Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Brandon Webb, former Navy Seal and founder of
Speaker 1: the Create Club, the number one tactical and survival gear
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Speaker 1: Club today at Create club dot com. That's c R
Speaker 1: A t E Club dot com. If it doesn't work,
Speaker 1: you're just not using enough. You're listening to soft web
Speaker 1: Radio Special Operations, military names and straight talk with the
Speaker 1: guys in the community. Hey guys, welcome back to softwarep Radio.
Speaker 1: On Brandon web hosted another episode. I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about a couple of things today. About the Colin Kaepernick
Speaker 1: article I wrote, I'm gonna I'll go ahead and give
Speaker 1: you guys a read through that essentially just my opinion
Speaker 1: on the whole situation Asian which came from his recent tryout.
Speaker 1: So I just just wanted to share my opinion on that.
Speaker 1: Also talk about the other article I wrote about high
Speaker 1: fashion profiting off the American war machine with camouflage. Just
Speaker 1: kind of a funny, funny piece I wrote there. And
Speaker 1: then I wanted to start off and just kind of
Speaker 1: catching you guys up on on the state of state
Speaker 1: of the rep. What's to come this year? We got
Speaker 1: some great, great things happening, and anytime I can give
Speaker 1: you guys an update, glad to do it. Also personally,
Speaker 1: I'm out literally right now in a hotel in Los Gatos,
Speaker 1: which is just south of San Jose. I had a
Speaker 1: skydiving nighttime injury back in I think it was two
Speaker 1: thousand three where I just I was jumping in Ume, Arizona,
Speaker 1: probably jump from about fourteen thou feet at night. You
Speaker 1: know formation jump with kem lights and then you know,
Speaker 1: you take this kind of v formation everyone turns outbound
Speaker 1: tracks out, you pull and then kind of get under
Speaker 1: formation under canopy. The problem was he was like one
Speaker 1: of those high overcasts, so it was blocking starlight, moonlight,
Speaker 1: and I just couldn't see the ground. And at a
Speaker 1: thousand feet I kind of had a general reference where
Speaker 1: the drops in was, but I just couldn't see the
Speaker 1: ground essentially, and turned my base leg to final and
Speaker 1: dropped my combat load which was still attached to me,
Speaker 1: and just pulled of my brakes on the risers. That's
Speaker 1: what we're supposed to do and just plf. But I
Speaker 1: hit so hard I thought I broke my right leg.
Speaker 1: You know. It was one of those things where I
Speaker 1: just kind of sucked it up to to complete the
Speaker 1: training jump and then you know, never went to the
Speaker 1: to the medic or or what we call Corman and
Speaker 1: the Navy. And years later last year I started having
Speaker 1: problems in my my right hip. He got to the
Speaker 1: point literally where I could barely walk without my leg
Speaker 1: giving out. Yeah. First, of course to go to the
Speaker 1: vier and that that was a total nightmare. But I
Speaker 1: end up paying out a pocket to go to m
Speaker 1: y U and see uh orthopedic surgeon who X rayed me.
Speaker 1: She said to not do surgery if I could avoid it.
Speaker 1: So I end up going to specially rehab clinic and
Speaker 1: during the x rays she showed me. She came in
Speaker 1: the room, so have you ever had any injury to
Speaker 1: your right leg? And I knew exactly what it was
Speaker 1: when it happened um with the sky diving accident. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so I went. I went to rehab my good friend Kamal,
Speaker 1: what you guys know, Kamal has been on the show
Speaker 1: a few times. Kamal told me about the specialty center
Speaker 1: in San Francisco called Bioreset where they're doing this alternative
Speaker 1: you know, science based medicine, but trying to treat you know,
Speaker 1: joint pain, knees, backs, necks, spine, hips, ankles, you know,
Speaker 1: basically joint another thing, other things including anti aging with
Speaker 1: basically placenti matrix, which is a variant of stem cells,
Speaker 1: among other things. So I I I was desperate because
Speaker 1: I lost my mobility completely. I went to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I would say I had almost a year ago, maybe
Speaker 1: it was, yeah, I think it was just over a
Speaker 1: year ago, and got these injections and my hips and
Speaker 1: I think they call it hydrosection. But what they did
Speaker 1: was they also did a full m R. I. Then
Speaker 1: they also did an ultrasound on my hip and found
Speaker 1: that not only did I had an uneven wearing on
Speaker 1: my socket, I had a cyst. Like it's not like
Speaker 1: you'd think like a ZiT that you popped with pus.
Speaker 1: It was like a knotted up scar tissue cyst that
Speaker 1: was pressing on my nerve. And so they went in
Speaker 1: there and injected and it kind of poked holes in
Speaker 1: this thing, and then put this placenta matrix in and
Speaker 1: it was like better. I could actually walk again with
Speaker 1: with little pain. I still had the kind of stretch
Speaker 1: of the morning to get around, but anyway, it was.
Speaker 1: It was life changing, but extremely expensive. And of course,
Speaker 1: you know, I got a letter from the doctor, wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to the v A to try and claim
Speaker 1: this on all my service connection disability, which you know
Speaker 1: I aggressively pursued just because my kids get a lot
Speaker 1: of the benefits, and they denied me. They said it
Speaker 1: was was not service connected. So I'm still dealing with
Speaker 1: that bullshit. But anyway, the most most important thing is
Speaker 1: I got my my mobility back without having to have
Speaker 1: have surgery or hip replacement. Then I just came back.
Speaker 1: Now where I'm at today, Literally this morning I was
Speaker 1: in for a follow on procedure and come I've been
Speaker 1: one of the most painful things. This time. They went
Speaker 1: in to the actual hip socket and injected into the
Speaker 1: bone marrow. It was supernarly, but probably like the guy
Speaker 1: really one of the guys had to hold me down
Speaker 1: on the table. It hurts so bad. But um, I
Speaker 1: walked out of there same day. So I'm just super
Speaker 1: thankful that we do still have great healthcare in America.
Speaker 1: As much as I I think that generally the access
Speaker 1: to healthcare for veterans and general population is is pretty terrible,
Speaker 1: which I think most of us could agree, I am
Speaker 1: thankful that we have great, great healthcare like doctors in
Speaker 1: this country. It's just unfortunate that, you know, I had
Speaker 1: to take my money out of my savings to to
Speaker 1: pay for this, and it was it was very expensive.
Speaker 1: But what do you work for. You work for your health,
Speaker 1: and if you don't have your health, what the hell
Speaker 1: do you have. So just grateful that the procedure went
Speaker 1: well and hopefully this will get me back to nearly
Speaker 1: I'm still, you know, from getting banged up in the
Speaker 1: seal teams. Yeah, I've taken up yoga. I swim rather
Speaker 1: than run anymore. Um always laughing. My my business owner
Speaker 1: buddies are trying to get me go do these go
Speaker 1: rucks and and Spartan races, which I think are great events,
Speaker 1: but you know, for the general population, I mean half.
Speaker 1: If you if you're listening now and you're you served
Speaker 1: in the military, you're kind of living a spartan race
Speaker 1: every day. So I told my friends, yeah, if you
Speaker 1: want to go on a weekend, and and my finance buddy,
Speaker 1: I was like, you want to do spreadsheets with me
Speaker 1: on on Saturday, I'll go to your spartan race. That's
Speaker 1: kind of what it's like for me. So generally business wise,
Speaker 1: you know, I've told you guys, we made some major
Speaker 1: changes this year. We put some systems in place, especially
Speaker 1: on the editorial side. Really thankful for for Nick Kaufman
Speaker 1: and Star ros um Nick being the editor in chief
Speaker 1: now and Star rows are are managing editor, just for
Speaker 1: really putting some systems in place and and really making
Speaker 1: sure we hire quality writers where before we would just
Speaker 1: take anybody essentially that's served in a you know, in
Speaker 1: the military, with the pulse and that could write well
Speaker 1: and and looked. I think history has taught us that
Speaker 1: there's been some great writers that have als also been drunks,
Speaker 1: drug addicts and had serious issues, and that, to be honest,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of issues with that. We ended
Speaker 1: up a guy that used to write for us and
Speaker 1: then we promoted him into a different department, ended up
Speaker 1: dying this year. When it's a tragic I won't mention
Speaker 1: his name, but you guys could probably figure it out.
Speaker 1: It was just tragic. And so you know the problem
Speaker 1: is we we just would hire these guys and then
Speaker 1: the moment something would pop up, it was just drama
Speaker 1: and you know, and then you get rid of them
Speaker 1: and they go to social media and they're venting, and
Speaker 1: it's just like, no, not good for the community, not
Speaker 1: good for us, doesn't not good for morale. So I
Speaker 1: just want to give Nick credit where credits to he's
Speaker 1: He's really helped me clean up and professionalize the writing staff.
Speaker 1: And I always love when people are like trolling me
Speaker 1: on social media talking shit about oh, this writer said that,
Speaker 1: that writer said that. I was like, yeah, that that
Speaker 1: guy is like literally a crystal meth addict living and
Speaker 1: living in his basement or his mom's basement. It's just like,
Speaker 1: come on, guys, um. But anyway, that the fact that
Speaker 1: we got a really solid writing team and we got
Speaker 1: systems in place. One of the thing I learned going
Speaker 1: back to business school was how important it is to
Speaker 1: have systems in place and even editorial, right we you know,
Speaker 1: to be honest, like I will have to take full
Speaker 1: responsibility for it. But we did that big story or
Speaker 1: video that we found on Niger, the Niger ambush that
Speaker 1: created you know, it's our number one viewed story, but
Speaker 1: it created outrage. People sign a petition to get us
Speaker 1: to pull it down. That was just published by one
Speaker 1: of one of our writers without even like putting it
Speaker 1: across the editorial review board, which we do have now,
Speaker 1: and it just got published out there and it wasn't
Speaker 1: presented in the in the right way, and so we
Speaker 1: had to do all this damage control after of the fact.
Speaker 1: It just sucked that that happened, and there was nobody
Speaker 1: to backstop, which again now we've you know, nick and
Speaker 1: stop us. We have we have that review process in
Speaker 1: place for for any article we think is going to
Speaker 1: be controversial in nature. You know, it goes through a
Speaker 1: formal editor review process which which we can do very quickly.
Speaker 1: But you know, of course, the Niger thing, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know about it. I woke up to all this
Speaker 1: hate mail on social media and then I called up
Speaker 1: the guys, like what the funk is going on? And
Speaker 1: then I found out that this you know, one of
Speaker 1: the guys that published the Niger video, and it was
Speaker 1: really you know, to be totally honest, it was just
Speaker 1: presented very very poorly. UM, So I can see why
Speaker 1: people were upset. However, you know, a couple of the
Speaker 1: parents did right in and thank us for not pulling
Speaker 1: it down because they said that their son that had
Speaker 1: got ambushed and killed in the video. So people forgot
Speaker 1: about it. It happened months before we republished the video,
Speaker 1: which surfaced on the internet. Everyone had already forgotten about it.
Speaker 1: So at least the good in that is, you know,
Speaker 1: it did kind of bring it to the forefront of
Speaker 1: everyone's mind again that we did have American special ops
Speaker 1: in in that part of the world. And look, once
Speaker 1: you publish something, unless it's extremely, extremely potentially wrong or
Speaker 1: we just we just you've got to own it. You
Speaker 1: can you can redact, you can apologize, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things you do. But as a publishing outlet, you
Speaker 1: you know, we have a lot of integrity and we
Speaker 1: stand by stuff and and look, when you're breaking news,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not popular. Um. I think one of the
Speaker 1: key changes we made to software up this year was
Speaker 1: to really focus on the hierarchy, Like, if we're going
Speaker 1: to be critical, we're not going to go after individuals,
Speaker 1: We're going to go after kind of the leadership and
Speaker 1: and and really start doing smarter reporting when it comes
Speaker 1: to defense news, that's basically what it is. And and
Speaker 1: really look at if we do get critical, like proposing
Speaker 1: some solutions rather than just kind of like attacking, which
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, the media today is just
Speaker 1: all they want to do is a bunch of attack
Speaker 1: dogs jumping on pointy fingers, uh, never presenting any solutions.
Speaker 1: And I think that as well as being heavily biased,
Speaker 1: um as we can currently see what's going on with
Speaker 1: this this kind of Trump impeachment, and I'll give you
Speaker 1: my opinion on that at the end of the show
Speaker 1: as well. But anyway, the Colon Cap Kaepernick piece, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of titled this, you know, Colin Kaepernick and
Speaker 1: a Navy seal walk into a bar. This is what
Speaker 1: happened next. I kind of read you guys this this
Speaker 1: story like I did last time, just giving my my
Speaker 1: opinion along the way some some highlights here it goes.
Speaker 1: So if I were to meet Colin in a bar,
Speaker 1: I'd share the same thoughts. With him that I'm about
Speaker 1: to share with you. Having the guts to stand up
Speaker 1: for what you believe in as actually when it's unpopular,
Speaker 1: is commendable. I respect Colin for this, but I think
Speaker 1: he's gone about it the wrong way. The fact that
Speaker 1: he thought any NFL owner would take him back is
Speaker 1: very telling of how out of touch with reality he
Speaker 1: really is or his situation, and how divisive he is
Speaker 1: as an activist. And he is an activist right. So
Speaker 1: let me share my own personal story with you. A
Speaker 1: friend who plays professional hockey in the NHL shared a
Speaker 1: story with me about an old kind of junior hockey
Speaker 1: teammate of his. He was one of the best hockey
Speaker 1: players in Canada. By all accounts, he was destined to
Speaker 1: play in the NHL. However, there was just one problem.
Speaker 1: He didn't get along with anybody, not the players, the coaches.
Speaker 1: He was naturally gifted, but also extremely arrogant. He wasn't
Speaker 1: a team player, and he was hard to coach. No
Speaker 1: NHL scout wanted to vouch for this guy because of
Speaker 1: his attitude problem um and they didn't want to put
Speaker 1: their own reputation on the line. And that's something that
Speaker 1: comes when you vouch for somebody. You're putting your reppetuity
Speaker 1: Asian online and there's reputation risk. So my friend went
Speaker 1: on to tell me that this extremely talented former teammate
Speaker 1: of his is now driving a ups truck in Canada
Speaker 1: playing pickup hockey on the weekends. That's a really good story.
Speaker 1: And I told that story to my own son, who's
Speaker 1: pretty good at basketball, and it was kind of getting
Speaker 1: a chip on his shoulder and I had to knock
Speaker 1: knock him down a bit and say, look, nobody cares
Speaker 1: how good you are if you're not a good teammate
Speaker 1: and if you're not coachable, nobody is successful in life
Speaker 1: goes places that doesn't know how to like get along
Speaker 1: with people. I think we can generally agree with that.
Speaker 1: And I had this conversation with my my youngest son
Speaker 1: and shared shared that story I just right now. So
Speaker 1: the article I wrote goes on to say Colin had
Speaker 1: an incredible platform and opportunity to be an activist and
Speaker 1: unite people behind his cause. Instead, he chose to divide
Speaker 1: and continues to do so. This is the sad part
Speaker 1: because I believe that in his heart he meant to
Speaker 1: do the right thing and raise awareness to important issue
Speaker 1: in America largely uh, you know, police discrimination against minorities.
Speaker 1: And it was like, by all accounts, if you look
Speaker 1: at the data and just take the emotion out of it,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever situation has a certain ethnic group in
Speaker 1: a certain part of town, it just is what it is.
Speaker 1: But the fact that there was this issue of kind
Speaker 1: of like shoot first figured out later was an issue,
Speaker 1: and I think it's important, important that that he did
Speaker 1: bring that up. So I go on to say, in
Speaker 1: my experience, anyone who's been successful and there's chosen profession
Speaker 1: has been a team player, bringing people together, not dividing them.
Speaker 1: This was a hard lesson for me personally to grasp
Speaker 1: and as a reason why identify with Colin on many fronts.
Speaker 1: Early on, when I left the Seal community, I was
Speaker 1: a harsh critic of the n A leadership, largely um
Speaker 1: Wayne Lapierre, And I go on to say, I was
Speaker 1: a harsh critic of the n RA leadership for the
Speaker 1: lack of foresight and vision regarding a gun control in America.
Speaker 1: And Jesus, I know some of you listening here, just
Speaker 1: the fact that I said gun control is triggering you,
Speaker 1: So just chill out. Um, you know, my main issue
Speaker 1: is that the guy in charge of one of the
Speaker 1: largest advocacy groups or the largest in the world could
Speaker 1: barely find the pointy end of a of a rifle
Speaker 1: or handgun. That to me was was very just disturbing.
Speaker 1: And I look at this guy on TV the way
Speaker 1: carries himself, and I had an issue with it. And
Speaker 1: one time I was really thinking about getting on the
Speaker 1: board of directors for the n RA, So you know,
Speaker 1: I went after in an article in a social media
Speaker 1: post and then I just got trashed because I didn't
Speaker 1: fully vet my position and I did not respect the
Speaker 1: following I had on social media, did not think about
Speaker 1: the platform I had was soft rap, and I did
Speaker 1: not think through what I wrote. And it was a
Speaker 1: huge lesson for me and really realizing I could get
Speaker 1: my point across and raise awareness around certain things if
Speaker 1: I was a bridge builder not a bridge burner and
Speaker 1: so and it was. It was crazy. I had a
Speaker 1: concerted effort by the n RAY to kind of trash
Speaker 1: me for for a while the brief moment in time,
Speaker 1: and then I literally said, Okay, this is this issue
Speaker 1: really that important to me right now at this point
Speaker 1: in time, Probably not and so I just kind of
Speaker 1: walked away from it all, but with a huge lesson learned.
Speaker 1: So I go on to say in the article, I
Speaker 1: walked away from it as a better person, and now
Speaker 1: I try and approach these issues with solutions and the
Speaker 1: mindset of building alliances, not dividing. Do I think we
Speaker 1: need to modernize our thinking and understanding of farms in America? Yes,
Speaker 1: I do. It's time for an intelligent conversation about how
Speaker 1: to make America a safer place, especially if you're young
Speaker 1: kids in school. But to just lash out at certain
Speaker 1: groups or issues as a mistake and only serves to
Speaker 1: further divide. That's one of the biggest issues we face
Speaker 1: in America today. We really have lost our ability to
Speaker 1: have a civilized debate with different viewpoints. It's just like
Speaker 1: you either got to choose one side or the other.
Speaker 1: And that's that's really a tragedy today in America. I
Speaker 1: go on to write, We're losing our ability to speak
Speaker 1: candidly and respectfully to each other. We find it easier
Speaker 1: to light the internet torches and rally the angry mom
Speaker 1: just needs to stop. The hard path is to bring
Speaker 1: both sides of an important issue together. And unite them
Speaker 1: around a common understanding. Only then can we truly make
Speaker 1: a difference. The greats like Mandela, Martin, Luther King, Harvey
Speaker 1: Milk all knew the importance of creating alliances to affect
Speaker 1: lasting change. Even Winston Churchill, who is a favorite leader
Speaker 1: of mind, did that in the British government. You know,
Speaker 1: he was a shaper in the words of Ray Dalio.
Speaker 1: I'm just finishing his book, Principles of May using book
Speaker 1: highly recommended again Ray Dalio, his book on principles like
Speaker 1: life Principles. So I go on to write, so I
Speaker 1: understand why no NFL owner would want Kaepernick back. He
Speaker 1: would bring controversy, divisiveness, and attention to any team he
Speaker 1: signed with. He had an opportunity to bring people together
Speaker 1: on an important issue, but he chose to divide instead
Speaker 1: the fans on the backbone of the NFL. And I
Speaker 1: believe that most see him as insulting America by not
Speaker 1: standing for the flag, which is not what I believe
Speaker 1: Colin intended. He had a noble cause, but just went
Speaker 1: about it all wrong. In what team owner would want
Speaker 1: to see an attendance, drop sales of concession stands, drop
Speaker 1: or find himself or his team at the center of
Speaker 1: a bad headline. Nobody, no NFL owner wants that. It's
Speaker 1: just life is too short to deal with that kind
Speaker 1: of ship. So I go on to finish My advice
Speaker 1: to Kaepernick is, if we were to share a beer,
Speaker 1: would it be to rethink of approach in the future
Speaker 1: to engage the lead and the fans and people in
Speaker 1: general in a positive dialogue. Because it's a tragedy that
Speaker 1: one of the most talented quarterbacks in the NFL doesn't
Speaker 1: see that he has a real opportunity to build a
Speaker 1: bridge where none currently exists. And if the NFL is
Speaker 1: behind him, meaning done with him, then when he continues
Speaker 1: his activism, he just attempt to bring both sides together
Speaker 1: and build alliances. Because the future isn't female or anyone group.
Speaker 1: The future is all of us. Ask yourself this question,
Speaker 1: how would you want history to remember you? Then I
Speaker 1: go on I put an author's note. I was inspired
Speaker 1: to write this piece because of the experience I had
Speaker 1: speaking about out about the n RRA regarding mass shootings
Speaker 1: at schools and the blowback and hate mail I received
Speaker 1: after I went about it, and a half baked way
Speaker 1: it was only until I started going at the issue
Speaker 1: in a smarter and more inclusive way, that I started
Speaker 1: winning over people on both sides of the debate, and
Speaker 1: anyway just kind of went went onto to summarize my thoughts.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed writing that piece. I think it's important that again,
Speaker 1: when we get so certain about certain things and people,
Speaker 1: it's important for us and in general to step back
Speaker 1: and just analyze it, remove your emotions from the situation,
Speaker 1: and just look at it and look personally. I like
Speaker 1: the fact that Trump went into the office and kind
Speaker 1: of upset the apple cart, whatever you wanna call it,
Speaker 1: drain the swamp partially. Anyway, I really think that our
Speaker 1: political system needs to be upset and needs to be fixed.
Speaker 1: I think term limits for the House and the Senate
Speaker 1: would go a long way to kind of realigning people's
Speaker 1: incentives about taking care of America first and what's important
Speaker 1: rather than just getting elected and constantly like running and
Speaker 1: making decisions on the next election cycle. Like I don't
Speaker 1: think the founding fathers ever intended people to have thirty
Speaker 1: forty year careers in politics. I think that crazy our
Speaker 1: politicians had represent abroad demographic of of different people and
Speaker 1: ideas and concerns, and then I guess I could go
Speaker 1: right into this this whole Trump impeachment thing. Personally, do
Speaker 1: I think Trump did anything that was essentially justify impeachment.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. But that's my opinion and my constitutional scholar
Speaker 1: and my lawmaker. No, but just applying some general common sense.
Speaker 1: He had just one phone call, and if you really
Speaker 1: step back and look objectively, the moment he got elected,
Speaker 1: people were talking impeachment. You know, they're just waiting for
Speaker 1: any excuse for the Democrats to just impeach him. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, for him to not kind of realize that
Speaker 1: and tighten up his own game is an issue in itself.
Speaker 1: But the fact that what they even now impeached him
Speaker 1: on I think it's just kind of silly, and it
Speaker 1: really is, in my personal opinion, and an abuse of
Speaker 1: the Constitution itself. And really it's it's being deployed what
Speaker 1: I see as a election tactic on the Democrats side,
Speaker 1: because they really don't have anyone inspiring on their side
Speaker 1: on the election. This kind of detracts from Trump. He
Speaker 1: has to deal with all this stuff, and and the senter,
Speaker 1: which is controlled by the Republican Party. I really, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a tap in for Trump
Speaker 1: to get out of this impeachment. But it's just a
Speaker 1: huge distraction and it's just a political tactic used by
Speaker 1: Pelosi and the Democrats, and it's and that's the sad thing, right,
Speaker 1: come on, respect the office. And wasn't really an impeachable
Speaker 1: offense in my opinion, Um, and when you really I
Speaker 1: watched a documentary on the election. I think it was
Speaker 1: called Hacked or something like that, and it was incredibly
Speaker 1: biased towards the left. However, it really did open my
Speaker 1: eyes up to how big of an impact Cambridge Analytica
Speaker 1: played in swinging elections and being used as an election
Speaker 1: tool and really did influence the Trump Trump election. Did
Speaker 1: the Russians? Come on, give me a break. This whole
Speaker 1: Russian thing is just crazy. I'm almost personally insulted as
Speaker 1: a citizen of America to think that somebody could kind
Speaker 1: of say the Russians colluded with Trump. This is like,
Speaker 1: it's insanity. And the fact that the FBI spied on
Speaker 1: the President's campaign team, that's a big problem in this
Speaker 1: country where we're like spying on each other now, like
Speaker 1: like officially spying. Like I look, politics is not clean
Speaker 1: a clean arena. And for sure people are digging up
Speaker 1: competitive intelligence on one other, but to use like the
Speaker 1: FBI to go tap people's phones and spy like an
Speaker 1: official taxpayer money being devoted as spy against their own citizens.
Speaker 1: What kind of a fucking state are we living in?
Speaker 1: This isn't KGB in the nineteen eighties. And and that
Speaker 1: that I find also offensive and I'm surprised no one's
Speaker 1: outraged over that in itself. But anyway, that's my opinion
Speaker 1: about about Trump. I really feel like Trump is going
Speaker 1: to be elected again in and you know, stand by
Speaker 1: for the counselors to show up to all the offices
Speaker 1: where people are crying and dealing with the psychology of that,
Speaker 1: which again is a whole another crazy thing, just is
Speaker 1: what it is. Do I wish Trump would act more presidential? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do, But he is what he is at least
Speaker 1: we know that, and he's not afraid to be himself. Um,
Speaker 1: whether you're a fan of that's that's self or not.
Speaker 1: But that's that's kind of my opinion of the of
Speaker 1: the Trump thing. Let's see what do I want to
Speaker 1: get to And you guys really got to send in
Speaker 1: your questions to radio at soft rep dot com. Radio
Speaker 1: at soft rep dot com, I would love to just
Speaker 1: spend a whole episode answering any question you have about
Speaker 1: the military, the Navy Seal program. I know I've avoided
Speaker 1: I've largely kind of come out and talked about my
Speaker 1: issues with the community and in war calm, including so Calm.
Speaker 1: But look, if you guys ask an intelligent, thoughtful question,
Speaker 1: I'll answer anything. I'm an open book. I I really
Speaker 1: do believe in transparency. So please send in your questions
Speaker 1: to radio at soft up dot com. Let's see what
Speaker 1: else we got coming. This year did a major partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. I Heart owned of the radio
Speaker 1: stations in the US. We are going to have a
Speaker 1: big presence Soft Rap and Craig Club at the Country
Speaker 1: Music Festival in Austin this year. Um So be on
Speaker 1: the lookout for giveaways. We're gonna do like v I
Speaker 1: P ticket packages giveaways. We're gonna be donating some money
Speaker 1: to military charities, donating tickets to military families. So we're
Speaker 1: excited about this I Heart partnership and the fact that
Speaker 1: it opens up some amazing opportunity to tunities for us
Speaker 1: to kind of get involved with these big concerts that
Speaker 1: I Heart does as well as advertising across the their
Speaker 1: radio platform. Our partnership with iHeart culminates into the Veterans
Speaker 1: Day Concert in Nashville, Tennessee, and again amazing artists, amazing
Speaker 1: music venue. Another opportunity for us to bring our software
Speaker 1: up and create club community, which largely is the Team
Speaker 1: Room Nashville and have an amazing experience, will throw an event.
Speaker 1: There are both places ourselves but also at the venue
Speaker 1: to have our group. There are community engaging with each
Speaker 1: other and getting to experiences. So these amazing music performances.
Speaker 1: Really excited about that. This year also we are partnering
Speaker 1: with the Chive to do a one off specialty box
Speaker 1: for the Craig Club. Essentially that's coming. I'll explain more
Speaker 1: once we get that up on the site. But the
Speaker 1: guys that the Chive are are amazing. They do it.
Speaker 1: I love the Chive because they give, They put their
Speaker 1: money where their mouth is. They give a ton of
Speaker 1: money to military charities and they care greatly about the
Speaker 1: military and first responder community, which again this we haven't
Speaker 1: done a great job communicating our giving efforts, but we've donated,
Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and
Speaker 1: media over the years to charities like the Glenn Doherty
Speaker 1: Memorial Foundation, the Red Circle Foundation, which I started, and
Speaker 1: a bunch of other nonprofits. And this year is our
Speaker 1: our kind of like year to really push UH to
Speaker 1: give back to the military and first responder community. And
Speaker 1: that's why we were excited a partner with the Child
Speaker 1: because they have the similar philosophy. So look for that
Speaker 1: coming in. You've got any questions about anything I talked about,
Speaker 1: please right in. I have been traveling quite a bit
Speaker 1: this year. I plan on getting some some guests when
Speaker 1: I get back into our New York studio or our
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico studio. Those you don't know, Um, the company
Speaker 1: is technically headquartered in Puerto Rico. I split my time
Speaker 1: between Puerto Rico and New York. But we got big
Speaker 1: things on the horizon. Kind of got our ass kicked
Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen, rebuilding we you know, the re
Speaker 1: rebirth of software as a site, the team room at
Speaker 1: the Great Club, and really investing in our community. I
Speaker 1: did want to mention they also the academy this year
Speaker 1: is is pretty extensive. We have you know, we have
Speaker 1: the Academy in October. Now, you know, we have Advanced Shooting,
Speaker 1: Urban Tactical Driving, Urban Survival, We're doing an air Soft
Speaker 1: Big air Soft war game, and a Navy Seal Sniper experience. UM.
Speaker 1: All those things happening at Virginia International Raceway at the
Speaker 1: at the Software Academy. So we're getting close to selling out.
Speaker 1: So if you're interested in that, it's an amazing experience.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a big party on Saturday for everybody there.
Speaker 1: Great training, it's great camaraderie. So if you're thinking about it,
Speaker 1: definitely go sign up because those spots are gonna go quick.
Speaker 1: Let's see. The last thing I'll cover is the article
Speaker 1: I wrote about fashion. I look, I'm a huge Camo guy.
Speaker 1: I love camo, but like the jit authentic camouflage, and
Speaker 1: I just walking around New York City it's just finally,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I reached my snapping point seeing the
Speaker 1: last like, you know, skinny, unhealthy model wearing her camouflage
Speaker 1: jacket with all these unit patches, and and I just
Speaker 1: thought how ironic it is. The fashion industry is kind
Speaker 1: of totally against war UM and probably considers anybody that's
Speaker 1: in the military, you know, must be a certain way
Speaker 1: or vote a certain way. There's like a ton of
Speaker 1: discrimination I've seen in certain business sectors like media advertising
Speaker 1: towards the military. My friend in advertising literally said, any
Speaker 1: veteran resume goes to the him the pile, which I
Speaker 1: find just shocking and sad. But essentially, you know, and
Speaker 1: then there's this fashion hypocrisy where these global fashion brands
Speaker 1: and designers are using camo, and it's like, essentially like
Speaker 1: I stood back and looked at it and said, they're
Speaker 1: just profiting off the war machine. And it's like as
Speaker 1: silly as getting rid of plastic straws and and swapping
Speaker 1: him out for paper straws and putting this paper straws
Speaker 1: in the plastic coffee cups. It's just crazy. So when reality,
Speaker 1: the plastic is the real cause. So I just I
Speaker 1: wrote a funny piece for Software Up about how fashion
Speaker 1: it's kind of like hijacked camouflage and are profiting off
Speaker 1: the war machine. If you guys want to go check
Speaker 1: that out. I've really started to kind of contribute to
Speaker 1: the site again, which which I really enjoyed writing. It's
Speaker 1: tough to kind of balance, you know, running a business
Speaker 1: hosting the podcast being a dad and and you know
Speaker 1: you guys will where I I write a lot of
Speaker 1: books on the side, but anyway, I'm I'm happy to
Speaker 1: kind of jump back in and and contribute some interesting
Speaker 1: pieces to to the softwarep community. And that's it. I
Speaker 1: would only add my John and I John Mann and
Speaker 1: I finished our Serial Killer on Aircraft Care novel. We
Speaker 1: expect to sell that in January. Hope that St. Martin's
Speaker 1: Press will we'll pick it up because I love working
Speaker 1: with those guys over there. Mark Resnick, my editor, and
Speaker 1: Steve Cohen, the CFO. Just great people. Um. They care, um,
Speaker 1: and they care about putting out a quality book. So
Speaker 1: I'm excited to have that come out, as I've already
Speaker 1: got some interest in feature film licensing for that that
Speaker 1: bad Boy. The other thing I do want to mention too,
Speaker 1: we're talking to a couple of major players about developing
Speaker 1: military content for a lot of these subscription video on
Speaker 1: demand that you're seeing now, whether it's Disney plus, Apple Plus.
Speaker 1: We're in the talks to develop scripted content, not not
Speaker 1: just kind of the unscripted or what we what we
Speaker 1: referred to as like reality television, but actually doing like
Speaker 1: scripted shows. I'd love to do a show like The Wire,
Speaker 1: but do it in Afghanistan with the CIA and all
Speaker 1: the special ops units involved, and how guys are forced
Speaker 1: to make like really hard decisions and some some would
Speaker 1: think having to do bad things, but like good guys
Speaker 1: put in a position where they had to do bad things.
Speaker 1: But just like gritty, real heavy ship, you know, like
Speaker 1: you start to see some of these movies like Full
Speaker 1: Metal Jack a Platoon after Vietnam to really showcase like
Speaker 1: some of the fucked up ship that went on over there,
Speaker 1: which nobody's doing in television right now in the scripted format.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited like some of the opportunities we're doing there.
Speaker 1: And I'll give a shout out to our new VP
Speaker 1: of marketing all the all this from Iceland, and she
Speaker 1: is just a badass um and she's got a ton
Speaker 1: of relationships because you worked in the film industry in
Speaker 1: Iceland and work with the Bond franchise when they shot
Speaker 1: in Iceland, Game of Thrones, you name it. So lots
Speaker 1: of good stuff coming. I do want to, you know,
Speaker 1: from our family at soft Wrap, wish your family Merry
Speaker 1: Christmas and happy Holidays. Really appreciate you guys sticking with
Speaker 1: us throughout the years. The show and the site wouldn't
Speaker 1: be what it is today if it wasn't for folks
Speaker 1: like you that listen in and support us and through
Speaker 1: all the ups and downs. Right, we've been around seven years.
Speaker 1: Hard to believe, but I do, you know, from the
Speaker 1: bottom my heart from my family years. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays,
Speaker 1: and look forward to having a great year with all
Speaker 1: of you out here. You've been listening to Self Red Radio.
Speaker 1: New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at self rep Radio s