Oct. 26, 2025

When the Foundations Tremble | World of Payne Podcast

When the Foundations Tremble | World of Payne Podcast
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In this episode of The World of Payne Podcast, Tanner Payne dives deep into a week of global and national tremors — from the U.S.–Australia rare earths alliance and the Amazon Web Services outage to political scandals, China’s economic slowdown, and America’s ongoing government shutdown.
Through a conservative-leaning lens built on responsibility, integrity, and faith, Tanner examines what happens when the systems we depend on begin to shake — and how Americans can rebuild with strength and accountability.
This episode isn’t about outrage — it’s about awareness. Because when the foundations tremble, you can either run… or rebuild.

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WEBVTT

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Welcome back to the World of Pain podcast. I am

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your host, Tanner Pain, and tonight we step into another

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week where the world seems to shake a little harder

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than before. Around here, we don't run from hard conversations.

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We have them. We don't yell across the aisle. We

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build bridges with reasons, facts and conviction. This show leans conservative,

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but it's built on respect, on finding common ground through truth,

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not outrage, because the goal isn't to divide, it's to understand,

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and understanding begins with paying attention. This week's episode, when

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the foundations tremble, from shifting alliances to digital fragility, from

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moral tests to economic slowdown, the tremors are everywhere, so tonight,

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when the world starts to shake, what still holds us steady.

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There are moments in history when the ground beneath at

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our feet seems to shift all at once, not in

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the way the earthquakes rattle the earth, but in quiet,

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invisible ways. Systems begin to hum and crack. It's the

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tremble before the collapse, the whisper before the roar, and

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lately the tremble feels way louder than it's been in years.

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Everywhere you look, something is straining at the seams. Allies

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are being tested. Technology, the very thing that connects us

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is showing its fragility. Politics has become less about leading

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and more about surviving the next headline. Our adversaries are recalibrating,

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and here at home, the government we fund can't even

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seem to fund itself. Five stories, five fault lines, each

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reminding us that the foundations of the world are trembling.

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When I sit behind this microphone each week, I don't

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do it to preach your posture. I do it because

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I believe true conservatism isn't about clinging to the past.

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It's about protecting the principles that build the future. Responsibility, liberty,

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faith and hard work. They're not slogans. They're stabilizers, and

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when the foundations shake, those values are what will keep

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us upright. This week, stabilizers were tested on every front, global, technological, moral, economic,

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and political. On the global stage, the United States and

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Australia struck an eight point five billion dollar rare Earth

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minerals in defense agreement. At first glance, it seems technical,

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another trade deal, another handshake, But beneath it lies something

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far greater. Control over the materials that power the modern world,

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from chips in our phones to the guidance systems in

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our missiles. Rare earths are the DNA of our digital age.

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For far too long, one country, China, has held that

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DNA hostage. This deal is about independence, because a nation

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that doesn't control its resources doesn't control its destiny. That's

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the first tremor and maybe the first glimpse of resilience.

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Globalism without guardrails isn't strength, it's surrender. And when you

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hand over the keys to your own supply chain, you

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shouldn't be shocked when someone else starts driving your future.

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The Australia deal is America saying not anymore. But when

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one system strengthens, another shows its fragility. A massive Amazon

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Web service out outage sent shockwaves through the internet. Snapchat

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went dark, businesses, business tools frozen. Digital life stalled for

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a few hours. The cloud simply just stopped. The world

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seemed to just hang on the ledge. We imagine. The

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cloud is an infinite and secure resource, but it's built

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on the same shipe ty ground as everything else. When

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one company controls too much of that infrastructure, even a

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hiccup becomes the national vulnerability and here's the irony. The

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same society that preaches decentralization and free expression has built

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its existence on a handful of centralized servers. We've traded

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resilience for convenience and autonomy for ease. Dependency, whether on government, corporations,

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or algorithms, always carries a cost. Then came the tremor

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at the heart of governance. Paul and Gracia nominated to

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lead the office, a special counsul withdrew after offensive messages surfaced.

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The scandal itself will fade, but what lingers as erosion,

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the slow decay of trust. Somewhere along the line, we

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stopped asking if our leaders were good and started asking

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only if they were ours, if they were our leader,

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And when politics became a game of teams, truth really

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becomes optional. Red or blue, America always deserves honesty, It

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deserves accountability. Leadership without characteristic performance, and Washington's already full

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of actors, actors that we don't need governing our country.

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Actors are not something that we need in the everyday life,

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in the everyday operation of our country. We need people

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who are willing to tell the truth instead of hide

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behind a lie, instead of hide behind the corruption that

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they've built a web of across the Pacific. China's economy

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slowed to just four point eight percent growth, its weakest

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in over a year. For decades, that economy power global production,

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cheap consumer goods. Now it's sputtering way down by property

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debt and foreign pressure. And as it slows, it tugs

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on the rest of us. But maybe the slowdown is

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a message. We can't build an empire on spreadsheets. We

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build it on steel, sweat, and sovereignty. Maybe it's time

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America remembered that. And finally, the tremor we can't ignore

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is the US government shutdown, another stalemate, another reminder that

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dysfunction isn't just policy, it's culture. Budgets aren't about politics,

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they're about stewardship. Every wasted dollar is taken from someone

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who earned it and given to someone who didn't. When

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government stalls, it's the middle class and the veterans families

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who pay the price. But despair isn't the answer. Demand

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is we need to demand accountability, demand transparency, and demand

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that leaders who prize responsibility over reelection. All these stories,

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the alliances, the outages, the scandal, the slowdowns, the shutdowns,

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they're not isolated. There are signals that the world we've

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built strong as it looks, rest on trembling foundations. But

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the tremble isn't the end, it's the warning. The warnings

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are opportunities. If we build what is cracked, hold it

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fast to faith, speak honestly, and act with integrity, the

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shaking becomes shaping. The shaking slows in the next chapter

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of America's story can be about restoration, not collapse. So

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tonight we'll talk about those fault lines, not to fear them,

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but to understand them. We'll see how allies reshape order,

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how our digital world reveals its weakness, and how integrity

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must return to leadership, how true strength comes from independence,

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and how even a shutdown can spark renewal. Because when

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the foundation's rumble, you have two choices. You can run

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or you can rebuild. And if history hasn't taught us anything,

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it's that Americans always rebuild. We've done it before, we'll

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do it again, not because it's easy, but because it's

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the right thing to do. We're gonna start with the

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first tremor, the one that reminds us that strength isn't

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just forged in steel, but in the soil that gives

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it life. The red dust of the Australian outbreak outback

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doesn't look like much to the eye, dry, harsh, endless,

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but beneath the soil lies power. Rare earth minerals the

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building blocks of nearly every technology advancement that defines the

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twenty first century. New Dymium, dysporium, dysporsium, lathanium strange names,

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but together they make the magnets that drive our motors,

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the guidance systems that can our defense is sharp, the

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screens that light up our phones in our hands. For decades,

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the world has dependent on China for more than eighty

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percent of those materials. It wasn't always that way. It's

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the result of decades of quiet dominance, low prices, strategic investment,

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and slow erosion of Western mining capacity. Every year that

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the dependents deepened, so did our vulnerability. What Beijing flexed

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those export controls in twenty ten and again in twenty

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twenty three, the world saw what happens when one supplier

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holds the key to the technological world. So when President

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Trump and Prime Minister Albani's signed an eight point five

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billion dollar rare earth mineral and Defense deal under Aucus.

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It doesn't just It wasn't just another trade agreement. It

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was a pivot point, a declaration that free worlds in

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ten to mine its own future again. The deals architecture

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is bold. It commits both nations to adjoint extraction, processing

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and military material development, essentially building a Western supply chain

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from the ground up. Australia brings the resources, America brings

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the refining, technology, funding and defense integration. Together, they aim

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to supply not only their own militaries, but allied manufacturers

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across Europe and Asia economically, to move towards self reliance

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and away from reliance on Chinese goods. Right now, the

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US imports about sixty percent of its rare earth minerals,

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a vulnerability, and everything from F thirty five jets to smartphones.

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By establishing processing hubs in Darwin and Western Australia, the

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US gains direct access to those rare raw materials be

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cut off by politics. It also means thousands of jobs,

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not in Silicon Valley or Wall Street, but industrial towns

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where callous hands still build the things. At last, Strategically,

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the timing can't be sharper. China's slowdown has made it

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harder for Beijing to subsidize its mineral exports, and Western

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investors are already eyeing the shift as a hedge against

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future conflict. Think of it as building redundancy into the

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free world's nervous system, a second source of power when

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the first one falters. It's like that backup battery for

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people in their house that have solar systems. China is

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the primary the solar, but there's going to be times

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where we have to move to that backup battery, whether

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it's at night and we need to run the house,

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and maybe the we've built enough backup into that battery

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that we can run the house. Well, that's exactly what

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this is about. It's it's that backup battery that allows

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us to be able to push when when there's no

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when we can't from China anymore, it provides us just

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a second secondary option. Of course, the partnership doesn't come

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with challenges. Environmentalists in Australia warn that the cost of

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open pit mining, economists point out that ramping up refining

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could take on five years or more, and politically, critics

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on both sides of the Pacific worry that national interest

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deals risk creating both an economic echo chamber and possible

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falters later on, one where allies trade on with allies

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closing doors instead of opening them. But after watching global

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supply chains crumble during the pandemic and seeing how sanctions

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have weaponized dependency, many leaders have concluded that open trade

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without security is naive. Resilience now ranks just as high

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as efficiency when you're looking at these deals. To conservative thinkers,

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this deal represents a long overdue correction. For thirty years,

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America's outsourced not just production, but principle, but the rare,

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the raw material that we need, Trusting that profit margins

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wouldn't protect us, would protect us better than patriotism ever could.

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That worked until the day. Conservative economics says sovereignty matters.

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A nation that can't produce its own essential energy, food, medicine,

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defense materials, raw materials isn't independent. It's a renter at

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someone else's house. Reindustrialization isn't just nostalgia, its insurance, and

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the US Australia deal and bodies at spirit building capacity

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with allies who share democratic values instead of regimes that

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use trade as leverage. There is also a moral layer work,

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the belief that a strong nation is built by people

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who make things. Every ton of or dug, every component

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refine becomes a small act of defiance against a culture

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that has forgot the dignity of its own labor. The

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partnership revives that. It says production is patriotic again. It

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says the hard work that built this nation, that built

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every single thing that we walk on, the very ground

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that we walk on, everything that was built to protect

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us during World War II, the production lines during World

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War Two, the production lines that built the cars that

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transported everything in this country, the trucks that transported everything

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in this country, the moving vans, everything. The labor has

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been the heart of this nation for so long. There's

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a reason why proud Americans were the ones who went

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to work in the factories every day. They built with

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their own hands, the exact things. Is country needed progresses. Meanwhile,

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see promise in Peril. They welcomed the jobs in the

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fortification away from but warned against what they call resource nationalism.

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They argue that the long term security requires environmental stewardship

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and multilateral cooperation, not just bilateral deals. Mining rare earth

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minerals can devastate ecosystems if oversight fails, and critics worry

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that the new projects could repeat old mistakes, corporate shortcuts,

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indigenous land conflicts, and toxic runoff. The left also emphasizes

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that the climate implications rare earths because rare earth's power,

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green tech, evs, wind turbines, solar panels. To them, the

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goal should be a clean supply chain, not a domestic one.

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So while conservatives celebrate autonomy, progresses ask autonomy for what

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end to defend freedom or to sustain the planet that

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the freedom defend depends on. My question is is to

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those people who are on the progressive side who really

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think like this, who really think about the fact of

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the clean supply chains, do they not realize that the

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current supply chains and a lot of these countries for

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stuff that is used in evs, in wind turbines and

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solar panels, that a lot of it is based off

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of child labor, a lot of it is based off

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of not clean practices. They use current they have issues

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with toxic runoff. They like getting the US involved in.

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A lot of this stuff is going to help to

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protect the country and to protect these kids and to

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protect against environmental issues a lot more than what the

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current one runs on. Like, let's think about this. You

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have cobalt mining that's used in EV batteries and used

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in other electric storage, and a lot of that is

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mined by child labor, and the same people who think

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that a clean supply chain is what we have currently,

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I beg you to dig deeper because if you look

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into it, a lot of the stuff that's mined is

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not mined with electric trucks. It's not a mind with

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electric excavators. It's not mined with what you consider clean energy.

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They're mined with big trucks. It's mined with trucks with

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massive diesel engines or gas, in some cases gas powered machinery.

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They're not the clean supply chain that you think that

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it really is. Somewhere between those views lies common ground

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both sides. No Dependency on the adversaries is dangerous. Dependence

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on China becomes more dangerous because they use everything they've

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got to leverage us back into their globalism practices, of

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where they become the central point. Both agree that supply

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chains must be secure, transparent, and sustainable. The question isn't

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whether we mind, it's how we mind responsibly. If aucus

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can combine conservative grit with progressive innovation. If we can

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mind cleaner, refine, smarter and trained workers rather than replace them,

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then this deal could become the model for principled global capitalism.

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And I have to agree with that one. If we

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can get it to the point where where we're no

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longer replacing miners, where we're no longer replacing the people

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who'd put in the hard work and hard labor, and

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just making them more efficient with technology like originally was,

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we could really set that foundation for how other countries

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do do their trade in their their money deals for

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rare earth minerals in a world where everything seems outsourced,

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are manufacturing our data, sometimes even our convictions. This partnership

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feels like a reclamation. It's not perfect, no policy ever is,

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but it signals that America and her allies still believe

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in earning our own strength. The ground may tremble, but

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nations that dig deep, whether it's into their own soil,

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their values, their faith, staying longer than those who are

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built on borrowed foundations, steel and soil. That's where the

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renewal starts, with calloused hands, quiet courage, and the understanding

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that freedom must be forged again. With every new generation.

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Just like success, freedom is not borrowed, it's earned. You

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can't borrow freedom from the previous generation. We earn it

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every single day before we move on to the next section,

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the next segment, the next fault line. I want to

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take a second to talk about something close to home,

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something that I a company that I built myself with

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the same belief and hard work and integrity. Valuable to

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Parel isn't just a brand to reminder that strength is earned.

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Every design, every stitch, every print carries the spirit of

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the people who refuse to quit, the builders, the veterans,

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the survivors, the families grinding out tomorrow, one on day

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at a time. When you wear Valor Built, you're not

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buying clothes. You're carrying a creed that honor still matters,

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that hard work still counts, and that community still wins.

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Visit valor Biltapparel dot com, grab a shirt, share your story,

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and stand for something that lasts. Valor Built built for

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those who build America. Now, speaking of the things that

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we build, let's talk about the invisible systems holding our

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world together and what happens when they suddenly fall apart.

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It happened on an ordinary Monday, offices were humming, servers

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were purring, and content was streaming until suddenly they weren't.

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Screens froze, files vanished, and social media feeds what silent.

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A massive Amazon Web Services outage rippled across continents and

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in some matters it really affected the way that we

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operate on a day to day basis, and in a

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matter of minutes, millions realized how much modern lives live

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on someone else's computer. For most people, it was an inconvenience,

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for others, a crisis. Hospitals couldn't access patient data, banks

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couldn't process transactions, and companies watched revenue tick away. Second

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by second, the cloud that invisible network we treat as

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infinite had crashed through the earth. The irony is poetic.

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The same technology that promised connection and efficiency revealed just

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how fragile the digital world has become in twenty twenty five.

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One line of bad code can stall an entire console,

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entire economies. One configuration air can silence global communication. And

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the question we should all be asking what happens when

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the cloud that runs our life stops working. AWS isn't

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just a website, It's the backbone of the modern Internet.

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It hosts over thirty percent of the world's cloud infrastructure.

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Every time you stream a show, send an email, use

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a business app, or back up your photos, odds are

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the data passes through Amazon service somewhere. The outage this

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October stems from a routine network update that cascaded through

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internal systems, freezing freezing from services from Snapchat to major

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logistics companies. The destruction lasted only a few hours, but

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the economic footprint was enormous billions in halted transactions, lost advertising,

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and crippled communication. For small businesses. It was a reminder

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that digital transformation isn't free. They depend on cloud subscriptions

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for payroll, sales, accounting, and marketing. Then these clouds vanish,

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so does cash flow. Governments too rely on these private infrastructures.

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Local agencies store records on AWS, public safety systems use

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its servers, and that means a private sector glitch can

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interrupt public life, and that's the new territory for national security.

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Some experts call it growing from a digital concentration risk.

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A handful of corporations Amazon, Microsoft and Google hold the

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keys to global communication. Their reliability becomes everyone's vulnerability and

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Unlike public utilities, these firms answer primarily to shareholders and

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not citizens. Their outage reignited and old debate. Should critical

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cloud service is be regulated like power grids and water systems,

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or should it be stifle or would that stifle innovation?

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So far, governments have mostly trusted the market to self craft.

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But when a failure sciences hospitals and airports, the line

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between tech problem and public crisis blurs. The line between

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what should be publicly monitored and what should be privately

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controlled is great. Conservatives see this is a textbook warning

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over centralization, proof that putting too much power in too

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few hands, whether corporate or governmental, leads to dependency and weakness.

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A free market works best when competition thrives, not when

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three companies quietly run the new system of civilization. Outage

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underscores the need for digital decentralization, diversified providers, local data centers,

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and renewed investment in domestic infrastructure. It also taps into

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a deeper principle self reliance. For decades, efficiency and convenience

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have been sold as progress, But convenience, unchecked breeds complacency.

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When our businesses can't run without server farms two thousand

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miles away. We've traded independence for comfort. The conservative solution

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is to nationalize the clouds to diversify it, incentifize smaller competitors,

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Reward companies that host regionally, and educate customers about digital risk.

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Encourage states to protect critical systems with offline redundancies. It's

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the same logic that built electric cooperatives and banks strength

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through distributed ownership. And there's an ethical layer here. Big

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text consolidation doesn't threaten economics, its shapes culture. When a

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few algorithms mediate most speech and commerce, they wield more

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influence than any elected body. Conservatives argue that a free

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people should never depend entirely on systems they can't control

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or even question. Progressives interpret the out let me slow

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downe Progressives interpret the outage differently. To them, the issue

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isn't too much technology, it's too little regulation. They argue

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that cloud services have become public utilities in disguise, and

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they should face the same oversight as energy or telecom companies.

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They support stricter cybersecurity standards, mandatory redundancies, and transparency rule

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requiring providers to disclose destructions immediately. They also point to

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labor and climate dimensions. Sprawling data centers consume enormous amounts

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of energy and rely on underpaid maintenance staff. Accountability, they argue,

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should include workers and the environment, not just uptime metrics.

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Some of the left even proposed government backed public clouds

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federally maintained infrastructure for critical data, akin to a digital

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highway system. Critics call for that dangerous centralization. Advocates see

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it as a stability in an age of private monopolies.

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Now where I completely disagree with the progressive view on

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this one in a lot of different areas. I ah,

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so some would disagree with the conservative area on this.

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I like the idea to diversify it, to get more

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on the conservative side, to diversify it, to get more

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local companies involved, to get to get some more regional

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infrastructure built. I I worry because the amount of energy

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that those take, Like they said in this in the

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progressive view, Like I said, in the progressive view, it's

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it's a it's not it's an easier thing said than done.

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You're looking at a lot of energy to be able

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to push push that as a as a regional area thing.

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I know a lot of internet companies and stuff like

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that have their own data centers and stuff regionally. But

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we're talking about cloud based backups that I'll also require

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a lot of hard drives a lot of storage to

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make that work. Where I don't agree with on the

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progressive view is is we don't need more regulation because

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what is more regulation gonna do. They already have to

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report when outa just happen because their companies a service

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have to know when there's an outage. They can't you

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can't just not let their their app work or not

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let things happen. And then the other thing is is

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why would we have a government back to public cloud?

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I mean we pretty much already do with the with

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the with the national intelligence agencies and stuff like that.

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They have. They've been collecting data on us for years.

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I mean, we just can't access it ourselves as citizens.

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So you can't tell you can't tell me that we

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wouldn't have the infrastructure in place there. But why would

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we let the government take more control of our data?

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Because let's say you do something that the government doesn't like,

395
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or you're one of these people that has guns and

396
00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:24.119
they want to take away guns, or you're one of

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these people who says a person gets into office. And

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this can be on both sides, whether you're a conservative

399
00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:37.720
or a progressive person. Let's say a person gets into

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00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:40.920
office that doesn't like what you're saying about them. They control,

401
00:32:41.079 --> 00:32:45.480
they can control your personal private information and the flow

402
00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:50.559
of which you access it. If you're a Democrat, how

403
00:32:50.599 --> 00:32:53.519
would you like it if Trump decided, oh yeah, you

404
00:32:53.559 --> 00:32:55.920
can't access your personal files and I'm just going to

405
00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:59.759
leak them to the country. Or if you're a conservative,

406
00:32:59.799 --> 00:33:01.400
how would you like it if Joe Biden would have

407
00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:04.559
had that had that power and he just decided, Oh yeah,

408
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I don't like what you're saying about me on Twitter,

409
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so I'm just gonna I'm gonna restrict your access to

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your your businesses, uh, your business's files on our nationally

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federally federal government owned server. Like how would you how

412
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would you like that? How would you like that to happen?

413
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And that's what you're asking and that's what they're asking

414
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for here, is to have a government backed public cloud. No, No,

415
00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:35.640
it makes zero sense, and it's gonna be run shitty.

416
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They've they're gonna it's gonna be hidden behind bureaucratic or

417
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red tape, and it's just not gonna be a good.

418
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Situation between those philosophies lies to shared recognition. Concentration breeds fragility.

419
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Whether you favor a market incentive regulation, both sides agree

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that resilience requires redundancy. Multiple providers and interoperable systems and

421
00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:11.639
transparent reporting aren't partisan ideas, they're common sense engineering. The

422
00:34:11.719 --> 00:34:16.400
debate shouldn't be who controls the cloud, but how we

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ensure it serves the public good without crushing innovation. The

424
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balance freedom with accountability is the cornerstone of every stable republic,

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digital or otherwise. The outers reminded us that the progress

426
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is fragile, that our sleekest systems still depend on human

427
00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:44.559
discipline and humility. Technology can amplify greatness, or it can

428
00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:49.679
magnify weakness weakness, but it can't replace free It can't

429
00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:54.960
replace wisdom. We live in an age where everything is connected,

430
00:34:55.079 --> 00:35:00.599
yet somehow we're more vulnerable than ever. The answer isn't

431
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:07.079
to abandon innovation. It's the anchor it build. Redundancies, respect limits,

432
00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:12.599
and understand that convenience without accountability is just another kind

433
00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:17.920
of dependency. When the cloud crashes, it exposes more than code,

434
00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:21.960
It exposes character. How prepared we are, how adaptable, how

435
00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:25.440
willing we are to take ownership when the easy path fails.

436
00:35:26.079 --> 00:35:28.840
It may be that's the deeper message. A nation that

437
00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:31.960
learns to back up its data should also learn to

438
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:38.039
back up its values. Now we've seen how a single

439
00:35:38.119 --> 00:35:42.239
glitch can ripple through the digital world. But now let's

440
00:35:42.280 --> 00:35:47.440
turn to a different kind of collapse, not technology but moral.

441
00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:53.440
The Paul and Gracia withdrawal and the state of political

442
00:35:53.480 --> 00:35:59.719
accountability in Washington's scandal isn't where, isn't rare. It's routine.

443
00:36:00.599 --> 00:36:05.639
Names rise, fall and are replaced before the public even

444
00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:09.159
learns how to spell them. But every so often a

445
00:36:09.239 --> 00:36:12.840
story breaks that feels like gossip more than it feels

446
00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:17.599
like a mirror. This time, that mirror came in a form,

447
00:36:17.960 --> 00:36:23.000
in the form of Paul Agracia, the nominee to head

448
00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:27.760
the US Office as Special Counsul, a position designed to

449
00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:34.960
protect whistleblowers and uphold ethical conduct and federal agencies. When

450
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.760
an old online post surface racist, inflammatory, and indefensible, the

451
00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:47.280
nomination unraveled almost overnight. Within days, he withdrew. The headlines

452
00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:51.360
focused on his words, But the deeper story wasn't about

453
00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:54.199
one man it's about the slow erosion of character in

454
00:36:54.239 --> 00:36:58.039
public life, the idea that competence and loyalty have become

455
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:03.079
more valuable than conscience. Once again, America was left asking

456
00:37:03.119 --> 00:37:07.440
a hard question. If integrity no longer qualifies a person

457
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:11.360
for leadership, what does The Office's Special council sits quietly

458
00:37:11.800 --> 00:37:14.519
in the machinery of the government, but its purpose is

459
00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:20.559
crucial protecting employees who expose waste, fraud, or abuse. Its

460
00:37:20.599 --> 00:37:26.480
director must embody impartially. That kind of integrity that outlasts

461
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:32.079
politics and gracious withdrawal isn't just personal change personnel change.

462
00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:37.199
It's a symptom of a system, or partisanship, or a

463
00:37:37.320 --> 00:37:44.000
shadows principle. The confirmation process has become warfare. Each side

464
00:37:44.039 --> 00:37:48.559
scours social media not to ensure moral fitness, but to

465
00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:53.159
find ammunition, and every scandal fuels the next. Until the

466
00:37:53.159 --> 00:37:59.280
public sees all nominees as tainted, in all institutions as corrupt.

467
00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:05.760
That loss of faith has consequences far beyond Washington. When

468
00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:08.440
citizens no longer trust that their leaders tell the truth,

469
00:38:08.599 --> 00:38:11.679
they stop listening, they tune out, and from elections, from

470
00:38:11.719 --> 00:38:15.800
civic duty, from the very idea that the government can

471
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:23.000
serve good ends. In a democracy that stops believing in

472
00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:28.039
integrity starts believing in nothing at all. This story, like

473
00:38:28.119 --> 00:38:33.400
so many others, forces us to confront a pattern. Rules

474
00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:38.360
without virtue don't work. You can't legislate integrity. It has

475
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:42.400
to be lived quietly, consistently, and when no one's watching.

476
00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.280
That's the part we've lost in the age of cliques

477
00:38:45.639 --> 00:38:52.119
and outrage. Conservatives read this moment as proof that moral

478
00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:56.920
standards must return to the center of leadership. The republic

479
00:38:57.480 --> 00:39:00.199
doesn't grumble from lack of talent, It crumbles from when

480
00:39:00.280 --> 00:39:03.400
leaders forget that trust is their first duty. From a

481
00:39:03.400 --> 00:39:07.679
conservative lens, government ethics shouldn't hinge on media cycles or

482
00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:14.199
partisian loyalty. It begins at home and faith, family, and

483
00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:19.239
personal accountability. The founders assumed that virtue was the self

484
00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:24.440
governance foundation. They never imagine a bureaucracy trying to manufacture

485
00:39:24.440 --> 00:39:32.840
it by committee. Conservatives argue that character screening shouldn't be weaponized,

486
00:39:33.119 --> 00:39:37.519
but it also shouldn't be ignored. Forgiveness and accountability can coexist.

487
00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:43.400
A leader can be redeemed but not excused, and the

488
00:39:43.480 --> 00:39:48.000
trust is The test is repentance followed by proof a

489
00:39:48.079 --> 00:39:52.039
life that slows that shows change, not a statement that

490
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:57.079
claims it. They also see a cultural sickness underneath the politics,

491
00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:02.119
a hunger for spectacle outreach, so nuance doesn't When both

492
00:40:02.119 --> 00:40:06.800
sides chase scandal for ratings, moral clarity turns into performance art.

493
00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:12.320
The conservative solution is a cultural one. Rebuild families, faith,

494
00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:17.519
communities and education systems that teach honour before ambition, because

495
00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:23.239
if character disappears at the bottom, it won't exist at

496
00:40:23.239 --> 00:40:28.119
the top. The progressives interpret the scandal as evidence that

497
00:40:28.119 --> 00:40:33.639
the system needs stronger guardrails, transparency rules, ethical training, diversity oversight.

498
00:40:34.360 --> 00:40:43.360
They emphasize structural reform and eliminates conflict of interest, establish

499
00:40:43.400 --> 00:40:48.280
clear vetting, and enforce zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior. To them,

500
00:40:48.360 --> 00:40:54.000
the Agracia case illustrates why representation matters. Leadership should reflect

501
00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:58.719
the people it serves. The caution that forgiveness can't become

502
00:40:58.800 --> 00:41:03.440
a loophole for prejudice. Accountability, they argue, is how institutions

503
00:41:03.719 --> 00:41:09.760
are in public trust. The left's approach is procedural. Right

504
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.280
the rules, then a share fairness, then hold them to

505
00:41:13.360 --> 00:41:20.880
everyone equally. The risk, conservatives warn is that the procedure

506
00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:26.920
without grace breeds cynicism, but the motive is clear, prevent

507
00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:34.280
harm before it happens. Now here's my question though, And

508
00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:37.599
this happens a lot, especially in the political structure and

509
00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:41.480
political arguments that we see today. We see a lot

510
00:41:41.559 --> 00:41:46.079
of each side saying like this should apply here to

511
00:41:46.159 --> 00:41:48.400
this person, but then this shouldn't apply to this person

512
00:41:48.519 --> 00:41:51.760
because they're on my side. Well, the problem is is

513
00:41:52.360 --> 00:41:58.400
there is a lot of issues where you've had prejudice

514
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:01.960
and racial races. Some stuff happened with people who were

515
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:09.320
confirmed into the left into Biden's administration that came under

516
00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:16.360
question with some of his selections where they did blackface

517
00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:19.800
or they had said something in a tweet years ago.

518
00:42:19.880 --> 00:42:22.920
But yeah, you guys forgot about that on the left,

519
00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:26.840
you guys. But now it's like the sant Gracia case

520
00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:29.239
comes up and it's like, oh, yeah, he said some

521
00:42:29.320 --> 00:42:34.400
racist stuff back then and it was weaponized against him.

522
00:42:34.840 --> 00:42:39.360
But yet the same thing happened with people on the left.

523
00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:44.360
And I'm not saying that this doesn't happen like conservatives

524
00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:46.320
don't do the same thing, because they do. And it's

525
00:42:46.639 --> 00:42:51.199
stupid because there's just a high level of hypocrisy. But

526
00:42:52.280 --> 00:42:53.960
if you're really going to say that, then it needs

527
00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:57.599
to apply both ways. It needs to be applied consistently

528
00:42:57.639 --> 00:43:01.559
and applied both ways. Where if you're going to say

529
00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:04.599
this about someone who the right has selected for a position,

530
00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:07.960
then you need to say the same thing about someone

531
00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:14.639
who the left has selected. It needs to apply both

532
00:43:14.679 --> 00:43:21.039
ways and both ways consistently. Both sides beneath the noise

533
00:43:21.119 --> 00:43:26.000
agree on one thing. Tegrity must matter. Again. The disagreement

534
00:43:26.079 --> 00:43:32.960
is over method, internal virtue versus external enforcement, but the

535
00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:37.360
destination is shared. A government worthy of belief real reform

536
00:43:38.039 --> 00:43:44.119
might blend both ideas, cultivate character through culture, and back

537
00:43:44.159 --> 00:43:47.920
it with transparent systems that punish abuse without erasing redemption.

538
00:43:49.239 --> 00:43:52.559
Ethics isn't right or left wing. It's a spine of

539
00:43:52.599 --> 00:43:57.480
self governance. Without it, laws are hollow and liberty is fragile.

540
00:44:00.360 --> 00:44:02.440
Isn't built in the headlines. It's built in the habits.

541
00:44:02.440 --> 00:44:05.039
It's the choice to tell the truth when a lie

542
00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:09.199
would be easier. It's returning the call you don't want

543
00:44:09.199 --> 00:44:12.960
to make. It's doing the work no one would applaud.

544
00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:18.000
America doesn't need perfect leaders, it needs honest ones, and

545
00:44:18.079 --> 00:44:22.159
honesty starts with accountability. The courage to admit when you're wrong,

546
00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:26.199
and the humility to change the world, change before the

547
00:44:26.199 --> 00:44:31.159
world catches you. Maybe the tremble you're feeling in politics

548
00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:35.400
isn't collapse. Maybe it's reckoning. Maybe it's the ground clearing

549
00:44:35.480 --> 00:44:41.559
space for something stronger to grow, because nations, like people

550
00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:46.559
can't stand tall on hollow ground. The storm always tests

551
00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:49.719
the foundation. If we rebuild on truth, the next generation

552
00:44:49.960 --> 00:44:55.719
won't inherit our cracks, don't inherit our courage. We've seen

553
00:44:55.920 --> 00:44:59.679
what happens when moral foundations shake. Now let's cross the

554
00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:04.079
ocean again to the world's second largest economy, where an

555
00:45:04.159 --> 00:45:10.360
entirely different kind of tremors on unfolding. There's a rhythm

556
00:45:10.679 --> 00:45:14.519
to global power. It expands, it contracts, and sometimes it

557
00:45:14.599 --> 00:45:17.840
hesitates long enough for others to catch up. For decades,

558
00:45:18.320 --> 00:45:22.599
China's economy seemed to be unstoppable. Factory lights burned through

559
00:45:22.599 --> 00:45:26.400
the night, shipping containers stacked to the skylines, Wealth, influence,

560
00:45:26.440 --> 00:45:31.000
and ambition surged outward like a tide. But this year

561
00:45:31.039 --> 00:45:35.400
that with that rhythm broke. Growth in the Chinese economy

562
00:45:35.599 --> 00:45:39.239
slowed to just four point eight percent, the weakest and

563
00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:43.840
over a year on paper, it still looks strong, but

564
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:47.800
under the surface cracks are spreading. The property market has

565
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:52.599
collapsed in an insolvency. Youth unemployment hovers near record highs.

566
00:45:53.400 --> 00:45:57.280
Foreign investment is fleeing a What once looked like the

567
00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:01.159
world's most confident machine is not ground its gears, and

568
00:46:01.239 --> 00:46:04.559
for the first time in a generation, the world is

569
00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:09.679
asking a question it hasn't dared to voice. What happens

570
00:46:09.719 --> 00:46:14.440
if China's miracle runs out of momentum. To understand the tremor,

571
00:46:14.760 --> 00:46:18.280
you have to look back. China's rise was built on

572
00:46:18.400 --> 00:46:24.000
three pillars. Cheap labor, endless construction, and global demand. Western

573
00:46:24.039 --> 00:46:29.320
consumers bought and investors pulled in, poured in, and Beijing

574
00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:33.159
finance growth through debt. But debt is gravity, and the

575
00:46:33.239 --> 00:46:37.119
higher you climb, the heavier poles. The real estate crash

576
00:46:37.159 --> 00:46:41.639
that began in twenty twenty one never fully ended. Giants

577
00:46:41.719 --> 00:46:49.400
like Everground and Country Garden imploded under billions and liabilities.

578
00:46:50.039 --> 00:47:00.639
Entire ghost cities stand half built monuments to overconfidence. Confidence

579
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:05.719
as constructions stalled, so de demployment. Nearly one to five

580
00:47:05.800 --> 00:47:10.360
young people are jobless. That's not just an economic number,

581
00:47:10.400 --> 00:47:15.119
it's a social warning sign. Internationally, tariffs and geopolitical tension

582
00:47:15.280 --> 00:47:19.280
have chipped away at the export dominance. American and European

583
00:47:19.320 --> 00:47:23.239
companies are moving supply chains to Vietnam, India, and Mexico.

584
00:47:24.199 --> 00:47:29.199
The world is quietly diversifying away from Beijing. For the

585
00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:33.440
United States, this slowdown cuts both ways. Short term, it

586
00:47:33.480 --> 00:47:39.360
may ease inflation as Chinese exports cheapen. Long term, it

587
00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:43.000
exposes how deeply our economies were intertwined. A weaker China

588
00:47:43.079 --> 00:47:47.000
meets a weaker global demand, lower commodity prices, and turbulence

589
00:47:47.079 --> 00:47:50.840
in markets that depend on its appetite. Farmers in Iowa,

590
00:47:51.639 --> 00:47:55.159
miners in Australia, tech firms in California. They will all

591
00:47:55.199 --> 00:47:59.639
feel the ripple he had a mid uncertainty. Opportunities flicker.

592
00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:02.719
When a giant slows, space opens for others to grow,

593
00:48:03.800 --> 00:48:08.039
for democracies to rebuild manufacturing, for allies to titan trade,

594
00:48:08.400 --> 00:48:13.119
and for innovation to shift westward once again. The Conservatives

595
00:48:13.119 --> 00:48:18.599
see this as China Stumble, as confirmation that state controlled

596
00:48:18.639 --> 00:48:22.920
prosperity has limits. Central planning can build cities but doesn't

597
00:48:22.920 --> 00:48:28.440
build character. It can command output, but it can't command trust.

598
00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:35.239
When success deepens on obedience instead of ownership, creativity suffocates

599
00:48:35.480 --> 00:48:38.039
to them. This is a global lesson and the importance

600
00:48:38.079 --> 00:48:42.400
of economic freedom paired with moral restraint. The Chinese model

601
00:48:42.719 --> 00:48:47.800
promised stability through control, censorship, surveillance, and corporate obedience to

602
00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:53.320
the party line. It produced growth without liberty, numbers without transparency,

603
00:48:53.559 --> 00:48:58.159
and now that model is colliding with human reality. Innovation

604
00:48:58.280 --> 00:49:04.559
requires independence. Conservatives argue that America must read through the

605
00:49:04.559 --> 00:49:12.039
warning correctly. The goal isn't to celebrate China's pain, but

606
00:49:12.159 --> 00:49:17.159
to learn from our own drift. For decades, we offshore jobs,

607
00:49:17.320 --> 00:49:21.599
weakened our industrial corps, and assumed cheap imports equal progress.

608
00:49:23.039 --> 00:49:27.440
China's slowdown is a chance to kind of reverse that mistake,

609
00:49:29.880 --> 00:49:34.199
to rebuild supply chains at home and among allies who

610
00:49:34.280 --> 00:49:39.440
share the same values. It's a reminder that debt and

611
00:49:39.559 --> 00:49:44.400
moral decay follow the same pattern. Ignore limits long enough,

612
00:49:45.960 --> 00:49:53.320
and collapse comes fast. Fiscal discipline and energy independence domestic production.

613
00:49:53.440 --> 00:49:59.199
These aren't slogans, their survival skills. Progresses interpret the slowdown

614
00:49:59.400 --> 00:50:01.920
through different lens. They see it as proof that global

615
00:50:02.199 --> 00:50:07.199
interdependence demands cooperation, not isolation. When a giant economy stumbles,

616
00:50:07.719 --> 00:50:11.239
no one escapes on scapes. They warned that tariffs at

617
00:50:11.239 --> 00:50:17.079
decoupling risk create parallel worlds, one democratic and one authoritarian,

618
00:50:17.800 --> 00:50:21.000
forcing smaller nations to choose sides. Many on the left

619
00:50:21.079 --> 00:50:25.840
advocate for climate focused trade and realignment rather than economic warfare,

620
00:50:25.960 --> 00:50:31.320
investing green text partnerships, pressure Beijing on emissions, and use

621
00:50:31.400 --> 00:50:37.159
diplomacy to stabilize markets. Emphasize shared global responsibility that humanity

622
00:50:37.760 --> 00:50:45.000
challenges from climate to health, transcend borders. Critics of the approach,

623
00:50:45.679 --> 00:50:53.119
especially in conservative circles, caution that goodwill without reciprocity becomes weakness.

624
00:50:53.639 --> 00:50:59.199
Cooperation works only when values align, Otherwise it rewards manipulation.

625
00:51:02.119 --> 00:51:05.199
I just don't under I don't foresee, and don't understand.

626
00:51:05.599 --> 00:51:09.039
We've tried the whole green angle with Beijing. We tried it.

627
00:51:09.320 --> 00:51:11.199
We tried it with the Paris Climate Accord. They were

628
00:51:11.239 --> 00:51:14.480
supposed to abide by the parent Paris Climate Accord, but

629
00:51:14.559 --> 00:51:17.639
yet they were still one of the highest emitting countries

630
00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:23.519
of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the world. And

631
00:51:23.599 --> 00:51:28.360
yet during the Paris Climate Accord, we were paying for

632
00:51:28.760 --> 00:51:33.880
a lot of green initiatives in countries like China and

633
00:51:33.960 --> 00:51:40.800
countries like India like I don't I don't foresee looking

634
00:51:40.840 --> 00:51:47.360
at this as a climate focused trade re alignment. I don't.

635
00:51:47.400 --> 00:51:50.559
I don't foresee that working out, because even if you

636
00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:54.079
invest in green tech partner partnerships, you're not gonna get

637
00:51:54.280 --> 00:51:57.599
what you want out of it. They've they've shut down

638
00:51:57.639 --> 00:52:00.760
pretty much every opportunity to be able to do that.

639
00:52:03.760 --> 00:52:09.199
Somewhere between confrontation and appeasement lies to strategy. Both sides

640
00:52:09.199 --> 00:52:14.639
see the dependence on authoritarian supply chains is risky. Both

641
00:52:14.719 --> 00:52:20.760
understand that isolationism is a global economy. It is fantasy.

642
00:52:21.719 --> 00:52:26.440
The answer is selective independence. Trade where it builds strength,

643
00:52:27.039 --> 00:52:32.440
disentangle where it builds leverage against US. America can lead

644
00:52:32.480 --> 00:52:38.400
by example, produce responsibility, trade honestly, and defend liberty as

645
00:52:38.400 --> 00:52:45.159
a vigorously as it defends profit. A healthy rivalry managed

646
00:52:45.199 --> 00:52:48.559
by discipline might keep both nations sharper and keep the

647
00:52:48.599 --> 00:52:53.800
world from sliding into another Cold war. Empires rarely fall

648
00:52:53.880 --> 00:52:56.840
in a day. They erode quietly from the inside out.

649
00:52:57.239 --> 00:53:00.880
When numbers replace ideals and control replace is trust. China's

650
00:53:00.880 --> 00:53:04.159
slow down isn't just an economic event. It's a moral

651
00:53:04.920 --> 00:53:11.280
parable about what happens when prosperity outruns principle. For the

652
00:53:11.360 --> 00:53:15.559
United States, it's a mirror when we build strength on

653
00:53:15.679 --> 00:53:20.000
self reliance or on credit cards and comfort. Are we

654
00:53:20.079 --> 00:53:23.960
really cultivating innovation through freedom or regulating it to fear?

655
00:53:25.480 --> 00:53:29.599
The answers will determine who thrives in the next century.

656
00:53:30.679 --> 00:53:33.960
The tremor in China is a reminder that no system,

657
00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:39.039
no matter how vast, is immune to consequence. Stability without

658
00:53:39.079 --> 00:53:44.440
weakness without transparency, wealth without virtue. Those are the sand foundations,

659
00:53:44.760 --> 00:53:47.760
and though and when shaking comes, only nations built on

660
00:53:47.840 --> 00:53:54.119
truth and accountability will be standing. We've now seen how

661
00:53:54.159 --> 00:53:58.960
economic strength can falter when principle fades. Now let's turn

662
00:53:59.119 --> 00:54:03.880
homeward to our own capital, where the tremble isn't about markets,

663
00:54:08.039 --> 00:54:13.320
but about leadership itself. The lights never really go out

664
00:54:13.480 --> 00:54:17.679
in Washington, but lately they've been flickering. Another federal government shutdown,

665
00:54:17.960 --> 00:54:23.480
Another impasse where ideology beats practicality, and everyday Americans pay

666
00:54:23.519 --> 00:54:26.960
the price. After funding bills stalled, hundreds of thousands of

667
00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:29.599
federal workers were sent home and forced to work without pay.

668
00:54:32.159 --> 00:54:35.719
National parks close their gates, and small business loans froze

669
00:54:35.960 --> 00:54:40.239
paychecks for soldiers, air traffic controllers and medical researchers set

670
00:54:40.280 --> 00:54:44.480
in bureaucratic limbo. For the media, it's political as usual.

671
00:54:46.559 --> 00:54:51.159
For the people, it's exhaustion as default. Because behind every

672
00:54:51.159 --> 00:54:55.159
shutdown headline is its same underlying story, a system too

673
00:54:55.199 --> 00:55:01.159
divided to do its basic job to govern. Each shutdown

674
00:55:01.559 --> 00:55:04.239
has its own spark. This one, like many before, it

675
00:55:04.480 --> 00:55:08.920
ignited over spending priorities. One side demands budget restraint and accountability,

676
00:55:09.079 --> 00:55:12.840
and the other warns that cuts will cripple essential services.

677
00:55:13.840 --> 00:55:17.039
The arguments repeat like a scratch record, but beneath the

678
00:55:17.079 --> 00:55:21.559
noise lies a sobering truth. The federal government has surpassed

679
00:55:21.679 --> 00:55:27.360
over thirty five trillion dollars in debt. Interest payments alone

680
00:55:27.400 --> 00:55:31.559
consume more than a defense budget, and the no longer

681
00:55:32.559 --> 00:55:39.559
Congress can postpone discipline, the heavier the cost for future generations.

682
00:55:42.440 --> 00:55:45.440
For families. In business, the shutdown is in theory. It

683
00:55:45.559 --> 00:55:50.719
means delayed contracts, frozen tax payments, and uncertainty that seeps

684
00:55:50.719 --> 00:55:55.079
into everything from hiring to investment. Confidence. The blood line

685
00:55:55.079 --> 00:55:59.760
of any economy erodes every time Washington turns brinkmanship into sport,

686
00:56:00.119 --> 00:56:08.360
and yet the same lawmakers who push the shutdown still

687
00:56:08.400 --> 00:56:13.880
receive their paychecks. And yet for some lawmakers, shutdowns have

688
00:56:13.960 --> 00:56:17.840
become theater, a way to signal toughness without achieving reform,

689
00:56:18.199 --> 00:56:22.519
and the result is paralysis disguised its principle. Yet, real

690
00:56:23.159 --> 00:56:27.679
fiscal responsibility doesn't mean stopping the machine. It means fixing

691
00:56:27.719 --> 00:56:32.360
the gears. Abroad, our allies are watching the spectacle and

692
00:56:32.440 --> 00:56:36.159
wondering whether the world's leading democracy can still even lead itself.

693
00:56:38.679 --> 00:56:43.000
When America's government can't even function, authoritarian regimes gain that

694
00:56:43.079 --> 00:56:47.719
ammunition that they need for their argument that breeds that

695
00:56:47.760 --> 00:56:52.079
freedom breeds chaos. That's not embarrassing, it's dangerous, and it's

696
00:56:52.159 --> 00:56:57.599
dangerous on a world stage. Conservatives see the shutdown as

697
00:56:57.639 --> 00:57:02.239
a symptom of runaway government and broken priorities. They argue

698
00:57:02.239 --> 00:57:04.719
that you can't spend your way to prosperity borrow your

699
00:57:04.719 --> 00:57:11.079
way to stability. Washington's addiction to debt is moral as

700
00:57:11.159 --> 00:57:16.480
much as mathematical. It's spending tomorrow's resources to avoid today's accountability.

701
00:57:16.719 --> 00:57:21.800
From perspective, the shutdown isn't caused by those demanding cuts.

702
00:57:22.559 --> 00:57:27.119
It's caused by decades of leaders refusing to make them.

703
00:57:27.400 --> 00:57:32.280
Conservatives emphasize that households and small businesses live within their means,

704
00:57:32.280 --> 00:57:36.360
and the government should too. They call for a return

705
00:57:36.440 --> 00:57:40.719
to zero based budgeting, regular audits, and constitutional spending limits.

706
00:57:42.280 --> 00:57:47.599
The guiding principle fiscal responsibility is a moral responsibility because

707
00:57:47.639 --> 00:57:50.480
every dollar wasted by a bureaucracy is a dollar that

708
00:57:50.519 --> 00:57:53.320
could have fed a family, rebuilt a bridge, or paid

709
00:57:53.320 --> 00:57:56.079
down the debt that was passed to our children. Yet

710
00:57:56.079 --> 00:57:59.599
so many conservatives also recognize that chaos is a strategy

711
00:57:59.679 --> 00:58:04.719
ahut down without a solution, which as deepens distrust. The

712
00:58:04.840 --> 00:58:08.159
challenge is to stand firm on principle while crafting real plans,

713
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:12.320
not symbolic standoffs. The progressives frame the shutdown differently. To them,

714
00:58:12.679 --> 00:58:18.599
the predictable result austerity politics of leaders who value cuts

715
00:58:18.599 --> 00:58:22.519
over compassion. They argue that government programs aren't the problem,

716
00:58:22.599 --> 00:58:25.079
but the promise the safety nets that keep citizens from

717
00:58:25.119 --> 00:58:28.920
falling through the cracks. From the perspective, shutdowns are less

718
00:58:28.960 --> 00:58:31.679
about the debt and more about priorities. Tax cuts for

719
00:58:31.719 --> 00:58:37.360
the wealthy continue while social services stall. They argue that

720
00:58:37.639 --> 00:58:42.159
increase funding for healthcare, education, and infrastructure finance through progressive

721
00:58:42.199 --> 00:58:49.679
taxation and deficit investment in human capital. Progressives warn that

722
00:58:50.239 --> 00:58:53.920
constant braakmanship erodes faith not only the government, but the

723
00:58:53.960 --> 00:59:03.360
democracy itself. If governance becomes high stage, taking citizensm becomes policy.

724
00:59:04.079 --> 00:59:08.480
Their answer reform the filibuster, streamline budgeting, and protect the

725
00:59:08.559 --> 00:59:14.719
central services from Partisian warfare. But here's the problem. You're

726
00:59:14.760 --> 00:59:21.760
talking about helping the citizens, the citizens, the citizens, But

727
00:59:21.800 --> 00:59:24.280
how are you helping the citizens keeping the government shut

728
00:59:24.400 --> 00:59:27.159
down when you have so many federal workers out there

729
00:59:27.320 --> 00:59:31.440
that do not have paychecks. They still have bills to pay.

730
00:59:32.280 --> 00:59:34.679
The people who have to do TSA still have to

731
00:59:34.719 --> 00:59:38.000
go home to an apartment they pay rent for, and

732
00:59:38.039 --> 00:59:44.280
we have rent payments due in a week. You can't

733
00:59:44.280 --> 00:59:46.800
sit here and speak out on one side of your

734
00:59:46.840 --> 00:59:48.880
mouth and then try and talk out of the other.

735
00:59:53.320 --> 00:59:57.199
This whole shutdown is bogus. If you really want to

736
00:59:57.199 --> 01:00:00.280
make healthcare reform, you don't make health care reform and

737
01:00:00.320 --> 01:00:03.280
a shutdown, you just pull because all you're doing is pulling.

738
01:00:03.320 --> 01:00:05.800
What Obama did with the ACA, and the ACA is

739
01:00:05.960 --> 01:00:09.960
very flawed. It was supposed to help save money, but

740
01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:13.199
by pouring all this government money, all these subsidies, all

741
01:00:13.239 --> 01:00:19.599
this everything, and forcing companies to take on massively sick people,

742
01:00:23.119 --> 01:00:27.840
all it did was made it to where people who

743
01:00:28.880 --> 01:00:31.440
are healthy pay a hell of a lot more on

744
01:00:31.480 --> 01:00:37.800
their premiums. And I'm not saying that that there's a

745
01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:40.760
perfect way to do healthcare, because there's not. Because if

746
01:00:40.760 --> 01:00:43.880
you help one person, you're going to leave one person out.

747
01:00:44.559 --> 01:00:49.239
But you can find the compromise that both people's feet

748
01:00:49.280 --> 01:00:51.000
are one foot out the door, if you know what

749
01:00:51.039 --> 01:00:55.280
I mean, like, because you're always going to have help

750
01:00:55.360 --> 01:01:00.280
one person while hurting another in the in the current struck. Sure,

751
01:01:00.320 --> 01:01:05.519
even if you try, even if you try to make

752
01:01:05.599 --> 01:01:09.800
it to where you help everybody, you're still you're gonna

753
01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:14.159
hurt the freedoms of others. Whether it's the companies or

754
01:01:14.239 --> 01:01:20.320
it's the people, or whatever there's you're gonna you're gonna

755
01:01:20.400 --> 01:01:23.880
hurt someone in this In this conversation, both sides of

756
01:01:23.960 --> 01:01:29.360
strip the rhetoric share a concern for stewardship. Conservatives want

757
01:01:29.400 --> 01:01:33.360
the accountability, Progressives want compassion. A function of democracy needs both.

758
01:01:34.480 --> 01:01:38.480
The practical path forward might be principled budgeting, linking every

759
01:01:38.519 --> 01:01:44.119
expenditure to actual measurable results, enforcing transparency, preserving aid where

760
01:01:44.119 --> 01:01:48.480
it works. And accountability and empathy aren't opposites, they're twin

761
01:01:49.639 --> 01:01:53.639
responsibilities of leadership, because a nation that can't balance its

762
01:01:53.679 --> 01:01:57.480
checkbook won't balance its conscience either. Now, the other thing

763
01:01:57.519 --> 01:02:05.639
I want to say is progressives say that they want compassion,

764
01:02:07.920 --> 01:02:12.960
But the problem is is where is the compassion for

765
01:02:14.559 --> 01:02:21.159
the people who are working every day, every single day,

766
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:24.480
to put food on the table for their kids, to

767
01:02:24.760 --> 01:02:29.559
put a house over their kids' heads. And every day

768
01:02:29.599 --> 01:02:34.320
they still go further and further in debt because you

769
01:02:34.360 --> 01:02:38.400
guys want to tax them more and more and more.

770
01:02:40.159 --> 01:02:45.800
You want to take away more and more and more

771
01:02:45.880 --> 01:02:48.119
their paychecks. And every time, every time you guys try

772
01:02:48.159 --> 01:02:49.960
and say no, we want to tax the wealthy more.

773
01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:52.000
But every time you guys come out with the tax bill,

774
01:02:52.480 --> 01:02:58.679
the likelihood is it includes increases to the bottom tax

775
01:02:58.760 --> 01:03:03.800
brackets taxing. Now, the other thing is too is you

776
01:03:03.880 --> 01:03:05.480
want to you want to, You think we can tax

777
01:03:05.480 --> 01:03:09.119
ourselves out of this hole. But to put this in reality,

778
01:03:09.360 --> 01:03:12.840
if you took every single billionaire's dollar that lives here

779
01:03:12.840 --> 01:03:15.199
in the United States, every single every bit of their wealth,

780
01:03:15.239 --> 01:03:18.039
you could still only run the country for about six months.

781
01:03:22.400 --> 01:03:24.800
If that is not a heavy weighing factor on you,

782
01:03:25.159 --> 01:03:29.960
a heavyweighing fact that you could take every billionaire's wealth,

783
01:03:30.119 --> 01:03:36.000
and that includes Elon Musk. You would run the country

784
01:03:36.039 --> 01:03:40.119
for about six months at a current spending rate. That

785
01:03:40.280 --> 01:03:44.480
is a problem in and of itself. The government shutdown

786
01:03:44.719 --> 01:03:47.199
is more than just a political crisis. It's a mirror

787
01:03:47.199 --> 01:03:52.079
of the cultural fatigue that we have. We've been We've

788
01:03:52.239 --> 01:03:56.880
mistaken outrage for conviction and noise for leadership. But beneath

789
01:03:56.920 --> 01:04:00.199
the frustration lies opportunity, the chance to remember that this

790
01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:03.119
country isn't built by politicians. It's built by the people

791
01:04:03.440 --> 01:04:07.559
who keep going even when Washington stops. The veteran standing

792
01:04:07.599 --> 01:04:11.480
at his post, the teacher showing up without knowing if

793
01:04:11.480 --> 01:04:15.719
her paycheck will clear, the small business owner covering payroll

794
01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:20.599
while waiting for an SBA loan. These are the citizens

795
01:04:20.599 --> 01:04:24.880
who carry the weight when leadership falters. The shutdown should

796
01:04:24.880 --> 01:04:29.320
remind every elected official of one truth. Power is borrowed,

797
01:04:29.440 --> 01:04:32.079
not owned, and if you misuse it, the people who

798
01:04:32.159 --> 01:04:36.440
will repossess it. Because democracy isn't broken, it's just waiting

799
01:04:36.480 --> 01:04:41.519
for adults to walk back into the room. The foundations

800
01:04:41.559 --> 01:04:44.039
may tremble, but they only fall when we stop caring

801
01:04:44.119 --> 01:04:50.159
accountability fiscal, moral, and personal. That's the cement that keeps

802
01:04:50.159 --> 01:04:53.159
this republic standing and if we rebuild that even if

803
01:04:53.280 --> 01:04:58.519
Washington can't shut it down. We've covered the tremors from

804
01:04:58.559 --> 01:05:05.760
global alliance to digital dependence, moral collapse, to economics slow down,

805
01:05:05.840 --> 01:05:09.760
and the dysfunction in our own capital. But the story

806
01:05:10.360 --> 01:05:14.440
doesn't end up end with shaking. It ends with rebuilding.

807
01:05:15.320 --> 01:05:19.840
Stay with me as we reflect. The tremors will all

808
01:05:19.880 --> 01:05:24.559
eventually fade. The headlines will quiet down, the markets will adjust,

809
01:05:24.639 --> 01:05:27.599
the servers will reboot, the speeches will end. But when

810
01:05:28.159 --> 01:05:32.880
what matters is what isn't what shakes, it's what's still

811
01:05:32.960 --> 01:05:39.360
standing after the shaking stops. This week we saw five tremors,

812
01:05:39.920 --> 01:05:45.480
some economics, on political, and some moral. Each one reminded

813
01:05:45.559 --> 01:05:50.679
us that power, no matter how advanced or mighty, is

814
01:05:50.679 --> 01:05:56.480
still fragile when it forgets its own foundation. We saw

815
01:05:56.480 --> 01:06:00.599
alliances tested and rebuilt. We saw a technology fail us

816
01:06:00.840 --> 01:06:05.480
that convenience is no substitute for character. We watched another

817
01:06:05.920 --> 01:06:11.880
name fall to scandal, proof that talent without integrity is

818
01:06:11.920 --> 01:06:15.840
a taking clock. We saw a global giant stumble under

819
01:06:15.880 --> 01:06:20.400
the weight of control, and our own leaders tripped over

820
01:06:20.679 --> 01:06:24.880
the very system they were supposed to protect, but beneath

821
01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:28.360
it all we saw everything else, the heartbeat of resilience,

822
01:06:28.639 --> 01:06:31.320
the quiet, stubborn pulse of people who still believe in

823
01:06:31.400 --> 01:06:34.639
what is right even when everything else feels wrong. Every

824
01:06:34.679 --> 01:06:39.840
generation in America faces its own tremble. Ours just happens

825
01:06:39.840 --> 01:06:44.239
to be louder, amplified by screens, algorithms, headlines that never sleep,

826
01:06:44.639 --> 01:06:50.880
and the principles that hold us together still haven't changed. Faith, family, freedom, responsibility,

827
01:06:51.159 --> 01:06:56.000
and most importantly, honor. These are the things that don't crash.

828
01:06:56.199 --> 01:06:59.400
They don't shut down, they don't default. There though code

829
01:06:59.559 --> 01:07:03.039
written into the human heart, the same code that built

830
01:07:03.079 --> 01:07:07.079
towns out of wilderness and raised skyscrapers where swamps once stood.

831
01:07:07.760 --> 01:07:15.760
Maybe the lesson isn't the trembling world. It's simple. Stop

832
01:07:15.800 --> 01:07:19.559
outsourcing strength. We outsource character to politicians. We can't outsource

833
01:07:19.639 --> 01:07:24.639
character to politicians, or security to corporations, or courage to

834
01:07:24.679 --> 01:07:29.400
someone else's convictions. We have to build it our homes,

835
01:07:29.400 --> 01:07:34.360
our businesses, our communities, and our souls. The republic doesn't

836
01:07:34.440 --> 01:07:37.800
need perfect leaders. It needs guardians, men and women willing

837
01:07:37.840 --> 01:07:42.800
to protect the truth even when it's unpopular, to serve quietly,

838
01:07:43.159 --> 01:07:45.840
even when no one's watching, to believe in this country

839
01:07:45.880 --> 01:07:53.239
even when citizen selves. Guardians aren't born in elections. They're

840
01:07:53.239 --> 01:07:56.119
built on ordinary lives. They're the nurse pulling up to

841
01:07:56.159 --> 01:08:00.400
a double shift. They're a veteran checking on his neighbor,

842
01:08:00.440 --> 01:08:02.920
the teacher who refuses to give up on a kid,

843
01:08:03.159 --> 01:08:09.239
even the system for God. That's where hope lives, not

844
01:08:09.320 --> 01:08:12.639
in the marble halls, but in the honest work and

845
01:08:12.719 --> 01:08:18.039
humble hearts. Because this nation was never held together by congress.

846
01:08:18.159 --> 01:08:24.560
It's always been held together by convictions. So when the

847
01:08:24.600 --> 01:08:30.880
next tremper hits, and it will remember this. The shaking

848
01:08:31.000 --> 01:08:34.920
isn't always a sign of collapse. Sometimes it's the sound

849
01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:41.760
of something being reforged. America has been through worse depressions,

850
01:08:42.119 --> 01:08:48.079
war's division that seemed permanent, and every time we've come

851
01:08:48.119 --> 01:08:52.439
out stronger because ordinary people decided to do extraordinary things.

852
01:08:52.640 --> 01:08:56.000
Were the errors of that courage. The torch is ours now,

853
01:08:57.119 --> 01:09:00.560
So stand firm, speak truth, love your neighbor, and something

854
01:09:00.560 --> 01:09:07.880
that lasts. Because the foundations tremble, it's not the end,

855
01:09:09.279 --> 01:09:11.720
it's the beginning of the next chapter. One written by

856
01:09:11.760 --> 01:09:20.000
guardians who refused to fall. Just go out there and

857
01:09:20.079 --> 01:09:27.920
pursue everything, Pursue the truth, pursue the constructive conversations that

858
01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:34.720
built this country. The founding fathers did not make the

859
01:09:34.800 --> 01:09:40.039
Bill of Rights just by one man. They had constructive conversations,

860
01:09:40.079 --> 01:09:45.479
they argued. They pushed for what they believed in, and

861
01:09:45.520 --> 01:09:47.479
it's time that you do too. You push for what

862
01:09:47.560 --> 01:09:51.319
you believe in. This has been the World of Pain podcast.

863
01:09:51.479 --> 01:09:53.880
I want to thank you for listening, for thinking, for

864
01:09:54.079 --> 01:09:57.079
standing with me in these conversations that matter. If you

865
01:09:57.239 --> 01:10:02.439
value this episode, I want you to share it. I

866
01:10:02.479 --> 01:10:05.479
want you to rate it and keep that conversation alive

867
01:10:06.560 --> 01:10:09.319
because until next time, I want you to stay grounded,

868
01:10:09.439 --> 01:10:12.720
stay grateful, but never stop building, and never stop standing

869
01:10:12.800 --> 01:10:15.920
for what you believe in. Never stop having your conversations.

870
01:10:18.600 --> 01:10:21.359
If you can, don't forget to check out Valora Built Apparel.

871
01:10:22.359 --> 01:10:26.960
There's a link in the show notes. Also, don't forget

872
01:10:26.960 --> 01:10:29.600
to share this with your friends and your family. If

873
01:10:29.640 --> 01:10:31.840
you found any value in this, if there was anything

874
01:10:31.880 --> 01:10:35.239
that I said that you connected with about building, about

875
01:10:35.239 --> 01:10:38.000
rebuilding this country back to the greatness it once was,

876
01:10:40.880 --> 01:10:44.880
don't forget to share it. Share it with your coworker

877
01:10:45.039 --> 01:10:47.119
who might have the same beliefs as you who, or

878
01:10:47.159 --> 01:10:49.399
even share it with the coworker who doesn't, so you

879
01:10:49.439 --> 01:10:53.279
can start that conversation. Share it to your friend that

880
01:10:53.399 --> 01:10:55.840
might have a different political view than you, so that

881
01:10:55.880 --> 01:11:01.399
way you can have a conversation. This podcast is as

882
01:11:02.279 --> 01:11:07.439
in each segment as a basis for a conversation. Go

883
01:11:07.479 --> 01:11:12.279
out there and talk until next time. This is the

884
01:11:12.319 --> 01:11:13.359
World of Pain podcast