Preston Stewart On The CJNG Cartel, Situation In Iran, and Ukraine-Russia. BA EP 52

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A cult classic for a reason, and perfect for all hair types. Grab Batiste Dry Shampoo online or in-store at your nearest retailer today. All right, welcome back to another episode of the Bold American Podcast presented by Barstool Sports. I'm battling a cold. I woke up, my chest hurt. I don't usually get colds. And you know what? I was just thinking about today. Like I used to say, and would love to say, I just never get sick. And then I don't know, last few years, these kids going to daycare, maybe these daycare germs have infiltrated my body and I just don't have the antibodies or what have you to combat those damn daycare germs. So whatever, I got like a cold, a cough. Anyway, we're going to power through it. Uh, we're going to talk obviously about the double gold in the Olympics for the men's and women's hockey among all the other sports in the Olympics and wrap that up. President Trump allegedly said he's going to release all the alien files. Last week, we had quite the big hullabaloo with the VA releasing and then retracting a rule that would have had significant impact on veterans benefits. And then our pal Preston Stewart is back. Preston Stewart, as you know, is an army officer, pals with Rob, and he is a global and political savant, I would say. He has his ear to the ground on all geopolitical issues and current events, and he jumped on with Rob to talk about what's going on in Mexico, what's going on in Iran. I think I say that country wrong. I think it's Iran. Iran, whatever. I don't know. A lot of people say I ran. Anyway, Preston was great. He joined Rob to chat all things international and they had a nice conversation and all that is going to be brought to you by you guessed it, Blue Chew. Fellas, you already know what time it is. It's time to level up and Blue Chew just dropped something crazy. I'm talking next level championship belt gold plated energy. 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And we thank bluechew for sponsoring the podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, how are we doing? Last 72. Ryan, how are you? i'm good i'm just you know i'm i'm probably doing the same as you you know just battling another northeast blizzard um we were texting today yeah we got like close to 20 inches um this snow was better than the last one the last one we were in like the polar vortex right and so it was like zero degrees it was like snow and then it just kind of turned to ice and frankly i was I was out trying to get ice off of my deck yesterday before this snowstorm came in. But yeah, that's kind of been what I've been dealing with over here, shoveling out. All right. All right. I will say it's definitely different snow, but luckily I got to it earlier in the day because it melted a little bit and then it got heavier because it was a little wet. So I was happy that I shoveled late last night and then in this morning and then one more time like late morning. Here's what I'll say. I shoveled a lot today. And you always see those things about, you know, how you should shovel properly and be careful. And I came in and I was so tired. Yeah. I mean, I ran five miles on the treadmill yesterday and I did not feel anywhere like I felt after. I mean, like cardiovascularly, I came in and I was like, I'm freaking smoked. Yeah, but you're doing a completely different exercise that I'm going to venture to say you don't normally do in the gym, right? No, I don't shovel. Yeah, exactly. You don't do shovel tosses. you couldn't just text one of your friends on the o-line at the eagles to help your help you out where do we stand on that let's talk about that really quickly because i had a disturbing incident happen today where you know my mom's by herself now in her home and my mom is very capable with it you know physically fit and she likes to get out there when it's not too crazy and doing her own shoveling, but she got over two feet of snow. And unless she was going to be out there 18 different times, like she wasn't going to be able to do that. So she needed to get some help. And she has a neighbor. I believe that sometimes brings a snowblower over, but he wasn't home. So some, I didn't actually get the details. I don't know if it was kids. I don't know if it was adults. I don't actually don't know who it was, but they were just walking the streets and they came by and they offered to plow her driveway and they're like, we'll do it for a hundred bucks. Now, mind you, they have a snow, snowblower. Her driveway is a size such that if you have a snowboard, probably doing it in under 10 minutes. So I don't know if they live in her neighborhood or what, but how do you feel about charging folks like my mom, you know, people of a certain age in your neighborhood to snowblow their driveway? Oh, that's a tough one. I mean, I feel like I don't know I mean that that that's hard like I I like the idea of like sending your like 10 year old kid outside with a shovel and saying yes hey go offer and frankly they're gonna pay you right like they'll give you a 5 10 maybe 20 bucks but like I don't know that just kind of it feels a little predatory right yes they're like seeing an old woman who probably doesn't have another option. I don't know. I, yeah. If it was a couple of 10, 11 year olds with shovels, by all means, give them money. Cause I did the same thing. But if you're a 20 year old with a, with a, a snowblower, like do it out of the goodness of your heart. What do you, you know, you really that hard up, but here's what's funny is if you're doing it, I don't know if this is ageist or what, if you're doing it for like a younger family that just can't get to it, by all means I think you can take their money because they're willing to pay you. But if you're just going around the neighborhood trying to help people or under the guise of trying to help people and then charging, I don't know. It just didn't sit well with me, but she didn't have a choice. So she paid $100? Are you driving these? No, she had $80. She had $80 in cash. So she said, I only have $80. So they're like, oh yeah, we'll take that. So $80. I'm telling you, the size of her driveway, probably 10 minutes at most if that it's not like she has this massive driveway my girlfriend one of my best friends from high school she's divorced and she was texting me last night and you know she lives alone with two kids and she's like oh she had like three random not random but like three different guys say they would come over and like plow her driveway and stop i didn't get any calls I was going to say something and it would have been inappropriate so I bit my tongue I was waiting for you to say it no I was like you can send them my way but yeah anyway anyway that's what we're dealing with all that snow and then I guess we're going to get more snow this week I don't know I'm supposed to be going to on a trip I don't know if that's going to get impacted or if we can go or not we'll see Are you going warm? Somewhere warm? No, I'm going to Telluride to ski a little bit and just check out that town. There you go. Yeah, everybody said Telluride is really awesome. I've never been there. I don't know. I'm just telling you, this winter has really made me contemplate living full-time in the Northeast. For real. Why do we? Yeah, why do you? You know what, though, is so funny? I you know I'm a slave to the time hop app people make fun of me all the time but I look at time hop every day I'm very nostalgic I like looking at pictures and I got hit with videos from last year a year ago same day it was perfectly sunny we were at the park there was an area snow mound in sight last so I think it's really mild winter though we had a really mild winter I think for the last few years. Yeah. So, I mean, there were, there were years where I can remember playing golf on New Year's Eve. So I just think it's a crap shoot. I just, can you imagine leaving the Northeast and trying to get good pizza down in Florida? Well, I think that's what it is. I think it's just like the personality of the Northeast is like, it's me. And so I just, yeah. It's like, you kind of have to take like the shitty weather just to like be with the cool people. That's all. Yeah. And I mean, not for nothing, you'd miss going to Eagles games. No, I, I would be a snowbird. Okay. I would. So where would you go? Where would you go? I go to Florida. We're in Florida. I don't, I don't hate that. I have, I have family that does that. That's what my dad is. That's what my dad does. And he loves to call me. He's like, Oh, it's a little chilly here today. It's in the low sixties. That's what he called me to tell me today. I'm like, yeah, he's like, you still got power, you know? So it's good for business. Like only a father can. That's yes. Um, so Rob, last 72, anything of note? You're not dealing with snow here. 65 and sunny vibes are high. I'm still fucking stoked that USA won gold yesterday. Cause I got up really early for that game too. I'm used to it, man. I'm a formula one fan. And so a lot of those races are like 4 a.m. Pacific time because they're all in Europe or Asia. And then what else? Good weekend with the fam. So we got one of those strollers, one of those running strollers. I put my son in that, and I ran him for three miles in that sucker. And that was a fucking workout. He's not light, but it's kind of like you're pushing a sled that moves really quick. Um, but dude, it was, I mean, I took my time with the three miles. It was, it was a good hour, maybe, maybe just under an hour workout and it was nice out. So I highly recommend cons for, for one of those, maybe in the summertime when you're cooking with the family, you can just go around the block or something. I don't know. It's just legit workout. Dude, my daughter, she, she's like antsy, man. She can't stick in a stroller for that long. Yeah. My son's doing this. He's turning around. That would annoy me to no end. like having to stop every every other block because she wants to get out and look at flowers no dude they love it because they're going so fast maybe yeah i was like i had like the buco jogging stroller i i loved it it's it's so dope and uh we we got it on facebook marketplace like yeah instead of like 600 bucks it was like a couple hundred maybe i'll tell you something facebook marketplace for certain items is the way to go like certainly certain items I think you want to get brand new for yourself but I think there is tremendous value because you think about we have all these products that you only use a handful of times possibly with your kid and then you're never gonna use it again what's what's the point like I have one of those and I've people see me in it But the thing you wear when you put the kit in? A baby Bjorn. Yeah, but it's, I don't know, some fancy pants company. Like the kit. I know what you mean. Yeah, we have one too. It's expensive. I'll just tell you. Sure. It's expensive. And it's clean. So, you know, once, you know, if we have another kit or this kid. I think it is a baby Bjorn, yeah. Once it's done, like why wouldn't I want to try to sell that on Facebook Marketplace? and it's lightly used and it's a really high quality. So, you know, I just think Facebook Marketplace is an interesting place. And it's also really interesting for like knickknacks and stuff around the house. I'm not one to buy things. I sell all sorts of stuff on Facebook Marketplace though. And I kind of treat it like it's a game. Like my wife's like, hey, we need to throw this out. I'm like, all right, well, let me first see if I can get $10 for it on Facebook Marketplace. and people would say like you know is your time not worth more than ten dollars and you know i look at it like a game it doesn't take much effort to put something up there with one picture and then you kind of haggle with someone someone drives your house that's 10 bucks i didn't have before bro i don't have time for that shit i just drop it all off at goodwill bro yeah i i like facebook marketplace but i don't like people coming to my house i don't like like that i buy i don't sell on Facebook Marketplace. Was it on this show that we talked about where there's a town that sets up a meeting place, like in front of a police station to do Facebook Marketplace drop-offs? Yeah, because I just get real nervous about giving my address out. No, that's fair. It's a completely normal concern. You guys could start a snowplow business on Facebook Marketplace. I mean, that's, I think, one of those businesses where it can be very, very lucrative or just horrible. And then you're just watching your plow sit dormant. So, I don't know. Yeah. Really quickly, so my wife was away this weekend. So, Saturday, I don't like sitting inside. I you know when I when I was younger and single could I plop down on a couch and plow through a series or watch a bunch of movies all day and and be cool with that absolutely now with children I don't have it in me to just sit in the house all day because one I don't want to just plop them in front of the TV and watch movies all day and two you know I just feel like they should be doing stuff. So we did one thing in the morning with my mom. And then in the afternoon, we went with this other family that we're close with. And we went bowling. Great activity for little kids. And so there was probably five or six families across three or four leans. A lot of kids running around. This is an activity that this friend group does a lot. And I just kind of mooch on to them. And we had gone there before and it was great. And Maggie really liked it. But so I'm sitting there at one point and I call the name of one of my friend's kids and I was like hey it's you know it's your turn and this other little boy looks at me and he goes are you so-and-so's grandfather who are you I'm like wow wow like I know I'm like older than my wife but I didn't know we were approaching I look like a grandfather so that that kind of hurt me to my core a little bit That was tough because, listen, that was that 10 or 11-year-old boy. That was just him being honest. I guess he just smized it. Oh, he was like older, like 10, 11, and he's got your grandpa? Damn, that's fucked up. So here's the thing. Here's the only thing I can think. He knows the girl's dad. It's our friend. So he knows, like, all right, well, you're not her dad. So what does that leave? Like, you know, I could be an uncle. They call me uncle. What were you wearing, Connor? Were you wearing, like, some crazy get-up, too, that, like, made you look? were you wearing were you wearing a hat yeah oh okay yeah i was just gonna say maybe the bald head like yeah no i get that you know i get that but no i wasn't i had a hat on so that was tough did you correct the kid or were you like no i said no i'm her uncle so all right real quick Going back, before we move on, I was thinking about something with these snowstorms. Do you feel like you drink more during these snowstorms? Not anymore. No. No. I mean, listen, I can remember some snowstorms. When I was a single guy living in Hoboken, you couldn't get to the bar fast enough. Yeah. If you knew snow was coming, get to the bar. put on some comfy clothes get to the bar and hang out and it's gonna be a blast now no because i'm gonna if i'm locked up not locked up but if i'm home all day with two kids i don't need to be dehydrated and potentially dealing with connor you have like a newborn and a toddler i know right we're just in such different life stages but i if i were you probably ryan's going to the fucking bar right after this man she's like no i didn't go to the bar, but I like, I definitely have a nice stash of the house. I was like, snow's coming. I drank some tequila last night. I watched love is blind. And yeah, I definitely got a little drunk. I was like, I woke up this morning. I'm like, shit, it's still Monday. I gotta work. Oh, well, I mean, I'm surprised. Well, that's the problem is, you know, if you still have to work the next day, that's what's tough. Yeah. I guess though, in today's culture where, you know, a lot of us work from home you can you can overcome a lot more if you don't have to be in person i suppose so anyway all right well solid weekend and you know who was a solid weekend for if you're watching football this weekend you know how it goes somebody's always hungry by the first quarter so call pizza hut and get the big new yorker for just 10 bucks our biggest pizza for the biggest games these slices are huge like use two hands and fold it huge feed your crew and order ahead at pizzahut.com or in the app brought to you by pizza the united states men's and women's hockey team who both took home the gold and that was well let me first ask did you both watch either or both of those games? I watched the men's game. On some of the women's, but we beat Canada in both. Not only did we beat Canada, we beat Canada in overtime, which is awesome. You know, Megan Keller on the women's side, and then obviously Jack Hughes on the men's side, both were with the game winners, and that's unbelievable. The big difference being that, you know, the U.S. women's team, they've meddled in every Olympics since women's ice hockey became a thing in 98. Like we've consistently had one of the best female hockey teams in the world. And that's awesome that they've meddled in every single games going back to 98. But, you know, I don't need to belabor the point here. Obviously the men was significant since they haven't won one in 46 years. And then before that, you got to go back to 1960. so you know on the world stage the united states hasn't enjoyed that success so for them to go into that game and by no means am i a hockey expert anytime i'm watching a hockey game inevitably i'm talking to somebody who i know either played or knows the game very well because i always have questions but the fact that they were a slight underdog it was kind of like a pick them but they were still like it was still many people thought like all right Canada's gonna win this thing so for the United States to to get that win and then do it in the fashion in which they did it was just unbelievable yeah that first period we we brought it up 1-0 and then Canada scored those last two periods were our goal was our goalie just getting pummeled yeah he was unbelievable it was just like i was like this in our living room i was just like oh my god like he's the onslaught is just coming it was like russians walking like the ukrainian front line and getting mowed down but our goalie was terrific man and then jack hughes to seal the deal in overtime i mean oh it's okay yeah um so i think a lot of people also know the story of of johnny goudreau who tragically lost his life down in south jersey um yeah was that last year ryan or now two years ago in 24. i think it was over a year ago 24. yeah it was 20 24. yeah um and for those who don't know the story it's incredibly incredibly sad him and his brother were riding bikes it was the night before their sister's wedding and they just got mowed down by a drunk driver and killed which is just horrible and then you add in the fact that it was the night before their sister's wedding um johnny's wife was pregnant with his third child yeah oh just just absolutely gutting story and it really really uh ravaged the hockey community and everybody for that matter just because of how sad it was but i i saw uh some of the players saying something to the effect of listen i don't know if you believe in in higher beings or the presence of individuals who are no longer there but that one save that that Hellebuck made, they were saying that that had to have been Goudreau getting a stick in there from above because the goal was wide open. Like if you give McKinnon that approach 100 times, he buries 100. It's like how did he miss that net that was so wide open? So we don't need to belabor the point you're on a hockey podcast. There was another open net chance for the Canadians like Taze, I think. tapes yeah um but i was just like how did he miss that you know but i love what you just said yeah and then all right you know and then obviously the post game is really where things uh heated up i guess you could say it was it was really really touching that they went and got goudreau's kids for the team picture on the ice that really that melted me yeah i mean if you weren't crying with that you know check check your pulse because that was just heart-wrenching and just really stand up move by those guys to know that they were sitting right there and say, Hey, hold on. We got to go get them. And they need to be part of this and Goudreau's jersey. Yeah. Holding that up, skating around with it. I just, I really admired that move from them. And then, you know, Jack Hughes' love of country and he was not quiet about it. You know, he just said how much he was happy to represent the country and he was incredibly proud. And, you For a lot of people, I think that really struck a chord. What did you guys think about his comments after the game? And then his brother thanking the troops from the clouds in the post-game interview. So what did you guys make of the Hughes brothers' comments after the game? I loved it. I mean, that was the best moment for me. I don't know. There was just something so... For me, that's when you really feel like patriotism. I don't know. There's just, it's like, I love that they were out there on the world stage. They won the gold. And then the first thing they're doing is saying, you know, God bless America. Like, and unapologetically. And I think that's where we've kind of got a little bit lost as a society. And I know we've talked about this before. And we've talked about like, despite all, all her flaws, like this is still the greatest country in the freaking world. And we should be proud of that. and we should celebrate that. And I love that they did that. It was awesome. And I loved like, I loved all the hype on social media yesterday. Like I was- So good. Oh, it was just so good. And it just, it felt so good. I don't know. I loved it. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right too. Just seeing everybody come together is the best outcome from that, that we can all rally around that. And I had a tweet that I put out And that was basically the crux of what I was saying. It's like somewhere along the way, it got to be taboo to say, like, I love America. Yeah. Again, you can love America and, you know, in the back of your mind, you know, also acknowledge, like, it's not perfect. No country in this planet is perfect. But America is pretty freaking great. Okay. And it's still the best country in the world. So you should not have to hide from the fact that you love this country. and I really appreciated that Jack Hughes took that moment on that stage to say that and to remind people that it's okay. We can say, and he didn't even say, you know, we can read between the lines like, okay, there are problems in this country. Got it. All right. But I still love it and just be done with it. We can separate the two ultimately is what I'm saying. It's okay to be that unapologetic American and have pride in where you're from. So many other countries, watch watch the medal ceremony how many athletes over the course of the last you know 100 years summer and winter olympics how many athletes do you see crying on the medal podium because they're so proud of their accomplishment and wearing their country's colors that they all go hand in hand so for him to be proud that's nothing new to the olympics and the people who want to just rush and vilify him and say, well, what about this? What about that? What about him? What about her? It's like, just stop. Just let them have their moment. Were people vilifying it? I didn't, I didn't enter that side of the algorithm. I just saw like, oh, well that's such a bullshit. There was, no, no, there was a lot of people, you know, how could you love a country that does X, Y, and Z? Yeah. Those people are never going to be happy. You know, so I don't know what to tell them, unfortunately but I don't know Rob did you did you feel the same way yeah I mean guys it wasn't just yesterday it was kind of like we were brought on this patriot train from the men's and women's hockey team and all the other athletes that made up the winter olympics the storylines were terrific because right out the gate you had some of those athletes I think some of the skiers just say there was issues in the country right and then the men's hockey team Alyssa Liu bobsledders in the military the women's hockey team fucking nailing canada like it just kind of wrapped up in an awesome on an awesome high note of just loving america and a message of unity from across all the different athletes all the different backgrounds there was no bullshit it was just love your country and just enjoy the moment And I had tears in my eyes listening to Jack Hughes yesterday He was one of my first athletes at Amazon that I got to work with when he was just drafted. And so I got to meet him a little bit. And he was kind of still unknown, but still making some firepower. And he's an awesome kid. and um quinn hughes i mean he's so goofy and lovable we're like i don't know how the nhl doesn't capitalize more on these two and then the chuck brothers and i don't know i'm just i'm on a high right now for for hockey and uh i thought mike tarico holy shit nbc yeah his closing comments were awesome i mean wow yeah no i just really wrapped it up very nicely and actually i have to I found myself getting emotional as well. Again, I'm not a hockey guy. I watch the Olympics. I watch maybe a little bit of the Stanley Cup finals here and there. But by no means am I a hockey guy. And here I was getting emotional watching them win the game before they even opened their mouths and said what they said. It was just so awesome, you know, knowing the history of the U.S. men's hockey program in this country and knowing what they had to overcome. And that's a monster monkey to get off your back, 46 years. So it was just really special to see. And not just the hockey teams, but all of our medalists. We had our best Winter Olympics in history. We finished second in medals, but we still did better than we ever have. But we finished second overall medals. We had 33, 12 gold, 12 silver, 9 bronze. Norway had 44 with 18 gold, 12 silver, and 11 bronze. Listen, I saw something that said we should count, if you're a team sport, those should count as gold medals. So the U.S. hockey team, if we have 20 guys, what's 20 gold medals? They should start counting it that way. And if that's the case, we took on a lot more gold than anybody else. But it was just awesome. And I'm the eternal optimist. maybe we can find something here that we can all rally around and we see how much we truly do, at the end of the day, love one another in this country. We have our problems. We have our differences. But listen, if you walked into a bar Sunday morning that you had never been in before in this country, I'm willing to bet you walked out with 10 friends, right? I'm willing to bet everybody was super friendly to you and you were all rooting on our team together so i think that is still there and if it takes olympic hockey you know both the men and the women beating up on our little brother there to the north by the way canada very very upset that they lost that game yeah discourse by them on social media has not been good um we were the better team blah blah I mean, I don't know hockey, but guess what? Scoreboard said differently. And I think that's all that matters at the end of the day. They don't give out medals for who the better team was. They get medals for who won the game. So how does this Olympics, this Winter Olympics, change your opinion on winter versus summer? Are you guys excited for the next Winter Olympics in four years? What's your vibe? Go ahead, Ryan. You know, it's funny. Like if you ask me, like you're asking me right after just like really an awesome Winter Olympics. So I'm like all geeked up on the Winter Olympics. But I like the Summer Olympics. I really do. I like, I don't know. Here's a take. For me, Summer, Winter has to do with the time zone. If the events are on at a normal time that I can catch them and watch them, then I'm all in. Then I'm all in. That's fair. You know, but when I have, it's like something's going on at nine in the morning when I'm at work, like, yeah, it's tough. It's tough. So I think the winter, the summer, the winter Olympics has more unique things to watch than the summer Olympics. For sure. But I like, I don't know. I like the traditional stuff, all the track and gymnastics. Yeah. LA in two years. Yeah. That'll be great. I think that'll be really good. And then it's going to be in Salt Lake in 2036 or something like that for the Winter Olympics. Oh, back in Salt Lake. Okay. So my real quick, and then we can move on. And people are wondering probably like, why are you not talking about the Trump phone call and the women denying their trip to the White House? And I'm going to be very plain. If you guys want to say something, you're welcome to. I'm going to say this very plainly. no matter what words would come out of my mouth on either of those topics people are going to be upset and have a reason like there's no there's no answer nothing no take I can give where people be like okay that's a fair take because I've seen some fair takes today and they're not treated as fair takes so I am choosing to say I don't want to talk about that I am tired of Trump getting inserted into everything and politics getting inserted into everything. I just want to see sports for what they are. So I will, I will leave it at that. If you guys have anything you want to say about that whole craziness. No, I, I, I, Trump is not Trump. Trump doesn't represent what is great. All that is great about this. He's our president, but loving this country is about much more than just the president. I want to leave it on a high note. You know, like Jack, you said, I love this country and I'll leave it at that, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Rob? Same, the hockey team made us proud. Move on. Yeah. Bingo. That's it. That's all we need to focus on. But what I was going to say about Salt Lake, my buddy from the Army, from Salt Lake City, he said when the Olympics was there, it was the senior year of high school, they just said, you guys are off school for a month. Oh, Bob is so sick. For a month? Yeah. Go watch the Olympics. Even though it was only two weeks, he said he got off for an entire month it won't fly now that yeah i was gonna say that's never gonna happen in today but i think that's so cool it's like hey i think it's amazing go like live have life experience yes right and it's not like the olympics are in your your city every other year so it's once in a lifetime yeah yeah i mean i'd pull my kids out for to absolutely experience it if my you know absolutely i think my son will be five for that. I mean, I might pull them out one or two days just to drive to LA, check out soccer, baseball, flag football, I don't know, like lacrosse. Something. I think that's worth it. Lacrosse. Can't wait, baby. USA, team USA lacrosse. It's going to be so good. I mean, we're going to crush that shit, though. Sorry, Codds. Who else would America play? Yeah, no, I mean, I'll tell you. Funny enough, Canada is good lacrosse. Yeah, true. Yeah, but I'll tell you that they're going to be real challenged. Like, during the fall season, my daughter Maggie, who plays at Navy, they played Team Japan and I think Team England in their fall season, and they destroyed both of them. Oh, yeah. And those were their national teams. My point is, like, the United States is going to dominate. Yeah. I can't wait. But that's what the sport needs if it's going to grow. Yeah, for sure. To put it on that world stage. Yeah. Speaking of world stages, speaking of Trump, he said he's going to release the X-Files. So this is on the heels of President Obama went on a podcast, the Brian Tyler Cohen podcast, and talked about the existence of aliens in Area 51. So President Trump said, all right, well, anything you can do, I can do better. So he's directed the Pentagon to release any and all files related to UAP, unidentified aerial phenomena, and extraterrestrial life. So UFO speculation has been at an all-time high. And in the past years, a number of whistleblowers have claimed the government has things to hide. You think? So there was a recent documentary on Amazon called The Age of Disclosure claimed the U.S. has had a secret crash retrieval program and is in possession of non-human biological beings. I don't know where I mean listen Independence Day the movie played a really big part of my childhood being that it came out in 1996 but I don't know this doesn't necessarily get me that excited are you big alien people I honestly I'm going to okay this may be an unpopular take like I don't want to know you don't give a shit no it's not you don't give a shit I don't know. I'm with you. I'm terrified. I don't want to know. And I think it was you, Connor. You might have put out a tweet. It was either you or Rob about like, we're not ready for this. If there is. Yeah, me. Like, yeah. And I could not agree more. Like, shit. There's just some things like. Just leave it alone. We don't have to know everything. Right. Right. Every, it's like dissemination of information has gotten so, like, as long as I know there are people that are working it, like Independence Day, like, you know, we're tracking, we're monitoring, like everyone doesn't need to know everything. It's just going to open up a big can of worms. We have so much to worry about individually. Like, I don't need to be worried about aliens on top of that. Yeah. Oh, but it was watching that podcast with Obama. And, and it was just like, so glossed over that guy who interviewed him. It was like, Oh, area 51 and are aliens real. And he was like, well, yeah, he was kind of so nonchalant about it. He was like, yeah, aliens are real. That makes me wonder what actually is in any of these files. Cause I guarantee there's more files that don't get released. Cause they're like double secret. Yeah. but the podcast host, I'm like, you literally just moved on. Like I would have been like, whoa, back it up. Wait, you're, you're, you're acknowledging like the presence of extraterrestrial like beings. And he didn't even, he didn't even double question him on it, but no, like I said, independence day, men in black, that's enough for me. Like there's people taking care of that stuff. I don't need to worry about it. I don't really get excited. Okay, if you tell me there were aliens at some point, like, okay, cool. And then I would probably go back to my day. I don't really care about it the way that some people do. I know it's a big deal for some people, but not for me. You know what's a big deal? What? The VA. And it was crazy last week because you know what's interesting about the VA is, from my perspective, you always start to see rumblings from these groups on social media, veteran advocacy groups. And my first inclination is always like, wait a second, let me double check and make sure this is true. But there was a new rule that said it would rate a veteran's disability on how well they function while on medication instead of the underlying cause for medication. So that could mean a lower rating for veterans who are treating an illness with medication. There was so much backlash that, and it was loud, and it was veterans groups, members of Congress who were veterans, official groups like, you know, VFW, American Legion. so they heard that and the VA secretary Doug Collins he announced the rule would not be enforced now or going forward in the future it was only in effect for two days I just I wonder what what could have possibly been the point of of even trying to institute this rule because secretary Collins also said this is something that's been in effect since 1958 I don't know. I don't think this rule specifically, what he might've been alluding to is the fact that if you go for regular checkups to the VA, I'm almost positive. Yes, they can adjust your rating if it shows that you've gotten demonstrably better based on your conditions and potentially adjust your rating. But I personally, I've never known anyone whose rating got reduced. I've only ever known people whose ratings have gone up. So that also sparked, I was shocked to see this, how many people hate veterans and hate that we get benefits. And they were just like, what a waste of money. There's so much fraud. All the veterans are lying about their disabilities. And it's an industry that they're just living off the government's teat for the rest of their lives. listen, I mean, it's all public information. The disability rates are all public in terms of what you get paid. I'm not scoffing at the money, but depending on what your percentage is, even if you're at a hundred percent, I personally don't think it's enough to just live. It's a nice sum of money and it certainly can aid you in your daily life. But I don't know anybody that just has 100% disability as a veteran and just does that. So I don't know. What did you guys make of the VA announcement? Yeah, I saw the shitstorm last week too on social media where I rarely have to put my phone down, but there's a few accounts that I had to mute and then just some like conversations that I was like, okay, this is stupid. I'm also not educated enough in the whole VA process to really dive in and give a take like you or probably Ryan will. So I don't know. I, it sounds like it was corrected. Have you gone through the VA disability process? I have. Yeah. So, but then you know what actually goes into it. You know, it's not like people are just checking boxes and this is all getting done. It is so methodical and it is so in-depth and I must have had 10 or 12 different appointments over the course of six months and then I got my rating a couple months after it was very very intense and I thought it was spot on I think I got the rating that I deserved and um you know I get the support that I need um but the the yeah that's that's all I'll say what do you think yeah it was uh yeah it was um it was a shitty rule that got reversed so it really wasn't a rule in place for two days it didn't affect any veterans uh i think anytime you bring up va disability um ratings and it's like all of a sudden people act like wait veterans are getting paid. It's wild. We've had this conversation before, like, listen, in any organization, there's going to be fraud and abuse of the system there, you know, and especially with an organization as big as the VA, there's nothing you can do to combat that. But the fact of the matter is, is that most of the men and women who are taking VA disability money is because they served and and and they deserve it and that's the bottom line and and uh yeah the peanut gallery on the outside that likes to chime in that that's like super frustrating you know they did that article a few months back um that everybody was fired up about talking right i forget who did that but wall street journal oh was it the wall street yeah i don't think it was wall street journal or New York Times, one of those. Yeah, it was a big publication just talking about like the rampant like fraud use. Yeah. Was it Washington Post? Yeah. The rampant fraud. Well, because people also want to point to all these cottage industry people who have created companies or law firms that specifically do VA disability claims. That's not on veterans. That's on those individuals who decided they want to game the system because all those people, they're getting paid if the veteran gets a disability rating that's favorable. Yeah. And, and, and frankly, some of those, I've talked to many veterans who've used those, you know, they want to call them like claim sharks, but the fact of the matter is, is it is a hard process and not everyone has the capacity to go through the process. And sometimes you need a little help and someone to help you expedite it. And so, yeah, if anything, listen, and I don't know how to do this. Sorry, you're not usually supposed to, you know, make critiques without a solution. But I'm going to venture to say one way to bring any fraud that's happening to a halt, make the process easier, right? Because then you eliminate the need for this cottage industry of these people, these claim sharks. I actually think that Secretary Collins, that is an objective for him to make the process more streamlined. And he's talked about that and I've heard him talk about that. So, yeah. Right. And if you're a veteran listening to this, do not feel ashamed. Don't be bullied into not claiming things because you think it's unfair or you think it's dishonest that you're claiming something. Go get what you deserve. Because then you have all these people, the last like 10 or 15 years, it's been going crazy. It's like, well, what do you know? the last 20 years we've been at war so there's going to have there's going to be more veterans with disabilities that need addressed and get disability rating as a result of it like that's just simple math so the people these and it's always these civilians i don't know many veterans who are are very overly critical of the system and think it's horrible and if you're someone who cares about other people's if you're a veteran, if you care other people's ratings like that doesn't impact you don't write pocket watch on these other people. They have to live with whatever decisions they made and whatever ailments they claimed that doesn't discredit anything that you have done. So there's no need to try to make it harder for your fellow veteran. It's just I don't know. It makes me Yeah, it's kind of a weird, maybe it's like my algo and like who we're friends with and kind of like that echo chamber we live in as veterans. But I feel like it's even toxic sometimes when something like this comes out. Like, not that I'm very educated on this discussion and this topic. It's like trying to choose not to be. I went through the VA process. I enjoyed it. Did my thing. Now I'm living life, whatever, trying to be healthy. but I feel like, I don't know about you guys, but I feel like there's a lot of veterans that just try to make some noise around moments like this and just try to, I don't know, put content out to grow their own personal brands and try to just feed into the discussion versus actually helping anything or anyone. So anyways. So, all right. Let's throw it to Rob's conversation with Preston Stewart. good one as anytime that Preston joins the show, as I mentioned at the top, a lot of topics that Rob and Preston get into that are very fascinating, great updates from Preston. So let's throw it over there. Today, I'm joined by one of my buddies, one of my West Point friends, Preston. I'll let him introduce himself here in a few minutes. But today we're going to talk about some geopolitics, some foreign affairs, some international security studies stuff. Um, Preston is one of my go-to guys when I need some education on a topic. If it, if it happened two hours ago or two years ago, he probably has a video about it. Um, there's a lot going on in the world. There's a lot of crazy shit happening. And so I figured, uh, last week I shot him in Texas. I was like, yo dude, I want to get you on. Let's talk, um, 20, 30, 40 minutes, whatever he's got. Uh, it's Monday afternoon here. There's a lot of things happening and let's just dive right in. So Preston, you want to give a quick, you know, intro, uh, who you are, kind of what got you to this point, uh, why, why you're kind of blown up on the socials, especially YouTube. Um, and with that, go take it away. Yeah. Appreciate it, Rob. Uh, looking forward to the conversation, man. I think the, the social media probably has to do with just ridiculous good looks is kind of what I'm, that's kind of what I fall back on. I think there's, yeah, that's probably what's happening. Uh, so I'm going to lean into that. We'll try to make this exciting, man, because the stuff, like you mentioned, it's wild what's happening right now. And we're kind of fortunate that we're having this conversation before aircraft are dropping bombs on Iran. I feel like that's going to happen any day now. But as a quick background, West Point 2009, so a little before Rob. But then Field Artillery with the 101st, Afghanistan a couple times. Got out, left active in 2014, a little time, Guard and Reserves. And a couple of years ago, about 2020, 21, started making content about military history. And it's just kind of kept going. And I love it. My time at West Point was international relations and terrorism studies. Didn't really know that that could be like a private sector job. I kind of figured you have to be in the government. But yes, it's what I do all day, every day now. So it's hard to beat. For better or for worse, I enjoy it. But it's times like this that are absolutely chaotic where you're genuinely checking the phone, like have the aircraft taken off. Are they bombing Iran right now? Yeah, and for everyone's, not to cut you off there, but for everyone's awareness, the Mexican military went in to go capture a Mexican cartel leader. They whacked him yesterday. After the Army, after the Army hockey, after the USA hockey gold, all that stuff on social, after I got through my own work mechanism, if you will, as a content creator, I went to YouTube. and no shit guys before BBC or before CNN before any other outlet put out a cohesive strategic well-positioned video Preston was the first one to do it so this is the kind of guy who I'm talking to today is he gives a shit about the material he gives a shit about the news and he wants to bring value to people that are consuming content. And I can't believe it's taken us a year. We've been running Bold American for a year now. I can't believe it's taken me a year to get you on the show. That's my bad, bro. But your YouTube is huge. Your Twitter is popping off. Your Instagram is also growing. I love all the collabs we've been able to do over the years, over the last few years. I mean, people love it. Everyone loves you. You have amazing looks too. let's dive right into it man what what is what do you want to talk about should we go into iran first like what's what's a what's a crisis that we can dive into i think let's the drop by gnc it's where you'll find all the newest creatine innovations like new gnc amp creabolic it's a first of its kind formula designed to help athletes not just build muscle but also repair and protect it in ways creatine alone can't get it now at gnc start with mexico uh mexico going straight over the cartels. Yeah. So yesterday, kind of out of nowhere, it wasn't really expected. There was no lead up to this. We got news that El Mencho, the leader of CJNG, the Jalisco new generation cartel was killed in a Mexico military operation. Sounds like they went in to get him and there was a gunfight that ensued. A handful of cartel members were killed. I think a few federal troops, Mexican federal troops were killed as well. And El Mencho was killed as they were trying to move him to Mexico City, the country erupted. You started to see, I think they're called like cartel blockades where they just burn trucks in the middle of the road, kind of trying to attract attention away from an area and gunfights like across the country. And it's still going today. It doesn't look like it's escalated more, but it hasn't stopped from what I can tell. The U.S. was not directly involved, but it does look like the U.S. provided intelligence to one of the more elite units that we have trained and equipped and are partnered with pretty closely. So I'm watching the news kind of walk this tightrope right now, where we both want to say that we did have a role, and we certainly did, but it was not kicking down doors or probably didn't even have aircraft to include maybe some reconnaissance overhead. But this is the guy in Mexico. So arguably the most powerful cartel leader. So the message being sent here is that if they'll go after him, they'll go after anyone. And that's kind of the stability right now or the instability in Mexico is all of these. I mean, it's organized crime, Right. There's these levels of corruption across the country where it's kind of like you do your thing. We'll do ours. They play off each other with El Mencho going down. It's kind of like, for lack of a better terms, like they broke a rule. You're not supposed to go after that. Certainly not. So that's the chaos right now. We're kind of waiting to see if if the cartels try to reestablish some form of deterrence. Like you can't do this. You guys overstepped. But the risk they run there is kind of mobilizing the country against them. So it's where generally speaking, it's not been a top priority. So kind of chaotic, to say the least. Yeah. What do you make of the U.S. maybe not saying anything? Like the Department of War, HEGSEF. To my understanding, Preston, there hasn't been even a lick of acknowledgement or hasn't there? Like what, what, what is the U S position right now with the events that unfolded on the ground in Mexico? This was great for the U S like, I would argue this is better than, um, putting troops on the ground and like risking their lives. Mexico showed that they could do it and they did it. They took out the top guy. Um, I haven't seen much. It's, it sounds like some, uh, statements coming out of the white house and such is acknowledgement that we, we participated in terms of intelligence sharing. um but it's it's a win i think this is a huge win for the united states like first off is a bad guy all right so like nobody's mourning his death not by a long shot i think it was his girlfriend that led right i think it was like a mistress or a girlfriend that kind of it's didn't the same thing happen el chapo like there was a female lover involved with the the the takedown of the individual the same thing happened yesterday or saturday night sunday morning to then and have those events unfold it sounds like it you know okay guys being guys i guess they can't help themselves and that's their downfall but but yeah man this is this is huge like it's it's such a what's interesting that we're not seeing a lot from the u.s is because this is a win for the trump administration right they they they specifically pressured mexico over their handling of the cartels and have talked a lot about, not as much in recent months, but definitely towards the start of Trump's term, about kind of suggesting, are we going to have to do this ourselves? And you remember the conversations of, will the United States go into Mexico? And the pressure there looks to have built up to the point where Mexico had to do something and say, not only are we going to do our normal counter cartel operations, we're going after the big dog. I mean, this is going to buy Mexico quite a bit of time on the political side. So I think if I was Trump and people in his administration, I would be celebrating this as a win that they helped facilitate. Now what do you make of the timing of these events We have the World Cup on our continent Canada USA Mexico in four months I a soccer guy I a diehard soccer fan So and I also happen to have a timeshare in Cabo So like we, I, I love Mexico, but what, what do you think about the timing of this? uh will this lead on to maybe more bloodshed between government forces the military some of those specialized forces that we work with that we train with and the cartel do you think the cartel kind of postures and just waits it out like is there going to be a drug deal made between the government and the cartel so it's not to have anything happen during the world cup like what what do you make of all those kind of kind of things so i lean on my guy stefano rittendale He runs the all source news account. We had him on the channel this morning and I just peppered him with questions. And this was, so I'm going to try to recite essentially what that expert told me. And the best way to put it is that cartels aren't stupid. Like they're, they're in the business of making money. That's it. And they don't want to do anything that's going to disrupt good business. The world cup pulling out of Mexico would turn the entire Mexican population against the cartels. Like they've never seen. so and it would be bad for business in a lot of ways so the cartels are not going to attack the stadium facilities they would not do that during a world cup um right and they know that right now significant retaliation could lead fifa to say wait a minute this is too dangerous we can't do it that's bad for the cartels so one of the possibilities is that they have a relatively limited response to where they don't want this thing to spiral even further. They kind of want to get their point across and go back to business as usual. So there is a concern that it continues to go. And if you're FIFA, you have to be looking at this saying, guys, like major airlines canceled flights into a number of Mexican airports yesterday. That was real, right? There was reportedly some cartel members running around a couple international airports. I don't know if that was verified or not. Right. But it's not crazy right now to think that FIFA could shut this down or at least make a public statement that they're looking at it. That might be a backstop for the Mexican government to kind of put a lid on exactly what the cartels will do. But that's the concern right now is that kind of enough or one of the things that could keep them from escalating further. Where does it go from here over the next few weeks, you think? Any thoughts? Yeah, I follow the Stefano-Rittendale rule here again that it's business-related, and they don't want to do anything. Like the Mexican government is in a lot of ways beneficial to the cartels. The cartels don't really want to run governance. They don't want to do international relations. They're just a criminal network, a transnational criminal network, but they in a lot of ways work hand-in-hand with people that they have inside the government. That's been very beneficial to them in a lot of ways. You probably want to get back to that. They're not looking to overthrow the Mexican government. So this isn't a matter of like marching to the Capitol and trying to like replace government leaders. They just want to get back to normal, get back to the cash flow coming in. And so I would think that that would probably lead to a reduction in hostilities. There might be some sort of significant attack, maybe a targeted assassination of sorts to try to reestablish that deterrence. You can't just go after their top guy and nothing happen. But I think it's – this sucks to say, but they're rational actors. Yeah. There's a lot of groups around the world that aren't. They are. Yeah. And, and for, for those listening, what is the landscape of the cartels currently? There's the Sinaloa, the Jalisco, and then is it those two? Is there another player? Like, do you see like cartel wars kind of popping up at all? Like, how do you, how do you, how do you think about that? Yeah, this is, this is into the weeds that I go to Stefano for. So CJ and G the Jalisco new generation is considered like the biggest right now, but they're also relatively new. within the last 10 years, I want to say. So that's why this is such a big deal, is this was kind of the most powerful, most well-known cartel currently operating, but they also haven't been through any sort of real turnover at the top. So it's going to raise some questions of like, do they have the mechanisms to, you know, this isn't Al-Qaeda, but they've gone through, actually a bad example, they've only had a couple leaders, Islamic State, where they've gone through 17 different guys at this point, right? And we know that that infrastructure is set up for them to do it. But CJNG has one guy, had one guy at the top that really stood it up. So it's yet to be seen if they have the ability to kind of weather this and come out the other side intact. I did ask Stefano today about kind of intra-cartel wars. He downplayed that. He didn't think it was likely. He said, we're probably going to wait to see what the internal dynamics of CJNG look like. And following that, you might see something. But immediately, he didn't break anything. okay so we'll we'll monitor um it's always exciting dude monitor the situation with uh the jeff bezos meme i uh yeah i love mexico i go once a year i've been going since i was a cadet at west point i i love it it's it's incredible i was stationed at fort bliss for almost four years um so everything that happened there always does keep me a little on my feet um let's shift slightly venezuela um what's what's new in venezuela what have you heard um do you want to talk about venezuela um give me give me the lowdown listen i think it's worth bringing up there's not a lot to say here but i think it's worth bringing up because it plays into iran and the venezuela situation is like nothing has really happened there at all like we've got better diplomatic relations right now. I saw that. We opened up the embassy, right? The Shahjad Fahir is now in country. So we've got better relations. Maduro is still here in the United States. That's going to be interesting. I have no idea what that trial and situation could look like, but I'm ready to watch. Dude, that was only seven, eight weeks ago. It feels like that was a year ago, but it was last month. so that that's what i want to kind of parlay here is that is how trump runs foreign policy is he wants the the quick wins in and out and move on to the next thing venezuela is like not resolved at this point like yeah maduro is gone but it's the same group that's running the country right um like it's the same people yeah um the the whole the cartels that were operating through venezuela like they're still there they're we're still conducting boat strikes in the Caribbean. So like, it's not done. Um, but the, the capturing of Maduro, of course, like that was a crazy operation. It was a crazy made for Hollywood, right? There's going to be a movie about that. And we just move on to the next thing for better or for worse, right? I don't know in some of these scenarios, if it's, if it's best that we like, you know, should we, should we open up more state department facilities in Venezuela and try to do something there or do we need to kind of back out but i think that's worth keeping in mind when we look at iran because that has been trump's foreign policy from the get-go is you get in you get out you call it a day midnight hammer our last experience with iran about eight months ago it was one wave of strikes right and then we had a big press briefing and it's been celebrated as this great operation ever since right i think that's something to keep in mind as as we mass forces in the Middle East. And to your point, this hasn't just been for the 47 administration. This has been a thorn in the side for every president, but particularly 45 when DJT whacked Soleimani in right outside Baghdad, right? Or right outside the Baghdad airport. So like he's got it out for them and he's probably just been noodling on this since 2016, 2017. um and yeah let's talk about iran iran what what the fuck is going on we got we got destroyers for days we got warships just south of it in the persian gulf we have apparently toilets stopped working on one of them so the poor sailors are having an issue with that um the navy sucks for the navy we got every single fighter and bomber and tanker that you can think of positioned that way that the marines ready what's preston's assessment about what's going on today monday february 23rd with iran so depending on which assessment you look at this is the biggest build up in the middle east since x state a pretty safe one is since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It's kind of apples to oranges because that, of course, we had tens of thousands of troops crossing the border. So like there was a big footprint on land that doesn't exist right now. There's not really been a like troop buildup. There's been an equipment buildup. So we've seen a lot of aircraft and a lot of ships. Of course, there's troops manning that, but we're not seeing like infantry divisions or Marine divisions moved in the Middle East. So that probably means limited to no ground operations. Of course, special operations is always the wild card there. It'd be challenging in Iran, no doubt. We could move all of this stuff there and kind of pressure them to make a deal and then bring it home. I mean, it would be an expensive use of our military, but it'd be less expensive than going to war. So that's technically still in the cards. The challenge is, I don't really know what we're negotiating Because the things that we are asking for and have continued to ask for are all essentially red line for Iran. We want zero nuclear enrichment. They view that as an existential – that is a key component of their national identity. For them, that's off the table. We want the removal of their missile program. For them, that's the only thing keeping them alive and stopping Israel from just destroying everything. We want them to disband their proxy network. Again, that's like a key component of their defense structure. It's off the table. I think they're all good. I want all of those things to happen. I'm just not sure that we're very close in a negotiation. So then seeing all this military firepower move in kind of suggests that they're going to use it probably soon. And what would that look like? Would that be a predetermined strike package on, you know, their air bases, any sort of semblance of a nuclear program, any sort of, you know, CUDS force, IRGC, whatever that unit is, you know, installations, key political structures and buildings? What do you make of a potential strike? This is where we get into the even more challenging. When you look at the Venezuela operation, we got Maduro. Everything else stayed in place. Don't really know what the desired end state is there. We don't really know what the plan is in Iran. Iran seems to think that it's regime change. Regime change is hard, man. I don't know that we can do that with airstrikes. I feel like that's probably asking a lot. Is it the nuclear program only? Is it the nuclear program and the missiles? Is it at times they've talked about the protesters? Trump publicly for the first time said more than 30,000 protesters were killed in the last couple months. Just shocking number. Which one of those things is it? What are we trying to accomplish here? We could, without a doubt, and could have now for weeks. We've had the assets to blow up a bunch of Iranian missile facilities to further degrade their nuclear capabilities and take out leaders across the IRGC. We could have done that already. We can do that even more now, and we'll be able to do it even more in a couple days and a couple weeks. But I don't know what we're trying to get out of it yet. Again, there's no follow-on ground invasion set up for this thing. so it feels maybe like punch him in the nose real hard and then slide the term sheet across the table and say how about now yeah i don't know i don't know if that'll work um it'd have to be they'd have to be really i mean just put yourself in again we talk about rational actors put yourself in iran's position the the things that we're asking for that again i would like to see accomplished because I think it's bad that Iran is doing all this stuff. They view that as like they won't exist if we take that stuff away. So if we attack them and say, now take it away, I feel like it probably reinforces, at least at the leadership level, of to hell with that. We're not doing – we're building more missiles, man. We're standing up. We're going to have even more proxies because of what you did. So it's hard for me to see the direct we bomb them, kill enough leadership that they say enough we'll do whatever you want but that does kind of seem like the direction we're headed okay and and do you know what the terms are for any sort of peace deal at this point or some sort of nuclear deal like what what is it that we specifically want them to cease or we were, we want them to capitulate. Like, what is it? We haven't really gotten into the weeds on that, which is another thing here. So like, we've got the muscle lined up and, and you and I, and the audience knows that they can't just stay there forever. Like they're coming home at some point. The, the, one of the carriers has already extended their deployment. Like they've got weeks, months for sure. Um, like not indefinite. So the muscle is there to, to kind of influence some negotiations, but we're still in the phase of like sending proposals back and forth. Iran has said they have another one set to come like this Friday. I think it is the, the only thing that I feel confident kind of dialing in on is around nuclear enrichment. If you remember, there was a, the JCPOA was, was stood up under Obama. And one of Trump's big things was, was doing away with that. And any chance he gets, he still talks about how bad it was. A lot of what we saw being negotiated last time around was like very similar to the exact, it was almost the exact same thing. Um, I, I, and he caught some flack for that saying like, you tore this thing up, went away for it for a few years, then bombed Iran, and now we're doing the same thing again. You're right. So I have a feeling that anything around their nuclear program would be a level beyond that. So probably the zero enrichment. But that gets very, very technical very quickly. There's a Blackhawk flying by my house in Vegas. You always got to look. Sorry, guys. um how do you think the saudis the persian gulf states the turkey the turks like how are some of these guys factored into this like i feel like saudi mohammed bin salman iran they obviously despise each other they're fighting one another on the ground in yemen through proxies sudan to some extent with UAE, Saudi's trying to be a bigger player. But at the same time, it gives Saudi almost like a reason to continue to develop and continue to posture and grow its own military, exert dominance and influence by having an Iran, right? It's like, it actually kind of helps them. And then there's obviously UAE, Qatar, Israel, Syria, you know, Syria, what the fuck's happening with Syria no one really knows like is it even a functioning state at this point and then you got Lebanon and Hezbollah and Hamas somehow still there like what do you make of all this like weird spider webby stuff which continues to just continue to get even crazier as the years go by like we we went into Iraq we thought we were going to save and you know crown the prince and and have a functioning democracy and everything was going to be saved and that's obviously not the case like what do you make of all those relations and those countries next to Iran? It's an interesting one. And a little breaking news is over the course of the last couple hours, multiple outlets have reported that General Cain, so the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has been briefing President Trump on the risks associated with the operation. One of those he talks about is the lack of allied support. I do want to mention from what I can tell, It sounds an awful lot like the military doing their job saying like, here's what could happen in the event of an attack. I think it's being presented as the Pentagon is saying we shouldn't do it. But I think that's people overanalyzing what is normally a conversation behind closed doors. Either way, more will come out on that, I'm sure. But the allied support is an interesting one here. So Israel is in their own bucket because they just want Iran gone, like a new Iranian regime is a better way to put it. So we'll set them aside because whatever eliminates the IRGC is good by Israel, and they want that yesterday. The rest of our partners in the region are kind of against it right now in a lot of ways. We really don't have anyone other than Israel fully backing us and fully on our side. We've had countries, I don't want to misspeak here, but a couple of them, Qatar, UAE, maybe Saudi Arabia, that have denied our ability to use their airspace for strikes on Iran or missiles flying through their airspace, which that's saying something. It sounds like behind closed doors, they've been lobbying for the United States not to attack. Now, they all don't like Iran. So they are closer to the United States than they are with Iran. It's not that they're trying to save the Ayatollah or anything like that. It's largely they would be very happy for Iran to implode. They don't want Iran to explode across the region and have a mass migration crisis as the government fails and see these proxy networks stand up and the rise of criminal groups kind of taking advantage of that. That's not, go back to our cartel conversation, that's not good for business. Nobody wants that. On top of that, you've got in the short term, Iran, they can't hit the United States with any of their missiles or drones, but they can hit all of our regional partners. And we've seen before they're not afraid to do so. Again, bad for business, bad for a country if drones and missiles start flying into your oil fields or near your airports and you have to shut down international travel even for a couple days. It gives the look of instability, right? That's a concern. And then personally, I think something that, again, to go back to this theme of Trump wants in and out. I have to think that some of them are looking at this wondering if we're going to be around long term to help with whatever comes next. so again none of them are fans of the ayatollah none of them want the survival of the regime but they might be looking at it wondering is the u.s going to come in and blow a bunch of stuff up and then and then just go back home and say good luck guys this is your neighborhood you figure it out yeah yeah um which based off of what's in theater right now it kind of looks like that's what we're gonna we might we might be doing um so the partner aspect is interesting the the best assessments that I've seen is that behind closed doors, they are all supportive. They're not going to like veto the attack. And once, uh, hostilities begin, they would, they would support the United States. It's not like any of these are on the verge of like getting on the side of Iran. It's just, you know, ideally you want all of your allies in your corner. It'd be great if, uh, if Jordanian and Turkish aircraft were flying behind our bombers with us, that's not going to happen oh man what a sight um yeah there's there's some awesome images from like desert storm in 91 where i think our air force was flying with egyptian air force and jordanian and syrian megs all against saddam hussein's like oh man stuff like that you know but nowadays it's just it's it's very deliberate it's very precise it's uh very covert um but this this case not being so covert i feel um so quickly on iran wasn't iran developing building those drones that the russians were using against ukraine and ukrainian forces could you could you talk about some of that Yeah, so it's the Shahhead-style drone. Russia, at the beginning of the war, purchased a bunch of them to kind of backfill their ballistic missile stock or their missile stock. Russia kind of rebranded them the Garan drone. But these are 2,000-kilometer-plus range, so they're very long-range. They've adapted a lot, comparable to a Cruisemus. I mean, these are the size of small cars, all right? So people hear drone, and they think small. When you see a picture of, I mean, they launch these off of, they can launch these off of pickup trucks driving. And it's the full length of the pickup truck as it drives. So it's, look, this sucks. It's an incredible weapon. It's very inexpensive to make. 2,000 kilometers is very, very long. You're talking about like cruise missile plus ranges. Not as accurate as you might expect like a U.S. Tomahawk. generally doesn't carry as big of a payload, but the cost is a fraction. And we've seen Russia put in a night, I don't know if they've gotten to 500, but they've certainly thrown more than 400 in a single night at Ukraine. They're cheap to produce. They're able to churn out a lot of them. And the threat there is kind of the overwhelming of any air defense asset. They're generally slow moving. They're not all that hard to shoot down. But if you've got 400 of these things coming at, I mean, an aircraft carrier, that's going to be a problem. What was the genesis of Iran manufacturing, concepting manufacturing these drones? Was it for the fight in Yemen years ago? And then they just kind of trademarked it and sold it out to Russia and other people. What's kind of the backstory there? I don't know what prompted it. It's a, it's, again, it's very smart. So we have spent maybe like the entire history of our country trying to develop like the fancier and fancier missiles that can like speak different languages and go backwards. And they went the opposite direction and said, we need to make a lot of inexpensive munitions. And we're struggling with that a bit in the US, trying to figure out like, how do we intercept this stuff? We're starting to use kind of inexpensive rocket pods on fixed wing aircraft to hunt these things down and shoot them out of the air. The technically a Patriot can shoot it down. The cost differential there is like shocking. I think, you know, maybe a couple hundred of these drones to make up for the cost of one interceptor type thing. So it's a it's a smart munition in what they've done. I don't know how many Iran has. We saw hundreds launched in Israel during the 12-day war. I've not seen anything about their production facilities. They're probably not buying any from Russia at this point. Russia's pretty much just using up everything they have on their own. But it is a threat. Again, we saw the Houthis use these a couple times against Israel, but it was always like one or two at a time. They're slow moving. You can see them a long ways off. Israel had no problem intercepting them. And when Iran did use these against Israel, I think every single one was intercepted. But the ballistic missiles got through. So again, it muddies the water. It makes it harder for the air defenders to see things coming through. And it keeps people up. The guys sitting on that Patriot launcher monitoring everything. When they've got one after the other after the other coming in for 17 hours, it wears you down. And that's one of the benefits of these inexpensive munitions. And yeah, I mean, if we kick things off, we should expect that those are flying probably at some U.S. bases in the region. Wow. What's going on with Ukraine? Where are we with peace talks there? What's the status update on Ukraine and Russia? Yeah, the peace talks kind of the big thing right now. No progress, really. There's been a lot of posturing, maybe is a way to put it. I've seen Steve Whitcoff talk a lot recently, the US envoy to all of this. Pretty regularly says that we're close. And I don't want to throw cold water on this because I do think any talks are positive and it opens the door to the possibility of ending this. But from what I can tell, there are kind of three major items that we've got territorial control, really two major ones, territorial control, and then in eastern Ukraine, and then security guarantees. So what does that look like for Ukraine? There's a lot of other stuff, lifting sanctions, future trade with Russia, rebuilding in Ukraine, all of that stuff. A lot of that seems to have been agreed upon, or at least they're moving in the right direction. And that's great. But the war isn't going to stop if the territorial control and security guarantees aren't resolved. And from what I can tell, we're not any closer on that today than we've been since the war kicked off. So the big issues we're having right now is Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from the rest of Donetsk, which is a fortress belt. man i mean they are they are slaughtering russians there right now to the tune of 30 000 plus killed or seriously wounded a month um holy shit and that's just trench on trench warfare just sweeping through villages and towns what does that day-to-day kind of look like the last few months it's a drone wall so there's a there's a there's a kill zone along the front between 10 and 30 kilometers wide and it's it's no man's land it is constant overhead surveillance from both sides and when targets are identified they're hammered um and because it's on drones we have the footage for this stuff i mean this is long gone are the days of the you know the taliban open fire on a convoy and say we killed some yeah yeah yeah it's like where where man um we all went right back home. You missed us. We have footage of these guys, graphic footage, but you're watching every single day, small scale Russian assaults, two to five people trying to kind of maneuver their way through this open terrain and find a gap in the Ukrainian lines. At times they do, and they build up forces behind the Ukrainian front. It's a real problem, but a lot of them are killed on the way. And again, based off of verified video footage, I mean, there's 35,000 killed in the month of January. How does Russia, at a certain point, the economy, the social aspect, the men, the families, how does Russia continue this for years? Like secretly, they want to wrap this up, right? or is Putin just that fucked up? Well so there a mix because like nobody in Russia wanted the war to look like it looks today right Like this was not the plan not by a long shot But the way that it developed is that it kind of hard for Putin to walk away at this point They've transitioned so many things to a wartime economy, and a lot of the force right now is made up of guys where this risk – I mean a lot of them are dying all day, every day. But the paycheck is still so much more than they would ever get back home, and the bonus and the death payout that it's still worth it for some guys to sign up. I mean the majority of guys dying in Ukraine are volunteers. It's not a majority conscripts. Technically, the conscripts aren't supposed to be sent to the front. They are. But these are still guys that are raising their hands. And that's a segment of the population that when the war goes away, those jobs don't exist. And then inside of Russia with the manufacturing, again, churning out how many hundreds of drones per day, that factory didn't exist four years ago. Now it does. They're kind of repopulating some of these industrial towns that were incredibly impoverished. so they don't want the war like this but there there are some unfortunate um incentives for putin to keep it going january was the first month of the war that more russians were killed or seriously wounded they were recruited so more people left the russian army than joined it um but to your question how long can they go apparently a lot longer than any of us thought man. I mean, their economy is okay, but it's hurting in a lot of ways. The casualty figures, I mean, take the lowest one you've ever seen and then divide it by half. Even then, I think we would have been surprised to hear that Russia is still putting up with this. But they are, and they're continuing to push. I mean, we're talking about their losses. They are making very small, but steady territorial gains in a couple of different areas. so how does it play into the ukrainian effort like how how does the ukrainian smaller population smaller country deal with this continued onslaught of this russian en masse of resources men from siberia fucking way east vlady vostok that are just volunteering how do the ukrainians deal with that they're trying to innovate their way through it and i think in some ways they are uh the you know we when we step back and look at how the drone process worked at the beginning of the war it was all about manpower tanks and artillery shells and you know manpower very hard to replace in a short period of time in a war artillery rounds uh you know russia has tens of millions, hundreds, whatever the number is, it's shocking, way more than we do. And tanks take a while to produce. That was the calculus at the beginning of the war. Every one of those was in Russia's favor. And it probably wasn't going to change, and it hasn't changed today. Ukraine has shifted the focus to be so heavily on drones right now, where that's the key thing on the battlefield. That is what is producing the most casualties on the battlefield that is what is stopping the Russian forces in multiple areas they couldn't do that with artillery they couldn't do that with tanks they couldn't do that with aircraft so they've shifted the fight they forced Russia to kind of fight the fight that they want the new Russian defense minister young guy I want to say this or Ukrainian defense minister I want to say he's in his 20s maybe his 30s but young yeah tech background very drone first type mentality and he has set a goal of killing 50,000 Russian soldiers per month in 2026. So the Ukrainian goal is don't go on the attack, very, very limited counterattacks, but set up a defensive belt where for Russia to cross, it's incredibly costly. And that's so far what we're seeing over the course of the last four, five, six months. But to your point earlier, like, I don't know if that's going to be enough or how many months or years at that pace it'll take but for lack of a better term they are making russia pay very dearly for for every inch at this point more than ukraine is right so when russia is attacking and ukraine is using drones to kill them often the russian attackers don't get within range of the ukrainians and the russian drones are long range and they are are hitting Ukraine left, right, and center, no doubt. But again, Ukraine is on the defense across the front. So Russia is seeing significantly more losses right now. Now, we're going on year four of this conflict, correct? This war. Where do you want this? Where do you want the year to end with a Ukraine-Russia situation? What is best case scenario for Preston by year's end? Best case scenario I don't think is even considerable, but I would like to see. I actually think that it would be viable to pull Ukraine into NATO. NATO is not this automatic death switch where a NATO member gets shot at and we start launching nukes. We do have the ability to say we are going to go to war or we're not. So I think that there would be a way to pull Ukraine into NATO. We can learn from them with what they're doing. There's a lot that we can learn from what they're doing. That will provide the security guarantees when there is a peace deal that's struck. And I think it would allow NATO to beef up our eastern border. So put air defense systems, maybe even in Western Ukraine, and say we're going to make sure that nothing crosses into Poland, nothing crosses into Latvia, into Lithuania, to Estonia. Really lock all that down because I think Russia is going to keep kind of pushing their luck. We've already seen drones flying into some of those countries. Also, I think that's us taking the initiative back. We're in this weird spot where we're not wanting to do anything that could upset Russia. I'm like, what world is this, man? We're the United States. They should be scared about what we do. We got to stop being so scared about what they're going to do. We have the stronger and the bigger military. We have a bigger economy. We have better allies that are willing to stand with us. Have you seen the Russian allies? It's like North Korea, man. They are tricking people out of Africa to come fight their war. like yeah we have every advantage uh it doesn't come without risk but i think one of the ways that we can stand up and kind of cement our place going forward is to say we're gonna we're pulling ukraine into nato there's nothing you can do about it like russia you don't get a veto on this thing um and with that i think we might be able to see some peacekeepers in the western portion of the country uh kind of locking down western ukraine but i think that's a pipe dream i think there's I think there'd be a lot of benefit there. And again, whenever we call Russia's bluff and push back, they back down. It's dangerous. It's scary. I know. I don't want to do anything that's going to lead to a nuclear war, but Russia has started a war and they are trying to see how far they can go before we act. And I think there's a lot of things we could do that would show them, sit the fuck down. That is a far cry from a nuclear exchange. So I'd like to see some of that. why didn't we do that under the previous administration? Why aren't we doing that in this administration? And why the fuck, as a German-born guy, why can't the Euros, the Central Europeans, the Germans, the French, the Brits, just fucking push back a little more against Russia too in rhetoric, economically, culturally? like what the fuck dude it's it's so i get it we we have we have we need to figure out our own strategy with russia still but man as a german guy i gotta tell you it is upsetting to just see like the rhetoric from mertz and i was gonna say sarkozy uh macron and i know there's some stuff being done but like guys it's in your fucking backyard and zelinski's doing his thing but like i i wish the europeans would kind of pick up their balls a little more and you know just fucking own it and also i think it could be a strategic play on their end to then show the trump administration they do have their shit together and that they are serious about this Right. It's like, yeah, it bothers me that the Europeans don't do more. You know, that's that's very it's tough for me to see that. Yeah, I think they're coming around like they're definitely closer now than they have been. But they've been dragging their feet. There's no two ways about it. Something I think about when looking at this is we look at kind of the post World War Two order of it was paid for in American. blood, right? Like, right. We came out of that war and we created a world order for us. Like the way that everything works is what we put together to benefit us. And there's all sorts of like really rosy language in there, but let's be real. It's been a wonderful set for the United States. And that costs us a lot of lives. And this is not the same, but I think it's similar and it would only cost money, money and equipment, where we could essentially purchase that influence for the next period of time, whether it's 5, 10, 20, 30 years, whatever it is. Because Russia's on the brink, man. If they actually had to go up against NATO, they'd be in trouble. I mean, they'd genuinely be having the nuclear conversation because they would not be able to hang in a conventional sense. So if we were able to, if we decided to flood the zone, give them get get them whatever they need and it's it's an investment and i think it would be an investment not in eastern ukraine but in europe and like taking charge taking lead and kind of uh reasserting ourselves there for the foreseeable future you know there's for all the the back and forth and the frustrations we have with our our brothers and sisters in europe like it's a lot of great economies over there right we've got a lot of stuff in common and it would be great to uh to submit something long term and i think we could i just don't think the appetite there is there to do that yeah it's such a bummer man um like what was it three years ago i was in germany i was with some relatives and uh what was that tank was it the puma that we shipped over the german shipped over to ukraine leopard maybe the leopard and we shipped like fucking six of them and it took like a year and a half to get done and all my german friends and relatives were like can you believe it we did it i'm like congrats you're fucking germany you you're we're the founders of volkswagen hugo boss porsche congrats on sending fucking six tanks to ukraine guys like cool like an army company can do that out of fort bliss like so just like that's that's the mindset that you're dealing with in Europe. And you know this, you've been there. It's like, it's just so surreal. It's so surreal. And I just wish, again, German-American here, but I wish the Germans did a little bit more. They have the resources, they have the money. Now, what else is going on in Preston's land that he wants to talk about in closing? Like anything else you want to highlight, you want to flag? there's still you know 100 plus other countries out there but what anything else topical top of mind you want to you want to throw out there yeah i hate to let everyone else slide but i i do think we are actually on the verge of arguably the biggest military operation for the united states in 20 plus years so strangely like this is this is wild and it's just like i feel like this should be such bigger news it makes me wonder if we're actually going to do anything like again we're we're not no indication we're putting boots on the ground, but we're assembling the largest military armada in 20 plus years. And it's not like the leading headline in most places. Um, we got a lot of other stuff going on, I guess it just, I don't know if that's an argument for, you know, nothing ever happens and everybody's just going to come home. Uh, or if we're just in a weird spot where somehow that isn't newsworthy. I mean, once the first bombs fall, It'll be big, but that to me is kind of the focus area for a little while here. I'll be waking up the next couple of days, seeing if anything went boom. What does, real quick on your creative process and the way you push content out, what are you willing to share in terms of how you operate? Because you are, dude, do you have a bot farm at your house? How are you handling the swabs of content, but not just content, my man. You're putting out incredibly educational, high quality pieces of content. And it's only just begun. 2026 has only just begun. We haven't even got it around yet. How are you going to handle all this, man? I don't know. I love those compliments. That's going to sleep well tonight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's ups and downs throughout this when the 12-day war was absolute chaos. It was a couple of videos, a couple of long form videos a day. I felt like I didn't sleep for the month of June, but then there's other months where it really dials back and you, you know, you're, you're, you're kind of pulling out lesser stories. If that makes sense, there's always something happening. Right. But I mean, it's just been a refinement over time. So I've played around with having some researchers in the past that didn't simplify things. it made it a little harder for me because I like to be able to add my own commentary and my own thoughts on something. And that's hard if I've just got a script from someone. So I'll generally try to focus in on a couple of key areas and focus on some sources that I trust and ones to check in on and just kind of mark things throughout the day. And some days you wake up and there's enough things that happen. You were like, a video can be made on that. Other days, like, no, this is just, we're not getting there. Not going to force it. We'll give it 24 hours. And then of course the next day, a Russian jet gets shot down and all bets are off. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's been incredible to see your growth too as a creator, as a friend, drink some water. It's going to be a busy few weeks, months, man. Thank you so much for your time, Preston. Thank you everybody for tuning in on this awesome, awesome interview and discussion about all the crazy shit happening in the world. But Preston, Can you let everybody know where to find you on socials? Yeah. So everything is just my name, Preston Stewart. YouTube channel is probably the best place. The most in-depth content is there, but also TikTok, Instagram, and X. Awesome, my man. Well, thank you so much. We'll get you on again soon. Go Army, be Navy. See you guys. Bye-bye. Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right? And the best part? Except Discover. Except Discover? In a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah, huh? Discover is accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby, get with the times. Right, so we shouldn't get the parachute pants? These are making a comeback. I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report. You're up. All right, thank you to Preston for joining us. As always, we appreciate your expertise and your ability to deep dive on these topics. because it keeps us informed. All right. Any caveats that we missed? Only caveat I had is just letting you guys know that Navy women's lacrosse is – I think they were ranked 12th last time I was on because I haven't been on for a couple weeks. They are now ranked 10th in the nation. So just – Cool. Cool. it's the start of the fucking season right it's the start of the i great but they they're three no they're undefeated they're yeah you guys when when when do we play navy and lacrosse april right yes yeah so this is one thing i understand connor and ryan i wish i wish army and navy men's lacrosse would do double headers like Army and Navy basketball do. I know. We've talked about this. Oh, by the way, Navy men's lacrosse just beat Penn State, which was a huge upset. We just beat Michigan over the weekend. I saw, but this was a bigger upset. So just so you know. I don't think so. Well, yeah, because Navy was... We've been ranked since the beginning of the season. So... Okay, whatever. I was talking about Navy women's lacrosse. I'm a proud mom. They're playing awesome. You guys are such haters. Like, yeah. So whatever. You know what? If Army was due to women's lacrosse, I might entertain this conversation. But they're the top 20 as well. So whatever. Army's number 19th in the country. We're right there. And what happened in the wrestling match on Friday between Army and Navy? Well, yeah, that was very disappointing. We can talk about that or we can talk about what happened at West Point where you guys just got like, you know, with our basketball. But we don't need to go there. That was tough. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I shut you guys both down real quick with that. No, I will say. Army women's basketball is going to make the tournament this year. Yeah, but Navy men's basketball is having like a whole time year. They are. They're having a really good year. Yeah, that wrestling, that hurts. That hurts. That's two years in a row. That hurts. Yeah, I mean, I would think you, of all people, would care more about wrestling than basketball well i do that's why i just tried to switch the subject to yeah that hurt my dad my dad flew in from florida for that like it yeah it's that's great and it came down to i'm pretty sure it came down to the last match the heavyweight match yeah it did yeah which army won we lost by a point yeah it was these things happen yeah so All right. Well, actually, one caveat relative to Army-Navy that came out a little while ago tonight. Coach Munkin got interviewed. I don't know by who. It doesn't matter. And he said he would be in favor, if this was presented, to move the Army-Navy game to Thanksgiving weekend, be it Friday or Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. I hate that. I don't like it. It would be outrageous on logistics and travel. Why do you? Oh, yeah, that's very true. It would be a fucking disaster. But why? That's not going to happen. Outside of the travel, why do you hate that? Is there other reasons? I don't want to. Well, so here's the thing. So the reason he gave, and I get it, you know, he's trying to acquiesce to the college football playoff. and also rightfully champion the case for Army or Navy to get to the college football playoff. Two years ago, Army had a real argument to be in the college football playoff given that they won the conference and they were right on the outside looking in. He doesn't want to lose that advantage. And actually, if you get Army-Navy played before they make the decision on who's in the final field, That could sway some voters, depending on how that game goes. So that part I get. The expansion, whether or not that's going to happen with college football playoff, certainly plays a factor because you're running out of time. You're running out of days that you can play this game and have it be a standalone game. If they have to add games, if they have to add weekends. I don't see a world, realistically, where Army-Navy can play in the near future and that's the only game on that day. Now, I would point to this year, this past year, there were other football games, albeit not Division I football games, but there are other football games on. I think so long as it's in a standalone slot, that preserves the sanctity of the game. You don't need it to be on its own day because the game is played and then it's over. I think it's just a slot. I agree. Just a slot. And I think that's what President Trump directed last month in a statement. Can you do that? I mean, not for nothing. He has no bearing on that. He has no bearing because guess what? This game's locked for the next few years as it is, and I don't know when they're going to change the college football playoff. It's probably not going to be, if anything, maybe it would be in his last year as a president. So I don't think he's going to ultimately have any bearing on what happens. That was done strategically by him. I don't like also Connor aren't those rivalry games like uh the tech like all those big rivalry games that weekend as well so like isn't that kind of his thinking too like college football playoff but also it's the rivalry weekend like we're all the Michigan Michigan State UT A&M Thanksgiving weekend UNLV UNR like all those big matchups happen I think that weekend i mean outside of the travel which would be like nightmarish because it's thanksgiving weekend expensive yeah yeah it's thanksgiving weekend that uh that the rivalry week yes yeah but well here's the thing you're i think i mean i don't really want to think about the legit logistics you're but you're absolutely cutting into thanksgiving break at two schools that are very notorious for not giving their students a lot of time away for time to themselves or time with their families so now thanksgiving just went from a five-day break to a one and a half day break maybe two days i don't i you know because they'd go have thanksgiving and then you get friday maybe to travel yeah and then you'd have to be or maybe the court and the the mids get that whole week off somehow and then they just i mean here's what i would say you do it thanksgiving weekend and it's in philly and that is the spot that's the spot then i'd be all for it 1000 i don't hate that i do because i think it should always be in philly like it should oh i like that i i i would love if it was just in philly in perpetuity i would absolutely throw out all these rfps for all these other cities because right i've i've been to every other city that's done the game none of them hold a candle to philadelphia philly by far and away host this game better than anybody whether it's years of experience the way things are situated yes i just don't think any other place comes close to philadelphia so i think we're gonna have to contend with that new stadium in dc i think that's gonna probably draw some attention well it's gonna go back out to bid soon we know we got new york and then philly in 2027 and then after that there's so we don't know we don't know it's gonna go back out to bid and hopefully the city of philadelphia doesn't screw it up like they did last time because they royally fumbled that and that's why we lost it um and it went out to all these different cities. So yeah. But I guess, listen, ultimately, God, I've said, listen, I think 86 times tonight. I think you have to consider the core of cadets and the brigade of midshipmen more so than anything, more, more so than the college football playoff. And it would just completely disrupt their lives. And they wouldn't be able to go home for Thanksgiving. Most of them, because they wouldn't be able to get back. So I agree with you. You know, it's funny though. I guarantee somebody would make the argument. Well, back in the day, like when my grandfather and my great uncle were at Army and Navy respectively, they just didn't go home the first year. Not for Thanksgiving, not for Christmas, not for Easter. They just stayed there the whole time. So they'd be like, oh, well, they used to just stay there. They're lucky to go home now. I hope it doesn't come to that. I don't know. I think what's going to happen, I don't have a crystal ball. they're gonna add games to the same weekend that army navy is and they're gonna find a way to play those games at noon and 7 p.m and they're gonna keep army and navy in the 3 p.m slot by itself and that's gonna have to suffice that's just the world we live in now and as much as we want it to be a standalone day i don't even really care about being a standalone day i just care that it's a standalone time slot because how great would it be if game ends you go out to the bar with all your pals and there's a game on they do i was just gonna say that at my after party or something you'd always only have the heisman ceremony or like that double a championship game whatever and it's like everyone it's like it's still 7 8 p.m when people are still going out they're getting dinner and then it's just nice to have another athletic event on the screen yeah and the college football playoff needs to be in prime time anyway i'll give them that so i'm okay with it being on same day as other games. Just give us a standalone slot. I just don't think logistically or for the core brigade, it makes sense to do it on Thanksgiving. Plus one. So anything else? Did we cover it all? We added everything. Guys, I have a really big procedure tomorrow. For what? My clone has to be. Oh, good for you. Did you start prepping? Yeah. I'm like, you're talking to us in prep. that's why I've been moving around because because you have to take a shit and I'm like on a water fast and I'm like yeah so hungry I'm so hungry right now wait are you doing are you doing pills or liquid so I the laxative was all it was it was this liquid saline and then I have the powder and then now I'm just on like I'm taking some more of that and then just water and then Gatorade tonight and I'm just gonna go in tomorrow morning and knock it out but wait did you like oh i didn't do that i had to take like all these pills and then like there's a couple pills like biscuidil or whatever but like i already i already took those so are you all cleared out you better make almost because you know you know i have horror stories i have friends who have gone in for a colonoscopy and they're like nope and they literally wake up they're like sorry you saw shit in there you're gonna have to do it again like they're not yeah Yeah, they're not empty. I have a friend who literally took her three times before. Yeah. So just make sure. All right. Well, tonight's the night. Got to make something happen. Well, good luck and good job. That's good that you're getting that checked out. It's important. It's so early now. You know, you got to be preventative with the colon cancer is like really bad. Yeah. Yeah. For people our age, you know, it's like so young. so that's why i'm doing it guys i'll let you know tomorrow good smart smart uh last thing i'll say i did see from the post game of the hockey that i thought was hysterical so hockey obviously is very well known as like a drinking culture and they all had beers up on the podium while they're talking to reporters rightfully so they just won the gold medal and there was a video of i'm pretty sure it was quinn hughes and he holds up his beer like any any of us have ever done looking at their buddy and like you know point your being like one more and he goes like yeah one more I was just really impressed because it was the beer was still half full but he was doing the math in his head he's like all right I need one more because by the time I finish this I need to have that next beer ready to go so I don't want to wait till I'm done to ask for that next one let me ask for it now so it's ready to go when I finish this so that was pro move by him I liked it love it all right that's all we got take care make it a great week you