August 28, 2025 • 59 mins
Amy is joined by the first female Thunderbird pilot, Nicole Malachowski and together they’re taking an UNFILTERED look at President Trump’s unwanted and unnecessary plans to deploy troops to 19 U.S. cities, while over at the Pentagon Pete Hegseth is firing more generals.
Plus, Donald Trump doesn’t want you to burn an American flag, but he has NO problem defacing one with sharpie and selling it on eBay.
Also, J.D. Vance clearly says Russia has given “significant concessions” to Ukraine…say what?, and our Sec of the Interior says wind and solar energy damages the environment, this and more here on TRUTH IN THE BARREL
*This episode was recorded and aired on August 28th 2025
About Truth in the Barrel:
Amy and Denver are both military veterans, political junkies, and whiskey lovers who sit on opposite sides of the aisle but have one thing in common: they love the United States of America.
Truth in the Barrel was born of Amy & Denver’s commitment to country, the Constitution, and a well-curated collection of the world’s finest bourbon.
Join them weekly for deep dives into timely topics, interviews with recognizable guests, and a dose of call-in fun.
Visit Our Website:
Subscribe to Truth in the Barrel:
https://www.youtube.com/@TruthIntheBarrel
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0JQcSj5mwVyGDJ8DcXwlu9?si=5f2bd1d1b0c64e6f
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truth-in-the-barrel/id1804092329
Instagram, BlueSky, Facebook, TikTok:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today, we're taking an unfiltered look at President Trump's unwanted and unnecessary plansto deploy troops to 19 US cities.
While over at the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth is firing more generals.
Plus, Donald Trump doesn't want you to burn an American flag, but he has no problemdefacing one with a Sharpie and selling it on eBay.
(00:21):
Also, JD Vance clearly says Russia has given significant concessions to Ukraine.
Say what?
And our secretary of the interior says wind and solar energy damages the environment andis a threat to our national security.
Hmm.
This is what we're going to be talking about here on Truth in the Barrel, a different kindof whiskey rebellion.
(00:54):
Welcome to Truth in the Barrel.
I'm your cohost, Amy McGrath.
Denver Riggleman is on travel, but I'm joined today by a great American, amazing Air Forceveteran, patriot, fighter pilot, colonel, the first woman pilot in the legendary United
States Air Force fighter demonstration team.
We all know them as the Thunderbirds.
(01:17):
Nicole Malachowski.
Welcome, Nicole.
Thanks for having me Amy.
Delighted to be here.
A lot going on this week.
Yeah, we have a lot to get through.
So let's start out though, Nicole, because we got to start the show tonight with somereally sad news that we have to take a step back and recognize this week in Minnesota, we
(01:40):
all learned about the tragic mass shooting at the Minneapolis school.
Two children were killed.
17 wounded, some still in critical condition.
And the mass shooting took place in a church on the second day of school.
The shooter had a semi-automatic weapon, shotgun, a pistol.
(02:04):
So clear intent here.
And these kids that were killed were, and affected, were the same ages as my kids.
And I know this is worth a much longer conversation, but I think it's important to justtake a step back and ah talk about this a little bit.
(02:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
mean, just a horrific tragedy.
know, I have my husband, I have 15 year old twins and I just my heart is just aching forthose parents, know, the parents whose kids didn't come home, the parents who are sitting
by hospital beds right now hoping for the best outcome.
You know, just a completely unnecessary uh unadulterated just tragedy.
(02:47):
And, you know, the question, course, to the American people, to all of us is, you know.
How long are we going to accept this as the norm?
I think the data tells a story and statistically speaking, this is a uniquely Americanproblem.
And we have just gotten so entrenched on this second amendment right thing as opposed tostepping back and looking at the larger picture.
(03:09):
Here's what I know.
What we've been doing isn't working.
So at this point, we need to do something, anything, even if it's the smallest step in theright direction, the status quo.
is not working, we have to say enough is enough.
And most Americans want this.
Most Americans want things like better background checks.
(03:32):
The debate is real and I get that.
know, I'm somebody that, and maybe you and I might disagree on this, I was in the UnitedStates Marine.
I believe in, you know, the Second Amendment, the ability for people to own firearms.
have...
(03:52):
them, I use them, I'm trained in them.
I'm also a big proponent of weapon safety, gun safety, but this is like, we got to figurethis out as a society.
Absolutely.
So I agree with you as a veteran myself, support the second amendment, support the rightfor people to have the ability to defend themselves in their own homes.
I have no issue with that, but there is reasonable gun control.
(04:15):
Things like background check, things like red flag laws, things like mandatory training,licensing.
um I think also just maybe even some of things as far as like storage, maybe ways that wecan invest in safe gun type technologies.
There are a lot of different options out there and I don't even need for us to bite offthe whole apple, right?
(04:36):
I think a lot of people are waiting for the perfect plan and package to be put together asa part two.
We need to start now.
um And the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
And I have to say, um interestingly to me over this last 24 hours, I tried to go tomultiple news sources.
Even some of the more conservative news sources to include Fox News had people sayingenough is enough.
(05:00):
I actually noticed a slight difference from some of the folks that are, you you wouldconsider far right saying, okay, this is ridiculous.
And so this is the kind of conversation you need.
This is the kind of, I won't call it momentum because that's not what it is yet, but movein the right direction.
Let's start with something.
The status quo isn't working.
need to start with something and I'm glad to hear you say that about Fox News.
(05:22):
um I would not have thought that, but I'm glad to hear it.
um I feel like the concern I have among many is when things like that, happened, there'ssometimes a rush to label the perpetrator as being left wing or right wing and it's
(05:45):
somehow a
a political thing.
mean, there's, we also have a problem with, you know, mental illness in our country.
And it's also the massive amounts of guns in our country.
And so it's like, I don't know, I just don't want to, I'm tired of hearing, you know, allthis is because the kids were praying or they were Catholic or it's anti, you know, and it
(06:16):
Could be lots of factors.
Clearly this person had some serious mental illness.
You know anybody who's taking a gun to a fellow citizen in hate, especially young childrenAre are cruel.
They're they're depraved.
It's something that is Absolutely horrific, you know to use the the word evil That'sexactly what this is and it is not a partisan issue It doesn't matter if the person is you
(06:42):
know left or right or anything in between All of these people, you know are evil they arewrong and we need to take a real look at like you said the mental health issues
which should be a nonpartisan issue in this country.
And some of the counterarguments could be, look, there are countries around the world whoalso have mental health issues.
There are countries around the world where the teenagers are also playing video games.
(07:05):
So we have to really take a look at the data and step back and go, what is it aboutAmerica that is so unique that makes it, I think I was looking at the stats this morning
and please, I'm averaging here, something like more than 250,
mass shootings defined as I think four or more people shot at a time this year alone, whenyou look at like the next closest country I think is Canada with two, I doesn't that make
(07:30):
anyone regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, step back and go, what is itabout us and our unique American experience that's making this happen?
Yeah, we got to have serious leaders in positions of power that are actually going totackle.
We gotta stop with this it's all or nothing attitude.
It's all you know all of the gun control measures or none of the gun control measures Canwe not get reasonable people from both sides of the aisle to say let's take one step.
(07:56):
Let's pick one thing Universal background checks.
Let's do it.
Let's take a policy where we give maybe incentives for people to have Trigger technologyor gun safe technology just something that moves us
Common sense stuff is what we're asking for.
Yesterday I was actually in Dallas at a business meeting.
It got done early.
(08:17):
Long story short, I was sitting in the lobby waiting for my car to pick me up.
There was a security guard who actually had a duffel bag that said, he brought it in withhis little backpack, it said, make America great again.
So it was clear oh where he stood as far as a political spectrum.
And he brought this up.
He's like, did you see the news?
Because it happened while I was in the meeting.
I said, no.
(08:37):
And he says, I am a security forces veteran from the military.
This guy was probably 60 years old, a Trump supporter.
And he said, you know, enough's enough.
We need to start with common sense gun control.
And it piqued my interest because I said, really, then I'd love to hear what you think,you know, as a Trump supporter, reasonable gun control looks like.
And guess what he said?
(08:57):
Everything you and I just listed off reasonable Americans on both sides of the aisleunderstand that there are steps that can be taken.
And again, you know, people will go, well, you can't prove that that's going to changeanything.
You know what?
Again, the status quo is not working.
Let's try to switch one, just one lever and see what happens.
Yeah, I mean, it's common sense at this point.
(09:18):
but a tragic, we didn't want to start the program or at least go through all these otherthings without talking about such an important piece and tragic incident that happened
this week.
But there's also a lot of other things going on.
Donald Trump, our Commander in Chief, is potentially ordering the military and theNational Guard to 19 states to
(09:43):
quote, fight crime.
And when he was asked about this this past week, he said he could do it because he hasunlimited power.
So let's start with that.
mean, my belief, and I've said this many times, is there's no emergency that warrantsthese deployments in our cities.
(10:03):
And this is a misuse of our military.
What do you think?
I agree with you 100%.
I don't believe there's any emergencies going on.
don't see mayors and governors requesting this kind of help from the federal government.
And in fact, if the federal government wants to be a part of helping crime in any of thesecities, the right way to do it is through reaching out and through collaboration and
(10:26):
going, what can we offer you?
What can we offer your police services or your first responders to make things better inyour specific area in that context?
boots on the ground type mayor or governor is going to have a much better feel for what'sgoing on in their community, where the gaps in the resources are.
Just to come in and say, I've got it when you actually don't have a feel for what's goingon makes no sense.
(10:49):
And it's also just a ridiculously performative uh thing that's going on and a ridiculous,I think, waste of resources.
And here's the thing, and this is the common sense piece.
And I talk to people on the right, people on the left that, you know, live near me, knowme here in Kentucky.
The common theme is we should not have our military patrolling our streets like we aresome third world country police state.
(11:16):
That's just not American.
And if you look at the data, because the show is all about data, you know, is that thecrime rates, the number one, number two cities,
with the highest violent crime rates in the country right now are St.
Louis and New Orleans, at least in the past year or last year.
And we're not sending, they're not sending forces in there.
The states with the highest crime rates are like Louisiana and Arkansas and SouthCarolina.
(11:40):
He's not sending forces there.
And the thing is we all want to tackle crime, but you don't do that by sending the UnitedStates military that is trained and equipped for war.
I mean, they're walking around a DC right now with like weapons of war.
on the Metro.
And I'll be honest, what I worry about is these National Guard troops, right, who aretrying to serve their country, trying to their nation's uniform, doing their best to walk
(12:05):
a pretty fine line.
A lot of these people, they're not trained in law enforcement, right?
They're not trained in riot control, yet we're giving them weapons and told to go in.
And isn't that accepting a certain level of risk or giving them a certain level of riskthat I think is completely unnecessary.
But other than like maybe the...
waste and resources or maybe the performative nature um by the president in thisadministration, I often worry about the civil military divide.
(12:33):
We talk about this all the time.
We've been talking about it for decades.
The civil military divide, a lot of it is a lack of understanding, which can build to alack of trust.
Are we not, in a way, increasing this
lack of trust or least catalyzing a lack of trust between the American people and ourmilitary, that's the last thing we need, the absolute last thing we need in a democracy.
(12:55):
Well, because the military has a uh perception among Americans of being an institutionthat people trust, whenever you use it in this manner, which is purely performative,
purely political, it erodes that trust heavily.
And I often think, and it's a question I keep getting asked, so I'll ask you, is becausewe're both retired.
(13:21):
military officers, but we still have friends who are in and we still have a pulse ofwhat's going on.
How do soldiers and officers feel right now about what the military is being asked to do?
How do they, I mean, obviously, well, let me ask you that first.
Sure, so like you, I have a lot of friends that are still serving in the military, whetherthat's active duty, guard or reserve, they are a cross section of society.
(13:49):
People forget that our military is actually right down the middle.
mean, we're representatives on both the left and the right side, which is as it should be,right?
The military should be representative of the country that they are serving.
And so I find that people have both views on it, but the one thing that's connecting allof them is they're kind of like,
(14:09):
Why are we doing this?
To what end?
And I would rather be training.
I would rather be getting ready to deploy against our nation's true enemies.
They almost are feeling, at least what I'm hearing from people from both sides of theaisle, is this is such a waste of my time.
And that's a horrible place to be in when you're trying to wear your nation's uniform andyou're there to defend the United States against our enemies.
(14:37):
We have pictures of there's video of National Guardsmen picking up trash in Washington DC.
A little lighter.
I hear what you're saying on that.
I've heard other people complain about it.
I might take a little bit lighter view on this one, Amy, because they're standing thereand they're not doing much.
I don't know about you, but I've done a lot of FODWOCs in my day across the deck.
(14:59):
I've come in for training days where I too, even as a full bird colonel was handed a sackto go clean up trash or at least do something while I'm standing there.
So I don't think it's unheard of that.
We've had people doing FODWACs or litter checks.
We used to do them across the base all the time.
But to your point, is this really what the federal government should be doing?
(15:19):
It's very expensive deployment to pick up trash.
And here's the bigger take from my perspective is that the men and women who serve inuniform, they want to know that when they're asked to go deploy, when they're asked to
make sacrifices, when they're asked to go away from their families, their loved ones,maybe endure some hardship, maybe some physical um hardship,
(15:49):
especially if they're deployed to like a combat zone, mean, physical or psychologicalwounds or perhaps death or something like that.
They want to know that their sacrifice is worth it.
So these folks are away from their families, they're away from training, they're also awayfrom their jobs because many of them are part-time warriors.
And I keep thinking, is this charade worth it?
(16:12):
Is it worthy of that?
And that also I feel like is going to erode.
a lot of the trust that the military has in its leadership as well.
This is like Klauswitz 101, right?
Like you have to know what the end state of getting into this, you know, a war into adeployment is.
I have yet to hear this administration articulate what the final end state looks like.
(16:34):
What does it mean to come in and control and help crime?
What does it mean to clean up homeless accountants?
What are the objective kind of measurements and tools we're using to analyze thisstrategically?
Because is this something that's going to go on and on and on forever?
Or is it just going to fade with the next news cycle?
Right?
They're at Union Station.
Now they're not at Union Station and nobody knows what's going on.
(16:55):
If it's confusing to the American public, I guarantee it's confusing to those NationalGuard members who, you know, are out there running for the nation's uniform trying to do
the right
And I'm worried about this uh happening in other cities.
And sending the guard into Baltimore, into Chicago.
Here's the thing, you want to tackle crime.
I would love to tackle crime, but you need better policing.
(17:16):
Police departments need to be funded.
You know, I'm not somebody that doesn't believe in law enforcement.
I certainly do.
Police departments across the country are chronically underfunded.
um And law enforcement does matter.
I mean, we're always going to need a way to hold criminals accountable.
But other things matter in reducing crime like mental health care, like better technology,like license plate readers and that sort of thing.
(17:43):
And so my feeling on this is we know it's performative because it's only in blue cities.
We've already looked at the data that they're not sending anything into the red area thathave higher crime rates.
We also know that the president pardoned 1,500 convicted criminals.
So this idea that these guys, these Republicans and the president are so tough on crime iscomplete BS in my opinion.
(18:13):
or least criminals that actually assaulted police officers.
I mean, to me, the highest order of you don't do that, right?
mean, any reasonable person knows that and they were convicted by a jury of their peers orpleaded guilty.
And so I'm with you.
And he's pardoned fraudsters and tax cheats and corrupt politicians.
He's pardoned white collar criminals who have given money to his political campaigns andbought his bitcoins.
(18:37):
I mean, let's be real.
They're not serious about this is performative and everybody knows it.
And I just feel like, know, and we also have veterans in DC who are staging a sit-in and,you know, protesting this right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I think that they're trying to stand up for their brothers and sisters who arethere with the trash bags and uniform walking around going, what is it exactly I'm
(19:03):
supposed to be doing here when I could be home with my family?
I could be home training.
I could be home improving my readiness.
I could be home, you know, with my day job.
And, you know, I'm watching, you know, Governor Westmore, you he's flat out inviting him,come, come talk to me.
I'll tell you exactly what Maryland needs.
I'll tell you exactly what Baltimore needs.
mean, there is a way for the federal government to collaborate.
in a productive way, even in a tailored way to each state and to these larger cities, yetwe're choosing not to do that as an administration.
(19:31):
And I don't get that.
Yeah, it's, it's wrong.
Well, look, Donald Trump is showing us in real time what misusing the military reallylooks like.
but his secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth is no slouch in that department, in my opinion.
Um, and that's as evidenced by another baseless high level firings.
(19:52):
Um, there's a lot of going on just in the past couple of weeks.
We know, um, that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump have fired.
before just the last couple of weeks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chiefof Naval Operations, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Air Force Chief of Staff, Vice
Chief of Staff.
And now, oh, and also the head of the National Security Administration.
(20:17):
Now they fired the acting head of the National Security Administration and the top lawyerat the National Security Administration and the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
And there's a backstory for both of those, but I want to get your take just off the batmore broadly on all of these firings.
(20:38):
It's unprecedented.
And why is it like in, well, I'll get your take, but I think it's bad.
Okay, so the word you use is unprecedented and that is of course spot on.
I will tell you, as these firings have increased over time, believe my thinking on thishas, because initially and having been someone, I've worked in the White House three times
(20:59):
under both political parties, under multiple administrations.
And so, you I feel like I come at this with at least an experienced perspective.
You do at the end of the day serve at the pleasure of the president.
Right.
And I do believe that when a new secretary of defense, you know, comes in that, you know,that they have a right to maybe make, you know, a few changes.
There is precedent for that in the past, right.
(21:19):
Bringing in maybe their own personal exec, their own chief of staff, you know, maybenudging along a chief of staff or something like that.
But to see the high levels and the quantity unprecedented by tenfold.
I mean, it's there's nothing even close.
And so there's this balance between you serve at the pleasure of the president, but alsowhere's the transparency?
(21:43):
I have yet to see any explanation, even a top level, just bullet point explanation of whyI chose to relieve the superintendent of the Naval Academy or why after only two years,
the chief of staff of the Air Force is leaving out of nowhere.
That was just announced.
So I think more people need to kind of.
(22:04):
demand answers, I think that when you're looking at this quantity of high level officers,these are people who've served 30 plus years.
I mean, we're literally just removing 30 years of experience and credibility with noexplanation.
I am disappointed to see our representatives on both sides of the aisles in Congress notchallenging the administration on this.
(22:25):
Well, so we we we can pull the string on a couple of the more recent ones.
um You're right to say, you know, we don't know specifically because they haven't come outand say what.
But we sort of know why.
So with the Defense Intelligence Agency, that is the the head intelligence agency of theDepartment of the Military of the Department of Defense.
(22:46):
OK.
And recently, after the the uh Air Force bombed Iran, the president came out and said that
we obliterated that mission, obliterated the Iranian nuclear program.
Okay, well then the Defense Intelligence Agency came out with a report that said, youknow, we can't really be sure.
(23:08):
We think we got a lot of it, but we can't be sure because of X, Y, and Z.
And therefore that head of the Defense Intelligence Agency was fired.
Okay.
And then the acting national security uh agency director,
uh, was trying to protect the top, his top scientist from losing his security clearance,which is basically like being fired.
(23:34):
would be being fired at that level.
And this scientist was the government's leading expert on AI, but the problem was so superqualified guy.
mean, like the top scientist in the entire department of defense.
Um, but the problem was that he was a part of an intelligence report.
back in 2016 that said that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, which it did.
(23:59):
um And so when his report didn't fit years later, doesn't fit the narrative of TulsiGabbard and Donald Trump, um they're fired, they're out.
And so the NSA director, the national security agency director, the general was firedbecause he was trying to protect that guy from losing his
(24:22):
security clearance.
And to me, I say all this to say this.
The reason this is dangerous is that in the military and in the intelligence community,you have to be able to speak the truth to the leaders, truth to power.
And if you can't speak the truth to power, if you're afraid you're going to get fired bygiving them your best military advice, your best intelligence analysis,
(24:51):
Right.
You are we?
Well, and that's exactly the danger is spot on.
Right.
There's part of me as I'm watching all these firings, you know, with the CDC director,right.
I think just yesterday um to look at a different department, um you know, part of me ishopeful that some of these people are just like, you know what, I'm not going to do what
you're telling me to do.
(25:11):
I'm not going to lie to the American people.
I'm not going to do something that goes against science.
I'm not going to do something that, you know, is unethical.
you know, fire me, I'm out.
Maybe they're maybe they are speaking truth to power and you know, they're gettingpummeled.
So part of me is like, is that good that people are finally like, look, I'm going to fallon my sword over this.
I'm going to I'm going to get fired because I'm not going to do what you want to do.
(25:31):
The danger is they then get replaced by people who are hand selected for very probablyparticular reasons.
Or now it's even maybe maybe they're being replaced with qualified people.
But now that lack of trust exists.
And now we're going to question everything that's being put in.
to replace in these firings.
I mean, you just mentioned the CDC and that just happened this week.
(25:53):
The four of the top CDC leaders are quitting.
um Trump fired the CDC director.
She refused to go and then he made sure that she was fired.
Her name was uh Susan uh Manerez and she's only been on the job for a month.
Yeah, and she and these CDC leaders basically refused to uh quote,
(26:20):
uh rubber stamp, unscientific, reckless directives.
I mean, that's what they said.
And then one of them was the National Center for Immunization Diseases or something likethat.
His name was Dimitri DeSalleis or something.
And he wrote an email that was really interesting.
(26:40):
And he basically said, you know, I'm not able to serve in this role any longer because ofthe ongoing weaponization of public health.
recommend everyone watching and listening to this podcast, go read that email because Iread the exact same thing.
And if it doesn't kind of pitch or shock here, make you feel uneasy.
I don't know how to help you.
I mean, this is somebody with decades of experience, know, as you know, and maybe some ofyour listeners, I am very big as a patient advocate in the Lyme disease and infectious
(27:08):
diseases spaces.
And even Dr.
Jernigan, who's at the head of that, who, you know, we've been looking to and followingfor decades.
was one of the guys who resigned.
And remember, Secretary Kennedy has been very vocal about the fact that in September, I'muh gonna solve the mystery of autism.
And I can't help but wonder if whatever he's preparing to announce is directly related tothese resignations.
(27:33):
on a side note, and because we just got into the CDC, the federal government would onlyapprove the new COVID vaccines if they limited who could receive them.
So you have to be a senior citizen or young adults or children with like underlying healthconditions.
mean, these people are not, they're not experts, they're not doctors.
(27:56):
The experts and the doctors that are there are quitting.
because they see the danger to this.
Places like the CDC, the military, they're being completely politicized right now.
And it's going to cause, I think, some deaths in our country.
think it is definitely dangerous.
think it's risky.
(28:17):
think it is this lack of accountability, right?
Where did the checks and balances go?
I keep watching all of this and just screaming, where are our elected representatives,Republicans and Democrats alike?
I don't see anybody pushing back in any kind of effective way on any of these things.
And that concerns me deeply, right?
(28:38):
Because our elected representatives are really our voice.
That is we the people, that's our, you know.
our way to talk to the federal government in a meaningful way and they're not sticking upfor us.
this idea that there are some agencies where the age of Trump has made us, it has sopolarized these agencies and essentially made them ineffective.
(29:06):
CDC is one of them.
FEMA is another one where the American people don't trust the agency itself based on whois in the White House.
And so my feeling is that we need to take those agencies and make them
independent like the Fed, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear RegulatoryBoard.
(29:29):
I mean, that is like the gold standard of nuclear regulation in the world.
And it's that way for a reason, because it's independent.
You you don't mess around with nuclear power, right?
And so, and safety.
And I feel like we need to do the same thing for some of these uh other organizations.
(29:50):
Yeah, I haven't considered that something certainly to think about.
even if that is like the right way to go or the right thing to look into, where are thecourageous people in Congress who are willing to say, hey, maybe we should stand up the
committee to look into something like this?
There's just I don't know.
Is it is it fear?
Is it a lack of courage?
Is it just protecting, you know, my position?
(30:11):
Is it a combination of the above?
Well, the first thing it needs to do is we need to impeach RFK Jr.
But, you know, I'll just say that right now.
All right.
Much like there is no need for the military to police our cities, um we likely do not needan executive order making flag burning something that we should prosecute.
(30:33):
uh But mostly there's not a whole heck of a lot of flag burning going on.
But
This week Trump put out an executive order on flag burning.
Your thoughts?
So, you know, here's the thing, the flag burning thing's already been adjudicated by theSupreme Court.
believe this is another, um it's a very big visual when it put it across the news, anynews station, right?
(30:56):
You've got people stomping on a burning flag, people usually yelling and protesting.
So it makes for this very big clickbait kind of thing.
And now we're going to turn this into a national issue.
I don't know, it's already been adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
Don't we have bigger problems to be dealing with?
Don't we does my president not have bigger things going on in the world than to deal withthis?
And if you actually read the executive order, right, the words were actually parsedpretty, pretty, pretty nicely.
(31:22):
It said something along the lines, should the flag burning run afoul of so what they'regoing to try to do is go, oh, you're disrupting traffic or you're breaking a noise
ordinance.
So I read it as you know, it's not necessarily the flag burning itself because legally Idon't think they have a leg to stand on.
going to be the context within which that flag is being burned that we're going toprosecute.
(31:45):
That's the way I read it.
But of course, when Trump announces it makes his big television thing and does his socialmedia, it's we're going to send you to prison for a year for flag burning.
Either way, this has already been adjudicated.
Either way, this is a waste of time ah and resources.
And I want my president working on bigger, more.
That's a great point.
(32:05):
My feeling on this issue has always been, um I'm somebody that stands for the nationalanthem.
I'm somebody that's never, is always gonna revere the flag.
It is like ingrained in me.
mean, you went to an academy, I went to academy.
This is like, this is our blood.
It's in our blood, okay?
um That said, the United States of America, know, veterans...
(32:32):
like you and me and those who gave their lives for this country in wars and previousgenerations, you know, they fought for freedom.
They fought for uh the freedom to have government not tell you what you can and can't doand tell you what you can and can't say.
(32:53):
I've been in countries where the government tells you, you can't say anything bad aboutme.
You can't put that picture up.
You can't put that.
You can't do that.
And that's not America.
so veterans get that.
Like we get it.
reserve, we revere the flag.
And here's the other thing that's very interesting to me about this whole thing,especially with Donald Trump, the guy who like hugs the flag, right?
(33:21):
A lot of people, when I drive by the like mega uh tents, you know, when you're out andabout during election season,
And you see all these flags that like Donald Trump's face on them and all kinds of otherstuff, writing and stuff like that, Sharpie pens and things, that's defacing the flag.
(33:41):
It is, and it's against the US flag.
Yeah.
And so, but that seems to be perfectly okay.
And for these guys, you know, I can't stand it.
I don't like, I'll just be honest with you.
I don't like flags to be defaced at all.
I don't like them with a red stripe.
I don't like them with any color other stripe.
If you want to celebrate who you are, a state or, um, you know, something that you, youcreate your own flag, do it separately.
(34:10):
Don't take the American flag.
and put something else on it.
That's just me.
No, the American flag, I agree with you as a veteran is absolutely sacred.
And I try to teach my kids that, but to your point, it's about defending freedom.
And again, this is, think just a completely, this is completely symbolic.
It's a waste of everybody's time.
(34:33):
And I think it's super interesting though, the Republicans, I used to know them as theparty of small government, right?
Keep the government out of your business.
Keep the government small, keep them out of this.
And all we're doing is,
growing federal government, you know, interventions every.
From flag burning to sending the National Guard in, it's like, what happened to the oldRepublican Party?
(34:58):
Or at least they're talking out of both sides of their mouth.
So even sometimes I'm confused.
I'm like, do they even know what they're talking about?
Some of these people who voted for him, like step back and analyze critically the actionsversus what the party's platform has always been.
Yeah, I know.
I mean, they've changed a lot.
Now I'm afraid it's a cult that is a big kiss ass for one person.
(35:22):
That's it.
have to hold out hope that and maybe there's a defense mechanism, Amy, but you know thatthere are there are good, the old school Republicans, right?
The people you could disagree with policy wise, but we're still dignified and and civilgentlemen and gentle women.
Where are they?
You know, we need them.
(35:45):
don't believe MAGA represents the Republican Party, and I feel like it's kind of just beena little bit hijacked, but.
you know, where are our moderate Republicans and what can we do to collaborate?
Yeah, well, I mean, that's going to be the uh goal here, uh at least from my perspective,um going into the midterms.
We need to gather everybody who has common sense.
(36:08):
um So, well, now it's time eh for our show in the middle where we take a step back anddrink a little bit of bourbon and whiskey.
So normally I bring a bottle from here in Kentucky and talk about that.
But my husband,
is a corporate pilot and he flies all over the country.
(36:28):
And so whenever he goes to a place, he brings me back something.
And his latest trip took him to Northern Michigan, where he bought or went to thisdistillery called the Grand Traverse Distillery.
And uh he brought back this bourbon Michigan straight bourbon whiskey.
I don't know, sadly, I'm usually prepared for these.
(36:50):
uh
for these shows, but I don't really know the background on this distillery very much,except to say that it's quite good.
I really like it.
It's smooth.
um so that's what I'm drinking.
Well, that's fantastic.
That sounds delicious.
And I'll be honest, you just educated me.
I never put whiskey and Michigan together, but clearly I need to get myself up there well.
(37:12):
Okay.
So I was stationed twice at REF Lake and Heath, which is just outside of Cambridge,England, the two greatest, you know, just assignments of my life, because there is nothing
cooler than flying an F-15E strike eagle at 500 feet, 500 miles an hour up lock nests,right?
Over-sailing through the highlands.
mean, like literally, you know,
That was my job and I got paid to do it.
(37:34):
Thank you, Taxpayers of America, right?
What a wonderful thing.
But obviously, Scotch whiskey up in Scotland's a big deal.
So we used to always go on the Scotch whiskey trail and go tasting.
And my favorite distillery, hands down, is always going to be the Balvini.
So Balvini is, this is a single barrel sherry cask.
It's 15 years, so it's actually not the most expensive, totally affordable.
(37:55):
But I think what makes it tasty is the sherry cask.
It's kind of got a little bit of that sweetness without being like,
overly sweet on it.
I'll have to check that out.
Cheers.
Cheers to you.
Cheers to America.
And reasonable, common sense Americans.
Totally.
mean, that's what, when we started this show, I wanted to be fun because there's so muchgoing on in our world that's not fun right now.
(38:23):
And so, you know, when Denver and I started, we're like, we got to do something fun.
We got to just, you know, relax.
And this has been a great way to kind of go into the next segment, which is called QuickShots, where we sort of throw each other some things and just get a quick take.
um on what on some of these issues.
So I wanted to do that with you.
(38:46):
The first one is that this past week, I think the president and Pete Hegsath want torename the Department of Defense, the Department of War.
Thoughts on that?
ridiculous, a waste of time, a waste of resources, the millions of dollars that will bespent changing signs and regulations and all of that is just from a pragmatic, just makes
(39:07):
no sense.
But here's the thing, words matter, symbols matter.
When we say Department of War, that is a very offensive way to look at things.
know, the United States of America absolutely needs offensive capabilities, it needsdefensive capabilities.
But I mean, that to me is just
It's ridiculous.
(39:28):
The Department of Defense is just fine.
It's been working for us for, think, what, since 19, well, well over 50 years, I think.
em And I don't see any good.
Again, this is something that I get frustrated a little bit with Secretary Hegset becausea lot of what he's doing seems to have nothing to do with readiness, nothing to do with
lethality.
And so again, I hear one thing, but then the actions aren't matching the words.
(39:51):
So again, I ask why.
Yeah.
Well, so I have a little bit, it's not a different take, similar.
think it's dumb, but I think it's also dumb for the reason of it's not what America shouldstand for.
It's not what our military should stand for.
(40:12):
here's why.
I had an instructor back at the Naval Academy.
I graduated in 1997 and one of my favorite instructors there was a Marine Corps major who
had been everywhere.
I mean, he was one of these like special forces, Marine Corps type of guys who had likedone and seen lots of things.
(40:32):
And he told me once, he said, take out a dollar bill.
And he said, so I did, I took out a dollar, but he said, turn it around.
He said, see that picture, I don't have one here to show you, but see that picture of theeagle on the back?
He said, what's the eagle holding in its claws?
And I said, well, it's...
One claw is an olive branch and the other claw are the arrows.
(40:56):
And he said, that's America.
Where is that eagle looking?
And it's looking to the olive branch.
And it's got the arrows in the back if we need them, but we're not looking that way.
You are much better what I was trying to say, this idea that words matter and how we areprojecting ourselves to the rest of the world.
(41:21):
Department of War is very unnecessarily aggressive, right?
It's not who we want to be.
We've been living decades at war.
We've lost thousands of Americans.
We've been entrenched, you know, places and I.
That doesn't and that also goes against what they campaigned on, right?
This administration, right?
(41:42):
Right?
I'm the president of peace, right?
No more wars under us and yet Department of War.
It makes no sense.
Yeah, well, it's part of Pete Hegseth being gotta be rah rah Pete.
So, all right.
So JD Vance this past week said that Russia has made significant concessions to Ukraine.
Really?
(42:02):
Yeah, I haven't seen any examples or factual examples or data that supports that of you.
Okay, yeah.
And yeah.
He's lying to the American people when he says that.
I just think they're flat out lying.
I think that because there are an unfortunate number of our American citizens alongside ofus that don't want to look at the data or do the research for themselves.
(42:33):
you know, I don't know why this just came into my head.
So I'm going to say it, you know, like over these last few months, watching what's goingon, interacting with people I love, people I respect, people who, you know, voted for
Trump and are still supporting this administration.
I get in these conversations with them, you know, like
Like why?
And it has hit me for the first time in my life, and I'm sure you're way smarter than meand have already had this revelation, but education is a national security issue.
(43:01):
Education is a national security imperative.
I am coming across too many people who literally don't have the capability to criticallythink, who literally haven't been taught how to do proper research or where to go for
credible sources or how to look at data and read statistics the right way.
I didn't realize until recently how big of a problem that really was.
(43:26):
And I hope that that comes off.
Now, like you're not smart.
I don't mean it like that.
I just mean we have somehow lost.
We've lost the edge, Mev.
That's a good one.
No, I feel like uh you're exactly right.
And that actually leads me into my next one, uh because this is a story that not too manypeople are talking about, but I think it's really important.
(43:52):
And it goes to show the point of these leaders say one thing, and we have a populationthat just like believes them.
And if you really pull a string on it, it's total bullshit.
Let me tell you the backstory of this.
There was a CNN uh story that broke just this week that talked about the fact that theadministration is stopping all of these green energy projects, especially the wind power
(44:22):
projects.
So Donald Trump really hates wind power.
oh There's a couple of states up in the Northeast, Connecticut, and Rhode Island that havethese, first of all, they have very high prices for electricity.
And during the last administration, there was a lot of investment in uh wind power forthose states.
One of the projects is 80 % complete.
(44:44):
It's in Rhode Island.
And the CNN story talks about the fact that they are getting rid of this project andthey're laying off hundreds of these tradesmen, all of these jobs.
And the project is like 80 % done in order to bring down the cost of energy there.
And so CNN broke the story when the White House was asked about the story, they referredCNN to the Department of Interior for some reason.
(45:11):
said, you're going to have to listen to go, go talk to the Department of Interior becausethey know the reason why this is being right.
And so when they went to the secretary of the interior, he was interviewed because theysaid it was a national security concern and the Department of Interior knows why.
And I'm going to have Doug play the clip.
for you and for everybody listening of when Caitlin Collins of the CNN of CNN asked theSecretary of Interior, his name is Doug Borgam about this project and listen to his
(45:41):
answer.
And I want to get your take, your national security experience take on his answer.
Doug, can you play that?
You know, the cabinet meeting that there had been a report that had been buried about thefact that a wind farm, if it's too close to a railroad or a highway, could affect the
electronics.
reviewed this project in 2023 and they found that there were negligible national securityimpacts.
(46:05):
So what are the specific ones that this administration is so concerned about that youwould stop it if it's 80 % of the way done?
Well, I think in particular there's concerns about uh radar relative to undersea and not,doesn't have to be a large Russian sub, but undersea drones, the new technology.
I mean, the war in Ukraine has shown that swarm attacks by drones, if you're going tolaunch one uh into our most populous part of our country, the Pacific Northwest, the way a
(46:30):
bad, you know, people with, you know, bad ulterior motives to the United States wouldlaunch a swarm drone attack through a wind farm.
The radar gets very distorted around detecting if you're trying to have, you know, detectand avoid if you've got drones coming.
about potential attacks on it and that's why you're stopping the...
(46:50):
It's a range of things that need to be reviewed that I don't think were.
I sustainability during high speed storms, the national defense issues relative to radar.
Pete Hickseth has got concerns.
Bobby Kennedy expressed, you know, 10 minutes of concern today during our cabinet meeting.
you heard that whole clip.
ah He had a lot of interesting things about that.
(47:11):
But I want to ask you, Nicole, about the national security piece of that.
Like, what is he talking about?
I no idea.
consider energy independence to be a national security issue.
I think finding ways that we can become independent by investing in these alternativesources is probably a darn good idea, right?
I mean, we know the Northeast I think uses like a larger proportion of electricity andthis is a great way for them to have more accessible, more electricity at lower prices.
(47:39):
The fact that...
there's going to be probably hundreds of billions.
And I'm sorry, that's the first time I've seen the clips.
haven't fully researched it, but I reckon there's hundreds of millions of dollars alreadyinvested.
There's going to be job losses.
But let's get to the, you know, swarm technology stuff.
em When I was stationed at Lake and Heath, I would fly my F-15E strikey with my radar allover the UK, which has wind farms all around it.
(48:01):
In fact, I may have flown by the one that Trump hates so much that's over by his golfcourse in Scotland.
I don't know.
Remember, the president has only stated that he doesn't like the way they look and itlowers real estate property values.
So I don't know how that plays into national security.
But I know that when I use a radar, wind farms can indeed create some kind of groundclutter, which can make it difficult to find low altitude targets that might be flying
(48:27):
through it.
But the fact of the matter is, is that we know they're there.
Wind farms aren't moving.
We can create, I think, mitigative measures around them.
um But moreover,
I also served at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base several times in North Carolina and I wason a planning committee to look at the negative impacts of a solar farm that was going in
and how that might impact the base and stuff.
(48:48):
All this to say, this was fully reviewed and vetted.
I guarantee you by the Department of Defense, probably in uh coordination with the FAA inorder to get this approval.
And so to Caitlin Collins, great question.
This was already improved.
What beyond this hasn't the Department of Defense already looked at?
Not to mention, you know, we are advancing technologies in our radars every single day,you know, so I...
(49:12):
oh Well, you are a lot nicer than I am.
I think Doug Borgram just pulled something out of his rear end right there.
And he knows nothing.
He's talking about undersea drones uh in wind farms having a problem with defendingagainst, I mean, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.
(49:32):
And it's just, it is crazy.
is lunacy.
But to the bigger point, and you touched on this, Nicole, China is way outpacing us.
in renewable energy.
I don't care what shit this is.
Renewable energy is part of the future.
I mean, it is is a big part of the future.
Nuclear power may be a big part of the future, too.
(49:56):
But our government is pushing right now fossil fuels.
You hear this drill everywhere.
OK, great.
uh Less, but they're taking all these renewable project.
And the problem is China is the big winner here.
because they are surging ahead of us in R &D.
Thanks to Donald Trump, they're surging ahead of us.
(50:18):
Why is renewable part a big part of the future?
It's cheaper.
And once we figure out the technology, the high tech part of wind and solar power, it willbe more affordable in the long run.
And that's, if we're not on top of that, guess who's gonna run that entire industry?
China.
(50:39):
Absolutely.
And that's the national security issue.
Developing countries already get it.
They're already being won over by China.
And so to me, I feel like I don't want China to be the world leader in energy.
to be.
So when Trump talks about energy dominance, okay, he's talking about energy dominance herein 2025.
(50:59):
What's it going to be in 2035?
Because he's making us go in the wrong direction.
I'm not worried about a swarm attack coming from underwater off the coast of Rhode Islandwhen the Department of Defense and the FAA already looked at mitigated all of that prior
to the project being reviewed.
I'm concerned about energy independence, right?
Being the actual national security issue here, not to mention just the loss of all thatmoney invested, the loss of the jobs, you know, that were going to be to maintain those.
(51:28):
I don't even know there's probably hundreds, if not thousands of people that were going tobe dependent on this.
I'd be.
I'd be very disappointed at this point for sure.
And the loss of like we invested taxpayers invested in these projects and now you're justit just total fraud waste and abuse to To cancel them at this point.
Here's the thing about Doug Borgam that the Interior Secretary He was super for renewableenergy When he was the governor of North Dakota and now all of sudden he's a Trump
(51:57):
sycophant Yeah, so Trump done like though what what they look like so he's against it Iagain, we have people in power that just
I have no back home.
It is interesting to see the Department of Interior weighing in on a Department of Defenseissues.
like, you might just want to stay in your lane.
But I wasn't familiar with his positions on this ahead of time.
(52:19):
But I was delighted to hear you say and mention nuclear energy, because I actually thinkthere is almost unlimited potential there as far as cheap, effective, easily deployable,
even globally to raise up communities around the world that
that need it.
And I think it's been a real missed opportunity for the United States.
Maybe we can talk about that sometime in the future.
(52:41):
We do need to talk about it.
It is a very important issue with regards to power.
You also have some challenges with regards to uh the ability to weaponize at a certainlevel.
we have to keep, that's why we need diplomats.
That's why we need understanding uh of this technology and all that.
(53:02):
But yeah, nuclear is a big piece of the future.
So, well, good.
So now we're gonna...
close out our show, which has been awesome by the way, uh with a cheers.
This is what we do every time.
We never want to leave on kind of a serious note.
We always want to talk about good things that have happened.
And I have two that I want to bring up.
(53:22):
The first one is that in Iowa, there was a special election.
It was a super Republican held seat.
The Republicans have the super majority there.
You know, I'm a Democrat.
uh
And I am really pleased to see that the seat was won by a Democrat, breaking the supermajority there.
(53:43):
It was won by 11 points in a super red district.
And I just think that that's awesome.
The Democrats name is Caitlin Dre.
She pulled off the victory.
um And so cheers to her.
And the second one is um
(54:03):
Taylor Swift's getting married.
Dang it, you took one of mine.
was like, you know, if Taylor Swift can get a ring this year, can the Buffalo Bills.
Go Josh Allen.
That's right.
I married a man from Buffalo.
We were married 24 years.
So I married into uh the Bills fandom.
You're not a Broncos fan being in Colorado?
(54:25):
no.
Yeah, actually, I think next season, the Bills are coming to Broncos Stadium and I'll bewalking in red, white and blue.
Okay, very good.
That's that's bold right there.
I'm actually a Bengals fan.
um Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati is just north of where I live in Kentucky and I'm sortof a lifelong Bengals fan, which somewhat makes me kind of lifelong disappointment to some
(54:48):
degree.
But but I always have hope every year and I'm really I'm happy for Taylor Swift.
know, I mean, marriage is it's it's it's fun.
It's challenging.
And, you know,
The decision you'll make is the person you choose to share your life with.
Yeah, but she's certainly a powerful woman and she's, you know, chosen Jason Kelsey fromthe Chiefs.
(55:14):
That's really cool.
So cheers to her and to marriage happiness.
you go.
All right.
Well, I got to and maybe I wasn't thinking as worldly as you.
I was thinking a little bit more like things that kind of have happened to me this week.
Very recently, actually last Thursday, I was asked to drive an hour and a half south of myhome to go into a very small community in the mountains of Colorado to talk to the local
(55:43):
Civil Air Patrol cadets.
You know, I walked in and they're in this old tiny airfield that only Cessna's can land atthis old kind of closet hood, you know, looking thing.
And I walk in and their uniforms are, know, they're putting them on and they're marchingaround like, like a 12 year old and a 13 year old could do.
But I ended up was only supposed to be there like, you know, 30 minutes.
(56:03):
I ended up there for two hours, just answering the questions of these great youngAmericans.
Some of them that want to serve in the military, some, you know, that don't, but they'reall just there trying to support each other.
They're building teamwork, they're building leadership.
And I was asked some extraordinarily thoughtful questions, even questions that you and Iaddressed tonight.
And I just want to say, it gave me a lot of hope and I was very heartened to talk to theseyoung people in America.
(56:30):
As much as we as adults have got going on and need to get it figured out, I think some ofthese kids are heading in the right direction.
so I want to say cheers to those young people.
to them.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
And you know that story, it makes me want to work harder to be the leaders that theydeserve.
Yeah.
Absolutely, right?
(56:51):
And don't we want to model the behaviors that we want to see in our kids?
And sometimes we as adults need to absolutely remember that.
And the second thing is, and this might sound kind of cheesy, and people always ask, whatcan I do?
What can I do to make this better?
What can I do to help people get into these hard conversations and stuff?
so I've been doing my own little mini, not a protest, my own little mini advocacy work.
(57:14):
I ordered a whole bunch,
of these 99 cent pocket constitutions and I carry them with me and I travel a lot forbusiness and I always offer it to like my driver or the poor person sitting next to me on
the plane at the very end.
I don't get into the conversation.
like, hey, you know, I happen to have one of these.
Have you read the constitution lately?
(57:35):
And they're like, no, I haven't.
I've handed out probably 100 now and not a single person has not taken it.
So cheers to the people to reread the constitution.
Well, there we go.
It's so important because there's so much going on right now where if you just stop andsay, can't do that.
(57:58):
Constitution.
Now, why you even talking about that constitution?
You know.
When was the last time you read the Constitution of the Declaration of Independence?
Usually the answer is, don't think I ever have.
And then the second answer is usually middle school or high school civics.
Yeah, it's true.
mean, look, the Declaration is shorter.
Yeah.
(58:19):
And so it's easier to get through.
The Constitution is rather boring, but it's actually quite short in comparison to manyother constitutions around the world.
So I encourage everybody to read it, break it out.
em And also, I mean, the Constitution is the law of the land.
The Declaration of Independence is more of a values declaration, but it's not law.
(58:40):
The Constitution is our law.
And that's what you and I
us where to defend for over 20 years.
Nicole, it's been awesome having you on the show as a co-host.
This has been a great show.
We went through a lot of stuff and I hope that you get a chance to come back on in thecoming months when you have the chance because your voice is incredible and I'm really
(59:04):
thankful you could be a part of this.
For everybody listening out there, please do follow us on Truth in the Barrel.
We're on all the platforms.
YouTube, all the social media platforms.
Tell your friends and family about this.
This is a really important conversations.
Thanks, Nicole, for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
Today, we're taking an unfiltered look at President Trump's unwanted and unnecessary plansto deploy troops to 19 US cities.
While over at the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth is firing more generals.
Plus, Donald Trump doesn't want you to burn an American flag, but he has no problemdefacing one with a Sharpie and selling it on eBay.
(00:21):
Also, JD Vance clearly says Russia has given significant concessions to Ukraine.
Say what?
And our secretary of the interior says wind and solar energy damages the environment andis a threat to our national security.
Hmm.
This is what we're going to be talking about here on Truth in the Barrel, a different kindof whiskey rebellion.
(00:54):
Welcome to Truth in the Barrel.
I'm your cohost, Amy McGrath.
Denver Riggleman is on travel, but I'm joined today by a great American, amazing Air Forceveteran, patriot, fighter pilot, colonel, the first woman pilot in the legendary United
States Air Force fighter demonstration team.
We all know them as the Thunderbirds.
(01:17):
Nicole Malachowski.
Welcome, Nicole.
Thanks for having me Amy.
Delighted to be here.
A lot going on this week.
Yeah, we have a lot to get through.
So let's start out though, Nicole, because we got to start the show tonight with somereally sad news that we have to take a step back and recognize this week in Minnesota, we
(01:40):
all learned about the tragic mass shooting at the Minneapolis school.
Two children were killed.
17 wounded, some still in critical condition.
And the mass shooting took place in a church on the second day of school.
The shooter had a semi-automatic weapon, shotgun, a pistol.
(02:04):
So clear intent here.
And these kids that were killed were, and affected, were the same ages as my kids.
And I know this is worth a much longer conversation, but I think it's important to justtake a step back and ah talk about this a little bit.
(02:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
mean, just a horrific tragedy.
know, I have my husband, I have 15 year old twins and I just my heart is just aching forthose parents, know, the parents whose kids didn't come home, the parents who are sitting
by hospital beds right now hoping for the best outcome.
You know, just a completely unnecessary uh unadulterated just tragedy.
(02:47):
And, you know, the question, course, to the American people, to all of us is, you know.
How long are we going to accept this as the norm?
I think the data tells a story and statistically speaking, this is a uniquely Americanproblem.
And we have just gotten so entrenched on this second amendment right thing as opposed tostepping back and looking at the larger picture.
(03:09):
Here's what I know.
What we've been doing isn't working.
So at this point, we need to do something, anything, even if it's the smallest step in theright direction, the status quo.
is not working, we have to say enough is enough.
And most Americans want this.
Most Americans want things like better background checks.
(03:32):
The debate is real and I get that.
know, I'm somebody that, and maybe you and I might disagree on this, I was in the UnitedStates Marine.
I believe in, you know, the Second Amendment, the ability for people to own firearms.
have...
(03:52):
them, I use them, I'm trained in them.
I'm also a big proponent of weapon safety, gun safety, but this is like, we got to figurethis out as a society.
Absolutely.
So I agree with you as a veteran myself, support the second amendment, support the rightfor people to have the ability to defend themselves in their own homes.
I have no issue with that, but there is reasonable gun control.
(04:15):
Things like background check, things like red flag laws, things like mandatory training,licensing.
um I think also just maybe even some of things as far as like storage, maybe ways that wecan invest in safe gun type technologies.
There are a lot of different options out there and I don't even need for us to bite offthe whole apple, right?
(04:36):
I think a lot of people are waiting for the perfect plan and package to be put together asa part two.
We need to start now.
um And the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
And I have to say, um interestingly to me over this last 24 hours, I tried to go tomultiple news sources.
Even some of the more conservative news sources to include Fox News had people sayingenough is enough.
(05:00):
I actually noticed a slight difference from some of the folks that are, you you wouldconsider far right saying, okay, this is ridiculous.
And so this is the kind of conversation you need.
This is the kind of, I won't call it momentum because that's not what it is yet, but movein the right direction.
Let's start with something.
The status quo isn't working.
need to start with something and I'm glad to hear you say that about Fox News.
(05:22):
um I would not have thought that, but I'm glad to hear it.
um I feel like the concern I have among many is when things like that, happened, there'ssometimes a rush to label the perpetrator as being left wing or right wing and it's
(05:45):
somehow a
a political thing.
mean, there's, we also have a problem with, you know, mental illness in our country.
And it's also the massive amounts of guns in our country.
And so it's like, I don't know, I just don't want to, I'm tired of hearing, you know, allthis is because the kids were praying or they were Catholic or it's anti, you know, and it
(06:16):
Could be lots of factors.
Clearly this person had some serious mental illness.
You know anybody who's taking a gun to a fellow citizen in hate, especially young childrenAre are cruel.
They're they're depraved.
It's something that is Absolutely horrific, you know to use the the word evil That'sexactly what this is and it is not a partisan issue It doesn't matter if the person is you
(06:42):
know left or right or anything in between All of these people, you know are evil they arewrong and we need to take a real look at like you said the mental health issues
which should be a nonpartisan issue in this country.
And some of the counterarguments could be, look, there are countries around the world whoalso have mental health issues.
There are countries around the world where the teenagers are also playing video games.
(07:05):
So we have to really take a look at the data and step back and go, what is it aboutAmerica that is so unique that makes it, I think I was looking at the stats this morning
and please, I'm averaging here, something like more than 250,
mass shootings defined as I think four or more people shot at a time this year alone, whenyou look at like the next closest country I think is Canada with two, I doesn't that make
(07:30):
anyone regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, step back and go, what is itabout us and our unique American experience that's making this happen?
Yeah, we got to have serious leaders in positions of power that are actually going totackle.
We gotta stop with this it's all or nothing attitude.
It's all you know all of the gun control measures or none of the gun control measures Canwe not get reasonable people from both sides of the aisle to say let's take one step.
(07:56):
Let's pick one thing Universal background checks.
Let's do it.
Let's take a policy where we give maybe incentives for people to have Trigger technologyor gun safe technology just something that moves us
Common sense stuff is what we're asking for.
Yesterday I was actually in Dallas at a business meeting.
It got done early.
(08:17):
Long story short, I was sitting in the lobby waiting for my car to pick me up.
There was a security guard who actually had a duffel bag that said, he brought it in withhis little backpack, it said, make America great again.
So it was clear oh where he stood as far as a political spectrum.
And he brought this up.
He's like, did you see the news?
Because it happened while I was in the meeting.
I said, no.
(08:37):
And he says, I am a security forces veteran from the military.
This guy was probably 60 years old, a Trump supporter.
And he said, you know, enough's enough.
We need to start with common sense gun control.
And it piqued my interest because I said, really, then I'd love to hear what you think,you know, as a Trump supporter, reasonable gun control looks like.
And guess what he said?
(08:57):
Everything you and I just listed off reasonable Americans on both sides of the aisleunderstand that there are steps that can be taken.
And again, you know, people will go, well, you can't prove that that's going to changeanything.
You know what?
Again, the status quo is not working.
Let's try to switch one, just one lever and see what happens.
Yeah, I mean, it's common sense at this point.
(09:18):
but a tragic, we didn't want to start the program or at least go through all these otherthings without talking about such an important piece and tragic incident that happened
this week.
But there's also a lot of other things going on.
Donald Trump, our Commander in Chief, is potentially ordering the military and theNational Guard to 19 states to
(09:43):
quote, fight crime.
And when he was asked about this this past week, he said he could do it because he hasunlimited power.
So let's start with that.
mean, my belief, and I've said this many times, is there's no emergency that warrantsthese deployments in our cities.
(10:03):
And this is a misuse of our military.
What do you think?
I agree with you 100%.
I don't believe there's any emergencies going on.
don't see mayors and governors requesting this kind of help from the federal government.
And in fact, if the federal government wants to be a part of helping crime in any of thesecities, the right way to do it is through reaching out and through collaboration and
(10:26):
going, what can we offer you?
What can we offer your police services or your first responders to make things better inyour specific area in that context?
boots on the ground type mayor or governor is going to have a much better feel for what'sgoing on in their community, where the gaps in the resources are.
Just to come in and say, I've got it when you actually don't have a feel for what's goingon makes no sense.
(10:49):
And it's also just a ridiculously performative uh thing that's going on and a ridiculous,I think, waste of resources.
And here's the thing, and this is the common sense piece.
And I talk to people on the right, people on the left that, you know, live near me, knowme here in Kentucky.
The common theme is we should not have our military patrolling our streets like we aresome third world country police state.
(11:16):
That's just not American.
And if you look at the data, because the show is all about data, you know, is that thecrime rates, the number one, number two cities,
with the highest violent crime rates in the country right now are St.
Louis and New Orleans, at least in the past year or last year.
And we're not sending, they're not sending forces in there.
The states with the highest crime rates are like Louisiana and Arkansas and SouthCarolina.
(11:40):
He's not sending forces there.
And the thing is we all want to tackle crime, but you don't do that by sending the UnitedStates military that is trained and equipped for war.
I mean, they're walking around a DC right now with like weapons of war.
on the Metro.
And I'll be honest, what I worry about is these National Guard troops, right, who aretrying to serve their country, trying to their nation's uniform, doing their best to walk
(12:05):
a pretty fine line.
A lot of these people, they're not trained in law enforcement, right?
They're not trained in riot control, yet we're giving them weapons and told to go in.
And isn't that accepting a certain level of risk or giving them a certain level of riskthat I think is completely unnecessary.
But other than like maybe the...
waste and resources or maybe the performative nature um by the president in thisadministration, I often worry about the civil military divide.
(12:33):
We talk about this all the time.
We've been talking about it for decades.
The civil military divide, a lot of it is a lack of understanding, which can build to alack of trust.
Are we not, in a way, increasing this
lack of trust or least catalyzing a lack of trust between the American people and ourmilitary, that's the last thing we need, the absolute last thing we need in a democracy.
(12:55):
Well, because the military has a uh perception among Americans of being an institutionthat people trust, whenever you use it in this manner, which is purely performative,
purely political, it erodes that trust heavily.
And I often think, and it's a question I keep getting asked, so I'll ask you, is becausewe're both retired.
(13:21):
military officers, but we still have friends who are in and we still have a pulse ofwhat's going on.
How do soldiers and officers feel right now about what the military is being asked to do?
How do they, I mean, obviously, well, let me ask you that first.
Sure, so like you, I have a lot of friends that are still serving in the military, whetherthat's active duty, guard or reserve, they are a cross section of society.
(13:49):
People forget that our military is actually right down the middle.
mean, we're representatives on both the left and the right side, which is as it should be,right?
The military should be representative of the country that they are serving.
And so I find that people have both views on it, but the one thing that's connecting allof them is they're kind of like,
(14:09):
Why are we doing this?
To what end?
And I would rather be training.
I would rather be getting ready to deploy against our nation's true enemies.
They almost are feeling, at least what I'm hearing from people from both sides of theaisle, is this is such a waste of my time.
And that's a horrible place to be in when you're trying to wear your nation's uniform andyou're there to defend the United States against our enemies.
(14:37):
We have pictures of there's video of National Guardsmen picking up trash in Washington DC.
A little lighter.
I hear what you're saying on that.
I've heard other people complain about it.
I might take a little bit lighter view on this one, Amy, because they're standing thereand they're not doing much.
I don't know about you, but I've done a lot of FODWOCs in my day across the deck.
(14:59):
I've come in for training days where I too, even as a full bird colonel was handed a sackto go clean up trash or at least do something while I'm standing there.
So I don't think it's unheard of that.
We've had people doing FODWACs or litter checks.
We used to do them across the base all the time.
But to your point, is this really what the federal government should be doing?
(15:19):
It's very expensive deployment to pick up trash.
And here's the bigger take from my perspective is that the men and women who serve inuniform, they want to know that when they're asked to go deploy, when they're asked to
make sacrifices, when they're asked to go away from their families, their loved ones,maybe endure some hardship, maybe some physical um hardship,
(15:49):
especially if they're deployed to like a combat zone, mean, physical or psychologicalwounds or perhaps death or something like that.
They want to know that their sacrifice is worth it.
So these folks are away from their families, they're away from training, they're also awayfrom their jobs because many of them are part-time warriors.
And I keep thinking, is this charade worth it?
(16:12):
Is it worthy of that?
And that also I feel like is going to erode.
a lot of the trust that the military has in its leadership as well.
This is like Klauswitz 101, right?
Like you have to know what the end state of getting into this, you know, a war into adeployment is.
I have yet to hear this administration articulate what the final end state looks like.
(16:34):
What does it mean to come in and control and help crime?
What does it mean to clean up homeless accountants?
What are the objective kind of measurements and tools we're using to analyze thisstrategically?
Because is this something that's going to go on and on and on forever?
Or is it just going to fade with the next news cycle?
Right?
They're at Union Station.
Now they're not at Union Station and nobody knows what's going on.
(16:55):
If it's confusing to the American public, I guarantee it's confusing to those NationalGuard members who, you know, are out there running for the nation's uniform trying to do
the right
And I'm worried about this uh happening in other cities.
And sending the guard into Baltimore, into Chicago.
Here's the thing, you want to tackle crime.
I would love to tackle crime, but you need better policing.
(17:16):
Police departments need to be funded.
You know, I'm not somebody that doesn't believe in law enforcement.
I certainly do.
Police departments across the country are chronically underfunded.
um And law enforcement does matter.
I mean, we're always going to need a way to hold criminals accountable.
But other things matter in reducing crime like mental health care, like better technology,like license plate readers and that sort of thing.
(17:43):
And so my feeling on this is we know it's performative because it's only in blue cities.
We've already looked at the data that they're not sending anything into the red area thathave higher crime rates.
We also know that the president pardoned 1,500 convicted criminals.
So this idea that these guys, these Republicans and the president are so tough on crime iscomplete BS in my opinion.
(18:13):
or least criminals that actually assaulted police officers.
I mean, to me, the highest order of you don't do that, right?
mean, any reasonable person knows that and they were convicted by a jury of their peers orpleaded guilty.
And so I'm with you.
And he's pardoned fraudsters and tax cheats and corrupt politicians.
He's pardoned white collar criminals who have given money to his political campaigns andbought his bitcoins.
(18:37):
I mean, let's be real.
They're not serious about this is performative and everybody knows it.
And I just feel like, know, and we also have veterans in DC who are staging a sit-in and,you know, protesting this right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I think that they're trying to stand up for their brothers and sisters who arethere with the trash bags and uniform walking around going, what is it exactly I'm
(19:03):
supposed to be doing here when I could be home with my family?
I could be home training.
I could be home improving my readiness.
I could be home, you know, with my day job.
And, you know, I'm watching, you know, Governor Westmore, you he's flat out inviting him,come, come talk to me.
I'll tell you exactly what Maryland needs.
I'll tell you exactly what Baltimore needs.
mean, there is a way for the federal government to collaborate.
in a productive way, even in a tailored way to each state and to these larger cities, yetwe're choosing not to do that as an administration.
(19:31):
And I don't get that.
Yeah, it's, it's wrong.
Well, look, Donald Trump is showing us in real time what misusing the military reallylooks like.
but his secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth is no slouch in that department, in my opinion.
Um, and that's as evidenced by another baseless high level firings.
(19:52):
Um, there's a lot of going on just in the past couple of weeks.
We know, um, that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump have fired.
before just the last couple of weeks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chiefof Naval Operations, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Air Force Chief of Staff, Vice
Chief of Staff.
And now, oh, and also the head of the National Security Administration.
(20:17):
Now they fired the acting head of the National Security Administration and the top lawyerat the National Security Administration and the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
And there's a backstory for both of those, but I want to get your take just off the batmore broadly on all of these firings.
(20:38):
It's unprecedented.
And why is it like in, well, I'll get your take, but I think it's bad.
Okay, so the word you use is unprecedented and that is of course spot on.
I will tell you, as these firings have increased over time, believe my thinking on thishas, because initially and having been someone, I've worked in the White House three times
(20:59):
under both political parties, under multiple administrations.
And so, you I feel like I come at this with at least an experienced perspective.
You do at the end of the day serve at the pleasure of the president.
Right.
And I do believe that when a new secretary of defense, you know, comes in that, you know,that they have a right to maybe make, you know, a few changes.
There is precedent for that in the past, right.
(21:19):
Bringing in maybe their own personal exec, their own chief of staff, you know, maybenudging along a chief of staff or something like that.
But to see the high levels and the quantity unprecedented by tenfold.
I mean, it's there's nothing even close.
And so there's this balance between you serve at the pleasure of the president, but alsowhere's the transparency?
(21:43):
I have yet to see any explanation, even a top level, just bullet point explanation of whyI chose to relieve the superintendent of the Naval Academy or why after only two years,
the chief of staff of the Air Force is leaving out of nowhere.
That was just announced.
So I think more people need to kind of.
(22:04):
demand answers, I think that when you're looking at this quantity of high level officers,these are people who've served 30 plus years.
I mean, we're literally just removing 30 years of experience and credibility with noexplanation.
I am disappointed to see our representatives on both sides of the aisles in Congress notchallenging the administration on this.
(22:25):
Well, so we we we can pull the string on a couple of the more recent ones.
um You're right to say, you know, we don't know specifically because they haven't come outand say what.
But we sort of know why.
So with the Defense Intelligence Agency, that is the the head intelligence agency of theDepartment of the Military of the Department of Defense.
(22:46):
OK.
And recently, after the the uh Air Force bombed Iran, the president came out and said that
we obliterated that mission, obliterated the Iranian nuclear program.
Okay, well then the Defense Intelligence Agency came out with a report that said, youknow, we can't really be sure.
(23:08):
We think we got a lot of it, but we can't be sure because of X, Y, and Z.
And therefore that head of the Defense Intelligence Agency was fired.
Okay.
And then the acting national security uh agency director,
uh, was trying to protect the top, his top scientist from losing his security clearance,which is basically like being fired.
(23:34):
would be being fired at that level.
And this scientist was the government's leading expert on AI, but the problem was so superqualified guy.
mean, like the top scientist in the entire department of defense.
Um, but the problem was that he was a part of an intelligence report.
back in 2016 that said that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, which it did.
(23:59):
um And so when his report didn't fit years later, doesn't fit the narrative of TulsiGabbard and Donald Trump, um they're fired, they're out.
And so the NSA director, the national security agency director, the general was firedbecause he was trying to protect that guy from losing his
(24:22):
security clearance.
And to me, I say all this to say this.
The reason this is dangerous is that in the military and in the intelligence community,you have to be able to speak the truth to the leaders, truth to power.
And if you can't speak the truth to power, if you're afraid you're going to get fired bygiving them your best military advice, your best intelligence analysis,
(24:51):
Right.
You are we?
Well, and that's exactly the danger is spot on.
Right.
There's part of me as I'm watching all these firings, you know, with the CDC director,right.
I think just yesterday um to look at a different department, um you know, part of me ishopeful that some of these people are just like, you know what, I'm not going to do what
you're telling me to do.
(25:11):
I'm not going to lie to the American people.
I'm not going to do something that goes against science.
I'm not going to do something that, you know, is unethical.
you know, fire me, I'm out.
Maybe they're maybe they are speaking truth to power and you know, they're gettingpummeled.
So part of me is like, is that good that people are finally like, look, I'm going to fallon my sword over this.
I'm going to I'm going to get fired because I'm not going to do what you want to do.
(25:31):
The danger is they then get replaced by people who are hand selected for very probablyparticular reasons.
Or now it's even maybe maybe they're being replaced with qualified people.
But now that lack of trust exists.
And now we're going to question everything that's being put in.
to replace in these firings.
I mean, you just mentioned the CDC and that just happened this week.
(25:53):
The four of the top CDC leaders are quitting.
um Trump fired the CDC director.
She refused to go and then he made sure that she was fired.
Her name was uh Susan uh Manerez and she's only been on the job for a month.
Yeah, and she and these CDC leaders basically refused to uh quote,
(26:20):
uh rubber stamp, unscientific, reckless directives.
I mean, that's what they said.
And then one of them was the National Center for Immunization Diseases or something likethat.
His name was Dimitri DeSalleis or something.
And he wrote an email that was really interesting.
(26:40):
And he basically said, you know, I'm not able to serve in this role any longer because ofthe ongoing weaponization of public health.
recommend everyone watching and listening to this podcast, go read that email because Iread the exact same thing.
And if it doesn't kind of pitch or shock here, make you feel uneasy.
I don't know how to help you.
I mean, this is somebody with decades of experience, know, as you know, and maybe some ofyour listeners, I am very big as a patient advocate in the Lyme disease and infectious
(27:08):
diseases spaces.
And even Dr.
Jernigan, who's at the head of that, who, you know, we've been looking to and followingfor decades.
was one of the guys who resigned.
And remember, Secretary Kennedy has been very vocal about the fact that in September, I'muh gonna solve the mystery of autism.
And I can't help but wonder if whatever he's preparing to announce is directly related tothese resignations.
(27:33):
on a side note, and because we just got into the CDC, the federal government would onlyapprove the new COVID vaccines if they limited who could receive them.
So you have to be a senior citizen or young adults or children with like underlying healthconditions.
mean, these people are not, they're not experts, they're not doctors.
(27:56):
The experts and the doctors that are there are quitting.
because they see the danger to this.
Places like the CDC, the military, they're being completely politicized right now.
And it's going to cause, I think, some deaths in our country.
think it is definitely dangerous.
think it's risky.
(28:17):
think it is this lack of accountability, right?
Where did the checks and balances go?
I keep watching all of this and just screaming, where are our elected representatives,Republicans and Democrats alike?
I don't see anybody pushing back in any kind of effective way on any of these things.
And that concerns me deeply, right?
(28:38):
Because our elected representatives are really our voice.
That is we the people, that's our, you know.
our way to talk to the federal government in a meaningful way and they're not sticking upfor us.
this idea that there are some agencies where the age of Trump has made us, it has sopolarized these agencies and essentially made them ineffective.
(29:06):
CDC is one of them.
FEMA is another one where the American people don't trust the agency itself based on whois in the White House.
And so my feeling is that we need to take those agencies and make them
independent like the Fed, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear RegulatoryBoard.
(29:29):
I mean, that is like the gold standard of nuclear regulation in the world.
And it's that way for a reason, because it's independent.
You you don't mess around with nuclear power, right?
And so, and safety.
And I feel like we need to do the same thing for some of these uh other organizations.
(29:50):
Yeah, I haven't considered that something certainly to think about.
even if that is like the right way to go or the right thing to look into, where are thecourageous people in Congress who are willing to say, hey, maybe we should stand up the
committee to look into something like this?
There's just I don't know.
Is it is it fear?
Is it a lack of courage?
Is it just protecting, you know, my position?
(30:11):
Is it a combination of the above?
Well, the first thing it needs to do is we need to impeach RFK Jr.
But, you know, I'll just say that right now.
All right.
Much like there is no need for the military to police our cities, um we likely do not needan executive order making flag burning something that we should prosecute.
(30:33):
uh But mostly there's not a whole heck of a lot of flag burning going on.
But
This week Trump put out an executive order on flag burning.
Your thoughts?
So, you know, here's the thing, the flag burning thing's already been adjudicated by theSupreme Court.
believe this is another, um it's a very big visual when it put it across the news, anynews station, right?
(30:56):
You've got people stomping on a burning flag, people usually yelling and protesting.
So it makes for this very big clickbait kind of thing.
And now we're going to turn this into a national issue.
I don't know, it's already been adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
Don't we have bigger problems to be dealing with?
Don't we does my president not have bigger things going on in the world than to deal withthis?
And if you actually read the executive order, right, the words were actually parsedpretty, pretty, pretty nicely.
(31:22):
It said something along the lines, should the flag burning run afoul of so what they'regoing to try to do is go, oh, you're disrupting traffic or you're breaking a noise
ordinance.
So I read it as you know, it's not necessarily the flag burning itself because legally Idon't think they have a leg to stand on.
going to be the context within which that flag is being burned that we're going toprosecute.
(31:45):
That's the way I read it.
But of course, when Trump announces it makes his big television thing and does his socialmedia, it's we're going to send you to prison for a year for flag burning.
Either way, this has already been adjudicated.
Either way, this is a waste of time ah and resources.
And I want my president working on bigger, more.
That's a great point.
(32:05):
My feeling on this issue has always been, um I'm somebody that stands for the nationalanthem.
I'm somebody that's never, is always gonna revere the flag.
It is like ingrained in me.
mean, you went to an academy, I went to academy.
This is like, this is our blood.
It's in our blood, okay?
um That said, the United States of America, know, veterans...
(32:32):
like you and me and those who gave their lives for this country in wars and previousgenerations, you know, they fought for freedom.
They fought for uh the freedom to have government not tell you what you can and can't doand tell you what you can and can't say.
(32:53):
I've been in countries where the government tells you, you can't say anything bad aboutme.
You can't put that picture up.
You can't put that.
You can't do that.
And that's not America.
so veterans get that.
Like we get it.
reserve, we revere the flag.
And here's the other thing that's very interesting to me about this whole thing,especially with Donald Trump, the guy who like hugs the flag, right?
(33:21):
A lot of people, when I drive by the like mega uh tents, you know, when you're out andabout during election season,
And you see all these flags that like Donald Trump's face on them and all kinds of otherstuff, writing and stuff like that, Sharpie pens and things, that's defacing the flag.
(33:41):
It is, and it's against the US flag.
Yeah.
And so, but that seems to be perfectly okay.
And for these guys, you know, I can't stand it.
I don't like, I'll just be honest with you.
I don't like flags to be defaced at all.
I don't like them with a red stripe.
I don't like them with any color other stripe.
If you want to celebrate who you are, a state or, um, you know, something that you, youcreate your own flag, do it separately.
(34:10):
Don't take the American flag.
and put something else on it.
That's just me.
No, the American flag, I agree with you as a veteran is absolutely sacred.
And I try to teach my kids that, but to your point, it's about defending freedom.
And again, this is, think just a completely, this is completely symbolic.
It's a waste of everybody's time.
(34:33):
And I think it's super interesting though, the Republicans, I used to know them as theparty of small government, right?
Keep the government out of your business.
Keep the government small, keep them out of this.
And all we're doing is,
growing federal government, you know, interventions every.
From flag burning to sending the National Guard in, it's like, what happened to the oldRepublican Party?
(34:58):
Or at least they're talking out of both sides of their mouth.
So even sometimes I'm confused.
I'm like, do they even know what they're talking about?
Some of these people who voted for him, like step back and analyze critically the actionsversus what the party's platform has always been.
Yeah, I know.
I mean, they've changed a lot.
Now I'm afraid it's a cult that is a big kiss ass for one person.
(35:22):
That's it.
have to hold out hope that and maybe there's a defense mechanism, Amy, but you know thatthere are there are good, the old school Republicans, right?
The people you could disagree with policy wise, but we're still dignified and and civilgentlemen and gentle women.
Where are they?
You know, we need them.
(35:45):
don't believe MAGA represents the Republican Party, and I feel like it's kind of just beena little bit hijacked, but.
you know, where are our moderate Republicans and what can we do to collaborate?
Yeah, well, I mean, that's going to be the uh goal here, uh at least from my perspective,um going into the midterms.
We need to gather everybody who has common sense.
(36:08):
um So, well, now it's time eh for our show in the middle where we take a step back anddrink a little bit of bourbon and whiskey.
So normally I bring a bottle from here in Kentucky and talk about that.
But my husband,
is a corporate pilot and he flies all over the country.
(36:28):
And so whenever he goes to a place, he brings me back something.
And his latest trip took him to Northern Michigan, where he bought or went to thisdistillery called the Grand Traverse Distillery.
And uh he brought back this bourbon Michigan straight bourbon whiskey.
I don't know, sadly, I'm usually prepared for these.
(36:50):
uh
for these shows, but I don't really know the background on this distillery very much,except to say that it's quite good.
I really like it.
It's smooth.
um so that's what I'm drinking.
Well, that's fantastic.
That sounds delicious.
And I'll be honest, you just educated me.
I never put whiskey and Michigan together, but clearly I need to get myself up there well.
(37:12):
Okay.
So I was stationed twice at REF Lake and Heath, which is just outside of Cambridge,England, the two greatest, you know, just assignments of my life, because there is nothing
cooler than flying an F-15E strike eagle at 500 feet, 500 miles an hour up lock nests,right?
Over-sailing through the highlands.
mean, like literally, you know,
That was my job and I got paid to do it.
(37:34):
Thank you, Taxpayers of America, right?
What a wonderful thing.
But obviously, Scotch whiskey up in Scotland's a big deal.
So we used to always go on the Scotch whiskey trail and go tasting.
And my favorite distillery, hands down, is always going to be the Balvini.
So Balvini is, this is a single barrel sherry cask.
It's 15 years, so it's actually not the most expensive, totally affordable.
(37:55):
But I think what makes it tasty is the sherry cask.
It's kind of got a little bit of that sweetness without being like,
overly sweet on it.
I'll have to check that out.
Cheers.
Cheers to you.
Cheers to America.
And reasonable, common sense Americans.
Totally.
mean, that's what, when we started this show, I wanted to be fun because there's so muchgoing on in our world that's not fun right now.
(38:23):
And so, you know, when Denver and I started, we're like, we got to do something fun.
We got to just, you know, relax.
And this has been a great way to kind of go into the next segment, which is called QuickShots, where we sort of throw each other some things and just get a quick take.
um on what on some of these issues.
So I wanted to do that with you.
(38:46):
The first one is that this past week, I think the president and Pete Hegsath want torename the Department of Defense, the Department of War.
Thoughts on that?
ridiculous, a waste of time, a waste of resources, the millions of dollars that will bespent changing signs and regulations and all of that is just from a pragmatic, just makes
(39:07):
no sense.
But here's the thing, words matter, symbols matter.
When we say Department of War, that is a very offensive way to look at things.
know, the United States of America absolutely needs offensive capabilities, it needsdefensive capabilities.
But I mean, that to me is just
It's ridiculous.
(39:28):
The Department of Defense is just fine.
It's been working for us for, think, what, since 19, well, well over 50 years, I think.
em And I don't see any good.
Again, this is something that I get frustrated a little bit with Secretary Hegset becausea lot of what he's doing seems to have nothing to do with readiness, nothing to do with
lethality.
And so again, I hear one thing, but then the actions aren't matching the words.
(39:51):
So again, I ask why.
Yeah.
Well, so I have a little bit, it's not a different take, similar.
think it's dumb, but I think it's also dumb for the reason of it's not what America shouldstand for.
It's not what our military should stand for.
(40:12):
here's why.
I had an instructor back at the Naval Academy.
I graduated in 1997 and one of my favorite instructors there was a Marine Corps major who
had been everywhere.
I mean, he was one of these like special forces, Marine Corps type of guys who had likedone and seen lots of things.
(40:32):
And he told me once, he said, take out a dollar bill.
And he said, so I did, I took out a dollar, but he said, turn it around.
He said, see that picture, I don't have one here to show you, but see that picture of theeagle on the back?
He said, what's the eagle holding in its claws?
And I said, well, it's...
One claw is an olive branch and the other claw are the arrows.
(40:56):
And he said, that's America.
Where is that eagle looking?
And it's looking to the olive branch.
And it's got the arrows in the back if we need them, but we're not looking that way.
You are much better what I was trying to say, this idea that words matter and how we areprojecting ourselves to the rest of the world.
(41:21):
Department of War is very unnecessarily aggressive, right?
It's not who we want to be.
We've been living decades at war.
We've lost thousands of Americans.
We've been entrenched, you know, places and I.
That doesn't and that also goes against what they campaigned on, right?
This administration, right?
(41:42):
Right?
I'm the president of peace, right?
No more wars under us and yet Department of War.
It makes no sense.
Yeah, well, it's part of Pete Hegseth being gotta be rah rah Pete.
So, all right.
So JD Vance this past week said that Russia has made significant concessions to Ukraine.
Really?
(42:02):
Yeah, I haven't seen any examples or factual examples or data that supports that of you.
Okay, yeah.
And yeah.
He's lying to the American people when he says that.
I just think they're flat out lying.
I think that because there are an unfortunate number of our American citizens alongside ofus that don't want to look at the data or do the research for themselves.
(42:33):
you know, I don't know why this just came into my head.
So I'm going to say it, you know, like over these last few months, watching what's goingon, interacting with people I love, people I respect, people who, you know, voted for
Trump and are still supporting this administration.
I get in these conversations with them, you know, like
Like why?
And it has hit me for the first time in my life, and I'm sure you're way smarter than meand have already had this revelation, but education is a national security issue.
(43:01):
Education is a national security imperative.
I am coming across too many people who literally don't have the capability to criticallythink, who literally haven't been taught how to do proper research or where to go for
credible sources or how to look at data and read statistics the right way.
I didn't realize until recently how big of a problem that really was.
(43:26):
And I hope that that comes off.
Now, like you're not smart.
I don't mean it like that.
I just mean we have somehow lost.
We've lost the edge, Mev.
That's a good one.
No, I feel like uh you're exactly right.
And that actually leads me into my next one, uh because this is a story that not too manypeople are talking about, but I think it's really important.
(43:52):
And it goes to show the point of these leaders say one thing, and we have a populationthat just like believes them.
And if you really pull a string on it, it's total bullshit.
Let me tell you the backstory of this.
There was a CNN uh story that broke just this week that talked about the fact that theadministration is stopping all of these green energy projects, especially the wind power
(44:22):
projects.
So Donald Trump really hates wind power.
oh There's a couple of states up in the Northeast, Connecticut, and Rhode Island that havethese, first of all, they have very high prices for electricity.
And during the last administration, there was a lot of investment in uh wind power forthose states.
One of the projects is 80 % complete.
(44:44):
It's in Rhode Island.
And the CNN story talks about the fact that they are getting rid of this project andthey're laying off hundreds of these tradesmen, all of these jobs.
And the project is like 80 % done in order to bring down the cost of energy there.
And so CNN broke the story when the White House was asked about the story, they referredCNN to the Department of Interior for some reason.
(45:11):
said, you're going to have to listen to go, go talk to the Department of Interior becausethey know the reason why this is being right.
And so when they went to the secretary of the interior, he was interviewed because theysaid it was a national security concern and the Department of Interior knows why.
And I'm going to have Doug play the clip.
for you and for everybody listening of when Caitlin Collins of the CNN of CNN asked theSecretary of Interior, his name is Doug Borgam about this project and listen to his
(45:41):
answer.
And I want to get your take, your national security experience take on his answer.
Doug, can you play that?
You know, the cabinet meeting that there had been a report that had been buried about thefact that a wind farm, if it's too close to a railroad or a highway, could affect the
electronics.
reviewed this project in 2023 and they found that there were negligible national securityimpacts.
(46:05):
So what are the specific ones that this administration is so concerned about that youwould stop it if it's 80 % of the way done?
Well, I think in particular there's concerns about uh radar relative to undersea and not,doesn't have to be a large Russian sub, but undersea drones, the new technology.
I mean, the war in Ukraine has shown that swarm attacks by drones, if you're going tolaunch one uh into our most populous part of our country, the Pacific Northwest, the way a
(46:30):
bad, you know, people with, you know, bad ulterior motives to the United States wouldlaunch a swarm drone attack through a wind farm.
The radar gets very distorted around detecting if you're trying to have, you know, detectand avoid if you've got drones coming.
about potential attacks on it and that's why you're stopping the...
(46:50):
It's a range of things that need to be reviewed that I don't think were.
I sustainability during high speed storms, the national defense issues relative to radar.
Pete Hickseth has got concerns.
Bobby Kennedy expressed, you know, 10 minutes of concern today during our cabinet meeting.
you heard that whole clip.
ah He had a lot of interesting things about that.
(47:11):
But I want to ask you, Nicole, about the national security piece of that.
Like, what is he talking about?
I no idea.
consider energy independence to be a national security issue.
I think finding ways that we can become independent by investing in these alternativesources is probably a darn good idea, right?
I mean, we know the Northeast I think uses like a larger proportion of electricity andthis is a great way for them to have more accessible, more electricity at lower prices.
(47:39):
The fact that...
there's going to be probably hundreds of billions.
And I'm sorry, that's the first time I've seen the clips.
haven't fully researched it, but I reckon there's hundreds of millions of dollars alreadyinvested.
There's going to be job losses.
But let's get to the, you know, swarm technology stuff.
em When I was stationed at Lake and Heath, I would fly my F-15E strikey with my radar allover the UK, which has wind farms all around it.
(48:01):
In fact, I may have flown by the one that Trump hates so much that's over by his golfcourse in Scotland.
I don't know.
Remember, the president has only stated that he doesn't like the way they look and itlowers real estate property values.
So I don't know how that plays into national security.
But I know that when I use a radar, wind farms can indeed create some kind of groundclutter, which can make it difficult to find low altitude targets that might be flying
(48:27):
through it.
But the fact of the matter is, is that we know they're there.
Wind farms aren't moving.
We can create, I think, mitigative measures around them.
um But moreover,
I also served at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base several times in North Carolina and I wason a planning committee to look at the negative impacts of a solar farm that was going in
and how that might impact the base and stuff.
(48:48):
All this to say, this was fully reviewed and vetted.
I guarantee you by the Department of Defense, probably in uh coordination with the FAA inorder to get this approval.
And so to Caitlin Collins, great question.
This was already improved.
What beyond this hasn't the Department of Defense already looked at?
Not to mention, you know, we are advancing technologies in our radars every single day,you know, so I...
(49:12):
oh Well, you are a lot nicer than I am.
I think Doug Borgram just pulled something out of his rear end right there.
And he knows nothing.
He's talking about undersea drones uh in wind farms having a problem with defendingagainst, I mean, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.
(49:32):
And it's just, it is crazy.
is lunacy.
But to the bigger point, and you touched on this, Nicole, China is way outpacing us.
in renewable energy.
I don't care what shit this is.
Renewable energy is part of the future.
I mean, it is is a big part of the future.
Nuclear power may be a big part of the future, too.
(49:56):
But our government is pushing right now fossil fuels.
You hear this drill everywhere.
OK, great.
uh Less, but they're taking all these renewable project.
And the problem is China is the big winner here.
because they are surging ahead of us in R &D.
Thanks to Donald Trump, they're surging ahead of us.
(50:18):
Why is renewable part a big part of the future?
It's cheaper.
And once we figure out the technology, the high tech part of wind and solar power, it willbe more affordable in the long run.
And that's, if we're not on top of that, guess who's gonna run that entire industry?
China.
(50:39):
Absolutely.
And that's the national security issue.
Developing countries already get it.
They're already being won over by China.
And so to me, I feel like I don't want China to be the world leader in energy.
to be.
So when Trump talks about energy dominance, okay, he's talking about energy dominance herein 2025.
(50:59):
What's it going to be in 2035?
Because he's making us go in the wrong direction.
I'm not worried about a swarm attack coming from underwater off the coast of Rhode Islandwhen the Department of Defense and the FAA already looked at mitigated all of that prior
to the project being reviewed.
I'm concerned about energy independence, right?
Being the actual national security issue here, not to mention just the loss of all thatmoney invested, the loss of the jobs, you know, that were going to be to maintain those.
(51:28):
I don't even know there's probably hundreds, if not thousands of people that were going tobe dependent on this.
I'd be.
I'd be very disappointed at this point for sure.
And the loss of like we invested taxpayers invested in these projects and now you're justit just total fraud waste and abuse to To cancel them at this point.
Here's the thing about Doug Borgam that the Interior Secretary He was super for renewableenergy When he was the governor of North Dakota and now all of sudden he's a Trump
(51:57):
sycophant Yeah, so Trump done like though what what they look like so he's against it Iagain, we have people in power that just
I have no back home.
It is interesting to see the Department of Interior weighing in on a Department of Defenseissues.
like, you might just want to stay in your lane.
But I wasn't familiar with his positions on this ahead of time.
(52:19):
But I was delighted to hear you say and mention nuclear energy, because I actually thinkthere is almost unlimited potential there as far as cheap, effective, easily deployable,
even globally to raise up communities around the world that
that need it.
And I think it's been a real missed opportunity for the United States.
Maybe we can talk about that sometime in the future.
(52:41):
We do need to talk about it.
It is a very important issue with regards to power.
You also have some challenges with regards to uh the ability to weaponize at a certainlevel.
we have to keep, that's why we need diplomats.
That's why we need understanding uh of this technology and all that.
(53:02):
But yeah, nuclear is a big piece of the future.
So, well, good.
So now we're gonna...
close out our show, which has been awesome by the way, uh with a cheers.
This is what we do every time.
We never want to leave on kind of a serious note.
We always want to talk about good things that have happened.
And I have two that I want to bring up.
(53:22):
The first one is that in Iowa, there was a special election.
It was a super Republican held seat.
The Republicans have the super majority there.
You know, I'm a Democrat.
uh
And I am really pleased to see that the seat was won by a Democrat, breaking the supermajority there.
(53:43):
It was won by 11 points in a super red district.
And I just think that that's awesome.
The Democrats name is Caitlin Dre.
She pulled off the victory.
um And so cheers to her.
And the second one is um
(54:03):
Taylor Swift's getting married.
Dang it, you took one of mine.
was like, you know, if Taylor Swift can get a ring this year, can the Buffalo Bills.
Go Josh Allen.
That's right.
I married a man from Buffalo.
We were married 24 years.
So I married into uh the Bills fandom.
You're not a Broncos fan being in Colorado?
(54:25):
no.
Yeah, actually, I think next season, the Bills are coming to Broncos Stadium and I'll bewalking in red, white and blue.
Okay, very good.
That's that's bold right there.
I'm actually a Bengals fan.
um Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati is just north of where I live in Kentucky and I'm sortof a lifelong Bengals fan, which somewhat makes me kind of lifelong disappointment to some
(54:48):
degree.
But but I always have hope every year and I'm really I'm happy for Taylor Swift.
know, I mean, marriage is it's it's it's fun.
It's challenging.
And, you know,
The decision you'll make is the person you choose to share your life with.
Yeah, but she's certainly a powerful woman and she's, you know, chosen Jason Kelsey fromthe Chiefs.
(55:14):
That's really cool.
So cheers to her and to marriage happiness.
you go.
All right.
Well, I got to and maybe I wasn't thinking as worldly as you.
I was thinking a little bit more like things that kind of have happened to me this week.
Very recently, actually last Thursday, I was asked to drive an hour and a half south of myhome to go into a very small community in the mountains of Colorado to talk to the local
(55:43):
Civil Air Patrol cadets.
You know, I walked in and they're in this old tiny airfield that only Cessna's can land atthis old kind of closet hood, you know, looking thing.
And I walk in and their uniforms are, know, they're putting them on and they're marchingaround like, like a 12 year old and a 13 year old could do.
But I ended up was only supposed to be there like, you know, 30 minutes.
(56:03):
I ended up there for two hours, just answering the questions of these great youngAmericans.
Some of them that want to serve in the military, some, you know, that don't, but they'reall just there trying to support each other.
They're building teamwork, they're building leadership.
And I was asked some extraordinarily thoughtful questions, even questions that you and Iaddressed tonight.
And I just want to say, it gave me a lot of hope and I was very heartened to talk to theseyoung people in America.
(56:30):
As much as we as adults have got going on and need to get it figured out, I think some ofthese kids are heading in the right direction.
so I want to say cheers to those young people.
to them.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
And you know that story, it makes me want to work harder to be the leaders that theydeserve.
Yeah.
Absolutely, right?
(56:51):
And don't we want to model the behaviors that we want to see in our kids?
And sometimes we as adults need to absolutely remember that.
And the second thing is, and this might sound kind of cheesy, and people always ask, whatcan I do?
What can I do to make this better?
What can I do to help people get into these hard conversations and stuff?
so I've been doing my own little mini, not a protest, my own little mini advocacy work.
(57:14):
I ordered a whole bunch,
of these 99 cent pocket constitutions and I carry them with me and I travel a lot forbusiness and I always offer it to like my driver or the poor person sitting next to me on
the plane at the very end.
I don't get into the conversation.
like, hey, you know, I happen to have one of these.
Have you read the constitution lately?
(57:35):
And they're like, no, I haven't.
I've handed out probably 100 now and not a single person has not taken it.
So cheers to the people to reread the constitution.
Well, there we go.
It's so important because there's so much going on right now where if you just stop andsay, can't do that.
(57:58):
Constitution.
Now, why you even talking about that constitution?
You know.
When was the last time you read the Constitution of the Declaration of Independence?
Usually the answer is, don't think I ever have.
And then the second answer is usually middle school or high school civics.
Yeah, it's true.
mean, look, the Declaration is shorter.
Yeah.
(58:19):
And so it's easier to get through.
The Constitution is rather boring, but it's actually quite short in comparison to manyother constitutions around the world.
So I encourage everybody to read it, break it out.
em And also, I mean, the Constitution is the law of the land.
The Declaration of Independence is more of a values declaration, but it's not law.
(58:40):
The Constitution is our law.
And that's what you and I
us where to defend for over 20 years.
Nicole, it's been awesome having you on the show as a co-host.
This has been a great show.
We went through a lot of stuff and I hope that you get a chance to come back on in thecoming months when you have the chance because your voice is incredible and I'm really
(59:04):
thankful you could be a part of this.
For everybody listening out there, please do follow us on Truth in the Barrel.
We're on all the platforms.
YouTube, all the social media platforms.
Tell your friends and family about this.
This is a really important conversations.
Thanks, Nicole, for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com