Reversing Liberal Policies with Ilya Shapiro, CFO Jimmy Patronis & Rep. Greg Steube
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Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with yours Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone.

As always, jumping right into it, our first guest of the day is Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute and author of Lawless, the Miseducation of America's Elites. And right now, folks, if you are one of the first two people who jumps on the Breaking Battlegrounds DM on X...

Oh, 10. Chuck is giving me 10 people. We will send you a free copy of that book because it's something we definitely both think everybody in this country needs to read. Ilya Shapiro, thank you for joining us and welcome to the program. Thanks for having me and thanks for doing that promotion. Our pleasure. Our pleasure. So tell our audience, why is the academic rot in American law school so scary for America?

Yeah, I mean, everyone knows that higher education is in crisis generally. That was crystallized, for example, by the response on campuses to Hamas's attack on Israel in October of 2023 and the disastrous testimony by university presidents after that, the resignation of Harvard's president, all that.

But I focus on law schools and legal education because while it's sad if the English or sociology department goes off the rails, law schools train the next generation of our leaders. They disproportionately lawyers are disproportionately among our

uh... elected representative and other government officials the gatekeepers of our legal and political institutions obviously are judges and prosecutors and and all that so this is a a tremendously uh... important training ground and if these folks are

acculturated to think of the law as illegitimate, our institutions are hopeless, need to be torn down and remade according to some sort of privilege hierarchy or what have you, that things like free speech and equality under the law, that these are white supremacist tropes. Well, that is a huge problem for the rules of the game on which our society rests.

Ilya, fundamentally what you're talking about is the breakdown of the rule of law and the rise of the rule of emotional bureaucracy, essentially, at least in my view. That's a good way of putting it. I've never heard it quite put that way, but emotional bureaucracy, absolutely. And that is incredibly dangerous long term, as you outline in your book, because suddenly –

There are no rules. There are no boundaries. It's only the moment that matters and the feelings of those individuals that matter. And we're really getting into a slippery slope that has destroyed other countries before, aren't we?

That's right. If your rights and your freedoms depend on where you are on any given day in an intersectional matrix or something like that, then you have no rights or freedoms at all. It's arbitrary rule by not just by one single dictator or monarch, but by all of these bureaucratic chiefs. It's

It's the subversion on which all of America is based, and not just in terms of constitutional law or civil rights law, but, you know, dry things, securities regulation, water, you know, water regulation, anything that we live in.

If the laws, if the legal structures are illegitimate because they're systemic racism or however you want to designate it, then, you know, it's anarchy. It's rule by, you know, whichever bureaucrat you happen to find yourself before on a given day. You had a great quote on an interview I listened to yesterday that, you know, it was from a German philosopher, I believe, that the growth of bureaucracy is the decline of nations, right?

Has that growth of bureaucracy in legal academia been the decline of law schools and law? - Absolutely. This is an under reported, under understood, if you will, aspect of this whole dynamic. Lots of people talk about critical race theory or DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion, as a matter of ideology and how wrong that is. We've just been discussing that in certain ways.

But the bureaucracy element of this and the explosion of non-teaching staff, that is, whatever is going on that's wrong with discrimination in hiring faculty, ideological litmus tests, what they're teaching and not teaching, you know, not teaching originalism, for example, even though half the judiciary subscribes to that method of interpretation. Put that to the side.

What's going on with the non-teaching staff, which by the way, at all university institutions, including in law schools, there are now more of than teaching faculty, is even worse because these folks are not steeped in academic values,

Their highest calling is not the search for truth or the creation of knowledge. Again, whether you're right or wrong on that theory, it's to orient students, create cultures, give trainings, investigate and punish based on these theories.

theories of racial, gender, hierarchy, privilege, identity, all of these different things. And there's been so much growth in that area, especially in the last decade, that university leaders, the deans of prestigious so-called elite law schools, cower before these these educrats. Let me ask you this question. Let's just let's say the universe is red states.

Why did red state legislatures and probably right-of-center donors to the law schools allow this to happen? Were they just asleep in the wheel or they just want to give a donation and feel good about themselves? I mean, why did they allow this to happen? It seems like they fell asleep at the switch.

I think there's a lot of that. I mean, legislators have a lot on their plate that they could be thinking about policy-wise. And until something starts making national news or state news, and until there's a pattern of these

pathologies that surface, you don't really care about it. Your constituents don't demand that you do something about it. And at a certain point, that did shift. In 2020, during COVID, when people were seeing what's going on with these schools and

You saw the so-called racial reckoning after George Floyd's killing. And just normal people who don't always pay attention to politics, understandably, they just care about their families, their jobs, started seeing this stuff going on. And it was this craziness on campus. And they started demanding that their legislature, their elected representatives start doing something.

And since then, we have seen a slew of legislation, executive actions. I worked with my colleague Chris Ruppo on model legislation to abolish DEI structures, get rid of diversity trainings and ideological litmus tests for hiring and these sorts of things, which has been adopted in a number of states.

That's most important for public institutions, as you said. It doesn't fix necessarily what's going on at your Yale's, your Stanford's, your Columbia's, where we've seen perhaps the most egregious examples of this illiberal takeover of legal education. Well, Ilya, in reading your book, it made me think back to the incident with the Colorado Supreme Court when there was a move –

by I believe it was the Secretary of State there to remove Trump from the ballot. You had a 5-4 decision where the five Ivy League educated Supreme Court, Colorado Supreme Court members, or four Ivy League educated Colorado Supreme Court members voted to remove him from the ballot, while the five who had been educated at Denver Law all voted to keep him on the ballot. Now, basically all of them had been put in place by Democrat governors and

But it made me start to think, do these folks understand the danger they're courting with the disconnect they're demonstrating from the broader public? Like, had that movement caught on, that could have been the kind of thing to kick off real civil unrest if enough states had gone and kicked Trump off the ballot. We had our own AG in Arizona talking about doing it before that ruling came down. So –

Do they understand or are they just so bubbled in this bureaucratic universe that they don't see the other side of it at all?

Well, I think you're asking a rhetorical question. That was a striking thing. And you see that in a number of states where, yes, state Supreme Court, there's a lot of folks who attend and do very well at the in-state flagship law school, while others go to the so-called national schools. And there is a difference in culture and in

you know, an understanding of the facts on the ground. Even if you grew up in the state and came back to it after college and law school, it's different than having spent your entire life there. Now, you don't want to make too much of that particular case. And, you know, you have California and Illinois decide...

The bluest of states decided not to try to kick Trump off the ballot. And then ultimately, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously said that Colorado and the the main secretary of state couldn't couldn't do that, that it was up to Congress if they wanted to to figure that out. But, yeah, you're you're you're striking on an issue of.

And the fact that our elites across the country are increasingly educated at a smaller number of schools, and it gives for a limited worldview. We have about two minutes left here. What is your view on the hypocrisy of the pro-Palestinian activists?

Yeah, I've been writing about this for City Journal, which is the Manhattan Institute's in-house publication. I've been reading it for over two decades, even before long before I joined MI. And it's true. The so-called pro-Palestine advocates aren't consistent in their supposed advocacy for free speech and open debate, what have you. They're also not consistent in actually defending Palestinians. You know, we've seen just in the last 24 hours,

Hamas after the ceasefire is going around and torturing and killing people that they saw as too sympathetic or dealing with the IDF or what have you. This is an example of the illiberalism I talk about

uh... in my book that is all of this is not uh... uh... the decades-old conservative complaint about hippies taking over the faculty lounge in fact those hippies that the berkeley free speech movement of the sixties would now be considered retrograde and white supremacist and and what have you uh... and uh... the the the the probe the so-called pro-palestinian really anti-israel anti-semitic uh... movements

want to benefit from classical liberal values on their campuses while working to get rid of them. We have just a minute left, and folks, you can get Lawless, the Miseducation of America's Elites on Amazon, anywhere else you'd like to get your books. But if you go on X right now to the Breaking Battleground site, you DM us. The first 10 people that DM us will get a free copy of that book sent to them. Ilya Shapiro, last word before we go.

Is there hope to turn this around? Is there a real drive going to come from the Trump administration to turn this around? And we're only giving you 30 seconds. Yeah, I'm putting you on the spot. I mean, we're seeing this week a slew of executive orders that are just excellent. They're very well-lawyered. I mean, that's the opening salvo. This is not the beginning of the end. It might be the end of the beginning, as Winston Churchill said. They have to be enforced. We have to keep our foot on the gas.

Society-wide, I'm cautiously optimistic. In terms of higher education, I don't know. We're in the eye of the storm, and there need to be external pressures and all sorts of exogenous shocks, as economists would say, from trustees, donors, employers, legislators, attorney generals, and all the rest of it. Thank you so much, Ilya Shapiro. Always love having you on the program. Thank you. Take care.

Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

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We're continuing on now with our next guest, Jimmy Patronas, serves the citizens of Florida as the state's chief financial officer, state fire marshal, and a member of the Florida cabinet. Chuck, this is a busy man we're talking to. And now he's taking his next step, running for Congress in Florida's first district. The primary is coming up on January 28th in the middle of a snowstorm in Florida. Miracles are miracles, aren't they? Jimmy Patronas, welcome to the program.

Thanks for having me.

It is not normal to drive around the panhandle of Florida and see snow on top of houses and buildings. And our beaches are so white. When you look at the beach, you can't tell what's the snow and what's the sand. So it's kind of crazy. Has it ever – I mean, you're a lifelong resident there. Has it ever snowed there that you remember? Yes. Okay. Yes, but not like this. Nothing, nothing ever like this. I've never –

built a snowman in northwest Florida. I built a snowman with my son and this snowman was every bit of five feet tall. So I know the ground isn't frozen so a lot of the snow is melting as it hits the ground but how much has fallen so far? Do you know?

So when you go, like I know New Orleans, I guess, got 10 and a half inches. I think Pensacola got about nine. As you got further to the east, the snowfall was less. So, I mean... It's still nine inches in Pensacola. Yeah, seriously. But the temperatures stayed cold. So, you know, the concern is you get to melt...

And then if you've got shade, then it turns into black ice. And I'm sorry, people in northwest Florida don't know how to drive on black ice. So this is why a lot of the roads have been closed. And really, today's been the first day of normalcy since all this has hit. Well, I hope everybody out there stays safe. So you're running for Congress. You have an election on Tuesday. You are a partner in a family-owned restaurant that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017. How has that experience changed?

governing philosophy as an elected official? How will it govern your philosophy in Congress when you look at legislation? Sure. So, look, I was in the restaurant business once for 30 years of my life, and all I know is taking care of the customer is how you make a living. And so I've always had that way in

public service. And so in the restaurant business, it's very competitive and people can go anywhere for that birthday or anniversary, that special occasion, but they picked your place to go. So, you know what, you want to go above and beyond to make sure they have that, that just, you know,

experience that makes it worthwhile and you get a repeat customer of it. It's hard to do that in government. I've always told my employees, if you don't take care of the customer, somebody else will because people can go to the place to eat.

But in Tallahassee, for the last 10 years where I've been working as the CFO of the state, I tell my employees in front of them all the time, "You're going to take care of the customer or I'm going to find somebody else that will." And so I call my coworkers on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, you name it. Whenever somebody calls Jimmy Petronas for a problem, I start working on it right then and there. I don't like to delay. I want to get the ball rolling. I want to get results.

And I want the government that serves the people of the state of Florida to be effective. There are customers, you know? So, I mean, this is what I've always conducted myself. And that culture doesn't happen overnight. You know, I tell people in government, it's not a sprint, it's a march. You have to have that discipline every single day to push those type of expectations.

And it's all kind of our management philosophy. We're with Jimmy Petronas. He is a CFO of Florida. He's now running for Congress. I'm at Gates' seat. The primary is Tuesday. So get out and vote and stop being lazy. I'm going to give you some round numbers. The population of New York is 20 million. The population of Florida is 23 million.

The New York state budget is $252 billion. Florida is $116 billion without a state income tax. And Florida is a much nicer state to live in by government services, better roads. So that goes to my question. Obviously, it's effective government. It's customer service. You have been the CFO. Why do you think it's governance? Why have you been able – and you're basically on the board of directors for the state of Florida as well. Why have you been able to govern better?

than a state that has $100 billion plus more to spend every year? Well, I think, one, there's a lot of pluses to it. Because we are just a sales tax-based economy, a story I love to tell people is I was in the villages last year, and I met with three different families from New Jersey, Buffalo,

Buffalo, New York, Chicago, and I asked all three families. And the restaurant business is always recruiting customers, so I always like to find out what makes the customer happy. So I'm asking, you know, why did you move to Florida? And I'm thinking to myself internally, their kids are here, their grandkids are here, they moved here for a job, they don't like the snow anymore. And all three families had the exact same response.

It's taxes. They wanted to keep more of their money. So you look at the bureaucracy that has been built in New York and all the different ways they effectively separate you from your money, it's hard to unwind that stuff. So I've got 300 sworn law enforcement that work for me, and I've probably got about eight or nine of them that are former NYPD. And so they, I mean, it's the best compliment you can give.

They're bringing their New York City retirement check every single month and spending it in the state of Florida. And they're working for me because they can retire early in New York and come down and we get them on the cheap and they still got plenty of tread on the tires. So, I mean, it's kind of crazy. They have created a monster up there.

that makes Florida a no-brainer to move to with your money because you get to keep more of it. Jimmy, we've got about two minutes left in this segment. I started following you on X some time ago in part because you're one of the leaders, quite frankly –

in the effort to ensure that homeowners insurance remains accessible and affordable for Floridians. That's become a big topic in the news. Is that something you think, if you're in Congress, you're going to be able to help inform your colleagues and help tackle some of the issues there on a national level?

Yeah, we've already got language drafted that currently Representative Laurel Lee has taken up. And I'm a big believer don't reinvent the wheel. Take

take the health savings account model where people can put pre-tax dollars in an account, interest bearing, and offset their health insurance expenses. We're going to do the exact same thing with your property insurance where you can put pre-tax dollars in an interest bearing account and then you can use that money to go replace your roof, replace your windows and doors to make them impact windows and doors.

We're trying to use existing systems that are in place, just changing out who the beneficiary is in order to drive down your insurance rates. In the case of the state of Florida, when you make those improvements, there's statutory discounts that must be afforded to the policyholder. So here we're leveraging federal tax code and Florida statutes, in this case, to help Floridians. Hopefully we can see that happen in more parts of the country. And see, Chuck, this is why I love these local and state government

experienced officials going to Washington because they have real solutions to problems like this. We're going to be coming back with more in just a moment from Jimmy Patronus. You can follow him on X at Jimmy Patronus or go to his website, joinjimmy.com. Obviously he has a big election coming up next week, Tuesday the 28th. Want to make sure folks are turning out for that and supporting that election and

I know it's cold. You still got to get your butt out of the door. It will warm up its floor. Yeah, exactly right. Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be back with more here in just a moment.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. Folks, I just got a new phone issued to me by Maricopa County in Arizona. And guess what? The scammers are already pounding it. They're already texting. You need to protect yourself in a world of digital insecurity. Choose 4FreedomMobile. That's the number 4FreedomMobile.com today. And get a phone that protects you and your privacy. It is massive.

utterly essential at this point that you take proactive steps to protect yourself and your digital future. Do that with 4freedommobile, 4freedommobile.com, and when you use code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get a 10% discount. We're continuing on now with Jimmy Petronas, CFO of Florida, and currently a candidate for Congress.

So, Jimmy, as chief financial officer, you're also the state fire marshal. First question, did they give you a hat when you get that role? Do you get like a fire hat? Actually, I get a hat. I get a gun. I get boots. So, I mean, we do – I tell people it's the best job in the state of Florida. The CFO, in addition, like I said, to having all our finances, being the state fire marshal –

We're the first boots on the ground after every disaster. We coordinate all urban search and rescue for the state. So whenever, you know, whether it be a hurricane or even the Surfside building collapse, you know, our teams were there moments after those events take place, and we're there until the place is stabilized and all the lives that can possibly be saved are saved. So, yeah.

It's a really cool gig. So that was my question, and you led into it. That gives you a unique experience with these natural disasters that we're having in the United States two or three times a year.

And with that lens and that experience you have, how will you approach that in Congress in providing disaster relief? So, I mean, look, right now the president is in North Carolina and he's going out to Los Angeles. And I'm sorry, I think the president and I are lockstep on this, is the states do a better job of knowing how to recover from the disasters than the federal government. And I think sometimes the federal government definitely has the ability to go and assist financially, but the

the FEMA of today is not sustainable. You know, it's just, it does not have the type of money to do what is planned for it. So, I mean, there's got to be some pivots. There's got to be some common sense brought to it. And again, those that are closer to the 70s

are going to be the ones making the decisions that are going to make the recovery the most easy on those that are being affected. The shots being called out in Washington, D.C. is really too distant from the disaster in order to give effective response back to our citizens.

Well, and while Ron DeSantis gets a lot of credit, you're one of the people working with him leading the disaster response in Florida, which I think everyone would recognize has been remarkably better in the last, you know, eight, six, eight years than it had been previously and better than every other state in the country right now.

One thing I wanted to touch on also is that Florida's finances, which you oversee, are also in better shape than just about any other state in the country right now. And how much are you going to be able to do to bring that sort of philosophy to Washington? Because

Man, the federal government's finances are a disaster. Well, we're in the best fiscal health in the state of Florida than we've ever been in the state's history. But like I said earlier, it's not a sprint to March. We've got to constantly work on it. But, you know, what you've seen, what the president's done with his executive orders, with disbanding all this DEI stuff, we've fought against that.

from our state legislature, because look, we did what we could control in Florida. I can't make the federal government change until we had some change in majorities in the numbers and also in the administration. And you had such a culture that we were focused on and obsessing with, you know,

the merits of whoever's not getting enough attention and not a focusing on the bottom line and maximum return on investments. So, you know, when, when BlackRock started, you know, focusing on, on their agenda, which was not focused on the investor agenda, we pulled $2 billion out of BlackRock. We made more money,

investing our own money than the woke fund managers. And now they're all changing their tune. Well, it's a different day in Washington, D.C. So hopefully we leverage the common sense that is starting to return to Washington and just put that dark chapter this last four years behind us, you know, and just don't disappoint the American public. They've trust us this past election cycle. Give us a chance to earn that trust and turn our country around. Jimmy, we have just one minute left. Last word from you. Why should voters participate

put your name down at that ballot and send you to Washington right now? You know, I tell people all the time, nobody will work harder for the citizens of Northwest Florida than I will. You know, my granddaddy told me a long time ago, lose an eye because you got a second one. Never lose your name because it's the only one you'll ever get.

Oh, I love that. I love hustle. I love working. I give out my email. You can email it, jimmy at joinjimmy.com. I ask people, if you don't hold your electives accountable, you get the government you deserve. And I tell them, I said, that includes me, too. So, I mean, I just really look forward to seeing this opportunity in history where we get to hit the reset button, we get to bring some pride back to our country, and, you know, really just try to look out leaving this place in a better place for our kids.

I love it. Jimmy Patronus, thank you so much, folks. You can follow him on X at Jimmy Patronus. Certainly would be a fantastic addition to the U.S. Congress right now. So get out there and vote on Tuesday, January 28th. Breaking Battlegrounds coming right back.

Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

digital security, and total freedom. And if you use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month for every month of service after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com to learn more.

At Overstock, we know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms, Overstock has everyday free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high-quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock, making dream homes come true.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds. We are honored to have with us Congressman Greg Stubbe from Sarasota. You can find him on Twitter at RepGregStubbe, S-T-E-U-B-E. Congressman, welcome to the show.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. You had a big win, which means what's also was a big win for American women this week where the stupid protection of women and girls in sports act passed the house and the bipartisan fashion. Can you tell our audience what exactly that bill accomplished? What is the next steps with the Senate to get that through and to President Trump for signature? Yeah.

Yeah, this is an issue I've worked on for years. I don't believe that biological men should be playing in women's and girls' sports, and it actually violates Title IX. Title IX was created in the 70s over 50 years ago to create women's sports so that women could play in their own athletic fields against each other. So it completely violates

what the Biden administration has been doing and did as it relates to women's sports. So what my bill does is prohibit biological men from competing in women's sports. And then people ask, well, how do you ensure that that happens? What's the stick in that bill? And the stick is they lose colleges and universities that get federal funding would lose their federal funding.

So there's a pretty good push in there that if people violate that, there's going to be consequences to that. The bill passed the House with every Republican voting for it. Two Democrats voted in favor of it and one voted present because they were too afraid to make a decision because they're in a tough district.

which shows you how crazy left the Democrats are because they're afraid of their far-left progressive trans part of their party. But it moved through the House with bipartisan support and now goes to the Senate. Obviously, the Senate is busy right now with confirmations, as they should be, hearings for confirmations, as they should be. All of those people need to be in President's

cabinet as soon as possible so they can start doing the things the American people have asked President Trump to do. As soon as that gets done, I anticipate that Senator Thune will schedule time for the bill to be considered. At the very least, the Senate will actually have the opportunity to vote on this. Chuck Schumer has blocked this bill for the last two years. We passed it last Congress, but obviously Schumer didn't bring it up for a vote.

So the good thing is every United States senator will have to vote on this piece of legislation. And those Democrats who are in swing states, I think, are going to have to think real hard about how they vote for this, because this is like if you look at the polling across party lines, this is like a 70 to 80 percent issue. Even Democratic moms, conservatives.

suburban moms, independent women don't think that there should be men in their daughter's locker rooms for volleyball games at their high schools. So this is a very common sense issue. It's sad that we even have to do a bill like this to say that men have no business in women's sports, but here we are because the left has driven us so far to the left. And at the very least, the Senate will have a vote on

Marsha Blackburn had said she's a co-sponsor of the bill in the Senate. She had said that she actually thinks that there will be enough Democrats that support it to get it over the line. So we'll have to see if it does. It'll be one of the very first bills that President Trump gets to sign. I can see it getting the same vote total as the Lake and Riley Act that was passed by both chambers and President Trump signed. So congratulations to you and thank you for being persistent on it.

You announced your appointment to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in this Congress. That is an awfully fancy term, but it's probably pretty important. What does that mean for your constituents in America that you're on that committee and what does it do?

Yeah, I'm honored to have an opportunity to serve. The Intelligence Committee has oversight of all of our intelligence agencies. Now, you think of the ones we all think of, CIA, FBI, NSA, but there's actually 18 different agencies that are involved in the intelligence collection.

of our country's national security and as we all know it was abused uh... historically for the last several years going back to the very first trumps race where the russia russia collusion hoax they were using the five the process to get warrants to spy on american citizens that is the type of thing that should never happen again that is the type of thing that never should have happened this committee has oversight on all of those functions of those different agencies so i'm excited there's

a handful of really strong uh... maga trump conservatives that are now on the committee and um... can can give it the oversight that it needs obviously when president trump get settling get some of these appointments through you still gotta get the f_b_i_ director

You still got to get DNI. You still got to get CIA director confirmed. Once that happens, I'm very hopeful that they will clean house over in those agencies of all those people that were involved in all this, all the higher echelon that have been there for a long time, that obviously have a political agenda instead of focusing on the safety and security of the American people. They're focused on their political agenda. So I'm very sure that

John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard and some of those others that will be ahead of some of these agencies will get rid of those people and we can start bringing the intelligence agencies back to what they should be protecting our country. We're with Greg Stubbe, congressman representing the Sarasota area and Florida. President Trump has unleashed various executive orders this week.

Which ones do you feel that he has signed so far will have the best impact on America right away? Right away would be all the immigration EOs that he did, shutting the border down, the Reveille in Mexico program and policy, ending catch and release. And that has immediate impact.

for our country as it relates to shutting down the invasion at our southern border and deporting all these individuals. I mean, we've got terrorists in our country. We have murderers in our country. We have rapists in our country that Joe Biden and the Democrats let in. 12 million individuals that broke our country's laws to get into our country. And so he's focused on getting the criminals out of our country and back to where they came from. So that, I think, will have the most positive impact

think about getting those rapists and murderers and terrorists out of our country, the gang members out of our country, how that'll help the safety and security, especially in the bigger cities in our nation. I also am very happy to see that the executive order he did on

There is only two genders. I know this is common sense, but there are only two genders. So getting all of this transgendered wokeism out of our government, the EOs he did on DEI, where we're going to go back. It was it was very memorable in his speech in his inaugural speech where he said, we're going to bring America back to a merit value.

based society and government and we're not going to determine people's promotions based on their skin color. It's exactly the type of things that Martin Luther King talked about. Judge me not by the color of my skin but the content of my character and let's return to a merit based system and our federal bureaucracies and government. So there's a lot of things that he has done very early on that is going to recalibrate and resituate our country.

Could you imagine if you and I had sat down 20 years ago that we were actually having to pass legislation defining there's only two genders?

Yeah, and I say that all the time. Even 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago, when I first started this fight for women's sports, the Democrats would say, oh, this doesn't happen. You're making up these examples, even though there was a ton of examples already happening across the country. And, you know, they call you transphobic, and they call you you're discriminating against young trans boys, whatever that means. If you go to my floor speech,

There's actually, the left actually says there are 74 different genders. One of them is like astral gender. It is a gender close to space. So they can define what that is, but they can't define what a woman is. That's how far we've fallen. And if you would have said that even five years ago, if you would have said, if you stood on a podium on the house floor and said, there's 74 different genders that you get to decide that you are, people would have thought you're nuts. And now it's common speak.

But the American people have rejected it. I believe that's one of the many reasons why Trump overwhelmingly won the swing states, because the majority of America is center right. And they think that type of thing is ridiculous. With your constituent service in your Florida office, have you had many people tell you that you're wrong on this issue? I mean, have people just said no? Yeah, I mean, that's that's the word thing about it.

One of the Trump executive orders was declinating the cartels and gangs as terrorist groups. Can you explain to our audience what that means and how to now that that is part of the executive order? What implementation do we do policy wise and what does that mean for our battle against the drug trade?

Yeah, so you've got now that designation. So obviously your intelligence agencies are going to be involved in gathering intelligence on those individuals because they're now a designated terrorist operation, which is something that we've asked Joe Biden to do for the last four years. But of course, he refused to do it because the cartels are the one trafficking all of these people into the southern border. It also allows him to use the military to decriminalize

disrupt and to go after these individuals. It allows border security a lot more avenues and resources to go after all these individuals. It's a very important designation that allows the president a lot of broad flexibility with the different federal agencies to stop them in our country and to go after them in other countries.

Congressman Stubbe, so we have basically a grid problem in the United States. I know this probably isn't your wheelhouse, but the North American Electric Reliability Corporation said the United States looks to lose 60 Hoover dams worth of power generation in the coming years thanks to power plant closures.

Now we've got AI. We're going to do – how do we reverse this now? So not only can we not have that loss of power, but we also have all these great AI opportunities, and AI needs power.

Yeah, I mean, these are all very important things that, again, Trump is bringing energy dominance back to the United States. He's doing away with regulations as it relates to the power grid and all the different things that are important as it relates to this. I read yesterday that he...

There was two oil refineries that have been through the permitting process, been going through the permitting process for 10 years. I could see him giving them their permit, doing away with the deregulation. That is also a very susceptible area that we have in our power grid from Chinese hacking and Chinese influence. Those are the type of things that have to be protected, and there should be a lot more focus on the grid and infrastructure. Because just think about if you're one of our enemies and you take out

let's say you take out our power grid and our communications, how the majority of Americans would not be stable if they're not able to communicate with anybody and they don't have any power. Think how quick things would unravel in our country. So those are things that the president will be very focused on, and he'll be very focused on getting us back to being energy dominant so that we're drilling, we're capturing all of the resources that we have in America, and we're

and not afraid. We're not going to deregulate them in a way that they're not able to get up and running. We're with Congressman Greg Stube. He represents Florida's 17th District. You can follow him at Twitter at RepGreg, S-T-E-U-B-E. What are the two things you hope Congress accomplishes and puts into law with President Trump's signature the next 100 days? What are the two big things you think need to be done? The biggest thing

that I think should be done very quickly is balancing our budget, cutting spending and passing the tax package. President Trump 10 or five years ago passed the tax cuts and jobs act that expires at the end of this year. If we do not just reauthorize that, if you were a small business and you do a one 99 a deduction, your taxes are going to go up by 22%. Think

Think about the impact that's going to have on every small business in America, the impact that's going to have on our economy, and the impact that's going to have on workers. Because small businesses are going to have to make a tough decision as to whether they cut people, they let people off. A 22% increase in taxes is a considerable amount to their bottom line. So I believe we've got to balance the budget, we've got to cut spending, and we've got to pass Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Fantastic. Last question before we let you go and get back to work. President Trump signed an executive order that all federal agencies close their DEI offices by Wednesday. How much yakking and yapping are you hearing about this in D.C.?

Well, you only see it on the mainstream media where they're complaining about this. And that's the great thing that the president has the authority. Congress appropriates the dollars, but he doesn't have to spend them. And he has the ability through the different agencies to do away with entire agencies if he wants to, and then reroute that money to another purpose. So I'm very pleased. He's doing things that Congress for years hasn't.

has been unwilling to do, even with the majority in the House. Getting rid of DEI, getting us out of the WHO. I've had a bill on that for years, and even my own Republican colleagues will vote against me. So you are seeing him not giving money to foreign entities. All of these things that are widely supported in America that he is doing, and what's happening is he's going to be bringing the entire Republican conference in the House and the Senate to his position on this because he's such a strong leader on these issues.

Congressman Stubbe, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time and hope to have you on again soon with us. Yeah, anytime. Thank you. This is Breaking Battlegrounds. You can follow us at BreakingBattlegrounds.vote. If you're listening to the podcast, stay over for the bonus section with Kylie's Corner, and we talk about other policies happening in the world today. This is Breaking Battlegrounds. Have a great weekend.

Thank you.

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I say this every election cycle, and I'll say it again. The 2024 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2025. If you're running for office, the first thing on your to-do list should be securing your name on the web.

With a yourname.vote domain from godaddy.com, you'll stand out and make your mark. Don't wait. Get yours today. Welcome to the podcast portion of Breaking Battlegrounds with yours, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. And, of course, as always, Kylie's Corner coming up. You did a great job on the guest this week. Yeah, fantastic guest. Powerful show. Powerful. I actually doubt there was a better talk radio show this week on guest. No, I love all of them. Unless they had Donald Trump. Yeah.

Well, always Trump. Trump, always Trump. We have. Trump doesn't have Kylie's corner. No, he doesn't have Kylie's corner. He also let's be honest. He doesn't have Ilya. None of them had Ilya Shapiro, Congressman Stuby and next congressman. Yeah. And Jimmy Patronus, who I have followed for a long time. He's actually done really good work in Florida, too.

It's a great lineup. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We're ready for Kylie's Corner. Kylie's Corner. Let's go. Now we have that on tape, Chuck. Now we have that. So this one's really sad. This occurred on Friday in Cedar City, Utah. There was two 17-year-old girls. One of them just got a new red. So people should know Cedar City is about 40 minutes north of St. George, Utah, which is the border of Arizona and Nevada.

in Nevada. Yes, I did look at it because I wasn't sure if it was close to... It's home of Southern Utah University, which is a quite big university. Is St. George nice? Yes. It's highly overrated in the winter because it's about 20 degrees cooler than here. So people go down there to get away from the cold. Right. But it's cold. Okay. It's just not snowing. Right. It's not snowing like Florida. Exactly.

So these two girls, they were driving around in a new red pickup truck. And her mom said they were just being teenage girls strolling through the valley. Well, while they were out, they ended up in a townhouse complex where there was four 23-year-old guys who were strung out on drugs. And they had convinced themselves that this red pickup truck had been stalking them.

And so based on reports, the girls didn't realize that they had bothered anybody and didn't notice a car following them for a few miles until they started flashing their brights and it started freaking the girls out. So they started, you know, they were chasing them six miles north to a secluded area.

And then once they got them to this area, the car drove up next to them and fired 17 times into the driver's seat and actually shot the driver, Kaylee. And she drove off the road into a fence. But her friend that was in the car survived and called 911 and was able to describe the car. And they were able to arrest the guys the next day because this happened on Friday. So they're arrested on Saturday. And they basically admitted to everything. And.

And the shooter actually wrote the family a letter admitting to why they did it. They thought it was like someone stalking them. And they ended up finding, when they searched their house, magic mushroom vapes and marijuana and other drug paraphernalia. I take back. We were talking earlier because it's Utah that they would get the death. They won't get the death penalty. They've already admitted it. They'll get life in prison or something. They won't do that.

Yeah, they arrested all four guys that were involved, even though two of them went in the car because one of them supplied the gun and the other knew what they were doing. They all supposedly came up with this plan together. A pawn shop worker made this comment, though, and it kind of made me laugh. But he goes, Matthew, which was one of the guys, bought three or four guns from the shop. Super strange kid, really skinny. I mean, like deathly skinny. I literally would say I don't know how he even handles a firearm. No weight to him. Always pass the background check, though.

Yeah. You know what? We have to start allowing – some of these gun shop owners have to start using some common sense and say, you know, I'm not going to sell you that gun. Matter of fact, we probably should give gun shop owners the right to decline service. They have it. Do they have it? Yeah, sure. I mean you can – it's a business. You can decline service to anybody. You're not – it's not – Would the NRI be all over that like –

White on rice? They probably would be, but at the same time, like, I do know I have a couple of friends who have federal firearm licenses who don't have storefront businesses. You know, they operate online or whatever. And they only deal with people they know or who are law enforcement or are referred. Like, it's a very carefully kept network. I know there are guys out there like that. Well, someone else said that he worked at this child insurance

like little young boys who were had trouble in their life and he worked trouble teens he worked there and he would tell them explicit stories about his sex life and so he was fired for that

Yeah. This is a tragedy for that young woman. I mean, two young girls just turning up the music loud and got a new car and just driving and enjoying it. I remember doing that. Four people on drugs out of their mind. Anyone who tells children about their sex life is not someone you trust with a firearm or any other dangerous object. Like, I don't even want them behind the wheel of a car. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, that should probably be reported to someone. All right. Well, that's a horrible story. I doubt they will face a death penalty if they've all admitted it, though.

Right away. That's generally the way it goes, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, look. They're not putting up a fight. No. If they're just going to take the conviction for murder one or whatever, they're not – that's a pretty easy decision on the court's part and the prosecutor just to take the life sentence. That's a great transition to my next story. Someone who's not taking responsibility. Not at all. Brian Koberger. Not at all. Taking no responsibility. Taking nothing. So his –

pre-trials going on. Kylie's basically the national expert on this trial. I know. I really do want you to go up there for the trial. It's actually making me kind of nervous at this point. So the pre-trial's going on right now and

So yesterday... So it's still... It's going on today as well. It hasn't finished. But yesterday, the pretrials based around he and his lawyer are trying to have all of the evidence collected by police thrown out because of the legality of the search warrants. So they brought that up. They also brought up the fact that there was a glove that was also found there that had blood on it that was unidentified male blood. There's also DNA that was found on...

the handrail inside the house, which that's unidentified, but they had so many parties that I don't know how they... Right, that doesn't seem like that would be that significant. His lawyer actually said, what does a knife sheath mean at the scene? And the lawyer said, well, or the judge said, well, actually a lot if...

They were killed with a knife. So the lawyer is trying to get the sheath thrown out as well. But this they're also bringing in the evidence of the past. A few weeks ago, I talked about how there was another investigation, another break in that he was being investigated for. Right. So the weird thing is, is right when this occurred, he was investigated right away. It was it was ruled not him. And then they open it back up a few weeks ago. Again, ruled not him. So now they're using that evidence as there's someone else in the area that has been doing this. That's not Brian Koberger.

And the reason that it was thrown out so many times for this other case was because right away when the girl had called the cops, she explained as the guy being 5'3 to 5'5 and he's six foot. And so... That's a pretty big discrepancy. Yes. But the weird thing is, why was he investigated for that? So...

How did his name get called into that one and this one? So what's making me nervous is if there's another person, because right when he was arrested, he said, have you arrested anyone else? Those were like one of his first words that he said when he was arrested. So it's almost like, is there someone else in there playing this game? Because he was studying...

this whole thing and if he if he's studying this kind of field he knows what evidence to plant to play the game so could this guy have an accomplice yes exactly yeah you discussed that when you first started talking about the story that there's a possibility of accomplice and i believe that i don't think four people dead and like yeah i don't think this is one person now was that your original speculation yes yeah yeah because you're the only one i've heard say that and it actually kind of makes some sense with everything well now this is like really weird yeah

Because now I kind of think he's playing a game. He's like trying to do this because I just don't understand how his name would get brought up in another case and then dropped. This is this is like you sort of wish you were living in the West in the 1860s. And there's he's in the jail and there's a good old fashioned town lynching of him. So so that's actually seriously. I'm serious. I mean, because right now this was the case. So there was a study. I think it was out of Princeton a long time ago, like the 1980s. But it turns out the Wild West had almost no crime.

For all the stories of crime in the Wild West, the entire population that settled the West...

came from the Civil War. Right. They were all veterans of the Civil War. Looking for a new start. Looking for a new start. So they were mostly people who were desperate to live peaceable lives. But they were also not the kind of people you would rob because they, boy, absolutely would shoot you. They all knew how to shoot. They all knew how to fight. They were all tough as nails. And so other than saloon shootings, because...

you know, guns and whiskey aren't a great mix. Never have been. Never have been. Never will be. Other than saloon shootings, there was literally almost zero crime anywhere in the Old West because of what you just said, because you'd get lynched for trying anything. Yeah. Yeah. This this something's off, though. Yeah. I literally do not believe this guy has any semblance of innocence. No, no, no. I think he's guilty. And I think this is a game for him. But I do think that there's some I think he there's they're going to

There's a possibility they could create enough reasonable doubt. 100%. Yeah. I mean, there's always – I don't think he gets off. I could see a hung jury. Something else was the – It's the old line. It's the old line for a modern family where Frank, who's Phil Dunphy's dad, they had a hung jury because he's the only guy they held out against, a guy for a triple homicide. He goes, sometimes you just fill it in your gut. Right, right.

But something else they pointed out was the police timeline of the direction of where he lived compared to the house when his phone was turned off is seven minutes off as well. So they're saying that they're creating fake narratives. Oh, sure. I mean, yeah. They had to arrest him. I think it's called gaslighting, basically. That's the newest term for it, probably. You know, the other part to it, obviously, the two things you always –

Is there an officer that's involved in some way? I mean, we dealt with that with the what's-her-name case back in Massachusetts where it seems like – I can't wait for that to go on again. Yeah, me neither. So could his accomplice be with – Yeah, because this was a guy who had ties to the police right beforehand. Right, right. I'm throwing out wild speculation, I know, but I mean I'm just saying. I'm here for a conspiracy theory, Dan. Yeah, hey.

Well, interesting as usual, the world always gives you ample material for your segment. It's why I always feel like law and order. You can never go out of business with law and order. And now when something happens like this, I'm like...

All right. Is this a two or three parter on Law & Order? Right? I mean, because you just like... Continued. I read years ago on Law & Order, you know, they come up, this is not, they have some term. This is not based on like... Lawyers made them do that because crime criminals were suing them because you can't take my story and claim it, right? So it was interesting. We have three clips today that we're going to base on our group conversation. Jeremy, why don't you start with clip one, please?

If you have recently received a letter stating your account or accounts are being closed, the reason for this is that Bank of America made a business decision to close the account and or we have determined you're operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America. It is a Bank of America policy that we do not provide any additional information regarding our decision to close an account and the decision to close the account will not be reconsidered.

So first of all, Congress should pass a law. This should be bipartisan, that if your bank account gets closed, you have a hearing and there's a reason why. Specifics, right? Right. So we've discussed this before. This happened to my business five, six years ago. We did about $25 million a year at Wells Fargo. Got the same response. We tried for weeks. We got attorneys. They would not give the reason.

And this is something if Trump wants to keep this populist narrative, he'll do it. But debanking of political opponents is real. Even our friend of the show, Attorney General Knutson in Montana in May is demanding answers from Wells Fargo for debanking practices. And this happened to Eastman who is a – he was known as a very prestigious attorney. Then he got involved in the 2020 stuff and it's sort of taken a luster off his shine with some people. But –

Bank of America purely did that for political reasons. There's no other reason for it. Well, so Chase, who was my personal bank, refused to take my –

campaign account when I ran for city council. And they're not even doing political action committees anymore. Right. I wonder if they're doing Democrats, but I know we just don't even do it anymore. So your best bet is going to a credit union or a local bank where you know the board. And actually, that kind of brings up a point. It was interesting. So I think one of the people on the left was complaining about the credit system, right? Right.

And it used to be, like when I grew up, and you would remember this, Chuck, I'm sure some of our listeners out there do, like to get credit, you really had to have a relationship with your local bank, right? Like it wasn't really about your credit score. It was about did you have a little auto loan with them, and then you could get a home loan or whatever. The destruction of the local banking system and its being gobbled up by these mega banks is a real problem. And, I mean, credit union is one answer, but –

The other answer, frankly, is the universe and the regulatory environment for small banks needs to be fixed to allow small local community banks. Well, Sam, it wasn't that long ago.

When you and I were in college that you'd go and have some prominent local business people open a local bank. Right. That served the local community's needs. And those banks need to come back in vogue. Yeah. Very simple as that. Let's talk a little bit insider trading. So I found this interesting clip with Jon Stewart and AOC. And, you know, look, AOC drives me nuts. But about 10% of the time she says things that are just, yeah, you're right. You know, exclamation point. Jeremy, play clip two, please.

There need to be Democrats who walk the walk and talk the talk. There is an insane amount of hypocrisy. And the hypocrisy is what gets exploited to use the cynicism. And wherever there's a hypocritical window, for example, I think one of the most biggest examples of this is insider trading in Congress. Like...

I don't know if I like do I give snaps do I I don't know what the kids do anymore but like dude yes it is like that's so crazy it's so crazy it's crazy I mean like that's the and this is the thing it's like

People think that everyday people are stupid. I'm like, do you all really think that people don't see this shit? They sit on a committee. They get information about a drug or a contract or a thing. They immediately make a call. The stockbroker changes things and their portfolio swells. Explodes. It explodes. What are we doing? And you're doing this online.

public trust right on on like taxpayer finance public you know uh facilities like it of course you're regulating the market that you're trading on exactly and you run the casino and then we're supposed to act like money doesn't only corrupts republicans give me a fucking break

Well, first of all, I love to be called her dude because sometimes I catch myself calling you dude. And it's like, that's not very gender appropriate. But Jon Stewart does it, so I'm doing it.

Well, also, let me – two things on that front. I mean, first, obviously, this is a problem on both sides. Right. Right? So the only thing that beat Inverse Kramer as a ETF this year was the Pelosi Tracker ETF. Oh, my gosh. My son just loves falling in stock trades. Right. And two, for Jon Stewart, let me answer this question. If you're a straight male and you're snapping, you just need to stop. No. No. No. No. You go, girl. Yeah.

No, it's a real problem. And I don't understand – again, these are the type of things Trump can push and be a leader on and get Thune – I think Thune would be the one to be really receptive to it. Just say, look, we're just going to stop this. People are going to know we're trying to clean it up. And it's simple steps like this.

That will literally bring back more trust in government. I mean I could literally see Congress – if they pass this and it got the play it should, I could see their approval rating going up 5%, 7%. Easily. Yeah. I mean I just – like all right, let's do this. Look, there is no good justification for someone with that type of access –

To be able to trade their own stocks while they're walking the halls of Congress. But it's so obvious. Why not just go after the obvious people? Well, there's probably about a third that do it, I've seen. Right. About a third do it. They just need to just say, no, you can't do it. If you want to go in Congress – And it's not technically illegal. It's like political.

Oh, it's not? No, it's not illegal. Yeah, it's not. It's not. That's the problem. I would be doing it all day long. Insider trading for private life. That's why you do not have my vote. But at least Pelosi will have, I mean, she'll have a job after. She's the best trader. Did you know your favorite former client, Deluzio, moved to North Carolina? No. Yeah, moved like right before Christmas.

I had no idea. Yeah, you got to get on the ball. I do. All right, we have one more clip here. This is about ICE picking up people who are here in our country illegally and have criminal records. They've arrested over 500 some of these people the first week, right? Go ahead, Jeremy.

I'm not going back to Haiti. One of those threats is this illegal alien from Haiti. Ice says he's a gang member with 17 criminal convictions in recent years. You feel me? Yo, Biden forever, bro. Thank Obama for everything that he did for me, bro.

ICE Boston quickly takes down its next targets, including this illegal alien from Brazil who has an Interpol red notice for armed robbery. This Salvadoran illegal alien charged locally with rape and released by a sanctuary jurisdiction. And this Dominican illegal alien charged with assault with a deadly weapon and heroin trafficking.

Officers also arrested this Guatemalan MS-13 gang member facing gun charges. ICE says he was released from local custody just the day before. Their detainer request was ignored because of sanctuary policies. And in a sign of shifting priorities with the new Trump administration, this man, who was in the same apartment as the target, was also arrested after ICE determined he's also in the U.S. illegally. This is what ICE calls collateral.

So first of all, I just want our audience to know, for the second one they talked about, an Interpol Red Notice is a request of law enforcement agencies from around the world. Right. It's not even local. Right.

around the world to locate and temporarily arrest a person wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence. It's basically international arrest warrant. Yes. And this is what the sanctuary city mayors want to protect. Make no mistake about it, folks. People like Michelle Wu, the Boston mayor, this is who she wants to protect. People like Kate Gallego here in Phoenix. Kate Gallego. This is who they want to protect. Gavin Newsom. You heard it right there. A rapist...

who was released because he was in a sanctuary city and they didn't want him to be deported. A rapist. This is who Kate Gallego, you better answer for this. All of these mayors better answer for this. You know what would be good legislation is for Congress to pass if one of these sanctuary folks are in their, predicted by sanctuary,

and have a criminal record that the victims can sue them in federal court for damages, the local officials. I love it. I love it. I was talking yesterday with a – and I won't give his name because I get a lot of information from him, but one of our local police officer contacts here in Phoenix, and he had been talking to some of his friends in the Border Patrol in Yuma sector, and they were saying that the last 48 hours there has been a line of –

Deaked out pickup trucks with dudes that are face-tatted, neck-tatted, driving back into Mexico full of their possessions in the back of their trucks. Oh, I'm sure. The cartel members are getting out of Dodge. I'm sure. Well, one other thing I want to talk about is I'm here about Trump putting the Houthis back on the terrorist watch list, which Biden took them off. Right. Right.

It's unbelievable. Biden took them off but kept them off while they were trying to sink international shipping. Right. And the government in Yemen says they need to be on. Yeah. We had talked about it. And Tim Mooney, our friend, sometimes comes with a great line. And he said, you know, Trump's not the only one that dodged a bullet. Right.

Yes.

I know this isn't on our topic, but I know this is an area of interest to you. There was a piece this morning I was reading coming out of Ukraine about a modified Leopard tank, which yesterday survived four or five drones – attacked by four or five explosive drones at a time, which all the other tanks have been going down. We don't have the advanced Abrams there, which does have the theater defense systems on it. Right.

China has been talking about for years, you know, how do you take out American carriers? We better get our act together on drone technology and counter drone technology really quick. And I have faith that this administration will do it. Matter of fact, I heard an interesting stat this morning. Who's the general on Fox News? He's three star and he looks like a general. I know who you mean. I'm blanking it too. Anyway, he said last year, Ukraine in the middle of a war.

Manufactured 1.2 million drones. Yep. In Ukraine. Right. Their goal is 5 million this year. Right. That is an incredible number. It's an incredible number. But then think back to the display that Beijing put on. I know. You know, over the holidays with tens and tens of thousands of drones in the sky at once.

The problem with that is that was, which most people don't realize, an unbelievably scary display of military power. Because if you swarm those at one of our aircraft carrier groups, there's nothing left on the sea. No, no. It's interesting times. Well, folks, I'm Kylie again. Thank you for the guests today. We appreciate everybody. Again, folks, go to our social media for the book. First 10 people to comment or DM Kylie. We'll get a book mailed to you from the lovely Carissa Swenson out of Utah.

You can always follow us at BreakingBattlegrounds.vote, our social media, or wherever you get your podcasts. On behalf of Sam, Jeremy, Kylie, and myself, have a great weekend.