Podcast appearances and mentions of clinton white house

Have you ever felt like the very identity that defined you was becoming a straightjacket? That the career path, role, or persona you'd so carefully crafted suddenly felt constraining rather than purposeful? If so, you've likely experienced the disorienting - yet potentially catalyzing - transition I'm exploring with my guest today. I'm joined by Laura Gassner Otting. As an author, speaker, and entrepreneur who helped innovate AmeriCorps in the Clinton White House, she's intimately familiar with the psychological terrain one must navigate when shedding an old identity to birth the next evolution. Her new book "Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life" provides a roadmap for this journey. *** And before we dive in, a quick note on the state of the show.  So we have been in a season of reimagining here at Spark HQ, taking a look at what we're doing and why, how we're serving, and how best to keep serving you in the future. And as we do that, we've decided to take some time and place the show on hiatus while we deepen into new ideas and formats and ways to keep sharing the awakened work-life love.  So this will be the final episode as we head into a quieter season of incubation and reimagining. We appreciate you coming along for the ride with us, and really look forward to being back with new ways to share new ideas.  *** Find: Laura Gassner Otting   Website  |  Books Host: Jonathan Fields, creator of Good Life Project podcast & the Sparketype® Assessment Read Jonathan's Awake at the Wheel Newsletter More on Sparketypes:  Discover Your Sparketype | The Book | The Website Presented by LinkedIn.

Part 1:We talk with Joe Jaworski, a third-generation Texas trial attorney and former Mayor of Galveston, Texas.We discuss the various "bans" in Texas being instituted at the behest of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.We also discuss the home insurance situation in Texas, where fewer than half of all claims are not paid by the insurers.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Robert Hennelly.Bill Currywas a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House.Robert Hennellyis an Award-winning investigative journalist, broadcast and print reporter for more than 30 years, covering federal, state and local politics, public policy, labor, the environment, law enforcement and national security.We discuss the likelihood of protests in Washington D.C. during the military parade. Trump is looking for an excuse to 'come down hard' on those who disagree with him.  What should be the strategy?  WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: Beach Boys, "California Girls", in honor of Brian Wilson

Part 1:We talk with Derek Kelly, a recent Chief of Staff for the Texas Democratic Party, and now works for the Harris County Justice of the Peace.We discuss Texas politics. We specifically focus on the upcoming elections to the US Senate, where Cornyn is being challenged by Ken Paxton.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Ryan Cooper. Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. Ryan Cooper is the Prospects managing editor, and author of 'How Are You Going to Pay for That?'We discuss the Trump and Musk disagreement. This show "privatized politics" and the tension between the elected leader versus the rule of corporations.  WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics

"Food is a bridge. It's one of the few places where people let their guard down and are open to learning something new." — Adrian MillerThis week on the Bountifull Podcast, we sit down with Adrian Miller—lawyer, author, former White House advisor, and James Beard Award-winning soul food historian—for a rich conversation about how culture, history, and food shape our identity. From growing up in a religious Black household in Denver to carving out a path as a culinary historian, Adrian brings wisdom, wit, and warmth to a conversation that wrestles with hard truths and still finds joy.We talk about safe spaces, historical erasure, and what it means to hold complexity without giving up on hope. Adrian shares how food can be a site of memory, resistance, celebration, and connection. If you've ever wondered how to honour culture without appropriating it, or how to talk about hard history with humility, this episode is full of insight—and soul.In This Episode, You'll Discover:

Part 1:We talk with Anjeannette Damont, who covers government accountability issues at the local, state and federal level in the Southwest. At Pro Publica, her work has included uncovering COVID-19 testing contracts awarded to the Nevada governors friends with disastrous results, documenting how a city council empowered a wealthy developer to raze motels and displace hundreds of low-income residents, and investigating how the countrys largest house-flipping company cashed in on homeowners desperation. Prior to Pro Publica, she was a government watchdog reporter and regional investigative editor for the USA Today Network.We discuss the damage done by a We Buy Ugly Houses Franchise Left a Trail of Financial Wreckage Across Texashttps://www.propublica.org/article/homevestors-fraud-charles-carrier-texasPart 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Harold Meyerson.Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Harold Meyerson is editor at large of The American Prospect.We discuss how Trump uses policy as a political weapon. The 'bait and switch' approach that gets voters' attention for popular issues, on which he never delivers, but for which he takes credit.We also discuss the Qatar government's 'gift' to Trump of a $4 M airplane. WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics 

Part 1:We talk with Joe Jaworsksi, a third-generation Texas trial attorney and former Mayor of Galveston, Texas. He has served as a law clerk to the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit, and he has spent over 30 years in private practice as a trial attorney, mediator, and legal commentator. and can be heard on KPFT in Houston TX Tuesday mornings at 9:30am The Midterms.We discuss the political landscape in Texas. Ken Paxton is running for US Senate, to replace John Cornyn. Paxton is targeting Latino Democrats legally.For the first time, Trump's approval rating on the economy is low in Texas. This appears to be due to tariffs and other price shocks. Infrastructure for any new manufacturing is being neglected.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Jamie Rowen.Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Dr. Rowen is an associate professor of Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the founding director of UMass' Center for Justice, Law, and Societies. Her work focuses on both domestic and international criminal law. Her book, Worthy of Justice: The Politics of Veterans Treatment Courts in Practice, is forthcoming with Stanford University Press in December 2025.We discuss the corruption endemic to the US now with the Trump White House leading the way. NH has now adopted a crypto currency reserve into its budget, the first in the nation to do so, likely to be followed by other states.Cuts to research projects under NIH and other agencies has created a pool of "Research refugees" who are leaving for other countries to continue their research. This will have dire consequences for US leadership in many technologies in future. Music: David RovicsWNHNFM.ORG  production 

Part 1:We talk with Harvey Kronberg, Publisher of the Texas Quorum Report.We discuss how Gov. Abbott has characterized criticism of Israel as 'anti-Israel' policies, and therefore 'anti-Texas' policies.We also discuss the latest Texas Senate-adopted criminalizing the 'morning-after' pill. This, despite Texas having a high maternal mortality rate. Since the Dobbs decision, the number of abortions has increased nationwide.We discuss the upcoming elections in Texas. Cornyn, Paxton, and possible candidates for the governorship.The Texas economy is contracting. The amounts collected by sales taxes have declined. Texas has no income tax. Small business owners are worried because of the tariffs.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Ryan Cooper.Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Ryan Cooper is the Prospects managing editor, and author of How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics. He was previously a national correspondent for The Week. His work has also appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, and Current Affairs.We discuss the speech recently by Gov. Pritzker (D-Ill). We note that Democrats MUST fight every fight. We discuss various methods to bring together most of the American voters: their own lives as they struggle in this economy. What is the divide between people? How can it be overcome?Music: David RovicsWNHNFM.ORG  production 

Part 1:We talk with Joe Jaworski, who is a third-generation Texas trial attorney and former Mayor of Galveston, Texas. He has served as a law clerk to the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit, and he has spent years in private practice as a trial attorney, mediator, and legal commentator.We discuss the state of Texas' prisons. There have been many heat deaths (41 in 2024). The Texas legislature has decided that there should be air conditioning in prisons by 2032. Effect, people who go to prison in Texas risk death, even for non-capital crimes.Texas is planning to study the deleterious effects of immigration in Texas, without looking at the benefits.The governor had decided to create a Texas version of DOGE. It should be pointed out that the Republicans have dominated Texas for the past 30 years. All blame for 'waste' should therefore rest on them. There will be at least 18 full time staff members on the Texas DOGE.Ted Cruz has debuted on Texas air waves as a talk show host, as a sitting Senator.Part 2:We talk with Robert Hockett who is an American lawyer,law professor, and policy advocate he teaches legal, financial and some philosophical subjects at Cornell University in New York, where I am the Edward Cornell Professor of Law and a Professor of Public Policy. He is also Senior Counsel at Westwood Capital, a socially responsible investment bank in midtown Manhattan, and a Fellow of The Century Foundation, a think tank near Battery Park in lower Manhattan. Robert's principal research, writing, and practical concerns are with the legal and institutional prerequisites to a just, prosperous, and sustainable economic order, and with Bill Curry who was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.We discuss how Trump is accelerating the decline of the US. We are watching the end of the open society. Music: David RovicsWNHNFM.ORG   PRODUCTION

Part 1:We talk with Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. and Dr. Ray Perryman, President and CEO of the Perryman Group.Grouphttps://www.perrymangroup.com/has half a century of experience in developing systems, analyzing complex problems, and communicating effectively with legislative, regulatory, and judicial bodies, Fortune 500 companies, business organizations, civic community leaders, and audiences through the world.We discuss the chaos that the Trump administration has brought to the US. This is not sustainable in the long term, and is ruinous to the country. It is obvious that Trump is NOT prioritizing the US. People are afraid of many things now: the economy is declining, freedoms are being abrogated, and the worldwide opinion is that the US is no longer trustworthy. We discuss what ordinary people need to do to counteract this destruction.Part 2: We talk with Harold Myerson and Bill Curry.Harold Meyerson is editor at large of The American Prospect.Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.We discuss the phases of Trump's second presidency: Chaos and Retribution. Chaos exists now, in the civil rights arena, and in the economic state of the nation. Facts seem to be immaterial, we are being asked to operate in Trump's mad world. "This is Russia's first successful invasion". We are now in a techno-autocracy.We discuss the outreach by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes via their tour of the country, and the message they are sending: Resist and vote.  Music: From David Rovics, “The Richest Man in the World Says So”, 2025WNHN.ORG production

Part 1:We talk with Attorney Joe Jaworski to talk Texas politics, JoeJaworski, grandson of Leon a third generation Texan and a former council member, mayor pro tem and mayor of Galveston, Texas, owns The Jaworski Law FirmWe discuss the chaos caused by Trump's tariff actions, and how this has affected Texas. The business community is cautious about criticizing the actions, but still worried about the effects. Texas is the largest single state to export, mostly energy in the form of refined oil and related products.We learn that Ken Paxton, the Atty General, is running against long-time Senator John Cornyn. This is characterized as "Con man vs. Anti-Trump" .It will be an expensive race, both for the primary, and final race against a Democrat. The primary is open to all voters. The runoff period is 75 days long.There is also a candidate for Attorney General of Texas, to replace Paxton. That person is Elon Musk's attorney.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Laura Jedeed.Bill Currywas a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Laura Jedeed is a freelance journalist who primarily focuses on the American conservative movement. Her bylines include The New Republic, Rolling Stone, and Politico, and you can find her newsletter at BannedInYourState.comWe discuss the massive "Hands Off" rallies that were held last weekend. Several million people marched through streets across the country. Unfortunately, the media had relatively little reporting, and grossly underestimated the numbers of participants.The participants came from many different backgrounds, and many older people participated.The ICE chief suggested that deportations could be more efficient if the Amazon model could be used. the inhumanity of this approach seems attractive to the administration.The Burger King voucher for Israeli troops in Gaza.Revenge porn for the far Right? Music: From David Rovics, “The Richest Man in the World Says So”, 2025WNHN.ORG production

Part 1:We talk with Harvey Kronberg, publisher of the Texas based Qorum Report.We discuss Texas reactions to Musk in Wisconsin, and how Musk has inserted himself in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.We discuss the Texas legislature, and Musk's influence in Texas. His company is the second largest employer in Austin.We also talk about hoe Texas farmers will be affected by tariffs. There are also 1800 auto assembly lines in Texas that are dependent on just-in-time parts from Mexico. There has been a $5 billion NIH cut to Texas agencies. We talk about school vouchers in Texas, and how this will affect local property tax rates. Texas has a constitutional prohibition against income tax. The increased spending will affect other taxes.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Timothy Noah. Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Timothy Robert Noah is an American journalist, author, and a staff writer at The New Republic. Previously he was labor policy editor for Politico, a contributing writer atMSNBC.com, a senior editor of The New Republic assigned to write the biweekly "TRB From Washington" column, and a senior writer at Slate, where for a decade he wrote the "Chatterbox" column. In April 2012, Noah published a book, 'The Great Divergence', about income inequality in the United States.We discuss how everyone is now being hurt by Trump policies. There are no longer guardrails to restrict actions against seniors, federal employees, veterans, children, etc. DOGE is showing people what government actually does, by withdrawing those services and aids. We are experiencing an absolute emergency, and need a good governing coalition of those who will fight against this. Music: From David Rovics, “The Richest Man in the World Says So”, 2025 

Part 1:We talk with Jeremy Schwartz, investigative reporter for ProPublica.We discuss the elections to school boards in Texas. We look at the difference between 'at-large' elections and 'within district' elections. We note that in the 'at-large' elections, the school board members who are chosen concentrate less on education than on culture wars. Actual parents have less input. In 'within-district' elections, school board members are more likely to be focused on education. We discuss election funding, and how this will affect education in future.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and David Atkins. Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the HuffingtonPost and the HartfordCourant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.David Atkins is aWashington Monthlycontributing writer, activist, and research professional living in Santa Barbara as well as an elected DNC Member from California. He is president of The Pollux Group, a qualitative research firm.We discuss Chuck Schumer's vote for the Republican budget, in opposition to the Democratic members of Congress who voted against it, and most of the other Democratic members of the Senate. It seems that Schumer believes that it is politics as usual, despite evidence to the contrary.We also discuss the administration's attacks on universities. It is a part of the culture war against liberalism.  Music: From David Rovics, “The Richest Man in the World Says So”, 2025

Part 1:We talk with Matt Angle, Principal of Angle Strategies and Director of the Texas Democratic Trust. He is a representative of the Lone Star Project.We discuss Texas politics, specifically elections in the big counties in Texas, Harris Co (Houston area), and Tarrant County (Dallas area). We discuss the importance of county elections, and the current push by the Republicans to displace the current mayor of Mansfield, TX. We discuss the role of County judges, which is more administrative than in other states, and powerful because of the size of Texas counties. We talk about the right-wing "True Texas Project". It appears that the MAGATs hate government that is effective, and want to create ineffective governments at all levels.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Laura Jedeed.  Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the Huffington Post and the Hartford Courant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Laura Jedeed is a freelance journalist who primarily focuses on the American conservative movement. Her bylines include The New Republic, Rolling Stone, and Politico, and you can find her newsletter at BannedInYourState.com.We discuss the deportation threats against those who protest Trump's actions, specifically the actions taken to "disappear" M. Khalil, a Columbia University student who holds a green card, and is married to an American citizen. We are disappointed the Democratic lawmakers are virtually silent on this issue. We talk about the 'ethnic cleansing' forced on Gaza. We talk about Trump's characterization of protestors as terrorists and traitors.We also discuss the rollback of EPA regulations, in the era of climate change/crisis/crash.  Music: From David Rovics : Because the Richest Man in the World ...." 2025. 

The Hacks are back, and so is the economy's latest identity crisis. This week, Heilemann and Murphy are joined by veteran political strategist and former Clinton White House advisor Doug Sosnik! The Hacks break down the tariff wars, Wall Street's reaction to Trump, the Tesla chainsaw massacre, government waste, the art of friendly media, and much more. Buckle up for some classic Hackery!

Bill and Hillary Clinton have a relationship with Epstein that goes back to at least 1993. In this episode we talk about the pictures showing Epstein and Maxwell at the White House for a visit while Bill was president.(Commercial at 15:59)To contact me:Bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9509147/Bill-Clinton-grins-Jeffrey-Epstein-Ghislaine-Maxwell-VIP-White-House-tour-1993.html

It was clunky, and a little Office Space-like. And it cut federal jobs. But then-Vice President Al Gore's "REGO" program was different in many ways from "DOGE" -The 1993 program was bipartisan, considered [cuts were identified, then made, in that order. And it was slow, and generated little protest. It did generate tension in the Clinton White House, which we get into. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill and Hillary Clinton have a relationship with Epstein that goes back to at least 1993. In this episode we talk about the pictures showing Epstein and Maxwell at the White House for a visit while Bill was president.(Commercial at 15:59)To contact me:Bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9509147/Bill-Clinton-grins-Jeffrey-Epstein-Ghislaine-Maxwell-VIP-White-House-tour-1993.htmlBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

In this episode we explore the many, many trips that Jeffrey Epstein took to the White House to visit then President Bill Clinton and according to a new report, he wasn't alone bringing up to 8 female companions with him on these trips. Not only that, but during the time that Epstein and Maxwell were most active visiting the white house, they were also actively running a trafficking operation according to Maxwell's conviction. The question now becomes...will the legacy media care? (Commercial at 19:06)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10394863/Jeffrey-Epstein-brought-eight-women-Clinton-White-House.html

In this episode we explore the many, many trips that Jeffrey Epstein took to the White House to visit then President Bill Clinton and according to a new report, he wasn't alone bringing up to 8 female companions with him on these trips. Not only that, but during the time that Epstein and Maxwell were most active visiting the white house, they were also actively running a trafficking operation according to Maxwell's conviction. The question now becomes...will the legacy media care?(Commercial at 19:06)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10394863/Jeffrey-Epstein-brought-eight-women-Clinton-White-House.htmlshow lessBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Part 1:We talk with Francesca D'Annunzio, Reporting Fellow at the Texas Observer.We discuss the appointments made by Trump to the DEA leadership. On January 21, Trump announced that Derek Maltz would head the agency. This week, he announced that it would be Terry Cole. Cole's appointment seems to be targeted at Mexico, since Cole is a Mexico hawk. We discuss the kinds of surveillance that we can expect , because of Cole's connection to PenLink, a surveillance technology company, that is able to spy on phone calls and texts without obtaining search warrants.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry and Robert Hockett. Curry is a two-time candidate for Governor of Connecticut, a writer, and served in the Clinton White House. Hockett is a professor and author, dealing with company ownership and the role of Labor in our economy.We discuss how Democrats were unable to showcase their accomplishments for the US infrastructure. We discuss the multiplier effect of infrastructure spending by the government, and how it affects the economy as a whole. The role of media and the messages conveyed is also discussed. The Electorate seems oblivious to how choices will affect their daily lives.  WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics, "Time to Act", for Will Von Sproson

Today, Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, guest hosts Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. official and China expert during the Bush One and Two Administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and founded Wide Fountain, a platform for in-depth geopolitical analysis.  In this the second of a two-part episode, Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So, let's get started.  Sam Cooper's The Bureau: https://www.thebureau.news/ Christopher Meyer's Wide Fountain platform: https://widefountain.substack.com/ --- One CA is a product of the civil affairs association a and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership. We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.  To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com  or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org --- Great news! Feedspot, the podcast industry ranking system rated One CA Podcast as one of the top 10 shows on foreign policy. Check it out at: https://podcast.feedspot.com/foreign_policy_podcasts/ --- Special thanks to Cozy Ambience for a sample of "February Cafe Jazz - Instrumental Bossa Nova Music for Work, Study and Relax - Background Music" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq8Ht-sNwQ --- Today, Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, guest hosts Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. official and China expert during the Bush One and Two Administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and founded Wide Fountain, a platform for in-depth geopolitical analysis.  In this the first of a two-part episode, Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So, let's get started.  Sam Cooper's The Bureau: https://www.thebureau.news/ Christopher Meyer's Wide Fountain platform: https://widefountain.substack.com/ --- One CA is a product of the civil affairs association a and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership. We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.  To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com  or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org --- Special thanks to Cozy Ambience for a sample of "February Cafe Jazz - Instrumental Bossa Nova Music for Work, Study and Relax - Background Music" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq8Ht-sNwQ --- Transcript 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the One CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. One CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. 00:00:44    SAM COOPER official and China expert during the Bush I and II administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the first of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:07    SAM COOPER Today I'm excited to introduce Chris Myers. Chris is a longtime China expert and former U .S. government diplomatic and economic issues officer, and he explains how military intelligence and influence networks embedded deeply with organized crime are a central feature of the global strategy employed by the families that really are running communist China. And when I say that, we're going to discuss your research on the family of Xi Jinping, the Xi family, and you call it the Yezi clique. But first, tell our viewers your background in getting into China and your career. 00:01:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Thank you very much, Sam. I started a keen interest in China when I was 16. And I read the history of the opium wars and I was outraged. And I decided I wanted a career to be involved in business and diplomacy between the U .S. and China. And then as an undergrad student, I did research on the special economic zones. This was in the early 80s and the special economic zones were just announced. And my research led me to see the geopolitical aspects. There were some. across from Macau, across from Hong Kong, and across from Taiwan. So I sort of had an eye to that. And then I did business. I was, for five years, I was with a Fortune 500 company. And I had the opportunity to do some business in Xiaomon. And I saw some things that set off alarm bells in my mind. And I kind of filed that. And I had some experiences that informed my research later. I worked in the government in Bush 1 and Bush 2. I was involved in Indo -Pacific affairs. really helping American companies do business in the region, and then became a consultant to part of the government that administered our territories in the Pacific. So I saw some things there that, again, set off alarm bells in my mind. And in 2016, I happened to cross an old colleague who kind of gave me some more information. And basically from 2016 until 2022, I conducted a lot of independent research. I decided I wanted to know exactly what was going on because proxies in the region seemed emboldened to take on the U .S. And they didn't have a government portfolio, but they acted like they did. And so my research sort of started in Micronesia. I had the great opportunity to come across your book. You totally informed. parts of what I was looking at and kind of put the spotlight on what happened in Canada. And I kind of worked the two sides to the middle and conducted most recently research that kind of takes us from Mao Zedong's death until the 90s. And I believe that there was a click. I call it the yes, she click. There were scores to settle. There were powerful families that were on the cusp of greatness or recognition for all their good work, and they were purged. And it led some individuals to become extremely militant in their conduct of political warfare against the U .S. So that sort of sets the table for what we might be talking about. 00:04:28    SAM COOPER Yeah. So to get into this, let's start with the Ye family. They're mysterious, but for experts, they're very clearly a clan that has tremendous kingmaking power in China. So maybe let's start with who they are and then bridge into how they connect with Xi's father. 00:04:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So the patriarch, Lie Jianying, was literally the kingmaker of Mao Zedong. He came from Guangdong province, and he was involved in the very earliest movements of the Communist Party in China. And he fled one of those, I think it was the Guangzhou uprising, with Zhou Enlai, and they escaped to Hong Kong. So Ye Jianying is one of the original revolutionaries in China, and he had the title of Marshal Ye. And when he crossed paths with Mao Zedong, he was actually the aide -de -camp to a very powerful Communist Party operator out of Beijing who had an army of tens of thousands. And he rolled up to Mao and his very small group of long marchers and said, follow us, we're going to Sichuan province. And Mao was like, no, I don't think that's a safe bet. The locals are going to tear you up. And Ye Jianying kind of heard a truth in Mao and he deserted this powerful general and with him brought the code books. So Mao gets Ye Jianying and the code books and he's able to communicate with the Comintern. And lo and behold, that general did get wiped out in Sichuan. He returned to Mao's base. With a few thousand troops from then, Mao became the most powerful leader in the communist ecosystem. So Ye Jianying had a very high regard for Mao. Mao called him the savior of the Communist Party and the Communist Revolution. And so fast forward it right through the revolution. Ye gets a very top position as the party secretary for Guangdong province, the largest and economically most powerful province in the country. And Mao wants to conduct his land reform in Guangdong, just as he does everywhere. And it's a violent thing where landowners are hunted down and put to death. Yeah, because he was a native Cantonese, understood that the landowners in Guangdong were not of the same ilk as those throughout China. They actually worked the lands. They had a very cooperative relationship with labor. And he tried to resist. But Mao forced Lin Biao into Guangdong. And Ye lost his government role. And if he hadn't been in the military, he would have been completely out of power. But because he had a military portfolio, he was able to stay on the peripheries. And he was actually part of the small group that brought down the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution. So Ye Jianying went through the Mao Zedong grinder, but he did it so early in the 50s that he was able to... maintain power and have it going forward. Another Long March hero was Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhong Chun. And his claim to fame in the Communist Party was he maintained security over the area where Mao was camped in Yan 'an. And he was able to provide Mao and his group with enough security that they could camp there through a winter and survive. Not only that, but he negotiated and he conducted diplomacy with the tribesmen in the Northwest, in Qinghai, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. And he was loved. And he got a lot of rebels and insurgents among these minority populations to join the Communist Party. And Mao gave him great profs for that and referred to him as one of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms period. brilliant statesman who was able to ingratiate with the minorities and make them part of the Chinese nation. Unfortunately, though, Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongchun, he was purged, but he was purged later. He was purged in 1962. And from Xi Jinping's age nine until he was 25, Xi Jinping's father was under arrest. Without trial, it was just the culture revolution. He was under arrest because his office published a book that was deemed not flattering to Mao Zedong. Basically, he was promoting some thought within the Communist Party that Mao didn't like. So Xi's father is in jail from 62 to 78. And because Ye Senior and Xi Zhongchun had a relationship, Ye Jianying kind of became a godfather of sorts for Xi Jinping. Xi was sent to work in the countryside and he escaped and he tried to get back to Beijing and it wasn't safe for him to be reunited with his family. And Ye intervened. And Ye made sure that Xi joined the Communist Party, even though these tragedies were all around him, and made sure that he got the semblance of an education, although he really never did. He was a guide for Xi Jinping throughout his younger years. in place of his father. 00:10:02    Sam Cooper Before we continue how those families dovetail together, can you describe in China's political economy, what is the power of Marshal Ye? 00:10:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So in the 50s, he was jettisoned out of the political arena. His main work was in the PLA. He was a marshal and he became minister of defense in China. And he was responsible for procurement. And to sort of give you a sense, when the Korean War started, the United Nations put a blockade on trade with China because they were arming the North Korean army. Marshal Yeh was responsible for making sure that supplies got to North Korea. And that was a big role that he fulfilled. And his sons kind of brought that along. So it's curious because Marshal Yeh was one of the most powerful stars in the communist lineup, but he was also a minority. He was from Guangdong and he was a Haka Chinese. So some people would say that Haka Chinese within China, there's a lid sometimes on their ability to move up. And so perhaps he was never considered for the echelon, but he did arise very high. But in some ways, and his sons adopted this even more so, they had to become very combative. in their political dealings. But no doubt about it, Marshal Yeh had a chance to handle huge volumes of military supplies, and there was an opportunity to skim and generate great wealth, which probably was the case. The way that Marshal Yeh fulfilled the supply chains for the North Korean army was through organized crime. And it just happened that two of The individuals, Henry Falk and Stanley Ho, were also Hakka Chinese. And they became the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Both of them are on record as saying they made their fortunes supplying the Korean War. 00:12:15    SAM COOPER Right. So people that read my book are very familiar with Stanley Ho, according to U .S. government intelligence. the absolute king of Chinese international mafia with connectivity to casinos, banking, political influence operations in Canada, triad leadership in Canada. So I think we've set the table for the 90s in Guangdong, Fujian. Xi Jinping is now starting to come on the scene politically there. The Ye family, who were partners essentially of Xi's father. had a little bit of a godfather eye on Xi's movements within the party. We can say that they're the power behind a throne that they want to see continue to rise. So can you take us into the 90s, the sort of Stanley Ho connectivity to Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and how that combines the Hong Kong tycoons slash triad leaders with the communist powers in Fujian? 00:13:21    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. Mao passed away in 78. Deng Xiaoping came to power. And Deng was all about economic reform and catching up to the West. So in southern China, Fujian and Guangdong province, Deng looked to Ye Jenying and his sons. His sons were in their 30s now. And he also looked to Xi Zhongshan. Xi Zhongshan became party secretary for Guangdong province. in the early 80s. And Deng kind of put together this group. The Ye's and the Xi's were family friends. They celebrated Chinese holidays together. The Xi's were northern Chinese, but they kind of encamped in Guangdong province after a certain amount of time. And that's where Xi's father retired. But in Guangdong, the son of Ye, his name was Ye Xuanping. Basically, he was mayor of Guangzhou and the governor of Guangdong. And very quickly, he was referred to as the emperor of the south. So in the 80s, he was running Guangdong province. And he became so powerful that the CCP sought to have him step down. And he actually threatened to withhold tax to Beijing from the province of Guangdong unless they negotiated with him. He wanted a vice chair of the CPPCC, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee. And he wants to be a vice governor of the CPPCC. And he wanted to be allowed to maintain his power base in Guangdong. And this is a rare case where the CCP actually deferred to these wishes. Just to get him out of running the most powerful province in China, they said okay. So he goes over the CPPCC. And he takes with him the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Stanley Ho never had a position, but Henry Falk and the other top lieutenants in these organized crime entities all wound up on the CPPCC. And to give you a sense of like, what was some of the magic Stanley Ho had when he won the monopoly on gaming in Macau? He devised this VIP room concept where... He owned the casino, but the VIP rooms were run by basically triads and junkets, powerful friends from mainland China and triads. And the triads conducted all kinds of crime that the Vancouver model got in a very big dose. So it was racketeering and prostitution and all kinds of things, but also collections. So Stanley Ho didn't have to work on collections because his muscle did it for him. But the strongest of these triad operators wound up in the CPPCC, as long as they were effective in what they were doing for the government. And 14K is dominated by Hakka Chinese. Most of the most powerful triads have a very strong Hakka element to it. And I don't mean to suggest that this wonderful race of Chinese called Hakkas is all bad. Lee Kuan Yew, the premier of Singapore, was Hakka Chinese. phenomenal Chinese, but there were also some very nefarious and very effective in their criminal activities that were Haka Chinese. So the Ye's were in the middle of this. And Chinese language social media accounts in Hong Kong will talk about the Ye's dominance over these gaming operators in Macau. 00:17:07    SAM COOPER Let's get into that and explore that more. I just want to ask a side question. As I'm aware of a very important figure, in what we call the Hoag Commission in Canada. I'm just going to leave it at that. This is our inquiry into foreign interference that stemmed from my investigative reporting. And there is a politician at the center of that that my sources close to them said went off to a haka conference in China for weeks or something like that, you know, while being an elected politician in Canada. Knowing what you know, and I'm just coming out of the blue with this question, is there anything good for Canada that they could be doing on that trip? 00:17:45    CHRISTOPHER MEYER There could be a lot of normal cultural activity, but I'll say one thing, that the powers that are doing the kinds of things that I'm concerned with are definitely represented in those groups. There might be a wink and a nod and things look very normal on the surface, but there's no free lunch in China. Everybody has to pay the piper, and the piper is the communist party of China. 00:18:11    SAM COOPER So let me ask you this. Viewers of the Bureau know that I've pressed away in journalism in explaining that the United Front Work Department and international money laundering and organized crime are synonymous. They're one and the same. The CIA says the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is really the core unit of the United Front. So what you're getting at... I think the Ye family, these power brokers that are behind Xi and his power in southern China, you're saying they essentially formed this United Front and organized crime compact as sort of a political tool, a smuggling tool, a military tool? 00:18:55    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. And I want to say that the United Front was an early Communist Party creation. And the thing about the Communist Party... They infiltrated the Kuomintang. When the Kuomintang had more power and they were the power base in China, the communists used political warfare to infiltrate them and really become their undoing. And the United Front is basically one way to get all parts of society under the control of the CCP. So within the United Front, the CPPCC is sort of the big leagues. And all the other organizations are the feeder groups. So if you get in a small united front group and you deliver in a big way, you can get promoted all the way to this PCC. And Ong Lapsung is an example of that. So the whole idea of the united front is to harness and control all the resources from academia, the private sector. from all aspects of society and to make them work for the Communist Party. And I feel that any united front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. 00:20:26    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U.S. relations, thank you all for what you're doing. your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes of One CA Podcast.   Episode 2 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. 1CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U .S. 00:00:44    Introduction official and China expert during the Bush 1 and 2 administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U .S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the second of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:08    SAM COOPER I feel that any United Front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. And they should be labeled that way and they should be treated that way. And they're conducting operations for China. So to get back to the Ye family, I just want to say very briefly, so Deng Xiaoping taps the older brother, Ye, and he's in the government and he has a nine, 10 -year run in Guangdong. The younger brother, his name is Ye Xuanning. He's the dangerous one. He's a real interesting cat. So, yeah. was in college during the Cultural Revolution. And just to give you an idea of the thin ice that you could be skating on in China, he graduated from college and he was thrown in jail. And he was thrown in jail because, you know, Mao wanted to send a signal to the Ye family, I'm in control here. You're not in control. He got out of jail and he had a job in a radio factory or something like that. And he must have been so distraught, he lost his arm in an accident. throwing boxes into a crusher and he lost his arm. So he became a calligrapher with his left hand. And if you know Chinese, like every time you write calligraphy, your hand is going across what you're writing. If you're left -handed, I don't know how he did it. I'm left -handed. And he became an accomplished calligrapher with his left hand. So it just gives you a sense of the spirit of this guy. He's not your normal. person. I think he was a genius. I think he was extremely hardworking. And one of his first positions, he was involved in a small United Front operation in Beijing. Then he became secretary for Kang Xian, who was sort of the head of the oil faction in China. And he was a very powerful individual. And then he found himself in Guangdong. And when his brother was appointed head of the province and the city of Guangzhou, He got into Espionade, and he became the spymaster for the PLA, working in the GDP. And he really had it. He sort of hit his stride there, and that's how he ended his career. The spymaster for the PLA. I think any other rival couldn't even hold a candle to him. He was totally gifted. And his brother and he were able to leverage all of their... contacts with organized crime because he used them in operations around the world. And I think he's the one who weaponized it to the point where, number one, organized crime figures were making money for the military, a lot of it. And number two, they were almost pre -trained in operations. They were bold. They would go anywhere and do anything. And Aung La Pseung is a good example of that. 00:04:11    CHRISTOPHER MEYER I was going to say, because not everyone knows these names like you and I do, but Enlap Sang, nominally a real estate developer from Macau. My Files, he's a huge international organized crime figure known for the so -called Clinton Gate or White House visits. He's the guy that got next to the Clinton White House or got inside, you know, maybe five to ten times. He ends up getting done, as they say, in a United Nations corruption case, which of course connects to a very important guy in Australia that successfully sued my colleague, John Garneau, and yet is at the top of Chinese organized crime funding Australian politics. He was involved in that FBI case. So to bring it back, what I've picked up in my book and in my repeated reporting efforts at the Bureau is these international Chinese businessmen in real estate and casinos, tech these days, they go around the world, they get next to our politicians, and that's their job. They're being tasked by whoever the Ye family spymaster of today is, is sending them abroad to do that. At some point, Xi Jinping comes into this and says it's okay. 00:05:30    SAM COOPER okay. And it's still evolving. I mean, I came on to this. When I read your book and I saw your story of Lai Changxin, I said, holy shit, I have to get into this. You see the level of danger that it brings to a country like Canada and North America. But I think that Ye Xuen Ning created the mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, 00:05:51    SAM COOPER mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, number one, fund military operations. and other things, and to extend influence operations. Like the United Front is all about influence operations. But if you introduce organized crime elements into parts of the United Front, you can weaponize it and you can get a lot more bang for your buck using these nefarious creatures that you're managing, you're controlling them. And I want to mention something. How does the CCP have control over organized crimes? So I want to say, In the late 90s, Macau No. 1 was about to be returned from Portuguese administration to Chinese. And 2, the kind of monopoly of the casinos license was coming up in 2002. And what happened was these triad operators were starting to push back against Stanley Ho. Stanley Ho's right -hand man was shot in the face in Victoria Park during this period. And the Portuguese sent an official to try to calm down the situation. And that individual was shot when he arrived. And the Communist Party kind of went in and took control. When the monopoly came up, Stanley Ho and his family, they got the coverage. But that's because he's completely loyal to the CCP. And so the CCP has so much leverage over these entities. Completely, he devised the strategy to integrate organized crime. And then he passed away in 2016. And then the institutional steps took place after that. They had to transfer from sort of a control of one man to the government running it. And you can see examples around 2016 of a lot of large -scale Chinese operations having disruption during this period. One of the reasons they were able to do this for so long was that Ye Xuanning was completely secretive. I mean, he managed these operations in a very keen and brilliant way, and he was never identified. Xi Jinping's role is interesting. Ye Xuanning told his brothers to help Xi Jinping. And you can kind of see like an increase in their efforts when Xi's father... He was in Beijing, and he had a very high role. He pulled a bureau standing committee, and he was sent down because of Tiananmen. He was on the reformer side, and he publicly admitted it. He was a very admirable individual, and he said he was supporting Hua Guofeng. So he faced early retirement in 1993, and the Ye brothers were so upset about this, and probably Xi too. They sort of doubled down on their efforts on behalf of this political warfare. It's almost as if they were pissed off at the Communist Party, but they took it out on North America. It's like they had to become more radical in what they were doing because in order to get power in China, you had to outflank Li Peng and the hardliners. So there's an interesting element there. 00:09:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You talk about this combination of military intelligence and organized crime. and political warfare and global influence operations. Trade is obviously involved. Explain what you mean by radicalization of that tool in operations. 00:09:31    SAM COOPER So there were about 10 operations in the 1990s that I believe were masterminded by the Yeshi Clay and primarily Yeshi Ning. The most outrageous, there was one and probably several. smuggling of military -grade machine guns into the U .S. from China. And one of the groups that was set up, helped finance the military, was the Poly Group. And the Poly Group, they were on the bill of lading for these. They were labeled as something else, but they came into the port of Oakland. And the interesting thing was the CEO of Poly Group, who was a princeling himself, was meeting in the White House and had his photo taken with President Clinton. At the time, these machine guns were on the water. That's bold. Yes. And when I ponder this, it's like I know how much the Chinese love photographs. That photo shown by Xi Jinping to all the cronies in Beijing would get him a lot of brownie points. And these machine guns were being distributed to gangs in the area. Street gangs in California. So this kind of thing, right? Right. And so that one was uncovered. But how many others slipped by? And there have been cases similar magnitude in Tennessee and Florida. 00:10:57    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yeah, and this is where it gets into the leaked Sidewinder report that I touched on in the book. But yeah, that report refers to Pauley Group laundering 2 ,000 AK -47s into California. You're saying you believe that not only is Xi Jinping supported by this Ye family intelligence, who I have no problem believing are behind the United Front organized crime nexus. You're saying you think Xi Jinping is a mind involved in this kind of thing as well. 00:11:30    SAM COOPER Originally, as I was doing my research, I thought Xi was the mastermind. But as I did a deep dive to what his contemporaries said of him, The big knock on Xi was that he wasn't educated. Like age nine to age 25, his dad has been persecuted and locked up without trial. And he's forced to work in the countryside and he's not happy about it. I mean, he wasn't educated. And that's the biggest knock on Xi Jinping. And when you look at the history of Xi in Fujian, first of all, he goes to the Ministry of Defense and then doesn't do... anything of note there as a young man. But then he goes into Hebei province and he's working in Hebei province as a middle level provincial official. And he's not doing much. I mean, his big contribution was suggesting that they film a TV show in that province and kind of burned out. He wasn't favored by the Communist Party officials there. You know, he's brought to Fujian. Communist Party officials bounce around provinces and each time they have an increasing role. Well, he stays in Fujian for 17 years. And it's almost like he's being babysat by the Yehs. And I mean, the Yeh family compound was a two and a half hour drive from where she was in Fujian. And so I don't think he was the mastermind, but he was definitely the beneficiary. And I think that it was a long term project. And the Yeh brothers. put the pieces on the table to help promote Xi Jinping. And here's an interesting thing. In 1997, there was a big Central Party conclave, the 15th Central Party plenary meeting. And Ye wasn't even named as an alternate delegate. So you've got hundreds of delegates coming from all over the country. And he's a princeling. And he's been in provincial government for 12 years. And he's not even named. Somebody forced him onto the list of alternate delegates. There were 150. He was the 151st alternate delegate. He didn't receive one vote. He was pushed on. And I think somebody in the realm said, you know what? We're running all these operations and we're doing it so secretively. Nobody knows that this is for Xi Jinping. So they started gradually to kind of promote Xi as. the mastermind of this. And the years were okay with that. But Xi Jinping was on his way to becoming the leader of China by 2002. 00:14:08    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And I was over in Taiwan, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a year ago with international journalists. And we had kind of a dinner talk where their political intelligence expert was going to talk about some of this Klan details and things like that. And they said, yeah, within the princelings, Xi Jinping was the least likely, the least talented to reach chairman. 00:14:37    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And so, OK, you know, I'm not the expert. If someone from Taiwan is telling me that, you're saying that. So if true, and you're saying the power behind the throne is this Ye family that boosts him. And they're the ones you're saying that are the masterminds of what I'm going to call modern political Chinese communist warfare using proxies, organized crime, dirty tycoons. So this is where we're going. 00:15:06    SAM COOPER Yep, this is where we're going. And let me just touch on a few of the operations in the 1990s, just to give you a sense for what was going on and the fact that the Chinese were never completely called out on the carpet for it. Just let them continue doing it. And one of the themes of my research is it's time to call the Chinese out. And to do that, you have to be very specific. I think there needs to be a large group of countries that has their research done and they call out Xi Jinping for this political warfare that absolutely is hyper -destructive. 00:15:41    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So you're saying this is an intelligence operation? Yeah. For the last 10 minutes or so, In direct relationship to this network you're talking about, the 90s, 2000, aggressive combination of international organized crime, Hong Kong tycoons, Macau tycoons, in Chinese military influence operations, also people smuggling, also drug smuggling, illegal migration and, you know, fentanyl. There is a basis that Chinese triads and Mexican cartels are working together on those things and that Canada is a, you could call it, if this is a company, the controlling minds of a lot of this are in Vancouver and Toronto. Canadian ports are very deeply infiltrated by China, along with some Iranian mafia and intelligence. It's a fact. So where do we go from there? I myself, as a Canadian, the good countries of the world need to get together to combat this approaching, if not already into early stages of the access of China, Iran, Russia, North Korea. We're at loggerheads and they're using Canada, I believe, unfortunately. 00:17:01    SAM COOPER Right. And I do believe that Yeshua Ning is a genius and he looked at North America and he wants to inflict pain on the U .S. When he set up these plans in the early 90s, the Chinese GDP was a fraction of the U .S. So he had a lot of ground to make up. And he chose Vancouver because the resources to combat his efforts were probably deemed to be significantly less than the resources in the U .S. So I feel that the attack on Canada, the Vancouver model. if you will, which spread right across to Toronto and then down into Queens and across to LA and permeates everything. I believe that the US and Canada should try to get on the same page about this and to the extent possible, Mexico as well. And then the UK and Australia haven't been unaffected by this. There should be a big effort to get on the same page with the West because this is a totalitarian regime doing its level best to take us out. 00:18:07    CHRISTOPHER MEYER The controlling mind, I'm saying, of the Mexican cartels, I think it's Chinese triads. That's the real power there. 00:18:15    SAM COOPER I think we're both in agreement. If you want to draw a word picture that says what this is, picture that there's a really bad actor and he's throwing a really illegal party and selling drugs and he's bringing it all in. And the U .S. is going after the people who own the land where all of this took place. You have to go after China. And I believe that China is making 98 % of the precursors for fentanyl, and then they're laundering the money. That's the other piece. They're laundering it. They're operating this massive money laundering operation for the cartels. So I say the gloves do come off, but I would love to see them come off in unison. And all of these, at least in North America, Mexico, Canada, and the U .S., we're all on the same page. And we speak with one voice. And I'll add to this. Xi Jinping has been as painful towards his own population as he has been externally and internationally. So he's inflicted pain on the Chinese and he's about to go down. I mean, he's got his wings clipped in the last few months and he may not be in power very long. There's some serious movement in China. 00:19:30    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You sound like my friend Harry Tsang, the ambassador for Taiwan and Ottawa. He's bearish on Xi Jinping in a big way. 00:19:38    SAM COOPER Yeah. Well, I think it's a good time for the West to approach China and say, look, we got off on the wrong foot. Let's reboot. And by the way, there's some reparations needed here. 70 ,000 people have been dying a year from this, and it's a Chinese operation. You know, the cartels are definitely part of it, but... I think there's good reason for the West to get on the same page. 00:20:02    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Absolutely. So we will end it there for a first great chat. And I think next time we'll get into the juicy story of Lai Cheng Zing, the bigot China's supposed most wanted. Or what was he? So I'll leave it at that and we'll pick it up next time. You have to say, 00:20:21    SAM COOPER have to say, I'm sitting there doing my research. I get your book. And all of a sudden, within 50 pages, the lights are going off because you wrote about Lai Changxin and it just completed some thoughts that I was mulling over. And yeah, we're going to have an interesting conversation about Lai Changxin. 00:20:40    CHRISTOPHER MEYER That touches my heart because I've always been a brother of the United States and I've felt so disheartened that bad people have gotten in between us and we have to stop that. And as you say, we need to get together on this. I've reached some good thinkers in the US and there's now things brewing. So let's keep it going. You got it. 00:21:01    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field, working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U .S. relations. Thank you all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes, One CA Podcast.

Today, Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, guest hosts Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. official and China expert during the Bush One and Two Administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and founded Wide Fountain, a platform for in-depth geopolitical analysis.  In this the first of a two-part episode, Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So, let's get started.  Sam Cooper's The Bureau: https://www.thebureau.news/ Christopher Meyer's Wide Fountain platform: https://widefountain.substack.com/ --- One CA is a product of the civil affairs association a and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership. We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations.  To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com  or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org --- Special thanks to Cozy Ambience for a sample of "February Cafe Jazz - Instrumental Bossa Nova Music for Work, Study and Relax - Background Music" retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq8Ht-sNwQ --- Transcript 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the One CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. One CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U.S. 00:00:44    SAM COOPER official and China expert during the Bush I and II administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U.S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the first of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:07    SAM COOPER Today I'm excited to introduce Chris Myers. Chris is a longtime China expert and former U .S. government diplomatic and economic issues officer, and he explains how military intelligence and influence networks embedded deeply with organized crime are a central feature of the global strategy employed by the families that really are running communist China. And when I say that, we're going to discuss your research on the family of Xi Jinping, the Xi family, and you call it the Yezi clique. But first, tell our viewers your background in getting into China and your career. 00:01:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Thank you very much, Sam. I started a keen interest in China when I was 16. And I read the history of the opium wars and I was outraged. And I decided I wanted a career to be involved in business and diplomacy between the U .S. and China. And then as an undergrad student, I did research on the special economic zones. This was in the early 80s and the special economic zones were just announced. And my research led me to see the geopolitical aspects. There were some. across from Macau, across from Hong Kong, and across from Taiwan. So I sort of had an eye to that. And then I did business. I was, for five years, I was with a Fortune 500 company. And I had the opportunity to do some business in Xiaomon. And I saw some things that set off alarm bells in my mind. And I kind of filed that. And I had some experiences that informed my research later. I worked in the government in Bush 1 and Bush 2. I was involved in Indo -Pacific affairs. really helping American companies do business in the region, and then became a consultant to part of the government that administered our territories in the Pacific. So I saw some things there that, again, set off alarm bells in my mind. And in 2016, I happened to cross an old colleague who kind of gave me some more information. And basically from 2016 until 2022, I conducted a lot of independent research. I decided I wanted to know exactly what was going on because proxies in the region seemed emboldened to take on the U .S. And they didn't have a government portfolio, but they acted like they did. And so my research sort of started in Micronesia. I had the great opportunity to come across your book. You totally informed. parts of what I was looking at and kind of put the spotlight on what happened in Canada. And I kind of worked the two sides to the middle and conducted most recently research that kind of takes us from Mao Zedong's death until the 90s. And I believe that there was a click. I call it the yes, she click. There were scores to settle. There were powerful families that were on the cusp of greatness or recognition for all their good work, and they were purged. And it led some individuals to become extremely militant in their conduct of political warfare against the U .S. So that sort of sets the table for what we might be talking about. 00:04:28    SAM COOPER Yeah. So to get into this, let's start with the Ye family. They're mysterious, but for experts, they're very clearly a clan that has tremendous kingmaking power in China. So maybe let's start with who they are and then bridge into how they connect with Xi's father. 00:04:46    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So the patriarch, Lie Jianying, was literally the kingmaker of Mao Zedong. He came from Guangdong province, and he was involved in the very earliest movements of the Communist Party in China. And he fled one of those, I think it was the Guangzhou uprising, with Zhou Enlai, and they escaped to Hong Kong. So Ye Jianying is one of the original revolutionaries in China, and he had the title of Marshal Ye. And when he crossed paths with Mao Zedong, he was actually the aide -de -camp to a very powerful Communist Party operator out of Beijing who had an army of tens of thousands. And he rolled up to Mao and his very small group of long marchers and said, follow us, we're going to Sichuan province. And Mao was like, no, I don't think that's a safe bet. The locals are going to tear you up. And Ye Jianying kind of heard a truth in Mao and he deserted this powerful general and with him brought the code books. So Mao gets Ye Jianying and the code books and he's able to communicate with the Comintern. And lo and behold, that general did get wiped out in Sichuan. He returned to Mao's base. With a few thousand troops from then, Mao became the most powerful leader in the communist ecosystem. So Ye Jianying had a very high regard for Mao. Mao called him the savior of the Communist Party and the Communist Revolution. And so fast forward it right through the revolution. Ye gets a very top position as the party secretary for Guangdong province, the largest and economically most powerful province in the country. And Mao wants to conduct his land reform in Guangdong, just as he does everywhere. And it's a violent thing where landowners are hunted down and put to death. Yeah, because he was a native Cantonese, understood that the landowners in Guangdong were not of the same ilk as those throughout China. They actually worked the lands. They had a very cooperative relationship with labor. And he tried to resist. But Mao forced Lin Biao into Guangdong. And Ye lost his government role. And if he hadn't been in the military, he would have been completely out of power. But because he had a military portfolio, he was able to stay on the peripheries. And he was actually part of the small group that brought down the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution. So Ye Jianying went through the Mao Zedong grinder, but he did it so early in the 50s that he was able to... maintain power and have it going forward. Another Long March hero was Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhong Chun. And his claim to fame in the Communist Party was he maintained security over the area where Mao was camped in Yan 'an. And he was able to provide Mao and his group with enough security that they could camp there through a winter and survive. Not only that, but he negotiated and he conducted diplomacy with the tribesmen in the Northwest, in Qinghai, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. And he was loved. And he got a lot of rebels and insurgents among these minority populations to join the Communist Party. And Mao gave him great profs for that and referred to him as one of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms period. brilliant statesman who was able to ingratiate with the minorities and make them part of the Chinese nation. Unfortunately, though, Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongchun, he was purged, but he was purged later. He was purged in 1962. And from Xi Jinping's age nine until he was 25, Xi Jinping's father was under arrest. Without trial, it was just the culture revolution. He was under arrest because his office published a book that was deemed not flattering to Mao Zedong. Basically, he was promoting some thought within the Communist Party that Mao didn't like. So Xi's father is in jail from 62 to 78. And because Ye Senior and Xi Zhongchun had a relationship, Ye Jianying kind of became a godfather of sorts for Xi Jinping. Xi was sent to work in the countryside and he escaped and he tried to get back to Beijing and it wasn't safe for him to be reunited with his family. And Ye intervened. And Ye made sure that Xi joined the Communist Party, even though these tragedies were all around him, and made sure that he got the semblance of an education, although he really never did. He was a guide for Xi Jinping throughout his younger years. in place of his father. 00:10:02    Sam Cooper Before we continue how those families dovetail together, can you describe in China's political economy, what is the power of Marshal Ye? 00:10:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So in the 50s, he was jettisoned out of the political arena. His main work was in the PLA. He was a marshal and he became minister of defense in China. And he was responsible for procurement. And to sort of give you a sense, when the Korean War started, the United Nations put a blockade on trade with China because they were arming the North Korean army. Marshal Yeh was responsible for making sure that supplies got to North Korea. And that was a big role that he fulfilled. And his sons kind of brought that along. So it's curious because Marshal Yeh was one of the most powerful stars in the communist lineup, but he was also a minority. He was from Guangdong and he was a Haka Chinese. So some people would say that Haka Chinese within China, there's a lid sometimes on their ability to move up. And so perhaps he was never considered for the echelon, but he did arise very high. But in some ways, and his sons adopted this even more so, they had to become very combative. in their political dealings. But no doubt about it, Marshal Yeh had a chance to handle huge volumes of military supplies, and there was an opportunity to skim and generate great wealth, which probably was the case. The way that Marshal Yeh fulfilled the supply chains for the North Korean army was through organized crime. And it just happened that two of The individuals, Henry Falk and Stanley Ho, were also Hakka Chinese. And they became the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Both of them are on record as saying they made their fortunes supplying the Korean War. 00:12:15    SAM COOPER Right. So people that read my book are very familiar with Stanley Ho, according to U .S. government intelligence. the absolute king of Chinese international mafia with connectivity to casinos, banking, political influence operations in Canada, triad leadership in Canada. So I think we've set the table for the 90s in Guangdong, Fujian. Xi Jinping is now starting to come on the scene politically there. The Ye family, who were partners essentially of Xi's father. had a little bit of a godfather eye on Xi's movements within the party. We can say that they're the power behind a throne that they want to see continue to rise. So can you take us into the 90s, the sort of Stanley Ho connectivity to Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and how that combines the Hong Kong tycoons slash triad leaders with the communist powers in Fujian? 00:13:21    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. Mao passed away in 78. Deng Xiaoping came to power. And Deng was all about economic reform and catching up to the West. So in southern China, Fujian and Guangdong province, Deng looked to Ye Jenying and his sons. His sons were in their 30s now. And he also looked to Xi Zhongshan. Xi Zhongshan became party secretary for Guangdong province. in the early 80s. And Deng kind of put together this group. The Ye's and the Xi's were family friends. They celebrated Chinese holidays together. The Xi's were northern Chinese, but they kind of encamped in Guangdong province after a certain amount of time. And that's where Xi's father retired. But in Guangdong, the son of Ye, his name was Ye Xuanping. Basically, he was mayor of Guangzhou and the governor of Guangdong. And very quickly, he was referred to as the emperor of the south. So in the 80s, he was running Guangdong province. And he became so powerful that the CCP sought to have him step down. And he actually threatened to withhold tax to Beijing from the province of Guangdong unless they negotiated with him. He wanted a vice chair of the CPPCC, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee. And he wants to be a vice governor of the CPPCC. And he wanted to be allowed to maintain his power base in Guangdong. And this is a rare case where the CCP actually deferred to these wishes. Just to get him out of running the most powerful province in China, they said okay. So he goes over the CPPCC. And he takes with him the kingpins of organized crime in Hong Kong and Macau. Stanley Ho never had a position, but Henry Falk and the other top lieutenants in these organized crime entities all wound up on the CPPCC. And to give you a sense of like, what was some of the magic Stanley Ho had when he won the monopoly on gaming in Macau? He devised this VIP room concept where... He owned the casino, but the VIP rooms were run by basically triads and junkets, powerful friends from mainland China and triads. And the triads conducted all kinds of crime that the Vancouver model got in a very big dose. So it was racketeering and prostitution and all kinds of things, but also collections. So Stanley Ho didn't have to work on collections because his muscle did it for him. But the strongest of these triad operators wound up in the CPPCC, as long as they were effective in what they were doing for the government. And 14K is dominated by Hakka Chinese. Most of the most powerful triads have a very strong Hakka element to it. And I don't mean to suggest that this wonderful race of Chinese called Hakkas is all bad. Lee Kuan Yew, the premier of Singapore, was Hakka Chinese. phenomenal Chinese, but there were also some very nefarious and very effective in their criminal activities that were Haka Chinese. So the Ye's were in the middle of this. And Chinese language social media accounts in Hong Kong will talk about the Ye's dominance over these gaming operators in Macau. 00:17:07    SAM COOPER Let's get into that and explore that more. I just want to ask a side question. As I'm aware of a very important figure, in what we call the Hoag Commission in Canada. I'm just going to leave it at that. This is our inquiry into foreign interference that stemmed from my investigative reporting. And there is a politician at the center of that that my sources close to them said went off to a haka conference in China for weeks or something like that, you know, while being an elected politician in Canada. Knowing what you know, and I'm just coming out of the blue with this question, is there anything good for Canada that they could be doing on that trip? 00:17:45    CHRISTOPHER MEYER There could be a lot of normal cultural activity, but I'll say one thing, that the powers that are doing the kinds of things that I'm concerned with are definitely represented in those groups. There might be a wink and a nod and things look very normal on the surface, but there's no free lunch in China. Everybody has to pay the piper, and the piper is the communist party of China. 00:18:11    SAM COOPER So let me ask you this. Viewers of the Bureau know that I've pressed away in journalism in explaining that the United Front Work Department and international money laundering and organized crime are synonymous. They're one and the same. The CIA says the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is really the core unit of the United Front. So what you're getting at... I think the Ye family, these power brokers that are behind Xi and his power in southern China, you're saying they essentially formed this United Front and organized crime compact as sort of a political tool, a smuggling tool, a military tool? 00:18:55    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yes. And I want to say that the United Front was an early Communist Party creation. And the thing about the Communist Party... They infiltrated the Kuomintang. When the Kuomintang had more power and they were the power base in China, the communists used political warfare to infiltrate them and really become their undoing. And the United Front is basically one way to get all parts of society under the control of the CCP. So within the United Front, the CPPCC is sort of the big leagues. And all the other organizations are the feeder groups. So if you get in a small united front group and you deliver in a big way, you can get promoted all the way to this PCC. And Ong Lapsung is an example of that. So the whole idea of the united front is to harness and control all the resources from academia, the private sector. from all aspects of society and to make them work for the Communist Party. And I feel that any united front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. 00:20:26    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U.S. relations, thank you all for what you're doing. your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes of One CA Podcast.   Episode 2 00:00:01    Introduction Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. 1CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www.civilaffairsassoc.org. I'll have those in the show notes. Today we welcome Sam Cooper, founder of the news outlet The Bureau, as he interviews Christopher Meyer, a former U .S. 00:00:44    Introduction official and China expert during the Bush 1 and 2 administrations. Meyer currently serves as the head of the U .S. Micronesia Council and is the founder of Wide Fountain. a platform for in -depth geopolitical analysis. This is the second of a two -part episode. Sam and Christopher discuss PRC strategic corruption and political warfare. So let's get started. 00:01:08    SAM COOPER I feel that any United Front operation, and there's so many in Canada and the U .S., they should just be called assets of the Chinese government. That's one way for the Chinese to increase their headcount of diplomatic officers within any given country. And they should be labeled that way and they should be treated that way. And they're conducting operations for China. So to get back to the Ye family, I just want to say very briefly, so Deng Xiaoping taps the older brother, Ye, and he's in the government and he has a nine, 10 -year run in Guangdong. The younger brother, his name is Ye Xuanning. He's the dangerous one. He's a real interesting cat. So, yeah. was in college during the Cultural Revolution. And just to give you an idea of the thin ice that you could be skating on in China, he graduated from college and he was thrown in jail. And he was thrown in jail because, you know, Mao wanted to send a signal to the Ye family, I'm in control here. You're not in control. He got out of jail and he had a job in a radio factory or something like that. And he must have been so distraught, he lost his arm in an accident. throwing boxes into a crusher and he lost his arm. So he became a calligrapher with his left hand. And if you know Chinese, like every time you write calligraphy, your hand is going across what you're writing. If you're left -handed, I don't know how he did it. I'm left -handed. And he became an accomplished calligrapher with his left hand. So it just gives you a sense of the spirit of this guy. He's not your normal. person. I think he was a genius. I think he was extremely hardworking. And one of his first positions, he was involved in a small United Front operation in Beijing. Then he became secretary for Kang Xian, who was sort of the head of the oil faction in China. And he was a very powerful individual. And then he found himself in Guangdong. And when his brother was appointed head of the province and the city of Guangzhou, He got into Espionade, and he became the spymaster for the PLA, working in the GDP. And he really had it. He sort of hit his stride there, and that's how he ended his career. The spymaster for the PLA. I think any other rival couldn't even hold a candle to him. He was totally gifted. And his brother and he were able to leverage all of their... contacts with organized crime because he used them in operations around the world. And I think he's the one who weaponized it to the point where, number one, organized crime figures were making money for the military, a lot of it. And number two, they were almost pre -trained in operations. They were bold. They would go anywhere and do anything. And Aung La Pseung is a good example of that. 00:04:11    CHRISTOPHER MEYER I was going to say, because not everyone knows these names like you and I do, but Enlap Sang, nominally a real estate developer from Macau. My Files, he's a huge international organized crime figure known for the so -called Clinton Gate or White House visits. He's the guy that got next to the Clinton White House or got inside, you know, maybe five to ten times. He ends up getting done, as they say, in a United Nations corruption case, which of course connects to a very important guy in Australia that successfully sued my colleague, John Garneau, and yet is at the top of Chinese organized crime funding Australian politics. He was involved in that FBI case. So to bring it back, what I've picked up in my book and in my repeated reporting efforts at the Bureau is these international Chinese businessmen in real estate and casinos, tech these days, they go around the world, they get next to our politicians, and that's their job. They're being tasked by whoever the Ye family spymaster of today is, is sending them abroad to do that. At some point, Xi Jinping comes into this and says it's okay. 00:05:30    SAM COOPER okay. And it's still evolving. I mean, I came on to this. When I read your book and I saw your story of Lai Changxin, I said, holy shit, I have to get into this. You see the level of danger that it brings to a country like Canada and North America. But I think that Ye Xuen Ning created the mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, 00:05:51    SAM COOPER mechanism for the CCP to use and leverage organized crime to, number one, fund military operations. and other things, and to extend influence operations. Like the United Front is all about influence operations. But if you introduce organized crime elements into parts of the United Front, you can weaponize it and you can get a lot more bang for your buck using these nefarious creatures that you're managing, you're controlling them. And I want to mention something. How does the CCP have control over organized crimes? So I want to say, In the late 90s, Macau No. 1 was about to be returned from Portuguese administration to Chinese. And 2, the kind of monopoly of the casinos license was coming up in 2002. And what happened was these triad operators were starting to push back against Stanley Ho. Stanley Ho's right -hand man was shot in the face in Victoria Park during this period. And the Portuguese sent an official to try to calm down the situation. And that individual was shot when he arrived. And the Communist Party kind of went in and took control. When the monopoly came up, Stanley Ho and his family, they got the coverage. But that's because he's completely loyal to the CCP. And so the CCP has so much leverage over these entities. Completely, he devised the strategy to integrate organized crime. And then he passed away in 2016. And then the institutional steps took place after that. They had to transfer from sort of a control of one man to the government running it. And you can see examples around 2016 of a lot of large -scale Chinese operations having disruption during this period. One of the reasons they were able to do this for so long was that Ye Xuanning was completely secretive. I mean, he managed these operations in a very keen and brilliant way, and he was never identified. Xi Jinping's role is interesting. Ye Xuanning told his brothers to help Xi Jinping. And you can kind of see like an increase in their efforts when Xi's father... He was in Beijing, and he had a very high role. He pulled a bureau standing committee, and he was sent down because of Tiananmen. He was on the reformer side, and he publicly admitted it. He was a very admirable individual, and he said he was supporting Hua Guofeng. So he faced early retirement in 1993, and the Ye brothers were so upset about this, and probably Xi too. They sort of doubled down on their efforts on behalf of this political warfare. It's almost as if they were pissed off at the Communist Party, but they took it out on North America. It's like they had to become more radical in what they were doing because in order to get power in China, you had to outflank Li Peng and the hardliners. So there's an interesting element there. 00:09:13    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You talk about this combination of military intelligence and organized crime. and political warfare and global influence operations. Trade is obviously involved. Explain what you mean by radicalization of that tool in operations. 00:09:31    SAM COOPER So there were about 10 operations in the 1990s that I believe were masterminded by the Yeshi Clay and primarily Yeshi Ning. The most outrageous, there was one and probably several. smuggling of military -grade machine guns into the U .S. from China. And one of the groups that was set up, helped finance the military, was the Poly Group. And the Poly Group, they were on the bill of lading for these. They were labeled as something else, but they came into the port of Oakland. And the interesting thing was the CEO of Poly Group, who was a princeling himself, was meeting in the White House and had his photo taken with President Clinton. At the time, these machine guns were on the water. That's bold. Yes. And when I ponder this, it's like I know how much the Chinese love photographs. That photo shown by Xi Jinping to all the cronies in Beijing would get him a lot of brownie points. And these machine guns were being distributed to gangs in the area. Street gangs in California. So this kind of thing, right? Right. And so that one was uncovered. But how many others slipped by? And there have been cases similar magnitude in Tennessee and Florida. 00:10:57    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Yeah, and this is where it gets into the leaked Sidewinder report that I touched on in the book. But yeah, that report refers to Pauley Group laundering 2 ,000 AK -47s into California. You're saying you believe that not only is Xi Jinping supported by this Ye family intelligence, who I have no problem believing are behind the United Front organized crime nexus. You're saying you think Xi Jinping is a mind involved in this kind of thing as well. 00:11:30    SAM COOPER Originally, as I was doing my research, I thought Xi was the mastermind. But as I did a deep dive to what his contemporaries said of him, The big knock on Xi was that he wasn't educated. Like age nine to age 25, his dad has been persecuted and locked up without trial. And he's forced to work in the countryside and he's not happy about it. I mean, he wasn't educated. And that's the biggest knock on Xi Jinping. And when you look at the history of Xi in Fujian, first of all, he goes to the Ministry of Defense and then doesn't do... anything of note there as a young man. But then he goes into Hebei province and he's working in Hebei province as a middle level provincial official. And he's not doing much. I mean, his big contribution was suggesting that they film a TV show in that province and kind of burned out. He wasn't favored by the Communist Party officials there. You know, he's brought to Fujian. Communist Party officials bounce around provinces and each time they have an increasing role. Well, he stays in Fujian for 17 years. And it's almost like he's being babysat by the Yehs. And I mean, the Yeh family compound was a two and a half hour drive from where she was in Fujian. And so I don't think he was the mastermind, but he was definitely the beneficiary. And I think that it was a long term project. And the Yeh brothers. put the pieces on the table to help promote Xi Jinping. And here's an interesting thing. In 1997, there was a big Central Party conclave, the 15th Central Party plenary meeting. And Ye wasn't even named as an alternate delegate. So you've got hundreds of delegates coming from all over the country. And he's a princeling. And he's been in provincial government for 12 years. And he's not even named. Somebody forced him onto the list of alternate delegates. There were 150. He was the 151st alternate delegate. He didn't receive one vote. He was pushed on. And I think somebody in the realm said, you know what? We're running all these operations and we're doing it so secretively. Nobody knows that this is for Xi Jinping. So they started gradually to kind of promote Xi as. the mastermind of this. And the years were okay with that. But Xi Jinping was on his way to becoming the leader of China by 2002. 00:14:08    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And I was over in Taiwan, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a year ago with international journalists. And we had kind of a dinner talk where their political intelligence expert was going to talk about some of this Klan details and things like that. And they said, yeah, within the princelings, Xi Jinping was the least likely, the least talented to reach chairman. 00:14:37    CHRISTOPHER MEYER And so, OK, you know, I'm not the expert. If someone from Taiwan is telling me that, you're saying that. So if true, and you're saying the power behind the throne is this Ye family that boosts him. And they're the ones you're saying that are the masterminds of what I'm going to call modern political Chinese communist warfare using proxies, organized crime, dirty tycoons. So this is where we're going. 00:15:06    SAM COOPER Yep, this is where we're going. And let me just touch on a few of the operations in the 1990s, just to give you a sense for what was going on and the fact that the Chinese were never completely called out on the carpet for it. Just let them continue doing it. And one of the themes of my research is it's time to call the Chinese out. And to do that, you have to be very specific. I think there needs to be a large group of countries that has their research done and they call out Xi Jinping for this political warfare that absolutely is hyper -destructive. 00:15:41    CHRISTOPHER MEYER So you're saying this is an intelligence operation? Yeah. For the last 10 minutes or so, In direct relationship to this network you're talking about, the 90s, 2000, aggressive combination of international organized crime, Hong Kong tycoons, Macau tycoons, in Chinese military influence operations, also people smuggling, also drug smuggling, illegal migration and, you know, fentanyl. There is a basis that Chinese triads and Mexican cartels are working together on those things and that Canada is a, you could call it, if this is a company, the controlling minds of a lot of this are in Vancouver and Toronto. Canadian ports are very deeply infiltrated by China, along with some Iranian mafia and intelligence. It's a fact. So where do we go from there? I myself, as a Canadian, the good countries of the world need to get together to combat this approaching, if not already into early stages of the access of China, Iran, Russia, North Korea. We're at loggerheads and they're using Canada, I believe, unfortunately. 00:17:01    SAM COOPER Right. And I do believe that Yeshua Ning is a genius and he looked at North America and he wants to inflict pain on the U .S. When he set up these plans in the early 90s, the Chinese GDP was a fraction of the U .S. So he had a lot of ground to make up. And he chose Vancouver because the resources to combat his efforts were probably deemed to be significantly less than the resources in the U .S. So I feel that the attack on Canada, the Vancouver model. if you will, which spread right across to Toronto and then down into Queens and across to LA and permeates everything. I believe that the US and Canada should try to get on the same page about this and to the extent possible, Mexico as well. And then the UK and Australia haven't been unaffected by this. There should be a big effort to get on the same page with the West because this is a totalitarian regime doing its level best to take us out. 00:18:07    CHRISTOPHER MEYER The controlling mind, I'm saying, of the Mexican cartels, I think it's Chinese triads. That's the real power there. 00:18:15    SAM COOPER I think we're both in agreement. If you want to draw a word picture that says what this is, picture that there's a really bad actor and he's throwing a really illegal party and selling drugs and he's bringing it all in. And the U .S. is going after the people who own the land where all of this took place. You have to go after China. And I believe that China is making 98 % of the precursors for fentanyl, and then they're laundering the money. That's the other piece. They're laundering it. They're operating this massive money laundering operation for the cartels. So I say the gloves do come off, but I would love to see them come off in unison. And all of these, at least in North America, Mexico, Canada, and the U .S., we're all on the same page. And we speak with one voice. And I'll add to this. Xi Jinping has been as painful towards his own population as he has been externally and internationally. So he's inflicted pain on the Chinese and he's about to go down. I mean, he's got his wings clipped in the last few months and he may not be in power very long. There's some serious movement in China. 00:19:30    CHRISTOPHER MEYER You sound like my friend Harry Tsang, the ambassador for Taiwan and Ottawa. He's bearish on Xi Jinping in a big way. 00:19:38    SAM COOPER Yeah. Well, I think it's a good time for the West to approach China and say, look, we got off on the wrong foot. Let's reboot. And by the way, there's some reparations needed here. 70 ,000 people have been dying a year from this, and it's a Chinese operation. You know, the cartels are definitely part of it, but... I think there's good reason for the West to get on the same page. 00:20:02    CHRISTOPHER MEYER Absolutely. So we will end it there for a first great chat. And I think next time we'll get into the juicy story of Lai Cheng Zing, the bigot China's supposed most wanted. Or what was he? So I'll leave it at that and we'll pick it up next time. You have to say, 00:20:21    SAM COOPER have to say, I'm sitting there doing my research. I get your book. And all of a sudden, within 50 pages, the lights are going off because you wrote about Lai Changxin and it just completed some thoughts that I was mulling over. And yeah, we're going to have an interesting conversation about Lai Changxin. 00:20:40    CHRISTOPHER MEYER That touches my heart because I've always been a brother of the United States and I've felt so disheartened that bad people have gotten in between us and we have to stop that. And as you say, we need to get together on this. I've reached some good thinkers in the US and there's now things brewing. So let's keep it going. You got it. 00:21:01    Close Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting@gmail.com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, to those currently out in the field, working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U .S. relations. Thank you all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes, One CA Podcast.

Part 1:We talk with Mel Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University, and former CIA officer.We discuss Biden's farewell speech, and reference to the impending oligarchy in the US, due to Trump's presidency. We discuss the actions of Russia, China, North Korea, and the nations of the Middle East, particularly Israel and Iran.Part 2:We talk with Paul Glastris and Bill Curry.Bill Currywas a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the HuffingtonPost and the HartfordCourant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outletsPaul Glastrisis currently Editor in Chief at Washington Monthly and has been there for the past 18 years.We discuss the role of political consultants, and the role of big donors in the failure of the Democratic party. Biden had real achievements, but consultants muted those facts by their 'safe' topics during the campaigns. Democrats need new ideas and policies to regain the trust of the middle and working class. "We also need to tell the truth as relentlessly as they lie." WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics, "Time to Act", for Will Von Sproson

Part 1:We talk with Joe Jaworski, the son of Leon Jaworski, Joe was the former Mayor of Galveston TX, he ran for AG in 2022 lost in the democratic runoff.We discuss Texas politics, and specifically, the actions of the current AG, Ken Paxton. Paxton has been attacking fellow Republicans in Texas who have not bowed to his wishes. and who do not agree about who should lead the Texas House. Currently, Texas is a dangerous place to live for both citizens and immigrants. This is due to the draconian laws that have been passed recently, and also to the impending problems that will occur if many undocumented workers are deported: They pay taxes locally, and many cities and counties will lose that income. Additionally, many people are being sued or sent to prison as a result of new regulations and laws being implemented.Part 2:We talk with Harold Meyerson and Bill Curry.Bill Curry was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. He has written for Salon, the Daily Beast, the HuffingtonPost and the HartfordCourant and has provided commentary on National Public Radio, MSNBC and many other news outlets.Harold MeyersonSince 2001, Harold Meyerson has been an editor of The American Prospect, the Washington-based liberal magazine, oscillating between the positions of Editor at Large and Executive Editor (his current post).We discuss the California fires and Trump's response to the disasters. We also discuss the new reality: truth no longer matters, only the misinformation that is promulgated by Republicans. We also discuss what Democrats should be doing to mitigate this problem. There seems to be a vanishing Democratic resistance to Trump.WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics, "Time to Act", for Will Von Sproson

I'm so excited to share this special 20 min episode stack as a highlight with a powerful message. I'm publishing this curation to help you make the most of your time. The episode features segments from the episode 044, 045, & 046 featuring Laura Gassner Otting and the following Aftercast & Solocast. https://richie.libsyn.com/laura-gassner-otting-limitless ====== Richie Norton interviews Laura Gassner Otting and they discuss success and happiness in life and business surrounding the principles in her book Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life. "Laura helps readers discover their consonance  —  how they align  what they do  with  who they are  — to  achieve their limitless potential. With lessons learned over 20 years of interviewing hundreds of  nonprofit, corporate, and government leaders, all of whom were in the midst of massive career change, Gassner Otting helps  readers discover their greatness and encourages them to forge ahead and become the best versions of themselves." This powerfully helpful conversation dives deep into The Four Elements of Consonance (Calling, Connection, Contribution, Control) and how you can create greater freedom, success and happiness even amidst hard times like COVID19. Laura Gassner Otting is a serial entrepreneur and a globally touring professional   speaker  (from colleges to conferences to corporations around the world--from the US Army base in Japan, to a   TEDx  stage in Boston, to   The TODAY Show  and   Good Morning America). She is the founder of   Limitless Possibility, a niche consulting firm working with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, executives, and thought leaders to get them unstuck and achieve extraordinary result. Laura is also the founder and CEO,   NPAG  (executive search firm serving nonprofits, foundations, universities, advocacy orgs) and former  Political Appointee to The Clinton White House (helped found the national service program,  AmeriCorps, in which more than 1M Americans have now served). Get Limitless book here:  https://amzn.to/2A7Lf9Y Get Laura's online Limitless course here: https://lauragassnerotting.com/limitless-course/ Continue the conversation here: RICHIE NORTON SHOW COMMUNITY: https://www.facebook.com/groups/richiepodcast RICHIE NORTON SHOW NOTES AND RESOURCES: http://www.richienorton.com/ RICHIE NORTON SOCIAL: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/richie_norton LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardnorton FB: https://www.facebook.com/richienorton TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/richienorton

Guy L. Smith, Harris for President Campaign Surrogate. He served as a Special Advisor to the President at the Clinton White House. He was a spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign in 2016 and also a spokesperson for the Biden for President Campaign in 2020. Smith is a longtime Democratic strategist. AN ELECTION WITH THE STARKEST OF CONTRASTS

Part 1:We talk with Derek Kelly, Chief of Staff, Harris County Democratic Party. We discuss the change in demographics in the cities in Texas, and how this will affect Texas elections.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry who was a Connecticut state senator, comptroller and two time Democratic nominee for governor who served as Counselor to the President in the Clinton White House. and Jeff Sharlet, an American academic, journalist, and author. He is the Frederick Sessions Beebe '35 Professor in the Art of Writing at Dartmouth College. We discuss what is at stake in this election. What is the role of donors in this election, especially the very rich donors?  WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics, "Time to Act", Song for Will Van Sproson

In this second half of our interview, Paul Bledsoe, former Clinton White House climate advisor, warns of the environmental dangers posed by Donald Trump's “Project 2025,” which seeks to dismantle key agencies like the EPA. Bledsoe explains Trump's second term could be more dangerous, contrasting it with Kamala Harris's centrist, pro-clean energy approach.  He stresses the importance of voter turnout, particularly among young people, and highlights the election's global stakes, including climate policy, the war in Ukraine, and international alliances. You can find Paul on X @paulbledsoe and you can read his work on his website: https://paulbledsoe.com/ Want to help us reach our goal of planting 30k trees? Visit https://aclimatechange.com/trees/ to learn how. You can also find us on Apple, Spotify, or whenever you get podcasts.

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls A prominent advocate, speaker, author, and media commentator, Ryan Hampton travels coast-to-coast to add solutions to our national addiction and drug overdose crisis. In recovery from a decade-long opioid addiction, Hampton is regarded as a forefront expert and thought leader in America's rising addiction recovery advocacy & drug policy reform movements. An alumnus of the Clinton White House, he's worked with multiple non-profits and addiction recovery organizing campaigns. He's now a prominent, leading face and voice of recovery advocacy and is working to change the longstanding negative narratives about those impacted by addiction, recovery, and overdose. Through his books and media, organizing campaigns, and social content that reaches millions, Ryan breaks down cultural barriers that have kept people suffering in silence and is helping to inspire a new generation of advocates recovering out loud, pushing for common-sense policy. He was part of the core team that released the first-ever U.S. Surgeon General's report on alcohol, drugs, and health in 2016 and was singled out by Forbes the following year as a top social entrepreneur in the recovery movement. Ryan connects a vast network of people passionate about ending the overdose crisis in America. He has been featured by—and is a contributor to—media outlets such as the Today Show, the Associated Press, USA Today, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox and Friends, the New York Times, NPR, HLN, Vice, Slate, The Hill, the Wall Street Journal, and others. Ryan has received praise from Democrats and Republicans alike for addressing addiction as a trans-political issue—crossing the political spectrum to build an inclusive coalition focused on solutions. He works closely with the White House, Senate Democrats, Republicans, U.S. House leadership, and state legislatures across the country. Notably, he helped craft binding provisions addressing substance use disorder in the historic SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, signed into federal law in October 2018. In 2016, he created the web series Addiction Across America, documenting his 30-day, 28-state, 8,000-mile cross-country trip visiting areas hit hardest by the addiction crisis. His first bestselling book, “American Fix — Inside the Opioid Addiction Crisis and How to End It,” was released by St. Martin's Press in August 2018. His second book, “Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis,” was released in September 2021 and chronicled his behind-the-scenes efforts representing tens of thousands of victims in the Purdue Pharma opioid settlement litigation. Ryan is currently working on his third book, scheduled to be released in 2024. In 2019, Ryan was named by Facebook as an inaugural community leadership fellow and created the national advocacy initiative, Mobilize Recovery. Since its inception, Mobilize Recovery has recruited and trained over 8,000 new advocates from all 50 states focused on community-based solutions to end the addiction and overdose crisis. In 2022, Mobilize Recovery traveled to 25 states, hosting 35 organizing and advocacy training events throughout September and October, distributing 10,000 doses of free naloxone and over 11,000 fentanyl test strips. Through the Overdose Response Initiative, a not-for-profit coalition Ryan helped to form in 2019, over 625,000 free doses of naloxone have been distributed in 21 states as of December 2022. The alliance comprises nearly 40 organizational stakeholders nationally, including Direct Relief International, the Clinton Foundation, and Mobilize Recovery. He lives in Nevada with his husband, Sean, and their boxer puppy, Quincy. The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform.   Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout!  Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art   

Paul Bledsoe, former Clinton White House climate advisor, joins Matt to discuss the 2024 election. He emphasizes how Vice President Kamala Harris can counter Donald Trump's attacks on clean energy and highlights the Biden-Harris administration's massive clean energy investments. Bledsoe discusses the economic impacts of climate change and the need for stronger methane regulations, framing climate as both an economic and public safety issue. You can find Paul on X @paulbledsoe and you can read his work on his website: https://paulbledsoe.com/ Want to help us reach our goal of planting 30k trees? Visit https://aclimatechange.com/trees/ to learn how. You can also find us on Apple, Spotify, or whenever you get podcasts.

Guy L. Smith, Harris for President Campaign Surrogate. He served as a Special Advisor to the President at the Clinton White House. He was a spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign in 2016 and also a spokesperson for the Biden for President Campaign in 2020. Smith is a longtime Democratic strategist. AN ELECTION WITH THE STARKEST OF CONTRASTS

Guy L. Smith, Harris for President Campaign Surrogate. He served as a Special Advisor to the President at the Clinton White House. He was a spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign in 2016 and also a spokesperson for the Biden for President Campaign in 2020. Smith is a longtime Democratic strategist. AN ELECTION WITH THE STARKEST OF CONTRASTS

Few people are more familiar with America's drug addiction crisis than Ryan Hampton. A former addict himself as well as the author of three books on the crisis, including the new Fentanyl Nation, the Las Vegas based Hampton is also running for the Nevada State Assembly in November. For Hampton, America's failed war on drugs and its toxic politics are part of the same “uniquely American” problem of what he described to me as “reckless capitalism”. That's why, he explains in Fentanyl Nation, 80% of the world's illegal opioid drugs end up in the United States. And it's why addressing America's drug crisis, Hampton argues in Fentanyl Nation, simultaneously requires confronting what he considers to be the toxic politics of the country's pharmaceutical and medical economy. A prominent advocate, speaker, author, and media commentator, Ryan Hampton travels coast-to-coast to add solutions to our national addiction and drug overdose crisis. In recovery from a decade-long opioid addiction, Hampton is regarded as a forefront expert and thought leader in America's rising addiction recovery advocacy & drug policy reform movements. An alumnus of the Clinton White House, he's worked with multiple non-profits and addiction recovery organizing campaigns. He's now a prominent, leading face and voice of recovery advocacy and is working to change the longstanding negative narratives about those impacted by addiction, recovery, and overdose. Through his books and media, organizing campaigns, and social content that reaches millions, Ryan breaks down cultural barriers that have kept people suffering in silence and is helping to inspire a new generation of advocates recovering out loud, pushing for common-sense policy. He was part of the core team that released the first-ever U.S. Surgeon General's report on alcohol, drugs, and health in 2016 and was singled out by Forbes the following year as a top social entrepreneur in the recovery movement. Ryan connects a vast network of people passionate about ending the overdose crisis in America. He has been featured by—and is a contributor to—media outlets such as the Today Show, the Associated Press, USA Today, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox and Friends, the New York Times, NPR, HLN, Vice, Slate, The Hill, the Wall Street Journal, and others.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Shownotes and Transcript⁨ In this episode of Hearts of Oak Podcast, we sit down with Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, as he delves into the inception and growth of his media empire, culminating in the announcement of Newsmax's upcoming IPO. Christopher shares his journey from covering the Clinton White House to founding Newsmax with a vision to counter the mainstream media's perceived bias. He discusses the challenges of maintaining a conservative voice in media, the surge in Newsmax's popularity during the 2020 election, and the strategic move towards an IPO. Listeners will gain insights into how they can invest in Newsmax's future, as Chris outlines the IPO process and its significance in broadening the platform's reach. This episode not only explores Newsmax's past and present but also looks forward to its role in shaping a more balanced media landscape. Invest in Newsmax  invest.newsmax.com Christopher Ruddy, is CEO of Newsmax Media, Inc., the parent company of NEWSMAX, America's fastest-growing cable news channel. He is a noted journalist and entrepreneur, is CEO and president of Newsmax Media Inc., one of the nation's leading news media companies.  In 1998, Ruddy founded Newsmax, a multimedia publishing company that publishes online and offline content in the fields of news, politics, health and finance. Newsmax.com ranks consistently as one of the country's most trafficked news Web sites. As a journalist, Ruddy previously worked at the New York Post and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. A Newsweek cover story named him as one of America's top 20 most influential news media personalities. He also studied as a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. Ruddy sits on the Board of Directors of the Financial Publishers Association, the industry organization representing investment publications that reach 25 million Americans monthly. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in history from St. John's University in New York and a master's in Public Policy from the London School of Economics. Connect with Christopher and Newsmax...

Jeffrey Epstein and his relationship with Bill Clinton has been something the public has known about for a long time. Yet there has never really been a push to air that relationship out fully.After it was revealed that Epstein had visited the White House more than 17 times, I think it's about time that the hard questions are asked of Bill Clinton.(Commercial at 24:09)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10235499/Epstein-Clinton.html

John is joined by veteran Democratic strategist and former Clinton White House political director Doug Sosnik, who helped guide his boss against the odds to a landslide reelection in 1996, to assess the state of this year's campaign on the eve of the Democratic convention. Having concluded a month ago that Joe Biden no longer had a viable path to victory, Sosnik discusses the top-to-bottom transformation of the race in the weeks since then, why Kamala Harris is (so far) winning the battle to define her public imagine, and wisdom of her efforts to reframe the race as being about the future—while Trump remains stuck in the past. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeffrey Epstein and his relationship with Bill Clinton has been something the public has known about for a long time. Yet there has never really been a push to air that relationship out fully.After it was revealed that Epstein had visited the White House more than 17 times, I think it's about time that the hard questions are asked of Bill Clinton.(Commercial at 24:27)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10235499/Epstein-Clinton.htmlBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

In this episode of Connected Philanthropy, we welcome Lynn Margherio, founder and CEO of Cradles to Crayons. Lynn shares her inspiring journey from business consulting to the Clinton White House, and eventually founding a nonprofit that provides essential items to children in need. We dive into topics such as leadership, volunteer engagement, and measuring the impact of nonprofit work. Lynn discusses the power of community in driving change. Lynn Margherio | Founder/CEO, Cradles to CrayonsJohnna is the CEO, head writer and consultant of J.M. Lacey Communications, LLC, which focuses on writing and brand storytelling, training and coaching. J.M. Lacey Communications empowers business owners to effectively communicate their purpose by teaching them how to find and tell their unique story to impact the world through a systematic process. Built on empathy and the desire to eliminate frustration for business owners, leaders and nonprofits, J.M. Lacey Communications seeks ways to simplify what has been unnecessarily complicated using proven systems to achieve results.Links:cradlestocrayons.orgWebinars: register hereSocial: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and InstagramWebsite: Foundant.com

In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, host Kyle Matthews interviews Sean Burton, CEO of City View. Sean discusses his journey from his humble beginnings and formative years in Santa Barbara to impactful roles in the Clinton White House, major law firms, and Warner Bros. He shares his transition to real estate, navigating the Great Financial Crisis, and spearheading City View's development projects across the Western U.S. Sean also highlights balancing his career with public service and family. Join this conversation about resilience, real estate market challenges, and impactful change.

For a full transcript of this episode, click here. This conversation I am having with Dan Mendelson, my guest today, all started with a post that he had written on LinkedIn considering how pharmacy benefits can or should be optimized within the broader context of value-based care. Total cost of care, value-based medical care, and pharmacy benefits—these worlds have to collide. There is just so much intertwined into all of this, which is why I pretty much immediately invited him to come back on the pod to discuss in greater detail. A few years ago, I heard a doctor say that practicing medicine without considering pharmacy is like getting to the 90 yard line, putting down the ball, and walking off the field. And, yeah … when a patient gets to a certain point in a whole lot of disease progressions, optimal medical therapy includes pharmacy. It's a thing. Adherence is a thing. In fact, I saw a stat the other day that patients not taking their meds costs an estimated $3874 PEPY (per employee per year). Also, half of all hospital admits are caused by nonadherence. Those two stats, by the way, are from a post on LinkedIn by Brian Bellware, who was recapping a video from Eric Bricker, MD. But also, as Barbara Wachsman (EP430) said on the show, half, I think she said, of all ER visits are due to patients not taking their meds right. Olivia Webb (EP337) was on the pod, if you want to go back and listen to that one, talking about how she spends hours every month trying to figure out how to navigate access issues to manage to get her Crohn's disease drug. So, yeah … one underlying reason why a lot of this stuff happens is that pharmacy benefits are purchased and siloed a lot of times. In fact, I have yet to see, really, any mainstream contract wherein a PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) is held accountable in any way for downstream medical costs, which may be incurred because of suboptimal pharmacy benefit design, right? And there are so many examples of bad downstream medical impacts. I really like how Mark Fendrick, MD, put it in episode 308. He said benefits, including pharmacy benefits, are like peanut butter and jelly relative to enabling high-quality care. You gotta have both working in concert, like CMS or a plan sponsor just paid a ton of money to get a patient an organ transplant, and then the patient can't afford their transplant meds, which aren't on formulary and are really expensive, and therefore there's organ rejection. This happens. Or a patient with uncontrolled diabetes with a huge co-pay for insulin. Doctor says, “Hey, you gotta take your insulin.” Patient says, “Can't afford it.” Right? This makes no sense, and it's shockingly common. I'm thinking right now of that young man who died in the Midwest because he could not get his asthma inhaler. It wasn't on formulary. So, here's the game plan. I talk with Dan about the five kind of vital considerations he had brought up in that aforementioned LinkedIn post when considering how pharmacy benefits can or should be optimized within the broader context of value-based care. Dan's advice for the pharma industry is woven in here as much as his advice for EBCs (employee benefit consultants) and employers. I am sure that most of our listeners are going to be very familiar with Dan Mendelson, my guest today, and his work; but the quick background here is that he runs Morgan Health. The mission over there at Morgan Health is to drive innovation in employer-sponsored healthcare, and they do that by investing and working with their portfolio companies in the context of the 300,000 or so employees over at JPMorgan Chase. At the same time, Morgan Health also engages in policy discussions because, as Dan says, no one employer is going to control public policy. As a footnote here, I just will say that I actively seek out opportunities to listen to Dan Mendelson's thoughts. He has spoken a lot and really eloquently and with great insight about setting up the economic models for healthcare, not sick care. Recently, actually, he was on a panel at the Milken conference along with Natalie Davis; Yele Aluko, MD, MBA; and Henry Ting, MD. There are definitely insights to be gleaned. Also mentioned in this episode are Brian Bellware, CIC, CHVP; Eric Bricker, MD; Barbara Wachsman; Olivia Webb; Mark Fendrick, MD; Natalie Davis; Yele Aluko, MD, MBA, FACC, FSCAI; Henry Ting, MD; Ashok Subramanian; Rik Renard; Nina Lathia, RPh, MSc, PhD; Don Berwick, MD; Kenny Cole, MD; Steve Pearson, MD, MSc; Sarah Emond; Alex Sommers, MD, ABEM, DipABLM; and Jodilyn Owen. You can learn more at the Morgan Health Web site and follow Dan on LinkedIn.   Dan Mendelson is the chief executive officer of Morgan Health at JPMorgan Chase & Co. He oversees a business unit at JPMorgan Chase focused on accelerating the delivery of new care models that improve the quality, equity, and affordability of employer-sponsored healthcare. Mendelson was previously founder and CEO of Avalere Health, a healthcare advisory company based in Washington, DC. He also served as operating partner at Welsh Carson, a private equity firm. Before founding Avalere, Mendelson served as associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton White House. Mendelson currently serves on the boards of Vera Whole Health and Champions Oncology (CSBR). He is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. He previously served on the boards of Coventry Healthcare, HMS Holdings, Pharmerica, Partners in Primary Care, Centrexion, and Audacious Inquiry. Mendelson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.   04:50 How do we connect the dots between value-based care and pharmacy benefits? 07:43 Where do things need to go for employers in terms of drug spend integration? 08:42 How do we think about having a value-based component in the decision-making process? 09:44 How do we enable the necessary information to make proper decisions? 10:56 EP206 with Ashok Subramanian. 11:21 “Many payviders just haven't gotten to pharmacy yet; they need to.” 14:14 Why do pharmaceutical companies need to be prepared to contract on the basis of value? 16:46 EP426 with Nina Lathia, RPh, MSc, PhD. 17:36 EP431 with Kenny Cole, MD. 18:07 Why is it important to “let the market work”? 21:04 Why do we have cost sharing, and when does it not make sense to have that as a co-pay? 23:59 Why are evidence requirements good for everyone? 28:45 Why is pooling of risk important? 29:49 How do you pool risk without going to an insurance company? 32:03 What is Dan's advice to hospitals? 33:30 “In a value-based world, buy and bill does not make sense.” 33:36 What is Dan's advice to primary care doctors? 33:54 What is Dan's advice to entrepreneurs and innovators?   You can learn more at the Morgan Health Web site and follow Dan on LinkedIn.   @dnmendelson discusses #pharmacybenefits on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcareleadership #healthcaretransformation #healthcareinnovation   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Dr Benjamin Schwartz, Justin Leader, Dr Scott Conard (Encore! EP391), Jerry Durham (Encore! EP297), Kate Wolin, Dr Kenny Cole, Barbara Wachsman, Luke Slindee, Julie Selesnick, Rik Renard

Jeffrey Epstein and his relationship with Bill Clinton has been something the public has known about for a long time. Yet there has never really been a push to air that relationship out fully.After it was revealed that Epstein had visited the White House more than 17 times, I think it's about time that the hard questions are asked of Bill Clinton.(Commercial at 35:43)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10235499/Epstein-Clinton.html

From November 10, 2018: With the firing of Jeff Sessions and his replacement with former U.S. attorney Matthew Whitaker, all eyes this week are focused on whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians will get to run its full course. But even before the Sessions firing, Benjamin Wittes and Paul Rosenzweig had inquiries into the presidency on their minds. On Tuesday morning, they sat down to discuss Paul's recent 12-part lecture series on presidential investigations released through the online educational platform The Great Courses.They talked about how Paul structured the lecture series, Paul's own experience on Independent Counsel Ken Starr's team investigating the Clinton White House, and the course's relevance to the Mueller investigation.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thing about DNA Surprises is that they can happen to anyone. It doesn't matter your race, socioeconomic status, politics, or background. In this week's episode, my guest, author Robin Schepper, shares her DNA surprise story.For more than thirty years, Robin served at the highest levels of American politics and government. including on four presidential campaigns, in the Clinton White House, and as the first Executive Director of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Initiative.  She also grew up not knowing who her father was and spent decades trying to find him. In this episode, Robin discusses how she felt different growing up without a father and how she was finally unable to uncover his true identity. She also shares why she decided to write a memoir about her experiences. She also shares a beautiful poem that speaks to the “what ifs” that so many of us contemplate. Robin's memoir, titled Finding My Way: A Memoir of Family, Identity, and Political Ambition, and website are linked in the show notes, so be sure to check them out. Buy her book: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-My-Way-Identity-Political/dp/195485496XVisit her website: https://robinfschepperauthor.com/Thank you for sharing your story, Robin.Support the showRegistration is now open for the 2nd Annual DNA Surprise Retreat. Join us from September 19-22 in beautiful Phoenix, AZ. Learn more at www.dnasurpriseretreat.com!Join the DNA Surprises Patreon community! IG: @dnasurprisesTwitter: @dnasurprisesTikTok: @dnasurprisesWebsite: www.dnasurprisespodcast.comDNA Surprise Retreat | A bridge to healing for NPEs, adoptees, and DCPs after a DNA discovery.

John Corcoran is a recovering attorney, an author, and a former White House writer and speechwriter to the Governor of California. Throughout his career, John has worked in Hollywood, the heart of Silicon Valley, and ran his own boutique law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area catering to small business owners and entrepreneurs. John has been the host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast since 2012 where he has interviewed hundreds of CEOs, founders, authors, and entrepreneurs, from Peter Diamandis and Adam Grant to Gary Vaynerchuk and Marie Forleo. John is also the Co-founder of Rise25, a company that connects B2B businesses with their ideal clients, referral partners, and strategic partners. They help their clients generate ROI through their done-for-you podcast service. In this episode… Podcasting has emerged as a powerful tool for entrepreneurs to foster relationships, showcase their expertise, and attract clients. However, producing a quality podcast requires specific skills and abilities.  John Corcoran, a former White House writer, discovered his passion for networking and building meaningful relationships during his tenure. Recognizing the benefits of podcasting, he shifted his focus to this platform. However, the process of producing a podcast presented its own set of challenges. From production to editing, the task was overwhelming for him as an entrepreneur with many responsibilities. He shares his journey of overcoming the challenges associated with podcasting to establish meaningful conversations and connections with his guests.  On this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with John Corcoran, Co-founder of Rise25, as he shares his podcasting journey. John shares his professional background in the Clinton White House, his transition from writing to podcasting, the value of being authentic in a podcast, and how he stayed motivated as a podcaster.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have a relationship with Epstein that goes back to at least 1993. In this episode we talk about the pictures showing Epstein and Maxwell at the White House for a visit while Bill was president.(Commercial at 15:59)To contact me:Bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9509147/Bill-Clinton-grins-Jeffrey-Epstein-Ghislaine-Maxwell-VIP-White-House-tour-1993.htmlThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5080327/advertisement

In this episode we explore the many, many trips that Jeffrey Epstein took to the White House to visit then President Bill Clinton and according to a new report, he wasn't alone bringing up to 8 female companions with him on these trips. Not only that, but during the time that Epstein and Maxwell were most active visiting the white house, they were also actively running a trafficking operation according to Maxwell's conviction. The question now becomes...will the legacy media care?(Commercial at 20:25)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comSource:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10394863/Jeffrey-Epstein-brought-eight-women-Clinton-White-House.htmlThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5080327/advertisement

The 'Little Magician', the 'Sly Fox' or - to our expert guest - a 6.5/10 president. We're onto President number 8, Martin Van Buren.Don is joined by Edward Widmer - historian, writer, librarian, and musician who served as a speechwriter in the Clinton White House. One of Ted's many books is a biography of Martin Van Buren, published by Times Books in 2005.From success in the creation of a modern democratic party, to economic depression, war against Canada and more; in this episode you'll hear about the highs and lows of Van Buren's one term presidency.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.Get 50% off your first 3 months with code AMERICANHISTORY. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribeYou can take part in our listener survey here.

Today Chad is joined by Buzz Patterson, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and best-selling author, to get his take on some of the week's top stories and his thoughts on the current state of the country. Detailing some of his early work in the Clinton White House, Buzz discusses what it was like carrying the nuclear football and shares some insight into Bill and Hillary Clinton. Chad and Buzz talk about the White House cocaine-gate scandal, and he gives his opinion of who the baggie belonged to. Hint: it was Hunter's. Buzz talks about the danger of America potentially sending missile systems to Ukraine and assesses the seemingly active attempt to destroy the nation by the Biden administration. As a former Air Force vet, Buzz breaks down the missing F-35 story and explains what likely happened. Was the plane actually hacked by an outside entity? Buzz explains why that would be a major problem for American security. Speaking of the American empire, Buzz and Chad talk about what can be done to save the country. Buzz's answer may surprise you. Today's Sponsors: Relief Factor IT'S NOT A DRUG – IT'S SOMETHING DEVELOPED BY DOCTORS THAT REDUCES INFLAMMATION IN YOUR BODY. 70% OF THE PEOPLE WHO TAKE IT KEEP ORDERING IT – BECAUSE IT WORKS! IF YOU'RE LIVING WITH PAIN, PLEASE, TRY THE 3-WEEK QUICK START. IT'S ONLY $19.95, AND IT'S A TRIAL PACK. GO TO https://www.RELIEFFACTOR.COM OR CALL 800-4-RELIEF! PureHealth Listeners of my show can take advantage of their special offer. Try Liver Health Formula and get a FREE bottle of Omega-3 to keep your heart healthy. Join their happy customer list by visiting https://www.GetLiverHelp.com/Chad and claim your FREE bonus gift. Masterworks Masterworks' 15th exit - a Cecily Brown piece - was sold just a couple weeks ago for an annualized net return of 77.3%! Now, my audience can get special access to skip the wait list. Just go to: https://www.masterworks.art/chadprathershow And see important disclosures at masterworks.com/cd Fast Growing Trees Listeners to our show get FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF your entire order when you go to https://www.FastGrowingTrees.com/CHAD, but only through OCTOBER 15TH. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mea Culpa welcomes one of the most recognized journalists in the country, Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin is the chief legal analyst for CNN Worldwide and a staff writer for the New Yorker. Before joining CNN, he worked for six years as a legal analyst for ABC News. He has written articles on and provided legal analysis for several significant cases including the O. J. Simpson murder case, the Kenneth Starr investigation of the Clinton White House, and the trials of Michael Jackson and George Zimmerman. As an author, he has written a number of best-selling books including, The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, and The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court. His book, The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, inspired the television series, The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. The series went on to bag nine Emmy awards. Michael and Jeffrey dig into the homegrown terrorism, Fox News, and Biden's age.