Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 06-09-26_TUESDAY_6AM

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Morning news and a great talk with The New American publicsher STEVE BONTA about the Israel U.S. military plan to entwine operations and intelligence and other war hot takes.

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Hey, coming up after 630, some of the people are going to be talking to this morning. Steve Bonta joins me. He's the publisher of the New American, a economist from what I understand, is trade. in the past here and new american of course the publishing arm of the john birch society very conservative group constitutional conservatives and a couple of stories that have been coming out on the new american that i wanted to talk about and uh one of them is that the pentagon intel agency d i a defense intelligence agency reporting that israeli spying on the United States is now critical. Yes, supposedly our ally in the Iran conflict or the

Iran excursion, or however you want to call it. And yeah, the DIA saying that the espionage threat, for some reason, is now critical and they're spying on us with negotiations with Iran. That's what the claim is. So I'm going to talk with Steve about that story. And the other one has to do with this bill or this part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which would, in essence, merge the Israeli military or a lot of the policy of the Israeli military with the United States military. They're calling it an integration, integrating the United States and Israel militaries. and this is raising a few eyebrows, but it is something which is not being reported very loudly.

Now, in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, committee Republicans ended up shooting down an amendment from Democratic Representative Rokana of California last week that would have stripped, rather, this section of it. It's Section 224, which would give Israel access to U.S. military, intelligence and technology information. Now, we don't do this with any of our other people, not even NATO. It's been raising a few eyebrows in the, shall we say, the alternative press,

because the cartel media doesn't want to touch anything involving this with a 10-foot pole. So anyway, we'll talk with Steve about this. Steve Bonte after the 630 news. We'll also be kicking around things with a former state senator and former Josephine County Commissioner Herman Berichiger. We always talk about politics each week around 730. He has a lot of questions about the budget process, what's been going on over in Josephine County.

And oddly enough, we're going to have Jackson County administrator, Danny Jordan, on the show after, well, actually right about 8 o'clock. We're going to have to get him on a little bit earlier. So we're going to shift things around. Danny Jordan ended up speaking along with several other people, several other officials of all the county commissioners and various administrators and the deputy administrators, et cetera, et cetera, and the deputy, deputy administrators. They were speaking at the Chamber of Commerce, the Metford-Jackson County Chamber of Commerce

meeting. It was a lunch meeting yesterday at the country club, and I was fortunate enough to attend. I hadn't gone to one of these in a while, but I knew that they were going to be talking about the spending and the budget for Jackson County. and it was a really interesting and I would dare say somewhat sobering account of what is going on here because the budget, you know, the total budget. Now, this is not the stuff that the county commissioners control. This is or all of it. I mean, some of it is.

But the overall budget is just a hair under $699 million. We're a $699 million in county now. But you also have to remember that a lot of that is passed through funding. Oregon Health Authority money comes in. You have the ODOP money that comes in and passes through. It's the same thing in Josephine County. There's the main budget, which is a lot larger. And then there is the discretionary budget, which the commissioners actually control.

Same sort of situation in Jackson County. But what was interesting was, was Danny talking about some of the frustrations and I guess you could almost say threats on the horizon here when it comes to fiscal stability. And Jackson County is an amazingly well-run county. We're very fortunate about this. And I'm going to go on the record right now is that a number of years ago when I first started talking about the talk radio, Danny Jordan. I was not a fan of Danny Jordan.

And I think I mischaracterized a lot of what was going on. A lot of it had to do with the amount of money that a passport negotiated to pay him. And, you know, he does get paid. He does get paid really well. It's different now because he's technically retired. So, you know, this is a side job for him really at this point. I shouldn't say side job. I know I'm mischaracterizing it somewhat.

But we're not paying purse for him anymore from what I understand. It's that kind of a gig. The thing is, Danny Jordan, along with conservative Jackson County commissioners, have managed to pull the rabbit out of a hat for many, many years. And a lot of it ended up starting with it. Well, one of the reasons he was hired was to make up some $23, $24, $25 million a year in missing revenue from timber going away, from the spotted owl fraud and all that kind of stuff.

And that's, you know, talking about the money that actually gets controlled, you know, the 50, 60, 70 million a year that the county commission actually gets a chance to control. Danny was brought in at that point to do it, and yeah, I was looking at the pay rate of going, man, it's too much, it's too much. I've come to the conclusion

after several years of observation that we are very fortunate to have had such a good team together between conservative commissioners and then with Danny Jordan's creativity. I'm not blown smoke up his butt or anything else. I would tell him that. In fact, I probably would tell him that

when he comes on here. But he's done a good job of creative financing and finding ways to, since you can't raise taxes, well, you can't raise taxes more than what, 3% a year, right? You know, that's the way it goes. The assessments go up for the county. And remember, the county basic rate is $2. And a penny for Jackson County, $2 at a penny per thousand. And that funds for, and that funds most everything, including the Sheriff's Department,

not the library, not RBTD, you know, none of those kind of things. They have their own taxing districts to do this. But that has stayed the same. Same challenge. Now we have a higher rate than Josephine County does. But the challenge that we're running into is that you still doesn't, it doesn't go up more than 3% a year. That's the limitations of measure 50 from a number of years back.

Well, have you seen anything in your world that is just stuck? on 3% a year increase in the inflation, which has been creeping in the economy for forever. In fact, the Federal Reserve really is the definition of inflation. Its job is to inflate, and our job is to put up with the debased budgeting process, I guess. It's what it comes right down to it. But anyway, back to it. Remember, Jackson County can't, you know, raise the rates. So Danny and the commissioners ended up coming up with different ways, different projects, things that could actually generate income.

One of the examples that he was bringing up there was the RV park, the RV park out by the Expo. It ends up paying for itself within a short order. It's a project. You take some money. You invested in it. And it ends up paying for itself and ends up providing operating revenue for the county. You also have that, you know, that big building, you know, the big building, which is actually going to be, which is being built right now. I forget that name of it.

Well, you know, it's the pandemic, using the pandemic funds that came in there. But it's actually going to be leased by the city of Central Point. Once again, income going into Jackson County rather than just spending grant money on something and then it just gets whizzed away, you know, that kind of thing. They're always looking for ways to make something pay for itself and add revenue. And this is one of the reasons why Jackson County has been able to do relatively well, gets all those awards for its finance. We've been quite fortunate about that. And so I've changed my way of thinking.

And maybe a lot of it, you know, when you would hear those $300, $500,000 package benefits back in the day and, you know, all the rest of it, maybe it's just paycheck envy. You always have to try to resist that. But I'm looking at Danny Jordan in the financial side of things. It's kind of like, you know, when I always talk about why plumbers are so expensive because they're worth it. A good plumber is worth it. Well, I think that Danny Jordan, just from looking at the performance with the board

and with the board's help and cooperation and everybody working together on this one, Danny Jordan has been a heck of a financial plumber for Jackson County, and we've been quite fortunate. You've been able to weather storms that have put other people in a lot of deep kimchi. And there's probably going to be more deep kimchi. What Danny's going to talk with me after 8 o'clock is something I did not know. He was discussing a state law, and this is where the state legislature being controlled by the public employee unions is just so unsustainable. I mean, that's really what is unsustainable in the state of Oregon is having our complete state government.

controlled by public sector unions. That the way it works here is with binding arbitration and you're working with these unionized groups, et cetera, et cetera. You go to the binding arbitration and then they always say that Jackson County has the same kind of ability to pay like the Schutes County, which is about the same size, population-wise, but it has double the tax rate and double the tax revenue. coming in. But yet we're supposed to pay just like everybody else. And you know how last week I was talking about the 8.5% raises over at the city of Central Point per year that they're going into the, you know, doing that with their police department and negotiating with the unions and this

and that and the other. Oh, no, it's not just them. It's everywhere. The county sheriffs, the sheriff's deputies and all that stuff was going in there. Big, big raises and they keep asking more. And that's just it. The unions continue to ask for more because the unions know that the arbitrator, the arbiter, will almost always, because the law is on the side of the employee, not on the side of the government or the taxpayer. When you talk about the government, you're really talking about the taxpayer. And I'm going to talk with Danny about that and the challenge that we're looking at because, you know, we already had to close the basement of the Jackson County jail as a cost-cutting move.

They talked about that yesterday. And you have the people in the sheriff's department. You have people in police departments. You have other unionized workers everywhere else. They're demanding way more than the rate of inflation, 5, 10, 15. You know, sometimes they're asking, you know, getting 20% pay raises over two or three years, these kind of things. And the county itself is only going to get an increase in revenue of.

around 3% each year. It is the definition of unsustainability. And yet state law is squarely on the side, especially when it comes to labor negotiations, squarely on the side of the unionized employees.

Because the unions own the state government. And I don't know what can be done about that. But that, you want to talk about a clear and present danger. It's like heads, the union wins, tails, the tax taxpayers are screwed. Taxpayers are screwed in both ends. Okay? That's just the way that goes.

I don't know where this goes. But, you know, maybe the day comes in which there will only three or four deputies on the county sheriff's departments in southern Oregon. But they'll all be millionaires. They'll be making millionaires pay. God bless them all. Okay. So we'll have that coming up. It's 624 on KMED and 993 KVX. G. What's going on in your mind on Pepple in Your Shoe Tuesday? This is the Bill Meyer show. Fontana Roofing is celebrating their 30th anniversary in Southern Oregon, and the universe continues to give the crew subtle reminder. Better slow down a bit. The speed sign clocked you at 30. Whoops, I'm distracted looking for the job site. What's the address again? 30.

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Discounts not available in all states or situations. Hi, I'm Deb with Father and Sanjorie, and I'm on KMED. Sunshine go away today. I don't feel much like dancing. I just found his theme. Sunny David. You're looking for a theme. That's your theme.

Sunshine go away today. Okay. You're going to make me cry. Nobody can do that. Anyway, how you doing, David? Good to hear from you. What's on your mind? It's pebbling your shoe Tuesday.

Yeah. I get very confused because I'm not a very bright bulb. I burned out a long time ago. We had a chance to lower our property taxes what the RVTD and the people voted to keep something that should have sunset. This people in Medford wouldn't have voted for $5 on their water bill to pay for a ballpark, but so long as the other guy was going to pay for it, i.k.a. the people coming to visit in our motels will have to pay for it.

Well, it was heck yes. And all it really did was give permanent financial stream to Medford, Jackson County, chamber and travel Medford, because someone. their funding was cut down, whether the ballpark is built or not. And the ballpark is probably 25, 30, 35 years in the future anyways. Well, we're going to find out because your city council, well, I shouldn't say you're in Phoenix, but the Medford City Council voted to split the half million dollar charge for a study. What I'm saying, but the people voted for it.

They approved it originally to vote. This is because they got the money now. Oh, yeah. From the motels with the people of Medford. Let me just get this out real quick. Anyways, you just said that Danny Jordan's worth, you know, a laborer's worth is higher. A good plumber's worth is higher. Yeah.

Well, I think our police and our fire guys and our sheriffs are worth their higher. I think we're worth about $250,000 a year. And we complain and we don't want them out there, but it's not, it's not guys. like me and you out there facing these people. Yeah, the difference is that Danny Jordan may cost money, but he has saved way more. You can't say that about the other employees. That's what I'm getting at. The other employees are an expense in the situation, in my opinion.

But he doesn't have a gun in his face every day. They don't have guns in their face every day either. You walk up. No, no, you do understand that OSHA will be the first to tell you that, you know, if you really want, now I'm not, I'm not saying that police don't face risks, okay, but a bit of this has been overblown. You're still way more likely to die as a, way, way more likely to die as a logger and or a fisherman than you are as a, as a police person, as a law enforcement officer. But I'm just, but I'm just saying this is this yen and yang teeter-totter.

We don't want our taxes raised, but then, then we don't vote to raise taxes like for police and fire, but we vote for a ball stadium. That's all I'm saying. No, I know. Okay, I get that. Now, you know, the thing is, though, what you're talking about, though, is that they didn't vote to get rid of RBTD, which, yes, frankly, they should have, but you know why? You know what actually drove that election was the fact the contentious Democratic primary, and one of those people in that primary is also the head of RBTD. So all the RBT shills were out, in this case, trying to choose a Democratic Senate campaign. candidate to run against Brad Hicks this November.

Why didn't all the people that pay the property tax say, say you're still getting my money. We're just not going to get that extra 41 cents per thousand. I know. I can't explain it. It has to do with the laziness of many of the property owners or just not really understanding. And who's responsible the property owners? Okay.

Well, I'm not going to say who's responsible for them being that way. I don't know. Okay. It's quite well taken, but yeah, yeah, you've made this case, though. But, yeah, you were fighting against a tide of communism, a rising tide of communism going out there to choose their favorite communist candidate. Okay? There we go. I thought we're all fighting a rise of communism.

I thought we're all in this together. No, no, we're not. Okay. Thank you, Sonny, David. At least enjoy your theme song. All right. While Sam and Steve, hello, Steve, morning. Good morning. Hey, Bill. Yeah. I see the other side of this being an older person and dealing with inflation. I mean, the value of my house has gone up according to the county assessor.

Yep. I own an older house, so the 3% is how much the house value can be inflated. I still have to pay taxes on that. Yep, the assessment. The assessed value. can go up 3% a year. And that's why I was talking about how the money going into, let's say, a Jackson County or in Josephine County goes up 3% a year from that assessment. But everybody is going to be retired at some time. And when you reach that point, it's a decline in the ability to pay for the things that you need. So I see the value of the police and fire.

I don't see the value of RVTD. That's a scam as far as I can see. Well, I mean, we see the value of all these things, really. I can't say that RVTD is a valueless service because, you know, not everybody has a car. Not everybody can get a car. I get that. I understand it.

There are alternatives driving those big buses around, you know. But that is it. The entire business model of RVT is not do we get people from point A to point B, but how many half-million dollar buses do we end up purchasing? And how many employees, per's employees can you get, you know? So that is when government does not serve the people because government exists just for the purpose of government. It's not, you know, when it comes to things like RVTD, it doesn't seem to work. Now, Danny Jordan has done some wonderful things.

I met him one time many years ago, and we were talking about investing. and he did not seem to grasp the idea of owning something that you don't control. That is things in the stock market. But he's done a good job of managing income. I mean, things like the marina at Howard Prairie. That was a $5.7 million dollar marina that was put in at no cost to the county, but I think it was somehow it was COVID money. but they're very creative in applying for grants.

And they've been very good at that. And I know that Danny's big things, and he's talked about this before, is that he has been trying to have county assets that will continue to generate income rather than being a drain on taxpayers and then trying to buttress the challenges of balancing the books here. And so that's what he's been doing. And that's a good thing. And I applaud that. at the same time, the 3% raised thing, while it doesn't seem like very much, 3% raise in 10 years is 30%.

And how long do you plan to live? Ezekiel Emmanuel, who was the guy who created or wrote the bill for Obamacare, said he thought that you should only live to 75. And maybe what he meant is that you can't afford to live after 75. Well, it's kind of what I heard him. He dropped that to 73. Well, I'm already past all that. Well, I've got nine years. I better make the best of it.

Okay. Thanks, Steve. I appreciate the call. 635. Steve Bonta is going to join me here after news too. Steve Bonta, the publisher of the New American. A lot of interesting Israel, United States, Iran news that they're going into and digging into the new American.com. This is Bill Meyer, and if you want to save money on your cell phone plan

like Linda and I did, we cut our bill in half with Cherise at No Wires Now. That's right, Bill. Come on down to our showroom or call me today. I'll show you how I can save you money and provide you the best local service, featuring the largest selection of TV, internet, and cell phone plans. Put Charisse to work for you now. At No Wires Now, call her text 541-680-5875. Or stop by the showroom, 1560 Biddle Road, Sweet B in Metford. The Metford Roads, host the California College League Showcase team on Wednesday and Thursday, then a three-game series versus the Fresno Ways on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Visit Medfordroggs.com for tickets starting at just $10 or call and pickup prior to each game.

Check the website for daily offers and events, including free coosies on Thursday, fireworks this week on Friday, a jersey auction on Saturday, and half-price general admission on Sunday. It's baseball season with the Medford Roads at Harry and David Field. Visit Medfordroogs.com. If you want unlimited talk text and data on a crazy fast network, big wireless will sell it to you right now for as little as $70 a month. Or you can buy it from Pure Talk for half of that. I'm talking about unlimited talk text and unlimited data for just $34.99 a month. Stop paying the big guys twice what you need to.

Dial pound 250, say my name. That's pound 250, micro, to switch to Pure Talk, where the savings are truly unlimited. KMED News, here's what's going on. Jackson County officials speaking at yesterday's Chamber of Commerce Lunch. They gave a 50,000-foot view of the county's budget. The total 2026 to 2027 suggested budget coming in at just under $700 million. It's about 6% higher than last year. Overall services not hurt by increased public employee retirement costs and loss of O&C timber money.

Administrator Danny Jordan did remark in his presentation that the basement section of the Jackson County Jail has been closed as a cost-cutting move and the challenges on the horizon include rising insurance costs and soaring unionized worker wage and benefit demands. A driver and his dog escaped safely from a rollover pickup truck crash near Kirby yesterday afternoon. News Watch 12 reports the crash happened around 3.30 p.m. The 23,000 block of Redwood Highway. Everyone's okay except for the truck and the Joe County Sheriff's Office is investigating. Leshwab Tire Center is laying off 70 workers at its corporate headquarters in Ben yesterday. According to Oregon Live, the company says it's part of Avery,

restructuring plan and didn't disclose what categories of jobs it's cutting or the severance or benefit packages of the laid off workers. Last Thursday, Medford Police contacted Wendy Diamond in an animal neglect case. Several cats were found alive or dead in bad condition at the Diamond home. A local animal rescue asking for the communities help for the surviving cats. According to KOBI 5, Sanctuary 1 has taken in the survivors. They're in pretty rough shape. You can find out more of what's needed and how you can help on their website.

sanctuary one.com. Bill Meyer, KMED News. You know the moment. Food shows up, everyone gathers around, and within minutes, it's gone. That's the chick-fil-A effect. Whether it's a cater-team lunch, family gathering, it's Chick-fil-A catering that actually gets people excited and makes all the difference.

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That's organ.gov slash respect. Brought to you by the Oregon Department of Human Services. You're hearing the Bill Myers Show on 1063 KMED. One of my favorite reads every day. Going behind the scenes of what is going on, I look at the New American. I read The New American.com. It's the publishing arm of the John Birch Society.

Steve Bonte is the publisher of the New American.com. Steve, welcome back. It is a pleasure having you on. Welcome. Oh, thank you. Great to be back. All right. Now, if I recall correctly, you have lived all over the world, and you are, are you an economist? I seem to recall an economist by training, I think, is what you were, or did I get that wrong? Well, no, technically. I have a PhD in linguistics, which I have not really

made use of, but that's what I'm, that's, if I have any training, that would be hit. Okay, all right, fair enough. But one way or the other, I'm glad you're here. I've been reading some articles involving the relationship between Israel and the United States on the new American.com. And I'm kind of, well, as the Brits would say, gobsmacked a little bit. One of them has to do with this Defense Intelligence Agency report. NBC first mentioned it. You were writing and expounding on this, that Israel is now considered to be a serious spy threat

against the United States. And yet there are ally or our partner or whatever. is in this situation, this excursion in Iran right now. Could you shed a little light on this? This is not something I'm hearing a whole lot about. Not being discussed about. Well, I don't know if I could shed a lot of light because these things are clandestined by nature. But, you know, our relationship with Israel has always been a frenemy type of relationship.

I mean, yesterday was the anniversary of the infamous attack on the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force during the Six-Day War back in 1967. seven. And of course, it's insisted that that was an accident, but of course, but, you know, there was a lot about that event at the time. Well, that talk about, I've read enough about that over the years about the attack. That's nonsense that it was a mistake. It's a mistake for 90 minutes, right? Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, yeah. So that's probably the most egregious example, but there are others. We have a, yeah, let's just say a very fraught relationship. And I think part of it is, it's kind of, almost like an abusive spouse-type relationship or something like that, where Israel knows at some level that their continued well-being depends upon us and upon our largesse and to some extent our defense and are furnishing them with technology and weaponry and this kind of thing. But at the same time, you know, they want to be a fully sovereign country, you know,

in the sense of, you know, never again being dependent on the Gentile nations because, you know, we learned during the Holocaust what that can lead to. And so they kind of want to do their own thing. And so these two, these two things, I think, guide Israel's foreign policy. So right now, for example, I think we're well past the honeymoon phase. We'll remember from the first term, Trump's first term in office, where when he went to Israel for the first time, he was welcomed with such a effusive praise by Netanyahu and his, oh, my good friend and all this type of thing. Everybody on the right pointed out how, you know, the contrast between that and Obama's comparatively Chile reception when he traveled to Israel. Well, those days are passed because of the, you know, I think the growing rift over Iran. And I think that, you know, Israel's starting to realize belatedly that the United States does have interests of its own, that it's starting to, you know, new interests like America first, at least a portion of the United States, is interested in pursuing those interests. And so is this kind of... Okay, now is this actually coming out then in a situation where reports that I've read that Israel doesn't want to deal with Iran and the United States does? And is that where some of this tension is coming from right now?

You know, they actually want to... United States wants to solve this problem and move on while Israel wants to continue the fight. Is that a fair assessment? Well, I think it's fair to say to Israel and like-minded people. are of the opinion that the only solution is to defeat Iran. And clearly Trump has decided that he's really not, you know, militarily and get rid of the government. And I don't think that Trump really wants to do that anymore. But, you know, as far as espionage is concerned, I would remind most your listeners probably don't know who Jonathan Pollard was. But he was a,

that was a very high profile case of an American, I mean, his Navy officer. Yeah, in fact, he spied for years here on Israel's behalf. And isn't he running for the Knesset right now, if I recall correctly? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So, I mean, it's not like this is, this is new information that espionage takes place, but, you know, my goodness, we spy on the French and they spy on us, too. So even friends read one another's mail from time to time. So, you know, I don't know how big a thing it is, but in the front politics of the Middle East, certainly, you know, I think that it would be, it would be wise. I mean, this kind of thing points up yet again, wisdom of disentangling ourselves once and for all from that blighted part of the earth,

and let them solve their own problems by whatever means necessary. But if you're one of those people who wishes us to disentangle, you end up like Thomas Massey. I think you don't you end up getting blown out of the water politically, essentially. Well, yes, I'm not a politician, so I don't, I don't have, the stakes aren't that high for someone like me. But yes, in politics, it is, it is definitely a difficult position to happen. Unless you're leftist, obviously the left has always hated Israel viscerally for the culture. Well, they didn't, in the beginning, I mean, obviously Israel, the state of Israel was created. People forget not just via the United Nations, but with the hearty support of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union,

because it was believed that, you know, the Israel with all these intellectual, left-leaning European Jews moving in, would become a haven of socialism. And when it didn't, then, of course, then the global left, you know, the socialist international, have turned on Israel. And so that's kind of where we are now. So it's very fashionable if you're a leftoid to hate Israel and to advocate supporting Palestine instead, all the start of thing, the Palestinians. And I think probably the wisest posture, as Thomas Massey correctly diagnosed, is to simply stay clear of those issues. We can certainly continue to have friendly diplomatic relations with Israel and other states in the region. But I don't know that the Middle East needs

our garrisons. I got along well enough without them prior to the first Gulf War, and it can get along again. Steve, you know, back to this spying with the defense intelligence agency saying that it's a national security threat. They've raised the espionage threat level from Israel to critical is what they're claiming. And that's a pretty strong term. Now, there's a couple of ways to look at this, and I'm wondering how you believe this might be playing. This could be the defense intelligence agency just wanting to say, okay, if Trump's involved deeply with something, well, then we have to come up with something to be against it. In other words, just deep state, intelligence agency, we're going to be against this. Or do you think there really might be some

truth that this is at a critical level of spying, as the DIA says? Well, purely conjecture. but frankly, the first option sounds like the most plausible to me. I mean, for all of Trump, the Trump 2.0's efforts to purge the Augian stables there in Washington, there's no doubt that the big spy agencies, particularly, you know, the DIA and the CIA, I think still contain substantial cohorts of never-Trumpers and the sort of subversives and globalists and all the rest of it. So that seems like a very plausible explanation, but of course, absent any real evidence, I don't know if we want to really stake our reputations on it.

It's one of those things in D.C. where it's hard for outsiders to know, you know, what malign agendas are being served and purposes and cross-purposes are involved. Steve Bonta is the publisher of The New American, the New American.com. We're talking about a couple of Israel articles that are in there. And one of your writers, Arquardt Kirkwood, ended up writing another one the other day. And he's been staying on this story about Section 2.2. of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. And it would seem to officially integrate the Israeli military into the United States military

or the United States military into the Israeli military. And now I know we've done a lot of work together over the past few years, but this just seems to be a different kettle, a different kettle of guffiltofish you know, all together here, one way or the other. Can you explain? Can anybody explain why the need for this or why only Israel? There are other people that we should possibly maybe be integrating with two, not just Israel. How do you see it? Well, obviously, you know, this has been a big part of the globalist kind of military program for decades. The, you know, cross-training of military. You know, the German military, for example, and other, you know, militaries in Europe

have had, you know, people come to the United States and train and this kind of thing for literally decades. I have a friend, a German friend who was born in the United States because his father was in the German military and happened to be in the U.S. for like two years doing some kind of Air Force-related training. So that's pretty standard with countries that are, you know, that are friendly to us. As far as actual integration, I mean, I mentioned you off air an individual years ago, many years ago that I worked with who had been a fairly elite special forces type guy in the U.S. Army. I think he taught martial arts or something in memory service. This was close to 40 years ago in the late 80s.

And I remember he's telling me we were talking about politics one day. And he said, well, I probably shouldn't tell you this. But one thing that is top secret is during the big air war that Israel fought in 1982 against Syria to destroy the PLO's headquarters in Damascus. where they shot the Syrian aircourse out of the sky. He said there were U.S. planes involved in that, too, because it was top secret, but we needed the military. We need our combat, our new generation of pilots post-Vietnam, needed combat experience. So we were involved, and that's never going to get out. So, you know, I don't know if that's true or not, because it's obviously secondhand.

But it does point up the fact that where military action is concerned, all kinds of weird stuff go on behind the scenes, you know, the strange bedfell. fellows that we have and not just in the Middle East with, you know, Africa and elsewhere in the world where we profess to have, you know, burning national interests, these kinds of things take place. What's unusual is to see it formalized in this way in an actual bill, but, you know, but there you have it. Is there a possibility that formalizing it in a bill like this will actually give the ability to have more control or oversight over something like this rather than the handshake and a wink kind of deals that apparently we do with Israel right now. Maybe that's the

purpose of this. I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt right now. Yes, it's quite possible, Bill. And I mean, you know, here, I mean, I hear we're so, you have to be careful because obviously one of the, one of the favorite tropes of Hollywood fiction is the, you know, the CIA black site, you know, where, where, where Americans go, where Americans take malign foreigners to be tortured with the complaisance of Israel or Saudi Arabia or some other country. And, you know, we know these things do exist, but, you know, the extent to which they do exist and how they operate, I mean, you know, the government is pretty good at keeping secrets like that. So it's hard to know, and it's certainly hard to know the degree to which our alliance with Israel is

exploited to, you know, to get around niggling things like the Geneva Convention and other such things in our kind of course. Well, I would imagine that, okay, we need somebody grab some place and we need them to have a hood put over them and then to have them tortured what? We have Israel do it. Is that what we do? It's quite possible. Why not? You know, but if not Israel, then I think we've had other, you know, some of the areas of the Gulf states and so forth that are even less inhibited where matters of torture are concerned. So, okay. Yeah. So this kind of thing goes on. And it's another reason to give a second look at what people like Thomas Mafia are enjoining us to do, which is to stop all these overseas entanglements. Because, I mean, the morality of even the most righteous war is messy enough.

I mean, if you look at the American Revolutionary War, War of Independence, you look hard enough. You'll see, you know, atrocities were committed and things that, you know, that should have been done. I mean, war always and everywhere has a corrupting, malign influence, no matter how, how, you know, how righteous the cause. And so much more so when there are wars of choice, like the current war in Iran, where we basically just go over and decide to bomb the heck out of somebody and black, the heck, a bunch of, a bunch of bad guys. I mean, you know, it's morally nuanced and legally, absolutely untenable.

And so then the only recourse is to have these sorts of alliances with countries who's legal systems are, shall we say, less fraught than our own, you know, and whose leaders are less squeamish than ours. Yeah. Yeah. In other words, are more comfortable with a dirty power than perhaps we are. At least we claim. Precisely.

Okay. Got it. All right. Understand it. This 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, Section 224, that Rochana and Thomas Massey, of course, tried to get stripped out, did not get stripped out. Is there a danger in there? What are the critics other than that?

maybe those two raising. Is anybody raising any potential danger about officially integrating, or is everybody just going to get along here? And, you know, we have our A-PAC minders and everyone's just going to vote the right way. I don't know. How does that play out in your view? Well, I just, I don't know for sure if anyone else has sounded the toxin. And, you know, I mean, again, for me, we tend to approach things around here in terms of matters of principle. And so it's just sort of simple to say, well, you know, we shouldn't be thusly entangled with any other country, be they Israel or Germany or another NATO nation or something or anything. You know, I mean, to the extent that we have diplomatic relations and trade relations, I mean, that probably should be the extent of it. But, you know, these military alliances that we have all over the world fly in the face of traditional American foreign policy and the recommendation.

of, you know, generations of Weitzman from obviously famously George Washington, but all the rest of the founders and for many generations thereafter. And it served us very well, thank you very much. Yeah, maybe a conservice again at some point. And, you know, I think that people, I think that people thought that President Trump was going to be kind of that guy. Has he, has he been that or has he fallen a little short on what he was talking about as a candidate? Well, Trump 1.0 was kind of that guy. Trump 2.0, kind of hard to make that argument, I got to say. And that, you know, this situation in Iran now is looking basically like just another quagmire, you know, just like the Persian Gulf War, the first Persian Gulf War and then the Iraq War, the second Persian Gulf War, you know, it started with a flurry of impressive military activity and then turned into one of these indecisive, long-term, you know, kind of. of occupations. I mean, what are we going to do? Are we going to permanently occupy the Strait of Hormuz and permanently, you know, you can't keep, you know, tens of thousands of

U.S. personnel in the area indefinitely. So, you know, I mean, we don't have a lot of good options here. And so, you know, Trump has kind of been hoisted by his own guitar, I have to say. And so these kinds of things would not be an issue if we didn't seem to have this constant need of military chest dumping. And that's really. what it is. You know, I realize that the, I mean, the regime in Iran is bad news, no question about it. And it would be nice if they, if they were gone and replaced by, you know, the son of the Shah, something like that. You know, I mean, clearly that would be a wonderful thing. But there are many places in the world with vile regimes. Some countries much larger and more pricent than Iran and some smaller that people haven't heard of, like say, oh, I don't know, Eritrea. All of these. Now you're going to make me look that up. I don't know. even know where Eritrea is, but thank you very much, Steve. Appreciate that. Yeah, well, yeah, nobody.

So, I mean, I mean, but all of these countries inflict just unimaginable horrors on their populaces and are guilty of all sorts of flagrant, you know, affronts to human decency and all this sort of thing. I mean, you know, they commit their genocides and they all do the rest of this stuff. And we don't say boo about it. And so because that's the reality of the ugly world in which we live, Bill. And we can't, through force of arms, solve all of these problems. And every country, every nation that succumb to that imperial hubris,

Rome being the canonical, but far from the only example, has ended up, if not on the ash heap of history, has ended up falling ignominiously from their perch. And the same is, I think we're kind of in the process of doing that, you know, with our economy stretches it is and Americans fed up with all this stuff. You know, so we're, you know, regardless of what happens in Iran, you know, what are we even doing in the Middle East to begin with? I mean, we weren't there in the 1970s or 1960s and 1950s except in perhaps in metals and policy, but we didn't have all these dozens of military garrisons that terrorists and terrorist states could lob missiles at will. And now we do.

Well, I think part of that was also defending the Petro dollar, wouldn't you agree? That was part of it. And part of the whole Petro Dollar agreement is that, okay, we can inflate all. we want and you sell oil only in dollars, we promise to protect you, but it appears that we don't really have the, you know, the juice and the gas tank, no pun intended, to defend the Gulf states any longer at this point. Luce doesn't look this way in this war, when you agree or not? No. Well, absolutely not. I mean, Iran has been raining down missiles and drones pretty much at will on the likes of, you know, about rain and Dubai and so forth. And so, so it's a, it's a

they're clearly getting the message that the United States is not what it once was. Iran has kind of discredit and humiliated us with a, you know, a rump force. I mean, they've got a fraction of the missiles that they had when this war started, supposedly, although I'm sure that they're happily, you know, rebuilding their forces as fast as they possibly can with the help of the Chinese and others. And so, you know, this ceasefire is just, it's just absolutely inane. But anyway, yeah, but these are the kinds of moral perplexities that you inevitably, you know, unavoidably get into when you head down the road to empire in whatever form, you know, whether it's a colonial style empire or an empire by brute conquest like the Romans practice

or the Persians or what we have, which is a more, still more subtle, diffused form of empire than the European colonial system, which is kind of, you know, we have our garrisons out there, but we allow these, you know, our client states to maintain the fiction of full independence, even while we provide for the military means and adjudicate disputes among them. Yeah, that works fine until you're $39, $40 trillion in debt, right? You know, then, yeah, someone has to pay that. I'm just kind of curious. You know, one thing I don't hear people talking nearly enough about is China. I have a feeling that may be part of what the purpose here. I always thought, yeah, there was the nuclear weapon issue. I always thought that was kind of a pretext

to get everybody on board. I always thought it was about squeezing China, and it doesn't appear that China's been squeezed very hard by any of this, or am I wrong about that, Steve? You know? No, no, no, no, you're absolutely right, Bill. And I mean, this is something as sort of a China hand myself. I lived in China for a number of years and worked there and learned to speak Chinese and all that stuff and experience COVID in China. We've probably talked about this before. Yeah. I don't rehash that, but suffice it to say that China is not our friend. It's all, you know, People are lovely, but, you know, the government is our implacable foe. And again, Trump won, talked to a good game.

And he even talked to good game coming into office with the initial, you know, the welter of tariffs and all the rest of this stuff. But now suddenly, as our buddy again, you know, he made this big trip. And apparently Xi Jinping is going to reciprocate in the fall with a similar visit to the United States. And, you know, he brought all the business tightens, the tech guys, along with him to make it that, you know, America's open for business. We want to make a deal. And as I think we've talked up before, I find this just the most infuriating and incomprehensible aspect of Trump's personality, is this fixation of making a deal that seems to be the end all, rather than the deal being a means to some kind of end. And, you know, where China is concerned, you know, I mean,

everything that Trump and perceptive people have been pointing out for, years, you know, that China has been ripping us off, as Trump likes to say, and as other people would point out, like Victor Davis Hansen and others, you know, has been, you know, has been using our money and our largest to build up that enormous military that they now have so they can use against us. None of that has changed, you know? I mean, yes, there are some token tariffs on China now, but the trade continues, the technology exchange continues. I mean, Jensen Huang is happy. And by the way, the importing of tens of thousands, if not hundred, of thousands of Chinese students is continuing unimpeded.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And now the unitary robots are becoming a thing in the United States. I don't know if you saw, but there was actually – they appeared on America's got talent a few nights back. And so, you know, and it's stunning. I mean, you know, the Chinese robotics technology and AI and so forth. Robotics, I mean, they're ahead of us. Like the Japanese, they're kind of – you know, these unitary things are better than anything that come out of all Boston dynamics.

So, you know, and I think when we saw the Chinese New Year celebration this year with that massive choreographed display of dancing kung fu Chinese robots, and that was kind of a 21st century Sputnik moment, or it should have been, like kind of an awakening that, oh my goodness, these guys are serious, and in some ways they're actually starting to pull ahead. Do you think there's an opportunity? They're really good at robotics. Yeah. Do you think there's an opportunity for President Trump to recalibrate?

because I agree with you, doing a deal with Xi Jinping, well, let's face it, people like the China president and also the president of Iran, I don't think that they're motivated by the same style of negotiation that President Trump is. Is there time or still room to recalibrate right now and get it back on a sensible footing, or understanding that China, no, is not our buddy and no selling, you know, Boeing planes to China is not going to cure the faux aspect of things. Well, there's still time, but I don't think Trump is of a mind to take it. I think he's fully captured. In this case, I think it's, you know, the tech sector that's particularly keen on, you know,

keeping the doors open to China. I mean, Trump is now starting to spurn Taiwan and I guess has been holding off on making a final decision as to whether actually deliver weapons to Taiwan that they've long since bought and paid for, incidentally. I mean, one thing Taiwan does is when they buy weapons, they actually pay cash in the barrelhead for it. They don't expect them to be donated by the U.S. taxpayer. And then, you know, pro-China forces in Washington delay and obstruct for years and years and years, and they don't get the F-16s and other stuff that they've actually paid for. And so Trump now seems to be moving in that same direction. And it's really a shame. But Trump is, you know, for all of

his alleged savvy as a businessman, he does not really understand, I think, you know, foreign affairs and certainly doesn't understand the mentality of these non-Western players, because when they negotiate back to your, you know, to your original point, China, for example, and Iran also are not inhibited by Western standards, what we like to, you know, factuously call international law, which, you know, there is a tradition in international law, so to speak. that goes back as far as the ancient Greeks, you know, involving things like the treatment of ambassadors and all this kind of thing, right? And treaties and what they need and how they need to be honored and all this sort of thing.

China doesn't have any of that, in part because it's been geographically isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. And their view of themselves, you know, treaties are made to be broken. Meanwhile, Iran is coming from the, you know, the Takia tradition in Islam, which says that, you know, agreements made with non-believers, if so factor invalid. Yeah, you can lie through your teeth all you want. And the other aspect is that winning for Iran is just living to fight another day, really. It's a different kind of, you know, I don't think they're looking for a deal, so to speak,

or maybe I'm wrong about it. These they don't appear to be, really. No, they're not because, again, they're religious fanatics. And in this regard, they differ rather sharply from the Chinese communists, too. Those are fanatics of a different stride. But the reason they keep trying to draw us back into the conflict is that they believe firmly in a sort of end-time scenario. They're basically, you know, Islamic millinarians. And they believe that at an appointed time, you know, Allah will send the Madi down and he will rescue them from defeat and fight their battles for them and destroy the great Satan, aka us,

as well as the little Satan, aka Israel. I mean, they don't use these terms for media impact, you know, the great Satan. They really believe that. They believe that America is the great force for evil on this earth, and they're literally willing to do anything to bring about our destruction. So, you know, for this reason, I would not like to see Iran get nuclear weapons, and I wasn't altogether opposed to the raid last year, where we kind of made sure that that wouldn't happen for a while.

But what's going on now is just insane. It's just a comedy of errors. It's two different sides talking past each other that have totally different ends and entirely irreconcilable worldviews. Indeed. Steve, interesting talk, good talk. I appreciate you coming on. Anci Bonte is the publisher of the New American, the New American.com.

Great news site. And very thought-provoking articles there indeed this morning. And I'll share some of that. And thank you for having been on the show. I'll have you back and I know he ran a little bit long, but it was good talk. Okay. Appreciate that. All right. All right.

Take care.