Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale at Hillsdale dot edu or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale.

Good Morning, Glory and evening Graist America.

On this Tuesday.

I'm Hugh Hewittt and Really Factor Studio Wes.

Thank you for joining me.

Got a lot coming up today Byron York Brett Baar.

I'll be talking with Lilas later, but I begin with Jim Garretty, senior editor at Nash Review, host of the three Martini podcasts, frequent contribute to the Editors podcast at National Review, Washington Post columnist, and Jets fan.

And the Jets were worse than the Browns.

I just want that on the record there, Jim, you guys stunk worse than Cleveland did.

Hey when we played each other?

Who wants you?

Well, that's beside the point.

It's about the season.

Jim, you're drafting ahead of us, and I gather you're drafting another quarterback.

Yeah, all depends on whether war comes out from Oregon.

Uh.

He's the only one who said, assuming the Raiders take Mendoza right now, if you look at the history of the Raiders, they have this history of making really unorthodox picks.

If they did pick them, he'd be there.

I believe their first quarterback they took that early.

Since JaMarcus Russell trivia question, everybody who's.

Like, nobody wants to remember that nobody, no Raiders fan wants to remember mister Russell.

But I do think the Jets will take a QB.

Browns are at six, They'll take a wide receiver and then an ol with the Jags pick, we're gonna we're me in the playoffs next year, Jim, I don't know about the Jets.

So you're going to hire a coach who's going to have to accept shdor Sanders.

Is that the thinking?

You know?

You welcome to scenic, Sonny, lovely Cleveland, where you will not get the choice of what quarterback you want with the guy who you know.

But I an honest, curious question, and I welcome to j Hewitt Sports talk radio.

But are they going to interview Dion?

Do you think no I will let me let me make a dendant that they might because of the Rooney rule, but they would not hire him.

It would not be good for shud Or it would not be good.

Which is exactly why they're going to hire and Gym take.

It to the banks.

Not happening.

So let's get to the serious stuff.

Operation Apps out resolve your reaction, Jim.

Garritty military operation was phenomenal and and really on par with bin Laden Operation.

Hugo.

You know, the entire regime in Venezuela is terrible.

I don't I have no patience for any of those idiots in the streets marching free our president.

He's not a president, he's a dictator.

He's got a record of human rights abuses that are longer than a CBS receipt.

You know, I'm not one hundred percent sure.

I love the idea of leaving the vice president in charge.

She has certainly sounded defiant.

Now it's possible she's taking one stance in public and being more cooperative.

Behind the scenes.

Trump was saying that she was being very gracious in her call with Rubio on Saturday morning.

I look, you know, getting the Venezuelan regime to stop cooperating with Iran and Russia and China is a high priority.

I noticed those were the three ambassadors she embraced during her swearing in ceremony.

Again, maybe this is all for public consumption.

Maybe behind the scenes are going to be a lot more cooperative.

If we end up with her still running the country a year from now, I will feel like this astounding military operation has been wasted, because I'd really like to see the Venezuelan people get to choose their own leaders one.

Of these days.

Now, Jim, I don't know if you get news items from John Ellis.

I read it first thing every morning, and he had an item this morning from Ava Gollinger, an immigration lawyer wired into Venezuela, about the fact that what we see on television not what's going on inside of Venezuela, and that the vice president and her brother have rested control away from the Chavistas, and though they might be doing all that public stuff for the benefit of that Chavizas, they're actually working with the agency in the United States government very closely to begin what will be a step by step transition back to a normal country.

If we won't know, and I don't think we can take that to the bank for a year at least, maybe two.

But if that happened, will it be an unqualified success?

If that happened, yes, I would love to see that happen.

Color me a bit more skeptical.

We're talking about a woman who is a hardcore socialist, down the line, loyalist, very plugged in with Cuban intelligence.

As you know, she used to be head of the intelligence agency and it was responsible for all kinds of torture, extra didicital executions, use.

Of rape as a weapon.

Like this is a bad, bad woman.

Now, maybe she's turned over a new leaf.

And maybe she does not want to wake up to find a whole bunch of US special operators at the foot of her bed in the middle of the night, ready to give her a free flight to a Brooklyn cell.

If that comes the case, great.

I don't think we're seeing this at her public stands so far.

Now, maybe this is again, maybe this is all behind the scenes.

But I just don't trust this woman, and now I don't.

I'm surprised to see folks like Rubio and the rest of the administration willing to put their chips on her, at least for the foreseeable future.

The only analogy I can hope is happening, and we don't know that it's happening.

I don't know that it's happening.

I don't have the clearances.

Nobody does.

Is it not in the game?

Is what happened in Libya after George W.

Bush invader Iraq in two thousand and three.

Kadafi, who had a rather advanced WMD program, including the beginnings of a nuclear program and a lot of WMD in the bio and chemical category.

He said, Nomas threw open his kimono.

The United States went in there very quietly, took all of the weapons of mass destruction out and destroyed them, and nobody knew a thing.

And this is years before he was toppled by Obama.

I'm just hoping the same thing happens, and I don't think it's really unreasonable to think that might be happening.

I again, I hope you're right, and I do remember.

Right around that time, Hugh Kadaffi did an interview I believe with Joe Klein, who I believe is with Time that magazine at the time, and as these ending the interview, Kadaffi says to Klein something along the lines are like, please tell Bush.

Not to bomb me.

I am not sodom husseying.

I will you know, and look if this can quote unquote scare her straight and the you know, now acting president of Venezuela, Rodriguez is going to have a different attitude and less houseful to the United States.

Fine, and I understand that they're all over the Middle East there are regimes that are much more anti American in their public rhetoric than they are in their private rhetoric their private actions.

They actually want to work with the US because there as everybod is a afraid of his lowless radicals as we are.

Ye know, if that's what's going to happen, great.

I still, however, believe that like one, this regime is responsible for just an abominable long line of crimes, and I'd like to see somebody get held accountable for this.

And then secondly, I would like to see the Venezuelan people get back into the air.

Like they had an election in twenty twenty four.

They picked somebody else and the regime said, never mind, we're going to use the We're going to use force to strike this down.

It's been twenty years of dictatorial rule since Chavez took over, and it will be welcome if they change.

But Jim, I want to let our new affiliates.

We have two new affiliates this week, News Radio of Pensacola, Florida, ninety two point three w n RP in Pensacola and Triple Talk one on two point three one on three point three and twelve seventy am WMKT in Padofski, Michigan.

Way up north, so way up north, way down south.

Would you tell him how to get the Morning Joelt if they want to get you every day?

Sure, National Review dot Com.

Right on the left side of the screen we have a menu.

Drop down that menu to subscriptions.

The Morning Jolt is free.

It's also online all day.

It is free.

I am not behind the paywall.

Apparently I am a good gateway drug to the work of all of my colleagues.

Somehow some of my other writing.

A National Review alas is behind that.

And R plus is very reasonable.

It's a dollar a week.

You get access to the whole magazine.

You can get prints, you can get online.

You can get both.

We have different rates for all of them.

But at the beginning of the year, we always have very good rates.

But the Morning Jolt, the newsletter I write every day, it's fifteen hundred two thousand words walking you through the day's headlines, probably almost as good as John Ellis's news items.

So I'm leading you up to my question for everyone over the next two weeks.

Is the United States better off today and next week than it was a year ago?

Yeah?

Yeah, generally it's a mixed bag.

I think if you're you know, listeners are looking at their four oh one k statements at the end of the year, they're probably feeling pretty darn good about that.

I think the you know, had a rough year, Hugh.

The Iranian nuclear program, Yeah, it's a bigger rebuilding year for them than the Jets and the Browns.

They've loss of personnel.

Just the whole thing fell apart, literally as well as metaphorically.

So no, there are you know, I'm a little frustrated with the administration's position regarding Ukraine.

I think we're not quite as tough on China as I'd like it to be.

I understand why people don't feel like the golden age has begun and the prices has gone down.

Gas price has been very reasonable come down a bit since winter began, so.

Generally it's good.

No president's going to have everything going terrific.

I would prefer the president would not insist the affordability as a hoax.

I think people are still genuinely squeezed like that.

I don't like the tariffs, but unbalanced things are better.

And I think that if Harris had been president and the illustrious Tim Walls had been our vice president, no, we would not feel like things are getting better.

There, Jim, we hardly knew.

Ye we got thirty seconds.

Sha think we don't well enough?

How sad are you that Tim Wallas is out of the game?

So okay?

So I went back and I checked.

The very first thing I wrote about Tim Walls was July twenty ninth, twenty twenty four, and I said that there was no way that Kamala Harris was going to pick this guy because he had so much baggage, because the entire state government of Minnesota had been looted in one fraud scandal after another.

Now it's not that nobody else wrote about this during the twenty twenty four presidential campaign.

CNN did do one good.

Story on this in like you know, late September early October.

Goodbye and large.

You didn't hear very much about.

It unless you were a power Line blog reader.

All praise like wwick and said, all honor to Jefferson, All honor to power Line in Jim Garretty because they were on the Walls scandal before anyone else.

Jim, thank you.

Follow him on next as well, Jim Garritty come back for a segment to him today as you do it show Welcome Back in America, You do it.

I would like to introduce our next guest, very specifically to our two new affiliates, our news talk affiliate news Radio in Pensacola at the Naval Aviation Air Community, so they will probably know of him at ninety two point three w NRP and then Triple Talk one oh two point three one oh three point three twelve seventy AM in the northern part of Michigan, charlet Boy and Potowsky.

You may not know of the four Horsemen of the podcast Apocalypse, otherwise known as the Fellas of the Ruthless Podcast, but one of them, the Buckey, is John Ashbrook, and he joins us now from the Ruthless Podcast.

Mister Ashbrook, I hope you were watching football in CINCINNTI this weekend when the Browns laid another one in Miles Garrett put the record on the wall against Joe Burrow.

I watched it, Buddy, I watched it from start to finish, and I'd like to congratulate you on the great win and what a season for Miles Garrett.

I mean, that guy's a special talent and the Browns are sure lucky to have him.

But I wanted to ask you what you think is going to happen with this Kevin Stefanski job.

I mean, do you have any eyes on any coaches in particular?

I hope they just promote the defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz and then keep Tommy Ree says the offensive coordinator.

But that would be too smart.

So the Browns will probably go hire Mike McCarthy or some other person to change the system on Shador Sanders and then blow the draft that.

I don't know what's going to happen in Bengals Land.

Burrow's is back, but he's only good for like four games a year.

Right, Yeah, hopefully he hopefully plays all year next year.

I mean, it just has been a rough go for him from an injury standpoint, But the announce they're going to keep the coaching staff, They're going to keep what sort of front office they have in place.

Hopefully they add some more scouts.

Got to turn it up next year because we can't miss the playoffs another year in a row during Burrow's prime.

I mean, it's been really disappointing.

I would love to say that the same thing about Miles.

If we could take your offense and defense and put them together, we could go to the playoffs together.

John, you win the super Bowl.

It would be amazing.

It would be actually amazing.

We need your offensive line as well.

Let me talk a little bit to the new audience, especially about the fact you were pummeled pretty badly at the beginning of the year by your colleagues on the Ruthless podcast over Skyline Chili, and I want you to know that I am from Ohio and I agree with them.

It's horrible stuff.

Nobody likes it outside of Cincinnati.

You know that, don't you.

It's horrible stuff.

I do, but I don't care because I love it.

If I had to choice for my last meal on Earth, I would choose that.

I mean, I absolutely love it like most people from Cincinnati, but anybody from out of town.

It's a real love hate thing.

It's not something that everybody loves.

Although I do have friends from northern Michigan, and I'm glad, glad to hear they're on the air right now.

Beautiful part of the country.

Maybe less so in the winter, but certainly in the summer.

I do have some friends from northern Michigan who love it.

So you must have some revo aviation pals down in Pensacola, don't you.

That's where all the fighter pilots go.

Without a doubt, I mean, that's a place to be.

I mean, I think every kid grows up dreaming that one day they can move down to Pensacola and fly jets.

You know, it didn't work out for me or most of my buddies, but what a great part of the country.

Well, you know, I got a son in law who is a fighter pilot, though he is now driving ships, not flying Fa teens anymore.

But I asked him he happened to be he's not deployed right now.

Happened to see him.

How impressive was that operation over the week?

And he said, man, that was something are you a little bit jealous?

And there are a few of the guys from his class who are down there on different ships, and he said, yeah, I got to admit I am.

People want to be the guys who do this, want to be in that sort of a thing.

And what are remarkable.

Let's just for a moment your comment on what they pulled off.

Yeah, it was incredible and you can easily understand why guys would want to be a part of that, because everybody wants to be a part of a team that knows how to execute.

And wins when they do.

And I mean they had every little detail figured out for that operation, right down to something that I know is near and dear to Dwayne Patterson's heart, the sound.

I mean, this is a guy who understands audio, so I know he appreciates this aspect of the mission.

Speak General Lisimo, my favorite guy on the planet.

The show, Well, they flew.

They flew these jets so low over Caracas that the sound was deafening and nobody could hear the helicopters coming in from underneath.

I mean, it was one of the most brilliant things that most other people would never even think of.

But they thought of every last detail right down to that.

And you got to think that the Chinese, you gotta think that the Russians, you gotta think the Iranians look at a mission like that and the way that the US was able to pull that off, and they're like, well, we could never do anything like that.

And what a contrast between the way that Joe Biden and handled himself with Afghanistan and everything else in the way that President Trump is handling things, letting the military work.

You got a lot of really smart people, they know what to do.

You let them go out and you let them win.

Now, John, I know you've been following Legacy media's reaction to this, and I know that they are very upset with the president.

Have you noticed that they've lost their mind over the fact that we have once again done something that Joe Biden and Barack Obama never dared do, much less accomplished.

They really have lost their mind that this was done.

They have, and it doesn't make any sense to me.

I mean, why can't they just say, yeah, we all said Maduro needed to go, and now he's gone.

Why can't they just say, oh, that's great and move on to something else.

I mean, for the life of me, I don't understand why they're trying to take the opposite position from a very successful mission by our own military.

These are friends and neighbors.

You know.

These are guys who put their life on the line to protect us, and they executed flawlessly, and this is the second time.

They They don't be an attack.

The media went on the offensive against Trump for some reason.

You can't even understand.

You know.

We had Bill Barr on our show, The Ruthless Podcast right before Christmas, and he of course worked for President Trump, but he worked for George hw Bush back in the day and talked about the parallels between their operation in Panama to remove Manuel Noriega in the operation of Venezuela to remove Nicholas Maduro.

Very interesting conversation.

Something I know.

Would be near and dear to your heart is a legal mind.

You know yourself.

It was very sharp and I can't tell you how you know it just there's a new renewed sense of pride in like, hey, we're the greatest country in the world, and we have the best people, and when they execute, they win, and you just have to let them do it.

I don't understand the second guessing from the mainstream media, but they'll never stop.

Yeah, there's a Lulu Navarro over at the New York Times who has posted that the secret police are out in the streets, and gangs are out in the streets and journalists are being arrested.

And I think to myself that she's based this on phone calls with people she knows in Venezuela.

They cannot help themselves.

But the headline in the Wall Street Journal John Maduro's capture deals heavy blow to Cuba's vaunted intelligence service.

You think, so that's like the heavy blow that the Browns got this year, not making that they're out of the game.

They're not.

Nobody wants Cuban intelligence service anymore.

Well, you love to see it.

And I mean, how about the fact that there were thirty two Cubans around Maduro.

I mean, I mean, I know that you follow these things closer than I do.

I didn't expect them to walk in and find thirty two Cubans standing between them the in.

The goal line, but they did.

And it sort of gives you a little bit more pause because Cuba is so close to us.

I mean, it's just a boat ride away from Key West and the thought that maybe there's a chance, you know, there's some speculation about well maybe Cuba is next.

I certainly hope so, because that would be a wonderful place to visit something.

The best they had and Delta Force went through them like Miles Garrett through the Bengals line.

John Ashbrook, it is always good to see you.

Follow him on at John Ashbrook, listen to the Rootless Five, gast like and subscribe.

See the fellows as well, all for them in a variety of capacities on Doctor Moon.

Thank you, John.

I'll be right back on the g Healit Show.

Welcome back America.

I'm you, Hewett.

David Drucker is with the Dispatches that are senior political correspondents for the Dispatches.

Also always on the radio with me once a week David Drucker, Happy New Year to you.

Your reaction to the Venezuela and operation over the weekend.

Well, what fascinating me the most, Hugh was listening to General Kane, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Staff, sort of relay exactly what went into it, right, I mean he, I mean they were just fact after fact and discussing the amount of coordination and the planning and the execution.

I mean, my hat's off to him just for overseeing this, but just the way he was able to explain it in a way that, you know, I could understand that.

I felt like a lot of people could understand exactly what it is we accomplish that, you know, from a military standpoint, the very least was amazing.

Now on the weekend review shows, especially George Stephanopolos with Secretary of Rabio.

Secretary Rubio tried to explain to him again and again and again, we're not going in there with boots on the ground, but we're not letting the oil come out, and therefore we're in charge and we have leverage.

And I don't know what it is that is so hard for people to understand.

We're not running the country.

We are running the country indirectly by not letting them sell their oil unless they do things.

I'm not expecting miracles.

I'm not expecting an overnight transition.

I'm not even expecting an election.

But I think it's a huge win for America anyway.

What do you think.

Well, I mean, I think the removing Maduro from power and removing an ally anywhere in the world, particularly particularly in our region, from removing an ally from Iran, from Russia, from China.

Is a net positive.

Right, and there was legal there was a legal basis to remove him, which which helps I think part of the I don't want to say part of the problem, I will say part of the confusion is that the commander in chief, the President of the United States, keeps insisting that we're running Venezuela.

He says so, and then people will say, well, Secretary of State Rubio explained that we're not really running it, we're just sort of, you know, making sure bad things don't happen.

And he's like, yeah, no, we're running it.

And so I think that it's important for us eventually to understand exactly what our influence is and how are we exerting it, because the United States has often executed the toppling of where I want to say often, but we have in the past very successfully executed the toppling of dictators, and where we've gotten ourselves into trouble or at least domestic political trouble for the administration overseeing it.

But where Americans have gotten very glitchy with the whole thing is the aftermath, and so I think there's just a lot to understand that we don't know yet.

But I don't blame people for asking the question or being confused because President Trump keeps insisting we are running the country.

And now, David, this is where I think it's interesting.

I think we are running the country, not on a day to day basis, or an hour by hour basis or a block by block bike I think we're running the country because they can't sell their oil and they know that we can come get anyone we want and we want to, or we can kill them if we want to.

If they try and hurt Americans or in the country, they better not threaten an American or killing American.

So we are running the country.

It's kind of the in the way that a lot of people run this show not named Hugh Hewett.

And I've got two new affiliates today right in Pensacola, Florida, and up in Michigan.

They run the UUIT Show because they can choose not to have me on the air tomorrow, So they run the u UIT Show and whether or not they're in Pensacola, but they're not telling me what they say every minute of the day.

But if all my affiliates go away, I'm done.

And so the question becomes I understand it?

Does George really not get it?

Do people really not understand that when you've got there them by the neck, they can't do anything right?

Hugh?

But I think so much goes into it, and I don't know that your analogy is apt.

And look, I know where you're coming from, right, I mean I sometimes get screamed at by people like why did the dispatch do this?

And I'm like, listen, I'm just the senior reporter.

I'm not the executive editor or company president, so you know, talk to them about this.

But from a political standpoint, if the dictator that's now in charge of Venezuela, and there's still a dictator in charge, it's just Maduro's so called vice president, then eventually the people in Venezuela are going to start asking questions.

Right before they knew who their oppressor was, it was Maduro and his regime.

And if we keep insisting that we're the ones keeping everything in place for whatever our reasons are, and I'm not saying they're not good reasons or we shouldn't do it, but the people in Venezuela are going to start saying, well, if you're running things, why don't you change it?

And there may be some Americans, some voters who say, great operation, glad we got rid of Madurero, exactly the right decision.

But now what are we doing with the country?

What is it costing us?

And so I just don't think it's quite as simple as saying we're running it but not but indirectly, I think that just a lot more to it.

Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree, because I'm reminded I use this analogy earlier with Jim Garrity in the aftermath the invasion of Iraq in two thousand and three, Libya that we were not intending to invade, was run by Kadafi at the time.

He called up the United States and said, don't invade me, you can come get all my WMD.

And for a course of a year that no one knew about, American special forces and trained weapons of mass destruction to destroyers went in there and shipped it all out and took it to the United States and rendered it harmless everything, and no one knew what was going on.

We were running Libya for a year and nobody knew and then we were done.

Well yeah, but that's yeah, that's not Listen, when you say we're running the country, right, I mean that that is another way of saying we're governing the country.

All right.

We were dismantling Libya's WMD program at their request, and so there was no conflict.

But we forcibly, and I'm not criticizing it, but we forcibly removed the leader of Venezuela's regime and we have now declared that we're in charge.

So that raises a lot of questions as to the decisions we are making that is allowing that are allowing the new dictators to operate, and how they handle their citizens and other things.

And I just think that the questions may have very good answers, and there may be a very good outcome.

But if we're going to say that you're only allowed to do what we say or else, that means everything that's allowed to happen is something that we're at least winking and nodding at, if not endorsing, And then those are going to raise a whole bunch of other questions.

Well, okay, we'll contain the conversation.

Actually I think Rubio has made it very President said very briefly, we're running it, and Rubio explained, we're running it indirectly by the quarantine and the embargo, and I get it.

And I think the legacy media is willfully refusing to understand what is going on here, which is leverage, and they just won't admit Trump pulled off a genie just move, and it's it's unfortunate actually because they're going to lose more audience as a result.

David M.

Drucker of The Dispatch always good to see you.

Follow him on X everybody.

David M.

Drucker follow me the next segment of the UUIT Show Morning Glory and even Grace in America.

I'm Hugh Hewett.

Welcome to our new affiliates, especially w NRP and Florida and Pensacola.

So good to have the Naval Aviation Committee join us, as well as everyone else in Pensacola and our friends up North Way North in Michigan on WMKT.

Welcome to the UWIT Show.

I like to begin most Tuesdays with Brett Barry as the host of the Fox News Special Report every night at six pm.

America's most trusted news anchor Brett, Happy New Year to you.

I hope it's off to a good start.

Happy new Year.

Yeah, it's it's cooking.

There's a lot of news, well there is.

Someone asked me today, go I said, this is there's no better time to be in this business, Brett.

Some people are being purposely obtuse as to what it means when President Trump says we are running back, Nezuela.

I think I understand what he means.

What do you think he means.

I think he means that we're running as far as influence and leverage and have you know, a thumb on the scale, as far as the people on the ground that they need to do what the US wants them to do, and thereby running it from Afar, not running it like a viceroy, you know, on the ground in Baghdad.

And I think that's what he means, and that it's going to lead to a transition on the ground for eventually an election, but that you have to, you know, get from point A to point B.

I think there are a lot of questions here, Hugh.

I think that there are legitimate questions about how the previous regime and the loyalists who were loyal to Maduro suddenly can change.

But if you're looking at an armada off your coast and you're looking at a leverage from the US, maybe you do.

Yeah, you know, there are many questions.

I don't think we'll get a lot of answers because I think a lot of this is being done, as was the two thousand and three George W.

Bush operation in Libya, where Kadafi said, I don't want to be invaded, come get my WMD, and we sent scores hundreds of special personnel there to offshore and then destroy his vast arsenal of WMD.

It's years before President Obama bombed him, and nobody knew about that, Brett.

So I don't know what we're doing there, and I don't expect us to know because I don't think we can know.

And if the acting president, the DOW president, is running a double game speaking in Spanish to the Chavistas and talking in English to Marco Rubio, that's fine by me.

We don't need to know.

Do you think that might be what's going on?

I do think that there is something that has been baked in the cake to have the amount of confidence that they have currently with as many questions as we have, you know, on the outside looking in, I think that something is afoot that we don't know about.

And we know for a fact that the CIA has been on the ground for a long time.

Yeah, and there are thirty two dead Cuban security service members.

Cuba certainly knows what's going on.

So that brings me to Lulu Navarro.

I don't know her.

She might be a fine reporter.

I don't take the New York Times anymore.

She posted up a few hours ago, about seven thirty in the morning East Coast time, speaking to people I know inside Venezuela, and they tell me arm gangs basically paramilitary gangs wi lied to the government, are roaming the streets.

Arrests of journalists are taking place, and the new old government is undergoing a wave of repression.

Is that what the US means by being in control now?

I think that's purposely obtuse I don't doubt that their arm gangs in the street.

I hope journalists aren't being arrested, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was happening.

And I don't believe the regime is going to suddenly announce we're going to do what the United States wants us to do.

But I also think we're grown ups.

And what I saw many people engage Secretary of Rubio, they were not asking grown up questions.

I don't know if you want to engage in media criticism with me.

Grown up questions is when can we expect to see concrete results in Venezuela six months, a year, two years?

Is that a fair question?

Yeah, I think it's a fair question.

I don't know that they haven't answer to that yet, And I agree with you.

I mean, there were efforts to try to catch him up, and I think that you know, sicher Rubio does a fun job answering with the answers that he has.

I don't I think that there are, you know, parts of this that don't add up as far as an easy storyline.

You know, Republicans don't want to be holding the bag like we were in a rock and you know, when the Baptists disappeared into the insurgency and we didn't pay the checks and suddenly there was a massive pushback.

You know, I covered that on the ground in fact that and it was a mess for a long long time.

And I think that that is in people's minds and thereby it leads to a lot of questions about what it looks like now in Caraucus.

So we're not going to have a Paul Bremer, who was the Viceroy of Iraq.

We're not using that model.

And the model we are using is I think the Libyan model from the same time two thousand and three.

But it's pressure, and I think it's immense pressure.

What do you think.

Have you had a chance to chat with anyone yet about the almost immediate second order impact on Cuba and then a third order impact on China, which we'll combine with the Iranian impact on China to put I think China's the big loser this week.

There are two oil suppliers, but that's between five and fifteen to twenty percent of their oil every day has just been shut off by these two countries in disarray.

Yeah, and Russia is not a winner either.

And you start starving Russia and China of the lifeblood of some of this oil, it becomes harder for them to do some big things.

It becomes harder for Putin to maintain Ukraine, It becomes I think harder maybe for China to move on Taiwan.

I mean, at least that's what I agree experts are saying, and I kind of tend to agree with them.

So well, that's the world picture.

Donald Trump was at the Trump County Center today talking to Republicans urging them to do a deal on healthcare.

I frankly don't think that's possible, given that the Republican Congress and died mister Lamoff in California today.

Marjorie Taylor Green's gonna leave.

They're going to be down to a margin of two votes.

Michael Lawler is one of them, Yeah, Massi's one of them.

The other one is Michael Lawler.

I like Michael Lawler, but he's not going to vote for it, so that I don't think that's going to happen to you.

I don't that said.

I hear the president.

I hear what his idea is and putting the money in health savings accounts for getting the money to people to make the decisions, to take it out of the hands of the insurance companies.

I get the pitch.

It's a very positive pitch, and it's probably one that puts Democrats in a corner with such slim majority's it's going to be tough.

I just don't.

I don't have much hope for that, But I do have hope for the economy.

And that brings me to my last question, Brett Pair, if you're asked, straight up, straight newsman that you are, is America better off today than it was on January sixth, twenty five?

How do you say?

How do you assess that?

Yes, everybody I talked to on all sides of the aisle sees sprouts of an economy that is ready to bust out.

And the more aggressive ones think you wanting you too are going to be really aggressive, and the others are, you know, hesitant about the effect of terrorists and what it means big picture.

But I think overall you could make that flat statement and be confident to back it up.

I agree with you, and I think the price of oil falling contributes to everyone except those of us in California.

I'm here for a few weeks.

We all get Yeah, we don't get the benefit of that here.

I wish I was wherever you are.

Brett Bear, always good to talk to you.

Follow Brett on Exit Brett Bear.

Watch him every night at six pm on the Fox News Channel.

Special Report America's anchor is Brett Behar.

Thank you, Brett, Welcome back in America.

My next guest, Michael Wattley was frequently on my program in twenty twenty four when he was running the Republican National Committee and leading the ground game that got Donald Trump elected president again and got the Senate in Republican hands, at the House in Republican hands.

But now Michael Wattley's running for himself, so he's going to be along a lot in twenty twenty six because we got to get him elected in North Carolina.

Chairman Watley, how are you.

I'm doing great.

It's going to be on with you, Hugh.

Well, let's start with the basics you're at.

You're a campaign man.

What's the website for Watley for Senate?

It is Michael Wiley dot com.

Michael Wattley dot com spelled w h A t e l y w h A t l e y w h A t l e y and your Twitter account, your X handle is Watley NC wh A t l e y NC Michael.

How much does it cost to run in North Carolina?

And you need small donors?

So let's start asking.

Yeah, look, this race is going to be the most expensive Senate race in the history of the country.

We're talking six hundred to eight hundred million dollars that's going to be all in.

We're going to need to raise about fifty million of that into my campaign, and it is going to come from people all across this country.

You know, we're very excited about the response that we've seen from the first you know, several months that we've been a candidate here where we've been getting donations from all fifty states, across all one hundred counties here in North Carolina because people understand, we have got to keep the Senate Republican.

We have got to make sure that President Trump has an ally at North Carolina, has a conservative champion in the Senate.

We do not need to flip the Senate to the Democrats and go back to where we were with Joe Biden and his politics.

Now you've got President Trump on your side as you were on his side in twenty twenty four.

Has he already been down to the state or is that coming up later as we get closer to the election.

Yeah, he came down the Friday before Christmas and had a fantastic event in Rocky Mount North Carolina, a really, really great conversation about how the economy is picking up and all the things that he is doing to make sure that we're going to create more jobs, we're going to get bigger paychecks, and we're going to get costs down.

So I do expect that he'll be back in North Carolina again.

This is one of his favorite states.

It's the only battleground state that we actually carried for Donald Trump all three times, twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, and twenty twenty four.

Now, Michael Whatley, we got to make sure we do early voting in North Carolina because you're Delta Force guys that could be anywhere, that could be in Caracas next November, right.

I mean, you do represent Delta Force, don't you.

I got to say, I am so proud of the work that they did and for President Trump to stand up and take out one of the most dangerous criminals in the entire Western hemisphere, and for the role of our brave men and women from Fort Bragg here in North Carolina.

Could not be prouder of the work that they've done.

You know, when you talk about the early vote, you know we expect over fifty percent of all votes will be cast before election day in North Carolina.

That has been the case going back to when I was the state Party chair and we built an early vote program that has been winning the early vote here in North Carolina for the first time ever.

Now, Sherman, we lost my friend, your friend, Charlie Kirk, and the Turning Point effort is simply irreplaceable.

Has it continued on strong in North Carolina in the wake of Charlie's murder.

Well, it absolutely has.

We have a fantastic series of chapters all across the state.

I am very proud to be endorsed by Turning Point Action.

Had a chance to go out there and meet with their leadership at the Amfest in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, and we do have strong support all across the state from him.

You know, when you think about how Donald Trump won, one of the key demographs that we were able to win was young voters.

And we've never ever as Republicans carried you know, young voters like we did with President Trump.

The fact that he won you know, males eighteen to twenty four outright was the first time that we've ever seen that.

And we need to make sure that we're fighting for their values right, And what do young voters want.

They want jobs, they want paychecks, they want to be able to get married, they want to be able to afford a house and raise a family.

And under Joe Biden and the Democrats, that just simply was not happening, which is why they came to President Trump and why we're going to continue to fight for that agenda.

Now.

Michael Whitley, one of the unusual thing about North Carolina is a schizophrenic come governor time and you're running ains Roy Cooper to term governor in North Carolina.

But I wonder, do you have a blue state fraud problem?

Like Tim Walls and Gavin Newsom and Hokal in New York, every blue state seems to be a wash with fraud.

Does North Carolina have that?

Well, we're certainly going to see.

We're going to see what happens there.

You know, Fortunately, we have had Republican legislature since twenty ten and they've done a pretty good job of kind of setting up this economy to thrive.

You know, when we talk about North Carolina, you mentioned it's a purple state.

We're thirty percent Republican thirty percent Democrat, forty percent unaffiliated, which is our version of the independence and the way that manifests itself is we typically see Democrat governors, lieutenant governor's, attorney general, Secretary of State, but we win on the federal side.

And so we have ten out of fourteen members of Congress right now, we're Republicans.

Both of our senators are Republicans, and Donald Trump won the state three different times.

So we know that we're going to be in for a very serious fight here, that this is going to be the most closely contested and expensive Senate race in the entire country.

But we feel very confident that we're going to win because we're voting and we're running on the same issue set that President Trump did in twenty twenty four.

And again I peeled in my audience and you'll hear Michael Wattley a lot this year.

Go to Michael Wattley dot com.

Because you're ten dollars, you're twenty five dollars or one hundred dollars, makes a difference.

This is the key to holding the Senate.

We got a hold on to John Houston in Ohio, and that's that's a given Susan Allins and May that's a given.

Democrats have their eye on North Carolina because it's an empty seat, and they unfortunately drew Michael Wattley as a challenger now, Chairman Wattley, I love what the President did with Operation Midnight, Ammer, I love what he did with Maduro.

People don't vote on that though.

They vote on gas and the cost of food and whether or not they have a job.

How is gas doing in North Carolina?

And I'm out in California for a few weeks.

It's four and a half, you know, Gavin issham Land, it's four and a half dollars a gallon here?

What is it in North Carolina?

Yeah, according to gas Buddy this morning, it's two dollars and fifty nine cents a gallon, which is a pretty big drop from where we were just even last month.

You know, when prices are coming down.

President Trump has unleashed American energy and we are seeing the fruits of that right now.

And it really truly matters when you talk about the economy.

Gasoline and diesel prices really truly do dictate a lot of our grocery prices, retail prices, in other prices that we're going to see, and so the number one influence when it comes to inflation is going to be what the gas prices are.

And that's why we've seen inflation prices come down so dramatically since President Trump took over.

Last question in North Carolina, I got my in laws, my son's in laws live in Winston Salem, and it's still affordable in Winston Salem.

You can find a house, you can find an apartment in Winston sale What about the state as a whole, Charlotte's Booman.

What is it for a young couple looking to get places to buy or rent?

Well, Look, what I will say is this the President Biden, over the course of the four years that he was in office, buying the exact same house costs twice as much in twenty twenty four as it did in twenty twenty.

Housing prices are still way too high, and we need to see the Fed drop the interest rate.

I'm glad that President Trump is fighting every single day with the Fed to try and get those interest rates down.

We need to make a change in the leadership there in order to be able to help.

But North Carolina is still one of those states because of the Republican led legislature, where our economy is strong.

We are creating jobs and wages are going up, and that really is going to be a significant factor for anybody who wants to start a family and buy a house.

We will keep talking throughout the year.

Michael Wattley good luck all the way through November.

Michael Wattley dot com.

Michael Wattley dot com, w h A T L E Y.

Michael Wattley dot com.

Go get involved, sign up for the newsletter, get the emails.

You know, if you make a contribution, you get more asks.

That's happens.

But look the country at the state here.

Got to hold on to the Senate.

Thank you, mister chairman.

I'll be right back in America.

Stay tuned to the quih Welcome to hour three of the program today, whether you're watching on the Sale News channel or listening to our affiliates all across the United States.

I want to watch Welcome, especially are new affiliate in Pensacola, Florida.

Among our regular guests is Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who about this time next year will be Tennessee Governor Marsha Blackburn.

Because I think she's going to win her race for governor there.

Welcome, Senator.

Can I begin by asking for your reaction to the operation app the resolve that President Trump ordered up over the weekend in Venezuela.

Absolutely, And when I talked to Tennessee and Hugh, they are so pleased with President Donald Trump taking the action.

Nicholas Maduro has headed the cartel.

He and his wife have really been in charge of this operation.

They've been pushing these drugs into the United States.

You've got hundreds of thousands of individuals that have lost their lives, families that have been adversely impacted, communities that have been torn apart.

This is a narco terrorist and it is appropriate that he was apprehended and that he has been brought to the US to face the charges that are in front of him and to be held to account for what he has done to hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Now, Senator, I taught your colleague yesterday, Senator, who's one of the group of eight who gets warning when it's appropriate of something like this going down?

And there was no advanced notice here and he was fine with that because of the nature of the operation.

Do you believe it was a legal operation, and that Congress got adequate notice when they received it.

I believe it was a proper operation, and I do believe that the notice we received immediately after was sufficient.

President Donald Trump was right to go in and to carry this out.

I think that General Cain did a good job of laying out the framework of this operation and the fact that it was military and law enforcement.

And tomorrow we're going to have a briefing on this and look forward to more details.

Now, Sentry Blackburn.

Our friends in the left winging legacy media, whether it's George stefan Anopolis on ABC or the New York Times reporter today, are saying, what's it mean.

You're running it?

You're not running it?

And then Secretary of Rubiu, your old colleague for many years, said we're not letting any of the oil out.

We've got leverage.

And I understand what the President means when he says we're running it.

We're not having a Paul Bremer in Caracas like we did in Iraq, but we are running the show there because they're not going to be able to sell.

It's like being in bankruptcy court and we're the bankruptcy judge.

Do they not understand or are they being willfully ignorant.

I when you look at the statements they have made in years past about Maduro needing to be removed and the issue in Venezuela being dealt with, and now they're trying to do the flip flop, which they've become a pro at anything that Donald Trump is for, they are going to be against.

And you know you think it is as simple as that.

Okay, I agree with you because I know what he means.

And an if I'm not looking for an immediate transformation, I would like to get your estimate on how long it will be till we see the kind of move towards democracy.

I'm thinking two years to get the transition in place, and I think we've got agency people down there, and we certainly have the armada to enforce the quarantine.

How long until you think we'll see real change that Americans say, Ah, that's why we did that.

And I don't know the answer to that, because I'm not sure anyone at this point knows the answer to that question.

What we do know is that we are there to help stabilize, We are there to bring freedom.

We are not there to occupy and We certainly have heard from Venezuelan's whether they are in Tennessee or Florida or any of the other states.

They are so excited that they now have hope for stability in their country and getting their country back on track and moving it to productivity.

And I have a friend that sent me a text from one of his friends who is Venezuelan, who said, now my daughter will have a future.

And so that is what people are looking toward.

Exactly how that is going to roll out.

I don't think that we can give you a solid answer to that right now, because this is a situation that is developing, and even though we live in an age where people want instant gratification hughes, sometimes things.

Are going to take a little bit of time.

The good thing is we are there to help be a stabilizing presence in this region.

And I think Secretary Rubio explained it perfectly.

Well, they're not going to tell you well unless we let them, and we're not going to let them unless they move towards reform.

Now, Senator Blackburn, let's talk about becoming Governor Blackburn, we have a problem in the United States, blue state fraud.

It's been in Minnesota most obviously uncovered.

It's in New York.

I'm in California right now for a few weeks where gas costs four and a half dollars a gallon, and we had twenty billion dollars stolen from the COVID money by prisoners in jail filing unemployment insurance claims.

That we're honored.

Do you think Tennessee has got the kind of problem that Minnesota, New York and California does?

Is that what you're looking forward to when you become governor?

You know, I think Tennessee is a well led, well governed state, and this is why you see Tennessee being one of those states where people want to move.

Now.

One of the things that I think has been shocking to people is when you look at Minnesota, you are seeing such broad based fraud.

And this is on children's service programs.

But when you begin to add two that programs that deal with homelessness, with drug addiction, the way some of these grants have been made to nonprofits.

You also in Mississippi today.

There is a jury that is being seeded that is going to deal with fraud issues there.

You have some people that have pled guilty.

And someone else who is going to actually go to trial on this.

I think what we have seen is this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fraud in so many of these government programs.

You know, when you look at healthcare.

One of the.

Things we found in these plus Biden bonus COVID credits was a tremendous amount of fraud in the Obamacare program.

You've got twenty.

Four million people and roll twelve million never used the program.

That is why President Trump is saying, let's stop sending the money to the insurance company, send it to the individual, send it.

Back to the content.

Is what a concept.

So, Senator black Man, before we run out of time, what is your website for the governor's campaign?

I want to make sure the audience, especially in Tennessee, but across the United States, knows where they can go to get news about the campaign, make a contribution to the campaign, follow the campaign.

Where's the political website?

And that is Marsha Blackburn dot com.

That's easy, Marsha Blackburn dot com.

Last question, Senator, the Titans were awful, My Browns were awful.

You know the haslums.

Can you guys work it out?

So that the Browns and the Titans get better.

I want to make certain that Tennessee has winning teams.

Senator Marcell Blackman, always a pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you for joining me.

Don't go anywhere in America.

I'll be coming back with Byron York here on the US Show.

Welcome back.

I'm you as Byron York is with the Washington Examiner, is their chief correspondent.

You can read them daily over at Washington Examiner, dcexaminer dot com.

Actually Fox News contributor as well.

Byron.

It's been at least forty eight hours since we got some of the details in Venezuela.

What do you make of the assessments, not of the operation, it was brilliant, but of the assessments of the operation that we're now seeing in legacy media.

They're saying nothing has changed as bad as before.

Well, that you mean nothing nothing has changed in Venezuela, correct as or well?

Obviously the administration has been saying, you know what we want to do.

We're not going to run every single bit of every office Venezuela.

That's not what Trump means by running.

We're going to make it more pro American and we're going to ensure that they stop the drug trafficking, that they stop the mass migration, and we get rid of foreign influences a hostile to the United States in Venezuela.

So I think it's way too early to say that that has happened.

Now, who's going to be in charge of the police.

Is there going to be an election to stand someone up quickly?

I don't know.

I will say I think that for the President's sake, they should do what they're doing quickly, because if they're messing with this six months from now, it's going to be they're going to be one in the middle of midterm season and two open to charges of nation building, which would be a bad idea.

So Byron, the representative post I've taken to stand in for all of legacy media, and I do mean television, news and radio and columnists is Lulu of The New York Times.

Lulu Navarro.

Earlier today she posted speaking do people I know inside Venezuela, They tell me arm gangs parens basically paramilitary gangs.

Well I to the government are roaming the streets.

Arrests of journalists are taking place, and the new old government is undergoing a wave of repression.

Is this what the US means by being in control?

How do you react to that?

I'll give you a second take afterwards, but that's legacy media at its finest.

Well, look, I don't know what's happening on the streets of Venezuela right now, do you.

I mean no, really don't have a good feel of what's going on in the streets of Venezuela right now.

So I'm not going to say that any report is false or overdone.

But I do know what American officials are saying there are and what they plan to do, and I do know it can't be done in the forty eight hours we've been talking about now.

The second take, which I found in news item by John Ellis this morning, is from an immigration lawyer in New York, Eva Golnger, and she wrote, this is just a simple overview.

The government in Venezuela has been comprised of several groups.

They have a power sharing pact.

They control different sectors of the apparatus, security, military, Pueblo Collectivo's institution, judiciary, oil, industry, business, etc.

One of those groups, Delci and her brother Horge, have now taken power through a meticulous and evil genius negotiation with the Trump administration that has been going on for months behind the scenes.

Note that the new indictment against Maduro and Cilia includes both Maduro's son and Dioso Dado.

That is purposely to put them on alert that they are next should they betray their Ariga siblings.

CIA is now operating inside Venezuela and can execute another extraordinary rendition at any time on Trump's orders.

DELCIA has allowed to man in permitting them to stay.

The US Embassy is returning, along with all of it's intel and military support, and there's a lot more.

I posted over at my ex account.

I have no way of knowing if that's true either, but you know, that's a completely different view of what's going on, which is more like Kadafi two thousand and three than it is.

The New York Times reporter saying I've talked to people in New York and repression is happening.

I don't know.

I mean sorry, I'm the guest who knows nothing.

You and I are, We're equal.

We're together on this one.

Listen.

I simply don't know what's happening on the ground in Venezuela.

We you know, the United States has just swooped in and taken the president, decapitated the government, and begun some number of measures to insert new control over it and appoint some sort of new leadership in the relatively near future.

But I have no idea.

I would expect that's a pretty disquieting series of events in Venezuela, which was pretty much lawless on the government side anyway.

So I have no idea.

So what I do know is what Rubio told Stephanopoulos three times on Sunday.

We have a quarantine on their oil that gives us leverage.

So unless they make changes, they will sell no oil before it's time.

It's like the old Gallo Wine ad.

That means Cuba and China are in a world of hurt, and also mean Iran, which is falling apart as we speak, can't be exporting as much oil as it wants to.

That hurts China as well.

So taken as a whole, has the world improved for freedom from a year ago?

From a year ago?

Yeah?

I would yeah, I would think so absolutely.

You.

First of all, you have the Iranian nuclear program is been obliterated, and to use Trump's words, something, if not obliterated, dark to it.

So I think that's a positive right there.

And I think the United States has made clear this whole you know, this whole Trump corollary of the Monroe doctrine was in the National Security Strategy released by the administration in November.

You can read it.

It's it's pretty pretty clear, uh, and it really paves the way for what's just been done in Venezuela.

So I do think things are better.

Obviously, the war on Ukraine has not stopped.

The war in Gaza sort of has, but so I think on net net it's in the better shape.

And the border is closed US.

Mexico border absolutely, and.

Four point three percent GDP in quarter three.

I don't know.

I'm not a big fan of all these tariffs, but I'm also not as skeptical as some iologically absolutist free traders, and so I step back and say, I don't know how anyone can say Trump hadn't had a good first year.

I think he's had a great first year, Byron, and.

I think it's yeah, I think it's very positive.

And I do think you're right about the four point three percent GDP that was, like you know, every economic story about Trump on the newsday has the awards unexpected in it because they never expect GDP to get better.

They never expect inflation to stay the same or go down because they're expecting bad things.

And all of the calamitous predictions after the tariffs have just not really come to pass.

Yes, the tariffs have increased prices in some areas, there's no doubt about that, but nothing like the things that were predicted before, which was basically the democratic refrain of he's crashing the economy.

Go back to late March and April that they said it over and over and over again, he's crashing the economy.

Good luck with that with four percent four point three percent growth.

Last question Byron.

They also never account for substitutionary goods.

Some goods are impacted by terrorists, but you don't have to buy them.

There's always a substitute for them made in America.

I really, except for bananas and coffee.

I don't know what we don't make there or people can't choose.

I just don't know.

Well, we're out of time.

Byron ne York.

Always a pleasure to talk to you.

Follow him on x at Byron new York, subscribe to AS Newsletter and TC Examiner, and see him on Fox News Byron.

Thank you.

I'll be right back to America at the stay tut feel a little bit pinched.

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I'm here do it.

I get to introduce my new affiliate in Pensacola, Florida News Radio Pensacola ninety two point three w NRP to James Lylyx as in lilex on x, otherwise the funniest man on substack.

You can get his substack at James Lylyx dot substack dot com.

That's all one.

We're Jamelilyx dot substack dot com.

Lilex.

I have so much to cover with you.

We're gonna have to move fast.

First of all, my memory is failing me.

But on the huge cruise that you were kind enough to come on, we call it the Cold Cruise.

It was a Caribbean cruise and it was about fifty degrees out there.

Did we or did we not stop at an island in Venezuela.

We did not stop at an island.

We stopped at a place off the Honduras and we went and we you know, faft around with with dolphins.

But no, I don't believe that we did.

I thought we went to Cardahanga is Carda Hania partner.

I would love to be able to say that I've been to Venezuela and just count that little one stop there, but I don't believe.

So I will check my records and then I'll get back to you.

Is that the only time you've been to Venezuela?

Yeah, I remember that.

That might not.

It's not even Venezuela.

Yeah, No, Cartaga is Columbia.

And that was on the U crew that was on the Panama cruise.

As a matter of fact, So did you go on that one?

I did, don't you remember?

I don't remember anything, James.

Which would not have been Venezuela.

There are twenty five different cruises.

They all kind of cruised together, the U Cruises cruise.

Yes, well, I wouldn't know.

I wouldn't know, Hugh, because I haven't been on any of your cruises lately.

I stopped at two for some reason.

It may have been that unfortunate example, you know, instance in the bar that night that got me blacklisted.

But we can talk about you.

Well, that's not for the radio.

Okay.

Second question, Denmark has appealed for a meeting with Secretary of Rubio for Greenland.

You think that's well advised on their part.

Well, I'm not exactly sure.

Ruby has got an awful lot in this plate right now, and they might want to remind him that, in addition to being in charge of Venezuela and several of the things, he probably doesn't want to take Venezuela doesn't want to take Greenland onto his plate.

But I you know, I'm drawing the line at annex in Greenland.

I really am.

You know.

I've been all for these muscular strikes that decapitate the Iranian nuclear facilities and do what they did in Venezuela.

But the idea of somehow of gathering the huge bouncey of Greenland into the national arms, I'm not quite there.

I'm all in favor it.

Did you ever read Red Storm Rising when Tom Clancy was in his of his power.

Remember when John Clark drossed on the it was Greenland or Iceland?

I get him confused.

But John Clark dropped there and set up the station where we intercepted all the Reskies.

Right.

Well, I tend to think that we could probably get what we wanted out of there in terms of military strategy and the communic case of a pinch without.

Actually making it the fifty first flag.

We can loose the American economy in other ways, rather than pausing everybody to go out and get a different flag, because everybody now would have to go out and get a different flag because it would have another star.

Yeah, but you did it in Minnesota.

You just put up a new flag in Minnesota.

I'm coming there.

That's my fourth point.

I'm going to get to the Have you got the new flag?

Yeah?

Yeah, No, I've got the old flag.

I'm that much of a reventious I'm that much of a traditionalist that I actually have the old flag castigated by all for it's bad messages, but yes I do, and it's right next to my one with five oh count them five o stars.

We don't want to make Greenland esteak that can be like Puerto Rico, a commonwealth, And we just want to keep the chi Coms out of our two hundred mile national waters.

If they're going to come up with the nine dash line for the waters off China for the China Sea.

We need Greenland and we can keep them out.

That's why we need Greenland.

I don't think we need Gleenland.

We can probably do it without angering everybody there and confirming the worst suspicions.

That everybody has of it.

Usually, I don't care if our worse subbicions are confirmed, because it means that we're feared as opposed to being you know, doormat.

But this is just an unforced error.

No, no, I want Greenland.

We must part ways here.

Talk to me about legacy media and Venezuela.

Are they that dumb?

Are they simply ignorant?

Or are they deceitful because they keep saying they don't know what it means to run Venezuela the way we are running Venezuela is, which is as a bankruptcy judge runs a company in bankruptcy.

Yeah right.

I mean there's a lot of moving parts here, are a lot of clogging blogging parts that have to be made of heavy oil.

So no, I don't trust anybody actually in the media to be able to get wrap their hands around this.

I expect them to touch tutt and cluck cluck, And unfortunately, in this case, you know, it's sort of hard to touch up and cluck cluck a lot when the guy is so manifestly unpopular and has done so many bad things, bad things, and when you impress upon them to the fact that are on in China and Russia or no, on their backfoot because of what we did there, and it was a pretty good geopolitical move and shows that America is back baby, and the rest of it it doesn't, you know, Either they just shut up and slink away, or they make some argument about legality.

And I always loved the legality argument because the idea that the world is governed by words instead of the blade of the sword is a nice little fiction that we still inherit from the nineteen nineties of the Oughts.

But tats so I politically convenient.

Now my last question, my last question for the segment.

Did you get any of the money in Minnesota?

Are you the only guy that missed it?

No?

I actually have declared I think seven point eight million dollars since the year two thousand and when I began a daycare here in my house.

Now, when I say a daycare in my house, I mean I was taking care of my daughter after she was born and continued to do so for eighteen years.

I figured that that probably qualifies as a daycare.

So, you know, I haven't put in for it yet, but I'm.

Going to try retroactively.

It might not be a good time to try retroactively.

Maybe not.

Do you think Governor Walls quit because he wanted to focus on governing?

Yes, I know that's right.

I am so devoted to the practice of brain surgery.

I'm chopping off both of my hands and dashing.

On both my eyes.

No, of course not.

He saw the polls and the party gave a nice little shove because behind him, if Amy Klobshar is actually going to fill the role, is one of the most trusted politicians I think at the state.

And Amy Klobshar is going to run, That's what I'm hearing.

Going to swapp her in and something like that.

You know.

Oh but then no, may be wrong, but nobody wants to work for her.

Oh yes they do, Yes they do.

It's the little millennials who don't like a comb throw them into the thrown at them because they forgot to do something promptly and have to go off and cry on Tumblr.

No, No, people like to work for her because she's generally smart and no nonsense.

And I mean there are worse people to work for in Washington, to believe me.

But I know that if she runs, that means no one will know any of the senators in Minnesota.

Right now, they know who Amy Klobear is.

Yes, Smith is.

The unless of course they put unless, of course they put Tim Watson the spot in the Senator.

In the Senator, they just move around like that.

That would be that would give Maria Harono a run for money.

Actually, if they put yeah, I'm just not sure where that's going to happen.

James, it's good to have you back.

I want everyone to keep it abroad with John Clark doing Tom Clancy like mission, I would like everyone to know.

You can go to James Lys dot substack dot com, follow him on exit Liles James Lys dot substack dot com.

We'll find out about his application for childcare status next week on the user j just too