Still Standing: How Veterans Find Peace Beyond the Battlefield
Still Standing examines how 10–30 minutes daily in green spaces—like Minneapolis parks (98.9% accessible within 10 mins)—boosts veterans’ mental and physical health, yet 58% of VA-treated vets suffer disorders, often worsened by military demands. The Major Richard Starr Act, backed by 315 officials, would end the "wounded warrior tax," letting non-combat medically retired vets keep both VA benefits and partial DOD pensions, costing $800M–$1B annually—a fraction of U.S. foreign aid spending. Critics argue domestic priorities like veterans’ care are sidelined while policies favor foreign interests, sparking debate over systemic fairness and resource allocation. [Automatically generated summary]
In the spirit of taking a break from all of the effing chaos and all of the bullshit that we got going on, I have chosen today to have a discussion that can be helpful.
Maybe, maybe it'll help somebody, but pretty informative.
I found some information regarding things that have been put out for veterans to take advantage of that are extremely helpful for mental health, especially, but all kinds of other things.
And it's something as simple as just get in the hell outside.
There was a study done recently that talks about veterans' access to green spaces, to city parks, to walking trails, to biking paths, and the ability to every day get in a green space, one way or another, for at least 10 to 30 minutes a day, is what this report says.
So today we're going to have some discussions about that and maybe how important it really might be.
I've done some reflection.
And so stick with us.
Don't go away.
we start now.
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Nature's Healing Power00:15:58
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Okay, housekeeping is done.
So veterans in green spaces, they say, and to be fair, they've always said that this is a good thing, not just for veterans, but for everybody.
I do believe with 1,000% certainty that the ability to get outside, let the sun wash over you, and just take in some fresh air, doing an activity, just sitting and meditating, whatever that looks like for you, I agree 1,000% that it's valuable.
It's valuable to your mental health.
It's valuable if you have ailments and you're trying to heal and feel better.
I believe that these ideas of nature helping you do that are valid.
I recently started doing a little bit of research into this grounding thing.
And from what I gather so far, it's a pretty simple concept.
I mean, you can get these grounding sheets or mats or whatever to put on your bed.
So you're grounded to the earth and something about the electrical molecules and all the stuff moving through your body and just it helps to get you to a peaceful rest.
And when you're awake, just taking off your effing shoes and standing on the earth, not concrete, not tile, not wood, grass, sand, mud, in the water, touching the earth.
And I got to say, there's been so many examples in my life of where I can look back.
And maybe at the time I didn't know it, I didn't see it, but I can look back and I can say, you know, I felt better after this.
When I was a lot younger, I was part of a group and we went to the Beartooth Mountains in Montana every year to fly fish for a couple weeks and camp.
And sometimes, you know, as a young teenager, not every young man likes to be out in the woods and have to set up tent and keep track of firewood and all this other stuff and just rough it.
But once you get out there, and for those of you who don't like it, once you get all your shit set up and now you're just kind of living for a week or two out in nature, it's extremely peaceful.
And it does, in my opinion, it does help you to reset.
And so now that the VA and the government is talking about this and actually studying it, I think it's a positive thing.
And they did this whole study and they have, I found this article on military.com and they have this table in the article.
And it talks about, it outlines several different metro areas around the country, how many veterans are in these areas and how many veterans that were, and it doesn't give like the control numbers, how many they polled or whatever.
But there were some metrics that they used to figure out within a certain space of where veterans are living, do they have access within a 10-minute walk to a green space?
So a park, some walking trails, some woods, biking, anything, green space, public green space.
And so like in this, in this study, they didn't use any parks or anything like that where you have to pay to get in or need to have a membership to use it and to see it and to be there.
This is all just public spaces.
And so I found it pretty interesting.
And one of the, full clarity, one of the reasons I chose to talk about this is because it is one space in which Minnesota and Minneapolis, more importantly, we can share something positive right now about Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, but Minnesota, the Twin Cities proper, is said in here to be one of the highest grades for nature access.
And I'll read it here.
It's Minnesota and Washington, D.C.
So it says here, cities with the best access still face pollution challenges, but we have the best access.
Our air quality here is shit, but we have access, right?
So it says here, Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis earn the highest grades for nature access.
Only 3.2% of the veterans in D.C. and 1.1% of the veterans in Minneapolis live outside a 10-minute walk to a park.
And both cities have strong transit access and dense networks of parks.
Okay, so 3.2% of veterans in the D.C. area and 1.1% of veterans in the Minneapolis area.
So how many are in these places, you ask?
Well, let me tell you.
In Washington, D.C., according to this report on military.com, Washington, D.C. has about 210,133 veterans.
And out of all of those, only 6,684 veterans are lacking access to nature.
So they're outside of a 10-minute walk to a public access to a green space.
Now, in Minneapolis, they say here that 116,635 veterans live in the area.
Of those veterans, 1,289 are lacking access to nature areas.
And so what I would say to that is, I don't know.
I mean, here in Minnesota anyway, it's difficult because it is true.
If there's one thing that the Twin Cities has a lot of, it is green space.
In the summertime, in the spring and early fall, there's a lot of green here in Minnesota.
And you don't really ever have to go far to find a space to be outside in nature.
Sometimes you have to go a little further to find a green space.
It's probably a little more peaceful.
In Minneapolis, for example, there are a lot of lakes.
There's a lot of walking.
There's a lot of biking trails.
There's a lot of that thing.
But one of the things that they failed to report in this study, of course, is that a lot of those public spaces in Minneapolis are contaminated with homeless people.
They're contaminated with crime.
They're contaminated with people that want to take your shit, that just want to cause problems because misery loves company.
So with that being said, we can still, Minneapolis anyway, can hang their hat on that we're at the top of the country for access.
And not just for veterans, mind you, but access to green spaces.
And so then some people ask, why is this important?
And what I will say, well, let's read this and then I'll give you my take.
So it says here, why nature access matters for veteran health.
Veterans experience higher rates of chronic conditions than the general population.
Between 2002 and 2015, 58% of the veteran community That were treated at the VA had a diagnosed mental health disorder.
Veterans also have physical disabilities at nearly twice the rate of civilians.
And so, of course, that makes sense.
You know, the military lifestyle, and we've probably discussed this many times on this show over the years, but the military lifestyle is for many people, not everybody, but for many people, is a pretty rigorous lifestyle, especially if you're in a combat arms MOS, a combat arms job, if you're in the infantry, if you're in the field artillery, if you're a Cav Scout, if you, you know, any of those types of things.
Forward observers also, they go out there by themselves for days on end.
Small team, two people.
And that shit takes toll on your body.
Just, I mean, everybody probably can understand that, right?
If you spend 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years getting up every day at 5 o'clock, running three miles or working out till muscle failure, you're going to be in good shape, but it takes a toll on your body.
And so, of course, veterans have physical ailments at a lot higher clip than the rest of the population.
Also, the hazards of the job play into that, of course, as well.
The report cites that the report cites research showing that time outdoors can be beneficial, especially to veterans, in these ways.
It can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, lower risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, improve respiratory health, strengthen cognitive performance, and speed up recovery after injury or surgery.
So, here's what I'll say: the idea that spending more time outside will greatly reduce symptoms of, let's just take depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Let's start there because it seems to be the biggest issue amongst the veteran community.
I believe that we have, I guess I struggle with how to say it, but I believe that the veteran community probably has a higher clip of physical and mental health issues as we discuss the nature of the job, but also the mind fuck that goes on often in the military.
And it's not always necessarily negative, right?
I mean, think about being 19 years old, 18 years old, for some people, 17, some people going later, 20, 21.
But imagine going through this process at a young stage in your life.
And if you're in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, and if you can imagine back that far, which for a lot of people doesn't seem like that far away, but imagine what you've learned over all of your life experience, no matter where your life has taken you, no matter what your journey has been.
And then flip it all upside down.
Everything you've known, much of it when you join the military, you don't have to forget it, but you just stop doing that.
You stop practicing those habits and those routines, right?
Because you're now going to practice the habit and routine of United States Army or Marines or whatever branch.
And it seems in conversation like it would be an easy transition, right?
If this is something that you're motivated to do, if you've joined because whatever your reason is, education to serve your country, patriotism.
Some people join to help speed up their citizenship process.
That is also a thing, which I think is a good option.
There's all these different options and all these different reasons why people join.
But I don't think necessarily that most people think about the mental impact of joining the military.
And like I said, it's not always negative.
I don't believe that it's always a negative transition or a negative journey for people.
But I think that it can be, it can have lasting effects, even if your time was positive.
Just the transition of whatever life was to what life is now going to be in the military and those routines and that structure that you live under, you live by.
And then no matter how long your time in the military is, comes to an end.
And now you're back to the civilian.
You're back to being a civilian.
And you can choose to keep these habits and these routines that you learned and lived by in the military.
And many people do.
And they never change their ways because that's where they're comfortable.
That's where they like to operate.
And that's cool.
But many people don't do that.
Many people stop cutting their hair every week.
Some people stop making their bed with razor-sharp corners every morning.
Still make it maybe.
Maybe they don't.
People quit shaving their face.
I quit shaving my face all the time.
That was one of the first things I quit doing.
And then now you're in this space where some of these things that you had to live by, that you had to practice, they're no longer really a thing anymore.
And so you don't necessarily have to just abandon it.
You don't necessarily have to even keep those habits and those routines.
But then you get into this headspace where it's like, well, I don't have to be doing these things, but if I don't do them, I feel some type of way.
It's not always a great feeling.
So I'm going to go back to it.
And some people, in conversation, when they describe the way they feel it, they feel about it.
It's like this push and pull thing where you don't have to change your ways, but there's nobody telling me I have to do it this way anymore.
And so I want to make my own path.
I want to change to do what I believe is comfortable and what I believe is right and what I believe is most efficient, whatever that is.
And so then you're in this moral conundrum and it leads to things like anxiety because you ask yourself, well, well, am I doing the right thing?
Should I try a different way?
Should I keep it this way?
You know, and so like, there's just all this stuff.
And, you know, maybe now that I'm talking about this, it all seems kind of jarbled and messy.
But this is the conundrum, right?
This is the thought process.
And so we find that veterans, they lots of them are successful after their service.
But in the cases of veterans that seem to be struggling with transition and seem to be struggling with a new normal in life, I think that we find that These conditions that we talk about, depression, anxiety, PTSD, adjustment disorder is another big one.
Ride to Reflection00:12:41
Many, many people talk about issues around survivors' guilt, although I don't believe that's as big of a thing because the amount of soldiers that actually served in combat is a lot smaller than people think, right?
I mean, just the way that the military machine works, there's more people in support roles than actually in combat roles.
So, then this idea about getting outside is great because what I will tell you is the only thing that I do on a regular basis, at least in the spring, summer, and fall,
not right now, unfortunately, that I can say many times has better effects for me than therapy, than going and sitting down with the shrink or doing a video call is getting on my Harley, getting on my motorcycle, and trying to get myself lost.
Many times, there's no better therapy, there's nobody that you can talk to that will give you better clarity.
There's something about being outside with your face in the sun and the wind, the wind passing through your body, your hair,
flapping your shirt behind you, whatever it is, whatever your description of your ride is, for some reason, that helps you answer some of life's questions that seem to be confusing and impossible to figure out.
And what I will say, in my experience, is that sometimes I do have these epiphanies and I do have these thoughts about how to make whatever the situation is better.
And then you get off that bike and you go to put these thoughts in this pseudo-plan that you thought of in action.
And sometimes it seems to not be the best technique.
But the point is that during that time in the wind on my motorcycle, I have the ability to think deeper.
I have the ability to evaluate the situation and make a rational plan to solve whatever problem is, whatever problem it is that I got going on.
And maybe it's not even always just that it's a problem because not all the time is it like a catastrophe or a negative issue that needs to be solved.
Sometimes it's just, for example, one of the most common ones I find myself in is what I'm in the market for a new truck, right?
For a new vehicle, or not new, but new to me vehicle.
And between four or five different car manufacturers is what I can't decide on.
And so I'll have this argument with myself, right?
And I get pretty aggressive about my research on the vehicles I want, right?
Like things that are important to me are the satellite radio, sunroof.
None of it is like performance stuff, right?
It's all comfort and convenience and tech.
I like the technology and vehicles.
I like being able to open all the windows and the sunroof and turn my music up loud and just and just enjoy the ride.
But I can't pick between Five different trucks.
But then I'll have this epiphany.
If I'm thinking about it on my bike, and at least for that time, there's a reprieve.
There's a time to just decompress, right?
Because now you have this, you have this idea, you have the pseudo-plan that you can put into motion when you get to wherever you're going and you got the time or whatever it is.
Even if it tends not to work out, that's okay.
But there was a break.
There was a break for an hour, two hours, a whole day if you're out for a whole day ride.
There's a break from the super highway that goes on in your mind.
And it's a huge relief, right?
And people who are in these situations in our community, in the warrior culture, for some reason, and I'm sure it's not the same for everybody, but I've talked to many veterans in my career, in my travels, that describe this simple, simple conundrum.
Like, what trucks should I buy?
Or where should I buy my gas?
Or what am I going to do with my kids' schooling?
You know, there's just, I mean, anything from where I'm going to buy my gas to a catastrophe, a death in the family, or something super serious, and everything in between.
And for some reason, the decision-making process is either lightning fast because you don't really give a shit, or you do care, maybe deeply, maybe just a little bit, but you want to make the right choice.
And it becomes difficult because for so long, you didn't have to make these choices, right?
For so long, your day was scripted.
You had a training schedule.
You had all these things, right?
And your wake-up time, breakfast is this time to this time.
Between wake-up and breakfast, you got a shit, shower, shave, there's PT.
You might have to, you know, make your uniform look right, whatever the situation is.
And then you go to breakfast, and then you got the first event in the training schedule.
And then there's this, and then there's lunch, and then there's two more training events, and then there's dinner, and then there's recovery, and then there's this, and then there's that, and then there's lights out, and then we do it all over again.
And of course, in the journey of that day, you have your own decisions to make about stuff, of course.
But your day from 4:30, 5, 6 in the morning until 5, 6, 7 at night, depending on what your job is, your whole day is partitioned off, scheduled, planned.
And many of those things, of course, there's no choice.
You can't miss them, right?
You can't miss training meetings.
You can't miss child, right?
It's only open for three hours in the middle of the day.
So if you don't plan for that and adjust for it, you're going to miss lunch.
And then you got to go buy your own, or you got to go, whatever the case may be.
But the point is, when your time in the military is over, none of that is there.
It's all up to you.
It's all up to you to be an adult, which seems to be a challenge for not just many veterans, but a lot of people.
And we're just talking about the decision-making process.
We're not also talking about thoughts and visions of the past.
We're also not talking about relationship issues.
We're also not talking about raising kids.
We're also not talking about keeping a job.
I mean, there's just so many things.
And at the risk of this sounding like some complaint session, I will say that I believe for a lot of people, it's a heavy day many times.
And some people will say, well, you know, yeah, maybe it is heavy, but you got no reason to bitch.
You signed up for it.
You chose to do it.
And I will agree with that staunchly.
I agree 1,000%.
But the point of all of it is that this type of thing seems pretty nice.
It's nice.
It's cool.
Maybe it's not everybody's cup of tea, but the fact that there are people out there that are researching and looking into these different forms of treatment, these different activities, just different ways to live your life that can help combat some of these things that veterans struggle with, I think that's a great thing.
And it may not help all of us.
It may only help a small fraction.
Maybe there's only a small fraction of people that give a shit about being outside.
But what I can say is that, in my opinion, in our community, there's a lot of guys and gals that like to hunt, that like to fish, that like to ride motorcycles, like to participate in sports, golf, you know, all that stuff.
And so I don't know that you really ever have to talk a whole lot of veterans into getting outside.
I think that it's something that we're used to.
We did a lot of while in the service.
And I think just inherently, you know that it's good.
It's helpful.
You feel better.
I think people crave it.
Like if you're inside too long, you know, and we suffer from it here in Minnesota, I believe, you know, this time of year when you can get nine or 10 days and the sun, you never see the sun.
It's just gray every day.
It's like a very poorly colored old black and white movie that they tried to put a little bit of color into to make it more appealing.
That gets pretty, it gets pretty tiresome.
You still could be outside.
The air quality is horseshit because the cloud cover is so thick and there's the chemtrails, all that stuff.
That's probably another conversation.
But the point is that these types of things are great to see happening.
And we can hang our hats on the fact that Minnesota is at the top of the list, at least for access.
I mean, we got to take our wins where we can get them.
And so what I would say is, if you are a person that has some of these things that we talked about, especially if you're in the veteran community, but if you are somebody that struggles with mental health issues, if you have heart disease and at risk for strokes, and, you know, just all this stuff, get outside.
Get outside.
And I know that a lot of people will say that motorcycles are scary.
A lot of people die on them.
And that's true.
A lot of people do die on them.
But what I will say is if you respect it, if you pay attention, there's millions of people that ride motorcycles for their whole lives.
And there have issues.
So that is my plea to people is at least try it out.
Check out motorcycling.
If you have these types of issues or any issue at all, and you can operate a motorcycle, anybody can do it.
It's easy to learn.
You will have this new lease on life because now you have this new form of freedom.
You know, Harley used to Harley used to advertise that they sell, they don't sell motorcycles.
They don't sell parts and oil and all this other stuff.
They sell freedom and the ability to escape.
Escape whatever's going on in your mind, whatever's going on in your life, even if it's just for 25 to 30 minutes.
Just go for a ride around town.
Getting outside is helpful.
And so my advice is motorcycling.
Request for Support00:07:13
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it was something that I found that was clearly way better than sitting down in a shrink's office.
Anyway, folks, we got to take a break.
We'll be right back.
don't go away.
Hey folks, real quick before we get back to the show.
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What these researchers found was that vaccinated children had 4.29 times the rate of asthma, 3.03 times the rate of atopic disease, 5.96 times the rate of autoimmune disease, and 5.53 times the rate of neurodevelopmental disorders.
A number of different diagnoses, including diabetes and ADHD, and a number of them, in the unvaccinated group, they were zero.
In other words, all these chronic diseases that we're accepting, the reality is maybe 99% of them don't have to exist.
And children, that's not the way God made us.
They looked at over 47,000 Medicaid claims between 1999 and 2011.
Those who are vaccinated versus unvaccinated, say an odds of ratio would be like 2.81.
2.81 to 1.
So that would be 181% increase.
Epilepsy seizures, 252%.
Learning disorders, 581%.
If you look at all these different diagnoses, they're all higher.
For example, I'll just give you one example.
Learning disorders in the full term is 581%.
In the preterm, the ones who are vaccinated, 884% increase.
Every single vaccine has an excipient that is human toxin.
Human toxin.
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Hey, folks, welcome back here.
So before the break, we were talking about the benefits of being outside, basically, and how this report we found says how helpful it can be for veterans.
And so I would say it's not just for veterans, it's for everybody.
But we've beat that one up.
The last thing I want to talk to you about today is the Major Richard Starr Act.
And what this is, we've talked about it before on the show, but in the last couple of weeks, there's been quite a push by the veteran community.
There's been a push by the elected officials who have signed on to this, which there's like 315 or something like that.
It's probably the most bipartisan bill we've seen for veterans since the PACT Act.
Push for Veteran Benefits00:15:19
And maybe I'm wrong about that.
So if there is one, you can roast me if you want.
But there's a lot of people that are on board.
And so what the PACT Act is, or not the PACT Act, the Major Richard Starr Act, if you don't know, what it does is, if passed in Congress, and they're trying to attach it to the NDAA and this ICE abolishment bill, and they're trying to use it as bait for votes on legislation to keep the government open.
But what the Major Richard Starr Act does is allows veterans who were medically retired from whatever branch of service before they hit 20 years of service.
It allows them to now qualify for concurrent receipt.
What concurrent receipt is and how you qualify for it is if you served in the military for 20 years or more and also were given a 50% service-connected disability rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,
you can then draw your VA disability check and you can also draw your Department of War pension, your federal pension from your military service.
You can then collect both without penalty.
Now, if you were medically retired before your 20 years, you don't qualify for concurrent receipt.
You are now forced to make a decision of which payment you would like to receive over the other.
And 99.9% of the time, I believe that veterans pick their VA disability check because it's tax-free.
It's not taxed.
Your pension from the government is taxed.
So most people pick that.
What also can happen if you've been medically retired and have less than 20 years of service is you can also, some veterans qualify for CRSC, which is combat-related special compensation.
How that works is when you get out and they're medically retired from the military, the Department of War, formerly the Department of Defense, does an evaluation, a medical evaluation on you, physical and mental health, and they give you a disability rating, much like the VA does, but they use different scales.
There's different metrics.
For example, myself, my VA disability rating is 100%.
My Department of War or DOD disability rating is 60%.
So because the reason for my medical retirement was due to injuries or conditions occurring in combat that were caused by combat action, I then now can qualify for combat-related special compensation.
So because my reasons for medical retirement were related to combat, I can now draw 60% or my DOD disability rating, which was 60%.
I can now draw 60% of my Department of Defense pension.
Not the whole thing, but only part of it.
And so, full clarity, if you haven't caught on, the Richard Starr Act benefits veterans like me.
But I am amongst that group of veterans, I am in a better position than most, right?
Because there are many, many veterans that were medically retired for something that happened to them that was not combat-related.
Therefore, they don't get any of their Department of Defense or Department of War pension.
And they're forced to choose.
And all of this has been dubbed the wounded warrior tax.
And I seem to agree with people when they say things like, This doesn't seem right.
This doesn't seem right.
What is true is when you join the military, you know the risk.
You know what the potential is.
You know what can happen, especially when you're in control of your MOS, when you're in control of picking your job.
When I joined the military and then chose to become an infantryman, I know what the risk is.
I knew it full well.
I knew that I could have chosen to be a dental assistant in the Army.
That would have been just fine.
The risk of being injured or wounded or being killed in combat is a lot lower for those guys.
And so people that have jobs, logistics jobs, admin jobs, cooking jobs, mechanics, all those jobs that don't involve going outside the wire and being actively engaged in fighting the enemy, but are extremely necessary and extremely important.
Those guys get hurt too.
And they get hurt, and there's accidents that are not combat-related that cause them not to be able to serve any longer, therefore being medically retired.
Those guys and gals, they don't get to draw any Department of Defense funds.
They have to choose which one of their earned benefits that they're going to take over the other.
And of course, you pick the one that's tax-free, and that's usually higher anyway.
The VA rating is usually a higher paycheck anyway.
And so then some people will say, well, this isn't right that we pass this thing.
It's too expensive.
Well, what I can tell you is that if passed, the Major Richard Starr Act will positively affect between 50 and 60,000 veterans.
And it will cost the taxpayer.
I just want to make sure I'm remembering the numbers correctly.
It will cost the taxpayer $800 million to $1 billion a year.
If this is passed, it will up the obligation the government has to veterans financially by $800 million to a billion dollars a year.
And of course, that number depends on how many veterans are actually taking the benefit, using the benefit, right?
As we know, veterans are dying all the time.
22 of them are killing themselves a day.
We have all the older guys are dying off.
And so that number fluctuates.
Now, I don't want to sound like $800 million or even a billion dollars is chump change, right?
It's a lot of money.
But if we're looking at the amount of money that we spend in foreign aid, if we look at the amount of money that was being spent on complete and utter bullshit for years and years and years, $800 million is a drop in the bucket.
And if there's a population of people that deserve a little bit of that savings, a little bit of the cut, right?
Because the president talks about all this money we're getting in tariffs.
We're talking about all just the economy's getting better.
People are able to spend money.
Everyone's got a little more money in their pocket.
Well, it doesn't seem like a shit ton of money.
And if it's true, when the government says our veterans are our pride and joy, they should be cared for and protected and all these things, that whole line of speech that they like to tout, then $800 million or a billion dollars isn't really that big of a deal.
But what I can tell you is that an increase of a billion dollars a year to the budget of helping veterans live a little bit easier life when they do,
when we can say that veterans have a higher likely for physical and mental health disabilities, well, this amount of money to alleviate that burden for the job that they did for us doesn't seem like a really big issue.
And it will be appreciated and it will be spent wisely, in my opinion.
Easing the financial burden of veterans who are having to choose between their earned benefits because they're not allowed to take advantage of everything that they've earned, I think it's a small ask.
And again, it only affects positively, affects 50 to 60,000 people.
But then the question becomes: well, what are we going to be doing with all of this extra money?
And again, maybe that's a whole nother conversation.
But the rich part of it is that the argument from politicians who vote against this is that it's too expensive.
Now, mind you, some of these politicians are the ones that have agreed in the past to every other week, sending the Ukraine a few hundred million dollars here, $100 million in weapons, $50 million in ammunition, a couple billion dollars worth of aircraft.
No problem.
They need it.
They need their being attacked.
We don't have a problem sending hundreds of millions of dollars, dare I say billions of dollars to Israel.
We don't have a problem sending it to different corners of Africa for all this aid, which isn't a horrible thing that we're helping people if they really need it.
And these initiatives are legit and they're actually helping people.
But we know that that's not true.
We're not that stupid.
We're not that ignorant.
We're not that naive anymore.
Why would we not spend the money on our own American people?
Not just our veterans, but our people.
Americans that are living on the streets, Americans that are suffering from chemical addiction that could use the help, They could use some extra people in the field of helping with rehab and recovery.
How come there's no government initiatives for that?
Why aren't we helping just the homeless population in general?
Why aren't we making our schools bigger and better?
Why aren't we giving our teachers more money?
Why aren't we mandating that our teachers make more money?
They're the ones that are molding the future leaders of this country.
Why aren't we shoving a little bit more money into veterans initiatives that can help veterans?
There's so many things that I think if we opened up the chat or like a group list of ideas, if we said, Put in the comments any positive ideas you have for spending all of this money that we could save.
If we just if we cut our foreign spending by 20, it would be millions and millions of dollars and so that's just look.
That's just one thing I haven't really ever understood like.
And I understand foreign.
I don't understand foreign policy, but I understand a little bit of the idea of foreign policy and trade and all of that right like there's other places in the world that have things that we need, that we consume, that we want, and we have things that other places in the world need and want and consume on a regular basis.
So I understand that you, there has to be relationships and things have to be cordial and all that as cordial as possible, and we have to spend some money right abroad.
But do we have to spend that much?
Do we have to ensure the survival and the the, the prosperity and the wealth and the the, the ease of a better life for everybody in the world before we help our own people?
I've never understood it.
I don't understand how people can advocate for that and, truth be told, I agree that as Americans, we we live a much better life than many other places in the world.
I get that.
But but all the other places in the world that don't live like us?
It's not our fault, it's not the fault of American Born people.
And should we be sharing and should we be taking care of people all over the world?
Sure we should, but not more than we're taking care of our own people.
I just I, I don't.
I don't understand why that's not top priority for anybody who's been elected into office by by any constituency in this country.
And of course I think we all know right, we know what's up, we know that it's all bullshit.
There's all kinds of fraud and there's all kinds of conniving criminal dick bags in government.
They're all over the place.
But what really gets me is the people that support this narrative of taking care of the rest of the world and I didn't want to get, I didn't want to go here, but god damn it, sometimes you can't help it right, I suppose?
Like this whole ice thing, I have a hard time understanding how people are are on board with this narrative that We shouldn't be deporting illegal aliens.
Before Defending Safety00:07:46
We shouldn't be deporting the people that have come here illegally, whether knowingly or I'm not even going to say unknowingly because if you're an adult and you're here illegally, you know that.
But why is it the first thing for some people to defend the people that are here illegally before they defend the before they defend the rest of the country?
Before they defend the place that makes them safe.
Before they defend the place that has a thriving economy, before they defend a place that they will say, we have it so much better than the rest of the world.
It's almost as if they don't, people don't, some people don't understand that we have it better than the rest of the world because we have rules, because we have law, because we have this societal agreement that regular people, most people, everybody should be, if you're able, get up and go to work, contribute to your community.
If you need a helping hand, there's social programs to help you.
But it's not just a free-for-all.
You know, I mean, and of course, everybody gets it, right?
I mean, everyone that isn't an actual adult understands all of this.
I suppose I don't need to be, I don't need to say it because we're adults here.
But what is it?
What is it in there?
What am I missing?
That's often my question to people that I disagree with.
What am I missing that causes me not to see where you're coming from?
And I shouldn't even say not see where you're coming from, but causes me not to at least understand your angle, to understand where you're coming from.
I mean, like, I understand the concept, but I don't understand why.
I don't understand why some of these things are more important than doing whatever the counter is to that to really help the community, the American people.
I just don't, I don't get it.
So, anyway, the Major Richard Starr Act, look, we even got off track of that.
This is something that is a, I agree.
I think it's a, I don't believe that it was a malicious thing.
I think that it was an oversight.
And I think it's just a mistake that needs to be corrected.
The Major Richard Starr Act is not, what it is not, is an added benefit.
This is not, this is not a passing this is not adding another benefit.
Passing the Major Richard Starr Act is just erasing a mistake.
It's erasing, I believe, an intentional injustice to the veteran community.
And it's something that if you agree, if you think it's important, I urge you to reach out to your elected officials.
There's places like the DAV, you can Google the Major Richard Starr Act.
There's templates that you can copy and paste into an email to your elected official.
There's different forums on social media that you can stop by, leave a comment of support, anything like that.
I think it's an important thing to do, to give back to the men and women that serve this country.
And remember also, there's 313 to 315 legislators that have co-sponsored this thing, almost everybody.
And so if there's, on top of everything else, if there's one thing that would be kind of nice to see in our government is a win for America, a win for veterans, a win for something positive, just for anybody, to be honest.
If anybody could get a win, it'd be pretty dope.
So if you believe in and support the Major Richard Starr Act, please let it be known with your elected official.
The veteran community and their supporters would really appreciate it.
I would really appreciate it.
We will see you guys next week.
We've run out of time.
And I apologize.
Today's show seems kind of all over the map.
And it's because my brain is all over the map right now with all the stuff going on trying to just figure out what's going down.
But anyway, we will see you next week.
Thanks for being here.
Have a great rest of your weekend.
Good night.
As Christians in a Christian country, we have a right to be at minimum agnostic about the leadership being all Jewishly occupied.
We literally should be at war with fucking Israel a hundred times over and instead we're just sending them money and it's fucking craziness.
Look at the side of Israel.
Look at the site of Tel Aviv and look at the site of Philadelphia.
You tell me where this money's going.
You tell me who's benefiting from this.
I am prepared to die in the battle fighting this monstrosity that would wish to enslave me and my family and steal away any rights to my property and to take away my God.
Go fuck yourself.
Will I submit to that?
And if you've got a foreign study, you've got dual citizens in your government, who do you think they're supporting?
God, right now, would you protect the nation of Israel and protect those of us, not just our church, but every church in the world and in this nation that's willing to put their neck on the line and say we stand with them.
You can look at Trump's cabinet.
You go to Biden's cabinet.
It's four Jews.
I have a black friend in school.
I have nothing against blacks.
She has nothing against me.
She understands where I'm coming from.
Excuse me, I'm a Jew, and I'd just like to say that, you know, in our Bible, it says that you're like animals.
The Jews crucified our God.
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