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Jan. 7, 2024 - Stew Peters Show
57:38
Betrayed in Crisis: The Mistreatment of Veterans During the COVID “Pandemic”
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New Year 2024, there was a document put out to the world.
This document is titled, An Open Letter to the American People from Signatories of the Declaration of Military Accountability.
Basically what this says is that military leaders...
Past and present through the COVID-19 pandemic should be held accountable for the way that past and current military members were treated as it relates to vaccines and just COVID-19 mandates.
They all should be held accountable.
If you watch the Stu Peters Show, you hear the phrase extreme accountability.
And so today, my friend Jason and I are going to have a discussion about this document put out to the world because we don't necessarily disagree with it, although there are some things that we feel need to be discussed.
So stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
Hey everybody, welcome here to the next episode of The Richard Leonard Show.
I want to thank you all for joining us here.
This is our first show of the new year.
Happy New Year to everybody.
We here at The Richard Leonard Show hope that you had an amazing holiday weekend.
I had an amazing holiday in general, not just the weekend.
The whole holiday was great.
If you can't tell, I am coming down with the crud that's going around our community.
But anyway, let's dive in.
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Have them help you get over all these hurdles that you may find yourself having to jump over.
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Don't miss out.
Check it out.
You owe yourself that at least.
Okay, we need to get started.
We have kind of a lot to get to today.
And as you know, if you have watched this show in the past, Jason and I like to get off into the weeds.
And we don't always get to everything we plan on talking about.
So how about I quit rambling on and flapping my gums and...
There's Jason.
Hello, Jason.
How are you, sir?
Good, and yourself?
I'm great.
Happy New Year, buddy.
I haven't seen you in the new year.
My family and I were on vacation.
You were quite busy.
So I hope you had a good holiday season, my friend.
Absolutely.
So I'm glad to have you back.
I'm not going to lie.
Well, it's good to be back.
I just decided to get over this crud and then we'll get right on down the road.
But let's get started.
Jason, an open letter to the American people from signatories of this Declaration of Military Accountability.
Before we get into some of the minutiae of the actual document, what are some of your feelings about it?
Just quickly, and then we'll get into it.
Kind of word soup, milk toast.
Pointed in the right direction and semi-chaotic.
I agree.
Did you find any value in it?
100%.
Okay, good.
So did I. I didn't want to start off the conversation with the idea that we think this thing is crap, because I don't think that that's true.
But I think what we should do is, I picked out four paragraphs within the document that I'll read, and then we can have discussion.
But we'll do the first two.
Sound good?
Roger.
Okay, so in this document, folks, you can find it on Twitter.
I will post it on Twitter when the show is over so that you can see it for yourself if you haven't yet.
But the second and third paragraph of this document says this.
In the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers sought separation.
We, however, seek no separation, but through this letter and efforts we pledge herein.
We pursue restoration through accountability.
We intend to rebuild trust and restore the rule of law, particularly within the armed forces.
Ultimately, we strive to once again become a moral people.
Restoring our nation and making it again worthy of the great gift of liberty won by the colonial-era American people.
Now, it goes on to say, while implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, military leaders broke the law.
They trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation, and suppressed the free exercise of religion.
Service members and families were significantly harmed by these actions.
Their suffering continues to be felt financially, emotionally, and physically.
Some service members became part of our ever-growing veteran homelessness population.
Some developed debilitating vaccine injuries, and some even lost their lives.
In an apparent attempt to avoid accountability, military leaders are continuing to ignore our communications regarding these injuries and the laws that were broken.
That's quite the accusation, I would say.
Jason, what say you?
So, just how it begins with the separation, I don't know.
It's not spoken, so in your perception, was it an inference to the separation of church and state?
Because they do cycle back to morality?
How did you take that initial grab?
Well, I gotta be honest with you.
I don't really...
The whole...
Religion part of it, I don't know a lot about because I will openly admit that I'm not the most religious person in my community or even in my family.
My experiences in the military kind of changed my faith and I'm on this quest, this journey to find it again.
However, that's presenting to be a little challenging at times.
But yes, I agree that the separation of church and state is kind of what they're referring to here.
But I guess where I'm most concerned is when they talk about the ever-growing veteran homelessness population.
That came out to me probably first because the government talks all the time about how we're beating veteran homelessness.
One veteran at a time, day by day, week by week, month by month, we're going to beat it.
And that's been the narrative for many years.
And then the vaccine injuries are something that's interesting to me because...
Although I agree that people are vaccine injured, I don't know that we've had enough concrete evidence that it's true.
I believe it to be true, but the powers that be will tell you, show me the proof.
Right.
So, yeah, that's kind of where my initial comments came out, where when you come out and you're talking about separation, it's an inference to the separation of church and state and the addition of morality, right?
That was a hard piece to come through when you're talking about a pursuit of restoration through accountability of people's actions.
I'm not saying who wants to be the moral judge and jury for everything that we do.
There is only one judge of matters in my mind.
But when it comes to this in the military, I didn't really grasp ultimately where they were trying to get to in that paragraph.
And that was kind of the hardest thing for me.
It was kind of that word soup.
It was a lot of words, a lot of phrases put together.
But if you don't cite something, tell me how many veterans became homeless because of the COVID vaccine.
I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I would like to see something.
I know they wouldn't become homeless just because of the vaccine, but if they were in the military and then they refused the vaccine, they were removed from the military through whatever mechanical lever that they wanted to use, be a Military separation, honorable, dishonorable, other than honorable discharge, and then they couldn't put their life back together, and then ultimately became homeless.
Is that what they're talking about?
With the vaccine injuries?
That one's pretty self-explanatory.
I mean, we've seen the data from the flight logs for those doctors that are overseeing that.
Things are happening.
But it just didn't say anything.
Yeah, and you know what, man?
I think that...
I think that as it relates to the homelessness portion, I think that what they're talking about here is folks that refused to take it and were kicked out, discharged, whatever you want to call it, they found themselves in a position where they lost their livelihood.
You don't get a severance, right, when you get discharged, unless you're getting VA disability.
But then again, that's not a severance, it's not a pension.
There's no benefits to go along with that.
And so I would imagine that they're referring to folks had nothing else to do.
They had nowhere else to go, they didn't have a job, and they became homeless.
And now that's that cycle, right, where you fall into chemical dependency, You're not very good with your money.
We've discussed many times how bad soldiers are at keeping track of their money.
And that financial literacy is not something, at least in our experience, that was promoted hardly at all, if ever, during our time in the service.
And so, you know, I I don't know, man.
I think that there's just a lot of issues here and that these paragraphs in this document, it doesn't do a really good job at solidifying what they mean, right?
I mean, we can talk bullet points or talking points or whatever you want to call it all day long, but the people want to know what you're talking about.
And I don't get that from this.
The document goes on to talk about a list of general officers and other military leaders that should be held accountable.
I would assume that they have some kind of proof that these guys broke the law.
It says in here that military leaders broke the law and trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent and permitted unwilling medical experimentation.
Now, I'm not in the know.
I'm not a real brainiac about things like informed consent.
I don't even really know what that means.
Is that a thing where you have to sign that you agree to take a shot?
Well, yeah.
Through that or through implication.
But, you know, it's...
they specifically broke law um that they trampled on constitutional rights now there are certain things that you do give up when you join the military but you never give up your constitutional rights um and the chain of command works from the top down or the bottom up do you remember top down unless unless you have a very strong e4 mafia and in that case all bets are off
But I can assure you that day's work will be done expediently, and nap time will come shortly after chow.
But it's odd, right?
Yes.
It's on its face when you start to demand things of people that broke laws, people that trampled rights, but you don't specifically lay out what rights that were trampled on.
You know, you talk about experimentals, you talk about all these other things.
Well, I think we all know that the military is sometimes a proving ground for said vaccines.
Mm-hmm.
Anthrax comes to mind, and there's been some others.
Malaria?
Maybe more that we don't know than ones we do know.
So I'm not, you know, again, yes and no.
But I don't, you have to go directly to the top, and then it's, you know, the fruit comes from the tree.
But ultimately, one person makes a decision that gets executed across the top.
And so if it's under a presidential order, then that's it.
At what point are you going to buck it?
If the first one doesn't buck, then everybody has to follow him.
That's just how it works.
Right.
And so the other two paragraphs that I picked out explains a little bit about what it is that this group of people who have signed this petition, in quotes, this petition, how they're going to be held accountable.
So let's look at this.
In the coming years...
Thousands within our network, then this is network of people that are both actively serving or veterans.
Thousands within our network will run for Congress and seek appointments to executive branch offices.
I found that one interesting.
While those of us still serving on active duty will continue to put fulfilling our oaths ahead of striving for rank or position.
For those who achieve the lawful authority to do so, we pledge to recall from retirement the military leaders who broke the law and will convene court-martials for the crimes that they have committed that we just talked about above.
For those of us who attain legislative offices, we pledge to introduce legislation to remove all retirement income for the military leaders who were criminally complicit And we will ensure none serve in or retire from senior executive service.
This endeavor will be a continuous process with a long-term time horizon, but fulfilling our oaths to defend the Constitution requires just such persistent vigilance.
I like the phrase persistent vigilance.
Likewise, we are obligated.
And so commit to train those who come after us to fulfill their duty in achieving this accountability and safeguarding against such leadership Such leadership failures hereafter.
So basically what they're saying is they're going to bring these folks out of retirement, court-martial them, possibly put them in prison, and then introduce legislation that takes away all of their retirement income or benefits.
It says just retirement income, but I imagine if you're going to try to take somebody's retirement income, you're also going to try to take their benefits or whatever those are.
They're different for every person.
Yep, it's all part of it.
Yep.
Yep.
And then, on top of it, we are going to safeguard against this leadership by training other soldiers that are coming up young in the military, training them throughout their career to abide by this pledge.
And so...
And there's more to all this, folks, but we only got an hour.
But I think that it's important to talk about this because although these sound like decent ideas, they sound like good ideas on the surface, there's a whole lot that has to happen for any of this to come true.
For example...
We're going to say here something about executive branch offices.
Well, this would imply that if you're going to put me, Richard Leonard, and Jason Ouse into executive branch offices, we've got to know who the president is.
We've got to know the president.
And do something super extraordinary for a president to say, hey, Jason and Richard, do you want to serve in my cabinet or on my staff or whatever?
Well, yeah, sure, I'd take the opportunity.
I'd try it out.
But there's a whole lot of pledge here, Jason.
There is.
It's an extraordinary wish list.
I don't know.
I... Get back to that word soup thing, because it's a little bit of everything and a lot of nothing all at the same time.
And I know it probably is harsh to say that, because I get where the intent was, you know, but certainly at that point in time, I probably wouldn't have fired for effect quite yet with this letter.
Yeah.
That's a really good way to put it.
Fire for effect, yeah.
I agree a thousand percent.
Because also understand, folks, that some of the people that this document is talking about are people like General Milley, Admiral Grady, Admiral Lesher, General Brown.
I mean, all these guys that were decision makers at very high levels.
What's that?
Top Pentagon brass and advisors to the president.
Right.
Right.
And so if I told you, hey, Jason, I think that we should put out a call for action.
We should bring General Petraeus out of retirement.
We should prosecute him and then put him in prison and then take all of his benefits.
And people tried that.
It didn't go well.
Well, and I would say for what, right?
And in this instance, it would be COVID-19.
A vaccine that was developed...
And the developers were given immunity while they were making it.
So...
Okay, now there's no punitive action towards those that developed it unless there was another consumer protection law that they broke, which would then break the indemnity that they were given by Congress or by government.
To government officials that were likely working with flawed data so they could say, ah, we didn't have everything, we made a conservative judgment call and pushed Policy in a particular direction, which then was enforced in action through military channels.
That's a lot of, you'd really have to have a series of events unfold like Mike Lindell's life.
You know, what are the odds that all of those dominoes would fall where you'd get to a point where you could hold our breaths accountable for these actions.
That's what I think.
And not to mention that if this were to be successful, it would take years and years.
I mean, we're talking about...
Getting legislative seats, so House and Senate, and we're talking about executive branch, so we need to put through the pipeline who we think needs to be president, and on top of all of it, hope that none of these people got any skeletons in their closet to be impeached for or to be dismantled publicly.
It's a huge pledge to sign on for.
Now, I will tell you that I actively, on my Twitter account, responded to this post by saying, I will pledge to talk about these issues on my platform, but I did that with the idea that you and I were going to be having this discussion and maybe even further discussions on the show about this type of thing.
And although I agree, accountability is something that we are lacking in all places in government, especially the military.
There's some things that we probably need to tweak a little bit, but I didn't author this thing, but I will talk about it.
I think that it's healthy for us to talk about it because there are so many people that are pissed and they want to see accountability.
And I wouldn't mind seeing accountability for some of this stuff.
Do you agree?
Do you think that some of these people should be held accountable?
Yeah.
For a million different reasons.
This happens to be one of them, right?
And so this letter to me was great.
It was a call to action of some sort, right?
But it reminds me of a movie that you've watched where a guy stands up and he gives his best man speech and It's kind of all over the place, and he talks about shitting his pants and all these other bad things, and all of a sudden, the handsome brother comes up and pats him on the shoulder and takes the mic and then wraps it up with a wonderfully rapped speech, right?
I think this was the first iteration, and it's time for the handsome groomsman to step in and actually say what needed to be said.
Well, it's a good thing you're a handsome fella.
Well, I still think it's got to go to somewhere else.
It's not going to get us two mirror crackers anywhere to be that guy.
Certainly, there's some components in here that certainly should be the conversation, but they're going to get buried with everything else going on in it, and it'll be completely discredited.
And I think when I looked at it, the middle part of last week, it had three and a half to four million views.
That's not nothing.
It takes quite a bit to have something get that type of traction.
And I assume, I haven't looked at it recently, but that's over, what, almost 1% of all people in our country have at least seen it.
If they've read it, who knows?
But that's a pretty big thing.
And so they've probably got some good headway to start doing something with it now.
Yeah, and the other interesting part about it is that, as you said, millions of people have seen this thing, but it's not very easy to find.
She'll be gone.
And I imagine that by this time next week, it'll be virtually impossible to find if it continues to gain views and comments and reshares and retweets and all that stuff.
And just a side note, I'm super astounded by how powerful What social media has become.
And I should probably be slapped in the face for saying that because here we are putting out content on social media platform.
But at the same time, you know, like, I don't know if you've noticed this, Jason, but a lot of the things that we discuss on this show...
End up headlines a week, two weeks, three weeks later.
And I'm not trying to imply that Jason and Richard are the end-all be-all and that we're the kings of military and veterans content because that's not true at all.
It's just weird how we talk about something and then there's headlines about it.
Two weeks, three weeks, maybe even the same week.
So, I don't know.
The whole social media thing, it surprises me in both positive and negative ways all the time because I think it may be the downfall of a lot of things, a lot of institutions in our country.
But that's a whole other conversation for another time.
And I was just talking about how we get off in the weeds and this is exactly how it happens.
We need like three machetes to get out of this one.
But Anyway, we have run out of time in the segment, so stick with us, folks.
We'll be right back.
We got good conversation coming, I promise you.
Hey, folks, welcome back here.
When we ended the last segment, we were trying to dissect this document, just a few paragraphs of it to just build some context.
Jason, I think what we should do now is talk about how we might Revise this call to action that this document spells out because As you said offline, there's not really a whole lot to dissect because some of this seems kind of far-fetched and maybe not even far-fetched is a good word.
But the process that this would take to see through to the end is one or maybe even two generations of military personnel.
And by the time that we get there, people like General Milley with his copper-fit socks are going to be dead.
I mean, he's an older gentleman, and I imagine the stress is going to weigh heavily on him and have complications with his heart.
Not to mention, he probably took all the vaccines, but that's neither here nor there.
So, I think that we should just talk about just our take on it, man, and how this call to action, although it's a noble idea, There might be a better way to get some of these goals accomplished.
And your idea that you had put out was talking about a grassroots movement and how that might be more effective.
What are your ideas for that?
Yeah, right.
And I think, you know, going back, the first time I read it, I read it through very quickly.
It was evening.
I typically don't read something twice.
I typically read it once, and then I think about it, and then I go back to it.
And I go back to kind of my first reaction to it, that it had this effect of that call to action thing that I felt it more than I understood it, if that makes sense.
It's kind of odd, right?
And so that's where when we get back into it and we're looking at those pieces, you know, where do you start?
You know, of course you want accountability.
You're saying, you know, dealing with this 20 years from now is the likely train ride that you would have to get on.
I'm not committed to that, but you have great people in the military, right?
People that will have the moral courage to do what's right.
And if you continually push away those people, maybe that's the place where you start is the active military personnel that you're talking about is staying in place to do the right thing day in and day out to be that moral compass for other soldiers or leaders to see acting the way that you believe that they need to be acting.
If it's outside of the way that the typical command climate acts, well, of course, those are the people that you want to have around.
So it would be a commitment that you will see through the course, maybe your entire military career or the rest of your enlistment that you have or your contract, to do that with the utmost moral courage, which you're supposed to be doing anyway, and ride that out being that beacon that maybe you think isn't out there.
That's one.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I struggle with the idea that current military members are going to make all these sacrifices and they're going to, you know, sacrifice their career, sacrifice their livelihood.
I mean, we talked about in the first segment about the homelessness part of this.
And I'm not sure that it's a good idea We don't want current service members, especially the good ones, if we want to say there's good ones.
I mean, we know there's better ones than others, of course.
But...
Do we really want them to start putting their livelihoods on the line, their families and all those things?
I don't know that that's a viable option.
And I think you're right.
I think that if you're currently serving in the military, just doing what you're supposed to do, be in the right place, at the right time, in the right uniform, and practice the core values that you're taught, Well, that's exactly where we've went wrong with the people that we're saying need to be held accountable.
They are not displaying the core values that we all were taught in the inception of our careers in the military.
That's where we've went wrong.
So if we have a generation of service members who are just doing what you're supposed to do, we're good.
That part's good.
Now, where I really think that this could be impactful is veterans.
Folks who have served who are no longer wearing a uniform Take up this idea and this stance that just because I don't strap on my tan boots and zip up my uniform blouse anymore doesn't mean that my oath and my commitment to making this country a better place than when I found it goes away.
That never ends.
Which is why we are doing things like this show and a lot of other things that will be coming out very soon, hopefully sooner than later.
But there are many, many ways for us to put out a call for action and answer it.
Jason, you and I have a lot more flexibility to do these things than currently serving members of the military.
I'm not sure that we need to call military members to action.
They've already answered that call because they're doing it.
And so when we talk about grassroots movement as a veteran population, I think there's a whole plethora of ways for us to do that.
You had mentioned, Jason, that local government would be a good place to start.
Can you expound on that?
Because you're a lot more articulate about it than I am.
Articulate is a word, but it's not a word I would use to describe me.
But I do see this call to engagement maybe being something, and I know we've talked about it before, seeing the veteran community Basically, galvanized together again to become parts of local government.
I mean, that's where it starts.
You know, we continually worry about Washington, D.C. We continually worry about our state heads, but nobody ever pays attention to what's happening on their local political landscape.
And we all feel the effects of increased taxes and all these other pieces and things that are completely out of our control.
And it's great to think that maybe we're going to go out and change those big pieces.
But I promise you, when military veterans of any color, type, or background, or voting bloc...
Get involved.
There tend to be more positive outcomes with people working together because in the military, we weren't all the same.
We know how to work together.
We know that we're going to differ on a small percentage of things, but we're also going to figure out how the heck to get things done.
And so if this letter could do that, maybe, you know, reinstall some resolve in somebody wanting to do those things, that would be wonderful.
That's a taxing ask.
As you and I know, when you start to involve yourself in other organizations and pieces, it continually pulls you away from those things at home.
So it's a big ask there, even.
But in the military, my dad told me, he goes, you can be right 100% of the time, but being right doesn't mean that you're not wrong.
And so when you get back to that COVID vaccine policy in the military, I absolutely know what side of the fence I would have been on.
And I would have stood my ground.
I would have hung hard to my beliefs.
And I ultimately would have been one of the people that would have been probably let loose, you know, or sent down the road.
But it's something I would be willing to stand up for.
I would not sit there today and call for everybody's head because of what I saw as my sacrifice because it wasn't my sacrifice.
It was my choice.
And if my conviction is strong, I'm not coming after somebody for their head because I already knew I did what was right for me.
And so, and I think that's one of those things, that same conviction that we have in the military, or a lot of us military people have, is conviction.
And maybe we could take that conviction and convey that into local government and start to really change some things.
Well, and I think that just the pure idea of having individuals who have made the sacrifice and said that they, I will sign this blank check to my government.
We're not strangers to it, right?
And so having those people in positions like school boards and city councils and county commissioners and things, I mean, to be honest with you, that's where all the stuff really happens, right?
I mean, the president can say whatever, seemingly, as we're seeing, the president can say whatever the hell he wants, right?
Members of Congress can say whatever the hell they want.
And up to a certain extent, it doesn't really affect us all that much because it's on such a grand stage, right?
But if we're really concerned about our kids, we're really concerned about how our communities thrive or fail...
These local offices and these local places that make decisions that really affect us, that you can look at and see the difference in your pocketbook and see the difference in the way your kids see the world and how that works in conjunction with what you as a parent are trying to teach your kids.
I think that those are really more important because I don't know, man.
When we talk about the presidential election, right, for example, what most people that I've had discussions with go back to is the border, how much money I had in my pocket when Donald Trump was in office, gas prices, and the price of groceries are like some of the biggest topics that we talk about.
And all of them affect us, of course.
But what really affects us in our homes is when your kids come home and say, yeah, well, you know, my teacher said the military's not all that good.
What?
Why are teachers talking to our kids about sexual identity?
And why are teachers talking to our kids about politics and all those things?
And that's all stuff that's regulated right in your own backyard.
Right?
And so I agree with you that these smaller offices or these smaller groups of decision makers are where we really start.
And then, again, just doing anything.
Anything positive for your community.
Because just the idea that you're a veteran and people know that you served and you're out helping the community or doing something positive starts that whole train, in my opinion.
I mean, do...
Oh man, I'm just so frustrated.
Dang it, I keep stuttering.
We're really harassing this whole thing.
What's that?
We're Kamala Harris-ing this whole thing.
There have been some incoherent runs here today, and I just want to apologize for my part.
Well, you know what?
It's a new year, man.
So we're allowed one or two bad snafus every now and then.
I'm glad we got them all today.
Right, exactly.
So stay tuned, folks.
There's more to come.
A lot better.
But seriously...
Where we really make differences in our community is the small things.
And those grow to be bigger initiatives and bigger projects and really affect a bigger crowd of people.
Because you and I, Jason, for example, we don't have the ability to walk into an office in the county service building and say, well, no, we're going to do this now.
Right.
We don't have that ability.
No.
And so if we go out and open a lemonade stand or a barbecue truck, and every time we sell a pulled pork sandwich, we're talking to our customers about issue A, B, and C. Okay, well, we don't have to change anybody's mind, but we can have the discussion.
And part of what we've really lost in this country, in my opinion, is the ability to have a discussion and still disagree.
But have the discussion nonetheless.
Right.
Why are you chuckling?
Right.
Well, we demand this from everybody.
Like, if you don't see it my way, we're wrong.
And my father-in-law, he told me about this thing that he had around when he was growing up.
And he often said he loved his daughters, but he didn't always like them.
And that was really hung true.
And we speak that a lot around our house because no different.
I love my wife, regardless of our disagreements.
But there are certainly some days where I like her more than on other days.
And I think what we have lost...
In this country with the polarization as it is, is that we're really at the whole, nobody wants anything bad of each other.
But rather than just let it be like, I don't like you, we follow back over on the side of hate or, you know, complete and total refusion of who they are as a person.
They think differently than me, thus they are less than me.
That comes from both sides, and they're too foolish to even understand what's going on.
That's not true.
I mean, I don't know the life that you lived.
You don't know the life that I've lived.
We can agree on a lot of things and disagree on a lot of things, but at the end of the day, if we get along, we get along.
Yep.
Yes.
It's easy.
And maybe that is...
Maybe that's the key to the whole thing.
Just being able to understand somebody else's perspective.
And do the right thing.
I used to tell the kids, now they're all out.
They're graduated from high school and they're out.
But I used to tell them all the time, man, it's not hard to just do the right thing.
And if we can't even have discussions about what the right thing is and agree to disagree...
Then we've lost.
We don't even have...
We shouldn't even be going on to the next topic because we've already lost.
If we can't look at each other from different sides of the aisle...
And go, hey man, I don't think you're right, and so here's why.
And you're going to tell me why you think you're right and I'm wrong.
And then we can have a discussion about it.
At the end of the day, if we agree to disagree, okay, so be it.
But we don't have that ability.
Now we're straight to, you're racist, you're sexist, you're transphobic, you're this, you're that.
I mean, we just like to throw labels at each other.
And I'll tell you what, man, I'm guilty of it sometimes too.
Right.
We all are, right?
But here's 231 people that penned a letter to nobody About accountability in the military.
Millions of people saw it.
You and I were talking about it, and now we're talking about it to everybody else in a completely different context.
Versus if you read the comments about how people feel about what was written.
Like they skewer it, they scour it, or they applaud it, and they lift it up.
Nobody really talks about any of it.
You just say, well, no, I don't like what you said, or I really like what you said.
Nothing else.
There's never any action.
Do you by chance have any of those comments readily available?
I'll tell you what, in a lot of things, the gold in a lot of stuff you see out there is in the comments.
If the world is reading the headlines and not the comments, they're broken.
That's where it lives, right?
Because it's, and 90% of the time, I tell you, you know, you guys hear it from me, I literally only look at iFunny.
And it's almost foolish to hear a middle-aged man say that that's where I really pay attention to things.
It's where I get the snapshot, and then I can dig into it and read comments, and then I can take the comments, extrapolate that data into what I want to look for, and then go search it on the interweb.
Now, it's completely backwards, but we don't have a Walter Cronkite out there or anybody else trustworthy in the media.
So that's why social media, that's why places like this exist, that's why Richard and his platform, you guys are so important to everything that we have going because there's real people talking about real things versus pandering bullshit.
I love it.
I love it.
No, I like the angle that you're taking because you're right.
You're right, man.
And it's astounding.
If we really stop and think about how we gathered information 10 years ago, 15 years ago, versus now, it's completely flip-flopped, completely 180.
Now we're taking the idea that anything that you see on mainstream media is a lie, 100% of it.
And I don't know that I agree that 100% of everything we see is a lie, but I do know that the information that we get, depending on the platform, is 100% different than the other one.
So what are you really supposed to believe?
Right.
Right?
And anybody that takes all their information from one side or the other is just going to have skewed data anyway.
You know, this is like...
This is taking your kid's word for it when they come home from school in trouble and never talking to the school.
That's like...
Whatever happens to school, the teacher knows about, right?
There's a reason your kid was disciplined, but the kid comes in and says, oh, no, I didn't do anything wrong, Dad.
And I'm like, oh, you're right, kid.
And I go into that school and I start reading that teacher the riot act because my seven-year-old just told me that nothing happened.
And then very quickly, I get the other side of the story, and then I cool back down.
But if I'm constantly just talking to that seven-year-old day in and day out, holy shit, are we going to create an alternate reality?
And that's where we are right now.
Right.
Exactly.
Speaking of alternate reality, and this is on a, what was this, newsweek.com, the comments are the pure gold.
Oh, yeah.
Regardless of your feelings on the letter being penned, this is the kind of foolishness you get to read.
In a battlefield situation where there may be one to ten soldiers that will risk their lives to save you, no matter if you are injured or sick, period.
If you deliberately make yourself sick by refusing a vaccine, you put your whole unit at risk.
Oh yeah?
That's the way of it, huh?
That's the thing?
That's your argument or your discussion?
You're planting your flag on that?
What the hell does any of that mean?
You know, America has 1.3 million people on active duty and another 2.5 million retirees.
Well, perfect.
Now we're talking about retirees as our fighting force.
So this guy is certainly on it.
And if he hasn't paid any attention, 1.3 million is not an accurate number.
And we already know that our retention numbers are abysmal.
Our recruiting numbers are likely worse.
So, with that being said...
1.3 million might be what we've lost in the last couple of years as it pertains to our fighting force.
So why make a big deal over 200 MAGAs?
Because, obviously, they need to be defined in one way, shape, or form.
Even though we can't define anyone else, we can definitely define a MAGA. Who more than likely shouldn't be in our military at all?
Give them their general discharge paperwork and move on with the real patriots you have left.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Children to begin with.
Let's go back to that other one.
Wait a minute.
So the idea of this brainiac, whoever this person was, was to anybody that decides they don't want to take this vaccine or didn't want to or disagree with anything that comes down the pipeline as it pertains to their service, I'll just kick them out, screw them, no problem.
We got all kinds of patriots.
If you haven't looked, dippity-doo.
We are in a crisis as it pertains to our fighting force and the numbers in which we are putting out to fight.
Maybe I shouldn't say this, Jason, but I'm gonna.
If we went to war right now, we're screwed.
I think.
Not only do we have a diminishing force, but the powers that be won't even let us use 40%.
of the might and the power and the absolute can of whoop-ass that we should be using.
Instead, we're talking about soldiers that hate their dicks and want to cut them off and we're going to send money and tanks and weapons and vehicles and people and food and everything to the Ukraine.
We're going to fight that war.
Why?
Who the hell knows why?
I'm sure everyone's got an idea why, but we don't know what the real truth is.
And so your idea is to say, well, anybody that has an alternate opinion, let's just kick them out because they shouldn't be there anyway.
Well, where were you?
Did you sign up to put on a uniform to even be in the goddamn position to say, nope, I'm not taking it, not doing it, and have the ability to get kicked out because you don't agree?
Right.
And then say that the conformists are the patriots.
They're parrots.
I'm not saying that you need to, you know, you can't go wear your own uniform.
Not everybody can be General Patton and decide that you're going to wear a blue, what are the ascots?
Yeah, that wasn't a military part of our uniform.
Are you kidding me?
The guy was independently wealthy and loved the thrill of being in the military and completely reformed everything that we had done.
And I digress.
That was just a little history for you.
But to call people that call into question the thoughtful use of a vaccine Now, they're not patriots compared to people that just go along with whatever is being told to them.
Well, then would you call all the people that went along with the talking points in Nazi Germany patriots?
Yeah, right.
Right.
It's foolishness.
It's absolute ridiculousness.
And I gotta say, man, because I'm super elevated now, I have to say that it's people like this person, whoever posted this comment, are exactly the ones that are going to be front and center when and if we ever fight a war on our own homeland, on our own backyard, on our own turf, they're going to be the first ones crying for somebody to come help their ass.
But now we're going to talk about how they're not patriots.
They shouldn't be there in the first place.
And I don't know if this person ever had the balls to sign up to serve in the military, but I'm guessing not.
Nah, just based on verbiage.
I doubt it.
Right.
And it's just that opinion and that type of thinking.
And listen, I was just the guy that said we have lost the ability to agree to disagree.
And here I'm up on my soapbox.
You are.
But you know what?
It's just so out in left field, man.
It's not even based in logical thinking, in my opinion.
But when the trouble comes to your doorstep, sir or ma'am, don't say one word about somebody coming to defend your ass.
You do it yourself, and then you can maybe talk and tell us what we should be doing.
Right.
Until you...
You can hop on.
What's that?
Maybe the next time that there's a conflict, we can...
Don't worry about the basic training.
Just get on the ship.
Time to go.
Yep.
Here's a rifle.
Here's some body armor.
Go ahead.
Do what you got to do.
Let's just...
Oh, man.
I guess I should retract my statement that it's ridiculous that we can't agree to disagree on it.
But those are the comments, right?
That's the gaslighting.
That's fine if you want to feel that way, and that's fine.
I mean, that's what the internet is here for, apparently, is to give everybody a platform to...
To exercise their First Amendment right.
And vomit their ignorance.
And it's great.
Now, I know it goes both ways.
That was just one that I was able to find that still had the article attached with the letterhead, and it still had some comments.
Everything else is already scrubbed.
It's this fairness doctrine that we keep looking at.
I had one last week that I want to share with you too.
It was a teacher that was talking about what the Americans did in World War II with Little Boy and Big Boy and Nagasaki and Hiroshima and how that was way more than was necessary.
And that nugget was brought home to me, and of course my son and I talked about it, and I kind of giggled.
I said, well, number one, I said, there are certain disproportional actions that occurred, and we weren't in a position for a ground combat force, right?
That we would have been spread too thin, we didn't have enough people, yada, yada, yada.
You know, and the other side that I even left out was, and you might, I don't know if you know this, but did you know when we developed Napalm?
I imagine it was World War I. Yeah, it was after that for use in Japan because we firebombed every other major city in that country.
Now we talk about the two big ones, the letting loose of the sun and the slightly larger sun.
But nobody really knows that we absolutely decimated almost every other major city because their cities were built out of wood.
And so we used napalm and it was a tinderbox and we absolutely eviscerated that country.
Now, when you talk about military leadership that's willing to make those calls and do those things to win battles and endure wars, I think we have seen in our recent history that those are not the types of wars that we fight anymore.
And so, maybe this is a push away from those types of conflicts, not to say that we ever need those, but I can tell you, you can defer a heck of a lot that's going on in our globe if you have the ability or you're willing to do so.
And so all of these comments about the softness and who's a patriot and who's a parrot, it's all nonsense.
If we can't do the thing what the military is designed to do, and we're not willing to do it if we need to, all of these conversations are from it.
Well, and I think you're right.
It plays right into what's described in the letter, right?
The military leaders that they claim, and I don't necessarily disagree with all of it, need to be held accountable are the ones that didn't have the testicular fortitude to make the tough decision.
And in this case, it was stand up for your soldiers.
Well, hey, if we're going to do that, why don't we hold them accountable for Afghanistan?
I think that would be a better fight.
More viable fight.
Pretty simple and straightforward.
Combination in thereof.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm so frustrated.
Well, I'm glad that you're this frustrated, and I'm this frustrated, because we've run out of time on the show, so that's perfect for you guys to go ahead and chew on that for a little while, for a week at least, until we come back to you.
Also, I apologize for the fat tongue that I had quite a few times today, but I promise you that it will be better.
Anyway, Jason, thank you for your time.
As usual, we really appreciate you being here.
Everybody else, please take care of yourselves.
Happy New Year.
And please come back.
We have a whole lot more stuff to talk about next week and after that and after that and after that.
All kinds of conversation coming to you this year.
Anyway, have a great evening and we'll see you next week.
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