Senator Marco Rubio on National Security 54:14

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Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Our first guest up today, we welcome back Alexander Rakin, freelance journalist and writer interested in medical ethics and bad statistics. He's been doing some amazing things on Canada's assisted suicide program, which has spiraled out of control in a matter of

It seems like it's worse by the month. It's worse by the day. Yeah. No, the tweets and the things, Alexander, that you've been putting out about this, the people that they're pushing medically assisted suicide on who desperately want to live. It's it has been mind boggling following you on Twitter. And I hope everyone out there does that. You can follow him, folks, at Alexander Rakin, R-A-I-K-I-N dot com or not dot com. Obviously, it's Twitter. Yeah.

So, Alexander, first, let's start with your bad. What is the number one bad government statistic this week you can share with our audience?

Oh, I mean, we know what the answer is going to be, right? And it's going to be 6.4%, which is what the annualized inflation in the consumer price index is, right? So right now, prices are 6.4% higher than they were in the same period in 2022. So everything that you're buying, everything that you're thinking of buying, all of that is more expensive. And

And inflation was supposed to cool down more this month. It didn't. So it actually is higher than expected. They have sure tried to, New York, D.C. media, sure tried to just bury that and make it sound like it's making great progress. I mean, look, 6.4 is better than 8-something, right? But at the end of the day, 6.4 eliminates any job increases probably 95% of Americans received the last 12 months.

Also, my salary did not increase by 6.4%. We need to talk to your freelance contributors. Anyway, let's talk about this. You have written a fantastic article. We love having you on the show, and it's Alzheimer's Association Hides New Partnership with Lobbying Group for the Assisted Suicide. Tell us a little bit about that and now how the Alzheimer's Association has just simply backed out of Compassion and Choices, which is this

compassionate names and branding consultant has given them basically saying we like doing assisted suicide and euthanasia go ahead yeah so well let's start with just the name right so there is the largest third excuse me let me replace this they're the largest and oldest it's a suicide lobby here in the US they used to have a different name and it was the hemlock foundation so if you remember Jack work Ian and his multi Kelly

Killing Free all across the United States. Right. Well, that name and that branding proved to be a little bit suspicious. So they rebranded themselves into Compassion Choices, which I think you're right. It does sound a lot better. Well, the Alzheimer's Association had a partnership with them that they signed in last November.

And no one really reported on it. So I took a look into it. I wrote this article for the Washington Free Beacon. And within 24 hours of reporting just exactly who the Alzheimer's Association partnered with, the Alzheimer's Association issued an emergency press release saying,

saying that compassion choices does not share their values. They made a mistake in due diligence. And they believe the palliative care, non-assisted suicide, is what people with Alzheimer's and dementia need.

Alexander, I would imagine that most donors and people who are supporting the Alzheimer's Association would be just completely appalled at this idea. They're doing it to find ways for better palliative care and for Alzheimer's prevention and treatment, not to hashtag kill grandma. Yeah.

Yeah. For some reason, I think most people realize that with, I mean, look, let's be clear, right? Our medical system here, it needs some work, right? Correct. There's no one that believes that the American medical system is perfect. Now, look, it is better than other jurisdictions, but we need more care for the people that matter. And what's disturbing or what was most disturbing about this partnership is

between Compassion Choices and the Alzheimer's Association, is that it wasn't just targeting everyone's grandmother. It was targeting a specific race. The partnership was to improve end-of-life care options, again, it sounds better than assisted suicide, for people of historically underserved communities, i.e. the African-American community. So especially what we know about the history of medicine,

with the African-American community, we know that they need more help and more support and care, especially in Alzheimer's and especially in dementia. And instead, the partnership was just to help them find a way to end their lives.

That's incredible. There was an interesting quote you had from Fayron Ebbs, an assistant professor of nursing at Emory University, who you gave credit to where people have for creating a specialized program for African-American churches to support families facing dementia, Alzheimer's. And you have this quote here with her, talking with her, and it says, these families need help too. The most telling part of my interview with Ebbs was when I asked her about her work with end-of-life patients.

Quote, I don't deal with end-of-life care patients, she said. Detected early enough, Alzheimer's patients tend to live for years after diagnosis, but in jurisdictions with expansive euthanasia and assisted suicide programs, these same patients are automatically coded as end-of-life. Anyone with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's in Canada, for instance, is eligible to receive medical assistance in dying immediately after being approved.

Yeah, she was completely shocked by this. And look, she does tremendous amounts of work. She's a professor in nursing. She, again, started this group to improve resources.

resources and information about Alzheimer's to the African-American community. Because, look, African-Americans are more likely to have dementia than white people. So this is clearly a disease that targets certain races more than others. Right. And so the African-American community needs more resources and needs more care. And

When I was talking about Alzheimer's and dementia, I was just thinking about all the reporting I was doing in Canada. And just the fact that, you know, we know that people who have recent diagnosis of serious illnesses have higher suicidality. Right. We also know that it diminishes over time. Right. The more that you learn to live with a disease, you realize that the disease is not as scary anymore.

Right. Or the disease, which even though it's terminal, even though it's obviously horrific, that people still have dignity. People still have people still can find value in their lives.

And especially if they get more support and care. So with all of this, you know, she just seemed absolutely astonished that somebody could just get diagnosed with Alzheimer's and they can find a physician or nurse practitioner in Canada to end their life without having any requirement to actually seek even basic supports and care. Right.

And you can have a long, like you said, you can have a very long period between an early initial diagnosis and significant impairment, right? Yeah. Yeah. Again, you can probably find physicians in Canada who are willing to prescribe MAID, right, medical assistance in dying, probably even before you have like the Alzheimer's diagnosis.

All that you need in Canadian law is you need to have a grievous and irremediable medical condition in an advanced stage of decline in lack of capacity. So if you look at what predates Alzheimer's, right, you do start having memory losses. You know, people in Canada can qualify for euthanasia just by having hearing loss. What? Say that again.

People in Canada can and have qualified to die by the hands of their physician because of hearing loss. I'm doomed. So there's actually a pretty controversial case with Alan Nicholson. So his family believed that he didn't have capacity to consent to any medical treatment, let alone euthanasia. He had a history of depression. He was just released.

from a psychiatric hold. And yet they found out 48 hours before the euthanasia that went ahead.

that he was going to be euthanized. So the family tried everything. They tried to send his medical files to the physicians that were going to do it. They tried to contact the police. The police looked into it. They said, well, he was already approved. It still went ahead. Afterwards, they tried to get the basic medical files to understand why exactly he was euthanized. And the reason that was given, most of the files were redacted.

But the one reason that was given was because of hearing loss. Oh, my gosh. I want to talk quickly here about this partnership, again, with Compassion and Choices and the Alzheimer's Association. So one thing you wrote about is that they wanted to focus on –

Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQ communities and helping them focus on a shared effort to improve end-of-life care. And then you talked about the statistics about minorities are not choosing assisted suicide. Why did this George Soros-funded group go and decide to work with Alzheimer's Association, which has since backed out of this?

Why do they want to focus on end-of-life care for these minority communities who are not choosing assisted suicide? So it seems to be, and obviously this is mostly speculation, but I feel like it's at least a little bit grounded.

is that if you look at what happens when Compassion Choices goes to different states and tries to promote states to expand their assisted suicide program or to introduce it to new states, one of the common things that they hear is that, well, the only people interested in this seem to be middle-class white Americans.

And that kind of looks bad for them. So if you look in Oregon, of the more than 2,000, the 2,100 assisted deaths in Oregon, only one person has been African-American.

In the state of Washington, 92% of assisted suicide deaths have been white. So in order to overcome what the common refrain is, which is that they're pushing assisted suicide to people who don't ultimately have a choice, it seems to be that they're trying to focus on accessing those underserved communities. So they're going to different Black communities, Latino communities, LGBT communities, and they're disseminating their pamphlets and guides.

Now, it sounds innocent enough until you actually read their pamphlets and guides. There's nothing innocent about it. There's nothing innocent about it. That is horrible. Alexander Rakin, thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program. Folks, follow his work at Alexander Rakin on Twitter, R-A-I-N.

I-K-I-N. Alexander, again, thank you so much for being on the program with us. And let's have you on soon, buddy. Appreciate you. I love being on here. Thank you. So thanks again, guys. Folks, are you concerned with stock market volatility, especially with Joe Biden in office? What if you could invest in a portfolio with a high fixed rate of return that's not correlated to the stock market, a portfolio where you'll know what each monthly statement will look like with no surprises?

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. On the line with us right now, Mia Love, the first black Republican woman elected to Congress and author of the recently released book, Qualified, now available for purchase at Amazon and all your favorite locations. And folks, if you are one of the first five people who go on the Breaking Battlegrounds Facebook page, when you hear this, send us a message. Let us know you'd like a copy of that book. We're going to send you a copy for free.

Absolutely. Mia, welcome to the show. I'm excited to be here, Chuck. Well, thank you. Well, I read the book this week. I loved it and I liked it because it was so different than typical, I guess we'll call them memoirs of congressional candidates. What was your thought process putting this book? What I got from it is Mia Love believes in the American dream and that character is part of that. What made you come up with this concept, putting this book together?

I just felt that people were asking the wrong questions and they were expecting the wrong things. And the way it's really interesting because inside of Congress, it's a competition too. It's almost like a campaign inside of Congress. Also you're campaigning for your committee assignments, you're campaigning for leadership, you're campaigning for whatever, whatever it is. And I felt like people would always ask the wrong questions. And of course,

I think that that's why we're in the mess we're in today. They would ask me all the time, what qualifies you to be a member of Congress? What qualifies you to do this? Well, shoot, what qualifies you? What do you think qualifies you? I am not an attorney. I don't want to be an attorney. I have been, but I have had legislative experience in the city council where I think it counts more. People felt like the city council

level wasn't high enough for me to have the experience that was needed for Congress. I'm sorry, but I believe that the best, most effective solutions are found at the most local levels. And that's where you really, that's where the rubber meets the road. That's where you really, you go into church and you're getting all sorts of pictures of here's a pothole here. And what are you going to do about this here? And what are you going to do about this here? I mean, you really,

And every dollar, every taxpayer dollar, every sacred taxpayer dollar goes back to the taxpayer, goes back to the person that is paying for it. And they see the benefit of that directly. Hey, Mia, this is Sam. You know, I think this is an incredible point you bring up with your book.

But credentialism, which extends far more to women than it does men. But that's been not a great system for choosing who's leading this country or who's leading. I mean, we're not having the kind of success that is promised. So why would we continue to make that the criteria rather than people who have experience getting things done in their lives? And that's what I mean by leading with character. You know how someone's going to vote by their character, right?

you know how someone is going to behave because behavior has become a big thing in Congress, too. I mean, integrity is so incredibly important. I've always said to people, you don't have to be perfect to be a leader. We're not expecting perfection. We do expect honesty and integrity. We do expect you to represent who we are as Americans.

You know, my dad said something to me just the other day. It was just a few days ago that actually shocked me a little bit. He said, you know what, Mia? It's sad. I love America.

more than most Americans. And I was like, what makes you say that, dad? I mean, that's, that's a pretty bold statement. He said, because I know what it's like to live outside of this country. Absolutely. He is the best testimonial to America than anybody. I know what it's like to live outside of this country. And I have a love for America and I instill that love for America in my children. And that's why you've been able to do the things that you've done. And I said, dad, you know, you're right. All of the stories at,

at my sitting at my father's foot thinking to myself there's no way I want my country to turn into that and I'm afraid that so many people feel as if we're never going to get there I mean we could get there we could get there

What is your I mean, if your criteria is that I'm an attorney and that's what's going to keep that's not what's going to keep us from becoming Venezuela. What's going to keep us from becoming the next Venezuela is preserving freedoms, loving this country, feeling like you have an obligation to serve and maintain freedom.

the things that made this country so great. Absolutely. We're with Mia Love, former mayor, former congresswoman, and the author of Qualified. Again, go to our Facebook page, First Five People. DM us today. We'll get a free book. My favorite chapter in your book was Chapter 8, so you're telling me there's a chance. It's one of my favorite scenes in Dumb and Dumber. I love it so much, and folks, if you don't know it, just go YouTube it. We're not going to go over here, but you had a comment here. You said,

We have to be willing to step into that space without condemning the entirety of the American experiment and system just because we have not always lived up to those principles professed by our founders and enshrined in our founding documents. And then you said this, a couple of paragraphs later, I am but one of millions actually who have beat the odds because America, there is always a chance. Would you please talk about that a little bit, please, for our audience?

I said, you know, no matter what the pundits tell you, no matter what. I mean, I was told, hey, the deck is stacked against us. There is no chance. There is no way. I said, only in America, only in America. If you're willing to work hard, if you have an idea, the deck isn't stacked against you. You have a chance.

You have a chance of being as ordinary or as extraordinary as you choose to be. That's the American dream. My dad didn't come here because he wanted to have a great big house. I mean, if that came, that came. He wanted to have all of these things. You know what his dream was? His dream was to be able to work and provide for his family. He wanted to be the master of his own success. He wanted it to be his responsibility. Yeah.

You wanted to be on him because based on his character, he knew he could do it if he had that opportunity. He had the opportunity. I mean, he came from, and I mentioned it in the book, he came from the total Wakudi, came from one dictatorship after another. And he just said, just give me a chance.

And I'll do my and I'll do the work. He also had in Chuck, you hit on it, the belief in America. And there's a reason that first and second generation immigrants right now are being the most successful and financially mobile, upwardly mobile group in the country, no matter where they come from. They're the only demographic group that believes in the American dream.

First, first generation immigrants and second are the only ones who believe in the American dream as a demographic. It's quite remarkable. Aren't progressives and me, I'll ask you this. Aren't people who subscribe to the idea that this is dead and that you can't achieve on your own? Aren't they holding themselves back? I mean, aren't they just hamstringing themselves for the rest of their lives? I think it's a trick. I think to have people.

not feel as if they can actually do it, it creates a dependency on government. And that's the problem. If you can't do it on your own, if the deck is stacked against you, you need me. And that's how some people maintain their power. Unfortunately, that's how most people

of Washington maintains their power. If you don't have me, you will not be able to survive. I am your hope. I am your dream. Government says, you know, I will be the one that provides for you. If you don't have me, you can't do it on your own. And that's the biggest lie. It's the biggest lie that

And there is this create there is this effort to create dependency because that dependency equals votes. Absolutely. With me, I love we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Yeah, we have just a couple of more moments before we go to break. Mia, how do we how do folks get your book or how do they follow you? What's the best way for them to stay in touch?

They can get it anywhere you get your books. Audible is great. If you want me to read it, I actually do my own voice on Audible. I didn't want anybody reading my story. So you can get it on Audible. You can get it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, anywhere you get your books. Fantastic. Back with more from Mia Love in just a moment.

Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Folks, are you concerned with stock market volatility, especially with Joe Biden in office? What if you could earn up to a 10.25% rate of return on a secure, collateralized portfolio? It is a flexible portfolio.

Folks, go to investwirefi.com. I'm not going to go over this too far. Go to investwirefi.com. Secure your financial future with them or give them a call at 888-WIREFI24. They'll help you out and get it set up. It's a fantastic company and a fantastic product. And we're with Mia Love, author of a great new book, Qualified. Go pick it up at Amazon.com or go to Barnes & Noble. Go visit a bookstore, get a coffee. So Mia, first question for you here.

Tim Scott is a dear friend of yours. He is one of the true gentlemen in Washington, D.C. Why would he make a great president? Because he understands what it's like to live the American dream. It's almost as if what I told you, what my dad said, I love this country because I know what it's like to live outside of this country. He is. Tim Scott was really interesting about him. His humble upbringing was.

All of the things that he talks about, he is, he understands people. He understands people and he has a love for this country and a love for people. Yes. Yes. That's he is. He embodies the American dream, which is what we need right now. We need some inspiration. We need to believe in American exceptional exceptionalism again. That's, that's a great endorsement for him. Um, so you went to, you told a great story in the book about going to Congressman Elijah Cummings district, uh,

Even Jason Chaffetz told me how much he loved Elijah Cummings. You differed politically. You did too. You just said he was a good man that way, right? He tried to build relationships. But you were touring Section 8 housing. And as you're going through, you met this woman and you sort of took her off into the kitchen and talked. And tell a little bit about the story about the pink jacket. Well, it's really interesting because they were kind of like

Moving us around, asking the questions that they wanted to ask questions to. And I just wanted to have a candid conversation with this woman. So we sat down at the kitchen table and I said, tell me, what is it really like to live here? And she said, you probably don't want to hear this, but I'm going to tell you. I said, no, I want you to tell me all of it.

Because I feel, I tend to believe or feel as if you're trapped in this place. And she said, well, you see that pink coat over there hanging up over there? And I said, yeah, I do. She said that I bought for my daughter because she saw it and she loved it. And every day she goes to school, she walks through the hallway and

And walks and hops over people that, especially on a Monday, that have had too much to drink the night before. And they passed out in the hallway. Then she gets into a urine-filled elevator. Goes downstairs. Has to go by all of these thugs. All of these people that want to get their hands on her.

get to a school where she's met by metal detectors and she sits down in a classroom where a teacher is way too tired with way too many students. And then she has to come back and do that whole thing over again. I brought her that quote because I wanted her to feel comfortable

something warm around her so that she can feel, see something outside of what she sees every day. And she's like, and I tell her stories. I tell her stories about what life can be like because she knows what she knows. The only thing she knows is what she goes through every single day. I don't want that to be her reality.

I want her to see something beyond this so that she tries to achieve that. And she said, you know what? You want to help me, Mia? You want to help me? Why is it that every time I go to the grocery store, things are more, there's more, everything costs more. I can't save any money so I can get a home outside of here. Every time I go and try and get another job, if I risk making a little bit more, I lose everything that I've had. So I can't even...

strive to get something that pays me a little bit more. She's like, I realized, and this changed my life. That's fantastic. I realized that government gives you exactly what you need to stay exactly where you are. We have a terrible system, quite frankly, that is designed to keep people trapped within that system.

And once you've reached a third generation, then where's the example of someone who can say, hey, I know what it's like not living like this? Who breaks the cycle? Who breaks the cycle? Mia, we have one minute left. Are America's best days ahead? Are you optimistic? I'm always optimistic. America's best days are ahead because we still have good people in the fight that believe in American exceptionalism, that believe in the magic of this country.

This country was blessed today.

And there is some magic in this country. And that is, we have to remember, we have this great document called the Constitution that really, if Congress stays within that little pamphlet, it's not very much to read. If they stay within their purview and they really regain the power of the purse, we can continue to be exceptional and allow people to be exceptional. We have an obligation to care for those who cannot care for themselves. But...

Independent people give back. Dependent people, they can't. Exactly. Final word right there. Thank you so much, Mia Love. We really love having you on the program. Folks, get her book qualified anywhere you like to get your books and stay tuned for Senator Marco Rubio coming up.

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren on the line with us right now. And we are honored to have Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has represented Florida in the United States Senate since 2010. And he has one guiding objective, bring the American dream back into reach for those who feel it slipping away. That is a fantastic objective. Thank you for joining us today, Senator Marco Rubio.

Thanks for having me on. Thank you, Senator. So could you tell our audience a little bit about the hearings you had this week about the various unidentified objects over American airspace? Well, frankly, the ones this week, they could have done it publicly in front of the whole world. I mean, they didn't tell us anything that you haven't read in the press. I mean, maybe some couple very minor exceptions. And I don't know why they've kept any of this classified. I think that when, for the first time in your nation's history, you shoot down three objects,

over American airspace, or four, but one we knew about already, but three over a weekend.

You owe maximum transparency to American people about why you made that decision, what these things are, and they haven't done that. And even in those briefings, I don't know why they were classified. There was nothing that was shared with us in there that – I'm sure there's things that were shared in there they'd like to keep confidential, but I don't think they shared anything that needed to be classified. Well, this administration likes to claim they're the most transparent folks that ever walked into the White House. Are they given that type of –

I don't know, clouded reports regarding what we're doing in Ukraine and China even? Are they transparent at all, what's going on in the world? Well, I think on Ukraine, they somewhat have to be more transparent because simply the spending part of it. You know, there's money going out. They actually bragged a lot about it. So obviously you're going to hear a lot more about it. Right. In the case of this and what's happening with this, look, this –

In some ways it's a new issue. I think it's really important to separate the two issues. There's the Chinese spy balloon. We knew that was a balloon. We've seen those before. They've been testing them for a number of years. And what they've been doing is flying them basically across the equator. So we've seen them. We know they have this program. They've been doing it. We knew what that was. The problem with that is they knew what it was. They saw it before it entered U.S. airspace. They should have shot it down then. They didn't.

That was my problem with that one. And then this week, they saw what they call three objects, which now they claim may have been balloons, but it's not. They were clearly simple objects. Three were shot down. Never had that happen before in American history. And there was very little transparency about it. And so I think there's some fundamental questions to ask, because this is not the first time. The way they describe those three objects, how they performed, or what they did, we've had hundreds of those. We have an entire task force that Congress created called the UAP Task Force.

to study the fact that we've got some flying over restricted airspace, as an example, that isn't ours, and we don't know whose it is, and it doesn't belong there. We have hundreds, last year alone, you know, three, four hundred reports of these things, but this is the first time we shoot them down. So what changed?

between now and then. And actually what we wanted to know and what people deserve to know, are we going to, what is our policy moving forward? Are we going to shoot down every object at 20,000 feet that we don't know what it is? I mean, these are important questions, you know what I mean? And so those are the kinds of things that just haven't been transparent about because frankly, I don't think they know the answer. Well, and wouldn't Senator, I mean, wouldn't it's to some degree saying, hey, just coming out to the public and saying, hey, we don't have all the answers yet. Here's what we know.

There are things we don't know and we'll inform you as we learn. Wouldn't that be a much better approach at this point for the Biden administration? Because I think people are legitimately and for good reason, very uncomfortable and nervous with all this.

Yeah, here's that. They'll claim that's what they've done to the spokesperson. I felt and I still believe that when you do something like use military airplanes to shoot over airspace, that's a pretty big deal. I mean, there must have been a risk associated with those things that justified that it had to be made by the president.

It's never happened before in the 65-year history of NORAD, and that deserves the president to explain that to the American people pretty clearly up front. I think that's the – now, I can't tell you what these things are. I'm not sure they'll ever be recovered, to be frank, depending on what it was. I can tell you that part of me tells me that

even though we know that we've got these things flying out there, NORAD doesn't really look for that because NORAD is set up to look for missiles and airplanes. And after the Chinese spy balloon, they said, NORAD, you guys need to start looking for stuff that doesn't look like airplanes and missiles. And all of a sudden, they saw three of them.

given the criticism that they had gotten about not shooting down, they said, let's just shoot these things down. They're out there, and they did. And so now if they had talked to people on the UAP task force, they would have told them, well, look, these things may very well be dangerous, but there are hundreds of these a year reported, and probably more that are not reported going on. And so if we're going to shoot these three down, we're going to have to shoot hundreds of them down, because that's

the criteria. So I think they would say that they said what you just said, but people needed to hear from the president because we're talking about, again, I can't emphasize it. It is not normal over the span of 10 days to have the United States shoot down four objects, one of which we know and three others which we do not. You know, missiles. It's just we've never shot anything down over the U.S. territory.

How much – I think you brought up a good point there that this wasn't something NORAD was looking for. How much do we need to start really rethinking our national defense to try to address asymmetrical warfare at this point?

Yeah, so this is what I tell people. I think it makes a lot of sense, right? So let's say you're an adversary of the United States, and you have big military budgets, depending on who you are, but maybe not as big as ours. And so you know that the United States looks for missiles and airplanes. What it doesn't look for over our airspace are small, slow-moving crafts at 20,000 to 30,000 feet.

So you know that, and you don't have to be some sort of brilliant strategist to say, hey, you know what we should do? We should invent something that's relatively cheap and can fly over the United States at 20,000 to 30,000 feet, because they'll never see it. They'll never look for it. And so I think it's a very reasonable thing to believe that some nation-states decided to pursue that. Now, look, all these UAP reports are very different. Some have been explained. Some of them have not been explained and have just demonstrated unusuality.

unusual anomalous capabilities in terms of speed and maneuverability. And others are just, we don't know what they are, but they didn't do anything extraordinary. This sounds like it's in that third bucket. According to them, according to the pilots, these weren't things that were moving in ways that they weren't supposed to move in terms of how fast they were or what have you. But I just don't think it's unreasonable to believe that an adversary would say, hey, if we've got entire clubs out there of people that fly balloons all over the world at $12 a pop,

Why can't we just design hundreds of them and start flying them out there and testing the U.S. air defenses? And so I think that's a very reasonable thing to believe. And like everything else, our military and the like, we have

basically built up defenses in this country that are either A, relics and successors of Cold War programs, or B, at a time when we were focused almost exclusively on counterterrorism, but we had no great power to compete against. Now, not only do we have a great power to compete against in China, there's a growing alliance of authoritarian nations like

led by China, with Russia and Iran as junior partners, who are beginning to coordinate with one another geopolitically and increasingly militarily as well. This is just a brand new challenge that we really need to reorient everything we do to confront. Yeah, and let's talk about the axis of evil for a moment. So one thing they seem to be doing, especially China, is going into South and Central America.

So you have Venezuela, you've had Peru have their problems. Does the United States need to start doubling down on our relationships with Central and South America?

Yeah, look, I think the problem in Central and South America, like it is in many parts of the world, but it's really bad in the Western atmosphere. I've met with, this year alone, I've met with two heads of state, soon to be three heads of state from the region, talk to another one on the phone. And all of them have the same refrain, and that is, it's better to be America's enemy. Because if you're America's enemy, they pay attention to you, they try to cut deals with you, they try to reach out to you, they try to be accommodating. If you're America's friend,

They either ignore you or try to make an example out of you. It's just perverse incentives that have been created. The second common thing is the Chinese have fallen in a country and said, we've got $5 billion for you to build a port.

And these guys would prefer not to build a port with the Chinese, but these are developed countries. The U.S. has no alternative to that. And now in some cases, there goes further than that, right? We can't do that. But there doesn't seem to be an anti or a non-Chinese alternative in many cases. But what the Chinese care about in the Western Hemisphere are two things. Natural resources. Three, markets for exports.

They want to import to their country natural resources, so whether it's oil or lithium or agricultural products, they want to take raw materials in. They want to export finished goods out to these markets. And the third thing they want

is the ability to project power in the region. So they're not going to build military bases, but if they own the port or they own the facilities around the Panama Canal, then they don't need to build military bases. If they want to send their Navy over here, they've got to place their company's own that they can stop at and use as a base without having to call it a base. So those are their interests, and then you've got countries in the region that would love to do that because they hate America. They've got a regime in Venezuela, they've got a regime in Cuba, they've got a regime in Nicaragua.

All of those are places that I would love to welcome in, not just Chinese, but Iranian and Russian elements as well.

What do we need to do on the border? We are here based in Texas, so we have lots of stations in Florida. I mean, we're here in Phoenix with lots of stations in Florida. What do we need to do about the border? Is this just a sieve down here? I mean, they're just walking through. Well, there's the physical infrastructure that you need to be able to monitor. But the bottom line is we have created an incentive for people to come here. It's pretty straightforward, okay? Everybody knows. I personally know and hear people that talk about this, okay?

they know that they'll spend money and i think that is that i have a bill that would make it a crime and money to some network to traffic your relative here it's that that even clear that the federal and and uh... it would be made that very clear you can't send ten thousand dollars using dollar cash app to some coyote who's gonna traffic your family here you do that that's a that should be a federal crime but they know they spend this money

Their relatives are going to arrive at the border. They're going to turn themselves in and ask for asylum. They will immediately, saying the magic words, they will trigger a process by which they will be released. And they'll have to call once a week or once a month into some immigration place. But they're going to be released into the country with a war permit.

It happened five or ten years down the road that they may or may not show up for. So there's no reason for someone in their mind not to come here because they know they get as they cross the border and turn themselves in, they're going to get to say you've created a built in incentive. And so the only way to stop it is to reverse that incentive. It's the reverse that incentive. It's just that simple. We should not allow people automatically. We've got to redo our asylum laws. They're being abused. People have figured it out.

And it's just creating an incentive for people to come and think about it. I am not an incentive to people wanting to live in America because they live in a terrible place. I understand that. But there are probably upwards of 200 million people on this planet that would love to come to America if they could. Can we assume 200 million people? What is the number that we can absorb every given year? Because it's certainly not 200 million. It's certainly not a million or two million a year the way they're coming now. So we just can't do it.

So we've got to stop it. Are you getting any pushback on this bill you just discussed with this about not being able to send money over to traffic people here? I mean, why would just Congress say, yeah, that's a great idea?

Well, we just filed it. I think it's a new issue for a lot of people because it's not an issue that I got from a think tank. It's an issue I got, you know, I'll never forget it. A couple, about right before Christmas, I'm at a little local coffee shop here, you know, the Hispanic coffee shop, and I hear two people online talking about it. It's like, yeah, I'm going to send $5,000 so my, I think, cousin's son or wife can come. And I'm like, how can that not be a crime? So I asked my staff to look into it, and they're like, well, it probably is, but it's not clear and so forth.

So I think if you get caught doing that, there is no reason why it should be illegal. It should be abundantly clear in the law that you shouldn't be sending money to traffic people into the country, even if it's a family member. So pushback, I don't know if we're going to get pushback. I think the pushback is going to be they just won't do anything about it. Or the pushback will be criminalizing people that all they want is for their relatives to live here. But that's not what they're doing. What they're doing is funding trafficking networks.

Senator Rubio, we have just about a minute and a half left before we have to end the program here. We really thank you for joining us. What coming up should folks around the country, what business coming up in front of the Senate, should folks really be focused and concerned about or at least paying attention to? Yeah, look, I mean, the debt limit debate is going to suck all the oxygen out of the room for good reason. I'm not defaulting on the debt.

That would be a big problem. I mean, even getting close to it is going to trigger all kinds of global reaction and the like. But that doesn't mean that what we're doing today is sustainable. We're in a tough spot here. We have spending that is completely out of whack. You saw the CBO numbers this week.

Eighty-eight percent of our budget now is mandatory spending. That number will continue to grow. That's basically a program that Congress doesn't even decide how much it costs. The law tells us people are eligible for it, you have to fund it. And that, if you take those numbers and run them out, we're going to go broke. But we can't deal with it because no one wants to be serious about saving Medicare and Social Security. If you talk about it, we're in an environment where we have the President of the United States saying, yes, I know the things that are going to go unsolved, but if we do anything to save them other than raise taxes,

you're trying to kill these programs. And so you can't do that without presidential leadership. So I think that's going to be the dominant issue here. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Senator Marco Rubio. We really appreciate having you on the program. Love to have you back again in the future. Folks, make sure you stay in tune with him and follow his work on Twitter and his social media accounts there. Breaking Battlegrounds will be coming back on the air next week, but do make sure you download our podcast-only segment for podcasts

An interesting and lively discussion between Chuck and I today and some crying from the left. Welcome back to the podcast-only segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Folks, we're going to start you out with something that may be painful to hear. At least it certainly is for everyone I know in Gen X and anyone older than that. There's a young woman who posted on TikTok the following video. Go ahead, Jeremy.

I don't... First of all, the fact that she says she doesn't want to be productive. I mean, that's basically what she said. She's a cog on, you know, productivity. I...

Well, I mean, people people like this walk around. People like this are filling up universities. Well, what it is is people like this are looking for the government to replace mommy and daddy as they get older. Mommy and daddy stop paying for their life and now they want someone else to do it. They just don't want to do anything. There was another one of these that, you know, some kid working at a Starbucks was crying because he had to work a whole eight hour shift. And, you know, come on with this stuff, people.

But we had the other day right here at Phoenix running around City Hall the Union of Unemployed Workers or Non-Employed Workers. There's an actual union for non-employed workers? How do they pay dues? Apparently they don't. What they were demanding, they were literally running around with headset cameras and all that kind of crud, running around City Hall, sticking them in the faces of all the council members.

demanding that they ban all rent, that they provide everybody with a living wage for not working, that they ban private property rights. I mean, these people are. I think my biggest question for these folks, and that sounds like a pretty good life, is how do they think this gets paid for?

They have some fantasy and I don't understand it. I really – it's one of those times I wish I had actually won this election and been in there already because I would love to have asked them some questions that you know no one else on that council floor was going to ask them like that one. Who's paying for this fantasy of yours? Who pays for it? Where do you think it comes from? I almost feel like every time we encounter someone or a group like this, the Union for Non-Employed or Unemployed People –

Hand them a yellow pad and a pencil and say, just tell me where it comes from. Yeah. Because somebody has to work to produce something. Right. I mean, obviously, this woman doesn't want to be part of that cog. But somebody has to work. There has to be tax to pay for them not to work.

Well, it's a vicious cycle. I mean, yeah, I mean, all kids learn it as soon as they leave the house. I think they have this vision that somebody else. I mean, either they're just totally ignorant and they think government money grows on trees and just the printing press is the only thing you need. And we can all just pretend like we're playing Monopoly.

Or these are just people who, frankly, are lazy users of other humans and are demanding to be taken care of. It's just, yeah, it's just so insular. I want to go on another subject here. So NBC News, credit to them, posted a story 14 hours ago, natural immunity protective COVID vaccine severe illness, basically saying that

the natural immunity you get from giving COVID is effective and actually lasts longer than the actual vaccines. And, of course, buried in the middle of the article, this is the following. The immunity generated from an infection was found to be at least as high, if not higher, than that provided by two doses of the mRNA vaccine, the authors wrote. While Murray and Watcher agreed that vaccination remains the safest route,

or disagree on vaccines, folks. Having a past COVID infection should be at least considered in policymaking decisions going forward.

such as vaccination requirements. That's a big twist here. Well, it's a big return to reality. Then it goes on. What Europe did with this evidence made a lot of sense, which is where evidence of past infection was seen as essentially equal to vaccination in terms of requirements to go into events or for employment. At the very least, he added, officials should accept that evidence of recent infection is equivalent to vaccination.

Notably, the immunity acquired from infection did appear to wane more slowly than immunity from two doses of the vaccine. I don't know. You know, look, I think when COVID came, no one knew. Right. But as the facts came out, they kept just trying to hide it. Right. Now, that's my problem with it. I mean, also, to be honest, the push to vaccinate everyone who's, you know, 50, 60 and younger and healthy is

And I hesitate at this point. Let's not call them vaccines. They're not vaccines. They're temporary immune system boosters. Right. They're 90, 120 days at best. Yeah. So, I mean, if that's worth it for you, if you're in a very vulnerable population, okay. But why were they ever pushing it on anyone else? We know natural immunity. There's no example.

of people surviving a viral disease who didn't develop some fairly significant longstanding immunity to that disease. Well, that's why there's 7 billion people in the world now. Right. That sort of works, right? As a matter of fact, there was also something stuck out for me here. Dr. Bob Wachter, the chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said he did not expect the protection acquired from infection to be as robust as the meta-analysis found.

What I find scary about that, and I was listening coming in today about University of North Carolina is trying to do a new school of thought from both sides. There's just no limits. This is thought. And of course, professors at University of North Carolina are freaking out. The credential committees are freaking out. And this clearly how they've set it up follows the parameters in North Carolina Constitution. Again, constitutions only matter to liberals when they think it's something they want. If not, it's obviously old and it's historic and it's a white man thing.

What I found about this interesting is his comment. He did not expect the protection acquired from infection to be as robust as the meta-analysis found. What I find alarming is I think we had a lot of people in universities full of people who have a progressive view. So they were saying, for example, in one university, it's 27 to 1 in the chemistry department, Democrat, Republican.

As a scientist, you're supposed to go on. You have theories. You should follow that, right? But you should go in sort of as a blank slate and say, let the science show me. Let it follow. And that comment, while it may seem tepid and subtle and innocuous, it's not. They've gone in, and then all of a sudden, Dr. Bob here has said, oh, my goodness, my theory, my theory.

Chuck, we've reached a crisis point with the medical profession because the progressive ideology demands adherence to whatever the public mantra of the day is. It's not following the science. And conservatives follow this at times as well, right? Absolutely. But I'm really stunned with the medical community at COVID did this. I mean, he has another comment. The protection against severe infection, both the extent and the length of it,

at almost a year is really surprisingly high. I mean, as a doctor, he knows that people build up immunity to these things. Right. Well, and actually we're far enough into this that it hasn't been surprising for more or less two years because there are lots of people who did not go in for the COVID shots who, you know, like myself, have had COVID a few times and

The first time I was solidly sick wasn't the worst thing I've ever dealt with. The second time it was a mild cold. Since then, I've had nothing more than a mild cold. Dear listeners, Kai and I have never had COVID. We are very special people. But now you think you've never had COVID, Jamie, also. No, no, no. I haven't tested. I did my male physical. Can you have asymptomatic COVID? No.

We just haven't had it. Well, I don't know. I tested it at Mayo two weeks ago. I don't have it. So did they do the whole whatever sequencing? Yeah, it's a two-day physical. They've done everything. I mean, I've tested – you have too. We've tested numerous times because we hang around with a bunch of idiots that seem to get it all the time. How about – Superior. You know, one of the things, though – We are superior. That ties to this –

One of the things that ties to this is the continued pushing of masks, right? And telling people hospitals are still demanding them, all this kind of thing. There's metadata out now that shows very clearly, which a lot of us have pointed out before, but now they're starting to take it seriously in the liberal media, that the masks provide no protection. And so here's the thing with that. It's not...

you know, oh, maybe if there's a 1% additional protection, it's worth it. No, no, no, BS. You were telling people they were safe to go out who were in the vulnerable population. You were telling them they were safe by wearing a mask. And you should never have done that because you were putting them at risk. So you were lying to people in two very significant ways. One, you were imposing something on a lot of people that they didn't want and didn't need and had no use. But two, you were putting people who were truly at risk at risk.

I mean, really, you were putting them under the COVID gun because of that. You know, how many of them went into places and said, oh, I'm safe wearing my mask?

Right. Right. And we're not. Right. It's false security. Yeah. Right. It's false security. Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the show this week. Mia Love, Marco Rubio, of course, our good friend, independent journalist Alexander. He is. I just love him. I love him. I love him. He's fantastic and he's doing amazing work. Well, he writes about things that are insightful, which we try to do on the show instead of asking the typical questions. And he's wonderful. So, folks, we hope you have a great week. We have a great show next week. And take care. God bless. God bless.

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