← Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
SENATOR KELLY: 1. PETE HEGSETH: 0. JUDGE BLOCKS HEGSETH FROM PUNISHING KELLY.
00:25:00
Paul Rieckhoff breaks down Senator Mark Kelly's First Amendment victory over Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon's laser debacle at El Paso airport, and why Beethoven's Ode to Joy reminds us that hope is the oxygen of democracy.
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If you're not a Democrat, if you're a Republican, if you're an Independent, you should stand with Senator Kelly because it's about standing for free speech. And all these guys like Elon Musk and so many others who always talk about free speech, that should not be an exception when it comes to someone like Mark Kelly that they might disagree with. So it's a big ruling. It's important. Scoreboard reads Mark Kelly 1. Pete Hegseth, none. Democracy and Free Speech 1. Authoritarianism none. Nothing. Welcome to independent Americans. Welcome to episode 439. I'm your host, Paul Reop. I'm coming to you from New York City, usa, where the sun is finally out. The sun is finally here on what has been an overcast and cold week, which is what we need on this Thursday. And I'm going to try to bring you some sunshine throughout this show. It's a quick one. It's Thursday, February 20th, February 12th. And I'm going to rip through the top news that you need to know about. But as I told you before, I'm going to pick a different musical artist to introduce my young sons to every day. And I'll share that with you. Today's artist, Ludwig van Beethoven. Why? Because my son, my six year old, told me he loves him. He told me he loves Ode to Joy. He asked me if I had heard of Ode to Joy. And I think we all need a little Ode to Joy today. So Symphony number nine, Ode to Joy by Beethoven. Check it out. If you don't know it, you can also check out moonlight sonata, Symphony Number 5 for Elise. But Ode to Joy and the finale is what we need because joy is a form of resistance. And I'm going to bring you some joy, some light and the five eyes like we do in every single show, independence, information, integrity, inspiration and impact. Tomorrow I've got a big guest coming up to go deeper on how kids are impacted by everything happening. But today it's just me and you because I got to react to a ton that's happening and a ton that will help you stay vigilant. All right, topic, I think we got to talk about something that's been center to all of this show over the last couple of weeks. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona is in a very public battle with Acting Secretary of Culture War Pete Hegseth. And today there's a big ruling. A judge has temporarily blocked Hegseth from punishing Kelly for the video. Judge Richard Leon found that attempts to discipline Mark Kelly for a video would violate the Senator's First Amendment rights. Yeah, that sounds about right. He should be able to speak out about what he wants without being threatened by a radical political culture warrior who wants to take his pension. As I've long said, this is very important because Trump, Trump and Haig said they're trying to silence opposition, not just from Senator Kelly, who's been on this show and has been involved in a lot of the issues we care about, from Ukraine to stopping the use of the Insurrection act, but because if they could come after Senator Kelly and shut him down and shut him up for speaking out and exercising his First Amendment rights, they could come after 2 million military retirees all across America. So this is not just about Senator Kelly. If you're not a Democrat, if you're a Republican, if you're an Independent, you should stand with Senator Kelly because it's about standing for free speech. And all these guys like Elon Musk and so many others who always talk about free speech. That should not be an exception when it comes to someone like Mark Kelly that they might disagree with. So it's a big ruling. It's important. Scoreboard reads Mark Kelly 1. Pete Hegseth, None. Democracy and Free Speech 1. Authoritarianism None. Nothing. This is an important win. We will continue to cover it and I hope Senator Kelly will come back again soon. All right, another issue that you need to track on. This is absolutely wild around what happened at the El Paso, Texas airport. And we continue to find out more information. And according to Natasha Bertrand at cnn, here's what happened. The Pentagon planned to use a high energy counter drone laser without coordinating with the FAA first about how it could potentially risk civilian flights. So it turns out the Pentagon has been testing this tech now in remote areas. And the FAA and Pentagon had been scheduled to meet with it, meet about it on February 20th to talk about the potential impacts and how to mitigate so there aren't any disasters. But for whatever reason, maybe because there was a drone incursion which happens multiple times per day, allegedly by potentially cartels sending drones across the border from Mexico, the Pentagon wanted to use the system sooner and they did that. And so the FAA had to impose a temporary flight restriction until they could get coordination because they started using this thing. And the 10 day expiration would have expired on February 20th, one day after the DOD and FAA were supposed to meet. So here's the bottom line. Chaos, incompetence, lack of execution, bumbling execution is kind of the standard at Pete Hegsest, Pentagon. This is the same guy who used signal to share classified information with his colleagues. But wait, there's more. Fox News confirmed that earlier this week, the US Military shot down a party balloon near El Paso, thinking it was a foreign drone. This might have been what instigated and led to the unexpected airspace disclosure. Dan Lamoth at the Washington Post also had some reporting on this. The airspace has now been reopened. But important to note, the Pentagon is not answering questions on this because the Pentagon doesn't answer questions about anything. And the Pentagon press corps has been kicked out of the Pentagon. They've been replaced by a bunch of propagandists who also don't get any information from the Pentagon. Kate Brennan posted something that I think summarizes this really well. She's K8 Brennan on X. And I think Dan Lamoth shared this. He said, I'm not sure beep could come up with this scenario. DoD lends DHS experimental lasers, which it uses to shoot down party balloons, which prompts the FAA to close down El Paso's airspace for 10 days, only to announce a few hours later, few hours later, it's reopening. Yes, let's talk serious here. I mean, what if a civilian aircraft was in the way? What if civilians were killed or wounded? It's entirely possible. It may not have been probable, but it's possible. You may remember that then when they were doing a celebration around the Marine Corps a few months ago out in California, they shot live rounds over a highway. There was no real accountability about that. They didn't want any hard questions there. So there should be hard questions. Now, let's have a proper congressional investigation, please, just to get a little more information about how the government may be accidentally using lasers to knock down our own aircraft. Competence is not really a hallmark of the hegseth led Department of Defense. So let's get into it. Let's hold them accountable. Let's continue to ask hard questions, and let's continue to celebrate the national security reporters who have stayed focused on this from all different media sources, and especially our friends at the Washington Post. Because although the Washington Post has been really hit hard in the last couple of weeks in a way that I think is shameful and bad for our democracy, Dan Lamoth and the others in the national security desk especially are meeting the moment, and they will help you stay vigilant. All right? We got to stay vigilant when it comes to ice, of course, there's bad shit every day. Don't believe the government. Believe your eyes. But also believe that on this day, when I am sharing Beethoven's Ode to Joy. And it is finally sunny. There are some small victories, but that have to be recognized. And there's a headline that just hit the wire that a judge has ended the deportation case for the Mexican father of three Marines. The arrest of Narsigo Barranco, who was detained by foreign agents while he was landscaping outside of an IHOP back in June. You may remember that they snatched him up outside of an IHOP and it turned out that he had three sons who were Marines. He says he won't feel secure until the approval of his residency happens. And he's been limiting his outings. He hasn't been going out in public except for going to church. And this is what Mr. Barranco said. He said this was a victory and I'm happy for it, but I am still afraid that I could be grabbed. This just underscores how reckless and unauthorized ICE is. They're detaining citizens and cops and the families of veterans and veterans themselves. So if you're not angry, you're not paying attention and you definitely need to stay vigilant. But also note there are some good news items that are coming out. People continue to push back on ice. People continue to offer a counter narrative and hold ICE accountable in legal, peaceful ways, which we must continue to do. And people are showing up and people are showing up to remember others who showed up. And people are showing up to honor Alex Preddy, the brave VA nurse who Trump and Vance called a domestic terrorist they tried to ruin. His good name continues to inspire people around the country. And there's been a fundraiser set up in his name on gofundme and it's at almost $2 million. Almost $2 million named in honor of Mr. Preddy. I will link to it in the show notes and tell you what it says. It says Alex Preddy, a Minneapolis resident and American citizen, was executed on the streets of Minneapolis by ice. This fundraiser is intended to support the loved ones he leaves behind with immediate and ongoing needs. Because details are still unfolding and to ensure the money goes to the right person, the funds will be distributed until only when they can verify a next of kin and identify the appropriate family representative to manage. And if for any reason the funds can't be transferred to Alex's family, they're going to direct the total amount to the Immigrant Defense Project, a nonprofit that provides litigation, advocacy and community defense resources to help immigrants defend their rights and fight deportation. So Alex Preddy continues to be a hero for the movement to counter ICE for everybody. From left wing protesters to right wing gun owners. Alex Preddy's murder has captured and captivated the country. He was a man who met the moment and we can't let his good name be besmirched by Trump, by Hegseth or anyone else. And we must continue to find those leaders who inspire and meet the moment. If you want to do something to help Again, the GoFundMe is linked in the show notes. You can come out and support other people who are standing up and maybe just thank you. A VA nurse who's doing what Alex Preddy did, serving our community, our community of veterans every day and setting an example of how you could be a helper. All right. The opposite of a helper. Top story I've got to mention there is breaking news from NPR that a January 6 rioter pardoned by Trump was convicted by a Florida jury of sexually abusing children, including an 11 year old. According to police, Andrew Paul Johnson tried to bribe one of his victims by promising to share expected January 6th restitution money from the Trump administration. So many of these dudes are criminals. So many of them are back on the streets and now at least one of them has abused children, including an 11 year old. Never forget that Trump pardoned thousands of them, thousands of them who are convicted of crimes and some of them are now serving in ice. Some of them are now wandering the streets and some of them are abusing children. If you never saw or heard my episode with Scott McFarland, the great CBS News investigative reporter, go back and check that out where we talk about the wreckage of January 6, how the investigations have been stopped, how so many people have been pardoned, but the issues are still front and center because Trump, when it comes to issues like.
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Look at him eating whatever he wants, never gaining a pound while I'm stuck with the boring special and can't lose an ounce.
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How's your lunch, man? Amazing. Yours?
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So good. Oh, I'm so happy for you.
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This is all gas and no breaks. Nothing is slowing him down. All right, let's talk about some other news. The Olympics are obviously in the headlines and in some good ways and in some challenging ways. Ukraine is at the forefront of that. It's been over 1400 days since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. And Ukraine is continuing to inspire and especially captivating the Olympics. There's breaking news that Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladislav Horasovich was disqualified before his first run at the Olympics. They have banned him for using the memorial helmet that we've talked about on this show that depicts Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia. And there has been an international outrage. Latvian President Edgar Rickvinitz said the IOC is simply wrong by disqualifying him. That is obviously true. It is absolutely outrageous. It is disgusting. It is shameful. The IOC should reverse that decision. They should let him compete and they should be celebrating the bravery of the Ukrainian athletes who represent the best of what the Olympics and and community and the world is all about. Now, Vladislav had something to say. He's spoken out publicly. He said, we paid the price for our dignity. I defended Ukraine's interests and the memory of the athletes. And he said, I have no regrets. There are things that are more important than medals, and that's absolutely true. President Zelenskyy has responded immediately saying that they should be reinstated and this betrays the Olympic principles of justice and peace. And he's also gone so far as to award him with a medal, a presidential decree, the Order of Freedom, for his dedicated service to the Ukrainian people, civic courage and patriotism in defending the ideals of freedom and democratic values. That's what President Zelensky should say. Now, it's important to note that the IOC has been really hypocritical about this. There's so much hypocrisy around this. It's really stunning. And I want to give you some examples. The IOC says he can't wear a helmet honoring athletes murdered by Russia. But the IOC allows an Italian athlete to wear a helmet with a Russian flag. That seems like hypocrisy. They've allowed neutral Russians who support Putin's regime to compete in the Olympics. Now, the Russians are formally barred, but Russian athletes can still compete even if they support Russia. They've allowed an Israeli athlete to wear a kippah honoring athletes that were killed in the Munich massacre. That seems like it's reasonable. But they don't let the Ukrainian athlete honor his friends and other people who've been killed. They allowed a Canadian freestyler to honor a colleague who tragically died, but they ban a Ukrainian for a helmet honoring athletes killed by Russia. The IOC allowed an American athlete with Russian origin to celebrate his parents and show a picture who died in a plane crash. We've talked about that. But they still ban a Ukrainian athlete for honoring athletes murdered by Russia. Meanwhile, let's remember what this is all about while this is happening. Last night, Russia unleashed another massive overnight attack on one of Ukraine's major cities. 24 ballistic missiles and 219 drones hit Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro and other regions in a sweeping combined attack last night. And as we talked about, there was also the incident of three toddlers and their wounded warrior father who was killed, and their pregnant mother was wounded. This is what Putin is doing. And this is why America must stand with Ukraine and against Russia, especially now. It's never been more clear. And especially the brave Ukrainian athletes who are captivating the world's attention and reminding them that there is war happening. But in direct contrast, there is the American policy coming from our president. The Kyiv Independent has reported that US military aid to Ukraine dropped 99% in 2025. That's 99% now. Some Europeans have increased support tremendously. But while we continue to support Ukraine and the fight continues to go on, Trump and his minions continue to disgrace America with their actions and their inactions. And Putin is grateful for their support. America is less safe and our enemies are celebrating. Keep this on your radar, folks. Stand with the people of Ukraine and definitely stay vigilant. A story we covered before that I want to come back to. There is finally a Deal on the striking nurses in New York. They've been striking for weeks. There are 6,000 nurses in New York City who walked out of the job about a month ago. It was the largest and longest strike in city history. 15,000 nurses were participating in the strike. They concluded their negotiations. The results have not been announced, but it looks like they have fought for increased wages and increased support. And I just want to increase the attention on nurses and anyone else who's stepping up right now to demand that they are properly compensated for what is an extremely dangerous job. As I've talked about on the show, my mother is a nurse, still works as a nurse. My sister in law is a nurse. There are nurses all across our family, my family, and especially now, we need to stand with our nurses, stand with our teachers, stand with our first responders and anyone else who's stepping up to meet the moment. All right. In culture, the tragic death of James Van Der Beek, the teenage heartthrob from Dawson's Creek, has captivated America. He was well known to an entire generation and he's died tragically at 48 from colorectal cancer. I think it's really, really important to show that he sent an inspiring message about love and about his family and about understanding how the world is bigger than any individual. But he was a young 15 year old when he first captivated the country's attention. And in his death, he's reminded us all to be grateful for what we've got and to screen for colorectal cancer. It is a leading cause of death among men under 50. And if you haven't gotten checked, I encourage you to do that. If you want to do something not just for yourself, but for your family and for all those people who care about you, follow James Van Der Beek's call to action. Get checked and get the people around you checked. It's one thing we can all do to keep ourselves and our communities vigilant. All right, finally, in sports, I keep you updated on the, on the medal total. The Americans continue to inspire and they're racking up the medals. We are now ranked number 13 with. Sorry, with number three. With 13 medals total, we've got four golds now. Italy is in first with 16. The home country, Norway's got 14 total medals. The US at 13 and Austria at 12. Russia, thankfully not on the list. But let's keep an eye on the inspiring stories coming out of the Olympics and of course, the related politics. I talked yesterday about JD Vance's disgusting comments directed at Americans where he Basically said they should shut up about politics and, and just do sports, which is un American and unacceptable. All right, there's been a lot of basketball. Last night my Knicks came back from a loss and throttled the 76ers 138 to 89, looking like a title contender. Go Knicks. And Seattle celebrated their super bowl championship with a victory parade and a ceremony that was extremely peaceful. I want to celebrate the unity that we've seen in Seattle, celebrate the tenacity of that team and take a minute to celebrate all the law enforcement, first responders and folks across the police departments and fire departments in Seattle that kept everybody safe. They continue to meet the moment and we should never forget how much they continue to do so. We can have celebrations and safety like that. All right, I'm going to end with something good.
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Something good. Feel the fire.
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Feel the.
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And I really like this one. I'm going to play you a clip and I'm going to tell you about it. But there is a brave young man who's doing his part to step up and meet this moment and push back against ice in a creative, peaceful and thoughtful way. There is a 21 year old science major at Chapman University named Jack Duffy. He attaches a respirator to his bagpipes and he plays bagpipes through tear gas. You want to see something creative, you want to see something good? Check this guy out. So Jack Duffy skillfully, musically masters a way to not just empower demonstrators, but he. But he plays marches like an 11 minute long, 600 plus year old black Donald's march. And he communicates his sentiments toward police and federal agents directly to their faces. Shout out to La Taco, which used to be a taco website that now provides information about what's happening around protests. But this guy says, you know, I like to play whenever the police retreat because it's like you fucking ran while we stayed. That's what he had to say. He started going to protest when he was 14, when he joined his mom at a march during Trump's first term. And he's continued to play bagpipes and meet the moment through tear gas. And he gives protesters some inspiration, which is something we all need right now. And I think it's definitely something good. All right. In times like this, we need to celebrate those things that are good, those things that can help us stay vigilant, whether it's Ode to Joy or the victory of Senator Mark Kelly in what will likely be a long fight, or this brave young man playing bagpipes. I know we talk a lot, a lot of bad news. But I want to try to celebrate those glimmers of hope, those odes to joy that will keep us chugging along. If you haven't heard our recent episodes with Jesse Ventura, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, yesterday with Senator Ruben Gallego, check it out. And tomorrow I have a very special episode with Anya Kamenetz about how all of this is impacting our kids. From ICE to Covid to the political environment, our kids have been dramatically affected. And I'm going to talk to Anya about that. We're also going to talk about the cell phone ban in schools, the social media ban for minors in Australia, and everything impacting our kids. And the fight around the Department of Education that almost nobody is tracking on. So be sure to subscribe. Let folks know that America might be divided, but here at Independent Americans, I'm working to change that. If you're among the 45% of folks that are independent, this is your show, especially on YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram, everywhere else. Because our independent movement is the hope for the future. Country over party, people over politics, light over heat. Our movement is growing and we're providing hope that it's the oxygen of democracy. I hope today's episode gives you more of that hope. Even if my voice is not there yet, I am hopeful that it'll come around after I give it a rest this weekend, have some Valentine's candy, spend some time with my family and watch some basketball and coach some basketball because it is the deep of the deepest parts of basketball season and that's spreading some hope, too. But invite others to declare their independence and join us here, especially with the shows like Rachel Maddow and Jesse Ventura, Ron Perlman, Ken Burns, so many others that are really continuing to go far and wide. We're inviting others to declare their independence and to come here for the information, independence and integrity that you need. So stay vigilant, my friends, because eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. And no, you're not alone in your vigilance. We're all in this together. I'm your host, Paul Rykoff. Thank you for tuning in to Independent Americans on this Thursday. We're all pushing through, folks. We're almost there. Tomorrow's Friday and they can't stop. Friday. I will see you or you will hear me tomorrow. Until then, happy Thursday. Stay vigilant, America, and Go usa. Not just our Olympic athletes, but all of us. Go USA Tells me the left and.
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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 and the good trouble they can bring he says the red and blue I mean dependent is an attitude and ling in the sea of rhetoric and tells me the left and right our dreams for those without a clue and when you wait it's time.
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To grow Power by Righteous Media.
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