Paul Rykoff (32:21)
Now this is very exciting news for independents, for vets, for Montana and for America. The movement took a big step forward today. Seth is an outstanding leader. I've gotten to know him over the last couple of months, and I think he will show that independents can win. This may be the single most competitive race for an independent veteran in America. And if we can get him in the Senate as an independent Fulcrum, everything changes. He's the latest independent to answer the call. I've been talking about it and highlighting it and supporting this movement as more and more independent veterans and independent candidates are declaring their independence and declaring their intention to run. You've heard from folks like Adrian Bonnenberger, who just announced he's running in Connecticut. You've heard from Lindsey Church and you've heard from others and iva Independent Veterans America is looking to support seth Bodnar and 99 other independent candidates running this fall. So if you're one of them, if you want to be one of them, if you're interested in supporting them, we are recruiting. We want more Seth Bodiners. We want more Dan Osborne. We want more Lindsay Churches to step up and meet this moment. Go to independentveteransamerica.org and if you can't run, you can support, you can share, you can donate. And I look forward to having Seth on this show soon. Follow his lead, declare your independence and put country over party. America needs you now more than ever because the Republicans are morally bankrupt and mean and the Democrats suck and they won't save you and they're weak. But independent candidates and independent voters, we're the people's champion. We're not just moving the needle. We are the needle and we are the future. So stay vigilant. All right. Finally, in sports, I've skipped over sports for the last couple of shows because frankly, I just didn't have the interest or the time to track on it. But sports is an important part of our culture and it's still continuing. Lots of folks aren't paying attention to the war and just watching the NBA where my Knicks are doing pretty well lately and whoop, the spurs this weekend, an impressive one. But something else is coming up that is interesting in that it intersects with all of our politics. The World Baseball Classic is coming up and I'm pretty excited about that. My boys are pretty excited about that. There are a lot of Yankees who are going to be playing for a number of different teams. Aaron Judge is going to play for the U.S. austin Wells is going to play for the Dominican Republic. Jazz Chisholm is going to play for Great Britain. And it could be a really fun distraction over the next couple of weeks. But there will be 20 teams from around the world, including Venezuela and Nicaragua and Cuba. So the question is how many of these countries will Trump attack before the tournament is over? Let's stay vigilant and wait and see. But even in the world of sports, while the war is unfolding, as we saw at the Olympics and the Paralympics, which will start this weekend, there is an intersection and a distraction that we need to focus on and root for the USA in both plays. Root for them in the Paralympics coming up and root for them in the World Baseball Classic. And if you need it, take a break, watch some baseball, watch the Paralympics and stay vigilant. All right. Finally, I want to give you something good. We need something good. And we've been talking a lot about the cost of war. We've talked about it on the show for many years, and this happened a couple weeks ago. But I want to shout out our friends from the documentary short Armed Only with a Camera, the incredible story of Brent Renaud. And I want to shout out our friends Juan Arendado and of course, the Renaud family and everybody who's been behind this film, if you haven't heard, they have been nominated for for an Oscar. Armed Only with a Camera is now on HBO. You can check it out on HBO, Max. But it's the incredible story. This is the 98th Academy Awards. The Renaud family and Juan will be there at the Oscars next month, and we will be rooting for them. If you haven't seen this incredibly courageous film, please check it out. It'll be linked in the bio, but the story of both Renaud brothers and Juan, truly heroic Americans who, who stepped up, most importantly, to share the cost of war. And this is a cost that they've been covering from Iraq all the way through to Ukraine and beyond. And it's a message that needs to resonate right now. It's heavy stuff, but it is an important way to communicate the cost of war with people. So tell them to check out this amazing story about Brent Renault. Check out this amazing film. It'll be linked in the bio and root for these guys. If there's somebody we want to root for, especially at the Oscars, it's going to be this little film and these courageous people that are helping us. Stay vigilant. We got to stay vigilant. I got to stay vigilant. My voice, I got to get more cough drops. There is a lot coming up in the next couple of days. I'm going to continue to bring you shows. A lot of you have been recommending guests. Please keep those coming. Hit me up and let me know who you'd like to see. I may also do an ask me anything soon, which I haven't really done before. We might do some live shows and some other exciting stuff tomorrow. We've got the great Sebastian Younger, just an incredibly insightful, real tough guy, thoughtful guy who's going to talk to us about the war. He's going to talk to us about Iran and he's going to talk about why the Democrats are struggling so much to reach young men and why independents may be succeeding. Check that out on a Friday. Adam Kinzinger is here, my old buddy. We're going to talk about why he's still a Republican. We're going to talk about Iran, and we're going to talk about much more. We are daily now, so tell your friends. We hit number 36 on the charts and we're chugging along. So follow and subscribe. Wherever you're listening right now, hit that subscribe button. Help us spread the word. And on YouTube, YouTube is up like 800%. We are chugging on YouTube. So if you haven't watched us on YouTube, take a minute after this, do me a solid and do that now and share it far and wide. You can get IA merch and you can join our Patreon community, chip it a couple bucks and help us keep this going. I won't spend it on cough lozenges or tea, but I will spend it on bringing you this great content. I also want to give a special shout out to Chris Rosenthal, our amazing producer, creative director and the genius juggernaut behind so much of what we do. He makes every single show and everything we do possible. He is a hero, he is a patriot, and he's a brilliant fucking dude. And I just want to send him a special shout out. Be sure to follow him on social media and send him a thank you as well because he helps us bring this content. America's more divided than ever before, but independent Americans, I'm working to change that. You know the deal, adding light to contrast the heat of all the other political shows. And if you're now among the 45% of Americans who are independent, this is your show. And if you're a Democrat who watches Ms. Now where I'm coming to you from now, or a Republican who watches News Nation where I was earlier, or an independent or any other affiliation who watches CNN or any of the other places I've been, this is your movement. This is your show. Our independent movement is Hope for the Future. Seth Bodnar is the latest example in Montana. Bringing that country over party people over politics, light over heat, busting up that status quo and fueling a new movement. And our movement is growing and bringing hope. That is the oxygen of democracy. And we're going to need our movement, we're going to need that hope, we're going to need that accountability, especially if Trump puts boots on the ground in Iran by the time this post or maybe more troops in Ecuador or maybe even troops in Cuba. It's crazy out there, folks, but I'm gonna try to help you get through it. Invite others to declare their independence now, not just from the political machine, which is partisan and broken, but from the media that right now a lot of it's just not meeting the moment. We're gonna try to do it and help you stay vigilant, my friends, because eternal vigilance is, you know it, the price of freedom. And it's one we're gonna pay right now. No, you're not alone in your vigilance. We're all vigilant. We're all in this together. I'm your host, Paul Rykoff. I tomorrow will also be on the Al Franken podcast and next week it looks like I'm going to be on Colbert. So stay tuned for that. Thank you for tuning into Independent Americans. Look out for each other. Stay frosty. I will see you tomorrow. Happy hump day. And when I say stay frosty, I mean it. Try to keep yourself cool. Try to take care of yourself. Try to keep breathing. Look out for those around you. We'll get through this together and we will. Stay vigilant. So do it. Share it. Be it. Stay via Joan America, I'll see you tomorrow. He tells me the left and right are dreams for those without a clue and when you wait it's time to grow and it's not cool to believe in school but if I can say one thing I've seen the children of the revolution and the good trouble they can bring he says the red and blue identity dependent is an attitude an island in the sea of rhetoric and alcoholic go he tells me the left and right our dreams for those without a clue and when you wait it's time to grow Power by righteous media.