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Speaker 1: listening to software radio, special operations, military news and straight
Speaker 1: talk with the guys and the community. Hey, everybody, welcome
Speaker 1: back to Software Radio today. I'm going to be talking
Speaker 1: about this crazy coronavirus and the Afghanistan pull out. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about two big important things. I'll start
Speaker 1: off with Corona. As the coronavirus was coming out of China.
Speaker 1: Um I was actually attending a Harvard Business School course
Speaker 1: called O p M. It's it's a two year program
Speaker 1: for business owners, but it's from people from all over
Speaker 1: the world, and we have a handful of folks from China,
Speaker 1: so it was it was interesting kind of seeing this
Speaker 1: whole coronavirus emerged on the global landscape, and a lot
Speaker 1: of my classmates kind of concerned with what was happening
Speaker 1: in our own small class because there was you know,
Speaker 1: it's flu season. There definitely was a cold being spread
Speaker 1: among the class um and then one guy ended up
Speaker 1: catching a fever and getting hospitalized. Campus police showed up
Speaker 1: to to another person's room on campus during the course.
Speaker 1: We actually we live on campus for about four weeks,
Speaker 1: and then watching kind of this whole media scare and
Speaker 1: really hype, you know when you look at this. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: we live in the age of the Internet, which is
Speaker 1: great because news travels fast, but the traditional media outlets
Speaker 1: primarily make most of their money off advertising, and it's
Speaker 1: all about getting attention, right, so they need to grab attention,
Speaker 1: so they you know, how can you direct people to
Speaker 1: your news site if you're talking or reporting about Corona,
Speaker 1: will you get some scary title? And and and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: fear work to drive a lot of traffic to these
Speaker 1: different sites, and so you end up with this like
Speaker 1: global media almost like a media pandemic, let alone the
Speaker 1: virus being a pandemic and itself, and then you get
Speaker 1: this widespread concern and and you know, on the verge
Speaker 1: of panic from a global population. And to give you
Speaker 1: an example, I was in an uber this week and
Speaker 1: the uber driver was saying that, you know, among the
Speaker 1: drivers they were they were literally talking about how they
Speaker 1: weren't picking up people in New York City with Asian names. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then eventually the profiles these a lot of the
Speaker 1: Asian profiles they changed to American names, so you know,
Speaker 1: like Sam, Bob whatever, to kind of get around the
Speaker 1: the prejudice. So it's really that part is is unfortunate
Speaker 1: and a little bit sad to think that, you know,
Speaker 1: anybody from Asia living in a city like New York
Speaker 1: or the rest of America, whether they're they're traveling in
Speaker 1: a subway or on an airplane, if if they have
Speaker 1: the slightest cough, it's like everybody is ready to to
Speaker 1: uh to panic. That it just shows you, I think
Speaker 1: how crazy the media is in in a little bit
Speaker 1: irresponsible and just like spreading that the when I say
Speaker 1: misinformation about Corona. You know, the the mortality rate of
Speaker 1: Corona is a little bit higher than the basic flu
Speaker 1: but most of those fatalities are in older people. Um,
Speaker 1: when I'm talking Corona fatalities older people or people with
Speaker 1: pre existing conditions, and so you know they I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone's agreed on the exact mortality rate, but it's
Speaker 1: somewhere between one percent and five percent. And it it
Speaker 1: really you know, I read somewhere that if you're under fifty,
Speaker 1: your odds are less than one percent fatality rates. So
Speaker 1: it's really like just a bad version of the flu um.
Speaker 1: And I remember what happened so in Puerto Rica was
Speaker 1: with Zeka. There was this massive Zeca scared and I
Speaker 1: live half the year in Puerto Rico and I've known
Speaker 1: people that got zica and just got over it. It
Speaker 1: really was dangerous if you're pregnant, but other than that,
Speaker 1: it was just a regular flu virus. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we watch all these movies like Outbreak and
Speaker 1: Afraid of the the zombie apocalypse unfolding in real life,
Speaker 1: when in reality, you know, it's you know, we're so
Speaker 1: globally connected now through air travel and information um that
Speaker 1: you know, obviously any type of new strain of viruses
Speaker 1: is going to be scary. No arguing that. But I
Speaker 1: think the media has largely caused this massive panic and
Speaker 1: now you have unfortunately, you know, I've talked about this
Speaker 1: in the past about you know, what's going to happen
Speaker 1: to the economy. It's very interesting because you know, you
Speaker 1: see this some wild swings in the in the stock markets.
Speaker 1: You've got some real concern people are they're talking about postponing,
Speaker 1: potentially canceling the summer Olympics in Japan. Um. You have
Speaker 1: major events being canceled throughout the US, A lot of
Speaker 1: trade shows. My own trade show h y p O
Speaker 1: has a global Event Leadership event every year. This year
Speaker 1: it was in San Diego. That event has been canceled.
Speaker 1: So the unfortunate thing is, you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: this is going to impact the US economy. Where it's
Speaker 1: really showing up is how how reliant we are on
Speaker 1: China for a lot of textiles and consumer goods. And
Speaker 1: now we're seeing that these factories with the Chinese New
Speaker 1: Year happening just before the outbreak the coronavirus and Chinese
Speaker 1: near everything shuts down. You know, they factories closed, everyone,
Speaker 1: everything kind of shuts down. And then on the on
Speaker 1: the end of that the coronavirus happening, and now you know,
Speaker 1: companies that rely on products made in China aren't able
Speaker 1: to source their products, so the supply chains are impacted
Speaker 1: and everyone's kind of feeling the squeeze. Add to that,
Speaker 1: like I said, all these major trade shows getting shut down.
Speaker 1: There's like major, major blow to the economy. So you know,
Speaker 1: you saw the interest rates lowered in the US. I
Speaker 1: think what's gonna happen is more people are gonna stay
Speaker 1: home this summer. They're not going to travel abroad. But
Speaker 1: it's an interesting thing that's happening, and it could potentially
Speaker 1: it will impact the economy that you know, could have
Speaker 1: a negative effect and put US into recession globally, or
Speaker 1: you know, it could foster cooperation globally between governments and
Speaker 1: and actually potentially stave off the recession for a little
Speaker 1: bit longer. Everything goes in cycles, right, So markets go
Speaker 1: up and down, economies go up and down. We've been
Speaker 1: in a pretty bullish economy now for for one of
Speaker 1: the longest runs in American history, so it's just a
Speaker 1: matter of time before we see some type of correction.
Speaker 1: But but anyway, the coronavirus, it's uh, definitely a thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as bad as as people think.
Speaker 1: You know, I almost I was talking to my friend
Speaker 1: this morning at breakfast, like I almost wish I could
Speaker 1: get it myself and get over with, get it over with,
Speaker 1: so I do not have to worry about it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I did write a piece on software up just how
Speaker 1: to prepare for the coronavirus. But it's really you know,
Speaker 1: the piece that I wrote is essentially how to prepare
Speaker 1: for any kind of natural disaster or event like coronavirus.
Speaker 1: And I'm more worried about this media induced panic driving
Speaker 1: people to rush out to the grocery store, and obviously
Speaker 1: that this is already happening because I normally keep a
Speaker 1: go bang in the house, and I keep a little
Speaker 1: bit of a fresh water supply and reserve and some
Speaker 1: basic basic stores. But I went in and bought some more,
Speaker 1: some more stuff from my own, my own purposes. Then
Speaker 1: I could see like places on Amazon where stuff was
Speaker 1: out of stock. And so the article I wrote was
Speaker 1: essentially just like what you should have on hand normally,
Speaker 1: just to be prepared. And I'll go down the list
Speaker 1: and share that with you. And this should be something
Speaker 1: you should have at all times. It's just a good
Speaker 1: kind of peace of mind if you have, whether you
Speaker 1: live alone or you're with the family and loved ones,
Speaker 1: you should have this stuff on hand just all the time.
Speaker 1: That way, if something does happen, you're prepared, because most
Speaker 1: often what happens is some event occurs and by the
Speaker 1: time you're running out to get resupplied, you're already way
Speaker 1: behind the power curve. Um. So my thing is like, look,
Speaker 1: if you don't have what you need now, just go
Speaker 1: and stock up and put it in a closet or
Speaker 1: the basement somewhere, and just forget about it and know
Speaker 1: that you're prepared. If if stuff, if stuff were to happen. Like,
Speaker 1: let's just say they put a quarantine on your local city.
Speaker 1: Now you can't travel outside of the city limits. Imagine
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen with people running out to the pharmacy
Speaker 1: grocery store. All the stuff is going to be gone
Speaker 1: within seconds because the local supply chains are affected. In
Speaker 1: any type of quarantine scenario, you can't get goods and
Speaker 1: services in and in and out of the city. So
Speaker 1: just a good idea, So I'll go down the list.
Speaker 1: You know, clean drinking water is huge. Um. I would
Speaker 1: definitely invest in some type of water far purification as well,
Speaker 1: like whether it's tablets or filters. That way, if you
Speaker 1: do have to use your local water supply, at least
Speaker 1: you have a way to kind of clean and filter
Speaker 1: out the bad stuff, and also stock up on bottles
Speaker 1: of water, you know, like big jugs, just to kind
Speaker 1: of put it aside. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: high calorie survival meals out there. I'm a big fan
Speaker 1: of mountain house. Some don't need to be heated or
Speaker 1: have water added. Unfortunately, most of the mountain house stuff
Speaker 1: you do have to add water and heat it. I
Speaker 1: would avoid buying any type of old military m r
Speaker 1: E s. We call meals ready to eat only because
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of a lot of fake m
Speaker 1: r e's out there. You don't know what you're getting.
Speaker 1: Um So, unless unless you have a hook up from
Speaker 1: somebody in the military that given you a couple of boxes,
Speaker 1: I would avoid that just by the by the commercial
Speaker 1: survival stuff. I'm very easy to go at Amazon or
Speaker 1: wherever and verify from the reviews whether it's whether it's
Speaker 1: good or not. A lot of you can get organic, canned,
Speaker 1: and dry food options. You definitely don't want to be
Speaker 1: in a situation where you're living off survival meals for
Speaker 1: two weeks um as as your only option. I did
Speaker 1: it in Afghanistan for about four months, and it was
Speaker 1: not a pleasant experience. A good first aid kit everybody
Speaker 1: should have, like the basic kind of day to day
Speaker 1: first aid. But and then also you know, you should
Speaker 1: have a little bit more than the basic day to
Speaker 1: day what we call boo boo kit in the military. UM,
Speaker 1: I would definitely have some some serious um stuff to
Speaker 1: to dress like wounds, and I'm talking like what happens
Speaker 1: around the house. You cut yourself really badly, potentially you
Speaker 1: need to so so somebody up suiture them up. You
Speaker 1: should have a suitor kit, some type of tourniquet, lots
Speaker 1: of gauze. There's this some real good technology they on
Speaker 1: clotting gauze kits that that really stop the bleeding. And
Speaker 1: then obviously with that goes you should educate yourself on
Speaker 1: some basic first aid and YouTube is a great resource
Speaker 1: to be honest. They're just basic stuff like toiletries, right, soap, alcohol,
Speaker 1: hand rub, like disinfectant, but just the basic toiletries that
Speaker 1: that you're gonna need. Pets supplies food for your pets
Speaker 1: to a lot of people just don't don't realize. In
Speaker 1: some cases, probably you've got more reserved pet food than
Speaker 1: you do food for your own family. Um, but it
Speaker 1: is good to think about the pets. Um some type
Speaker 1: of you know, basic mask with filtration that that's in
Speaker 1: a case where you'd have to like move out in
Speaker 1: the open environment, if an outbreak were to happen in
Speaker 1: your area, you'd at least have some basic protection. And
Speaker 1: we do have some of those. We we found a
Speaker 1: pretty good source in the software store. Um we and
Speaker 1: we just got we just got resupplied after we sold
Speaker 1: out the initial batch um. If you have young kids,
Speaker 1: you know, I would think about some type of board games,
Speaker 1: activities to keep the kids occupied. Books. But also if
Speaker 1: you have infants, you gotta stock up on the baby
Speaker 1: stuff right the whether it's formula, food, diapers, all that,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I always think having a also a
Speaker 1: good portable radio is a good idea. Of spare batteries um,
Speaker 1: as well as head lamps. You know, when the lights
Speaker 1: go out, the power goes out, you always want to have.
Speaker 1: Candles are good, but LED suh, they last so long
Speaker 1: even with the basic batteries that you know. I'm a
Speaker 1: big fan of hands free lighting sources like an LED headlamp,
Speaker 1: plenty of those available on the internet, and an ari
Speaker 1: I portable GPS also a fan of that, you know,
Speaker 1: these portable GPS maps. If you do have to navigate somewhere,
Speaker 1: at least you have a portable option with battery backup,
Speaker 1: always a good thing. I would also think about kind
Speaker 1: of that one good outfit you could put on and
Speaker 1: wear for several days. You know, a good jacket, all
Speaker 1: weather jacket. I'm a big fan of natural materials like wool,
Speaker 1: because you can wear wool socks for several days. Wool
Speaker 1: has a natural tendency to eliminate odor. We used to
Speaker 1: have a saying in the military cotton kills because when
Speaker 1: you get cotton wet, it's the worst. So big fan
Speaker 1: of wool, natural materials as underlayers, not only as wool
Speaker 1: warm when it's wet or when you sweat in it.
Speaker 1: It's a natural material, very rugged and resistant to to odor.
Speaker 1: So huge fan of just kind of any type of
Speaker 1: wool socks. And they have some great kind of you
Speaker 1: I use wool sock liners from r I as my
Speaker 1: kind of everyday sock because they're they're just great. What else? Um,
Speaker 1: Also like one good backpack per person, and make sure
Speaker 1: there's a pack for everybody. Have some first aid, you know,
Speaker 1: a mini first aid kit in every pack, some food,
Speaker 1: some portable water filters. Everyone should have their own kind
Speaker 1: of go bag for the family and this stuff like
Speaker 1: once you prep it, you just put it away and
Speaker 1: forget about it, right, So that that's the that's the
Speaker 1: point I'm getting at here. Just have it put away.
Speaker 1: If ship does go down, you're prepared and you know
Speaker 1: you've got a plan together. And speaking of plan, if
Speaker 1: you do have a family, you've got to come up
Speaker 1: with a basic, simple plan like, hey, if if something happens,
Speaker 1: you're at kids are at school, you're at work, We're
Speaker 1: gonna rally have a rally point and that could be home,
Speaker 1: that could be a relative's house, someplace where they know
Speaker 1: if if they lose cell phone signal, like they go here.
Speaker 1: Everybody is going to meet at this spot. And the
Speaker 1: simpler the plan, the better, and everybody should know what
Speaker 1: that is so that I can't emphasize that enough. And
Speaker 1: I always even when I travel with my kids, it's okay,
Speaker 1: something happens, whether it's a God forbid a terrorist attack
Speaker 1: like what happened in Paris, but this is the plan.
Speaker 1: Go here. If we get separated, this is what you do.
Speaker 1: Because look, we're so reliant on our cell phones these days.
Speaker 1: If the cells towers go out, you need to have
Speaker 1: that basic plan. M always a surprising how many people
Speaker 1: just don't put enough time into it or have that
Speaker 1: conversation with the family. I'm Brandon Webb, former Navy seal
Speaker 1: and founder of the Create Club. Tired of the same
Speaker 1: old gift ideas. Want military grade survival gear delivered to
Speaker 1: your doorstep, then get Create Club. The box built by
Speaker 1: Navy seals, Army rangers, and special ops guys with backpacks,
Speaker 1: holsters and more military grade gear. It's a perfect gift
Speaker 1: for the guy and life. Subscribe to create club and
Speaker 1: will also include The Killing School, my best selling e
Speaker 1: book about America's elite snipers. That's Craig Club dot com.
Speaker 1: C r A T Club dot com. Anyway, that's kind
Speaker 1: of my tips on coronavirus again, you know, to recap.
Speaker 1: I think the media has not done the general population justice.
Speaker 1: They're really good. It's kind of fearmongering to drive page views.
Speaker 1: In reality, the Corona virus or COVID nineteen, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a nasty little virus, but the odds of odds
Speaker 1: of you dying from it are extremely extremely low. And
Speaker 1: so just just keep that in mind. And I'm I'm
Speaker 1: guessing it in the next few years we're going to
Speaker 1: get some type of version of it anyway, because it's
Speaker 1: just the way people pass viruses and we get sick
Speaker 1: and we build our immune system and you know, the
Speaker 1: cycle of life continues. So it just is what it is.
Speaker 1: So onto the next topic, and before I get into Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: I do want to remind people please email us your
Speaker 1: questions radio at soft rep dot com, Radio at soft
Speaker 1: up dot com. Any type of interviews, topics, guests you
Speaker 1: want to see on the show, please let us know.
Speaker 1: I will say Peter Bergh's team reached out to us
Speaker 1: last week, so we're looking forward to having Peter Berg
Speaker 1: on the show. As many of you know, Peter Berg
Speaker 1: directed Lone Survivor. He's got a new movie out on
Speaker 1: Netflix that we'll talk about when he's in studio. And
Speaker 1: again if you have if you haven't seen my friend
Speaker 1: Todd's movie, Last Full Measure, please check that out, The
Speaker 1: Last Full Measure. It's it's a based on a true
Speaker 1: story of Air Force Paara rescue men in Vietnam getting
Speaker 1: awarded the Medal of Honor. Great story, great movie. Todd
Speaker 1: is a good friend of mine and he is also
Speaker 1: a big supporter of the military, So I appreciate you
Speaker 1: going and showing support for The Last Full Measure. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about Afghanistan, right, we're looking at close to twenty
Speaker 1: years in Afghanistan. Um, I've talked about it before. I
Speaker 1: think about it as my generation's Vietnam with with just
Speaker 1: a better homecoming. Really, after the first three what I
Speaker 1: could say around three years. Three years of occupation in Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: America really should have just pulled out. And if I
Speaker 1: had the magic wand and I could go back in time,
Speaker 1: you know, we would have pulled out of Afghanistan entirely.
Speaker 1: You know that the main objective when I when I
Speaker 1: went over there with Stale Team three was disrupt the
Speaker 1: terrorist training networks that have been established post Soviet withdraw.
Speaker 1: As you remember, um in the eighties, the CIA and
Speaker 1: the US government, we're backing the mujiah Hadeen and Afghanistan
Speaker 1: that we're fighting the Soviets, and the Mujiahadeen was essentially
Speaker 1: morphed into al Qaeda and a Solomon Laden. You know,
Speaker 1: after the Soviets withdrew, Afghanistan became this like haven for
Speaker 1: Mudan training camps. You know that that kind of proliferated
Speaker 1: into Bin Lauden kind of leading the al Qaeda and
Speaker 1: looking for the next you know, enemy of Islam, which
Speaker 1: was clearly in his eyes, America, the United States occupation
Speaker 1: of the Middle East. You know, they had this major
Speaker 1: kind of run, free run and free reign of Afghanistan
Speaker 1: to kind of you know, turn it into this trained
Speaker 1: terrorist training network, and post nine eleven, it was clear that, okay,
Speaker 1: we need to go in Afghanistan, wipe these training camps
Speaker 1: off the face of the earth, you know, kill as
Speaker 1: many terrorists, bad guys as we can, essentially sending a
Speaker 1: message that look, America is not going to take this
Speaker 1: kind of thing as well as the rest of the
Speaker 1: free world. And I think that's why it was very
Speaker 1: easily easy for the US to kind of build a coalition.
Speaker 1: And that coalition was pretty strong. You know, you have Poland,
Speaker 1: the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, most of Free Europe, Australia
Speaker 1: and New Zealand participating in this coalition in Afghanistan. We
Speaker 1: largely accomplished that mission in the first couple of years.
Speaker 1: While we didn't find bin Laden right away, um, we
Speaker 1: know now that he escaped across the border into Pakistan. Ultimately, however,
Speaker 1: we should have pulled out. And now we're here, almost
Speaker 1: twenty years later. What the hell do we really have
Speaker 1: to show for Afghanistan. Now we're trying to get this
Speaker 1: p steal sign with the Taliban. But the point is,
Speaker 1: I think Trump is right to say, let's end it
Speaker 1: and bring American troops home. Um, the problem that I
Speaker 1: see and a lot of my fellow veterans is they
Speaker 1: come back from later stage Afghanistan tours and I'm talking
Speaker 1: post two thousand five. They lose friends over there, they
Speaker 1: see not only not only their friends dying, but people
Speaker 1: getting wounded and injured. They're coming back to the US
Speaker 1: and they're kind of stepping back maybe their transition outside
Speaker 1: of the civilian world, and they're like, Okay, what the
Speaker 1: hell was this all about? And I think that's where
Speaker 1: that's where people really struggle psychologically, because they cannot rationalize
Speaker 1: the terrible acts that they've done or seen overseas compared
Speaker 1: to when I was there in two thousand Um, it's
Speaker 1: very easy for me to come back and rationalize what
Speaker 1: we did, having being deployed over there right on the
Speaker 1: heels of nine eleven, having a very clear objective. Um,
Speaker 1: it's very easy for me to come home and rationalize
Speaker 1: the things that we did over during my my own
Speaker 1: personal deployment, however, have had I put myself on the
Speaker 1: shoes in a thought experiment of going and deploying in
Speaker 1: two thousand ten and seeing and you know, terrible things happen,
Speaker 1: and look, there always be some internet tough guys like
Speaker 1: kill them all, like God sort them out. And in
Speaker 1: the right context, I can get on board with that statement. However,
Speaker 1: the reality is we're talking about young American seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty year old men and women getting put into this
Speaker 1: bureaucratic machine, and the gears are just grind grinding away
Speaker 1: at their mental state, right, and so it's a it's
Speaker 1: a serious thing, and it's why we're having a major
Speaker 1: issue now with veterans suicide in the US. You know,
Speaker 1: people literally, I'm talking. I remember I spoke to a
Speaker 1: marine a few months ago and he said, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: lost more guys in my unit post deployment from suicide
Speaker 1: than we did when we had casualties in Afghanistan. So
Speaker 1: that's the reality of the situation. So I think it's
Speaker 1: long overdue that the US withdraw troops from Afghanistan, long
Speaker 1: long overdue. And I think Afghanistan, unfortunately, is not going
Speaker 1: to be a better place, with the exception of potentially
Speaker 1: a more stable government that will leave. So maybe that's
Speaker 1: the probably the most beneficial part of leaving Afghanistan a
Speaker 1: little bit better off, is that I'll have a more
Speaker 1: stable government. I think we have to acknowledge that the
Speaker 1: Taliban is a big force, UM, and not everybody wants
Speaker 1: to live by the same UH standards as we do
Speaker 1: in America and the rest of the free world, and
Speaker 1: we just have to make peace with that. UM. It's
Speaker 1: just like communist China. Some cultures choose to live differently
Speaker 1: and it's just a fact of life. We cannot force
Speaker 1: people UH into cultural change overnight. It takes time for
Speaker 1: people kind of a evolve and make their own decisions
Speaker 1: and have regime change all that good stuff. So I
Speaker 1: do think that it's it's time we pull out of Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad to see we are. We are making
Speaker 1: progress there, even though there is you know, obviously some
Speaker 1: continued tension with the Taliban. But it looks like four
Speaker 1: thousand troops within the hunt first hundred and thirty five
Speaker 1: days are going to be withdrawal withdrawn out of the
Speaker 1: current thirteen thousand troops currently deployed UM, so almost half
Speaker 1: and there remaining would leave within fourteen months. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a good it's a good move, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's unfortunate that it hasn't been done probably seventeen
Speaker 1: years earlier. Anyway, we cannot continue to run around the globe.
Speaker 1: I've said this many times, UM and try and police
Speaker 1: every possible conflict, UM and be the world's police. When
Speaker 1: we have serious issues at home in America with with
Speaker 1: our healthcare and education system, it's time for us to
Speaker 1: kind of focus a little bit inward. We still have
Speaker 1: to we have a responsibility as a world leader, but
Speaker 1: we need to really start refining our global foreign policy strategy,
Speaker 1: which you know, you ask any politician, they're going to
Speaker 1: tell you a different answer, which is a big problem.
Speaker 1: I've I've harped on this over and over again. When
Speaker 1: you have a very unclear foreign policy strategy, you get
Speaker 1: into a situation where you drift along in Afghanistan for
Speaker 1: twenty years, don't have anything to show for it. And
Speaker 1: it's a shame that the probably close to a trillion
Speaker 1: dollars that has been pumped in to Afghanistan and the
Speaker 1: loss of future generations of America relatively nothing to show
Speaker 1: for it. UM. I can think of a much better
Speaker 1: way to spend a trillion dollars at home and include
Speaker 1: our basic health care services for the citizens as well
Speaker 1: as our education system. UM. I believe that the US
Speaker 1: is rich enough to have a robust um if we
Speaker 1: can stand up, you know, these massive government bureaucracies too,
Speaker 1: to essentially serve in multiple capacities in government, from the
Speaker 1: I R. S to the state department to your your
Speaker 1: local Just think of your local government and how much
Speaker 1: they spend. You know, we can carve out some budget
Speaker 1: and start thinking about waste, not only to give to
Speaker 1: shore up our public school system, but be able to
Speaker 1: offer a free like taxpayer funded basic college education for
Speaker 1: our own citizens, which is really investing in our country.
Speaker 1: Right We're we're really losing. We're at a point where
Speaker 1: we're losing our technology edge in multiple ways, from AI
Speaker 1: to financial technology, communications technology. It's really an investment in
Speaker 1: the future of America and the future generation by you know,
Speaker 1: looking at the skill sets shortfalls in the US as
Speaker 1: well as refining our immigration policy. Australia has a great
Speaker 1: policy Canada as well, where they identify h skill sets
Speaker 1: set shortages and then they let people immigrate that can
Speaker 1: fill those skill sets. America we have a lottery system,
Speaker 1: which is crazy to me that we have a lottery
Speaker 1: in all these different countries and just let anyone in.
Speaker 1: There's no rhyme reason to it. But anyway, I'm on
Speaker 1: a little bit of a tangent now, but that's kind
Speaker 1: of my feelings with Afghanistan. I'm glad it's happening. I
Speaker 1: hope we can redirect some of that funding to these
Speaker 1: critical programs that that definitely need a tention in America,
Speaker 1: like the school system, healthcare, and and with the school system,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm saying, look, I'm all, I'm a capitalist.
Speaker 1: I'm all about free markets. The fact that you know,
Speaker 1: I pay my taxes and my kids can go to
Speaker 1: public school and get a good education. There's that's a
Speaker 1: great thing. And and it should be the same for college.
Speaker 1: Like some you know, kids that can't afford to get
Speaker 1: into an Ivy League school or scholarship into these places
Speaker 1: should be able to have to go to school or
Speaker 1: a trade school and get trained up on technology or
Speaker 1: whatever they're interested in and not have to leave a
Speaker 1: government like state owned or run school and leave it
Speaker 1: with a hundred thousand dollars plus in student debt. It's
Speaker 1: just it's a America is too great of a country
Speaker 1: to let this happen, not to our own citizens and
Speaker 1: in future generation, and we need serious change in this country.
Speaker 1: I've been saying this for a long time now. You know,
Speaker 1: people ask me all the time, Oh, you should run
Speaker 1: for politics. Not a chance that's going to happen for me.
Speaker 1: It's just such a I've given enough to this country
Speaker 1: without putting my family through a nasty kind of political campaign.
Speaker 1: It's and it's it's unfortunate the way you know, and
Speaker 1: none of us are perfect, right, We've all we've all
Speaker 1: done things, we've regretted and made mistakes, done things like
Speaker 1: stupid things that that we've learned from and hopefully become
Speaker 1: better people. But to have that kind of exposed, and
Speaker 1: even in the case where you look at the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court Justice Kavanaugh getting a sixteen year old high school
Speaker 1: when he was sixteen at a high school party, making
Speaker 1: some off comment to you know, some girl at at
Speaker 1: a party, I mean, it's just like crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: think about when you were sixteen, all the dumb ship
Speaker 1: that that we all did back then and having that
Speaker 1: and now in the age of the Internet just being
Speaker 1: on display for everybody. So look, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: interested in politics. I'm I'm interested as a concerned citizen
Speaker 1: having these conversations and using my being a member of
Speaker 1: my local Business Chapter. Being a former member of the
Speaker 1: SPA's advisory board as a veteran, you know, I do
Speaker 1: believe in giving back and continue continuing to serve and
Speaker 1: contribute UM as a citizen of this country. But I
Speaker 1: have no interest in running for politics, So so please
Speaker 1: don't please don't ask again. UM. Anyway, just uh a
Speaker 1: short show this week. I am looking forward to getting
Speaker 1: back in studio and getting some really good guests for
Speaker 1: you guys. Again, don't hesitate to write in your questions. UM.
Speaker 1: I hope you're checked. You've checked out the new site
Speaker 1: at soft rep dot com and seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: the changes that we made as well as the Craig
Speaker 1: Club dot com. You know we're we're constantly trying to
Speaker 1: improve both the content experience. I will update you on
Speaker 1: this where we are talking to a major video game
Speaker 1: publisher in the US about doing a soft Rep sniper
Speaker 1: first person shooter video game for console. That's exciting. We've
Speaker 1: also got several several inquiries on some film and television rights.
Speaker 1: Deal is now because we have I've done a lot
Speaker 1: of software books in the past on our own. Now
Speaker 1: we actually have an author direct portal, So any any
Speaker 1: writer who's interested in telling a military story, whether it's
Speaker 1: fiction or nonfiction, can now upload that manuscript on our
Speaker 1: software books page. And we are now publishing several books UM,
Speaker 1: and planned to publish a lot more that we could
Speaker 1: potentially turn into TV series in films. So we're excited
Speaker 1: about that. A lot of good stuff happening. Yeah. What
Speaker 1: else I'm trying to think of? H Yeah, I covered
Speaker 1: the most of the game. The software books, UM. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll probably get twenty plus titles out this year. It'll
Speaker 1: be e book format on available on Apple, Eyebooks and
Speaker 1: Amazon and Audible as well. And if the books UH
Speaker 1: the advantage of Amazon, when you do an e book
Speaker 1: on Amazon, it automatically offers a print on demand copy.
Speaker 1: But if we get a book that's doing really well,
Speaker 1: we will do a hardback print on that and sell
Speaker 1: it into uh some of the indie bookstores, potentially Bards
Speaker 1: and Nobles. Well. But exciting stuff happening. UM. Always interesting journey.
Speaker 1: We started software and Software Radio eight years ago and
Speaker 1: we've learned a lot along this this journey. Appreciate the
Speaker 1: listener support. Oh. The last thing I would mention we
Speaker 1: recently signed the I Heart Media we're gonna get support
Speaker 1: of iHeart Studios for the podcast, so we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to that. I Heart gives us a ton of access
Speaker 1: to some really interesting guests rosters well, so we're looking
Speaker 1: forward to for that relationship. This year. My Heart has
Speaker 1: been a great partner for us, super exciting stuff on
Speaker 1: the horizon. Appreciate all the support. Like I said, our
Speaker 1: content team here that Software Media is veteran run and
Speaker 1: we appreciate that. We believe in making a decent prof
Speaker 1: fit decently and we're big supporters of military charities and
Speaker 1: employing veterans. And I'm my first and philosophy, I would
Speaker 1: much rather give a hand up than a hand out.
Speaker 1: And I think we've really learned a lot along the
Speaker 1: way and how we operate, and we have a great team.
Speaker 1: So I'm really fortunate for that, and I appreciate your
Speaker 1: guys support. So um, if you don't follow me on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Brandon T Web Brandon t as
Speaker 1: In Tyler at web w E B b UM, I
Speaker 1: run those accounts myself, please follow us at Software on
Speaker 1: Twitter and on Instagram as well. I will see you
Speaker 1: guys very soon out here. You've been listening to Self
Speaker 1: Rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow
Speaker 1: the show on Instagram and Twitter at self rep Radio.