Patriot Confederation with Todd McKinley

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Every patriot has an obligation to question authority. Those who
are honest are not concerned with your watchful vigilance, and
those with integrity are not concerned with your discernment. Every
American is obligated to voice their concerns and stand up
for their freedoms and liberties.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
One nation on.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Your God invisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
We are the men in the arena.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
We are the Patriot Confederation.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
We will live back down from bye.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
We're unfreed Americans. All right, right, ladies and gentlemen, we
have escaped the month of Groom, and it is July first,

(01:08):
twenty twenty five. Welcome to Patriot Confederation. I'm your host,
Bad Billy out of Twin Falls, Idaho, joined by John
Grovenor out of Nashville in New Hampshire. How's it going
up there, brother good Billy Good. I didn't know it
was Pride Month. I thought it was Proud Month. I
was being a proud redneck, polishing up all my guns
and take a.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Didn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, So joining us this week's gentlemen. Of course you're
familiar with and he's been on the show a few
times in the past as well, often filling in for
you when I needed a co host he couldn't be there.
I want to welcome back Todd McKinley to the show. Todd,
thank you very much for joining us. How are you today?

Speaker 4 (01:52):
Good Billy. I appreciate you having me And of course John,
I don't recognize the front of you. I recognize the
back of your heads. Can you turn around if you
don't mind?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
No, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
I got in the studio on the commentson's conservatives, I
got camera issues and I kidnot seem to get the
front camera working, so we just got the back camera.
But it gives a good view of the studio.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Right, that's true. Yeah, it gives a different element for sure,
instead of just looking at everybody head on. Yeah, you
see if you from a different angle for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
And if I want to drop off the scene, as
I gotta do is lean back in my chair a
little bit and that's it the picture. I love it.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
So the subject of discussion, of course, is the book
you just released, what was about a month and a
half ago.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Yes, indeed, yeah, yeah, mid May got the book out there.
Those Left Behind Veteran Suicide and my late best friend
Brad Bush got it out in May, and we're on
the way to you know, the goal is to sell
a thousand. We'll see how that how that plays out,
but we're on our way to at least meeting the
minimum of two hundred and fifty is what's the average

(02:57):
average person sells in books whenever you release a book
an independent author. So we're on our weddings surpassing that.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
That's good, that's very very good. Yes, So talk to
us about the inspiration behind the book. Of course, Veteran
suicide is a very very serious issue. And I'm just
going to tell you, you know, just one thing. It just
makes me sick to when I see like areas where
there's a lot of homeless and big cities and to

(03:28):
see that maybe fifty to seventy five of them are veterans,
you know, And especially when I lived in Las Vegas.
Remember our worked security the entire time I was there.
But one of the posts I had was a woman's

(03:48):
homeless shelter, which is, you know, basically right across the
street was the men's shelter, and oh about two blocks
away was all the homeless people who didn't want I
want to stay at the shelter and pitched up tents
in this empty, empty field in north Las Vegas. And
the majority of them were veterans.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah sadly, yes, yeah, well so the inspiration behind it
was obviously my best friend. He committed suicide Christmas Eve
twenty seventeen, and that kind of started the book, the book.
You know, I was like, well, let me tell you
a little bit about his story, kind of how we
became best friends. And then I quickly wanted a caveat
to to waste people could you know, recognize signs of

(04:29):
someone who may be suicidal and of course advocate or
discuss ways people can help and get involved without jeopardizing
them their own safety. Of course, but really the American
Legions be the One campaign to Investor's Suicide kind of
really reinvigorated the book, and of course working doing some
different events like parades and stuff and so forth. You know,

(04:53):
got reinspired by a few young kids who were helping
spread the be the One message walking in some parades.
I call them might be the one helpers Ellie and
a Carpenter, And of course they were you know, young
kids at the time, now thirteen and eleven, but you
know they were, you know, a few years younger, and
of course seeing their work and of course they were
inspired to spread the message, and of course they told me,

(05:15):
you know, you need to finish this book that you're
working on. And of course it worked out to be
able to finish the book at at the same time
it was about to be sworn in as Department Commander
for the American Legion in the state of Tennessee. So
a lot of things kind of lined up, and of
course the program that they were working on a little
creating little bitty Be the One Rocks, if you will,
with be the One message on there and leaving those

(05:36):
different places where people could pick up and kind of
get an idea of like what's this little rock here,
and of course put the QURR code on the back
where they could go to the Be the One website
and talks more about veteran suicide and the issue. So
a lot of things kind of came together at about
the same time and got the book out again, like
you said in May, and the idea is to sell
a thousand copies and donate all that to the Be

(05:58):
the One Effort in the state of Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Awesome. Yeah, no, that that's good. That's good. And yeah,
I mean, this is an issue I think we need
to take very seriously, and it just it's a further
reminder to me that we need to take better care
of our veterans. I mean, I mean, if Joe Biden
didn't already show poor care to veterans his his first

(06:27):
day on the job after he was inaugurated and put
a bunch of active military in a cold sleeping garage
or parking garage, let them you know, basically, yeah, they
got a roof over their head, but you know, it
was wintertime and it was cold. So at least Trump

(06:50):
came along and said said here, stay stay at the
Trump Towers, you know, or at least you have a
soft bed to sleep in, you know, and it's you're
gonna get fed, you know. The way veterans just get
treated is just horrible. And I think another example too

(07:12):
is the video and I played, uh some time ago
of Russell Irwin out of Ohio where he he was.
He didn't know what was wrong with him. He was
having trouble vomiting every morning, and he tried to make

(07:32):
appointments to the VA and the VA would always set
the appointments to times where he couldn't make it because
he wasn't feeling well, you know, he they'd set morning
appointments for him when he needed afternoon, they wouldn't do
that for him. Then he asked if he could just
simply go to his local hospital, and they wouldn't do
that for him. So, you know, we have issues like

(07:54):
that too. But what do you think are the are
the main causes of veteran suicide?

Speaker 4 (08:03):
To try to say that it's one thing, I you know,
you'd be hard pressed to say it's one thing. Obviously,
post traumatic stress is a major factor, for sure. Traumatic
brain injury is another thing. Undiagnosed the concussions that could
you know, lead somebody down and down a path of
not thinking clearly for sure. Uh, you know that that's
a big problem a military sexual assault trauma is another.

(08:26):
You know, whether you're male or female, if you've been
sexual assaulted or anything like that, that's a that's a
big contributing factor.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
And at the same time, perhaps you know, feeling like
you've you've been allowed to slip through the cracks between
your service and say, you know, leaving the military and
you know, slipping through the cracks of say military health
care and VA if you will, especially people who are
needing counseling, and the next thing, you know, all of
a sudden, thrown out there, cold turkey you're counseling is

(08:53):
you know, cut off. So any number of factors that
could that could lead to this. Of course, you know,
heavy alcohol and then drug abuse is an other things,
self medicating that these are big factors for sure, and
of course any number of things that happen in anyone's
home life. You know, you think about it. You're you're
away for long periods of time, people kind of grow apart,
if you will, especially talking about relationships, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend,

(09:15):
husbands and wives and so forth. That's another big problem,
if you will, is people, let's they have a family
and the next thing you know, they have you know,
some some issues, marital issues. Uh, then there's a split
and whenever your identity was, you know, your family and
and all of a sudden it's taken away from you,
no fault of your own. You know that that can
play a major you know, that can play a major

(09:37):
role in somebody's a psyche if you will, Uh, you know,
all of a sudden, it's you know, you're less of
a man, you feel, or you're less of a woman,
you know, because you're not there for your family, and
it's no fault of your own. But all of a sudden,
you get, you get your your judgment becomes clouded. So
any number of factors could play into this. So you know,
being aware of the different factors that you know, I

(09:58):
think is very important. But not being an expert is okay,
But just having an idea I think is important.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Uh, what do you think should be available to veterans
for issues like this? So you know, like would you
recommend like support groups and and things like that.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, absolutely, any any number of peer to peer groups
that are out there VET to VET sometimes it will
be called you know. Reaching out to those types of
groups is important, you know, because you're going to talk
to somebody who's you know, been in a situation very
much like you you've been through, if you will, so
you're not just talking to some random person who's kind
of reading a script or a you know, by the

(10:37):
by the numbers, if you will. You know, if if
somebody says A, then you go to B. If if
they say this, you go to that. You know, it's
not not something like that. It's people who've been in
your your your your issues, if you will, UH, you know,
seek out peer to peer groups VET to VET. Also
the nine eight UH, which is a crisis hotline if
you feel if you're a veteran is in crisis, you

(10:58):
can down nine eight and then simply hit one or
extension one and you'll be able to talk to a
veteran who's been through your problems if you was. You know,
warn those shoes if you will, and of course they'll
be able to help you in any scenario that you
may find yourself. But yeah, those are very important to
be able to promote those advocate and of course utilize

(11:20):
them those types of resources.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yes, yes, indeed, you know. I mean I also remember
I spoke to a veteran a long time ago. I
was probably in my early twenties. Who he had. He
seemed he seemed normal on the surface when you talk
to him. He was a really nice guy, but he
had problems sleeping, and you know he was I guess

(11:45):
he was in the heart of combat in Vietnam and
saw some really horrible things, so he would often wake
up screaming from nightmares. I don't know what's happened to him,
if he's still alive to this day or not, but
he constantly had nightmares. And you know, I mean, and
I'm I couldn't help, but wondering back then, how do

(12:07):
you treat something like that? How do you help somebody
that's going through that if they're always having nightmares of
traumatic things that they had to endure in the past.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Right, Yeah, I mean, well, the thing is, we don't
have to know how to actually treat them, you know,
just to know that there was something wrong, and there
are experts out there that can help. And of course
you said you know something wrong. We have to say that,
you know that you said the people aren't normal. They
are normal people. They're suffering something, you know, and we
have to recognize that people think that. You know, if

(12:40):
somebody fell and broke their leg or fell off of
a bicycle and bumped their head, you know, we wouldn't say, oh,
there's something wrong with them, they're crazy, you know. So
we shouldn't toss out somebody who has to say a
mental issue if you will, as being you know, anything
less than say somebody who suffered from heart disease. You know,
these are normal people. They're just suffering from something that
we just maybe not don't understand or can't see on

(13:02):
the surface that there's something wrong. Like you know, I
can see as somebody with a broken leg, a compound fracture,
if you will, I can see somebody who hasn't opened,
you know, a head wound, but you don't see those
internal wounds. And I think that you know, these are
no different than those types of wounds, and we should
treat everybody accordingly with regards to that.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah. Yeah, because this guy I'm talking about, I mean,
he would never ever talk about his time in the service,
especially of course his time in the war, but he'd
always have these nightmares.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
Right yeah, yeah, And it's those things that they're having,
these nightmares, you know that they can't articulate, you know,
they can't discuss with you for whatever reason. But there
are people that know how to reach those types of folks,
and like you said, you know, I don't have to
understand or be an expert on that to just to
reach out to them, let them know you care, and

(13:56):
of course be able to find those resources that these
we could benefit from and and get them, get them
in front of those those resources as best we can,
uh let them know that, hey, you're you're certainly not
alone and we certainly care about you.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Absolutely. So we are at the first quarter, and that
means we need to take our first break. Uh, but
when we come back, we've got uh, we'll just continue
this discussion because there's more I want to ask on
this subject. So with this said, we'll be back in

(14:31):
about in uh just a little over a minute. All right,
ladies and gentlemen, we are back joined by retired Sergeant
first Class Todd McKinley and uh, John, you haven't had
much of a chance to speak, so if you'd like
to take the floor for a minute.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Well, yeah, I was sitting there during the break and stuff.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
So fast pace, fast pace interview, right John.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah, uh so yeah, Yeah, we'll just look up a
few things. The most common mental afflictions for veterans, and
the four listed here just on the AI results is PTSD, depression, anxiety,
and traumatic brain injury. And ironically, somebody here was just
talking about having a brain injury or hit their head
and had a concussion when they were in the military

(15:17):
and how hard that is to recover from. So there's
that's one one identification of things that people may be
looking for. But what do people do?

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Say?

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Most people, most men don't want help, you know, they
ask them how they're doing. The answers always fine, no
matter how bad they feel, how depressed they are, they're
always fine, give you a cheap smile and be on
their way about it. But you're identifying something, So how
do you handle that? Todd?

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah, that's that's very true, very carefully. Of course, I
can't sit out there and say that I'm an expert
on you know, how to approach somebody. But I think
in the end, it's basically letting somebody know, Hey, you know,
I've been through what you've been through. I understand where
you're coming from, you know, and we certainly care about you.
You know your days are numbered for sure, But you

(16:06):
don't get to decide how many days you have left,
you know what I'm saying. So you don't get to
decide whenever you get to check out. And I think
just talking to people who may be contemplating or maybe
formulating a plan of saying, hey, you know, now's not
your time, then you don't get it. You don't get
to decide that right now you know, down the road,
God's going to decide your time, but for now, we
want you around, you know, just talking to somebody, letting

(16:29):
them know you care. I think as a big thing
that we will go a long way and quell in
some of these problems with suicide.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
So the VA they have support groups in this, don't
that they have help and support groups and things like that.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Right, Well, there's certainly different vas obviously vary with the
level of coverage. Of course, it's a matter of size,
et cetera, and personnel, but generally yes, they have things
that are available or they have access on the outside,
if you will. Let's say they have a you know,
a relationship with a local VFW or an American legion
who offer things like that. Uh, they could recommend you

(17:02):
know that particular group if you will.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
And at the same time there are the vas that
and of course UH veg VET centers that offered these
types of counseling groups as well. It's just a matter
of someone looking looking at uh, looking on the website
if you will, and or social media and finding out
what services are available. And of course it's also coming
upon the individual also kind of reach out and discover

(17:26):
what's available as well. Uh, you know, there's only so
many people that are out there, you know that that
that can provide some sort of coverage. You're gonna miss
people if you will. So it's also incumbent upon us
who may be feeling, you know, not right to reach
out and want help at the same time.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
So basically, if I'm a non veteran and you know,
if I'm I find know a guy, sure, and I
see he's having some issues, he's having difficulties and they
just have to be aware of it, He's probably not
gonna I'm not gonna relate to improve or he's not
gonna relate to me, right because I'm not served. I
don't know. But come on, man, this guy don't know nothing.
So you're saying there's like VFW or American Legion or

(18:07):
there may be groups out there that tailor to these guys,
so I would be best to contact them, say hey,
I happen to know a guy who you some help.
Could you talk to him?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Right?

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Even if they say that local organization doesn't say offer
a peer to peer counseling or whatever, you know, I
dare say, if you've got a hold of somebody within
say one of those organizations, they would they would have
no problem finding somebody or going to speak to that
person themselves, especially you know, if they're serving it as
an officer in a given organization. I think that if

(18:35):
you're willing to step up and serving those types of capacities,
you're probably gonna be willing to go out and talk
to that veteran and try to get him some help. Also,
at the same time, you got to think about that,
you don't have to be a veteran to help a veteran,
you know, or help a fellow human being, you know,
to recognize those signs, because the signs are cut across.
You know, whatever your job is or whatever your profession was.

(18:56):
You know somebody who just doesn't seem right. You know,
somebody that you know that you work with, even though
even though they may not be a veteran, you can
recognize that they're not acting the same as they normally
would and just saying, hey, how's it going. You know
anything I can do for you? You know, I noticed that
maybe you've not been you know, you've not been your
usual self. You know, what what can I do? You know,

(19:16):
basically that can help in a lot of ways help
somebody's you know, get them on the right path, if
you will.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
So human interaction, human interaction media people, but it really does.
I mean, that's one of our biggest scrapes about AI
and all this robotics and stuff and self checkout, is
you lost that human touch. Now I don't see that
lady across the calendar's files. And you know, it's kind
of like we create the solitude lifestyle, which exasperates the

(19:42):
circumstance you're trying.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
To address, right And of course social media is not
help with that because instead of using social media to
be constructive and in a productive manner, we use it
to you know, to hide behind or to oh, I
can say whatever on my social media, you know, and
I'll be validated with you know, ten fifteen likes or
maybe your maybe a retweet or something like that. You know,
it's easy to hide. But what's uh, it's easy to

(20:06):
do stuff like that and pretend like you care on
social media, you know, because you think about every Memorial Day, Oh,
everybody's proposting about oh Memorial Day dot dot and it's like,
where are you the rest of the time of the year,
you know what I mean, where are you. You know,
it's like the experts on Iran. It's like, you know, oh,
they're the experts on the bombing or whatever. It's like,
mind you, the experts that have never truly served their

(20:26):
country are all of a sudden the experts here, you know, right,
they know everything. But you know, you don't have to
be somebody who actually served in say combat, to be
able to just ask somebody, hey, how are you. I
don't have to be an expert on suicide prevention or
awareness to be able to just let somebody know you care,
throw out a nice word, and instead of you know,
being the troll on social media, maybe you actually pick

(20:49):
up the phone and say, hey, you know, saw you
post something a little odd? Anything wrong? Or you know, hey
how about we have that burger? Let me let me
swing by see how you're doing, you know, something like that.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
I was just thinking in terms like you know, if
he's trying to say, well this WI happened to me
the military, and of course military, like all government things
are going to happen full letter acronyms. I'm not going
to understand you say, I ed. I know naied is
because I was around during Afghanistan and stuff. Listened to
television hearing about them. But all in all, you know,

(21:20):
most of us don't understand all the acronyms and stuff like,
there is a language, and so when they go into
military mindset. That's what I was getting at.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
So I get what you're saying. Yeah, But at the
same time, even if you didn't do that profession, don't
be afraid to say say something. You know, uh, it
may be a matter of you just getting them, you know,
in conversation with somebody who has who does understand that language.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
You know what I'm saying exactly. But then again, you know,
there's different circumstances. I suppose if you both work in
a construction job, you're on your peers. Sure you can
relate to them on that level, just the human contact
as you said. Or I suppose things like working on
cars or something something that been like the bond with
you know, Georgian and I used to do that. We
I used to go to his house and we work

(22:03):
on cars together, rip off the subframe, the rear in
subframe on a Jaguire or something, be doing the board
breaks and stuff. So that's the fight, imagine, would help.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
Right, Oh yeah, absolutely, Kinship there somewhere something you relate to,
and you know, I dare say there's probably a lot
you can relate to nearly any person on earth, you know,
except maybe somebody who's I would even say this, even
people who've on on a you know, a remote island.
You know that's generationally have been on this remote island,
you know, limited content. There's probably something you can relate

(22:34):
to them. You know, it's like maybe a care of
their family. You know, there's something there you could probably
relate to all human beings, whether you've had that shared
background with regards to a profession or not.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
But you're not saying, hand, I'm a soccer ball or
a volleyball with a face drawn on it, right.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
Probably not right? No, But you know what I'm saying,
those uncontacted tribes and you know, the middle of the Pacific,
you know, I'm like, yeah, you probably have something in common.
You know, it's probably a love of family or the
love of you know, you're the people that you're associated with.
You know, there's probably something that you can relate to
even though you don't speak the language and you know

(23:10):
your centuries off in technology.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Oh there's one tribe or heard about they started shooting
narrows of people. I don't know, right, yeah, you never know,
absolutely no, you got You got a good point, though.
It's a matter of just trying to make that connection.
And I think that's why, whether veterans or not, I
mean this price to anybody, just making that human contact
with somebody and identifying with them the people really does.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
And it could be something as simple or you know,
as innocuous to saying the favorite sports team. You know,
it's easy to talk about sports and easy to start
bashing a certain sports team, or you know, if you
maybe you both don't like Lebron when you can there,
you go, you have something in common. You can bash
on Lebron. Then you open up a dialogue, you know,
I mean, so, so what you have to bash with

(23:53):
somebody just to open that dialogue up. I think it's okay.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
And then in.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
That moment, I think it's all right to do that.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
You know, Uh, I got, yeah, there's that. The sports
have been been very very good about that making that connection, right. Yeah,
people bonded.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Over sports, you know, absolutely, our.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Former president of the United States and be sitting there
talking about uh, football teams and stuff. I'm going on
a kidding. I have a question here. You guys want
to talk about football, right, they're connecting right absolutely.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
You know, it's funny about Richard Nixon as an example,
like whenever he left the White House. You know, he
was hated and reviled, but he connected with a lot
of people because his love of baseball and talked about baseball,
and people who hated him love baseball, and they found
some connection with him. And basically they were able to
humanize him, and he was able to humanize them because
of some shared uh shared love there.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Well, well, you know, a lot of a lot of
crazy lefties hate golf just because of Trump.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
But yeah, but we go out, we'll go out and
do a deal on the links and you know, every
day of the week for sure.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah. One one thing I wanted to ask Todd is
I mean, obviously we know that the problems with uh
TBI when and we know what causes it. You know,
whether somebody took a bullet to the head and survived,
or took a knock to the back of the head
with the butt of a rifle and survived, you know,

(25:22):
or or fell down on a rock and survived. You know,
there's those factors. But when you know, talk about PTSD
and and what causes it, you know, I mean, uh,
I don't know what I think. Uh. In my personal opinion,
maybe one of the biggest causes of PTSD is guilt.

(25:45):
When you're out on the battlefield, say you shoot a child,
you have no choice because that child was shooting at you,
which which does happen, you know, thing things like that,
And yeah, even though you had to pull the trigger
on him, you don't feel good about it. And you know,
it's just that that horrible feeling, that that horrible chill

(26:06):
that just goes all over your body when you feel
like you've really done something wrong and you can't wash
the blood off your hands, you know, So would would
you say that that kind of guilt is a major
factor into PTSD.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
It's probably a factor in some cases. Survivor's guilt, you
know comes to mind. You know, it's you know, why
why was this person? You know, why did he he die?
He was smarter than me, faster than me, better than me,
you know, he was stronger whatever, and I survived, you know,
doesn't make sense? Or you know, I promise so and

(26:45):
so I was going to do whatever I could to
get him back alive and next thing, you know, they're
the ones who got clipped, if you will, And you know,
so there is that guilt, you know, So yeah, that
probably plays into it as well. You know, if you
had to hurt somebody, kill somebody who's you know, normal,
normal person, if you will, thinking rationally, would say that
person is a non threat. But at the same time,

(27:07):
whenever they are shooting at it changes things. Obviously that
would be a it could be a factor.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
All right, Well, let's hold that thought because we are
at the bottom of the hour and that means we
need to take our bottom of the hour break, which
I did manage to shorten up a little bit hardly
because hey, John, I had to. We lost an affiliate unfortunately.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Oh yeah, they crashed too.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Well, but it's not like they dropped you. They just
ran out of business.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, I wasn't doing my job apparently.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Well, we're gonna go ahead and take our bottom of
the hour break and we'll be back in about three
and a half minutes. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we
are back once again, joined by Sergeant first Class Todd McKinley,
of course retired and just continuing our conversation. Now, I'm

(28:02):
going to ask you to repeat the story because I
you were on last week with Patriots Prayer Zone Nate Kane,
and you were telling the story a little bit about
your friend who you dedicated that book to, you know,
leading up to his his demise. I maybe is the

(28:25):
appropriate word. Why don't you tell that story again?

Speaker 4 (28:32):
Yeah, well I appreciate that. Yeah. So Brad, you know,
like I said, committed suicide the December to twenty fourth,
twenty seventeen Christmas Eve. And you know, one of those
guys who just loved you know, love life, love the military,
you know, love just you know, loved just I don't
know the next angle, if you will. It's like he

(28:52):
would always fall kind of lack of a better word,
ask backwards into stuff occasionally, like you know, just story
that I haven't really told is one time he was
briefly served as an informal agent for a Chicago Bears player.
And I don't I don't want to jump too much
in all of that because the legal legal ramifications, but

(29:16):
he helped the Chicago Bear player at the time fire
his manager. So this is the kind of stuff in
the antics Brad got up to. If you will in life,
you know. So he was kind of a larger than
live character. And if you wrote wrote anything about him,
like and put it into a movie or an actual book,
people wouldn't believe it. It's like all the stories are
actually believable about the guy. So uh. But he just

(29:40):
loved the military, loved the serving his nation, and the
course love giving back to you know, every opportunity that
he got. And of course, sadly America's down one true patriot.
You know, he would he would be at home here
talking to you guys about you know, all the things
you guys love to talk about. Politically, you know, he
would get in theories all day long with you, and

(30:01):
of course he would discuss some of the real stuff
he witnessed during during his time in the military, and
of course uh in government as well, but behind the
scenes and stuff that he witnessed. Uh. But just just
love life. And that's just you know, That's what I
want people to take away is you know, everybody who
kills himself, you know, isn't just a statistic. They're a
human being.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yes, yes, absolutely so. So if somebody comes comes back
after their discharge, would you would you recommend any type
of psychiatric evaluation or anything that could possibly prevent any

(30:42):
future tragedies for that veteran, I.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Don't know if I would recommend necessarily psychiatric evaluation, uh,
but certainly, you know, if you feel like you need
to speak to somebody, there are people you know that
are aren't physicians, aren't you know, doctors, but they've been
through what you've been been through, and of course they're
willing to listen to what you have to say, uh,
and maybe even discuss some of the stuff they've been
through and how they got through it. However, however that helps,

(31:09):
you know, I think that that goes a long way.
But if you are, you know, need professional help and guidance,
you know, I would advocate for that for sure. You
know the way I look at it, whether you're seeing
you know, a psychiatrist or just somebody peer to peer. Uh.
You know, whatever you think is going to work for you,
by all means, give it some time to work as well.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
You know, the the the human mind is very complex,
and you're not going to solve it by going in
and get diagnosed, like say, somebody has a cough due
to cold. You know, it's like you know, you can
diagnose that pretty quickly, but the human mind, you're not
going to figure it out in one session. Give it
some time. Uh, and don't be afraid if you do
need to talk to somebody that there shouldn't be any
stigma to it. Like I said, it's no different than
somebody would fall and break their armor of the leg.

(31:50):
We shouldn't We wouldn't laugh at them, you know, we
wouldn't laugh and push somebody off to the side who's
suffering from heart disease. So somebody who's suffering some sort
of you know, traumatic issue, some sort of you know,
you know, mental dilemma, if you will, we shouldn't push
them to the side and ostracize them because they're no
different than somebody who had just had a car wreck.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
The way I look at it, absolutely I agree with
you one. And then there's also the case of Travis Decker,
and I wanted to bring this up before we really
get into that. I'm going to I'm going to go
out on a limb and I'm I'm in my personal opinion.

(32:33):
I can't say professionally either because I'm not a doctor.
But Travis Decker, I think something was wrong with him
before he joined the military, and then, of course, uh recently,
I think, John, you have the article in front of you.

(32:53):
But I believe he I believe he killed his family,
and yeah, there's a there's still hunting for him. Last
I heard.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
So he's a veteran of the army and he's a survivalist,
he's a trained survivalist, and he something about they got
an email and they led him to his pickup truck
where they found his four babies five, eight and nine
years old, plastic brigs over their head and their hands bound,
and they cannot find him. He's in the wilderness. They

(33:24):
don't know if he, you know, did something to himself
and he's no longer with us, or if he's just hiding.
So they're having a very difficult time finding him. But
they are on a man hunt for him. And these
children are survived by their mother, So it could be
you know, I don't know about straight I'd be an
ironic or anything, but due to the topic of discussion

(33:46):
here with PTSD and TBI and all these other things
that veterans are afflicted from, it's not impossible. I'm speculating
that it could be possible that he is suffering from
something like PTSD or dramatic brain injury or something that
made led up to this. So obviously he's in the
middle of a divorce or something. So he because it
was court mandated custody visitation that he was seeing as

(34:08):
children with right, So obviously there's a separation or divorce
and I'm going divorced here. And so, you know, people
go through a lot of stresses and stuff, and it
takes her tone. I think you elaborate on that some
earlier Todd that some of these folks, or I think
Billy said something about it, that they come home and

(34:28):
they're just they're disconnected from society as veterans, and they're
having a hard time reacclimating into society. They feel kind
of estranged and don't quite feel like they feel like
an not fit and sometimes as a result, their spouses
are ready to move on they can't cope with it anymore,
or whatever. It just exasperates the circumstance. I don't know
if that's what's going on with this gentleman, or if

(34:51):
he's just you know, maybe he's just not head. I
don't know. I don't know what's going on, but nobody.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
Right, Yeah, And here's the thing. Don't you shouldn't try
to get in the head of somebody like that. I mean,
that's somebody who's not you know, rational thinking or whatever.
And it could be any number of scenarios that it
kind of played up to the led to this point,
you know, and it just maybe that divorce whatever was
just that last straw. But there was obviously, like Billy said,
probably a lot of things not right with the person beforehand.

(35:20):
And for sure, you know, obviously nobody who's right, you know,
is going to do something like that. And you know,
so let's try not to get into that person's head
or to try to say that it's right or okay,
you know. But the thing is, these things happen for sure,
uh and could it could have been prevented had somebody
recognize something beforehand? Maybe maybe not, you know this, this

(35:43):
could be somebody that's you know, not even in the
even the wheelhouse of even being suicidal. They could just
be psychopathic, you know, So that we let's try not
think get into the head of anybody like that because
it'll take you to a dark place for sure, and
especially if if somebody's already you know, in that dark
place and now all of a sudden, here you are.
You're adding more to it. Now you'll let your mind wonder.

(36:05):
So that's trying to figure out those people. But let's
try to recognize the signs and recognize where where the
best care is available for them.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Bears mentioning that a lot of people hide their depression.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
They hide.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Robin Williams was a good example of that. This guy
was a fantastic comedian and you'd never think he had
a sorrowful day in his life. He was always so
happy and entertained people. He made people laugh constantly. Truth
of the meta mansaf for from severe depression. He was
critical and well I guess yeah, he too. He took
his own life, and so people do hide it, sure.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Right, you know. I I also gotta tell you this too,
John is with the situation we just had here a
couple of days ago in northern Idaho with the two
firefighters who got killed. Travis Decker was the first name
that came up. They thought it might have possibly been
him that was doing this, and it turns out to

(37:06):
be this this kid who already had his own issues.
He was twenty years old, you know. But yeah, God
bless those two firefighters who lost their lives in this
tragedy that we just had up in Cordelaine. And mind

(37:27):
you too, Cordlaine is not far from Ruby Ridge.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Oh we know that story. So basically, you know, it's
kind of interesting because I think it's a society as today,
we're so wrapped up politically, we're so wrapped up into
all these things that affect our lives and everything becomes
very very personally, become emotional about it. Right when I
look back people that survived the Great Depression. I mean,
you talk about people that went right through the Great Depression,

(37:56):
didn't have a didn't have a hope and a prayer,
didn't have a pot to pissen or when to throw
it out of, but they survived it. Then they went
into World War Two, you know, talk about jump off
the pot into the fire. They didn't have a stob
balls chance and hell. Then in the fifties we started
to pull out of the Pic Depression. But when you
look at these people, they always made light in life.
They always knew they could rely on each other, they

(38:17):
always knew they had each other, and they made the
best out of things. You know, It's kind of like
being at the VFW, and it's kind of a friend
of mine. He invited me, and he says, hey, if
you're instead of going out for breakfast Sunday, why don't
you come to the VFW. We're having a veterans thing.
We're raising money, YadA, YadA YadA each breakfast. I'm like, okay,
grab there, so I should up and stuff. And somebody says, oh,
we're missing a kitchen knife, man, we need a kitchenkie.

(38:39):
You know, they're making omelets and stuff. And one of
the veterans pulls out his pocket knife and starts cutting
up sausages and stuff. You know, it's like, just use
what you have. You you realize what you got, you know,
and nobody's thinking twice about it.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
He's like, oh, coo, we're getting the job done. And
now to me, it was like, for a minute, it
took me back to the seventies when I was a kid,
because I was surrounded by veterans growing up in Florida,
and that's how they work. They just had fun. They
made the best of it. No matter how hard life
got at for them, they never let it get them down.
They always persevered through it, just be tough as nails
and make the best out of what you got. And

(39:12):
the most important thing is we do have each other.
And I think we're lacking that in today's society. Do
you agree with that?

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Yeah, I would agree we're lacking in a lot of ways.
And you see civic organizations, whether it's you know, not
even just veterans organizations, civic organizations alike that are having
the same problem with membership and of course, you know,
basically just to justifying their own existence if you will,
because people are just not having any of it. Which
people need to be involved and engaged civically, you know,

(39:38):
whether you understand, you know, if you're a government expert
or a government or an expert on say the Constitution,
or whether you're just the person who just wants to
know a little bit more about what's going on in
your community. You know, just just be willing to show
up and listen and maybe figure out where where your
talents can be applied and help help your community be better.

(39:59):
Like I said, you have to be an expert to
show up and show you so that you care.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Absolutely well. Here we are, we're at the final quarter,
so that means we're gonna take our final break and
we'll be back to wrap things up in about one minute.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen. The Red Pill Expo is
just around the corner, just under two weeks from now,
So if you're in the Tulsa area, get your tickets

(40:27):
at redpillexpo dot org, or of course, catch the live
stream for free. Uh, same same place, Redpill xpo dot org.
You do not want to miss this one. It's gonna
be good. I plan on being there in Tulsa.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
See, you have to register to get the live stream,
believers just automatically there.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I think you. I think you do after register. I'm
not one hundred percent here.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
But as I was sure you do, I haven't registered yet.
I do want to. I can't make Tulsa, obviously, but
I do want to see it, so I still got
a register for that yet. That's a good reminder we
were when we left off, Billy, we were talking about
making light in life, and and I've been looking at
this comment. It has been cracking me up the whole time.
But nobody's comment on you. But uh, something from PPN says,

(41:12):
I have nightmares of being alone with Nancy Pelosi and
she's chasing.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
I gotta be that's got it.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yeah's got is a nightmare letter. I think Nancy Pelosi
witch it's all.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
The same, right, yeah, I love.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
It, Oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
But uh yeah, I just want to make mention though,
that all the proceeds for the book and that's the cover.
If you get a chance to it's going to go,
uh be donated to support the American Legions be the
ones effort to end veteran suicide in Tennessee. Thus far,
I've sold I forget how many hundred and seven you
know online, another twenty some audi in person. So the average,

(41:56):
uh you know, average sales for you know, anybody who
writes a book is two hundred and fifty. This includes
all independent authors to include Stephen King. It averages out
there about two hundred and fifty. Now I'm hoping we
can break the national average. But what I'd love to
do is hit hit a thousand. That'd be about five
thousand dollars that we can put towards this effort, especially

(42:17):
in this time whenever we have economic issues, people aren't
joining organizations like the American Legion or BVFW that relies
on membership. This can help offset some of those costs
with regards to the lack of membership. So I urge
everybody go to my website, Todd McKinley dot com. Right
there you can link to the Amazon or go straight
to Amazon and you can find the book there. So
hopefully everybody will take an opportunity to buy a copy

(42:40):
or buy a couple of copies and give one away.
Hopefully it'll be well worth it.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Well, you know, we think Christmas is roughly about five
months away, so maybe.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Yeah, and look at it. It folds neatly right into a stocking.
There you go, and I'll sign it whenever I seebody
out there. You just let me know, no problem, or
I'll tell you how to sign my name. You can
just say I signed, It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Is available in both hard copy and digital.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
No not digital, just just to solve you know, yeah,
just a paperback if you will.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Well, if it's all people.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Put in your back pocket too, no problem.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
And it's not going to break the bank on this one, guys.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Now, fifteen dollars. Everything goes directly, you know, to charity.
And that's not a name, by the way.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
And when I say hard copy, I mean it's it's
on paper. Of course, of course, you know. I mean
that's the way I prefer to get my books. I
hate these uh these what these Amazon kindles and that
all that. No, no, it gives it.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
I like the idea. It gives an option, but I
would rather have something, especially if I know, if it's
written by somebody that you know, I respect or like.
I'm definitely going to buy the hard copy and the course,
try to get them to sign it for sure.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yes, so uh, this is my story saying they will
be buying the book when when we get done with
the live streams, so.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
There we go, I hope. So that'd be a big help,
you know. And like I said, you know, the money
is obviously one thing, but what I want to do
is have people to get more involved with regards to say,
this be the one program. It's not about just selling
this book. It's about what this or organization is trying

(44:28):
to do to lower the veteran suicide number. And of
course the national average is about twenty two a day,
and of course that that dips on occasion. But the
message and of course the program is what's really important here,
not the book or what the book's about, but the
program that's behind it. That's what's really important.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Here, you know, Todd, I've told this story a few
times too, and I think it was a late two
thousand and two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine.
The UFC was actually holding one of their events on
a military base and they were they were running a
telethon for soldiers that we're suffering from TV I okay,

(45:10):
and of course I called in and I donated a
little bit of money. But I remember thinking that this,
this telethon is a good thing, But why do we
have to have a telethon and a fundraiser to raise

(45:30):
funds for something these soldiers should already have. And I
remembered all that, that's right, we're wasting our tax dollars
on something else.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
Yeah, well, we do have a lot of wasted our system,
for sure, but I can tell you that the vas
it is probably no different than's waste within the system,
for sure. But programs like this that are you know,
the buddy checks, et cetera, would be the one efforts
definitely not wasted there. And I'm hoping that the VA
is not wasting the money that is reaching out to

(46:01):
these veterors trying to make a difference in their lives.
Hopefully it's not being wasted. But you know, any amount
of any dollar that we can add on top of
what they're already doing, I think it's to the plus
side of everything. Uh, you know, regardless of of we
want to talk about how how much of our money
is wasted and throughout different bureaucracies. We could say here
all day and list you know, miles long. For sure.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Well that's yeah, that's a book within itself.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
Oh absolutely, that's several volumes.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Really, it's definitely because I was thinking the same thing,
you know, because you said twenty two a day, and
that doesn't sound like terribly and what one is a
high number for me, sure, as for anybody I mean
reasonably speaking, but twenty two a day doesn't sound terribly
bad when it comes to overall spectrum of things. But
then we add it up, it's eight thirty people a
year that are being left behind. And now saying that

(46:52):
number just became really significant.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
Right, and then you tack onto that, you know, people
that are not venus, not affiliated on top of it,
you know, and so if you can reach a veteran,
you can reach as a civilian or somebody who's not
affiliate with the military altogether, because the same tactics will
work whether it's reaching a veteran or just a person
who works out at the local grocery store, just the same.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
Yeah, well, Billy a point because the United States government
will throw a lot of money away into programs and stuff.
They forced the trucking industries we spoke of before to
use electronic logging device calls billions of dollars a year
to the industry, and they didn't mind spending our money.
It's kind of funny that they can throw money around
left and right. The DOJ just caught people trying to

(47:38):
book it for what somewhat billions of dollars. I forgot
what it was, fifteen seventeen billion dollars something like that. No,
it's more forty seven. But anyway, the point is, all
this money gets lost to theft, All this money gets
lost because of mismanagement. You would think that the military
itself would have some sort of well the VAX in
place of that, but they would have some sort of
programs to help to sew a lot more so than

(48:02):
what is happening here. There's got to be something do
they have for an exit strategy. Do they not have
like a de briefing for people to reintroduce them out
of the military back into society.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
Well, absolutely, Yeah, there's a number of programs, you know,
transition assistance programs, tap classes, et cetera. But you know,
to the level a degree that you know, these classes
are just depends on I guess the individual class that
you're going to or if you will, or who's giving it.
But yeah, there are certain things available, but we should
still be emphasizing these especially because you know, you got

(48:35):
to think about it the day you walk up walk
out the gate, if you will, that you're no longer
that that guy in the military, that gal in the military.
You know, things change in your life in a big way.
You know, you're no longer you know, sergeant this, major
or that or whatever. You know, you're just Joe Schmos civilian,
just the same as everybody else. And you know, all
of a sudden, your life's different, you know. So yeah,

(48:56):
we need to focus on these classes for sure.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Got a question from the audience here. It's this is
my story again. Uh, the prints kind of smoky, pull it,
pull up, please read it.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
John.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
I'm having a tough time see.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
That's what he's at. What they're asking is how can
the average person get involved to help our veterans.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
Absolutely. Yeah, if you go to be the One dot
org or if you can go to go to my website,
Tom McKinley dot com and they're under my blog, you
can see some of the things that we're working on,
especially American Legion specific uh. And if you have any questions,
I can definitely answer a lot of those questions for you.
But be the One dot org probably is a good
place to start if you're talking about a national program.

(49:39):
And of course i'd be happy Todd at Tom McKinley
dot com send me an email. I'd be happy to
get you some specifics and get you some information with
regards to how you can get involved.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Absolutely absolutely. In fact, I was going to ask you
for that information, but you beat me to it, all right, Yes, yes, man.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
But.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Yeah, I'm pretty much out of questions. Of course, the
book itself, it's only available through your website, right son.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Go to Amazon Amazon Amazon dot com or my website
Todd McKinley dot com. It'll link you right to Amazon
right on the homepage there, so you don't have to
go far so you can. You can remember my website,
Tom McKinley dot com. You can click on it and
it'll take you right there.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yes, so we are just about out of show. You're
gonna want to tune into next week's show. Yes, indeed,
of course, John, keep in mind we may have to
pre record it. But next week we are welcoming back
the man, the myth, the legend himself, g Edward Griffin.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Awesome, just before the red Pill LEXPO.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
That's gonna be great, exactly. Well, that's part of the
reason why I asked him to join us, is, you know,
just the dawn of the Redpill XO.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
So I recently had somebody send me a video of
him back in the fifties. I remember him explained to us,
back in the day when you had to actually go
out and get cameras and do all this stuff now expensive,
it was actually when he was a young man doing
all this stuff in.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Creat Yeah, you're talking about the nineteen sixty nine lecture where, yeah,
yes it was.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Oh I thought it was older than that.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah, nineteen sixty nine was that lecture. Yes. In fact,
if you go to Patriot Confederation's Brady On account, you
will and just go. It was back in two twenty three.
We interviewed ed back then and that has followed immediately
by that presentation from nineteen sixty nine, so definitely check

(51:45):
that out. But we are at a show. Todd. God
bless you and thank you for what you're doing, and
keep up the good work and let's continue to help
our veterans every way that we can because they've done
so much.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Absolutely, thank you, guys, Thanks for being the one guys.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Absolutely, and that's it. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very
much for tuning in to Patriot Confederation. God save the
Republic of the United States of America.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
We will never back down from by were unafeed American