Have you ever witnessed a unifying force powerful enough to bring together diverse religious sects, especially in times of crisis? Dan Stinson joins us to share a heartwarming tale of collective efforts during the Afghanistan evacuation, a story that acts as a beautiful testament to the unity found in our shared humanity. As founder of the One God Foundation, Dan's insights on faith, the universal concept of God, and honoring the legacies of military comrades are just the tip of the iceberg in this deeply moving conversation.
Veteran issues often lurk beneath the surface, unaddressed and overshadowed. This episode brings them into the light, as we confront the harsh realities facing many who've served. From mental health struggles and the promise of alternative treatments like ketamine and psilocybin to the navigation of the bureaucratic VA healthcare system, we hold nothing back. And as we peel back the layers of leadership and division in our current political landscape, our frustration is palpable. We demand accountability and true representation, because those who've sworn to protect our nation deserve no less.
Wrapping things up, we turn to the personal side of advocacy and remembrance. Hear the poignant stories behind customized dog tags memorializing fallen veterans, and how these tokens stir memories far more personal than military records. We also touch on the critical fight against human trafficking, a demanding cause that deserves unwavering attention. And if you think it's all solemn talks, wait until you hear about the hot sauce challenge that left a fiery impression.
Have you ever witnessed a unifying force powerful enough to bring together diverse religious sects, especially in times of crisis? Dan Stinson joins us to share a heartwarming tale of collective efforts during the Afghanistan evacuation, a story that acts as a beautiful testament to the unity found in our shared humanity. As founder of the One God Foundation, Dan's insights on faith, the universal concept of God, and honoring the legacies of military comrades are just the tip of the iceberg in this deeply moving conversation.
Veteran issues often lurk beneath the surface, unaddressed and overshadowed. This episode brings them into the light, as we confront the harsh realities facing many who've served. From mental health struggles and the promise of alternative treatments like ketamine and psilocybin to the navigation of the bureaucratic VA healthcare system, we hold nothing back. And as we peel back the layers of leadership and division in our current political landscape, our frustration is palpable. We demand accountability and true representation, because those who've sworn to protect our nation deserve no less.
Wrapping things up, we turn to the personal side of advocacy and remembrance. Hear the poignant stories behind customized dog tags memorializing fallen veterans, and how these tokens stir memories far more personal than military records. We also touch on the critical fight against human trafficking, a demanding cause that deserves unwavering attention. And if you think it's all solemn talks, wait until you hear about the hot sauce challenge that left a fiery impression.
All right, we're back, not the press Repeat offender today, mr Dan Stenson. He is a brother, a friend, someone that I dearly respect, a lot, and we're going to be talking about some of his nonprofit stuff and from there let's just go with that. Dan, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing outstanding. Thank you for having me here. It's really great to be here. I was wondering when you're going to ask me to come back.
Speaker 1:I'm glad to have you here. I do have to. I forget this every time. Also joining us is our Manx. Manx, will you please say hello. I need a number 10. Hello.
Speaker 2:Okay, I like that.
Speaker 1:That was. That was a 9.5. You're almost there. We're almost at the 10 status. So, anyways, dan, thank you for coming. Dude, it's always a pleasure to have you here and I want you to be a repeat offender all the time, because you've got great stories and you're a good human being, and that's what we like. So, and you're a good human being and that's what we like. So, with that said, you have a nonprofit that you have started and then one that you are planning to start, and I'd like to talk to you about this. And just let you run with it, man. Just let you go with what it is you're doing and your plans for the future with the next one.
Speaker 2:All right, I'll throw it out there right now. This is an unabashed and unashamed plug for the future with the next one. All right, I'll throw it out there right now. This is an unabashed and unashamed plug for the nonprofit, because that's what nonprofits are about. Right, it started actually. I was raised a Roman Catholic and I lost that for a while and I became a Baptist and I went back to Roman Catholicism and what I'm really about is not necessarily organized religion. I'm more about the whole concept of God and about peace. And in my life, as you have and many of us have, I've been a not good person and I've hurt a lot of people in my life.
Speaker 1:Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say? I've always been a good person and I've hurt a lot of people in my life. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say? I've always been a good person. I'm just joking. No, I'm not a good person. No, I have done some bad things.
Speaker 2:We have and maybe we did good things that we thought were good things in the name of good, but they were actually bad things for other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's kind of irrelevant. And then the way I look at it is if I do something, that is good, um, because I'm doing it. That's just the way it is. Uh, anywho, after a huge moving event and a god event and that was the evacuation of afghanistan in 2021, I realized that there were Jewish organizations, rabbis in New York donating $1.5 million to me to evacuate Muslims out of Afghanistan into a Muslim nation through a Christian nonprofit. Yeah, and I'm like, seriously, and so all of that, and the crown prince of the UAE was letting me allow. So all of that, and the crown prince of the UAE was letting me allow. He was allowing the Christians to have Christian services in the camp in Abu Dhabi and he was allowing Christmas to be celebrated, right. So it's like there's only one God. Truly, is one God right? And if people say they're atheists or they don't believe in God for whatever reason, cool, rock on man.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, you can believe in a rock, you can believe in nothing, you can believe in a light bulb I don't give a flying rat fuck but if you look at the beauty of the world, you look at the beauty of the human body, you look at the beauty of birth, there is a God, yeah, but there's one God In my mind. There's one God. So we started a nonprofit and the nonprofit is called One God Foundation and if you look it up online, it's the number one godfoundationorg, because some other asshole took the whole one, God Wait no.
Speaker 2:It's one, the number one, uh-huh one, god. Wait, no, it's one, the number one, uh-huh, god, god Foundation.
Speaker 1:Foundationorg org. Okay, you know, when I publish this I will make sure that that is scrolling across the bottom, because I'm high speed like that. Cool, it's going to be amazing. I might even have like fireworks and shit like boom. That'd be pretty badass. I don't know if I can do that, but I'll try.
Speaker 2:So when we started I took the Celtic symbol. It's right up there there it is and we put the O in the middle for one for the one. God, Okay, you put the O in the middle for one for the one.
Speaker 1:God.
Speaker 2:Okay, serendipitously, I met a Marine, another combat veteran, and him and his entire unit had that logo, that Irish Celtic thing, tattooed on their body and he's the only one left from his Marine unit. Wow, they either died in combat or took their own lives. That's heavy man, yeah, and he was actually out here visiting and we went down to Arlington and saw one of his brothers and I saw Lex, my dad.
Speaker 1:So you know you just, you just reminded me of something that we have been doing every year and we did not do it this year, and I'm really disappointed in myself is for Lex. We had every year we honor him by doing the Lex challenge and by doing his workout, and we did not do it this year, and I'm really pissed off. What's up with Sean, is he okay?
Speaker 2:What's that, sean? Sean, yeah, he's fine, I should not even ask him this what's that, sean?
Speaker 1:Sean, yeah, he's fine. I should not even ask him this. No, he's fine. Uh, you know, we're actually going up to his. Uh, what is the crawfish thing on the 12th? Yeah, he's fine. He's traveling all over the place and yeah, but, but, uh, no one got together this year and it's just like, oh, this is how it happens, so next year we cannot let it happen like this. That thing that we started where we do Lex's workout on the memorial and on his birthday. We have to do it, we have to do it and I cannot. I'm really disappointed in myself for not sticking to that and I don't know why it slipped my mind this year. I just don't know why Life goes on. She's happy. Minx, I'm going to need you to kick me in the balls repeatedly later, but softly not hard.
Speaker 2:She smiled. She's like I'm all about that.
Speaker 1:Just little taps, little taps, no hard kicks. But don't make it like nice, Make it a little painful. I got to pay for this, Okay.
Speaker 2:And you enjoy it. So, anyway. So we started in one God foundation and if you look at it, it's the Celtic symbol, right? It's part of the Trinity. Not even thinking about it. I'm like there's three legs to this, like a three-legged stool, like a milking stool, right. Three legs, and the first leg is helping the oppressed around the world. It goes back to Afghanistan. It goes back to the Christians in Nigeria who were being slaughtered by ISIS. It goes to we did help some people in the Ukraine. We helped some people in Gaza. I'm helping some people now in Haiti, some missionaries Wherever people are oppressed around the world, even if it's here in America, even though there's so many freaking organizations that help people in America, we'll still step in where we have to step in. So that's the first leg. The second one is veterans and helping veterans in whatever they need, and that's such a you know everybody's like wave the flag, I'll help veterans, and shit like that. There's nothing more I can do that other groups aren't doing, except for this. I experienced IV ketamine therapy.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was going to ask you about this. Yes, so I'm going to have more questions after this little part of this segment. All right, but yes.
Speaker 2:So I'll wait for you to rock on on that shit. But so that's one of them is my ability or the ability of the foundation to sponsor a veteran, to go to get this treatment, to help them, and I can elaborate on that. And then the third aspect of it is anti-human trafficking. During the evacuation of Afghanistan, I found that many US non-governmental organizations, nonprofits, were actually trafficking minor children. Whether they knew it or not, they were doing it and they had the biggest hearts in the world. Some of them like, oh, I'm helping these poor children, but they didn't realize they were actually trafficking these children because they're stupid. I mean, they got great hearts and all, but they just didn't get it. Dan.
Speaker 1:I have slowly been doing accumulating research on this. I have slowly been doing accumulating research on this. I don't have any of it prepared right now, but I am going to have probably like a five part, five different episodes on this, with the human trafficking and child trafficking in the United States. Trafficking in the United States, because it's something that everybody is turning a. No one is giving a rat's fuck about it and it's happening right in front of us. Yeah, and it's.
Speaker 1:It is so disappointing when we've got our leaders no, they're not leaders, they're just politicians, they're not even leaders Getting money to save children in other countries. But yet we've got how many tens of thousands of kids that go missing in our own country and they, they just get swiped past and it just really pisses me off and it's like you know what motherfuckers? How about caring for the kids that are in our country? You haven't done a damn thing and I'll bet, I'll bet the money that's been put towards that in our own country, compared to the money that's been put towards other countries, is very, very small in comparison.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and that fucking pisses me off to digress off of that really quick and go back to what you're saying. Sorry, the Pentagon just found $300 million to send to the Ukraine. They found $300 million.
Speaker 1:Nobody knows where the fuck that's going, so $300 million.
Speaker 2:We found that $300 million to go to buy weapons for the Ukraine. How about $300 million to get better housing for veterans? Oh, excuse me, better housing for military members. $300 million to help with child care for military members. $300 million to help deployments or our equipment to go on out and fight.
Speaker 1:Or how about even though I am not big on people that give excuses and that give up on life, that are homeless, but you know what? How about, instead of shoveling money to Ukraine, don't shovel money into a bullshit program here either but find a solution with that money to get our own homeless off the streets and get them recovered Somehow, some way, some form.
Speaker 2:I got one of those. Actually it's part of our non-profit. So we have a small what do you call it homestead? My wife likes to call it a farm. I call it a homestead because that's what it is, because I started when I moved up from Texas up to Virginia to facilitate a customer up here. I had a contract with my company and I just don't like people, so I wasn't going to live east of Haymarket, so I found a place west of Haymarket, north of Virginia. Why Explain this? Why I don't like people?
Speaker 1:No, no, the east and west line. I need to know this because you're not the first person I've heard this from Starfare Gap.
Speaker 2:But why Well? You start losing trees, you start getting more townhomes, you start getting more hoes. So when you get Karen andad telling you how to live your life and you can't put an american flag up or you know, stand there in your robe with your combat boots, smoking a cigar, pissing off your porch.
Speaker 1:I know I can't even walk around my house naked without people complaining. This is bullshit. But that's you, manx. Do you complain to the hoa about me walking around naked?
Speaker 2:I saw it on her LinkedIn channel or Instagram.
Speaker 1:But no, you're right. No, I see where you're going and the reason why I bring that up is somebody we know. I cannot say exactly how we know this person, but they're involved with our family somehow. And she told us she's like look, I am so-and-so, thank you. I just threw my other fake pen. I got one more. I got these little boogie boards all over the place. Man, these things are awesome Because it erases the evidence.
Speaker 2:Erase boom, I was write myself porn.
Speaker 1:yeah, so you can draw cock and balls on there, all you want. All I'm gonna do is hit that button and it's like bam you thought you had me, but you don't, so hot down anyways, um, this woman was like.
Speaker 1:She's like, I was born and raised in loudon county and then she looked at us and she was like Western Loudoun County, I'm not one of these Eastern people and that's when I knew I was like you're my people, you're my people, I know what you're saying. I know exactly what you're saying and we were right. We were right, she's good people. But anyways, yeah, there's definitely a thing, because when you have civilization and housing coming up, there's greed and there's a bunch of assholes around here. There's a shit ton of assholes and all they want to do is just take money from people, take advantage of people and don't get me wrong, there are some very good people around here too, but the vast majority on this side of our county can't say I want to hang out with them. Some of them are just not my hanging out type.
Speaker 2:Even rural Northern Virginia, falkier County, which is where I am, lord Falkier. Falkier County, which was the most difficult thing when I first moved up here for Texas and I went to the DMV and they're like what county do you live in? And I couldn't say it to the lady.
Speaker 2:Fuck you Fuck, fuck you, county. And I'm like I did not know how to say it. I just stood there. I'm like F F Q. She's like what. I'm like ma'am, and I spelled it, I wrote it on. It'd be like cussing at her and she laughed.
Speaker 1:Whenever I hear Falkier County, I think of that movie Shrek, shrek, yeah, because there's Lord.
Speaker 2:Falkier the little guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lord Falkier. Yeah, but he was a little prick too Both of them.
Speaker 2:So when I came up from Texas and I drove up 81 and I came this way on 66, I was just looking and I saw it's so beautiful there, right Trees and shit like that, and I'm like, oh, this is really awesome. And at the time it was 2007. I had just left Helmand Province after a year in Helmand and working with the Gurkhas and the Brits and stuff like that. So it was a very the Gurkhas are little badasses. They were amazing. They were some of the best combatants I've ever fought with.
Speaker 1:Have you ever watched? Not to get off topic here, but there was this. I can't remember the name of this dude, but he's a. He's a Gurkha, and then he went SAS and then he did. He's one of the guys, I think, that summited all seven of the highest peaks on earth. I could be, I might be. I might be mixing my stories up People don't judge me. I've had a lot of tequila but there's a guy though makes I need a, I need a fact checker here. There's this dude who was a. I believe he's from India or Pakistan, probably.
Speaker 1:India gonna be India? Yeah, india, he went. He was one of the first ones to actually go into SAS as a Gurkha, and then he did a documentary about climbing mountains. I don't know if he's one of the guys that summited all seven of them, but can you look this guy up, because he's a little badass man. He's a bad motherfucker All the badasses they are. I remember talking to some. They had that knife, the little Gurkha knife. Yeah, kukri, yeah, I saw some guys get presented with one and I was extremely jealous. I was like they didn't like me and I didn't get one. But they only present it to people that they know I got it. Someday I'll have a gherkin knife, but those dudes are little badasses, man. They are. They are badasses. And did you find the dude I'm talking about?
Speaker 2:There was one Gurkha.
Speaker 1:He's from Nepal.
Speaker 2:Nepal, yeah.
Speaker 1:He's from Nepal, yeah.
Speaker 2:There was one Gurkha, a legendary man, and he fought and then whipped out his kukri and like, slaughtered like 100 and something. Taliban, wow, some crap like that. They're warriors, man. They're amazing guys. They're warriors, truly, are amazing men. Yeah, so in Helmand Province, at Camp Bastion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, wait, wait, wait, minx, you got to get on the microphone your mile per job Get your sexy voice on that microphone, minx, come on, it swings over to you. Nermal Purja, nermal. No idea if I pronounce it right, is it Nermal?
Speaker 2:Oh, he's SBS.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's him, that's the guy. Yeah, yeah, no, no, there's a Netflix documentary on this guy. He's a bad motherfucker man Four Peaks, but he has, like he's, significant 2003.
Speaker 2:Sbs in 2009. Minx is scrolling way too fucking fast for me.
Speaker 1:Minx is a reader. She reads faster than most people.
Speaker 2:The first Gurkha to join the British unit the. Sbs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, yeah, you got to watch the documentary on him. Man, I feel like this is a dude that I'd like to go drink with, but definitely would not want to drink with me, because he'd be like oh my God, you're a fucking soap scum on my shower shoe.
Speaker 2:No, they're the most humble, awesome guys I've ever met. They're really, really awesome. Men, what were those?
Speaker 1:dudes in um in iraq, the guys that were like jumbo the jumbo guys, there's lord farquhar, yeah, lord farquhar. No, remember the guys at the gates um, I, I. They're not gurkhas, maybe they were, but they were. They were from africa and jumbo the jumbo guys. You say jumbo to them. Uh, they were from uh n.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe Somalia I mean Jumbo is said in Somalia and all across Kenya, but they were the guys that are gates in Iraq forever, the Jumbo guys. They're always like Jumbo and in the back of my head I'm hearing the happy African music and Jumbo Racist, like that.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'm hearing the happy African music and I go oh, racist like that. No, no, that's not racist, come on, I was in Iraq for the invasion, before the invasion and the invasion, and I was done. I went back to Afghanistan. Oh, and for the record, I believe that Iraq was a waste of resources and time and we never should have been there.
Speaker 1:Well, and I could say the same, I agree, I could say the same thing for Afghanistan in hindsight.
Speaker 2:Now, afghanistan could have been solved quickly.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, it could have it didn't.
Speaker 2:And when we got our jackpot, we should have been done. We should have Like we're out of here, we're have been done. We should have Like we're out of here, we're done.
Speaker 1:No, we should have. We fucked the goat. We fucked the goat on both of them. And you know what?
Speaker 1:One of the things I'll say about the comparison for me between Iraq and Afghanistan and I'll never forget telling the minks this, because I was used to, you know, being in smelly shitholes in Iraq for a long time Every place smelled like shit. It just did Big city, small city, village, whatever it smelled like shit. I go to northern Afghanistan and I remember going through a city it was Kunduz and I remember driving Like I'm in the back of this DMG and I'm smelling bread. I'm like, wait a minute, it smells good here. I smell bread. It doesn't smell like shit, oh my God. And then the other.
Speaker 1:So, granted, later in life in Afghanistan, I slowly figured out that there was shit everywhere in Afghanistan. However, the thing that was the difference that I noticed, even with the fighters, um, the pride in Afghanistan was much different than the pride in Iraq, definitely, and everything they did, everything the Afghans did, the pride was different, and that's something I admire and respect. Don't get me wrong. Iraq, there's tons of great things, but that was definitely something that I noticed between the two and spending a lot of time in both places and, honestly, I never visited a beautiful place in Iraq Not once, and I was everywhere. Beautiful place in Iraq? Not once, and I was everywhere. Um, and Afghanistan. I visited hundreds of places that were absolutely beautiful. Yeah, mountains, rivers, even the deserts. There's some beauty there. Yeah, um, it was just war torn. So, uh, I mean, I mean, I wish someday that, uh, the american public would be able to go and visit there in a safe environment to really see the beauty and the history of afghanistan I want to go back I do too, man.
Speaker 2:Like my big goal, like my dream is to go back to afghanistan it's just so like it's amazing.
Speaker 1:There I I feel like other than you know, roadside bombs and shit, you know whatever okay I'll pass on that shit but?
Speaker 1:but what I'm saying is like, uh, the countryside, or you're up in the mountains and it's so serene even in the winter the snow top mountains. Or if you're in the, the middle of the desert somewhere down in southern afghanistan, there's beauty there too. They work with the correct crevasses and, um, the caves, and it's just amazing to me, man, the fact that there's some old motherfucker in the middle of the desert that can grow roses all year around. I love my rose gardens yes, yeah and the afghans are great at agriculture.
Speaker 1:Man, there was this old guy we had in our little place. We stayed um in the middle of the desert and we had a rose garden and his job was to keep the like. All he did, his passion, was to keep those roses alive and keep them beautiful, and that's what he lived for. And Afghans, that's how they are. They take their pride in whatever it is they do. They do it the best they can. That's their job.
Speaker 2:I love it so 2002, afghanistan, I was working, was a contractor for a department of defense. My boss was a special forces colonel, uh, that I known back in bosnia. He's a vietnam veteran. They called him, uh, blade in vietnam sf group right because he played through knives. Yeah, whatever, he's fucking silly. He was a Vietnam veteran. They called him Blade in Vietnam SF group right Blade Because he could throw knives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whatever, he was fucking silly. He was a vampire slayer, wasn't he?
Speaker 2:He'd be throwing knives everywhere. He had like three Silver Stars, Distinguished Service Cross, blah, blah blah. He actually had the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Sinai Desert. Great guy, His name was.
Speaker 1:Bob, how did he get the Nobel Peace Prize? His name was Blade.
Speaker 2:Part of the UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sinai. All the commanders there got the Nobel Peace Prize. Wow, so he had the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 1:You know before you continue. This is just a thought. So you know how. When a Marine or someone in the Army maybe anybody in the military they get their retirement medal Right when they're retiring, it's a medal for their complete service, right? It shouldn't be a medal for the last six months, it should be a medal for the last 30 years. This is what you deserve, this medal. I look at the Nobel Peace Prize as that and I feel like if you're slaughtering people and your name's Blade, you probably shouldn't have a Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2:I don't know was a. He was a really amazing man and that's why he's with group, that's why he was sf right great guy.
Speaker 1:For the record, I'm not saying he's amazing, I'm not amazing. I'm just saying no.
Speaker 2:Peace prize maybe not, I don't know he was uh of stature, kind of small and thin, non-assuming, if you will, in in the way that you know you and I are both was he was he borderline midget, negative ghost rider uh. But he wasn't like one of us meat-eating, freaking jarheads, right? Great guy, great guy uh. Bob's past. He actually got a lung cancer. He never smoked a cigarette in his entire life. It's from agent orange.
Speaker 1:He passed Uh how many people do you think that we know? I'm sorry to keep interrupting, no, no, um, but I've had multiple glasses of tequila and I apologize. Um, how many people do you know that we'll see in our lifetime? Because you mentioned Agent Orange, yeah, none of us have been affected by anything that we had ingested or inhaled, whether it's Afghanistan or Iraq. When do you think we're going to start seeing that?
Speaker 2:Oh, I see it now, One of my employees I just hired. He's a Marine Ready Reconnaissance Marine. Actually, he came on board. We hired him like seven years ago. What's his name?
Speaker 1:Joe, joe, tell me his name. Actually, write his last name. I'll write his name because, yeah, they'll say it on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I know that guy. Yes, I do. All right, cool. So, yeah, he comes on board. He's on board like within a month and he calls me, he goes boss. I gotta talk to you like, yeah, bro, what's up, he goes. I have cancer, he had a lymph.
Speaker 1:Lymph node thing. Yeah, yeah, whatever it was.
Speaker 2:And it came from this whole shit that he was involved in. Here's my old. This is how we run our company, because I'm a veteran, I have a. You know, profit isn't the biggest thing for me. It's us right. So I turn to my wife. I'm like, hey, you know this guy. You know we just hired my boy. He told me he's been diagnosed with cancer. So can you please get in touch with our insurance company? She goes okay, what do you want me to do? I'm like whatever the fuck we have to do to make sure that he's covered, no matter what, his family's covered, no matter what. And I'm not like saying it like I'm a big dick or and I'm a great and all, but it was like I felt responsible for this. So here's. So you're asking, you're not responsible.
Speaker 1:No, no, he's our brother. Yeah, no, but what I'm saying is is yeah, no, but what I'm saying is, the assholes that are at the top are responsible for all this bullshit.
Speaker 2:Check, roger that, motherfuckers, he's our brother.
Speaker 2:Yes, we got to take care of him and if I hire him, if he works for me, then I'm responsible. He's my family. So we changed our entire medical coverage to hook him up and his family, which was great. I don't want to accolades that, it's just that's what you've got to do to help people. So to go back to your question, how many of our guys now are going to start popping up? I think a lot of them, and it's really going to happen quickly, I think so too, it's going to be covered up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be hidden under other stuff. So think so too I'm a little. It's going to be covered up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be hidden under other stuff.
Speaker 1:So check this out. We had which I need to link you up with these people. So recently we had Jordan Reed and Brant McCartney on the podcast and Jordan Reed's an NFL player, former NFL player, brant McCartney his brother committed suicide, naval Academy grad. A lot of different things going on, but they started a thing it's called the 38 Challenge and basically it's a workout. You just incorporate the number 38. The whole purpose is to bring awareness to mental I don't want to say mental illness. It could be PTS, it could be CTE, it could be the number of the things with veterans and specifically NFL players. Before the podcast I was looking at, I was trying to find statistics for suicides with veterans after the Afghan withdrawal and I'm going to tell you, to this date I have not found such statistics Really, and it's because they're not In this day and age, in this political climate, we're not going to find them.
Speaker 2:Well, how could, if I may, how could you record and say it's relative, post the Afghan?
Speaker 1:Well in my mind why I think it's got to be higher, why I think it's got to be higher some moral injury well, yes, yeah, because how many dudes and and so how many? How many men and women that have served um dudes and dudettes, dudes, and so how many men and women that have served Dudes and dudettes, dudes and not dudes and minks? Anyways, she just gave me the bad look, damn it, because dudes and not dudes is sexual, but dude just do that.
Speaker 1:But what I'm saying is like, after the Afghan withdrawal and how that went down, how many veterans are out there thinking you know what? What I sacrificed, what I watched my friend sacrifice, was for absolutely nothing. Boom, and that has to be true. I don't see how that cannot be true, because I think about this, okay, and most people that have served in Afghanistan think about this, yeah, and I just feel like you know what the rate of suicide has got. There's no way possible. It has not gone up after that event and the fact that our government would cover that up it doesn't surprise me. But it's kind of shitty, man, because I don't know if we'll ever know the truth. I don't know if we'll ever know the truth of how many people have committed suicide and taken their own life because of failed policy.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not something people want to watch, right? So it's not something that the mainstream media puts out. What they put out is Donald Trump this, or Biden's crap in his pants or falling off a motorcycle or a bicycle, or you know that. That's what they put out. So that's what america looks at, because america only looks at social media for like 30 seconds. Boom, boom, boom. That's my news. That's everything um moral injury. There's a guy his name name is retired Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann.
Speaker 1:I know that name.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool SF guy right.
Speaker 1:Scott Mann.
Speaker 2:He has a really good elegy of a gosh.
Speaker 1:I can't remember. Minks, can you pull Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann up? I've got to see if I know this guy Good guy.
Speaker 2:Operation Pineapple Express. He helped with the evacuation in Afghanistan. I don't remember Scott being on the ground, but he did a lot of things. He might have been there. There's a lot of people there I didn't cross paths with At the time. However calm, he does a play, it's really good. He wrote a book. I like Scott, I respect him and the concept of the moral injury which is what you're getting at 20 years, 20 years. I know guys whose kids they retired and they served in Afghanistan. They retired and their kids served in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:Then what happens in Afghanistan? Yeah Right. And then what happens in Afghanistan? The current administration says we're going to depart on 9-11, if anybody remembers what happened on 9-11. And they give it to the guys who actually committed 9-11.
Speaker 1:It's ridiculous, yeah, it's disheartening. And you know what? Um, I used to make the joke, you know, whenever we were in a compound or something in Afghanistan, of, like man, I need to carve. I need to carve my name in here because my son will come back here and see it. Yeah, no joke. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people made that joke. I'm sure they might find the little dick cards I stoned around everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the moral injury aspect of it is. So we did so much and this is what I try to tell veterans when I speak to them is your service was not in vain and what you did was not in vain. Never, never, could be.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. You served for your family.
Speaker 2:You served for the country. You serve for your family. You serve for the country. You serve for your brother and sister in combat. That's most important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're serving for the person on the right and left of you. I mean, that's hands down, and I agree 100%. Like me, personally, I will never I will always be proud of the way I've served you know, whatever we've done. But I can't help think that you know, you and I we came up in a different world within these wars that were small unit leadership type worlds, yeah, and those worlds are different, wars that were small unit leadership type worlds, and those worlds are different. Those worlds are a little bit different because when you don't have a tight-knit groups and teams, it's easier for your mind to go in other places. Indeed, and that's why I think it's absolutely absurd that the statistics of suicides from when the withdrawal happened until now is not provided.
Speaker 1:I think that's in my mind. That's a cover up. In my mind, that's a cover up. It's a political cover up. I don't know if that's true or not. You know what I mean. I'm not going to stake my claim on that, I'm not going to die on that hill, but in my mind, that's where it rests. It's a political cover-up because they don't want people to know the truth about that politically, and that's horseshit, that's a disservice to the veterans out there, and it's people not holding themselves as politicians and leaders not holding themselves accountable for mistakes that were made, and it's teaching other leaders, future leaders, to not hold themselves accountable for mistakes that will be made.
Speaker 2:I appreciate the fact that you separate politicians and leaders, because politicians are not leaders. They are no fucking leaders. They're representatives of who we are. They're not our leaders. I don't even're no fucking representatives of who we are. They're not our leaders.
Speaker 1:I don't even think they're representatives of who we are. They're representatives from themselves and themselves, only the vast majority. And I'll say this before we go too far down the pipe of politicians. I'm going to tell you I do not like politicians A lot of them, I'm not even going to say a lot of them. There are some that start with noble intent and they always end with corruption. And there are some that start with corruption and end with corruption, and that's how it always is. The noble intent sometimes does start there, but then it just sucks them in. The corruption sucks them in because that's what you have to do to hold power and it's fucking horseshit. It's horseshit. And you know, the people don't really have a voice and we should.
Speaker 2:There's a guy who ran. He's actually Loudoun County fella.
Speaker 1:What's his name?
Speaker 2:I don't know if I should say his name Hung Cao.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you know Hung. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm going to try to get him here.
Speaker 2:I'll call him up, he'd Be great. He ran for Congress, ran for Senate, and he was shot down.
Speaker 1:No, I'm going to Dan. I'm going to tell you, when he was running, I kept the. So when you're going in to vote, they give you a. I don't know what it's called, but it's a fake ballot basically. Yeah, up until the election. Hung Kao I can't even like.
Speaker 1:His marketing campaign was amazing Text messages every day. I mean like he was putting his information out. You knew what he was about. You could very easily find what his policies were this, that and the other. It was very simple to find and he made that very. Whoever was working his marketing did a brilliant job.
Speaker 1:Even when you're walking up and and to our district here to to go vote, there was a QR code and you all you do to hit that QR code and says this is what I like, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. You want to know what his opponent had. Put your check mark here and that was it. And that tells me something you know. That tells me something that you know what they knew. He wasn't going to win and it wasn't because people weren't going to vote for him. Hands down, just put your check mark here. You don't have to know what my policies are, just put it right here. And I kept those. I have them upstairs, man. I have them, and I kept them for that reason, because I was amazed. I was like, look at this, this dude's laying it all out, this is what I'm about. And then this motherfucker I'm not gonna say her name, but uh, yeah, she's still there. Um, yeah, just put your check. Just make sure you check it right here by my name. That was it, and it's like fuck you, dude.
Speaker 2:Do you remember when nancy pelosi was speaker of the house and there was a bill going through and it was like 3 000 pages of this bill and people were wondering what's in it? And she says, no, we just have to pass it and then we will find out what's in it, which is put your check right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, oh, right now, Before I say this, I'm going to say real clearly I don't agree with everything that MTG says, but what she did yesterday I absolutely agree with.
Speaker 2:Oh pulling the thing to pull the Speaker of the House out.
Speaker 1:They didn't even have 72 hours. They had I think it was like 30 some odd hours to go over 1,000 pages over a bill. That's over a trillion dollars and that's bullshit, man. If people don't think that we're getting thrown under butt, under the bus with that bill, they are sadly mistaken. They are sadly mistaken. And and if they, if people think just for a second that what they're presenting to you that, oh, this is what this is going to do, that that's what's going to actually do and all the hidden stuff behind it sadly mistaken man I'd submit this seven.
Speaker 2:If one is in a relationship where there's a male or female, male or male, female, female, I don't give a fuck. But if you're in a relationship and there's a partnership and you have a budget that you live by based upon the income that you earn and one of your members in your partnership just spends the hell out of it and they don't tell you right, it's like yeah, I've committed you to this, this, this and this.
Speaker 2:We have $1 million worth of debt. Holy crap. We only make $500 a year, yeah, and we still have this, this, this, and they keep that up. Would you actually continue in that relationship If you couldn't see what they were spending it on? And they continue to spend in a fashion.
Speaker 1:Well, it depends on, like, for me, it would depend on how good she looked, what she was buying, see, like the minks. I mean, if she was like three minutes, she put us like $5 million in debt and I'd be like, all right, okay, I'll go to jail for a couple of years. I got this babe, I got this, let's do this. But, um, I'm not taking that away from what you're saying Cause I, I, I'm not taking that away from what you're saying because I agree, 100%, 100%. And like, what's going on, it's going to affect everything that we do, everything our kids do. There are things in bills that get put right underneath our noses. We never even know about. That we're paying for, and it's like man, I don't want to.
Speaker 2:Our kids will pay for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't want my, my hard-earned money. I do not want it going to this bullshit period so do you remember when uh, what's that guy's name?
Speaker 2:trump was in office and every day there was like a ticker on the bottom of the mainstream media news outlets about how much the national debt was that Trump was putting in? And then the other one was how many deaths there were in COVID Every day, every hour, every second. That updated by state. But they can't even count the votes in America effectively for like six months, but they can count how many deaths there were due to COVID, which is like bullshit. But everything that Trump did was ripped across like here's our debt. He put us this much in debt, this much in debt. We don't hear anything about this current administration, how much they're putting us in debt.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, trump didn't do himself any favors by so he's from Brooklyn. Well, I mean, here's the thing, the way our society is right now, like it or not like it, touchy-feely man and um, if you can project something and project, uh, something bad about someone to get people to hate somebody, then that's, that's the easy way to do things now and that's. You know, trump didn't do himself any favors by. If he would have just shut his fucking mouth, if he would have just did that, things would be a lot better. I don't, I mean, I'm going to say this right now. People that I know will hate me for this, but I don't care, because it's what I believe. Do I think Trump has better policies? Absolutely. Do I think he's the best thing to get elected right now? Fuck no. It'll rip our country right in half like we've never seen it before. Do I think Biden? Yeah, and do I think Biden should be elected? Fuck no. That's like a capital, fuck no. So who's that? Leave us know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Um, but well, I've invested highly and deeply and depends so but, but seriously, we've been, we've, we have all been put into a position where we should not have to be, as american people and american citizens and our politicians have put us there. They have all put us there by getting people to hate each other, by creating divide. This political divide that we have in our country right now is something that has never been seen before, ever Correct, and it's bullshit, man. It's absolutely horseshit and that's not how we take care of problems.
Speaker 2:We will never so what do you think about? Um don can you pull up like what do you need a, an id card, to do in the united states of america? Oh yeah, and what you know how?
Speaker 1:racist. Yeah, you know how I'm gonna tell you. I had this conversation with josh the other day, the guy I was telling you about, and he didn't see it this way until I explained it to him. He's like look man, people are talking about systematic racism. Some people say it exists, Some people say it doesn't exist. The people that are saying it exists, they're pointing people in the wrong direction, because it absolutely 100% exists, but they're pointing people in the wrong direction of where it exists. What systematic racism is is this you don't have to have an ID to vote, but you got to have an ID to have a gun. If people don't think that that's systematic racism, they're fucking high, Because what they're saying is you know what minority. You don't need an ID to vote, but guess what? You ain't getting no fucking gun.
Speaker 2:Ah, Supreme Court just said that's not the case. But that's what they're trying to do though. Yeah, but illegal immigrants now are protected under the Second Amendment, they can have weapons. Yeah, but illegal immigrants now are protected under the Second Amendment, they can have weapons. So they say for an ID, you have to have an ID to rent a car, you have to have an ID to get on a plane, you have to have an ID to vote.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry not to vote To buy a gun to buy alcohol. So the list of things what you don't need an ID for. You't need an ID. You need an ID card to get a library card at a Loudoun County library.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My ID card, which is a driver's license from the state of Virginia, is cracked and broken and I put Scott's tape over it because I don't care to go to the DMV and deal with their shit.
Speaker 1:Rigger's tape.
Speaker 2:So I can't rent a car because of that. So I throw out all sorts of other IDs. I'm like, hey, here's an ID, here's an ID, here's a state-issued ID or government-issued ID, they don't matter. I'm like, really, so I can't rent a car, here's my American Express Black. I can't rent a car.
Speaker 1:No yeah.
Speaker 2:But I could go vote. I don't need an ID. It's fucking nuts dude. Do you remember in Iraq during the elections?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the little fingerprint shit.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yeah, so there was no in Iraq. There was no like you call in your vote. No, there was rack. There was no like you call in your vote. There was no like I can vote early. There was no internet vote, if you recall, they all stood in line and they walked up and they showed their ids and they voted and we stuck their little fucking finger, or their this finger, into a purple ink and then they moved along yeah, I'm starting to think that that was all fucking bullshit.
Speaker 1:Now, after seeing our stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So America says that's the way you do a true democracy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know the election stuff. Here's what we need to do, dan, because if I go down this road, the revolution no, no, no, no, I'm not. You know what? Americans don't need to be against Americans. No, you know, like, what we need to do is we need to unfuck ourselves and we need to tell these politicians fuck off. And we need to get more people speaking out about it.
Speaker 1:Don't be scared. That's the problem is, people are scared, and why are they? They have every reason to be scared because they're either going to be canceled, the IRS is coming after them, they're going to be put in jail, the FBI is going to plant fucking child porn on their computer, who the fuck knows? Because all the corruption. But you know what? If, if? Strength in numbers, if people just start speaking up and saying, no, fuck you, man, I don't want to be divided, I love being an American, I love every American, and you know what? Anyone, any immigrant that comes here legally, I'm going to love them too, but there has to be a process for that too, legally. Legally that's what I'm saying Legally, if people just stand, stand and all that makes sense. All that makes sense, instead of like taking sides with this and doing stuff that doesn't make sense just because you have to take sides. Fuck that. That's so dumb. It's so fucking dumb. Man, like this whole covid shit dude, all the stuff that's coming out with COVID of how all the conspiracy theories are actually. We're actually right. The FDA is coming out and apologizing Now this, that and the other.
Speaker 1:It's like you motherfuckers. How many people do you cancel for that? How many people lost their jobs? How many people lost their lives Because you and the media said this person was spreading bad shit? And here it is. It's the truth, truth and apology doesn't do a damn thing, man how many military members were told they have?
Speaker 2:to leave the service and then the military comes back, dod comes back. Knows uh, yeah, sorry, uh, if you want to come back in, you can come back in, however comma. And then they they make these parameters of coming back in like they're gifting you to come back in. Fuck off man.
Speaker 1:Exactly, man. I'll tell you, like all this, my intent is not to go down this rabbit hole, because I'm going to tell you Dan Minx will tell you I'm pretty passionate on this rabbit hole.
Speaker 2:You are. I think you should stop and go back to the nonprofit, please.
Speaker 1:Okay, the minx has spoken Very well.
Speaker 1:But what I was trying to say was this is there is going to be a time where I do want to dive into these sensibly and I'd like to have you back. When we do do that, and I'd like to have a lot of people back to dive into that, I'll wear my tri-corner hat, yeah Well, the thing is is like discourse you have to have discourse, okay. So I know where your beliefs reside, I know where mine reside and I know a lot of my friends that their beliefs reside on the other side of that. Friends, that their beliefs reside on the other side of that, and we should not be afraid any of us to sit in a room and talk about that, and you know what. Maybe it gets a little heated. Okay, that's cool, but just listen to each other, because maybe there's a learning, maybe there's a learning point there, maybe there's something that I don't know and I never thought about, maybe there's something I guarantee there's something they didn't think about.
Speaker 1:But it's all about perspectives, man. It's about okay, this is my perspective of what's going on here and this is the reason why. What is your perspective? And talking about that, if people don't do that, we're fucking hosed man. We're hosed, we're hosed and we're going to go to the point of no return on it. That's just the way it's going to be. We've got to tackle it like that, man. And let's just be honest, man, mainstream media is not going to do that. All they're going to do is do their agenda to make money and they're never going to Because it's about money.
Speaker 2:I get that.
Speaker 1:It's 100% about money, but let's talk about this nonprofit. So nonprofit, one God Foundation, yes, one God Foundation. So you told me, before we get to that, though, ketamine, yeah, we had talked about a ketamine, and so I know the guys for the 38 Challenge and I think they're called what is it? Brain Lab? Brain Lab, yeah, brain Lab is what they're starting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they are looking into treatments, much like that. That's why I think you should link up with them and I can put you guys together. That would be awesome, but I'm interested to know in any way. Here's what. I'm not interested when it comes to vets anybody with brain injury, specifically vets because I hold that close to my heart, just like you do. I am not interested in going to the VA and the VA giving you drugs and keeping you on those drugs for the rest of your life, because that's what they do.
Speaker 2:So the VA system is now going to the point where they're going to talk about psilocybin and the use of MDMA to treat PTS post-traumatic stress and some people call it post-traumatic stress disorder or disease, and I don't believe it is either a disorder nor disease. I think it is more of an illness PTSI illness and so so what?
Speaker 1:what makes you feel the the VA like if I were to go to the local office? Let's just say I live in Kentucky somewhere and I go to the local VA and I have PTS and you know I'm diagnosed with that. What is going to prevent them from sending me to big med and and getting prescriptions out the wazoo for the rest of my life? Because that's what's been happening and it's been dangerously happening, and it's all due to pharma, big pharma, bullshit.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you, dan, like the whole tons of friends, you have tons of friends too that this has happened to or is happening, where they get you on a drug and then that drug somehow later down the road is fucked up and now, oh shit, man, we've got, we got to change it and now we got to put you on this one, and then 30 years later, you've been on drugs for 30 fucking years. It's affected your body in a billion different ways adversely, whether that's putting on weight, depression, this, that and the other Like what. How do we combat that with the VA? How do we make that not happen anymore with the VA?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would have to step out of the entire VA system as it is. In a perfect world, the VA would allow veterans to obtain medical care like they do the illegal immigrants that come across the border.
Speaker 1:By their own choice right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's like hey man, I can't make it to the VA clinic that's in Martinsburg.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't, because it's like six months for me to get there. I'm going to end up scattering my gray matter all over the inside of my fucking car. So can I please go to this place here? No, you can't. You got to wait and see some kid who's just gone internship through whatever. However, comma, this illegal immigrant can come in and get all these things and go out, or someone else can go in. So I think the VA has to change.
Speaker 2:The VA started, if you know, from World War I. It started as a way to help veterans, but it has to evolve, it has to change. But with most US government systems, most US government organizations, they become so big that they're self-producing and corrupt, yeah. So what has to happen is they have to step back. Someone has to be in charge of the va and say you know what? What we need to do here is we need to like break it all down and say what's the best thing for the veterans? Not the best thing to keep this system moving and make my six hundred thousand dollars a year as a VA director of VA.
Speaker 1:Well, dan, what would you say about this idea? Maybe it exists, maybe they've talked about it, and I'm a dumb ass. Why couldn't they? Why couldn't they move the VA from being federal to state? Like, look, if you were a veteran and you live in virginia, you file with the virginia va because it's smaller. The elections mean more locally, corruption's not going to be as bad. It'll exist. It's not going to be as bad. But but when it's federal, that's when the corruption happens, that's when all you have all these assholes that are big pharma coming in and saying, oh shit, man, yep, look, I have given you this. However many millions of dollars for your campaign, you better fucking pass this bill. If you do that at the state level, you're kind of taking some of that shit away, because Big Pharma can't control all. They cannot control all 50 states. There's going to be some states that stand up and say, oh fuck, no, no, fuck you, we're not doing that.
Speaker 2:Well, I hadn't thought of that in that aspect, and I not for nothing don't agree because we're veterans of the United States of America Now, veterans of the state of vagina or the state of Maryland or state of wherever right. Oh sorry, virginia. So I think it's a federal responsibility. However, I do feel the federal responsibility should look at the VA and say you've grown too big and we need to neck it down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And maybe give some back to the state, maybe federal funding comes. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But something's got to get done.
Speaker 2:All right, so we'll go back, if I could step back a heartbeat to. I suffered from PTS for a long time. I suffered from PTS for a long time. I've done 40 plus years within the US military and as a contractor to both DOD and OGA, doing stuff all over the world, and it's impacted me. It has. It's just been whatever. I've been blown up a couple times. I've been this, I've been that. I haven't been shot, but I haven't been stabbed and thanks, it's not a wooden table. I'll probably get shot tomorrow.
Speaker 1:No, there's wood in there, man. Oh, is it Okay cool. It's just like 90 pounds of epoxy too.
Speaker 2:Acrylic epoxy on top of it, 90 gallons. Yeah, so I have suffered and I do suffer PTS. And for me I grew up in a violent life Every solution to any problem I ever had in my life as a child and growing up as an adolescent teenager in my middle adult life solutions were violence, straight up. That was it. Everything was solved by violence. It worked. For me it worked outstanding. And in the Marine Corps they paid me to do that and then the government paid me Dan, smash those big like they make the Hulk. And then as a contractor it even worked even better because I made better money and I could like do better shit. However, comma, it was not conducive to a mental stability, got it. So I was a not stable individual. I went to counseling. In fact, haji Lala pointed me towards a counselor and I got evaluated by this one guy.
Speaker 1:Right, because Haji we need to have him on here, by the way.
Speaker 2:Yep, my brother Haji. So I went to this one guy and because you know where we used to work, it was like you could only go to certain psychiatrists. Because here's the other thing in the military and when one works as a contractor or for the government, if one says, hey, I need help because I'm having a mental issue, you're automatically red flagged, yeah, as someone unstable you can deploy, you can't do shit. But what you're doing is like I think I need a little bit of help. Right, so I'm still effective, but you put me in this situation, yep, so help me out. I got a rock in my shoe. Help me, take the rock out of my shoe. If you don't, I'll keep going with this rock in my shoe, but it's going to hurt me more and more and more and then it's ultimately going to hurt everybody yeah, so what they say?
Speaker 2:well, once you identify that, they're like oh, that guy's a problem, that gal's a problem, whatever. Right, like, no, motherfucker, I'm not the problem, the problem is of rock. Help me get the rock that you put in my shoe. Yep, help me get that out, any Anyhoo. So we have approved in the place we used to work, approved psychiatrists that we could go see on a list. So I went and saw this guy and it takes a lot for us to open up to someone. So I open up this freaking guy because Haji said do it, and he's my brother and we've been through a lot together. And he says you know, hey, you got to go do this. So I went and I talked to this guy, I opened up to him. He's like okay, and he had me take this test. Right, fucking whatever test, right, I take this test. He has me come back and he evaluates me Severe PTS, severe depression, severe, this severe, that blah, blah, blah, anger issues and whatever, what. No, I'm like, dude, I'll throw you right the fuck out that window. Anger issues.
Speaker 2:You know, you figure that out after a couple pieces of paper and this, that, and he goes. Actually, that's your response, is why I would do that. Anyway, I say, okay, where do we start counseling? He goes no, I don't do counseling, I just do evaluations.
Speaker 1:So you've got to find someone else.
Speaker 2:So now I have to open up to another person. Yeah, that's bullshit After I've already spread my legs to this guy, I've got to do it again to someone else, right? Not a good thing. That's not how it's supposed to work. Well, yeah, it's how it should not work, right? So, years later, I'm still suffering. I'm still a very volatile, angry person and a friend of mine calls me up and goes man, I'm doing this IV ketamine therapy treatment. Another veteran, you got to try this. I'm like, yeah, fuck that right.
Speaker 2:I don't do drugs. I'm not, you know, doing that. I did it a long time ago you had your shot with it I did.
Speaker 2:I had a great time uh, prior to, so prior to my polygraphs. So, um, I'm not doing that, you know, I just don't do. I know what it does to you. He goes no, you gotta try this. Blah, blah, blah. So I go to, uh, uh, california, the left coast, and I see someone and I go through an, an IV ketamine therapy treatment. There are certain triggers that I know that I can actually activate those triggers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, it's just easy for me. I can say things, I can do things Activate triggers that make me want to like, pop people's heads off like dandelions. If you ever played that game, my mama had a baby and his head popped off right and you pop off dandelions. Anyway, that's how I would feel and I could get myself that point. So I did this iv ketamine therapy treatment and it's a true intake. It's like a true clinical thing. You meet an MD, an LCSW licensed clinical social worker. You do all of the paperwork. It's legit man, it's not one of those. Here's a like the VA gives you nasal spray. It's not that you don't even know what you're squirting up your nose Yep. And it's not the pills that they give you in lockup where you can crush up.
Speaker 2:Lockup, did I say lockup In the clink? It's not those pills they give you, it's nothing like that. This is a true, it's an IV thing, amazing shite. I went in for this treatment and uh, it's, it's not a trip, it's not like an lsd trip, it's not something weird, like there's no timothy leary shit. Uh, afterwards I came out of it. I felt kind of at peace. I actually tried to activate the trigger that would make me angry four hours after the treatment, because I'm an analyst and an anal-sist.
Speaker 1:I say that too.
Speaker 2:It didn't activate and then the next day I tried to do it again, pull the trigger up, and it didn't happen. I'm like holy moly. So I went through three treatments of this. While I was out there in California I called my spouse and we were like at loggerheads man and I called my spouse up and she said this is the man that I want in my life. This is a man that I've been missing, not the violent.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The man she had originally met. Yeah, I've never been. To be clear, I've never been violent to my wife.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I never uh struck a woman or a child, I'll take it out on, uh, grown adult males because that's, you know, that's like the challenge. I'd be cool and shit, um, in whatever fashion, but I've never, ever hurt someone like that. But she said this is the guy I want. Where have you been? So I've done four treatments of IV ketamine therapy. Our nonprofit is actually opening a clinic here in Virginia, yes, and what we wish to do is sponsor veterans to go to these clinics. So we figure, now that it's going to open in Virginia, it's going to be a whole lot less expensive. If I've sent you to California or another place, I figured it costs about 10 grand per veteran.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's a week. So what we're going to do is send a veteran out there, no cost to the vet, right, we'll put you up, give you housing, feed you, transportation. You go through the ketamine. You go through acupuncture. You go through I know everybody, but TJ would think it's weird you go through yoga.
Speaker 1:You know what Yoga? I'm kind of a believer now. Everybody but TJ would think it's weird. You go through yoga. You know what Yoga? I'm kind of a believer now. Yep, yoga, even though I can't do it and I don't do it, I am a believer. I want to do goat yoga, by the way.
Speaker 2:I got goats. I got goats and lambs. Man, you got to speak in the microphone.
Speaker 1:Can we come to the hom Yoga Goats and lambs? Man, you got to speak in the microphone.
Speaker 2:Can we come to the homestead and do Goat Yoga? Please come to the homestead.
Speaker 1:We got a yogi? We do. We got a yogi Bearer? No, she's a yogi. Our neighbor is a yoga instructor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we can have the animals just climbing on us. It would be amazing. Yeah, be amazing. Yeah, that's yeah, and I'll take video of it. We have chickens too. We have a cow. I don't think you want that to climb on you cow yoga. Oh, I will do the cow yoga. We have a calf.
Speaker 1:It just dropped actually now, if a cow stood on my back, would it kill me?
Speaker 2:yeah, it would kill you really. Yeah, it's pretty heavy okay.
Speaker 1:So how could we, how could we work cow yoga into this? I feel like this could be a money maker you need to get the little mini highland cows.
Speaker 2:No, he's got a calf but I don't want to do calf yoga. Maybe I do yoga on top of the cow if she'll stay still yeah look here karma, so one of the most badass individuals I've ever known in my entire life was this guy named tj that pussy.
Speaker 1:I was just and, uh, I'm gonna send this to him.
Speaker 2:He was an amazing warrior, an amazing man, he still is, he hasn't.
Speaker 1:No, he has not changed.
Speaker 2:He did change. So the TJ that was the angry almost 275 pound. Rip your head off, tj. Oh no, I mean he's not like that, down to call sign hippie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like he's still, though. I mean he's still jumping out of airplanes and being TJ.
Speaker 2:That's TJ. Yeah, that's TJ. Yeah, that's TJ. However, tj was a really PTS guy, right? Yeah, tj's going to be going. Dude, you got to do yoga, man, I'm like what. So the only guy I knew who ever did like wore yoga pants and yoga shoes on on missions and dude.
Speaker 1:so right when, right when, uh, tj well, I think it probably was a couple years after tj made his transition into hippieism. Um, I was, I was in the market to buy a new car and he was trying to convince me to get a Subaru Crosstrek and I was like, oh, I mean, tj's a tough dude, he's telling me to get a.
Speaker 2:It's like a lesbian vehicle.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. So here I'm thinking. I even went and asked the minks. I went and looked at them and I was like man, women drive these cars. Why is he telling me to get a Subaru Crosstrek? Oh, tj, you bastard, I'm sending this to you. You are going to hear this podcast and hear your name in vain. Damn you, tj, I didn't get that Subaru. Damn you.
Speaker 2:On the objective in his yoga pants and yoga shoes. So anyway, so the nonprofit from the veteran side, that's what we want to do.
Speaker 1:Man, I tell you what like that is good medicine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:That's not prescription drugs, big pharma. Don't ever let big pharma get a hold of this either. Fuck them.
Speaker 2:So the other thing we do and I've done this, I've got to throw this one out there so we do this thing called Toast to the Fallen.
Speaker 1:I have a little bit of video I will put at the end of this, of the Toast to the Fallen that I saw you guys do, but I just have to interrupt you, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Cool, following that, I saw you guys do, but, uh, I just have to interrupt. You go ahead, cool. So in 2014, um, as a veteran, right? Uh, you hear, on memorial day, people come up the if you buy this car, you get 300 off and a free balloon, or you buy this mattress and you get a hot dog or some crap like that. Right, like the, the capitalizing, monetizing Memorial Day. And then they say to us as veterans like, hey, man, thank you for your service. And I would respond like you know, I'm not dead, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there are those that have been thanked.
Speaker 2:You've got to save your thank yous until the day after the birth of our beloved Corps, which is when you can say thank you to me. So I got pissed In 2014,. I was, at that time, national president of a veterans motorcycle club called the Men of War Motorcycle Club. Great, great club, great guys, great mission. So I bought a dog tag machine and I told my guys in the chapter here in Virginia we're going to memorialize all the veterans who have fallen. So we went to at the time in Warrington, virginia, it was a place called McMahon's it's now called O'Brien's and we hooked them up. It's an Irish pub, right. We got all these vendors to show up and do their 10x10 pop-ups and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I didn't want any of their money, just be there, sell whatever T-shirts and what have you. And what I did was I put it on Facebook and other social media that if you had ever lost a veteran, whether you be a spouse or a brother or sister, it doesn't really matter and it don't have to be in combat. If you ever lost someone who served in the military, send me, fill out this form and send it to me. Name rank you know, typical like a dog tag, and I would make a dog tag. And if you come to my event, come see me and I'll make dog tags. Sean came out. We made them for Lex, we made them for all the guys, right?
Speaker 1:I love that man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from ground, and I'd have people sit with me at the table as I'd make the dog tags. So it's, it's one of those machines where you're like it's from China, they don't make American ones, you know. So I'm like, well, they do. It's cost $8,000. It's computerized. This is like spin the dial, make it, and I'd have you sit with me. I'm like, tell me about this guy that you lost, who's your brother. I don't want to hear his military record, I want to hear about them. I want to hear about their laugh. I want to hear about you know the goofy shit they did, how they sang stupid songs, or so. I'd feel your emotions. It'd come through me into the machine and I'd pound out the tag and I'd give you one. I'm like this is for you to memorialize this day, and I'd make another one and I'm going to hang it from the combat cross that I'd make. And then, every 30 minutes or so, I'd stop the music. I'd tell everybody take your covers off, charge your glasses, and I'd read the names off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that, and then I'd toast it to Valhalla I love it man.
Speaker 2:So here's something that happened to me. This is what makes it so emotional, so gripping for me. This one girl comes up and she goes will you make a dog tag for my dad? I'm like, sure, darling, sit down. I gave her the piece of paper and she started filling it out. She fills it out. I'm like, sit with me. So I go to make the tag. I'm like, tell me about your dad. She goes my mom was pregnant with me. Wow, my dad went to Vietnam and he was killed.
Speaker 2:I'm like, well, this is going to be difficult. I said, tell me what your mother told me about your dad. So she did, and I made two dog tags, and I made her one, and I took the other one and said I'm going to call his name out, I'm going to hang. Have a guy hang it on the combat cross for you. She goes okay. 30 minutes later I stopped the music, I stand up, I grab the mic, tell everybody to charge your glasses. We actually had the Fireball girls, fireball shots and shit. I got them from the distributor the Jaeger girls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would have done Jaeger, but Fireball was like a disgusting drink that we would have.
Speaker 1:I mean Jaeger's not that great.
Speaker 2:Let's just be honest here, two of them together like burn it, cool it Anyway. So this girl's standing over here outside the barrier. I'm getting ready to read the name. She goes can you read this? When you read my dad's name, I'm like, come on over here. So the brothers, my club, had her come around. I put her under my arm. I brothers, my club, had her come around. I put her under my arm. I'm like, yeah, honey. So she gives me this piece of paper. I'm like, all right, cool.
Speaker 2:So I'm going through the names and reading the list of the dead, I get to her dad's name and I read it. And then I stop and I go hey, everybody, this young lady here, her father went to Vietnam and she was in her mother's belly when her father was killed in Vietnam. I just read his name and she gave me this piece of paper to read. I want you to pay attention to what she has. I don't know what it is, but she gave this to me.
Speaker 2:All right, I open it up and I look at it and I turn to her and I go number one, I fucking hate you for what you're about to do to me, what you have done. And she curls up under my arm and I'm like number two any of you people who laugh at me, for when I start crying I'll meet you in the parking lot. Because this is a letter that this young lady wrote to her father when she was 10 years old and she understood. And she wrote to her daddy Wow, that she never knew was killed in Vietnam, dear Daddy, and I read this letter for this young girl and there's about 100-something bikers and veterans and all of them are like oh man, smokes, smokes, get in my eyes.
Speaker 2:And I just hugged this girl and she was. The emotion was just so amazing. And I've done it. Last year I did it at the Pentagon parking lot. I'm going to do it again at the Pentagon parking lot this year for Memorial Day weekend and I did Gold Star Moms and Gold Star Wives guys who've come up to me and said my brother took his life on this date, will you make a dog tag? And on those I always put a 22 at the bottom of the dog tag and I sound it off. It's a passion of mine to never forget them, always say their name. So it's a toast to the fallen. It's part of the One God Foundation and we do it all through donations.
Speaker 1:Dude, I feel like every little thing that we're a part, like we just did the whole fire engine pull and what did we do after that? We did the 38 challenge and we did the cycle for survival. I feel like any of these things that we do, we need to tell you to see if we can get you in to do your thing there, too. A lot of the thing like the cycle for survival is to raise money for cancer, and their big thing is they raise millions of dollars for this fund for cancer research. Their big thing is to figure out how to fix cancer. But there's also a lot of stories that you hear there about people that didn't make it, and I think this type of stuff would gravitate with them, Because everyone that goes there they understand what life is and when it's taken away, how important that is, and I think something like this figuring out how to incorporate that into these type of events and whenever Carrie and I or the Minx and I are involved with that, we'll definitely try to pull you in on that.
Speaker 2:Do you know, when I was still cops at the office, I had cancer. I heard a rumor, yep.
Speaker 1:I heard a rumor, lyle came.
Speaker 2:Farrell, lyle. I love her by the by. I miss rumor Lyle came, farrell Lyle. I love her by the by.
Speaker 1:I miss her.
Speaker 2:She's an awesome awesome person.
Speaker 1:I really miss her.
Speaker 2:Very professional, she's so cool. And she caught me because my spouse had bought me all these jade things, right, like a jade elephant, this, that, and I had them in the office. And she comes in, she goes, she goes. Oh, one of those. And I was working one day, I was doing the scheduling and the whole bit and I'm like, oh, this is cool, he's, my wife bought this and this and this. She says it, it will help me with my cancer. And I didn't mean to say it and she said what did you say? Say, I'm like she goes, did you say. And she shut the door in my office. I'm like, oh, I am so screwed Because if anybody knows feral, you do not want to be feral like a cat, you do not want to be in a room with her when she's pissed. And she was upset and she showed such emotion which I wasn't prepared for or used to.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm like, yeah, I have cancer, I've stage 3 cancer, and she was just super like upset with me I hadn't told people. I'm like, well, you know nothing, I got cancer. You ain't got fucking cancer, I got cancer, so let me deal with it. You know?
Speaker 1:yeah, again, that's who we are right, but still, I mean, my fucking people don't understand. People don't understand like I. That's not something I would want people to know either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, so for gosh, I've been, like I said, uh, blown up, stabbed, had assassinated, almost assassinated, a million different one things. The worst part things I've associated were getting shot at by snipers because you never know, or when it's know, when you get a shot at right or mortar attacks or rocket attacks right Because you just like be bopping along going to Burger King and next thing, you know, you get in strife.
Speaker 1:You know, I always thought I was like no, I never wanted that to happen. But I always thought like if I get hit with a mortar or a rocket, I think it's my time to go and it would happen nothing there's nothing I can do about it. It's just nothing. Yep, and I mean I can run for cover. I could do, but if I get, if I die for a minute, but with like an ied or something, oh, oh, I got a cool story about like rocket attack.
Speaker 2:but that's some. So then I was diagnosed with cancer. I'm like huh, Like, where'd that come from?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not actually prepared for that I've got to go do a checkup here soon, like I did a blood work last week, I think it was. Yeah, I did blood work last week, did think it was. Yeah, I did blood work last week. Did I tell you that? Anyways, blood pressure was high, yeah, high blood pressure. I've never had high blood pressure, but whatever. But I'm waiting. I'm nervous because I know that, like we were talking about before with, like Agent Orange and everything we were exposed to, I'm just waiting. I'm just like I know it's coming down the pipe, something All I can do is just be healthy and just be like you know what. I'm going to just fucking beat this, but I'm just, you know, hopefully that never happens, but it's something to be nervous about, especially if you were in Iraq and Afghanistan for 20-some odd years, you know what I mean, as we were, yeah.
Speaker 2:You got to pick up something, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:I mean, I never really got sick. I had a toothache once. Oh yeah, they wanted to send me to some Afghan dentist. I was like, just give me an antibiotic.
Speaker 2:Is that at work?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was like look, I'm telling you what the problem is. I have a tooth infection, Give me an antibiotic, but we need to send you to a dentist out in town. No, I'm not going to a dentist out in town. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:You don't go to the dentist in the United States.
Speaker 1:Well, they try to rip me off.
Speaker 2:I can relate to that.
Speaker 1:They try to rip me off. I was going, you know what? I started liking the dentist and then the bitch started trying to rip me off. So I was like, nope, I'm done. This is why I don't come to you people. You try to rip me off. If my teeth rot, I will replace them. There's technology now. I will put fake ones in there and be perfectly happy. Look it, I've got some great chiclets.
Speaker 2:They pulled a couple of my teeth out and I got like holes in my head. It's a bitch eating grapes or things that like get stuck in the holes, you know like.
Speaker 1:I will tell you my story off mic because I do not want this to be out in the ether, but you'll get a kick out of it all right, cool, yeah, you probably didn't even know what's happening because it was right under your nose no, actually.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm fully aware of that one and, uh, we'll just go with that because your smile was so much brighter. So, on the on the non-profit the last, last part of the nonprofit anti-human trafficking.
Speaker 1:Yes, so this is something that the human trafficking thing, and especially with children right now. The more you dig into it, the more you find and the more you see how people just don't give a fuck and it's so sad, it's like why do we not give a fuck about this?
Speaker 2:Do you think they don't care? Or do you think they don't understand?
Speaker 1:I think the way we have been not programmed, conditioned with media and devices, is we have an attention span of something important for about three days, and I don't know the statistics on that, but you think something's important for three days or whatever it is, and then you're off to the next important thing, because that's what media, you know, media and everybody else wants you to think and no one keeps on it. So you, you, you find this oh shit, this kid was abducted. I'm pissed, blah, blah, blah. Three days later you're like, oh, you forget about it. And it's like dude, there's got to be people out there that keep pressing this, they keep putting this idea out there. But the problem is is the media? They don't do it, they roll off it. Do you know?
Speaker 1:I put a post up two weeks ago I was doing this thing called headlines, before their headlines, and basically it's just a one page, the front page of a newspaper article, and it's supposed to be 10 years in the future, and it's supposed to be 10 years in the future. Satire, complete satire, nothing political in it, and I put as the front headline you know, 10 years later, epstein's list still has not been released the hate messages I got about that, no kidding. And it's like I was called a Nazi, I was called a fascist and it's like if there should be something that brings people together, it should be this Everybody should care that. There's some people, there's elites, there are people getting away with trafficking humans and children. People like, how could you not be on the same page with this? But again, the fucking media drives the narrative on everything and those were the messages I was getting sent on that and it's just like what the fuck is wrong with this man.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it takes really strong people people like you and some of our friends that we know that go out there and do stuff and recover kids all the time to keep on it. And you know what I? I have the notion to just say you know what? Fuck the public. They're never going to care, because it's not that they're bad people or anything, it's just their attention is going to be brought away from it because of the way we've all been conditioned with media. And if people are really passionate, then you know what that's. My job with a platform on a podcast is to say, hey, if you want to stay passionate about this, here's this organization. Contact them and roll with it.
Speaker 2:So for us, right. So there's a lot of organizations out there that will do the door kicking and yeah, I'm going to save these kids and, whether it be just for the media or just whatever, right, there's some really solid guys, especially from the community, who go out there and they help children, like Veterans for Child Rescue. It is a great organization. And then there's others that do it to see what new Netflix movie they could fucking make right, okay cool. So here's what I found. The SEALs do that a lot new Netflix movie they could fucking make right, okay, cool. So here's what I found. The SEALs do that a lot. Hair gel, flip-flops. So here's what I found in working with the survivor community.
Speaker 2:Ah so I got involved in anti-human trafficking through a complete ignorance. And the ignorance for me was I'm going to save people, I'm going to help them and get them out of a war-torn environment. Then I find out that US NGOs, nonprofits, are trafficking minors and whether they know it or not I can't prove it. I'm not going to speculate because it wasn't my gig man, not my monkey, not my circus. But when I identified it I'm like hey, dude or ma'am, do you know exactly what you're doing? You can't take a child from this country and give them to a person in another country, collect money for that. That's, that's human trafficking. Like, oh, they got a better life. I'm like you're a fucking moron, so that perhaps you're doing it from a, from a really good place. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:But the aftercare was my thing. Like do you take, do you research where that child went and do you keep in touch with that family? Do you keep in touch with the child and are you prepared to rescue that child from the family that you gave it to? And you're like, no, once it's done, it's done. I'm like, oh my gosh. So my thing was there's plenty of organizations are out there. Like I'm going to kick, kick in the door and save 30 kids or what have you. You know, make belief, but my thing is the aftercare aspect. Whether it be someone who's trafficked as a child or trafficked as an adult, trafficked by a family member or a church, or they got into prostitution, whatever, it's the same thread. So, if you look at One God, we're helping people from oppressed societies, we're giving them a sense of purpose when they leave there, and we're taking veterans who are all screwed up and we're giving them a sense of purpose.
Speaker 1:You're putting the puzzle pieces back together for them and then survivors. It's the same way. It's like getting their life back together.
Speaker 2:Giving them a sense of purpose.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we bring them someplace. So our goal is to have for all three of those. Our goal is and we're kind of doing what the veterans kind of do we have a young lady that we're sponsoring at our home right now who's uh pregnant and she's giving up her child and the whole bit part of our church and we're taking care of her. She's a sweetheart and, uh, we're gonna help her along her way as well as a refugee that we're helping veterans will help all fucking day long. You know that's the point, but I need to give them purpose. Yeah, I understand this purpose, because here's my God moment in 20, after Lex was killed, 2016. So Lex was killed in 2016. It was late 2016,.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, my dad passed in the beginning of 2016. Lex was killed December 2016. In 2017, 2018, I had just gone through my cancer treatment. I was cancer-free and I was riding into work one morning on my bike my motorcycle, not a bicycle Schwinn. Bullshit.
Speaker 1:yeah, so I was riding in, and this is how I used to commune with God.
Speaker 2:I'd ride in the sun's coming up 66 East, blast in on my bike, say my prayers and I start talking to God. So I have a wonderful life. I have a company that's making good money, I'm doing a really good job and I'm responsible for some great individuals doing wonderful things for America. I got a farm or homestead, children, grandchildren. If someone looked at my life from the outside, they're like dude, that is so perfect. I was a hollow fucking shell. I was one of them. Easter egg bunnies, chocolate on the outside it was absolutely zero inside.
Speaker 1:I hate those Easter egg bunnies too. They're so disappointing.
Speaker 2:I like Cadbury eggs myself.
Speaker 1:I mean, I do too, but the hollow. Sorry to sidetrack, but Hollow.
Speaker 2:Part of that, exactly, and that's what I was. That's what I felt. I was hollow, hollow. I had no sense of purpose. So, as I rode my motorcycle in the east, heading towards our office, and I communed with God, god, I said I'm done, I give up and I give myself to you and you need to take over, because I'm fucking done. I'll park this bike on the side of the road and I'll strip naked and I'll walk on the point of south of america, which would be scary for everybody around me, and I would walk down there and I'll tell you whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy you didn't do that Dan.
Speaker 2:Actually, I think everybody from Manassas to South America is happy about that too, but I had no sense of purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I said give me a task, Tell me what you want me to do, because I give myself to you or I'm throwing myself on her next. Uh, 18 wheeler. I see, it's like I was looking on 66 East in the morning rush hour for an 18 wheeler and there wasn't one. Because I was honestly going to just like slide my bike, lay it underneath one and just I'm done. Yeah, so I had a perfect life, but going to just like slide my bike, lay it underneath one and just I'm done. So I had a perfect life, but I had no purpose.
Speaker 2:I was that Easter egg bunny and I heard a voice in my head and it wasn't like kill the neighbor, it wasn't a dog, it was a son of Sam crap. And it told me I would go back to the Middle East. I was raised in an army of thousands, I would fight evil. I would not come back. Huh, right, I'm like say again all after. Say again your last, please. Yeah, and so exact same thing. I went to the office, I saw Rick and I told Rick very religious, and Rick and I I prayed he goes, brother, you just gotta do what god says. I'm like does he understand exactly how much it costs to raise an army, because I do. I've raised armies in foreign countries. This is what I do. It's wicked, expensive and, uh, I don't have that kind of cash man it's a lot of money, a lot of dinero right there I did my whole day at work.
Speaker 2:I rode home. I told my wife we prayed. She got emotional. I'm like, what am I supposed to do? She goes you'll do what god says. You ask and you'll do what god says. I'm like, all right, rock on. I'm like, but I'm thinking that maybe there was a general driving next to me in the car and that message was for him and it bounced off his window and hit me instead. You know, because I'm like, but I'm thinking that maybe there was a general driving next to me in the car and that message was for him and it bounced off his window and hit me instead.
Speaker 1:Because I don't think, jc. Maybe it happens every day with some of our politicians. It just bounces and misses them yeah.
Speaker 2:But I'm thinking that's a lot of money to raise an army and I don't think God gets it. I'm just a stupid Marine, you know I can't do this shit. So she said stop uh questioning god when you asked him for guidance. So it was 2018 and then 2021 happened that was it that was. I went back to the Middle East.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was given two C-17s. I raised an army of thousands. Yeah, we fought evil, and the Dan that went to the Middle East did not come back.
Speaker 1:Isn't that cool. That's the word of God. That's pretty badass man. Yeah, you were interpreting it the wrong way when you, indeed, but the way it translated and, like throughout period, the period of time was exactly how it played out that's pretty badass.
Speaker 2:That's what god wanted, not what I. You know I was trying to like put my own spin on it, right. So the one god foundation and what we try to do is say there has to be a purpose in your life, whether you be 100 man yeah, whether you be a veteran or refugee or, uh, someone who was trafficked will give you that purpose.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean think about somebody at work like Minx, who's giving me a horrible look right now At our work.
Speaker 1:No, like at her work, anybody's work. Like if you're a manager or some level where you've got a team or people underneath you. You have to give your people purpose. If they don't, they fail. And the minx tells me a lot of stuff that she observes from her work. Where that happens, people lose purpose and they start to not do what they're supposed to do or whatever.
Speaker 1:But it's in every aspect of life. You know what I mean. Like I fail with my son a lot with purpose. You know. Like I need to. I have to spend more time with him, like just taking him outside and giving him more purpose, away from playing video games and watching TV. It's those little types of things of purpose. And then there's the larger things of purpose, like the purpose of what you're saying life, like a reason to live, a reason to be here, a reason to provide for your family or whatever.
Speaker 1:But I think serving purpose goes in every aspect of life, from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. There's little things there all over the place to provide purpose and provide direction for people, like our dog, like I shit you not, I am not saying this to be funny or anything but our dog Jersey. She's old, she's got cancer, she's I don't know how many things have been amputated off of her Still happy and she still has purpose in her life. Like, every morning, she gets up, she's in pain all day long but she plays with her other little dog and that's her purpose. But as soon as that purpose is gone, you know, I think that's going to be the time where the minx and I are going to be like I think it might be time. You know, she's, she's, she's going to know she doesn't have a purpose, you know, and that's going to be horrible for her, you know. And human beings are the same way they got, and human beings are the same way, they've got to have purpose in everything they do, everything they do.
Speaker 1:It was amazing, but I'll talk to you offline about some of that stuff. But, dude, I think we're going to, if you don't mind, we need to have you back. But, dude, I think we're going to, if you don't mind, we need to have you back. But we've got to be, we've got to go to a birthday. What the hell is it tomorrow? A brunch walk into Cherry Blossoms or something like that.
Speaker 1:Oh that's awesome, yeah, which means we have to end it tonight. Yeah, yeah, this has been a great like like. This has been an awesome conversation. I wish my compadre was here, as, uh, his name's mike. He wasn't here the last time you were here, um, but he's normally the co-host, um, you know, it was just him and mike block and then, um, yeah, melissa and vivian, um, but he's they're're leaving for Tampa early in the morning so he couldn't be here tonight, but he would have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and I can't wait to play it back for him once I get it edited. So that was an awesome conversation.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to have you back and, if you don't mind, I will put all your information, all your websites, any links, anything like that. They'll be at the bottom. If you're watching this on YouTube, it'll be at the bottom in the comments, and just look on my website on this episode, and I will have Dan Stenson's, all of his information as far as his non-profits, anything that you want to know to contact him about anything that we spoke about tonight. It'll be on there and I hope to have you back. Man, it was awesome, it was amazing. I won't give you this finger. I actually bit the. I dipped this in hot sauce and bit it off that was good man.