B (3:21)

150 aircraft.

C (3:23)

Yeah. Help us understand what kind of aircraft and what were they doing for we laymen, just give us the broad outlines of the complexity of the operation.

A (3:32)

So all the levers of forces that we have in power were applied here. Aircraft that took out their air defense systems, drones monitoring, surveillance helicopters, shuttling in the 75th Rangers. You know, this was, if you had to give a visual, it's kind of like Black Hawk down back from the 90s, that failure of a mission, unfortunately. But you know, the fact that we had the rangers in there protecting the strike force, which is the Delta guys that go in and extract people like this, this is their mission. We know that they ended up practicing this for months before they had a set up and they had done this. I'm still surprised that Maduro didn't have 30,000 troops surrounding him. I mean, given the fact that, you know, he knew the United States was going after him. So it still is just incredible about those soldiers getting in. But every single one of those aircraft had a mission either bringing troops in, gathering surveillance, taking out targets. Just a real high combination. And you notice General King kept talking about the joint force. The joint for that is the difference between us and every other military out there. This is why the Russians are wallowing a novocaine in Ukraine. Right. They can't jointly bring all their forces together to make, to attack something and move forward with it. They don't combine air power with ground power and isr, they just go one at a time. But in this case, the United States is able to take, with interagency, take all of these levers of power and bring them together and create this incredible fist that can take anybody out that we choose to.

B (5:02)

Like give me an idea of how risky this would have been. Like if you do it 10 times, are you successful eight times or would you have any guess on that?

A (5:12)

Well, that's why we all sat around and said this just wasn't going to happen. It wasn't even a kind of A course of action. And I was talking to guys that were the highest levels of jsoc and, you know, that had been in that spot, they just thought it was going to be just too difficult. The element of surprise, just maintaining that, that alone was a factor that just was incredible. And then the weather played. I mean, D Day type invasion, as we all thought. We thought that, yeah, if they thought they would move 20,000 to 25,000 troops or so, because we thought they had to get an egress point in, but they were able to take out any of the air defense systems. So the other thing this does too is that it shows once again the total crap of Russian military equipment, because that's what's been surrounding Venezuela when it comes to their air defense system. So the SA300, you might as well put it in a museum right now, because anybody who has it is never going to use it again because the United States just blew right by it. So we take out the air defense platforms, we take out their systems, and then we've shut the power off in the country. I mean, again, there's no other country in the world that can do this. But to say that you wouldn't expect a casualty or you wouldn't expect something to go wrong, very unlikely. In this case, 8 out of 10 times something else would go wrong. You'd have the expectation commanders expect losses. You'd have an expectation you lose something, right?

C (6:27)

Yeah. A miraculous success. I was struck by General Kane saying, we rehearsed this over and over and over again, not so that we could get it right, but so that it couldn't go wrong. Now, obviously, fate and God intervene, but that's a philosophy that we civilians don't. I hadn't heard articulated in that way before.

A (6:48)

Yeah, that's a result of Desert One and the fact that you have to plan. When I was on active duty, we said, we're going to plan to get slimed.

B (6:55)

Right.

A (6:56)

What's going to happen to us along the way? And you have to plan for every one of those contingencies, rehearse them so they're second nature, so you know exactly what to do. It's that playbook, checklist mentality that the military has military trains for that within our military because of this thing called commander's intent. Right. I'm watching people try to say, oh, the soldiers, the sailors, they don't know where they're going. You know, we're invading Venezuela. None of that. Everybody got the mission. Everybody knew what the mission was. Get in, get out, exfiltrate the guy, get them in and out. Everybody knows commander's intent. And that's what's another thing that makes our military work better than everybody else's.

B (7:32)

Well, as you're talking to some of your friends who've been there, done that with, with regime change and nation building and everything, is there some concern that we're gonna have boots on the ground trying to keep Venezuela a stable place for a certain amount of time?

A (7:48)

I don't think so. This is not Iraq. We don't have 100,000 troops there. This was not an invasion. And it's also not regime change. Their constitution has put their vice president, Delsey Rodriguez, now in charge. And we've given her the message, you're either gonna play ball or not. And if you're not gonna play ball, you might find yourself in a pair of white tennis shoes and a Nike jumpsuit, sitting in the back of a Special Forces helic if you don't play ball. And the thing about it is, this is what we want to do. We're taking control. Taking control of 300 billion barrels of reserve crude oil in our hemisphere and not allowing the Chinese, by the way, the Iranians had already built a drone facility manufacturing drones in Venezuela. The Chinese are taking their oil, the Russians and their military. This is long overdue to take care of this situation right now. I mean, this has been so. This will be so pivotal for our country, and from a generational perspective on how we've reset the world and reset the economy and the energy market in particular, it's fantastic.

C (8:48)

We're talking to military analysts, Mike Lyons. Mike, I mentioned earlier in the show that you almost have to compartmentalize each part of this because you always want to leap to the next part. And you kind of did, which is a great discussion. And I'm a little mystified by this. The operation was amazing, and as a demonstration of American power, I think it will echo around the globe, and it should. But going forward, can we exercise levers power effectively enough to get what we need out of the Venezuelan regime, given the fact that they are still what they were, and this gal who's in charge now is a hardcore Maduroite socialist?

A (9:28)

Well, we're gonna find out. And she controls the military right now. And he's basically said we'd come back in if we had to. So we're gonna let this thing stew for a little bit. Again, it's not been regime change right now. It's just different person running the country right now. I've got conf that we'll put enough pressure on them, we will then start to take over the petroleum assets and where they actually pump oil from, and we'll do all those kinds of things, which is what we're trying to do here. We're trying to get to, I think. So, for example, this administration, the Trumps, was not keen about restoring Machado. That was the individual who won the Nobel Peace Prize from this last year and was duly elected.

C (10:09)

The party won the last election. Right, right.

A (10:12)

But Realpolitik on the ground. She doesn't control anything. You know, it's. Right now, this is hardcore human nature. Who controls the military? This is for grownups. This is not for theoretical people that are running the government. She's got no legitimacy, unfortunately. I hate to say it like that, but she doesn't to run the government. So we're going to give this person Rodriguez a chance because she does control the military and the oil. We're going to cut a deal with her, I'm sure, and we'll move this down the road. And if we do it, this is again, Trump with leverage. He is the leverage Meister getting leverage of oil right now. The fact that we have this control now over their oil puts Canada on notice, China on notice. China might not be able to invade Taiwan now. They only have 25 billion barrels in reserve. They might not have the energy to do it now. So there's so much leverage that was gained by this operation that without even a casualty being gone, I just can't talk about it so much.

C (11:09)

So if this gal doesn't come around, we snatch her up and then the person after her, and before long, it's like being the head of isis. You know, the first thing you do when you get the job is you write your will.

A (11:18)

Yeah, right. You know what's funny was that they got asked the question, like, Marco Ruby got asked the question over the weekend about why did you just take him? Why didn't you take all his other henchmen? It's like, do you not get. Do you not hear yourself? I mean, that was because the mission of getting that one person, which is the person. So again, it's all done legally, too, which is really why we go in there in the first place under this guise of, you know, getting him from. Legally, from a drug perspective, you can't argue against it. Again, you know, the Democrats wanted to. Wanted him out five years ago. They just didn't have the nerve to do what we did.

C (11:52)

Military analyst Mike Lyons. Yeah, Marco gave a fine spanking to Margaret Brennan, I wanted to ask you.

B (12:00)

This before we let you go. I purposely went to New Orleans over vacation just to go to the World War II Museum. I assume you've been there before.

A (12:09)

I have. Amazing. Just, you know, the story, you know, starts in that rail car and you walk through.

B (12:15)

That's the most amazing museum I've ever been to anywhere in the world. It absolutely incredible.

A (12:20)

A lot of presence there and just the sacrifices made and we just should never forget and we're getting further from that generation, but it's just incredible. I would advise everybody to go there. My classmate actually is one of the directors there, works down there and they hold nice events there, but just the history, historical, what they've captured there is just amazing.

B (12:38)

Tell them I'm impressed.

C (12:40)

Yeah, yeah. I want to hear more about that from you, Jack, as well, Mike Lyons. Mike, thanks so much for the time. Great to talk to you.

A (12:46)

Great guys. Thanks for having me.

C (12:48)

All right, Our pleasure. Yeah.

B (12:49)

Oh, man, is this an exciting time of the year and where you got to get involved in price picks. We have got the brackets all set up for everything and you know, we know how it's going to play out somewhat at least who's going to play. So the Price Picks app today, right?

C (13:02)

It's good to be right. Trying something new can be hard, but in life. And prize Picks, it's good to be right. With high pressure playoff matches every weekend, elite hoops action almost every night, the action never stops and prize picks lets you take control.

B (13:16)

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C (13:29)

They even have early payouts. If your player gets off to a hot start, you now have the option to cash out those winnings before the game even finishes. The idea is super simple. You just pick more or less on at least two player stat projections and go from there. Download the Prize Picks app today. Use the code Armstrong to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That code is ARMSTRONG to get $50 in lineups AFTER you play your first five dollar lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right.

B (13:56)

Can you imagine the political disaster it would have been if this operation hadn't worked?

C (14:03)

Oh, I'd rather not.

B (14:05)

Holy cow. The fallout from that would have been something else. And then the geopolitical fallout, obviously, as you're saying It's a pretty big deal that we accomplished what we did and if we hadn't accomplished it, the guy would still be there. Anyway, we got a lot to talk about. I hope you can join us. By the way, the text line 415295 KFTC Armstrong and Gettysburg this episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. Whether you're starting a new routine or making player picks for the first time, trying something new can be hard. But in life and on Price Picks, it always feels good to be right.

C (14:35)

You got high pressure playoff matchups almost every weekend, he elite hoops almost every night. The action never stops and Prize Picks lets you take control.

B (14:43)

By the way, Prize Picks now has early payouts. If your player gets off to a hot start, you now have the option to cash out those winnings before the game even finishes.

C (14:51)

Yeah, it's really innovative. If you want flexibility, choose Flex Play where you can get paid even if one of your picks miss. Or if you want the biggest payouts, go for the power play. No matter your play, Price Picks is a great way to put your takes to the test and it's super easy. You just pick at least two players and say they're going to do more or less than their stat projections. Prize Picks offers venmo, Apple Pay, MasterCard and more for quick and easy deposits.

B (15:10)

Into your account, download the Prize Picks app today and use the code Armstrong to get $50 in lineups after you play your first first five dollar lineup. That code is ARMSTRONG to get $50 in lineups AFTER you play your first five dollar lineup. Prize picks it's good to be right. My resolution for this year, my plan is to have $75 automatically deducted from my checking account every month without ever going to the gym at all. Not even the first time. Yeah, you could do that. You absolutely could do that. I will be going to the gym today having just gotten back from vacation yesterday and I'm sure it will be jam packed of people in brand new workout clothes.

C (15:49)

Oh yeah, yeah, I'll be wearing my old workout clothes, but I too will be burning some calories which is badly needed. Again if I was a state fair hog. The vacation went great. Really looking at a ribbon this year. But I'm not.

B (16:02)

You see, as of yesterday you were up six some from before Thanksgiving. That's pretty impressive.

C (16:07)

Yeah, well that's one word for it. Yes. Yes. It'll kill me. Anyway. Nice. Thank God for the new stretchy fabrics that American science has developed.

B (16:18)

Right? That's the. That's the good Way to make lemonade out of lemons right there. But we live in a time with stretchy pants, right? Why not?

C (16:26)

And it's American ingenuity. Oh, speaking of which, I came across this. You know this, Jack, all social issue polling needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Okay? And that's true of this, too. But the Arch Bridge Institute, which I'm judging from the. The writing style of their chief operating officer, is. Is a patriotic outfit, a conservative outfit, but they did a bunch of polling on the American Dream, and it. It came, Whatever that means. And, and that's one of the great, you know, dishonest journalistic topics of our time, is they just kind of assume the American Dream means whatever they want it to for the prem story.

A (17:10)

And.

C (17:11)

And then they declare that it's dead or people think it's dead or whatever. But then when you get down to. Wait a minute. How do you define the American Dream? You think that's a stupid definition? I don't think that's what I mean by it. Anyway, they asked. Well, first they said about 70% of Americans in their poll believe they have achieved or are on their way to achieving the American dream. But more significantly, I think they asked them, what do you think that phrase means? What do you value about life when you talk about the American dream? And freedom of choice in how to live? Was the number one answer, 83%. I want to live the life I choose.

B (17:51)

That's pretty good definition.

C (17:53)

That's a great definition.

B (17:55)

I've always gone with, if you. If you work hard and follow the rules, you can get ahead. Now, a lot of people deny that. I still believe it's true.

C (18:03)

Oh, you're a fool if you deny that. I mean, you are definitely part of the times you're living in. Sometimes are easier than others, others sometimes are harder than others. Sometimes your skill set, which was valuable yesterday, isn't as valuable today. But what is the alternative? You know, the warm embrace of collectivism? Good Lord.

B (18:22)

Yeah, we can talk more about that.

C (18:24)

Having a good family life was also very, very high on the list at 80%. Only 15% said becoming wealthy, whatever that means, is essential to achieving the American dream.

B (18:34)

Well, I'm happy to hear that.

C (18:36)

And contrary to the narratives of declining opportunity, just 23% of Americans believe they have less opportunity than their par did. And again, this is all debatable and interesting, but they also point. And one of the main points of this article is that they saw over and over again that Americans, real Americans, not journalists, not talking heads on Cable TV really are fond of their country. Most Americans view the US as a key driver of global progress leadership. They believe this is a country of optimism and possibility. All those things are true. Don't let anybody talk you out of it.

B (19:17)

Look at the new Joe bringing the sunshine. How long will this last? Critics want to know.

A (19:22)

Armstrong and Getty Freeman.

B (19:25)

Joe, free him now. Free Maduro. Free him now. Here's the Venezuela now. Okay, funny.

C (19:34)

Wait a second.

B (19:35)

So that's Free Maduro. Free him now. Portland protesters, but it appears to be like three people involved in this, so I don't know how widespread that was.

C (19:44)

The hilariously idiotic reaction of the left to the Maduro raid coming up next hour. Stay with us. Not to be missed, but that reminded me.

B (19:53)

I came across, I read a ton of projections, predictions, that sort of stuff from various people, and it was hilarious. I was listening to the National Review podcast, which I really like. Super smart people, you know, as dialed into the news as you can get, way more than me and everything like that. Unfortunate for them, it was released the day we went in and took Maduro. One of the questions was, where will Maduro be a year from now?

C (20:20)

And four of the five I know.

B (20:22)

And four of the five of them said, he'll still be in power. So that just shows you how surprising this whole thing was. People who follow this stuff closely for a living thought he'd still be in.

C (20:32)

Power in a year.

B (20:33)

That night he got snatched up. But anyway, one of the predictions from historian Neil Ferguson, who I really, really like. His 2026 forecast, more war, more anti Semitism, less unity.

C (20:46)

Well.

B (20:47)

Oh, that sounds great.

C (20:49)

Maybe you keep that to yourself, Neil. Wow.

B (20:52)

Who invited him to the party? That's no fun. One thing I am looking forward to in 26, though, is the new CBS. Have you been following their rollout of their promos and everything like that, where they're vowing all these different things they're going to do and man, it, it, it sounds fantastic. I hope they can. I think they will live up to it with Barry Weiss there in charge. The, the, the big question is, and, and the, the, the nuts and bolts of it is they're gonna try to not lean one way or the other and they're gonna try to represent, you know, a point of view in America that gets left out. I was thinking about that as I was watching the news coverage. So I saw the polling that 2/3 of Americans think this was a good thing. Well, that wasn't reflected in the news coverage. The Venezuela thing. Two thirds Thought it was a good thing. Well, there ought to be more news stations that reflect what the bulk of people think. Not that you have to go along with the mob, because a mob's often wrong, but just acknowledge the fact that the mob thinks this. And if you don't think it's right, then maybe lay out some reasons why you think it's wrong, but just to assume everybody agrees with you that it's awful. So annoying. Yeah. And CBS is gonna try really hard not to do that. I saw Jan Crawford, their legal correspondent. Actually, I'll bet some of these people at cbs, it seems to me, are feeling free now. They're feeling like, oh, wow, I can. I can be the journalist I want to be. And Jan Crawford, their legal analyst forever on cbs, seemed that way to me when she was on Face the Nation last Sunday and they were doing their year roundup. And she said, one thing I would like to see is a restoration of respect for the Supreme Court. She said, there's that disbelief out there that the Supreme Court is a Trump court and out of whack. And she said, it's just not true, statistically.

C (22:42)

And I thought, that's fantastic.

B (22:44)

And I'll bet she's been wanting to say this for years, but she would have just gotten killed by their viewership.

C (22:52)

Well, and her management and her co workers, because there was no coverage. You know, you saw, speaking of Barry Weiss, when she dared to say stuff even kind of like that at the New York Times, the wolves came out for her and hounded her. Well, do wolves hound people? That's weird. It's like an interspecies thing. Anyway, they hounded her out of the newsroom, and now that's not going to happen. You know, Jan Crawford, I always thought of her. It's like, you know, the wink and the nod that, like, back in the day, a couple of gay guys might exchange her a couple of pot heads or whatever, you know, reference to pot, and their eyes meet and all. I always got the idea Jan Crawford was like a closeted, at least reasonable person, if not conservative, because occasionally she'd show signs. She'd give you that wink. Yep, I'm with you.

B (23:38)

I'm gonna be interested to see if it can work, if CBS can do that and get any ratings and, you know, how much pushback will there be? I've already seen a lot online about how awful CBS is, and people won't watch it anymore. Not so they might shut up. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they're gonna get some of the Fox audience. Who, who knows? I did see a year end roundup of ratings for television and the big networks in primetime are now averaging about 4 million. 4 million people. NBC, CBS, ABC in prime time averages about 4 million. And in the prime demo it's way less than that because it's mostly super old people who haven't figured out other channels yet.

C (24:19)

Well, unless there are a bunch of guys chucking a football back and forth, I can't imagine watching network TV in prime time. I can't remember the last time I did. Maybe it was like, you know, I, I tuned into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame induction there for about 10 minutes.

B (24:36)

Henry and I got into Tracker for a while which I think is the number one show on television or at least it while last year as a drama and it was kind of is like an old timey experience to watch a show that's on Thursday nights at 8 on CBS and there's commercials and stuff like that. Who's still doing this?

C (24:51)

Did you watch it in real time?

B (24:53)

No, absolutely not.

C (24:55)

Who's.

B (24:56)

Who could do that?

C (24:57)

Well, I just, I wondered as a father and son if having that appointment might be kind of warm and cool.

B (25:04)

No, we watched it whenever we wanted and we binge watched it the way a good American should do it. You go back and get all the episodes. I sit corrected. Something I didn't know is going to happen in a couple of weeks we are going to the moon again just in a couple of weeks. NASA is sending astronauts around the moon. Not on the moon, but around the moon for the first time in over 50 years. Launch window is just a couple of weeks away. So I got to imagine with modern equipment we are going to get some stunning pictures of the moon here in a couple of weeks.

C (25:33)

Excellent, excellent.

B (25:35)

And won't that change our lives?

C (25:36)

Then they land and wipe their butts with the Chinese flag and show that Takami's what for.

B (25:41)

Maybe that's it. Maybe we're saying we're not going to land on the moon.

C (25:44)

Right.

B (25:45)

But we're going to do the old. Well while we're here, land and then do what you said. Take the Chinese flag and wipe themselves. Or, or do the whole flossing between the legs thing, astronaut suits with the flag.

C (25:58)

It's a good option. Or you leave it in place and just in, in place of the, the little star at the middle or whatever's on there, you put a picture of Winnie the Pooh. I mean how much would that piss off Xi Jinping?

B (26:11)

Another year End pod. That reminds me, another year end podcast I was listening to from the Dispatch. They were talking about undercovered stories and one of the correspondents said it's going on right now and this was at the end of the year and I didn't follow it at all. The back and forth between night the, the new leader of Japan and President Xi of China, really hot rhetoric back and forth over Taiwan that the world's completely ignoring because it's Christmas season and Trump and various other things going on, but just like could change the world forever. Sort of conversations between Japan and China. And having just been to The World War II Museum, which laid out pretty clearly the amazingly violent history between those two countries. Not to mention that if China jumps ugly with or if Japan jumps ugly with Japan, in theory we're supposed to come to their aid or be on.

C (27:07)

Their side in theory, by treaty. Sacred, decades old treaty.

B (27:13)

Yeah, still wonder if we would. But yeah. So that's a hot spot to keep your eye on. That's very, very exciting.

C (27:21)

Now, I know you. You're well acquainted with Japan's horrific history in World War II. Do you have any sort of cognitive dissonance in picturing them as an ally against China? Is that odd at all?

B (27:33)

I don't think so.

C (27:33)

Times change, right?

B (27:35)

Times change. Yeah. That's a long time ago. Let bygones be bygones, huh?

C (27:39)

Those are some bygones.

B (27:41)

And I was at the World War II Museum in New Orleans, which I, I will say every time it comes up, that is absolutely worth the trip just to do that. It is the best museum I've ever been to. I don't know how many people are aware of this, but there wasn't a World War II museum in the country until not that long ago. And when Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan and got on a World War II kick, they were shocked to find out there was no World War II Museum. And they got behind making sure we have one. And because they are very well connected, rich, powerful people with rich, powerful friends. And that movie made such a mark on people. They raised gazillions of dollars to build this museum. And also because they're entertainers, I think it isn't like a lot of museums that seem like it was designed by your 5th grade social studies teacher with the ultimate goal of putting you to sleep or taking something interesting and turning it dull is made by, you know, Hollywood people who understand storytelling and audio visual and all that sort of stuff. So just from an entertainment standpoint, it's so damn good.

C (28:47)

No, I will go to New Orleans to do that. While I'm there, may I drink to blackout vomit in the streets and exhort strange women to show me their breasts? While I'm there, I saw a lot.

B (28:58)

Of really drunk people. Oh, I got to tell this story before we take a break. This is my favorite drunk guy story, and I have been around a lot of drunk people in my life. I mean, I have spent my time with drunk people. I. I've got the. The street cred for that. No doubt. But I had never seen this before. So my oldest son and I are in this bar, restaurant, watching a band. Music was so great everywhere. Very freaking cool. I mean, it reminded me, like, when you go to Nashville, if you were a kind of wannabe musician like I am, it makes you want to cut off your hands and burn your instruments.

C (29:31)

Yes. Your instruments up. Yes.

B (29:33)

At least everybody you come across is, like, stunningly good. Everybody. Trombone players were, like, what? I mean, just all over the place.

C (29:42)

Well, and what if. What if you were that good and got to New Orleans or Nashville and realized, oh, my God, there's 780me within three square blocks, right?

B (29:50)

Hey, there's another guy in the corner. Plays just as good as you with a hat out in front of him. Anyway, so I go into the restroom, and we're standing at the urinals. Ladies, I don't know if you know how urinals work. We got a bathroom system in there where it's just. It's up against the wall, and you get to stand there, and the wall is right there in front of you, which has never really been a problem for me, but there was this drunk guy in the stall next to me, and he kept. He was going to unzip his pants to do his thing, and he kept bending forward and hitting his head on the wall.

C (30:20)

Oh, no, he'd been for it.

B (30:22)

And he hit his head on the wall. He's like, damn it.

C (30:25)

And then he.

B (30:25)

And then he goes back to doing his pants, and he bends over, hit his head again. Son of a. God damn. I mean, he was cussing. And I wish I should do this on the podcast so I could use his words flipping funny. And he did it no less than six times.

C (30:38)

Oh, my God.

B (30:39)

His head on the cement. He's got Mutter.

C (30:41)

Oh, it was cement.

B (30:42)

Yes. And he was so mad, and he had the anger of, like, somebody was doing it to him.

C (30:49)

And he just.

B (30:50)

Didn'T understand where these blows to the head were coming from.

C (30:53)

Right? Stop it. Stop it.

B (30:56)

You Son of a. I wanted to tell him, dude, you got to quit bending over, there's a wall here.

C (31:02)

And he goes, it, look, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.

B (31:07)

I feel like this is going to continue until you become aware of the fact.

C (31:11)

Well, until you've got a brain bleed going.

B (31:13)

Oh my God, he was hammered. It wasn't that late. I wonder how his day turned out. I should have followed him around. I'm not sure if he made that. There's a lot of people like that in New Orleans. That whole Bourbon street scene, that was not my thing even when I was in my twenties. Just that, that thing, just you know, whatever. Cheap, crappy drinks and loudness.

C (31:37)

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Is that for people who don't drink much? I don't just want to take it completely, wildly over the top and then go back to their fairly sober lives or what?

B (31:47)

I don't, I don't know. I was there for. We were walking down there on New Year's Eve and I was looking around thinking, how is this entertaining for anyone? We were walking back to our hotel.

C (31:58)

Yeah, as a drunk, I've always said no thanks.

B (32:00)

I know I was a drunk and I, that that was not my scene. I wanted to tell him, you know, if you go like three blocks over that way, there are bars with amazing music in it and, and you know, really cool things happening. But, or, or you can stand here with a bunch of 20 somethings and get out of your mind on really crappy cheap plastic cup drinks until you throw up and fall over.

C (32:21)

Man.

B (32:21)

The police presence though, the security, I don't get that. I haven't come across. I want to have that conversation at some point because I just think it's such a waste of taxpayer money. There were squad cars with lights on every hundred feet throughout the city. National Guard all over the place. Cops and horses. And what does everybody say to me? What did everybody say to me? Every single person? Well, because of the terrorist attack last year and what? And so you think there's going to be this one again this year that has never happened. Not one time has that ever happened.

C (32:58)

Where they put the next year.

B (33:00)

Right, yeah, that's never happened.

C (33:03)

It's not the way it works.

B (33:04)

Yeah. Even after 9 11, I've never seen security like they had in New Orleans on New Year's Eve because of the terrorist attack last year. Which makes no sense whatsoever. I mean you couldn't walk 10ft feet without a guy with like a full on military rifle.

C (33:19)

Wow.

B (33:19)

And what do we pay for that anyhow. That's a different topic. We got a lot more news to get to the. To our mind, ridiculous reaction of the left to taking Maduro. I don't know what their argument is. Among other things on the way. Stay here.

C (33:34)

Armstrong and Getty.

B (33:37)

Billy Joel surprising fans who came to see a Billy Joel tribute band in South Florida. The piano man himself joined the group for his first performance since he revealed his brain disorder diagnosis last year. Joel sang two of his hits, We.

C (33:51)

Didn't Start the Fire and Big Shot Good for Billy.

B (33:55)

Interesting choice was that we didn't start the Fire. Was that just to show that his brain still worked? Because the lyrics would be hard to remember on that.

C (34:02)

Yeah, he forgot a couple of them and the singer of the tribute band helped him out. But yeah, he must have been, you know, in the town and saw Billy Joel tribute. I got to check that out. That'd be hilarious.

B (34:11)

How crazy would you go if you went to a tribute band and the actual act walked out?

C (34:15)

That's funny. Yeah. Nuts. So, hey, I at least want to start this. I'll bet you did not hear about this over the last couple of weeks. I would not have unless I was alerted to it by our good friend Tim Sandifer of the Goldwater Institute. There was an enormously important like super bowl of liberty win at the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. They ruled in favor of a group of school employees who argued that their free speech rights were violated when they were forced to endure a DEI training session that declared the usual stuff, calling the police on black people and treating kids of color as adults are forms of white supremacy, blah, blah, blah. Goldwater Institute filed a friends of the court brief. Friend of the court brief. It's a typical story, and a lot of you sounds familiar to school officials in Springfield, Missouri, ordered employees to attend meetings where they are taught, you know, your DEI crap. That America's legal, economic, social and cultural institutions were saturated with, quote, covert white supremacy, manifested in everything from claiming reverse racism to color blindness. White people are inherently privileged. They're morally obligated not only to acknowledge your privilege, but to renounce that privilege and. And to shut up and not talk if black people are in the room or whatever, told their views were confused and wrong, not allowed to object. They were told their disagreement was having a conversation about football and bringing up baseball, whatever that means. But they were forced to shut up, stay silent, and then they were all given a test. And if you did not have the correct answers, it would damage your employment. Now, the trial judge in the original case, threw it out, said it was trivial. Can you effing imagine that?

A (36:00)

Wow.

C (36:01)

I abhor political violence, but the things I would like to do to that trial judge. Well, I'd like to give him a stern talking to. But anyway, the 8th Supreme. I'm sorry, the 8th Circuit Court said, no, that's wildly unconstitutional. Not only is it compelled speech, but it's the government telling people what to think and that they have to think it or the government will punish them as school employees. And so they absolutely hammered, hammered that law. This could echo throughout the land, folks. This is a gigantic. This is a Gettysburg sized victory for liberty. And it passed mostly unnoticed because I think a lot of your media outlets are a little uncomfortable reporting it.

B (36:43)

Plus it happened during that period where we just don't pay attention to hardly anything.

C (36:47)

True enough.

B (36:48)

Which is kind of weird to decide there's a couple weeks during the year, it doesn't matter how big the story is, we're just going to ignore it.

C (36:54)

Well, I enjoyed the hell out of it, so I get, I get why.

B (36:58)

It happens, but yeah, I think it break through somehow.

C (37:02)

Yeah. Yeah. But again, this was absolutely covered up. This is huge.

B (37:07)

The reverse of that is. So for a couple of weeks we'll ignore giant stories. Then you go back to the world where you cover stupid crap that means nothing as if it's a giant story. Right.

C (37:22)

You know, it's funny, I wish they were popping into my mind right now because I thought of a couple of them over the break. Hey, anybody bring up X to you during vacation? No, they didn't. And everybody was yelling at each other for a week about it, like a month ago.

B (37:34)

Right? Yeah.

A (37:37)

Armstrong and Getty. This is an I heart podcast.

B (37:43)

Guaranteed human.