Get ready, Hey, is.
This thing on?
February sixth, twenty twenty five. You know, I've always found that to be the dumbest thing I ever heard. When somebody tries to speak into a mic and says, you know, is this thing on? You know right away if it's on or not. It's impossible not to know that. Anyhow, Look here we are, we're live. I mean, if you're live on a mic in a room, you definitely know if you're on or not. And if not, what good
is that mic? But anyhow, it is a Thursday Thursday, and you know, somebody I haven't spoken to in months, and really I guess not much since I think we might have recapped the Lancer conference maybe, and then that was it. I was sick after that and then the holidays, and God help us, all reality has shifted now. But Mike Swanson Wall Street Window dot com, you know you can still go over there and sign up for his
email list. Last I looked, and I would if I was you, because one of the only places that doesn't seem to be suffering from the effects of of I don't know what to make of the current reality, but anyway, it is news. It's all that stuff. Mike Swanson the author of the War State and of course Why the
Vietnam War. And we're looking forward to seeing what Mike might come up with this year into next as far as you know authorship, I'm anxious to see, I mean because at least I know I'm gonna get some sanity. Mike Swanson, How you doing, man, all.
I'm doing good. It's great to talk to you.
I'm glad you're feeling a lot better than you were a couple of weeks ago.
Too.
Well, for a couple of months I was in rough shape. And now people are going to notice that he sounds a little weird. I got a cold too, but I'm getting over it. And the cold the bad head called was like, well, this headache sucks, but this is nothing compared to, you know, a feeling like you're fading from reality. So it's just a cold. And no, it's not the the the what, the rona or the VID or whatever
it is they're calling it nowadays. But yeah, I got some kind of head cold, but I'm getting over it. How's your health been? Have you been good all this time? I mean again, we we kind of communicated here and there and we did speak off there, but nobody's heard from you in my little universe here. So how have you been.
Oh, my health has been fine. I just take a year ago. Last year, I just slowed down and as far as putting out content on the Internet and engaging in you know, media stuff across the board, and slowed down. I'm still in that mode, uh right, because they just think everything's so chaotic and uh well, every amount of influence.
Everything has changed, right, this is what well I.
Was came to this feeling before Trump was elected. This was you know, before the election.
Well, see, you're good at recognizing this stuff ahead of when we're all choking on it, which is, you know, why you were able to make Let's be honest, this is why you were able to make a living, you know, in the stock market and even with the hedge fund, and that you know earlier, is because you could recognize things before they really struck. Okay, And and I've noticed that about you.
You're not a.
Panic guy or anything, but you always tell me stuff like ahead of time, like look, things are about to get a little weird here. Uh And you're you're you know right most of the time. And I mean the majority of the time.
Oh, in that vein, I got good and bad news.
Yes see, there you go, And that's the weird I saw these weird movements in the stock market. Now, as you well know, I'm the guy who says, look, it's a casino and it ain't my casino. But I know that this effects a lot of people, and it affects people mentally, I think more than it does financially most
I mean, well, not more than. Let's say, it affects more people mentally than it does people financially directly, because it literally sets people's minds going in a certain way about how the conditions are in the country, even if they're not directly involved in the stock market. Right, So I know that it's one of those things, like you know again, I mean Trump the example, why not you know, when the stock market's up, He's like, hey, it's up
because I'm doing a good job. Doesn't mean that it has anything to do with him, but he'll take that credit and most people will accept that, and other people do that too. You know what the market's doing, well, that means I'm doing a good job. America is in good shape. Well, here's the strange thing. There's very bipolar reactions happening to like everything every other day seems like, you know, whether it's the tariffs or the you know, a parent or upcoming or possible trade wars or deep
mass deportations, how's that could effect us? Or or now now we're gonna we're gonna own the Godza strip all those things, right, and the market is moving based on some of these things. Uh, but what I don't know how to even follow what's happening, Like, is the market now even though it was the fast moving thing before, is it moving too slow to keep up with the latest declaration and the latest thing that the latest shockwave we're all like riding on. How do you think that's going, Mike?
I mean, is that is that a truism? I mean, help me understand this.
Well, it went up the last two years back to back.
Oh yeah, but they pay no attention to that because Biden is blown. I mean, look, everything sucked for us, so Biden was blowing up the economy and most people think the market must not have been going. Nobody talked about it really past two years, you know what I mean, It wasn't the mainstream focus. But police continue the past two years went up, go ahead.
Well, it's unlikely.
You know, if a financial market goes up two years twenty percent, it's not likely to do that again. And then in the third year it's likely to actually do very little. And since Trump's been in office, Uh, there been two moments where the stock market had a big down opening but then came back.
And one was a couple of weeks ago, the news was.
That China has some AI app that's competing with Google and Apple and who you know these American AI companies, Yeah, this this thing, they're right. And then this Monday when the tariff, Trump's tariff announcements hit the market.
But both at times happened.
The market turned around and rallied and it really had no impact. Now, the action two weeks ago is very interesting because a lot of the companies involved with AI fell substantially, one of them being Navidio, which has now become there has been one of the most widely owned stocks and the entire stock market among people because it's been one of the best performing stocks.
It fell seventeen percent two weeks ago.
That Monday, but the market averages didn't follow that much. And what happened was that individual people investors. They used it as a buying opportunity. They buy ETFs and other stocks, and they do this all the time, every single day. And as long as they have jobs and don't need to take the money out of their accounts, they're like, they're just going to keep doing this, and they're they're helping provide a cushion for the stock market, uh and
all that. So that's one thing helping the market stay afloat. But as I said before, when something has a big move in two years, typically it'll eventually go sideways and not do anything for nut for a year or six months or twelve months or a little longer. I think that's really what's happening in the big picture, and these you know, daily moves up and down. I don't think
a really it's going to mean that much. I just I don't really think much is going to happen in the stock market, and probably not even the economy, uh for that matter.
Well, it does get people's attention, right, And I'd say something else I thought of, Well, you and I hadn't spoken that I saw and it's exactly the opposite of what we were just talking about, is uh, you see this algorithm based on Paul and Nancy Pelosi's stock moves, like they're tracking what they're doing and offering it as like a trading uh saw.
And it's exactly the right.
Did you see that where they offered as a you know, like a trading algorithm like follow this the Paul and Nancy plan or whatever.
I haven't seen it, but I believe yeah, selling something like that, I can believe it.
Yeah. I thought it was hilarious. And I thought to you immediately, not because you would do something like that, but because I knew it was like Michael would definitely call this out as you know, of course, this is some new gimmick. And that's the thing about the stock market is no matter what, there's always a new a new gimmick with the you know, with some other new way to like, you know, whether it's Robin Hood or
it's you know, uh. In the nineties, I think it was bigger with the with it day traders were like, hey, now you could just sit at home and trade, you know, and stuff like this, like they were offering access uh and and different access points and then different strategies, and I mean, and that's what that business has become, right, I mean, this is I think partially why you sort of got out of it, or am I wrong about that?
Yeah, No, you're right, it's it's it's a lot of carnival barking.
Well, yeah, I mean this is partially why, like, you know, I've stepped away from the labels of like alternative media and all, because it's like, no, I don't want to be associated with these characters that are doing certain things or claiming certain things. I don't want to be anywhere near it anymore because it's it just doesn't you know, it doesn't stand with the results that people are going to get out of it. I don't want to be
even remotely associated. And that might be where you're at too, you know, you like you actually have an idea that you don't want to harm people.
Right you know, well, yeah, this sort of stuff in the financial markets, you know, right, Trump got inaugurated, it's not even been a month.
In forty eight hours.
Before he took the oath of office, he launched.
A meme coin.
Yeah, the crypto, a.
Trump meme coinin in his you know, the family did it his family business. You know, he's not at this point, you know, it's just not just him, it's the family, and it achieved evaluation instantly if billions of dollars fifty four billion I think was the number. And then they followed that up after he got in office with a Milania coin, and.
It's just amazing. That's that's he is the king of crypto.
Now, how did the Milania coin do? I wonder? Wonder? And also now he's actually a billionaire. I'm I mean before you could argue and you can talk about what's his debt versus and everything else, but that actually made him a millionaire. I mean you got to give him that, right yeah, yeah, But now you know, how did Malania
coin do that? I mean that first initial meme coin, I was like, well, of course the people that really believe in what it is he's doing are and that's what sells something like that.
Right, Well, it reached a evaluation of close to close to ten billion dollars. No, that's not bad, and it's fallen though it's now only worth seven hundred million. But you know the thing about it is that for the Trumps, that's didn't cost them anything to do, right, you know, that's just money out of thin air that they create in the crypto market, and some people are arguing that this is a very correc thing for them to have done.
To take advantage of, you know, going into office and doing something like that, you kind of have to go back to the Coolidge administration or really the the what's his name, the Grant administration. There is a manipulation in the price of gold that took place in the Grand administration, not by the President himself, but by some people who were associated with them and used that relationship to operate
at what that time was a criminal operation. This though, is not really a regulated market, and they've promised to eliminate any regulations that are out there. That said, there is an internet celebrity last year to talk to a girl who in December created a coin, probably under the influence of other people.
I doubt she knew what she was getting involved in.
It crashed, and ever since then she's completely vanished and she's being charged with crimes.
Well, so, I mean, a weird thing happened a couple of years ago with that guy, mister Beast too, right where there was like some sort of mister Beast coin that was creative. And the weird thing about that is that it's kind of not clear as to whether he even knew about it. And that's a strange thing where at certain points, I mean, there's a lot of shady stuff that's gone on.
Well, now you know, we've just spoken about the official, the real Donald Trump coin. Now there's all these knockoffs, you know, Maggot coin this, and you know, stuff with Trump's name in it, and people were really trying to fool people into thinking they're Trump when they're not a very horrible thing to do, but.
It's just like, but it's just like that thing I told about it the flea market where you got like the Maga you know, a stall at the flea market where yeah, they're selling the Maga hats and all that. And the funny thing is though they're not actually the things that the president is selling. They're not being sold by the virtual campaigner.
Whether you know.
About saying it's a corrupt act, some people say that, but.
That's the funther thing. You agree with that or not.
That's the funny thing to me is that even though I'm one of these guys who is, like you know, almost always first to tell you, look, Trump is corrupt or whatever, in this case, he's actually taken advantage of a pocket of time where there's no regulation, saying that there's really nothing wrong with what he did.
He's not broken any lost.
What he has done is review revealed the true purpose of the crypto market, right.
That's the crate.
Riches overnight for people who can create these coins or manipulate these coins. And I understand it only costs like less than ten thousand dollars maybe five or six to create a coin yourself.
Anyone can create a coin.
Yeah, you just got to get people.
To buy it a few it's the hard part.
A few years ago, I don't know if we you and I talked about this a few years ago. There was a way, maybe like five six years ago, there wasn't even cheaper methodology to creating a coin, and like you were, you and I could have created coins. And I remember talking with you about this and I said, you know, we could just make coins, but I don't think it would it's not going to do as any good.
And even if so, they're gonna be worth two dollars apiece, you know, but hell, it would be a fictitious thing. Like I told you about how they sell magic cards online and you get, you know, a picture of a magic card and it says you own it and whatever, and it goes into your little wallet that you can use in the game or whatever. But that's it. It doesn't actually physically exist. There's no tangible you know, resale value except to somebody else who thinks it has value.
And that's the way it is. And that's what this is, is a giant like landscape of these things now right or am i or am I seeing this?
That's what it is, you know, thousands of them.
I think it's like in the days when again in the nineties right there, there were the when the big old online games came out and you started being able to sell like your gold pieces from the game. People would sell them on eBay and people were like upset about it, like how are you selling these fake gold pieces for real money? And I'm like, because somebody wants them, And that's the nature of that. That that's like the nature of everything is it only has value if somebody
believes it does. And that's the way everything works. You know, Like, why is it that, for instance, you know, a loap of bread is only this amount of money because that's what people figure it's worth. You know, you get a couple of days worth of food out of it, or you can feed a couple of people with a loap of bread. Therefore it's worth a couple of bucks. And
that's it. That's the way this works. And you know, most places and most producers of any product, whether it's something practical or otherwise, will usually find their spot in the market and sell it at the maximum value they can get. And that's I don't know the way the world works. Maybe I'm crazy. So whether it's a physical, tangible thing or it's imaginary, it's kind of irrelevant because
it just is. And at this time now, one could argue that he has control over the things that should be regulating this, that should be looking into this, and obviously he's not going to bust himself. But isn't it weird a couple of years from now, somebody might have a whole bunch of regulations in place where we look back on this and go, gee, you know, if these regulations were there, Trump would have really been in trouble
for real. But maybe not. I don't know, you know, I don't know how this is going to go or if it's going to be one of those things that disappears or what I mean. As a matter of fact, I remember at one point somehow the bitcoin was on literally the same a server that was carrying the Magic cards. That's why I brought up to magic cards in the first place. It was the mount Gox scandal. Do you remember that.
Oh? Yeah, sure, it was a crypto crash, exchange crash.
Yeah, because all of a sudden nobody could get a hold of the exchange that was held under the Magic Cards and I knew about the Magic Cards server, and yeah, that's what happened, is that somebody didn't have a key anymore to something and boom. These people that had you know, money invested, they couldn't get their coins. They were just
locked off. Boom gone. You know. And there's a strange thing at the center of bitcoin anyway, where there's like, you know, a trillion dollars worth of coin now sitting in a wallet that was allegedly created by the creator of the coin in the first place, that has never been accessed. And I'm sure you know about that too, right. I'm just saying it's a weird world. It is not.
In one way, it's very understandable way everything works. Something new comes into existence and then finds a market value and there it is, or it doesn't and it goes away, you know, sort of like the idea of like, why is it that people are you know, hey, where can I buy a VCR mike? You can't generally speaking, I mean, you might be able to find one, but nobody's making
them because people are not demanding them, so therefore no VCRs. Okay, But in the case of if there's a demand for something, you'll be able to get a price for it, cheap or expensive or what doesn't matter. So I don't know, I don't see the foul even it's a little weird and it seems a little suspect that, you know, right before he goes into office, let me let me now become a billionaire for real?
But what the hell?
I actually don't see where somebody can legitimately complain about it anyway. I'm sorry, go ahead, but what are your thoughts on that? I mean, I'm breaking it down from a very common standpoint here, but this just seems to be the way of the world to me.
Oh, he's the king of crypto, more is.
I don't know, he's also got I know, he got a season desist from the guitar people. You see that because he got the you know, the Trump guitars and okay, yeah, it looks too much like I forget Les Paul or one of the one of the big guitar makers like sent to the season to assist because it's way too much like their design, you know, his mega guitar. Oh okay, yeah, And but but things, you know what, give it enough time. Things change. I mean, at one point, didn't he just
perform with the village people too? And for a little while, weren't they saying they didn't really want him using their song? You know, I'm just saying, just saying things are changing. So uh, you know, who am I to argue? Well, I'm gonna argue all the time, but it doesn't mean I'm gonna win any argument or anybody else is. So it is what it is. Uh, And you got to recognize that some things are just gonna go that way. I mean, that's the attitude I'm trying to take. Am I crazy, What do you think?
I mean?
I think what I really think is that right now, you know, she's got in office. We've been we had him as president before, and he.
Learned from that.
How it set up an agenda for what he wants to do now at the same time, the yah, it's just this is the call before the storm. That's what it is. This is the golden age right now, you're in it. This is the Trump Golden Age.
Now.
The problem is it's probably not going to last, for He's not going to feel like a golden age in a couple of years.
Well, it depends on who you are, doesn't it. Because you know, right now, you could be upset that they're charging fifty cents more at the waffle house when you add an egg, right it could be that you could be mad about the price is not going down. You could be mad about the Ukraine War not stopping. Or you could be happy that things are going the way that you think they're supposed to go. It's a multiple choice. At this point, it seems to me, you know what
I mean? And I don't know, it's very, very weird to observe, like I'm trying to find like actual opposition to what's going on because there's a big media shift and I told people this was happening, and of course I'm crazy, but you know, the media has gone pretty much normal with this whole Trump thing, and okay, great,
that's the way it is. But actual opposition sounds crazier than the mainstream media used to sound because they have this weird idea that somehow the country's shifting, they're shifting against all this, and I don't buy it. I think everybody's got their own ideas about what's happening. And until the real shockwave hits from a lot of things, I mean, and it's nothing happens overnight. That's the first problem, especially
with government. It's not going to move that quickly. People's attitudes change, people's impressions of what's happening changed quickly, but the actual effects do not set in right away, no matter what you want to believe. And Trump was going around meeting with people and everything even ahead of being inaugurated. And I guarantee you there was a lot of people that thought he was already president, you know, the day after the election, and in a way to them, he was.
He was already their leader. So you know, who am I to argue except the facts that he hadn't actually taken office. It doesn't matter because my reality doesn't have to match yours, you know. I mean, this is the weird world we live in now. Anyway, Look what else has been on your mind though? Outside of that, Like you said, here's the golden age, but give it, give it two years and see how golden people think it is.
And I agree with that always. I think that you've got wait a year before you know, even the beginning effects of a new administration coming in, a new Congress coming in. You've got to give them a year to actually get something done before you can even you know, start to feel what's really happening. That's always been my attitude. Maybe again I'm wrong about that, and I have an outdated concept of it, but you think that's the truth people need to wrap their minds around, or what.
Well?
I mean, really the average person. You know, they get upset about who the president is. They didn't you know, they don't like this president or that president.
But in the end, I don't.
Actually think it makes who the president is for the average person. I don't think makes much difference to what's going.
On in their day to day life.
I don't think the president's policies had to give you you have that much of an impact on people's day to day life. You know, they're not going When Bush invade Iraq, you know, if you weren't in the military, it had no impact on your daily life. Unless you knew someone going over there or were in the service, it had no impact on your life.
You cared about was going over there, then what do you care?
And when Biden was president, you know, Trump in Biden's opponents blamed him for the inflation, right, you know, they said he was causing oil to go up because he was into environmentalism and.
So forth.
In reality that the oil price had almost nothing to do with the rise of inflation that took place. Biden had basically nothing to do with it either. And it's just and then the inflation is still here. You know, you cited the waffle house. They're raising the prices because of the eggs. Now, the rate of change of the prices going up is not what it was a couple of years ago, but it's still high. You know, it's
higher than it was before twenty twenty. And I'm not I don't think it's going to change that much this year, but there's no reason it can't get I think it's going to get worse before before the end of Trump's term. And I'm not even saying he's responsible for it. I'm just using this as one example of the average persons to day to day life. Isn't that impacted by the president. And that's really the reality.
Of how it just is.
You know, back in the Middle Ages, people lived under kings, but the king had almost even less impact on their.
Day to day life.
In fact, one of the reasons for the rise of Christianity as we know it was because the Roman Empire was losing its influence in daily life, right, and.
They and the the religion.
Helped the rise of Christianity, helped people become.
It helped it make it so.
It wasn't just pure chaos with the Roman Empire disintegrating. People had a moral reason to treat each other well or a religious reason to treat each other well, and people were able to trust each other in a time in which the Roman Empire was debate, you know, just getting worse and worse and you know, losing its influence the period.
Okay, while becoming more debased.
In essence, that's in a way what's actually in some ways happening to us, to our country.
We're losing our influence right in the rest of the world. Yeah, I think we're not the sole superpower anymore.
Right, And the way we're trying to the government, the way we're trying to deal with that is, you know, by acting strong against other countries. We've been using sanctions, you know, over the past twenty years against several countries as the main tool to try to influence their behavior, and there's no evidence it's ever influenced any behavior in any country. And what's Trump is simply one of the things he's doing. He's now using his mouth you were,
as you know, too, to try to show strength. You know, if we can talk about annexing theoretically different countries, that sounds, you know, like we're really strong, when in reality, the peak of American strength, you know, maybe it was when the Berlin Wall fell, or maybe it was uh as World War two is coming to an end, but.
It's on the downslide now.
And at the same time, as a people were becoming more the government structures or our institutions are slowly have been fading to influence over people. That influence of the media in mainstream media has been in a slow decline since the Canty assassination and now it's collapsed. Absolutely nothing we've witnessed a rapid to collapse. You know, it was slowly falling, and then after the in the past couple
of years, it's just collapsed to nothing. So the ratings for the television networks, you know, after the election, it collapsed, the news networks, TV completely collapse.
But here's the problem, right, because TV in and of itself is becoming less relevant because it just doesn't work that way. You know, again, there was a time period when you and I were growing up. Yeah, cable TV existed the whole time, both of us were alive. By the way, cable TV existed, but it wasn't everywhere. So you and I actually saw the rise and fall of
the apex of the strength of television. I saw a weird media analyst, and I don't remember where he was, but he made the argument that it actually coincides with the rise and fall of Saturday morning cartoons, which is a weird thought. But bear with me a second. You remember when each major network basically I used to watch them, you know, had Saturday morning car course to watch them. Of course you did. You and I were children in
the seventies and eighties. Therefore, we watched Saturday morning cartoons. But in the mid nineties that started to end. Yeah, and then by the early two thousands it was totally gone, like the very last vestige of it was like the CW was the last one to give up the ghost on the networks, you know, And the CW didn't even exist when this thing came into existence in the early sixties. But really the early sixties to the mid nineties is the time when all of that network broadcast television stuff
was at its strongest. That was it, that was the big influencer, so to speak. Well, that landscape is basically gone. You know, this idea that like there's a trusted news guy, there's a trusted news source. Forget it, it's over, you know. And the thing is, it kind of went natural because people don't get around the TV. They don't centralize around the TV. You know, let's get everybody in the house
around the TV or the radio or something. There's no longer that everybody pulls out a phone or a tablet and watches something that they want to watch, and nobody's watching the same stuff. There's a million options, and you don't watch them because they're being live broadcast. Usually. I mean, some things I guess people do catch live and I have trouble finding live feeds of things anymore. But the truth is that nobody cares about the live TV news
broadcasts or whatever. They pick up on it later, they pick up on clips later, they go to YouTube and catch the recap. And that's the way of the world. Now that's a totally different landscape than I better be home at six o'clock. And then again, I hope i'm home at eleven so I can catch the news of the day. That's not happening anymore. And it's just like the Saturday morning cartoons that we all watched, you know, when they figured out, you know, kids are home on
Saturday morning. If we put on cartoons, we can sell cereal and toys, you know. I mean it was clearly a financial decision, but it made something that was centralized, and nobody complained when the Saturday morning cartoons went away, because you could watch Saturday morning cartoons anytime. Now you want to put cartoons on for your kids. I mean, first you had vhs and you had DVDs. Now you can just stream them anytime they wake up at three
o'clock in the morning. You want to put cartoons on for them, no problem, as long as you got a Netflix, Hulu something right. Or you know, you want to put on the Muppet Show, or you want to put on a Sesame Street. Well I think Sesame Street actually stopped production. But either way, you can put on old Sesame Street form at four am if you want, no big deal. So the landscape changed due to a natural progression, and
obviously our country has changed. Now he has a change to the degree where we're dealing with you know, he makes a threat, he makes an announcement, and then figures out how to actually implement what he wants to do afterwards. I think that might be the new trend here. And I don't know who's advising him to do it this way, but it's definitely different than the last administration, seems like to me. What do you think?
Yeah, it certainly seems a lot different.
I mean, for sure, I've got I don't.
I mean, I don't know everything going on, but nobody does. But I'll just give one example, what I do, you know, I'll just use one.
I don't know.
Let's just talk about one thing, like the Defense Department, you know, because that's what we're both very interested in, or I've been.
Oh, I was going to ask you before we're done, what you think about Hegxith and you know and all that.
Yeah, I think he's an alcoholic.
I mean, maybe he's a dry drunk, but he's I hope you know. I think he's a figurehead. I think I just actually I just watched a clip, okay of him. He had a meeting in the Pentagon with net and Yahoo and sitting next to Hecseth was the joint use of staff chairman and Ney. I was across the table and the clip was of Hegseth speaking and he said stuff that I just thought was, you know, anyone could say. The first appearance I saw him give after he was confirmed,
he was coming off of an airplane. He was on an airstrip and he said some stuff that to me, when I see him speak, I don't see anyone who I think has a lot of knowledge.
And he didn't in.
His background have the type of experience or knowledge which would suggest that he would be able to even have this be a do a good job in his position.
Now, everything I've said, you know that.
The typical person who supports Trump is now going to blot out everything else I say, or they're very angry right now, you know to have said what I did. But I'm going to suggest that I think what's going on is underneath hag Seth, the Assistant Secretary of Defense and people of that level, and this all the people below them are doing all the work. In fact, I saw heg Seth make a comment I think it was during the confirmation, that's the assistant's going to do the
day to day work. Well, I know, you know, both of us have studied in great detail the Kenny administration, and McNamara did day to day work. To say the guy was not working day to day is ridiculous and whatever you want to say, I want to conceive that you have a secretary Defense who's not doing day to day work. They're not a secretary Defense. So this guy, to me, is not a secretary Defense. He's a He is what he was before he got the job, a television man, a talking head. And that may be why
exactly why Trump picked him. Trump they think, well, this guy's good, got a good appearance, he's good for the our you know, our audience, and he likes he's got a television experience, and you don't you can be a drunk and be good on television.
That's fine.
Well wait a minute, I want to offer something to you, figurehead. Okay, but you and I are working off a bad premise at this point when we think this way, I think, and I'll tell you why, because.
On one another element of this out it's not simply that he's a figurehead. I've left maybe the most why why him? I left something out which I think applies to all these Trump people, or a lot of them, the ones that we you know were in the news a lot Gabbared the.
Cash betel fella. Yeah, none of these people.
Really having a huge knowledge to put them in the position they're in. But and in some ways they're compromised in different ways. I think what that does, though, is it makes it so Trump knows they're going to be totally loyal to them, Whereas the first time around, Trump saw that some people were disloyal. This time by putting someone like Hexith in there, he knows this guy's totally going to be loyal and obedient to Trump. And that's not he's good on television. But that loyalty factor is
what's key. So if the assistant secretary or something you know, don't aren't doing right. HEGXITH will fix that situation and fire for Trump. You know, in Trump's minds, that may be the reason that's set up this way. I don't know, what do you think speculating?
I have another speculation on this, which is that this comes from a managerial philosophy. There are people that you know, they run their company. They run their company right, they are at the head because they really are involved. As matter of fact, they get too deep into micromanaging sometimes and they got to pull back because they're running too much stuff. There are other people get into the executive position and they know that the people below them are
going to do more work than they are. That's just you know, that's what they earned. They figure by getting to that top tier position, and that is the way that they'll function. And those are two different managerial philosophies. You know, there is the manager who's like and you worked in retail also, and so I had likened it to the different retail managers that I run into. And when I worked in retail, I was the kind of manager who, you know, what, if there was nobody to
cover a shift, I covered it. You know what I'm saying if there was something that needed to be done and it wasn't getting done by workers for some reason, I would go and do it. I would find a way to get it done. I didn't just leave it to the staff to figure out. I didn't have good assistant managers. Let's say, I could never find somebody that I could rely on almost as much as myself. So I took it upon myself to run most aspects. Now, did that make it harder on me personally? Yes, But
in a way I owned things though. When things went right, I knew why they went right. When they went wrong, I knew why they went wrong. I didn't just, you know, gather up the explanation and report to you know, the people that were above my head or the people that you know would come and ask me questions. I didn't just report to them because I had an idea what was happening. I was involved with everything, right. That's one
way to go. But another way to go is, look, actually, these people do most of the work, and I'm just gonna go out and report on what's happening and take credit for it. Now, like I said, it's two different management styles, and Trump is definitely the kind of guy.
I mean, you know, the guy, he's built things. He's a real estate Do you think he actually knows how to build anything or knows anything about you know what I mean, or anything really about real estate beyond a couple of things, you know, Does he actually know about banking? Does he know about the loans that he took and things that he I don't think so. I think that quite honestly, he's just the guy who goes out and he sells the brand and he's the ultimate sales guy.
And I think that's the way these positions are cash. Pttel is not an FBI guy, you know what I'm saying. Where's his experience in law enforcement in you know, battling organized criminal organizations? Seriously, this guy knows anything about that. Nope,
E Seth. Has he ever had a position where he ran anything that was you know, large, a large or I mean he probably had a little staff at Fox, you know, of his own that he was in charge of, right, a couple interns, maybe a secretary, But he never ran a large organization. He's got no idea what the logistical problems are with that. I mean seriously, I mean, if
you've never ran employees. If you've never even done that, then you have no idea the type of things that come up, what it is you're going to have to either eat or prepare contingencies for you don't know. So you can do one of two things. You can either put an array of people in that you know know. And that's the thing that we're some people are nervous about, is that the array of people under them is going to get, you know, decimated by these purges and stuff.
You know, they fire enough of the competent people, there won't be anybody left except the guys who can talk to the cameras. Right, But there you go. It's a different management style, and actually, quite frankly, this is more
the real Donald Trump. Last time he had some people in there that you know, might have gotten in under somebody else, even Pompeo, who I definitely disagreed with as the head of the CIA, for God's sake, and definitely would they just switched him to Secretary of State if I remember correctly, And I'm like, what in the hell this guy? But he actually had some qualification, you know what I mean. He had been exposed to some of this stuff before, he had managed things in the government.
He knew what was available and what was not, and what the government was supposed to do. He had some concept of it. I don't think Cash Mattel even knows the full extent of what the FBI does, or you know, or people he's putting in in different positions. I mean, look, I know this is going to make.
Well, wow, he did write a cartoon book Trump.
Uh huh, thank you for making my point. It's you know, you know what I'm saying, though, what do you think about that? I mean, again, I'm trying to be optimistic here. The idea that I mean, the Elon Musk thing is a whole other animal. But as far as these people that they put in, and like I said, some of
the opposition is saying, oh, look at all the incompetent people. Really, if they're not the ones doing the actual work and they're just the ones out there making the statements, then it's a matter of all right, everybody, relax, it's just the guy out there talking. You know, Like, have you ever been exposed to a business where the boss does not know what's actually going on? The guy who owns the business never really knows what's actually happening with the business. Have you ever seen that?
I mean, I can believe that happens.
I've seen it, believe me. It's it's a thing where sometimes yeah.
Yeah I have, Yes I have.
Actually, yes, you get a guy he's got his money in there, and yes I have, and yes he owns it, but he doesn't know anything about it except I own that store. Yeah, and that's it, right. But the people that work there, they know what goes into it, they know what needs to be ordered on a weekly basis, they know what they actually sell, they know how successful they have been or haven't been. And this guy's just like, I'm the owner. So there's a way looking at this.
Is that what's happening now? I'm seeing it that way at this point.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was trying to suggest.
Okay, so you and I were saying the same thing, just different ways.
Yeah, well, I would saying that's what they're what's the word for it, that's the work they're doing. But they're chosen to do this work because they're toy loyal to Trump.
For different reasons, you know. Oh yeah, no, the cash.
But tell guy I think has attached himself to Trump and for several years. Uh Hegsith, you know, is a TV guy and they're just totally loyal to Trump.
Right.
Well, no, that's that's definitely part of the equation. But what I'm saying is, look, I don't care about who's loyal to him and not he does. But what I'm saying is just from our outside perspective, I mean, does it matter to you at all how loyal somebody is to Trump? No, I'd rather that, you know, I got that stupid old idea that they should be loyal to the country. But the thing is, I don't care. What I care about is that we don't have incompetence in there.
That's just you know, clearly uninformed and unaware that could do well.
That's what's scary.
You know, Like you go back to when Kenny was president, the qu A missile crisis and MacNamara's involvement and helping to build a strategy that the blockete that used against Cuba. You know, what would Hesith be doing if he was mac Nomarra. That's that's scary.
Well, because I'm crazy and I watched old I've always watched an analyzed old news footage, and I know we've only got like nine minutes left with you. But the thing is that McNamara was one of those people actually that when Kennedy picked him, he was controversial as like, Okay, the guy ran the Ford Motor Company. Yeah, and he had a job with a bank, but or you know, some executive position with a bank. But is this guy going to be able to run the Department of Defense?
Now if you compare you know, macnamara to Hexeth, okay, seriously, I mean there's absolutely no comparison. But at that time people were like, well, the guy doesn't have you know, the military grit. He might have run Ford, but he never ran something as you know, expansive as the Pentagon could be, you know. And and that's a different culture. That's the other thing. It's totally different culture.
Right.
Heseths has the you know, the supposed benefit. What was he a corporal right at one point, so he actually served in the military. But other than that, what does he have for managerial experience in any arena like this? Nothing? And McNamara they were challenging even though he ran one of the larger companies in the country before that, you know what I'm saying. So it is a different era
at this point. And the other thing about the different era, and I want to get your view on this and let you run out the clock any which way you want after that is what I'm What I'm taking note of is the things that are being said, whether it's by the President or his representatives, or it's the talking points that are going out and conservative media or anything else. The amazing thing to me is that this stuff would have been like earth shattering crazy headlines like during many
other administrations. If you know, if Ronald Reagan had even said We're gonna go ahead and own Gaza, Okay, I mean, because Trump said We're going to own Gaza. Now that's quite a statement. People would have objected to the use of the word own. People would have maybe objected to us getting involved at all. People would have said, what in the hell is he talking about. We don't own that, you know, but Israel owns it, the Palestinians own it.
Whatever your point of view is America doesn't own Gaza and can't own Gaza, but he's talking about it like We're going to go into des Moines and build, you know, major developments and create a whole new living space in that city. He's talking about it like a real estate deal. If any other president had done that, people would have freaked out. You know, we're going to go into a
foreign country and own it. Well, I mean that's pretty much what we've done in some cases where we kind of, you know, you break it, you bought it, Like the whole problem with the Rock, right once we decapitated the regime and took out the military, we kind of broke a country and we kind of had to take it over for a while, but we didn't own it. The whole goal was to hand it back to the people at some point. And he kind of suggests that we're gonna own it and then we're gonna hand it back
to them. We're gonna hand it back to somebody because we're all kinds of people from everywhere are gonna come to Gaza. You know, it's gonna be the what did he say, the riviera of the of the uh of the Middle East? That would be like people would be asking was the president drunk during other administrations and what does this mean? And he said this stuff literally from prepared statement in front of Netanyahu. You know, this is not like some weird off the cuff he didn't know.
As Mike was on thing, this is straight up the language he's using. People would freak out about. But that's not the time period in which we live. Like I said, you know, you can if you consider the comparison between McNamara, who you bring up, and hag sets and like I said, people doubting that mcnameric could handle a Pentagon coming off of running Ford Motor Company and being an executive at a bank or whatever. I forget what the whole thing
his whole resume was, but it wasn't military. It wasn't like, oh, primarily he's a military guy who understands that culture and knows what they need and knows how to fight a war. Nobody would have thought that, uh. And there was open speculation about why is Kennedy picking Ford Motor Company guy to run? Right?
Uh?
And that's what I saw in the news at the time. And that's back when you know, the news wasn't as abrasive and there was only three networks, et cetera. But broadcast news was openly asking, you know, is John is McNamara qualified to be this? You know, the Secretary of Defense, hag Seth, you know, if you're in conservative media, of course he is. And if you're not and you're the opposition, of course he's not. But again, different management styles. Is
he useful in the different different management style? I don't know. I guess we're going to find out. And I'm just hoping there's enough people to keep things, you know, at least stable, even if they want to dismantle it. You don't want total chaos, So you know, do we have enough people in place to not have chaos occur? Is the open question, I guess. But you know, we're not going to know that until it happens, I think, And I'm trying to be optimistic about this. What do you think?
I it seems pretty I don't know, We'll see.
No general generally. By the way, I don't disagree with you. I agree with everything you said, but I'm just saying that. On the other hand, I'm trying to be like, Okay, is this really as bad as it looks to me in my mind? Or is my concept of this coming at it from the wrong angle? I mean, I always ask those questions, and I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubts to the Fox News host that has been put at the head of the the pedagon, and I really am uh seriously, but I don't I don't
know if that's gonna work. But we're gonna find out one way or another, aren't we. And are you know anyway, I don't know if you had any thoughts about the whole we're going to own Gaza and all that, and uh, maybe maybe you do, maybe you don't, or maybe you want to close out with something else. But I'll give the floor to you for the last couple of minutes and then we'll let you go. And I really appreciate
you coming back on. I hope you're going to be back on a little more regular at least once a month or something, please, because I need the sane person to talk to.
Please.
I don't know what to think about the statement. I mean, honestly, when I saw it, I was disgusted, you know, the idea of sending uh, didn't we learn anything from Iraq?
You know, didn't we learn any you know?
He he he's Trump said he Iraq was a mistake. Now he wants this would be an even bigger mistake. I mean, it's crazy, so I think it was a you know, it's also bizarre because when you if you go back and look at that, it's even as if net and Yahoo had no idea. You know, he had of this by language a look on his face. He was excited and gleeful to see that. You know, apparently the United States is willing to do anything for Israel at this point.
Yeah, I think he was caught off guard, but he was happy.
He certainly caught off guard, but it's very excited about it.
But he was happy, like yeah, like you said, you're going to be able to do what we want here, Okay.
Basically Trump is saying where your sucker? You know, That's how I see it.
I'm sorry, but that is how I see it too. But at the same time, the other weird question here, you gott why why does he make the statement? Well, you got to ask this though, and again this is me trying to be real optimistic. So I'm just going to throw my last crazy at you, is that maybe
the totally unorthodox approach will accomplish something. Because as far as I'm concerned, the whole time you and I have been alive, whether it was during the time period where you know, yes er Arafat was actually you know, Hamas was trying to kill yes Er Arafat. People have this weird idea that like Arafat and the PLO was on the same exact side as Hamas. And this is a much more subdivided thing than people think it is. It's not just a matter of pro Palestinian anti Palestinian blah
blah blah. It's not. It's just it's not that simple. But is the way to destroy something this complex or to reset it and make it actually work? Is it radical change? And is it the radical change that really, truthfully, only our military, massive military is capable of doing. Is that possible that that's really where we're at now at this point? Is that the only solution? I don't know. I'm not saying I know, matter of fact, that's that's
my most recent statement. I don't know about everything. It seems like, you know, I don't know what to make of it. I don't know where it's going to go, and I don't know how it's going to turn out. I've got no predictions except it's going to be different somehow or other, and it could be at the end of the day. By the way, a lot of lip service just to float ideas and see if he provokes somebody to come around and say, look, lunatic, you're doing
the wrong thing. But I got the solution. I don't know, maybe that's the strategy here. What are your final thoughts.
Mike, Well, we'll find out, and we'll definitely talk more this year, you know, maybe once a month or so.
That's that. I'm really looking forward to that. And again, you know, you guys ought to go and yes, sign up for Wall Street Window, which, by the way, your mailings are still very welcome, because I am so I mean, I'm deleting almost everything in my emails and not reading it anymore because I'm tired of the non analysis that's going on. But if you actually open up an email that says Wall Street Window, you'll get some thought, some
independent thought, no matter what Mike's talking about. So I encourage you to go ahead and go to Wallstreet Window dot com sign up, and also get The War State if you don't have it. I had a little trouble this last year at Lancer. It seemed like everybody already had the book. But guaranteed there'll be people there next year that don't so or why the Vietnam War or whatever, else.
By the way, let us know as soon as you have an idea about your next piece coming out, because I'm looking forward to the next book by author Mike Swanson and looking forward to what it is we can possibly, uh you know, gain out of your brain over this next year because I'm gonna need somebody, like I said, again, sane and rational to talk to because otherwise this is crazy.
Time to me.
But then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is exactly what the time calls. Like you know, you got you got a yes or no on that like or or is your attitude just going to be stay tuned, because that's where I'm.
Here, stayed something crazy are having for the next time we speak.
I'm sure exactly right. And there you go. So no matter where you are, when you are who you are, remember I'm here, le o'celly, all of you are indeed, thank you.
So Chili dot com.
The War State by Michael Swanson explains the great national transformation that took place and put the Kennedy presidency in the context of the times and reveals never before published information about the Cuban missile crisis. President Kennedy would not have been assassinated if he had been president two hundred years ago. His assassination took place in the context of the Cold War and the rise of the national security state. Before World War II, the United States was a continental republic.
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