Cajun Knight Live 31

maybe some Israel Gaza things. We're gonna jump all over the place. For anybody listening that would like to be a part of the Wednesday Night Cajun Night Lives, then please come to the link in the description below and go to the Patreon. There's only one tier for injury, and we're trying to grow this thing to be its own autonomous group of individuals sharing ideas and information, philosophy,

all the things. Let's just jump straight into it here. Also, I should mention Patreon is the only place where you're gonna be able to find a video for all these things. So if you want to see what we're talking about, this place to go. So I didn't know this, But did y'all know that AOL dial up is still a thing? It was, but it is about to go offline. This is from ABC News. AOL is set to pull the plug on the iconic dial up internet service, y'all. I

honestly didn't know that this was even still offered. I you know, this is about as crazy to me as to say, well, I guess we're gonna take down the old telegraph lines. People ain't really using it no more Like I genuinely thought that this went by the wayside and somewhere in the mid two thousands. But here we are, and they are finally about to pull the plug. They got a little video on this article that we could just play, and then we're gonna talk a little bit

more about it. Let's go, oh that iconic sound.

It's the end of an era for AOL. After more than thirty years of connecting people to the Internet through the dial up, AOL is hanging up its iconic service. AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue dial up Internet to the company's website states this service will no longer be available on AOL plans. The change will not affect any other benefits for your AOL. The company stated the service and dialer software will be

discontinued as of September thirtieth, twenty twenty five. The distinctive, high pitched dial tone, humming and worrying may sound like a distant memory of an early Internet days for some, especially with the advent of wireless model connections that have replaced the conventional phone line technology. America Online is the Internet pioneer of the early nineteen nineties, changed its name to AOL in two thousand and six. Maybe that's why I thought it went away when it changed, like officially

the name change. Maybe I thought that they also did away with dial up altogether at that time. I don't know. I was. I was still a child in six I who knows, well I say that, yeah, freshman hight, Yeah, I was a kid. I was a kid anyone. In twenty seventeen, it shut down the popular instant messenger service AIM. Wow. I didn't know that aim was still up and operating in twenty seventeen. That's crazy. And there's also some iconic sounds that come to memory with that, the door closing,

the door opening, anyone, anyone. And the company was sold to Apollo Global Management in twenty twenty one, becoming the new Yahoo, Inc.

And I'm like, oh man, that's one. It's it is a thing that we everybody that we're actually using the internet during this timeframe will be able to remember, and pretty much everybody born from I mean, honestly, I would say probably two thousand and six onward, but realistically there may still be some small remnants of it, one hundred and fifty thousand people in America that will be able to speak with actual clarity on the dial up tone,

that legendary signature sound. But it's also pretty interesting to see how technology is traversed and is moving forward as fast as it is. Moving on to the next topic, the urban vertical Farming project. So I don't know if anybody's heard this, but this actually makes sense to me, so quick breakdown before we get into the article. I know that in my area of the country there are two big super mals, right, big malls that used to

be like the pop and spot. There was one called ball Marche and it was the mall like when you and your friends would go to the mall that was the spot. Then the mall at Cortana was built, and anybody in and around Baton Rouge will understand some of these terms. Everybody else will think I'm just making up terms. It doesn't matter. Just bear with me here. Ball Marche became the rougher place to go shop and Cortana was like the spot. Then the Mall of Louisiana was built

right by the Interstate. Then the Cortana Mall became kind of the rundown section and nobody really shot there. There was only a few stores that would even remain open. But these buildings are still in place. These buildings have a lot of skylights and direct sunlight, and they're indoor. They're close proximity to big highways, they have big parking lots.

The infrastructure is still there to do something with these buildings, but it's not a lot of people that are opening up stores anymore, especially with Amazon and all kinds of online shopping, and then things being delivered straight to your door. You no longer have to go to like try on shoes at this point, you can just have them delivered straight to your door. So big mall complexes are starting

to be more and more phased out. That being said, there is a group that is currently working at using these buildings in these locations for more effective and productive means, So let's talk about it here. Time magazine once described malls as pleasure domes with parking malls in general. Strip malls in particular, are ubiquitous in suburban areas or suburban America. Rather, built in the nineteen fifties, sixties, and seventies during rapid

suburban expansion and rapidly increasing car usage. For better or worse, they were once a sign of progress. Now a major enclosed mall hasn't been built in the United States since two thousand and six, and many are completely abandoned. According to Don Wood, the CEO of the Federal Yet Reality Investment Trust, even the process of knocking down or converting

a mall could take as long as two decades. And I can understand that too, tearing down that large of a structure and hauling off the rubble, rezoning it if it's listed as commercial, if you're trying to rezone it for apartment complexes to residential. It's not like it's an impossible feat. It takes time and it takes money, and I don't mean a little money, I mean deep, deep pockets to make that kind of big change happen. So

it's a thing. So the structures may be here to stay, but they don't have to just be a homage to what once was abandoned malls and strip malls could be easily and efficiently converted into vertical farms. So where are strip malls headed in the short term? Why we should grow food in mixed use structures and think more about their impact on the local economies. And doesn't make sense to convert a strip mall to a vertical farm. Let's

break this down. So, so their present abandonment actually has a lot to do with the success they had in their early days. At that time, it was almost unimaginable a strip mall would be torn down, worthless or avoided. As a result, leases were signed, sometimes for more than

fifty years. However, those leases had one important omission, an option to terminate that actually made a little sense back then, But now communities pay for developer and realature strong sightedness or short sightedness rather, though, you can't be too hard on them for failing to predict the Internet and online shopping with these awful structures, right, But what if we

could put them to good use? As The New Yorker noted, in some cases the buildings have been converted into community colleges, corporate headquarters, or churches. But what about vertical farms? They're definitely possible. But let's look at the conventional wisdom about strip mall's first and what they that industry looks like in the short term, strip malls in the short term in terms of symbolism, excuse me, symbolism. There's actually a

website called deadmalls dot com. That's just a gallery of failure. Wow, okay, that's that's kind of funny. I didn't know there was a website strictly devoted to taking pictures of the ruins of what was once shopping malls. That's that's pretty funny. Okay.

The Internet just be Internet, and doesn't it The primary reason for these failings is that the anchor stores think about like the big stores that are usually at the perimeter of the mall, think of your Dillards, your Sears, you know, these types of things have lost so much ground to online shopping. These were the stores that drove traffic to malls in the first place and allowed these smaller retailers with less of an advertising budget to bring

people to their doors. Wow. Yeah, that's just the nature's starting to overtake what was once the mall. That's crazy. Even more shutdowns are on the way. According to an industry study reported on the Wall Street Journal, in order to regain past levels of profit, department stores will have

to close over eight hundred locations. Mall owners will struggle to fill spaces of that size, often resorting to discount retailers like TJ Max and Marshals, or converting the spaces to moviet theaters, which is also something that's going by the wayside because of all the streaming surfaces. So anyway, this leads to decreased traffic for the entire mall environment, meaning even more closures will follow in an increasingly vicious cycle. So let's jump ahead here. To where it talks about

growing food in mixed use spaces. Mixed use first to the development that combines residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial uses in a way where it is physically and functionally cenergetic and that facilitates foot traffic. I personally hate the words synergy and synergetic, but I know it's going to be used in this good bit. Let's just get after him anyway. Let's look at Jane for a quick example. Jane is an accountant at a local firm across the street from

an apartment where she lives. On a typical day, she packs your lunch and heads across the street for a pleasant nine to five on of her clients. That thing is supposed to be. One of her clients is the local grocer, which is the first floor in the same building as her apartment on the sixth. She works on her account until closing, when she meets some friends for a happy hour a restaurant downstairs from the office. Jane

orders a beer, which the restaurant bruise itself. Not only does it sell the beer at its own bar, but it also sells it at the grocery store next door.

Jane also orders a salad at a restaurant. Some of the produce comes from the same grocery store, which has worked out in a wholesale deal with the restaurants they both save on shipping, but a large portion of that salad is greens, and the greens come from hydroponics farmed on the top floor of the building that Jane lives in, where can harness sunlight and HVAC exhaust from the apartments

and turn it into energy. The hydroponic farm supplies both restaurl and grocer and also gets its taxes done with Jane. That actually sounds like a pretty solid setup, which, if I'm not mistaken, is also something that they're trying to do with the line in Dubai. It's a very all enclosed ecosystem of human living. But anyway, this synergy is extremely important, and when looking at the economic impact of local businesses, it becomes something even more exciting to encourage.

Local businesses account for half of the private economy, largely due to multiplate multiplier multiplier effects Jesus for communities. Essentially, the multiplier effect means local businesses are more likely to spend money with other local businesses, so much so that for every dollar that moves from being spent at a non local to a local business, the community will see a two to four greater income boost, job creation rate,

and return on local taxes. So the overarching idea is that they are going to start trying to use these old, abandoned and strip malls to be hydroponic vertical gardens. I myself am a huge proponent of vertical gardens and hydroponics and aquaponics. I might add I find it to be just a way more efficient way to do things. And if they could actually start using these for that purpose

at least a section of them. Right, And you think of your big malls that you have, maybe not all the little department stores on the side, but the main strip of the mall is typically lit by sunlight in a atrium style skylight that has direct sunlight in it.

If you were to plant a very long strip of a vertical garden on the inside of this mall, and it's an enclosed system and you can maintain the temperature, you get a couple of people to maintain what the water nitrate levels are and all these things, then you could sell that at a i'll talk a cut rate to give local good, healthy produce to the local communities. And most of these malls are now you know, surrounded by let's just call it low income communities. That's just

a double hit of good things to come. Go ahead, Raven Lee, I see your hand raised.

promote the environment and promote different stuff like that. But with vertical gardening and that kind of empty space is using the abandoned buildings repurposing them is a huge thing, and that that would be able kind of the same

conversation of making community gardens. They can utilize this as a community garden, just on a scale, and that shows lots of benefits actually for supporting lower crime in the community, for uplifting and actually lowering depression and anxiety within the community. There's out of Detroit and Chicago, they did two studies and it shows the benefits of even doing a small little community garden, what it does and the impact it

does in the community. So it could be that they these locations could feed potentially large amounts of people and would help reduce a lot of the crime in the area as well.

to help with the air quality and to be able to keep the air pollutants down. It's all a part of it. But now the conversation, they just did the first decomposition of a body regenerated in fungus in mushroom, and so they're like they're all kind of intertwined with trying to help the environment, feed the people, reduce pollution, and be able to kind of reuse and recycle what we have going on right now.

refertilize other things as that. As you know in nature, they also have the ones where you're trees, and they're the ones that where your different types of plants where

your body gets planted underneath it. Now they're trying, because they're trying to figure out ways to use human bodies that are deceased to be able to fertilize and help restore the nutrients in the ground because we've ran out of space for all the bodies while we're running out of space and so the crematoriums are running NonStop pretty much.

But that causes pollution and stuff like that, and so many people are trying to say, you know, is there a way that we could use human bodies to regenerate the land that is destroyed?

Some people want to be buried in a plot, some family plot, next to their loved ones, and like that's you know, everybody's got their own thing. I'm not. I'm not throwing shade one way or another. But to say that you're going to have mushrooms be grown from a human body, I'm, for the love of all that is holy, I am praying that it is not of the psychedelic variety, because I know quite a few people that would who's their mind if they found out that they were ingesting

psychedelic mushrooms that were grown from a corpse. I can already hear some very dear friends of mine going off talking about the crazy things that they would experience off of that. But yeah, let's just hope that it's like Portobellos, you know. But yeah, yeah, I mean I could see that being a possibility as well, using humor remains and just remains in general of dead plants and everything else

to make better fertilizers. So absolutely, I don't want to read a little bit from this article that you sent from botanics or botanis. I'm not sure how which one you pronounce it, as it talks about the benefits of vertical gardening in malls. It will improve air quality. Indoor air quality is crucial and pollutants can negatively affect human health. I agree with that one hundred percent. Plants are literally filtration systems for this enhanced esthetics one hundred percent. Who

doesn't love nature? Right, No more empty walls. I know quite a few people that have a like serious issue with looking at bare walls. So that would improve. That creates a healthier environment, multiple levels of it. Creating a healthier environment, good things. Increase in visitors possibly possibly, yes, maybe no, but I mean that's you don't need visitors in order for the plants to grow and for them to be sold or donated or whatever. But okay, it

could absolutely and reduce energy costs. Vertical gardens can also help with temperature control in the space. They act as a natural insulator, which can lead to a decrease in energy cost for heating and cooling in the area. Now, that's a good idea. Designing and implementing a vertical garden in a mall. You got to choose the right location that makes sense. You got to choose a spot that gets good natural light. That's ideal for a vertical garden.

You should also consider the traffic flow in the area. Ideally, you want your garden to be visible and accessible to as many people as possible. Okay, fair enough, consider the size and shape of the wall. Very true, that you know makes sense led to the right plants. Very important, very important. I know somebody who had an aquaponic system and he chose the wrong type of fish for the aqua part, and he chose the wrong type of plants for the plant based part, and one good cold snap

killed his entire crop of fish and plants. So got to make sure you're doing your research on which which plants would do the best for that environment, and which plants would be easier sold in your area. Like, if you're living in a spot that really gets down with kale, then like maybe you would grow kale. That's good things. If you're in an area that really prefers, you know, cucumbers, then I'm just saying you have to do your research,

but very good things. Thinking about irrigation, your vertical garden will require a special irrigation system to ensure that the plants receive enough water and nutrients. Drip irrigation systems are often used to water vertical gardens. I don't think that that's really a problem because most of these malls have fire systems that are already built into them, So honestly, you could just you know, repurpose some of those or

even just do it like not a tie in. Those systems have to be completely separate from the other water lines in the building, and I understand that. My point is though, like the infrastructure, the banisters that have the railings for pipes to be built onto, you just have to kind of build off of that. On the other side, it's it really wouldn't take much doing and seek professional help. Well, I mean, hey, who couldn't benefit from seeing a little

more professional help maintenance and care. It's really not much to maintain a hydroponic system. It sounds like it's crazy. The legwork is in the beginning of it. Once it's up and running, you really just have to do some daily checks, like maybe once, if not twice a day, come by and check the pH check the nitrate levels, make sure that you don't have like an insect problem. And like that's what I'm saying. You could hire one to two people to maintain an entire strip malls worth

of a hydroponic garden. That's okay, fair enough, watering the plants regularly, proper lighting, prune the plants very true, fertilize the plants. Like I said, you gotta check the nitrate levels pest control, yes, indeed, air circulation one hundred percent and monitor plants health. And that's what I'm saying. It depends on the scale, right, depends on the size of the vertical garden that you're talking about here, but it really the juice is absolutely worth the squeeze pun intended.

Go ahead, Raven.

plants is mind blowing. Okay, very good thing, so possibly coming to them all near you vertical gardens. All right, now, let's move on to more political conversation here. This is actually an article from Al Jazeera Trump. Does Trump brokered deal squeeze Russia and Iran out of the South Caucuses. I'm not exactly sure if it does or does not. But for anybody who didn't hear a transit corridor pack signed by Azerbaijohn and Armenia could be game changing, according

to several experts. So for anybody who didn't know, Azerbaijohn and Armenia have been in let's just call it conflict for somewhere around like thirty five years, give or take, and Trump just kind of brokeer the deal that made them come to the negotiation table together. Now, a lot of people in America do not know about this, because most people in America that I've talked to don't even

know that Azerbaijohn is its own country. That's a true statement, sadly, but it is what it is, and honestly, the only reason why most Americans know about Armenia is because of the Armenian genocide that took place in you know, just a couple of decades ago. So it's unless it's done something crazy to be in the headlines. Most Americans don't

really know about it, but let's talk. Azerbai John's president Ilham Aliev probably mispronounced it, and his late father im predes Haidar Aliev and some of their closest political allies

hail from Nakchevin. Yeah, that's the spot. The name of this tiny mountainous and underdeveloped Azari area sandwich between Armenia Iran Turkey sounds unfamiliar to those outside of the strategic South Caucasus region, but Nakhchievan Knakchevan's name and geopolitical significance resurfaced after the United States President Donald Trump hosted a

White House summit between Azari and Armenian leaders. On Friday, Azerbaijan's Prime minister and the Armenian Prime Minister signed a preliminary peace deal to indy decades long conflict over the Neigorno Karabak region. In the early nineteen nineties, ethnic Armenians in the Nigardo Khannabak Kara back rather region broke away from the oil rich Azerbaijohn after a war that killed

thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands. Moscow broke her to truce in nineteen ninety four, maintaining two military bases in resource poor Armenia supplying with cheap energy selling arms to Azerbaijan sounds like a win win, to be honest with you,

Even though the conflict did not involve Nakchavan. It cut off the zengiir Corridor, a forty kilometer or twenty five mile logistics unbiblical cord to Azeri mainland that consists of a derelict road and paralleled rusty railroad tracks, air travel and hours long bumpy transit through Iran's. Iran's remained the only way to reach the exclave, whose authorities ruled it like a personal fiefdom with lulls and ways of life

often contradicting those of the mainland. After winning the twenty twenty war over the Nigorno car back and restoring control over three years later, Baku has been eager to receive or revive the corridor, demanding its extra territorially and even pondering the use of military force. A new reality in the region. On the other hand, the reasons go far beyond restoring access to Aliev's ancestral land. The cor or could become a namoth trans transport hub between Turkey, Azerbaijan

and Central Asia. I feel like the Belton Rode initiative might have also had some precedents to kind of lead into this area. I don't know. It may increase the flow of Central Asian hydrocarbons to Turkey and further to Europe, boost the regional economy, and up end Russia's two centuries of domination in the region that also includes Georgia. Armenia was reluctant to allow Azari access to the corridor, fearing that the emboldened Turkish Azari's tandem might jeopardize its security.

But Trump cut through the Gordian knot on Friday, and his role essentially cements a new reality in the region. According to Emil Mustefeyev, the Baku based chief editor of the menval Politica online magazine, this is a serious shift in the security architecture and transport logistics of the South Caucuses. While in the White House, Aliev and pash On God I'm butchering these names, lavish Trump with praise and nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Wow. We will see

if that gets pushed forward. It's very possible that old Don and T will become a Nobel Laureate's that's a reality that we might see. Okay, what cracked me up in this is that they didn't lose their way about how one has to communicate in Washington. An expert in

the region told Al Jazeera. They also flattered Trump by naming the corridor the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity or Trip Tripp Wow, and leasing it to Washington for up to ninety nine years with exclusive development rights. And there is the sweetener of the deal. What looks like one of Trump's favorite real estate deals actually heralds a tectonic shift. Trump's administration has indeed been quick to

find its way toward the long do geopolitical pivot. China, which has been promoting its Belt and Road initiative in Asia and Eastern Europe, may remain neutral to it. In Russia, which has two military bases in Armenia, might ignore it, at least publicly, he said. But for Iran it's a

real blow. So this is a boost to Washington's cloud To guard the trip, Washington may use private military companies and eventually build a military base that nominally safeguards Armenia but actually keeps an eye on Iran with said Ukrainian political analysis analyst Aleski Kutsch Couch, sure it means more potential pressure on Iran and a boost of Washington's clout in the resource rich Caspian region, where US oil companies made sizable investments in the nineteen nineties and Moscow is

also about to lose a lot. No matter how paradoxical it sounds, it's Moscow that has been and still is a decisive factor in the peace settlements between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and in sault having the latter's problems of accessing Nakchavan. Dude, I'm sure I've pronounced it right one of those times, said the head of Central Asia's Due Diligence and think

tank in London. One of the main motives for the reproachment of both sides is there push to get rid of Moscow's influence of peacekeeper's roles that it had imposed on them. The new deal only highlights how fictitious Moscow's role as a peacekeeper in the Middle East is in peace settlements in South Caucasus, really is. However, the deal is not yet set in stone, and the Trump hosted summit sparked premature optimism, said the University of Exeter in

the United Kingdoms, a dude named kevork Auscinian. All Right, this optimism should be tempered by realism and historical precedent, as many peace processes have failed despite promising starts. So, like they said, the deal is not done yet, but at least it's a good start. Now, let's just look at this. Is it more likely that Trump is doing this brokering of this peace deal because he genuinely cares about the people of Armenia and azerbai John, you be

the judge. I think that it is more likely that he's doing this. So that, like they said, they could put some American infrastructure in the area, possibly throw a PMC, a private military contractor out in that area to kind of keep an overwatch over it until they can build yet another foreign military base for the United States. That's kind of our jam. We don't do the whole imperialism thing, but we set up a military base there, and that acts as a outpost, right, it acts like one of

the tentacles of the octopus. And if we could get something that close to Iran, yeah, I could see that being more of the motive behind Trump wanting to broker a peace deal between the two countries. We will see how it shakes out. But anyway, let's move on here. Let's talk about the Texas Democrat situation. We talked about this last week a little bit. They are trying to read district the state of Texas for better voting numbers right,

to make it quote unquote more fair and balanced. And the Democrats in their offices in the state of Texas know that they're about to lose this rezoning vote, so they just took off. They left to go to other states and things. The downside of that is there was other things on the dock that needed to be voted on. Some of that was the flood relief and for all these people that were affected by the Texas floods. So now the Democrats are being blamed for some of the

relief to that didn't get to the victims. And meanwhile they're blaming the Republicans for them leaving the state in the first place, which delayed the relief to get to who it was. So the Democrats and Republicans are pointing the finger at each other for well, why didn't you send the flood relief? Well, why didn't you? And it's a mess and all this really stems from the Democrats not showing up to work to do the thing that

they were elected to do, which is crazy. But let's go ahead and watch this quick little news clip about it. Then we're going to talk about it some more.

fingers at each other, saying who's to blame for these delays. Meanwhile, here in Kirk County, residents are trying to rebuild.

flood victims. And I'm not saying this because I am more of a conservative minded person, I am going to say who abandoned who, Which side of the aisle just literally up ended and left the state rather than come in and do their job. If we're gonna start pointing the fingers at who is abandoning their post and abandoning

their constituents. But let's read in here. When Governor Greg Abbott called a special session last month, he put legislation responding to the devastating Hill count Country floods at the top of the lawmaker's agenda, But with the session went winding down, the legislator's ability to improve disaster response has become tied up in a bitter fight over a rare effort by Republicans to redraw the state's congressional map halfway

through the decade. The new map, as demanded by President Trump, would create up to five new GOP seats ahead of next year's midterm elections. The Texas House is in a standstill after Democrats left the state on mass last week to prevent the chamber from voting on the map again blow my mind, and both parties have been accusing each other of abandoning Central Texas flood victims. With the tragedy which killed more than one hundred and thirty people, becoming

a political cudgel in the redistricting clash. Republican lawmakers have blasted Democrats for delaying measured measures to bolster the state's emergency response by fleeing the state to deny the House the quorum needed to advance any legislation. The only thing standing between Texas and real disaster relief is whether our

absent colleagues decided to show up. That's what Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, said on the House floor Monday, continuing the quote, when the gavel drops, the question is simple, will you be in that chair to vote for these critical disaster recovery bills or will you be remembered as one who did not show up. That's pretty cut and dry there. Democrats say their GOP counterparts showed they were never serious about prioritizing the flood response when they put

the contentious redistricting effort first on their agenda. They point out that the flood bill saw no movement in the House in the first two weeks of the session, even as Republicans advanced the congressional map at a quick clip. This is a quote here. Abbot can call a special session today that is dedicated to honoring the loss of the memory of the July fourth flooding victims, or he can once again put DC corruption ahead of Texas communities.

Representative Jene Wu of Houston, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement Tuesday, Ultimately, all legislation, including the flood response, the new congressional map, stricter regulations on consumable hemp, and a raft of socially conservative a raft of socially conservative priorities Abbot placed on the agenda, will remain stalled until Democrats return to Austin and the House regains a quorum.

Republican leaders on Tuesday said that it would they would gabble out the special session early on Friday and immediately launch into a second thirty day session if Democrats did not return to Austin this week. I don't believe they're gonna gonna be real with you. They scheduled the flood bills for a Tuesday vote on the House floor, which

did not take place due to insufficient attendance. Upping the pressure on Democrats to return, Abbot has launched a flurry of ads targeting the Democrats who walked out, and he has asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare their seats vacant, arguing they have deserted their office. Again, I'm not saying this because I disagree with their political statements. I'm saying that I agree with him based off of the fact

that they're not showing up to work. It's literally their entire job to show up and vote on these things. But yeah, anyway, if Texas House Democrats care about the Texans they abandon, they will return to Austin and do the job they were elected to do. Man Man after my own heart, Abbot spokesperson Andrew Mahalaris think I got

that right, said in a statement Tuesday. Democrats said they were eager to pass the flood bills, but refused to play a role in adopting the new congressional which they called an attempt by Trump to rig the midterm elections and maintain Republican control of the US House. So, all right, I don't know. I know a lot of people from Texas. I do have very close family members that live in Texas.

I can't imagine that this is going to bode well for the Democrats in the midterms, even if they don't redistrict. Like just being real here, because the people that really need the help right now are not getting it, and there is one side of the isle that is showing up to work. Whether you agree or disagree with their politics,

that's not important. You got real people that are really hurting right now, and they're not getting the help that they need because one side of the aisle isn't showing up. I can't imagine the people that are not showing up getting re elected when that time comes. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe these are very long standing seats and this is a person that's been elected eighteen times and it's name recognition alone, so they're gonna get re elected anyway. But I would I would think very low of the people

that would vote that kind of person in. And I'm not saying, you know, I don't know each individual person's quality, but if that's what it is, when the going gets tough, you literally abandon your posts until things smooth out. That's not the type of people that I personally would want to run my area or my district or my county or whatever else. But okay, we will see continuing here, it says, Dems say the flood response wasn't a GOP priority.

Democrats noted that about halfway into the special session, the Republicans led House hailed four hearings on redistricting and planned a four vote of sorry, a floor vote on the map. The legislature's Disaster Committee meanwhile held two joint hearings on the floods. In these sessions first two weeks before specific bills were introduced, the House and Senate handles advanced their proposals last week. Is another quote from Actually, there's a

quote from Representative Anne Johnson, a Democrat from Houston. We have been there for two weeks waiting to address They only put one bill up for us to debate in the House, and it was the redistricting Okay, that's fair. Democrats also argue Republicans showed their priorities by putting a quote unquote call on the House that would hold until

the redistricting map was adopted without mentioning the flood related bills. Okay, so it's dirty politics either way, slicely, I get this, But again, as an elected official, your job is to wade into the waters of dirty politics, not abandon it when things don't look like they're going to go your way. So anyway, just given the update on the Texas situation, we talked about it last week, and I thought it was worth bringing up again this week. All right, So

still sticking to the South. You know, in the United States of America, this is from Wece. This flesh eating bacteria is spreading across the South. Here is how to stay safe. There's something extra unsettling about the words flesh eating and beach season being in the same sentence, but that's where we are. A bacterium called Vibrio valneficus. Yeah, I'm just gonna call it vv if that comes up again, because I'm definitely not gonna get that right. For twice

in a row. It's spreading across five Southern states and it already has been linked to nine deaths this year. It lives in warm, salty, not super clean water, the kind you wade into barefoot while holding a beer. And it's hitting Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina the hardest. That's kind of a jump up. It jumped straight over South Carolina and hit North Carolina the heart. Okay, fair enough. The bacteria can enter your body in two ways, and

neither is ideal. First is through open wounds, which would include scrapes, cuts, tattoos, piercings, and yep, even razor birn. The second is through the consumption of raw or undercooked sell shellfish, especially oysters. See I gotta m that sucks. I personally love oysters, but just being real with you, I prefer farm raised because you have way less of a chance of getting sick from them, regardless of what

month it's in. Yeah, but fair enough. If you were just to go out there and get you some oysters from the Gulf and just start shucking and slurping, you could very well get a flesh eating bacteria. Isn't that fun? That sounds like a particular attack on your vacation plans. That's because it sort of is. According to state health departments, most cases so far have been linked to wound exposure, but several have been tied to the consumption of raw seafood.

Either way, once it's in, things can get serious fast. The flesh eating bacteria it's infecting people across the South. The doctors say the symptoms can go from that looks red to getting the ambulance in a matter of hours. High fever, swelling, intense pain, and oozing wounds are In the worst cases, the infection can spread to your bloodstream and trigger blisters, confusion, dangerously low blood pressure, and tissue death, hence the flesh eating nickname.

fifty shot of making it out alive. But even if you make it out alive, you're not gonna be all good. Oh my god. And while this bacteria isn't new, it was first reported in the nineteen seventies, it's showing up more often, especially at ocean temp as ocean temperatures rise. Louisiana typically sees about seven cases a year this summer alone. It's already had seventeen. Cool Florida has had at least thirteen with four deaths. North Carolina has seen nearly sixty

Vibrio cases across different strains. Some health departments are blaming the spike on hotter water and hurricane related flooding. Climate change once again is playing Oh Jesus Christ, yep, it's climate change. That's why the bacteria is killing us. Clearly, the best way to protect yourself is, unfortunately also the least fun. Don't go into the water if you've gotten any open skin, no matter how small. Skip the raw oysters unless you know they're from a safe, regulated source

like farm raised. And if you're immunocompromised or have liver issues, be especially cautious. Doctor say you're at higher risk of the life threatening complications. No one's saying cancer is Cancel your beach plans. Maybe rethink the combo of open wounds and seafood that you brought out of a cooler. Okay, fair enough, So I did think that was important to bring up. As we are getting into hurricane season, the water is still warm and people are still making beach trips.

Just be careful out there, everybody. Now, let's jump into this next conversation. This is from the Washington Examiner. Appeals court says that Trump can cut two billion dollars in foreign aid. They just dropped this information, so let's learn a little bit more about what this means.

the freeze. The case drew support from a coalition of twenty state attorney generals led by Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who argued that the President has brought authority to ensure taxpair dollars serve US interests. Judge Florence Pan issued a lengthy dissent, warning that the majority's decision under minds Congress's power of the purse and enables the

executive branch to bypass constitutional safeguards. Shortly after beginning his second term, Trump moved to dismantle USAID and other sources of foreign spending. The administration argued that the freeze was necessary to reevaluate whether the billions of dollars spent annually through USAID advanced US diplomatic and security interests.

Two of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that the grant recipient's challenging the freeze to not meet the requirements for a preliminary injunction restoring the flow of money. In January, on the first day of his second term in office, Republican President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the State Department to shut down USAID. We talked about that already.

After groups of grant recipients sued to challenge that order, the US District Judge Emir Ali ordered the administration to release the full amount of foreign assistants that Congress had appropriated for the twenty twenty four budget year. The Appeals Court's majority partially vacated Ali's order. Judges Karen Lacraft Henderson and Gregory Katsas katsas I don't know concluded that the plaintiffs did not have a valid legal basis for the

court to hear their claims. The ruling was not on the merits of whether the government unconstitutionally infringed on Congress's spending powers. The parties also dispute the scope of the District Court's remedy, but we need not resolve it because the grantees have failed to satisfy the requirements for the

poleminary injunction. In any event, Henderson wrote. Judge Florence pan who we just heard about a second ago, who dissented, said that the Supreme Court has held in no uncertain terms that the President does not have the authority to disobey laws for policy reasons. Yet that is why the majority enables today. Pan wrote the majority opinion thus misconstrues the separation of powers claims brought to the grantees by the grantees, rather misapplies precedent and allows executive branch officials

to evade judicial review of constitutionally impermissible actions. The money at the issue, I'm sorry, yeah, The money at issue includes nearly four billion dollars for USAID, USAID, I should say, to spend on global health programs, and more than six billion dollars for HIV and AIDS programs. Trump has portrayed the foreign aid as wasteful spending that does not align with his foreign policy goals. Okay, Henderson was nominated to the Supreme Court by the President George hw and Catnus

or cats Sistic rather was nominated by Trump. Pam was nominated by Democrat President Joe Biden. So they just gave the approval, basically saying that he has the go ahead to suspend and cut off these funds. We're gonna we'll see if they want to try to fight this, or if they're gonna try to do something to repeal it, or or you know, I don't know, I don't know, but it seems like that money's not gonna go where

it was slated to go. Have you know, I'm not a big fan of USAID, and it's not just because of the and there was that list that Doge found of like all these ridiculous things that USAID was sending the money to. That's not my inherent problem with it. I just see it as inefficient, and it's there's that list. Don't even wrong. But yeah, there's a few things that they were sending money to that was very worthwhile causes and people that really needed the help, and I understand that.

But I will say this Trump has a very very different approach to foreign relations than most of the presidents, if not all the presidents that we've had since McKinley. So again, we will see if they try to push this in a more judicial way or if this might even lead to I'm sure somebody's gonna try to make

this an impeachable offense for him. But he's still having to fight this whole Epstein situation, which they just tried to get a release of the documents from Maxwell of the conversation, and the court basically said, we're not going to release this because it doesn't hold any kind of real weight behind it, and it wouldn't help any open investigations at this time. So it's again Trump's guy's playful with things that he started, and we'll see how it

all shakes out. Now. In other news, still talking about Trump and the White House, the White House has ordered the review of the Smithsonian Museums. And I think this all kind of ties in with the new push to federalize Washington, d C. And I just saw an article that the mayor of d C actually wants to work with Donald Trump, who a Democrat with a Republican. I just want to throw this out bipartisan union where they

are wanting to federalize the city itself. And yeah, it all stems from old big balls getting you know, mugged. But the crime rate in d C, yeah, it might be a little bit lower this year than it was last year, but that's not saying much overall. I think the statistics said that Washington, d C is twenty six percent safer now than it was last year. I get that. That's cool. That's a quarter safer. So when you go out in a you know, area that may not be the safest, you have a one in four less shot

of being mugged. But again, it's like, is that really the ratio that we should be looking at or why is there so much rough areas in and around our nation's capital? Right? Sam, go ahead, sir, Yeah, I'm sorry.

is a shithole. Like aside from the National Mall where all the monuments are and all the tourist attractions are, which find good things, and aside from the rich, swanky neighborhoods where all the politicians live and things like that, which fine, you have these areas, pretty much the entire town is an actual shit bag. It's it's horrible and go ahead.

For now, Like I said, the White House has ordered the review of the Smith's Soan museums. The reasons why are actually kind of funny. Let's listen.

place is badass. The National Air and Space Museum, my other one of my other favorite museums, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Oh dang it, the captions are on on that one. National Portrait Gallery, and the Hershorn Museum of Sculpture. Oh wow, her Shorn Museum and Sculpture garden. Okay, fair enough, let's continue cheer.

and our governing Board of Regents. According to the letter from the White House, the museums have thirty days to turn over information about their current exhibits, and about one hundred and twenty days the museums should begin implementing quote content corrections where necessary in the district. Jessica Albert News.

that is not what is in this conversation here. I actually had the letter pulled up on the White House dot gov Briefing Statement Letter to the Smithsonian International Review of Smithsonian Exhibits and material I said, Aaron International, I'm internal. Excuse me, so it's going to be an internal audit of the Smithsonian exhibits and materials. Now, let's talk about it.

of the American history and culture. We are completely aligned with your statement that the Smithsonian is a welcome welcoming place of knowledge and discovery for all Americans. We are grateful that you and the Board of Regents have expressed your commitment to the non partisan educational mission of this

great institution. As we prepare to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our nation's founding, it is more important than ever that our national museums reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American history. In this spirit, in accordance with Executive Order one four two five three, this is the restoring truth and sanity to American history, we will be leading a comprehensive internal review of selected

Smithsonian museums and exhibit exhibitions. This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions. Okay, to some of the museums in question, I don't think that's going to be an issue whatsoever. To others, I could see some potential upheaval. I'm just

gonna throw that out, but we shall see. This review is a constructive and collaborative effort, one rooted in respect for the Smithsonian's vital mission and its extraordinary contributions. Our goal is not to interfere with the day to day operations of curators or staff, but rather to support a broader vision of excellence that highlights historically accurate, uplifting and inclusive portrayals of America's heritage. That's a great sentiment, it

really is. However, not all of American history has been uplifting or inclusive. Just gonna make sure that we're keeping it all one hundred here, but all right, continuing, it says, the review will focus on several key areas. Number one, public facing content A review of exhibition text, wall dick ditict, didactics, didactics rather excuse me? Websites, educational materials, and digital and social media content to assess tone, historical framing, and alignment

with American ideals okay. Number two the curator process. The curatorial process a series of interviews with curators and senior staff to better understand the selection process, exhibition approval workflows, and any frameworks currently guiding exhibition content. Okay. Exhibition planning a review of current and few your exhibitions, with particular attention to those planned for the two hundred and fiftieth

anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Of course, Number four Collection use evaluating excuse me an evaluation of how existing materials and collections are being used or could be used to highlight American achievement and progress, including whether the Smithsonian can make better use of certain materials by digitizing or conveying to other institutions. All right. Number five Narrative Standards the development of consistent curatorial guidelines that reflect the Smithsonian's

original mission. Going on, It says, initially our review will focus on the following museum's. Additional museums will be reviewed in phase two. This is a multi phase plan. Well, all right, let's see where we're talking about here. I read this list earlier, but let's re review it, shall we?

The National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Art Excusing a Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and the Hershore Museum and Sculpture Garden.

So of these, let's see one, two, three, four, possibly five, I think possibly five out of these eight will have some very drastic changes made because they don't fit into this whole inclusivity narrative that is trying to be portrayed at this moment, and we'll see, we'll see how they try to rewrite history this time materials request to initiate this process, We respectfully request that each of the museums listed above designate a primary point of contact and provide

the following materials to our team, including for online content number one, two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary programming number two, current exhibition content number three, Traveling and Upcoming exhibitions number four, Internal guidelines and Governance number five, Index the permanent collection or index of the permanent collection, Number six, Educational materials number seven, Digital Presence number eight, External Partnerships number nine,

Grant related documentation, and number ten Surveys and other evaluations of visitor experience. So we talk about the timeline a

little bit here. Within thirty days of receipt of this letter, we anticipate that each museum will submit all requests of materials outlined in the first four bullet points above, including current exhibition descriptions, draft plans for upcoming shows, America's two to fifty programming materials and internal guidelines using the Exhibition Development Review of america two hundred and fifty exhibition and program planning, and connect with curators and staff about their

specific proposals. A staff liaison from each museum will be designated to serve as the primary point of contact, and our team will begin on site observational visits, conducting walkthroughs of current exhibitions to document themes, visitor experience, and visual messaging. They have another timeline for within seventy five days, museums are asked to submit the remaining requested documentation. Our team will begin scheduling and conducting voluntary interviews with curators and

senior staff. It is a voluntary interview, but okay, and each museum should finalize and submit its updated plan to commemorate America's two fiftieth within one hundred and twenty days. Museums should begin implementing content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions across placards, walled dedications, digital displays, and other public

facing materials. If all the benchmarks are met on schedule. We anticipate completing our review and preparing for a final report for your review in early twenty twenty six. This report will include museums specific assessments and institutional trends, and constructive recommendations for future exhibit exhibition strategy. We view this process as a collaborative and forward looking opportunity, one that empowers museum staff to embrace revitalizing curatorial visions rooted in

the strength, breadth, and achievements of the American story. By focusing on Americanism, the people, principles, and progress that define our nation, we can work together to renew Smithsonian's role as the world's leading museum institution. All right, and they list a bunch of names of thanks and things. Okay, remember how I said that federalizing DC kind of seemed like in a certain light and authoritarian move. You know, this is where we kind of take that next uptick.

And again, it may not play out that way. It might be that they just want to make sure that a lot of these exhibits have a you know, for instance, in the National Museum of the African Americans. Right, So is it possible that they're going to keep up all of the somewhat the exhibitions or exhibits I should say that may not cast ante bellum America in the best light.

Is it possible to keep those up? But then they also want to make sure that they show some patriotic things as well as far as like how far we've come as a nation since our beginning. Okay, that's not inherently a bad idea. Is it also possible that they are about to try and rewrite and, for lack of better words, whitewash a lot of this history. There is a possibility of that. Yeah, So anyway, we will see what happens with the Smithsonian Museums in the upcoming days.

Real quick, We're not going to spend too much time on this one, but we did need to bring this up. An investigation is begun. The US Steel Plant is ready to get to the bottom of the explosion. For anybody who did not hear about this, a US steel plant blew up and there were some deaths and they have a current investigation to see what exactly happened. If you haven't heard about it yet, let's hear some from CBS Pittsburgh.

through olive groves and forests. On the Greek islands of Chios in the east and Caphalonia in the west, both popular with tourists, authorities told people to move to safety as fires spread. In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns fighting fire in the Central Castile and Leon region. Firefighters hosed down blazing houses and warehouses and villages, where more than five thousand people were evacuated. The country's state weather agency almost all of the country was at extreme

or very high risk of fire. Spain's environment minister said many fires were suspected to be intentionally caused, but added it was too early to say how many. In Albania, several major wildfires are burning across the country. In the southern city of Dalvina, evacuees returned to their homes, but authorities remained vigilant. Attempts to douse the fires have been hampered by a heat wave across large parts of the continent.

Spain was in its tenth day of soaring heat that peaked on Tuesday, with temperatures as high as one hundred and thirteen degrees fahrenheit. Conditions are expected to last till Monday, making it one of the longest on record.

were set earlier in the week. Scientists have warmed, of course, that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Let's learn a little bit more about this here. Record breaking heat has swept across Europe in recent days, pushing temperatures well beyond four a degree celsius, which is one hundred and four degrees fahrenheit in some areas,

and fuelling regional wildfires. In France, temperature records were obliterated in the Bordeaux region, Saint Emilio, Saint Girons, Anguilem and Bergerac Bergiaq. It's been quite a while since I tried to pronounce French words. On Monday afternoon, according to an update from the Weather forecaster, often remarkable, even unprecedented maximum temperatures, often twelve degrees above normal levels, were reached this Monday.

The FORECASTU said that a heat wave is in the southwest has seen spreading to the center, east and northeast of the country through Tuesday and Wednesday. In Croatia, temperatures climbed to thirty nine point five degrees celsius. In the Adriatic coastal city of Sibonik, and thirty eight point nine in the popular tourist deaf destination of Dubravinnik, the Brovnik.

Excuse me. The temperature records come as scientists warren climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gas is the chief driver of the climate crisis. There's okay. Europe is meanwhile known to be warming faster than any other continent, at twice the speed of the global average since the nineteen eighties, according to the EU's Copernicus climate

change service. The UU excuse me. The EU's climate monitor has attributed this trend to changing weather patterns, reducing reduced air pollution, and the region's geography, noting that part of Europe extend into the Arctic, the fastest warming region on Earth. In Spain, firefighters largely contained a blaze that broke out

near the capital of Madrid on Monday evening. Nearly six thousand people were evacuated from their homes in the northern, central and southern Spain this week as wildfires raged amid a heat wave predicted to push temperatures up to around forty four degrees celsius in some parts of the southern European country. Wildfires have also been reported in Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Greece, Albania,

Montenegro and the UK in recent days. It's not just Europe suffering from the record heat, with temperature records also broken in Canada of late temperatures Meanwhile, soored above fifty degrees celsius in Iraq, plunging the country into darkness on Monday during a nationwide power outage. So the heat is actually also affecting the power grid in some of these places. But that is unprecedented that many countries, all spread out across Europe. It's not like these are all neighboring countries.

Some of them are, but the UK, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, the UK, Spain. This is crazy. And yes, of course, hotter temperatures make for easier combustibles. I understand that one hundred percent. But my god, again, that is unprecedented. And I'm not saying that there is obviously a nefarious actor or arsonists at play here, but I would like to see what the investigation yields as far as how all these fires started. We will see what these things turn

up if they actually do an investigation on it. Now. Sticking onto the European conversation, Zelensky and European leaders to hold a call with Trump ahead of the Putin summit. This is from the BBC. I should add Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is joining European leaders and talks need at aimed excuse me at increasing pressure on the US President to side with Ukraine during Friday's summit with his Russian

counterpart in Alaska. In an online call with Trump on Wednesday, the leaders are expected to reiterate that no decision should be taken without Ukraine, including changing its borders by force. Trump has said any peace deal would involve some swapping of territories quote unquote, and it is believed that Putin's demands is that Kiev surrenders the parts of eastern Donbas area that it still controls on Tuesdays. Lensky said such a concession could be used as a springboard for future

attacks by Russia. Russia launched a full scale invasion in February twenty twenty two. A Russian summer offensive has been progressing, with troops making a sudden thrust near the eastern town of Do Dobro Pilia, all right, and advancing ten kilometers or six miles in a short period of time. But they really, yeah, they did that, but they haven't really taken much ground more than that as of this moment. Some but it's a very very slow grind. But yes,

they are still gaining ground one hundred percent. While downplaying Russia's advance, Zelensky said it was clear to us that Moscow's objective was to create a certain information space before Putin meets Trump, that Russia is moving forward, advancing while Ukraine is losing. Okay, that's not a certain information space. The math is the math. I'm just gonna throw that out, but all right. No official details have emerged on what demands Putin could make when he meets with Trump in

Anchorage on Friday. However, there has been concern among Ukraine's European allies about the possibility of Trump agreeing to Putin's demands. German Chancellor Merz has called Wednesday's meeting, and Zelenski is traveling to Berlin to join him for the video call with other European leaders, including the UK Prime Minister Starmer.

Before the call Trump, Zelensky has previously insisted that Ukrainians would not quote unquote gift their land to the occupier, and pointed to the country's constitution, which requires a referendum before a change in its territory. Last week, Trump said there would be quote some swapping of territories to the betterment of both quote Russia and Ukraine, sparking concerns in Kiev and across Europe that Moscow could be allowed to

redraw Ukraine's border by force. Russia currently controls just under twenty percent of Ukrainian territory. The dun Boss is made up of the eastern regions of the Luhansk and Dnesk has been partially or partly rather occupied by Russia since twenty fourteen. I think with that they mean the U Crimea. Moscow now holds almost all of Luhansk and about seventy

percent of Dunesk. But speaking to reporters on Tuesdays, Zelensky reaffirmed that Ukraine would reject any proposal to leave the donbas So this is a current map of the occupied territory of eastern Ukraine. Like they said, they have all of thelu Hansk, they have seventy percent of Dunesque, They've had Crimea since twenty fourteen. They are still pushing into the Khirsan region, but it's not as heavy of a push as it is to the northern region, and Zaparizia

still has fighting going on there. But again, the Dunesku seems to be where the majority of the Ford advance is taking place as of this moment. The White House on Tuesday said that Alaska talks would be a quote unquote listening exercise for Trump, and added having him and Putin sit down in the same room would give the US President the best indication on how to end this war. It follows Trump describing the summit as a feel out meeting on Monday, seeming to tone down expectations that Friday's

meeting could bring Ukraine and Russia closer to peace. Yeah, I don't believe it's gonna at all. As a matter of fact, when he announced the summit last week, Trump's sounded positive that the meeting could result in concrete steps towards peace. He's very sure of that, but he's very sure of pretty much everything he says, So take that with a grain of salt. I think in my gut instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it, he said. The Ukrainian leader has previously said any agreement

without Kiev's involvement would amount to dead decisions. That's fair, and Zelensky is very pissed about this. I understand that he's basically saying, like, Yo, if you're gonna call this meeting with Putin, why is Ukraine not also being invited to the meeting. Meanwhile, the Trump is like, listen, man, I've got to get him alone to talk to him about some things. We're trying to figure out what's gonna be best for all parties. You'll be at the next one.

I've had multiple meetings with you, and the last time you came to my house and had a conversation with me, you got a little temper tantrum on international television. So I'm gonna go meet with old lad real quick and we're gonna have a convo. I'll let you know how things shake out, Tony, I see you unmuted brother way in Yeah.

held referenda on it too. But in kind of the short term, the don Bas Republics ended up only being like maybe twenty percent of those territories way in the east, and Ukraine was trying to conquer them, and that's kind of what really set off the war in twenty twenty two, because Kiev was about ready to finish the job and take back these kind of breakaway regions within the breakaway province that was like the easternmost twenty or thirty percent

of them. So yeah, that is different, a little different from Crimea. But now, as we've seen for the last three years, Putin has gotten uh you know, pretty much most of both of those territories and more so, and he's not giving them up and it's time to probably just recognize that.

that's not a good look. Right. It's the same thing if America was to get involved in, you know, some sort of a peacekeeping operation via the UN, and we told the American people that, oh, we're only going to be there for a month, and we ended up staying for ten years. Like that's that is not a good look, regardless of what the initial motives were. Yeah.

Then you hear that your boy was bagged and tagged, and it's like, oh, well, all right, then this is an ursha, you know, and these kinds of things.

working for a security contractor called ug Solutions. I forget what that stands for, but they're like PMC a little bit, and they were working for GHF, another three letter acronym, and GHF stands for Godza Humanitarian Foundation, and Godza Humanitarian Foundation kind of replaces the U n unruh. If you've ever heard of them. It's U n r W, a un Relief Work Association or something. I actually forget what

it stands for. But that was the organization that was bringing lots of food into Gaza until about March of this year when they were banned and Gaza was put under a blockade, and then food couldn't get in there anymore until this GHF Foundation started. And okay, this guy Anthony Aguilar, let's let's play a little bit of one of his Tucker interviews. I got it going right now. I hope that you can hear it.

to be a lot of attacks on you. So a day or two later, and I don't think this is just useless Twitter drama, but a bunch of mugshots of him were posted alleging that he beat up his wife and was guilty of you know, elie, possession of a firearm and all kinds of stuff. And then what I'm sharing here for people who can't view it is that lady on Twitter who goes by handled Village Crazy Lady.

She pretty thoroughly debunked that, and I don't use the word debunked lightly, but she was kind of lucky that she's got like a paralegal background, and she also lived in North Carolina where he lived, and she looked at the mugshot and the arrest record and said it just doesn't look right. The docket number actually maps to somebody else, and his date of birth, which is listed on the mugshot, is not the procedure that the way they do things, they will give the age in years like forty something

years old, but they don't post birth dates. And yeah, Duke Lane doesn't exist. And there's you know, all kinds of other reasons that this was obviously a fabricated attack on him, and he's been coming under lots of attacks. This one's obviously very illegitimate. One of the slightly more legitimate attacks on him is that he seems to be a disgruntled employee. So he was a contractor. They didn't

want to renew his contract. He was having a hard time getting along with people, and he told them, if if you don't renew my contract, I'm going to go public with all this stuff, and he did so. This is making Gaza Humanitarian Foundation look bad. It's because he's got lots of stories about how starving people are coming and just getting a shot at and something like a hundred of them will die per day at least, you know,

that's the report I've seen. He had kind of a unique position where he got to travel between four different sites there. Three of them are way down in the southern end of Gaza, and the fourth one is right in the middle in the net Serene Corridor. So most people throughout Gaza don't really have easy access to any of these places, and they have to walk a long long distance to get there, and it's just a terrible situation because they get there, there's no signs telling them

where to go. The only way they figure out where to go is that American and Israeli contractors shoot it to the ground or over their head, and you know, some of those bullets hit them. And so he's got lots of stories. One of his stories is about a boy named Emir who comes up to thank him for the food and then he sees a mirror running off and then in a group that gets fired on, Amir gets killed. I'm sure most people, many people have probably

heard that story. As for the whole disgruntled employee allegation, I guess this comes down to the idea of loyalty in a military situation, because I think you would agree, Jacob, the military the highest virtue for somebody in the military is loyalty and obedience, not so much you know, doing the right thing based on what a priest might tell you. What do you think about that.

are especially are more ideologically aligned with Israel. But this brings so I don't know, maybe this is a larger issue, But in the twentieth century, I feel like Nuremberg tried to the Nuremberg Trials tried to rewrite the whole idea of what you should do as a soldier if you're commanded to do something bad, because the previous mindset was you just obey orders, and the mindset after that is actually a lot murkier, where yeah, maybe you can obey the orders, but you know, will you be able to

use that as a defense if people want to judge you for it.

and I understand that as well. But like for instance, Benghazi, right, if you ever watched the movie associated with it, the contractors that were there to guard the CIA Liaison office, even though everybody in that building was American, and the dudes that were a part of the PMC were American contractors, and yeah, all of them were former military, they were

not military at that time. They were ordered to not go help the embassy, and they said, fuck you were doing it anyway, right, So like good things, but that also broke their contract. And if something would have happened to them and they would have gotten taken prisoner, no one's coming to get them because PMCs they don't operate

that way. And if a private military contractor wants to take a prisoner and do medieval torture on them to get some sort of information, Geneva Conventions not at play here. Neither is the Nuremberg neither is any other kind of international officiating body. Because they're out there for private contracting purposes. So I don't know Aguilar's entire backstory. I don't know which contractor he worked for. I know dudes personally, who and hell I even almost worked for a PMC at

one point in time. I was I was almost picked up by Constellis and I was almost picked up by Oh Hill. What was the other one? Not bare Claw. I'm thinking I'm hunger. I'm thinking of bear clothes. I forget what the name of it was, but there was two PMCs No no, no, no, no Blackwater that went by the wayside after the Blackwater Bridge incident. It then became Triple Canopy, and then it got sold and it's some other subsidiary. Now it's a new name, but basically the

same rank and file structure of it all. God, I cannot remember the other PMC that I was about to work for, but damn it anyway. But a lot of my buddies that went worked for them in Afghanistan and in active war zones. They were fully aware of what the score was, and that's why they were getting paid up to five or six times what these soldiers were getting paid out there, because the soldiers if something happens to them, the US Government's coming to get them. PMCs.

If something happens to you, you are up Shit's creek, brother, and I hope you make it back to the state to one piece, because that's just the way it goes now. Humanitarian PMCs, I don't know, they're like their mo right, I don't know what they're stane and operating procedure is. I know that the same rules or lack of rules still applies to them, but I don't know what the difference is as far as their like you would say,

their orders or their mission set. Usually PMCs are hired to protect the assets of their their contract, right, So if you are hired to guard this road, it's not against this group or against that group. You're hired to make sure that no one destroys this road or impedes traffic beyond a reasonable point. And like whether that's your guys, their guys, whatever, that's your job and you're just literally punching a clock. There's no feelings or morality associated with it.

So I don't know. I don't know how that's going down as far as Gods is concerned. But PMCs kind of operate their their mercenaries for lack of better words, and morality very rarely plays in with mercenaries.

only one who puts his name on it. And he's saying that after this is over, or maybe not even after it's over, maybe just months from now, more of these guys are going to come forward and say they've seen the same thing. And he's alleging the UNRA did a better job at distributing food, but GHF seems like it's specifically set up to get as many of them killed as possible. He points out lots of things like

they don't provide any water. Most of the food they're providing his dry rice and lentils and stuff and stuff you've got to boil in water, and God has no water, no fresh water. It's got salt water but no fresh water. So they are just really screwed there.

around their necks. You know, the typical debt to America, death to the infidels, you know that old that old stick and uh. These pictures made their way all over the internet. You could look up right now videos and documentary about the Blackwater Bridge incident. Blackwater, up until that point was the largest and most successful American PMC operating in the world. That one incident pretty much negated that, and they took such a hit that they ended up

having to sell and rebrand the company. To another group, which is when it became triple canopy.

the area better than when you got there. When it's all said and done, you want to leave the area a little freer, uh, not as oppressed, you know, because the bad guys that you're killing, you want to be the bad guys, like the actual bad guys over this area where the women and children are scared of these people in the are they are a hindrance to a happy life being lived in this area. Whenever you go into the mindset of a total war kind of situation,

that usually goes by the wayside. And that's how we get some of these situations like in Vietnam where you had helicopter pilots and door gunners that were just mowing down groups of women and children because well, how do we know they weren't VC And it's like, no, no, no, that's that's not the way at least that's not the way that America wants to do business. We want to be seen as the golden standard of how to operate in a war zone, not not the other way around.

Although I think there's a time and place for everything I mean, if the insurgency is going to use dirty tactics, I am all in favor of meeting that fire with fire. But the problem is that if we don't maintain the standard, then who's going.

give the enemy an excuse to cross lines too. So in World War Two in Europe, luckily nobody crossed the line of using chemical weapons, even though both sides had stockpiles of them, and both sides were just waiting for the other side to cross that line first, and somehow it never happened. So we got lucky there.

we're the good guys. If we had cameras and satellite TVs back in those days, and the American public, we're seeing that our American boys, these guys that were drafted from all over the country were doing this animalistic and heinous shit to the enemy, even if yes, they were Nazis. I understand that, I get it, But it's about the optics. It's about what gets seen by the public and what these guys are going to be viewed as when they get home. That's why you had these guys coming home

from Vietnam getting spit on and called baby killers. Right. It wasn't even like they were actually trying to do that. There were some cases where they were doing some heinous shit and should have been shit on. But the ninety nine point nine percent of US service members that went to Vietnam because they were drafted and then came home

did not deserve that type of retribution. But they got it anyway, because that's all that the media was reporting on because no news sells like bad news, so it's about the optics overall.

the alternative was to that. The culture of Japan during World War II was literally they were telling the people that Americans were eating them, they were gonna eat the prisoners of war, that we were these barbarian animals, and all these things and that's confirmed by multiple people that could speak Japanese that were in the Pacific year that heard these women throwing their children off of cliffs to their deaths rather than be quote unquote captured and eaten

by the animalistic Americans. Right, they were not going to surrender by any means. As a matter of fact, every Purple Heart that has been awarded since World War Two were made for what they expected to be the Purple Hearts to be awarded after the invasion of mainland Japan. So the ends justifying the means dropping two atomic bombs finally got it through the Japanese mindset that hey, y'all, maybe we can't win this thing and we need to

stop to save our population. Because the reality of it is that upwards of hundreds of thousands, if not a million, people would have died from the US invading mainland Japan. So I'm not in favor of dropping nukes on people, but that truly was a situation where the inns truly justified the means. It's not a fun conversation to have, and I'm with you, you can't. You can't judge the war fighter who's in the middle of a firefight for

going a little berserk. I get this one hundred percent fog of war being a thing, frenzy being a thing. I have the sympathy and the empathy for it. But there's gotta be a limit.

forgotten war, which was the Koreans. They that the Korean War, which they probably felt some type of way because they would they were just dropped off by the wayside. No one ever would talk about the Queen War. But it's just like, how do you as a country.

Western Front. He was pretty strict with them in France and German. German behavior was not too bad there, but in Russia and Poland it was very bad by comparison. And yeah, if we're going to say, well, we don't want you know, the men who are fighting the war, they are under so much pressure you can't really judge them. Well, that goes for the enemy's men too, But we do want to judge the enemy's men.

members is better or anything like that. What I'm saying is a mother humming her two year old off of a cliff onto rock face to prevent it from being eaten alive, and committing mass suicides like that seen as the more humane option because that's what they were told. That's a different conversation, right.

for that reason. But he wrote up. He interfered with the Japanese. He he gave a sanctuary I want to say, like a mile long whatever.

got a maneuver kill. And that's on record. Let's read in and now let's just predict China will move to restore its image at sea while ramping up exercises to improve navy coast guard coordination. Yeah, I'll bet they are. This is a picture of one of the ships that had a collision. Let's learn some more about it, shall we. Just they cannot, they cannot, And of course this article on my phone opened up the entire way, but on

the internet it's not going to long story short. These two military Chinese vessels, they were, you know, Chinese coast Guard. They were trying to stop I cannot remember off the top because I had this article pulled up earlier, and of course it's going to suck now. They were trying to get closer to and I'm not sure if it was a Taiwanese merchant ship or a Indonesian or what the case was.

a naval vessel or a coastguard vessel. I've never piloted a plane, so I don't know, but out loud, one of those sounds more embarrassing than the other. You have a missile system on a plane that, for a split second couldn't tell the difference between if that was our guys or their guys, versus two giant ships that were trying to outmaneuver a non armed merchant vessel and one of them straight up nose dove into the other. I just speaking on behalf of myself. I think that's just hilarious.

But you know, hey, anyway, all right, Sam, go ahead, I see your hand raised.