The Last Bridge Back to America

The speaker discusses the importance of choices and the impact they have on our lives. They mention their podcast and the success it has had. They acknowledge that some listeners prefer local topics over national politics. However, they believe there are common issues we can all agree on, regardless of political affiliation. They express concern for the future of the country and the need to make informed choices. They discuss five major issues that will be important in the upcoming election, with a focus on the economy and inflation. They emphasize the importance of personal reflection and open dialogue. I've had choices since the day that I was born, there were voices that told me right from wrong. If I had listened, no I wouldn't be here today, living and dying with the choices I've made. I was tempted. That's old George Jones the Possum and he's singing about choices. Life is all about choices and today we're going to talk about a few. What are they? Well, let's find out. Come get in the ring. I'm your host Keith Marshall and let's go one more round. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. You can't count this one. We will make America great again. I say something and you don't want to listen, don't listen. One more round. Hey, welcome to One More Round Podcast. I'm your host as always, Keith Marshall. I'm glad to have you here in the ring. You know, last week, and I failed to say it, but last week was my 25th episode on One More Round Podcast. Really excited about that. I was reading a little bit. Most podcasts don't make it past 10 episodes, they say, just as they look at it, I guess, as an average. But we've hit 25 and actually over the last few weeks I've broken all of my personal records about downloads and I'm really excited about that. I appreciate you listening and tuning in. Here's one thing, though, I want to point out. I know that when I do things on the city of Radford, I get my largest numbers. People are really craving for some truth about what's going on in the city. But when I do national politics, you know, if you're listening, I'm talking to you because I've spoken to several of you and a couple of them have said, hey, Keith, look, I really enjoy the local things. When we get into national politics, I don't really like that or maybe you and I don't agree. I think there's especially a lot of angst about Donald Trump in the national scene in the election that's coming up. So I'm going to get into some national things in this particular episode. But before you just tune me out, and like I said, I respect the different opinions there. And I realize how, you know, the saying that all politics is local. And oftentimes, it's amazing to me how we can agree so much on the principles of how we feel about local politics, but not agree on the national level. But before you tune out, I want you to at least consider hearing me out in this episode as I take a look at a couple issues that I think we will all agree on. You know, I entitled this the last bridge back to America because I believe in my heart of hearts. And I think probably whether you're a Donald Trump guy or Biden guy or hoping for some independent in between, I think you probably agree with me. We may not agree on the solution, but I think you agree with me on many of the problems that we're facing. And I think you agree with me on the poor direction or the wrong direction that our country is going in. So I want to break down a few of those issues. And I want us to have just a conversation together, just a discussion together about those issues and about how the last four or eight years have looked and how the next four years need to look in order for us to survive as a country. I didn't use that title, the last bridge back to America, just as a cliché. I really do have a concern that we're about to pass the last opportunity to bring this country back into some kind of common sense positive direction that we can function with. You know, I'm worried for my kids who are adults now, but I'm especially worried for my grandkids about what kind of country they're going to inherit from us. And if you're listening today, you have a say in that. You have a say in the direction of the way the country will go over the next four years. We all do. We all have to make a choice. And it's a tough choice for some of us. I get it. I get it. We have a group that are Democrats that I don't understand at all. Honestly, I cannot relate to anyone that is supporting Joe Biden at this point. I cannot. But I realize that they probably can't relate to me too. So we have that in common anyway. But then there's another group that say, hey, I can't vote for Biden, and I'm not going to vote for Trump. I'm going to pick some other alternative somewhere, some independent, some Nikki Haley type. And you know, even though we can go back and forth, you know that that vote, you can shake it, you can stir it, you can throw it out the window, you're not voting for anyone. The person that you put on that paper may make you feel better, but you're not selecting someone that's going to be the president. It will be either Biden or it will be Trump, assuming, of course, that Trump isn't put in jail and removed from the ballot or Biden isn't replaced or doesn't keel over somewhere on his way down a set of steps. So we kind of know that it's going to be those two. And the people that are the whichever one gets the most votes between the two will be what I guess the 47th president of the United States. It'll be one of those two. And we know that. So I want to go over some issues that I think we agree on. We may not agree on who can fix them. But I want us to talk about some issues that are facing the nation that we're dealing with every day. And I believe that we will have common ground. Now, some of you are going to agree with me 100%. I think most of you that are listening to me will agree 100%. But it's not my job just to be the preacher to the choir. I think I also need to use whatever intellectual abilities I have, and they're not many. Whatever I have, I believe I need to use to at least convince others or to bring people towards my point of view so we can have some common ground and agree on something. So we can positively go together, go forward as a city, as a state, as a nation. For what little voice I have, I'm going to be that one guy crying and hollering there at that bridge saying, Hey, this is the way. And I will defend that bridge, that final bridge back to America the best way that I can. I can't do it with money. I don't have enough of that. I can't do it with prestige. I sure don't have that. And I'm not going to be running for any offices again. I don't plan to run for any offices again. But I can use my voice, my First Amendment right, while I still have it. Not sure it's going to be here much longer. But while I still have it, I can use my voice and my opinion and whatever talents that God gave me to talk about these things just to try to convince you that I've got a good idea here, and I hope you'll listen. All right, I'm somebody that pays attention to things that most normal people don't have time to look at. I watch the results of primaries. I really do. I sit and I watch the results. And I go usually network to network. I never go to MSNBC. They're nuts over there. But I listen to Fox, of course. I listen to Newsmax. I also listen to CNN on election result coverage. I can't hardly stand to listen to them on their punditry. But I do listen on their election result coverage at CNN. Because a lot of times they hit some things, whether I like it or not, that Fox may not hit. And I try to pay attention to things. And I've kind of compiled a list of five things. Now, these aren't the only five things. But five things that are going to be major issues in the upcoming 2024 election. And these five things have been major issues for the last eight years, I believe. Especially the last three years, they've been major issues. Now, if you do a Google search of the top 2024 presidential topics or concerns of the American people, it's going to be very biased. They're often biased towards the way they want us to think. The things that they want us to be concerned about the most, they'll put at the top. Not the things that we necessarily are the most concerned about. So I've tried to put enough... I mentioned that I watched all of these primaries coverage. And oftentimes when you watch, they'll drop down and they'll show, we asked these people what was the most important issue. And they'll give you one, two, three, four, five. And they'll show, of course, sometimes it's different for the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. The percentages are different. But I picked five that I believe are going to be critical. They won't be the only five. But I believe they're very important to us all. And like I said, it doesn't matter. This episode here is not going to be just a pro-Trump rally. It's not. I promise you that. We're going to talk about some issues. And you know where I'm coming from. I can't fool you and try to tell you that I'm completely an independent thinker. Although I'd like to think that I've come to my conclusions with a lot of thought and a lot of consideration. But you know I'm a Republican. You know I'm conservative. You know that I'm supporting Trump. But I want you to at least take a look at these issues and have some personal reflection on them and see where you fall. So number one that I'm going to start off with is the economy. And also with the economy, I'm going to include inflation into that. Now I think we'll all agree that the price of bacon is too high. I think we're going to all agree on that. And we've watched over the last few years as inflation has just went crazy. It jumped up well above 8% at one time. And they say that it's come down. But we're honestly not feeling that effect. I know we're watching as the prices of houses are going up. That's going to hit us hard with local taxes here very soon. We've seen the cost of just basic groceries go up when you go to the grocery store. Don't you hate going now? I mean you know I mentioned a pack of bacon. But everything we buy has been inflated. It's higher. It's just ridiculous. You go and try to buy a new car or even a used car. And the price is astronomical. If you're a young adult, maybe you've just gotten married and you want to buy a home somewhere, you're not only going to pay a much higher price for that house, the interest rates are through the roof. It's harder for young couples to get started right now. And we've really watched that happen over the last two or three years. You know there was a point back in about 2018-2019 where the economy was really booming. Energy prices were really low because we were producing more oil, more gas. And then COVID came along. And it knocked us on our heels. And what we saw, and honestly I believe both administrations were responsible, we saw a lot of money thrown at the wall over COVID. Now I know there were people that really needed it. Of course, our city got a lot of money and we still haven't figured out what they spent it all on. I'm working on that. But we watched as those huge drops of money into the economy by the government exploded inflation. And one of the things that has also exploded inflation is the cost of energy prices. When it costs more for businesses to transport goods and services, for people in the local economy to work and provide, you know, the heat and air guys, the repair technicians, the cities and towns that are using diesel and trucks. When all those prices go up for fuel, everything goes up. That's one thing that we all share the need for, and that's gasoline or diesel. And when that goes up, all our other costs goes up and it inflates everything. It's one of the major causes of inflation. And that's fuel costs, one of the major causes. Another major issue that drains the economy is regulation. Now I know we, you know, some will agree and some will disagree about some of the aspects of government regulation. But when there's more restrictions, when there's more things that are put on the auto industry about mileage and when there's a kind of a push towards, hey, we're going to make Ford change their trucks from, you know, the good old F-150 V8s to the, you know, some electric, you know, type of vehicle, there's a huge cost that are passed on to the consumer. And it doesn't just make the electric vehicles cost more. It makes the other gasoline-powered vehicles cost more as they try to compensate for the switchover as they're being kind of forced to move to those electric vehicles. So we're seeing drains on the economy from inflation, from rising energy costs and lack of energy availability. We're seeing those things happen. So on point number one, one of the most major issues facing the 2024 election, one of the major things that we're all looking and sharing the burden together is the economy and inflation. So I have to have you ask this question. Now let's take out the names. Let's not talk about Biden. Let's not talk about Trump. Let's just talk about time periods. Can I ask you, in 2018, 2019, were you better off then than you are now? Did you have more money in your pocket? Was gasoline cheaper? Was bacon cheaper? Were the interest rates cheaper if you wanted to buy a house? If you wanted to, if one of your children wanted to buy their first home, would it be easier and more affordable for them in 2018, 2019, than it is right now in 2024? I think it's an important question. We have to answer that question. And let's move on to the next. I think there's no way I could get out of this top five, and some would push this as number one. And honestly, if you are a Republican, you may vote this as your number one issue for the 2024 economy. Statistics show that you usually do. And that is immigration. Immigration. You know, before I get into immigration, that fact, the fact that we are having a real problem at the border, we're seeing tens of thousands of immigrants flow across the border, sneak across the border. There's a lot of getaways. They're being transported all over the country, trying to find a place to put them when they come across. Now, let me say this. All immigrants are not created equal. We do have some coming across the border that are really scary. We have Chinese nationals, Russian nationals coming across the border. We have members from some of the countries that are sponsors of terrorism, like Iran, and others that are coming across the border. They're catching them. It's not just something I'm just making up or trying to derive a talking point. They're catching them. It's happening. It doesn't make any sense why military-age males from China are coming across the border. That does not make sense. But it's happening. We're seeing huge increases in the deaths from fentanyl that's coming across the border, from some of this fentanyl that's being manufactured in China and Mexico and other places. And we're seeing an epidemic of fentanyl deaths among American kids all over the country. And we're seeing people being displaced all over. It's turning economies on their heads as busloads of immigrants are being dropped off in communities that do not have the ability to handle that. They do not have the ability to properly care for many of their own residents that live there, but they certainly don't have the ability to care for new immigrants that are coming across illegally and being brought into the country. And we saw a little bit of that in Radford over the weekend. I don't know a lot about it. I probably know only what you know from reading on Facebook. But I know that a local church and a local business sponsored about 200 Guatemalan refugees that were in Radford doing some paperwork this weekend. It was all over Facebook. I'm not bringing it up to criticize or to attack anybody. It's just happening everywhere, and I don't think we should expect that we would be exempt from the same thing here. And I don't know where those people are. I wish them the best. I pray for them. They're God's children, just like I am. I do know that Radford City, though, doesn't have the capability to pay its own bills right now, much less care for people from other countries. We'll do what we can. We'll certainly love on them in a Christian way, but we don't have the ability to handle that. And another nail in that coffin could be devastating to us. Now, I don't know that they're going to be in Radford. I don't know. I'm still looking into that, still checking into that. But that's something that happened in our own home city, our own hometown, and it's happening in places all over the country. We have watched as some pretty bad individuals have crossed that border. We all know the story of Lake and Riley in Georgia, a young nursing student that was murdered by an illegal immigrant that had been arrested, that should have never been in the country to begin with, should have been in jail to begin with when they were caught for another crime, but they were let loose and that unfortunate death happened in Georgia. We also saw a teenager that was molested, that was attacked in Virginia from another illegal alien that happened not long ago. So, you know, we're seeing some bad things happen in the country, and we're watching it flow across the nation, and it's having a negative effect on us. It's hurting our economy. It's hurting our government agencies' ability to take care of its own citizens. We're seeing increases in crime. We're seeing increases in, you know, medical issues. Measles is on the rise, something that we had eradicated in the United States. They're not being tested, and they're not being inoculated for those things in other countries, and they're bringing it here, and we're seeing an increase in some of these communicable diseases that are passing from person to person, from immigrant to some of the citizens. Not their fault. They can't help it, but it's just something that we can't control now, something we did have in control before. So, just like in point one, point one is the economy and inflation, the issue of immigration, I've got to ask you that question again. Were we better off in 2018, 2019, 2020 than we are now? Has that improved? If you could look back and pick a time frame, would you rather pick the statistics of 2018, 2019, or now? Well, let me give you just a few statistics, and I actually pulled this from the Washington Post, this first one. So, it's not, you know, I don't trust the Washington Post, but maybe you will. I don't know. In 2019 was the peak during the last presidential term before Biden. That peaked at somewhere just around 800,000 crossing the border. By 2020, it had fallen to about somewhere near 400,000 illegal immigrants crossing the border. In 2021, it jumped to about 1.5 million. In 2022, it jumped to about 2.2 million. And again, 2023 was up in the 2 million range. So, I have to ask you, which time would you pick? You'll have to make that decision. As far as fentanyl, the average number of deaths for fentanyl in between 2017, 2018, 2019, in that range, was around 30,000 deaths per year. Around 30,000 deaths per year. We jumped up to as many as 112,000 deaths from fentanyl in 2023. So, I have to ask you again, what time frame would you pick? And when was America better off? That's a decision we all have to make. Now, this topic number three, or most important issue number three, that I've chosen here for the 2024 election, is the topic that's really most important within members of the Democratic Party. We're going to see the issue of abortion come front and center in all the politics over the next few months, all the way up to November. It's going to be a major issue for the Biden campaign. It's going to be talked about constantly. You're going to see lots of articles, lots of news reports on that. And it's going to be a major issue. It's not a major issue among Republicans now, not as high anyway. It's important to me, I can tell you that. I abhor abortion. It just makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. But it's a major issue with me, and it's a deal killer with me. But I kind of realize, you know, which side's for it and which side's against it, and it's a pretty clear choice to me. But it's going to be a major political issue this year. And as I looked at the statistics, I have to say I was pretty amazed. Because one of the things that's been talked about ever since the Dobbs decision since the Supreme Court threw out the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade, it should have been thrown out years ago, it was sent back to the states for the states to make their decisions. Ever since that's happening, it has been a battle cry in the Democratic Party. It's been issue number one. And honestly, it has helped them to win quite a few midterm elections. It has been a constitutional issue among states. They have it on the ballot, so they'll get more Democrats to come out, so they'll get more votes for their candidates. It's been a major issue. But what I found, though, and the reason they're saying that is they're saying, hey, women's rights are on the chopping block. We're in trouble here. We're about to lose our ability to make our own decisions about our own bodies. That's the battle cry, right? Of course, I didn't hear that battle cry during COVID when they were running people out of their jobs trying to force them to get shots. But hey, that's a topic for another day. But that's a major battle cry. It's a major issue for the Democratic Party, in particular women, losing their rights, their perceived rights, to get an abortion on demand. And the ranges of when that can happen from as soon as the woman finds out she's pregnant to the last month. I mean, it ranges a lot of different places depending on the state you're in. But that's been a major issue. But what I found is the numbers do not bear out the threat or the concern that's being placed or put in front of the American people. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, let me just, I just want to give you the statistics. I pulled these, I'm the Google king, I've told you that before. I pulled these from the CDC and from the Pew Research Center that estimates the number of abortions in the United States. And you would think, according to the way it's been presented to the American people, ever since Roe v. Wade has been overturned, that abortions are almost impossible to get. I wish that they were, but they're not. They're not even close to being impossible to get. And the statistics bear that out. Let me give you a few just so you can follow along with me. In 2016, the CDC estimates that there were 626,000 abortions. In 2017, 609. In 2018, 614,000. 19 is 625,000. 20 and 21, both of them were in the 620s. 620,000 abortions. But how many do you think, after Roe v. Wade was overturned, after all of the politics and the way it's been demagogued and how it's been said that women can't get an abortion, like I said, I wish they couldn't because it's, I believe, in the sanctity of life. I believe it strongly. It's in my core being. I cannot support a candidate that does not stand for the sanctity of life. So, what happened in 2023? In 2023, according to the Pew Research estimate, there were 1,026,000 abortions. Now, how did we overturn Roe v. Wade, and that's been blamed on Donald Trump. I don't blame him. I give him credit. But how can we make the case and say that women's rights to an abortion have been restricted because of one candidate or the other, because of one decision being overturned, when in 2023, we had the highest number of abortions in the last 25 years? You've got to go back into the 90s to get that many abortions. Statistics for abortions have been steadily decreasing over the last 25 years. But we flipped the script in 2023 with over a million abortions in the United States, according to the Pew Research estimates. So, please, I've got to ask you, is that an issue? Is that really an issue to vote on? Is there really a concern about women losing the right to get an abortion on demand? Now, I've told you how I feel about it, but let's just be realistic about what actually is going on in the country. You'll have to make a decision. I already have. But that seems to be a red herring right now. Certainly, the statistics bear that out. Now, on to number four. Number four I've titled Political Weaponization. That's a pretty broad subject, but I'm going to focus in on a couple areas that I want to talk about. If you're watching, if you're paying any attention to the news, maybe you're starting to see some ads or you're hearing some talking points, it will be quite clear to you that the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, are focusing on two major issues. Two major issues, and that is abortion, that we just went over in number three, and the death of democracy. The idea that if Donald Trump's elected, we're going to lose our freedoms. And they will inevitably go to the January 6th, they'll call it the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. I call it a riot. I really do. I call it a riot. And what I'm going to compare and contrast it with, I think will kind of prove my point. Now, what do I think about January 6th? I think it was shameful. I think those people that ran into the Capitol were a bunch of dummies. A bunch of dummies and a bunch of idiots. Were they trying to take over the federal government? No. Did they plan an insurrection? Yeah, a really good insurrection without weapons. That's pretty dumb. And there's been a lot of false information perpetrated because of that. Let me point out, there were no police officers that were killed in the January 6th riots. None. There were some that were injured, and that's shameful. But there were none that were killed. As a matter of fact, the only person that was killed in the January 6th, 2021 riot at the Capitol was Ashley Babbitt. She was a young female, and she was unarmed, and she was shot in the neck through the glass of a door. That's the only person that was killed in those riots. Now, my mom always used to say, you know, you may not be the one causing trouble, but if you're running around with people causing trouble, there's a good chance you're going to get tied up in it, and you're going to be just as guilty. And unfortunately, what Ms. Babbitt was tied up into cost her her life. I will say, though, had that shot been fired in another riot, there would have been an investigation, and that police officer would have had some things to answer for, for shooting an unarmed female and just firing indiscriminately into a crowd. But that's another subject. But I want to compare, since that's a major talking point, and since that's going to be laid out in front of us all to make a decision on, should we base our decision for our vote, whoever we choose, Biden or Trump, based on the January 6th, 2021 riots, and using that to display the fact that somehow if Trump's elected, they're going to take over the government. There'll be lawlessness, and he'll use these thugs to get, I mean, that's kind of the premise. So let's just compare a couple riots together, why don't we? And let's do apples to apples so we can talk about the same things. And I'll just compare and contrast. And I'm going to compare to the riots of the summer of 2020, the George Floyd riots, that stem from some horrible actions by a couple police officers, one in particular, Chauvin, Derek Chauvin, and the riots that ensued. So let's just talk about the two. They happened not too far apart, so it's a good analysis. In the January 6th riots at the Capitol, how many officers do you think were injured? Well, according to the statistics I found, there were 140 officers assaulted that day at the Capitol. Shameful. It's awful. I cannot imagine what would possess those guys to do that, but it happened. 140 officers at the Capitol. Let's take a look at the protests for earlier that summer. According to Police Magazine, there were 2,000 officers assaulted. In fact, there wasn't just one riot on one day, like there was at the Capitol. There was actually 574 separate events declared riots during the George Floyd protests of the summer of 2020. 574. There's actually 8,700 protests, and 574 of them devolved into what they called a riot. Now, I mentioned that there was only one person killed. And that was actually an unarmed individual in the Capitol, Ashley Babbitt. But how many were killed in the riots from the summer? Well, there were 19 killed. So, one to 19. 140 officers assaulted to 2,000 officers assaulted. You know, in Portland alone, since we want to talk about federal buildings, which the Capitol was, there was a federal courthouse in Portland. And in Portland, there was a lot of protests. 62% of the protests in Portland devolved into riots, to the point they actually tried to firebomb the federal courthouse in Portland with officers inside. They literally tried to burn them alive inside the building. Kind of not the same as what happened in the Capitol. Most of the individuals in the Capitol, many of whom were waged through, and there's all kinds of theories about, you know, FBI involvement and all that that's above my pay grade at the moment. I'm not going to get into that. But totally different scenario. Equally atrocious, but totally different outcomes. So, we've mentioned that. Now, how many were charged with crimes? In the Capitol, January 6th riots, there were 1,265 to this point have been charged with crimes. In the riots from earlier in the year, in 2020, 14,000 arrested and charged with crimes. And let's finish it off by a look at the property damage. According to the government, for the January 6th riots, the total cost and damages was about $2.8 million. A lot of money. $2.8 million. But what about the earlier protests from the summer of 2020? They're approaching $2 billion. $2 billion, that's with a B. $2 billion. So, when you're looking to make a choice, based on political weaponization, based on the depth of democracy, well, let me ask you, can you really take a look at the riot at the Capitol and base your decision on that, knowing that just earlier in the summer, there was a riot that, I mean, the two don't even compare. Now, another area of political weaponization have been the use of the courts. Now, I'm one of those, at the beginning of this election cycle, that was personally hoping that Donald Trump would not run for president. Not because I didn't like him, not because I didn't think he did a good job, I just didn't want to deal with all we're dealing with. I knew this was going to happen in some form or the other. I think we all did. I was honestly kind of pulling for DeSantis. And again, not for a dislike of Donald Trump, I just felt like that was the way to go, a new, fresh face. But what we found, and if you go back and listen to one of my other podcasts, Why Trump, what I found was that when Trump announced and decided he would run, that there was a political weaponization of the Justice Department, a lawfare, if you will, to attack one candidate to use the politics and the political position of the president and the presidency and his Justice Department to persecute his opponent. And that really changed my mind. But I have to ask you, did you see, here's another thing that you're going to be hit with as part of this political weaponization, as part of this campaign, that if Donald Trump is elected president, he's going to use his office to persecute and to go after his enemies. Well, he was president for four years. How many of his enemies did he go after? And quite assuredly, he was being attacked the whole time. I don't remember any, maybe you do. I think you should ask yourself that question. How many of Joe Biden's political enemies have been attacked? Well, I know one that has. So when we make a decision, and we look at political weaponization, and you look at the time period, the time period of 2000, you know, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, that area, 17, beginning in 17. Would you pick that as an area, that time frame as an era of political weaponization? Or would you pick this era as an era of political weaponization? And certainly, when you have this riot theory thrown at you, can you really look at January 6th and call it a threat to democracy compared to what happened earlier in the year, that same year, you know, the previous year, the summer preceding it? I can't. But I'd like to know if you can. Now, I know those riots were about totally different things. And I'm not justifying one over the other. I'm not saying one should have happened, the other shouldn't. One was good to happen. All riots are bad. I think we'd all agree on that. And I know the George Floyd riots were a whole, you know, situation where something horrible had happened. And people wanted to hear their voices heard. I get that. But there were riots just the same. People were hurt. Property was destroyed. That's against the law. That is never the way. Either January 6th, 2021, or the summer riots of 2020, neither one is acceptable. But when we compare the two, when we apples to apples take a look at it, there's no way that I personally could base my decision against a candidate based on the January 6th riot. I just couldn't do it. All right. We are on to number five. Number five, I think is something that I think about a lot. And that's threats abroad. You know, it's been a long time in this country since we had a major conflict that was worldwide. You know, like, you know, Korea would be considered fairly worldwide because there was a lot of NATO countries involved. Obviously, Vietnam escalated into that. And, you know, none of them will compare, of course, to the big one, World War II. But we've watched over the last four years some pretty unhinged things happen in regards to world peace. It kind of started with our, you know, unimaginable and poorly planned exit out of Afghanistan, culminating in 13 soldiers and a lot of civilians killed with a bomb at the airport as we were evacuating our people and some of the Afghan people that had helped us while we were there. It was a situation reminiscent of Saigon. I believe that was 73 or 75. I can't remember the exact year. With helicopters and us leaving and people chasing after us and holding on to the helicopters trying to leave in Saigon. Similar things happening with our planes leaving and people running alongside. It was a disaster. It was unplanned. Or if it was planned, it was planned to be horrible because it was a mess. We saw our soldiers killed. We saw no accountability. They've been on Capitol Hill over the last week doing some hearings on that. And, you know, I guess the hearings were important. But we kind of know nothing is going to come of that. No one is going to be held accountable for those soldiers' lives or for the way that was handled. But one of the most tragic parts about that is not just the loss of life, which is horrendous, but it's how it has emboldened our enemies around the world. Since that happened, we watched as Russia invaded Ukraine and we've seen literally billions of dollars drained away from our bank accounts in the U.S. to help fight that war. Now, we can get in an argument about whether we should be there or not, whether we should be funding it. My feelings have started to change on that, to be honest. But, irregardless, we are looking at the possibility of an escalating conflict there. The conflict that could literally bring in other regions and other countries leading to things like World War II. I think if we could look back at the brutality of World War II, can you imagine the brutality that would be now in a similar type of conflict? I don't think we want to imagine that. And I'm not sure the world could survive such a conflict. So, you know, obviously, that's been just a mess. And we've watched Russia, we've seen threats of nuclear war and we've seen threats, I think it was the Prime Minister of France just a few weeks ago mentioned the possibility of putting NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine. I mean, it's really escalating out of control. And we've seen China kind of flex its muscles around the world because of that. And they've been doing some intimidating kind of tactics towards our assets in the air and the sea. They've been infringing on our sovereign territory and they've been declaring other areas that belong to them. We also have to worry about the threat of Taiwan, the invasion of Taiwan by China that we have promised to defend. That could break out at any moment. It's an escalating problem that's going on worldwide. And it's something we had not seen in the previous four years. In the previous four years, you know, we didn't see a single major conflict. There's a few strategic hits. I think the previous administration took out ISIS pretty quickly, about four months. We saw some hits on some terrorists. But overall, no conflicts, no boots on the ground. We weren't seeing any kind of issues like the Ukraine. Afghanistan was a controlled drawdown with a plan. And what happened after that was just a disaster. So as we look around and we see world conflicts, you know kind of where I'm going. But I'm not done there. We saw the horrific terrorist attack on Israel, you know, and the escalating conflict in Hamas and the world being split about what Israel should do, what they should be allowed to do, what they shouldn't be allowed to do. Me personally, I think they should be allowed to defend themselves to the last degree. I think they have to go in there and clean out the terrorists in Hamas. And I believe that even though there's innocent civilians there, they're partly to blame because that's the government they chose. They chose the terrorists. They had other options. I do worry about the women and the children and the situations there. But the truth of it is, I don't think Israel has a choice but to defend itself and to clean out the rat's nest of terrorists that are over in that area. But we've seen that happen and the brutality of it. It's been a disaster when you look at foreign affairs and when you look at threats abroad over the last just three years. It's been a mess. And I think it's fair to leave the names out and just compare and contrast the previous four years with the last three years. Which era, which time would you choose? Who would you pick? If you could just take the name and the personalities away and just pick the results, who would you pick when it comes to threats abroad? I know it's clear to me, but I think it's a fair question to ask everyone to ask themselves, who would you choose? Alright, I had planned on just doing five, but I'm going to give you a bonus today. It's a special. Episode 26 has a number six bonus. We're going to go to another one and that is the deterioration of common sense. Now, you're talking about a broad subject. I could go a lot of directions from here. But I'm going to direct this at everybody, both male and female, both conservative and liberal. I don't care who you are, whether we agree politically or not, whether we agree on a national level or a local area, local level, excuse me. But I think it's affecting us at every level. What I have been witnessing in the last few years, in direct contrast to what I saw in the previous years before that, but in the last few years, I have seen an attack on the liberty and the privacy of our ladies and our young ladies. And like I said, the deterioration of common sense can go to a lot of areas. But I'm just going to go to one because that's all I have time for today. I could go to a lot more. I do not know how we have come to the point where we even debate the fact that it's okay for a male to use a female's bathroom or a male to use a female locker room or to force females to compete athletically against biological males in our society. How little do we think of our ladies, our daughters, our granddaughters to allow that to happen? I don't care what party you're in, there is nothing in our human anatomy that we are given as far as making decisions, as far as common sense, that would lead us to the point where any of that is okay. Not the idea of preserving those and protecting those that are most precious to us. Not the idea of fairness in competition. Not the idea of privacy. None of those things. And I've got to ask you, as we approach this 2024 election, are we good with more of that? Are we happy to just say, you know what? That's my team over there. I'm going to ignore the direction it's going. I don't care about my daughter. I don't care about my wife. I don't care about that little grandbaby of mine. Well, not this cowboy. Not me. I'm going to stand at the bridge and I'm going to yell about it. Because if anything is a threat to common sense, to our development as a society, to our ability to protect those that are most precious to us, it's this. There's just such a fundamental decency and integrity and a common sense about this issue that I think if we can't get this right, and if a party or a candidate cannot get this right, how could we trust him with anything else? I sure don't know how. Now I ask you to do this, and I'm doing it myself right now. I'm picturing my granddad's face. Someone who meant a lot to me. Someone I respected immensely. And maybe you did too. Your granddad, your grandmother maybe. And try to take the two candidates that are running, your two choices for November 2024, and try to justify to your granddad, your grandmother, which one you've decided to vote for. I don't care which one you start with. If you're starting with Trump, say, hey, I'm thinking about voting for this guy. He's a billionaire. He's very brash. He's arrogant. He's rude. He says really stupid things. Here's what he accomplished in his four years as president. Here's what he did good. Here's what he did bad. Here's what he's accused of. Here's what he says. Here's what he doesn't say. Then move on to President Biden. Talk about what he stands for. But when you do that, and when you go through all those issues, one through five, don't leave out number six. Explain to your granddad that this president supports the fact that it's okay for a man to dress up as a woman to go into a lady's bathroom where our daughters and our wives use. Explain to your granddad that this candidate says it's all right for a man to pretend that he's a woman and swim on the girls' swim team and force the girls to use the same locker room that he does. And if they say anything, they'll get in trouble and be accused of discrimination, of sexual harassment. Explain the fact that the men are dominating ladies' sports as they pretend to be a woman. Explain to your granddad that it's okay that your granddaughter or your daughter or your wife has to deal with this and that you won't stand up at the bridge and scream and say, no way, this is the way back to America. Not that way. And if you can explain that to your granddad, then you vote any way you want to. I know I sure couldn't. All right. I want to thank you for being with me today. One through six. One through six. Going through the last bridge back to America. I'll tell you what, though. I'll tell you the most important bridge that you need to take. And that's the bridge to Jesus Christ. And as I finish this podcast, I'm going to finish it the same way I always do. And that's going to be reading our theme verse, which, as always, is found in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verses 13 and 14. And God's Word says this, Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thought, whether it be good or whether it be evil. So we're all accountable for our decisions. We're all accountable for how we act, how we treat our families, how we treat our neighbors. But we're also accountable for how we vote. Make a good decision. It may be the last bridge back to America. God bless you. Have a wonderful weekend. And I look forward to seeing you again here on One More Round Podcast here in the room. One More Round Podcast www.onemoreroundpodcast.com