The Darrell McClain show
Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one Planet; nobody's leaving so let’s reason together!! Darrell, McClain is a Military veteran with an abnormal interest in politics, economics, religion, philosophy, science, and literature. He was born and raised in Jacksonville FL, and went to Edward H white High School where he wrestled Under Coach Jermy Smith and The Late Brian Gilbert. He was a team wrestling captain, District champion, and an NHSCA All-American in freestyle Wrestling. He received a wrestling scholarship from Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. After a short period, he decided he no longer wanted to cut weight which effectively ended his college wrestling journey. Darrell Mcclain is an Ordained Pastor under The Universal Life Church and is still in good standing, he's a Believer in The Doctrines of Grace Also Known as Calvinism. He joined the United States Navy in 2008 and was A Master At Arms (military police officer) He was awarded several awards while on active duty including an expeditionary combat medal, a Global War on Terror medal, a National Defense Medal, a Korean defense medal, and multiple Navy achievement medals. While In the Navy he was also the assistant wrestling coach at Robert E Lee High School. He's a Brown Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under six six-degree black belt Gustavo Machado, Darrell Trains At Gustavo Machado Norfolk under the 3rd-degree black belt, and Former Marine Professor Mark Sausser. He went to school for psychology at American Military University and for criminal justice at ECPI University.
The Darrell McClain show
Why America’s Future is at a Crossroads with Russia
I support President Trump and I believe that most of his policies on national security are right. I believe his instincts are pretty good. But what I'm telling you whoever believes that there is any space for Vladimir Putin and the future of a stable globe, better go to Ukraine, they better go to Europe, they better invest the time to understand that this man is a cancer and the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime. So, ladies and gentlemen, when I tell you that Vladimir Putin is a liar, a murderer and a man responsible for ordering the systematic torture, kidnapping and rape of innocent civilians, believe me, because the evidence is mile high. If you believe that Ukraine is a country, an ocean away and not relevant to our national security, think again. The world is small, the world is watching. The strength of our alliances are on the line and the future of democracy and the world is on the line if we do anything less than defeat vladimir putin.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the daryl mclean show. I'm your host, daryl mclean. This is episode 447. Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one planet. Nobody is leaving, so let us reason together.
Speaker 2:You just heard Republican Senator Tom Tillis, I guess, pushing back, I would say, on some of the statements and belief systems that President Donald Trump has for Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. The conflict, from everything that I could see, really seems to be about Zelensky's criticism of President Trump. The most harsh criticism he actually ever had, when he said that President Trump lived in a bubble, was in a bubble of misinformation. It's also the real dispute is over the offer that was made for the minerals in Ukraine 50% of minerals in Ukraine for the US support. What Senator Tillis said publicly is what a lot of Republicans on the Armed Services Committee have been saying privately. It's what people like Lindsey Graham has also been publicly saying. It's what people like Lindsey Graham has also been publicly saying and it is somewhat interesting, the G7 committee actually officially scrubbed is communique which called Russia the aggressor in the war between Russia and Ukraine war between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaker 3:A dictator without elections, zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. Gotta move, gotta move fast. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job. His country is shattered and millions and millions of people have unnecessarily died. And you can't bring a war to an end if you don't talk to both sides. You got to talk. They haven't been talking for three years. He refuses to have elections. It's slow. And the real Ukrainian polls I mean, how can you be high with every city is being demolished? It's hard to be. Somebody said oh no, his polls are good, give me a break. A dictator without elections, so let's keep. Better move faster. He's not going to have a country left. Got to move. Got to move fast because that war is going in the wrong direction. In the meantime, we're successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something, I'll admit, that only Trump is going to be able to do. In the Trump administration, we're going to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:I think Putin even admitted that administration we're going to be able to do it. I think Putin even admitted that. Now that was President Trump speaking in Miami at a event ironically organized by Saudi Arabia, who of course is not a democracy, does not have elections and of course is A dictatorship. If more than likely. You'd be correct if you Thought of Saudi Arabia as a theocracy. The this question was asked Again by Peter Ducey Of Fox News To Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor, and this is what he said who does he think is more responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin or Zelensky?
Speaker 4:Well, look.
Speaker 1:His goal here is to bring this war to an end period. Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kiev, frankly, and insults to President Trump were unacceptable.
Speaker 2:So look, this just kind of tells you what it's actually about. It's obvious that Vladimir Putin and Russia started the war, but because Zelensky made the comment about President Trump and disinformation, trump is obviously, as he's known to do, going to lash out, and this has very serious implications, because we can look back to, like I said, the George Bush administration with the invasion of Georgia. We can go back to 2014. We can go to the Biden administration To see. Everything that Vladimir Putin is doing is obvious. You can also listen to what Vladimir Putin has said. You can also listen to what Vladimir Putin has said. Putin has regularly suggested that Ukraine is not a real country, that it belongs to Russia, and he wants it back.
Speaker 2:Of course, there's going to be some pushback from some conservatives. Mike Pence put out a statement. Lindsey Graham, of course, has said some things. Mitch McConnell even though he's leaving obviously on the other side of the argument, but if President Trump gets his wish in this, there is no way to look at it. Besides it. Besides, this is the reshaping of the post-World War II order as far as it comes to the United States view of Russia and the United States view of what happens when a country decides to invade its neighbors. I mean, we look at what happened when Saddam Hussein tried to go after Kuwait and the United States's response. Now, historically and I mean when I say history, I mean the future what would be the response to something like that today? But anyway, we'll get to see how these talks work out in the coming weeks and months. Years, three years of a brutal war, thousands of people dead, lives ruined. I think it's fair to say we all knew, we believed, that the war would not end without Ukraine going to have to make some very serious sanctions, but we also did not fathom that somehow Russia would be rewarded in the international world for its actions. Now President Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine quickly, but this week, we have to admit, he did falsely accuse Ukraine of starting the war and made important concessions to russia, the adversaries of peace. Now trump's advisors also met with counterparts from moscow to revive the two countries relationships.
Speaker 2:A consistent demand from russia is that the united states and other countries lift sanctions, and that's a device that Trump already said he wants to use as little as possible. Washington led an international campaign for tough economic penalties after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Dozens of countries have punished Russian banks, businesses and oligarchs. Countries has punished russian banks, businesses and oligarchs. They froze 300 billion dollars of russians asset bartered from much of the global financial system and restricted what it could buy and sell. Now how effective were those stations? Russia's economy is in stagnation and inflation has spiraled. Many products and parts are unavailable. More than thousands of foreign companies have limited their operations in russia, yet the war has persisted. Now russia is pitching itself as a place where american companies can make money.
Speaker 2:Um so economic sanctions have become a common foreign policy tool in recent years, and no country has used them more frequently than the United States. That's not surprising. Once you rule out combat, there are not many other options. Sometimes they work well. Sanctions got Libya to turn over the suspects in the 1988 bombing over a jet in Scotland and to abandon a nuclear chemical weapons deal in the early 2000s. But disappointment is more common. Decades of US actions against Cuba did nothing to shorten Fidel Castro's reign, nor did Trump's end Iranians' nuclear program or his leader's grip on power when he withdrew from a nuclear deal with iran and reimposed sanctions in 2018.
Speaker 2:What counts as success to some policymakers? They predicted, soon after the invasion in russia, an invasion from russia to ukraine that sanctions might force v might force Vladimir Putin to end the war and cause the Russian economy to collapse. Neither prophecy came true. Putin actually found several ways, including an alliance with China, to blunt the impact. Still, sanctions have hurt Russia and hampered its war effort. They have reduced revenue from exports, made all four transactions more complicated and expensive and that was coming from laura sukla, who tracks the russian economy from the bank of finland institute for economics in transition.
Speaker 2:Now russia spends roughly 40 percent of its budget on the war. Food prices and inflations have soared. Interest rates have reached 21%. Labor shortages are rampant. Growth is slowing. The long-term economic outlook has darkened.
Speaker 2:As Timothy Ash, a fellow at Chapman House, a London think tank, described sanctions they've done more than anyone had imagined, but they haven't had the impact, and perhaps that's what people had hoped. Now everyone is war weary. Ukraine has been losing on the battlefield and thinning ranks are exhausted. Enthusiasm to arm Ukraine has dampened in Europe and the United States and even though Russia has gained ground, its casualties are high and it struggles to recruit soldiers. Now Trump could offer to lift sanctions to entice Putin to agree to a deal, but he has less leverage if he acts alone.
Speaker 2:Russia's frozen assets are held by several countries. Two thirds are in Europe and several leaders say the money should pay for the Ukrainians reconstruction. The European Union, previously Russia's largest trading partner, could also keep its ban on most trade and fuel sales. Even so, the United States wields a new yin power in the global financial system. Much of the world's trade, where it is conducted, is settled using United States dollars, and American banks are the only ones that can handle those types of transactions. That means the United States could significantly ease Russian companies' ability to do business abroad by allowing them to use dollars. Trump suggested this week that Russia could keep the territory captured, and he said Ukraine should not join NATO. Now the two key Russian demands. Its biggest remaining one is about sanctions. Trump could use it to sweeten the Russian deal. Recent days are any guide. He may drop them anyway, so we'll just have to see what happens in the next few weeks.
Speaker 5:Former Republican Congressman, adam Kinzinger, asks a question no current Republican politician appears willing to say out loud for fear that Musk, trump or other right-wing billionaires will use the corrupt Citizens United decision to blow them out of the water politically with a multi-million dollar primary challenge. Quote as I watch the behavior of our political leaders, the comments of an ever-increasingly unhinged Trump and the growing indifference of many Americans toward our role in the world, I have to ask a painful question Are we now the bad guys? It's a hell of a question. Our nation's founders overthrew a king in 1776 and paid a huge price for it. Altogether, 17 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were wiped out by the war they declared. The signers wrote in the Declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortune and our sacred honor. And it was a simple statement of fact. The day they signed that document, each legally became a traitor and was sentenced to death for treason by the ruler who controlled their lands and their homes. One of the wealthiest of the signers was Thomas Nelson of Virginia, but a year after the signing, the British had seized his home and lands when he and George Washington attacked the British in Nelson's hometown. Nelson encouraged Washington to attack the Nelson homestead which British General Cornwallis had taken as his headquarters. Cannons the house was destroyed and after the war Nelson, unable to repay loans he'd taken out against it to help finance the revolution, lost his property. He died in poverty at the age of 50. The wealthy Philadelphia merchant Robert Morris lost 150 ships at sea in the war, wiping out his small fortune. He died destitute. Signer William Ellery of Rhode Island similarly lost everything, as did Virginia's Carter Braxton and Benjamin Harrison, pennsylvania's George Clymer, new York's Philip Livingston, georgia's Lyman Hall and New Jersey's Frank Francis Hopkins. The British destroyed New York's Francis Lewis's property and threw his wife into such a hellhole of a jail that she died two years later.
Speaker 5:Three of South Carolina's four signers, edward Rutschlich, thomas Hayward Jr and Arthur Middleton, were captured by the British and held in a filthy, unheeded prison and brutally tortured for a year before George Washington freed them in a prisoner's change. New Jersey farmer John Hart's wife died shortly after he signed the Declaration and his 13 children were scattered among sympathetic families to hide them from the British and conservative loyalists. He never saw them again, dying alone and wracked with grief. Three years later, new Jersey State Supreme Court Justice Richard Stockton took his wife and children into hiding after he signed the Declaration, but conservatives loyal to the Crown turned them in. He was so badly beaten and starved in the British prison that he died before the war was over. His home was looted and his wife and children lived the rest of their lives as paupers. Altogether, nine of the men in that room died and four lost their children as a direct result of putting their names to the Declaration of Independence, every single one had to flee his home, and after the war, 12 returned to find only Rubble. They were all willing to fight and die for the idea of democracy in America. Every one of them in America, every one of them.
Speaker 5:And now, after 236 years of existence, as Donald Trump bows to Putin and tweets a picture of himself cosplaying king in a gold crown, america is on the verge of becoming an entirely different type of nation. We've always, or nearly always, been on the side of democracies. We fought against fascists in World War II and defeated them. We helped create democratic alliances in Europe and Asia. We led the fight to create the United Nations, and now we're joining Russia, this century's dictatorial imperial power.
Speaker 5:Monday will be the third anniversary of Putin's brutal invasion and rape of Ukraine when he was a US senator, marco Rubio said, quote Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian thug who is accountable to no one. I don't think that, vladimir Putin. What Vladimir Putin exhibits is leadership. I think what he exhibits is thuggery, and we should be clear-eyed about that. At the end of the day, hillary Clinton was part of the biggest blunder ever when it came to Putin, and that's the reset with Russia, end quote. Today, little Marco is talking about incredible investment opportunities for American billionaires and US corporations who want to do business with Russia. Just five months ago, republican Senator Lindsey Graham stood with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Washington DC and said you're the best kind of ally. You fight the Russians, so we don't have to.
Speaker 5:Today, graham, like every other Republican senator and House member except Tom Tillis, has been cowed into a terrified impotence, unwilling to do anything to stop or block America's new dictator-friendly democracy, hostile foreign policy. The military is being purged along hard right ideological lines, as was the Department of Justice. The FBI is next on the firing line, although reports suggest that purge began weeks ago. Virtually every major government agency is under attack by the Doge hackers. As the American government is being crippled, putin is no doubt delighted. Even our defense budget is scheduled to be cut with a chainsaw, just as the threat from Russia and China is at the highest point in our lifetimes. They shut down children's cancer research, alzheimer's research, and food and drugs for the world's poorest people. They're laying off FAA employees. At the same time, planes are falling out of the sky. They're gutting the staff that processes your social security, medicare and tax payments.
Speaker 5:Trump and his MAGA crowd are tearing our government apart, apparently with the goal of replacing it with something quite different than America has ever experienced before an entirely new America, a royal America, an America of by and for the morbidly rich, of by and for the morbidly rich. One that resembles the vision petro-billionaire David Koch had in 1980 when he ran for vice president, on a platform calling for the destruction of nearly every federal agency except the Pentagon and the end of all income taxes on billionaires. A country that will bear a little resemblance to that grand idea our founders fought and died for, and they're doing it as fast as they can, dismantling our country, our democracy and realigning our foreign policy, because they know once Americans catch on, we will rise up and try to stop them. America's media and our free speech rights are under ideological attack, with every major television network having been sued for millions. One has already capitulated. A Substack newsletter writer was sued for millions by the new FBI director. Trump even sued a small Iowa newspaper in their pollster because they offended him.
Speaker 5:Both Democratic Senators, chuck Schumer and Congressman Robert Garcia, have been threatened with investigation and imprisonment by a US attorney for their comments about abortion and politics, despite the Constitution protecting members of Congress from such intimidation. Schumer apologized on the floor of the Senate for saying of Supreme Court Justice's anti-abortion Dobbs decision quote you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. Garcia is defiant. Republicans could stop this if they would just find their spine. Every soldier in the American military is willing to die for their country on a moment's notice every single one. But elected Republicans, who are supposed to have the courage to make decisions about war and peace, won't even raise their hands or lift their voices. History does not treat this GOP well and, to add insult to injury, this week Trump took down the agency that protects our elections from foreign influence the same sort of influence that may well have put Trump in the White House in the first place, as the New York Times noted in an article titled Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against Foreign Influence Operations. Quote experts are alarmed that the cuts could leave the United States defenseless against covert foreign influence operations and embolden foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt democratic governments.
Speaker 5:Putin's been playing Trump for a sucker since apparently 2017. That was when Trump's then National Security Advisor, hr McMaster, said the president had a secret private meeting with Putin. Mcmaster tried to warn Trump about Putin, but he wrote in his memoir. Quote Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, blamed Trump's ego and insecurities with flattery. I told Trump how Putin had duped Bush and Obama. Mr President, he's the best liar in the world. I suggested that Putin was confident he could play Trump and get what he wanted sanctions relief in the US out of Syria and Afghanistan on the cheap by manipulating Trump with ambiguous promises of a better relationship. He would offer cooperation on counterterrorism, cybersecurity and arms control. I could tell that Trump was getting impatient with my negative vibe. I said what I needed to say. If he was going to be contrary, I hoped he would be contrary to the Russian dictator, not to me. End quote.
Speaker 5:Yet here we are today with Trump realigning America toward Putin and away from the Democratic Republic of Ukraine and the rest of democratic Europe. As a result, russia's next step is to just wait until Ukraine runs out of American air defense systems and then just start bombing the crap out of Ukrainian cities. Millions could die and it could lead to World War III, but that seems just fine with Trump and apparently that's just fine with every Republican senator and congressman except Tillis. America is on the verge of becoming the world's newest thug nation, ruled by fabulously wealthy oligarchs and a man who would be king.
Speaker 5:Thus, sadly, the answer to Congressman Kinzinger's question is clear yes, we are now the bad guys, at least for the moment. We are now on the side of the royal ideology of absolute power held by that one man, the king, whose soldiers have prisoned, tortured, tortured and murdered so many of our nation's founders. When Rhode Island's Stephen Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence, he remarked to his friend William Ellery that my hand trembles, but my heart does not. Virginia's Benjamin Harrison, who weighed nearly 300 pounds, commented to Massachusetts' Elbridge Jerry, a short, thin man, with me, the hanging will be over in a minute, but you will be dancing in the air an hour after I'm gone. Will any Republican in today's House or Senate, the bodies those men created, find even a fraction of the courage of those who founded this nation. The people of America and the world are holding their breath, waiting for the answer.
Speaker 2:The quote of the day comes from how the World Works by Noam Chomsky. The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people the sense that there is free thinking going on, while all the time presuppositions of a system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. Again, no Chomsky Book how the World Works.
Speaker 5:I'm Owen Smirnoff, I'm Dr Ben Andrews. My name's Cody Anderson.
Speaker 7:My name is Katie.
Speaker 4:Sandlin. My name's Andrew Wernick. My name is Nick Hand. I'm Randy.
Speaker 8:Radcliffe. My name is Jonathan Kamens. I oversaw cybersecurity for the VAgov websites and about a third of USDS, including me, were fired last week. Without people like me ensuring that VAgov is secure, the private financial and health care data of Americans veterans is at risk of being stolen, sold to the highest bidder and used to harm people.
Speaker 6:We are standing at Yosemite National Park. For the past 10 months, I was a custodial worker here. I picked diapers off the side of the road, toilet paper, beer bottles, cigarette butts, you name it, so you didn't have to see it. I served as the Chief of Safety and Emergency Management at the Philadelphia VA. This was a mission-critical role that ensured the health and safety of all those who enter into our facilities. I used to be a NEPA coordinator for the Wrangell Ranger District of the USDA Forest Service, where I would coordinate environmental review for projects in and around the town of Wrangell, projects that are crucial to the town's economy and its people.
Speaker 7:I moved from Alabama to Maryland to start my new job in genomics education and outreach at the National Institutes of Health. My job was to help educate students, teachers and healthcare providers about genomics to improve patient care and develop the future scientific workforce.
Speaker 4:I was a technologist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for about a year and a half before I was fired last week. We were the ones making sure that you could use payment apps without being constantly scammed, that your sensitive financial data wasn't being collected and shared with shady companies, and that your data wouldn't be linked in the data breach as the only aquatic ecologist at the largest reservoir in the United States.
Speaker 10:my job was mostly to monitor for water quality for recreational uses, making sure that when people are out boating or swimming that the water quality is sufficient to keep people healthy After leaving the military.
Speaker 9:I wanted to continue serving my country and I did so as an administrative officer at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Ann Arbor, michigan. My job was to enable our medical providers and that meant looking at the hundreds of doctors and the thousands of patients schedules to make sure that nobody walked through those doors and was not treated, make sure that we had all the paperwork and credentialing to send those veterans home with the prescription medication that they needed and we didn't waste a single taxpayer dollar.
Speaker 4:I went into public service because I wanted to use my tech expertise to make an impact. A lot of the time, I was seeing a skill set like mine be used to make more money for big tech companies at the expense of everyday people, and I wanted to try to help level that playing field.
Speaker 7:I went into public service because I'm passionate about helping others learn science and to also give back to a country that has given so much to me.
Speaker 10:I joined the park service because I believe that the national parks are one of the best ways that we can share America with everyone.
Speaker 9:I chose public service because my mother worked 30 years for the VA Medical Center in New Orleans. As a kid I said one day I'll work at the VA.
Speaker 6:I got this job because I'm not in it for the money. I don't make that much money, but what I do believe in is the National Park Service and our mission to protect beautiful and insanely unique monuments to the rest of the world.
Speaker 8:If they offered me my job back tomorrow, I would take it. Despite all the chaos and risk, the mission is still there and I'm still ready to be a part of it. We're not deep state actors. We're not faceless bureaucrats. I'm a veteran that wants to help veterans. That's why people join the federal service. They do it to help others and serve their country. This is the face of the federal agencies.