# Houthis Pound Saudi Airports & Trump Throws Putin a Lifeline | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

An episode of [The Team House](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1492797340), 12 Oct 2026, 1 h 09 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75701140/eyes_on_houtshi_pution_trump_deal.mp3

We break down the escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the growing pressure on Riyadh’s air defenses, and whether the U.S. could be pulled into a new campaign in Yemen. We also discuss Trump’s Russian diesel deal, Iran’s use of Moscow as a diplomatic channel, and the deeper political dysfunction and public apathy shaping American decision-making. VAER Watches ⬇️ https://www.vaerwatches.com/theteamhouse get a free watch roll with your purchase. 20% for active duty, veteran, leo, & first responders Support the show on Patreon:⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse Jack's news outlet:⬇️ https://thehighside.substack.com/ Find Jon Hackett here:⬇️ Jon's Twitter: https://x.com/jonathanhackett Jon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackett Jon's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0C5L659N5?ccs_id=e11a2062-f8d3-498e-bfd7-7d2f3869caf6 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackett Twitter: https://x.com/jonathanhackett Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️ https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8 LinkedIn ⬇️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023 Substack ⬇️ https://amilburn.substack.com/ Andy’s book ⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-Operations 00:00 – Start 00:19 – Houthis Strike Saudi Airports 01:20 – Deadly Ballistic Missile Attack on Riyadh Airport 03:30 – Houthis Warn Airlines Away From Saudi Airspace 04:40 – Is Saudi Arabia Running Low on Air Defense Interceptors? 06:30 – Should the U.S. Strike Houthi Missile Launchers? 07:30 – An American Killed in the Airport Attack 09:19 – Saudi-Backed Ground Offensive in Yemen 11:13 – Jack Joins the Conversation 11:32 – Is Iran Opening a Second Front Through the Houthis? 13:44 – What a New U.S. Air Campaign in Yemen Could Look Like 14:46 – Could the U.S. Put Ground Troops Into Yemen? 16:51 – Could Saudi Forces Handle the Ground War? 19:48 – Would Another Air Campaign Against the Houthis Work? 22:15 – The Real Goal: Protecting Saudi Arabia 23:31 – Bab al-Mandab, Houthi Missiles & the Ground Offensive 25:37 – Trump’s Russian Diesel Deal 27:09 – Why Ukraine Has Little Reason to Stop Striking Russia 28:10 – Russia, Iran & the Contradictions in U.S. Policy 31:07 – Diesel Prices, Midterms & the Russia Deal 34:18 – Havana Syndrome & a New Russia Investigation 36:55 – Iran Sends Negotiating Terms Through Putin 38:18 – Is the American Political System Becoming Permanently Gridlocked? 39:47 – Why Andy Thinks the U.S. Is Different From European Democracies 44:31 – Apathy, Doomerism & Losing Faith in Institutions 47:02 – What Could Actually Trigger a Systemic Crisis? 48:42 – Politics, Fandom & Escapism 49:49 – Why Americans Talk Sports More Than Geopolitics 53:26 – Why So Many Americans Have Checked Out of Politics 55:06 – Would Higher Voter Turnout Actually Change Anything? 56:15 – The Slow Erosion of American Institutions 57:55 – Politics as Entertainment 59:01 – Money in Politics & Endless Campaign Seasons 1:00:17 – Andy Signs Off 1:01:15 – AUSA, Drones & the Defense Industry 1:02:33 – Chinese Honeypots at AUSA 1:04:10 – Closing Thoughts Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: This episode is presented by Vare Watches. Go to varewatches.com
[0:04] Speaker 1: slash theteamhouse. What's up, dude? We're live. I'm good. How
[0:08] Speaker 1: you doing?
[0:10] Speaker 2: Not bad. Thank you for the line.
[0:12] Speaker 1: No problem, of course. We're live and alive.
[0:16] Speaker 2: So I didn't show up just having stepped out of
[0:18] Speaker 2: the shower. I know.
[0:20] Speaker 1: How you normally do. What's going on over there?
[0:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, so here's... And you can stop me at any time, right,
[0:32] Speaker 2: just to bring everyone up to speed on what's been
[0:36] Speaker 2: happening here, not just in the country I am, which
[0:39] Speaker 2: is Saudi Arabia, but in the Middle East generally. So
[0:44] Speaker 2: it's been a busy week for the Houthis, right? And
[0:47] Speaker 2: a few days ago, the 6th through the 7th, we
[0:51] Speaker 2: had missiles and drones hit Abha Airport in the south here,
[0:55] Speaker 2: but also King Khalid, which is the main international airport
[0:58] Speaker 2: in Riyadh. Three were killed, including a Saudi pilot, Saudia Airlines,
[1:05] Speaker 2: which is their national flag carrier. And at least one
[1:09] Speaker 2: aircraft was injured, was damaged. And then a day later
[1:18] Speaker 2: on the 8th, there was another strike. That killed another
[1:22] Speaker 2: three people on the airport, on the main airport too.
[1:29] Speaker 2: And then on the 10th, which was yesterday, of course,
[1:33] Speaker 2: there was a big strike in terms. I mean, it
[1:36] Speaker 2: was another ballistic missile, not that the missile was any bigger,
[1:39] Speaker 2: but it hit the complex of terminals three and four
[1:48] Speaker 2: are joined together. So it basically hit two terminals, brought them,
[1:51] Speaker 2: I don't know, Well, they brought the roost down, but
[1:53] Speaker 2: it caused extensive damage, killed 12, and injured 309. You know,
[1:59] Speaker 2: 309 who were injured badly enough to be treated in hospital,
[2:04] Speaker 2: and a number of those unspecified number is still critical. So,
[2:09] Speaker 2: you know, among the dead, now those are the domestic terminals.
[2:14] Speaker 2: So I don't know how accurate Houthi targeting is. By
[2:19] Speaker 2: all accounts, it is pretty damn accurate.
[2:21] Speaker 1: I mean, they.
[2:23] Speaker 2: Just from what I'm seeing, from what I'm hearing, hitting
[2:26] Speaker 2: a Saudi Airlines jet was not an accident. So it
[2:31] Speaker 2: may well have been that they intended to hit the
[2:34] Speaker 2: domestic terminals. However, among the dead, there were four Saudis,
[2:41] Speaker 2: but there were also foreigners, two Bangladeshis. Anyone who's been
[2:45] Speaker 2: to the airport here knows that there's a lot of Bangladeshis,
[2:48] Speaker 2: third-country nationals who work in the airport. also an American
[2:51] Speaker 2: who's yet to be identified, and nationals of Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Sudan,
[2:59] Speaker 2: and Palestine are ironically okay. So right now the airport's closed.
[3:05] Speaker 2: Something like 300 flights have been canceled in the last
[3:09] Speaker 2: 24 hours. And basically all embassies here have told their
[3:15] Speaker 2: citizens to stay away from the airport. So that's going
[3:17] Speaker 2: to have a big impact on you know, on Saudi Arabia,
[3:25] Speaker 2: the economy, but also kind of the international, a couple
[3:31] Speaker 2: of major international events coming up. The Houthis have, you know,
[3:38] Speaker 2: have doubled down. They said that today that they are,
[3:41] Speaker 2: they warned all airlines against using any Saudi airports. And
[3:46] Speaker 2: previously they'd said, look, you can, You can enter Saudi
[3:51] Speaker 2: airspace if you request permission from the Houthis. I don't
[3:55] Speaker 2: know how you do that. You know, you call up
[3:57] Speaker 2: Houthi traffic control. I don't know what their call sign is.
[4:01] Speaker 2: But now they're saying they're not even going to let
[4:04] Speaker 2: anyone fly over airspace, Saudi airspace. So, you know, I mean,
[4:09] Speaker 2: how they can stop that, who knows. But nevertheless, serious situation, right?
[4:14] Speaker 2: They've effectively shut down. not just the airport here in Riyadh,
[4:20] Speaker 2: but all across the country. You know, the UN calls
[4:23] Speaker 2: it a dangerous escalation, which is a huge understatement, right? So,
[4:30] Speaker 2: you know, we talked about the Mecca Pact, right? Turkey
[4:35] Speaker 2: and Pakistan.
[4:36] Speaker 1: Are they going to come and meet again?
[4:39] Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, Pakistan's already confirmed that it has troops here.
[4:46] Speaker 2: in the kingdom, Saudi Arabia. Don't know how many, don't
[4:49] Speaker 2: know what exactly their role is. Of course, Saudi Arabia
[4:53] Speaker 2: has also, is getting air defense support, not just from
[5:00] Speaker 2: the U.S. This is open source, right, as far as
[5:03] Speaker 2: air defense support. Patriot missiles, though, I'm not talking about
[5:11] Speaker 2: more Patriot than THAAD missiles, because As we all know,
[5:16] Speaker 2: we had discussed, there is a worldwide shortage. And the
[5:22] Speaker 2: Gulf states, you know, it's obviously how many interceptor missiles
[5:27] Speaker 2: they have left is, of course, classified.
[5:30] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[5:30] Speaker 2: And even if I did, I couldn't say here on
[5:32] Speaker 2: this broadcast. But the concern is that their stock, their
[5:36] Speaker 2: inventory is dangerously low. There's much speculation about why these
[5:40] Speaker 2: missiles are not getting intercepted.
[5:42] Speaker 1: All right.
[5:43] Speaker 2: And because the Saudi air defense system is actually pretty
[5:47] Speaker 2: damn good. They've had a lot of practice. And so
[5:51] Speaker 2: this is really unusual that this number of missiles are
[5:53] Speaker 2: getting through. I mean, three in one week in one area, right?
[5:58] Speaker 2: All three inflicting casualties on a scale upwards. That's a gap, obviously. Now,
[6:04] Speaker 2: it could be a crisis if this means that The
[6:13] Speaker 2: interceptor stock is so low that countries in the region
[6:18] Speaker 2: no longer have the ability to defend themselves. Anyway, so
[6:25] Speaker 2: other countries are providing short-range air defense, mainly against drones.
[6:33] Speaker 2: That is a gap, but the problem now is not drones.
[6:37] Speaker 2: The problem, and this is, as I've said, is concerning,
[6:39] Speaker 2: is defense against ballistic missiles. The best way to do that,
[6:43] Speaker 2: seeing as the interceptor stocks are so low, is to
[6:46] Speaker 2: go after the launchers in Yemen. And that is why
[6:49] Speaker 2: you have seen Saudi Arabia MBS requests from Trump twice
[6:53] Speaker 2: now assistance in going after the Houthi launchers. So, you know,
[7:03] Speaker 2: he has said no. Trump has said no. Now you've
[7:07] Speaker 2: got a U.S. citizen killed in the terminal strike. You've
[7:10] Speaker 2: got Rubio condemning the attacks, calling them a blatant disregard
[7:15] Speaker 2: for innocent civilian life. But we don't know yet whether
[7:18] Speaker 2: that's going to prompt action by the US government. Trump said,
[7:23] Speaker 2: we may get involved. We're going to look at it
[7:25] Speaker 2: when he was asked about it. I would say, not
[7:31] Speaker 2: just because I'm sitting here and I have a personal
[7:33] Speaker 2: stake in this, but why would we not? Going to
[7:37] Speaker 2: the aid of a strategic partner, whose civilians are under
[7:42] Speaker 2: attack and who by the end and whose adversary has
[7:46] Speaker 2: just killed one of our own citizens, despite what they're
[7:49] Speaker 2: also doing to fuck up the band on and Deb,
[7:51] Speaker 2: excuse my language. So, um, you know, and then we
[7:57] Speaker 2: take a step back, right? So before the attack, as
[8:00] Speaker 2: I mentioned, Washington had twice declined Saudi's requests. Um, but, uh,
[8:11] Speaker 2: At the same time, you know, this speaks to the
[8:13] Speaker 2: wider war, not just Yemen. You know, we talked last
[8:17] Speaker 2: week about the Camp David principals meeting on October the 2nd. The,
[8:23] Speaker 2: you know, the feeling that some kind of decision had
[8:27] Speaker 2: been made. And then you've got the third carrier group
[8:31] Speaker 2: heading here to the Middle East, another Marine Expeditionary Group
[8:35] Speaker 2: speculation that the war will resume soon. again after the midterms. Now, um,
[8:43] Speaker 2: in the meantime, the U S has given the Saudis
[8:45] Speaker 2: more than 200 Houthi targets in the last two weeks. So,
[8:49] Speaker 2: you know, the target development work is, is getting done,
[8:52] Speaker 2: but now we have an American dead. So that may
[8:55] Speaker 2: change the calculus. Uh, and I think, I think personally,
[9:01] Speaker 2: the question of whether the U S will join in, um,
[9:05] Speaker 2: is now, I think undoubtedly, you know, it's not just
[9:10] Speaker 2: me banging the drum saying we have to. I'm saying
[9:12] Speaker 2: I think we will. A dead American, a mass casualty attack,
[9:15] Speaker 2: a civilian air terminal, and a ground offensive in Yemen
[9:23] Speaker 2: that gives air power something.
[9:26] Speaker 1: To support, right?
[9:28] Speaker 2: Because air power alone, as we've seen, is not that useful.
[9:31] Speaker 2: Apologies to Arne and all my Air Force friends, but
[9:35] Speaker 2: you're not going to win a war through an air campaign.
[9:37] Speaker 2: But if you've got a ground campaign going on at
[9:39] Speaker 2: the same time, as we saw in the war against
[9:42] Speaker 2: the Islamic State, that gives us a nanker, something to
[9:45] Speaker 2: hang on to. And the Houthis have launched a ground offensive.
[9:48] Speaker 2: Not the Houthis. The Saudis, with their anti-Houthi coalition, have
[9:52] Speaker 2: launched a ground offensive to take Bandar back, Bandar al-Mandeb,
[9:58] Speaker 2: not Bandar al-Mandeb, but the coastline, Mukha, and the coastline
[10:01] Speaker 2: there in Yemen, which is in, by the way, in U.S.
[10:05] Speaker 2: interests to seize also, since that helps free up that
[10:10] Speaker 2: second straight, prevents it being interfered with, all right? So,
[10:16] Speaker 2: you know, I And you see a lot of stuff
[10:19] Speaker 2: in the news about, hey, there are 50,000 U.S. troops
[10:23] Speaker 2: now in the region extended into 2027, of course. The
[10:27] Speaker 2: vast majority of those are Navy and Air Force dudes, right?
[10:33] Speaker 2: But there is the Boxer ARG here, Amphibious Readiness Group,
[10:38] Speaker 2: which has about 2,200 Marines. And there is another... readiness
[10:44] Speaker 2: group on the way to make an island readiness group.
[10:46] Speaker 2: That's only 4,000 Marines. You've got odds and sods from,
[10:50] Speaker 2: you know, the 82nd Airborne, mostly the command element, et cetera,
[10:53] Speaker 2: et cetera. So, but there's no indication that this is
[10:57] Speaker 2: going to result in a ground invasion. What it's likely
[11:00] Speaker 2: to result in, I'll talk to in a moment. It's
[11:04] Speaker 2: about 18 warships and all enforcing the blockade of Iranian ports, uh,
[11:11] Speaker 2: And then, you know, you've still got remnants of the
[11:14] Speaker 2: Fifth Fleet and Bahrain. So.
[11:18] Speaker 1: Jack, let me ask you. Jack Murphy's joined us. I
[11:21] Speaker 1: don't know if Andy, if you see, because I know... Hey, Jack.
[11:26] Speaker 1: Before Andy gets into that, because I definitely want to
[11:27] Speaker 1: know what it would entail, but what are your thoughts? Like,
[11:32] Speaker 1: we have to step up and, you know, knock the
[11:34] Speaker 1: Houthis out? Knock this off? I mean....
[11:39] Speaker 3: Andy's better spoken on this than I am. I think that.
[11:45] Speaker 4: From what Andy's saying, it sounds like we're heading into
[11:47] Speaker 4: this interesting situation where resources that we would have dumped
[11:52] Speaker 4: into fighting Iran are now going to have to be
[11:55] Speaker 4: split to also fight the Houthis in Yemen. And I mean,
[12:01] Speaker 4: that's the Iranians' intent, right? Is to create a new
[12:05] Speaker 4: front in the campaign.
[12:08] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[12:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. And so I,
[12:13] Speaker 2: and again, I don't have any inside track on this.
[12:15] Speaker 2: I'm just, I'm just speculating, speculating like all of us, right? But,
[12:21] Speaker 2: but arguably, now, you've got midterms as the benchmark, and
[12:25] Speaker 2: you've got before a phase zero in which you're going
[12:29] Speaker 2: after Yemen, right? So the resources aren't being, aren't being
[12:33] Speaker 2: necessarily taken away. I'm not, Look, this isn't an argument
[12:37] Speaker 2: really either way. I'm just saying that this is perhaps
[12:41] Speaker 2: the way CENTCOM can see it now. Okay, we've been
[12:44] Speaker 2: told to take action against Yemen. We can do it now.
[12:49] Speaker 2: And then we've got kind of a period between phases
[12:53] Speaker 2: when we can shift to focus on Iran. And I think,
[12:57] Speaker 2: so how that would look, I think, perhaps in phase zero.
[13:02] Speaker 2: And it's a tough proposition. Look, we've gone after... We've
[13:05] Speaker 2: gone up to the Houthis three times before, right?
[13:08] Speaker 1: I mean, we had.
[13:11] Speaker 2: A campaign just back in July, a seven-week campaign. We
[13:16] Speaker 2: launched something like 1,000 sorties in that time. I know
[13:21] Speaker 2: that seems like an absurdly round figure, but I remember
[13:25] Speaker 2: singers around that, right? And we didn't achieve much at all.
[13:34] Speaker 2: It was actually... It wasn't July. It was, yeah, it
[13:43] Speaker 2: was July of this last year. I'm sure someone will
[13:45] Speaker 2: jump in and correct me. So yeah, we've achieved very little.
[13:53] Speaker 2: But so what might be different now, I think is,
[14:00] Speaker 2: you know, going, focusing first of all, on just missiles
[14:10] Speaker 2: and or launches within range of Saudi airports, which sadly
[14:16] Speaker 2: appears to be, you know, a considerable part of the
[14:21] Speaker 2: Houthis inventory. I think you'd see, you know, I think
[14:24] Speaker 2: you see now in phase zero, the U.S. potentially going
[14:28] Speaker 2: all in with Tomahawk. everything from cruise missiles through, you know,
[14:33] Speaker 2: carrier-borne aviation and specifically going after missile launches because that
[14:44] Speaker 2: is the problem. That's the only way you preempt and
[14:46] Speaker 2: mitigate the interceptor problem.
[14:51] Speaker 3: But you don't think there's a potential for a ground
[14:53] Speaker 3: game at this time?
[14:55] Speaker 1: No, no.
[14:57] Speaker 2: And of course, you know, I've been wrong before. I
[15:01] Speaker 2: don't think there was a potential for the invasion of Ukraine, right?
[15:06] Speaker 2: A week before it happened. But no, not at all.
[15:08] Speaker 2: I mean, I think you probably share. I don't know.
[15:12] Speaker 2: But I think you may share my views on this.
[15:15] Speaker 2: I mean, there's nothing to... First of all, the forces
[15:18] Speaker 2: aren't in place. I mean, can you imagine? I mean,
[15:21] Speaker 2: how many troops do you think it would take? Let's just... Okay, let's...
[15:24] Speaker 2: we'll come back and talk about the islands and we'll
[15:26] Speaker 2: talk about the enriched uranium mission, which, you know, a
[15:30] Speaker 2: considerable amount, but you know, what, what, what if the
[15:34] Speaker 2: plan was to clear the Straits by securing that coastline? Right.
[15:38] Speaker 2: I mean, think how many troops that would take. It
[15:40] Speaker 2: would take.
[15:43] Speaker 1: Tens of thousands.
[15:44] Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I, I would say, you know, at
[15:46] Speaker 2: least a couple of divisions, right. And you're going to, uh, and, and,
[15:51] Speaker 2: and what are you going to achieve?
[15:53] Speaker 4: I mean, you, Some of the terrain like if we
[15:56] Speaker 4: were to really fully like try to resolve this problem
[15:59] Speaker 4: as I understand it Some of the terrain is like
[16:01] Speaker 4: quite mountainous. It's you know Probably somewhat similar to Afghanistan
[16:05] Speaker 4: in that.
[16:06] Speaker 1: Regard Yeah, yeah.
[16:12] Speaker 2: Very much so and And and you've got the problem
[16:15] Speaker 2: even if you see curse so it's the sort of
[16:17] Speaker 2: train that soaks up a lot of troops conventional troops
[16:22] Speaker 2: are gonna have a problem with mobility and Everyone's going
[16:25] Speaker 2: to have a problem with mobility. You're going to suck
[16:28] Speaker 2: up all of your aviation, basically covering them. And you
[16:33] Speaker 2: don't solve the problem. I mean, the Iranians can lob
[16:37] Speaker 2: missiles and drones at shipping in the Straits of Hormuz
[16:43] Speaker 2: over the head from pretty much anywhere in the Iranian hinterland.
[16:47] Speaker 2: And Iran is a large country.
[16:51] Speaker 4: I mean, in theory, the Saudis could provide the ground
[16:56] Speaker 4: force that we would provide the air support for, which during.
[17:00] Speaker 3: The ISIS campaign, there was.
[17:02] Speaker 4: American air power and almost entirely Arab and Kurdish ground
[17:07] Speaker 4: forces with American advisors or coalition advisors. Do you think
[17:12] Speaker 4: that's even a possibility? I mean, how do you rate
[17:14] Speaker 4: the Saudi National Guard? Do you think they're up to
[17:17] Speaker 4: a task like that?
[17:19] Speaker 1: Are you talking.
[17:20] Speaker 2: Are you talking the Straits of Hormuz or are you
[17:22] Speaker 2: talking in Yemen?
[17:24] Speaker 3: In Yemen.
[17:25] Speaker 2: Oh, in Yemen? Well, I think it's a problem of
[17:30] Speaker 2: mobilization and getting them there right now. You know, the
[17:35] Speaker 2: forces there that are roughly the anti-Houthi forces that the
[17:39] Speaker 2: Saudis have been trying to get together are roughly equivalent
[17:45] Speaker 2: to about five divisions, you know, light divisions. So, I mean,
[17:51] Speaker 2: numbers vary, but maybe, you know, 60,000 dudes, but they're
[17:57] Speaker 2: not a homogenous force. So I'm answering your question, but
[18:00] Speaker 2: it was never on the cards for the Saudis to
[18:04] Speaker 2: go back there and force. They're just not, you know,
[18:07] Speaker 2: I'm not going to comment about whether, you know, did
[18:10] Speaker 2: they have the capability. Frankly, they don't have the capability
[18:13] Speaker 2: to deploy that right. You know, I mean, they've got
[18:16] Speaker 2: to be, you've got to, the force is, The land forces,
[18:20] Speaker 2: to include the National Guard, are spread over the country
[18:23] Speaker 2: right now. You've got to bring them together and then
[18:25] Speaker 2: you've got to launch them down into Yemen. Yes, Saudi
[18:32] Speaker 2: Arabia has a history of operating in Yemen. There are
[18:36] Speaker 2: joint task forces along the border. There is some.
[18:43] Speaker 2: Scale of advice and assist effort taking place, but it's
[18:47] Speaker 2: not advice and assist as we know it. It's more
[18:49] Speaker 2: higher level commanders there, Saudis directing Houthis on the ground.
[18:54] Speaker 2: But to get a Saudi force there anytime soon is
[18:58] Speaker 2: just not on the cards. I think that, but your
[19:02] Speaker 2: point's a good one. It's what I was referring to earlier,
[19:05] Speaker 2: but there is at least some kind of ground force
[19:08] Speaker 2: there that is fighting the Houthis. and is now, you know,
[19:12] Speaker 2: even as we speak, launching an offensive to try and
[19:14] Speaker 2: take MOCA back, which is obviously, you know, it's a
[19:18] Speaker 2: separate proposition. Supporting that force, I'm saying, potentially, yes, gives
[19:26] Speaker 2: the air campaign a focus of effort that it didn't
[19:30] Speaker 2: have before. And that's an argument to do this stuff
[19:35] Speaker 2: in Yemen. But But the way we were talking about
[19:39] Speaker 2: that before was the ground operation in Iran, which I
[19:42] Speaker 2: think we all agree, absolutely not at all practical.
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[21:17] Speaker 3: kind of watch are you wearing there?
[21:19] Speaker 1: I have the C4 Tactical Field Watch. It's solar powered too.
[21:24] Speaker 1: I'm loving it. And it's funny because I had this
[21:27] Speaker 1: laying on my coffee table the other day, actually. And
[21:30] Speaker 1: my homie came in and to watch football or whatever
[21:33] Speaker 1: and he's a watch guy and he's like oh is
[21:35] Speaker 1: that that Vare one he I'm not even making this
[21:38] Speaker 1: up like I'm not even bullshitting I'm like holy shit
[21:40] Speaker 1: yeah like they're gonna be presenting sponsor for the team
[21:42] Speaker 1: house and they sent us all a bunch of watches
[21:44] Speaker 1: like yo I love this watch and I literally sold
[21:48] Speaker 1: the watch I sent them the link the team house
[21:50] Speaker 1: link and I'm like yo buy a watch from this
[21:53] Speaker 1: from this link because if you do buy a watch
[21:55] Speaker 1: from that link which is varewatches.com slash the team house
[21:59] Speaker 1: you when you purchase a watch you get A free
[22:04] Speaker 1: watch roll that you could fill up with three watches
[22:06] Speaker 1: so you could travel with your watches and stuff like that.
[22:08] Speaker 1: It's really cool. It's leather.
[22:09] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[22:11] Speaker 1: And I was so excited when he was like, yo,
[22:14] Speaker 1: is that that Vare watch? I see it all the time.
[22:16] Speaker 1: I was like so amped that he came up with that.
[22:18] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's nice. I really like the like nice big
[22:21] Speaker 3: watch face.
[22:22] Speaker 1: You can find them at vairwatches.com slash the team house.
[22:25] Speaker 1: That's V-A-E-R watches.com slash the team house. And if you
[22:29] Speaker 1: use our link, you'll get a free watch roll with
[22:32] Speaker 1: $ 59 with your purchase. Also, Vair does offer a 20%
[22:37] Speaker 1: discount for active duty military veterans and law enforcement and
[22:42] Speaker 1: first responders. So you could check that out at any
[22:44] Speaker 1: time if you are any one of those. Yeah, I'm
[22:47] Speaker 1: excited about the sponsorship. So I really hope people go
[22:49] Speaker 1: and check out Vair.
[22:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
[22:54] Speaker 4: You know, and how, how would you rate, you know,
[22:56] Speaker 4: I know we're talking about hypotheticals right now, but how
[22:59] Speaker 4: would you rate purely an air campaign than over Yemen?
[23:05] Speaker 4: And I mean, how would that be different? Where would
[23:07] Speaker 4: it be different from the air campaign over Iran where
[23:10] Speaker 4: we blow up a lot of stuff, but we haven't,
[23:13] Speaker 4: we haven't, we've diminished, but not prevented the Iranian capacity
[23:18] Speaker 4: to fight.
[23:20] Speaker 2: Yeah. All right. Well, we weren't successful in Yemen either.
[23:23] Speaker 2: I mean, it's incredible. You know, you've got to, I'm
[23:29] Speaker 2: not eulogizing the Houthis, but you've got to hand it
[23:32] Speaker 2: to them. They've been, they've taken the best, the best
[23:37] Speaker 2: shellacking that the three most technologically advanced militaries in the
[23:41] Speaker 2: world can deliver. The Brits, us and the Israelis and
[23:45] Speaker 2: us multiple times. And they've just gone on advancing. I mean,
[23:51] Speaker 2: not only that, but now they're threatening the countries around
[23:54] Speaker 2: them and demanding that they be asked permission for commercial
[23:58] Speaker 2: aircraft to enter Saudi Arabia. I mean, the dudes are
[24:03] Speaker 2: technologically advanced, as we talked about on this program, beyond
[24:06] Speaker 2: what anyone thinks. They're using AI for the missile guidance.
[24:10] Speaker 2: The missile guidance that we've seen here has been very accurate.
[24:13] Speaker 2: They're a formidable enemy. So getting back to your Your question,
[24:18] Speaker 2: you know, how would we be more successful this time?
[24:21] Speaker 2: I'm not sure we could be. What I am saying
[24:24] Speaker 2: is that it is easier now when you are supporting
[24:27] Speaker 2: a ground force, you know, memories of the SDF, right?
[24:32] Speaker 2: It's easier for a number of reasons because you have someone,
[24:38] Speaker 2: the Houthis have to show up and fight this force.
[24:41] Speaker 2: And when they show up and fight, it makes themselves vulnerable.
[24:44] Speaker 2: They can't simply disperse. The fight going on right now,
[24:47] Speaker 2: vicinity of Bam and Mocha, anchors the Houthis to the
[24:51] Speaker 2: terrain and thus, conceptually, makes them easier targets, right? And
[24:56] Speaker 2: of course, we would be going after primarily, though, their
[25:00] Speaker 2: missile launchers, radars, anti-ship missiles, you know. I mean, first
[25:05] Speaker 2: of all, we would be stripping their air defense. And
[25:08] Speaker 2: they've got, they've shot down, I mean, you may have
[25:12] Speaker 2: the numbers. They've shot down a lot of, we've lost
[25:15] Speaker 2: a lot of, high-end drones over Yemen. So their air
[25:19] Speaker 2: defense systems aren't shite. We'd have to get rid of
[25:22] Speaker 2: those and then go after that launchers.
[25:25] Speaker 4: And our primary goal really, like to get to cut
[25:28] Speaker 4: right down to it, it's to prevent them from imposing
[25:30] Speaker 4: these costs on Saudi Arabia.
[25:32] Speaker 3: I mean, that's really... Yeah, exactly.
[25:34] Speaker 2: And, you know, we were saying, we've said twice here,
[25:38] Speaker 2: we can't help you. Now, potentially we can if the escalation, if,
[25:44] Speaker 2: you know, if the Our continued war against Iran is
[25:48] Speaker 2: separated by time. And then there's kind of the political
[25:55] Speaker 2: dynamic of, in the views of those in the Middle East,
[25:58] Speaker 2: I'm generalizing here, the United States responds to Israeli requests
[26:02] Speaker 2: for help, but not to Arab requests for help, okay?
[26:06] Speaker 2: I'm not saying that's the case. I'm just saying that
[26:09] Speaker 2: is the perception here in the Middle East.
[26:11] Speaker 1: It seems like the case.
[26:12] Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it does, doesn't it? I mean, you know, so...
[26:17] Speaker 2: I don't think, okay, it's hypothetical, but if Israel had
[26:20] Speaker 2: been hit three times in a row, inflicting those type
[26:24] Speaker 2: of casualties, and Netanyahu said to Trump, hey, help us,
[26:29] Speaker 2: we need your help. Can you strike targets in Yemen?
[26:34] Speaker 1: I mean, at minimum, we'd probably be flying sorties to
[26:36] Speaker 1: knock out ballistic missiles.
[26:38] Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure we'd be doing something. Okay, anyway, so
[26:41] Speaker 2: my point is, look, and I'm not, just saying this
[26:46] Speaker 2: because of where I am, but arguably it makes good sense.
[26:51] Speaker 2: But the thing is that Jack's got a good point too.
[26:55] Speaker 2: What could be achieved by an air campaign that we
[26:57] Speaker 2: couldn't before? And my argument would be, well, potentially now
[27:01] Speaker 2: supporting a ground campaign. Yes, we begin with air defenses.
[27:04] Speaker 2: We go after the long range missile launchers. But we also,
[27:08] Speaker 2: by the way, go after anti-ship missile sites too. So
[27:12] Speaker 2: the BAM doesn't become a huge issue again. And, you know,
[27:17] Speaker 2: the Houthis are right now fighting hard around Bab al-Mandeb.
[27:23] Speaker 2: And so they are, as I've said, kind of they're
[27:26] Speaker 2: preoccupied around the open. It might be a good time
[27:29] Speaker 2: to do this. So that would be, you know, that
[27:33] Speaker 2: would be kind of phase zero. And then I suppose
[27:38] Speaker 2: after the midterms, you know, resorting to escalation of the
[27:42] Speaker 2: war again against Iran. if Iran hasn't showed signs of negotiating. Because,
[27:50] Speaker 2: as we talked about again on the show, we're not
[27:52] Speaker 2: going to open the Straits of Hormuz by military force alone.
[27:56] Speaker 2: Not in a real sense. Because when you're talking about
[27:59] Speaker 2: commercial shipping and insurance and all of that other stuff,
[28:03] Speaker 2: oil prices are going to remain sky high. I don't
[28:06] Speaker 2: know if you've been seeing how much it costs now
[28:08] Speaker 2: to get a tanker through the Straits. It's phenomenal, right?
[28:12] Speaker 2: So all those costs, are going to remain high even
[28:15] Speaker 2: if every single tanker is escorted and the risk remains.
[28:20] Speaker 2: As long as the risk remains until the Iranians say
[28:23] Speaker 2: they're going to take that foot off the gas. That's
[28:26] Speaker 2: an unfortunate metaphor there. But until they say they're going
[28:30] Speaker 2: to stop hitting tankers and they agree to a negotiated solution,
[28:34] Speaker 2: those prices are going to remain high. It's all good news.
[28:38] Speaker 1: As usual. only, only good news here on the eyes
[28:42] Speaker 1: on geopolitics podcast. Um, do you guys want to hit on, um,
[28:47] Speaker 1: Trump making a deal with Putin for diesel? Um, it's
[28:52] Speaker 1: interesting too, cause like we're talking about Saudi Arabia and
[28:54] Speaker 1: us helping Saudi Arabia with the Houthis and we're probably
[28:58] Speaker 1: not going to do anything due to the midterm elections. Um,
[29:01] Speaker 1: our midterm elections, it seems like this move with Russia
[29:04] Speaker 1: outside of Trump being like Putin's for lack of a
[29:08] Speaker 1: better word, lackey. Um, He's doing it to probably ease
[29:13] Speaker 1: some tensions before the midterm elections in terms of what
[29:16] Speaker 1: the diesel price is here in America and stuff like that. But,
[29:20] Speaker 1: you know, it seems like a cheap move. You know,
[29:22] Speaker 1: he was in that same press conference or press gaggle, Andy,
[29:27] Speaker 1: that you mentioned before where people asked him about Saudi
[29:30] Speaker 1: Arabia and he said, you'll see. He also mentioned that
[29:35] Speaker 1: when they asked about, like, why are you buying or
[29:37] Speaker 1: why are you making a deal with Russia to buy
[29:39] Speaker 1: their diesel? um because you need to and he he
[29:42] Speaker 1: basically blamed Zelensky and said uh he needs to stop
[29:46] Speaker 1: bombing their refineries and Ukraine needs to find a new
[29:49] Speaker 1: leader and you know anybody with a you know a
[29:54] Speaker 1: working frontal lobe uh can see that this That kind
[29:59] Speaker 1: of talks crazy. So I want to know what you
[30:01] Speaker 1: guys are thinking in terms of what we heard the
[30:05] Speaker 1: other day about the diesel.
[30:09] Speaker 4: I mean, I did hear or did read that the
[30:13] Speaker 4: amount of diesel is such a drop in the bucket
[30:16] Speaker 4: that they're ostensibly buying from Russia that it's really not
[30:19] Speaker 4: going to make any impact on.
[30:20] Speaker 3: The market at all.
[30:22] Speaker 4: But the administration probably already got their objective accomplished, which
[30:28] Speaker 4: was a day's worth of headlines.
[30:31] Speaker 3: They already did that.
[30:33] Speaker 4: As far as the stuff with Ukraine, I mean, you
[30:36] Speaker 4: have to think that.
[30:37] Speaker 3: The Ukrainians are becoming inert to American threats at this point.
[30:46] Speaker 4: We've been threatening them since the beginning of this administration.
[30:49] Speaker 4: We keep threatening them with stuff, and the Ukrainians continue
[30:53] Speaker 4: to be able to fight and impose these economic costs
[30:57] Speaker 4: on the Russians, I mean, why would they stop? And,
[31:01] Speaker 4: you know, if the United States government isn't going to
[31:03] Speaker 4: help out Ukraine, then, you know, what is the leverage?
[31:06] Speaker 4: What is the threat that you're kind of holding.
[31:08] Speaker 3: Over their head?
[31:11] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I.
[31:13] Speaker 2: Don't know in the great scheme of things whether the,
[31:16] Speaker 2: you know, the amount, the numbers they're talking about are huge,
[31:19] Speaker 2: but it seems like a lot. You know, I mean,
[31:20] Speaker 2: it's originally, it starts 300,000 tons, immediately than half a
[31:26] Speaker 2: million tons in early November, and then 3 million more
[31:33] Speaker 2: within a short period. It's the messaging, right, that is
[31:39] Speaker 2: just so embarrassing right now. You know, it's been reported
[31:46] Speaker 2: for some time, and the president has acknowledged that Russia
[31:50] Speaker 2: is helping Iran with its targeting. Here we are amassing
[31:54] Speaker 2: this force in the Middle East. We have been at
[31:57] Speaker 2: war now for, what, eight months against Iran. Russia has,
[32:03] Speaker 2: along with China, been Iran's biggest supporters materially as far
[32:08] Speaker 2: as oil and also technologically as far as the agreements
[32:15] Speaker 2: on Shahar drones. The Russians have been improving the Shahar
[32:18] Speaker 2: guidance systems, blah, blah, blah, etc., Um, and, uh, also
[32:23] Speaker 2: with intelligence without targeting of us, uh, us forces.
[32:27] Speaker 1: In the region.
[32:29] Speaker 2: And then here we are now cutting a deal with
[32:35] Speaker 2: the major benefactor of our enemy while we're at war.
[32:38] Speaker 2: I just can't, whatever way you look at that, it's
[32:41] Speaker 2: very hard to make sense of. And I don't know
[32:44] Speaker 2: what the spin has, has been from, uh, the president's, um,
[32:49] Speaker 2: from the government, but to me, that's, that's hard to swallow.
[32:55] Speaker 4: They've said since the beginning that, you know, they always
[32:57] Speaker 4: wanted Russia as a trade partner. They didn't care about
[33:01] Speaker 4: Ukraine or any of this other stuff, that the primary
[33:03] Speaker 4: was Russia as a trade partner. I mean, there's a lot,
[33:08] Speaker 4: I could probably say some things that upset some people,
[33:11] Speaker 4: but I mean.
[33:11] Speaker 1: Please, please do.
[33:13] Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I think the Trump family sees Russia for,
[33:17] Speaker 4: you know, the Russian government for what it is.
[33:19] Speaker 3: It's a big grift. There's a lot of corruption.
[33:22] Speaker 4: And so there's a lot of graft that the Trump
[33:24] Speaker 4: family can get involved in there if they can open
[33:27] Speaker 4: that up as a trade partnership up through Putin's regime.
[33:31] Speaker 4: I mean, I think deep down that's what this is
[33:34] Speaker 4: really about.
[33:35] Speaker 1: Well, early on when they were talking about like peace
[33:37] Speaker 1: talks and stuff like that, they sent Kushner and Wyckoff
[33:40] Speaker 1: and there was rumors.
[33:40] Speaker 3: About– They sent Kash Patel this last week, didn't they?
[33:42] Speaker 1: Yeah, that too. But like initially they were talking initially
[33:45] Speaker 1: about like when the Nordstrom– when the Nord Stream 2
[33:49] Speaker 1: pipeline starts up again, who's going to have a piece
[33:52] Speaker 1: of that? And they were basically like, at least that's
[33:54] Speaker 1: the rumors, that's what the conversation was about. And again,
[33:58] Speaker 1: Cash would tell like why the director of the FBI
[34:00] Speaker 1: needs to go to Russia. I don't know.
[34:03] Speaker 3: Especially when we don't care about counterintelligence anymore.
[34:06] Speaker 2: Right.
[34:08] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[34:08] Speaker 2: I mean, obviously the direct incentive has to do with
[34:13] Speaker 2: the midterms, right? I mean, Dessau, I haven't been back
[34:16] Speaker 2: in the States. I'm told diesel's almost doubled in price
[34:20] Speaker 2: in the last year.
[34:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's around $ 7 a gallon.
[34:24] Speaker 2: And, yeah, so at least 70%, 80% up, right? And
[34:31] Speaker 2: now Hormuz, largely close to traffic. Gulf refinery output is
[34:37] Speaker 2: cut off. And Houthi and Iraqi militia attacks have hit
[34:42] Speaker 2: the Saudi east-west pipeline. So all of that's affected the prices.
[34:48] Speaker 2: And so midterms, yeah, diesel prices hit. Who do they hit?
[34:51] Speaker 2: They hit truckers, farmers, small businesses, all of which are
[34:57] Speaker 2: core Trump constituencies, right? Just three weeks before the midterms,
[35:05] Speaker 2: his economic approval is at a low. I would say
[35:08] Speaker 2: all of those are factors in this decision. But Jack,
[35:15] Speaker 2: to your point, I'm no expert, but I know, I mean,
[35:18] Speaker 2: I was reading, obviously the experts agree with you, or rather,
[35:22] Speaker 2: of course the experts agree with you. You are one
[35:25] Speaker 2: of them, is what I meant.
[35:26] Speaker 3: I'm going to need to quote that on my next book.
[35:33] Speaker 2: You know that this isn't enough volume, right? It's still like,
[35:38] Speaker 2: even with all of this, even with all that supply
[35:41] Speaker 2: to Russia, uh, refined diesel supply. I mean, I'm sorry,
[35:46] Speaker 2: even getting all this diesel from Russia, um, incoming diesel
[35:51] Speaker 2: supply is about half the pre-war levels because of, uh,
[35:56] Speaker 2: because Gulf refining has been cut off. Um, and, uh,
[36:01] Speaker 2: you know, aside from in return though, you know, and
[36:06] Speaker 2: aside from the fact that it's It's kind of saluting
[36:11] Speaker 2: Moscow again. It helps Moscow ease its revenue squeeze, which
[36:16] Speaker 2: arguably is far tighter than ours. So, yeah, just hard
[36:26] Speaker 2: to see a good justification. I mean, especially last month, right,
[36:32] Speaker 2: the president signed a Russian sanctions law Wasn't it.
[36:38] Speaker 1: The Lindsey Graham beard act or whatever it was?
[36:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was targeting banks and the shadow fleet. It
[36:44] Speaker 2: was banning new investment. And it was imposing tariffs up
[36:51] Speaker 2: to 100% on the top five importers of Russian energy, right?
[36:57] Speaker 2: And here we are, now we're one of them.
[36:59] Speaker 1: I don't know, what are we going to do.
[37:00] Speaker 2: Sanction ourselves? And just weeks later, the Treasury's licensing Russian
[37:05] Speaker 2: diesel into global markets. So, you know, I mean, does
[37:11] Speaker 2: that undermine, does that mean the tariffs due this month
[37:14] Speaker 2: are going to be imposed at all?
[37:18] Speaker 3: Speaking of our friends, the Russians, there's something I wanted
[37:21] Speaker 3: to point out here. There's a new book out. I
[37:24] Speaker 3: have not read this yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
[37:28] Speaker 3: It looks really good.
[37:29] Speaker 4: It's written by two 60 Minutes journalists, and they worked
[37:34] Speaker 4: on a story for 60 Minutes about Havana Syndrome, and
[37:38] Speaker 4: now they've written this book.
[37:40] Speaker 5: And, yeah, I'm really looking forward to reading it. It
[37:42] Speaker 5: looks like they cover a lot of ground in here,
[37:44] Speaker 5: including some stuff I don't know about. So, yeah, I'm
[37:49] Speaker 5: looking forward to reading this one.
[37:51] Speaker 2: Has Mark seen that?
[37:53] Speaker 1: Yeah, Mark pointed it out to us in the group chat, yeah. Yeah,
[37:57] Speaker 1: he wanted us to have him on the team, as
[37:58] Speaker 1: the journalist.
[37:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be good, with a special mark on that, too.
[38:04] Speaker 1: There's a question from the chat. Will this orange turd
[38:06] Speaker 1: even matter when he loses the midterms? I mean, I
[38:09] Speaker 1: guess it depends on how badly he loses the midterms,
[38:11] Speaker 1: and it also depends on if the Democrats are fucking
[38:14] Speaker 1: not pussies.
[38:14] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, he's still the president of the United States,
[38:17] Speaker 4: so it still matters. But, you know, yeah, there's something, too, that, like,
[38:22] Speaker 4: will the system be completely jammed up after midterms, and, like, functionally,
[38:27] Speaker 4: it's kind of the end of the administration in the
[38:31] Speaker 4: sense that they're not going to pass anything further through.
[38:34] Speaker 1: Yeah, but Jack, frankly, they're not really passing much anyway. Yeah,
[38:38] Speaker 1: they're just.
[38:38] Speaker 3: Making decisions and then seeing if the courts challenge them.
[38:41] Speaker 1: Yeah, he's ruling by executive order, essentially. I mean, he
[38:45] Speaker 1: did pass some stuff. You know, the Epstein Act passed.
[38:48] Speaker 1: They're in contempt of Congress for that right there. You know,
[38:51] Speaker 1: they're not really following acts of Congress. And It remains
[38:54] Speaker 1: to be seen, because let's say the Democrats take the
[38:56] Speaker 1: House by a lot, and they have a solid majority,
[38:59] Speaker 1: and let's say it's razor thin in the Senate. Will,
[39:02] Speaker 1: and they try to put up impeachment proceedings on him,
[39:06] Speaker 1: which is probably, you know, in violation of them. Like,
[39:10] Speaker 1: he could easily get some impeachment hearings on him and
[39:12] Speaker 1: stuff like that, charges on him. Will the Senate actually convict,
[39:16] Speaker 1: even with a majority Democratic? Like, if let's say it's
[39:19] Speaker 1: 51-49 Democrats, Democrats are... Like, let's be real here. They
[39:24] Speaker 1: are spineless. They are not an opposition party. They're a joke.
[39:27] Speaker 1: They're a complete joke. So I don't know. He'd probably
[39:31] Speaker 1: be able to do whatever he wants to do still.
[39:33] Speaker 1: He'll probably be able to, you know, govern by executive order. And,
[39:37] Speaker 1: you know, and if the courts say, okay, no, like,
[39:41] Speaker 1: will they even listen to the courts? Will they even
[39:42] Speaker 1: listen to Congress? They're not right now, currently. He signed
[39:46] Speaker 1: a bill into law and they're actively in contempt of Congress. So, yeah,
[39:52] Speaker 1: he'll still matter, is the answer to that question.
[39:56] Speaker 2: You know, I mean, there was an interesting aspect to
[39:59] Speaker 2: that phone call that, I don't know, it'll come to anything, but,
[40:05] Speaker 2: you know, Putin basically acted as though he has the leverage,
[40:10] Speaker 2: which I suppose he does. We've given it to him,
[40:12] Speaker 2: but he, you know, Bezeshkin has said publicly that, he
[40:21] Speaker 2: is refusing talks, right? But then privately, he's passing terms
[40:26] Speaker 2: through Putin, through Moscow. And Putin apparently brought this up
[40:33] Speaker 2: in the phone call. We don't know what those terms are,
[40:35] Speaker 2: but it was essentially an Iranian offer. So that tells
[40:42] Speaker 2: you at least Iran wants an off-ramp. The problem is that,
[40:49] Speaker 2: of course, we don't We don't necessarily acknowledge this, but
[40:53] Speaker 2: they're not going to acknowledge that publicly. I mean, faces, everything.
[40:58] Speaker 2: So there might be something positive that comes out of
[41:02] Speaker 2: this phone call me. I mean, I'm grasping the silver
[41:07] Speaker 2: linings here because we have been accused of being ultimate pessimists.
[41:13] Speaker 2: I think we've lost 20% of our audience, which was five,
[41:17] Speaker 2: maybe six people.
[41:20] Speaker 4: Well, something else that I'll throw out, this is a
[41:24] Speaker 4: more abstract academic conversation, perhaps, than what we're willing to have.
[41:28] Speaker 4: But I just finished reading this book, which was very good.
[41:34] Speaker 4: It's Legitimacy and Liberal Democracies. The book is basically some
[41:39] Speaker 4: of the clearest political writing I've read about democracy in
[41:43] Speaker 4: America today and where it stands. And it's basically talking
[41:48] Speaker 4: about how in highly pluralistic societies, governments have to come
[41:54] Speaker 4: up with all these different legitimation stories, like basically creation
[41:58] Speaker 4: myths about themselves.
[42:01] Speaker 3: And the end result is a sort of like gridlock
[42:05] Speaker 3: that nothing gets done.
[42:07] Speaker 4: And so there's this interesting thesis that, you know, we
[42:11] Speaker 4: think about revolution, revolt, insurgency.
[42:13] Speaker 3: Well, what if things just kind of continue to slog
[42:17] Speaker 3: along and get stupider and stupider and the system is
[42:20] Speaker 3: just totally in gridlock and nothing ever gets done? And
[42:25] Speaker 3: that seems actually like the most honest and realistic scenario
[42:29] Speaker 3: for the future that I've heard. It's not a revolution.
[42:33] Speaker 3: In this book, he makes the point, revolutions and revolts
[42:36] Speaker 3: can't happen in a country like America because democracy is
[42:40] Speaker 3: so deeply embedded in the society that that people cannot
[42:43] Speaker 3: imagine a different type of government.
[42:48] Speaker 2: So I would say I would agree with him on
[42:52] Speaker 2: the thesis that that revolution isn't possible in the United States,
[42:57] Speaker 2: but not for the reasons that he's given. Actually, democracy
[42:59] Speaker 2: is not well entrenched in the United States. I think
[43:03] Speaker 2: the bias has always been anti-democratic, you know, in real terms, right?
[43:08] Speaker 2: I mean, we only became a democracy very, very recently.
[43:11] Speaker 2: And I'm concerned. My feeling may be, when you think
[43:14] Speaker 2: about it, the American experiment among Western governments is essentially,
[43:25] Speaker 2: in many ways, the newest. I'm just wording this carefully.
[43:35] Speaker 2: Let's take most Western democracies right in Europe. what they
[43:39] Speaker 2: have now, the system that has evolved over century after century, right?
[43:43] Speaker 2: They don't have, with a couple of exceptions, they don't
[43:47] Speaker 2: have constitutions, right? It's been a constant kind of back
[43:52] Speaker 2: and forth until a path was chosen that people by
[43:58] Speaker 2: and large realize works best, right? You know, I mean,
[44:02] Speaker 2: you take the UK, you had people pushing back on
[44:05] Speaker 2: the monarchy, you know, with the Magna Carta, but it
[44:08] Speaker 2: took many, you know, they're still pushing back on the monarchy,
[44:11] Speaker 2: you know, and it was a, it was gradual evolution
[44:14] Speaker 2: in the U S you had this thing called the
[44:15] Speaker 2: constitution that people keep trying to interpret. And you have
[44:19] Speaker 2: this method of government, but you have in a, in a,
[44:23] Speaker 2: and again, I'm going to be critiqued for this essentially
[44:26] Speaker 2: in many ways, um, very immature, uh, sense of thinking
[44:32] Speaker 2: among the population. I can't put my finger on it.
[44:35] Speaker 2: It's more than formal education. It might just be a
[44:38] Speaker 2: result of the fact that the country has evolved relatively
[44:41] Speaker 2: recently from people who've come from all over the place.
[44:45] Speaker 2: You know, there isn't any sense of historical progression. Okay,
[44:48] Speaker 2: we tried this or tried that. We haven't, you know,
[44:52] Speaker 2: since our unwise decision to throw off the British, we
[44:58] Speaker 2: haven't really toyed with revolution in the same way that
[45:01] Speaker 2: other countries have. So anyway, long-winded way of saying this,
[45:06] Speaker 2: my concern, I agree with the thesis. I agree that
[45:10] Speaker 2: things are just becoming more and more dysfunctional. And I
[45:14] Speaker 2: agree that this is not likely to result in revolution
[45:19] Speaker 2: because we are small C, essentially a very conservative society,
[45:24] Speaker 2: small C, right? But my concern is that There's no
[45:30] Speaker 2: end to the dysfunction. You know, we keep thinking, we
[45:33] Speaker 2: just got to get through this four years. Do we?
[45:35] Speaker 1: Well, then what?
[45:36] Speaker 2: All kinds of precedents have been set. Not good precedents
[45:44] Speaker 2: under this government, in this administration, right? Or, you know,
[45:47] Speaker 2: I mean, you can take it back. If you're talking
[45:49] Speaker 2: about this, let's just take it beyond this administration going back.
[45:53] Speaker 2: Let's talk about Congress's, you know, we talk about this
[45:57] Speaker 2: a lot, Congress's ability Congress's responsibility to oversee the conduct
[46:03] Speaker 2: of wars, right? We've already seen that erode for the
[46:06] Speaker 2: last two to three decades. It's not going to suddenly
[46:09] Speaker 2: get stronger. It's not as though there's suddenly going to be, hey, listen,
[46:13] Speaker 2: we've got to go back to what we're supposed to
[46:15] Speaker 2: do about constitution. We've seen executive powers grow increasingly, right?
[46:20] Speaker 2: Simply because of that vacuum. We've seen the two-party system,
[46:25] Speaker 2: I would argue, become... And, you know, again, I'd be
[46:32] Speaker 2: critiqued for this, but both parties, by the standards of
[46:35] Speaker 2: any European parliamentary political system, both parties are far right wing, right?
[46:41] Speaker 2: But at the same time, we've seen the divisiveness between
[46:44] Speaker 2: them that doesn't allow, doesn't broker any type of, that
[46:50] Speaker 2: puts party first before any sense of, you know, how
[46:54] Speaker 2: is all that going to be reconciled? It's not, you know,
[46:58] Speaker 2: it's not none of this. These are deep cultural issues. Um, and, and,
[47:05] Speaker 2: you know, maybe we have to say the American experiment
[47:08] Speaker 2: is not working. The American experiment, government, government, governmental experiment,
[47:14] Speaker 2: and people will attack me. Oh no, of course it is.
[47:16] Speaker 2: The Supreme court's doing X and X. It is to
[47:19] Speaker 2: a certain extent, but that's not the way the Supreme
[47:22] Speaker 2: court is acting now. The courts are acting now as
[47:25] Speaker 2: a check on the executive. as the first check on
[47:27] Speaker 2: the executives in the way the system was supposed to
[47:29] Speaker 2: be designed.
[47:31] Speaker 4: Well, he points out in the book also that, you know,
[47:35] Speaker 4: despair sets in in the individual at a certain point
[47:39] Speaker 4: as these legitimation stories fail one after the other. The
[47:44] Speaker 4: person sinks into essentially doomerism.
[47:48] Speaker 1: Apathy.
[47:49] Speaker 4: You completely have lost faith in the system and the
[47:53] Speaker 4: institutions of government and the capacity for reform. But he
[47:56] Speaker 4: also points out that those people are atomized. When someone
[48:02] Speaker 4: becomes a doomer, they're, you know, camped out in their
[48:05] Speaker 4: parents' basement playing video games.
[48:07] Speaker 3: They are not out on the street organizing. They are
[48:09] Speaker 3: not at the beer.
[48:10] Speaker 4: Hall trying to rally the troops to go and overthrow
[48:13] Speaker 4: the government. So again, nothing actually changes.
[48:17] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[48:19] Speaker 2: I mean, I think he's absolutely right. I think what's,
[48:21] Speaker 2: you know, whatever your criticisms of France, I know they're,
[48:25] Speaker 2: you know, Of course, I mean, I've got... They have
[48:29] Speaker 2: a protest culture. Yeah, they've got a protest. Look what's
[48:32] Speaker 2: happening now in the schools, right? They're kind of Bill
[48:36] Speaker 2: of Rights. I mean, what they're demanding, it all makes sense.
[48:41] Speaker 2: I mean, and all those things that they're talking about,
[48:44] Speaker 2: basically the atrophy, the erosion of the education system across
[48:48] Speaker 2: the board in France, are things you would talk to
[48:51] Speaker 2: any teacher, things that are happening here. But we're not
[48:54] Speaker 2: going to see, you know, those.
[48:57] Speaker 2: Those level of protests. I'm not countenancing violence, but I'm
[49:03] Speaker 2: saying even the walkouts from all the high schools across countries,
[49:08] Speaker 2: all the lises, all the teachers and students on the
[49:11] Speaker 2: same side this and making demands.
[49:15] Speaker 1: And you know what?
[49:16] Speaker 2: It will result in something. Yes, you can see the
[49:20] Speaker 2: all the backlash now, but all the videos of the
[49:26] Speaker 2: riot police shooting gas canisters in the face of 14-year-olds
[49:29] Speaker 2: and everything, it's going to result in changes. It's a
[49:32] Speaker 2: painful way to do it. Again, I'm not counting St.
[49:34] Speaker 1: Violent's.
[49:35] Speaker 2: I'm talking about the demonstrations themselves. You'd never see that here.
[49:39] Speaker 2: In fact, there's a revulsion. There's a, the people who
[49:44] Speaker 2: do demonstrate are reviled, you know? I mean, that's why
[49:48] Speaker 2: when you saw those yahoos coming out on the side
[49:51] Speaker 2: of ICE, it's, yeah. So, I mean, I do agree with,
[49:57] Speaker 2: I just don't agree with the why, but I agree
[50:01] Speaker 2: with his.
[50:03] Speaker 3: Well, he kind of, he sort of ends on the
[50:04] Speaker 3: note that.
[50:10] Speaker 4: These crises come about, but they don't go on long
[50:14] Speaker 4: enough and they're not acute enough to the point that
[50:18] Speaker 4: the American public really rises up, that they do end
[50:21] Speaker 4: up getting mitigated. You think of like the 2008 economic crisis, 9-11.
[50:26] Speaker 4: I mean, there's a bunch of things you could throw
[50:28] Speaker 4: in there, I suppose. But he points out that, you know,
[50:32] Speaker 4: there could be a trigger point in the future where
[50:35] Speaker 4: whether started by a natural disaster or pandemic or a
[50:39] Speaker 4: war or AI getting out of control. So who knows
[50:43] Speaker 4: what it could be? You know, it doesn't, it doesn't
[50:45] Speaker 4: really matter, but that a crisis is initiated and the
[50:48] Speaker 4: government cannot respond quickly enough because of what we were
[50:51] Speaker 4: talking about, that nothing changes, that everything's locked up, that
[50:55] Speaker 4: it can't be flexible.
[50:56] Speaker 3: Or adaptable enough. And that could really actually lead to
[50:59] Speaker 3: something like collapse.
[51:01] Speaker 1: Then the only way that happens is if like, uh, what,
[51:04] Speaker 1: Our pacifiers are taken away. Like the NFL season is
[51:09] Speaker 1: canceled or, you know, you can't get your Grubhub delivery.
[51:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like during the pandemic, my canary in the
[51:17] Speaker 3: coal mine was McDonald's. As long as McDonald's is open,
[51:20] Speaker 3: we're good to go. If McDonald's shuts down, bro, it's
[51:23] Speaker 3: time to leave the country. Get out of here.
[51:25] Speaker 1: Yeah. I wish people were as like passionate as they
[51:29] Speaker 1: were about like, you know, their football team. There's a
[51:33] Speaker 1: reason why 25 million people or more watch a single
[51:37] Speaker 1: football game in America.
[51:39] Speaker 3: So it's interesting.
[51:40] Speaker 4: So in the book, he also talks about how as
[51:44] Speaker 4: politics are failing people, they kind of resort back to
[51:49] Speaker 4: other things like their faith, their family. And one of
[51:53] Speaker 4: the things he lists in there is fandom, that people
[51:55] Speaker 4: retreat into these fandoms and that private corporations provide a
[52:00] Speaker 4: sort of narrative, a narrative glue. and even a narrative story.
[52:04] Speaker 4: If you think about like superhero movies and stuff like that,
[52:07] Speaker 4: Star Wars, and people attach themselves to these franchises, like
[52:12] Speaker 4: it's a very personal thing for them. And so fandom
[52:15] Speaker 4: is one of the things that people retreat into as
[52:18] Speaker 4: politics fail.
[52:20] Speaker 2: Fandom, that's a great term. It is very true, isn't it?
[52:25] Speaker 2: And to your point, yes, it's almost a It's almost pathetic,
[52:30] Speaker 2: isn't it? The obsession.
[52:31] Speaker 1: Yes, it is. When you think about it, yeah.
[52:34] Speaker 2: And it is true that, you know, I think even
[52:37] Speaker 2: looking back to the U.S. military, it doesn't matter what
[52:39] Speaker 2: was going on in the world, but most officers in
[52:43] Speaker 2: the morning will talk about the game they watched the
[52:45] Speaker 2: night before. You know, I've worked with militaries all over
[52:50] Speaker 2: the world. The French, the Brits, the Israelis are not
[52:53] Speaker 2: like that. You know, they were, of course, you know,
[52:57] Speaker 2: the Israelis not at all. French, not so much, but
[53:00] Speaker 2: the Brits a little bit will talk about, but they
[53:02] Speaker 2: will talk about geopolitics way more than their U.S. counterparts.
[53:07] Speaker 2: You know, have you ever, like the conversations we have
[53:10] Speaker 2: had in this discussion, if you bring that up in
[53:13] Speaker 2: the average group of military officers, you will quickly get deflected, right?
[53:19] Speaker 2: And it's not that we're arguing in a partisan way,
[53:21] Speaker 2: but if you're just talking general terms about what's going
[53:23] Speaker 2: on in the world, And if they do offer an opinion,
[53:27] Speaker 2: it's often very simplistic, not a lot of deep thought
[53:30] Speaker 2: or reading often. I'm generalizing here. And of course, Marine
[53:34] Speaker 2: officers are a cut above the rest. But that's symptomatic
[53:40] Speaker 2: of the culture at large. It never ceases to amaze
[53:44] Speaker 2: me how grown adults become so emotionally attached to football teams.
[53:49] Speaker 2: They have real lives going on outside that. I mean,
[53:52] Speaker 2: they've got you know, children, families, you know, professions, but
[53:57] Speaker 2: they all talk endlessly about where, you know, last night's game.
[54:02] Speaker 2: I've always found that a little sad.
[54:06] Speaker 1: I think it's to a point, right? Like, I'm a
[54:09] Speaker 1: fan of teams. I don't really care much except for
[54:12] Speaker 1: like hockey, right? So there's one team I enjoy and
[54:14] Speaker 1: that's the New York Rangers. And, you know, I like them.
[54:18] Speaker 1: I hope they win, but it's not like my be
[54:20] Speaker 1: all end all. It's not everything I needed to be.
[54:22] Speaker 1: And it's like my, my whole personality.
[54:24] Speaker 5: Right.
[54:25] Speaker 1: Uh, I think a lot of the times.
[54:28] Speaker 2: People, you don't wear hockey jerseys with your favorite player's.
[54:31] Speaker 1: Name on and no pants. No, just a hockey jersey. No, no,
[54:36] Speaker 1: I don't. Uh, so I, I mean, I do see,
[54:39] Speaker 1: I see my friends of mine too. And, and I
[54:43] Speaker 1: don't know. I, it's just, it's interesting how, I guess
[54:48] Speaker 1: people don't care as much about the real issues as
[54:52] Speaker 1: they care about their running back who's starting for their
[54:55] Speaker 1: fantasy team.
[54:56] Speaker 3: It's hard.
[54:57] Speaker 4: It's very hard to live in the sort of ideal
[55:00] Speaker 4: that we're describing here.
[55:02] Speaker 3: No one, really no one, lives a life of empiricism.
[55:06] Speaker 1: Sure.
[55:07] Speaker 3: No one does because it's too painful. It's too difficult
[55:09] Speaker 3: to do that.
[55:12] Speaker 2: This particular podcast, Right, but.
[55:16] Speaker 3: This podcast is contained in an hour of our lives.
[55:20] Speaker 3: I think about it all week. After this, I can
[55:24] Speaker 3: be painting Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. I have these weird
[55:29] Speaker 3: hobbies that have nothing to do with politics, and I
[55:34] Speaker 3: think everybody kind of has to have something like that,
[55:37] Speaker 3: whether it's watching a basketball game or whatever it is,
[55:41] Speaker 3: because it's just so painful to live in a world
[55:43] Speaker 3: where we have to mentally juggle these profound philosophical and
[55:50] Speaker 3: political issues on a daily basis it's hard i mean
[55:54] Speaker 3: let's admit it to ourselves like there's a lot of
[55:56] Speaker 3: crazy stuff going on in the world and we're bombarded
[55:59] Speaker 3: with this information all day every day and it's not
[56:03] Speaker 3: great for anyone's mental health i don't care how smart
[56:06] Speaker 3: or how responsible you.
[56:08] Speaker 2: Are 100 escape escapism absolutely necessary But when escapism becomes
[56:14] Speaker 2: everything and your second reality, that is disturbing. And when
[56:19] Speaker 2: that's all you can talk about, that it's.
[56:23] Speaker 1: I think the problem in America specifically is also a
[56:27] Speaker 1: lot of people are very much blackpilled. You know, there's
[56:30] Speaker 1: a reason why 100 million people don't vote, right? Even
[56:34] Speaker 1: at the highest turnouts, there's still 100 million people who
[56:37] Speaker 1: are registered or can vote who don't vote. And I
[56:42] Speaker 1: think You talk to people and they're just like, oh,
[56:44] Speaker 1: that shit doesn't matter. They're both the same shit. Like
[56:47] Speaker 1: they're checked out completely from politics and geopolitics and issues.
[56:54] Speaker 2: It gets to Jack's point about apathy, right? So the
[56:57] Speaker 2: real question, I think, you know, Jack brings it up
[57:00] Speaker 2: or the book brings it up is when something extreme happens, right?
[57:05] Speaker 2: When the system seems to be breaking down, people are
[57:09] Speaker 2: pushing the limits in a bad way. of the checks
[57:12] Speaker 2: and balances, does the people react correspondingly, if not by revolting,
[57:21] Speaker 2: at least dropping their apathy and showing up to vote?
[57:25] Speaker 2: We don't know yet. But I think, to Jack's point,
[57:31] Speaker 2: even if they do, the prospects are not great. I mean,
[57:36] Speaker 2: so many So many boundaries have already been broken and
[57:41] Speaker 2: the general shift has been in a negative way.
[57:44] Speaker 1: Also, I think the way we teach kids now, you know,
[57:48] Speaker 1: whether it's civics or whatever, just the basic stuff in
[57:50] Speaker 1: terms of how the government works. Like there's a reason
[57:54] Speaker 1: why midterm elections are the slow elections because everyone's looking
[57:57] Speaker 1: at top of the ticket. It's kind of ingrained apathy.
[58:04] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, my blackpilled moment here, I would advance
[58:08] Speaker 4: a controversial idea. If those 100 million people vote, I
[58:12] Speaker 4: don't think it would substantially change the system in any
[58:15] Speaker 4: meaningful way. If you increased enfranchisement to, let's say, younger people,
[58:21] Speaker 4: like 16-year-olds, I don't think that would make any substantial difference.
[58:28] Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's a little bit more than just,
[58:31] Speaker 4: you know, voting.
[58:33] Speaker 3: There are these sort of like institutional problems.
[58:38] Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no question. I mean, yeah.
[58:39] Speaker 2: Yeah. It's more than voting and it's more than education
[58:43] Speaker 2: about civics because there's, it's hard to put your finger
[58:48] Speaker 2: on it, but there's just a, there is, there is
[58:52] Speaker 2: an underlying, you know, it's hard to tell what comes first,
[58:55] Speaker 2: but there's an underlying apathy in American society. And it
[58:57] Speaker 2: gets back to Jack's point about not responding, you know,
[59:01] Speaker 2: not really reacting when, When things start, when the whole process,
[59:06] Speaker 2: the whole system shifts in a bad way and the
[59:09] Speaker 2: checks and balances aren't working.
[59:13] Speaker 1: I think it's been like a slow kind of burn
[59:15] Speaker 1: in terms of like it's been going on for decades
[59:19] Speaker 1: where like the erosion of like institutions and in a
[59:22] Speaker 1: way where they don't make enough noise or news for
[59:25] Speaker 1: people to react in certain ways, whether you see going
[59:28] Speaker 1: away from the dollar or or, you know, the gold standard,
[59:31] Speaker 1: or where you see, you know, huge tax cuts and
[59:34] Speaker 1: deregulation in the 80s, or the bank deregulation in the 90s, like,
[59:39] Speaker 1: or super PACs, right, with Citizens United. Like, these little
[59:42] Speaker 1: things that have happened that don't really get huge headlines,
[59:46] Speaker 1: and maybe they do in, like, the small, like, the junkies, like,
[59:49] Speaker 1: the political junkies who follow this stuff like it's a
[59:52] Speaker 1: sports team, and they have their own fandom or own
[59:54] Speaker 1: interest in it. And all that stuff has completely coupled,
[59:59] Speaker 1: like has completely compiled to a place where most average
[1:00:04] Speaker 1: people aren't going to know the intricacies of a specific
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: Supreme Court case that, you know, hurt our, you know,
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: gave super PACs almost unlimited, you know, effect on our
[1:00:18] Speaker 1: elections and stuff like that and our politicians, essentially. It's
[1:00:23] Speaker 1: things like that where people are just like, And I
[1:00:25] Speaker 1: understand that the lives they live, they're just trying to
[1:00:28] Speaker 1: get by. Maybe they don't have the bandwidth to think
[1:00:32] Speaker 1: about it or read the Wall Street Journal or whatever
[1:00:35] Speaker 1: it is. Take 20 minutes a day and read up
[1:00:38] Speaker 1: on the news and see what's going on. I think
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: media literacy, too, is a huge... People in America are
[1:00:44] Speaker 1: extremely in a bad space in terms of how they
[1:00:47] Speaker 1: digest their news and what they think they know and
[1:00:50] Speaker 1: what they think is a reputable news source and isn't.
[1:00:53] Speaker 4: We, as Americans, we've kind of been trained to be
[1:00:56] Speaker 4: docile consumers from an early age. And, you know, for us,
[1:01:01] Speaker 4: politics is another fandom. It's, you know, it has been
[1:01:05] Speaker 4: pitched to us both by politicians and by the press
[1:01:07] Speaker 4: and by the media as entertainment. That politics is this
[1:01:12] Speaker 4: form of entertainment. It's this sort of cage match. It's
[1:01:15] Speaker 4: the horse race, right? You look at the polls. It's like,
[1:01:18] Speaker 4: it's literally like football. Like you're playing fantasy football.
[1:01:23] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:01:24] Speaker 4: And so I think that's why you see some of
[1:01:27] Speaker 4: the cosplay in American politics is for that reason.
[1:01:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point. In, I want to say,
[1:01:36] Speaker 2: more mature democracies, you don't see that to the same extent.
[1:01:40] Speaker 2: You see it in Eastern Europe, you know, with some
[1:01:44] Speaker 2: of the populist leaders there. You see it in Latin America,
[1:01:47] Speaker 2: places like Brazil, of course, Bolsonaro and Argentina. but you
[1:01:53] Speaker 2: don't see it so much in Western Europe.
[1:01:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, my friends sometimes ask me, like, what
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: would you do if you had one choice? What would
[1:02:00] Speaker 1: you pick, like, if you were king of the day,
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: for the day? And I'd be like, first things first,
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: it would be getting unlimited money out of politics completely.
[1:02:12] Speaker 1: If Elon Musk wants to make an ad about his
[1:02:15] Speaker 1: preferred candidate, He absolutely could do it, but he needs
[1:02:18] Speaker 1: to literally be on the thing being like, I am
[1:02:21] Speaker 1: supporting this person. It shouldn't be some wedge issue and
[1:02:27] Speaker 1: it's brought to you by somethingforamerica.org where nobody knows who
[1:02:31] Speaker 1: it's from and stuff like that. The anonymous, uncapped money
[1:02:36] Speaker 1: that's coming in is the biggest problem without question.
[1:02:39] Speaker 4: I would pass a law against how long you can
[1:02:43] Speaker 4: have a political campaign going.
[1:02:46] Speaker 3: So for like Congress, I'd be like three months and
[1:02:48] Speaker 3: for president, six months. And that's it. That's all you get. Sorry.
[1:02:53] Speaker 4: We don't need, you know, 350 days of campaigning a year.
[1:02:59] Speaker 1: It's going to be more like once the midterms are over,
[1:03:03] Speaker 1: presidential 2028 is kicking off.
[1:03:06] Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: Especially with the primaries first and stuff like that. It's
[1:03:08] Speaker 1: a horse race for two years. In Europe, they don't
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: have that. It's way shorter. They've got rules against, at
[1:03:15] Speaker 1: least in the UK, there's rules against that.
[1:03:19] Speaker 2: All right, fellas. Hey, on that high note, I'm going
[1:03:20] Speaker 2: to have to jump off. So the level of conversation
[1:03:25] Speaker 2: can go up. Great seeing you both again.
[1:03:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, good talking to you. I want everyone to check
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: out Andy's sub stack. That link is in the description.
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: And his book, he's got a new book coming out
[1:03:35] Speaker 1: as well. And there he goes. Let me mute him.
[1:03:41] Speaker 1: Jack Murphy.
[1:03:41] Speaker 2: I stay on because I'm 81%.
[1:03:45] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Stay on, Andy, and I'll just mute you. Ciao.
[1:03:52] Speaker 1: The Most Dangerous Man, Jack's book, is out now.
[1:03:55] Speaker 2: My book.
[1:03:55] Speaker 1: Check it out. Of course, you want to check out
[1:03:58] Speaker 1: Jack's substack called The High Side. Him and Sean Naylor
[1:04:01] Speaker 1: do investigative journalism of the highest standard. Anything else, Jack?
[1:04:08] Speaker 1: We're going on a field trip this week.
[1:04:10] Speaker 3: I was going to go apple picking today, but it
[1:04:13] Speaker 3: got canceled because of the rain, doing a family thing.
[1:04:17] Speaker 4: So, yeah, so me and you will be down at
[1:04:21] Speaker 4: AUSA this year, the Association of the United States Army
[1:04:24] Speaker 4: Conference down in D.C.
[1:04:27] Speaker 3: So the next like three days we'll be down there.
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to be perusing the defense industrial complex.
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: It's going to be very exciting.
[1:04:35] Speaker 3: Come and say hi to us if you're down there.
[1:04:37] Speaker 1: If there are any Chinese or North Korean honeypots, I
[1:04:42] Speaker 1: am more than available. I don't have secrets to give,
[1:04:46] Speaker 1: but I have other things. No, it should be fun.
[1:04:51] Speaker 1: It should be cool. There's a lot of drone companies
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: out there. I know that. That's the one thing I know.
[1:04:55] Speaker 1: From signing up for this event and you put your
[1:04:58] Speaker 1: email onto that sign-up list, I've gotten in like 300 emails.
[1:05:03] Speaker 3: Yeah, everything is drones and AI.
[1:05:05] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:05:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to keep saying the joke. Podcasts are
[1:05:09] Speaker 1: out for the white guy. Now it's drone companies. We've
[1:05:11] Speaker 1: got to start drone companies. That's the move. Jack, I
[1:05:15] Speaker 1: love you. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Everybody who watched, thank you.
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: Let's try and do this live stream maybe once a week.
[1:05:21] Speaker 1: Maybe the midweek we'll do it. Okay. And shout out
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: to Vare Watches, varewatches.com.
[1:05:29] Speaker 2: Oh, there's something in the chat here from Mr. Well Hung.
[1:05:33] Speaker 2: who says that he is in fact a Chinese honeypot
[1:05:36] Speaker 2: and he's going to be looking for you at AUSA.
[1:05:42] Speaker 1: I can't wait. I can't wait to see him. I
[1:05:45] Speaker 1: guess I should have said a female honeypots would be
[1:05:47] Speaker 1: preferable for me. I mean, I'm sure there's male ones
[1:05:49] Speaker 1: out there that do a great job, but not for me.
[1:05:52] Speaker 3: I heard the story years ago. We'll get going.
[1:05:55] Speaker 4: But real quick, this story about a, it was a U.S.
[1:05:58] Speaker 4: American naval officer abroad somewhere.
[1:06:00] Speaker 3: And he was staying in a hotel room And it
[1:06:04] Speaker 3: wasn't in China, but it was like, you know, Vietnam
[1:06:06] Speaker 3: or something like that. And someone came and knocked on
[1:06:09] Speaker 3: their door and there's a Chinese prostitute at the door.
[1:06:12] Speaker 3: And he's like, hey, no, thank you. Go away.
[1:06:17] Speaker 4: Like 15 minutes go by. There's another knock at the door.
[1:06:20] Speaker 4: It's a different girl. Like, you know, first they send
[1:06:22] Speaker 4: a blonde and then they send a redhead. And like
[1:06:26] Speaker 4: the people keep knocking on the door all night and
[1:06:28] Speaker 4: he keeps like not answering or sending them away.
[1:06:30] Speaker 3: And finally, at the end of the night, They send
[1:06:33] Speaker 3: a dude.
[1:06:34] Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
[1:06:34] Speaker 3: They're like, yeah.
[1:06:35] Speaker 1: And he finally did it.
[1:06:36] Speaker 3: We know what this guy's deal is.
[1:06:37] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. He finally succumbed to his passions. He couldn't
[1:06:40] Speaker 1: help it anymore.
[1:06:41] Speaker 2: He's like, finally.
[1:06:42] Speaker 1: I didn't want to say that I wanted a guy, but.
[1:06:45] Speaker 2: They obviously didn't do very good target reconnaissance. I mean,
[1:06:49] Speaker 2: maybe officer, you should begin with a man.
[1:06:54] Speaker 1: There's the Marine causing trouble. All right, guys. Thank you
[1:06:57] Speaker 1: guys for watching. Yeah, this watch is a freaking nice watch.
[1:07:01] Speaker 1: It's very. Go buy it. They're presenting sponsors for the
[1:07:04] Speaker 1: team house and eyes on. So if you want to
[1:07:06] Speaker 1: help support eyes on and the team house, go to fair.com
[1:07:09] Speaker 1: slash team house. Links are in the description. I love you.
[1:07:13] Speaker 3: Thanks guys.
[1:07:13] Speaker 1: Thank you. Hello everyone. If you're hearing this, uh, you
[1:07:18] Speaker 1: are not a member of the Patreon. You can get
[1:07:22] Speaker 1: your hands on ad free episodes that come out early
[1:07:26] Speaker 1: and you can ask us questions. Maybe we'll answer them.
[1:07:29] Speaker 1: You can also watch the team house podcast, completely ad
[1:07:32] Speaker 1: free and early. And you can also watch it live
[1:07:34] Speaker 1: as we interview our guests. Um, and it's the best
[1:07:38] Speaker 1: way to support the channel. So if you can, if
[1:07:40] Speaker 1: you're open to it, you can go to patrion.com slash
[1:07:43] Speaker 1: the team house. That link is in the description. Uh,
[1:07:46] Speaker 1: we appreciate the supporters and we hope you would consider
[1:07:49] Speaker 1: being one. So it's patrion.com slash the team house. Thanks guys.

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