy, Adam Shaver, the one that was literally
crucified, a pastor, right? He was a Jewish Zionist
extremist. Yeah. So you have, and the guy that
was in Florida that massacred at the gay club,
you know what I mean? You have extremists on
either side. i'm not calling you can't take the
actions of someone like that um of like timothy
mcveigh had the um the uh turner diaries you
know and which was calling it was a a christian
extremist far right wing uh calling for like
the civil war and that was supposed to create
it right um so you have you have extremists on
both sides but that's not a representation of
the majority of people right it's just not and
Bringing it back to the Constitution, I think
is, and this is the hardest part, is having that
understanding and having the empathy. If your
religion, if you feel that your religion is violated,
right, by someone stepping on it, stepping on
your beliefs, well, if you're saying that, you
know, you shouldn't be treated the same because
you're Muslim. Well, imagine how that would be
if it was reversed. Right. If you're feeling
like the rules and laws are written for Christians
and somehow, you know, just say hypothetically,
the Muslims, you know, start becoming the majority
and they take away your rights. You know, how
would you respond to that? And most of them would
say violently. And I'm like, well, do you think
that's the right answer? Because right now that's
what's happening to them. And do you think it's
right for them to respond violently? You know
what I mean? And when you take the same question,
kind of flip it back on them, I think that's
when you really get through to them if they're
able to listen and comprehend what you're saying
and not just dismiss it right away because I'm
not saying everything they want to hear. And
to say, like, all Muslims are bad people, that's
fucking horrible. It's the same thing of saying
that all Christians are bad people just because
you had... You know, a cannibal, you know, was
it the guy in Florida and Tampa? That was the
he was the puppeteer, the Christian Christian
puppeteer at the after school program. And he
was literally arrested and he was going to eat
the kids, you know, and that that was his plan.
But he had like all this child pornography and.
that's not a representation of the mainstream
Christians. You know what I mean? And most of
them are good people. Same thing with all the
religions, and I think especially the Abrahamic
religions for the majority. And the crazy part
is what I saw that actually surprised me is that
every protest that I went to that was pro -Palestinian,
I met a rabbi there. That blew my mind. I was
like, I wasn't expecting this. And I like to
consider myself somewhat educated and knowledgeable
in the things that are happening. But that took
me off by surprise. And the thing was, is that
they were just like, you're not going to use
our religion against, you know, against these
people because that's not what it teaches us.
And so I was like, I was really taken back by
that. And I really appreciated their stance on
us because, I mean, this is not easy. It's literally
like they're probably getting more shit on them
than anybody else because they feel like they're
betraying them, you know, and they're going against
it. But they're standing firm. And I find that
absolutely incredible. That's amazing. And so
much respect to them. But I think it just has
to go back to the very basics of just understanding
and empathy. And I think that's why so many people
are literally pushing that false narrative that
empathy is a weakness, that empathy and understanding
is like something that you need to do away with.
And I honestly think that once we actually can
put that back in. Hell, like Mr. Rogers was actually
really good at teaching that. You know what I
mean? And I think we need like another Mr. Rogers
or Carl Sagan that need to kind of like be pushed
up again. You know, education needs to be, you
know, when you don't understand why black people
are so upset, you know, with the things that
are happening, you don't have an understanding
and you don't have any empathy. Try putting yourself
in their shoes and see what it's like. Every
track has stopped. It could be your life. I'm
not exaggerating on this. I'm not being dramatic
about it. It's literally what happens. Where
I got to feel that was when I was in Palestine,
where every time we got stopped, that guy's already
pointing a gun at me. And how would that make
you feel if you were in those shoes? the especially
with you know the past that's been created on
that you know the renaming of the the um you
know the statues that are up with the renaming
the military bases all from from people that
literally from the confederacy that the only
reason for them being famous were literally because
there were generals in the confederacy and it
wasn't like they named them like during the confederacy
or after we're talking like 60 70 years after
the then we're glorifying them You know what
I mean? What's part of a history? Well, we have
a lot of things in our history that we don't
need to glorify them. And I think people just
don't understand that. And why would that be
offensive? Because you have people that literally
are, that some have generational, I mean, millions
that were brought here against their will. And
they've been here for generations. And they've
experienced this firsthand. You know, where it's
literally the constant, you know, targeting of
people because of their skin color and the assumption
that they're always going to be a criminal, you
know, that they're not educated, which is, I
mean, some of the smartest people I know are
brown people and darker brown people. And that's
the thing is that it's, it's, it's such a false
narrative that people push, you know, when it's
ridiculous. And, and I think the biggest thing
is education. And empathy and understanding.
Those are the three key things that I find that
are missing the most. Because a lot of things
that we've had were whitewashed, you know, for
the longest time. And we don't, we don't, the
Tulsa massacre. I didn't find out about that
till like four years ago. Why the fuck did, I'm
46 years old when I first found out about that.
Like how ridiculous is this? And I feel ashamed
of myself. Like how did I, but I didn't know.
They didn't teach us that in school. Why not?
One of the things in Christopher Columbus's diaries
is saying, yes, we landed here, and the people
are the nicest, most welcoming. They fed us.
They closed us. They gave us their women. They
did everything for us. They'll make great slaves.
Why weren't we taught that? You know what I mean?
And again, I think it's just that pushing that
narrative is what keeps people under control.
because of the ignorance that they have and sometimes
it's willful sometimes it's not but i'm not trying
to insult people by saying ignorance i'm saying
they don't know you know i mean a lot of people
find that word offensive just like well you don't
know about it so you're ignorant you know but
it's something offensive i'm just saying but
if you're willfully ignorant that's different
yes that is offensive hopefully you can take
that and understand that then i'm actually offending
you it's funny you said about slavery because
i we had a kind of um yeah just a query in my
head i'm like let me let me look up the uk at
the height of slavery because on the other side
of this and the other enemy to compassion and
empathy and us coming together is the white people
are you know everything is white people's fault
and i mode all this because i have this pigmentation
that's the other side of this conversation if
we're talking about extremism and so i'm like
all right let me look When slavery was at its
height and the British slavers were buying from
the African tribes who were selling either their
own people or other tribes that they captured,
giving them to the Brits, and then we would basically
hand them off to the Americans, take tobacco
or whatever, and then go back to England clean
-handed. I don't know what you're talking about.
What is slavery? England was at some of its poorest
times in history then. So this is the other thing.
We're talking about a division. most white people
did not benefit from slavery in any way, shape
or form. And people might say, oh yeah, but you
know, through time it's like, no, but no one
put their hand up and said, yes, I am. I would
love to go and enslave some people so I could
have an iPhone. That'd be amazing. No, you know,
the farmers, the blacksmiths, the bakers, they
were just going about their day, regardless of
what was going on thousands of miles. It was
just a few people making a shitload of money
while everyone else continued to starve. So we've
also got to realize this has happened over and
over and over and over again. And even with the
slavery thing, it's not even pigmentation. If
they happen to be orange or purple or blue, as
long as they could work for free, they didn't
give a fuck what they look like. So, you know,
we've got to also realize like it's 2025, you
know, we got to recalibrate and realize that
it's the. the greed hungry despicable few that
fuck it up for everyone else but if they keep
us divided and keep saying oh you know black
people white people and everything then we're
going to perpetuate this lie but i mean are there
incidences where even in modern society there
is that racism of course but i think it's a minority
now so it's up to again the middle majority that
we keep talking about to stand up and say enough
is a fucking enough man i just went to my son's
high school graduation It was an absolute spectrum
of colors and religions. And these incredible
kids were graduating with honors. They were joining
the military. They were in dual enrollment programs.
This community of children, they've been on the
track team with my son. This is America. This
is America. So that other extremist narrative
needs to stop as well, where it's like, you know,
racism is... The backbone of America, and it's
fucking not. It's the few toxic people that we've
got to all see, all of us, side by side, and
start getting rid of them. I agree to a point.
I don't think it's the backbone of America. I
still think that there is definitely racism that's
alive and well. Now, would it be directly apparent?
Maybe not. Are all white people racist? Definitely
not. Are the majority? No, they're not. But I
still think that it is alive and well. And when
we talk about white privilege, it's not that
we are the ones that have created that. It's
not our fault. It's just how society is. But
I do believe that, you know, that racism is still
around. Islamophobia is still around, you know,
and I don't think it's gotten any worse. I think
people it's just become more widely known that
it's happening. Like, for example, you know,
and until like in the mid 50s, you know, they
were saying that, you know, it was like so many,
you know. people that were left -handed, you
know, writers. Um, it was, what was that example?
Like, uh, it was the left -hand writers that
were, they didn't know like how many of the world
sudden did a study on like how many there were.
And then, then they realized, well, they didn't
realize, you know, how many left -hand writers
there were until they did the study. So it's
one of those things where, you know, we, if you
look at the population in prison, you know, in,
in comparison to how many. you know black people
there are it's how many people are in prison
it's overwhelming you know what i mean especially
the black and brown and because we have you know
the the 25 of the global population that's imprisoned
in the united states currently and the majority
of that is minority groups um comparatively to
what the population is in general not saying
because the majority of people in prison are
white But if you look at two in comparison to
the population statistics per capita, that changes
drastically. And and now do we blame everybody
on on slavery? No, no, we don't. That I agree
with you to that point where. But is it still
something that is alive and well, especially
like in. In law enforcement system, you know,
I still think there is a lot of, if not, I still
think there's prejudice in that by, you know,
by a full extent, you know, people making assumptions
that they're criminals just because of the color
of their skin. Do you know what I'm saying? oh
law enforcement are racist absolutely fucking
not you know what i mean do i think all black
people are um are are you know innocent of everything
no you know if they commit a crime by all means
you know what i mean but we have instances um
where we have these juvenile uh detention centers
that are filled with 100 percent um with you
know minority groups with black kids you know
and um they're literally like when they started
investigating i think there was a I was watching
John Oliver, actually, and he brought up one
instance in Louisiana where there was a judge
that literally was making up laws in order to
incarcerate him. Literally making up laws. That's
how drug prohibition had started. The whole reefer
madness thing. It was a guy basically justifying
his job after the failed alcohol prohibition.
So he made up laws. Yeah. But it's 2025. You
know what I mean? Why don't we pass that still,
you know? And the thing is, is that, well, how
does that, if you look to, you know, the why
again, the origin, if we look for the cause instead
of the effect, you know, we have the effect that,
you know, that they're committing crimes. Well,
why is that? And with a couple of low income,
well, why is that? It's like, yes, we, you know,
since the civil rights, but civil rights didn't
come until, you know, 1964. you know what i mean
and so it's one of those things where we had
you know uh segregation we had that and once
it once we had civil rights did all of that end
you know i mean of course not it it's it's just
it was on the book saying that you can't do that
but this will happen i think one of the saddest
things i saw was um so senator inouye from from
hawaii he was the one -armed senator And this
guy was the Medal of Honor recipient. And he
was part of the 442nd. So the 442nd had the highest
amount of Medal of Honor recipients in the history
of the U .S. military. If you ever read up on
him, it's insane what he did. They sent him all
to Germany. And basically, he took out... like
three or four gunner positions that were like
entrenched in there. Two of them with one arm.
He literally grabbed his arm, fucking stuck it
in his back, you know, his backpack and just
kept charging through with one arm. You know
what I mean? To me, that's just blows my mind,
you know? And the thing is, is that he took them
out. And once he took them out, he took the injured
and I think he saved like four people on the
way back. This is insane to me. This is someone
that like, that absolutely should be on the Medal
of Honor doesn't even cut it. I mean, and the
thing is, is that he came back to the U .S. And
one of the saddest things I heard is that he
came in full uniform with the Medal of Honor
on to go get a haircut. And he was literally
like, no, we don't serve your kind here. You
know what I mean? And, you know, again, this
is World War II, you know, but at the same time,
how is that? You know, we had internment camps
in the U .S. You know, so this is still people.
And he just recently passed. It wasn't like.
ancient history were like 200 years ago. We're
talking about like within our lifetimes where,
you know, I saw him on TV. You know what I mean?
I was like, oh shit, he's got one arm. You know
what I mean? And so we're not talking about an
ancient past. We're talking about the times that
were there. We're talking about, you know, the
last lynchings from the KKK were like in 1981.
You know what I mean? And so when we say and
dismiss this like, oh, that's ancient history
that ended like during the Civil War or whatever
that is. no i mean it's alive and well you know
not as much not as apparent but i still believe
yeah i mean again the last lynching from the
kkk was in 1981 this isn't ancient this is during
my lifetime you know what i mean and you know
the jasper draggings in texas they this is all
racially motivated so is it as widespread no
it's definitely not as widespread as it was but
is that mentality still entrenched in there i
mean um is it No, but we still have, you know,
these cases of that and it's still alive and
well. It's just not as apparent and it's not
as widespread as it used to be. But I still believe
that, yeah, it's that there is a lot of racism
still going along. No, it's not the backbone
of America. But if someone from the, they use
people from the Black community as like, oh,
see, we had a Black president, you know, we had
this, we had that. They're the exception, not
the rule, though. And so as long as it stays
that way, I think that's a determination of the
racist factor that we have in the U .S. I'm probably
going to get a lot of backlash from that, you
know, but I stand true until someone can prove
me otherwise that, you know, that the education
system in primarily black areas is much lower.
Right. We have, you know, the opportunities that
they have is much lower. This whole DEI thing
that people. Why would you take that – and it's
pushed by the government. Like when they were
taking down all the people that were like Medal
of Honor recipients off the Army pages, you know
what I mean? This is where it's still – you see
it. It's still alive there. You see what I mean?
And so when you're taking them off the pages
and not giving them credit for it, I mean that's
beyond wrong. That's demonstrably wrong. And
how can you possibly do that to people that literally
serve their country while they're still being
hated? when they come back home why they couldn't
be served at the same table at that same time
and these are people that i've met you know what
i mean so um it's not having um and if it's people
that um like are are if they equate like if they
have you know and i think people just misunderstand
like this whole you know what it is is you have
so many applicants and you have five of them
that are black and they all have the same score
well Shouldn't they have a chance for that as
well? You know what I mean? It's not that they're
getting special treatment. It's not that they're
having, but if they're not able to have the same
opportunities, for example, like the education
and so forth, then we're not doing this right.
You know what I mean? And it's a systematic problem.
And again, I don't think it's widespread, but
I think it definitely is a problem that's still
alive and well. Well, I think if you've got a
country of 330 million, if you think about that
extremist 10%, that's 33 million people. So it's
a lot of people. And I think it would seem like
a lot. But the thing is, why are the middle 80
% so quiet? you know the almost three million
of us need to stand up and and you know be louder
and again like even with the diversity thing
you'll hear a lot of kind of animosity for the
um affirmative action when it came to hiring
because you know you'd have someone who happened
to be the caucasian and they did all the right
things and they trained hard and they prepared
and in some hiring they were like no we need
x amount of people of this this color whatever
it is And they, you know, maybe didn't have the
same score as the other person. But the other
side of the conversation, as you said, is that,
but did that person have the opportunity to train
like that and be educated in the first place?
So this is where I think, again, the middle conversation,
if you want to build diversity in the fire service,
I love, we've got a friend, Chris Hickman, who
started a mentorship program here in Ocala, and
they provide free mentorship. I think it's three
times a week. They put it, you know, kind of.
closer to the poorer area. So they will equip
these kids. They will teach them. There are scholarships
at a fire academy. So rather than scooping up
a bunch of people from their skin color, they
say, hey, underserved population, there's the
bar. Let's try and get you to that point because
A, you're going to reach it and you're going
to be a phenomenal firefighter. B, you'll go,
you know what? This isn't for me. Or C, you'll
try, you don't make it and then be like, all
right, I'm going to move to do something else.
Now you actually have a true... you know spectrum
of your society but what we did with this whole
you know pendulum thing is it went from no one
was getting hired if they were of any color other
than white to all of a sudden these affirmative
action hires of which some were phenomenal firefighters
but the chance of you getting the wrong kind
of person when you lower bars or whatever it
is is higher which then perpetuates more animosity
in the middle now as you said there are just
identifying that there are groups that do not
have the same chances as other groups because
of where they were born again bloop i'm an american
yeah but which which area code am i in which
street am i born into am i in a freaking crip
neighborhood in south central or am i in beverly
hills two very different shoots um so i think
again that compassion empathy is like what is
the actual issue like our school system if you
aren't you don't do well you get penalized finland
school system if you're a struggling school you
get extra help you know so it but until we stop
this kind of world war one trench thing of like
you know racism from the whites racism from the
blacks or whatever it is we're not just going
to come in the middle and go well what is the
fucking problem what is the root of the problem
all right these assholes we get every four years
check they're a problem you know the poverty
here because i've been in lots of struggling
neighborhoods where they're caucasian You know,
and there's rampant crime and they wouldn't really
feel like they were going to be a firefighter.
So what is the underlying issue? And I think
that's why we have to pull everyone together.
I agree with that. You know, until they stop
us fighting with each other, we're never going
to get to the root of this. And we're always
going to be at war, whether it's in a neighborhood,
red and blue, or whether it's, you know, in different
countries. I think one of the big things that
especially like in the special operations community
that comes up a lot is like women in special
operations. Um, and so, especially like being
around like the CrossFit community and it's community.
And, and once you realize that there's some freaking
women out there that can just out, out, outperform
you in, in every aspect, you're just kind of
like, Oh shit. You know, the, one of the, the,
the conversations I have with people, especially
with, with, you know, in jujitsu is I am so glad
that I got my, you know, there was a girl um
i was a white belt at the time i was uh and she
was a blue belt and her name was snow dean i
met her down in austin and she was like hey do
you want to roll and yeah man no problem man
but it was like yeah and um the crazy part is
is that my mentality going in there i was like
she's not gonna beat me i'm a man you know what
i mean i literally came in at that mentality
and And I truly believe that because I'm superior,
because I'm stronger. I'm a man. I'm taller.
You know, I have more strength. I'm going to
beat her. And, you know, the cartoon where, like,
Tom and Jerry, you know, where he gets in a fight
with the bulldog, right? And you have nothing
but smoke. And he's, like, trying to get out
and gets pulled back in. That was around for,
like, six minutes. I was running for my life.
Like, everything I did, she shut down. She went
around. She was, like, just on me, just, like.
like, I mean, it was just crazy. Like everything
I did was just get shut down. And I was straight
in my mind. I'm going, hell shit. God damn it.
Get off. I'm trying to get her off. And the thing
was, is that, you know, I was so out of breath
and I was trying, I was like, my face was flustered
and she just kind of like, that's around. Thanks.
And I just went on to the next one, you know,
which I was like, Oh yeah, I appreciate it. And
she turned around. Oh shit. I was in pain for
fucking days because I just didn't want to tap.
My elbow was hyperextended. My neck felt cranked
up. But I'm so happy that I got that round so
early on in my career. And to me, I'm like, I'll
never underestimate a woman ever again. But in
the special operations, to me, if we have a standard
that needs to be made, male or female, If you
meet that standard, you should be in. Bottom
line, if you meet the standard, we're not going
to change the standard. But if you meet that
standard, what is the problem? I don't understand
that. They're like, oh, well, women are psychological.
No, it's horseshit. I've met some nasty women
before. You know what I mean? They're worse than
some men. And the thing is, and we're talking
about physical boundaries, again, if they meet
the standard, what is the problem with it? I
don't find anything wrong with that. because
we have shit bags in every branch and every branch
is spotted. And we have in CAG, in SF, in Rangers,
shit flips through the cracks sometimes. And
you're going to have a shit bag in every branch.
It doesn't matter. So if someone actually is
there, and I say someone specifically, because
I don't want to say male or female, if they make
the standard and they make the cut, you're in.
Just leave it at that. And if they make the same
standard as everyone else, what is the problem
with that? And you have these discussions constantly
in there. And there's more and more, especially
like you mainly have it from like the older generation,
like the boomer generation. But the, you know,
the Gen X and the millennials, you know, it's
like if they make the standard, that's it. Just
leave it at that. You know what I mean? And I
encourage women to go do that because guess what?
They probably do a lot better at like human,
you know, intel gathering and so forth in some
places that, you know, other people, they wouldn't
expect it. You know what I mean? They can, they're,
you know, I don't blend anywhere for fuck's sake,
dude. I go over there and they're like, yeah,
I was doing a surveillance and counter surveillance
course. And they're like, yeah, you're staying
in the car. You'll do that, you know, but you're
not walking around. You don't blend in anywhere.
And they're absolutely right. The women in that
course, they did phenomenal. You know what I
mean? And the thing is, is that if they, again,
they make the standard, leave it at that bottom
line. A hundred percent. I've always said this.
Beautiful thing about the fire service is if
we're in a fire, so we're wearing all our gear,
there's only one prejudice. They either can or
they can't. You can sure as shit see the person
who can't, who's terrible at their job when they're
wearing their gear, but you can't tell if it's
a gay, you know, male, straight, trans or whatever.
It's a good firefighter or it's a bad firefighter.
And that's a prejudice that should be there because
that is that standard. I want to be mindful of
your time. We've been talking for two hours now,
but just one more area, because this is, again,
this relates, you know, rounds off to what we've
been talking about this last part. Again, black
and white. When we talk about Israel at the moment,
that entire country is really kind of being held
at what's being done by this certain group of
people in Gaza. I would imagine the same as Russia,
the same as all these other places that. There's
a majority of people that either are just kind
of neutral or vehemently opposed to this. I would
hope it would be the latter that just aren't
being given a voice at the moment. So in your
kind of, you know, readings and explorations,
talk to me about the kind of the resistance voice
in Israel, these atrocities happening under their
flag. So one of the big things that I've realized
is that, you know, that every. And this has become
more apparent the more I kind of dig in is that
every accusation, excuse me, every accusation
is actually a confession. So you have I've seen
several videos and not just of kids in schools
being brought up to hate them and that they're
terrorists and they only want bad things. But
you have people in the street and I think it's
a generational thing. And again. One of the biggest
things is when you have that, then you're going
to have a society that's the problem. If you
take Netanyahu out of the problem, you know,
out of the picture, you're still going to have
people like Ben -Gavir and Smotrich, right? And
Ben -Gavir literally by the only Israeli courts
got convicted of terrorism, right? And he wasn't
able to serve the MDF because he's that far extremist,
but he's still a politician. He still has a voice
in the far right party. So when you have people
like that and you have a society like that, and
when 83 percent, there was a Haaretz poll that
was done, 83 percent of the Israeli population
agrees that Gaza should be just completely annihilated,
destroyed, taken over. Well, that's no longer
a leader, a prime minister that's saying this.
And once he's taken out, that's literally a society
that's saying this. You know what I mean? I think
that's one of the biggest problems. Are all Israelis
bad? No. I'm not saying that. But the overwhelming
majority, you know, that believes that these
people are second class citizens, that they're
terrorists, that they should lose their home.
And that is a societal issue. You know what I
mean? They've been brought up to believe that.
And I don't think they've ever had any accountability
because they always had that shield of utilizing,
you know, what's happened at the Holocaust. Like,
oh, you're anti -Semitic or you're a Holocaust
denier. And they try to throw that out to end
the conversation. And I think that's one of the
biggest problems is that they're not held accountable.
The US has used more veto power to defend Israel
than any other instance in the history of the
UN. They literally have. Now, when you have these
issues like that, where they're actually like
no accountability. you can, you're literally
getting away with murder right now. You have
IDF soldiers that are on Tik TOK and you have
that shit bag destiny going over there and saying,
Oh, stop putting on Tik TOK, trying to give them
defense for that because they're utilizing against
them because it's a fucking war crime. That's
why, you know what I mean? Like, and he's like,
Oh, just keep it down. Don't, don't publicize
that. Um, when you have that mentality, when
you have like no accountability and again, if
they want to pick a fight with all, all the world,
you know, especially like in the middle East,
And they don't have the funding to do that. And
now they're starting to, you know, when what
I'm what I'm happy about is that they picked
on a country that fought back. You know what
I mean? They attacked Iran. They weren't expecting
what they did. And they sent in lobbing missiles
and they still had our help to defend that. Right.
They still had the the the they destroyed some
of the missiles that were coming in. But a lot
of them made it through. And now they're there.
The Palestinians, they're not running anywhere.
You know what I mean? They're staying to defend
their land because they feel they belong there.
If you see right now what's happening is that
the, remember when the, especially in the beginning
of the war, they're saying, oh, they're launching
missiles from hospitals and schools and everything
else. There's little actual video footage of
them launching missiles from the middle of Tel
Aviv. You see what I mean? So everything that
they're accusing the Palestinians of doing and
Hamas doing, they're literally doing themselves.
And they're targeting hospitals. They're targeting
schools. You're saying that every single hospital,
there was like a military command center under
there. The Harvard statistic, or last year, Lancet
was the medical journal. This is an independent
verification. They estimated between 187 ,000.
If you fast forward to today, Harvard came up
with an estimate just recently that there's like
330 ,000. um casualties you know that happened
there and hamas is only they this is coming from
from israel that the armed branch of hamas um
was is only like 30 000 so right now we have
like 65 000 that that's completely accounted
for but we have all these estimates coming from
third parties you know that are showing otherwise.
And they're targeting journalists, they're targeting
medical personnel. And these are coming from
the people on the ground that literally from
the UK, from the US, that are saying, yeah, we
got kids with bullet holes in their heads. These
are, you know, and it's happening so much, but
who's holding them accountable, right? And they're
like, and you have the people that in Israel
that are saying that they are, that all Palestinians
are terrorists because they're going to grow
up to be terrorists. And they have that mentality.
So I think it's a societal problem that has been
ingrained for so long. They've been taught to
hate. I mean, and so when Iran started bombing
them, you saw people on the beach that were like,
oh, no, we're going to get to our bomb shelters.
And one of the things that you saw commonly happen
is that they weren't allowing non -Jews into
the bomb shelters. That's a societal problem.
That's no longer just like the politicians making
the... the determination of what should be done.
It's literally like the society saying, no, we're
not allowing it. Israel doesn't have borders
by design, so they continually expand the illegal
settlements that are happening. They just approved
like 21 more, and this has been the most violent
year in the West Bank. Hamas is not in the fucking
West Bank. They're not in control there. These
are illegal Israeli settlers that are going there
and burning homes, that are killing Palestinians,
backed up by the IDF. And I saw that firsthand
when I was there. There was a farm and there
was a brand new Israeli settlement that had been
built there. And they would go in at night. And
I was there and I have pictures of the burnt
fields, right? They would burn their fields and
they literally have the IDF soldiers that were
accompanying them. The day after we left, they
did a raid in that area and 30 Palestinians were
taken into the detention center. So now what
we're talking about is... You don't have to talk
about the hostages anymore, right? Because it
was never about the hostages. It never was. It
was all about the same thing. They just wanted
to level Gaza. And they did this systematically.
They've been doing this. And little by little
have been taken over. The problem with this is
that now people aren't buying their bullshit
anymore, right? The entire world is sin. And
the entire world is starting to condemn them.
The people that are literally holding on the
tightest is the U .S. more than anything else.
We're literally like the big bully that is defending
the loudmouth friend, right? They're going in,
picking a fight, and then running behind it because
they wouldn't be doing any shit if they didn't
have the money for the missile systems that they've
been using, right? And they're saying, well,
they keep lobbying. There's regulations for a
prison in the United States where you can't have
a house. literally right outside the prison,
right? Why would that be? For the safety of the
fucking community, right? But in Gaza, they walled
them off and then they have all these settlements
literally within feet, right? Within a couple
hundred feet of that wall. And so those are the
human shields. You see what I mean? Because these
people that are being oppressed in there and
they have autonomous weapons pointing in. And
they have bombings. And they were saying there
was peace in Gaza before that. No, they still
had to control the water. They had to control
the air. They controlled the sea. They weren't
allowed to leave without having lines and lines
of cattle being rushed in there, constantly being
dehumanized. They had air raids. I think it was
like September 23rd of 2023, they bombed the
shit out of the West Bank and in Gaza. Right.
Like the month of September, there was the highest
amount of death between January 1st and January,
excuse me, in September 2023. There was the highest
amount of Palestinians killed in like two decades.
And this is in the West Bank. So but these people
don't hear that and they don't hear about. You
know, the the bombing raids that they're doing.
And again, they're walled in in a 25 by five
area. Where the fuck are they going to go? And
the most densely populated area in the world,
which has in, by the way, that the most like
the thing that sets me off about more than anything
else is when people bring up Hollywood. Right.
Oh, they're making this up. It's fake. It's whatever.
They have the highest amount of children amputees.
in in the entire world than any conflict in the
21st century or excuse me in the 20th century
right in the in the last like 125 years the highest
amount of amputee children in any conflict and
especially such a short amount of time how the
fuck are you gonna you know fake that you know
what i mean they just want to believe something
else and this is where i think one of the biggest
problems is And this is an entire society that's
been believed that they are somewhat just and
that this land was promised them 2 ,000 years
ago. And it's becoming a running joke now. The
one thing I'm happy about seeing is people seeing
through that bullshit. And again, I don't support
Iran. I think any type of theocracy is dangerous,
including your Israels. But when you have a theocracy,
it's only going to end bad. And I'm not supporting
the Iranian government. By all means, I support
the people in there because they don't have that
choice. Right. Any type of dissent has been crushed.
And that's one of the biggest problems. So I'm
not supporting the government of Israel. But
bombing the civilians isn't really going to help.
In either case, not in Gaza, not in the West
Bank, not in Tehran. And they got to get out
of that. They got to stop doing that. And I think
they should be held accountable, just like anybody
else. And if we actually hold Iraq to that standard
where we went in where they had only so many,
like 17 violations, and Israel has 34, they should
be held accountable. Why don't we, we should
be, if Dimona, if they're able to have nuclear
weapons, they should have to sign the Non -Proliferation
Treaty. They should have inspections. They should
be able, again, held accountable for that. And
that's, I think, one of the biggest problems
is they're not held accountable for shit, and
they get away with murder, literally. I kind
of wonder how our World War II generation would
feel about what's going on, like just standing
there and turning our head or even arming what's
going on with the very thing that they were doing
to protect the victims of genocide and obviously
the victims of just the invasion in, you know,
39 to 45. And then the same. In Israel, I would
imagine that a lot of people, you know, that
lost their entire family or whatever it was during,
you know, Auschwitz and other areas of the Holocaust.
What would they think now? We could bring all
those people now and show them this is 2025.
What would they think? I bet you they would be
fucking appalled. Both the American, you know,
the allied ones and the people that were, you
know, ultimately moved to Israel. I'm talking
about Israelis specifically. So this is, again,
this just underlines, you know, the normal people
would never have let this happen. And they would
be appalled at what's happened, you know, only
80 short years since all those tragedies occurred
in our history. I agree 100%. And I think the
whole never again applies to everyone. Never
again for anyone, not just, you know, the Jews.
It shouldn't happen to anyone. But I think that's
the problem is that they feel like they got a
monopoly on that. And to me, honestly, it's because
I grew up in Germany. I've been to Poland four
times. And if anyone goes to any of the death
camps, concentration camps, they're going to
be changed. It's one of those things where I
ask myself, what would I have done at that time?
Would I have the moral courage to speak out about
this? And it's because of these places that...
changed my mind. It's because of these places
that I, that, that I feel I have to speak out
because it's happening again. And, and just because
it's a different type of person because it's
a different religion or because they're different
color, they're, they're Brown and they're Muslim.
What, how does that change that? It's, it's another
genocide. It's, it's ethnic cleansing. It's all
the things that happened to them. And it's because
I experienced and because I've seen the things
that have happened then, not in person, like
I was in World War II, but if you go to Auschwitz,
if you go to any of the concentration camps and
death camps, it's going to change you. You know
what I mean? And so either you can, and the thing
is, is that they've been able to manipulate that
to the point where. um use that as like a shield
like if you speak out against it you're anti
-semitic and you're holocaust denier and anything
else it's like no because of that is why i'm
speaking out because i don't want that to happen
to anyone exactly it's just wrong to happen to
anyone and anyone that actually like is is against
that you're literally saying genocide for thee
but not for me you know what i mean and i think
that's absolutely just despicably you know it's
despicable by by and vile and just absolutely
disgusting 100%. Well, I think that's a good
place to round off. We've been chatting for quite
a while, but I mean, this has been so important
because you don't hear this very often. I'm sure
there's some podcasts and things, they talk about
this a lot, but on most people's radar, you don't.
And this is coming from a kindness, compassion,
humanity. lens it's not leaning in one way it's
just this is wrong this is right and again you
hit on the on the the term that i talk about
even the fire service moral courage you know
we have fire chiefs that just roll over you know
in their beds while their men and women are being
buried because of their poor decisions same thing
you know you either have moral courage and you
don't and i think this is what's so important
about conversations like this that you know we
have to have We have to shed light on what is
wrong. And we have to, as you said, hold the
people that are doing the wrongdoing accountable
for these things and make sure it doesn't happen
again. Because one of the biggest tragedies happened
to the Jewish people. So this isn't about a religion.
It's about not letting that same kind of atrocity
happen again. God forbid, attached to the very
religion, the very types of people that, you
know, our combined nations, our forefathers fought
to liberate. all those years ago. It's up to
us. They've all gone. They gave their lives and
they've now passed on. It's up to our generation
to be their voices and make sure it doesn't happen
again. So I want to thank you so much for being
so generous with your time and so courageous
with your voice and coming on the Behind the
Shield podcast today. Great conversation, man.
I always appreciate it, man. And you have some
great shows. I really enjoy them. I appreciate
you having me on. It's definitely an honor to
be part of that. Some big hitters on there, man.
I just hope you keep doing what you're doing
and, you know, please keep speaking out. Keep
finding a good fight, bro.