Regime Change in Venezuela?

horrific news, but his attitude is an inspiring one. I've got details on today's episode of the Josh Hammershaw. So for months now, the United States has been upping the ante, has impressuring Nicholas Maduro, the successor to Ugo Chavez in the failed socialist regime in Venezuela. Perhaps you're familiar with the story by now, but in case you are not, that essentially goes as follows. For a very long time, Venezuela was one of the economic power horses, one of

the engines they are in South America. They were punching way above their weight when it comes to GDP per capita and when it comes to basic economic resources, primarily because Venezuela, uniquely among the nations of Latin America, is blessed when it comes to hydrocarbons. The well known oil and gas company Citgo. You probably filled up your car at some point over the years at a Sitco station.

That is a Venezuelan oil company. They are part of OPEK, the only country in Latin America that really is a major player when it comes to the global qalanities market for oil. So for a very long time, Venezuela was a powerhouse down there in Latin America. Argentina for a while was that way as well, prior to their own descent into socialism. We'll see if Javier Malay can salvage that country. That perhaps is an analysis and a story

for another day. But when it comes to Venezuela, fast forwarding more or less to the president to the present. So Madure has been in power for a while now. There was a dispute election in Venezuela about six and a half years ago. There was another Trump backed candidate who almost gone to power, and there have been all

sorts of allegations of corruption. But Udera has been in powered there for a while now, and the trumpministration perhaps unexpectedly on the one hand, but not wholly unspectively on the other hand, and all on path that in just a second, there has been really pushing quite hard when it comes to Maduro in Venezuela. And now I say unexpectedly on the one hand, because when you think of Donald Trump and as foreign policy, you don't necessarily think

of regime change. You necessarily think of warmongering and swashbuckling looking to pick fights. However, if you look carefully at the administration's foreign policies oction especially it's out of the gates moves. We go all the way back to January almost a year ago and now the beginning of administration, it actually was in hindsight at least somewhat easy to

see this escalation campaign against Venezuela coming. And what I mean by that is that Marco Rubio's very first trip, his very first foreign trip as Secretary of State, was actually to Latin America. It was two three different Latin American countries, if memory, and he did that to make a point. In fact, Maria Anastasia O'Grady, who is the Latin Affairs called the Western Hemisphere columnists when at the Wall Street Journal and has been for a very long time.

this on the show May Times. The Monroe Doctrine, which eponymously goes back to the early nineteenth century President James Monroe, which was corroborated by the Roosevelt Corollary, which was a similar proclamation issued by Teddy Roosevelt in the first decade of nineteen hundreds, and the Monroe Doctor the Trump Corollary, which both more or less dand for the same principle, is basically says the United States is not going to shit back and let foreign powers meddle to mess in

our own hemisphere. You know, Gosh, Darner, We're gonna care about our backyard. We're going to care about our backyard. We're not gonna let you which back, and especially in the era of Monroe, really meant to the European powers, We're not going to let you meddle when it comes

to our concrete area of interest. This doctrine has actually only become more important over the past call it fifteen twenty twenty five years, as the global economy has become even more interconnected in a post Berlin Wall era, as global terrorist networks, narco terrorists, shei hottest networks can now continue to sprawl all across the world and exude a lot of influence all across the world. Hesvola, for instance,

the Lebanese militia group backed by the Irani regime. Hesbola has long had tremendous influence when it comes to Latin America. They are very cosed with many of the leading human trafficking rings and transnational cartels when it comes to drug smuggling and things like that. The administration started to look into this ended up actually, this is quite a scandal

that went under the radar. The Obomba Instration ends up actually shelving ended up deep sixing their investigation into the ties between HESBA and the Mexican narco terrorist groups for the simple reason that they didn't want to actually upset the apple cart when it came to their sycophantic diplomacy with the Iranian regime. So pretty pretty crazy stuff, frankly when it comes to that. But again, Maduro is now back in the news and trumpstry. The Trump Minstration is

reasserting this Monroe doctrine here. In fact, they actually are now calling it the Trump corollary. There was recently unveiled the Trump and National Security Strategy, this formal document that the Trump Ministration revealed recently, and they're literally calling it actually the Trump corollary, which is obviously a play on the Roosevelt corollary from one hundred and twenty years ago. More or less so, those campaign has been escalating for

months and months. One of the key parts of this campaign has been a series of narco terrorist strikes when it comes to the Pete Hechsath Secretary of War led strikes on many of these vessels that are essentially engaged in trying to smuggle drugs from Venezuela, worked with the cartels gain them to the Caribbean Sea, gets to the Gulf Mexican cog entering god forbid, here in Florida where I live, or in Texas or one of the other when the other ports there along the Gulf of Mexico

and the Atlantic seaboard. That is the primary stipulated reason of the Hegseth led narco terrorist strikes, which we have assistently defended here on the Josh Hammer Show as a matter of both foreign policy and as legal principle when it comes to both statutory and constitutional inherent authority under Article to the Constitution to engage in such preemptive, prophylactic, targeted precision strikes. Here we defend that time and time again, and we will continue.

a blockade there on Venezuela. It's not entirely obvious exactly what that means in practice, to the best of my knowledge of the US Navy does not have the entire country cordons off when it comes to the seas, but certainly Donald Trump and and the administration are upping the pressure tremendously. In fact, Donald Trump actually was just here

in Palm Beach, Florida. In South Florida yesterday, he was flanked at his sides by Pete Heggsauth, the Secretary of War, on one side, by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, on his other side, talking tough with Nicholas Maduro. So, for instance, here was Donald Trump speaking yesterday in West pomp Beach, Florida.

We shall see. Now another element of what's going on here. I mentioned that Venezuela has oil connections. Now, the Socials regime has typically run the oil wells dry, but they are very close to other major petroleum hydrocarbon exporting countries such as Iran. Now, Iran is not really a hydrocarbon exporting country right now because of the various crippling sanctions that have been on the country for a very very long time now, but they are still very cozy when

it comes to Iran. In fact, the second oil tanker that was just seized over this past weekend, and there are rumors of a possible third oil tanker seizure as well that also has has alleged Iranian connections there. So Donald Trump getting asked yesterday in West Palm Beach what happens again to the oil, A question that he's been asked before there. But here's Donald Trump again yesterday in West pomp Beach, far speaking of Venezuela.

from i legal front there. But when it comes to oil, I mean, I mean, what else are you gonna do. Of course you're going to take oyal there. I mean that's kndu's Donald Trump both troll and also taking the common sense and just utterly logical position. Now the big question is where does this go from here? Now? I was filling in on radio earlier today for Mark Davis

on six sixty Am. The Answer the Sale and affiliate in Dallas Fort Worth, and I brought on a guest, Rich Goldberg, who's a foreign policy specialist, to talk about this and other issues. Now. Rich is not particularly persuaded that there's going to be massive escalatory action there. He does not takes particularly seriously the threats of Shi Jimpang, ro Vember, Photon, are various other Maduro Venezuelan allies to

get involved and to potentially meddle further. I think that's probably accurate for the very simple reason that China and Russia didn't lift a finger to try to rescue their Iranian ally during the Israel Iran War during the Twelve Day War back in June. This kind of went under the radar a little bit there. But let's not forget that Iran's vaunted allies. I mean, if you go back to that and the whole argument that this conflict when in Gulf America in World War Three, thousands and thousands

of dead US soldier, sailors, marines. That was the whole Tucker Carlson argument. That argument was predica in the fact that China and Russia would get involved. Okay, you can't have World War three if it's just Iran. You need China and Russia to get involved. There. They didn't. They didn't lift a finger. They did absolutely positively nothing. So what exactly these argument that they would get involved then in venta as well as well. I think that rich

Goldberg frankly is right. I'm not buying the notion that puter hu Jinping would bother to get involved. Putin still has his hands more than full when it comes to

Zelenski and the Ukrainian Theater. He's still sitting down with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner when it comes to trying to get some sort of deal inked out, ironed out when it comes to trying to get off rammed here, that he can politically live with, that he will not be toppled for when in the Kremlin, that he can take back to the Russian people, and that they will not basically decapitate him out of frustration at at the results. I don't think she Gimping is really going to get

involved either. H Jinping has plenty of his own problems there when it comes to the Indo Pacific. The Chinese economy, incidentally, is is really shrugging right now, and the real estate market above all. So the notion that China go ahead and over extend their influence when it comes to trying to bail out what a socialist backwater that's dried out the oil wells, I'm not really necessarily buying that either.

to abdicate his leadership. Look at what happened to Bashar al Assade. Now, admittedly that was led by a bunch of ragtag Chihatis led by this guy al Shara who's still currently in charge of Damascus. But after assad was toppled in Damascus just about a year ago. Last December, he was on the next plane to Moscow, and you haven't heard his name since then. I mean he's essentially living, you know, as in the winn Is protection program, basically

Vladmir Putin in Russia style. That's what Bashar Alosad has been doing for the past year now. So I think the idea here, if I'm trying to guess what Donald Trump and Pete had Seth and Marco Ruby are thinking, is to try to get Nicholas Maduro to take the Bashar al Assade offer and then to abscond to China or Russia or I mean maybe even Havana, Cuba, if you want to get some nice cigars. I'm being tongue in cheek. I don't think. I don't know why you

necessarily choose there. I think the Cuban regime is probably on thin ice too, for very similar reasons as Venezuela. There's a lot of speculation that it could be two for the price of one. If you get Maduro to abdicate, maybe the Castro regime in Cuba could be next possible. Probably wishful thinking, honestly, I mean, given how long they've been in power. But they are very much tied at the hip, is the basic argument there. I want you

to understand this point though. There are a lot of folks in the right of center commentarian who have looked at the failures of the United States when it comes to a Rock and Afghanistan, and let's be very clear, they are absolute failures. I have been critical for my entire political commentary adult lifetime when it comes to the

foreign policy failures of Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been deeply critical of the foreign policy doctrine that America has an interest in exporting and promoting democracy, which is the Bush two point zero neo conservative creed. That's not my stance. My stance is basically the Donald Trump stance, which is

a conservative nationals realist form of foreign policy. There. But a lot of folks who have also been shocked and horrified by the Iraq and Afghanistan boondoggles have overlearned the relevant lesson when it comes to so called regime change. Regime change is not necessarily is not necessarily this horrific word,

hush hush, You can't say it that. A lot of the folks on the hard isolationist Tucker wing of this broader conversation want it to be we should be skeptical of the United States imposing regime change unless, for instance, they've already been grievously wounded. It would be a very simple operation, like literally simple, not like quote unquote simple, like we saw in Iraq and O three and so forth.

you should be able to recognize. Indeed, it ought to be axiomatic that there are various regimes around the world that the American national interest would be buttressed by, would be elevated by if that regime were not in power.

Is it not obvious that America's interest in the Indo Pacific would in theory be better if there were a regime change in Beijing, If the Chinese Communist Party were to bow out and you get some reasonable actors in place there really, of course, the American national interests would be enhanced by that form of quote unquote regime change. How about soft regime change in Russia if we got a leader in the Kremlin who would just make total

peace with NATO. I mean, and this is kind of like fairy land, you know, like the land of you know, of unicorn farts and rainbows. Maybe it's kind of a good dream. But I'm just making a theoretical intellectual point, which is that, of course there are situations where there could be a change in regime that were down to the American national interest. And the very simple point is that a change of the social regime in Venezuela is one such case. Is that what's gonna happen here? Is

that how it's going to play out? Are we going to get Nichols m Duro taking the bashar al asade options, looking all this pressure around him, looking at Trump with a tough talk, looking at the naval blockade, Trump talking about this armada when it comes to the shifts again, I'm thinking it's a literal three and sixty degree blockade. But there are there's a lot of US military equipment and vessels there now in US Southern Commands led by the USS Gerald Ford Striker Group. Is Maduro going to

get the message? Is he banking on a bailout from Putin or a huge imping that's not going to come. I don't know. Your mileage may vary there. But what I do know is that when it comes to the notion of regime change, I would caution you against over learning, against over learning the lessons of a rock in Afghanistan. There are some regimes that really ought to go. There are some regimes that, in theory them going would enhance

the American national interest. That is not to say that is not to say that the US itself has a moral obligation to impose it the same way that that the United States can, and in the past sometimes has provided forms of morals clandestine material and supports to Iranian protesters. Barack Obama famously said that not doing so in two thousand and nine during the Green Revolution Iran. Obama famous has said that was one of his foremost failures of foreign policy, and he had a lot to choose from

when it comes to foreign policy failures. That's the kind of thing that the United States definitely can do in a situation like this in Venezuela. There so the notion of regime changing, it is not this term to be feared again. I think it is problematic when the US does it of its own accord, unless various factors ultimately do come up. The Peddragon Cycle Rise of the Merlin is the newest original series from the Daily Wire, an epic seven part adaptation of Stephen R. Lawheads acclaimed novels.

I've watched the trailers and they are truly breathtaking. This isn't just another fantasy show. It's a sweeping story of belief, redemption and the origins of Western civilization, told through a bold retelling of the Arthurian legend. The Pentrogon Cycle Rise to the Merlin premieres January twenty second, exclusively on Daily Wire Plus. Watch the new trailer now at Pentragon Series dot Com in other news taking it back to the home front, because Venezuela is not the only thing going on.

I was doing live radio this morning when the latest economic report came out, as have we now actually have official government data on the Q three, that is Q three twenty twenty five, most recent quarter. The ends when it comes to the GDP gross domestic product growth. Those numbers coming in courtesy of the US Commerce Department four point three percent. The inflation just number is coming in at four point three percent annualized growth for July through

September twenty twenty five. That is a lot higher. That is a lot higher than what the eCOM is polled predicted. The consensus that I saw was roughly a full point lower than that three point two percent forecast was among the cocomas polled by the Wall Street Journals a one point one percent ahead of that. That's even an increase

when the previous quarter three point eight percent. So look, whatever you might think about truck tariffs, and I think reasonable minds can vary when it comes to trade in general. When it comes to this trade off between lower prices and domestic production, these are these These are these are value judgments. These are value judgments upon which are reasonable people who hold reasonable differing values can indeed disagree. But whatever there is to say about that, the economy is reving, Okay,

the economy is clearly revving. And this is going to be just further wined at Donald Trump's sales from his speech at the White House last Wednesday evening, six days ago where he gave this speech touting the economy and saying that it's doing really well. And now there is further evidence, I would say to tremendously really underscore the exact point that that he is making. Again, the terriffs, whatever I think of them, are clearly not having an

effect at all at all. For that matter, when it comes to the gross domestic product, the terriffs went in place, at least the first slew of them went to place in early April. That was Donald Trump's so called Liberation Day speech at the Rose Garden of the White House there. And now we've had a quarter and a half, we've had basically two quarters, close to two full quarters when it comes to GDP data, and guess what, the ECAMI

is still just reving along just fine. Let's got now in watch Mark Tepper of Strategic Wealth Partners at the CEO. He was on Fox Business talking about this new GDP report. We are looking right now at the GDP number at four point three percent is the actual number versus an estra of three point three percent?

consumer remains strong. And just think next I think, well, next quarter they'll end up getting an extra one hundred and fifty billion dollars in refund checks that they can then deploy and spend as well. So great number.

percent growth. That's that's really desirable, really desirable there. So this is this is number of the Donald Trump should be proud of. At the same time. At the same time, there was a poll that I saw from over the weekend, a poll that was that was conducted by the American Research Group that I saw trending on social media that said, is your household financial situation better or worse off than

it was a year ago? And unfortunately for the President, this poll showed sixty five percent American and say that their household finanal situation is actually worse off compared to last year, compared to seven percent that say it is better off. The rest say that there's been no real change.

That's a problem. Now, making that connection between actual raising, elevating GDP, actual macroeconomic data more generally that is trending in a sound direction when it comes to inflation, when it comes to GDP, when it comes to all the various metrics there. Making that connection between that, and then making the median American person actually feel that that is easier said than done. That is the role for statesmen,

That is the role for first class politicians there. But at least when it comes to the messaging, what we've encouraged the President and his team to do on this show is to try to show as much empathy as possible. Don't be raped the American people. Don't say the ecmmyne is great, you should be grateful for it. That is the mistake that Joe Biden made. That's a mistake that Kareem, Jean Pierre and the other idiots of the Biden regime did over and over and over again. They epically botched

the commune. That's how we got to nine point one er scent inflation three and a half years ago. In the summer twenty twenty two, they epically boss you, and then they say, basically, shut up and be grateful for it. That's not a winning message. That is not a winning message, guys. I'm not saying that Trump's doing that, by the way, but I did hear at least some shades of that.

During his talk at the White House last week. He also, correctly, into his great credit emphasized this is very much a work in progress as well, so good, so continue to emphasize that it's a work in progress. I understand that some of you are not necessarily feeling what the economy and the economists tell me is happening with the data there. We are working every day to make sure that you can fill up your truck at the pump and not

have to worry about breaking the bank count. I want to make sure that you can go to the grocery store and make sure that you're not making any trade offs when it comes to what to feed your family over the weekend. You know, basic things like that. Just show a little more empathy, frankly, and I think that would actually go a very long way. But for now, the economic data looking really, really, really good when it comes to the Trump administration, and that is a tremendous

credit fring. That is to the great credits of Kevin assets to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and really just all the folks general there, Scot p Assent of the Treasury Secretary, all the folks on the economic team, they deserve a lot of a credit.

of the Herridge Foundation, released a pretty horrific video. And I don't like christ and Kevin because I've had very cordial relations with Kevin for many years. I think he's a decent human being. But he made an egregious error here in this video. And he basically defended the video and staid there's essentially nothing Tucker could do that would make him persona non grata when it comes to a relationship with him at the Heritage Foundation. And the repercussions

have been nothing less than astonishing. This entire anti Semitism task force that they had set up a Heritage left.

They lost various members of the board's trustees, a handful of them actually by now, they lost some of their most iconic senior fellows at the organization, people like Chris Dumouth, people like Stephen Moore, And now just over the past few days, somewhere between a dozen and a half and two dozen employees, including the vast bulk of the economic team and the legal team, have picked up and left

from the Herriage Foundation. They've either been fired or they've resigned, including people who've been affiliate with Heritage for a very long time. I mean to name just one name, Hans von Spakowski, who is a specialist when it comes to election law, when it comes to voter fraud, when it comes to election integrity, illegal immigration. Hans is a first rate scholar. He's been a Heritage for a very long time, one of the national experts in his particular field. He resigned.

He resigned just yesterday, literally hours actually after he was made the inter head or interim co head of the Mease Legal Center, because the rest of the Legal Center was either fired or resigned. By the way, the MEAs of the Edwin Meaes Legal Center is a former Ronald Reagan Attorney General, Edwin Mests, who's long and doubted that position. He actually went ahead himself and took his namesake. He

took the me Center. That is literally Ronald Reagan Attorney General, took the me Center out of Heritage and moved it with most of the rest of the staff to AAF Americans Advancing Freedom, which is the organization affiliated with Mike Pence. Now we're not huge Mike Penn's fans necessarily here on the show, and we can quit bal as to whether or not that organization is going to save the day when it comes to the American rights. I think probably not.

And I would have liked to have seen some of these folks who were either shown the door or resign Heritage end up at some other organization that didn't have the taint of Mike Pence. But this is just a massive, massive, five alarm fire at this point for the Heritage Foundation. And it's very difficult, frankly for me to see how they can how they can restore their credibility. I mean,

what exactly can you do at this point? You've lost god knows how much money when it comes to donations, You've lost god knows how much influence when it comes to various members of the board who resigns, when it comes to senior fellows of some of your most iconic people. There what exactly is left of the Heritage Foundation team? And I won't reveal sources, but I'm still friendly or friends with plenty of people inside the building and the

Heritage Foundation headquarters. And what I am told what I am told is that if bad people are hired to replace the folks who left. So if they want to double down on this Tucker friendly direction, they want to hire a bunch of groper economists, for instance, whatever the heck that even means, then I think there are going to be other divisions, other teams of scholars at Heritage who will exit stage left asap. So this is nothing

less than a catastrophic self inflicted wound. And if it's self inflicted wounds that came from the place of doctor Robert speaking of a half Heritage, that they are no longer actually valuating principles and convictions and policies and subjective ideas. What it means to be conservative? What is conservatism? What is the American rights? Why does this matter?

Where does it end? I have no idea, And frankly, for the folks who are currently on the board at Heritage. How are you guys letting this happen exactly? I mean, how are you letting this much damage, this much carnage happened to the institution. You know, that's frankly another question that also be asked here as well. But this is this, of course, happening in the broader context of the turning Point USA and FEST conference that we spoke about a

great length on yesterday's show. This ongoing debate as to what the right stand for, what are the parameters, what who is part of the rights, who is not part of the rights. Should we listen to certain crank conspiracy podcasters or should we not? Interesting clip that I came across from Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, currently the US Ambassador to Israel, all rounds, good men, good American.

a data problem. We have not downloaded the proper data, the correct, the true data, into the minds of younger people, and we've assumed that they're going to grow up intellectually curious and intellectually honest, and that they will look for themselves. But they're not. That's the problem. They're not looking. They're taking it face value, what some podcaster says, and the result is absolutely dangerous.

and so forth. There those who are involved in something quite different than that, who are involved in what I like to refer to as a brain rot op, in a sprawling brain rot operation, they do not deserve your respect. They don't deserve your time, your clicks, your download, or

your concern. And at a certain point, if these folks who think of themselves as being part of the coalition are doing so much incredible damage to undermine that coalition's very vitality, that coalitions very chances of success when it comes to the ballot box, when it comes of defeating our actual threats, which is the left something that I couldn't agree more on than at some point those folks

perhaps not actually in the coalition. At the end of day, if you were undermining your own purported cause, consider the possibility that you were actually not part of that cause. If you are consistently shooting yourself in the foot at best, or trying to sabotage things at worse, then consider the possibility that you're out. There's no need to just continually welcome, welcome, Welcome,

into the tent there. So again, I think that there was part of this is a noble backlash against the cancel culture wars for a long time, and I was very passionate about this. I've dedicated a lot of time speaking and writing and talking legal theory when it comes to Section two thirty in anti trust and common carriation. I spent a lot of time unpacking America is big tech censorship issue been a major major theme of our show and my writings outside the show for a long time.

But to say that it was wrong for mainstream conservatives to be censored shadow band or d platforms during the Jack Dorsey era of Twitter for talking about things like the Hunter Biden laptop or about how transgenderism is alive. That is very different. Righteous combination of shadow banning and deplatforming for things like that. That is very different than fast forward to today. For saying that it's quote unquote cancelation to simply criticize someone else within the alleged purporterfold.

Because that's what they're saying about those of us who don't have a problem speaking up against the Tucker Carlson, Candice owns a Sammy. They're telling us that we're engaged in cancelation. What again, No one's trying to cancel anyone. This is a free country. Go to rumble, go to YouTube, go to your Instagram, meals, TikTok, whatever the hell you want to do, go get on there and monetize it to your heart's content. That's fine with me, That's fine

with anyone. I know. What we're saying here is who is part of the twenty twenty eight coalition. And the more that you welcome in the crazies. The more that major, major iconic concern institutions like the hairsmon Nation play foot seat with the crazies, the greater the chances of a president's gavenusmwhere president aocr This is the part that I

wish more people understood. For every eighteen or nineteen year old basement dwelling graper that you're trying to bring into the coalition, you're going to repulse three, four or five relative normies, Hispanics, black men, Jews, all the various groups that were coming increasingly to the Trump coalition, this whole notion of the multi ethnic working class coalition. How many times do we hear that buzzword? We heard a lot

because it was a real thing, young people. For goodness sake, all these former elements of the Obama coalition have been trending right word. It's an amazing thing. Don't mess it up. I see a lot of people, frankly, that are interested, if nothing else, in trying to muddy the waters, potentially even mess this up. And that causes me great concern, not really frankly as a Jew, but as an American

who wants to see America prevail. And the only way that America prevails is for the right to prevail, and the right must be capable of prevailing, have the intellectual fortitude to actually prevail, and that means, frankly, patrolling our own boundaries. One final notes for today's show, and it's something of a somber one. Ben sass the former senator from from Nebraska and he became most recently the president of the University of Florida. Your mileage may vary on

Ben Sas as an individual. I certainly was not the greatest fan of all of his exploits in the US Senate. Sanctimonious Sassis on my former Senate staffers calt him and those all sorts of investigative work from his time at the University of Florida showing potential corruption there. Okay, your mileage to me very like I said there. And I've had my I've had my own prisons. But none of that's really relevant for the posts that he posted earlier today.

And it's uh, it's really quite hard wrenching, galling stuff. So Ben Sas posted I'm only gonna read a snippet of it. The full thing is available at his at his x feed at Ben SaaS he writes, quote, Friends, this is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I'll cut to the chase. Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized stage four pancreatic cancer, and I'm gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff. It's a death sentence, but I already

had a death sentence. But before last week two we all do. I'm blessed with amazing siblings and half a dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, sure you're on the clock, but we're all on the clock. Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Look, it's a lot longer of a post. I could read more of it, but I think you get the gist of it. Frankly from there, you know. I read this and I thought back to

my childhood. I grew up, among other things, as as a diehard fan of the New York Yankees baseball team. My childhood bedroom was something of a shrine to the New York Yankees. We have partial season tickets. I watch virtually every game in fact my brother and I are are childhood baby sitters were actually these two brothers who were both bat boys for the Yankees in the mid

nineteen nineties. So I grew up steeped in the Yankees Lord and my favorite player in the history of baseball was the Yankee great Lou Garrick, who many folks remember for being the cleanup hitter when Babe Ruth was batting third. He was rep behind Babe Ruth in the nineteen twenty seven Yankees lineup, one of the greatest lineups in the history of Major League Baseball, and Garrigan de was oftentimes

overshadowed by Babe Ruth. He was an extraordinary basil player in his own right, but as extraordinary as he was a player, he was arguably even more extraordinary as a human being. He grew up dirt poor as the son of German immigrants in New York City and then became one of the greatest basil players of all time. And he was dealt a tremendous blow when he was diagnosed way way too young with als the disease that is now known as Lou Gharrig's disease. And in this clip

that perhaps you have seen. If not, you should really watch it. This grainy black and white footage from about eighty five years ago. Now more or less, they brought out lou Garrey that thats the Yankees in nineteen forty one, when he was in the final year ish of his life for lou Geyrig Appreciation Day. He also, like Ben Sas, knew that he was going to die. And what Ben's excuse me, What lou Gareg famously said was he was not there to cry and to bemoan his bad luck,

his bad a lot in life. What he said was today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. He said that he may have caught a bad break, but he had an awful lot to live for. It's one of the most inspiring things that I've ever heard from a pro athlete, or one of most aspiring things that I've ever heard from from frankly anyone. And I saw shades of that in Ben SAS's post

this morning. The first thing to say is I offer my whatever it's wor, my absolute sincereous, heartfelt condolences both the center Sass and to his family, his children. Unspeakable stuff. Truly, I simply cannot even imagine him. The broader message, perhaps, is this, this is the most wonderful time of the year.

As we say this stretch between Thanksgiving a late no November and New Year's Day Christmas coming up this Thursday, It's a time of the year to take stock of the most important things of family and congregation and community, and your children, your loved ones, your faith, God Almighty in the heavens, and we're all made in the image of God. That's the truth of Genesis one, verse twenty seven, the verse that changed all of human history for the better.

God loves each and every one of us. He loved lou Garrig, not necessarily because Lou Gary was a Hall of fam Basse player. He loved Lou Garrey because Louke Garrey was one of his sons. He loves Ben Sas too, not necessarily because Ben Sas was a senator or the president of Universe Parry, not because Ben Sas was one of his sons. He loves me, and he loves you too.

We all have so much to be grateful for, and perhaps maybe this would be a particularly good time to give your loved ones a particularly large hug and remind them that you really, truly do very much love them as smartophos. Hope you like and subscribe to The Josh hammershow wherever you get your podcast or video fee if you're just listening to show our video fee is available at Newsweek's YouTube page, also available at the Salem News

Channel Salemnewschannel dot com. But for now, Josh Hammer is signing off Onnday's episode of The Josh Hammers