The Team House - Minnesota, Davos, & Iran Build Up | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

In this episode, the hosts discuss the recent incident in Minnesota involving ICE agents and its potential geopolitical ramifications. They explore the implications of U.S. domestic issues on international relations, particularly in the context of NATO and military strategies. The conversation shifts to the World Economic Forum and the U.S. stance on global alliances, followed by a detailed analysis of military movements towards Iran and the National Defense Strategy. The hosts emphasize the importance of maintaining strong international relationships while addressing domestic challenges.Montana Security Conference ⬇️https://mi1.suitsandspooks.com/Support the show on Patreon:⬇️https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseSubscribe to our new newsletter!!!!https://teamhousepodcast.kit.com/joinNew merch, patches, and stickers! ⬇️https://theteamhouse-shop.fourthwall.comCheck out Mick's new podcast here:⬇️Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/pub-and-porch-applied-stoicism/id1836955475Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1k3QPmkAMwnGJxMLDwUSSd?si=n6piIu8XRcag1Z0K43A3bQYoutube:https://www.youtube.com/@UCd0Hq6QFk8CoTu5j-VU0Ong Find Mick Mulroy here: Fogbow ⬇️https://fogbow.com/Lobo Institute ⬇️https://www.loboinstitute.org/Twitter ⬇️https://x.com/mickmulroy?s=21&t=-Ze3F_Ix2vlJ18KFvORTCALinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-patrick-mulroy-31198b52/Bluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/mickmulroy.bsky.socialMick’s publications ⬇️https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/publications-of-michael-mick-patrick-mulroy/Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8LinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023Substack ⬇️https://amilburn.substack.com/Andy’s book ⬇️https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-OperationsBluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/andy-milburn.bsky.socialFind Jason Lyons here: LinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lyons-666873316?uBluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/bgsilverback73.bsky.social"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"00:00 The Minnesota Incident and Its Geopolitical Implications10:01 World Economic Forum Highlights and NATO Relations19:57 Military Movements and Potential Actions Against Iran30:05 National Defense Strategy and Future Military EngagementsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Welcome to another episode of Eyes on Geopolitics. I'm here with Jason Lyons and Mick Mulroy, former Marines, sorry, again to everybody. A lot happening around the world and here. I think first and foremost, we should talk about what went down in Minnesota yesterday. I know we do primarily talk about geopolitics and international affairs and national security and stuff like that. but I would argue that what's happening in America now is going to have second and third order effects geopolitically because we, you know, America does play a huge role in the world.

And if we can't keep our own backyards together, who are we to like tell anybody anything about what they're doing in their countries? Everybody knows Alex Pretti was shot by ICE agents yesterday. you know there's like 15 there's like seven or eight videos out there clear as day in my opinion was you know murdered straight up uh he was a legal he was a he was a ICU VA nurse um from all accounts a great person even if he was a piece of shit right like that doesn't that doesn't make it okay to get fucking murdered um and i just think you know we have a whatever size platform we have You know, and you guys, I'm not an expert in constitutional law or anything like that at all.

But it seems like what's going on generally in Minnesota is illegal and should be stopped immediately. I'm not saying I'm against border control and stuff like that. I think we need to have a strong border. I'm obviously pretty pragmatic when it comes to that stuff. But, you know, a dude filming an ICE agent does not constitute that, you know, six or seven ICE agents tackling him, pulling his gun out from his band that he didn't pull out on them. He didn't brandish towards the ICE agents and then shooting him several times. I think it was over seven times.

It's fucking disgusting. And what's going with the, and I'm repeating that sentiment with what happened with Renee good to. That was fucking disgusting. And frankly, I don't even know how Governor Tim Wallace hasn't called up the National Guard yet to knock this off. Obviously, we don't want to see institutions. going up against institutions like that.

But I'm fucking embarrassed, frankly, to be an American today. As crazy as that sounds. You know, to me, what went down yesterday and has been going down in Minnesota with the warrantless searches and stuff like that, like no judicial warrants on searches and stuff is fucking crazy. And it's setting a horrible precedent. and there seems to be absolutely no remorse from this administration, and that's fucking terrible.

That's what I have to say. I don't know what you guys are thinking. I mean, yeah, I agree there's not much more than to add to other than to say that also, if it's true, the letter that was sent allegedly by A.G. Pam Bondi to the,

I believe it's to the governor of Minnesota, saying that we'll pull up. out ice if you give us access to among other things voter data or something like that. Yeah. Voter rolls. That's just, it's just ridiculous. It's absolutely horrific that it's a quid pro quo, uh, quid, quid pro quo, uh, thing when people's lives are being taken.

Um, and not just, not just killed, you know, but also you're, you're ripping families apart. Um, we could do this all day. But, you know, um, like you said, I'm all for. border controls immigration controls things like that but stop throwing in my face that you're ripping you're taking out the worst of the worst when that is obviously not the case you may be ones and twos you're getting some you know murders pedophiles things like that but overall it's not the worst of the worst

you're just ripping anyone who looks different from you out and D you and I talked about this before we started taping my children are of mixed heritage mixed race and they could pass. They've been mistaken for Hispanic. And so my daughters have, they're both grown, but I have grandfills and they're like, what are we supposed to do if we get approached? And, you know, it's a conversation that we have been having ongoing. And yeah, it's just it's terrifying that we're at this point. And so, I mean, you're right. We usually talk about national security and global issues. Do you think there is aspects of this as national security. So, yeah, I'm a guy who believes that we should have an absolutely secure order.

Every other country does, including the countries that people are coming here from, by the way. They secure their own border. So we should have to apologize that, and I do think this open border concept was a big mistake. I also don't think that there should ever be a thing called sanctuary cities. And I don't think they should be able to exclude yourself from federal law now anymore than, you know, Birmingham could exclude itself from federal civil rights laws in the 1960s, right? You just don't get to do that. That said, I think it's kind of irrelevant to what we're talking about today. Because whether you agree or disagree with all that, I would just ask people for both sides. Yeah, obviously, I know a lot of people

from the whites out of hell. Just watch it. Take all the politics out of it. Watch the video. And if you're okay with that happening in your hotel, to somebody you know, regardless of whatever they were protesting, what they were protesting, then I question whether you're being truth in yourself. That was clearly to me, somebody who's been in issues of apprehension, at least the military side. Far beyond it was necessary

and completely not consistent with what the authorities said happened. You could just watch it, just watch it. So I would just ask people to do that and then start holding, holding the officials responsible for their actions and what they're doing to innocent civilians. And just labeling domestic terrorism is without even an investigation

is something you never put up with if it was being done to you. Other than that, oh, the other aspect, you know, as a guy who's a gun owner of a lot of people who are very fervently Second Amendment rights advocates, that are both friends and family, the idea that just because you're carrying a gun all of a sudden in FERS that you were going to go out or do mass murder,

right? It's patently against everything you've ever said on the Second Amendment. It's the excuse of he shouldn't have been there with a gun. You know, I'm going to go to somewhere that's you, you yourself or this, the current administration is labeling as a war zone, you know, I'm going to go out. Whether he was going to work, nobody knows why he was there. whether he's going to work or just going down there to film and protest he has the right to a to carry that gun wherever he goes that's legal whether or not you know you agree that he shouldn't have been there is irrelevant he was there and he was legally carrying a firearm plaintiff so they can take that excuse and throw it out i would just hope that all americans would want for other americans as the same rights they demand which is the right for free speech protest in this case possess a firearm lawfully, right? So if you're only for that when it comes to you or your political

side, then you're actually not for the right. Yeah. Okay. So that's, that's all I would say on that. And it, it was hard to watch yesterday. There needs to be, there, this needs to change fast. And that, and there needs to be justice for that. Who you're right. I mean, even if he was a bad person, although this person seems like he was really a good person. It doesn't matter. But he was also a VA nurse, right? Yep. So that's not the America.

We should, we should, uh... Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, well said. I mean, we can move off this. It's just crazy what's going on. I can't, honestly, can't believe this is America. You know, two-way, too.

I mean, I am for a person's right to own a gun lawfully. Like, I'm for that and protect themselves if they need to. So if you guys were on a call, like, anybody out there wanted to call me a shit lib or something like that, it's like, dude, I'm for all of the, all of the bill of rights. You know what I mean? From the first to the second to the fourth, all of them that have been been getting trampled on in Minnesota. And I mean, I'm against murder, too. you know so there's that the last thing i'll say on it is if we're going to keep bringing this into a geopolitical um arena our enemies are watching this and they're taking notes and they're probably in

some way shape or form helping to foment this so if you don't think that this spills out past our borders then you're absolutely wrong it does have geopolitical ramifications yeah all right so Moving on, we had an eventful week. We had the World Economic Forum happening last week. Trump had a weird kind of rambly speech. Low energy, too, I would say. It was an odd one. But the big headline that came out of there is like,

we're not going to go into Greenland with our military. Like we're not going to take over Greenland. And then there was some statements being made about, like, NATO and our NATO partners and how like they haven't done much and all that. They had back, they did backtrack a little bit from that because, you know, you can look it up, you know, every country that fought with us for the most part lost guys in Afghanistan and Iraq. And to talk like that towards them is, again, kind of embarrassing and kind of disgusting, really,

right because the only reason they were mostly there was because they had our backs right article 5 was only ever invoked after 9-11 um so to talk about our NATO allies like that is kind of crazy and it's playing like we've talked about it before it's playing completely into Putin's hands into jingingping's hands because if I'm him I'm like yeah I'm going for Taiwan like right if I'm them I'm going for Taiwan in this term because it's clear that the U.S. isn't really interested in, like, helping allies. So on to you guys. What do you think about what went down in the world economic form and generally this whole Greenland issue? Yeah.

So, I mean, start on the positive. Yeah, I'm reaching here. It doesn't look like we're going to military invade the Greenland. So good. I actually don't think that was ever going to happen. I don't think the military would do. And I think the Senate would have stepped in. And I don't even.

But, you know, we have to deal with what's being said. And that's what, that's why it was such an issue. I would point out again, and I know people have, but it's a word, not only is NATO the most, I think, significant military alliance history. And I just did a podcast. We talked about military alliance going back to ancient Greece. For us, it's also been for the promotion and the endurance of democracy. Right. That is what NATO has done. We had an alliance going into World War II. We beat fascism. We created NATO and after World War II, we beat communism. Right. And guess what? Autocracies have not got

away. We can see what Russia is doing to Ukraine right now. And there's a reason why they didn't want them to join NATO. Because if they had joined NATO, this wouldn't be happening. So it is as relevant today as it ever was. It's important for the United States. It's important for our key allies in Europe. Yes, they had been delinquent in their own security. I don't think they're going to do that again. So I think mostly because of the actions of Russia,

that we will come out of this with a stronger data. And it's important. So I'd highlight that. The idea that we need Greenland, I know we talked about it last week, so I'll labor it. But we have a treaty that goes back to 1951. I'm sure they, everything that we want to do, not only could we do, but we're not even doing it now. So if this was such an issue, why do we only have 150 troops and one base?

We could have 20 bases with however many troops, plus naval assets, plus air and missile defense, the Iron Dome. I mean, there's really nothing that prevents us from doing that now. it's clear that, you know, there isn't a structure for us to own even parts of Greenland, that Denmark, Greenland, and even root the NATO, who doesn't have any authority to grant any of that, said they never talked about it. So that's not even a thing. So maybe we should get back to just having real discussions with our NATO allies about how we can best posture herself to defend ourselves and to really capitalize on the Arctic, which is going to be an entirely new world

that makes a world a much smaller place, the passages that can get through there now and will be in the future. There is a lot of rare earth minerals. I'm told by people who do rare earth minerals, the reason why they're not there exploiting it now is it's not economically viable. It will be,

but there's no restriction of them now. Like the Denmark and Greenland would invite everybody that wants to come poor money into their economy. Right? So as soon as they are, it is economically viable. They're being there. So I do agree with the strategic important of Greenland. There's so many different ways to go about it. Now, last thing I'd say about the Davos, and I know it was an off-hand comment, but those things have consequences. The idea that our allies just kind of, you know, we're in the rear with the gears, It's just not accurate. I went on BBC radio.

I'm not allowed to do it, ABC TV. SBS, S-A-S-S-G guys. And I felt compelled because, you know, you already said it, D. The only time in history, Article 5 is for us. And those guys went in gals from our data countries, went and sat in Afghanistan and Iraq, by the way. I mean, think about in their mind, it's like, how did I end up in Phileism?

Right? because of 9-11, right, for 20 years, 20 years. Denmark, for example, had higher per capita casualties in the United States, or at least close to the same, right? Great Britain, UK, I looked it up, 457, you know, lost their life in service to the defense of the alliance, right? and we should all be thankful for that. And if anything positive comes out of it, I hope every American reads the graph of the ultimate sacrifice of all of our, and Canadians.

But, I mean, it's really important that you honor those that came to our aid entirely. And every American should understand that. Maybe take the time to thank one of our allies. Yeah, I agree with everything. And I would also add that sticks and stones aside, words, especially on the geopolitical stage, have meaning and effect. And what goes around comes around.

So what happens if we have another 9-11 attack or anything where we call on, we invoke Article 5, and the leader and leaders, the NATO leaders in power at that time, have to pause and say, well, hold on now. There was a time where we weren't, you know, we were nothing to you guys. we were the lesser ally and that hesitation is just enough to cause more damage. So, you know,

wards have power. So plain and simple. Yeah. Especially if they're coming out of like, you know, administration officials, mouths. Yeah.

You know, you guys were there. You know what I mean? You saw like our NATO allies and coalition allies doing the work and stuff like that. So, yeah,

it's kind of fucking ridiculous to be to even broach this and it's kind of been like a little bit of like a micro thread for a long time that like that our allies didn't do anything in Afghanistan and Iraq and it's like an absolute joke to even start to even think of that as a realistic thing like a reality because it's not it's the farthest from the truth um all right um anything else pop off from Davos I mean It's also a circle jerks. Yeah, I saw that, yeah.

Yeah. Carney gave a heck of a speech. Yeah, he had a good speech. His speech was awesome. It seems to have upset the Trump administration a little bit. Also, like there's talks about a trade deal being locked in or signed with China and Canada. At first, the administration was like, that's fine. You can get a deal.

and now he's again threatening 100% tariffs on Canadian stuff if they sign a trade deal with China. Frankly, the whole, I mean, I'm not an economist, but the whole tariff deal about like, you know, trying to give it to China and give it to the rest of the world, China posted a over $1 trillion trade surplus for the first time.

It's like 1.2 or 1.3 trillion, the biggest in history. trade between the U.S. and China's down close to 30%, but their overall trade is up 6%. So we're not exactly giving it to them really good here. And at the end result is we're just paying more money for shit. So I'm not an economist. You want a trade deal with China too, right? So why wouldn't Canada?

Yeah. Yeah, Carney was a, you know, he was a bank executive. This guy is, he knows what he's deal. He was in the air for like a month, I think, going around signing deals left on me. So, I mean, as you guys might know, my Stoic podcast, but he's Canadians. I hear a lot, and I get a lot of there. Carney propaganda. That was some.

Yeah, we'll see what happens. I mean, like you mentioned, Jay, about, like, lose, you know, if we ever need to invoke Article 5, would our allies come to our defense, you know. I think if you're a European leader right now in a NATO country, I don't know if you're betting all your, you know, betting the house on the fact that the U.S. is coming to back you up. If they invoked Article 5, if Russia went into Poland or Estonia or Latvia or Lithuania, you know, any of those little like Baltic states,

I wouldn't bet the house on that. Not now. Going to be honest. I would bet that. God, please. I will say, though, I do believe my heart of hearts that if it was invoked, if we invoked it today, that they would back us. You know, I'm sure there'd be some strong words and some,

do you better remember this, but I really have faith in those leaders that they would. Can I say it would go the other way around? I mean, the fact that I have to question it right now is just speaks for itself. And it is the law of the land, though. I mean, the obligation of the treaty is under the supremacy, is our uncle said something. Supremacy clause.

It's the Constitution and treaties the United States but the Supreme Laws of Land. So it doesn't actually technically, it's not even it's not an option. Right?

It's like saying, I don't want to really fall the Constitution. I don't we already have that discussion, but we have an obligation to defend our allies. If we don't want to be allies anymore, I think that would be a horrible mistake,

but there's actually a process to do to get out of the truth. And it takes a year. So because people, the ability to try to make up for us. And then by the way, we would actually have to spend more on our defense, right? Because then we're alone. So there's a fiction, I think, the idea that we pay them for their security. The obligation is to pay for your own defense, which even if we were a warrant inside NATO,

we'd actually pay more for our own defense outside of it. Because they are a significant military force. I know we always compare them to the United States, and they're going to get even more significant. They are spending a lot of money on their own defense for their own reasons, and I think at the end they're going to be way better off for. But we would be way better off being in an alliance with them. Yeah, totally agree. All right. Speaking about some military spending, we're, you know, there's an aircraft carrier group steaming towards the,

Gulf, I'm guessing, to see what's going to, you know, I guess to potentially hit Iran, you know, everyone knows over the last few weeks. I think the end of December, there's been protests and they've killed a lot. The regime has killed a lot of people there. Things have seemed to calm down slightly the last week or so in terms of protests and the regime killing folks. I mean, they're still doing it, but it's not as an alarming rate as it was a couple weeks ago.

There was talk we were going to hit Iran. Before that, President Trump came out and said, you know, that he's going to, if you kill anybody, they're going to, we're going to hit him. Now we see the actual hardware going towards the Gulf. What are we looking for? There's like a big talk online about, like, who's for it, who's not for it. Seems to be like a pretty, a split. I mean, I could pull up the list or whatever, but Mick, what do you track in which?

this. So I've seen the same list and been told that that is accurate by people have made them. But the one side of the list for it seems to be the vice president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of defense. Yeah. Those are kind of the, and if you add in the CIA director, I think you'd have the most, I mean, that's the main part of the national security part of the captain, right? So the question is, yeah, so definitely major, major movement of assets. It's the USS Abraham Lincoln's Carrier Strike Group. There's different reports on where it is. I think within a week it will be within the AO.

They don't need it right upon. Ron, that's actually a bad place for whatever. Yeah. And then the USS George Bush is in the head. I don't know if they need that to come down or not, or they can reach it from where they are. There's destroyers coming. The flow of aircraft, somebody just sent me out that's like the details.

it's pretty massive. So I guess the question is, have we already made the decision? Because this costs money, right? Yeah. And, you know, we're going to get into the NDS. It's kind of against the national security strategy and national defense strategy. But, okay, it's happening anyway. So the question is going to be this.

And it's the same question we talked about before. Is this about supporting the protesters? with strikes against the security apparatus, the IRGC besiege force. Question to the intel community. Is this going to help them? I'm going to do them. Question to the intel committee or community. If we're successful and the regime is either decapitated or flees, what's coming next?

Right. And what are we going to do to try to shape that? So it's like a Nobel Prize winning opposition leader, vice, the head of the IRGC, maybe worse. than the Supreme Leader. These are questions we'll have to find out. And then is it also going to take a shot at the nuclear facilities? Because, I mean, I don't know. I don't have access to classified material.

But are they trying to rebuild their nuclear nuclear? So is this going to be both? But it's certainly, and then, of course, you have Admiral Cooper, who's in Israel, which is kind of the telltale sign. In the future, they might want to just video conference because every time the Sent Comp commander goes to Israel, like, here we go. Yeah. And I think it's, so it looks like we're headed toward it, for sure.

We'll have to see what the actual actions are. The people are against it, unless you've seen the list. I've also heard that a lot of the special envoys like Whitkoff and Kushner are against. They're against it. Turkey's against, Saudi Arabia is against it. Israel, obviously, for it. And there was a couple Another UAE for it.

Yeah. I mean, I don't understand the point besides getting headlines. And I could totally, it makes sense that the George Bush is in the med because like we're going to have to protect Israel. If they start shooting a bunch of rockets over there. So that's assuming why it's there. One more point that I left out though. in addition to getting ready to strike, it might also be to pressure of the regime to come back to the negotiation date. So Iran doesn't need 60% of emergency uranium.

That's not for civilian purposes. They've actually, not that I'm advising them, but I would say, look, either don't at all go for a nuclear weapon, get rid of the sanctions so your economies are collapsing. and I hope they don't do this or go for a nuclear weapon. But you're doing the worst. You're like right in the middle. You're doing stuff that indicates you want to go for a nuclear weapon, but you're not, but gives us all the excuse, and I think it's valid, to strike the facility, but you don't have a nuclear weapon, right?

So they have picked the worth path, and that is where they find themselves. So hopefully they come to the table, agree to the Trump administration's demands on access, because we don't trust them at all, not to go for a nuclear weapon, and limitations on a ballistic missile and stopping support proxy forces, which is obviously horrendous for the region. So if they agree with that, they could have all those sanctions relief. The Iranian people are incredibly innovative, smart, prosperous people. If they were allowed to compete on the global economy, they would do well. They wouldn't have an economy. They would have, I don't think, would have an economic issue. So that's the last part I left out, which is, I think, one of the key parts.

could come from it. Jay? No, I mean, nothing else to say. I mean, as far as the nuclear facet is, like you just said, they're an ingenuity prosperous, very intelligent people. They could use that for clean energy, but it would have to obviously be based on history. It would have to be observed, closely observed. And if they can agree to that, then, you know,

they could definitely prosper. You guys really think it's about the nuclear stuff right now? I think that's a part of it. Part of it, sure. I don't know if it's like the big part of it. I mean, and frankly, like, you know, 60% of rich uranium if you take out a Supreme leader and like, you know, there's a huge vacuum there who fucking controls that? Does it go out of that door?

Right. Yeah. Yeah, about what guarantees do we have that we take it all out? Or at least it's inaccessible, you know? That's also too why we have to have. have a what's next in place before we do any of this because you know great we have a smoking hole in the ground but if we don't know what we're going to do there is there is no what's next bro yeah come on yeah it's should be honest yeah that should be the first thing you're thinking

about if you're literally thinking to taking out an entire fucking yeah uh leadership structure of an regime right i just there's no i don't understand we're really good at blowing shit up right second to none right by far. But like what comes after is a fucking disaster all the time, every time. And he told me, like, if the Shah, like Machado was going to come in on a white horse and be raised up in Tehran as the new, or anybody, or it's going to be, they're going to have democratic elections.

That's never, that does not happen, ever. Like, let's call a spade of spade here. So just blowing up a bunch of shit, like, I don't understand what that does for us. Yeah. I agree. As a layman. Maybe it just to mitigate the nuclear threat. But if that's the case, I mean, not that you're taking advice for me, I think I would talk about.

Like, if they have information that they're racing toward a nuclear weapon, which, I mean, they might be. Then it's probably time to start talking about it. You don't think they would have already, man. Come on. I mean, Netanyahu's been on that trail since 2000, fucking two or whatever. Or even 96. Like, if we, you know, the same thing we did with, like, Russia and Ukraine, like, we put out. the information, right, to, like, try and stop last-ditch effort to try, like, hey, we know

you're coming in, so don't do it, maybe. I understand that tactic, right? I totally get it, but it, they, first off, they definitely don't have, we, we have to have intelligence that knows, like, where they're at exactly in terms of their nuclear program. Right. So, and let's not forget, the only time they didn't have enriched uranium or they had it to a specific number was when they were in the JCPOA. So if that's the actual goal here,

maybe diplomacy before blowing shit up makes sense. I mean, I don't know. I know like the regime is fucking disgusting and what they've been doing the last month is as fucking abhorrent and unforgivable. But yeah, what comes next? Like we live in a reality here. We live in a, you know, and there are analysts at the agency and state, I'm sure, that are like X, XYZ is like.

to happen, you know. So they have a good idea of who's going to take over and all that stuff because they can't take out everybody. So I don't know. I just wish there was an actual fucking plan here. That's all. They got to start talking about it because nobody's, because so much stuff with the news, right? Yeah.

Nobody's focused on it now except for like small clip and said, hey, you know, we've got a massive armada going to the Middle East. Right, right. And we might wake up, I don't know, Tuesday and get ready to. again. Yeah. I just have limited military insurance.

That's what. Yikes. All right. We'll keep an eye on it, obviously. The NDS. What are you tracking with that? So the NDS, so the way it works, in a way it's working this time,

but always you have a national security strategy, which is done, basically at the White House level. So every, every department and agency has a say, especially obviously state and DOD and. and treasury. You know, it's economic as well as security and intelligence. It's like way broader. Yeah, very broad, very broad.

We saw that. We already talked about that. It came out. Yeah. And then from that, then there's a national defense strategy, which is still in the policy. So it's a policy for the events. Then after that, you have the national military strategy.

So it's the implementation all the way down to where the rubber hits the road. And that's the uniform. military's plan to implement the national defense strategy. I worked on this stuff when I was. So the national defense strategy, as you expect, and it should be, but they agreed with the national security strategy, but the NDS would definitely agree with our strategy is or its whole discombobligating. So it is consistent with the national security strategy,

which is the primary focus. They call them lines of effort, it's a military term, of course. The first line of effort is defense of the homeland, and essentially, I don't think it used a term dominating. That's what they intend, dominating the Western Hemisphere. Like, this is us. That's where you get the idea of like we're going to take over Venezuela. It looks specifically on the Panama Canal as basically ours.

That might not be fair, but it's definitely the first lot of effort is directly from the National Security Strategy. We are going to focus primarily on our own hemisphere. and homoan defense and securing the border, etc. The second is the Indo-Pacific. But it is deterrence, not by confrontation, but by denial, I think it was deterrent. I don't, sorry, I don't have the stuff in front of me here. But it does come across to me

as lesser of a confrontation with China than we have in past national security strategies and defense strategies. before we at least left it strategically ambiguous of whether we defend Thailand. I mean, Taiwan. Taiwan. It doesn't say that we're going to. In fact, the way I read it, it's like, because the third problem is pushing a lot of responsibility off to our partners for their own defense. And that includes in the Indo-Pacific, South Korea is responsible for Korea, North Korea.

I understand why we would want them to do more. I do think there's been this reliance. Oh, my big brother's United States. Oh, I got this covered. But to have it as a strategy really since, I think the wrong message to our adversaries, right? So China's going, oh, so they're just telling South Korea that, you know, you got this from here?

That means they're not going to be there when it counts. That's how I'd read it about China. And I would definitely read that, oh, we really need to start amping up our readiness to go and take Taiwan. And I think it's less likely after reading this strategy, defense, and national strategy, that the U.S. would do. And then the fourth, which on a positive note, I would agree with, but I think every strategy has this, which is to build up the manufacturing capacity of the United States, not just

in shipbuilding, which I had a long conversation about somebody who knew this stuff, and says the U.S. is so woefully behind to that. But just the capacity to wage war we don't have in the United States. Like we could even keep up with Ukrainians using our RTIRALs, right? And, of course, all the modern technologies that are emerging to give us that they call the offset. Right. But AI, quantum computing, automated systems, all those things. So the fourth line of effort is that. So some things I think everybody would agree with, but it does, I think, ultimately send a message out there that the U.S. is going to be less engaged in the world is going to focus primarily on our homeland security and that we are not necessarily going to be as active with our alliances.

I mean, you know what I think, guys, you know what I think. It's bad shit. It's like, okay, let's not have a $1 trillion budget then. Yeah. Why do we have it? Right? If we're just staying in our neck of the woods and beating on like the little guys, Venezuela, Cuba, you know, is on the crosshairs. You know, countries that can't fucking defend the fucking, you know, flagpole against us.

What do we have 12 carecrack carriers for? What the fuck is the point? why do we have a $1 trillion budget for a defense? Again, intelligence, just defense. Yeah, if we're just focusing on. Yeah, yeah, I saw that to $1.5 trillion. A little bit more money for the Pentagon to not be able to pass an audit outside of the Marines. Okay, my ability, right?

Didn't we pass an audit twice? Yeah. Good. I mean, Mick, this is your career, right? You've done this, you know, since you were in- I can't pass an audit. I don't even have a check, but. No, I mean, you've been in national security since you've been in diapers, essentially.

Right, this is your career. What are your thoughts on this? So, I mean, you guys know I'm more of a Reagan-type Republican. I believe the United States should be the leader of the free world. I think we're the most capable nation to do that. I think we're the indispensable nation. And that's responsibility. It's not accolades. It's not to

our own horror. I just think we have the capability to do that. We emerged as that after World War II. Right? You know, from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Reagan up until today, we are the ones that I think

we had allies. They were incredibly important. But I think we always serve that place. I think we shouldn't want to as Americans. I mean, most Americans, that's part of our identity. right, the shiny city on the hill, the ones that, that promote the fledgling democracies around the world, not just because it's the right thing to do, because it is, but also because who are they going to pair with? Other democracies, who are they going to trade with?

Free trade, right? We used to be for free trade, too. So I do think there's, there is a strong element of the U.S. political, structural. that still believes on the right and the law but certainly on the right it's just it just needs to re-emerge. I think that needs to. I don't make it the other side an enemy. It's just a disagreement, but I do think that there needs to be Reaganist, not just to put his picture on but I'm focusing on Reagan because he seems to be a unifier now. You might not have any infighted when he's president but you talk to anybody now and they're like, oh yeah,

And it wasn't just because he was a really good guy, but also because he kind of really epitomized. He had the ability to say it in a way that Americans were super proud of what we had done to defend against. We, you know, we had a lot of allies. We already had that conversation. But, you know, the U.S. did a lot to fight against and defeat fascism to stem the tide of communism. Right. That is where I think the U.S.

shines. And it's benefited the U.S. too. So it's good for the world. It's good for the... Yeah. I mean, listen, I'm not a big Reagan guy, clearly. I mean, I have read that he was like a genuinely nice person and that's great. And, you know, I totally have, you know, respect his views.

But yeah, I wish there was a fucking Reagan Republican in office right now. I'm going to be completely honest with you, dude. You know, because, yeah, we've defeated fascists. but so it seems to be alive and well in this country, to be honest, to go back to how we opened it. Yeah, so a lot happening as usual. There's never like a slow fucking day, week. I swear to God, it's like enough is enough.

Can we have like a good week where like things don't fucking blow up? What do you guys? Anything else you want to finish off with? You tell me. Does anybody have a good thing? series to watch because every time I start watching a series to your point D, the news happens, somebody texts me and I got to turn off and we yeah, because we're stuck in our hotel in DC then everything's kind of locked down. Have you watched the pit? I have not. Is that good?

So that's the medical. Amazing. Yes, absolutely amazing. And talking to actual ER docs, they say it's the closest thing since the show ER back in the early 90s or whatever. Yeah. is it's as close as you're going to get. It's amazing. Yeah, I really like. I have a suggestion also. It's not a full series. Like, it's not an ongoing.

It's like a mini series or a limited series. It's called The Beast in Me. Really good. Heard about that. It's on Netflix. It's with the guy who played, uh, was in the Americans, the dude in the Americans. And Claire Daines. If you can get past Claire Dane's like really expression filled face, it's a very, it's

very good. series. It's funny you talking about Claire Williams because we're watching Homeland. I've seen it before a bunch of times, but we're re-watching it. Like, when I first started watching it, Mick, I'm not sure if you've watched it

Homeland. I watched some of it, yeah, like the first season? Yeah, it was so hard to get through the first season because, like, her character, and which, of course, she suffers from severe bipolar disorder, but like, cried at the drop of the hat and, like, her expressions, like, there's

What is that term, ugly cry? It drove me up a wall. It took me a little loud. Yeah, she has that a bit in this. She's actually pretty good. But once you push past that, like, it's a really good series. Yeah. And it's like five, it's like six episodes, I think.

So it's digestible. Check it out. It's on my list. It's literally the first. Only two of my list. Yeah. Do us a favor. They're going to have an intelligence and security summit in Whitefish in April.

Check that. out the link is in the description Mick Mulroy of Koshalobo Fogbo those links are into description his podcast the pub in the porch applied stoicism with Adam Piercy great a great pod

links are all in the description Jason Lyons links are in the description Andy Milburn links are in the description support the show Patreon.com slash the team house you get both eyes on episodes and team house episodes ad free and early and you help support the show generally

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