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's the author of Faith and the Ballot: A Christian's Guide to Voting, Unity, and Witness in Divided Times. He was born and raised in Jacksonville FL, and went to Edward H white High School,l 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, effectively ending his college wrestling journey. Darrell McClain is an Ordained Pastor under the Universal Life Church and is still in good standing as well as a Minister for the American Marrige Ministries . 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 Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under 6th-degree black belt Gustavo Machado, Darrell Trains At Gustavo Machado Norfolk under the 4th-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
Power, Politics, and Humanitarian Crisis: A World at the Breaking Point
The stark divide between diplomatic theater and human suffering takes center stage in this powerful episode of The Darrell Mcclain Show. As global leaders exchange handshakes and pose for photographs, we pull back the curtain on what these performances truly reveal about power, principles, and moral responsibility in our fractured world.
Trump's diplomatic summit provides a troubling window into America's shifting approach to international relations. Meeting with Putin, Trump offered legitimacy to a leader responsible for Ukraine's invasion, treating him not as an adversary but as a respected counterpart. This transactional approach continued with Zelensky, who arrived desperate for support but found himself treated as a client rather than a partner in crisis. When European leaders entered the room, they received criticism for defense spending shortfalls while NATO itself was framed as a protection racket rather than a vital alliance. These interactions reveal a worldview where alliances are business deals rather than commitments founded on shared values—potentially fulfilling Putin's long-term strategy of fracturing Western unity.
Meanwhile, as these diplomatic games unfold, we confront the horrifying reality of famine in Gaza, where over 500,000 people face starvation not from natural causes but from deliberate policy choices. The UN's declaration makes it official: this is a man-made catastrophe. Jewish voices including prominent actors speak out powerfully against Netanyahu's government, arguing these actions not only harm Palestinians but endanger Jewish communities worldwide. Bernie Sanders delivers an unflinching assessment, naming Netanyahu a war criminal responsible for this humanitarian disaster.
What does America stand for if not the defense of human dignity? When principles become negotiable and suffering becomes acceptable, we lose more than our moral standing—we lose our very identity as a nation. Join us as we examine this critical moment and ask what it demands of us all.
Welcome to the Jerome Clayton Show. Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one planet. Nobody is leaving, so let us reason together. We are now coming to episode 472.
Speaker 1:Let's get into some of the news. Zelensky and then the European leaders. So if you thought politics was messy before, I just have to tell you you have to buckle up with this one, because this week it gave us a spectacle that could have been written by a cynical playwright. President Donald Trump sat down with the Russian president, vladimir Putin, then turned around to meet with Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky, and after that he walked into a room full of European leaders who already looked like they wanted to call their travel agents and go home. There it was. It was a big deal. These weren't polite handshakes across the champagne table. These were confrontations, calculations and power moves, each one telling us more about where the world stands right now, mind clamoring to figure out what it all meant.
Speaker 1:So let's start with the Trump and Putin meeting. You have the leader of the United States of America sitting down with a man whose fingerprints are still fresh on the invasion of Ukraine, on cyber attacks against the West and on political interference across the globe, and yet Trump treated Putin not like a pariah, but like an estranged business partner, someone you don't entirely trust but you still can't resist admiring. Now I read the official summaries. They're vague, as you'd expect. Did Trump confront Putin about Ukraine? No evidence of that. Did Trump raise a fuss over election meddling? No evidence of that. Doesn't look like it. But what we did see was body language, optics and tone, because that's the coin of the. I would just say that's the coin that counts the most in the realm that we're in, in Trump world, and in those terms, putin seemed to have walked away the victor, and that is the simple fact that the summit happened at all is a gift to Moscow. Putin gets the photo op, he gets the legitimacy, he gets to stand beside the president of the United States and look like he's an equal, and that's worth more to Vladimir Putin than any sanction relief or any battlefield concession.
Speaker 1:Now for President Trump, the win is domestic. He shows his base that he's a man who gets along with strong leaders. But let's not kid ourselves, that kind of strength often looks like submission to strong men around the world around the world when it comes to trump and zielinski. They came, the meeting, um, the picture, the scene, etc. Was was a, was a better than the first time. But um, ukraine is, um is desperate, bleeding russian missiles fall on the cities while soldiers dig trenches in freezing mud.
Speaker 1:Zelinski arrives needing more than words. Um, he needs weapons, funding, guarantees. And what do you think he got? A transactional president of the United States. Trump's instincts is never solidarity, it's negotiation, and because of that, Trump treated Zelensky not as a partner in a crisis but as a client at a negotiation. Table Reports say Trump emphasized accountability for aid. Table Reports say Trump emphasized accountability for aid, almost as if Ukraine's very survival is a line item to be justified like any normal budget request. Now, I'm not against accountability, but let's be clear when you're fighting for your nation's survival, what you need from your supposed allies is a commitment, not a bill of sale. And here lies the danger. The message Galinsky is going to take back home is that American support is conditional, american support is temporary, american support is transactional, and that's not solidarity, that's bargaining when it's someone else's blood.
Speaker 1:Now, when it came to Trump in Europe, and then, because the show must go on, trump had to meet with the European leaders France, germany, eu leaders who walked in bracing for a scolding they knew was coming. And sure enough, trump delivered NATO spending defense budgets. Trade deals he laid into them for not paying their fair share. And you know what? On the raw numbers, trump is right. Some countries do fall short of the two percent defense budget. But here's the problem. The president trump has always had a way of turning truth into poison. Instead of building unity, he frames allies as freeloaders. Instead of reassuring them that america is committed to collective defense, he makes it sound like NATO is a protection racket. You either pay up or you're on your own. So European leaders walk away uneasy. Can America still be trusted? Will the United States commitments survive another election cycle, or will NATO itself become just another bargaining chip in Trump's endless transactional worldview?
Speaker 1:If Putin's strategy is to fracture the Western allies, he must have left these meetings smiling, because he doesn't have to take a break from bombing Ukraine because there was no ceasefire deal made, and he doesn't have to break NATO himself. He can just sit back and watch as it unravels from within. The big picture is this Step back for a moment and look at the entire summit session. What do you see? Step back for a moment and look at the entire summit session. What do you see? You see a president who views the world not through the lens of principle or morality, but through the lens of business deals.
Speaker 1:To President Trump, loyalty is negotiable. Alliances are nothing more than contracts. Dictators aren't villains, they're competitors that he actually respects. And what happens when you govern like that? Smaller nations get left exposed, alliances weaken, adversaries get emboldened, and then the democratic world begins to doubt itself. Putin leaves stronger, zelensky leaves anxious, european leaders leave skeptical, and America America leaves looking like. I would say they look less like the leader of the free world and more like a landlord haggling over rent with a very, very desperate tenant. And that, my friends, is the story.
Speaker 1:The Putin handshake, the Zelensky negotiations, the European lecture, it all adds up to a pattern, a pattern where America doesn't stand on principle but on deal making, and deals, by their very nature, expire. History is very cruel to great powers that forget what they stand for. Rome didn't fall because of one battle. It fell because the alliances, the trusts, the glue that held it all together, it rotted away. If America is to stand for anything, it's supposed to stand for freedom. And if America isn't standing for freedom, if America isn't standing for democracy, if America isn't standing for the rule of law, then what exactly is America standing for? That's the question with the summit that looms around us in this season, after the photo ops made and long after it all fades away, is what did America stand for?
Speaker 1:Stay tuned, we have to stay sharp and we always have to pay attention because in high stakes, things like this, the details definitely are what is going to matter. Now we're going to go to something kind of ridiculous and we're going to talk about de-weaponizing federal law enforcement. So the FBI just swooped into John Bolton's Batista home at 7 am today. Because early raids are dramatic raids in a classified document investigation, because if your former national security advisor turned Trump critic, apparently that's warrant worthy in today's America. So what happened? Let's just try to lay out the facts here and while I'm doing this, try not to roll your eyes. So here's the quick rundown Agents raided Bolton's house and later his DC office, armed with court authorized search warrants.
Speaker 1:No arrest, no charges, just a lot of rummaging. The FBI director, kash Patel, posted no one is above the law on X. Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed the tough talk and Vice President JD Vance said it's all about the law, not politics. Trump was busy calling Bolton a lowlife, a sleazebag, and insisted he didn't know anything about the raid. He saw it on TV. Like the rest of us, then point out the tension between enforcing the law and enforcing the law and enforcing political theater. So Bolton and Trump go way back.
Speaker 1:Bolton served as National Security Advisor from 2018 to 2019 before falling out spectacularly with the current president. He then wrote a book called the Room when it Happened. Trump tried to block it. He lost. Biden then shut down early investigations in 2021. And now here we are back in the investigation hot seat and, yes, the FBI is now digging into more than just the book. You know how this goes right. Fbi raids are either about national security or political payback. Patel tried to deny it. It said he didn't have enemies list when his book was released in January. Now Bolton is apparently number five on that enemies list, after Comey, brennan, taylor and Bidman. What are the odds? It's almost like a mean girls list, but with search warrants and the FBI raids. So Bolton was at home during the raid, because where else would a man be, with the FBI vans parked outside. He later popped up at his office talking with agents. Meanwhile, he posted on X about Ukraine, russia and Nobel Prize.
Speaker 1:Talks Priorities, no public statement, otherwise, because silence is the new mic drop. Let's step back. We have a former advisor turned critic, now rated for documents, documents nobody specified. Yet this pattern of raids on critics isn't just chaotic, it's supposed to be chilling. What message does it send? Speak truth, get a warrant. Does it sin? Speak truth, get a warrant. Question power, get a warrant. Don't exactly scream independent justice, does it? So that's today's political theater Dawn, raids, memos and every official insisting it's about the law.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, we're left wondering if due process now means processes. You have to do Keep watching, Because if sanity doesn't make its comeback soon, at least we will have the drama to stare at it. We will have the drama to stare at it Now. This is where theater, the theater of politics, falls silent because somewhere in Gaza, half a million people, yes, 500,000 souls, are experiencing famine,000 souls Are experiencing famine, starvation, famine A word so heavy it becomes shameful that it still exists In the 21st century.
Speaker 1:The United Nations, through the integrated Food security phase Classification, officially declared famine. The United Nations, through the Integrated Food Security Phase classification, officially declared famine in Gaza's northern reaches Over 500,000 people in catastrophic food insecurity. And it gets worse. They went on to say that number could climb past 640,000 people by the end of September. By any measure. That's not a statistics, it's a moral wound on humanity. Famine it's called entirely man made by experts and leaders. Yes, man made. One quarter of Gaza's population is starving, deprived not by drought or nature, but by blockade, by war, by punishing policy. This isn't fate, it's politics with teeth. Among those reporting, the UN Secretary General called it a failure of humanity itself, a phrase that should haunt every one of us. The British Foreign Secretary called it a moral outwage. Well, call it whatever you want to, what it is is preventable. What it is is a preventable tragedy Because this famine isn't happening in the wilderness or in some forgotten corner or the world.
Speaker 1:It's happening in Gaza City, once vibrant, now haunted, and the collapse is spreading into Delaa and Khan Yunus, territories turning into graves for bodies that could still be alive. We are talking about mothers who no longer have milk to feed their babies, children so weak that they can't even cry, families who scavenge, who barter and who do things that would break your heart to even hear, that would break your heart to even hear. This is not some distant news item, this is moral rot. Let me be clear Famine is not the side effect of war. Famine is a weapon. Destroying food, destroying food infrastructure, blocking aid, turning survival itself into a target this is starvation by design and this is a crime.
Speaker 1:And yet, and yet, in the flicker of darkness, there are still people lighting candles. There's a grassroots resilience you'd only notice if you were paying attention Like the Gaza soup kitchen started by two brothers feeding thousands every day, cooking over wood fires when they can, even after losing one of them to a drone strike. That's faith when all of reason has given up. So let's end the show tonight not with more talk about the theater, but with a seed, because that that's the hard truth, because the truth is a seed and action is rain.
Speaker 1:The world has failed Gaza, it is failing Gaza right now, and that failure is on all of us, but it doesn't have to be the end. So, as I end the show tonight, let's remember them, every one of the 500,000 people whose names we do not know. Let's remember that starvation is not a quirk of war. Starvation is a human choice. Let's remember that caring is not an option. Caring is the bare minimum. I'm your host, darrell McLean, and if humanity doesn't find better words, better ways, then silence. Then all of our shows and summits and hand-wringing will just be noise, and noise has never starved any feeding person. See you on the next episode.
Speaker 3:Israel was constructed on the ruins of another society and by the mass dispossession of another, people who remain unacknowledged as just sort of obscure natives in the background. Back to the desert. Let them go to one of the other Arab countries. That's been the position and we bear no. The Oslo Accords say specifically that Israel bears no responsibility for the costs of the occupation. This after 20 years, 26 years of military occupation. No responsibility, as an Israeli journalist said.
Speaker 3:He said we took over the country in 1948 from the British. The British left us the port of Haifa, a road system, an electrical system, a large number of municipal buildings and lots of prisons, and we could build Israel. Without that there would be no state today. If we had taken Palestine in 1948 the way we left Gaza for the Palestinians, there would be no Israel. We destroyed the economy, we deported most of the capable people, we forced the people to live in hovels and refugee camps over a period. I mean anybody who's been to Gaza. It's one of the most criminal places on earth because of Israeli policy of occupation and they bear no responsibility for it. I mean that's simply unacceptable, even for the Jewish people who have suffered so much. It's unacceptable. You cannot continue to victimize somebody else just because you yourself were a victim once.
Speaker 1:Continue to victimize somebody else just because you yourself were a victim once.
Speaker 4:Are you thinking or?
Speaker 5:feeling any differently about what it means for you to be Jewish in this moment? Yes, I am. I'll let them go first.
Speaker 6:I hate the way some people are using anti-Semitism as a claim for anybody that is critical about a certain policy. You know, as far as I am concerned, compassion for every person in Gaza, you know, is very Jewish, and the fact that I abhor the policies of the leader of that country does not mean I'm a self-hating Jew or I'm anti-Semitic.
Speaker 6:You mean Netanyahu when you say the leader yes, yes, yes, I feel this is the behavior, the politics of what he's doing is the worst thing for Jewish people. It's like lighting a candle for anybody that has any anti-Semitic feelings. It's like lighting a candle for anybody that has any anti-Semitic feelings. It's creating a generation of wounded and hurt kids who will understandably be very angry. So that is how I feel and I feel I really feel deeply troubled and horrified by what is happening in my name.
Speaker 5:10, 15 years ago I was in Philadelphia and I go up to the hotel room. Catherine was in the hotel room and the movie was out. She was watching the Princess Bride. And just as I walked in the room is that final scene in the movie where Inigo is sitting by the window with the man in black and the man in black asks Inigo would he like to be the next Red Pirate Robertson? And the Inigo would he like to be the next Red Pirate Robertson?
Speaker 5:And the Inigo Montoya actor, who was me, said these words, which I did not really know what they meant, that William Goldman wrote, which I think are the singular, greatest words I've ever read. You know, I have been in the revenge business so long. Now that it's over.
Speaker 5:I do not know what to do with the rest of my life and I ask Jews all over the world to consider what this man, benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing government, is doing to the Jewish people all over the world. They are endangering not only the state of Israel, which I care deeply about and want to exist, but they are endangering the Jewish population all over the world. He is the most dangerous thing. Not just since October 7th, it has been a deeply troubled situation and endangering the Jews by endangering those in Gaza and to watch what is happening. For the Jewish people, to allow this to happen to children and civilians of all ages in Gaza, for whatever reason, is unconscionable and unthinkable, and I ask you, jews everywhere all over the world, to spend some time alone and think is this acceptable and sustainable? How could it be done to you and your ancestors? And you turn around and you do it to someone else Israel.
Speaker 4:Yes, israel Security Cabinet approved a plan to take control of Gaza City. Your response, look, israel had a right, of course, to defend itself from the terrible terrorist attack from Hamas. But what they have done since then?
Speaker 7:What does Bernie mean by that?
Speaker 7:If you want to say Israel and this is important to scrutinize On October 7th, if you have militants shooting at your civilians, you have the right to protect your people On October 7th.
Speaker 7:But after October 7th, after that attack is repelled, where did that attack come from? It came from occupied territory. Gaza is occupied territory. It's under a cruel, illegal siege, so at that point, there's no right to defend yourself against Hamas. Okay, there's only the obligation to end the occupation and then negotiate an exchange of hostages and captives, which Hamas was willing to do. So Bernie, though, kept saying after October 7th, israel has a right to defend itself, and he even opposed a permanent ceasefire with Hamas. He said how can you broker a ceasefire with Hamas, given what they just did? Well, actually, that was the only solution was to immediately have a ceasefire and broker a release of hostages both the Palestinian hostages by the thousands that are in Israeli prisons and the few hundred Israeli hostages and should have been called for, but Bernie, despite having some good stances and being better than pretty much everybody else in Washington, kept expressing his fidelity to Israel's nonexistent right to defend itself from an occupied people.
Speaker 2:I'd say better than anyone else in the Senate, because Rashid is a lot better than he is.
Speaker 7:Sure, yeah, yeah yeah, fair enough, certainly in the Senate. Yes, anyway, that's Bernie. I think that's the flaw in his rhetoric, which he keeps repeating. But so be it.
Speaker 4:He's gone to war against the entire Palestinian people. There are now some 60,000 who are dead, most of whom are women, children and the elderly. You've got 18,000 kids, kids who have been killed, 3,000 children who have had one or another limb amputated. And now, on top of all of the destruction, human destruction, human destruction, incredible destruction of their housing, of their schools, of their universities, of their health care systems. On top of all that, what Netanyahu does is impose a blockade preventing food to come in and people are starving to death. So I think the good news is that we're making some progress.
Speaker 4:I offered a resolution, as you know, a couple of weeks ago. We got 27 votes from Democrats to stop military weapons going to Gaza. No Republican support. But you know what I think? I think Republicans at a grassroots level are also catching on that it is not a great idea to provide billions to a government that starves children. Would you say?
Speaker 4:Hamas has some culpability in people starving? No, when they spend so much money building tunnels and everything under. So right now, right now, what is going on is a slur. All right, and right now, israel is, with few exceptions, is in control of the military situation. It is not Hamas. Hamas is a terrible terrorist organization, all right, and I certainly hope they have no future in a new Gaza or Palestine, in a new Gaza or Palestine. But the fault right now is 100% on a Netanyahu government who has waged an all-out war, committed just— I mean there's war crimes. They are war crimes. Netanyahu is a war criminal, just as the guy who was head of Hamas is a war criminal, and the United States taxpayers should not be funding them now.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine being down a bash and being like I'm talking to a senator about this starvation campaign that he's calling out and the really important question is not just to ask him in a very leading way if Hamas is culpable, but then say why not when he says they're not culpable, and then give some ridiculous talking points about why they're responsible, which makes it's not? It doesn't even make sense. I guess it's better saying that they've built tunnels. That's better than saying they stole aid. And she probably would have said that they stole aid, but sadly for her and all the other genocide propagandists, the New York Times debunked that and even two Israeli officials debunked that. But can you imagine like? This is your question, dana.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's like it's the same. Can you condemn Hamas thing on loop? And let's not talk about years of decades of ethnic cleansing, occupation, siege, mass murder.
Speaker 2:But this is like real time, not even a conceptual thing. You know what I mean. Like they're literally, as we speak, children dying and Israel is starving them. I got to say I know that Bernie leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to Israel, but I was, I have to say I was impressed that he was so unequivocal about whose fault it is.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I mean, you know, I would have expected him to say, yes, Hamas is part of it all, but he didn't, he didn't, he didn't take that bash bait. So you know, good for Bernie.
Speaker 2:And he bashed back. He bashed back while she was trying to put in more talking points. He's like right now. He was responsible. Yeah, so good on him. And Dan Abash. You know Craig McIver wrote a great piece, the great human rights lawyer who resigned from the UN over its failure to do anything meaningful with Gaza. He says that journalists can be held accountable for incitement to genocide and there is precedent for that. We saw that with Rwanda. And Dana Bash I really hope you know she's a woman and I'm a feminist and I want to make sure that she gets credit. It doesn't all go to Jake Tapper, we need to recognize a female journalist. So big shout out to Dana and I really hope that she's recognized for her work as a genocidal cheerleader. And yeah, that's. I don't know how she can sleep at night.
