August 25, 2025 • 37 mins
Why is Trump letting 600k Chinese spies in? Brandon Weichert on why the Navy is going down to Venezuela. Did Trump give up on Panama? Medal of Honor Douglas Fournet and Anthony Kaho’Ohanohano
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is a Jesse Kelly Show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It is the Jesse Kelly Show. Another hour of the
Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful, wonderful Monday. Coming up,
we have Brandon Wiker a half hour from now. Why
is the Navy and Marines? What exactly are they planning
on doing in Venezuela and why? We'll talk to him
about that about a half hour from now. I'm actually
(00:35):
going to in a way defend Trump on something he
said today that is making a lot of people on
the right angry about bringing in Chinese students, lots of them.
But you know what time it is, Oh, that's political.
We don't have time for that. Now. It's the start
of the second hour on Monday. So it's Medal of
Honor Monday time. Same thing every Monday, at this time,
(00:57):
we take a medal of honor, citation, we read it.
We remember the men, we honor them, We honor their deeds.
We have to tell our children about these men and
the things they did. And remember we accept suggestions. If
you have ones you like, ones you're related to. Once
you just enjoy whatever. It's not just love hating death
(01:20):
threats you can send into Jesse at Jesse kellyshow dot com.
So we're gonna do too tonight. This guy says, Jesse.
I went to Washington with my daughter on her fifth
grade trip. That's so cool. You got to go. I
didn't get to go. I wanted to go when my
kids went. Chris, you're never gonna pay for it when
your daughter gets to old enough. Anyway, we stopped by
the National Vietnam War Memorial and searched for a specific name,
(01:44):
First Lieutenant Douglas B. Fournette. He was from my hometown
of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Before you get to the two
to ten loop bridge, you will see a dedicated marker
to this warrior. He came from a hard nosed family.
His brother Rocky was such a fierce defensive back of
McNee State that the coach made him wear a black
helmet so the offense knew where he was on the
(02:05):
field at all times. Love what you're doing. Every Monday,
I take my daughter Mollie to a Monday night activity
and we get to bond together listening to medal of
honor Monday. Gosh, that's freaking cool. Love your brother be well.
So without further ado born and as you heard in
Lake Charles, Louisiana, Vietnam veteran Douglas Bernard Fournette. Let's find
(02:27):
out what he.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Did, hey, honoring those who went above and beyond. It's
Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk
of his life, above and beyond the call of duty.
First Lieutenant Fournette, Infantry distinguished himself in action while serving
as rifle platoon leader of second Platoon, Company B. While
advancing uphill against fortified enemy posis in the a Shah Valley,
(03:02):
the platoon encountered intense sniper fire, making movement very difficult.
The right flank man suddenly discovered an enemy Claymore mind
covering the route of advance and shouted a warning to
his comrades. Realizing that the enemy would also be alerted,
First Lieutenant Fournette ordered his men to take cover and
ran up. He'lled toward the mind, drawing a sheath knife
(03:25):
as he approached it with complete disregard for his safety
and realizing the imminent danger to members of his command.
He used his body as a shield in front of
the mind as he attempted to slash the control wires
leading from the enemy positions to the mine. As he
reached for the wire, the mine was detonated, killing him instantly.
(03:47):
Five men nearest the mine were slightly wounded, but First
Lieutenant Fournette's heroic and unselfish act spared his men of
serious injury or death. His gallantry and willing else sacrifice
are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service
and reflect great credit upon him himself, his unit in
(04:09):
the US Army. And just to let you know, in
case you don't, a claymore mind, is a terrifying thing.
They are. They're full of ball bearings. Have a little
bit of experience with them. And look, when we trained
(04:31):
with them, they were intimidating because you know what they
do when they go off, You know what they do.
To throw yourself in front of one that you know
the enemy holds the clacker, you set them off for
the clacker, the enemy holds the controls and you throw
yourself in front of one is awesome. Man, It's awesome.
(04:54):
Douglas Bernard Fournette. Now for our second one. This one
also came in. It was a recommendation from a Marine
Master sergeant who I'm not going to read his name.
I don't want to get him. I don't want to
get him in trouble. Jesse, if you've not already used
this warrior for Medal of Honor Monday, please do so, PFC.
(05:16):
And you're gonna have to bear with me.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
On the name ca ho.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Ohannohanno, Ca ho Ohannohno, that's just his last name, caho
ohann Ohanno. I'm assuming that's Hawaiian smeowing something like that.
My favorite Medal of Honor recipient. This guy says, so
he was Oh yeah, look at that. Born nineteen thirty,
accredited to Hawaii is what they think it was. So
without further ado, also, Army, let's do the second Medal
(05:43):
of Honor citation for an Anthony T. Caho Ohannohanno. And
I'm sorry if I screwed up the pronunciation on that.
I'm stupid.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I do that, hey, honoring those who went above and beyond.
It's Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life,
above and beyond the call of duty. Private first Class
Anthony T. Caho Company H seventeenth Infantry Regiment, seventh Infantry
Division distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism and action against the
enemy in the vicinity of Trooper Ree, Korea, on the
(06:27):
first of September nineteenth fifty one. On that date, Private
first class Caho was in charge of a machine gun
squad supporting the defensive positioning of Company F when a
numerically superior enemy force launched a fierce attack. Because of
the enemy's overwhelming numbers, friendly troops were forced to execute
(06:48):
a limited withdrawal. As the men fell back, Private first
class ca Ho ordered his squad to take up more
defensible positions and provide covering fire for the withdrawing friendly force.
Although having been wounded in the soldier in the soldier
in the shoulder during the initial enemy assault, Private first
class Caho gathered a supply of grenades and ammunition and
(07:11):
returned to his original position to face the enemy alone.
As the hostile troops concentrated their strength against his emplacement
in an effort to overrun it, Private first class ca
Ho fought fiercely and courageously, delivering deadly accurate fire into
the ranks of the on rushing enemy. When his ammunition
(07:32):
was depleted, he engaged the enemy in hand to hand
combat until he was killed. Private first Class caho Ohanohanno's
heroic stand so inspired his comrades they launched a counter
attack that completely repulsed the enemy. Upon reaching Private first
Class caho Ohano Hanno's emplacement, friendly troops discovered eleven enemy
(07:55):
soldiers lying dead in front of the emplacement and two
inside it, killed in hand to hand combat. Private first
Class coho Ohanohanno's extraordinary heroism and selfless devotion to duty
are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service
and reflect great credit upon himself the seventh Infantry Division
(08:16):
in the United States Army, and we will play tabs
in honor of both of these gentlemen. To now, it's
(09:17):
amazing how often those Korean War ones go that way,
of the numerically superior enemy force overrunning the lines. I've
read more Korean books than I can count, and that's
just the Korean War. You take a hilltop, the Chinese,
because they were mostly Chinese, would mass up more bodies
(09:38):
than you could kill, and they would send in waves
of them and they would just overrun you, and then
you'd have to counterattack and take it back, and then
they would counterattack and take it back. And there were
a lot of very brave men who did a lot
of very brave things in Korea. Like I've told you before,
it is called the Forgotten War, and it really truly
is the Forgotten War. Look into Korea, Look into Korea.
(10:02):
If this stuff interests you, fascinates you, you want to learn
about the fighting they did over there, the heroes who
fought their way through that place and then had to
fight their way out of it. Go pick up a
book or watch a documentary. I think there's a good
one on Amazon if I remember it called Chosen. It's
on Amazon or Netflix, but it's called Chosen about the
Chosen Reservoir. Highly recommend it. Uh, I don't remember if
(10:26):
it's a kid friendly or not. It could be. Chris said,
probably not, No, it could be. I don't remember. So kids,
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eight hundred the number four relief or go to relief
Factor dot com. All right, let's talk about Trump saying
he's going to allow six hundred thousand Chinese students in
next truth attitude. Jesse Kelly, it is the Jesse Kelly Show,
(11:53):
A wonderful, wonderful Monday, just a medal of honor Monday.
Remember we have Brandon Wiker coming up ten minutes from now,
going to get us educated on what exactly is happening
in Venezuela. So Trump said something earlier today that has
the right apoplectic and upset. And don't get me wrong,
(12:14):
I'm I'm upset two. But I understand. You ever have
those situations in your life where you're mad but you
get it, You're mad, but you get it. He said this,
it's a very important relationship.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
We're going to get along good with China.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
How here so many stories about we're not going to
allow their students, So we're going to allow their students
to come in. We're going to allow.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It's very important, six hundred thousand students. It's very important.
But we're going to get along.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
With We're going to allow six hundred thousand Chinese students
into our country. Chinese spies is what they are. It's
not it's not exactly a guess. It's not an unknown thing.
China sends its young people into our country, into the
university system, to not just spy. They are the biggest
(13:02):
corporate thieves on the planet. They steal technology, they steal
proper intellectual property, they take it back to China, they
duplicate it, and it's really really bad. And everyone's mad
at Trump today about that we're going to allow six
hundred thousand, and we're going to allow six hundred thousand.
I'm mad too, so let me clarify that's that's really bad.
(13:24):
It's really bad. However, remember when Trump was talking with
Zolenski on the first meeting where it blew up in
the White House where Zolensky lost his mind starts freaking out.
Remember what Trump told him, you don't have the cards,
you don't have the cards, and Zolensky had to be
(13:45):
like a stupid, angry little troull I'm not playing cards.
And that everyone knows what Trump was saying, including Zelensky.
What does he mean by that? You don't have leverage.
Ukraine doesn't have any leverage. You can't militarily defeat the Russians.
You're not in possession of the territory the Russians have taken.
You don't have leverage. You can want it, you can
(14:06):
scream that's wrong, but you don't have it. All right,
So let's have a frank talk about where we are
as a country right now. China produces ninety percent of
the pharmaceuticals that people take in the United States of America.
Nine zero, not nine, not nineteen ninety. That's a tiny,
(14:34):
tiny example of how much we have to have cooperation
with China. And so, don't get me wrong, they have
to have cooperation with us too. But it really comes
down to this. If I have to make it extremely simple,
China makes the stuff, we buy the stuff. That's the
(14:58):
terrible relationship we are in. You can hate that and
I hate it. You can say we have to change that,
and we do. But you know, wish in one hand,
grapp in the other, and see which one fills up first.
As my dad used to tell me all the time,
you can't wish away where we currently are. We we
(15:20):
don't have all the cards. We have some cards. We
have cards, There's no question about it. We have some cards. Look,
I'm gonna talk to Brandon Wykert next. I'm gonna flat
out ask him how much of the world's rare earth
minerals does China have control over versus how much we
have control over. Imagine if China owns sixty seventy percent
(15:45):
of the rare earth minerals, and I think it's at
least that high, I'm gonna I'm gonna confirm it with
Brandon Wickert in a moment. What if it's seventy percent.
Now keep in mind, when we say rare earth minerals,
what does that even mean? Like everyone loves that term. Now,
what does that even mean? We are talking about the
things you have to pull out of the ground to
make the modern things. Your country, your economy, and most definitely,
(16:10):
your military need to keep running. You want your military
to be as modern as the next guy. You have
to have that in the ground. What if China owns
it all, and I know they own a big chunk
of it, I'm not happy. I'm not happy that this
is where we are, and I'm certainly not happy that
we're allowing six hundred thousand Chinese spies into the country.
(16:32):
I think that's suicidal and insane. I don't like it either,
but I understand it. I understand. We don't hold all
the cards here. You know, it's a not a huge story,
but a little bit of a story that Canada, Canada
is backing off. You know, Canada was talking really tough.
We were talking about tariffs, and Canada started flexing. They
(16:55):
have a bunch of comedies up there in charge. Now,
poor Canadians too. It sucks for them. Canada bends the
knee that Trump's will and drops the tariffs on US goods.
That's from today. Why well, we have all the cards.
If you're Canada. You don't have that leverage. If we
pull the trigger on you when it comes to tariffs,
you're finished. You can hurt us a little. We can
(17:18):
smash Canada's budget. We can smash their budget, We can
smash their economy into a fine powder. So they had
no choice. It's all about leverage. We are not in
that same situation with China. Yes, China needs us to
buy a lot of stuff. There's no question they need
us too. But we are in We're in a Mexican
(17:40):
standoff right now. Okay, we can't afford to smash them
because they can smash us back guaranteed, guaranteed, this was
negotiated Jiji and Ping. Okay, you want this. You don't
want that. You're taking six hundred thousand spy students. Sorry,
(18:01):
I misspoke. Sucks. I hate it. That's the way it
is now. You know what else freaking sucks. Have you
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(18:24):
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(18:45):
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(19:06):
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(19:29):
Wiker The Jesse Kelly Show. It's still real to me,
dammit the ternstacks.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It is The Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful Monday.
The work week is just beginning. I can tell how
happy Chris is about it. Anyway, I'm happy because Brandon
Wiker's about to educate us on some things, as he
often does. Joining me now, wonderful author national security man
Brandon Wickert.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Hey, Brandon, why is the Navy going down to Venezuela.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
As always, the Navy has decided to flex some muscles
in the face of Nicholas Maduro. Ostensibly it's to help
the Trump administration conduct its anti drug cartel operations. But
I suspect that it is much more than that. I
(20:23):
believe that the Trump administration is attempting to conduct some
form of regime change in Caracas by ousting Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh well, that always goes well, Okay, let's rewind quite
a bit, because I realize everybody comes at the news
from different levels of understanding Venezuela. How did they get
to where they got? Now, Maduro, what's the deal with them?
Pretend like I don't know, squat what's going on there?
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Well, you know, forty years ago, Venezuela was one of
the wealthiest countries in the world. It is one of
the great oil producers. And then in the nineties and
early two thousands they went through a political revolution led
by Hugo Chaves, who was a colonel in the Venezuelan Army.
(21:14):
He was a socialist and he overthrew the government and
installed a radical socialist regime with himself as the leader.
And ever since the two thousands it has been run
by either Hugo Chaves, who died in twenty thirteen, and
then after that it was his right hand man, Nicholas Maduro,
who took over. They have funded drug cartel operations. They
(21:38):
are a narco terrorist regime. They have funded human trafficking.
They have sent Trende Aragua, which is a paramilitary force,
into the United States through our broken border. And there
may or may not be some evidence that their company,
run by Venezuelan national Smartmattic, may be involved in the
(22:00):
Philippines and other countries in manipulating the votes. It's an
election counting machine software, and in fact, the CEO is
currently indicted I believe in a Miami court. So there's
a lot of problems with Venezuela We've had going back
several decades. Every president has talked about how much of
a problem it is. But because it's an oil producer,
(22:22):
we are in a bind.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
We need to have.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Business relations with Venezuela, but the regime as it stands
hates the United States.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Okay, so we are currently purchasing oil from Venezuela.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
So there was a special carve out that was allowed
after Shavas took over, the only US company that was
allowed to directly drove for oil consistently in Venezuela with Chevron.
This became a fight about three or four months ago
in the Trump administration. You had people like Rich Grnell,
you Rick Crnell, You had people like him versus more
(23:00):
Wark Rubio. Rick Rnaw was saying, hey, President Trump, renew
the licenses. It's easy, quick access to oil. All we
have to do is pay the Venezuelan's off and they'll
look the other way while we mine for it. We
drove for it, and Mark Rubio was saying, hey, that
money is directly feeding these organizations in Venezuela that are
sending drugs, human traffickers, illicit arms, trendy iragua into the
(23:26):
United States through our broken southwestern border. We got to
cut them off. So there was a temporary cutoff about
two months ago. It was a big fight. Trump sided
with Rubio, and many people, myself included, believe this was
part of a larger move to slowly build up a
regime change operation. Don't forget also Venezuela's regime has allowed
the Chinese, the Russians, and even Iran into our hemisphere
(23:50):
for the last twenty years, and also Venezuela. If you
deal with Venezuela, you take care of that regime, then
Trump has a clearer shot at taking the Panama Canal zone,
which is something that he has wanted to do. Venezuela
is a complicating factor in that mission as it's currently run.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
So that's the logic. Now.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I don't know if that's what we should be doing,
but that is the logic behind I think what Trump
is doing.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Okay, Actually, we'll get to the Panama Canal thing in
a few moments. Can you elaborate more on Venezuela and
being a narco terrorist stake? Because they're never brought up
when it comes to cartels. People obviously know about Colombia
and they dang sure to know about Mexico. What's Venezuela's
vested interest in the YEO.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
So Venezuela has a state owned cartel. Members of the
Venezuelan Parliament, the current head of the Venezuelan Parliament, the
Vice President, probably Maduro himself, Several key Venezuelan generals and
intelligence opera leaders of the Venezuelan intelligence operation. They all
(25:00):
run excuse me, they all run Cartel of the Suns.
It's one of the largest cartels in the world and
it is completely state owned and backed, so it is
a state owned cartel. This is very different from Colombian cartels.
It's even different from how Mexico's cartels operate. In Venezuela,
(25:22):
the regime and the cartel is one. And then of
course there's also Trende Aragua, which, as I said, it's
described as a prison gang in Venezuela that has these
sort of transnational ties. In fact, Trende Aragua is a
paramilitary force. I live in Florida. I deal a lot
with Venezuelan expats. All of them tell me TDA Trende
(25:43):
Aragua is a paramilitary force that Maduro deploys to go
after things like Venezuelan political dissidents in America. So that's
what Venezuela is doing. And a lot of the Cartel
of the Suns actually does business and supports the Colombian cartels.
They do business and help out with certain Mexican cartels,
(26:04):
all as part of this feeder program to get their
product and the human traffic up into the broken southwestern
border with the United States.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Okay, now you mentioned China, you mentioned Russia. In what
way do they invite them into our hemisphere?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Well, the Russians through the Wagner Group, which is their big,
supposedly private military contracting group. It's actually an arm of
the Russian government though, and the Russian military staff sit
and Russian intelligence supports it. They have massive contracts with Caracas.
They provide a lot of the protection for Venezuela's leaders.
(26:40):
I suspect they provide protection and conduct operations on behalf
of both the Venezuelan government and the Cartel of the Suns.
The Russians are allowed to base nuclear capable Blackjack bombers
in Venezuela. They have repeatedly landed them there over the
last decade. They're in fact talk about sending these Shahad
(27:01):
one thirty six Iranian made drones that the Russians use
in Ukraine. The Russians are talking about sending them over
to Venezuela to fight the Americans the Chinese. They have
these massive contracts for access to Venezuela's oil and rare
earth minerals, and obviously they like to stabilize America's leading
role in the Western hemisphere. It's also part of China's
(27:24):
control of the Panama Canal as well as their major
presence in the Caribbean Sea, which is basically now a
Chinese lake, and so Venezuela is in the middle of
all is the epicenter of all of this, inviting the
American enemies into our hemisphere to undermine us that regime is.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Brandon, do you have I didn't even get to the
freaking Panama Canal or Venezuela's military capability. Ay? Do you
have time for one more segment with me?
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, we are going to come right back with Brandon
Weiker schooling us on Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Hang up, Jesse Kelly returns next.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
It is the Jesse Kelly Show on a Wonderful Monday.
It's been a Medal of Honor Monday. Maybe you can
email the show Jesse at Jesse kellyshow dot com. We
still have Brandon Wikert educating us on some things. When
it comes to Venezuela. Apparently the Navy is heading down there,
the Marines are heading down there. Before we get to
(28:25):
what's heading down there. How are they militarily at some
point in time, as you said, they were one of
the wealthiest countries in the world. What kind of military
are we dealing with here.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Well, it's pretty much a you know, conventional force wise,
it's not that impressive. I would argue even the hoofy
rebels of Yemen are probably more impressive with their anti
access area denial capabilities. The Venezuelans are late to the
party in terms of building up their own A twoad capacity.
(28:57):
The Russians, like I said, are helping them do that,
but again it's.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Late in the game. They do have these maoist.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Like militias that are you know, the Bolivar and the
you know militias which are like the people's militias, and
Maduro is claiming he's mobilizing four point five million of
these militia men to fight Los Gringos. I'm very skeptical
that he can mobilize that many. And even if he can,
(29:26):
you know this, this kind of reminds me of the
fed Eyen in Iraq. They really weren't that impressive at
the end of the day. Obviously Iraq itself was a disaster,
but actually knocking out Saddam was pretty straightforward. I think
the same thing is true of Maduro. I would just
posit if the Trump administration is playing its cards right,
(29:47):
it needs to remember it's not dealing with a jihadi
type leadership that wants to go meet their maker by
fighting to the death. They're dealing with basically a narco
criminal gang that just wants the biggest slice of the
pie they can get. If the Trump administration flexes its
muscle with these these military maneuvers off of Venezuela's coast
(30:11):
and signals to some element of Maduro's government, we will
leave you in place as long as you hand over
Maduro and let us get the oil. I think that's
a deal that some ambitious person or group working under
Maduro might go for, and it could be relatively bloodless,
(30:32):
because you know, it is a jungle war, even though
I don't think they're militarily on par with even say
the who these In certain ways, a jungle ground war
could get very.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Dicey, especially because I mean numbers matter. Four point five
million guys.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
If they can get anywhere near that, that's going to
be a problem for us. But I think there's a
way we might be able to do this relatively bloodlessly.
I just hope the Trump administration is, you know, reaching
out to certain people in the in the regime who
might be willing to part ways with Maduro in exchange
for remaining in them remaining in power.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, jungle warfare freaking sucks. Okay, all right, let's go
to the Panama Canal because you brought that up, and
I know Trump's been hot on that for a while.
What do we what do we have now as far
as that situation goes, and what do we want?
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Well, what we have now is basically the Chinese manage it.
They have the two largest ports, one on the mouth
of the Pacific side, one on the mouth of the
Atlantic side, and then they're building these My friend Michael
jan who's an independent war reporter, he's been in Panama
on and off for the last two years. He's actually
taken pictures and posted an on a substack of these
(31:45):
bridges the Chinese are building across the Panama Canal. So
the Chinese own major infrastructure. They have a huge footprint
in the Panama Canal zone. Now in peacetime, that's it
seems relatively you know, insignificant because ships are.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
Still going through and whatnot. But with the.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
Chinese managing the two sides of the Panama Canal and
the locks of the Panama Canal, the Chinese could easily
sabotage them in the event that a war between the
United States and China broke out, and that could seriously
cripple our ability to move naval forces and other assets
from one side of the North the North America, the Americas,
(32:29):
you know, the Atlantic side, to the Pacific side, and
vice versa, which would complicate our ability to deploy forces,
say to help protect Taiwan from a possible Chinese invasion.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So how do we handle that. We're not going to
go down and bomb Chinese ports, how do we go
to how do we handle that?
Speaker 5 (32:46):
So this was this, you know, this was what Trump
was talking about. He tried to leverage the trade war
with China UH to get them to basically sell off
the two the two props, the big properties they have
to blackrock.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
I'm setting aside my distaste for black rock.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
It didn't go anywhere because ultimately China has figured out
that they have ninety percent of the world's rare earth
minerals supply under their control and all they have to
do is whisper to Trump that we're gonna cut you
off like they did in April, and Trump will give
them whatever they want, which is one of the reasons
why he's dropped his calls to reclaim the Panama Canal Zone.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Now, I don't think he's abandoned this mission.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
I think he's actually finding ways to basically completely surround
the Panama Canal Zone and then choke it off from
Chinese control. One of those ways would possibly be by
taking Venezuela. He possibly has Colombians now on his side,
and we could basically create a sort of encirclement of
those two Chinese ports in Panama and maybe squeeze them
(33:52):
and if necessary, bake them.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
But I mean, we'll see. This is very dicey, and as.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
Long as China has those rare earth minerals on their belt,
we're not going to do much to them.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Okay, finally, last question before I let you go, What
exactly do we have around Venezuela right now? As far
as our military goes, what do we have? What are
we sending?
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Okay, so, the Ewajima Amphibious Assault Group, which is Marines,
I believe they're underway. They'll be there shortly. I think
elements of that assault group are already there. That's about
forty five hundred marines and sailors. You've got three or
hourly class Burke destroyer early Burke rather class destroyers. They've
got ninety six vertical launch system cells that can pop
(34:38):
off Tomahawk cruise missiles each Then I suspect I might
get you know this, this is a theory. I suspect
that we probably have a Virginia class nuclear powered attack
submarine operating off the coast that brings additional Tomahawk land
attack cruise missile capability and probably the ability to launch
(34:58):
special Forces element from that submarine. So we've got a
small flotilla there. And that's to say nothing of what
the Trump administration is talking about doing with the Mexican
drug cartels.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
So we are we.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
Are rapidly ramping up our force presence in our hemisphere
for the first time in decades.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
How about that? He is Brandon Wikert. I told you
to go buy his books. You'll get a whole lot smarter, Brandon.
Thank you, my brother, as always very much appreciated. Chris.
Do you know how badly I want to scuba dive
from a submarine. What, Chris? Why are you?
Speaker 1 (35:38):
What?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
What are worried about the sonar?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Why?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I don't know him? Who now? Now? Chris? Why would
I be worried about the sonar? It's deafening. I'll wear earplugs, Chris,
It's not a big deal. I want to. I want
to scuba dive from a submarine so badly. And I
don't know why. I don't even want to be a
submarine because I get kind of claustrophobic if my shoulders
(36:04):
are touching the walls. And those submarines are made for
little bitty midgets, you know, They're just not made for
somebody like me. But I would do it. If I
could scuba dive from it, it would be sweet. I've
seen enough Navy Seal movies. I think I could do it. What, Chris.
They even have the little things where I don't know
what they call them, but the little things that have
the propeller where it basically swims for you. I don't
(36:25):
have to keep up with the seals. I'll just get
an extra one of those. I can do it anyway.
Have you switched your cell phone service? You know how
easy it is? To switch to pure talk. I just
want to stress how easy it is to switch to
pure talk when you try to. When you think about
switching your cell phone over, it sounds like a pain,
(36:46):
doesn't it, Because whenever you do, you have to go
into the store, and then you're dealing with some brain
dead employee and it takes ten hours and it's a nightmare.
Pure talk. You just pick up the phone. You dial
pound two five zero, you say, Jesse Kelly. You will
immediately be speaking to a pleasant person who speaks English,
(37:08):
and they handle it all on the phone, and then
they just mail you whatever you need. It's ten minutes
and you are switched. You keep your phone number. If
you want a new phone, get it. I just got
a new phone from them. You want to keep your phone,
keep your phone. Pure talk babies you into it. Dial
pound two five zero and switch to the cell phone
(37:31):
company that actually loves America, and you'll pay way less.
I pay half of what I used to pay pound
two five zero, say Jesse Kelly. We got another hour.
Hang on
This is a Jesse Kelly Show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It is the Jesse Kelly Show. Another hour of the
Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful, wonderful Monday. Coming up,
we have Brandon Wiker a half hour from now. Why
is the Navy and Marines? What exactly are they planning
on doing in Venezuela and why? We'll talk to him
about that about a half hour from now. I'm actually
(00:35):
going to in a way defend Trump on something he
said today that is making a lot of people on
the right angry about bringing in Chinese students, lots of them.
But you know what time it is, Oh, that's political.
We don't have time for that. Now. It's the start
of the second hour on Monday. So it's Medal of
Honor Monday time. Same thing every Monday, at this time,
(00:57):
we take a medal of honor, citation, we read it.
We remember the men, we honor them, We honor their deeds.
We have to tell our children about these men and
the things they did. And remember we accept suggestions. If
you have ones you like, ones you're related to. Once
you just enjoy whatever. It's not just love hating death
(01:20):
threats you can send into Jesse at Jesse kellyshow dot com.
So we're gonna do too tonight. This guy says, Jesse.
I went to Washington with my daughter on her fifth
grade trip. That's so cool. You got to go. I
didn't get to go. I wanted to go when my
kids went. Chris, you're never gonna pay for it when
your daughter gets to old enough. Anyway, we stopped by
the National Vietnam War Memorial and searched for a specific name,
(01:44):
First Lieutenant Douglas B. Fournette. He was from my hometown
of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Before you get to the two
to ten loop bridge, you will see a dedicated marker
to this warrior. He came from a hard nosed family.
His brother Rocky was such a fierce defensive back of
McNee State that the coach made him wear a black
helmet so the offense knew where he was on the
(02:05):
field at all times. Love what you're doing. Every Monday,
I take my daughter Mollie to a Monday night activity
and we get to bond together listening to medal of
honor Monday. Gosh, that's freaking cool. Love your brother be well.
So without further ado born and as you heard in
Lake Charles, Louisiana, Vietnam veteran Douglas Bernard Fournette. Let's find
(02:27):
out what he.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Did, hey, honoring those who went above and beyond. It's
Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk
of his life, above and beyond the call of duty.
First Lieutenant Fournette, Infantry distinguished himself in action while serving
as rifle platoon leader of second Platoon, Company B. While
advancing uphill against fortified enemy posis in the a Shah Valley,
(03:02):
the platoon encountered intense sniper fire, making movement very difficult.
The right flank man suddenly discovered an enemy Claymore mind
covering the route of advance and shouted a warning to
his comrades. Realizing that the enemy would also be alerted,
First Lieutenant Fournette ordered his men to take cover and
ran up. He'lled toward the mind, drawing a sheath knife
(03:25):
as he approached it with complete disregard for his safety
and realizing the imminent danger to members of his command.
He used his body as a shield in front of
the mind as he attempted to slash the control wires
leading from the enemy positions to the mine. As he
reached for the wire, the mine was detonated, killing him instantly.
(03:47):
Five men nearest the mine were slightly wounded, but First
Lieutenant Fournette's heroic and unselfish act spared his men of
serious injury or death. His gallantry and willing else sacrifice
are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service
and reflect great credit upon him himself, his unit in
(04:09):
the US Army. And just to let you know, in
case you don't, a claymore mind, is a terrifying thing.
They are. They're full of ball bearings. Have a little
bit of experience with them. And look, when we trained
(04:31):
with them, they were intimidating because you know what they
do when they go off, You know what they do.
To throw yourself in front of one that you know
the enemy holds the clacker, you set them off for
the clacker, the enemy holds the controls and you throw
yourself in front of one is awesome. Man, It's awesome.
(04:54):
Douglas Bernard Fournette. Now for our second one. This one
also came in. It was a recommendation from a Marine
Master sergeant who I'm not going to read his name.
I don't want to get him. I don't want to
get him in trouble. Jesse, if you've not already used
this warrior for Medal of Honor Monday, please do so, PFC.
(05:16):
And you're gonna have to bear with me.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
On the name ca ho.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Ohannohanno, Ca ho Ohannohno, that's just his last name, caho
ohann Ohanno. I'm assuming that's Hawaiian smeowing something like that.
My favorite Medal of Honor recipient. This guy says, so
he was Oh yeah, look at that. Born nineteen thirty,
accredited to Hawaii is what they think it was. So
without further ado, also, Army, let's do the second Medal
(05:43):
of Honor citation for an Anthony T. Caho Ohannohanno. And
I'm sorry if I screwed up the pronunciation on that.
I'm stupid.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I do that, hey, honoring those who went above and beyond.
It's Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life,
above and beyond the call of duty. Private first Class
Anthony T. Caho Company H seventeenth Infantry Regiment, seventh Infantry
Division distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism and action against the
enemy in the vicinity of Trooper Ree, Korea, on the
(06:27):
first of September nineteenth fifty one. On that date, Private
first class Caho was in charge of a machine gun
squad supporting the defensive positioning of Company F when a
numerically superior enemy force launched a fierce attack. Because of
the enemy's overwhelming numbers, friendly troops were forced to execute
(06:48):
a limited withdrawal. As the men fell back, Private first
class ca Ho ordered his squad to take up more
defensible positions and provide covering fire for the withdrawing friendly force.
Although having been wounded in the soldier in the soldier
in the shoulder during the initial enemy assault, Private first
class Caho gathered a supply of grenades and ammunition and
(07:11):
returned to his original position to face the enemy alone.
As the hostile troops concentrated their strength against his emplacement
in an effort to overrun it, Private first class ca
Ho fought fiercely and courageously, delivering deadly accurate fire into
the ranks of the on rushing enemy. When his ammunition
(07:32):
was depleted, he engaged the enemy in hand to hand
combat until he was killed. Private first Class caho Ohanohanno's
heroic stand so inspired his comrades they launched a counter
attack that completely repulsed the enemy. Upon reaching Private first
Class caho Ohano Hanno's emplacement, friendly troops discovered eleven enemy
(07:55):
soldiers lying dead in front of the emplacement and two
inside it, killed in hand to hand combat. Private first
Class coho Ohanohanno's extraordinary heroism and selfless devotion to duty
are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service
and reflect great credit upon himself the seventh Infantry Division
(08:16):
in the United States Army, and we will play tabs
in honor of both of these gentlemen. To now, it's
(09:17):
amazing how often those Korean War ones go that way,
of the numerically superior enemy force overrunning the lines. I've
read more Korean books than I can count, and that's
just the Korean War. You take a hilltop, the Chinese,
because they were mostly Chinese, would mass up more bodies
(09:38):
than you could kill, and they would send in waves
of them and they would just overrun you, and then
you'd have to counterattack and take it back, and then
they would counterattack and take it back. And there were
a lot of very brave men who did a lot
of very brave things in Korea. Like I've told you before,
it is called the Forgotten War, and it really truly
is the Forgotten War. Look into Korea, Look into Korea.
(10:02):
If this stuff interests you, fascinates you, you want to learn
about the fighting they did over there, the heroes who
fought their way through that place and then had to
fight their way out of it. Go pick up a
book or watch a documentary. I think there's a good
one on Amazon if I remember it called Chosen. It's
on Amazon or Netflix, but it's called Chosen about the
Chosen Reservoir. Highly recommend it. Uh, I don't remember if
(10:26):
it's a kid friendly or not. It could be. Chris said,
probably not, No, it could be. I don't remember. So kids,
ask mom and dad and get your mom and dad
some relief factor. I'm kidding. Your parents can buy their
own relief factor. Look, you don't have to live with
pain in your life. You think you do, because it's
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Some days you don't want to get out of bed, right,
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eight hundred the number four relief or go to relief
Factor dot com. All right, let's talk about Trump saying
he's going to allow six hundred thousand Chinese students in
next truth attitude. Jesse Kelly, it is the Jesse Kelly Show,
(11:53):
A wonderful, wonderful Monday, just a medal of honor Monday.
Remember we have Brandon Wiker coming up ten minutes from now,
going to get us educated on what exactly is happening
in Venezuela. So Trump said something earlier today that has
the right apoplectic and upset. And don't get me wrong,
(12:14):
I'm I'm upset two. But I understand. You ever have
those situations in your life where you're mad but you
get it, You're mad, but you get it. He said this,
it's a very important relationship.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
We're going to get along good with China.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
How here so many stories about we're not going to
allow their students, So we're going to allow their students
to come in. We're going to allow.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It's very important, six hundred thousand students. It's very important.
But we're going to get along.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
With We're going to allow six hundred thousand Chinese students
into our country. Chinese spies is what they are. It's
not it's not exactly a guess. It's not an unknown thing.
China sends its young people into our country, into the
university system, to not just spy. They are the biggest
(13:02):
corporate thieves on the planet. They steal technology, they steal
proper intellectual property, they take it back to China, they
duplicate it, and it's really really bad. And everyone's mad
at Trump today about that we're going to allow six
hundred thousand, and we're going to allow six hundred thousand.
I'm mad too, so let me clarify that's that's really bad.
(13:24):
It's really bad. However, remember when Trump was talking with
Zolenski on the first meeting where it blew up in
the White House where Zolensky lost his mind starts freaking out.
Remember what Trump told him, you don't have the cards,
you don't have the cards, and Zolensky had to be
(13:45):
like a stupid, angry little troull I'm not playing cards.
And that everyone knows what Trump was saying, including Zelensky.
What does he mean by that? You don't have leverage.
Ukraine doesn't have any leverage. You can't militarily defeat the Russians.
You're not in possession of the territory the Russians have taken.
You don't have leverage. You can want it, you can
(14:06):
scream that's wrong, but you don't have it. All right,
So let's have a frank talk about where we are
as a country right now. China produces ninety percent of
the pharmaceuticals that people take in the United States of America.
Nine zero, not nine, not nineteen ninety. That's a tiny,
(14:34):
tiny example of how much we have to have cooperation
with China. And so, don't get me wrong, they have
to have cooperation with us too. But it really comes
down to this. If I have to make it extremely simple,
China makes the stuff, we buy the stuff. That's the
(14:58):
terrible relationship we are in. You can hate that and
I hate it. You can say we have to change that,
and we do. But you know, wish in one hand,
grapp in the other, and see which one fills up first.
As my dad used to tell me all the time,
you can't wish away where we currently are. We we
(15:20):
don't have all the cards. We have some cards. We
have cards, There's no question about it. We have some cards. Look,
I'm gonna talk to Brandon Wykert next. I'm gonna flat
out ask him how much of the world's rare earth
minerals does China have control over versus how much we
have control over. Imagine if China owns sixty seventy percent
(15:45):
of the rare earth minerals, and I think it's at
least that high, I'm gonna I'm gonna confirm it with
Brandon Wickert in a moment. What if it's seventy percent.
Now keep in mind, when we say rare earth minerals,
what does that even mean? Like everyone loves that term. Now,
what does that even mean? We are talking about the
things you have to pull out of the ground to
make the modern things. Your country, your economy, and most definitely,
(16:10):
your military need to keep running. You want your military
to be as modern as the next guy. You have
to have that in the ground. What if China owns
it all, and I know they own a big chunk
of it, I'm not happy. I'm not happy that this
is where we are, and I'm certainly not happy that
we're allowing six hundred thousand Chinese spies into the country.
(16:32):
I think that's suicidal and insane. I don't like it either,
but I understand it. I understand. We don't hold all
the cards here. You know, it's a not a huge story,
but a little bit of a story that Canada, Canada
is backing off. You know, Canada was talking really tough.
We were talking about tariffs, and Canada started flexing. They
(16:55):
have a bunch of comedies up there in charge. Now,
poor Canadians too. It sucks for them. Canada bends the
knee that Trump's will and drops the tariffs on US goods.
That's from today. Why well, we have all the cards.
If you're Canada. You don't have that leverage. If we
pull the trigger on you when it comes to tariffs,
you're finished. You can hurt us a little. We can
(17:18):
smash Canada's budget. We can smash their budget, We can
smash their economy into a fine powder. So they had
no choice. It's all about leverage. We are not in
that same situation with China. Yes, China needs us to
buy a lot of stuff. There's no question they need
us too. But we are in We're in a Mexican
(17:40):
standoff right now. Okay, we can't afford to smash them
because they can smash us back guaranteed, guaranteed, this was
negotiated Jiji and Ping. Okay, you want this. You don't
want that. You're taking six hundred thousand spy students. Sorry,
(18:01):
I misspoke. Sucks. I hate it. That's the way it
is now. You know what else freaking sucks. Have you
ever talked to somebody who had their information, their identity
stolen online? Have you ever talked to someone who has
had to go through that living hell? Credit score, destroyed
(18:24):
bank accounts, emptied thieves using your information? Did you know
nearly sixteen million PayPal users had their credentials allegedly posted
for sale online is flat out put it up for sale.
Protect your stuff online, your children too, especially, they click
(18:45):
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about LifeLock not only do they alert you when they
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(19:06):
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them one eight hundred LifeLock promo Codejesse LifeLock dot Com
promo code Jesse. Terms apply. We'll be back with Brandon
(19:29):
Wiker The Jesse Kelly Show. It's still real to me,
dammit the ternstacks.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It is The Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful Monday.
The work week is just beginning. I can tell how
happy Chris is about it. Anyway, I'm happy because Brandon
Wiker's about to educate us on some things, as he
often does. Joining me now, wonderful author national security man
Brandon Wickert.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Hey, Brandon, why is the Navy going down to Venezuela.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
As always, the Navy has decided to flex some muscles
in the face of Nicholas Maduro. Ostensibly it's to help
the Trump administration conduct its anti drug cartel operations. But
I suspect that it is much more than that. I
(20:23):
believe that the Trump administration is attempting to conduct some
form of regime change in Caracas by ousting Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh well, that always goes well, Okay, let's rewind quite
a bit, because I realize everybody comes at the news
from different levels of understanding Venezuela. How did they get
to where they got? Now, Maduro, what's the deal with them?
Pretend like I don't know, squat what's going on there?
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Well, you know, forty years ago, Venezuela was one of
the wealthiest countries in the world. It is one of
the great oil producers. And then in the nineties and
early two thousands they went through a political revolution led
by Hugo Chaves, who was a colonel in the Venezuelan Army.
(21:14):
He was a socialist and he overthrew the government and
installed a radical socialist regime with himself as the leader.
And ever since the two thousands it has been run
by either Hugo Chaves, who died in twenty thirteen, and
then after that it was his right hand man, Nicholas Maduro,
who took over. They have funded drug cartel operations. They
(21:38):
are a narco terrorist regime. They have funded human trafficking.
They have sent Trende Aragua, which is a paramilitary force,
into the United States through our broken border. And there
may or may not be some evidence that their company,
run by Venezuelan national Smartmattic, may be involved in the
(22:00):
Philippines and other countries in manipulating the votes. It's an
election counting machine software, and in fact, the CEO is
currently indicted I believe in a Miami court. So there's
a lot of problems with Venezuela We've had going back
several decades. Every president has talked about how much of
a problem it is. But because it's an oil producer,
(22:22):
we are in a bind.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
We need to have.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
Business relations with Venezuela, but the regime as it stands
hates the United States.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Okay, so we are currently purchasing oil from Venezuela.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
So there was a special carve out that was allowed
after Shavas took over, the only US company that was
allowed to directly drove for oil consistently in Venezuela with Chevron.
This became a fight about three or four months ago
in the Trump administration. You had people like Rich Grnell,
you Rick Crnell, You had people like him versus more
(23:00):
Wark Rubio. Rick Rnaw was saying, hey, President Trump, renew
the licenses. It's easy, quick access to oil. All we
have to do is pay the Venezuelan's off and they'll
look the other way while we mine for it. We
drove for it, and Mark Rubio was saying, hey, that
money is directly feeding these organizations in Venezuela that are
sending drugs, human traffickers, illicit arms, trendy iragua into the
(23:26):
United States through our broken southwestern border. We got to
cut them off. So there was a temporary cutoff about
two months ago. It was a big fight. Trump sided
with Rubio, and many people, myself included, believe this was
part of a larger move to slowly build up a
regime change operation. Don't forget also Venezuela's regime has allowed
the Chinese, the Russians, and even Iran into our hemisphere
(23:50):
for the last twenty years, and also Venezuela. If you
deal with Venezuela, you take care of that regime, then
Trump has a clearer shot at taking the Panama Canal zone,
which is something that he has wanted to do. Venezuela
is a complicating factor in that mission as it's currently run.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
So that's the logic. Now.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I don't know if that's what we should be doing,
but that is the logic behind I think what Trump
is doing.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Okay, Actually, we'll get to the Panama Canal thing in
a few moments. Can you elaborate more on Venezuela and
being a narco terrorist stake? Because they're never brought up
when it comes to cartels. People obviously know about Colombia
and they dang sure to know about Mexico. What's Venezuela's
vested interest in the YEO.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
So Venezuela has a state owned cartel. Members of the
Venezuelan Parliament, the current head of the Venezuelan Parliament, the
Vice President, probably Maduro himself, Several key Venezuelan generals and
intelligence opera leaders of the Venezuelan intelligence operation. They all
(25:00):
run excuse me, they all run Cartel of the Suns.
It's one of the largest cartels in the world and
it is completely state owned and backed, so it is
a state owned cartel. This is very different from Colombian cartels.
It's even different from how Mexico's cartels operate. In Venezuela,
(25:22):
the regime and the cartel is one. And then of
course there's also Trende Aragua, which, as I said, it's
described as a prison gang in Venezuela that has these
sort of transnational ties. In fact, Trende Aragua is a
paramilitary force. I live in Florida. I deal a lot
with Venezuelan expats. All of them tell me TDA Trende
(25:43):
Aragua is a paramilitary force that Maduro deploys to go
after things like Venezuelan political dissidents in America. So that's
what Venezuela is doing. And a lot of the Cartel
of the Suns actually does business and supports the Colombian cartels.
They do business and help out with certain Mexican cartels,
(26:04):
all as part of this feeder program to get their
product and the human traffic up into the broken southwestern
border with the United States.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Okay, now you mentioned China, you mentioned Russia. In what
way do they invite them into our hemisphere?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Well, the Russians through the Wagner Group, which is their big,
supposedly private military contracting group. It's actually an arm of
the Russian government though, and the Russian military staff sit
and Russian intelligence supports it. They have massive contracts with Caracas.
They provide a lot of the protection for Venezuela's leaders.
(26:40):
I suspect they provide protection and conduct operations on behalf
of both the Venezuelan government and the Cartel of the Suns.
The Russians are allowed to base nuclear capable Blackjack bombers
in Venezuela. They have repeatedly landed them there over the
last decade. They're in fact talk about sending these Shahad
(27:01):
one thirty six Iranian made drones that the Russians use
in Ukraine. The Russians are talking about sending them over
to Venezuela to fight the Americans the Chinese. They have
these massive contracts for access to Venezuela's oil and rare
earth minerals, and obviously they like to stabilize America's leading
role in the Western hemisphere. It's also part of China's
(27:24):
control of the Panama Canal as well as their major
presence in the Caribbean Sea, which is basically now a
Chinese lake, and so Venezuela is in the middle of
all is the epicenter of all of this, inviting the
American enemies into our hemisphere to undermine us that regime is.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Brandon, do you have I didn't even get to the
freaking Panama Canal or Venezuela's military capability. Ay? Do you
have time for one more segment with me?
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah, yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, we are going to come right back with Brandon
Weiker schooling us on Venezuela.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Hang up, Jesse Kelly returns next.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
It is the Jesse Kelly Show on a Wonderful Monday.
It's been a Medal of Honor Monday. Maybe you can
email the show Jesse at Jesse kellyshow dot com. We
still have Brandon Wikert educating us on some things. When
it comes to Venezuela. Apparently the Navy is heading down there,
the Marines are heading down there. Before we get to
(28:25):
what's heading down there. How are they militarily at some
point in time, as you said, they were one of
the wealthiest countries in the world. What kind of military
are we dealing with here.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
Well, it's pretty much a you know, conventional force wise,
it's not that impressive. I would argue even the hoofy
rebels of Yemen are probably more impressive with their anti
access area denial capabilities. The Venezuelans are late to the
party in terms of building up their own A twoad capacity.
(28:57):
The Russians, like I said, are helping them do that,
but again it's.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Late in the game. They do have these maoist.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Like militias that are you know, the Bolivar and the
you know militias which are like the people's militias, and
Maduro is claiming he's mobilizing four point five million of
these militia men to fight Los Gringos. I'm very skeptical
that he can mobilize that many. And even if he can,
(29:26):
you know this, this kind of reminds me of the
fed Eyen in Iraq. They really weren't that impressive at
the end of the day. Obviously Iraq itself was a disaster,
but actually knocking out Saddam was pretty straightforward. I think
the same thing is true of Maduro. I would just
posit if the Trump administration is playing its cards right,
(29:47):
it needs to remember it's not dealing with a jihadi
type leadership that wants to go meet their maker by
fighting to the death. They're dealing with basically a narco
criminal gang that just wants the biggest slice of the
pie they can get. If the Trump administration flexes its
muscle with these these military maneuvers off of Venezuela's coast
(30:11):
and signals to some element of Maduro's government, we will
leave you in place as long as you hand over
Maduro and let us get the oil. I think that's
a deal that some ambitious person or group working under
Maduro might go for, and it could be relatively bloodless,
(30:32):
because you know, it is a jungle war, even though
I don't think they're militarily on par with even say
the who these In certain ways, a jungle ground war
could get very.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Dicey, especially because I mean numbers matter. Four point five
million guys.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
If they can get anywhere near that, that's going to
be a problem for us. But I think there's a
way we might be able to do this relatively bloodlessly.
I just hope the Trump administration is, you know, reaching
out to certain people in the in the regime who
might be willing to part ways with Maduro in exchange
for remaining in them remaining in power.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, jungle warfare freaking sucks. Okay, all right, let's go
to the Panama Canal because you brought that up, and
I know Trump's been hot on that for a while.
What do we what do we have now as far
as that situation goes, and what do we want?
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Well, what we have now is basically the Chinese manage it.
They have the two largest ports, one on the mouth
of the Pacific side, one on the mouth of the
Atlantic side, and then they're building these My friend Michael
jan who's an independent war reporter, he's been in Panama
on and off for the last two years. He's actually
taken pictures and posted an on a substack of these
(31:45):
bridges the Chinese are building across the Panama Canal. So
the Chinese own major infrastructure. They have a huge footprint
in the Panama Canal zone. Now in peacetime, that's it
seems relatively you know, insignificant because ships are.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
Still going through and whatnot. But with the.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
Chinese managing the two sides of the Panama Canal and
the locks of the Panama Canal, the Chinese could easily
sabotage them in the event that a war between the
United States and China broke out, and that could seriously
cripple our ability to move naval forces and other assets
from one side of the North the North America, the Americas,
(32:29):
you know, the Atlantic side, to the Pacific side, and
vice versa, which would complicate our ability to deploy forces,
say to help protect Taiwan from a possible Chinese invasion.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
So how do we handle that. We're not going to
go down and bomb Chinese ports, how do we go
to how do we handle that?
Speaker 5 (32:46):
So this was this, you know, this was what Trump
was talking about. He tried to leverage the trade war
with China UH to get them to basically sell off
the two the two props, the big properties they have
to blackrock.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
I'm setting aside my distaste for black rock.
Speaker 5 (33:07):
It didn't go anywhere because ultimately China has figured out
that they have ninety percent of the world's rare earth
minerals supply under their control and all they have to
do is whisper to Trump that we're gonna cut you
off like they did in April, and Trump will give
them whatever they want, which is one of the reasons
why he's dropped his calls to reclaim the Panama Canal Zone.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Now, I don't think he's abandoned this mission.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
I think he's actually finding ways to basically completely surround
the Panama Canal Zone and then choke it off from
Chinese control. One of those ways would possibly be by
taking Venezuela. He possibly has Colombians now on his side,
and we could basically create a sort of encirclement of
those two Chinese ports in Panama and maybe squeeze them
(33:52):
and if necessary, bake them.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
But I mean, we'll see. This is very dicey, and as.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
Long as China has those rare earth minerals on their belt,
we're not going to do much to them.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Okay, finally, last question before I let you go, What
exactly do we have around Venezuela right now? As far
as our military goes, what do we have? What are
we sending?
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Okay, so, the Ewajima Amphibious Assault Group, which is Marines,
I believe they're underway. They'll be there shortly. I think
elements of that assault group are already there. That's about
forty five hundred marines and sailors. You've got three or
hourly class Burke destroyer early Burke rather class destroyers. They've
got ninety six vertical launch system cells that can pop
(34:38):
off Tomahawk cruise missiles each Then I suspect I might
get you know this, this is a theory. I suspect
that we probably have a Virginia class nuclear powered attack
submarine operating off the coast that brings additional Tomahawk land
attack cruise missile capability and probably the ability to launch
(34:58):
special Forces element from that submarine. So we've got a
small flotilla there. And that's to say nothing of what
the Trump administration is talking about doing with the Mexican
drug cartels.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
So we are we.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
Are rapidly ramping up our force presence in our hemisphere
for the first time in decades.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
How about that? He is Brandon Wikert. I told you
to go buy his books. You'll get a whole lot smarter, Brandon.
Thank you, my brother, as always very much appreciated. Chris.
Do you know how badly I want to scuba dive
from a submarine. What, Chris? Why are you?
Speaker 1 (35:38):
What?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
What are worried about the sonar?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Why?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I don't know him? Who now? Now? Chris? Why would
I be worried about the sonar? It's deafening. I'll wear earplugs, Chris,
It's not a big deal. I want to. I want
to scuba dive from a submarine so badly. And I
don't know why. I don't even want to be a
submarine because I get kind of claustrophobic if my shoulders
(36:04):
are touching the walls. And those submarines are made for
little bitty midgets, you know, They're just not made for
somebody like me. But I would do it. If I
could scuba dive from it, it would be sweet. I've
seen enough Navy Seal movies. I think I could do it. What, Chris.
They even have the little things where I don't know
what they call them, but the little things that have
the propeller where it basically swims for you. I don't
(36:25):
have to keep up with the seals. I'll just get
an extra one of those. I can do it anyway.
Have you switched your cell phone service? You know how
easy it is? To switch to pure talk. I just
want to stress how easy it is to switch to
pure talk when you try to. When you think about
switching your cell phone over, it sounds like a pain,
(36:46):
doesn't it, Because whenever you do, you have to go
into the store, and then you're dealing with some brain
dead employee and it takes ten hours and it's a nightmare.
Pure talk. You just pick up the phone. You dial
pound two five zero, you say, Jesse Kelly. You will
immediately be speaking to a pleasant person who speaks English,
(37:08):
and they handle it all on the phone, and then
they just mail you whatever you need. It's ten minutes
and you are switched. You keep your phone number. If
you want a new phone, get it. I just got
a new phone from them. You want to keep your phone,
keep your phone. Pure talk babies you into it. Dial
pound two five zero and switch to the cell phone
(37:31):
company that actually loves America, and you'll pay way less.
I pay half of what I used to pay pound
two five zero, say Jesse Kelly. We got another hour.
Hang on
Host
Jesse Kelly
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