From Senate Dress Codes to Country Music Feuds: A Wide-Ranging Discussion

What happens when the hallowed halls of the US Senate take a sartorial nosedive, and the dress code is thrown out the window? We dive into the uproar over this startling departure from tradition and share our thoughts on why maintaining a certain level of professionalism matters. We also get into a spirited debate over the recent clash between Pennsylvania’s Senator and Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

Ever pondered the ramifications of government-run grocery stores? Wonder no more! We navigate through the unfolding drama in Chicago as it grapples with the issue of food deserts in low-income areas. Our scrutiny doesn't stop there! We delve deeper into the realm of government interference as we analyze the Obama cell phone program and its potential impact on individual freedoms and voting patterns. 

Segueing into the military sector, we discuss the dwindling recruitment numbers and how societal attitudes and a shift in physical fitness norms might be contributing to this issue. From examining the implications of including women in the Selective Service to scrutinizing the changing recruitment messaging, we cover it all. And as a cherry on top, we even bring a touch of levity to our chat with a segment on the feud between country music star Marin Morris and two other musicians. We wrap up by spotlighting our latest book release and invite you, our listeners, to share your thoughts and topic suggestions to keep the dialogue flowing. Buckle up, folks! We promise an episode chock-full of thought-provoking discussions interlaced with some light-hearted banter and music industry gossip.

Chapters

• 0:00 US Senate Eliminates Dress Code
• 13:57 Government-Run Grocery Stores and Socialism
• 22:59 Declining Military Recruitment and Urban Loyalty
• 31:51 Challenges in Military Recruitment and Messaging
• 47:15 Including Women in Selective Service
• 57:08 Engaging With Audience, Promoting Book

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, hello, my friends, we are back again for another episode and we've got some great topics for you and, more importantly, I've got my buddy Clay here Say hey, everybody.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Hey everybody, happy week, good to be back, good to see you all, as always.

Speaker 1: 0:17

Absolutely. We are ready to party right after this. Oh, here we are. I got to smooth out that intro. I got to get that nice into a smooth like that song, just dead stops. And here we are, that's all right, nobody minds that right.

Speaker 2: 0:53

I mean it's obviously we're ready to go.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Right, yeah, we're ready. That's what it is, clay. We're just ready, we're so excited to talk about the stuff and things that we got to get ready to. I like that. I like how you just like you smooth that over for me. I'm like, oh, that was graceless. And Clay came in. He's like here's some grace, I got it, it's our partners.

Speaker 2: 1:13

That's what we do.

Speaker 1: 1:15

I love it, I love it. So Clay was the man this week. I was a big old slacker and Clay gave us the topics for this week, which I was really, really relieved because I was a slacker. So I like these. These are good. First up, I love this, just because I can't wait to show the picture. But first up, we are talking about we're talking about the US Senate has gotten rid of their dress code. So basically, I'll sum it up Basically, it's the Walmart of. It is now the US Senate, is now Walmart.

Speaker 2: 2:01

As an elected official, because everybody else visitors. If you get called to testify, if you're a staffer, you still have to abide by the dress code women business dress and men coat and tie, unless you're an elected official and there you can wear whatever you want.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Every time. I think I can't get more embarrassed by how our government is running, being run. They do something new and this is right up there and now. Please correct me if I'm wrong. If I understand right, this has a lot to do with this clown.

Speaker 2: 2:44

It has everything to do with that clown. It's already being called the Federman rule. It's that's the common vernacular in both in the media and actually in the Senate itself. They're calling it the Federman rule and you know, being from Pennsylvania, where he is from and who he represents, you know it hits a little closer to home.

Speaker 2: 3:07

And listen, the guy has always dressed like that.

Speaker 2: 3:11

They allowed it when he was here in the state of Pennsylvania as a Lieutenant Governor and that's who he portrays himself to be, which is one of the more irritating things about all of this.

Speaker 2: 3:23

He portrays himself to be this working class guy with tattoos and a hoodie or these really loose Charlie Sheen-esque bowling shirts and you know his athletic shorts where he clearly skips leg day at the gym all the time for a big man.

Speaker 2: 3:40

But the reality is he's not that guy. He comes from a wealthy family, a very wealthy family, grew up wealthy, did not grow up blue collar working class, has never worked blue collar working class. He just portrays himself to be that way and you know, to me and to most people it just comes off as slovenly. He's lazy, you know, and even in when he was campaigning he said I will abide by the dress code. I understand that in the Senate there's a dress code and, if elected you know when he beat Dr Oz, he said I will abide by the dress code Shows up to work, goes to the hospital, comes back to work, goes to the hospital again, and now they're making, you know, allocations specifically based on him. Nobody else asked for this and he's the guy that's getting the free pass that now everybody's going to take advantage of.

Speaker 1: 4:39

Right, right, yeah, I mean, are they going to be showing up in their pajamas? I mean, can you? Just, can you imagine? I mean they can. They basically can. Now, and you know, I'm sure you know, part of me wonders if somebody is going to do that. Just, you know, just to make a point, just to say like really, I hope somebody does, I hope somebody shows up and you know, in their their feety pajamas and says what you said we can wear whatever we want.

Speaker 1: 5:04

So you know no dress code, so we can. You know we can show up in our pajamas if we want. It's crazy, it's just crazy to me.

Speaker 2: 5:12

He took a shot back. I guess Marjorie Taylor Greene took a shot at him about the dress code on X, not Twitter. You can be Twitter Right Now. She took a shot at him about the dress code.

Speaker 2: 5:27

And then he took a shot back on about the fact that she showed, you know, naked pictures of Hunter Biden that were pulled directly from his laptop, clearly, and she, you know, she said before she showed him hey, parental advisory, you know, if you're watching this on C-Span or whatever, there's some things that are going to be shown that you don't need to show your kids, right, and it's, it was evidentiary, right? She was trying to show this kind of stuff that's out there Now. Was it a little over the top? Okay, fine, yeah, but there's some theater involved with that. This is day-to-day business. This is altering day-to-day business based on one guy, one guy.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Yeah, you mean to tell me when you roll out of bed you can't find a pair of pants, just a simple basic pair of pants. I mean, I'm not even asking the guy to put on a suit, but just look, maybe don't look like you. Just, you know, got back from, like you said, from the gym or something. I mean, have a little decorum, have a little respect, have a little dignity. You know, and I'll tell you what I'm. You know, we go to church every Sunday and, and I'm a I am a fan of dressing.

Speaker 1: 6:38

I don't dress up, I mean, you know I'm not dressed, you know, to the nines, but we look nice, we look like we're going somewhere special, that is special and, and you know, important, and that we care, that we just simply care about how we look. And, and you know, we are in that societal mindset now of you know well, we could do whatever we want. We can look however we want dress. However, it doesn't matter who cares. And and I'll be honest with you, I care, I care, I think you know, and I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1: 7:11

My poor grandmother God bless her and rest her soul and she's turning in her grave when she sees all this. Now, that woman Maybe she was a little extra, you know, but my grandmother she would wear her heels and full makeup to go down to the mailbox to get the mail. You know what I mean like, and that's that they were old school. You know, you, if you went out anywhere, anytime, you always looked, you know, presentable at the very least. I mean, you know you don't have to Look like you just came out of. You know, I don't know. I can't even think of you this time.

Speaker 2: 7:47

You know we're not asking for that. You find me another, you know governmental body assembly of any kind, anywhere in anything outside of a third-world nation that doesn't dress Appropriately. Let's just call it appropriately, professionally, whatever you want to call it, but appropriate to the position that they're in. And I notice some people Maybe they don't care, or some people probably think, like you said, it's a little bit extra to be dressed in a suit or whatever. I would tell you that the expectation of the American public is that our representatives, your representatives, their representatives, is that they're putting on their best professional face. And and so the next question is what? What goes out the window next? The dress code's gone right. So he's gonna be walking around and you know his hoodie and his and his, you know Basketball shorts and, like you said, somebody else is gonna test it. You know, in my mind it's gonna be somebody like, and maybe she's in probably a little bit more trouble right now, but Bovert, right, like she'll be the one who walk in and a pair of footy pajamas or something just like, just to make the point. But then does the, because you know there's a, there's a language code also, right, right. So you know you can't.

Speaker 2: 9:03

And I'm fairly confident. There's a fine system that goes into play too. Right, you drop an F bomb in there in, you know, while they're in session, those kinds of things, and it can be heard in its public, like there's a warning system and then there's finding, and then there's, you know, if you're, if you're late, right, you remember the hole? Oh yeah, I got in there. So they put up the metal detectors and if you're late you're gonna get fine, you know. So there's punishments that go with the decorum of the chambers. So what's the next thing that goes out the window, is it, since the dress is gone? So now, is it we're gonna be able to say whatever we want in there, doesn't matter, is it? And it's just this step, next step in the degradation of the, you know, classiness or lack of class, you know, in our government, and it's shameful, it's embarrassing.

Speaker 1: 9:51

It is. It's it that I mean, that's the, that's the word right there, the nutshell word. It is embarrassing and and you know, and you know as well as I do, that there's gonna be people that are gonna sit and watch this, or or, you know, having their own commentary about this topic, and they're gonna be like, oh, what's the big deal? The big deal is exactly what you said, clay. What's next? You know, this is just, it's just the beginning. It's like the, the door getting, you know, creaked open and they're gonna keep pushing it open wider and wider and wider.

Speaker 1: 10:25

And you know, I, there's plenty of examples of that, you know, in recent history, throughout history, every time you give an inch, they want to take a mile, and then another mile, and then another one, and you know, it's just. It's just that decline, that gross decline of all civility and decency and Appropriateness that is just disappearing right before our eyes and being erased, among other things. You know, yet another thing of a civilized society that is being erased. And you know, mark my words. I have a girlfriend who always says, you know, we always get nervous when she says mark my words, because every time she says it it means it's gonna happen. And but I'm telling you, you know, mark my words this is the beginning of yet another series of decline in in Our society. You know, when it comes from the top, you know it's coming right from the top.

Speaker 2: 11:31

Less than less people. Fewer and fewer people have the courage to enforce a standard, and that's really what it boils down to. Nobody wants to be argumentative if they don't have to. Nobody wants to be. You know, we're. We're breeding ourselves out of being confrontational because it makes people uncomfortable. Right and honestly, because he is who he is and, truthfully, his.

Speaker 2: 11:53

You know, however long he's been sitting in his seat has not been all that stellar. The guy has barely been to work. That you know people are. Oh well, we'll just we'll, we'll make this, you know, exception for him, which has now turned into an exception for everybody, but it's because nobody wants to look at him ago. You know, man, I I hate the fact that you had a stroke, I hate the fact that you have anxiety and I know that when you came out of Pennsylvania you were in a hoodie and shorts, but here we wear suits and ties. Sorry, that's the standard and you got to do it. Nobody wants to do that. No, nobody wants to be the bad guy. So the easiest thing to do is just not and you just let it happen, Because people, just they don't have an intestinal fortitude to enforce it.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Yeah, you know, you're absolutely right because it is you know Other. Otherwise it's impossible to wrap your brain around like so. One person Can't have the sense or the decency to to dress appropriately for the setting, so we'll just bend everything for this one person, you know. And they made I read an article. You know they're making a making a big thing about the fact. Well, the poor guy, you know, he had to stand outside the door to be able to give his vote and everything. Well, it's very simple solution dress right, it's choice.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Yeah, those are the rules. Sorry, you want to stand outside the chamber and yell and you don't want to be seen on C-span. Put your suit on, man. Put on a tie like everybody else.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Everybody else you know. You know, oh, I that guy man. I mean, if you want to sum up everything that's wrong, he's probably One of the many great poster childs for everything that's wrong.

Speaker 2: 13:38

Pretty on the list. Yeah, pretty high on the list, I Mean, you know. Moving on, moving on right, moving on to the next topic. Yeah, you know, this is so. The next thing we're talking about is is my Hometown. I'm a Chicago kid, born and raised right. At least on that you know. The greater Chicago metropolitan area, the city of Chicago, or good portions of it, the lower income, rougher parts of the city, the west side and south side, are becoming what they call food deserts. Right, the grocery stores are leaving closing their doors, walmart leaving closing their doors, and it's because of the high crime. Walmart has lost 10 million dollars per store Over the last few years because of theft. No business is gonna stay there because of that.

Speaker 2: 14:32

Right so what the city, the city's, you know solution to this is Government owned, government run grocery stores in these neighborhoods. So Chicago and I have visions of, you know, communist Soviet Union Breadlines like a government run grocery store and Nothing run by the government runs. Well, I mean, we know this. But now they're gonna try and run a business right and and this is the same city that has just gone say fact right, so there's no bail, cashless bail now. So all criminals they can walk into now a city owned grocery store, steal from it, get arrested and then the cops release them right away. So they're being, you know, they're committing a crime against the same people that are gonna release them back into the wild. It's craziness, yeah, but it's. It's the fact that this is one step closer to Socialism. Slap and then into communism, now that you have government run grocery stores in acting as the norm.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Right, yeah, it gives me chills, honestly, a little bit. And the funny thing was that you first of all that you made the Russian the breadline reference, because it was the first thing that came to my mind when I started pulling up this information and this research as soon as you threw it out there as a topic. That was the image that came to my mind and it's so funny that you said that, and I think one of the articles I was reading made a similar type of reference to that image and that reality. It's not even just an image, it's a reality because it's probably what it will look like Get in line, get your number, you could shop on certain days if you're.

Speaker 1: 16:30

I mean, it's crazy and I have this video here. It's a short video just to take a look at and it's not just Chicago. I think it might be just three different locations. One of them is Chicago, but take a look MUSIC, just the mass looting, they're not allowed. The security you see the security guy in that last one is a security guy with his camera just recording it, and that's all that they can do. And places like Chicago and no other soon to follow, I would pretty much guarantee that their idea of a solution is to not fix the problem, not stop the crime, not enforce any kind of laws or anything along those. Their idea is to well, we'll just have city on grocery stores, don't worry about it, you don't need a whole foods, you don't need those kind of options, you just. Well, we'll take care of everything. And isn't that Reagan who said something about the government? What is the seven? Something about seven words.

Speaker 2: 18:06

Right, I'm from the government and I'm here to help, right? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:11

I mean, and here we are, and then there's, you know, but the problem will always be the same problem. There's always going to be people that stand there with their hands out and go OK, thank you more please, and don't understand what's happening to them and don't care, they don't care. So I don't even know what you do with that. I mean, how do you fight against that when the very people that are the ones being affected by it don't care? They're like whatever Doesn't matter to me. I mean, you just let it go and say whatever, but then the bleed out from it. It just it will extend and extend and extend. And that's scary.

Speaker 2: 18:51

Another image of this right the turn of the century, shortly after the coal mines, right, and a lot of people don't even know this part, or fewer, fewer people know this part of American history. But the mining towns, especially in the Appalachians right, the coal mine towns you know, you've heard this, the term the company store, right, there were towns that literally had they were owned. The mine was owned by a company. Right, all the houses were owned for all the workers. All the workers lived in houses that were owned by the mining company. The store was owned by the mining company and in a lot of cases the people were paid in script that was printed by the mining company, that was only good at their store, and you know so.

Speaker 2: 19:39

This is what this is turning into. So you've got people living in government housing. You've got people those same people on government subsistence, running around with an EBT card and now they're going to be shopping at the company store because it's the only thing available to them. Oh, by the way, throwing the Obama cell phone program. But they're becoming more and more dependent upon the government itself for every facet of life free internet.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Oh, by the way, in Chicago, right, everything that they do, every piece of their life is becoming dependent upon the government. What does that do? That keeps them there. It keeps them in that location. They are voting where they want them to vote. Right. This is keeping a Democratic blue stronghold in one place. Yes, city of Chicago. Right. Hasn't been a Republican mayor there in over 100 years, no matter how bad things get, still blue and it always will be. Because they keep that voting population in one place, dominates the city, dominates the state, overrules the entire state of Illinois. City of Chicago. And this is how they control it. This is how the people are being controlled Make them dependent upon the government for every facet of their life. And this is the next step. This is where they're going.

Speaker 1: 20:58

Yeah, yeah, 100%, there's no question about it. It's happening right in front of our eyes and, again, more than in just Chicago, any of these major cities. It's copy and paste, right, it's just copy and paste. In all of them Same thing.

Speaker 1: 21:15

My husband told me a story a while back Never forgot it about a coworker of his and, as you know, my husband's in law enforcement and this coworker of his worked his beat years ago, was in the city and he got very involved, community involved, and he was working with some activists in the area who were there supposedly to help the poverty stricken, help lift them and elevate them and do the right things, supposedly, and they were making great progress. There was a lot of turnaround happening, things were getting done, buildings were getting renovated and lots of great things were happening. And the activists the activists whose job was to do these things said to my husband's coworker we got to stop fixing things, got to stop making it better. And he was baffled. He said what? We're making great progress, we're doing great things here.

Speaker 1: 22:23

Look what's happening. We're getting these people out of these situations. And so he said, yeah, that's exactly the problem. If we do that, if we do our job too well, we're out of a job and that was and that is a 100% true story. So the people that are in these cities, claiming to be for these people and helping them it is a lie, lie, and it is devastating to know that these people have no idea. They have no idea that they are just pawns in a dirty, disgusting game.

Speaker 2: 22:59

You know, I can remember as a kid I shouldn't say kid I was probably my late teens but WGN Chicago, right, everybody used to watch the Cubs WGN on cable, but watching WGN news, and there was an interview, south side, I think it was Robert Taylor Holmes, which we're right across from Old Sox Park, where the White Sox played, and there was a grandmother, mother, daughter. Actually, all three of them were mothers, so there was actually four generations. The youngest was holding a baby. They all lived in Robert Taylor Holmes. They all grew up in Robert Taylor Holmes. They all spent their entire life. From the time that the place opened up, the oldest generation had been living there. Her children were born there, they lived there, and now a fourth generation was being born and being raised there.

Speaker 2: 23:49

It's now granted, and everybody from Chicago will tell you Robert Taylor Holmes are gone. Government housing is not right. The situation hasn't changed. It's just a different facility. But that's what it is. It's about keeping people in one place so that they can manage and manipulate them how they need to, and in most cases, it's about voting yeah, oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 24:13

And I think it's a great opportunity to take that in every direction. So they've got the poor manipulated and held down and dependent that is the key word. They're completely dependent and that's great, but there's still too many people on the other side of things, so that's not good. So let's just oh, I know, let's just let lots of migrants through and let them vote. They'll vote for us because we'll just give them everything too, and they're doing it, they're doing it and it's working, because here we are, the unintended consequences.

Speaker 2: 24:55

Truthfully and I'm starting to hear this from friends, I know, in Chicago I keep referencing it, but that's kind of where we're at is that there is a backlash from the African-American population in Chicago who are saying all you people that we put in office, you made all these promises to us to take care of us, to improve our lives.

Speaker 2: 25:15

You're pushing us to the side and you're prioritizing all these illegal immigrants that are being, you know, bused in. You're taking care of them in spite of us taking money away from all the projects and the things you said you were gonna do for us, and now you're pushing it towards these migrants that are coming, you know, being bused up from the border. So there is a backlash that's coming and is happening and growing a little bit in some of these bigger cities from the poor, the manipulated, those folks who've been, you know, kind of controlled, because now they're not getting anything. They're getting, or they should say they're getting less, because now you've got a new population that we're targeting to control and that happens to be this migrant population that's being bused up from the border.

Speaker 1: 25:58

Right yeah, and I think Lori Lightfoot inadvertently started that one Beetlejuice. Right yeah she's gone.

Speaker 2: 26:07

Not that things have been proved, but she's gone. No, no, no what's his name?

Speaker 1: 26:10

Brandon Johnson, right, that's who we've got now, but she was. I think she started raising some eyebrows finally towards the end there, when she was keeping a really pretty great security, police, security detail for herself and her partner and protecting her home and her life essentially well not essentially literally and leaving these impoverished areas, these poor areas that the crime because of the whole defund, the police nonsense, were left unprotected and these people were getting victimized and by violent crime you know what I'm just talking about? Petty theft or talking about murder the murder rate went up, homicide rate went up astronomically and they're like well, where's we know how many cops are around the job? Where are they? Oh, they're protecting you. Oh, okay, that doesn't feel right. So I think she accidentally started some awareness there, but it just not enough, clearly not enough.

Speaker 2: 27:19

Now it's, you know, in this, you know this whole topic is really. It's kind of indicative of a lot of things that are going on right now, or at least I think, things that are becoming more are coming more to light. There'll be. The shadows are kind of moving away. I think people are starting to see more you touched on it with the Lori Lightfoot thing and people are starting to act. They're starting to change their minds. They're starting to you know, we've got the, you know go broke right, we're starting to see some more backlash when it comes to things like that. But you know, moving on to this kind of third topic we're talking about, this is where it's starting to really impact. Things is, for the second year in a row, the military is not meeting recruiting goals. It's two years in a row that this is yeah talk about scaring.

Speaker 2: 28:09

It is scary. So for those that don't know, last year was an interesting year because the military two of the services for sure did not meet recruiting goals and really what happens in the recruiting world? I didn't work in the recruiting world when I was in the army, but I understand how all of this works. Because we had to worry about retention. Right, the active forces. You have to worry about keeping people in, because that also affects your numbers. Right, it's not just new bodies coming in, but it's keeping bodies in, right. So we had to worry about retention. Everybody had a target that we were supposed to retain in numbers and what you would do, especially so the fiscal year in the military goes from one October to the 30th September. It's not January to December, it's October to September. So in and around July you would start looking at your numbers for the year and you would say, oh well, we've already hit this or we're at 97%, we'll get a couple more. And then, after we hit 100, we'll hold guys, they're re-enlistment and in this case for the recruiters, that's their enlistment. We'll hold them until the 1st of October. We know we've got them, they're already committed, they've already said they're good, but we'll hold their paperwork until the 1st of October and then they'll count towards next year, right?

Speaker 2: 29:26

So the Marine Corps and then I think it was a Marine Corps in the Navy last year they had to dip into that forward year to make their goal. Army and Air Force both missed completely Even digging into that kind of pool they had. They still missed Navy and I think it was Navy and Marine Corps. I know it was Marine Corps for sure, but I think it was Navy and Marine Corps. They dipped into that pool, brought everybody back into fiscal year 22 and they made their goal. But they didn't have that pool already in the fiscal year 23,. So they started behind the curve. Army all four services started behind the curve. They didn't have that bench built of folks waiting to get in, so they started the year behind and they never caught up. And now the entire service I'm confident it's across all four services right now are not gonna meet recruiting goals for fiscal year 2023. It's not happening. They're not making it.

Speaker 1: 30:28

So talk to me about cause. You think or you know, because I would only be putting out guesses. So talk to me about cause, and then let's talk about consequence. What do you think the cause of this steep decline is?

Speaker 2: 30:45

So I think that probably, if I could list three, and one of them is minor but it's somewhat significant. The first one, I think, is there is a lack of and I say this in the urban areas, truthfully right Middle America, the South, truthfully those places, the Great Plains, all the quote unquote flyover states, and then in the South, you're always gonna get those red states and you're gonna have people who feel that duty on our country patriotism. They're gonna sign up regardless. The bluer states and especially in the urban areas, there is very, very little loyalty and, in my opinion, declining loyalty to the country to serve the country right, and that, I think, plays a huge part in it, I think. Secondarily, I think you're getting a lot more disqualified candidates okay.

Speaker 2: 31:48

And here's one of the bigger things that people don't think about. The federal government still says that marijuana is illegal. No, I don't care what your state says, I don't care if you have a prescription. The federal government says no, if you're a marijuana user, you cannot join the military until you are clean. You have to pass your analysis to get into the military. Okay and oh, by the way, you can't use again once you're in the military and you have to know that going in. So the recreational legalized drug use in many states because it's growing everywhere, all across the country.

Speaker 2: 32:26

I think that is a disqualifier, along with a lack of general physical fitness. The military has gone to fitness camps. I hate saying that because it just sounds horrible, but it's like a fat camp. Like those who want to join the military who can't do it right now because they're just in such poor physical condition, they will send them to a camp to get them into shape to meet the bare minimum standard to come into the military and then, once they come in, then they still have to continue to improve to meet the continued standard for service in the military. So I think the general physical fitness of America is down and I think so that also you eliminate a lot of potential candidates right off the bat with that one. And then the last one and I said this is smaller, but I think it's significant is the military for a very, very long time has been, especially since it's became an all volunteer force. But the military has habitually been a family business Right.

Speaker 2: 33:32

Both of my grandfathers served in World War II. My dad is a Vietnam era veteran, spent four years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War I served. Right now I have a son who is approaching age, service age. There's no expectation of me towards him for him to serve. I don't. The army that I joined way back in 1992 is not the army of today. I don't push it on him, I don't. If he wants to, that's fine, that's entirely up to him.

Speaker 2: 34:03

But there was expectations for a lot of families and I know a lot of them, I served with a lot of them Multi-generational. Hey, spoken or unspoken, you're going in the military, right, you're gonna serve. You're gonna follow in your dad's footsteps, you're gonna do what your grandfather did, those kinds of things that the veteran influence, encouraging young men and women to continue to serve the next generation. I think that is also on the decline. So if you don't have those of us who spent 20 plus years fighting right the war generation, the global war on terror generation, if you don't have us encouraging those, the next generation, to serve, you have lost one of your biggest recruiting tools that you have that you're not even paying for the military, doesn't you know? They don't pay us to say anything. They'll pay us to encourage kids, but if we're not encouraging them to serve, that's one less tool in the kit bag.

Speaker 1: 34:59

Yeah, absolutely. Now I'm gonna take a wild guess that the recruitment videos and advertisements and promotional material that you read and watched back in the day is a little bit different than what I'm about to show, and I hate to do this to you because it's probably gonna be like a knife in the heart, but this is one that I just recently pulled up.

Speaker 4: 35:28

This is the story of a soldier who operates your nation's Patriot Missile Defense Systems. It begins in California with a little girl raised by two moms. Although I had a fairly typical childhood, took ballet, played violin, I also marched for equality, I like to think I've been defending freedom from an early age. I'd be hand feeling like I'd been handed so much in life. A sorority girl stereotype Sure, I'd spent my life around inspiring women. But what had I really achieved on my own? I needed my own adventures, my own challenge, and after meeting with an army recruiter, I found it a way to prove my inner strength.

Speaker 1: 36:32

Yeah, so that's a current recruitment video, a relatively current recruitment video for the US Army. Now I just want to, before we discuss it, I want to compare it to this Russian recruitment video, so a little bit different vibe.

Speaker 2: 37:48

Yeah, you don't even have to speak Russian to catch the vibe of that whole thing. And listen, the army recruiting has been floundering for a while because they just keep perpetually missing the mark From army of one through. Now they actually have brought back be all you can be. I don't know if you've seen this or not, but they have literally resurrected. I kid you not, they've resurrected be all you can be from when I was a kid. I remember those.

Speaker 1: 38:22

Yeah, I remember those very well, sure.

Speaker 2: 38:24

They have brought that back because everything between be all you can be and now has been a mess Army of one. What you just the things like you just showed it has not worked. We relied upon the war and global war on terrorism and all of those things to bring soldiers in. We made some, you know some, decisions along the way. I can remember during the surge 2007 ish right, we were, we weren't missing recruiting goals or retention goals, but we were below. They increased the authorization for the army. We're allowed to have more soldiers than what you know we had had in the past. So we had to up our game a little bit and really, what they ended up doing was lowering standards. This is and I'm not, you know, I'm not making this up, this is a real thing we let in more GED holders right, just, there's a cap that the military keeps. We let more in. We allowed, more truthfully, more criminals, more felons. We allocated or allowed more people more waivers for things like facial and neck tattoos. We, you know, like previous, you know, like I said, criminals. Criminality was allowed. There was waivers for that depending on the severity of what it was we allowed. We lowered our standards to fill the gaps.

Speaker 2: 39:48

Well, the war's over, right, we've, you know, that whole mess in Afghanistan. You know the X fill out of there. So now we've got nothing to draw on, like we don't even have the war, we don't have the. You know, go defend your country, go kill terrorists, go. We don't have that. Sure, that's not even a tool. We don't even have that available to us. So those in the recruiting command who are trying to figure this out, you know they're aiming at small populations. That's what you saw in that video that you show right the cartoon. They're aiming at a very specific, very small population and they're spending a lot of money to do it. The reality is, is that how many you know, specifically, kids who grew up in a house like that, with two moms on the West coast, like that, speaks to a very small population.

Speaker 2: 40:45

Do they need to be recruited? Sure, do they need to be targeted? That, specifically, and is the bang for the buck there? I would argue no, it's a miss. That's a miss, yeah, and they're just, they're throwing darts, and they're throwing darts in the dark right now is what it seems like. I mean, if we're reaching back to 1978, to be all you can be, to pull that forward because we can't think of anything better, right, we have a serious, serious problem, and a lot of it resides in the folks that are making decisions in the recruiting and advertising world. Yeah, to fill those gaps. It's just not working, yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:22

And that is, and that is nothing against anyone in in alternative family lifestyles or you know, whatever, yeah, you know whatever.

Speaker 1: 41:30

The new terminology for everything and anything is that, you know, whatever. Nothing really. Well, nothing at all against them. They certainly can, can serve and serve well and do all those things. But you know, for me personally, when I think of the military, I think of bad assery, I think of toughness and ruggedness, and I don't necessarily mean just men, although that is first what comes to my mind. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to say that I'm going to win any feminist awards saying the things that I say, but I'm okay with that, you know. But but yeah, I think toughness, ruggedness, ruggedness, you know, just physical, mental strength, and you know that sounds like an ad for somebody who's going to go work in a nice little office somewhere, not serve your country. And, and you know, I don't know that's just me.

Speaker 2: 42:25

No, it's, it's. You know, there's. There's been a lot of consideration about who to target for recruiting, and I know that, especially now that we've got Space Force and Cyber Command and all these other things where you know, especially when it comes to the cyber world, right, do you need somebody who can run, you know, two miles and 12 minutes? Do you need somebody who can bench press 300 pounds? Do you need somebody who can do all those things? You don't need a super soldier for that. You need somebody who's really frigging smart, right, and who knows and understands computers.

Speaker 2: 42:59

But that does not, you know, excuse or eliminate the need for an individual to have self-discipline, to be physically fit, to be capable of fighting. Right, we learned in this last war there's no such thing as a rear echelon, right, the whole, women are never on the front lines went right out the friggin' window in 2000 to 2003, because there was no longer right, you know, women were that had been excluded from combat roles forever, literally up until that point, were now in the middle of it, right, yeah, yeah, lynch, right, she got captured. Why Was it a convoy, right? That just happened to be driving through and they got ambushed, you know, jessica Lynch, and she ended up getting, you know, captured in Iraq. Right, there was no more front line. So it's got nothing to do with, or it has less to do with, the job that the military needs you to do, but your responsibility as a soldier to be capable of fighting.

Speaker 2: 43:59

Can we find people who are really friggin' smart and can do computer stuff and, oh, by the way, pass the basic and minimum physical fitness? Sure we can. We just gotta figure out. You know. What is that key? What is how do we recruit equally across the board that is effective for the money that's being spent, right? Yeah, you know the military analyzes this all the time. They don't. There are no more. There is no more US Army NASCAR. There is no more US Air Force NASCAR. You know why? Because the people who watch NASCAR. You don't have to recruit them into the military.

Speaker 1: 44:34

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 44:37

It's wasted money, you know, right, you're not getting anything more out of that population. The question is how are we targeting the folks in, you know, the Metro, urban areas, right? How are we targeting the kids who truthfully come from more affluent families, right, right, we're not. And that's the problem is that we're trying to figure out, we're throwing darts in the dark about trying to find, you know, who do we target which population and does everybody need to be recruited individually and all these other things? And oh, by the way, the clock's still ticking. The recruitment and retention is still a requirement and it's not going away. So you've gotta figure this out and they gotta figure it out quick, because we can't do three more years or three years, a third year. You asked about consequences of this, right. Now you've got more strain on the active force right To continue to fulfill all the missions and requirements as deemed by the president in Congress. Right has to be done. And if they can't do it, then where does it come from?

Speaker 2: 45:36

Reserves, the National Guard, right, and they just spent 20 years giving more than they actually bargained for, more than they agreed to. In many cases during the global war on terror, they had a stipulation as an organization, you know you deploy your home for so many years. You won't deploy again for so many years, and that was kind of hard and fast. A lot of that stuff went out the window. And now if you've got an active force who can't fulfill their roles and responsibilities, that goes back to the reservists Reservant National Guard are gonna have to start filling those roles, just like they did during the global war on terror. And now we've got another strain, right Cause now you've got people who have civilian jobs nine to five. Now they're gonna be gone again, right the thing they haven't bargained for. So it's as this rolls downhill, it just gets worse. We can't afford, in an all volunteer force, to miss the mark for three years in a row. We just can't. I don't wanna talk about a draft. That's the scariest possibility there is.

Speaker 1: 46:34

Yeah, I literally was just about to ask you about that. I mean, if they can't, I get the whole casting a wide net. I think that's a great idea, but everything else that you've said about it is wow. I mean they better start thinking really, really fast of how to get the right, or people with the right qualifications, or at least greatest potential to have all the right qualifications, because that would be the next step, I would imagine, right.

Speaker 2: 47:10

Frighteningly that it almost has to go back on the table. But now they're gonna have to broach a topic that it comes up every couple of years and everybody in Congress freaks out about it, and then it goes back out the window again, and that is signing up for selective service. Right now it is still male. Only Women are not on the list for the draft. Still not a thing, still not. But now that we have a fully integrated military, every job in the military is open to male and female. There's special operations, all of it right. So the argument for women not to be drafted has been off the table. But every time everybody freaks out whenever it comes up. So if they start talking about reinstituting a draft, which is a frightening, frightening thought, then they have to have the argument of including women into that process.

Speaker 1: 48:09

Yeah, they have to stop shying away from it. I mean, a decision has to be made and I honestly, I guess I'm no help because I don't know what the answer is. I really don't. There's a huge part of me that says, well, fair is fair, we want every, we want same, same. I hate to call it equal. I know they call it equal everything, these, the feminists. And I already think I'm equal. So let me rephrase that I already know I'm equal, but I'm different, and you know. So that's the big, obviously. That's the big conversation. You know, I personally don't think I need to do the same things that you do in order to be equal to you, but there's obviously that faction of society that feels that, you know, if you can, you know, be on the front lines, then I can too. But I don't know if they ever really take it to that extent, Do they? They always kind of stop when it comes down to the scary stuff.

Speaker 2: 49:03

Well, they opened it up as I was getting, as I was retiring, it was becoming more and more prevalent. There were women in the infantry, which is what I did for a living and for the vast majority of my career. There was it was, you know, all boys club. There were no women allowed. And then, near the tail end of my career, they allowed women in the infantry. They start allowing them into the special operations community in larger roles. They had been in there for a little while, in smaller scale, for very specific reasons, but they opened up every, every occupation in the military to females. They removed that barrier completely. So why not remove it when it comes to a draft? Why not? Yeah, why not? There's no reason not to. But it has come up in Congress a couple of times and everybody freaks out and then they leave things as is and they just move on.

Speaker 1: 49:51

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's going to get us to a point where we're in dire straits and there is no time left to debate. Action has to be taken. It sounds like we're right on the verge of that being the case, and it's scary. I mean, you're talking about, you know, national security. You're talking about, you know. I mean, that's it, that's it right. You're talking about your national security, the strength of your country and its ability to defend and protect and do what needs to be done, and we're to be at a deficit. That's scary. That's scary, you know. I'd love to bright side it. Can you bright side it? I can't bright side that. There's nothing.

Speaker 2: 50:40

I mean, if you really want to go like rainbows and unicorns, I'm sure there's a grand portion of our or at least a decent portion of our country that will happily say, oh well, then defense spending will have to go down. And then we'll take that money and we'll use it for education and we'll use it for, you know, feeding the homeless and finding them housing and all this other stuff which we won't. We'll waste it on other crap. We'll send it to Ukraine or we'll send it to someone.

Speaker 1: 51:05

I was just gonna say yeah, you know where that's going, We'll send it on somebody else's defense, not our own.

Speaker 2: 51:11

But you know, in the decline of our military, which is what we're on the cusp of right, Step one is not funding it correctly and step two is not manning it correctly. So we're getting there, right, we're getting to a very dangerous level where that's a reality. But no, there's no rainbow in this. Nothing good comes out of this period, right absolutely All right.

Speaker 1: 51:34

we gotta leave them with something, something bright and cheery, or amusing or entertaining. Should we leave them with something amusing and entertaining or just leave them? Leave them feeling dismal and dark?

Speaker 2: 51:49

This is on you, this one's totally on you.

Speaker 1: 51:52

All right. So listen. So Clay brought the big topics, the good topics, and I'm gonna take on the role of bringing you the fluff. I'm gonna give you such a stupid piece of fluff. Are you ready for it? Here it is. You read that down there. This is our fluff. We're gonna talk about Marin Morris and we're only gonna give her a few seconds. We'll give her, like, we'll give her two minutes, we're gonna give her two minutes.

Speaker 1: 52:18

So, if you don't know, marin Morris is a country to me, pseudo country music star. She's a Grammy Award winner, I'm not gonna lie. She got a couple of tunes I found catchy, entertaining. I don't know if they really, in my opinion, are really very country, but I would say I will give her the credit and say that she is talented. Here she is. That is the permanent look on her face. She's a very pretty girl, but she always has that I just ate something bad expression on her face and I don't you know, but this is kind of indicative of her entire personality.

Speaker 1: 52:56

She got into a big feud. I'll share this with you with these two. If anybody knows this story, I'm preaching to the choir, but if you don't know, this is Jason Aldeen and his wife, brittany Aldeen, more country music stars and so they had this big feud. So I let the gossip. I always pretend like I don't know. I don't know any of these things that they're doing, but I do, I do. So Jason Aldeen's wife posted something about being happy to be a girl, or happy that her a couple of months ago, a few months ago about you know, loving that her parents did not let her or turn her into a boy when she went through a tomboy phase. Well, marin Morris kind of lost her shit about that and was founded very offensive and, you know, non-inclusive and all of the buzzwords very mad.

Speaker 1: 53:47

So they've had this country music feud going on and the result of all this, apparently, is that Marin Morris has decided to leave country music. She's done with it, she has won a part of it, she's gone. And to that I'm hoping you're all gonna say this with me out loud in your head, whatever the case is, but I'm pretty sure we all have a collective who cares. Yeah, hi, yeah. So that, guys, that is your fluff piece. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that Marin Morris is leaving country music. Are you going to be okay? I'm going to take a moment of reflection. I'm just kidding, I'm not. I don't really care. Clay, how much do you care about that? Are you like a little klept about it?

Speaker 2: 54:41

So I don't want to mention to you. Second of all, I have no idea who she is, but it is very indicative of the entire celebrity you know society, of their self-importance, right? How many people do we see off Trump gets elected, I'm leaving, I'm going to can't? They're all still here, None of them.

Speaker 1: 54:58

Oh every single one of them.

Speaker 2: 55:00

I'm doing this. You know I can't stand Sean Penn, truthfully I can't. But I give the guy a lot of credit. Sure, he has stood on his morals. He has kept up his beliefs adamantly, loudly, through all of this. Now he's done some dumb stuff along the way, but that guy is stuck to his guns. That guy I'll give credit to. I don't like him, but I give him a lot of credit. The rest of them it's all fluff, it's all garbage and all they do is talk. And this young lady who I've never seen before, I thought when you flip that up there I was like, is she a Kardashian Cause? That's what she looks like.

Speaker 1: 55:36

She totally looks like a Kardashian, right so right.

Speaker 2: 55:40

I don't. I don't know who she is and I really don't care, Not even a little bit.

Speaker 1: 55:43

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you know all of the topics that we talked about tonight. People are not going to say a single word. I'm just kidding. I know they're going to say things but they're going to not say anything. But they're going to comment about the Marin Morris thing and say either I don't know who she is either, or they're going to say I know who she is and I don't care. Good riddance, goodbye, whatever the case. But you know the general message I hope that she gets is no one cares. Live your life. You know same thing when.

Speaker 1: 56:09

Taylor Swift made her big departure from from country music to go be a pop star. I don't think this girl's going to have the same success. I just just a prediction here. I could be wrong, but yeah. So, guys, there was your piece of fluff in in all of our serious talk, a bit of who the heck cares, but here's what we want from you. We want to hear what you think on these topics. We want to hear your input. It's okay. If you disagree with us, we will allow it. Right, clay, we'll allow them to disagree. I mean, what is there to disagree about, though? I mean we're we're just, we're just right.

Speaker 2: 56:50

Listen. Adult, grown up discussion, right? That's what we're looking for. You know that's you're going to disagree with me all day. Happens to me all the time Anybody who follows me, follows my blogs or watches me on social media. People disagree with me all the time. It's okay, I don't care. I don't care. That's the way things are supposed to happen. So if you want to express your opinion, please do so in the comments.

Speaker 1: 57:12

Yes, we love it. We love it. We think it's fun. So please do. And you never know. You know, if you, if you want to engage in a topic or if you have topic ideas for us, we'd love to hear about it and maybe we'll put it up on the screen and do all kinds of fun stuff. But yeah, we'd love to hear from you and we thank you for joining us for another episode. We look forward to bringing you more and more and more we should have some interviews coming up for you pretty soon and more great topics. So thanks for watching guys.

Speaker 2: 57:44

Thanks everybody. Hey, the books out there, Amazon, keep moving, keep shooting. Guarantee you'll love it.

Speaker 1: 57:50

Yes, you will, I know you will, so make sure you go get it. Take care guys.

Speaker 2: 58:11

Nope, nope.