From Kamala Harris's VP Pick to Middle East Conflicts

What happens when Kamala Harris makes a clandestine VP pick, Tim Walz? This episode kicks off with a deep dive into the unexpected political maneuver that has everyone buzzing. We scrutinize the implications of Harris’s choice, particularly focusing on the fallout for Josh Shapiro and the strategic ins-and-outs of Ohio's ballot requirements. Expect an interesting detour where we share a laugh over the classic film "Tommy Boy" before steering back to the charged political landscape.

We then put the spotlight on Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, dissecting his controversial handling of the 2020 Minneapolis riots and his provocative stance on abortion laws. We also dig into accusations surrounding his military service and recommend the documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" for those craving more context. Our discussion covers Kamala Harris's recent statements that have sparked debate within the Democratic Party, the discontent among diverse voters, and the sharp critiques from political veterans like James Carville.

Get ready for an exploration of Venezuela’s economic collapse and how it serves as a cautionary tale for U.S. policies. We also cover the latest geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, the reversal of a shocking plea deal in a terrorism case, and the Olympic boxing controversy involving athletes with XY chromosomes. Wrapping up, we announce our upcoming vacation and the highly anticipated recap of the Democratic National Convention—promising a lively return with some special surprises.

Chapters

• 0:00 VP Pick Controversy
• 7:45 Character Assessment of Vice Presidential Candidate
• 18:15 Kamala Harris's Troubling Statements
• 32:16 Middle East Tensions and Venezuelan Crisis
• 40:43 Plea Deal Reversal and Death Penalty
• 49:13 Olympic Boxing Controversy
• 58:01 Vacation Announcement and DNC Recap

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It's the Elsa Kurtz Show with Clay Novak Conservative views on world news Brought to you by the Wellness Company. Prepare for the unexpected and Refuge Medical. And now it's time for the show.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Well, hello everybody. Again, it's us. We're back for another week of fun. I mean, we have fun. I don't know if the topics are fun, but we have fun discussing them, right, clay?

Speaker 3: 0:36

Yeah and again. The world never fails us. There's plenty to discuss, and, especially today, some great news breaking early today and we're going to talk all about it right after this.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Oh, right off the bat. Kamala, kamala, kamala. My goodness gracious, what the heck? There's so much, so much. And of course, the number one, the top of the list in all of this, is her VP pick. I'm stunned. Tim Walls.

Speaker 3: 1:24

Yeah, so you know, last night, middle of the night, they confirmed her as the candidate in the middle of the night. You know very skull and bones. You know secret fraternity kind of thing.

Speaker 3: 1:37

Not shady at all, she's never won an election, she's never won a primary, but you know, we'll make her the presidential candidate Anyway. And then she comes out this morning and keep in mind and we've been saying this for months, this is all about Ohio. They had to get this done today so that the state of Ohio could, you know, put them on the ballot. She picked her vice presidential candidate. Well, somebody picked her. Well, somebody picked her vice presidential candidate. Well, somebody picked her. Well, somebody picked her. Truthfully, until two weeks ago, I don't think, anybody was talking about her.

Speaker 2: 2:11

No, no, that name. I don't remember that name coming up. I mean maybe it did and it wasn't even a blip. I mean, obviously, josh Shapiro was the biggest name being thrown out there, you know, with almost an air of definitiveness and you know. And then, of course, reality set in and they can't have him because why? Well, he's Jewish.

Speaker 3: 2:38

And this occurred to me this morning. So, he is as many Jews do you know. He went and volunteered his time and did service in the Israeli Defense Force right.

Speaker 5: 2:48

In defense of Israel.

Speaker 3: 2:50

There's an article that he wrote a number of years ago as a volunteer in the IDF talking very bad about the Palestinians. But I don't know, in all of this constitutional legality that we've been messing around with in this crazy election is. You know he served in the idf, so is? Has he sworn off allegiance to israel? Right, uh, because you have to right um. So you know he, he has in the past sworn allegiance to another nation as a volunteer in the idf.

Speaker 3: 3:22

So I I don't know if that disqualified him or realized, if they just realized that he's Jewish, like just this week, yeah, jewish, and they've got some blatant anti-Semites in the party. Yes, interestingly enough, one of them from the great state of Minnesota, interesting Right, yeah. So, yeah, he, he, he and his potential ended, you know, in the last couple of days. And then they announced in his state, by the way, in the state of Pennsylvania, where Shapiro is the governor, they announced that it is not him to be the vice presidential candidate.

Speaker 2: 4:01

And he did some backbending to try and you know, I think he, I think he did some severe political damage to his reputation and in his career because you know he's trying to bend to their terminology and liking and everything it backfired. It just simply didn't work, Didn't help him, didn't get him the nomination and you know, now he looks like a real tool and he's got to be singing. He's got to be singing real bad right now.

Speaker 3: 4:33

Um yeah, and if you if you remember, if you remember Doug Mastriano, uh, who was a um state uh representative or state Senator in the state of pennsylvania and then ran, ran for congress against dr oz.

Speaker 3: 4:49

That's right, yeah I was doug mastriano, who's a retired army officer um who has stayed very active in the gop, uh, in the state since then launched on shapiro. Today, in just saying all the things that you just said, which, which is he sold his soul, you know he, you know Wobbled whatever he bent in any way possible. Yeah, and now you know he's, he's done potentially irreparable damage to himself and will probably end up losing the state in the next election.

Speaker 2: 5:19

Yeah, yeah, I think that's you know. I think that might be a given. We'll see. I mean, anything can happen, certainly, but this definitely left mark that's going to hurt.

Speaker 3: 5:30

Not so much here or here, right, if you're a fan of Tommy Boy.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Love Tommy Boy. Yeah, I love Tommy. So I'm segwaying just for one second because you said Tommy Boy and it's one of my all-time favorites. I'm segwaying just for one second because you said Tommy Boy and it's one of my all-time favorites. I cannot begin to tell you how many times in my life I start singing randomly fat guy in a little coat.

Speaker 3: 5:52

Yeah, I actually watched that movie last night.

Speaker 2: 5:54

Did you really? I may have to watch it. It's a classic. I'm sorry if you think our taste in movies is dumb. We don't care.

Speaker 3: 6:03

Chris Farley is a tragic loss in the international.

Speaker 2: 6:06

I'm telling you that guy was a comedic genius, I think you know he. He had a certain skillset and he absolutely knew how to work it Okay.

Speaker 3: 6:15

I'm sorry, I just had to back on topic.

Speaker 2: 6:16

We're back on topic, we're back, we're back at it. So back to walls. So this guy, this guy, wow, I mean, what if I didn't know better and I'm not saying that I do know better, but I didn't know better. I would say they're like deliberately sabotaging her because, like you couldn't possibly have picked a worse running mate. This guy is awful. He is going to put off a very large portion, I believe I would think a very large portion, I believe I would think a very large portion of their voter demographic. This guy is a radical, openly radical socialist. He makes Bernie Sanders look, I don't know, like a libertarian. I don't know. It's so crazy to me that they would pick this guy.

Speaker 2: 7:03

So as soon as I heard this, I of course had to go and quickly gather everything I could in short order about this guy, which the Internet always internets for us and always does its job and makes my life easier. And so there was so much material so quickly about this guy, and so I made, I put together this video really quickly. I got to make sure I have the right one here, ok, so here's this and then we'll discuss it in a little more detail, if you haven't heard the news, yet Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, as her running mate. This is phenomenal news for the right, because she couldn't have chosen a worse running mate than this guy. I mean, I suppose she could have, but this was pretty bad. If you don't know anything about him, here's a quick little recap of what he's all about.

Speaker 1: 7:45

But we can get out there, reach out, make the case and, for one thing, don't ever shy away from our progressive values. One person's socialism is another person's neighborliness. One of those buildings is on fire. We're waking up this morning to devastation in Minneapolis. It's done, all right, ready, wait a minute there. That's bad. He talks about this wall. I always say let me know how high it is. If it's 25 feet, then I'll invest in the 30 foot ladder factory.

Speaker 2: 8:29

This should be fun. So, yes, I'm well aware, guys, that the graphics, that the photos, went by very, very quickly. At the end there was a little method to my madness. I was a little concerned. I am a little concerned that the social media platforms, if they get too much wind of what I'm posting, you know, yes, so they may give me a little hand smack. You hear an echo. I'm echoing on my end. You don't hear it. As long as you guys don't hear it, we're good, I can get through it. It just happens randomly, but anyhow. So we'll kind of slow this down and go through it and I'll read you a few things here and we can discuss as we go along. So, as we said, he's a radically open, progressive socialist who is best known for allowing and encouraging the riots in 2020 that destroyed Minneapolis.

Speaker 2: 9:13

The fall of Minneapolis is a documentary. It's on YouTube. It's free for everyone to watch. Highly highly recommend it. I have not seen it yet. Highly highly recommend it. I have not seen it yet. I'm recommending it on the basis of other recommendations. That is going to give you a really very, very clear picture of exactly who Tim Walz is and what he's done to his own state, basically to obtain driver's licenses. He supports the most lenient abortion laws and some of those graphics, images or text that went by very quickly on there. It's pretty awful, it's pretty horrifying. What he is, you know, not only okay with but advocating for and allowing. So he's and here's a big one for you, clay he's being accused of stolen valor for lying about his service.

Speaker 3: 10:05

So I did some research today to do on stuff like this, on, you know, because he is a former service member and here here's what I found out, and this is this speaks to one his character and to his leadership, and in both cases it's it's actually a lack of character and a lack of leadership. So the short version, without getting into too much detail. And so for you veterans out there, you'll understand this if you dig into it, and I'll try and keep it simple for those who aren't familiar with all this. So post 9-11, he re-enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard and was brought back in at a fairly high enlisted rank and then was given an opportunity to further his professional military education. And when you do that, you take on an additional service obligation. So by the military training you and providing you an education, you owe them more time, right? So he's acknowledged. All of this started the process, started the education, his unit process. Started the education, his unit, which was a. He was deployed to Italy to augment service or security operations in Europe post 9-11, and then was brought back home to Minnesota and was put into a significant leadership position, senior enlisted personnel individual in his unit. So in an organization of somewhere between five to 700 people, he's the senior enlisted guy there, right, massive responsibility, big deal. Okay, this is also part of his additional service obligation. So by assuming that role, he took a promotion he had, he incurred an additional two years of service and then turned around and said you know, this is awesome, I appreciate this so much.

Speaker 3: 11:54

Very shortly afterwards the unit was told they were being mobilized to go to Iraq. He promptly, as the senior enlisted, the command sergeant major in his organization, said hey guys, I'm out, I'm not going. You guys, you know, take care of yourselves, I'm going to go run for Congress. And he bailed. So as the senior enlisted guy in an organization that large quit, walked out self-serving. He could easily, easily have continued to serve and run for Congress there are a number of congressmen who continue to serve in the reserves but he decided to bail and he left when his unit needed him most because they were generated in combat.

Speaker 3: 12:41

So as a result of that, because he didn't fulfill his obligation, because he didn't serve out the time that he acknowledged he needed to do, he was reduced back in rank. So he was taken from an e9 command sergeant major back down to a master sergeant e8. So while he did serve at that rank and he did, uh, for a very brief period of time, perform the duties of that rank, he didn't retire or end his service at that rank. So there's a lot of skepticism about his qualifications as far as what he puts on his resume for his military service. But more than anything, it speaks to his lack of character and his lack of leadership. When his unit needed him because they were going to combat he's peace out and he rolled on it, he left, he quit what he did. So my opinion as a veteran, you know, of the entire global war on terror here's in all the tours that I went on this guy is a piece of trash. I have no problem saying it. He's a vice presidential candidate, he's governor of Minnesota.

Speaker 2: 13:52

The guy's a piece of trash. Yeah, no questions asked. And all of this, you know, everything is. I mean, as we've talked about many times, the Internet never fails to. Internet for us, and and people on the Internet are spectacular, so none of this can be scrubbed fast enough by them for us not to know about it, not to see it. You know, I mean, obviously we have all of the videos, all of his statements. Within within hours it's all out there and you know. You can't tell me that they're not smart enough to know that this would happen, that this would be the case, like you know. What is that? The strategy behind this? To pick a guy with such a colorful yeah, he's a DUI.

Speaker 3: 14:29

So this to me me the biggest thing about this is is that it's a statement about her decision making. Yeah, she allowed this, or, if you didn't allow it, it was forced on her. Whoever is the strategist behind all of this is terrible. Like they did not do their homework, they did not do due diligence or they assumed the American public is so stupid and so non-caring that they just would put this guy in and they would just walk away. But this is the most liberal ticket ever.

Speaker 5: 14:55

This is so left it's not even funny.

Speaker 3: 14:57

Right, it's left to the point of being dangerous. Right, it's left to the point of being dangerous.

Speaker 2: 15:03

Yeah, it's actually kind of scary to me, because it's you know, there are only two possibilities here. One is that they're so stupid and two is that they're so confident of what they have up their sleeve. And I think everyone should be very concerned, because we already know that they're not stupid. We know that they're not. We know they're manipulative, we know they're evil, we know they're devious. We know that they're not. We know they're manipulative, we know they're evil, we know they're devious. We know all of these things. Stupid is not on that list, even when they do seemingly very stupid things. It's simply a matter of their incredibly high level of confidence in their following, in their supporters. I mean, I just I don't know. I honestly don't know, because it's all baffling. I feel like most of us are in this same boat of feeling very baffled as to what the strategy is. What's your?

Speaker 3: 15:59

plan um so so I'll offer this, and I'll offer this as a little bit of a counter and off the wall is one.

Speaker 3: 16:08

They painted themselves into a corner. We've said that before. They had no choice. They had to let her run. Right, no other option. Right, the party doesn't want. They've never like her. Her failings as a vice president were so blatant. The party knew they made a mistake very, very early on, so the intent was never to let her be the president. So maybe this is you know, they, they, they saw her. You know, president Biden steps back, she assumes they have to let her run. And then all of a sudden there's popularity spike, and there was right, and there was right. There was a spike and the party itself went we can't let her run, we can't. And so I almost wonder if they forced this guy on her as a vice presidential candidate to tank

Speaker 3: 17:00

it and wait out four years of President Trump, attack him, do all the things that they're going to do and again we've said this before concentrate on the down tickets, concentrate on not losing Congress and, you know, really tank this so bad. This is like. You know. This is like those professional sports teams that like midway through the season they're like we're not going to win, so let's get a really good draft pick and they just tank the rest of the season. Let's get a really good draft pick and they just take the rest of the season, so almost setting themselves up for 2028. Sure.

Speaker 2: 17:31

I can see that no-transcript for the next round and you know, and, of course, when I like to say, when Trump gets in, you know they'll be doing all of their shenanigans to get him out, to disqualify him. You know there's a. What's his name? Jamie Ratz, no, and maybe I just think he's like a rat. He reminds me of a rat. I'm trying to blank on his name. I know the first name's Jamie, but he's getting some airtime now because he's pretty much coming right out and saying you know we're going to, we're going to use this section of the 14th amendment to disqualify him, blah, blah, blah. And you know exactly I mean it's. You know certainly would hope he won't get any traction, but he'll make enough waves, like he'll get enough people. You know he's got Swalwell with them.

Speaker 2: 18:30

And uh, you know I threw a couple other names out there you know, the absolute, you know bottom of the barrel, um people to try and help move this and go. We're going to have to. We're just going to have to eat this one and move on, because this guy I mean again, everything that is on his list is it's bad. It is so bad. All of it is incredibly bad, yeah.

Speaker 3: 18:59

I mean, he's the, he's the, you know gender affirming care for forced Right. Yes, yes you have an option to, to deny, essentially, sex change operations for their own children. Right, you denied, denied that for your child, the state had the potential to take the child from you. Yes, he supports that. He supports and you know, put you know. Feminine hygiene products in boys' bathrooms.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Yes.

Speaker 3: 19:27

He did in the wake of George Floyd. He let that place burn, yep, and his family's weird too, which seems to also be a theme in the Democratic Party. His wife has said that during the riots she opened the windows so she could smell the burning tires and the burning city, to be in the moment. His daughter also leaked the National Guard deployment plans so that rioters and looters could know where they could go and how long they could continue to burn before the Guard was going to show up. So there's a lot of things wrong with not just W walls, but his family, with everything that surrounds him, right, um, I can't, like you said, I can't believe that they put these two together. I mean, she's we all know that she's crazy san francisco, like way left, coast right daddy, yep, you would think. And we, we said old white guy. We did, did say old white guy on the white guy. This one, though, like this guy, is the worst old white guy that could have been. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:31

Yeah, and that and that's got to anger a whole nother part of their voting demographic choices, other people of color who were very well qualified for the job, all overlooked for an old white guy. You're going to tell me that that doesn't tick off a bunch of people in that party.

Speaker 3: 20:55

Yeah, and an old, straight white guy who truthfully is a socialist.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Right.

Speaker 3: 21:01

Yeah, you know I don't. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The guy that I'll be very interested in listening to over the next few days is james carville, because he will be the one who says this is, this was a stupid idea, um, and he will call out his own party, because he is at that point and has been for about a year now, maybe two, where he is just he's not cutting them any corners and and when they you know, when the who he's so very loyal to, when they do something stupid, as him being the former strategist he calls them out on it. And this one, this is one I'm going to pay attention to, because I'm sure his input on this, or his feedback on this, is going to be glorious.

Speaker 2: 21:36

Yeah, oh, definitely, definitely yeah. And the Kamala antics, Kamala antics, it, kamala antics, kamala antics are it's. It's been a really bad time for her Number one trending hashtag on X. It may have been, you know, knocked off the number one spot, but was Kamala crash? That is the yes, yep, kamala crash. They are. They are pinning the the stock market crash. They're pinning it all squarely on her shoulders. And listen, she wanted to be the big dog. Well, you know, you got to take the responsibilities of the big dog then, don't you?

Speaker 3: 22:12

But they haven't been. I mean, president Biden has been in, you know, back in his basement. You know since, since all this started, right? Or you know, since he announced stepping back, she hasn't had a press conference until today. What is it? 15 days?

Speaker 2: 22:26

Yeah, I think 16 days. Did she have one today?

Speaker 3: 22:28

I have to Well in the announcement of her candidate. Oh, ok, yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:33

So no real no addressing reporters, no addressing the press, nothing, except for her little impromptu statement that she made at the airport, there on the tarmac, when she said and then we're going to. I'm not going to read it, like Kamala, because I've already made the video for you guys, you'll see it, but I'm just going to read to you what her unscripted impromptu response to reporters and she said hang on, my little scrolly scrolly is not doing the scrolly. This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy. Real statement.

Speaker 2: 23:16

Now, the only thing that saved her yes, yes, exactly, big old circle, and I want to point out something about that in just a moment that somebody way smarter than me pointed out several someone's actually in one second, but I just want to finish that whole scene, if you will picture it of the only thing that saved her from, like you know, talking anymore or anything, was the fact that, about one less than a minute later, joe Biden wandered off and boarded a plane that was not theirs. It was the plane. It's so shocking and it's such a painfully long video of she makes her absurd statement. They turn around and walk away and they're walking together and joe starts going to, to, to, to, to. Nobody stops the man, nobody says joe over here nobody stopped him.

Speaker 2: 24:14

They don't care, they're like whatever, whatever, who cares? Let that old man go. You know they don't care anymore, like they have literally just erased him from existence. He is just a, a cardboard. Um, you know, puppet, that they they bring out and say, stand here, joe, and don't move, you know, and then they forget to tell him it's time to move. This way, joe, so bad, so bad. Um, but back to her.

Speaker 2: 24:36

You know we call them the word salads. That's our favorite thing to call them word salads, because that's what they are. You just toss a bunch of words together and somebody, several somebodies, and I can't give you names at the moment because I'm just trying to blank pointed out that don't be deceived by these word salads, that they're just these insane utterances by adults, which they are to a large degree adult, which they are to a large degree. But this is, you know, the premise of the conversation was you know, this is a very Marxist strategy to say what sounds like a whole bunch of nothing. Use big words, make it sound important, use those hand gestures. You know it's a very orchestrated strategy that they do and it's the whole. You know, we attribute that skill to politicians all the time say a bunch of nothing, you know, but make it sound like something. And you know that is really something to watch for.

Speaker 2: 25:27

And I think Glenn Beck was one of the people I was watching and he was talking about you know, the whole be unburdened by what has been blah, blah, blah, that whole thing. And he said that's a classic example of it. Like what do you what? Unburdened by what? Like what are we being unburdened from? Like our history. Are we supposed to ignore our history? It's really. I recommend going to look for it because he obviously articulates that whole thing way better than I just did. But all all very interesting things to watch. It is the problem, clay, I get so much information, you know, getting thrown at me. You know how it is. There's so many things coming at you at once. It's like, listen, I only got enough space for a certain amount of stuff here.

Speaker 3: 26:06

Well, listen, we don't remember phone numbers anymore because they're stored in our phone. So at least we don't have that burden anymore so we've been thank goodness.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Yeah, um, but back to. I strayed, you know all of so much, back to the Kamala crash. So here's a couple of things. One I'm going to, I'm going to torture you all with one of my reenactment. Reenactments. This is and it's only actually because I didn't take the time to go find the original this is verbatim what Kamala Harris answered her response to how are you going to fix the problem of inflation? And this is her response Obviously, me doing it, but word for word.

Speaker 5: 26:53

Prices have gone up and families and individuals who are dealing with the realities of that. Bread costs more and gas costs more, and we have to understand what that means. That's about the cost of living going up. That's about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That's about a source of stress for families that is not only economic but is, on a daily level, something that is a heavy weight to carry. So it is something that we take very seriously, very seriously, and we know from the history of this issue in the United States that when you see these prices go up, it has a direct impact on the quality of life. That's a big issue and we take it seriously and it is a priority. Therefore.

Speaker 2: 27:54

Word for word.

Speaker 3: 27:58

They take it seriously. They take it seriously.

Speaker 2: 28:01

They take it seriously. I mean, I feel like that's answer enough, isn't it Now? Um, now here's one. So obviously that was, you know, parody of me, again, word for word of what she actually said. I want to make sure everybody understands that that it was exactly what she said. Um, this one could be parody, but this might be, but it's real. Um, this may be better. Explains why we're in such trouble right now. You're ready for this guy. Here we go. Like you said, they print the dollar, so why?

Speaker 5: 28:29

why does the government even borrow?

Speaker 4: 28:31

Well, um, the uh, so the? I mean again, some of this stuff gets some of the language that the some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money and it definitely lends that money, which is why the government definitely prints money, and then it lends that money by by selling bonds. Is that what they do? They, they, they, yeah, they, they. They sell bonds yeah, they sell bonds. Yeah, they sell bonds. Right, since they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money, yeah.

Speaker 4: 29:06

So a lot of times, at least in my year with MMT, the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing, but there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to. So, yeah, I guess I'm just I can't really talk, I don't get it, I don't know what they're talking about. Like, because it's like the government clearly prints money, it does it all the time and it clearly borrows, otherwise we wouldn't be having this debt and deficit conversation, so I don't think there's anything confusing there and deficit conversation. So I don't think there's anything confusing there.

Speaker 3: 29:41

Chairman, chairman of the Economic Advisors Committee and president, that guy doesn't know, doesn't understand. The guy's an idiot Like that guy doesn't understand, Jack. I'm not an economist, but I know more than that guy does.

Speaker 2: 29:54

Right, I mean, that's basically the answer I would give, and y'all don't want me answering those kinds of questions because that's what I would sound like. That guy shouldn't sound like that FYI. So, um, yeah, that's what we're dealing with. That's what's making major, significant decisions from our government.

Speaker 3: 30:17

That's where Biden came from yeah, that guy, that guy.

Speaker 2: 30:21

So I mean I, I hope, um, I hope the trump campaign uses that video. You're right for their advertisements. Be for their ads, because, um, the stuff writes itself. Nobody, including myself, has to write any scripts anymore, we just sit like president trump.

Speaker 3: 30:40

President Trump, do you listen to President Trump who's? Been a businessman for 50 years and has made billions of dollars. Will you listen to that moron on economic policy? I don't think so. We're not alone. We are far from alone Our hemisphere we've got other problems outside the United States.

Speaker 5: 31:01

Yes.

Speaker 3: 31:02

And you know, for those who look south and they look at Venezuela and they say who cares? It's Venezuela. Why should that matter to us? So obviously for those of you that aren't tracking, president Maduro was reelected with 50 point something percent of the vote in a completely rigged election. One hundred percent. The election was stolen. He's already had political opposition has already been arrested in the wake of it. This is dictatorship to a T, absolutely Right.

Speaker 2: 31:33

Wait, a minute. Wait, did you just say a president having a political opponent arrested and imprisoned?

Speaker 5: 31:41

Oh, okay it just sounded so familiar.

Speaker 2: 31:44

I'm like where have I heard that before? That's weird, but there can't be any parallels here, right no?

Speaker 3: 31:49

Did I mention he's a socialist too? What Right? I know Crazy right, the parallels.

Speaker 2: 31:54

Must be just a coincidence, right Clay yeah just crazy.

Speaker 3: 31:59

So you know you've got. This is so bad and so blatant that you actually have. You know the president of Argentina is backing political opposition to President Maduro, so you've got another nation actively getting involved in the aftermath of this. But really, venezuela is important economically because of their oil.

Speaker 3: 32:22

Venezuela is the largest producer outside the United States in the Western Hemisphere, massive oil stocks and have been in cahoots with Russia and China and other nations to provide them oil, et cetera, et cetera. So not so far away from us, but this is a prime example.

Speaker 3: 32:39

This is a prime example of what happens when the and I know people, you know that most, a lot of folks on the left are going to turn around and say well, that's what's going to happen when Trump gets elected. This is what you're going to get out of him, which it's not you know you're not. January 6th. Okay, it's all manufactured Like stop listening to the box on the wall. That's what the media is telling you. But this is a real live, real time example of how bad things can get and how very quickly they can go wrong.

Speaker 2: 33:07

Incredibly quickly. The timeline do you happen to know at the time? I know that it's like terrifying to think about, like the timeline of the fall essentially into um it's, it's under, it's under 20 years from Venezuela being one of the?

Speaker 3: 33:23

um richest nations per capita?

Speaker 3: 33:26

um, like just average, um you know family value, family wealth uh to to where they're at now, where the, the dollar, the Venezuelan currency, is basically worthless and you know it's it's not an exaggeration where you know lighting a hundred dollar bill to light your cigarette is is really what is going on down there, because their, their money is, like you know, milk is like $300 a gallon. Now it's because the $300 isn't worth anything, right, right, but that's, that's for those of you, those of you don't understand economics and inflation and inflated dollar.

Speaker 2: 33:58

Like the economics chair guy. You could explain?

Speaker 3: 34:01

it to him maybe? Yeah, like when you flood the market with free cash, like, I don't know, covid checks or things like that, it devalues your currency, which is what's happening and has been happening in Venezuela, but this is a model that we all need to pay attention to.

Speaker 2: 34:18

Yeah, because the left is paying attention to it.

Speaker 3: 34:22

This is the playbook. This is what they're watching Right, and there are only a few years in front of us and really we may be catching up to the point where they may only be a few months. So keep paying attention to the aftermath of that. I am encouraged by the fact that you've got like this new kind of harder line president down in Argentina who's stepping in and saying, nope, you know, this is we're not, we're not, we're not supporting this on this continent, and he's getting involved.

Speaker 3: 34:45

I think you're going to see a little bit more of that which is good, yeah, but don't lose sight of the aftermath of this one, folks, because it is the crystal ball of what could potentially happen here in the United States, of what could potentially happen here in the United States.

Speaker 2: 34:58

Right, yeah, absolutely, and anybody that doesn't believe it needs to go and research and learn the history of Venezuela and how exactly that happened, and I suspect you're going to see a lot of parallels.

Speaker 3: 35:12

Amazing, amazing.

Speaker 2: 35:14

Yeah, it is amazing and frightening and people should be. I don't know if scared is the right word. I think simply educated and prepared, and you know, basically ready to fight because you know.

Speaker 3: 35:33

Yeah, I think Venezuela, no, but Venezuela itself. That election is not going to have a huge impact on the United States, but again, it is an indicator of it's, a history lesson ahead of us. Right, this is, you know, a little bit of profit, you know profitizing of what could potentially happen, so we can't lose sight of that. But at the same time, we've got enough other problems going on, right, so we've got plenty, you know you know, dropping back into the, the israel.

Speaker 3: 36:02

You know, um. You know, earlier this weekend for those of you that weren't tracking you know, israel, I think they've claimed one. I don't think they've claimed both, but I think they're responsible for both. So they killed two. You know, a hezbollah um commander and a hamas commander, um, the hezbollah commander, I think theyas commander, the Hezbollah commander, I think they killed in Syria, the Hamas commander. They killed in Tehran, tehran.

Speaker 3: 36:28

And you know there's a lot of people that think that that was coordinated, doing both of the same night or within 24 hours of each other. And you know, I can tell you definitively that operations like that are based on intelligence and opportunity. So the fact that these two idiots stuck their head out within 24 hours of each other. Like the guy from Hamas has been living in Qatar, protected, in a protected status in Qatar, for months, since before October 7th, right, so he has not left that because there is an agreement there of some sort. I don't know why, but he's under protected status in qatar and decided to go to tehran tehran for the inauguration of the new iranian president and he met with the new iranian president and then he met with the ayatollah the day before the inauguration and he went back to a uh house, a government owned guest house, and while he was there, you know, there was an airstrike from a drone and they blew him up. But that was the first time that he left Qatar in months.

Speaker 2: 37:32

So the Israelis?

Speaker 3: 37:33

Right, and that's a good question, but the Israelis took advantage of that. The Hezbollah commander in Syria same thing Stuck his head out and they took advantage of it. It just happened to be within 24 hours of each other. But now you've got Iran is in an uproar and they're saying you know they're going to retaliate full attacks. They were not going to stand for this.

Speaker 3: 37:52

This is the same saber rattling kind of crap that we heard months ago, when they launched whatever it was, a hundred drones and all these ballistic missiles and all this other stuff at Israel, which was a colossal failure. Yes, so you know. The concern is that you're going to get a repeat of this, and caught in the middle are a bunch of Americans who are in Iraq right now, who were attacked, rocket attack the other night and but?

Speaker 3: 38:16

but they're going to play a role in this, just like we did last time. Our air defenses and some assets that we have in Iraq intercepted a bunch of those drones between Iran and Israel the last time this happened, but you've got an escalation in the region. Israelis are not apologizing, nor should they. Right, they, they did Step in it a little bit in the sense that they they poke their nose inside of. You know Iran, which they've done in the past, but this one is fairly significant.

Speaker 3: 38:48

We'll see what happens with a brand new Iranian president Right. So this is. You know he's going to want to respond Otherwise you know they're going to you know. Lose faith in him immediately if he doesn't respond somehow.

Speaker 2: 39:01

Do we know anything? Do we know anything about?

Speaker 3: 39:04

No, no, Obviously the reality is, in Iran, everybody takes orders from the Ayatollah. So you know it's.

Speaker 3: 39:11

They have an elected president, but whoever, the elected president is always answers to the Ayatollah, so it doesn't matter. Yeah, so I mean you know you've got this. And why does this matter? Because we haven't heard jack from the, from the white house, either the outgoing president, who's not doing jack, or that running vice president, who's not doing jack. I think this is where your, your diplomacy quote comes from. I mean, they called the two of them into the situation room, whatever it was saturday morning or or Sunday morning, to talk about this, and nothing, literally nothing from from.

Speaker 2: 39:44

No, they're like. You know. The two of them are like the scarecrow, you know, just pointing, pointing their finger in each other's direction, like he's got to take care of it. No, she's got to take care of it. Nobody's. Nobody's handling anything, obviously.

Speaker 3: 39:57

And again, this is poor diplomacy. The US is not stepping up and I'm not saying stick our nose in the middle of it. I'm not talking, although there has been discussions of increase of US forces in the Middle East, which I'm sure will be used as a deterrent of sorts, you know. But we're not getting involved as we should right to help stabilize the region, because President Biden has tried to play both ends.

Speaker 3: 40:21

He doesn't want to piss anybody off, so he's trying to help the israelis, but he's also trying to help the palestinians um at the same time and he's denouncing both and he's supporting both and you know, basically indecisive, because he doesn't know what planet he's on, and you know, and so we're not doing anything. We, the leaders of the globe, have done shack Like nothing is reprehensible.

Speaker 2: 40:43

Yeah, oh it's. It's so shocking, like there's literally nobody at the helm of the ship. There's no one, no one whatsoever. It's so bizarre. And you know, and it continues into this also bit of bizarreness, continues into this also bit of bizarreness. Now it's only in bizarre. It's only bizarre in the sense that Biden supposedly had no idea, like had no knowledge. I was just going on, oh, I don't know, I don't know anything about it, just washed his hands of it, just like he's, you know, washed his hands of everything. That's going on and this is so crazy.

Speaker 3: 41:18

So I'm going to be. I'm going to be a little careful about this, ok, so, retired Brigadier General Susan Escalier, who, who is the one who offered this plea deal?

Speaker 5: 41:32

OK.

Speaker 3: 41:32

I knew many years ago, knew what. We were captains together, same unit. I've known her since. You know. I haven't had contact with her in a very long time, but I've tracked her career through friends. I've been aware of where she's been and what she's been doing, um, both personally and professionally. So I've known susan since 99, 2000, right long time, um. But I but I will say this, these are lawyers. She is a retired Army lawyer who reached the rank of brigadier general and was in contention to be the judge advocate general for the United States Army. Ok, like the senior lawyer for the Army, she knows what she's doing. I'm going to tread very, very lightly here, very, very lightly here. So she is the one who has been in charge of this, the prosecution for this, for a while. In fact, she retained that responsibility even as she retired, okay, so they didn't want to pull her off of it when she retired, but so she my understanding and I and I qualify them my understanding is that she offered this with not the proper level of authorization, okay.

Speaker 2: 42:48

Okay.

Speaker 2: 42:48

So that's actually the opposite of what I would have assumed. Honestly, Like I would imagine, like my thinking was there is no way in heck that she was not being given green lights. Like here's how I interpreted that. And you know, based on what you're saying, I'm wrong. I'm OK to be wrong or with being wrong. I kind of thought, OK, so they authorized this, they said go do this, this is what we're offering, this is what we're going to do. And then when everybody got wind of it particularly the survivors and family members of 9-11 victims, got wind of all this they're like are you out of your freaking mind? What the hell are you doing? And it was a big uproar. And is she the one that just got relieved of? Okay, yeah, yeah. So I kind of assumed it was going to be like one of those stories that she got full authorization and then when it went south and people got mad, you know they're like you're out, Bye, she's the one she did it. She kind of did it.

Speaker 3: 43:45

Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't think that's what happened. I think so. Just so everybody understands, the plea deal is actually what it all it was doing was taking the death penalty off the table.

Speaker 5: 43:55

Right.

Speaker 3: 43:56

Right and I think the exchange for uh, where's my image and the whole? Mile. Yeah, these, these assholes, sorry, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2: 44:05

You're called. Call it Like you see it.

Speaker 3: 44:08

We all agree. Yeah, so it took the death penalty off the table for the three of them and I, I believe, not all the terms and conditions were were public um as to what the exchange was. So it was, you know. Take the death penalty off the table.

Speaker 3: 44:23

I think it was an admission of guilt which would speed this, which would close this thing out, which I think was the intent to like end this, like close the chapter, do that by taking the death penalty off the table. I think that was part of the exchange. Taking the death penalty off the table, I think that was part of the exchange and, like you said, it progressed exactly like you said. It hit the news, the survivors found out about it. They were livid, you know, and the reaction was not what anybody anticipated it to be. And then it went right back to Secretary Austin who said, yeah, no, she's. You know, I'm pulling this, I'm pulling the plea deal, I'm taking it off the table. I'm the only one who can make these types of decisions. I'm pulling all authority back to myself.

Speaker 3: 45:10

And essentially, yes, Brigadier General Retired, Susan Escalier got pulled right off of all of this. I don't know if she's been completely removed from the case or if she's been. You know all of this. I don't know if she's been completely removed from the case or if she's been, you know, taking a back seat, or if now she, you know, can't, you know, talk to these guys without authors, whatever. I don't know if they just put a leash on her or what? But there were moves being made and I think I will never say it was done in good faith, because I don't think that is good faith, but I think the intent was let's end this right.

Speaker 3: 45:38

We've had this guy in custody for 20 years. You know, nothing's moving forward. Let's do something with this. But here's the thing that it continues to make me chuckle these pieces of human filth. Who sacrificed you know the hijackers and had spent years as terrorist leaders sacrificing other people? Yeah, and suicide, directing suicide operations, suicide bombs, you know terrorist fighters, all kinds of stuff. When the death penalty is on the table for them, they're like oh oh, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not buying off on it, yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:18

I'll fight this? I'm not. You're not doing that.

Speaker 2: 46:20

Yeah, how about that? Right, what happened to you know?

Speaker 3: 46:24

Yeah, fate, you know in their fate all of that stuff?

Speaker 2: 46:28

Yes, I thought you were willing to die for your convictions and your belief. And guess not, not so much.

Speaker 3: 46:42

Many years ago 2002, I got I got a little talking to his young captain, Clay Novak, in Afghanistan. I gave an interview to either CNN or Headline News.

Speaker 5: 46:46

And.

Speaker 3: 46:47

I said exactly that Twenty, two years ago. I said listen, you know, we just came back from an operation. We've been running around out there begging, begging the Taliban to come through with us. Come get in a fight with us, Please do, and you know what they talk. A big game, but when it comes down to you know, you know really putting their word, you know their money where their mouth is they're all a bunch of cowards. Yeah, and you know, I got a little talking to after that, but, but I stand by.

Speaker 2: 47:15

Yeah, I was going to say so worth it, clay, so worth it.

Speaker 3: 47:18

But I stand by. Yeah, I was going to say so worth it, clay, so worth it. The low hanging fruit, unfortunately. You know, for for many, many years, by the leadership of these terrorist organizations, they've been lied to, they've been exploited, they've been sacrificed for a cause that, truthfully, their leadership doesn't even believe in.

Speaker 2: 47:33

Right, right, and that's that should be so clear to them. Like I mean, I would hope that they're getting that message, that they're seeing that message, like you know, that they're thinking about it, like wait a minute, hang on. Nah, so they're trained what, basically, from birth right, to have this mentality, this mindset.

Speaker 3: 47:50

Yeah, that's, it's right there. Ksm, khalid Sheikh Mohammed. You know those other two idiots. It's all about self-preservation. They'll sit in prison for the rest of their lives. Totally fine with it, but when it comes to the death penalty, they're not buying off on it. So yeah, I mean, and it's an embarrassment, yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:07

And I think the last that I heard. The plea deal now is off the table right.

Speaker 3: 48:10

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:12

Within 48 hours, off the table like no, no, no, no, no, no. Never mind, I don't even.

Speaker 3: 48:16

I don't even think they got a chance to sign it.

Speaker 3: 48:19

No, that hit the news so quick. Yeah, secretary Austin grabbed that was like, oh hell, no, you know, and he pulled it back. So, yes, it's off the table. They're going to proceed forward with the death penalty still on the table for those three guys. Yeah, as as they should. They should never sacrifice. And oh, by the way, check your Congress, your members of Congress people, because Dick Durbin from my home state of Illinois said well, you know, because Illinois got rid of the death penalty, so those non-death penalty states, check your congressman, because he was in full support. He was in full support of that plea. Yeah, because he doesn't believe in the death penalty. Well, Dick Durbin, you know what? There's families of about 3,000 Americans who would love to talk to you. Yeah, because he doesn't believe in the death.

Speaker 5: 49:03

Well.

Speaker 3: 49:03

Dick Durbin, you know what? There's families of about 3000 Americans who would love to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 49:06

Yeah, they'd like to say two words to you and they're not. Let's dance. Yeah, definitely not that. Yes, oh my goodness. Yeah, it's pretty wild. We have, oh my gosh, we can. We can make this one topic.

Speaker 3: 49:19

Oh yeah, this is very simple.

Speaker 2: 49:21

This one's very simple, very straightforward. It's, you know this again, surprise, surprise. So this whole thing, I mean honestly, it's like you know, we're at the point where like shocking, no, surprising, no, disgusting and absurd and just a head shaker, absolutely. So you know, I mean, we've been hearing about this, obviously for a what like a it feels like a couple of weeks.

Speaker 5: 49:45

Right, I'm right, I'm not crazy, I'm like I don't know.

Speaker 2: 49:47

Maybe I'm just exaggerating how long this has been going on, but, um, so it started with do I have the right one here? Yeah, it started with these two boxers right here. Um, I don't think I have to explain which one might be which in this conversation, right, I feel like everybody can figure this out. So the controversy is, of course, that one of those two boxers was not a biological female, and all kinds of things have been floating around in the atmosphere that you know. It started with that she's transgender and then that was supposedly debunked and came out that she's not transgender but she does have X Y chromosome. She wasn't allowed to fight in a previous match non-Olympic related because of that, because she tested for, like, high levels of testosterone. Then I think that was argued that well, that's not quite. Anyhow, the boxer on the my right, the right I'm like I don't know my left from my right in the blue, the one in the blue.

Speaker 2: 50:56

Thank you, um she. After what was it? 45 seconds, yeah. 46 seconds, yeah, great.

Speaker 3: 51:00

All right, in the blue the one in the blue.

Speaker 2: 51:01

Thank you. Um, she, after what? Was it? 45 seconds, yeah, 46 seconds, yeah, 46 seconds. I stopped, stopped the fight, I can't do it. She said she has never in her life been hit so hard. She literally feared for her life in that ring, which is horrifying. And yes, we know somebody will say well, you know, I mean, they're like hitting each other in the head. It is pretty dangerous. Yeah, no, duh, we all know it's pretty dangerous. This is a whole different level of dangerousness and inappropriateness. So here's what I'm going to say on that whole thing Whether this is an actual biological female that has male, I don't mean. I don't even know what I mean. How do you even explain this male? I don't mean, I don't even know what I mean. How do you even explain this? I don't. This person has an unfair advantage over her opponents. I'm going to keep going with her. We're going to go with her. I don't really know, do?

Speaker 5: 51:53

you know, I don't know, like, do you know anymore? I have an opinion, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3: 51:55

I kind of have an opinion going and then and then I'll chime in with mine.

Speaker 2: 51:57

Okay, all right. So the one thing that is very, very clear, that is the whole physicality that we're comparing here. There's some very obvious differences between these two fighters. Right, there is the absolute fact that this person was not allowed to fight prior against women, For whatever reason. The Olympics were like no, we're cool with that, it's all good. And here we are. Now there's another fighter. By the way, that fighter basically beat everyone that they fought. Hang on, we do this every time with the darn banners there we go. This one is from Taiwan.

Speaker 2: 52:35

Yes, if I can read right here, also failed the gender test. And that is the thing here they failed a gender test. I mean, I feel like that only can mean one thing they failed a gender test. All that it means. So they are fighting against the wrong gender. And what a surprise. These two fighters end up fighting each other. So they eliminated every biological female in the sport. Biological females who trained for, you know, probably all of their adult lives for this, or at least a very good portion, got their dreams squashed in a women's sport by men, or, I'm sorry, by people who are probably men, or maybe men, or we'll never know. Will we ever know? I'm just I'm so sad for them. I'm so sad for those women I really am. I mean, it was devastating to see Angela Carini, I believe, is her name. Yeah, just in tears, just believe is her name?

Speaker 1: 53:39

Yeah, Italian.

Speaker 2: 53:40

Yeah, just in tears, just absolutely wrecked, awful, awful. Give me your thoughts, because I really stumbled through that.

Speaker 3: 53:48

They're guys, I'm not messing around with it. I'm tired of the bull.

Speaker 5: 53:54

They're guys.

Speaker 3: 53:55

Everybody can say that the IBA, who banned them before, who is a boxing governing body, banned them. They can say they're corrupt and I will tell you boxing historically is one of the most corrupt sports there is. But because of money it's corrupt Right. The IBA banned these two competitors.

Speaker 5: 54:15

Right.

Speaker 3: 54:16

And again, it's not a coincidence that those two competitors banned by the IBA are the ones who ended up fighting for the gold medal. That's not a coincidence. But listen, there's a lot of people say, well, the IBA is in the pocket of Russia and the IBA is corrupt, and this and this. Blah, blah, blah, blah. So is the IOC. Okay, the IOC is a corrupt organization, right? There have been plenty of controversies in the IOC.

Speaker 3: 54:39

There's plenty of controversies in every governing body of every sport in every part of the world. So don't dismiss the IBA because there's been controversy, all right, because you'd have to throw the Olympics out the window as a whole. Sure, oh, by the way, talk to the triathlon team who are all sick after swimming in the Se river. Uh, because it's filled with human feces, regardless, those two guys, they're dudes. Both of those, they're guys. Those guys, um, they had an unfair advantage period, right, um, and and it's not a coincidence, they ended up in the gold medal round. And the olympics is a shame. They have a lot. They have gone woke, gone woke. I hate using that word, but in this case, this Olympics, more so than anything else, is woke. And if you need another example, of how woke and screwed up.

Speaker 3: 55:27

This Olympics is. Check out the male volleyball player who is a convicted child rapist who has been allowed? To compete because everybody's like he's okay. No, he's not. No, he's not Because if you go back, the guy served, I think, 13 total months for having sex with a 13 or a 14-year-old when he was 20.

Speaker 2: 55:51

That's not okay, I don't care where he comes from and he has no supervision, no restrictions. He's in with everybody else, mixed in with everybody else. Yeah, mixed in with everybody else, yes, exactly. What an absolute disgrace. I you know, I'll only speak for myself. That franchise, whatever you want to call the Olympics is done. It's done. It's going to continue, of course, but they have kind of gone the way of the NFL. It's done, it's going to continue, of course, but they have kind of gone the way of the NFL, it's coming here.

Speaker 2: 56:25

Yeah, great, yep, no thanks.

Speaker 3: 56:29

Yep, yeah. Oh by the way in a presidential election year. It's coming here to the United States. Wow. Well, that shouldn't be any problems at all.

Speaker 2: 56:37

No, no, no, no. I'm sure it's going to go great, I'm sure it's going to go awesome, it'll be perfect. Yeah Well, listen, you know, if it's a when's that one going to, what is it? It's every four or eight years.

Speaker 1: 56:47

So, 2028.

Speaker 2: 56:49

Okay, all right. Well, if um, either Vance, maybe Trump, maybe a little bit, if they have any say in it, it'll be, it'll be huge, it'll be the best olympics you'll ever see, so there is some hope for it if it comes here under those circumstances. So I won't I won't write it off completely, but but right now, um again and I said it last week, we said it last week I just feel so bad for I just feel so bad for the athletes. I feel so bad for the athletes. What a stain on incredible accomplishments. You know, very sad, very sad.

Speaker 2: 57:28

But you listen, the news cycle never ends. We never get bored. We never not have something to share with you guys, and we like to remind you every time that we record on Tuesdays. You watch the show with us on Thursdays and we're well aware that anything could happen over the next two days. So if we're not talking about it, you know why and we'll chat with you about it in the comments and all that good stuff. But we just love you guys to pieces and we love sharing our Thursday evenings with you. And yeah, so, clay, you want to send them off with some wise words.

Speaker 3: 58:01

Hey, everybody, listen. Elsa and I, like everybody else, we're taking a. We're taking, not together.

Speaker 4: 58:08

We're taking a vacation.

Speaker 3: 58:10

The summer's busy and we're both. We're going to take the next two weeks off. Okay, so you got us for this week and then we're going to come back to recap the DNC. So for the next two weeks, you know, don't, don't forget about us, we're still around, uh, but uh, we're going to take the next couple of weeks off and then we will be back, uh, the last week of August and we will recap the DNC and and Elsa's going to put her Kamala wig on and and it's going to be, it's going to be off the hook. We're going to have a good time. Epic, yes, but, as always, thanks for tuning in. This was a fun show, a lot going on, tons to talk about and, as always for me, keep moving, keep changing.

Speaker 5: 58:47

Take care guys.