From GOP Convention Chaos to Global Conflict: The Week in Carolina Conservative Politics

Peter Pappas: Well everybody, good evening and welcome to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host Peter Pappas in studio with Mrs. Laura Mussler Hello, hello. Braving the sickness to be with me tonight. I appreciate you. here at the cabinet we know we are the smartest hour of radio. Our job is to give a voice to the conservatives of Fayetteville, Cumberland County and beyond. And with that, ⁓ have ⁓ lot to do. So ⁓ of the ⁓ most powerful politicians in our state, Senate leader Phil Berger, ⁓ I think he just lost his own primary and a razor thin upset so far today. I think they're 12 votes apart. it's pretty amazing. Yeah. 23. Currently it's 23. You 23. Okay. So, but then overseas we got the war with Iran escalating. I don't know you want to call it a war yet, but the US and Israeli strikes. conflict. I like this. The US and Israelis have decapitated the Iranian regime's leadership. Iran is retaliating and American troops have been killed and so far. oil's going nuts a little bit. So we got a lot to unpack tonight. So, but as usual, what have we been up to last week? Oh, let's see. Tuesday night we canceled our FRWC meeting because we wanted to, we were going to have a watch party, but I have no brains. So, um, have plenty, just weren't using them at that moment. Our meeting starts at six, the polls close at seven 30. What are we going to have results for? So we're not. So I postponed it till this week. So now we're going to have a enjoyable potluck here at the Resource Center and just celebrate the wins of our incumbents, Diane Wheatley, who is one of our members, and just play some games. We have a silent auction, a little bit of fundraising. Just have some fun and just relax after all of the hard work that we've done with not only the election, but we also just had our GOP county convention. Cumberland County GOP convention. Sounds like fun. Maybe not. I don't know. I was there. You were there. So we had a GOP ex executive committee meeting on Thursday night for those of you that are uninitiated. Anybody that participates with the GOP and you are what's called a precinct chair has a vote. You are an executive committee member. Along with. So go ahead. ⁓ Prior elected officials. OK. Current elected officials. If each auxiliary club. ⁓ the women's club, men's club, teens club, the, they all have a spot on the, at their ex officio members. basically if you've done that, you're, you have a vote on the executive committee. So, and I just, I always like to talk about the executive committee is the whole body. whole entire body. Well, no, actually the whole entire body is all of Republicans inside the county. The executive committee represents the entire body in a room. And then we have the board that does this day-to-day operation. board is just your, essentially your president and vice president, your chair, your vice chair, second vice, all those... Treasurer. Positioners or whatever, secretary, treasurer, all that good stuff. So we had that meeting Thursday night because we had to vote for somebody to actually check the door on Saturday morning to be a credentials chair. So if you went to the convention, you paid your $10, you had to your photo ID because we're big on that. They had to make sure you are actually a registered Republican to enter that room. Not just a registered Republican. You had to be registered by, I think it was January 31st. It's definitely a lead up to that. ⁓ but what's important about those conventions and people don't understand if you attend your local convention, then you're kind of in the zone. Once you attend, then you can be a delegate to the state and then from there to the federal, right? Yeah. Like if the president has a, well, mean the national, go ahead, tell me about that. I'm going to give a. negative feedback here and it'll be seen as being hostile but as the first vice chair of the GOP I was not consulted whatsoever even though I asked several times to be to be included because I had some fantastic ideas for marketing but was never consulted because President Trump has said that he's going to have a convention this year well guess what which is odd for a midterm It is not very odd for midterms. Most people don't participate in it or we don't have a nationwide convention. But this year, Donald Trump said he's going to have a mid-year convention. Well, guess what, people? You have to attend your county convention to be considered to be what first you tend to your precinct, then you attend the county convention. Then if you don't attend your county convention, you can't go to your district convention. At your district convention is where the delegates are selected to go. to wherever it is that we have our national convention. National convention, it's kind of like, look, at the county, we're here in the elementary school, and I'll get to that in a minute. Then the middle school is your state, and the high school is your district, and then your master's program, your college degree is coming from the national convention, I think. Well, you skipped it, actually. I skip one? Yeah, it's county, then district, then state. Oh, So, but, and, but county, I mean, district is kind of a little through like one district. Okay, I go to them all. I'm not a big nerd, but I am a nerd, but you know, it's it's very frustrating to have not been included because I would have pushed that you cannot be a delegate for Cumber for if you don't attend so come out first of all attendance with dismal I think we had around it looked to me about 50 people it was just about that was I know we'll have to ask so I know that last year did we hit about 150 people last year 130 140 something like that Was it last year? believe so. That's what we the new board. So, yes. ⁓ For better or worse, we had a lot of attention brought to our local party. ⁓ And we, people were talking about it ahead of time in the lead up. There wasn't a silence from the GOP. Now I referenced the GOP convention being the elementary school because. Is it elementary or was it preschool? This should be like a TK1, the transitional to from kindergarten to first, I think, because ⁓ I don't know. who was organizing this convention? No comment. Well, doesn't look, I don't know. And I'm going to ask this question. I mean, why the hell was Wake County GOP selling stuff? Because the women's clubs were there, like our local women's clubs, and they're the ones that volunteer and do stuff for our candidates here. And they're trying to sell merchandise to raise money. And then who invited Wake County GOP? Why are we competing with another GOP for the 50 people bringing their wallets, maybe? ⁓ And then I'm just the first vice chair. don't know anything. I, I was told I am up here. Yeah, not me, but I'm here and me as the vice chair is down here and I'm beneath you and y'all tell you what you need to know. So I stopped participating. I'm not going to volunteer and go volunteer organization that needs to respect people's time and appreciate what they do. That doesn't sound like a very collegial atmosphere. Well, people wonder why I'm hostile, but let me ask you how you would feel if somebody that you volunteered for said, I'm up here, you're down here, I'll tell you what you need to know. Personally, they would be told to pound sand from. I love the Republican Party more than I dislike the person that mistreats me continually, but I'm the hostile one, supposedly. But I and all I keep saying is, let me help. Yeah. Let me help. Give me something to do every time that person has given me something to do. I've done it and I've done it well. And I've kept secrets and well, and the other thing is, you know, our county commissioners weren't allowed to speak. I there was a section on the agenda that says elected officials and I mean, they even let the candidates speak, not our actual. We only have two sitting Republican county commissioners right now out of what is it? Nine. Well, there's three in the. four more, there's seven total. Because there's two from district. and two. Yeah, five and yeah. So there's seven total. We have two seats on the commission. And the people that are most in touch with our pocketbooks as far as tax, property taxes and spending and the pending, like they just announced a revaluation schedule change, where our property taxes are going to be done on a six year cycle, instead of eight to lessen the sticker shock of how much our taxes they will go up. That would have been nice to know, why? ⁓ We don't need to know that from our elected officials, do we? I mean, I would like to know when we have a chance. You know, everybody complains that their electeds aren't accessible. then we bring them to see them. we don't want to hear from you. So no, we did want to hear from them. Well, they were whoever made that decision was myopic. And, you know, hopefully I wish they had maybe attended some other conventions. They would know how they should be laid out. There was also I heard about. Let me just say that our chair was elected. and that person has never been to a convention. So for that being said, it ran pretty smoothly. And overall, there were some bad decisions made, in my opinion, in my personal opinion. And I think in a lot of other people's decisions, there was some lack of decorum done by using elected officials' first names on stage. That's a little... What? Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, we're... Look. We're not foreign. Like we know everybody that is elected. In public, I refer to Senator McGinnis as Senator McGinnis. I don't be like, hey, Tom, what's up? That's little too colloquial. So but overall, the overarching and he did it. It was a smooth running operation. There was some decorum issues that were not appropriate, but he was he. I got you. You know. My hat is off to him for putting that together. Like I said, he didn't have proper leadership or guidance or whatever to know what decorum was. we have any violence? Did everybody go home with all their fingers and toes? Yes. I mean, that in itself is I I want to give him kudos because like I said, there were a few things that were not right decorum-wise or whatever. Overall, the overarching theme was positive. OK. Well. Hopefully next year is an election year for the board. So, ⁓ I think, I, we, took a lot of flack last year by making a lot of videos and stuff about the GOP board having failed us at that point. They failed us this year. far. And I'm part of the board. You're of the board. You're part of the problem, but I am, ⁓ you know, for better or worse, whether you agreed or disagreed with me. And, ⁓ I think back then it was, ⁓ pistol packing mama and Brielle Dredge. You we all. We all participated because we all had receipts to bring that the GOP had missing money back then and they were mismanaged. And as a candidate, I couldn't get a precinct. It was all kinds of crazy. ⁓ I don't know whether you liked it or not. Can I clarify something? Hold on just a second. There's been this thing stated that there was missing money. don't think that there was missing money. There's no like we were missing receipts. maybe all of the things weren't properly budgeted or spent correctly, but I don't know if there was like, oh my God, we're missing money. don't think that's a proper way to say that. Well, however you want to say it, wasn't where it belonged and it wasn't accounted for. So I don't know. I don't have any safe quarter for some of those people that did that misled our party. Because at end of the day, there's 50,000 of us, there's 150,000 Democrat and unaffiliated voters in Cumberland County. And when your party, even County Commissioner Henry Tyson got up in their last Thursday's meeting and he said, y'all need to knock it off. We got to get along. We got to, we have to get to the same place no matter what road we take. Right? You see, you're using my little speech. didn't expound on it. I'm just saying that you're right. They, they, talk about unity. They talk about unity. talk about unity. And then when you find a way. to communicate with somebody that I don't agree with or that they don't agree with or whatever, and you start having conversations and finding compromise. Go figure, compromise. When you start doing that, then you're seen as the villain again. And it's like, well, wait a minute. I'm the villain if I don't get along with these people. I'm the villain if I find a way to get along with these blips. What? How does that even work? I don't understand. Let me tell you something. It's unity if you see things my way and you're not allowed to differ from it. And you either come aboard my ship and you see it my way or we look, we either get to the goal together or you can be off the island. And one thing I'll remember, somebody told me a year ago, the lion doesn't care what the sheep say. If you're not participating, you haven't joined a board and commission. You haven't participated in a tangible, measurable way for our party. go kick rocks because the people that are here are trying to get to having this county and city at least turn purple and go red. And then I see emails like I got an email and somebody says, well, they are so tired of the inviting that people are quitting. Well, you know what? Be a quitter. That's good because it's certainly not going to change when the regular people or the people, if all the normal people. I'm not normal. I'm not saying that I am not even remotely, but if all the normal people and the people that think this way quit because they don't like the infighting, then it just goes to extreme infighting because there's no middle of the road people to keep everybody in check. if instead of quitting, find a way to be in the middle and say, Hey, let's, let's do this. Let's do this. How about we see it this way? How stop quitting? Yes, it is. ⁓ volunteer. but it also affects your every single day life because it's voting locally. It is absolutely. So, it's not being a quitter. All right. Well, we can always do better in our GOP local and hopefully we have a meeting coming the end of the month. Do we have another XCOM coming up? No, we have a board That's a board meeting. Okay. So the next XCOM, we have no idea when that's going to be. All right. Well, Senator Berger versus Sheriff Page. Some pretty hotly contested. We call it the GOP Civil War. Now this is a trend across the state where we had what you call establishment GOP. Berger's been in office since 2011. think he joined actually Tom Tillis was still in the state house. He is the longest serving Republican Senate president pro tem in 140 years. Wow. Okay. I did a little research that you didn't know. Oh no you did. So let's talk about what's I gonna say it so He currently and you found today that he's losing share of page is leading by a dozen votes. Twenty three. Twenty three. Twenty three votes right now. But they have overseas ballots. They're due Thursday. And then on Friday, the counties will certify their elections. depending on how many overseas ballots come in in the next day. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm not sure where people stand. So what was today? Today is the ninth Monday. Yeah. Monday all day. I'm sick, so I don't even know. you have three or four days. It's possible that 23 votes could come in. It's well, what if it was dead even? Well, they'd have to have a special election. Wow. Yeah. And then and now elections to tend to go towards the incumbent. They do. Well, Senator Berger spent a lot of money on this campaign. Yeah. He had a lot of it. Didn't he had a lot of it to get from the casinos and stuff. So, you know, we're seeing it everywhere. It's like. voters, they're not automatically rewarding the seniority anymore. It's like, no, you've been there long enough. But, you know, you have, like I said, the establishment versus the grassroots and the grassroots don't always get it right. Neither does the establishment. Neither do they. But sometimes it's you've heard from grassroots candidates even locally that, well, would you rather have a Democrat in the seat? Well, I'd rather know what you're going to do for the office and what you know about it instead of On that behalf, I will say you really don't know what you're going to do when you get an office because until you've served, you have no idea what you're doing. You have no idea what you're doing. You can have ideas and feel I feel strongly about this and I want to help get this passed. But unless you're doing the research to find out what's coming on the floor and how you would vote about this, hey, I want to be pro whatever. If that's not on the floor or it's not up for. Isn't really childish to. Want these jobs and really not even admitting what you don't Making the adult observation that you know, there's a lot I don't know and I have learning to do but this is what I'd like to accomplish I've not heard that from any no local candidate. Well, that's because we're not helping the local candidates to give them That's what we do here at the Republican candidate Resource Center Work on their message. Yeah and get them not to sound like because it's okay for a candidate to say I don't know what I'll exactly accomplish, but I feel strongly about these things and I know that this has been tabled and this has been tabled and this is how I would vote on those things. Or what's the opponent's voting record? Right. You know, or not just saying, well, they're Democrats, so they must have. No, not all of Democrats vote the way you'd expect and not all Republicans do either. the only thing that bothers, I don't say bothers me, but the one thing that I don't think the grassroots considers and maybe they don't care. is Senator Berger is the longest serving pro tem right? Yeah. So when you in that district just push him push an incumbent like that out, your standing in the state decreases. Now we will have another Republican. When say you're standing in the state explain that for people that don't understand that. When your senator or house member has been in office in consecutive terms they go up the food chain. They start in the back of the room. Yes. And as they get seniority, they move towards the front of the room. And the front of the room means more power, means more. It means more leadership positions on maybe better committees. Like, you know, I would rather be on the finance committee than I would the committee for hoof and mouth disease or something. I mean, you know, it's there. I wouldn't be surprised if there was probably. And I don't want to say agriculture is a good committee in North Carolina. It probably is a pretty powerful committee. But I don't know, maybe there's a committee on the use of patchouli or something. I'm like, yeah. But again, I want to be on the finance. I want to be on the, the, ⁓ armed services. Well, yeah. Well, national guard, we have our own army. Right. ⁓ Sort of. so, that's what, that's what that district will lose if Sam Page does take this election. Now, but maybe he's too powerful and they want to lose that big, huge seat. ⁓ do you think? I don't think that people think about the ramifications of it though. no, because to me it's a lot of sour grapes. It's like, well, we need to change. But he did vote on a lot of things that were not in. OK, so first of all, when they talk about our representatives or senators or whatever, they're not our leaders. They're our representatives. So you cannot because you get money from, say, a casino, go and vote to push forward with the casino. You have to talk to the people that you're representing. And if you're not going to represent those people, I can understand wanting to push him out. did it with the casino. He endorsed a Democratic judicial candidate in twenty twenty two. He is for or I'm not sure he's not with the people on the ⁓ shrimp trawling ban. don't know what that means, but ⁓ that was something about raw milk restrictions. I don't know what way he is for or against probably against it because see the I think the thing against raw milk would be the farmers and all would want to protect or not let raw milk into the. Yeah. I didn't get too deep into it. I'm just saying that the people wanted. got to ask Jessica about that one. Okay. Yeah. Cause she is big on the whole milk and whatever else. ⁓ is she surprised? I love how, how like down the earth she is about stuff like that. Like she's very, she's, she's very like hippie dippy, but she's not, she's very good, but she loves that stuff. I mean, yeah. If the people that you're representing are for those things or against those things or whatever and you're voting in opposition to what the people that you represent, then I can understand. I don't care how powerful you are, your power derives from the people. And if you're not representing the people, then the people are going to take that seat back and give it to somebody who will represent them. There's nothing wrong with that because so many people that are incumbents, ⁓ they're running against me for my seat. Such a seat. It's not your seat. Yeah, well, we saw that. ⁓ You know, so our ⁓ two time attendee, Caitlin Marsh, you know, she didn't do so hot, but as a first timer, you know, but that was the, the rumor around her opponents. Well, he's a well liked, well, okay. Well, who likes them and not being facetious, but okay, well, who likes them? And it's not a seat. Right. Everybody has the right to be primary. He's doing his job. He doesn't have anything to worry about. Now I think that some primaries go a little far with the vulgarities and the just ugliness and meanness or whatever. Here, you can run a good anti-incumbent campaign by saying, here's how this person voted, here's how I would have voted, this is why I'm running against them, not she did this or he did that or wah, wah, wah. What did I say? You're running for the office, not against the person. That's right. What is it you're going to do? And again, that's the value add. that I'm not hearing from a lot of local candidates. you get down below the federal offices, like the Congress and stuff, I'm not seeing a real value proposition with some of these folks. I don't know. No, but if you come by the Republican candidate, well, I would say the candidate resource center, because we would like conservative candidates, as long as you're not running against a Republican. Right. Well, I know. It depends if I like that Republican, then I'll help you. That's not true. Well, okay, I'll do a side business. I'll do the side side. can do the side business, as the vice chair of the GOP, will not help. You will not help. I know I'll be all on my own, all by myself. You will be all on your own. That's the great thing about a partnership is one partner can do what they want. So, all right. So end of the day, is this a good look for the grassroots? Yeah. What a Do you think it's that tight? You know what? It's about time that the grassroots gets a little respect because I've always said if the grassroots... came aboard and then the establishment started respecting the grassroots and started, because they have all these parts, this is what I tried to explain to other people. Like I was so impressed with President Trump about the Trump, what is it, Trump Force 47? And he was gonna have us all at the White House. We got absolutely nothing for that, by the way. I was the first one in Cumberland County. There was no invite to the White House. There was no special anything. That was a bold-faced lie and I'm still pissed off about that. If you started treating the grassroots people that do all the work, that volunteer like you do the people with money, and give them a little ball, use the people that have all that money, and give the people that are knocking the doors a black tie affair. How great would we be if we could partner together? I mean, maybe not a black tie affair. We might want some fried chicken and I wanna wear my jeans and cowboy boots. Right, exactly, I don't want no black tie. But start... But start treating the grassroots that does all the work like you do with the people with the money because it takes a while for the establishment to realize, you know, that the establishment needs the grassroots and if the grassroots continue to rise up, the establishment can take their money and they're going to be like, holy smokes, can we play with the grassroots please? Which is not a bad thing. Okay. So I think the, close this up here, I mean, is this a big like shakeup of the establishment in Raleigh if Berger does indeed end up losing his election. Do you think other candidates are maybe at risk next? Not, well, of course not in this midterm, but in two more years. grassroots become more successful, the grassroots become more successful. To me, it's like a rolling ball. Holy smokes. Maybe I do need to. Okay. But are the grassroots nothing more than the Tea Party 2.0? Like, cause the Tea Party came along. Don't say it like that. hold on. Nothing more than... Well, because we have these movements within the Republican Party. We had the Tea Party. Uh-huh. They quickly got vilified by the left as Nazis and fascists. All that stuff. Oh, we're all Nazis. were practicing, I think, with the Tea Party. And is the grassroots just the next iteration of that more conservative movement within the Republican Party? A little bit yes, a little bit no. I think it's a combination of people that are tired. Like I'm very, very annoyed. And if anybody knows, I would do anything to get, I think Trump, I have my faults with Trump, 100%, I'm not whatever, but I walked doors. I would go home at nighttime and I couldn't walk for a couple days because I had walked so much. Because I was promised something. to be treated like somebody with all of this big money. right. So. Well, you won't do that again. if you come through, if that happens to the Resource Center, we'll make sure we take care of our people. 100%. But I'm just saying I will not do that again for any candidate because they lied. And I'm really pissed off at Trump and his cabinet and everybody in it about that. And I even asked our state what's going on with that. mean, and whatever. Don't do it again. Well, if you're pissed off with Trump and his cabinet, you know, we do have this little thing called the Iranian conflict that we're getting into. ⁓ That's I'm not mad about that. I'm not. So people are calling it a war. I'm not quite ready to call it a war. It's a conflict right now. know, maybe you could call it a war because we've been technically death to America terrorism by proxy since 1979. OK, when the Ayatollah ⁓ overthrew the Shaw and which was the monarchy back then and took our embassy hostage for like 400, it was over a year, it 400 plus do anything about it. didn't do shit. Yeah. Now we have a president exactly doing something about it. Well, and I don't want to say that no Republican president ever had the gall that Trump does. I think what Trump was faced with was he had success in door dashing Maduro. He went and got him. He's got success with, like he sent out for me, he sent out for dessert. Well, he said, you know, come and get me coward. I'm in Mila Flores. And Trump's like, I got you bro. ⁓ But, so I think he had some success with that with well orchestrated. He'd let the military have the latitude to do what the hell the military does. Ignoring political ramifications. And I also think that Iran was becoming closer and closer to having a nuclear weapon. And if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, we can, by the way, death to America. What do you think they're going to do with a nuclear weapon? ⁓ they're not going to. They're just going to use it for show and tell. ⁓ is that what it Yeah. That death for America and blowing up things. They're just joking. Yeah, they're just kidding around. They're joshing. Yeah. Well, and I think in the midst of this. bombardment that we have unleashed all holy hell on these guys. ⁓ one of the people in their government tried, they got them to negotiate and the guy says, well, we still have a lot of plutonium or whatever it is. It's we're trying to negotiate, right? You know, and that's how they're negotiating. It's like, well, you know, we still have, okay, well, I hope you're hungry because we're about to give that to you rectally. so new developments. Well, seven US troops have already been killed. Did I see something about people? Somebody was okay. Somebody's always pissed at Trump, but did he wear a baseball hat or something? It was the USA white ⁓ white hat back. Yeah. He was in the back. Several people had hats on actually, but he didn't do something rude and crass like look at his watch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He at least remembered where he was. Well, he's well, again, Biden didn't know where the hell he was half the time anyway. Let's be honest. anyway, my left foot. So ⁓ I did see before we came on that the former leader son Mojtaba Khomeini is the new Supreme Leader. Mojtaba Khomeini. ⁓ So these guys, they're not understanding these signals we're laying down. mean, that's this guy is another continuation of the hard line. That's exactly right. mean, these are Persians. If anybody doesn't know, Iran. These people are terrorists. these people are terrorists. But this country was Persian, and they took their flag and they made it into a ⁓ terrorist, religious thing. But the Persian women are beautiful, first of all. And you already said that. I already said, you know, if there's any Persian refugees, what, 25 to 35 years old, female, single? OK. Anyway, I have a room. Anyway. I'm just trying to help. But they didn't wear the... Hajib, hijab, whatever it's called. But because these terrorists have come in and now these women must. Well, they'd be beaten in the street if they didn't have their hijab on. There was a. I loved the video of the American women chanting in the streets to let Iran be Iran, leave Iran alone. the women in the street in Iran are like taking off their. taking off the job and they're dancing and they're dancing and saying thank you. ⁓ Boy, are we out of touch. not all of us. Not all of us. But no, that's how that's how far the left will go to defend what they think is a defensible position. No, it's not defensible position. It's anti-Trump. What they think. I just say it Trump did it. Trump did it. It's bad. I really believe that if Trump came up with a cure for cancer, they would be they would boycott it. Well, I wish they wouldn't take it then. Then we eradicate ourselves of crazy blue hair liberals. So what all have blue hair. So no, just the crazy, crazy, you know, we welcome purple and blue hairs here too. So we have lost seven troops. ⁓ Now this is a good side effect. ⁓ Iran is ⁓ bombarding not only us planes and going after our bases over there, but they're bombing other Arab states like UAE. Yep. And I believe there was in Qatar and some other places. So now they're all joining in. Yeah. So keep it up, Iran. ⁓ And I do, I couldn't confirm where this quote came from, but the Israelis, as far as I know, they were quoted as saying that if you're on the government, so this son of Khomeini over here, if you're in the leadership, you're on our list. Yeah. So this is, I just want them to open the Strait of Hormuz so that the oil will go back down because I don't like paying obscene amounts for my gas. Well, I'm just going to work a little harder next couple of weeks so I can afford some of that gas. Because I'd like to see this come to an end quickly. That's what I would like. We do have Trump saying that he was asked, well, who's going to take over in Comanies? And he said, whoever the Iranian people choose. That's right. He's not looking to do nation building. He's not trying to get mired into a long term. isn't a forever war. It's not occupation. We're going to take over. We're going to make sure that they don't have... militants militants and we're gonna make sure that they don't have plutonium or whatever it is to make the bomb and then y'all on your own well you people need to stand up for yourselves I was listening to a former Green Beret on a podcast yesterday and he said ⁓ or Navy SEAL actually and he says you know we were almost there in Iraq before we got pulled out when Obama just had made that arbitrary deadline that we're pulling troops out It emboldened our enemy by telling them when we're going to surrender. But second of all, we almost had him a government that from his perspective, he felt like we were already there. Now you cannot give democracy to somebody that lives in 700 AD. was going to say they don't understand that. I haven't seen any place where we've gone in to fix their government and it's actually worse. Yeah. The people have to want it. The people have to fight for it. We can't go in and set it up because when we leave, it's not going to happen. So what are some, do you think we're, do you think we want to change the regime or are we just trying to get rid of the nukes? I think we're, ⁓ yes and yes, no and no, and no and yes. ⁓ We don't, we didn't want to be in charge of who is the regime, but we wanted to get rid of the current regime. Okay. So you guys in Iran, need to step up and take over your government. We're not gonna be in charge of that. At least I don't think we are. Just from who's taken over already, I'm not real I don't think they're getting the message that we're gonna keep commerce for you. But at the same time, they were fighting in the streets and we were a little too late. We allowed tens of thousands of people that were protesting in the streets and they're saying, is America? Which is, think, why we moved up our timeline. We probably weren't planning to go in this soon, but... We couldn't, the US isn't going to sit by and watch that crap on CNN. But tens of thousands of people were killed. So you can understand why I'm not ready to quite go in the street until I know that I can go in the street and actually have some weapons or something. I mean, we need to be like, you know, taking care of the people. Well, given the geography and how central Iran is in the Middle East, one comment I heard was, you know, there will never be stability if that key geographic location. is not taken care of. If it's unstable, then the whole region is unstable. So maybe we are turning it, maybe we're turning a page. Hopefully, especially with all of the surrounding countries and things coming to be like, holy smokes, they're bombing us too? Wait a minute. Well, that was one of the things I was going to point out. one of the questions was, is this going to become regional or involving multiple Arab states? And I think it will. But on the defense, on the offensive to Iran, I don't think they're going to join in against the U.S. I think they're like, no, no, no, no, no, we have stability here. Right. So we're going to. Ever since the ⁓ Arab Spring. No, the Accords, the ⁓ Abraham Accords. couldn't think of the Who was that? The Abraham Accords are the ones that ⁓ Jared Kushner went over there and got several of the ⁓ countries to sign, and they are all in agreement. Well, hey, Trump said he's opening, he's creating jobs everywhere. So he opened up the Khomeini job. That was a reporter saying, you know, who's going to take over? He's like, well, I'm creating jobs all over the world. That's true. So, um, but that's a government job. So we did mention, uh, we did mention that oil is up. So that's going to cost us a little bit of the gas pump. Um, I don't think it's going to turn into a regional war. because I just think, I think there is a fatigue with war. I mean, who really is okay with, like in Israel, they go to sleep under the threat of Palestinian mortars. Who's okay with that? Nobody. So hopefully- this like one of the signs of the end of the world in the Bible? Peace in the Middle East? Isn't that one of the- Maybe if it was just the Jews and the Persians, you're dealing with the Israeli government and the Iranian government. I'm with the Abraham Accords and all of that peace in the Middle East. That's just, I'm just saying, just throwing it out there. Coming of Christ. So Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, they had a good strategy. They would go and conquer and they would basically, ⁓ screw the hostility out of the population. Okay. Exactly what I just said. They would mate with the local population and just breed it out of them. Even the Romans did that. So, ⁓ If you're an able-bodied man, no. Oh my God. No, no, and no. If you're an able-bodied American male, but no. But what I'm getting at is it's a generational thing. You're not going to get the crazy out in one generation or two, but you have to set the path for these people to grow. Is this the beginning steps to the end of the? No. Okay. Look, I'm not a religious scholar. I'm sure there's a case to be made for that. I'm not a religious. Biblical stuff, I believe, refers to the people, the chosen people. And just because it's Israel doesn't mean they're the chosen people. Peace in the Middle East, you just say. Well, I'm more worried about the Federal Reserve. I welcome the coming of Christ, I've been... Yeah, I'm good for right now. I don't need to push my luck. What was I going to say? I'm more concerned about the Federal Reserve. starting a digital currency. Why? Mark of the beast kind of crap. See, that kind of crap scares me. But now we peace in the Middle East. We're talking about digital currency. Well, they're talking about being able to scan your arm and crap like that. don't mean, are these not all signs? Those are just so there. The Bible didn't say, well, if the government of of Persia and the government of Israel, it's peace in the Middle East. Right. What? Just if it's peaceful, then we're going to have the end of the world. No, I'm just saying that's one of the signs. If we have peace in the Middle East, why is that bad? People aren't killing each other because it's been so volatile. a talk to the guy that wrote the Bible because, there's more than one. know, there was a lot. Yeah. You know, I don't think they had any women on the writing writing staff. They might have been they might have been ghostwriters. Yeah, because there were several women, powerful women in the Bible. they could have been writing that whole thing about adultery as probably the woman's contribution. Anyway. All right. So we got to talk about anything. That's that's I mean, we talked about the GOP convention, Cumberland County. We talked about ⁓ Senator Berger and Mr. Sam Page. Now, one thing about that, I didn't mention, you he's being the sheriff. Yes. How how tough do you think it would be for a state senator to run against a law and order sheriff in a Republican dominated area? I mean, that that had to have just made especially a popular sheriff. Yes, yes, a popular sheriff. oh, so we do need running against a postman. Hey, hey, you know, everybody likes him. Everybody likes him. He sees everybody. He's already walking the neighborhood. Well, should have killed me, but didn't. So I'm still standing, baby. One thing we do need to bring Mr. Troy McDuffie, since he did pass the primary. Yes, we do. So we need to have him return. Because remember, I asked him what your plans for the office is. He says, I want to get through the primary first. Right, that is true. So he's through the primary, so it's time to invite him back. We need to have Mr. Glenn Adams back on and we need to invite Sheila Cuffee. Essentially they've won their elections because there's no opponents. That's true. That's it. They go straight to November. Now the at-large winners, Veronica Jones and Charles Evans, will advance to the fall and they will be against two Republicans. Greg West and Ron Ross. And so they have, my God, they got what's till November. There's a chance that we could actually get. one Republican in there. think we can. I think with the right ⁓ with the right strategy and the right ⁓ talking to people that don't look, think and act like you, you might actually be able to win some people over. Mr. West is a very reasonable guy and so is Ron Ross. served a long time on the school board. Which is very ⁓ it doesn't matter what party you're in when comes to your kids. That's right. ⁓ So hopefully we'll have some people back on. Republican candidates. I mean, we have representatives. ⁓ Let's see, Janine Ackles made it through the primary. She'll need to come back. Wheatley. Let's Val Appelwhite, we need to have her along with Venus De La Cruz. We got a busy, busy few months ahead of us now. Come Wednesday at two o'clock, we have Mr. Lenny Friedman. He is the vice president of the Carolina Forward. It's a like a third party that's trying to get started here in North Carolina, and they're trying to change the way we vote. to a voters choice thing. It's pretty interesting. I've read up on it. I'll let you, we'll talk about it. We'll have them on Wednesday. sell me. Anything else for the good of the order? Ranked voting is horrible. We're going to talk about it Wednesday. to everybody watching, thank you for joining us this evening for our short session. We're getting Laura out of here to go convalesce and until Wednesday, we'll see you. Have a good evening.