Is what they are saying online true? Have we reached the end of Democracy? Has the experiment known as America run its course? As if those topics aren't considered "controversial" enough, let's layer on to that a discussion about January 6th, and the role our decisions and actions play in outcome. Today's Sponsors: AG1: AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2 AND 5 free travel packs in your first box. https://DrinkAG1.com/clearedhot Spartan Forge: https://spartanforge.ai/
Chapter 1: Is democracy really ending?
It's over, everybody. It's the end. It's the end of democracy. At least that's what I'm hearing online. And I'm sorry for the title of the show. It's a little bit more clickbaity than I would prefer or that I generally go with. But it is legitimately something that I have heard quite a few times since the 20th. And we're not that many days past the 20th. And I'll be honest with you, in that week –
Chapter 2: What is the real-world perspective on democracy?
Since then, I have traveled pretty substantially. I was in a major city on Inauguration Day. I have had conversations for the podcast. I had conversations at dinner in the airport with strangers, with friends, and at the coffee shop. Again, in the major city, in the smaller town where I live, and – It hasn't been the end for anybody that I've encountered in the real world.
Chapter 3: How does online discourse influence our views?
I'm not saying that there aren't people who potentially are struggling more than others. But the only place where I get this existential dread, the guillotine mid-drop about to touch the throat, is online. And I think we have to talk about it. There are some things we have to talk about with the change of the new administration. So we're going to get into it. Too long didn't read up front?
No, I don't think we're at the end of democracy. Is it possible? Yeah, but so is an asteroid hitting planet earth tomorrow and then it really wouldn't matter, would it? But I just don't think that we're there. And I think people could really dedicate their time to doing something productive as opposed to virtue signaling and just transmitting rage online. So that's what we're going to get into.
Now, For people who have followed this podcast, you know that I love doing this. You know that this is something that I never thought I was going to be able to make a living at or a foundation economically for my family, but it has become that over the years. And I love questioning myself, questioning my beliefs, having conversations with people about the amazing thing that they've done in life.
And I'm able to bring it to you for free because I work with sponsors. So Please allow me to keep doing so and give me the next 90 seconds of your life to pay the bills, to keep this going, to allow me to provide this to everybody for free. Ladies and gentlemen, 2025 has been... a banger so far.
Probably started off on, for what most people felt like, uneven terrain and is continuing to maybe get a little bit uneven depending on where you land on any particular spectrum. For me, 2025 is about trying to do better. And that's probably been my goal for the last two decades. And some years it's meh. Some years it's, you know, three quarters of a thumb coming up.
One of the things though, last few years I've really been focusing on is my health. I'm just... trying to be violently efficient with the decisions that I make when it comes to hydration, what I ingest, supplementation, rest, recovery, and training, all of those things. And which brings me directly to today's sponsor of the video, which is AG1. I happen to have some of it here in front of me.
Before I even get into it, one of the most common questions I get asked is this, what does it taste like? Here's what I'm going to tell you. I think it tastes good, but asking somebody what something tastes like is a little bit abstract. I don't like nightshades or mushrooms and some people tell me they're delicious.
So I don't know how it helps if I tell people it tastes good, even though it does. I'm literally drinking one on my desk right now. I enjoy it more with cold water than room temperature water, but I don't know what that means. The reason I like it is it fits directly into the efficiency goal I have for 2025.
I can either lay out a fistful of pills or I can easily do something in the morning that helps me tackle two things. Hydration and a lot of supplementation. Vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, probiotics, greens, superfoods, antioxidants, stress adaptogens, and digestive enzymes. All in one convenient little beverage. which again, I think tastes good, but take that with a grain of salt.
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Chapter 4: What was the significance of January 6th?
Do I want to see special operations routinely doing cross-border operations targeting the cartel? No, I do not. Would I be opposed to drone strikes limiting civilian casualties and tactically removing the figureheads and leadership of this organization? Personal answer, speaking only for me, no problem with that whatsoever. Have somebody die in your life tied to addiction.
And it's going to walk back a little bit how much you would be concerned about ending the life of those that made that possible. Again, personal opinion only counts for myself. We're not going to war with Mexico. We're going to war with the cartels. It's not going to be trench warfare. It's not going to be lining up against two mountains looking at each other in a valley and slugging it out.
I think we're finally going to try something a little bit new. This is my hope. I hope that what I think is going to be true, that we're going to try something a little bit new. Try a tool that hasn't been utilized before that I think has the capacity to potentially decimate those organizations and put the fear of God in those people. And I hope that it works.
And another one is deportations, immigration and deportations. I have – much like my shift in – When it came to – when it comes to – when I hear things now that I may not agree with as opposed to jumping on them, I try to take a step back and work my way and look at it through different angles. I would like to believe that my empathy has shifted as I've gotten older either. Either. Also.
Yeah, that's the correct word I'm looking for. It's been one of those days. I – can be incredibly empathetic to somebody who arrives, and I'm going to use our southern border as an example because this is where most of this occurs, fleeing an utterly horrendous situation from their home country. Let's say they're coming from Venezuela, home of Tren de Aragua.
They're trying to get out of there for whatever reason it may be. I can empathize with that person. I legitimately want the best for everybody. But at some point in time, we have to also prioritize our own citizens, our own country, the health of our own citizens and country before we have an unchecked policy and an open door policy. If you have...
difficulty hearing me say that we've had an open door policy my suggestion would be please try to find somebody who works directly with cbp border patrol ice and have a conversation about the realities of their job this is again i am not an expert but i have had many many conversations with people who work in this world and regardless of what the previous administration or even what the current administration may tell us in the future
Those people were struggling. They were underwater. And at best, they were able to implement a policy that most of them did not agree with, were limited by the law in doing so. Some stats for people as to why I think this is important. And these are estimates. This is actually tough to get exact numbers on this.
But in the past four years, the estimate is that 11 million illegal immigrants crossed into the United States. That is a rough estimate. Most people think that that is very low, but that's a number that I was able to find a few times. So I'm going to go with that one. People may say, well, what does that matter in a country of 360 plus million people?
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Chapter 5: How do social media announcements affect perceptions?
We can figure out a problem. We can figure out a solution to the problem that we are having without breaking our democracy. Are there going to be some hard choices made? Yeah. Are there going to be pictures of women and children crying at the border? Yes, there are. And my advice to people is this. Stay the course. Because if you want democracy to survive, you are going to have to make decisions.
difficult choices. And not every single person is going to be satisfied all the time. So to put a bow on it, are we going to lose our democracy? You know what the answer to that question is? It depends. It depends on how we can come together and find solutions. If all you want to do is be an adjutant, a resistor, and dig your heels in to prevent anything from happening,
In my opinion, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution. The only reason we'd lose our democracy is if we allowed it to happen. So let's switch gears here for a second. We're going to talk a little bit about January 6th. What's going on, everybody? Today's episode is also brought to you by Spartan Forge.
Last year, 2024, one of my favorite guests was Bill Thompson, the founder of Spartan Forge. He created... A pretty damn awesome product. Now, his background, I am going to say military intelligence. I'm using that in a broad term. But he was responsible for creating and putting into service really interesting tools that help people at the front leading edge of the spear.
Spartan Forge is a civilian version of some tools that we used to use overseas that are blended together. And it's like picking the wavetops of all of those best practices and smashing it into one. So I'm looking at their website right now. And if you're on a video, you can see it as well. This app does some amazing things. I'm going to pause right here at this screen.
We're talking traditional topography. We are talking UAV mapping. We're talking satellite mapping. And for people to understand why you would maybe want to have all of those things, topography changes far less, obviously, on a map. But satellite imagery, UAV imagery, they change over time, especially with development and different weather patterns and foliage or a burn or whatever it may be.
So you want to have as many versions as possible, and you want to make sure you're using the most up-to-date one. In addition to that, they have LIDAR, which is the ability to see through the foliage and actually look at the slope angle of the terrain. And for fans of the show, you know I've been getting into rotary wing.
I've been using this tool just as much as I have a flight tool called ForeFlight, which is for route planning. If I really want to get an idea of whether or not something is landable or slope or foliage, I am switching over to the Spartan Forge app to get a much better view of what's going to be possible or what I'm going to encounter when I actually get there.
Now, this is designed in the hunting world, but I have had people reach out to me who are engineers. I've had first responders reach out to me. And that's because of all the different things that the app offers. It essentially can become a blue force tracker. You can put up boundaries and get notifications when people leave or enter.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of designating cartels as terrorist organizations?
Freedom is very, very dangerous. Freedom allows you movement and choices. Now, how do I arrive or why do I feel like, and again, let me reread this to make sure my words are specific. Her choices, decision to be present that day and her actions led to her death.
That's what I wish I would have put down, but I'm leaving the mistake up because the internet lives forever and I'm fine with my mistakes living forever. Why do I say that? January 6th, like I said, is going to be tied to Trump for the rest of his life. And he gets to eat that shit sandwich. I'm glad that I don't have to have anything to do with that.
When I was talking a few weeks ago about what happened in New Orleans, I talked about risk. Risk tolerance and proximity to risk. I don't remember my exact words, but I know that the attack there occurred in the early morning hours. I think it was between 2 and 3 a.m., if not slightly after 3 a.m. And I made the comment... of I know what's going on on Beale Street at 3 a.m. in the morning.
People are getting after it. They're living their life. They're shit-faced. They're partying. And I'm not here to tell people how to party. But at this phase of my life, I understand the potential risk associated with not necessarily an act like that, but just how people are at 3 in the morning after having consumed two gallons of margaritas. It gets a little wild. And I don't like it.
So I make the choice to not put myself in those situations and I manage my exposure to that risk. January 6th. You know, more than anything, what breaks my heart about January 6th, and people can argue, and I've heard this online too, like it saved our democracy. It was an insurrection. I hate watching the videos of that day because what you're watching is
are Americans fighting other Americans over a difference in ideological beliefs. Some of them might say morality and add that on top of that, but we were not fighting an external enemy. It was Americans fighting Americans. Some of the Americans were trying to do their job, what they were tasked and paid and responsible to do, and other Americans were trying to express
Whatever it is they felt that they were trying to express. I've heard it run the gamut. I'm not going to try to put words in somebody else's mouth. But we weren't fighting a foreign adversary. It was Americans fighting Americans. The fact that this woman got shot is fucking horrendous. And before I go further into this, I've been to the Capitol.
I went to the Capitol after the shooting occurred, not right after, years later. And I've walked through the halls and I've talked with the people that work there, the police that are tasked with the security of that building. And I walked to the exact location where this occurred, which is essentially and broadly a door in the middle with glass panels on the side of it. I...
believe, you know, I'm not even going to say it. I was going to say, I thought that there was something particular behind that door, but I, because I cannot be 100% certain, I'm going to leave it at that. That is what that doorway looked like. I support everybody's right to be there that day. Now, when it comes to choices and the cascading effects of those choices, there is a difference between
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Chapter 7: How do we balance immigration and national priorities?
This person could have expressed every bit of what they likely were trying to do by being there without exposing themselves to this level of risk. Be careful with your decisions and your choices. They can have consequences that you may not understand. Be careful with your freedom, please. It can be exceptionally dangerous. And if you're not a good caretaker or steward of it, it can take your life.
And that's all I have for this Friday.