Podcasts about american legion magazine

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Best podcasts about american legion magazine

Latest podcast episodes about american legion magazine

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, American Legion | Rich Fiesta, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2025 52:42


Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the June edition of The American Legion Magazine, which includes stories about the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, manufacturing's return to America and issues with VA claims processing. Rich Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Workforce Union Podcast to dissect the implications of what he calls the "big brutal bill"—more formally known as the U.S. House Spending Bill—currently under discussion. These include significant cuts to Medicaid, potential threats to Social Security and Medicare and the chaotic legislative process surrounding these issues.

MOPs & MOEs
Stolen Lunch Money with Steve Beynon

MOPs & MOEs

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2025 80:44


After they complete initial entry training all soldiers are entitled to Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) to help pay for food, but many of them have most of it deducted to pay for meals provided in dining facilities (DFACs). Recent investigative reporting by our guest, Steve Beynon, has revealed striking inconsistencies between how much money is taken from soldiers in the form of BAS deductions and how much money is spent on providing those soldiers with the meals they're entitled to. At many of the Army's largest installations more than half of those funds seem to be getting reallocated, and the Army can't even explain where. From "smoke pit conspiracy" to congressional inquiry, this is a problem that many soldiers have talked about for years, but is just now breaking into mainstream media coverage thanks to Steve's work. He joined us on the podcast to discuss what he's found, and we may have even identified more problems live on air...Steve Beynon is a reporter for Military.com based out of the Washington, D.C., area whose detailed investigations have covered urgent issues impacting soldiers. A veteran of the Afghanistan war with over a decade of experience as a cavalry scout, Steve leverages his firsthand military experience to deliver authoritative journalism. In 2023, Military Veterans in Journalism honored him as one of the top veterans in media for exposing a cult scheme that defrauded veterans of their benefits, one of the largest scams ever to target the military community. This accolade includes recipients from the New York Times and Associated Press. The cult's churches were eventually raided by the FBI. His byline has appeared in Politico, Stars and Stripes, Military Times, American Legion Magazine, National Guard Magazine, Fox 19, Cincinnati City Beat, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. He studied journalism and environmental policy at the University of Cincinnati on a GI Bill scholarship.Steve's original story breaking this news published last month in Military.com21 Senators and Members of Congress signed this letter to the Secretary of Defense demanding answers about this situationSteve published a follow up piece discussing the reaction from Congress and some of the feedback from inside the pentagonHere's the DoD's page about BASWe discussed the Army's budget estimates towards the end of the episode, the military personnel (MILPERS) portion of which can be found hereWe also referenced the DoD's Financial Management Regulation, and the subsistence portion is found in Volume 7A, Chapter 25We also referenced two GAO reports:The first was "DOD Should Formalize Its Process for Revising Food Ingredients and Better Track Dining Facility Use and Costs"The second was "Additional Actions Needed to Implement, Oversee, and Evaluate Nutrition Efforts for Service Members"The law that guides most of this is 37 USC 402And finally, the DoD's overarching guidance is found in DoD Directive 1418.05

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, American Legion | Rich Fiesta, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 15, 2024 49:11


Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the December edition of the American Legion Magazine. Rich Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the potential impact the Presidential Election could have on retirees.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, American Legion | Rich Fiesta, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 18, 2024 52:26


Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and spoke about the November edition of The American Legion Magazine. He also spoke about the 70th anniversary of Veterans Day. Rich Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the recent Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) and urged for changes to the method to calculate it. He also addressed how the Alliance is spreading the word about their endorsed candidates ahead of November's General Election.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, American Legion | Rich Fiesta, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2024 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the September edition of the American Legion Magazine. He also discussed the 2024 Military Life Cycle and Transition Summit.  Rich Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and gave an update on prescription drug costs under the Inflation Reduction Act. Fiesta also discussed a letter from two U.S. Senators about the Social Security Fairness Act and the voting record for Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, who previously served in Congress.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, American Legion | Rich Fiesta, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2024 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications for the American Legion, joined the Amercia's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the August edition of the American Legion Magazine. Rich Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss how the Alliance has worked with state legislators to improve retirees' access to vote across the country.

Tango Alpha Lima Podcast
Episode 220: Tango Alpha Lima: Haunted War Tales with Army veteran R.C. Bramhall

Tango Alpha Lima Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2024 57:17


Reaction to the FDA advisory panel rejection of MDMA-asisted therapy for PTSD THE INTERVIEW Fans of the paranormal, the fantastical or the downright frightening will enjoy our visit with former Army Intelligence officer R.C. Bramhall who talks about his book, "Haunted War Tales: True Military Encounters with the Bizarre, Paranormal and Unexplained." He shares how he came to write his book, and we discuss everything from cryptid encounters to creepy hauntings - even the story of a ghost plane pulled from the pages of The American Legion Magazine. SCUTTLEBUTT Postal worker finds WWII era letters and drives hours to deliver them Down the Reddit Rabbit Hole: What makes the U.S. military so powerful and effective? Marine shielded student from grenade with his body...and survived Special Guest: R.C. Bramhall.

Conspiracy Clearinghouse
Down in Bermuda, It's Easy to Believe – The Devil's Triangle

Conspiracy Clearinghouse

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2024 48:00


EPISODE 103 | Down in Bermuda, It's Easy to Believe – The Devil's Triangle Back in the 70s, the Bermuda Triangle was all over the place but today, not so much. Whatever happened with that? Did it go away? Was it debunked? Or did the woosphere simply get bored and move on to juicer subjects?  A bit of both. Plus, the are lots of other supposed interesting/mysterious/dangerous triangles out there. They do have sharp corners, after all.  Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. #ConspiracyClearinghouse #sharingiscaring #donations #support #buymeacoffee You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb! SECTIONS 02:29 - New Frontier - How it all starts: Edward Van Winkle Jones gets the ball rolling in 1950, Allan W. Eckert picks it up in 1952, Vincent Gaddis expands the idea in 1962, as does John Wallace Spencer in 1969, and in 1974, Charles Berlitz and Richard Winer go all in on the Triangle; Larry Kusche thoroughly debunks it all in 1975, Hitchens' Razor and the Sagan Standard (ECREE) 11:31 - Strange Brew - Cayce's people weigh in as do plenty of other knowledge garglers, better woo comes along, Lloyds of London investigates, Gian J. Quasar tries to revive Triangle interest in the Noughties 15:17 - Your Haunted Head - The Sargasso Sea - an oceanic gyre surrounded by four currents, Donald Crowhurst gets stuck there and goes insane 19:36 - Long Way Down - Ocean farts, the Gulf Stream, the Milwaukee Deep, the agonic line and the North Poles (both true and magnetic) 24:59 - Hunting High and Low - The Dragon's Triangle near Japan, Ivan Sanderson develops his Twelve Vile Vortices theory: 27:31 - "Hamkulia Volcano", Hawaii; the Ring of Fire 29:14 - Jeddars in the Atlas Mountains, Algeria; fungoid rock art in the Tassili n'Ajjer  29:57 - Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley, ancient nuclear war, chicken city 34:00 - The Wharton Basin, Indian Ocean, Flight MH370 34:44 - The Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia; Sandy Island 35:52 - Easter Island, Rapa Nui,  Szukalski's Zermatism, Miroljub Petrović 37:26 - The Southern Atlantic Anomaly, the Mozambique Channel  38:22 - Fever to Tell - Ley lines, Ramsey's Theorem, the Bridgewater Triangle near Boston (home of the  Pukwudgie), the Bennington Triangle in Vermont, the Nevada Triangle, the Lake Michigan Triangle and yet another "America's Stonehenge" 41:45 - The Marysburgh Vortex in Lake Ontario, the Matlock Triangle and Falkirk Triangle in the UK, the Broad Haven Triangle in Wales, the Hoia Forest in Romania 42:47 - The Mapimí Silent Zone in Mexico's Chihuahuan desert  Music by Fanette Ronjat More Info Sea's Puzzles Still Baffle Men In Pushbutton Age by Edward Van Winkle Jones, Miami Herland, 1950 Sea Mystery at our Back Door by George X. Sand, Fate Magazine, 1952 The Mystery of the Lost Patrol by Allan W. Eckert, American Legion Magazine, April 1962, page 12 The Deadly Bermuda Triangle by Vincent Gaddis, The Argosy, February 1964 Invisible Horizons True Mysteries of the Sea by Vincent Gaddis Limbo of the Lost by John Wallace Spencer The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz The Devils' Triangle by Richard Winer The Devil's Triangle 2 by Richard Winer From the Devil's Triangle to the Devil's Jaw by Richard Winer Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved by Larry Kusche The Case of the Bermuda Triangle episode of NOVA What is the Bermuda Triangle? on the National Oceanic Service website Bermuda Triangle on Britannica What Is Known (and Not Known) About the Bermuda Triangle on Britannica Bermuda Triangle: Where Facts Disappear on LiveScience Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery by Gian Quasar Mysteries of the Sargasso Sea in The Bermudian The Mystery on the Sargasso on How Stuff Works Donald Crowhurst: The fake round-the-world sailing story behind The Mercy in Yachting World They Went to Sea in a Sieve, They Did by Shannon Proudfoot on Big Reads Off the Deep End: A History of Madness at Sea by Nic Compton Bermuda Triangle mystery solved? It's a load of gas on The Age 7 Chilling Conspiracy Theories About the Bermuda Triangle in Popular Mechanics Down in the Milwaukee Deep  Magnetic Declination Varies Considerably Across The United States on USGS The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Delusion: Looking Back after Forty Years by Larry Kuche for Skeptical Inquirer Mysterious waters: from the Bermuda Triangle to the Devil's Sea on CNN Beyond the Bermuda Triangle: The Devil's Sea documentary video Unexplained Mystery: The Devil's Sea – The Dragon's Triangle on Marine Insight The Vile Vortices Of Ivan T. Sanderson on History Daily Vile Vortices Part 2 – Hamakulia on CryptoVille Algeria's ancient pyramid tombs still shrouded in mystery on France24 What Happened to Mohenjo Daro? on Wonderopolis Rediscovering the lost city of Mohenjo Daro on National Geographic Uncovering the Secrets of the Indus Valley Civilization and Its Undeciphered Script The Mythical Massacre at Mohenjo-Daro Top Things to Do in the Loyalty Islands Now You See It, Now You Don't - Finland Doesn't Exist episode The Secrets of Easter Island on Smithsonian Easter Island - the Mystery of the Moai on Mountain Kingdoms Rapa Nui on IMDb What Lies Beneath - The Hollow Earth episode including Zermatism Weird behavior of Earth's magnetic field over South Atlantic dates back 11 million years NASA Is Tracking a Huge, Growing Anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field  10 Mozambique Channel Facts You Might Not Know Madagascar's Menagerie Floated from Africa from the University of Hong Kong It Happens Here: A look at the 'weirdness' of the Bridgewater Triangle Bennington Triangle, Vermont on Legends of America Mysteries of Flight: The Nevada Triangle Lake Michigan Triangle on Atlas Obscura What Is the Great Lakes Triangle? classroom activity Stonehenge-like Structure Found Under Lake Michigan ‘Strange things out there': Inside Lake Ontario's ‘Bermuda Triangle' The Great Lakes and the mystery of the Marysburgh Vortex Gateway to Oblivion: The Great Lakes' Bermuda Triangle by Hugh F. Cochrane The Falkirk Triangle in Scotland Why Is a Small Village in Scotland the UK's UFO Hotspot? What's inside Hoia Baciu Forest, the world's most haunted forest? Romania's Bermuda Triangle: The Creepy Hoia Forest of Transylvania What does the Mexican Bermuda Triangle look like Enter The Mapimi Zone Of Silence: Where Science Fiction Meets Reality The Zone of Silence in Northern Mexico: scientific marvel or just fiction? Zone Of Silence Mexico video Mexico: UFOs, magnetism, army: The strange zone of silence Follow us on social: Facebook Twitter Other Podcasts by Derek DeWitt DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of a 2022 Gold Quill Award, 2022 Gold MarCom Award, 2021 AVA Digital Award Gold, 2021 Silver Davey Award, 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence, and on numerous top 10 podcast lists.  PRAGUE TIMES - A city is more than just a location - it's a kaleidoscope of history, places, people and trends. This podcast looks at Prague, in the center of Europe, from a number of perspectives, including what it is now, what is has been and where it's going. It's Prague THEN, Prague NOW, Prague LATER

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Director of the American Legion Media & Communications Division, Jeff Stoffer | Founding director of the Center for Study of Working Class Life at Stony Brook U, Michael Zweig

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2023 54:40


Director of the American Legion Media & Communications Division, Jeff Stoffer, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the cover story for the upcoming edition of the American Legion Magazine. Stoffer also discussed an interview with the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Denis Richard McDonough. Emeritus professor of economics and the founding director of the Center for Study of Working Class Life at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Michael Zweig, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss his book “Class, Race, and Gender: Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism.”

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, Director, American Legion Media & Communications | Rich Fiesta, Executive Director, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2023 54:40


Director for American Legion Media Communications, Jeff Stoffer, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the articles in the upcoming issue of the American Legion Magazine. Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, Rich Fiesta, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the recent COLA adjustment for those receiving Social Security benefits and a way to improve COLA adjustment calculations in the future for retirees.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, Director of the Marketing, Media and Communications Division | Norm Wernet, State Director, Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2023 54:40


Director of the American Legion Marketing, Media and Communications Division, Jeff Stoffer, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the Legion's outreach to assist veterans in filing for VA benefits. Stoffer also discussed two articles from the upcoming September issue of the American Legion Magazine. Norm Wernet, State Director for the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the organization's opposition of State Issue 1. Wernet also talked about Social Security's 88th anniversary, what the program has done for retirees and issues facing the program today.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Alan Dowd, Contributing Editor, American Legion | Tom Buffenbarger, independent labor voice

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 54:40


On the Fourth of July, Alan Dowd, a contributing editor and journalist for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and talked about his recent story in the American Legion Magazine that focused on the importance of supporting America. Dowd also spoke about a series of his articles that look at a phenomenon called declinism. Independent labor voice Tom Buffenbarger joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast on this Independence Day and spoke about the history of Harley-Davidson. Buffenbarger discussed the post-war problems faced by the company and how unions helped make Harley-Davidson the powerhouse company it is today.

Hearts of Oak Podcast
Frank Gaffney - The Indictment: Prosecuting the CCP for Crimes Against America and the World

Hearts of Oak Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2023 47:12 Transcription Available


Show-notes and Transcript... 'The CCP is the mortal enemy of the US!'  This is one of the opening lines in Frank Gaffney's latest bestseller "The Indictment" and we are delighted to welcome him to Hearts of Oak today.  Frank has been a towering figure in the conservative movement for many decades from his time serving in the Reagan administration through to all the work done with Centre for Security Policy.  He is the go to person on any issue relating to national security of the US and in his new book Frank sets out eight charges against The Chinese Communist Party that lay out the reason and basis for a prosecution against them.  From their crimes against their own people to crimes against the whole world using biological warfare, espionage and infiltration while showing how the CCP are ravaging America's energy security and taking down the military.  This book gives a roadmap for any Republican legislator and official to use before its too late. Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. serves as Vice Chair for the Committee on the Present Danger: China. The Committee on the Present Danger: China defends America through public education and advocacy against the full array of conventional and non-conventional dangers posed by the People's Republic of China. As with the Soviet Union in the past, Communist China represents an existential and ideological threat to the United States and to the idea of freedom—one that requires a new American consensus regarding the policies and priorities required to defeat this threat. And for this purpose, it is necessary to bring to bear the collective skills, expertise and energies of a diverse group of experts on China, national security practitioners, human rights and religious freedom activists and others who have joined forces under the umbrella of the Committee on Present Danger: China. In 1988, he founded the Center for Security Policy. Mr. Gaffney serves at the Executive Vice Chairman for the Center. The Center has been nationally and internationally recognized as a resource for timely, informed and penetrating analyses of foreign and defense policy matters. Under President Ronald Reagan, he acted as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy. He served as chairman of the High Level Group (NATO's senior politico-military committee) and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control. Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle. He was also a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Frank hosts Secure Freedom Radio, an hour-long, nationally syndicated program that airs every weeknight. His daily Secure Freedom Minute commentaries are heard on 200 stations coast-to-coast. He is a featured contributor to Breitbart Radio and a columnist for Breitbart.com. He appears often on national and international television networks such as Fox News, CNN and BBC. Over the years, his op.ed. articles have appeared in such publications as: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, National Review, Newsday, American Legion Magazine, and Commentary. Mr. Gaffney is Founder, President, and CEO of Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC), a not-for-profit, non-partisan educational corporation established in 2018 to inform Americans of the global crisis of rising anti- Christian violence and to hold state and non-state persecutors accountable for their crimes against humanity. Frank's leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council's Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States' “Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award” (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America's “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003). Mr. Gaffney received a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  'The Indictment' with forward by Steve Bannon available from Amazon...  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indictment-Prosecuting-Chinese-Communist-Friends-ebook/dp/B0C297HN7Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1 Connect with Frank and 'Securing Freedom'... WEBSITE:  https://www.securingamerica.tv/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/frankgaffney GETTR:      https://gettr.com/user/frankgaffney Interview recorded 9.6.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more...  https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please subscribe, like and share! Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview coming up in a moment with Frank Gaffney. And I was delighted that Frank had the time to join us. I've had the pleasure of being on his show numerous times. And he is one of the towering figures of the conservative movement across the world with a specific focus on security. But today he joins us to talk about his book, The Indictment, Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party for What It Has Done Against the West and it lays out nine charges against the CCP. So we we touch on most of them, on energy security, on the US military and how it's been attacked, on the economic battle that China has waged against the West, on the biological attack that we've seen over the last three years, and of course how China has captured a lot of the elites in America and the West, and not only the elites individuals but the institutions as well. So much to cover and he ends up with actually 20 action items and how we can respond to this. I know after listening to Frank you will want to get the book. It is a fantastic overview of the threat that we face from China.  Frank Gaffney, it's wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you for your time.  (Frank Gaffney) The pleasure is really mine. Thank you for yours. Not at all. I think I first heard your name from Lord Pearson, who I've had the pleasure of working with for 10 years and when I first heard your name you sounded like a legendary figure who had their finger on the pulse policy-wise. You'd served in the Reagan administration so politically and you were doing public engagement and helping the public understand. So it is a delight to have you on with us. Thank you, I'm really appreciative of your time.  Well I'm a huge fan of Malcolm Pearson's. We've had a mutual admiration society I think for a long time and I appreciate so much of the work that he's been doing as have you, Peter, at Hearts of Oak. And I'm always delighted to have a chance to have you on our program and look forward to the visit with you here on yours. Not at all, it's great to have you. And the viewers obviously @FrankGaffney on all the social media platforms, at Twitter and everything else, and @SecureFreedom. And of course they can watch that. And Center for Security Policy is the organization which you're the founder of. Maybe we could start on that and let us know what led you to start the organization itself and why was it needed? I left the Reagan administration in the beginning of 1988 and looked about for an organization that did what I thought needed to be done to help people like me during my time in the Reagan Pentagon contend with the various challenges that policy makers have. Trying to stay not only engaged properly in various fights, both internal to the administration, as was true in that case, as well as externally, by enlisting the help of people on the outside. There didn't seem to be any efficient way of doing that, other than retail, which is, a very challenging thing when you've got a very busy program. I was able to establish that others felt as I did, that it would be useful to have an organization that could help senior policy makers inside the government, with a single phone call to bring in experts and others that they wanted to have engaged in those fights, if you will, from the outside with efficient connectivity, as they say. So we started the organization, the Center for Security Policy. Over the 35 years it's been in business, spawned a great many tiger teams and team Bs and working groups and coalitions and the like to try to basically advance what my old boss, Ronald Reagan, described as the practice of peace through strength and to help those in government in the executive branch on Capitol Hill, as well as the media and the public at large, understand the challenges we face and what needed to be done about them. And I'm very proud of the work that the center has been doing and happy to continue to be a part of it as its executive chairman. I think when I first came across you, your focus had been on Islam and that certainly had been what I have learned over the last 15 years. And this is a change to looking at a different threat, China. And that's what we're going to bring up the book. Let me bring up the screen itself. And this is the publication itself, the indictment, and it is available everywhere, Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party and Friends for Crimes Against America, China and the World. And we're going to go into this chapter by chapter, looking at the charges you have. But yeah, that change, that focus from looking at Islam and the threat on to China. Tell us about that. Well, I guess I would say the sort of arc of my career, such as it has been mostly downhill from my time with President Reagan, I have to say, but it's been fighting totalitarians of one stripe or another, first the Soviets, of course, during my time prior to the Reagan administration in the United States Senate with two terrific members of that body, Senator Scoop Jackson, a Democrat, and Senator John Tower, a Republican. Then, of course, during the Reagan administration, when we were really in the clinches, bringing down the Soviet Union, as Reagan promised he would do. And then, as you say, during the sort of interlude after the fall of the Soviet Union, the people who emerged to kind of fill the totalitarian vacuum, if you will, were what I think of as Sharia supremacists. It's not all Muslims. Of course, it's those who seek to impose this Islamic code of Sharia on the rest of us and use jihad to accomplish that. And that was a very serious threat at the time, but it has certainly been overshadowed and far surpassed in recent years by the emergence of yet another totalitarian, another communist one, that is to say the Chinese Communist Party. And what we've been doing in the past four years, Peter, is trying to essentially replicate some very important capabilities that I think helped Ronald Reagan define and then ultimately defeat his times, as he put it, existential threat to freedom, namely the Soviet Communist Party, one of which was something called the Committee on the Present Danger, which was this kind of pickup team of national security practitioners, subject matter experts, business leaders, and others who came together to really try to help Ronald Reagan, one of its members as a matter of fact, devise a strategy for taking down the evil empire. And he brought 30 or so members of that committee into his administration. Once, he had run on a platform of changing the trajectory from détente or appeasement, if you will, and maybe containment at best of the Soviets, to one of rolling back that evil empire and, freeing its enslaved peoples. Those members of the Committee on the Present Danger helped him do that, and the rest, as they say, is history. We've created, about four years ago, what we call the Committee on the Present Danger in China, to hopefully help elective officials accomplish a similar kind of course correction with what is, in fact, not only our time's existential threat to freedom, but I believe far and away the most serious we in the free world have ever faced, and that would be, again, the Chinese Communist Party or CCP. And one of the things that we've been doing over these past 9, 10, 11 months or so has been a series of webinars, some 70 of them, designed to do two things. One, to examine what the Chinese mean when they describe the practice of unrestricted warfare against America. And secondly, who has been helping them wage that kind of warfare against us in the United States and really the free world more generally. It's been a fascinating experience. I've had the privilege of moderating these programs. And what we came up with were well over 100 hours of very, very high-quality analysis, insights, policy recommendations, and the like. And what we wanted to do, basically, was to, distil the most important of those points, make them accessible to the audience and the public more generally. And that's where this book, The Indictment, came from, was that distilled essence and I've been very pleased to see that it's been selling well, I think because people know there's a problem with China, they don't just fully understand what it is and we're hoping to help explain it and give them action items as to what needs to be done now about it.  I love the research then that's gone into it as you've given us an insight because often you see publications rushed out just simply going to market for the sake of publishing. But hearing about those 100 hours, those intense discussions, really understanding, I mean, it is a mammoth amount of research that's gone into it. Well, it is. And again, I think the beauty of this is that people can have access to that research as well. In fact, at the back of the book, we have a list of all of the webinars that we drew upon and QR codes, which enable them very easily to go to the videotape, as they say, see them themselves. What we've got are basically, in most cases, just a quote or two from them. But there's really a, well, I think of it as kind of a graduate level course on the Chinese Communist Party. The warfare that it's been engaged in, its ambitions for global hegemony, and how far advanced it now is towards realizing that objective, thanks in part to the help of what they call captured elites, especially here in the United States. I love, looking even just at the beginning of the introduction, one of the short paragraphs was you jump straight in and you see exactly where you understand the issue to be. The Chinese Communist Party is the United States' mortal enemy. The CCP explicitly seeks America's destruction as long as devastating, I bet, pre-violent, unrestricted warfare techniques against us for decades with the help of their friends amongst American captured elites. I just thought, because sometimes authors slowly go into the topic, but you put it straight out there, this is the threat we face. Kind of up front, yeah. And partly that's because I think, you know, there's a famous expression here in the States, Peter, as you may know, that says a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. And I think an awful lot of Americans, and I think people around the world for that matter, have been mugged by the reality of the Chinese, well, biological warfare attack against all of us using this so-called SARS-CoV-2 virus, the Wuhan virus, the Chinese Communist Party biological warfare engineered virus that made the pandemic of COVID-19 possible. And to the extent that they have been mugged by reality and have some sense that there's something really seriously wrong with what the Chinese are doing, there's an appetite for learning more that I think requires just directness and candour and that's what we've tried to bring to this book, The Indictment. Well, we'll jump into that charge which is the fourth one, that the CCP has waged biological warfare against America and the rest of the world. I'm wondering is this the first time that many people have woken up to the reality with all the information coming out about the origins of it, with China being able to provide the protection equipment, being able to provide the testing equipment, being able to provide everything seemingly extremely quickly. Do you think that was a wake-up call for many people? I think so. I pray so, because it's certainly urgently needed. And just a word about kind of the structure of the book under the rubric of it being an indictment. We have a number of charges, and you've mentioned charge number four is that the Chinese Communist Party deliberately launched a biological warfare attack against the United States and the world. And that's based on an analysis not only that, in fact, this virus came out of a, biowarfare laboratory in Wuhan called the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This is now more and more generally accepted as what happened, after years of being lied to and otherwise told, no, no, no, it came out of nature. But the real kicker, Peter, and what makes this indisputably a biological warfare attack is that however the virus got out of the laboratory, and we just don't know for sure whether it was by accident or deliberately. What we do know is that the Chinese communists deliberately sent it overseas. And again, as you know, Peter, by contrast, they were ensuring that nobody left Wuhan to go anywhere else in China. But if they wanted to get on a plane to some international destination, especially here, they were on their way. So that is why we consider it to be deliberate, purposeful, malevolent, and in fact a proof of concept of something else that's also in that chapter about charge four, which is very disconcerting, needless to say. And that is that about 20 years ago, the man who was at the time the defense minister of China. A general by the name of Qi Haoqian, spoke in secret to a group of party leaders and told them, among other things, that Deng Xiaoping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the man who brought us, by the way, Tiananmen Square, back in the early 1990s, had given as a charge to the biowarfare program of China, which, by the way, is illegal, the mission of depopulating the United States so that it could be colonized by China. So this episode was, I think, a precursor, a test, a proof of concept, if you will, of what may well be in store for us with a lot worse, a lot more virulent bioengineered viruses or what have you, in that arsenal of such products that the Chinese have been beavering away at for decades now. The first charge the CCP has perpetrated crimes against the people of China and it's captive nations. We kind of have been aware in the West of how the Chinese people living in China are treated with all different types of controls. I mean, you started on that, a focus on how it's treating its own people, before taking it wider. I mean, tell us more about that. Yeah, this seems to be the right place to start, not only to help people calibrate on the nature of the Chinese Communist Party, namely that it is the most murderous regime in history. It has killed, probably conservatively, a hundred million of its own people. And by that I mean people that it claims are their people, the Tibetans, the Uyghurs, the Southern Mongolians, people now in Hong Kong, people who are really enslaved peoples of China. But the vast majority of that number are Han Chinese themselves, who've been starved, who've been tortured to death, that their organs harvested who've otherwise been thrown into gulags and slave labour camps and all the rest. The point is that never in the history of the world, really if you take the entire history of the world, have you ever seen anything like the killing machine that the Chinese Communist Party has represented, especially if you add, as I think we have to, the 400 million children they have murdered in the womb, they boast about it. And by some estimates, it's probably 500 million at this point. Whatever the number is, it's just staggering. And people need to understand that for two reasons. One, both to properly calibrate, as I say, the character of this enemy we face, but also to realize that if you think about it, even for a half a minute, any regime that treats its own people that badly is not going to treat ours better. So this is one of the reasons why we start with the crimes against humanity by the Chinese Communist Party and then pivot to eight other charges, including the one we discussed, the biological warfare one, that constitute, we think, war crimes against this country and others.  Well then you move on to CCP is at war with America and it's interesting, myself looking at when we had the Cold War, we had the Iron Curtain, which was the line between the West and between the USSR. And it was a war. And yet when you look at China, the same discussion, the same rhetoric, the same words are not used. And we're just told it's just an economic powerhouse that is fighting for, I guess, control of certain parts. But it's not a war as such. Tell us why you you are saying that the CCP is at war with America? Well, for one reason, they've declared war on America, a little known fact. And I'm not speaking about the publication in 1999. Obviously, with the permission of the Chinese Communist Party of a book entitled, unrestricted warfare, by two senior colonels in the People's Liberation Army, who by way went on to become decorated general officers subsequently, so this was no rogue operation, but they proceeded to lay out I think some 20 different lines of attack that could be used and would be used by the Chinese Communist Party to weaken and take down, if they can, America without firing a shot. But beyond that, which is kind of, as they say in the intelligence business, a clue, the Chinese actually published in May of 2019, not in some secret document internal to the Chinese Party, but in the pages of its most important propaganda outlet, People's Daily, a declaration of, quote, people's war, unquote, against the United States of America. That again is a clue. And Xi Jinping, the general secretary now of the Chinese Communist Party, has made no secret of his belief that the Chinese have to defeat the United States, have to supplant it to become the rightful inheritors once again of the place in the world that the Chinese have historically considered to be theirs, namely the center of the universe, the middle kingdom, the dominant power on the planet. So, for all these reasons, I think it's just unmistakable that they are at war with us. Not necessarily that we want it or that we feel ourselves to be in that state, but that's the facts, ma'am. And if you don't understand it, as the famous Chinese strategist Sun Tzu made clear, you can't possibly win such a war. China does seem to have an appetite for growth, for control, for dominance, and is happy to bring claims that are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old to lay claim. And the same kind of, I guess, conversation diplomacy in the West doesn't seem to work as well there. Is that a fair thought?  Well, look, I think the Chinese have many attributes. And when I say the Chinese, I mean sort of the party, the Chinese Communist Party. Some of them are historical traits of Chinese emperors and other rulers, but some of them are unique to the Chinese Communist Party. One is patience, for sure. Another is the practice of deception. For sure. And a third is, going back again to Sun Tzu, to see what you can do to defeat your enemy without actually having to fight them. And all of those are part and parcel of the kind of warfare that the Chinese Communist Party has been waging against us. That general secretary I mentioned a a moment ago, Deng Xiaoping, at the end of the Soviet empire, as he observed essentially the Reagan strategy leading to its defeat, he resolved that that Cold War may be over, but a new Cold War was beginning between the United States and China, and whereas the Soviets had lost theirs, China would win the new one, and they would use what he came to call a hide-and-bide strategy to pull that off. What would that mean? Well, that would mean that they would hide their true intent, which is world domination, and they would bide their time patiently, as the Chinese often do. In the process, they would enlist as much help from elites in particular, what they would say captured elites in places like the United States, who would help with technology, know-how and investment dollars and other ways to both weaken the United States and strengthen communist China. This has played out brilliantly over the past three or four decades, to the point now where the current general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, sees no need for hiding and biding any longer. He's rather, as I said earlier, frontally, aggressively showing that he intends to pursue, our destruction, including by not just these pre-violent or non-kinetic, unrestricted warfare techniques, Peter, but actually the old-fashioned kind, the shooting war kind as well. And that capture in America, at least, we've kind of, the media have allowed us a little snapshot into some of the bribery, the espionage there, but we've kind of haven't seen much of it. But it does seem to be so deep, even looking at the institutions, the control that China have on simply educational institutions. I mean, tell us more about about how they've captured that, I guess, so easily. Well, they've done it, I think, partly by that hide-and-bide strategy, by having not only members of various sectors of our society, running from Wall Street and the financial sector to business more generally, to media, to academia, as you say, to Hollywood, And also, of course, our political elites. But they've got buy-in from the top levels of our government to the idea that we want to do whatever we can to enrich and even strengthen communist China. And all these other folks, again, especially those mavens of Wall Street, were only too happy to make good money, at least personally, by engineering the penetration of our society and influential elites by the Chinese Communist Party, but also doing everything they conceivably could do to both enrich and enhance the power of what is in fact our mortal enemy. It's insane. It is reckless. It has put us in extreme peril, I believe, but I think that's essentially how this has worked out over time, and of course, you know, it has to be said. The more culpable such individuals in these elites have become of clearly aiding and abetting our enemy, the more incentive they've had not to acknowledge that reality, to cover it up, to continue to perpetuate it and prosper in doing so personally, but increasing, as I say, danger to the rest of us. In Charge 5 you talk about the economy and that certainly seemed to early on the Chinese were rolling this out. In the cold war you never talked about made in Russia it wasn't a thing but you think made in china and it is everywhere every product not only the electronic side but just everything is made in China. It seems as though they have taken a different route maybe than other times, certainly in the Cold War this was not the route that Russia went down, but the  economic attack, that seems to be specifically part of this attack by the CCP.  You're absolutely right, and I think that this again goes back to that hide-and-bide idea of Deng Xiaoping. He recognized that one of the things that that enabled Ronald Reagan to take down the Soviet Union was that it had not fully integrated its economy with the West. It had tried to varying degrees, but not very successfully. And certainly when Reagan began his strategy of rolling back, he famously called it, we win, they lose, it became even more difficult the Soviets to have that kind of access and influence. The Chinese set about making sure that they were intimately engaged with Americans, both buying their products for a time and and doing deals that would give these American businessmen, particularly, access to the incredibly appetizing idea of 1 point x billion mouths needing toothbrushes or whatever. That was a kind of tractor beam, if you will, for getting American participation in and involvement with the Chinese Communist Party. Over time, of course, that changed dramatically. All of those industrial capabilities that we had that would sell stuff to China migrated to China. In some cases, quite literally, lock, stock, and barrel. Some of our factories were dismantled and rebuilt in China to sell us from there what we had previously sold them from here. I hail from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the heart of what is now called the Rust Belt. When I was growing up, it was Steel City. It became the Rust Belt, not out of some inevitable decline, but because the Chinese Communist Party's economic warfare essentially took down our steel industry by replicating it there and then for a fraction of the cost, usually through dumping, making it uneconomic to build real steel output here. But that was just one example. You mentioned electronics, you mentioned flat screens, televisions, any number of other things, medicines not least, we have allowed to become increasingly if not exclusively dependent upon China as a result of this kind of economic warfare. And it's madness. I mean, look, we saw in the pandemic the dangers associated with relying on China for not only medication, but personal protective equipment and testing and the rest of it. That is not an accident, comrade. That is by design. And it has made it very difficult for people to contemplate disengaging, decoupling, as it's called, from China. But as we say in the action part of the book, the specific steps, we recommend some 20 of them, we have no choice but to decouple because the Chinese are in the process of doing it to us and it will be extremely problematic if we have not made preparations to compensate for those sources. And of course President Trump understood this and one of his big themes was returning jobs back to America and he was maybe the first leader in the West to realize what was happening and actually do something about it. I mean, tell us about that because that's the chain and obviously with Biden being in, it's again trying to roll that back and seem to try and destroy the manufacturing base, the technology base, everything to make us more subservient on China.  Right. I think Donald Trump, long before he became president, was very clear-eyed about the problem that we face from China. I've written a number of books on the subject and spoken about it at length for many years, decades I think. As president he sought to take some corrective steps. But this goes back to the point about captured elites. He was obstructed at every turn by people like Steve Mnuchin. The Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Kudlow, who had some shining moments, but unfortunately all too often sort of defaulted to we need to keep engaging and keep Wall Street happy and the like. And similarly, members of Congress, many of them relying on donors like the Wall Street mavens, were not keen on this decoupling and so resisted Trump. I think his single most effective effort was the use of tariffs, which he could more or less do unilaterally and that wasn't directly under the control of the Treasury Department as were things like investment flows and the like. But I just would say this, Peter, I think that the cumulative effect of what Donald Trump did was certainly to showcase the dangers we faced from China, and to try for the first time, really, since Nixon went there. To adjust the trajectory of our relationship. It's a shame. It's really, I think, a tragedy that he wasn't able to do more, partly, you know, I think, due to the considerations that I just talked about, but we'd have been even worse off than we are today if we'd had Hillary Clinton, for example, pursuing aggressively that same policy of doing the bidding of China, enabling its power to grow and otherwise weaken our own. The Chinese have a term for this, they call it comprehensive national power. And I think there's no doubt about it that as it is, especially as a result of the Biden administration, I kind of consider it the Obama-Biden 3.0 administration. But whatever you call it, it's definitely picked up where Obama left off. But the Chinese calculation is their comprehensive national power has greatly increased. And our comprehensive national power has greatly diminished. And unfortunately, that's partly why I think, and I hope I'm wrong about this, as I hope I'm wrong about everything, frankly, but especially this, that they have calculated that they can now, move into that next phase, a shooting war phase, perhaps not cost-free, but with sufficient impunity to make it worthwhile. Well, that's one of the other seven as CCP enablers are taking down the US military and Chinese military spending is huge and it seems though that's rising at a time where the US military are reducing in size and more worried about diversity issues and pronouns than they are about equipment and training. And of course, you could espionage with Chinese taking a lot of secrets and replicating and being ahead in the hypersonic missiles, being ahead of the US. I mean, tell us about that because it does seem that China are in a perfect position of strength going into any possible military confrontation.  I don't know if it's a perfect position but I'm afraid they perceive it as a position of relative strength to ours, especially in in the Western Pacific, the immense build-up of their Navy, in a few short years, a product of decades of planning, to be sure, and building of shipyards. It's said that one of China's shipyards is larger than the entire footprint of every single American shipyard. And that translates into, of course, vastly greater capacity to push more platforms to sea. And the Chinese are doing that. And, you know, you have now a 300-some ship Navy in China, which is roughly the same size, a bit larger than ours. But when you realize that ours is deployed worldwide and much of it on the other side of a canal in Panama that the Chinese happened to control. It means we've got roughly half of our Navy confronting the entirety of their Navy. And their Navy is not only very modern and increasingly capable, as you say, of having advanced weapon systems on board, but also is now building, we're told, to something on the order of a 400 ship fleet. And that means, you know, we will be outgunned for sure. And to the point that you just made about hyper sonics, Peter, there's a study, as you know, that has just recently been published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that found that in some 37, out of 44 different technology categories, most of them with relevance to military applications. China is ahead of the United States. So that qualitative edge that we've relied upon to offset quantitative disadvantages is now, I think, unfortunately, a thing of the past. And that's a very ominous thing indeed. Just the final thing to touch on is energy security. And I love the way the book goes through these. You get an absolute overall understanding of the threat. It's not just on the military or economic, but it's the energy security. And obviously Biden is doing all he can to destroy American independent energy policy. But even you see China with the boycotts of Russia energy, well, China and India step in and they just get energy on the cheap. But it seems though that energy security in America is really being degraded alarmingly. Well again that's the point of the exercise. The Biden administration is deliberately dismantling not only our prospective energy dominance as Donald Trump is fond of talking about but also our energy independence. In favour of what? In favour of making us dependent on China for energy products like solar panels and windmills and even transformers for our electric grid, all of which creates a new supply chain that we simply cannot afford as a matter of national security to rely upon the goodwill of the Chinese to supply. But in a way, this makes a larger point. What I think is the case. And I really don't believe this is an exaggeration, Peter, every policy that the Biden administration has pursued, both domestic and foreign, certainly not just this energy security piece, has two things in common. One, they've all been bad for America. And two, they've all benefited, either directly or at least indirectly, the Chinese Communist Party. And that, I think, has something to do with the fact that the President of the United States is as one of our committee on the present danger China members of career, CIA undercover operative spy who used to recruit and run foreign agents for the United States. He says in the terms of the trade, his business, the lexicon, if you will, of intelligence, Joe Biden has to be described as a controlled asset of the Chinese Communist Party. And that explains a lot about what I just described, and why, again, it is not an accident that it is doing so much damage to us and further emboldening as well as empowering our mortal enemy of the Chinese Communist Party.  And you mentioned, and we'll just finish on this, that you finish off the book, What Must We Do? 20 Action Items to Protect America and Defeat the CCP. People can go through all those, but you just want to mention, it's always good, you lay out a dark situation, a absolute threat to not only America but to the West itself. But you end off by giving actually points that there is a response that can happen. Let us know more about that.  Well thank you. Yes, they're relatively brief but they really flow from the longer conversation in the earlier segment of the book where we're talking about the specific problems in these various areas. And it's mostly just common sense, frankly. It starts with understanding that we are, in fact, at war with the Chinese Communist Party. If you don't get that right, you're not going to do much of the rest of it, obviously. That we need to, in fact, adopt a war footing in response to the threat we're facing, much as the Chinese are on a war footing now. And again, increasingly, one that is seemingly meant to be a violent shooting or footing at that. But as important as anything we talk about is the urgent need to remove from positions of power and influence, those captured elites, especially if God forbid, we do in fact face the prospect of a violent conflict with China, we simply can't have as the commander-in-chief of the United States military. It's a controlled asset of the enemy. Another of the very important points, I think, taking a page out of the Reagan playbook, which of course I'm both an admirer of and played a small role in trying to implement. Namely, the delegitimization of the Chinese Communist Party as he delegitimized the evil empire of the Soviet Union is crucial for one other reason besides, you know, trying to make the lives miserable of the CCP. It helps to speak to the people of China, which, going back to where we started, have suffered more than anybody at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party have more interest than anybody in seeing the end of this party. They're not our enemy. We have no, I think, quarrel with the Chinese people. But the Chinese Communist Party is our enemy and theirs as well. And we need to delegitimate them. And we think the way to do that is to describe them as what they are, a transnational criminal organization. Well, we'll finish on that. I'll again leave our viewers with, there it is, the indictment prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party and Friends for Crimes Against America, China and the World is available anywhere, not only in the US, but in the UK, in Europe. Frank, I appreciate your time. As I said at the beginning, I'll repeat that you are a legendary figure in the conservative movement and your focus on security brings something quite fresh that others don't bring. So we do appreciate your time today. And my yours, and thank you for those kind words, and back at you. We appreciate you all as well, and give my regards of Lord Pearson.

covid-19 united states america god ceo american amazon founders world president friends donald trump europe business hollywood uk china americans new york times west russia chinese joe biden pennsylvania barack obama congress bbc defense cnn hearts hong kong states bs wall street republicans policy pittsburgh wall street journal muslims navy washington post democrats islam cia fox news secretary republic usa today defeat commentary cold war committee crimes defenders hillary clinton panama soviet union capitol hill islamic soviet georgetown university ronald reagan treasury wuhan qr los angeles times vice chair xi jinping sars cov ussr tibetans indictment steve bannon ccp oak new republic chinese communist party commander in chief made in china soviets assistant secretary newsday uyghur iron curtain national review united states senate treasury department sun tzu washington times virology breitbart foreign service tiananmen square johns hopkins school communist china rust belt gaffney steel city christian science monitor deputy assistant secretary security policies prosecuting gettr advanced international studies action items deng xiaoping present danger wuhan institute obama biden liberation army larry kudlow in charge arms control senate armed services committee western pacific steve mnuchin han chinese frank gaffney australian strategic policy institute executive vice chairman protect america scoop jackson zionist organization industry council navy league nuclear forces crimes against america international security policy present danger china indictment prosecuting soviet communist party bosch fawstin american legion magazine
America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications Division, American Legion | Rich Fiesta, Executive Director, Alliance for Retired Americans

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2023 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Director of Media and Communications for the American Legion joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the upcoming June edition of the American Legion Magazine. Stoffer talked about the magazine article about the United States military branches struggling to meet their recruitment quotas. He also discussed some of the ways veterans are finding work and help after their service and the four-part documentary series leading up to Memorial Day. Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans Rich Fiesta, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss state taxation of Social Security benefits and the Alliance's efforts to eliminate state taxes on the funds received from Social Security. Fiesta also discussed the ongoing debt ceiling conversation, adding context to some of the recent proposed budget cuts.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Matt Grills (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2023 54:40


Matt Grills, Managing Editor of The American Legion Magazine, joined the AWF Union Podcast and discussed how the Federal omnibus spending bill will help veterans, plus the importance of the U.S. being energy independent. He also previewed an article in the upcoming February issue of the magazine on how the Korean war helped to end segregation in the U.S. military.          Rich Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, appeared on the AWF Union Podcast and spoke about the potential for future U.S. debt issues to negatively impact Social Security.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2022 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Media and Communications Director for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the Task Force Movement, a coalition launched by the White House to connect veterans and transitioning military personnel with careers in the trucking and cyber security industries. He also previewed articles in the upcoming January issue of The American Legion Magazine. The Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Richard Fiesta appeared on the AWF Union Podcast and explained how the America Rescue Plan helped prevent a 60 percent cut to Teamster pensions. He also spoke about potential threats to Social Security under a Republican-controlled U.S. House.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2022 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Media and Communications Director for the American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and talked about an American Legion report which described the importance of veterans in decreasing the nation's labor skills gap.He also talked about an article in the December issue of the American Legion Magazine that explored the lessons of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the need to pass the Major Richard Star Act   The Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Richard Fiesta appeared on the AWF  Union Podcast and talked about how Republican control of the U.S. House could impact Social Security, Medicare and the lives of retirees. He also touched on the midterm elections and the success of candidates endorsed by the Alliance for Retired Americans.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Matt Grills (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2022 54:40


Matt Grills, Managing Editor of The American Legion Magazine, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the November issue. He spoke about articles that explore the global history of war crimes, the establishment of the Vietnam War Memorial and efforts to award the Medal of Honor to Navy Lt. Royce Williams, who downed four Russian MiG-15s during a dogfight in the Korean War.   The Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Richard Fiesta appeared on the AWF Union Podcast and spoke about the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act that Republicans have vowed to repeal if they take control of Congress in the November midterm elections. He also explained why Medicare premiums will decrease and the 8.7 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) to Social Security benefits – the largest increase since 1981.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2022 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Media and Communications Director for The American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and gave an update on the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act that, if passed, would protect veterans exposed to burn pits, radiation and agent orange. He also provided an overview of the August edition of the American Legion Magazine.    The Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Richard Fiesta appeared on the AWF Union Podcast and talked about the U.S. Senate budget reconciliation bill and whether or not it will include a provision to allow the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs under Medicare. He also spoke about another bill called the New Parents Act that could cost families some future Social Security benefits, if passed.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2022 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, Media and Communications Director for The American Legion, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the U.S. Senate's recent passage of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, the D-Day commemoration service in Normandy, France and articles in the July issue of The American Legion Magazine.    The Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Richard Fiesta appeared on the America's Work Force Union Podcast and spoke about proposed legislation that seeks to expand Social Security. He also explained a reduction in next year's Medicare premiums and the need to pass legislation to reign in the price of Insulin.

Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne
Episode 2305 – Vietnam Infantrymen – How did we get such good men? by Fred Castaneda

Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2022 24:27


Episode 2305 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a guest contribution by Vietnam Veteran Fred Castaneda. He shares a story submitted to the American Legion Magazine by Colonel David W. Taylor that was titled: The American Infantryman in … Continue reading → The post Episode 2305 – Vietnam Infantrymen – How did we get such good men? by Fred Castaneda appeared first on .

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2022 54:40


Jeff Stoffer, The American Legion Director of Media and Communications, was featured on the AWF Union Podcast today. He previewed the February edition of the American Legion Magazine and discussed a few of the featured stories within this edition. Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta also joined the podcast today. He discussed how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider the massive Medicare Part B premium hike. Fiesta also spoke about the No Surprises Act, which will protect consumers from surprise medical bills. 

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (The American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2021 54:40


American Legion Media and Communications Director Jeff Stoffer was the first guest on today's episode of the AWF Union Podcast. He highlighted some of the featured stories in the December edition of the American Legion Magazine, including stories about public healthcare systems and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta was also featured on today's episode. He spoke about the potential passing of the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, and how it would benefit the healthcare sector and fighting back against efforts to privatize Medicare.

The Mark Bishop Show
TMBS E203: Ed Sandrick and JJ Montanaro; How Veterans can maximize their Health benefits

The Mark Bishop Show

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2021 9:40


How Veterans can maximize their Health benefits with Ed Sandrick and JJ Montanaro.The Director of Veterans Affairs Channel, Humana a retired Colonel and US marine talks about the Enrollment Period with the Military Relationship Director from USAA about this critical time period.MORE ABOUT ED SANDRICK: Ed Sandrick is the director of the Veteran Channel, Humana Strategic Alliances and has been with Humana for 18 years. He is also the point person for Humana's national veteran service organization partners, The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Veterans (AMVETS). Ed leads a team that is focused on developing and implementing Veteran outreach activities at the state and local level, primarily with and through Humana's Retail organization. Ed served as an active-duty infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1970 to 1979. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2000, attaining the rank of colonel.  MORE ABOUT J.J. MONTANARO: Joseph "JJ" Montanaro is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional (CFP®). He is a native of Kansas City and earned his bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He also holds a Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University. JJ is a member of the Financial Planning Association and a director on the USAA Military Advocacy team.  He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and joined USAA in 2002. Before entering the financial services industry, he served in the US Army for six years on active duty and in 2009 he retired as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve.  JJ's daily focus has been to help families realize their goals and his advice has appeared in numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNNMoney.com and the New York Times. He writes monthly personal finance columns for Military Spouse Magazine, American Legion Magazine and is a regular contributor to Military.com's personal finance section. More Information Go to - www.Humana.com/Medicare

The Mark Bishop Show
TMBS E203: Ed Sandrick and JJ Montanaro; How Veterans can maximize their Health benefits

The Mark Bishop Show

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2021 9:40


How Veterans can maximize their Health benefits with Ed Sandrick and JJ Montanaro.The Director of Veterans Affairs Channel, Humana a retired Colonel and US marine talks about the Enrollment Period with the Military Relationship Director from USAA about this critical time period.MORE ABOUT ED SANDRICK: Ed Sandrick is the director of the Veteran Channel, Humana Strategic Alliances and has been with Humana for 18 years. He is also the point person for Humana's national veteran service organization partners, The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Veterans (AMVETS). Ed leads a team that is focused on developing and implementing Veteran outreach activities at the state and local level, primarily with and through Humana's Retail organization. Ed served as an active-duty infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1970 to 1979. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2000, attaining the rank of colonel.  MORE ABOUT J.J. MONTANARO: Joseph "JJ" Montanaro is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional (CFP®). He is a native of Kansas City and earned his bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He also holds a Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University. JJ is a member of the Financial Planning Association and a director on the USAA Military Advocacy team.  He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and joined USAA in 2002. Before entering the financial services industry, he served in the US Army for six years on active duty and in 2009 he retired as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve.  JJ's daily focus has been to help families realize their goals and his advice has appeared in numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNNMoney.com and the New York Times. He writes monthly personal finance columns for Military Spouse Magazine, American Legion Magazine and is a regular contributor to Military.com's personal finance section. More Information Go to - www.Humana.com/Medicare

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2021 54:40


American Legion Director of Media and Communications Jeff Stoffer spoke with the America's Work Force Union Podcast today about the November edition of The American Legion Magazine. He also previewed some of the stories featured in the upcoming publication. Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta was also a guest on today's show. He spoke about Medicare drug price negotiation, and legislation aimed at restoring voting protections lost in two Supreme Court decisions over the course of the last decade.

Tango Alpha Lima Podcast
Episode 71: Tango Alpha Lima: Guardians Uniforms, Afghanistan (Again!) and Wind Therapy

Tango Alpha Lima Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2021 43:56


Jeff gets pumped about U.S. Space Force Guardians newly unveiled dress uniforms. CV reluctantly brings us yet another story about Afghanistan as two of the military's highest-ranking generals telling lawmakers that they did not support the full withdrawal this year. Ashley shares a story from The American Legion Magazine about the benefits of Wind Therapy. RAPID FIRE Marine Lieutenant Colonel who demanded Afghanistan accountability thrown in brig. Remains of Medal of Honor recipient Rev. Emil Kapaun returned to Kansas 70 years after his death in North Korean POW Camp. Navy veteran with broken-down scooter becomes TikTok star is flooded with generosity. Lawmaker on a mission to compel Pentagon to take UFOs seriously.

America's Work Force Union Podcast
Jeff Stoffer (American Legion) / Rich Fiesta (Alliance for Retired Americans)

America's Work Force Union Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2021 54:40


American Legion Director of Media and Communications Jeff Stoffer joined the AWF Union Podcast today to promote the forthcoming August edition of the American Legion Magazine. He previewed some of the stories that are to be featured this month, including one about transferable skills from the military to the workforce, and another about Agent Orange and spreading the ashes of a soldier. Also featured on the podcast today was Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Rich Fiesta. He spoke about the increase of the consumer price index and resulting price increase of prescription medication, potential legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices and President Joe Biden firing the Social Security administrator.

Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne
Episode 2067 – Childersburg, Alabama honored its fallen Vietnam Veterans

Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2021 9:34


Episode 2067 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about what the good people of Childersburg, Alabama did to honor their fallen Vietnam Veterans. The featured story appeared in The American Legion Magazine and was titled: Alabama … Continue reading → The post Episode 2067 – Childersburg, Alabama honored its fallen Vietnam Veterans appeared first on .

Think Anomalous
"Foo Fighters" of World War II

Think Anomalous

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2021


While the US government created the world's first government office to address the UFO question only after Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting in the summer of 1947, it was far from the first time that US officials had been forced to contend with UFO reports. Throughout the Second World War, Allied and German pilots frequently encountered fast-moving balls of light and other strange phenomena over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the South Pacific. The large volume of reports make it abundantly clear that the UFO phenomenon preceded the summer of the flying saucer, and suggest that the US government may have known more than they let on in the wake of Arnold's sighting. Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=3375417 Donate on Paypal: https://ThinkAnomalous.com/support.html Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FYfTYtDDIM8 Website: https://ThinkAnomalous.com Full sources & transcript: https://ThinkAnomalous.com/foo-fighters.html Facebook: https://facebook.com/ThinkAnomalous Twitter: https://twitter.com/Think_Anomalous Instagram: https://instagram.com/Think.Anomalous Check out more from our illustrator, V.R. Laurence: https://vrlaurence.com Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Illustration by V.R. Laurence (https://vrlaurence.com) Research by Jason Charbonneau Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland. ​Primary Sources: (A. P.) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests.” Times Herald (Olean, New York). July 8, 1947, page 3. (A. P.) “‘Discs' Said Found” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). July 8, 1947, page 10."Foo-Fighter." Time 45, no. 3, 15 Jan 1945. (A.P.) "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." New York Times. Jan 2, 1945, p. 1, 4. (A. P.) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes.” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota). November 7, 1944, page 1. (A. P.) “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons.” Eugene Register Guard. December 13, 1944 (A. P.) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration.” Twin Falls Telegram. December 14, 1944, page 1. Chamberlain, Jo. “The Foo-Fighter Mystery.” The American Legion Magazine. December, 1945. This podcast uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com. UFO Case Review contains sound design with elements downloaded from Freesound.org. Typewriter_2rows.wav, Uploaded by Fatson under the Attribution License.

Think Anomalous
"Foo Fighters" of World War II

Think Anomalous

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2021 20:17


While the US government created the world's first government office to address the UFO question only after Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting in the summer of 1947, it was far from the first time that US officials had been forced to contend with UFO reports. Throughout the Second World War, Allied and German pilots frequently encountered fast-moving balls of light and other strange phenomena over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the South Pacific. The large volume of reports make it abundantly clear that the UFO phenomenon preceded the summer of the flying saucer, and suggest that the US government may have known more than they let on in the wake of Arnold's sighting. Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/user?u=3375417 Donate on Paypal: ThinkAnomalous.com/support.html Website: ThinkAnomalous.com Full transcript and audio: ThinkAnomalous.com/Foo-Fighters.html Facebook: Facebook.com/ThinkAnomalous Twitter: Twitter.com/Think_Anomalous Instagram: Instagram.com/Think.Anomalous Check out more from our illustrator, V.R. Laurence: https://vrlaurence.com Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Illustration by V.R. Laurence (https://vrlaurence.com) Research by Jason Charbonneau Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland. Primary Sources: (A. P.) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests.” Times Herald (Olean, New York). July 8, 1947, page 3. (A. P.) “‘Discs' Said Found” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). July 8, 1947, page 10."Foo-Fighter." Time 45, no. 3, 15 Jan 1945. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601450115,00.html. (A.P.) "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." New York Times. Jan 2, 1945, p. 1, 4. (A. P.) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes.” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota). November 7, 1944, page 1. (A. P.) “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons.” Eugene Register Guard. December 13, 1944 (A. P.) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration.” Twin Falls Telegram. December 14, 1944, page 1. Chamberlain, Jo. “The Foo-Fighter Mystery.” The American Legion Magazine. December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full in: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm. Jollymore, Warren R.. “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball' Reports.” Wisconsin State Journal. July 8, 1947, page 5. This podcast uses sound effects downloaded from stockmusic.com. UFO Case Review contains sound design with elements downloaded from Freesound.org. Typewriter_2rows.wav, Uploaded by Fatson under the Attribution License.

The Great Education Struggle
053: Conversation With Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld

The Great Education Struggle

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2015 71:12


Why does the average U.S. college freshman reads at a seventh-grade level, according to an educational assessment report? How have we gone from Noah Webster's public school system to a socialist/progressives taken over the public school system? What happened to the proper teaching of phonics? How does Common Core fit into the current scheme of things? This and more with my conversation with Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld in episode 53. Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld was born and educated in New York City. Dr. Blumenfeld graduated from The City College of New York in 1950 and worked for ten years in the book publishing industry. He has also tutored and taught in private schools and as a substitute in public schools. Dr. Blumenfeld is one of the world's leading authorities on the teaching of reading and in 1986; he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Bob Jones University. Dr. Blumenfeld has spent much of his career investigating the the decline in American literacy, the reasons for the high rate of learning disabilities in American children, the reasons behind the educational establishment in America's support for sex and drug education, the reasons why so many children are labeled ADD, and why the school system refuses to use intensive phonics in reading instruction and memorization in mathematics instruction. He has spoken on education all over the world and is recognized internationally as a leader in the intensive, systematic phonics movement. Dr. Blumenfeld has authored of 11 books on education, including: "Is Public Education Necessary?" "NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education," "The Whole Language/OBE Fraud" and "Homeschooling: A Parents Guide to Teaching Children" among many others. Dr. Blumenfeld has had articles published in in the New York Times, Herald Tribune, Commentary, American Opinion, Ideas, Reason, Inquiry, American Education, Vital Speeches, Education Digest, American Legion Magazine, Conservative Digest and  Boston Magazine. Books by Dr. Blumenfeld Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers How To Tutor NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education Homeschooling: A Parents Guide to Teaching Children The Victims of Dick and Jane Is Public Education Necessary? New Illiterates and How You Can Keep Your Child from Becoming One The Whole Language/Obe Fraud: The Shocking Story of How America Is Being Dumbed Down by Its Own Education System

The New American Veteran Program
GallantFew's The New American Veteran Internet Radio Show

The New American Veteran Program

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2013 50:00


GallantFew is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to reducing veteran unemployment, homelessness and suicide. Our scheduled guest is veteran Dali Rivera. As a dedicated wife and mother Dali knows that a well-prepared kitchen is the first step to a great meal. She always dreamed of making products that would make it easier to be a creative cook. Her dream became a reality when she was accepted into the Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Veterans (EBV) with Disabilities Program, at Syracuse University, NY in 2010.  The program gave Dali the tools she needed to realize her business goals and that same year Elite Revolutionary Solutions, LLC (ERS) was born. Its mission is to enhance the culinary experience by helping chefs, foodies and home cooks make delicious and nutritional meals as well as for ERS, LLC to become well known for employing veterans and providing its employees with resources pertaining to veterans' needs. Dali is also a graduate of the Veteran-Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE) program. Her passion for food and hard-working attitude has resulted in the creation of some of the most unique products in the food industry. She has been recognized by the MamiVerse.com, American Legion Magazine, WISE Magazine, Harford Style Magazine and endorsed by well-known chef and restaurant owner Joseph Keller, among others. Facebook  Twitter Website