The Elsa Kurt Show

Peace Through Strength, Chaos Through Spin

• Elsa Kurt

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Speaker 1:

It's the Elsa Kirk Show, with Clay Novak serving up trending news and conservative views Brought to you by the Elsa Kirk Collection and Refuge Medical. And now it's time for the show.

Speaker 2:

Well, hey there. How are you after a very long day for you, sir?

Speaker 3:

Yes, so today is Wednesday. We're a little bit deviated from our norm it is 7 pm on the East Coast because I had to do my civic duty and I got called in for jury duty today, which lasted all day, only to get not selected to be on the jury. All day, only to get not selected to be on the jury. It is what it is, but you know, if you've ever done that, that can be a very, very long day of sitting around doing nothing, and that's exactly what I had today.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I am masterfully derelict. I am very bad about that whole process. I think I have been summoned probably at least half a dozen times. I have shown up exactly one time. One time I showed up and I did. You guys are going to be so mad at me. I did everything in my power to get out of it, even going so far as to take the advice of people that told me just tell them that you're a cop's wife and they'll get rid of you right away. No, they did not get rid of me right away and in fact they were very annoyed with me for because they know that that was a tactic, it's the truth. But they know that I was saying it to get the heck out of there. They did release me, but they made me suffer a little bit and I felt like the judge was very stern with me. But I am biased, I am, I just am. So whatever.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I didn't even get interviewed. You know they took many of us it was 50 of us into a room, to narrow it down to 12 plus two alternates, and by the time they got to 14, I hadn't even been interviewed yet, but it was still like the end of the day of really getting gosh A whole day of really getting nothing, except for the fact that I did my civic duty. I showed up my appointed place, time and duty and all that stuff and got it done.

Speaker 2:

So but Well, you're the good one, Clay.

Speaker 3:

It's that all that army training do what you're told when you're told to do it Anyway. So now we're wasting even more time. We're behind the power curve, folks, but we do have a great show tonight. We've got what? Four, which a lot of them kind of weave together, which will be great. But we've got four topics tonight and we'll get started right after this. Hey folks, clay Novak here, author of the novel Keep Moving, keep Shooting. So what I've got here is the Boo Boo 2. You know more significant. There is a tourniquet in here but Ubu 2.0, this is the kit that you need all the time. Again, refugemedicalcom. You can find it there. Use the discount code KMKS at checkout. Get yourself 10% off. Refuge Medical. Not only buy their equipment, but get their training refuge medical office training as well.

Speaker 4:

Ready to refresh your vibe, the Elsa Kurt collection has everything from page turning reads to eye catching fashion guaranteed to add a little sunshine to your season. But that's not all. Love a good book. Elsa's got your next favorite read waiting just for you. Don't miss Elsa's Amazon affiliate store filled with handpicked beauty treasures, home must haves and daily essentials. It's like a personal shopping spree, for maybe make it spring for your season. Shop the Elsa Kurt collection today and let the fun begin so, uh, I I did not.

Speaker 2:

I did not bring this up to you before we hit the record button here, uh, but this cracked me up, clay, so much so I'll share guys, what I'm talking about. Clay Clay's probably nervous over there, like what is she going to? Do now I have a feeling.

Speaker 3:

I know what this is.

Speaker 2:

You know, you know, so I get it. I get a text message last night and it reads it reads this and you can guess probably who that text was from. It was from Clay, who you know, so I I I actually laughed out loud because y'all have come to know Clay. Do you think Clay sits around talking about women's lipstick at any point of any day in his life? We all know the answer is no. So this cracked me up beyond words that I could just picture your face sending that text, like I cannot even believe I have to send this text.

Speaker 3:

It's actually your fault. It's somebody who follows both of us on social media and she said that she asked you and you never responded. So she was like I'm going to ask you and see if you can ask her, and I was like oh I feel doubly bad.

Speaker 2:

now I feel terrible.

Speaker 3:

Keeping your lipstick is what she said.

Speaker 2:

So uh, yeah, I was like so listen for anyone else, so that nobody has to ask poor clay this mortifying question ever again. I don't even know how this will show up in there. It probably will not. Um, but guys, it's just, it's. It's tart, t A R T, er-t-e and Maracuja I don't even know if I pronounced that right. It's the color primrose. My lip liner is this cheap stuff from. I don't even know what this is, but this is what it looks like, guys. Poor clay, right now, I, I, this is what I use, guys. So if anybody else wants to know, that's what it is.

Speaker 3:

And now, I get here. How did I get here?

Speaker 2:

it's amazing, isn't it? Oh yes, all right, so we are going to spare clay and, uh, all of the rest of the men that came in here for some you know intellectual discourse and got lipstick instead. But we're moving on, we're going on to the potential, okay, so here we go. So we're kicking off with the latest on the Israel-Iran-US tension, because things just went from thermometer high to ice cold faster than the media can spin it right. Wow, this was fast.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and we'll talk about the media reaction and all that stuff in a few. But you know the hard part about an operation like this and we talked about the operation last week, right, and the hard part of this is the BDA which you know. For those of us in the business, that's battle damage assessment or bomb damage assessment, and so that is assessing the damage after the operation is over with. Now the best way to do this is boots on the ground, the best way to have somebody walk over there, get within eyesight and take some pictures or really walk it and get a good feel for it. Obviously, that is a very, very high risk operation to do that, and for a lot of reasons, not just because putting boots on the ground in Iran is risky, as all get out, but you're also talking about a nuclear facility where there's potential exposed radioactive material and all kinds of stuff. So you really don't want to put people on the ground if you can help it. So we have to rely on, you know, satellites, satellite photos, reconnaissance aircraft, those kinds of things to take pictures. And then you've got professionals who do the analysis of the photographs, of the satellite imagery, to tell you what happened and what didn't happen, and so you know all assessments by the folks involved, including the Israelis, who else, our CIA and a number of other folks are saying that the damage has set back the Iranian nuclear program years potentially. And again we'll talk about the media, you know, going forward in a little bit in the next segment.

Speaker 3:

But there's some contrarian views, obviously, of what you know happened and didn't happen. So, but I think the telling response to this is the NATO secretary general, and you know I was telling Elsa, we were talking right before we started. I read a whole thing today about, you know, because President Trump is at the NATO summit, or actually just left today, but he's at the NATO summit, or actually just left today, but he's at the NATO summit. And while he was there and even on his way there, he had some great interaction with the NATO secretary general. I think you got a film clip, don't you?

Speaker 2:

I do, I do, I love this. So many people love this also. Here it is. Maybe we're going to do papers.

Speaker 1:

I don't even know if you need them. They're not going to be fighting each other. They've had it. They've had it. They've had a big fight like two kids in a schoolyard. You know they fight like hell. You can't stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes.

Speaker 5:

Then it's easy to stop them. And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language.

Speaker 1:

You have to use strong language. Everyone's going. You have to use a certain word.

Speaker 2:

I love it. I love it. Daddy sometimes has to use strong language. You know, and it's always so funny to me, like you know, right away, everybody, of course it's a great quote. It's a cute, funny light moment in all of this. You know drama and heaviness and everything, and you know, of course I'd be like, I think, a journalist, you know, asked a question of the guy. So you know, so what do you? Why did you call him daddy? Or you called him daddy? Well, you know it's asking like a dumb question. We call him daddy because President Trump was reversing, you know, calling them children and sometimes you got to, you know, break the kids up and all that stuff, and so there's a very direct tie into why you said it. It was a funny light moment. Everybody chill out. I loved it.

Speaker 3:

Chill out. I loved it. So you know, operationally, what he's talking about is in the. You know, in the immediacy after the operation, iran obviously launched, you know, counterattacks into Israel, very short lived, very, very, very limited. And then all of a sudden there was this ceasefire and both sides agreed to it and abide by it, and then all of a sudden they both violated it and you know, even President Trump said it himself.

Speaker 3:

But these are the same things we talked about with the initial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine is that sometimes it takes a while for information to get down to the people who need. You know who are the executors and you know things are already in motion, and so I think there were a few rockets launched out of Iran. You know there was a response by Israel, and then there was another templated or planned response by Israel and President Trump jumped in the middle and said you know, knock it off. And he said it right before he got on a helicopter and he used some really language on live television. I think we have a clip of that too.

Speaker 2:

We sure do, and I love this even more than the other one.

Speaker 1:

You know, when I say, okay, now you have 12 hours, you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran either, but I'm really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn't land, that was shot perhaps by mistake, that didn't land. I'm not happy about that. You know what? We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing.

Speaker 2:

Do you understand that. Oh, yes, yes. So Clay chuckles at me often because off air I may occasionally throw out a word here and there, but as the rest of you know, I do not swear in my videos and in anything publicly anymore and I try very, very hard not to in my personal life. I am a little more lax there and I forget myself at times. I'm growing, I'm learning people, I'm getting better. Cut me some slack. So you know there was a lot of pearl clutching, a lot of pearl clutching going on over the F-bomb and I think Clay and I both agree that as a general rule we kind of poo-poo that you know, in that setting we're not, you know, we're not prudes. We all swear, you know, generally, and are big boys and big girls and we can certainly handle it. But you know, everybody does expect a certain level of decorum, finesse from our leaders and everything this. As Clay said, before we got in there, this was different. This was, this was actually kind of called for and it was.

Speaker 2:

I appreciated it so much because to me it showed a man who cares, who deeply cares. That was an F-drom dropped out of sheer frustration. You know the daddy mode trying to get the kids to behave. And the kids are just acting wild, they're behaving like feral animals and you know, and he's trying to get everybody to get along and behave. And you know, and I you can just kind of you just feel the emotion in emotion in that that, like, for the love of everything good, I am trying to make peace, I'm trying to make everything better for everyone. Stop freaking, fighting me on this all the damn time, and do what's right. And that was the energy behind it, Right, Like that was dad saying enough, and I loved it. How about you, Clay?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, again, I, I I've said this publicly a number of times I do think that president Trump, you know, speaks below his office more often than than I would prefer, but he is transparent in who he is. He generally, you know, he doesn't hide that stuff and but this one, I think, was very focused. Like you said, I think he dropped that F-bomb very purposefully and it was, honestly, I think it was as much, probably more so, a message to Bebe Netanyahu than it was anybody else. So you know, yes, there was a lot of pearl clutching. I would offer that, you know, the people who were doing most of the pearl clutching would sit there and watch a movie with their children with that exact word in it and not even flinch. So I think a lot of it is, you know, as much as we would like him to speak more appropriately. I think it's a lot of, you know, fake outrage mostly because it's him.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, absolutely, because there's crickets, crickets over Jasmine Crockett dropping F-bombs left and right. You know, every two seconds she's dropping an F-bomb.

Speaker 3:

So give me a break, In violation of the rules of decorum in Congress, by the way where she can be fined money, you know, and other things.

Speaker 3:

there's punishment involved. But you know, president Trump, part of this too is, you know, our forces were attacked in the midst of all this. Iran responded. Now, nobody got hurt, everything was intercepted. You know, the Qataris and everybody, you know, did their part in our internal defenses, defeated everything that was targeted towards US bases. But you know he's got that on his mind too. That that is, you know, all part of this. You know, jigsaw puzzle that's going on in the Middle East. So so he carried, you know he carried all of that forward.

Speaker 3:

You know he kind of launched into that little bit of profanity and then, uh, you know, and then he went to the NATO summit and you know we talked about the secretary general, but the, you know, as he walked in, um, you know he, president Trump, said hey, listen, you know this is ceasefire. You know he's not proclaiming peace in the middle East, but we're a lot closer than we were even a few months ago, and the Secretary General of NATO, as well as other nation state members, are very, very happy that we, the United States, and he specifically launched this operation to take that capability away from Iran Because, as we said last week. This was bad for the globe, right, not just the United States, not just Israel or anybody else in the region. It's bad for the globe. So, with that, what he got out of NATO was a massive, massive shift in focus in defense spending, collective defense spending across the NATO nations, where they upped from 2% of the GDP to a combined 5% of their GDP towards defense, with the one exception being Spain, which has got some economic issues that they can't get out from behind, and they were given a little bit of a pass, or at least a longer lead time to get there.

Speaker 3:

But you saw some immediate moves. The UK put in an order for F-35 nuclear capable aircraft today. So you know this is an immediate move, very responsive by all of NATO to get back on board with defending NATO as a whole under the terms of Article 5, which you know is the if you attack one of us, you attack all of us. You know kind of claws in all the NATO stuff. So you know President Trump, who's been really, really rough on NATO for a very, very long time, you know he walked into the conference and he was the man and he was everybody's favorite. Go figure, he made a move and it turned out to be the perfect move at the perfect time and it worked out in the US's favor, so good on him, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Typical Trump? Yeah, absolutely, um, I talk about a huge, huge, massive win. Um, at a time, at a very disappointing time, when many, several of his normally staunchest supported supposed supporters, uh, vocal supporters, basically turn their back on him. And we're talking about, you know, notable figures. Steve Bannon, one of them had a lot to say. That was not cool. Tucker Carlson, candace Owen, doesn't really count, she's, you know, she's already been off the Trump train for a while now. Has Tucker also? I think Tucker might, might have been also. No, I think just with this did that really kind of blatantly come out. The Hodge twins do you follow the Hodge twins? I do not anymore. They got insanely obnoxious and then especially more so as of late turns out, I think AI is doing most of their posting for them. But that's another thing as a whole, other thing, um, so, yeah, so, you know, in the face of all I did, uh, marjorie Taylor green also, I could swear she posted something that caught me off guard you know go

Speaker 3:

ahead. Well, you know, tucker, I don't know if you saw the uh um, ted Cruz interview, which was very, very shallow, in my opinion, out of Tucker, he played a big gotcha game. Now I think you know and we're kind of transitioning to the next topic, folks, which is the, you know, the media response to, you know, the US attack into Iran and our politicians and really the response at home and how everybody's reacting. But, like Tucker, carlson is a great example. He, you know Ted Cruz, came in there and Tucker played a game of I got you with him about. You know, do you know the population of Iran? Do you know the demographics of Iran? Do you know this about Iran? Do you know that about Iran? And it's like you know, I think, one bad on Ted Cruz for not being prepared. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

He walked in there believing it was going to be a cakewalk and a very friendly interview, and it was certainly not. Not even close. Tucker was a little childish in the whole thing in his very uncomfortable giggly laughy kind of way that he is uncomfortable giggly laughy kind of way that he is, and it was very. That interview was a great indicator of how weirdly received this entire operation has been across the spectrum of politics and media.

Speaker 2:

You just said the exact word that I've been thinking weird. It is so weird to me. I honestly, I genuinely do not understand this reaction. We're talking about a country who produces some of the worst terror cells known to the entire globe, who chant death to America on a regular basis and who are actively trying to get nuclear capabilities. Who are actively trying to get nuclear capabilities Like this is a no brainer, you know. And let's state the obvious, of course, nobody wants war. Nobody in their right mind wants to get into a war, wants us to be directly involved in a war. But this does directly involve us. This directly affects us when we're when they're chanting death to America. Affects us when we're when they're chanting death to America. That affects us when they have sent over God knows how many um illegal aliens you know that have slipped through the system that are here right now. This directly affects us. You know, this isn't a time, um for for wishy washy, wimpy actions. This was a time for decisive, strong action and I personally call me crazy, if you want, I don't really care. I personally trusted and trust Trump on this. I don't know if I afford all of that trust to everyone that's involved, but I definitely afford that to him and, sorry guys, rightly so.

Speaker 2:

That timeline let's look at the timeline here. So June 13th, israel launches the first wave. By the way, let me stop that for one second and just remind everyone that what all of these people were saying is, like Trump is dragging us into this long, long Cold War. It's going to be World War Three. This is going to go on for years. It's going to be projecting, projecting, projecting, and I actually have a clip of all of that. Actually, you know what I'm going to stop reading. I want to play that for you. So let's take a look at that, including Tucker.

Speaker 6:

A war with Iran means a war in effect or by proxy, but still a war with Russia, China, Turkey and a lot of the rest of the world. So that's a world war. It's not just as simple as we're going to take out their nuclear facilities. Okay, the next 200 days are some of the most perilous times for the American Republic in its history, because if we don't get this sorted, we're going to be drawn in totally into a conflict.

Speaker 3:

We could be yanked into war for absolutely no consequential reasons, or which we do not need to fight, which is not in our interest, has the potential to be devastating to our country, let alone the region.

Speaker 6:

I think that we are moving toward war with Iran. Yes, I do, and it looks like the chosen destination is indeed Armageddon.

Speaker 3:

If this thing keeps escalating, the risk of this going to a real ground war, another war in the war on terrorism I'm I'm let me be very clear when I say this I don't know that America will survive this.

Speaker 2:

I mean perilous danger, forever war. We won't survive this. You're calling yourselves experts? I sure as heck hope not, because let's go back to that timeline.

Speaker 2:

June 13th, israel launches the first wave, operation Rising Lion. June 22nd, the US steps in with Operation Midnight Hammer, drops 14 bunker busters. Let's see. June 23rd, iran responds with missiles. June 24th, a fragile ceasefire takes hold, brokered by President Trump, who urged both sides to stand down. How many days is that? What is that like? 14 days, 12 days, whatever it is? Now, yeah, let's state the obvious. I mean the perfect term. There was a fragile ceasefire. We know these are countries that you know who knows what's going to happen, how long this will last? I think, like the, a lot of the consensus was from people that I kind of pulled on social media was that they expected that this will last for as long as president Trump is in office. And you know I I'm not making any predictions because I have no idea, but you know it's just very, very interesting to me. The people that are normally 100 percent aggressively, assertively in his corner, like MAGA to the core, came out like this what do you think of all of this? Like, where is that coming from? Why?

Speaker 3:

no-transcript, where they had moved the nuclear material out of Iran with the help of China, et cetera, et cetera. So that that colored a lot of that commentary, right, I believe, and and I you know, I've said this and you've, you've learned from me You've echoed the first reports always wrong, right? So the problem was that the actual first reports from the military folks were right. As it turns out, you know, maybe they weren't a hundred percent right, maybe they're a very tentative or a soft assessment that said, hey, this was a successful operation. We got to wait till the sun comes up and we get some better eyes on this and we'll know better in the meantime. That left the door open for you know these leaks and all of these people who really have no clue. Um, you know what they're talking about. My favorite is always the leak, the anonymous leak. Well, I can't say anything, um, and I don't know why we continue to listen to those people because more often than not they're wrong. If you're a real whistleblower and you go through a whistleblower protection program, okay, fine, I get that. That's a protected source. If you're a person in the Pentagon leaking information, I don't trust you at all.

Speaker 3:

But the media does that because it gets them soundbites and it gets them clicks and it gets them viewership, which is exactly what all of those clips are about To be controversial in. All this is about getting views, and that's the currency nowadays is that clicks and views are what everybody's at and no one can know truthfully all of those predictions of you know this is going to turn into an infinite war. This is going to be potentially the end of America. This is going to be based on nothing, based on a leak report, probably, or they just want to be the most controversial person on television to get the most viewership and the most clicks and likes. So you know, I think a lot of it. Like you said, the lack of loyalty is surprising from some of those characters, but I think, at the end of the day, they're all media personalities and that's all they care about is likes. They can be as controversial as they want.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I for one, I said this before we started and man, oh man, I'm so sick and tired of it. I'm so sick of all of these people on all of the sides I don't care what side it is I am so sick and tired of that exact behavior. The you know the rage baiting. The you know the jumping before you know anything, the refusal to do any kind of research whatsoever. The you know the fakes, the frauds. I'm tired of all of them. Like good grief, you know, get some integrity, will you? Jeez.

Speaker 3:

Well, and then you go to our congressional leadership. You know I mean there were people saying, oh, he's starting a war without checking with Congress, having again, like you said, doing no research into the past. I don't know four presidents. You know people don't realize that we, you know, a war that I fought in for a long time was not a war, not an official war. You know we haven't been in an official war in a very, very long time.

Speaker 3:

So Congress making demands, you know, out of the president, you know, for this one action is ridiculous, truthfully, and you know to throw articles of impeachment out there and to say, you know, to demand your friend Crockett demanding. You know that the president should have briefed them beforehand. He's under no obligation, especially to somebody like her who's not on either, you know, either of the armed services committees. She's not on any of the intelligence committees. She needs a civic owner and shut up, because get on a committee and then maybe you get some of the information. But the president is under no obligation to notify Congress for things like this One, because not everybody's cleared. I hate to break this to folks but you know, just because you're a Congress person doesn't mean that you have the clearance to know absolutely everything that's going on in the country and in the military, until you're on a need to know. You don't know everything and they didn't need to know this, so that's why he wasn't. They weren't told and they don't understand that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, who was it? Clay? Somebody got called out for claiming that they weren't noted. There was somebody you know claim they're supposed to be notified and they didn't get notified. I want to say Hakeem Jeffries, but I doubt it was him, you know, made it, made a big fuss and then President Trump or maybe it was Caroline Leavitt who who basically showed the receipts and was like yeah, no, here's the timestamp of when the call or the message was sent out and there was no response. We made the attempt here's the proof, and you know so suck on it I. We made the attempt, here's the proof, and you know, so suck on it. I remember who it was.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm sure that was true. I'm sure that he you know the the appropriate leadership was notified, or at least attempted to be notified. You know, and I'll make an offhanded joke, it doesn't seem like signal was used for any of this operation. So therefore that didn't leak out Right. But but you know, again, it's our congressional leaders who don't even know their role and responsibility in situations like this and making demands of the president when in fact they have no authority to do so. So there's a lot of issues with this. You know AOC was another one, you know that demanded. You know she should have been told. They all should have been notified.

Speaker 3:

No, that's not how it works. Did he declare war? No, he did not. He did a military operation which he's in full authority to do.

Speaker 3:

You know Congress would take, for, first of all, we're not declaring war in Iran. That was never the purpose of this. Know not the goal and therefore Congress had no role. So you know, and and then they get the support of the media which you know takes this entire. You know messaging from the offices on the, you know on the side and and some, truthfully, some conservatives, and they take this messaging and they spin it and they, you know the headlines turn into. You know president Trump violates president Trump, refuses to president Trump this, and it turns into this this you know President Trump violates President Trump, refuses to President Trump this and it turns into this you know crazy messaging across the board that you know blames President Trump for something that isn't to be blamed for. So, but again it goes back to clicks and likes and attention, and that's what our media and our congressional leaders are in for right now. That's what they're working towards. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you know and I wish I knew the answer here as far as because this is this has gone so wild now that, you know, every ounce of of integrity in journalism and reporting is out the window. The trust and belief of the people, the American people, in anything that they read, see or hear is completely gone. Nobody believes anything that's being said by anyone, but they're also all falling for it as well. You know it's. It's the echo chamber, it's the. You know confirmation bias, it's. You know it's all of these things happening that. You know it's the echo chamber, it's the. You know confirmation bias, it's. You know it's all of these things happening that you know people are. If it fits what they want to believe, then that's the. That is the thing that they will listen to and believe. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. If it aligns with what they want to believe, then that's what they listen to.

Speaker 2:

And I mean this is a huge problem, you know, and you add AI and all of these things and that the better AI gets at creating false things and you know that's all you ever see in the comments. It doesn't matter what it is. Oh, this is AI, that's AI, everything is AI, like well, I mean, it might be, you know, this might be, that might be, whatever might be, but how do how does anyone find the truth anymore? And that's actually. It's actually a really scary question, because what's the answer?

Speaker 2:

You know what's the answer to how do you find the truth? Because you're supposed to be able to rely on your media, your, your newscasters, which I don't even think that exists anymore. There's I don't even think there's such thing as a newscaster anymore. Journalists there's, you know, even independent journalists. These are. Everybody is trying to be the one to get the clicks, to get the. You know, be first all of those things. And it's, it's frightening, you know it really is, because I don't know where that we're at, what that path, you know where it's going to bring us, where it's going to lead to.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, even even in the aftermath I ran was using ai. I don't know if you saw this, but they had, like ai, images of b2 bombers on the ground smoking. You know they had a b1 bomber which wasn't even on the operation, you know, like on the ground, but it was like it was so funny because you could tell obviously it wasn't great ai, like the aircraft was sitting there, it was on its landing gear, it was parked, but at the same time you hit on something which is they keep falling for this right. Some of the news agencies were actually quoting Iran as a verified source in the aftermath of the operation. I mean this was literally. Do you remember Baghdad Bob? Right in the aftermath of the operation. I mean this was literally. Do you remember Baghdad Bob? Right From the invasion of Iraq? Like the? You know the? You know the information minister for the Iraqi army is, you know everything's fine. You know his tanks are rolling by him. You know that kind of thing. That's what this was like.

Speaker 3:

Our news media in many cases was like well, iran said it's perfectly fine. Iran said that there, you know, there's no damage done. Iran said it's perfectly fine. Iran said that there, you know, there's no damage done. Iran said this. Well, of course they're going to say that, right, but they buy into it and they repeat it, they regurgitate it as if it's fact, with zero investigation and solely and not even saying hey look, this is Iran. Take it with a grain of salt. It's an unverified source, but it's kind of they're saying it definitively as if it's the truth, so they're contributing to the problem as much as anything else.

Speaker 3:

I do know that you know our law enforcement here at home has been very, very busy in the aftermath of this, because we all knew and you know the assessments were made that you know that there was potential for domestic terror. There's some, you know sleeper cells, whatever you want to call them you know, sitting here in the United States that have potentially been activated. I know I personally have been concerned about that and they have been running around and they've been arresting some folks Tom Holman and all his folks. They have been busy, you know I love me some, tom Holman.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they've been. I saw him on TV today. He hadn't shaved, which I'd never seen that before, but that tells you how busy the man is.

Speaker 2:

Man is tired and busy, but he's not backing down.

Speaker 3:

I love it Right. So you know we're taking, you know the appropriate folks are taking the intelligence and the information seriously and they're acting upon it, as opposed to regurgitating garbage solely to satisfy, you know, viewership requirements. So folks take everything. You see. You know, as we always say, even everything you hear from me and Elsa, take it all with a grain of salt.

Speaker 2:

Do your own investigation. Go, look around.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there is. There is no harm, no foul in questioning everything. You should be at this point, especially more than ever. Question everything, use discernment, ask questions, ask the key questions of yourself, like you know. Does this, does this make sense? Does this seem plausible? Where is my? Who is telling me this information? Should I be checking? Cross-checking that, you know, and then cross checking that?

Speaker 2:

And yeah, it's exhausting and yeah, it's a pain in the neck to have to do. But, you know, do you want truth or do you want propaganda? So you know, it's what you have to do in this day and age and absolutely, you know, I could guarantee to you that I have either misquoted something or, you know, not gotten something completely. I could go check it. It's like everything can be checked these days. You do have to take the time to do it because it is that important. You don't want to be that guy spreading false information. You know, or maybe I don't know. I mean, clearly there are plenty of people that simply do not care and just do it anyhow, um, but yeah, I care.

Speaker 3:

The sad part is is that the things that should be covered, that should be on the news, are not getting covered. You know, and specifically you know, here's a great example is what is it? Operation Dragon Eye, right?

Speaker 3:

Um out of out of Florida, um, florida For those that have been paying attention for the last. This has been going on for about three or four, maybe longer years, where the US Marshals lead these operations and they leapfrog. All I love it, it is one of my favorite things. They literally I think they probably got two or three operations going at the same time and it's led by the marshals but there's about 20 different agencies involved the FBI. A lot of times there's drugs involved, so DEA plays into, and then you've got local and state law enforcement, et cetera. So Operation Dragon Eye was a Florida rescue and a breakup of a child trafficking ring. That rescued I think the number is 60 kids between the age of 17 and nine, nine years old.

Speaker 3:

Okay, eight people arrested which were mostly, as far as I understand it, almost all the child traffickers you know specifically. These weren't a lot of times when they run these operations, as they've done over the past few years. You know, if it's a child pornography ring which they've done quite a few times, you get a bunch of people Right Because it's mostly with the Internet and those sorts of things. So they get a bunch of arrests out of those. If it's a large you know heavy child prostitution ring, a lot of times they get a lot of the clientele you know, along with those that are being, you know, that are doing the trafficking, et cetera.

Speaker 3:

This one seems like it was very, very targeted and they got eight arrests and it was almost exclusively the traffickers who are also dealing in drugs and using these kids to move drugs and sell drugs, not just sex trafficking and other things. But these are the things that should be in the news, but our media is so busy doing other crap, unverified crap, just to get clicks and likes. This is the stuff that should be out there, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. They're so Trump obsessed that is. You know, trump is their meal ticket in every possible way. If it's not related to Trump, you know, they clearly don't care. This is a huge story. This is a, you know, this is a powerful, amazing story. What was that? What'd you say? 60 kids, youths, 60, their kids, nine to 17, their kids. You know, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, this is just what we know of that's going on. Like you said, these operations have been going on for some time and you know, obviously, obviously, there's there's no fanfare and no discussing it, as it's going on and you know, then, this is the result of it Are these? Do you happen to know? I was looking at this and I think was this a majority of migrant kids or is this just a generalization?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it was Miami-Dade County, which includes Miami, the city of Miami. So you have a heavy Cuban population, as you well know. But, yes, migrant kids, but not exclusively. So this I don't think was a result of border issue, border policy, although it could have been. I think a lot of these were run of the mill sounds so horrible, but I think it was. You know this is a not associated necessarily with with illegal immigrants or, or, you know, folks coming out of Cuba. So I think you know that's. This was just a bunch of runaway kids or kidnapped kids or whatever that thankfully got rescued out of this.

Speaker 3:

But, like I said, they run these things in different stages, probably two or three at a time, and after watching again, I love this, so I pay attention to these, and so my assessment over watching these for a few years is they have, you know, three of these probably going at one time in three separate cities, and what you've got is initial like hey, is there enough here in? Pick your city Right, let's just say Omaha, right, you know, is there enough here in Omaha? Do we have enough intelligence, enough information to to put together, you know, is there? Is there a ring here? Is there a trafficking ring? Is there a kidnapping ring? Is there a whatever? Is there something here to break up? Yes, there is Okay.

Speaker 3:

And then they kind of move on to a second stage, which is they're really kind of pulling all the information because they've got to make a case. I mean, it's great to make a few kids, but they want to put people in jail, so they've got to have all of that and they get all the you know, all the agencies in to help and they do it very quietly. And then the last phase is the execution of. Let's go in there, let's break this up. It's the shortest phase but it's the biggest payoff, right, and they, they rescue these kids and they arrest the people that need to be arrested.

Speaker 3:

Well, while that's going on in Omaha in separate stages, you know you've got another one that's being built in Dallas, or and, and, and. Then you know maybe they're in phase two and then in phase one is in Charleston or something like that, but you never hear about them until it's over with their operational security. Their OPSEC on these things is fantastic, because you wake up in the morning and there's a headline from usually one news agency that says, hey, this happened last night and they saved a bunch of kids, and then you never hear anything.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's insane. And you know, as we're talking, I'm thinking about these, these agents who do this, who chose oh, you know, I can't even imagine, I cannot imagine the horrors that they have to see and they choose to do it because they are just probably some of the greatest humans on the planet to to willingly go into that, knowing that this is going to unquestionably emotionally scar them for life. You know, I don't think you can overstate how horrific the things that they have to see people doing to children and with children. So God bless them for eternity for being the people who, who do, do it because it's awful, awful. It makes me teary, it makes me very emotional, because it's just horrendous what these kids go through. So again, god bless them for for going out and doing this.

Speaker 2:

And again, you know, when you look at this, you look at this one and and kind of related to what you said, this specific case is probably related to another one, like directly related to another one in another state. So there is so right, I mean they're all connected, these rings, they're all likely connected. So there will probably be so much more that comes as a result of this, because now, these eight, what was it?

Speaker 2:

eight arrested they're going to roll over on other people to try and get their sentences reduced, which I hope they, you know, rot in jail. I don't even know if I want the death penalty. I want them to live in horror for eternity. So don't let me at them. But you know, yeah, they're going to roll over on somebody else and, and so this, this is huge. And again, to go back to the media and the things that they're focusing their time and attention on, because they have us trained, like you know, like Pavlov's dogs, to, you know, respond and react to every their reactions to the transgender issues, the LGBTQ stuff, all of these distractions, distraction, distraction. Want to hear more things like this. I want to hear more things about really bad people getting caught and put away and children being rescued and saved and, you know, given a chance at at life. Yeah, yeah. There's my soapbox.

Speaker 3:

You're a hundred percent right. I mean, you know we used to, especially, you know, when I was deployed and and this was going on in probably the most heightened years in Iraq, especially probably from 2006 to 2008, you would hit targets and tear them apart and gain as much intel as you possibly could, and you might even gain enough, or the right kind of intel, to turn around and hit another target, or two targets, that very night because of the intelligence you just got. So what you were talking about is, you know, when they break up this ring, I guarantee you that everything about this they're analyzing, they're pulling every bit of data they can. They're pulling, you know, cell phones or emails, computers, all this stuff, and now they're linking it to other things. And so you know they're probably, you know the marshals are probably treating this almost like terrorist organizations because of the linkages and they're just, you know, bouncing from one to the next because they're, they are all connected in some form or fashion, like you said, which is amazing work by them, but the trauma that they endure is awful. Which is amazing work by them, but the trauma that they endure is awful, you know, you can't it's, it is irreparable damage because you know, just as an example in these 60 kids, one of the nine-year-olds was was the? Actually take that back. I think it was an 11 year old and 11 year old was with one of the traffickers, right.

Speaker 3:

So like those, like you get that and it just makes you want to throw up. A normal human being makes you want to throw up. They see this over and over and over again and the scars, I'm sure, run really, really deep. I admire them because I think over time it would be very, very easy to run one of these operations and I hate to say it just become judge, jury and executioner and one of these guys on the side. So I admire them for their professionalism. But on the flip side, what I would love to see in the media is take this, take Operation Dragon Eye, and follow up these eight people that got arrested. Like I want to know six months from now who got prosecuted and for what and how long they're going to jail, and that should be on the news, because that's where the deterrent comes from and if someone gets released right, that's where you get public outrage, right, right, they don't have to go looking for it.

Speaker 3:

It's there and now you know. And now you can hold judges accountable, you can hold district attorneys accountable, you know those kinds of things. But it all like this Operation Dragon, these eight folks guys will be arrested, they will go into the system. You will never hear another thing about these eight people ever again.

Speaker 2:

Ever, again, yeah, that's so true, that's so true. And and and I know you know I'll speak for myself and I and I bet that I can speak for a lot of people watching and listening um, that automatically you can't help but think about Epstein, the victims of all, all of him and those people associated with him, um, seeing them get some type of vindication, um, from all of this. Um, I, I still hope that that will happen. Um, but we can't minimize things like this. You know this, this is, these kids are just as important as those kids and you know, every child is as important. And you know, and I know it's easy to to throw that comment in there, and I'm not saying that you guys will, but somebody might you know and say, well, what about the Epstein? Yeah, we all agree, we all agree. What about the Epstein list? What about those victims?

Speaker 2:

And we should not, we certainly should not, let the DOJ rest on, you know, on anything and keep hammering away at that and keep demanding it. But this, these things like this, are going on across the country while we are busy watching. You know Jasmine Crockett's eyelashes and and Trump, you know swearing and transgender people transgendering, and you know all of the things going on in the world. Stuff like this is happening quietly and people are getting saved and rescued, and that is huge. And people are getting arrested and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully held accountable in the most extreme lawfully possible way. I don't even care if it's unlawful to be honest with you, but that's just me.

Speaker 3:

So we're, you know our, we've got some, you know, moral and ethical decline going on. I mean there's no, there's no two ways about it. I had a discussion today, you know, with a friend who is not not happy about you know what. Our topic earlier about president Trump, you know, talking the way that he did, you know, and and he mentioned something about president Reagan is kind of the, you know that he's the measuring stick, like that's the level of nationalism, and you know, I I said that you know 1983, which you know was during president Reagan's presidency, was the first year that the word bitch was said on television right.

Speaker 3:

It was an episode. Yeah, I remember it as a kid, like I remember, cause it was on the news. It was a big deal, but it was 1983 and we've been in a rapid decline since then. I mean, if you think about that, that's 40 years ago and think about where we are now in what-?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's nothing now right.

Speaker 3:

Right, the content on the radio, all of those things. So you know we've got a, we've got a more, a moral and ethical issue going on in in the United States and and now it's starting to permeate into our politics. And New York is a, is is the. Now you know the example that there's, there's some serious concerns about, and that's the new. You know the next mayoral election this year, and so the Democrat, let's, let's hit the Democrats last. But really what you've got is is the next candidate set for this election. So you've got Mayor Adams right, who's in office now, right, he as an independent, right.

Speaker 2:

I was going to say he's independent now, right, yeah.

Speaker 3:

You've got Curtis Sliwa, the guardian angel guy right, who's hyper conservative, and then you've got Jim Walden, who's an attorney, again a conservative, and even though he just lost the Democratic primary, there is anticipation that Cuomo is going to run as an independent just to get himself back on the ballot.

Speaker 3:

But the gentleman that he lost the Democratic primary to is Zoran Mamdani, who is a Muslim, which that in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but he has been publicly for a number of years extremely anti-Semitic. He has said a lot of horrific things. He has said a lot of controversial things about the United States, about the future of the United States, about our politics and about our government, and yet he just won the Democratic primary in the city of New York. And so the fears are London, right, the fears are London, paris and other places where you've had such a massive Muslim influence, and especially London, because they have a Muslim mayor, had a Muslim mayor, right, and things have gotten out of control. And the worry is that there's massive worry from the Jewish community, as you can imagine, but there's worry from a lot of people about what this is going to do to the city of New York if he gets elected.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, here's a little. Here's a little lowdown on him. I don't know. Let me get that off there, so in case you can't read, just in case, is this guy Zoran Zoran? We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety. He wants to end cash bail, repeal the I don't even walking while trans ban I don't even know anything about that Decriminalization of sex work, legalized marijuana permit, safe injection sites.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you know, this is all things that will spiral the city into an even deeper, darker cesspool of crime and violence and decay and disgustingness, really. So, yeah, I mean, this is what this guy stands for. It's just stunning, isn't it? And it's just stunning, isn't it? And it's also not right because of this, uh, you know, migrant influx into the cities, this, this is who is populating the cities. Now, this is all deliberate, this is all planned out and this is what we've talked about before how these people, the democrats, have played, the socialists have played the long game while we were sleeping at the wheel, basically, and and here you have it. You know, you have this huge popular, like you said, london. You know this huge population of people who hate America and American values and now they are, you know, primed to have, you know, leadership positions in our government. Terrifying, insane.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and he's a dangerous one.

Speaker 3:

If you go back down through that laundry list, part of that a lot of those things have been tried on the West Coast and in San Francisco are two perfect examples of what doesn't work and what happens to a city. When you do a lot of those things, when you start minimizing criminal sentencing, when you start legalizing or you know having the safe injection sites and you know legalizing basically massive amounts of criminal activity, you know the entire city degrades and we can't. I mean, new York is the crown jewel of the United States. Like it or not, it is what it is and we as a nation can't afford to have that, like London, fall into ruin and that's where this is headed. There are people and when I say people, I'm talking conservatives, really kind of moderates across the board are asking Cuomo to turn around and run as an independent, because if they can all band together and elect him, they can avoid Mom Donnie, right, I mean that is where things have gone. This is literally like let's pick the least bad of two bad options yeah, it's insane.

Speaker 2:

It is so mind-blowing, isn't it, that the guy who killed all the elderly people during covid in in the nursing homes is now somehow new york's best hope, at least on the democrat side. Wow, just I. I'm speechless, clay, like how is this real life, new York? Please get it together.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I, you know, I'm really hoping that Mayor Adams stays in office. I think, you know, as opposed to really most of the big city mayors that are floating around right now, I think he's he's actually got a shot at impact. You know Chicago is a disaster, la is a disaster, you know Detroit's a disaster, you know those, all of those big cities, those big blue cities, are all collapsing upon themselves and we can't have that in New York. And I think Mayor Adams is on the right track. He needs more time. I don't think he's going to get it. I really do think he's going to lose this election. I think that you know God, I hate to say this, but Cuomo is a better option than this guy.

Speaker 3:

But you know, this is the fear right now, because it starts to bleed into other things.

Speaker 3:

It starts to bleed into defunding you saw it right on that post defunding the police department. And in the absence of the police department, in a Muslim-influenced city government, what happens is Sharia law starts to crop up and it's ignored or it can't be addressed because the police have been so defunded, they're so small, they're so overwhelmed that, you know, neighborhoods taking care of themselves becomes, you know, almost endorsed because there's no other option. My guess would be very quietly, because if you see him on TV now, he is playing the oh no, I love the Jewish community. We'll take care of them. They're a priority. We're going to oversee everything. We're going to make sure they're taken care of. I don't believe a word that he says, no way. But I honestly believe that his goal is to do exactly that Defund the police, shrink the department, make as much of this stuff legal so the crime rate goes up, the police department is overwhelmed and then allows Sharia law to take over in a lot of the neighborhoods, and then we have a real, real problem.

Speaker 2:

Right, it's just following the playbook. He's following exactly what worked in London. You know, this is a playbook. This is what they do, and for people to be blind to this it's actually infuriating. They're just welcoming this in and it is madness and saying, well, he said, he said he's not going to do that. So we must be telling the truth, because now we believe politicians, this is what we do. This is what we do Cause we're idiots.

Speaker 3:

Listen, my, my, my least favorite, one of my least favorite actors, because of the characters that he's played. I you know, Ross on friends is I hate the worst. And then he played captain. Sobelepard Ross on Friends is I hate him.

Speaker 3:

He's the worst person, Ross, yeah, and then he played Captain Sobel on Band of Brothers, which is like the. If you want an example of bad leadership, that was the guy right. So he's played a couple of horrible characters, but he made a great speech that I saw just the other day, which was an anti-Semitism speech him being Jewish, of course and it was literally like we can't continue to not say something like stand up and say something, stand up with your Jewish friends. We're not asking you to, you know, go fight against Iran or go fight against you know whoever, but we're asking you to stand with your Jewish friends, to stand with the Jewish communities. It was actually a really well done speech. I don't know if it was a commencement speech he didn't have a robe on Um, so I don't think it was that but it had that kind of I think I did see a clip of it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, had that kind of vibe. Um, I almost didn't recognize him at first. His face is so puffy now.

Speaker 2:

Um, yeah, he looks completely different. I saw it, but it was a great.

Speaker 3:

It was a great speech. Um and and I to Hollywood to save anybody from anything, but I think there is enough Hollywood influence, especially with the Jewish community in Hollywood. They have the potential to save New York in a very indirect way by pushing against this. You know what's, truthfully, a radical Muslim running for mayor.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very, very radical, very blatantly. Yeah, you know what?

Speaker 2:

I agree, clay. I mean, you know I agree as far as definitely the distaste and disdain for the Hollywood crowd, but you know, the fact is is that they do have influence over opinions and and you know people who follow them and there's a lot, there's a lot. So I hope they do the right thing If they all claim to love New York so much, they have such a heart for New York. It's not gonna be the New York that you're used to pretty soon if you let this happen. So I hope they're paying attention. Wow, I have not been. I have to be honest, I have not been to the city. I can't even tell you how many years. Probably 10 years, maybe even more. I think actually more, I think more, and at this rate I probably will never, ever go. No interest, I can tell you if he gets elected?

Speaker 3:

I will not. I have a family that lives very close to the city and they have. They have kids that you know, like I did I. You know I used to run around Chicago as a wayward youth. You know, as a teenager. My mom loves it when I say stuff like that, by the way, but you know they let their, you know they let their kids do that now. And if this election goes through, a year from now, 18 months, two years from now, I don't think New York would be a place that you would let your child do that. But we'll have to wait and see. I really, really hope New York gets it together and makes sure that this doesn't happen and I really hope we're not delaying the inevitable. But this first attempt at taking over the mayor's office is something that's gotta be stopped.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, I've said it before, I'll say it again If you are, they praying, kind, pray, pray, pray. If you're not, wish and hope, I don't know what to tell you. Um, I don't know. And if you have, you know, if you, if you live there, vote, vote, vote, right, I mean that's get involved, get, get. That's always, you know, that's always kind of like a go-to answer, and I think it is an important one. If you, if you don't like what you're seeing in your, in your town, you know you start small, right. If you don't like what you're seeing in your town or your city or your state, you know you have to start somewhere, get involved and make your voice be heard. I mean, that's all, that's what we're built on. So you know, if you don't like it, please, please, please, do something about it. At the very least, speak up and speak out, right?

Speaker 3:

Yep For sure.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness. Well, you know, look at that, we four topics, right, four topics, a little bit of segues here and there, but there was so much to so much to talk about on each one. And, um, you were so right, they, they segue, you know, very smoothly, easily into each other. Um, yeah, uh, guys, we, we are so grateful every week that you guys tune in and hang out with us. Um, I'm, I hope my lipstick brand helps somebody to me. I actually I'm joking about it, but I, I think that's so sweet and I'm so sorry that I missed that message. Um, I do answer it. I see those sometimes always about my lipstick. Thank you guys very much. Um, so I hope that solves the mystery. Clay hopes it even more.

Speaker 3:

Do not ask me these questions, people, please.

Speaker 2:

No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, don't ask him. Poor guy Clay, do you have anything you want to close out with? I'm good, I'm good, life's good. Blah, blah, blah. You tell them what you got to close out with.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I moved to a new publisher and my novel on next week's show. But a second edition of keep moving, keep shooting We'll be out on the 4th of July and the sequel we got pushed back a little bit but cross to bear is the sequel to keep moving, keep shooting. We'll be available in early August. So we'll show you the new cover next week of keep moving and then we'll move forward and you guys will get part two. Part two, part two in the series will come in August. So you know, with that, as always from me until next week, keep moving, keep shooting.

Speaker 2:

Take care, guys, we'll see you next week.

Speaker 5:

Warrior, leader, author, patriot From ranger school to the battlefield, from the front lines of combat to the front lines of culture. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Clay Novak isn't done fighting for truth. Catch him on the Elsa Kurt show and read his no holds barred blog at claynovakauthorcom. Keep moving, keep shooting. She's the voice behind the viral comedy. Bold commentary and truth packed interviews that cut through the chaos. Author. Brand creator, proud conservative Christian. This is Elsa Kurt.

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