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Nov. 17, 2023 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams

02:02:06

BBN, Nov 17, 2023 - You will BEG for a CEASE FIRE...

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	Welcome to Brighton Broadcast News for Friday, November 17th, 2023.
	Mike Adams here.
	Thank you for joining me.
	And today we're going to feature an interview I filmed a few hours ago with Dennis Kucinich, who served, of course, 16 years in the House of Representatives as a U.S. congressman, a Democrat.
	He ran for Vice President twice.
	He's an author.
	And now he is running a campaign for peace.
	And that's the subject of our conversation.
	And I feel very honored to have been able to have this heartfelt conversation with Mr.
	Kucinich and be able to share it with the world.
	And this is a rare moment when people who may typically come from different sides of the political aisle, although I despise the tribalism of political parties, by the way.
	But it's a rare moment when we have such strong resonance in fundamental values that are pro-humanity.
	And this is what I'm seeing right now.
	This is the silver lining of our current situation in the Middle East, where we're learning who we can actually count on to be on the side of humanity when it counts.
	And we're also, of course, seeing examples of people who are not qualified to lead us at all because they just want to lead us into war.
	But this interview is coming up here today.
	I think you'll really enjoy it.
	And in this interview, I described the situation with the military industrial complex funding the members of Congress who keep voting for more war.
	I called this a doom loop of war, death, and profit.
	And I've covered this theme previously.
	Of course, there's so much money to be found in war.
	Money in the hands of certain corporations and certain individuals and certain institutions, let's say.
	There's not much money in peace.
	Which means there's never going to be a corporate effort to fund peace.
	Peace has to come from the bottom up.
	Peace is a grassroots phenomenon.
	And if we are ever going to discover peace in our world or unleash it, it's going to have to take the action of individuals like you and I reeling in the wayward governments and greed-driven corporations And warmongering individuals that profit from war.
	And that is quite a large task.
	It's something big to overcome.
	And that's why we need to be vocal.
	We need to be active and peaceful ourselves, of course.
	And we need to be bold in asking the questions that need to be asked.
	For example, the question I'm asking today, and I may make this the title of today's podcast, is the following.
	Will you finally call for a ceasefire when the bombs are raining down on America?
	Because I've seen people recently saying no ceasefire, mostly from the pro-Israel camp, but also the GOP Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, saying no ceasefire, no ceasefire.
	It's extraordinary to hear people deliberately call for the continued bombing of women and children And hospitals and refugee camps, the continued bombing campaign, knowing that there are over 11,000 Palestinian civilians who have been killed so far and more dying each day.
	And yet they say no ceasefire.
	Well, I say, be careful what you wish for.
	If you call for war, war will eventually come to your door.
	If you call for peace, we may have a chance to find a way to live together in peace.
	And we may avoid the ravages of war ourselves if we can convince enough other people to call for peace and to live in peace.
	But if we call for war, if our philosophy is no ceasefire, no ceasefire, continue the bombing, guess what?
	This is going to escalate.
	It's going to escalate to a much larger regional war in the Middle East.
	It will almost certainly involve, initially, Hezbollah, and then later on, potentially Turkey and Iran.
	And once Iran gets into the mix, then now we're going to bring in Russia, because Russia cannot allow Iran to be defeated by the United States.
	For lots of reasons involving trade and energy and geopolitics and so on.
	And a lot of it has to do with the geography of Iran.
	Just as the geography of Palestine...
	And the geography of Gaza is very important to understand.
	You must also understand the geography of Iran and all the other countries.
	I mean, this is a good time to study the maps of the Middle East.
	If you don't yet understand the importance, for example, of the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, all of these naval pathways And the importance of energy export routes out of the Strait of Hormuz, for example, right next to Iran, then you can't possibly understand even the beginning of the complex dynamics of this picture.
	So we must become scholars of geography, of cultures.
	We must become scholars of at least a little bit of history.
	Otherwise, you can't understand the current situation at all.
	And not just going back to 1948 and the displacement of the Palestinians, the Nakba.
	But we must understand history even before that.
	And it's also a good time to understand at least a little bit about scripture, Judaism, Christian scripture, as well as the Koran and even the Talmud.
	Of course, understanding Judaism is going to give us a lot of insight into what's going on right now.
	But my question to those who want war is, will you finally call for a ceasefire when the bombs are raining down on America?
	Because that's where this is headed.
	That's where this is headed.
	And it's easy.
	It's easy to sit in America and And call for no ceasefire in Gaza, well, the bombs aren't falling on you.
	The bombs are falling on someone else, someone else's family, someone else's children, someone else's apartments and small businesses.
	It's easy to say from afar, let them be bombed.
	But when that comes to your doorstep, what will you say then?
	Will you wish you had been an advocate of peace?
	Or will you feel justified in the fact that you called for escalation of war and that war wound its way to your family, to your children, to your doorstep?
	Because war has a way of doing that.
	War is squirrely.
	It resists control.
	It resists planning.
	War tends to expand in sudden bursts of tremors and upheavals that are impossible for us to predict.
	And just as geologists can't really predict exactly how a volcano is going to blow, we can't predict how war is going to escalate and who it may ensnare.
	And ultimately the answer is that it may be you.
	And even if it's not you in particular, Shouldn't we stand for fundamental human dignity?
	Shouldn't we have a fundamental position of saying it's wrong to bomb children and it's wrong to bomb civilian targets, hospitals, and we're told, oh, there's tunnels under these hospitals.
	That's why we had to blow them up.
	That's no justification.
	Are you kidding me?
	So what if there are tunnels there?
	I mean, Israel built tunnels under the Al-Shifa hospital in 1983 when Israel controlled that area.
	They built tunnels.
	Of course, there's tunnels under the hospital.
	They built them.
	But even then, is that a justification to level everything on the surface, to level the hospital itself?
	No, of course not.
	I mean, if some terrorist built a tunnel underneath, I don't know, New York City, is that...
	Is that a justification to bomb New York City into rubble to get the tunnels?
	No, not a justification.
	So as you know, I've felt rather disillusioned when observing certain individuals and their lack of renouncing.
	This ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people.
	And one of those individuals that I have called out in, I think, a balanced way is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
	And I pointed out his three glaring contradictions yesterday.
	And one of those contradictions is that RFK Jr., he wants to protect children from vaccines but not from bombs.
	And, and also, he wants to defend the free speech right to criticize vaccines, but not to criticize Israel.
	And so those are two of the three glaring contradictions.
	Well, when you know it, Children's Health Defense has issued a statement.
	And I'm going to read this statement for you.
	It's very short.
	And Children's Health Defense, of course, is where Robert F. Kennedy Jr., well, he was the founder, I believe, and he had served in a very strong executive role there until he began his presidential campaign, first as a Democrat and then later as an Independent.
	And interestingly, my guest today, Dennis Kucinich, formerly served as the campaign manager For RFK Jr., but no longer serves in that capacity.
	So anyway, here's a statement that comes out of Children's Health Defense that it's at least something.
	Well, let me just read it for you, and then I'll respond to it.
	I'm glad they put out something.
	Here it is.
	Children's Health Defense President Mary Holland, and I've interviewed Mary Holland before, and I think very highly of her, issued the following statement in response to media reports of violence affecting children in Gaza and Israel.
	Our mission at Children's Health Defense is to protect children's health and freedom.
	Yet these ideals are impossible when children are trapped by terrorism and war.
	ADHD grieves for the children and families that have been injured or have died in violent conflicts occurring in the world today.
	We condemn acts that intentionally or negligently target children.
	And by the way, that term negligently is really critical to see that there because that also speaks to the actual war crimes that Israel is committing.
	Even though CHD does not name Israel as carrying out war crimes, to negligently cause the mass death of civilians during your military campaign, that fits the definition of certain war crimes as recognized by the ICC and even under the Geneva Convention that fits the definition of certain war crimes as recognized by the ICC So anyway, again, we condemn acts that intentionally or negligently target children.
	Children should have no role in violent conflict.
	CHD calls on all parties, governmental and non-governmental, to seek diplomatic solutions.
	All children deserve health, freedom, and peace.
	That's it.
	That's the end.
	Alright, so number one, I'm going to applaud.
	This is not sarcastic.
	This is genuine.
	I applaud CHD for putting out this statement.
	I think it I think it took a lot of courage to do this.
	And I have a feeling that that statement went back and forth probably about 40 times inside CHD among various people and among probably certain top donors who I believe are of Jewish ethnicity.
	And probably this statement is very watered down from maybe the way it began.
	But it is something.
	The statement did not condemn Israel's ongoing bombardment of civilian targets in Gaza.
	And so it did not really take sides of Israel versus Palestine or versus Hamas.
	And that's understandable.
	You know, CHD is not a geopolitical nonprofit.
	It's focused on protecting children.
	So at least this statement affirms some fundamental truths.
	Which is that children should have no role in violent conflict, and that means they shouldn't be killed in large numbers either in violent conflict.
	And this statement confirms that they are, quote, trapped by terrorism and war.
	Yes.
	Now, of course, if this were my own statement, I would add to it and arrest Netanyahu.
	But that's not what CHD is all about, and that's not what they're saying.
	So anyway, they did say something, and that's good.
	I have not yet heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
	himself say something like this.
	This is not a statement from him.
	I know that there is pressure internally in his own campaign for him to make a statement against the mass bombing of civilians in Gaza.
	But I also know there's a lot of pressure within his campaign.
	That is pro-Israel pressure.
	And so, in one sense, I feel for how RFK Jr.
	is no doubt torn between some very powerful forces that want him to either say something or don't say something, right?
	And yet, this is precisely the kind of situation that you would be pressed into as president.
	In fact, as president, you'd be inundated with these kinds of pressures constantly, right?
	With no reprieve.
	And it is your job as a statesman to be able to navigate this.
	So I will just conclude this topic here by repeating my hope and prayer that RFK Jr.
	will reassess his silence on this issue and that he will make a statement.
	And the question I have is, What will be the body count in Gaza at the moment that RFK Jr.
	decides to say, we have to stop the bombing?
	We're at over 11,000 now.
	About 40% of those are children.
	And that number will continue to rise to 15,000, 20,000, 25, you know, 30,000.
	We're starting to get into numbers that approach the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War.
	Which I believe was around 55,000, roughly perhaps 60,000.
	These are significant numbers.
	Every life matters.
	In my view of the world, every life matters.
	Including the lives of people who practice a religion that you don't.
	But by the way, there are Christians being bombed and killed in Gaza right now as well.
	Many Christians, many doctors, many children.
	So, to RFK Jr., if anyone on his team is listening...
	I hope and pray that he speaks out before we hit 25,000 dead Palestinians.
	Because this is an issue on which you will be judged by history.
	Silence is a self-indictment at this moment in history.
	Now let me shift gears here for just a minute and talk about Osama bin Laden.
	I know, there's a blast from the past, right?
	So there's a letter that Osama bin Laden wrote to the American people 21 years ago.
	And this letter has suddenly caught the attention of many, especially younger people.
	Younger, more left-leaning people, indeed, across America who have discovered this letter and they've been posting TikTok videos reacting to this letter and talking about how this letter was so profound it changed their worldview almost as if they had been transported into an alternate dimension.
	And in response to this, This letter has been pulled down from many, many websites.
	Suddenly this letter has become forbidden.
	You're not allowed to read the letter that Osama bin Laden wrote to the American people.
	And you're going to find out why here in a second.
	But then also the TikTok channels that talked about their reaction to this letter, those channels have been permanently banned.
	And TikTok is taking down reaction videos reacting to the Osama Bin Laden letter.
	And the same thing is beginning to happen on YouTube and Facebook as well.
	And it may make you wonder, what on earth could be so dangerous to society to be found in this Osama Bin Laden letter?
	What's so dangerous that no one should be allowed to see it or even to react to it?
	Good question, right?
	And so it's pretty easy still to find this letter online if you poke around a little bit.
	But I'm going to read for you some snippets, just some highlights.
	Not the whole thing, obviously.
	Again, you can search it out if you want to read the whole thing.
	But what you're about to hear, again, the words of Osama bin Laden, Are words that for many people really resonate, again, 21 years later, and they're words that could be written today by any number of people who are themselves Americans.
	In fact, if I hadn't told you that this was Osama bin Laden, and if I had just started reading it, and if I had told you that this was, you know, somebody who voted for Ron Paul or something, you would have said, yeah, that makes sense.
	Yeah, it must have been.
	Seriously, this is...
	And also, of course, this letter puts a lot of blame on Jewish people.
	And so this letter is deemed anti-Semitic, of course, as was Osama bin Laden.
	But that term anti-Semitic has been so overused and overblown now that it's a slur that's used against anyone who disagrees with Israel's policies.
	And that's not what anti-Semitism is supposed to mean.
	You know, for example, I don't have anything against Jewish people in any way whatsoever.
	Many people I've known over the years and have trained with are Jewish people, even Israeli people.
	Remember, I trained for years in Krav Maga, the Israeli combat system.
	And the high-level trainers there were all Israelis.
	And even then, they talked about wanting to murder Palestinians, by the way.
	At the time, I didn't understand, why are they so angry about Palestinians all the time?
	But they would scream things during class, like when we would work with knives and edged weapons and things.
	They were like, you gotta go in and slaughter them all.
	And I'm like, what are you talking about, man?
	I'm just here for self-defense, you know?
	But now I understand in retrospect.
	Nevertheless, I've known plenty of Israelis.
	I have nothing against the Israeli people or the Jewish people or Judaism as a religion.
	What I'm opposed to is, of course, tyranny.
	I'm opposed to bombing children and I'm opposed to violence when especially we could invoke diplomacy and we could find some peaceful solutions.
	But listen to what Osama bin Laden says or writes in this letter and see if you can identify what today's left-wing youth are finding in this message that is a game changer for them.
	Right?
	And some of them are getting an education in economics through this, by the way, or at least monetary and fiscal policy.
	So check this out.
	Bin Laden writes, quote, your former president warned you previously about the devastating Jewish control of capital, meaning, you know, money, and about a day that would come when it would enslave you.
	It has happened.
	Your current president warns you now about the enormity of capital control, and it has a cycle whereby it devours humanity when it is devoid of the precepts of God's law, which, from Osama bin Laden, is Sharia law.
	The tyranny of the control of capital by large companies has harmed your economy, as it did ours.
	And that was my motivation for this talk.
	Tens of millions of you are below the poverty line.
	Millions have lost their homes and millions have lost their jobs to mark the highest average unemployment in 60 years.
	Your financial system in its totality was about to collapse within 48 hours had not the administration reverted to using taxpayers' money to rescue the vultures by using the assets of the victims.
	So again, if you didn't know this was Osama Bin Laden writing this, you would think this could be a financial analyst in America.
	Because there's nothing that has been said in the last couple sentences there about the corporations and the lost jobs and the financial system.
	There's nothing that's wrong in those sentences.
	I mean...
	Talking about the exploitation of the working masses by the corporate vultures.
	And that is absolutely true.
	Anyway, he continues, As for us, our Iraq was invaded in response to pressure from capitalists with greed for black gold.
	And, of course, he means oil.
	And you continue to support the oppressive Israelis in their occupation of our Palestine, he writes, in response to pressures on your administration by a Jewish lobby backed by enormous financial capabilities.
	Now, of course, that Jewish lobby is very powerful, very well funded, and continues to this day to influence senators and lawmakers and so on.
	Now, I'm skipping ahead.
	Again, I'm not reading the whole letter, but just some snippets.
	Here's one.
	He writes, quote, The previous administration was successful in implicating you in these wars against us.
	He's talking about, you know, the desert storm wars.
	Under the premise that they are necessary for your security, or according to the promise that it would be short and would finish in six days, or six weeks.
	Well, six years has passed.
	Notice, by the way, he's invoking 666 right there, which he refers to later.
	And that administration is gone without realizing the victory.
	The man calling for change promised you victory in Afghanistan and set a time for withdrawal.
	Before the end of the set time, Petraeus, we're talking about General Petraeus, from the previous administration came and asked for an extension of six more months.
	If it was the six-day war that was started by President Bush and six years have not been enough to finish it, then the wise men should question how long would a six-month war take whether you are able to fund a war that requires a large amount of money that weakens your economy and your dollar.
	Again, it's very interesting that he's invoking a lot of sixes here.
	You know, 666 is Mark of the Beast, as understood by Christians.
	Okay, skipping ahead even more.
	Again, I'm not reading the whole thing.
	He writes, he's talking about the influence of the military-industrial complex and how little control the president has over the course of America.
	He writes the following,"...the course of the policies of the present administration in several areas clearly reveals that whoever enters the White House, even with good intentions to safeguard the people's interests, is no more than a train operator." His only task is to keep the train on the tracks that are laid down by the lobbyists in New York and Washington to serve their interests first.
	Even if it is to counter your security and economy, any president who tries to move the train from the lobbyists' tracks to a track for the American people's interests will confront very strong opposition and pressures from the lobbyists.
	Your president described the decision by a court in favor of corporations to intervene in the political arena as a victory.
	But it is not a victory for the American people except for the big corporations.
	I think he's talking about the court case where corporate donations for campaign purposes was declared free speech.
	Like money is free speech and that put corporations in a position to even more strongly influence politics.
	I think he's referring to that.
	So he writes, again, skipping ahead, he writes, and remember, this is a letter to the American people.
	He writes, the way for change and freeing yourselves from the pressure of lobbyists is not through the Republican or the Democrat parties, but through undertaking a great revolution for freedom, he says, not to free Iraq from Saddam Hussein, but to free the White House and to free Barack Hussein, and he's talking about Obama, so that he can implement the change you seek.
	It does not only include improvement of your economic situation and ensure your security, but more importantly, helps him in making a rational decision to save humanity from the harmful greenhouse gases that threaten its destiny.
	So, wow, Osama bin Laden is a climate cultist.
	See?
	Ha ha ha.
	I told you this would be full of some surprises.
	So Osama bin Laden is somehow on board with the climate agenda here.
	Maybe this is one of the things that many young left-leaning people find that resonates with them.
	Even though, of course, you and I know that carbon dioxide is not a poison or a pollutant, but a blessing.
	Carbon dioxide powers all photosynthesis on the planet, which means carbon dioxide powers rainforests, pollinator plants, aquatic ecosystems that keep the oceans alive, and also that grow grasses and food crops all over the world.
	So higher levels of CO2, which do not themselves cause warming, they do cause more food output to help feed the world and prevent starvation.
	But in any case, Osama bin Laden was on board with the climate agenda, and he used that in this letter as a leverage point to say that you, the American people, you need to free Barack Obama from the control system, you need to free Barack Obama from the control system, or really you could say the deep state of Washington, D.C.
	There's a frightening thought for you, right?
	Didn't Barack Obama do enough damage already?
	I'm not sure that I would want Barack Obama freed to do anything he wanted.
	But anyway, this is what Osama bin Laden is writing about.
	Now later on in this letter, he invokes Thomas Paine.
	Yes, Thomas Paine from America's history during the time of the Revolutionary War.
	Thomas Paine, who wrote that common sense memo or collection that advocated independence right around the Revolutionary War.
	And so, Osama Bin Laden invokes the founding fathers of America.
	Isn't this interesting?
	And he writes, you are in need of men with courage and initiative like those of your forefathers at that time, when they refused to allow one company to harm the interests of the United States.
	A company that had a monopoly on tea and its prices, referring to What was expressed with the Boston Tea Party and so on.
	It was tea taxation that was one of the key complaints against the king among American colonists at the time.
	Anyway, Bin Laden continues, yet there are now many companies that endanger the United States economy, which continues to be vulnerable to collapse.
	And they also formulate the policies of the White House.
	They threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers against us, and they have formed an alliance with the Israelis to oppress us and occupy our land.
	And then he writes, that was the reason for our response on the 11th.
	He's referring to 9-11, of course, the 11th of September 2001.
	And then skipping ahead a little bit more, he writes, if you want a real settlement that guarantees your security in your country and safeguards your economy from being depleted in a manner similar to our war of attrition against the Soviet Union, then you have to implement a roadmap that returns the Palestine land to us, all of it.
	And then he writes, from the sea to the river.
	This is a phrase that is very charged right now, because from the sea to the river, when uttered by pro-Palestinian individuals, is assumed to mean the complete elimination of Israel as it currently exists.
	I'm pretty sure that's what that phrase means.
	Anyway, Bin Laden continues, from the sea to the river, comma, it is an Islamic land, he writes, not subject to being traded or granted to any party.
	And then he wraps it up and says, you know, we don't fight just for killing, but rather to stop the killing of our people.
	And then he wraps it up with the following three sentences.
	I don't know if these are like P.S. I guess they're P.S. He says, P.S. Palestine shall not be seen captive, for we will try to break its shackles.
	Okay?
	And again, this is no doubt translated, right?
	So you have to give it a little bit of leeway of the word choice in the translation.
	The second P.S. is, quote, the United States shall pay for its arrogance with the blood of Christians and their funds.
	So he's naming Christians, right?
	Like, going to kill the Christians here and take their money.
	Sounds like a robbery gone bad.
	And then finally he says, the third PS, peace be upon those who follow the righteous track.
	Alright.
	So, that's kind of the overview of some of the highlights of that letter.
	And...
	Again, the way Osama bin Laden was portrayed in the Western media, especially around that time, 2001, 2002, and so on, he was portrayed as a cave dweller, you know, like a subhuman, low-IQ individual.
	And yet you read this letter and you're like, well, wait a second.
	I mean, you may not agree with everything he says.
	I mean, I certainly don't.
	But he is able to express his thoughts, his opinions, and his ideas in a way that, let's be honest, vastly exceeds the current cognitive capabilities of Joe Biden.
	You know, if Joe Biden in 2023 debated Osama bin Laden in 2002, you know, bin Laden would win that debate.
	But, well, then again, that's not saying much.
	Sometimes I think a hamster would win a debate against Joe Biden at the moment.
	But you get my point.
	Osama bin Laden, he was not some low IQ, low brow idiot, you know, cave dwelling grunt.
	No, he had his own reasons.
	At least in his mind, in his justification for doing the things that he did.
	And he had quite a lot of insight into some of the problems that we continue to experience in the United States of America.
	For example, corporate control over the political process.
	And in fact, that dynamic is something that my guest today, Dennis Kucinich, speaks to in our interview.
	He's not, of course, not quoting Osama bin Laden, but rather just speaking truthfully and with passion and courage about how the United States Congress and the White House and State Department are all captured by the military-industrial complex.
	So there are corporations of war That have a stranglehold on American policy.
	And then there's also AIPAC, which is the Israeli lobbying group that has all kinds of money and for some reason never has to register as a foreign lobbying group.
	That's interesting.
	and they can buy members of Congress, and they do it all the time.
	And the way they do that is they say, hey, if you support us, we'll give you all this money for your campaign.
	If you don't support us, we'll give it to your opponent in the primary.
	You will be primaried out of existence.
	So do you want to support us or not?
	And obviously, it's difficult to get reelected, so most candidates take money from AIPAC, and for some candidates, that alters their votes.
	But I wonder, did you find anything in that letter that was so dangerous that it has to be scrubbed off the Internet?
	It has to be memory-holed immediately?
	Because I did not.
	In fact, a lot of the things in that letter, at least the parts about the corporations having control and the economic fragility of the U.S., I mean, those are things we talk about every day.
	And the fact that this letter is 21 years old really tells you something that this system that we're currently all suffering under in one form or another, you know, the money printing system that essentially loots the value of the dollar so that the American workers can never get ahead by design because the money printing system that essentially loots the value of the dollar so that the American workers can And then the money becomes less and less valuable because of the money printing at the Fed and the Treasury.
	As a result, inflation crops up and people end up spending a larger and larger portion of their paycheck for basic necessities such as electricity or rent or food or gasoline typically, right?
	So all of that is happening.
	And it's only worse now than it was 21 years ago.
	That's the thing.
	It's far worse now.
	And then the U.S. financial system very nearly did collapse in the subprime mortgage collapse of 2008.
	But just as Osama bin Laden was sort of referring to earlier, the United States printed trillions of dollars and bailed out certain select banks, rescued them with taxpayer money, which further diluted the value of the dollar, but kept the wealthy corporations alive, those that are complicit in the big agenda of what the government wants them to do.
	And the upshot is that today right now we are living in a zombie economy.
	You've heard me use that term before, but we have zombie banks, zombie corporations, and a zombie economy that is run by a zombie president, you might argue.
	I'm pretty sure they have to reanimate him with certain injectables at certain moments before he stands up there and tries to say something.
	And even then, he says crazy things.
	Like just yesterday, he said that China's President Xi is a dictator, which, in a sense...
	You know, you and I might tend to agree with that.
	Perhaps that's an accurate description in some ways, but you don't say that as the President of the United States when she just visited you and you were all chummy with him and shaking hands and you're trying to be diplomatic.
	And you're trying to work things out with China, perhaps.
	You don't say, yeah, the guy that just left, yeah, he's a dictator.
	He's a communist dictator.
	That's what Biden said.
	Just right out of the blue.
	And you know, you know, whoever's handling him was thinking, man, we got to reduce the dose of whatever we inject him with.
	We can't let him stay on his feet that long because he starts to get wacky and say crazy, dangerous things.
	That's what just happened.
	Amazing.
	By the way, I sincerely want to ask you this question.
	Who are you currently supporting for President of the United States, assuming we make it to the 2024 election?
	Who are you supporting?
	Because I have no idea at the moment.
	I mean, I know it's not Biden.
	That part is for sure.
	I mean, I have a list of certainty of who I don't want as president.
	I don't want Nikki Haley.
	That's for sure.
	I know I don't want Joe Biden, and I don't want anyone named Clinton, by the way, and I don't want Michelle Obama.
	But aside from those, I mean, who in your mind is a viable candidate at the moment?
	Personally, I've been very disappointed in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
	for reasons I've elucidated here, but also somewhat disappointed with Donald Trump.
	But then again, there's a side of me that thinks, well, they really, really, really want to destroy Trump.
	You know, why is that?
	Why do they see him as such a threat to their system?
	Maybe Trump would actually take a hatchet to the deep state this time.
	Who knows?
	But then again, I keep finding issues with some of Trump's positions, like his recent announcement of how he's going to crack down on illegal immigration by having the United States military run what will essentially be concentration camps in America for illegals, and then would have, I guess, I don't know, the military or some special teams, it wasn't clear, run around and round up illegals.
	And I guess just take them out of their homes and wherever they are and throw them into these concentration camps.
	And I'm really taken aback by that idea as much as I oppose illegal immigration.
	And I believe we need to build a wall.
	We need to have rational immigration.
	I support legal immigration when we get to vet people and we get to choose who we want and we pick the best of the best.
	It should be a meritocracy.
	Not just anybody can walk across the border.
	So, I'm completely opposed to illegal immigration, of course, as you know.
	But this idea of turning America into some giant police state where everybody is suspected of being an illegal immigrant and everybody has to show your papers everywhere and you have a roving, you know, migrant arrest forces that can just, I guess...
	Kidnap people from wherever they are, throw them in a concentration camp.
	I have a feeling that that could go awry.
	That could get very bad.
	And I do not want to live in a police state.
	Then again, there's the Joe Biden plan for tackling illegal immigration by making America's economy suck so badly that the immigrants flee back to Venezuela.
	So that's happening.
	We reported on that.
	Mexico will soon have to build a wall to stop the illegals from fleeing back across the border to the south.
	Imagine that.
	But I'm curious about your thoughts on this.
	You can post comments under my video here on brighteon.com or we also post it on Rumble.
	You can post comments.
	Who are you supporting for president?
	If anyone.
	I mean, Trump is really the only viable candidate on the GOP side.
	And then for independent candidates, there's RFK Jr., there's Dr.
	Shiva, who I've interviewed as well.
	Dr.
	Shiva's making some waves with some videos that some of them are pretty foul-mouthed, right?
	And I know he's taking a lot of heat for that, but he is saying some things that probably need to be said, so I'll probably invite Dr.
	Shiva back on.
	And do another interview with him and ask him for his thoughts without the profanity, if that's okay.
	But who are you thinking?
	Vivek Ramaswamy?
	I mean, I think he's a big pharma guy.
	So I'm not a fan of his candidacy.
	You have any idea?
	But give me your thoughts in the comments beneath this video.
	Alright, let's switch gears back to Gaza because there is a major development here that we need to dig into.
	This is from, I'm going to read you from a news source on Twitter, but you can find the same thing posted in many different places.
	Thousands of leaflets were dropped on the city of Khan Yunis in southeastern Gaza earlier today.
	So understand, we're talking about South Gaza now.
	So in case you haven't been following the situation, at first Israel dropped leaflets on the northern half of Gaza and told all the people in the north, you need to evacuate to the south.
	And if you don't, we're going to bomb you.
	And then Israel just began bombing.
	Bombing everything.
	Bombing the universities, bombing the hospitals, the refugee camps, you name it.
	The civilian residential apartment complexes, and that's what they did.
	That's what they're continuing to do.
	Bombs and then bulldozers.
	Now Israel is dropping leaflets on southern portions of Gaza.
	So continuing with this statement.
	So the leaflets were dropped on this city in southeastern Gaza as a signal that the Israeli Defense Force may be planning further ground operations in the southern Gaza Strip where some Israeli officials have stated they now believe the leadership of Hamas has escaped too.
	Well, what a convenient excuse, isn't it?
	Very convenient.
	Israel is on offense here.
	Israel is the aggressor, and all they have to do to justify their next attack is to say, well, Hamas might be there.
	Hamas escaped today.
	I thought we were told over the last week that Israel had, number one, surrounded northern Gaza, that Israel had bombed all the tunnels, And had killed everybody in northern Gaza, at least Hamas people, because of all the demolitions experts and bunker buster bombs.
	All of that.
	I thought we were told that Israel had defeated Hamas in northern Gaza.
	Now we're told, well, they may have escaped to the south.
	Therefore, we have to bomb the south.
	Well, wait a second.
	Before you bomb the north, you told the Palestinians they have to flee to the south.
	If you're going to bomb the South, where are they supposed to flee to now?
	Back to the North?
	Well, they can't.
	There's no infrastructure.
	You've turned the North into rebel, largely.
	Well, where are they going to flee to?
	To the Sinai Peninsula?
	Well, that's Egypt, and Egypt has said no!
	Egypt has said no, and the United States, to the credit, by the way, of Antony Blinken, who I don't give a lot of credit, but on this point he deserves at least a little bit of credit, he has told Israel, no, you can't just displace all these Palestinians, and he has told Israel, you can't just come in and rule Gaza forever.
	You have to give Gaza back, eventually.
	And Netanyahu, for Israel's part, basically just thumbs his nose at America and says, you know, go pound sand.
	We're going to bomb whoever we want to bomb.
	We're Israel.
	And if you don't agree with us, we'll label you anti-Semitic, right?
	That's pretty much the way Benjamin Netanyahu has operated for decades at this point.
	And he's not listening to the U.S. at all.
	Which is why I say it's time to cut off funding for Israel, you know, cut off the weapons, cut off the funding.
	You want to get Israel's attention?
	Turn around those carrier strike force groups.
	Start sailing them out of the Mediterranean.
	Leave Israel on its own.
	Oh, now you need us back.
	Oh, so you do want to listen to us now, huh, Netanyahu?
	You sure you don't want us to continue sailing west?
	We can leave the Mediterranean.
	Oh, you want us back?
	Oh, I see.
	So you do want to listen to us.
	Okay.
	We're saying...
	Stop bombing the smithereens, that's a technical term, out of Gaza.
	You can't just displace all these people and kill them all.
	They have no place to go.
	And see what Netanyahu says about that.
	Otherwise, we should leave, as far as I'm concerned.
	We should leave.
	So these leaflets being dropped on now southern Gaza say, and of course there's a translation, quote, for your safety you have to evacuate from your places of residence and head to known shelters.
	You mean the kind of shelters that the IDF keeps bombing?
	What kind of a sick, twisted joke is this?
	It continues, quote, whoever is present near terrorists or their installations will be exposing their life to danger.
	This sounds like some automated message that you would get.
	I think we need robot voice on this one.
	Whoever is present near terrorists Right.
	That kind of message.
	Yeah, I got the robot back in there.
	It's been a while since we heard from the robot.
	But again, they're being told, you know, go to the refugee camps.
	Well, what happened to the people in the Jabalaya camps or the Jabalia?
	I'm never sure how to pronounce these names.
	Let's call it Jabalia in the north.
	Well, they got bombed!
	They got bombed!
	So Egypt is not happy about this.
	Now, Egypt is currently being bribed by the West, by the way.
	Egypt has, I don't know, $120 billion in debt that it owes, essentially, Western banks.
	And Egypt, you know, its economy isn't doing great.
	Egypt needs some financial assistance to keep things afloat.
	And Egypt is kind of being paid off.
	I know this is a simplification, but Egypt is being paid off To not get involved in the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
	But Egypt being a largely Muslim country, of course, well, there's a lot of internal strife and pressure politically for Egypt to do something about this.
	But Egypt absolutely is not in a position economically to take on, you know, 2.3 million Palestinian refugees that Israel wants to push out of Gaza because Israel wants to seize Gaza for itself, you know, greater Israel.
	We need to take Gaza.
	We're going to bomb it, we're going to bulldoze it, and we're going to rebuild all Israeli encampments, except for the areas where we can drill for oil and gas, because there's trillions of dollars of gas underneath Gaza.
	One more reason to bomb the Palestinians and get them out of there and just seize the land.
	I mean, this is a bomb and pillage operation by Netanyahu, who's also trying to save his own neck from prison time.
	But the question remains, where do the Palestinians go?
	Because the only exit available to them at this point, I forgot the name of it, but it's this exit that borders Egypt.
	And Egypt carefully guards that exit.
	They've allowed humanitarian aid trucks in from time to time, and they've allowed certain people to exit.
	For example, they allowed the exit of Russian nationals who were trapping Gaza, and some Americans as well.
	But they're not going to open the floodgates and say, hey, 2 million plus Palestinians, come on through, because where would they go?
	You can't just direct them out to the desert.
	They're going to need infrastructure.
	You're going to need a whole city built.
	In essence, you're going to need sewage systems.
	You're going to need electricity.
	You're going to need running water and water treatment facilities and on and on and on.
	Transportation, law enforcement, schools, everything.
	You have to build a whole city.
	Well, you can't do that overnight.
	It doesn't exist out there in the Sinai Desert.
	So there's nowhere for the Palestinians to go.
	Now, I know that there are some, especially Democrats in America, that say, well, you know, America should take a lot of those Palestinians, or the European countries should take them.
	Well, no.
	Why shouldn't they get to keep their home?
	Where they live now, they should be able to keep.
	And some would argue in a two-state solution that the borders in Israel versus Palestine should be reverted back to 1967, by the way, when Israel was much, much smaller, and most of that whole triangle there on the eastern Mediterranean Sea is Palestine.
	But, you know, I think we're far from a two-state solution at this point.
	That's not going to happen.
	But why should Palestinians be pushed out of their country, their neighborhoods, their homes, to the rest of the world, when especially in the United States, the government of the U.S. is funding Israel that's bombing the Gazan hospitals and apartment complexes and so on.
	I mean, this is insane.
	So Egypt, with its president Sisi, Egypt is not happy about this situation.
	Now, there is a rumor that's floating around, and I tried to confirm this or deny it, and I was not able to do it either way.
	So I can't say that this following rumor is true, but it's worth your consideration.
	It may be confirmed by the time you hear this.
	We'll see.
	Or it may be fiction.
	I'm not sure, but it's at least something to consider.
	According to a number of posts on Twitter that are claiming to cite Haaretz, which is a news publication that covers Israel and the Middle East, there is a post and a screenshot of this, but I don't read Hebrew.
	I don't know what it says.
	But according to the quote rumor, the Egyptian army is reportedly preparing to enter Gaza and impose a no-fly zone if Israel does not impose an urgent solution in Gaza.
	All right, so that's the rumor.
	Again, unconfirmed.
	Consider this, though, because tempers are flaring.
	Egypt is running out of patience, and so is the rest of the world, by the way.
	If Egypt, which has a very capable military presence, by the way, and remember, Egypt fought Israel before, you know, in the previous wars that actually helped define the current boundaries of what Israel is today.
	But Egypt is no long-term friend of Israel, and Egypt is feeling a lot of pressure right now to take on these millions of refugees that are being pushed out of Gaza.
	And Egypt, no doubt its leadership understands that Israel would benefit from all the gas and all the oil underneath Gaza, and that this is a pillage operation, bomb and pillage, among other things.
	Also ethnic cleansing on top of that.
	So Egypt is running out of patience.
	If they were to actually move anti-air defense systems into Gaza and activate them, that would be the case.
	That would mean that they are shooting down Israeli jets, F-16s.
	Do you think that would happen?
	I mean, that would set off a much wider conflict, because then the U.S. would be forced to do something Do something!
	Damn it!
	Don't just sit there in your ships.
	The U.S. would probably end up launching cruise missiles to take out Egypt's anti-air defense systems in order to allow Israel to continue its bombing campaign of civilians in Gaza.
	Then you have the U.S. and Egypt at war.
	Not good.
	Not good.
	Why?
	Well, the Suez Canal, among other reasons, but the Suez Canal, you know, the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group just recently went through the Suez Canal.
	And without the Suez Canal, you know, your navy is split up.
	It's not nearly as effective.
	It can't project power in as many places without the passageway of the Suez Canal.
	Well, if Egypt says, you know, no canal for you, like the soup Nazi...
	Then the American military just lost all kinds of power, and the Suez Canal can also be used to enforce, in part, an oil embargo against the West.
	Because, you know, thanks to Joe Biden's anti-energy policies, the United States is no longer energy independent as it was under Trump.
	And thus, the U.S. is dependent on energy exports out of the Middle East, and some of those are Well, a lot of them transit through the Strait of Hormuz, by the way, but some of them go through the Suez Canal as well.
	With that canal shut down because we're at war with Egypt, trade gets real dicey.
	Supply chains become very unstable.
	Consumer goods start to disappear from the shelves of American stores and the American consumers begin to notice, hey, what's wrong here?
	Where are the parts for my car repair?
	Oh, they're all lined up near the Red Sea, actually, because they can't go through the Suez Canal or whatever.
	So that situation would get very ugly very quickly.
	But if Israel is saying, hey, you can't just keep bombing.
	You can't bomb southern Gaza and tell these people to leave.
	They have nowhere to go except Egypt and we can't take them.
	Well, what are we supposed to do?
	Right?
	What's the answer here?
	And Israel's not listening to anybody, except maybe Netanyahu's hearing from Satan from time to time, like, killed him all!
	You know, whatever.
	That's who I think is whispering in his ear at the moment.
	Netanyahu, you can't reach him with rationality.
	He's just like, we're going to bomb and bomb and bomb until we run out of bombs.
	So, We're on a collision course here, folks.
	This is a very dangerous scenario.
	We're on a collision course with an escalation of this war that could involve Egypt.
	It could begin to involve U.S. aircraft carriers and the strike force groups.
	It could begin to involve, of course, Hezbollah and Lebanon.
	And Israel has its sights on Lebanon.
	Israel wants Lebanon.
	They want to pillage and loot Israel.
	Modern-day Lebanon, just as they're doing in Gaza.
	You know, Israel, there's no end to its appetite for expansionism and aggression against its neighbors.
	Israel thinks it owns half of Jordan, too, by the way.
	It's like, you think that's your country?
	No, that's our country.
	Why is it your country?
	God promised it to us, right?
	That's what they say.
	God promised it to us.
	Therefore, we can bomb you.
	Hmm.
	What if everybody acted that way, you know?
	What kind of a world would we be living in at that moment?
	It would be a hell on earth, by the way.
	But you get the idea.
	We're on the verge of a major escalation here.
	Whether that rumor that I read for you there, the no-fly zone rumor, whether that's false or true, Egypt is still trending in that direction.
	We are on a collision course, and it's a game of chicken between nations, and nobody is backing down at the moment.
	The U.S. isn't backing down.
	Hezbollah isn't backing down.
	Turkey's not backing down.
	Israel's certainly not backing down.
	And Egypt, they're holding their ground at the moment too.
	So, where does this go?
	You know, I hope that this doesn't end up with Israel bombing Beirut.
	Because they've done that before.
	And they're threatening to do it again.
	If Israel bombs Beirut, Hezbollah launches everything at Tel Aviv.
	And then probably Iran would be sitting there saying, we need to launch too, you know.
	Get in on the action.
	And then the U.S. is like, Iran attacked us!
	Bomb Iran!
	And then Russia would be, well, the U.S. is bombing our allies, the Iranians.
	We have to respond with Kinzhal missiles.
	Take out the carriers!
	Mach 6 nuclear weapons.
	Hey, did you see Russia has a new hyperglide vehicle?
	It's a hyperglide re-entry vehicle.
	For their ICBM, there was a big announcement about this just in the last 24 hours, actually, that they're deploying this.
	This hyperglide vehicle, I hope I'm getting this right, it travels at Mach 20 or something right around that.
	Mach 20.
	There's nothing in the US military defense that stops this thing.
	There's nothing.
	In fact, I don't think there's anything in the U.S. defense that stops a Mach 6 missile.
	But the hyperglide vehicles at Mach 20, forget it, man.
	I mean, 20 times the speed of sound.
	Oh, and when I say hyperglide vehicles, I mean, what I mean is maneuver-capable nuclear warheads with wings.
	So each one of those hyperglide vehicles has a nuclear warhead on it.
	And those nuclear warheads could be, you know, could be one megaton, could be five megatons.
	Who knows?
	And remember, Hiroshima was only about 15 or 16 kilotons, which was tiny compared to what these warheads have today.
	So if Russia wants to take out the entire U.S. naval group, the entire USS Ford group, by the way, And the USS Ford, I mean, how many billion dollars did that thing cost?
	There's 5,000 sailors on that thing.
	It's the largest ship ever built in the history of the world.
	And it's one of a kind.
	There's nothing else on the planet like that.
	It can be taken out with one Kinzhal missile, along with some other, the support ships around it, the cruisers and destroyers and what have you.
	One missile can take it all out.
	And then where are we?
	Yeah, then we're in a Mad Max escalation of fallout, you know?
	Not good.
	And that's when the U.S. and Russia start trading ICBMs, and that's why I asked up front here today, will you finally call for a ceasefire when the bombs are raining down on America?
	You know, what will it take for the American people who are still saying, no ceasefire, no ceasefire, what will it take for them to come to their senses?
	And I think the answer is no.
	Radio isotopes, actually.
	I think it's going to take nuclear fallout in their cities before they get the picture like, oh, maybe it was a bad idea to call for war.
	You know, maybe this got out of hand.
	Of course it got out of hand.
	It's war.
	War always gets out of hand.
	You can't control it.
	It's like a runaway fire burning through an apartment complex.
	You don't know who it's going to take out next.
	Be careful starting fires when there are combustible materials all around.
	Which is exactly what the Middle East is right now.
	Be careful running around with matches and torches and flares when everything's about to combust all around you.
	Be careful!
	You know, you can't manage war.
	Like you could manage a spreadsheet or something.
	You can't manage war.
	Some people think, well, we'll just bomb until we take Gaza, and then we'll call for a ceasefire.
	Okay, well, that's what you think.
	That's not what Hezbollah thinks.
	That's not what Iran thinks.
	That's not what Erdogan from Turkey thinks.
	If you bomb and obliterate Gaza, you're going to trigger their response.
	And then they're going to say, their people are going to say, well, let's just bomb Israel until Tel Aviv is wiped out and then we'll stop.
	We'll call for a ceasefire after we wipe out Tel Aviv.
	So they bomb and bomb and bomb and obliterate Tel Aviv.
	And they say, now we can call for a ceasefire.
	But then the U.S. is like, wait a second, Israel's our ally.
	We need to bomb you back so that you, I mean, you see where this goes.
	And eventually, of course, it involves Iran and Russia and maybe at some point, you know, Chinese ICBMs.
	Did you see how President Xi was welcomed as a heroic statesman in the streets of San Francisco, which were magically all cleaned up right before the Chinese premier shows up?
	You see that?
	Just the other day, and all the Chinese flags on the street, but no American flags, you know?
	It was like, what?
	Is this really San Francisco?
	But China has ICBMs, and Russia has the most in the world.
	And Russian ICBMs are pretty modernized, by the way.
	Again, they've got hyperglide reentry vehicles.
	They're not just ballistic trajectories.
	So, the U.S. anti-ballistic missile defense systems, they only work on ballistic trajectories, which are, you know, the big arcs that go up into orbit and then come back down.
	We can't stop hyperglide vehicles.
	Good luck, right?
	So, again, be careful if you're calling for war.
	Be careful what you wish for.
	Because eventually, the families being blown to bits might be your own.
	Yeah, true.
	And I know people say, oh, Israel has a right to defend itself.
	Not by attacking all its neighbors.
	Not by carpet bombing 2.3 million people who live in what is essentially a concentration camp that is under the control of Israel.
	That's not defending yourself.
	That's genocide.
	That's what's happening there.
	So be careful what you ask for.
	If you live in a world where you and others, you beg for genocide...
	You will eventually get it.
	It will come to you.
	If you worship death, well, you will get it.
	You know, even in New Age circles, there's something called the Law of Attraction, which says you tend to get what you focus on, right?
	So if you're out there focusing on, bomb them all, bomb them all, kill them, bomb them, eliminate them, and then it comes to you, why are they bombing us?
	Law of Attraction, yeah.
	That's what you kept focusing on.
	Why are you surprised when it came to you?
	And then I also love the argument of people that say, well, we're actually peaceful, but we have to bomb them all first, whoever the other tribe is.
	We have to bomb that tribe, kill them all, and then we can live in peace.
	And so the pathway to peace, we hear people say, is to first carry out genocide.
	Well, we've heard that before in history.
	We've heard it many times across many tyrants in many horrifying atrocities throughout the history of the world, including World War II. And it never really works that way, does it?
	You can't just bomb your way to peace, it turns out.
	Imagine that.
	Diplomacy, humanity, these are the only things that can possibly work.
	And that's why my guest today, his voice is so important in this dire time for humanity where we're choosing our future collectively.
	We're choosing our future.
	Will it be a future of mass death and bombings and genocide?
	Or will it be a future of coexistence, compassion, and humanitarian understanding of being able to live with our neighbors without trying to murder them all the time?
	That's the choice that humanity has to make.
	And we're on a knife's edge right now with this choice, a very difficult choice.
	And we will all have to live with the consequences whether or not we agree with the way this choice is going.
	And right now, our world is veering towards chaos.
	It's veering towards violence.
	It's veering towards self-annihilation.
	But it's voices like my guest today, Dennis Kucinich, that are trying to bring us back from that brink.
	Back into something resembling a reasonable approach to coexistence rooted in principles of empathy and compassion and humanitarian principles, even divine principles.
	So I think you'll find this interview to be quite valuable.
	I do want to give credit to our sponsor today, the satellite phone store, SAT123.com.
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	With that said, I'm introducing the interview with Dennis Kucinich, who is a remarkable individual.
	Listen to his words because I think his words are filled with a tremendous amount of wisdom and love and compassion for humanity.
	And I share that with him.
	So I think you'll find this interview not just informative but also moving.
	Thank you for listening.
	Welcome to today's interview on Brighteon.com.
	And you're going to want to stay tuned for this one.
	You're going to love this.
	We have a first time guest, but of course, a longtime friend of America and humanity.
	It's former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who also is an author and has done so much more.
	He's an advocate for peace and humanitarian principles.
	And he joins us today to discuss the current situation in the Middle East and much more.
	Welcome, Congressman Kucinich.
	It's an honor, sir, to have you on today.
	Mike, thank you.
	I look forward to this opportunity to have a conversation with you.
	And I'm just so grateful for this moment.
	So, let's go for it.
	Well, thank you so much for being willing to come on and talk about this.
	What's happening in our world right now, this is a key issue that transcends any kind of party affiliation.
	My audience tends to be more conservative, but really independent-minded, and that's why they welcome your message right now.
	And I think you and I can both agree, we've seen a lot of people across the spectrum kind of lose their minds recently, and I'm wondering, why isn't it a simple thing to say that let's not bomb Trump?
	Can we start there?
	What's your reaction to that?
	Well, we're in a moment where what Orwell wrote about years ago in terms of the inversion of meaning, we're seeing an action that up is down, wrong is right, and worse is the better reason.
	And when it comes to Gaza, we're seeing in full display here every twisted theory and thinking That would be used to justify the slaughter of innocents.
	This is what I have repeatedly called to attention in my writing on Substack in the last few weeks in particular, especially since October 7th.
	As I've said in a video that I just did last week that's circulating, If we have to take sides, let's take the side of peace.
	And if we cannot take a stand to stop the slaughter of women and children, innocent people, then who are we?
	And that, I guess, is the question.
	It's not about who they are, whoever they, you know, we're talking about.
	Who are we?
	What do we believe as people?
	As Americans, what do we believe?
	Where are our values?
	And can there be anything more specific about being a conservative than conserving the peace?
	Yes.
	We defend our country.
	There's no question about it.
	But Mike, look, I was a third-string quarterback on a not very good football team.
	And I know the difference between defense and offense.
	Right.
	And right now, we're on the offense.
	I say we because the United States is absolutely involved in standing up for these policies that are so destructive.
	I want to mention you have a petition available right now that people can sign, and I've got it on my screen.
	It's at act.kucinich.com.
	And for those who aren't familiar with how to spell your last name, it's K-U-C-I-N-I-C-H. So act...
	I got that right.
	Okay.
	Act.Kucinich.com.
	Got it.
	Act.Kucinich.com.
	It is K-U-C-I-N-I-C-H. It took me years to learn how to spell it, Mike.
	That's great.
	But, you know, I really feel right now, and based on my own history of involvement in international matters, That it's urgent to speak out and to say, whoa, wait a minute.
	Stop the slaughter.
	It goes beyond a ceasefire.
	We have to cease violence as an instrument of diplomacy.
	You know, violence is diplomacy by other means.
	I guess you could say war is diplomacy by other means.
	I'm glad you...
	I'm glad you mentioned that.
	Your point transcends this one particular crisis.
	It's not about just stopping this act of violence.
	Like you said, we have to stop leaning on coercion and violence as a form of diplomacy.
	But as you know very much, because you fought against this as a member of the United States Congress, you fought against what I would call the military-industrial complex.
	It's very, very profitable.
	For certain groups, certain people, certain corporations, to have forever wars.
	And that has become, you know, with all of the campaign finance that goes back to members of Congress, this has become what I call a doom loop of violence and war and profit.
	How do we ever exit the doom loop as a nation?
	A doom loop of violence, war, and profit.
	Mike, you have succinctly characterized Where we are at with respect to this interplay between the military-industrial complex, foreign policy apparatus, and the United States Congress.
	And unless we break through that, our nation itself is at risk of destruction.
	This country, which I love, is not guaranteed to us.
	We're told that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
	But we have to be vigilant about Not just what's outside the perimeters of America, but what's going on inside America.
	Yes.
	And when our international policy is continually hijacked for purposes of moving hundreds of billions of dollars in arms to decimate countries and to create an agenda that has nothing to do with the needs of the American people at all.
	When that happens, it's fair to ask, hey, what is going on here?
	You know, I'm from Cleveland, Ohio.
	I'm from the neighborhoods of the city.
	I grew up in Cleveland, the oldest of seven.
	My parents never owned a home.
	We were renters.
	And like a lot of Americans today, you know, trouble finding a place to live.
	By the time I was 17, we lived in 21 different places, including a couple cars.
	Wow.
	I know what people go through, try to make it day to day.
	And when I see our government being willing to spend money Trillions of dollars to destroy other countries, to destroy lives in other countries.
	When we ignore the lives of our own people here at home, I'm ready to say, hey, wait a minute.
	I never signed up for anything like that.
	And it's time to redirect America's resources and our ethic about what we stand for as a country.
	Well stated.
	I completely agree with you on that point.
	In fact, I want to back up a little bit and ask you about this dynamic and how this was applied to the conflict in Ukraine.
	Now, I've watched several of your interviews.
	I don't know fully your position on what happened in Ukraine, but there's one dynamic I think you can speak to.
	It is that young Ukrainian men have been dying by the hundreds of thousands, while wealthy American corporations that have ties to Washington, D.C. are getting wealthy.
	And there seems to be no value on the lives of the Ukrainian men, and that might apply to even Israeli IDF soldiers today.
	The U.S. corporations may not value those soldiers as long as they're making the profits.
	In their view, it doesn't matter how many, quote, foreign young men die.
	Yet you and I, I think we agree on the fact that every young man and woman everywhere around the world has value and is a divine being and is worth saving.
	Saving or protecting.
	Does that make sense?
	It not only makes sense, it's said with poetic effect, Mike.
	And I'm so grateful for the chance to talk to you because as you're speaking, I'm thinking of a poem by Matthew Arnold that was written at the turn of the 20th century.
	The poem is called Dover Beach.
	And some of the closing stanzas are pretty close to this.
	He says, Love, let us be true to one another, for this world before us has neither hope nor certitude nor flight from pain.
	And we are here on this darkling plain, swept by confused alarms of struggle and flight, while ignorant armies flash at night.
	Wow.
	And that was Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach, you know, before World War I. And the sense is that the world gets pulled into these wars, millions of innocents are killed, and it's time for us to recognize that the science of human relations requires us to be able to rethink how we handle our differences, how we resolve them.
	In fact, I would say that right now, at this moment in history, we are seeing more awareness about that very point where we have to find a way to coexist as human beings of different ethnicities, of different religions, of different colors and genders, because the alternative is mass slaughter of each other.
	I was asking myself this morning, What would our world look like if every nation reacted to its neighbors in the way that Israel is doing right now?
	And that would be a world of blood and suffering.
	None of us want that outcome.
	So how can we stand by and be silent that this is happening in this one case and with a risk of escalation?
	Well, you, myself, and others are not standing by.
	We're challenging the A sharply interiorized logic of not just a conflict, but of the rationale behind the conflict, which is certainly political, which is territorial, which covers resources, which has a biblical subtext, okay?
	And this merges into this recitation of self-justification which Prime Minister Netanyahu is engaging in on a daily basis of the massacre of tens of thousands of people and decimating their homes.
	We have to get what's going on in the moment here.
	And while I do understand my Jewish brothers and sisters' long-standing concerns about Israel not being destroyed, I also tell my Jewish brothers and sisters that the path that the Israeli government is on right now is not only destructive of the Palestinians I
	Exactly.
	I don't advocate.
	And so I I think that we can simultaneously be for the survival of the state of Israel and the survival of the Palestinian people.
	But we have to recognize that there are elements who don't believe in either of those things.
	And that's where it requires the dexterity of not just diplomacy, But of an open-hearted conversation about, hey, look, stop the killing because it always comes back.
	It's circular.
	It's a rising tide of bloodlust, which does not relent until everybody's dead.
	And so what I am concerned about right now, Mike, is that we're on a path right now by standing by and not cautioning Israel to stop We are on a path which will inevitably entrain the United States into conflict in South Lebanon, because that's part of the Greater Israel Plan, which Netanyahu and the ultra-nationalist members of Likud are about.
	They want the Greater Israel, which is not just West Bank and Gaza, depopulate those areas of everyone who isn't Jewish, depopulate the areas in Southern Lebanon.
	They're already dropping leaflets telling people to get out.
	And to create this dream, it's a dream that some have of a greater Israel.
	However, in pursuit of that, the danger is that they spark a major war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and then the potential of Iran getting involved, and then China, and then Russia.
	Hey, you know, there are some people who I believe that Jesus is coming again soon on the plain of Megiddo.
	I think it's very important for Christians to stay as close as we can to Jesus.
	but I think that we kind of are able to work out our own fate as far as when those end days are.
	And I'm not looking at a clock, but I'm not in a hurry to create them.
	Okay.
	Well, that's a really critical point.
	And I can speak to that because many members of my audience are, are Christians and I've heard something a little frightening from some of them and I've received a little bit of pushback, but there seems to be among certain people, not the majority, but some Christians, this idea of accelerationism.
	which is to try to accelerate the end times events almost...
	and this sounds really twisted, but I'm going to say it, Almost in a sense of there has to be a certain amount of blood spilled in order to summon the return of Christ.
	And I'm thinking, that's not the Christ that I know.
	I'm not in the bloodshed to accelerate end times events.
	I think that Christ taught peace, and that if we are living in the teachings of Christ...
	Then we must practice peace with each other, and that includes peace with those who may be of different faiths as well.
	And that's where I've received quite a bit of pushback on that point right now.
	And I'm wondering, like, do they know a different Christ than what I know?
	Because my God is a God of peace.
	How about you?
	Well, you know, as a Christian, you know, someone who studied Christ, I mean,
	all of those recitations speak to not just an invocation of peace, an exhortation of peace, but they also speak to Almost a vibration, a unified field that we try to create every day and peace in our lives.
	Now, my own study of Christ and the Bible, and I certainly am familiar with Revelations, is that since we do have free will, we have the ability to make choices about what happens in our lives.
	And while I'm someone who respects people's religious beliefs deeply, Because there's so many paths to the divine.
	We have to be careful, I think, about subscribing to a certain narrative that accelerates the end of this physical world, which is the place where we're supposed to work out our fate, our spiritual journey.
	This is where we do it.
	Here.
	We're located.
	And so I think we You know, if we're all made in God's image and likeness, and I believe we are, if this world is sacred because God made it, and I believe he did and it is, then we should take better care of God's creation.
	And my personal belief is that And while there's differences with languages and races, colors, creeds, it's like a ray of light representing human unity going through a prism, and it divides, it fractionates, but it's still part of a ray of divine light, the creation of God, what God created.
	And that we ought to respect that.
	And we ought to be humble about being amidst God's creation and reflected in so many different types of people and places.
	And it's all a reflection of something universal in that I see it.
	We're all one.
	We're interconnected.
	We're interdependent in a way that we have never been as human beings.
	Absolutely.
	Yeah.
	Completely agree.
	What do we gain?
	See, I'm so glad you're taking this conversation in that direction, because I've been asked by people, do you have faith?
	And sometimes I answer, I don't even need...
	I mean, yes, I have faith, but I don't need it to be just faith because I have evidence of God's existence every day all around us.
	In people, in biology, in the plants, in the forests, in the miracles of the molecules that are synthesized by plants, molecules that can help prevent disease, for example, health and nutrition.
	These are miracles occurring every day all around us.
	I don't have to be a, quote, believer when I'm seeing the...
	I mean, yes, I'm a believer, but I'm seeing it all the time.
	And yet, how can people be so blind to think that we are separate from them?
	There's that other tribe over there.
	And, oh, we have to exterminate that tribe.
	They're not human.
	They're not children of God.
	We have to eliminate them.
	We have to carpet bomb them.
	I don't understand where that can come from.
	And it is astonishing to me and highly disturbing that I'm seeing so much invocation of hatred right now in this time when there's a desperate need for us to come together and learn to live together on this relatively small planet, by the way.
	What are your thoughts to that?
	Well, first of all, your recitation of...
	Of the presence of the divine in everyday life.
	It reminds me of a song I heard when I was a child called, I Believe, that some of your listeners or viewers will remember the words.
	It's every time I hear a newborn baby cry or touch a leaf or see the sky, then I know why I believe.
	And I think that The beliefs that we have in the divine connects us not only to God, but to each other.
	And the ideal of human unity, that we are all one.
	Look at the human genome theory.
	Think about this.
	Yes, exactly.
	We are all 99.9% made of the same stuff.
	Yep.
	Image and likeness of God.
	Temples of the Holy Spirit.
	I mean, what a privilege it is to be here on this planet, but at the same time, what a responsibility we have to follow God's commandments, chief of which is thou shalt not kill, and to remember the teachings of Matthew and others about whatsoever you would have anyone do to you, you do to them, or love your neighbor as yourself.
	These are all principles that many of us try to live by.
	But when any of us stray from that, or any of our brothers and sisters, whatever their faith is, move away from that, every great religion has the same teaching.
	Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
	It's in the Talmud.
	It's in the Koran.
	It's in the Bible and other religions.
	We need to call upon the spiritual guidance at a time when we can't figure out politically, our limited minds can't figure out how we work this out diplomatically.
	Go back to spiritual principles.
	That's why we have spiritual principles.
	Those are the guides that give us some direction in times of crisis, particularly in times of crisis.
	And yet we're not doing that.
	Matter of fact, what's happening is spiritual principles are now being used to justify slaughter.
	And that is twisted.
	And, you know, we have to be very careful about What our representations are about what our connection is to the divine.
	That's right.
	And not at any moment to believe that we're godlike in our authority, in our ability to say who's going to live and who's not.
	I mean, I'll never forget this portrait I saw of Saint Michael basically chasing Lucifer from heaven And the words in this poster were, quios ut deus.
	Who is like unto the Lord?
	It is not for us as human beings to use a God-like power to decide these people are going to live and these people are going to die.
	It is not for us to do that.
	It separates us from...
	Today, it's not just a political challenge.
	This is a spiritual challenge we face as a nation, as a world.
	And yet, you know, there are those...
	I believe in separation of church and state, but that was never meant for America to be separate from spiritual values.
	We have to reconnect with those spiritual values at this time where the name of the United States, the resources of the United States, are being used to murder people in a land, you know, thousands of miles away.
	Yes, yes.
	And some of what you said there, Reminds me, you talk about how we should not misuse scripture and think that we have the power.
	I would say, in my opinion, I'm seeing Netanyahu as someone who is misusing scripture and misusing the resources of his country.
	Now, I know you're not one to sharply criticize other leaders of nations.
	But I would like your opinion.
	I am one to sharply criticize sometimes, and I've called for an international criminal court investigation and war crimes charges to be brought against Netanyahu and Gallant and others in the IDF. And I would also add that I believe most Israelis do not support Netanyahu.
	That was clear in the last election.
	And so I'm not condemning the people of Israel or Jews or Judaism.
	Rather, I'm saying that Netanyahu has misused the power that he seized a hold of and is misusing that.
	But again, I'm not going to put words in your mouth.
	What would you say about Netanyahu right now?
	I've met him on a couple of occasions.
	First time more than two decades ago.
	He is a very wily politician.
	He certainly is skilled in politics, and he's a survivor.
	Look at where he's at right now.
	In the last election, he was faced with a potential ouster.
	What did he do?
	He put together a coalition, but this time he had to put together a coalition with a minority of the Likud That were described as ultra-nationalist.
	Some of their adherents, you had Ben-Gavir, Smotrich, and they represented a faction which believed in greater Israel, which believed in reconstructing the temple on where Aqsa is right now in Jerusalem.
	They believe that the Palestinians should not be on the land, just push them out by any means.
	So he made a book with them.
	Why did he do that?
	Because he had to stay in power because he was under criminal investigation.
	And he's really staying in power to stay out of prison.
	He is a smart politician, but sometimes he's too clever by half because he's locked himself into this situation where his very survival depends on prosecuting a war.
	While he didn't have that kind of support that you spoke of, you're right, of the Israeli voters, he does now.
	Israelis, by and large, support what the government is doing in Gaza and the West Bank.
	Like it or not, this is everything that I'm hearing from my friends who are in the region.
	So where does it lead?
	He needs to find a way to extricate himself and his country from this.
	And the United States must help.
	The United States cannot stand by and continue to see this massacre occur with our resources, with the money that we've put in.
	Since the founding of Israel, we've put $158 billion into the country, most of it military expenses.
	And we really have to Be quite concerned about having a simultaneous identification of the objectives and aims of the United States of America and the objectives and aims of the State of Israel.
	Because they're not simultaneous.
	They aren't the same.
	We cannot permit the direction of the United States to be determined by any other government anywhere in the world.
	This is about our sovereignty.
	This is about who we are as a country.
	And while we have a strong relationship with Israel, I don't have a problem with that, we must not ever let any other country who we have an affection for lead our international decisions and our international policy.
	John Adams warned about that years ago.
	He said, you know, beware, and he wasn't the only one, beware foreign entanglements.
	And we are in a foreign entanglement right now, and it does not serve the interests of the United States of America, and it does not certainly serve the interests of Israel or of the Palestinian people.
	So there is something about America asserting its sovereignty and asserting its integrity as a nation, but we've lost that capacity for some reason, and it's time for Americans to start asking some hard questions about what are we about?
	Are we just going to get hijacked and have our power and our strength and our young men and women spill their blood in the Middle East because of some crazy political situation that results because of somebody being on a verge of indictment?
	Well, I think...
	Just responding to that, I think one of the best demonstrations of this twisted policy where American lawmakers, they tend to put Israel first and America last.
	One of the best demonstrations is that we rush the U.S. Navy to the Mediterranean Sea, to the region there to defend Israel's borders, but There's no defense of our borders.
	Not even a rational immigration policy, which, as you may know, I support rational immigration.
	I'm married to an immigrant.
	And I understand that immigrants bring many wonderful properties and contributions to this nation.
	And in many ways, they actually value America more than Americans do, in many cases.
	So I'm a proponent of rational immigration, but not wide open borders where everybody goes through.
	So why do you suppose, in your view, Why do we rush to the defense of Israel or rush to the defense of Ukraine, also?
	Well, let me just, you know, with respect to both, there's three different things you're asking about.
	One is Israel with respect to Hamas.
	Another one is Ukraine with respect to Russia.
	And the third is our southern border in Mexico.
	Let me address those individually.
	First of all, with respect to Russia.
	One must be aware of the United States State Department and its longstanding ambitions to compete militarily with Russia.
	The Orange Revolutions were all about putting Russia on the back foot.
	The United States I drew Russia in by attacking, by licensing the new Ukrainian government to attack eastern Ukraine and the Donbass.
	Yes.
	They knew what they were doing.
	There's just no question about it.
	And Russia moved to defend that area and that then was interpreted as Russia's attack on Ukraine.
	I oppose the whole enterprise.
	We started off this discussion talking about the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have been wiped out in battles there.
	Ukrainian and Russian.
	That did not have to happen.
	That was a call that was made by the machinations of a State Department that was misguided and a misperception of power.
	The idea that somehow we're going to assert our primacy in that region ended up blowing up in America's face.
	The cost of energy went up here.
	Russia's economy wasn't damaged.
	Everything they thought they were going to do to hurt Russia never happened.
	And so now Russia is part of a new economic alliance with Brazil.
	Russia, India, China, South Africa.
	And there was devastating economic consequences to Western Europe during all of this as well.
	I mean, the energy prices go through the roof.
	That's right.
	And so, you know, this is something I also wrote about on Substack.
	So that wasn't necessary.
	That was a disaster and a major foreign policy disaster that was executed with the help of the United States of America.
	So that's one.
	Okay, now let's go to what's happening with Israel.
	Now look, I have no problem with the United States being in a position of saying, well, you know, if Israel's under attack, if Israel's threatened as a nation, and they ask for help, okay, you can do that.
	But, not what's happening here.
	What's happening is that Israel has gone on the offense.
	And they may call it defense.
	They may say, well, we need to do this in order to survive as a nation.
	Well, that's the Netanyahu government's line.
	But no, this is ethnic cleansing.
	It is genocide.
	And it's trying to depopulate areas so the current cabinet, the majority, can work its will with respect to this idea of Greater Israel.
	Now that's none of the United States of America's business.
	We must not be involved in those kinds of things.
	Yet we are, and we're getting dragged along, and we could end up getting dragged into World War III unless we assert our own sovereignty and our separation.
	Now, go into the border, the southern border.
	If you don't have borders, you don't have a country.
	Hello?
	Why is it difficult for the United States of America to understand the need to have borders and the need to regularize the entry of people into the country?
	And the fact that the borders were essentially deconstructed and anybody could come in, and we know that some of the people come in represent criminal gangs.
	And we know that people are trying to come to America in search of a better life.
	There are, you know, migrants now all over the country and in big cities just trying to find a way to survive.
	It's a horrific situation.
	But if we were very clear about about having a border and a closed border, we wouldn't be in this situation again.
	If you don't have borders, you don't have a country.
	And we have lost the plot on that.
	And we need to reestablish our borders, make them secure, and provide a means for people who want to, you know, immigrate to the United States to be able to do so.
	And so that's what I stand for.
	You have to keep in mind that a number of the wars that we potentiated around the world created mass migrations of people.
	Good point.
	Really important point.
	This is all intertwined.
	I mean, we are creating human refugees.
	You know, we are causing economic destitution in many areas.
	We are causing so many problems that then come back to us.
	You know, for example, look what happened with the Nord Stream pipeline.
	And then look at the blowback on Germany's economy.
	Look, when we cut off Russia from the SWIFT system, what happens?
	Then we can't trade with Russia.
	So Russia actually ends up investing in its own domestic economy rather than offshoring money.
	And Russia becomes very strong in terms of industrial output, while the West is hurt by the lack of, you know, fertilizer and aluminum and other things and energy coming out of Russia.
	I mean, it's like...
	I agree with what you said about the State Department earlier.
	And these are my words, not yours.
	But I would describe our current State Department leaders as incompetent, ignorant.
	They have no understanding of history.
	They are power hungry.
	There's a level of psychosis, I think, probably involved.
	Again, that's my opinion.
	But they don't know anything about what they're doing at this point.
	But they have nuclear weapons and a United States Navy and cruise missiles and these kinds of things.
	It's a very dangerous recipe and I think we're seeing some of the results of that.
	What are your comments?
	Well, certainly elections have consequences and people who come into office with a president can have a major impact on world affairs.
	If My concern has always been that the United States ought to be a beacon of light for the world, that we cannot be telling people all around the world it's my way or the highway.
	It's not a way to conduct business.
	Yet there are people who, when they get the power of an office, they think it's their power.
	It's not.
	It's the power of the people.
	But they assume it.
	To be there is, again, that assumption of a godlike power to be able to direct events here and there.
	No, it's not for them to do that.
	The United States' role in the world can be and should be beneficent.
	Now, can we compete economically?
	We need to.
	Absolutely.
	I mean, this is one of the reasons why I oppose all these trade agreements that that let our industrial base start to be dismantled.
	Yes.
	And yet and I believe in economic competition.
	But military competition, what's that about?
	That's where we started this discussion at the beginning of the show about these interest groups who come in and they use the the soul of our nation to.
	Distort what America stands for abroad.
	And so we're all we're all about military might.
	Well, yeah, we need the ability to defend our country.
	I don't think there's any American out there who would fail to defend America if we were under attack.
	But again, we go on the attack in these other countries with massive military power that nobody can match.
	Does anyone think that there aren't consequences for that?
	That there's not something that happens to us as a result of hurting other people?
	You know, we're never going to get over this Iraq war that we visited upon the people of Iraq, over a million dead Iraqis as a result of lies that we were told about weapons of mass destruction and how they're going to attack us.
	Now, you know, I have, with 16 years in Congress, Mike, you know, I met a lot of the people who are these decision makers.
	And in many ways, they're just, you know, people like anyone else, except they get the power and they decide...
	Who's going to live and die in other countries?
	Wow, really?
	I mean, wow.
	That's extraordinary.
	Really?
	And so, I think we always have to remember that there's a spiritual element to life because if you forget that, then you figure you can do anything to anybody and there's never any consequences.
	And we must not live like that.
	Well, this is...
	We must believe that there is...
	A spiritual and moral responsibility we have to each other as not just citizens of our country, but citizens of the world.
	And whatever happened to live and let live.
	I know, I know.
	But you're describing properties of people who have wisdom and maturity.
	And, you know, to see in others reflections of themselves and their own joys and dreams and desire for a safe family and opportunities for their children.
	And yet, we don't see that kind of policy among many of our leaders.
	And again, it crosses both political parties.
	But I want to ask you this related to that.
	Are you surprised at the backlash that we're seeing recently by young Democrats?
	We just saw yesterday, for example, this rather vigorous protest in front of the DNC by mostly younger Democrats who are wearing peace or ceasefire now shirts and jackets, I believe.
	And they were scuffling with police.
	And there's quite a strong demographic, or I should say age divide, between those even in the Democrat Party who, on the older side, they tend to support this current war or supporting Israel in attacking Gaza, whereas the younger Democrats absolutely are strongly, strongly opposed to it.
	Are you surprised by this fracturing right now?
	I think we need to reach out to the young people.
	To let them know that the world that they've inherited is not the one that has to be this way.
	To let them know that we're not here to be in a veil of tears.
	We're not here to have destruction all around.
	Young people today were born just around 9-11, the Iraq War, and on and on and on.
	They're seeing this war right now.
	Young people understand intuitively when their own future is being threatened.
	Economically, certainly, spiritually, politically.
	The future knows when the place which God has prepared for it is being threatened with annihilation.
	So the voices of the young people are those voices that are calling to us from a future that has not yet been realized yet.
	Asking us to create a world of peace where they may live, where they may live out their lives and their destiny and their loves.
	And we have an obligation to listen to the young people, to what they're telling us about our country, about our policies.
	And to listen deeply and to be guided by that voice calling to us, not just from the present, but from the future about the country that needs to become more than it is right now, more than just a military juggernaut, more than just a heavy fist that can be put on a table anywhere in the world, more than just an assertion of some kind of omnipotent power, but that has a conscience, a moral compass, a care about its own people.
	I care about its own children.
	And when you love your own children, and you love the children of the United States, you must also love the children of Israel, the children of the Palestinians, and the children all over the world.
	But that's not what we're seeing right now.
	Right, right.
	Well stated.
	I want to give out your web address again for your petition.
	It's act.kucinich.com.
	That's right, act.kucinich.com.
	And this petition, by the way, is to gather a momentum for peace, for making a statement that this is who we are, this is what we stand for, that we don't have to accept this condition of endless war.
	This is Mike.
	Mike, we have to break this thinking that says that war is inevitable.
	Peace is inevitable if we can find it in our own hearts, our own spirit and soul, to be able to take the benediction of Christ himself who said, my peace I give you, my peace I leave unto you.
	And we need to grasp the deeper meaning of that and to try to live our lives peacefully in this country, but also to have our relations with other countries be guided by those principles.
	Doesn't mean we're going to be walked on as a nation.
	I wouldn't hesitate to defend the United States of America if called upon to do so.
	But we must never misuse that power.
	And right now the power of the United States of America is being misused.
	I completely agree with you, but in the few minutes we have left, and thank you for your time today so far, we're going to wrap this up shortly, but...
	There's a real danger of a miscalculation of America's power.
	And I think you would agree with that general statement.
	But let me ask specifically, I think many current leaders of the Pentagon and the State Department still think we're living in 1991.
	They still think that, in fact, you hear a lot of the same rhetoric right now.
	You know, if we don't kill them there, then we'll have to fight them at home.
	And the U.S. military might is the most powerful in the world.
	But, you know, since that's true in many ways, but since then, you know, Iran in particular is populated by many very, very capable scientists and engineers and mathematicians who have built very capable ballistic missile delivery systems.
	Russia, in particular, has very advanced hypersonic missile systems that the U.S. military does not possess.
	In fact, U.S. testing on that was canceled recently.
	We just don't have that capability.
	Russia has the most advanced anti-air defense systems.
	And even Hezbollah.
	Regardless of what our viewers might think of Hezbollah's politics, as a military force, they have anti-ship missiles, for example.
	And they have hundreds of thousands of rockets that can threaten Israel, and many of them are guided.
	So we're not living in 1991.
	We're not just fighting goat herders with AK-47s.
	If this escalates, we would be facing some very, very capable foes.
	Do you, sir, do you think it is possible...
	That the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon have miscalculated their proficiency in eliminating all threats that they would target in the Middle East.
	The State Department, yes.
	The Pentagon, no.
	There are generals who clearly understand that we're not in a position to start moving troops over to the Middle East.
	They know that.
	America, and we always have to be cautioned about fighting the front wars on too many fronts, particularly if they're not our wars.
	But Iran, you mentioned.
	Mathematics, science.
	I mean, the Persian culture is very steeped in science and math.
	And we sit back and think that, well, you know, we could destroy anybody.
	Iraq has for 40 years been preparing a defense against being attacked.
	We cannot...
	The worst thing when you have great power, you know, military power, is to have a sense of arrogance about its use.
	And the people in the State Department, most of whom have never, ever had to put themselves on the line or had anybody, you know, they hadn't had to go into battle themselves.
	They're kind of the armchair generals.
	They really shouldn't have a say.
	In directing our military assets.
	The Pentagon, you know, yes, there are people in the Pentagon who are gung ho for wars.
	My dad was a Marine.
	He was not gung ho for war.
	He was gung ho for defending America.
	And we are being injudicious in our use of power.
	And we have to call on those generals who do know better.
	To step forward and to be heard.
	There are people in the State Department, by the way, who are contesting publicly the direction that Mr.
	Blinken and others have taken the Biden administration.
	That's right.
	We're seeing a lot of internal backlash right now.
	I can tell you there are people in the Pentagon who are saying, whoa, wait, we're not ready to do this.
	China has the biggest navy in the world right now.
	They have the biggest Coast Guard.
	China has a supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles, Russia many more than we have.
	What is this about?
	Where does this end?
	What is this impulse that some people have to try to march us directly into World War III? I'm saying, hey, wait a minute.
	You know, if people want to commit suicide, I see a counselor or something, but don't drag the rest of us into that.
	Don't drag us into it.
	And so, you know, I love this country.
	There's so much more we can do for our own people with our resources.
	There's so much more we can do to help people around the world.
	But I have to tell you, you know, all that begins at home.
	Charity begins at home.
	We ought to start taking care of our own.
	We have people sleeping in the streets or not from other countries or from America.
	We got people who don't have decent homes, who can't afford the rent, who can't afford their food, who can't afford fuel, who can't afford health care.
	And so shouldn't we kind of Go back to that idea of the shining city on a hill, who we can become as a nation, be the model for other nations, instead of just saying, well, you know, if you don't agree with us, we're going to wipe you out.
	Yeah, right.
	That's not foreign policy.
	I mean, it shouldn't be, but sadly it is among the State Department.
	Congressman Kucinich, it's been a real honor to have you on today, and I want to mention your book.
	It's called The Division of Light and Power.
	I'm showing it on Amazon here, but it's available at booksellers everywhere.
	The Division of Light and Power, folks, you can check out that book.
	And, Congressman, I just want to say I'm really honored by your courage to speak these words that you've shared with us today and for you taking a stand on peace, for peace.
	And it really gives me hope.
	It really does.
	I mean, your voice, I've listened to many of your interviews the last few days, it's given me a sense of refuge for humanity because it's very easy.
	I have been so disillusioned.
	With so many people that I once thought might have hope or be leaders, and I've been very disappointed.
	But your words give me hope once again, and I mean that.
	So thank you for joining me today.
	Mike, back at you.
	Thank you for this conversation.
	Time went very fast, but I hope that down the road that we can do it again.
	Thank you so much.
	I'd love to do that again.
	Thank you as well.
	And folks, the website is act.kucinich.com.
	If you want to join the petition, go ahead and sign up there, enter your name and email address, and you'll be kept in touch about the plans to call for peace from Congressman and author Kucinich.
	And again, we thank him for his time with us today.
	And thank you for joining me here on Brighteon.com.
	Again, uncensored speech.
	This conversation probably could not happen on a lot of other platforms, but it does happen right here on Brighteon.
	And I hope you know and I hope you agree with me that we stand for humanity with humanity.
	We are pro-human.
	We're on team humanity.
	And we're not on one tribe, one political side or the other.
	We think for ourselves and we defend humanity every chance we get.
	So thank you for joining me today.
	God bless you all.
	Take care.
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