Have We Learned the Lessons of War? Viet Nam Vet Dick Price Has Thoughts

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By b LAA Talk fifteen eighty. War to the East,
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War to the West. That's where we are right now
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in the world. A lot of it has to do
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with the United States of America. I fear and I
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have someone in the studio that can help us with
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add and other issues. He's a long time publisher, Vietnam
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vett and anti war activist, and he is In two
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thousand and eight, along with his wife, he launched the
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LA Progressive. Their mission to provide a platform for progressive thought, opinion,
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and perspectives on current events. They do an amazing job
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of it.
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Dick Price, welcome, Thank you so much for inviting me
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to talk. My wife Sharon and I love our involvement
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with your show and love the times that we get
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to come here and say something.
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Oh yeah, well, we love the LA Progressive. You know,
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you guys just really every single day serve up a
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rich buffet of knowledge.
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Yeah. We've published every day. We published a newsletter with
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at least three to five to eight articles every day
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for the last eighteen years. Wow, it's what It's the
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way we contribute in what are increasingly difficult times. It's
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also a thing that Sharon and I can do together,
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which makes it especially nice. And we sit at our
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desks side by side all day long and it makes
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for a nice relationship.
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Oh, that's wonderful. You know, sometimes you got to really
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love each other because sometimes working together is not easy.
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But it sounds like you guys make it look easy.
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Yeah. Yeah, we remark on that. We say, you know,
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I don't know, we're built out a different kind of
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timber or something that a lot of couples would would
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not do this, And I don't know why we can.
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It isn't necessarily the things that we did before in
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our lives, but we fell into it and we keepers
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spirits up and it's good. It's good for us.
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Oh, you guys are your on purpose right? So you
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are a Vietnam veteran.
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Yes, I was. I was a troubled kid. I was
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at an Ivy league college, not doing well, drinking a
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lot which lasted for a while, and out of desperation,
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I volunteered to join the army, which some would say
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might not have been the smartest move in nineteen sixty.
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Eight, But you did.
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I did. I did, I did, I did, and I
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got the basic training and the drill sargeants ran the
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booze out of me, and I got my head about
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me and I and I tried to be a good soldier,
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and I went to Vietnam and I was wounded, and
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the thing that, you know, I knew it was a
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crappy war. But when I got on the ground in
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the Maykong Delta and I saw, I saw, we were
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out there with a bunch of farmers, rice farmers. And
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I've been worked on my uncle's dairy farm in northern Minnesota,
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and I recognize who they were. Certainly they did a
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different kind of farming, and they looked different than me.
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But they just looked like a bunch of hard working
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people doing their best to have a life. And here
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we were bombing their damned villages, running our tanks through
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their rice fields for what was apparently no good purpose.
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It wasn't serving those people out in those rice fields.
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It probably was serving some people. I didn't see wealthy
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people in Saigon and so forth, And it twisted my
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head from the very start. I mean, I came very
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early at eighteen nineteen not to believe in my government
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very much, not to believe what people were telling me.
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To be skeptical, which I think has stood me in
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good stead. I mean, you know, because so one of
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the hardest days I ever had was the day of
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Shakunaw when we bombed back Dad and the television screen
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and all these great munitions were blowing up buildings, and
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the newscasters and the politicians were cheering, what a wonderful
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thing we were doing. And I was thinking, God, did
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we learn nothing from Vietnam, you know? And now we've
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done it with Iran too. We thought we were going
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to well Trump thought he was going to go drop
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a bunch of bombs on Tehran and they would roll
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over and do what he wanted, just like we thought
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would happened in Baghdad. Well Bagdad, You know, it launched
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a twenty year war that decimated our country in many ways.
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You know that in Afghanistan we don't talk about health
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care for all because we were spending all our money
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on warfare and we're trying to do it again. And
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that's not by accident because of the people who who
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the money. People who run the country don't want contests,
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working on social programs. They don't want a quality. They
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may want to say the words sometimes sometimes, but they'd
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rather have a big military in eight hundred bases around
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the country. And it's just sad that we've organized ourselves
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that way.
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When you say that the war in Iraq, for example,
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in Afghanistan decimated our country, what do you mean by that?
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Well, on one level, I mean, I think it tore
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at our sense of ourselves. Here we were taking these
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two countries and killing how many hundreds of thousands of people. Now, true,
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we learned from Vietnam not to put so many of
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our own soldiers in harms way. We lost fifty thousand
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killed in Vietnam and only something like five or eight
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thousand in the Twenty Years Wars. But we killed hundreds
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of thousands of local people, brown people that we don't
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care about, And I think that did something to our psyche.
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I think too that being at war for so long
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and then now again, people are numb to it. Yeah,
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you know, they just don't care. You know, it's in
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the news so much they turn it off. Even people,
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even well meaning people who want to do right things
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by the country. It gets to be too much, right, I.
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Mean, it's even hard to keep track of it all
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because now we have Iran, we have Gaza, Right, there's
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a war going in Ukraine, and that's not counting all
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the unofficial bombings that we do, the bombings we're doing
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in Africa and other parts of the globe. It's hard
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to even keep track of it. I mean, I read about,
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you know, World War Two, and it was the war effort,
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and it was this big thing where it was centered
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as an event. And I think about the Vietnam War,
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and you know, the protests that went on, and in
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some case this is the unfair vilification of the actual
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soldiers who went and fought right because they were either
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drafted or they.
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Were Yeah, people say about that, you know, about how
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the bad reception. And when I came back, I went
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back to New York City in the heart of the
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protests as a Vietnam veteran. And for a while after
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I came back from Vietnam, I kind of wore my
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old fatigue shirt. I wore being a veteran on my
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sleeve in respect. And now I'm a pretty big guy,
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but I'm pretty peaceful and I didn't get any bed.
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You know, that wasn't your experience at all. No.
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I had two things. One guy that on my wrestling
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team in high school, we came up at a gathering
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in Minnesota and he spun on his heels and turned
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his back at me. And then at New York, my
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best friend in the fraternity I called him up and
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tell him I was back in town, and he slammed
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down the phone. Those were the two bad things. On
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the other hand, I got lots of phone numbers of Bartendra.
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I mean, you know, people understood.
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Yeah, well, as we should. But where I was going
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with that is you got these you know, these eras
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where these wars are a sort of a central national conversation.
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And now where we are now, as you say, as
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you say, we're so desensitized. People can't even keep track
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of who are we bombing, who are we at war with,
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and who are we sending military aid to. And it
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seems like it's also become a profit center for many
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in Washington, where we're giving money to Israel to buy
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weapons from us to bomb the Palestinians. It's not just
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that we're giving their money and they're go shop at
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the swap meet for bombs. You know, a lot of
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that money comes right back here to these big defense corporations,
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does it not?
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Well? So, one of one of our favorite authors One
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of my favorite authors is a lady named Andrea Mazzarino.
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Never met her face to face, we've interviewed around YouTube
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a couple of times. She's current military wife, but she's
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also a therapist dealing with veterans struggling with PTSD, and
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she's a writer, and she's been involved in the Brown
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University Cost of War Project and among the things that
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she's told me that we've spent seven trillion dollars to
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defense contractors since nine to eleven seven. It's hard to
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even know what seven trillion means. Yeah, that's crazy, But
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what that is is there's a whole industry, Dwight Eisenher's
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Military industrial Complex that is organized to make sure we're
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spending lots of money on the military because there's lots
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of money to be made, there's lots of careers to
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be made, and they don't want they wouldn't dream of
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doing away with that. I mean, we have eight hundred
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bases around the country, around the world. Why do we
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have that? Because it costs a lot of taxpayer money
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to support him, and the taxpayer money goes from you
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and I to people running Raytheon and Lockeed Martin and
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all the other big companies and they're making bank So
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why would they ever want to stop.
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Why would they stop seven trillion for defense contractors since
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nine to eleven. If you think about that, it also
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matches with what doctor Juliane Melvo said, which because when
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you talk about defense contractors, you're not you're we're not
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counting all the other expenditures of you know, paying for soldiers,
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paying for transport, all of the other costs of war.
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Dick Price is here. He's the publisher of the LA Progressive.
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No, no, no, no, Sharon is the publisher I work for.
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I'm the editor.
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Oh you're the editor.
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Yeah, yeah, okay.
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The bosses in the other room, we don't want to
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get We don't want to get. Don't want to get
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you in trouble, right right right. There will be a
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performance review that's coming up. It's KBLA Doc fifteen to
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eighty sation. The conversation actually stops. Sorry, you guys didn't
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get to hear the part during news, traffic and sports.
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Dick Price is here. He's the editor of the LA Progressive.
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He's a Vietnam veteran and a peace activist dedicated a
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long time piece activists and does it seem to you
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right now? You know the current I call him the
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Resident because he lives in the White House at least
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at least one day a week, right when he's not
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busy demolishing it. He campaigned on no forever wars, and
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I feel like we have entered a period of multiple
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forever wars.
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Yeah. The mistake people make with the Resident is they
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pay attention to what comes out of his mouth, because
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he doesn't use words to tell, to transmit information, to
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tell the truth. He uses it to gaslight, to manipulate,
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to get his way, to serve his purposes. So I
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mean the poor people that believed anything he said, Oh,
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he was gonna bring Price his way down and it
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would never be another world. Well, who believed that? I'm
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sorry that people did, but I didn't.
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Yeah, well nor did I. Fair point. Molly Bell says
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her brother, Lance Corporal Joseph ray Reynolds, was killed in
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Vietnam in nineteen sixty six. She says, they got telegrams
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from all over. Our brother was Lance Corporal Joseph ray Reynolds.
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We say his name, and she says, thanks to you,
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Dick Price. I'm sure you must have lost friends, and.
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Yeah, I mean that's a thing that stuck with me.
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You know, I was in combat for a while, seven months,
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and I saw people get killed guys, and I think
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it's part of what my wife calls my PTSD. But
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I can replay the loop of watching Private John Houston
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walk ahead of me in a file of soldiers and
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jump across this little little irrigation ditch, just as six
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other people before him had done. Only he happened to
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jump right on a booby trap artillery shell that blew
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him to bits right in front of me. And I
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can replay that. I can replay that, and it's said.
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I mean, he was a good young kid from east
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East Saint Louis who kept his nose in the Bible
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and was doing what he thought our country asked of him.
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He did what our country asked of him, and I
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just our country asked him to do some damn stupid stuff.
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Do you think that we you talk about becoming numb
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to the wars themselves? Do you think that we understand
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the consequences of war?
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I think some of us too, and I work at
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it because I have a art for for for soldiers
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and what goes on. But it's very it's it's overwhelming,
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and and and and on on design in this the
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Residence administration, it's to throw one thing every day, one
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one atrocity, one stupid thing every day, so much so
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that you can eventually, unless you're getting paid, you give
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up and you go on and do you know, you
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zone out on it. It's a great strategy. It's a
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great strategy, and it's terrible for the country. Yes, I
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don't think. I don't think we spend nearly enough time, uh,
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taking responsibility for the absolute destruction of Gaza. Some would
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call it genocide, do I mean, yeah, you don't have
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to argue about the term. It is mass slaughter, right,
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And the blood is on our hands because we paid
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for the bombs, we played for the jets, We gave
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the authority to do that we did, and now we're
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trying to do the same thing and Iran. We bomb Yemen,
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and there is a grave threat that Yemen may invade
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San Francisco. I mean, why are we doing yeah, right right.
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The coffee they'll invade and set up coffee shops everywhere, right, Yeah,
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it's I guess the reason I asked that is because
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hearing you talk about seeing people die, and you gave
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us one example. I can't imagine that it didn't profoundly
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change you as a human being.
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Absolutely absolutely, And that's why I paid. You know, I
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wasn't a professional soldier and I didn't join any veterans group.
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But it's in my head when these things happened. She said,
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wait a second. You know we're launching this, that and
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the other. Well, we're putting young the lives of a
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lot of young people in jeopardy, and we're going to
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spend some of those lives and we're going to fill up.
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You know, others are going to get injured, and and
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and the chicken hawks who make the decisions in DC,
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they don't care about that. They care about their career
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and you know, getting holding on to their offices. And
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it's a sad way to do business.
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What do you think about this? Whatever it is they're doing,
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they're automating the draft, automating well, I should say registration,
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like for the military service. Do you think that means
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anything or it's just.
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So I volunteered for the draft. If we weren't in
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the business of having wars all the time, we wouldn't
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have a draft. I actually think. You know, some countries,
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Israel and Norway and Switzerland, every young person is required
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to devote one year. I think it is to public service.
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It can be the military, it could be the Peace Corps,
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it could be something. And I think that's that's something
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to consider. I think people are we're so fragmented that
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I think we're losing the sense that we're in the
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business of making as good as we making America as
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good as we can. I don't I don't think most
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people see it that way anymore. It's it's make my
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little group of people have the most powered.
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Yeah, someone couldn't stay on the phone. Folks are on
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the way to work right now. But they asked, if
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you have an opinion, what's your opinion about the Greater
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Israel conflict? And I don't know if I'm assuming that
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they're they're talking about the widening scope of that that
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conflict in the Middle East. As you know, Israel goes
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after surrounding.
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States, sure with with the residents, okay and support they are,
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they're heaving their way. They are destroying their reputation and
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they're trying to take over accompanying lands and with little
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regard for the people that they push out of the.
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Way, or any love in the West Bank.
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All the different in Gaza, yeah, and all of Palestine.
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It's terribly sad. But the thing is, we Americans have
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to take responsibility because the people, whether we like it
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or not, that we elected to represent us have supported that.
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Right with our money. But it seems that, at least
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from recent stuff that I'm reading, that US public opinion
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is changing around Gaza and around Israel in a way
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that's making some corporate democrats very very nervous. But in
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a way that could I would imagine, I hope, be
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consequential for where we're doling out our dollars in the future.
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You would like to think so. But the people who
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are in favor of expanding Israel's influence have a lot
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of money and they put a lot of it into
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a lot of campaigns. Like the guy in Michigan, El
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Saied So as soon as he won his primary, Apex said, well,
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we'll put sixty million dollars to defeat him. Sixty million,
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sixty sixty million dollars. I mean, you know, that's more
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than all the people in Michigan are going to devote.
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And why would they do that. Well, they don't want
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somebody who's going to get up there and speak for
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the Palestinians or say, you know, you asked, does Israel
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have a right to live? Well, wait a second, does
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Palestine have a right to live? Because that's the question
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El sai Ed says, don't we never ask.
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Dick Price is with us. He's the editor of the
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La Progressive. You can get it by going to La
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Progressive dot com right La.
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Progressor dot com and please do sign up.
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They'll send you a newsletter every day. And they're like
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Nipsey Hustle. They'll take what you are willing to give.
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They pay what you will.
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Or pay nothing. We're looking for readers. I'm sure to
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keep the lights on and the computers running. We need
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a few bucks, but we want people to read what
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the stuff we're putting out.
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LA Progressive dot com will continue the conversation after news,
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traffic and sports only right here. And the La Progressive
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is in the building. Dick Prices here, he's the editor.
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He's also an anti war activist. Any Vietnam veterans, so
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so many wars, so many, like you said, atrocities and
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atrocity a day seems to be the formula. I think
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that's really well said. Meanwhile, the Secretary of Defense aka
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former Fox News junior host, wants one point five trillion
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dollars for our defense budget. And my understanding, this is
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the first time we've gone to a trillion, right.
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Yeah, I think. I think currently it's a bloated budget
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of eight hundred million, and he wants to nearly double it.
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He and the Resident as you call him. Of course
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they do for the reasons I talked about. Because where's
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that money going to go. It's going to go to
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defense contractors, oil companies, difference, Yeah, and a good part
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of it it's going to whip back to the resident's
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kids so they can get grossly wealthy.
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So I mean it, I have to hope. While I
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was looking at this political article where they're saying, oh, well,
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he's getting pushed back from some Republicans, but I feel
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like that's what they just were saying about the attorney general.
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And now they went ahead and this DoD blanche dude,
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and they went ahead and confirmed him, even though he
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said during the hearings that he was the president's personal
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lawyer and he's acted as such.
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Well, so this is a campaign you know, this is
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they're promoting this idea. It might fail. The idea might fail.
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But but if they don't get enough pushback, if in
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the mid terms, not enough opposing progressive Democrats don't don't
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take seats, they'll get away with it. They'll get And
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the consequence is, you know, where where else could we
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be spending that money we could be spent. We could,
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like I mentioned the Brown Project of the cost of
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war project, we could have if we weren't spending all
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that money on defense that we don't need to defend.
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We could have healthcare for all.
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We could have which we desperately need.
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We could have free pre carrier preschool, We could have
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free tuitions like colleges in Europe it's free to go
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to college. Why not here? Well, because we're this dam
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shining city on a hill that's got its head of it.
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But I mean, one point five jillion, you can do
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a lot with that. That's what they want for the
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defense budget.
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Well, so part of it is, you know, a lot
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of this is about Trump's ego, and so one of
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the things is he wants to create this new class
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of battleship with you know, the Trump class of huge battleships.
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Why because the Navy wants it. No, especially not in
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the day of drones. They know the day of battleships
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is over because they can be destroyed by drones. But
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he wants to, like he wants his huge, huge airplane.
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You know, it's all about him, the King Donald you know.
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Yeah, it's it's definitely giving emperor with no clothes. But
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but kind of where it was going is that we
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always hear that Republicans, Oh, Republicans won't go so far
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as to confirm Pete hegseeth. Oh, Republicans with these lame ducks,
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they're pushing back on Todd Blanch. They're not going to
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confirm him. Boom Seth is confirmed. Lance is confirmed. Now, Oh,
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they're not going to pass a one point five trili.
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I don't believe it. I can't understand that a couple
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of these folks are lame ducks because Trump primary them, right,
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so you would think they have nothing to lose. The
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only thing I can think of, Dick, is they've got
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to be in the Epstein files.
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Like no, no, I think, what does he happen when
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what he has on those senators in particular is what
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happens to most senators and when they retire is they
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go over to K Street and they become lobbyists and
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they make big bucks, far more than they made a senator.
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But if they if they offend the Emperor, they'll be
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out and they won't get to do that. So that's
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why they're.
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Doing so their retirement and forever health benefits that they
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get for being in the Senate, it's not enough. They
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want to go grab some more big bucks off K Street,
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so they have to toe the line.
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That's what's going on with those several that caved in
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at the last minute.
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I mean, that's shameful. That's shameful.
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So there's a lot of shameful stuff going on in
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DC right now.
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Yeah, well, and it's not new. I remember my dad
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wrote a poem I can't say at all. It was
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like a really short poem, but there's a cuss word,
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so I can't say the whole thing. On the radio,
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he says, the big the best kept secret about Congress
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is that most of these mfs be drunk. And I
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started thinking about that's the whole poems. But it's like
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they're having five martini lunches and yeah, like you.
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Said, well, some are, and you know, I think I
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think some politicians are really trying to do the best
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they can. I mean, I particularly Haafier Besara was our
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congressman for a long time, for a long time, for
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a quarter of a century, and then he went on
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to be part of the Barack Obama administration and he
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was a decent public servant the whole time.
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And that was you know, the LA Progressive endorsed him,
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and that was actually kind of controversial because many progressives, uh,
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you know, preferred Tom Seyer because he had, I mean,
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he endorsed reparations. He had what appeared to be a
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boldly progressive.
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He talked, he talked a great game, but he had
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never run for an office. He had made his money
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as the head honcho of a company, and he would
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govern like that. It was never about we did this,
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it's as I did this. It's kind of like the
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way the resident is he what his lifetime is. He
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had a failing business, but it was a tiny company
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and he called all the shots and he brought that
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philosophy into into the White House.
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Right and then he had a reality show that made
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it look like he wasn't a failing business man like
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he was actually quite successful. But that what reality TV does,
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It creates illusions. But people bought it.
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So I mean some people. I mean that there's there's
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a there's a cult that that fell in line behind
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him that they had on the news the other day.
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I think Jacob sober Off was was talking to this
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blonde lady in Florida who just, uh Trump, Trump walks
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on water for and I'm looking, how could you think that?
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You know, I don't know.
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Well, yeah, but you know, obviously you guys were correct
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in the fact that he is the nominee for you know,
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he was the front runner in the election, Javier Vessea,
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and so he will go against it.
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Yeah, I know, I know, I know that was was
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controversial and a lot of our friends really pounded on us,
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and I really a few of us stopped contributing, and well.
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Was that controversy. I wasn't aware that it was a shad.
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Stire talked a good game. He might have been a
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good governor, but he had never he'd never he'd never
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run for dog catcher, he'd never been a city council member.
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Who knows what he would do. That was kind of
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the problem. With Graham Platner in Maine. You know, he
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talked a good game too. He was a dynamic, charismatic
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speaker if you ever watched him. But it was an
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empire built on sand. You know, he'd never run for
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anything in his whole life. He'd never led any company,
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and a lot of what he talked about, he talked
477
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about being an oyster man. Well, what he basically did
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is went and got oysters for his rich mom's restaurant,
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which is not exactly the same as being an oyster man.
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But it was the same thing, you know, the same
481
00:28:49.559 --> 00:28:52.119
thing that people fell in behind him. They didn't look
482
00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.119
await a second. This guy's never had an elective office.
483
00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:58.359
How do we know he can do that job.
484
00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:03.319
Yeah. Morris Phillips says, work after office is far more
485
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:07.720
profitable than being in the office. It's institutionalized. Actually, I
486
00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:12.359
do remember Speaker Willie Brown saying that. He says it
487
00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:14.359
in his book Basic Brown, but I heard him say
488
00:29:14.359 --> 00:29:16.960
it in person. Should have got out of politics long
489
00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:21.480
long ago so I could start making some money. To
490
00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:26.599
your point, and the spook who sat behind the door
491
00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:30.519
says that Trump apak forever war is unwinnable and has
492
00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:32.000
no strategy or planning.
493
00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:37.359
What is the way I don't know. That Gaza is decimated.
494
00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:42.000
You say it's a genocide. I agree, But whatever else,
495
00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:46.240
everything is destroyed, so the people who survived are living
496
00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:50.119
in tents. It's kind of a fade to complete at
497
00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.279
this point. I mean, what are we going to do?
498
00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:54.519
So? What's the way forward? I mean we've heard Trump
499
00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:58.039
say Trump Gaza. We heard Jared Kushner, his son in law,
500
00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:03.519
speculating about how it's great beachside property. Probably made me
501
00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:07.880
feel sick because there's people that live there. It's giving Columbus.
502
00:30:07.920 --> 00:30:10.960
You know, oh look what I discovered. But there's just
503
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:15.119
so happens to be people here. So so what is
504
00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:17.920
the way out? I mean, let's say we have Trump Gaza?
505
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:23.839
Do we you know, do we? Then? Are we now
506
00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:28.839
committed to forever budget to so called defend Israel or
507
00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:32.640
defend Trump Gaza? Like there? I do think that this
508
00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:35.559
book has has a point in terms of what's the
509
00:30:35.640 --> 00:30:37.400
exit strategy? Where does it end?
510
00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:42.359
Well? The alternative is for a different set of people
511
00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:46.160
be running the US government and and go in and
512
00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:48.519
spend this money that we're spending on all these eight
513
00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:53.319
hundred military bases and rebuild Gaza for the Palestinian.
514
00:30:53.880 --> 00:30:57.200
For the Palestinians. Not trump Gaza, but the kind of
515
00:30:57.240 --> 00:31:00.480
reparation that we did after World War two or other places,
516
00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:04.160
the Marshall Plan, right, like a Marshall Plan for Gaza.
517
00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:07.720
Yogi Fish says, Obama and Clinton both drop bombs on Africa.
518
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:11.640
Let's not forget the drones. Progressives never condemn them. I
519
00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:14.880
guess you haven't been listening to me long enough, Yogi fish.
520
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.480
I think that the you know, the drone and and
521
00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:24.480
more campaigns, and let's not forget Biden as well, is
522
00:31:24.519 --> 00:31:29.960
something that those of us who are progressives for peace do. Well.
523
00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:33.079
You know, I talked about the military industrial complex, which
524
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:37.279
is huge and far reaching, a far reaching octopus. Yes,
525
00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:43.680
it grabs Democrats as well as Republicans, and and party
526
00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:46.880
faithful among the Democrats should be ashamed of that, and
527
00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:49.680
they should fight against it, and they should have different
528
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:53.599
people who don't believe that kind of philosophy. Yes, we
529
00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:57.119
got eight hundred bases around the world, and and you know,
530
00:31:57.440 --> 00:31:59.720
if if the only tool you have is a hammer,
531
00:32:00.039 --> 00:32:02.440
well everything looks like a nail, so it's easy to
532
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:06.440
go bomb Yemen and various countries in Africa that we
533
00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:10.119
don't even hear about. Pretty sad.
534
00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:13.519
Let's go to Dwight calling us from the city of Compton.
535
00:32:13.640 --> 00:32:17.039
Good morning, Dwight, you're on with Dick p Morning down.
536
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:21.440
The Good Morning Hotel Peace, Good morning k the La family. Dick.
537
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:24.119
I just want to thank you and your wife for
538
00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:27.000
your great newsletter. I signed up for it when you
539
00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.039
a while back, and I want to thank you for
540
00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:34.440
informing the people of why these Republicans are going along
541
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:38.240
even though Trump got him out of office. They get
542
00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:41.799
five million dollars as lobbyists because they have floor access.
543
00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:45.480
So you think if we ended before access for retired
544
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:48.400
senators that would do away with some of the problems
545
00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:52.599
of them going along with trying to go along just
546
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:54.480
to get along so they can get access on the
547
00:32:54.519 --> 00:32:57.079
back end it when they retire. And thank you so
548
00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:01.039
much for exposing the racism and the It's so obvious
549
00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:05.240
because Republicans so claiming they don't like immigrants. President Trump
550
00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:08.599
is married to immigrant. Trump's mother was an immigrant and
551
00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:11.680
his grandfather was a immigrant, so it's so obvious it's
552
00:33:11.720 --> 00:33:14.680
all based on greed and racism. So thank you Dick
553
00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:16.480
for all the great work. You and your wife are
554
00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:19.200
doing with the LA Progressive, and I asked everybody just
555
00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:21.759
sign up for the newsletter. Thank you, Dominique.
556
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:25.000
I appreciate the kind words. Thank you so much. Yes,
557
00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:29.079
you're right that the step you recommended for the Senate
558
00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:32.480
to deny floor access would be one of a long
559
00:33:32.599 --> 00:33:36.240
series of reforms that we need to enforce on our government,
560
00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:41.039
on the people who represent us who seem to go
561
00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:46.200
to Washington or Sacramento and forget that they're representing us,
562
00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:50.599
and they end up representing themselves and their fat cat buddies.
563
00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:53.799
Eight hundred nine to two oh fifteen eighty if you
564
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:55.880
want to weigh in, eight hundred and nine two oh
565
00:33:55.920 --> 00:33:58.920
fifteen eighty. Dick Prices here. He's the editor of the
566
00:33:59.079 --> 00:34:03.480
La Progressive. I'm Dominique Diprima, and you know where you are, okay.
567
00:34:03.559 --> 00:34:06.119
Dick Price is here. He's the editor of La Progressive.
568
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:09.360
La Progressive dot com is where you can sign up.
569
00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:13.280
He founded that eighteen years ago with his wife, who's
570
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:15.960
in the other room, Sharon Kyle. We got a lot
571
00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:17.480
of people that want to talk to you on the phone,
572
00:34:17.480 --> 00:34:19.079
So I'm going to go to the phone shortly, but
573
00:34:19.159 --> 00:34:21.440
I want to make sure we don't skip over this.
574
00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:25.840
You are also a Vietnam VET. And we were talking
575
00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:27.840
a little off there about the state of the VA,
576
00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:29.480
the Veterans Hospital.
577
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:34.639
Yeah, so my experiences right after Vietnam, the newspapers and
578
00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:38.440
television shows were full of horrible stories about the terrible
579
00:34:38.519 --> 00:34:44.199
care being given at the VA hospitals. Was a national scandal,
580
00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:48.039
and it was because those hospitals were overwhelmed by the
581
00:34:48.159 --> 00:34:52.400
huge numbers of badly injured Vietnam veterans. So recently, in
582
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:55.400
the last couple of years, I found out that I
583
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:58.719
could get free dental care through the VA. And I
584
00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:03.119
hadn't gone there for or forever. I've had long care
585
00:35:03.239 --> 00:35:06.719
with a well known large HMO, and was very happy
586
00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:11.239
about my service there, very grateful they'd served, they'd solved
587
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:13.679
my throat cancer. When we went out to the VA
588
00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:17.440
with sharing and and and indeed I got my dental care,
589
00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:21.159
but also there was a physician's assistant who who very
590
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:23.320
friendly and said, well, do you want to check this
591
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:25.760
thing that's wrong with you? And that things is wrong
592
00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:29.599
with you? And and subsequently I had maybe a dozen
593
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:33.840
visits with all kinds of different specialties and and that's fine.
594
00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:39.280
But the difference is the spirit. The spirit at the
595
00:35:39.400 --> 00:35:43.119
VA hospital with the guards, the nurses, the clerks and
596
00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:47.199
the doctors is we're all in it together. It did
597
00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:51.920
feel like a family, and I'm glad to make that
598
00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:54.320
long drave vow all the way over to West LA.
599
00:35:54.559 --> 00:35:58.519
It's it's remarkable and if it hadn't been for this
600
00:35:58.679 --> 00:36:01.000
dental care, I ever would have done it.
601
00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:03.880
Yeah. Well, it's a really good point, and I hope
602
00:36:03.880 --> 00:36:06.400
that the many veterans, and by the way, if I
603
00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:08.679
didn't say it, thank you for your service, the many
604
00:36:08.760 --> 00:36:11.880
veterans that listen will if they haven't taken advantage. Many
605
00:36:12.199 --> 00:36:14.880
I learned from my friend attorneys are in basic are
606
00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:20.119
eligible for benefits, cash benefits that they don't get, you know,
607
00:36:20.599 --> 00:36:23.559
health benefits that they don't get, and I certainly you
608
00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:25.679
have earned them, so it's worth for Yeah.
609
00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:28.679
One thing we found over the years is there's a
610
00:36:28.760 --> 00:36:34.239
lot of benefits to veterans, but the various veterans organizations
611
00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:36.840
are not real good at letting you know about it.
612
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:42.039
And the one example I have with that is when
613
00:36:42.039 --> 00:36:45.079
I was running a bunch of magazines, we got a
614
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:47.639
new editory in and we made fun of the school
615
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:49.679
she went to out in the desert just as a
616
00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:51.840
way to break her in. And she said, well, at
617
00:36:51.880 --> 00:36:55.320
least I went for free. And I said, why was it?
618
00:36:55.360 --> 00:36:59.119
Because my dad was a disabled Vietnam veteran and I'm
619
00:36:59.159 --> 00:37:02.199
a disabled v Non veteran, and I had a daughter
620
00:37:02.199 --> 00:37:05.639
who was headed toward college. And and then I found
621
00:37:05.679 --> 00:37:11.119
out inteed, the California Veterans Organization paid my daughter's tuition
622
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:16.519
to uh you see uh out in the desert anyway.
623
00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:21.880
Yeah, oh well, well we're tight on time. But let's
624
00:37:21.880 --> 00:37:23.639
get to Shayon. I know he can give me the
625
00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:25.159
short version. Hi, Shayon.
626
00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:27.719
With me.
627
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:32.079
Yeah, I'm here. Let me let me get a shot.
628
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:39.320
Shout out to the Long Beat VA and one had
629
00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:42.880
a massive heart attack in the VA and Long Beach
630
00:37:43.639 --> 00:37:46.760
checked yourself in one filling. Will had a massive coordinary
631
00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:50.320
right there. He was flatlined for thirty minutes. But doctor
632
00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:55.440
Jordan and the VASTA and Long Beach, California worked on him,
633
00:37:55.599 --> 00:37:59.679
got him back. Swear to God walking around right now.
634
00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:03.119
That's I love that story.
635
00:38:03.159 --> 00:38:04.760
Seon. Yeah, that's good.
636
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:09.480
Oh yeah, but I wanted to I wanted to say,
637
00:38:09.519 --> 00:38:13.559
you mentioned a Marshall plan for Gaza, but We need
638
00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:16.440
a Marshall Plan right here in our inner cities across
639
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:20.039
the United States in exchange for our vote for twenty
640
00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:23.760
twenty eight actually in midterms and twenty twenty eight that
641
00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:27.559
need to be part of a Democratic platform in order
642
00:38:27.599 --> 00:38:31.320
to get our vote in exchange for our vote. Another
643
00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:33.360
thing I wanted to mention really quick to short version,
644
00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:37.320
our congression of Black Caucus members are not saying anything
645
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:40.719
about all these lynchings that's taking place in Mississippi.
646
00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:44.480
Yeah, so I'm with you all the way up and
647
00:38:44.519 --> 00:38:46.760
down the line. I think we do need a Marshall
648
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:50.719
Plan to address the rock at the soul of America,
649
00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:54.760
which is racism. And there's a whole series of steps
650
00:38:54.559 --> 00:38:59.079
that come through the California Reparations Task Force that could
651
00:38:59.159 --> 00:39:02.440
begin to address set and instead of spending one point
652
00:39:02.480 --> 00:39:06.920
five trillion dollars wasting it the way we've talked about,
653
00:39:07.239 --> 00:39:10.719
we could have you know, college could be free for
654
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:14.880
all black kids. Reparations could be made in a variety
655
00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:21.440
of ways, housing and education and healthcare, and it is
656
00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:22.639
what we should be doing.
657
00:39:23.880 --> 00:39:27.000
Well. The clock is having its way with us. Dick
658
00:39:27.079 --> 00:39:31.239
Price Schean, thank you so much. I appreciate you and
659
00:39:31.320 --> 00:39:33.519
the work of the LA Progressive. Thank you so much
660
00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:34.400
for coming in today.
661
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:37.079
Okay, thanks thanks for inviting me. Thank you.
662
00:39:37.719 --> 00:39:40.840
It is Miles's birthday, It is hip hop's birthday. We
663
00:39:40.920 --> 00:39:44.559
are talking hip hop albas here, Miles Lowe is here,
664
00:39:44.599 --> 00:39:47.480
and I'm here a lot to talk about. KBLA Talk
665
00:39:47.559 --> 00:39:48.239
fifteen eighty