Matt Connarton Unleashed 7-13-23

Hey everybody, welcome, here we go. It is that time again, Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on cong Pass ninety seven if you're in Manchester, and hello to all of our online listeners across an Asia and around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact infolk show archives, etc. Etc. Today is Thursday July thirteen, twenty twenty three, so nice to have you all with me.

By the way, played a couple couple songs there to open the show today. We started with bleed Lines, the single from our friends in the band sepsis. Part of why I played that is they've got a brand new video and in fact, if you happen to be in Facebook in the chat room, Jenny shared the link they've just released. Actually it went up last night on YouTube. The brand new video from sepsis for the song bleed Lines. It's really cool features the brand new lineup of the band, so I recommend checking that out.

And I really like that song A lot, so I figured i'd play that today and it's a good excuse to let everybody know about the new video. And of course I also played don't Cha, a little bit of garage rock from our friend grim Rock, who joined us yesterday on the show for the world radio premiere of his new single Don't Cha. He is from the great state of Pennsylvania and he's by the way, he's been doing a lot. If he's listening, thank you. He's been doing a lot for a lot to really kind of promote the show and his appearance on the show yesterday, and he's got a lot of people talking about it on Twitter, which is really cool.

So we appreciate that very very much. Tomorrow on the show, we've got a busy show. Tomorrow we have, of course Eric Pilch's classic film review and this week the subject is National Lampoon's Vacation, very appropriate of course for the summertime. And then at five pm tomorrow we're going to be joined by Dave Wally And this is kind of a special one for me because Dave and I went to high school together and I've always had a tremendous respect for him. Not only is he a great guy, but a very talented musician, and so he's got this band, Satellite Union, really really good.

So he's going to be skyping in from Chicago. That's where Dave is and that's where the band is based. I spent a lot of time in Chicago as a kid because when I was when I was a wee lad, a young urchin. Uh, you know, when my parents split up, my mom ended up moving back to Chicago, where she where she was from originally, so every summer I would get to spend spend the summers out there with her. So I know that city pretty well myself. But oh, I haven't been there in a while, I'll admit, but it'll be it'll be really cool to talk to day of tomorrow and catch up with him.

So that will be tomorrow on the show. In fact, I might even, uh, at the top of the hour today, I might give a little sneak preview of a Satellite Union song. Not one of the ones that Dave sent me. I'm going to save those for tomorrow. But there's another Satellite Union song. I found online a video of a performance from twenty twenty two, and I said, oh, I really like this, So Melanie says, were you a crip or a blood No, no, not in not in Chicago, Melanie. You're thinking of back when I when I was in Compton, you know, Seetown, I was actually a member of both the Crips and the Bloods.

But uh, you know I was pretty thug. That was a different time, though. Boy. I'll tell you what if if you knew me back then, you'd be you'd be afraid. You'd be afraid of me anyway. Uh, six zo three two five O six ZO seven as a studio line six zo three two five O six Z seven. I'm never quite sure how to go with that. That's an old joke. I'm never quite sure how far to go with it. I don't go as far with it as I used to. Um, it's different, different times. Six zo three two five six Z seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six.

I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com. And of course you can interact endo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the melody's making me laugh in the chat room. But the best thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call at six zoo three two five zero six zero seven. Speaking of dulcet tones, we have a little bit of a mystery um. Usually on Thursday afternoons, we are joined via phone by our friend EASYG for his entertainment report.

However, I realized today that I haven't heard from him. And usually I hear from him in advance of his entertainment report because he typically has a song request that he would like me to play at the end of his entertainment report. It's usually something by either Amanda McCarthy, Katie Dobbins or April Cushman, one of those three, because those are the three entertainers he speaks about during his entertainment report. It's really the it's really more of an Amanda McCarthy, Katie Dobbins, April Cushman report, to be very precise about it.

But I realized today, and I was saying to Jenny earlier, you know, I haven't heard from I haven't heard from EASYG. So we'll see if he calls at four fifteen, but I don't know, and I don't see him in the chat room either, So hopefully everything's okay. If we don't hear from him, he'd does have I was. I ran into Kyle Heavy earlier. Of course, Kyle part of the W M and H family. He ows his own show called Off the Mark Sports on Sundays from I believe it's ten am to noon. But Kyle and I were talking earlier, just stob briefly, and I said that Jenny's saying Eric Agnet, Yes, easyg Eric Agnet.

I was saying, you know, Easy has a He has a little bit of a history of disappearing for for months at a time. So I don't know. I don't know, So we'll see, we'll see if we hear from him. But we'll go ahead and say a load everybody on the Facebook live chat, and we do have some something to get into. There's a particular a news item that I think is being somewhat underreported. Shall we say that we're gonna get into today, But yes, I did mention. Melanie is in the chat room. And by the way, Melanie, I hope everything is good where you are.

Also, Jay Fed joins us in the chat as well and says, good afternoon everyone, Good afternoon, j Fed. My thoughts are with the two of you. Of course you are in Vermont and Vermont areas of Vermont, I mean the pictures. I'd seen something Melanie had posted on Facebook, and it's been in the news, of course that the terrible torrential downpours of rain that left that area flooded. And to see the flooding in mont Pelier is. I saw one news report that said it's actually worse than when Hurricane Irene had hit.

So it's pretty bad there. So I hope every hope everything's okay. I hope you're both all right. It sounds like you are, but boy, hopefully that that water recedes soon. And I did even hear something about another storm system is moving in, so our thoughts are with you there and everyone in the great state of Vermont. Jenny of course is in the chatroom and says shalom peeps, and she did. She did share a link, like I said, to the new video from Sepsis for the track bleed Lines, really great great song.

Eric Street joins us in the chat and says, I thought Kyle could be the new entertainment reporter since he sat at the desk the other day. Ah. Yes, Kyle Clayton of the morning show. It was great to see him. He hadn't been on the show in quite some time, but he came in the other day because we had the try Combs here and he's really close friends with Ian from the try Combs. And it turns out they had been in a band together back in the day, which I meant to look up online. I wanted to find that band, and I there might not be anything available anyway online, but I am super curious.

But DJ Steve is in the Facebook live chat. Hello. DJ Steve of course joins us Friday Nights for Retro Spectrum Radio with Paul c every Friday night from eight to eleven pm here on WMNH. I have the honor and privilege of being one of Paul's co hosts on that show, along with DJ Steve and of course Mike from Queen City Cabinetry. Melanie says, Yep, governor is encouraging no one is on the roads after four pm today risk of flooding and extreme wins. It just saysn't stop, does it. I'm sorry to hear that.

Melanie and Saturn, who is from of course Greensboro, North Carolina, says, we say good afternoon, hashtag Matt yesterday hashtag Matt Connerton. We say that new force of the spark just comment to you yesterday. Alrighty, we are watching you from Greensboro, North Carolina. I suspect it as much, I have to say. I did kind of assume that that might be where you are watching us from. Oh I do see sepsis as is in the Facebook live chat. Hello, let me give the number again and then we're gonna get into something.

It's obviously EASYG is not called, so I guess he's probably disappeared once again. Oh, Melanie says, I think a virgin or two should be thrown into a volcano. You never know. It could work. Um, yes, um, it could, but we don't know. Is there an active volcano available to do that? Is? That would be my first question, just, you know, because we have to approach these things, uh from a pragmatic and practical standpoint. Oh my god, I just thought of something. What if something happened with e ZG And Bruce.

Maybe that's why I haven't heard from him. So let me give the studio line again and then we'll we'll get into uh. Oh, Rondo Favero joins us in the Facebook lift had all the way from California, She says Callie in the house.

Uh six three two five six z seven is a number six H three two five six zero seven. That is the studio line. Um, what I wanted to get into today. And uh I this is one of those things that it's not that the media is ignoring it. Sometimes when people talk about things that aren't getting what they feel is a significant amount of attention in the mainstream media, they'll say, oh, the mainstream media is ignoring this story. You hear that a lot, and it's like, well, no, the mainstream media is not ignoring it.

I knew about that, and the reason I knew about it is from the mainstream media. But this is a particular item that I think is being not covered enough, and I'm a bit alarmed by by what is happening. And it involves foreign policy. Obviously, in the times that we live in, when we talk about foreign policy, the first thing that people think about and discuss is of course Russia and the invasion of Ukraine and NATO, and it's been a pretty big week on that front. Of course, the announcement being made at the G seven that Ukraine will be joining NATO in the future, not until after the current war is over, you know.

So we talk about that, and we talk about the the decision by the Biden administration to give Ukraine cluster bombs to use, which is very controversial. They're taking a lot of criticism from that, to a large degree, from his own party, Biden's own party, the Democrats. A lot of Democrats are criticizing him for it. I actually agree with the decision. I think it's necessary to do, but I understand it's, as we say, it's something upon which reasonable people can disagree. So there's been a lot of news lately, but there's something that is connected with all of this that is not getting talked about that much.

So again, it is being reported on. For example, if you go onto the Google and you type in Cuba, Russia, China, you will in fact find search results on mainstream media outlets. Oh hello to Dylan Reynolds who joins us in the Facebook live chat. It's been a great musicians. So you will find stories. The mainstream media is covering this. But again, you know, at any given time, there's only so much oxygen. Yeah, because there's only so much time you have in a newscast and on these shows. And

but you'll notice again I mentioned Russia, China, and Cuba. So we talk a lot about Russia these days. Obviously when we talk a lot about China, we're always talking a lot about China. We don't talk much about Cuba. Now, why is that? Well, just not much to say about Cuba, right, Well, here's the problem. Actually there is, and this is the part that I think is being not discussed enough. What's happening right now with Cuba. And I'm pretty bothered and I'm upset that this is happening. And I'm going to explain you in some detail in a moment, but it's these current conditions were avoidable, and there's a significant amount of blame to go around, and the blame that I will be assigning today for the current situation, as I see it, will be bipartisan in nature.

I can assure you of that. But the problem is, and if you saw my post on social media earlier, you might have an idea of where I'm going with this and why I'm thinking about Cuba. Two things. So, China has been really cozying up to Cuba, and they seem to be developing quite a relationship, and China seems to be using Cuba to spy on the United States, or that seems to be their intention. At least Cuba not too far. I don't remember offhand how many miles it is off off of the coast of Florida, but you know, Cuba's not far, not far at all.

Uh. Strategically, if you are an enemy of the United States, and we have seen this in history, if you are an enemy of the United States, if you can somehow get yourself set up in Cuba where you can do things like spy on the United States because of the close proximity of Cuba where you can spy on the United States, well you're you're you're in a pretty good position there. That's a that's a good thing for you to have, right Or if you're in an if you're an enemy of the United States and you would like to well it's been a long time since we've used a phrase like this, but if you're an enemy of the United States and you would like to potentially be able to launch a first strike in a nuclear standoff on the United States, boy, having some having some missiles in Cuba would sure media or advantage wouldn't it.

Kruschev certainly thought so, and Kruschev is long gone. But well, we'll get to that. By the way, though, before I go any further, I want to alarm anybody. There's no I'm not saying that they're actively putting, once again, putting nuclear weapons in Cuba to hit the United States. I'm not saying that. No, no, no, Just to be clear, no, no one is reporting that, nothing like that. But I'm concerned because so not only is Cuba getting very cozy with China, but we seem to have a rekindling of an of an old relationships, shall we say, with Cuba and Russia, and in fact a navy Russia just sent one of their navy ships to Cuba, and Russia is helping them out with their oil situation.

Apparently Cuba needs oil, and so we seem to be we seem to be seeing a great strengthening of that relationship, a restrengthening of that relationship. That's a big problem. We'll get into more details, but just looking at it in a broad sense, we don't need our two greatest adversaries in the world, China and Russia, to be having a strategic relationship with Cuba, the island that is not far from the coast of Florida. This is a problem. And again, this is something that I think is going largely unnoticed.

It's not that it's not being reported. Obviously, how did I know about it if it's not being reported. It is, but I think it's a bigger problem. I think it's a bigger danger than people might realize. And I'm a little bit frustrated that it's not getting more attention because I would like to know what the Biden administration is doing about this, and I'm not getting any particular impression that they're doing much now in terms of blame, I said, the blame is bipartisan. Well, here it is. And we'll again we'll get into some more details about it, but just speaking about it broadly.

So the Obama administration, and we'll go through the timeline in a moment, but just just broad strokes to start. So, the Obama administration really tried to sort of normalize relations and really sort of an outreach program with Cuba, involving, in fact, not without a lot of controversy and criticism, but President Obama at the time actually going and visiting Cuba. When was that in twenties, toward the end of his presidency. We'll look at the timeline, but actually, some really cool pictures that came out of that.

Actually, it was pretty amazing to see President Obama on the streets of Havana or Havannah, depending on how you say it. How does Urge Overkill say it. In that song they say sister Havana, I think they say Havanah.

And I supported that. Again, I understood some of the criticism, but I supported it because I felt that strategically, again, we want to doesn't mean we have to like them and buy them. I mean, I don't mean anything against the Cuban people, not at all, not whatsoever. But it doesn't mean we have to like Castro. Of course, Fidel Castro is dead and he was replaced by Raoul Castro. And you know, people get people got very uneasy about images of Obama hanging out with Castro at a baseball game, and you know, these are things that really bothered some people.

But I felt at the time, from a practical and a pragmatic standpoint, it made sense and it was probably long overdue, to be honest with you,

and I thought so because the Cuban missile crisis, even though it happened before I was even alive, which I'm really glad about. I would not have wanted to live through that because well, we'll get to that, but but I thought it made sense. Unfortunately, and here's where the blame starts. After Obama, Trump administration comes in, predictably, they start trying to undo much of what Obama did. And you know, historically, you see that that's not that unusual, right when a new president comes in who's a different party, of a different party than the previous president, they try to undo a lot of things that the previous president did, so not surprising in that sense.

But one of the things that the Trump administration immediately undid was

most of the if not all, of the progress and goodwill and all of it that this new relationship that Obama had established with Cuba. They Trump came in and they basically undid it all. So back to square one there. And then the Biden administration came in, and I remember at the time thinking, you know, hopefully they can reset things with Cuba. That would be wonderful because I thought that what the Obama administration did was very positive. Nope, the Biden administration came in, and they did actually try to reinstate some of the Obama era policy, but I'd say overall a pretty meek and meager attempt at it.

I understand coming in they had their hands full with the pandemic and this and that. But you know, I would kind of think that once Russia started indicating that they were about to because it wasn't a huge shock when they invaded Ukraine. It was looking like it was going to happen months before it did. You know, you would think it might occur to somebody, Hey, Russia's really getting out of control here. Maybe we need to make sure that things are stable with Cuba so that the Russians don't try to try to rekindle that relationship with Cuba because it seems like we're about to be at odds with Russia.

But no, the Biden administration didn't do a whole hell of a lot in terms of that. So there's plenty of blame to go around. And some of you might think, Matt, is this really a big deal. Why are you so concerned about Cuba. You're overreacting,

It's not really a priority. Well, you know, if you know anything about the Cuban missile crisis. Some people thought that too back in during the JFK administration, nobody cares about Cuba. What do we care about Cuba? Yeah, nobody cared about Cuba until there were images aerial photography of the Russians installing nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba, and all of a sudden, everybody cared a whole hell of a lot about Cuba. Now, part of why I might be a little extra sensitive to this is so I wasn't alive when the Cuban missile crisis happened.

And again I'm very glad for that, because that would have been something frightening to live through. I especially probably would not have handled it particularly well. Oh hello to Amiriam Banish in the chat room. I would have been pretty freaked out because I grew up growing up in the eighties, you know, I grew up with obsession is too strong a word, but an unhealthy preoccupation, shall we say, with the threat of nuclear war. I was very worried, and I did let it. I expended a lot of mental energy on it.

I'm worrying about it.

Some of that is human nature. We all tend to worry to varying degrees about things that we can't control. That was my big thing growing up. And my dad, who you know, he listens to the show. I mean, he can attest to that. I remember having conversations with him about it, with my mother about it, with my stepmother about it.

It was it was something that was on my mind a lot more than it should have been. This may be part of why I was so um. I've always been so fascinated by you know, obviously I love history, but if you were to ask me, is there a particular aspect of history that I'm you know, sort of that I find more interesting than any others? You know, anything Cold War related is really interesting to me. I'm fascinated by anything related to the Cold War. And if I were to pick a particular point during the Cold War that I'm especially fascinated by, it's the Cuban missile crisis.

I'll read any book, watch any documentary, you know, whatever it is about. The Cuban missile crisis just absolutely a fascinating moment in history to me. And thank god JFK was there to get us through that, and he had some really good people around him. He also had some people who maybe didn't have the best judgment, but fortunately their voices were not ultimately the ones that JFK chose to listen to. That's why you might have heard me say it on the show. Whenever I hear somebody start talking about, Oh, we need to be doing so much more, and we need to get NATO right in there and confront Russia directly, and we need to send in American troops and push rush out.

You know, I hear people say some things that I think sound completely irrational and insane and potentially self destructive and armageddon inducing. I'll often refer to that as Curtis LeMay syndrome. And if you know anything about the Cuban missile crisis, and you know who General Curtis LeMay was, he was probably the number one guy who was in Kennedy Zier telling him, Hey, look, let's let's just do this. Let's just go and start bombing. We gotta bomb Cuba, we got to take out those missiles. Let's just do it now.

We're not gonna We shouldn't be waiting for them to uh, you know, we shouldn't be doing all this back channel negotiation and whatnot. We should just go in and let's let's hit him. And Kennedy said, well, if we do that, how are they going to respond? And by the way, Dean Atchison said at the time, well, what they will probably do is they will probably confront us in UH, in Germany and UM and then it just escalates from there, the point being it would ultimately ask scalate in a nuclear exchange and that would be it.

None of us would be sitting here. So but yeah, you know, General LeMay was you know, and I'm sure he was a good man, but he was like, yeah, let's just because he told Kennedy he doesn't think that they will respond, because if they respond, then things will escalate and we know where it ends up. So but he was just itching. LeMay was itching to go in, and thank god Kennedy was, you know. And Bob McNamara too, who, of course is takes an incredible criticism for his role in the Vietnam War, criticism that I think is warranted.

And if there's a great documentary about McNamara called Fog of War where he's interviewed throughout the documentary and it's really good and really compelling. You should see it. If you haven't. I highly recommend it. But McNamara was one of the cooler heads again during the Cuban missile crisis who helped get us through that. So McNamara deserves credit too for his role there, not for his role in Vietnam however, in my view, that's my opinion.

But um, we obviously were caught off guard by what was happening in Cuba and the fact that those missiles were being put in and you know, JFK and his administration got us through that. But a lesson that obviously, some people did learn from it because we've been warned about this over the decades. We've been warned about this by some people who've said, you know, we might want to do something about strengthening our relationship with Cuba, even though Fidel Castro and again he died and then was replaced by Raoul Sroin, even though Castro is a bad guy, and we don't ever want to look like we're from a human rights perspective, we don't ever want to look like we're approving of anything going on there.

But you know, we have an embassy there obviously, but we might want to be making a little extra effort to keep things very copasetic with Cuba, because if we don't, someone else may come in. The Russians may come back, or China might come in and fill that void that we're not filling, and we're not showing any interests or inclination to ever compromise. Not compromise, but but you know, in terms of lifting some trade restrictions or whatever it may be, you know, maybe some sort of an olive branch needs to be extended to keep history from repeating itself as history often will.

And I'm worried that that's where we're ending up now. Chris Porrior was also known as Crispy, a comedian. He says, we need to stop the posturing by Russia and China, and if Trump was still in he just would have handed handed us over and still might if Trump if Trump's are elected. Oh do you mean Ukraine handing Ukraine over? Well? Trump has said that he could have that solved within twenty four hours, but the problem is we all know what that means. Well, how would you possibly just have that solved in twenty four hours.

There's only one way you could do it. You could tell putin you can have it, and that's it. Trump was never a fan of NATO to begin with,

which means if he gets elected in twenty twenty four, he might then have to deal with the reality that Ukraine is at that point now a part of NATO. If if the war is even over by the which I'm actually skeptical that it will be. I think it's going to drag on, potentially for years. I really do. I don't see any evidence of the contrary, but that's that's me. Melanie says, I have a preoccupation with the Dead Rising since watching Night of the Living Dead in the third grade. Yes, I can understand that.

You know, what film I did see when I was a kid was not in the third grade, certainly, but um,

I was pretty young actually the day after, and I remember a conversation my dad probably will remember this too, a conversation with him and my stepmother about whether or not to let me watch it. But I'd say it's a good film. But it's weird to say it's a good film considering what the subject matter is. I mean, it's frightening, but I don't think it. I don't think it did any harm seeing it because I was already so preoccupied with nuclear war. What you know, I don't think it made me any more afraid.

Certainly didn't make me any less afraid either. I think it was a wash. And Saturn says, in the chat room, Trump Trump, Trump, We say, Melanie says, true story. I've always mapped out at least two escape routes to escape zombies everywhere I have ever lived. Well, that's very m That's like a survivalism, except instead of planning to go into an underground bunker, you plan to escape your You plan your escape from zombies. And Saturn says, Trump just got something going on. We say, we ain't going to like it.

We said, all right, Melanie says. My therapist says, I'm doing much better. I'm just kidding. She doesn't say that. Roni Favero says, the day after gave me nightmares. Yeah. See, in my case, I was already having those nightmares. So I don't I don't think it much mattered. But so the point is, the broad point is, and then we'll get into some some of the details on what is happening right now with Cuba. This is being overlooked to a large degree, and I'm very concerned. Let's well, let's look at China first.

We've got a couple of things on this. Oh you know what this is from the Hill dot com. Now this is actually this is an opinion piece written by Arturo mcfield's who writes for the He writes a national security column, an opinion column for The Hill. Let's see what he has to say about this. For the last sixty four years, the Cuban dictatorship has been one of the main threats to democracy in Latin America into the security of the US. Since the nineteen sixty two Cuban missile crisis, following the Russian spy based establish in lords the Bejucal I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly facility, and finally, with the twenty nineteen chapter involving Chinese espionage, Havana's regime has continued to open its stores to America's most dangerous geopolitical enemies.

In nineteen sixty Cuba became the first country in Latin America to establish diplomatic relations with Communist China. Since then, political, military, and economic exchanges have been increasing, particularly since the fall of the Soviet Union. Last November, China approved one hundred million dollars to rescue Cuba from itself inflicted economic collapse. By the way, I didn't see. I didn't even realize that. That totally got past me. I did not know that. I knew that Cuba had a diplomatic relationship with China going back to the sixties.

I did not realize this though, about the one hundred million dollars rescue package that China had approved for Cuba. That completely got past me. Oh, hello to Greg Joseph in the Facebook live chat, he says, sending love and respect for the work you are doing educating the people. Thanks a million, thank you. Yes. Greg Joseph, of course from Clemento's another one of our great sponsors here at WMH ninety five point three, and he's a frequent contributor on the Morning Show as well. I love hearing Greg on the Morning Show.

He's got he's got kind of an understated sense of humor that I find very funny. Says here last November. Okay, so we covered that. Okay. So, although Havana and Beijing have maintained a spy base since twenty nineteen, and by the way, I didn't know that either. I didn't realize that either. I thought that that was a more recent development, but it's not. Intelligence cooperation between the two countries has continued above and beyond that. According to the Wall Street Journal, the two regimes are negotiating the establishment of a joint military training base on the island, just one hundred miles away from the Florida coast.

Yeah, that's not good. That's really not good.

The US has also reported the activities of the Chinese cele communications giants Huawei and Zte in the same area where the spy base is supposed to be located. This century, the Castro dictatorship and its progeny have helped forge and maintain the current dictatorships of Venezuela and Nicaragua, both politically and militarily. Cuban advisors are present in these two countries to pull the strings, offering intelligence support and training to their policies. I'm sorry to their police and armies.

Cuba also maintains a close political and ideological relationship with leftist presidents in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Brazil and Mexico have supported the Cuban medical brigades, considered a model of modern slavery. According to the human rights organization Prisoners Defenders. The regime keeps ninety four of the salaries received by fifty thousand doctors in different parts of the world. Yeah, I've read. I've read some about that.

We have a Oh thought we had a call? Do we have a call? Nope? Go Yeah, I've read some about that. And by the way, it's things like that that I understand make it difficult, make it difficult for us to extend that olive branch. I understand that. But I just wish if I could turn back time to quote share that we could have at least maintained that sort of normalization of a relationship that the Obama administration had established, because I cannot help. But wonder had that not continued, even if it didn't necessarily progress, but just continued, Maybe, just maybe in the year of twenty twenty three, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about the Chinese having a military base on an island one hundred miles off the coast of Florida.

Maybe it says here. Since the early days of the Cuban Revolution and the Missile Crisis, Russia has been the main military partner of Cuba's regime. Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shogu met with his Cuban counterpart, Alvero Lopez Miera. After the abort of rebellion by Wagner mercenaries in Russia, Putin has reportedly looked to Cuba for more soldiers to continue his war of aggression against Ukraine. According to prisoners defenders, Russia and Cuba have reached an agreement that would send Cuban soldiers to Ukraine, paying each of them two thousand dollars per month, but the island's dictatorship would naturally keep between seventy five percent to ninety five of their income, since this is how dictatorship's work.

While China advances its commercial relationships in Latin America, seizing key industries such as lithium, copper, and telecommunications, Cuba has an extensive political and ideological network throughout Latin America and even in the US through the Salpolo Forum and the so called Solidarity Networks. Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and Congressman Michael McCall, Republican of Texas are calling on the Biden administration to give a classified briefing regarding the reported Chinese spy facility in Cuba.

Okay, well thank you Senator Bob Menendez and Congressman Michael McCall. I'm glad that somebody in the government is paying attention, and I would support them in that. I would hope that the Biden administration will give them that briefing. Giving the political, economic, and security threat posed by Cuba and China, a comprehensive response is urgently needed. Partnerships with other democratic nations in Latin America should be strengthened, both in the field of security and in commercial matters.

It would be a very big mistake to neglect such hemispheric threats or underestimate the dangerous strategies of such regimes as Cuba, China and Russia. So that's the opinion piece on the hill. And let's also look at this. Let's continue on the China portion of this, and we'll get to the Russian part, probably in the second hour. This is a big topic, obviously, so we will continue. Actually, no, I think change change of plans. All right, let's look at this. We'll go ahead and get to the Russia part.

Here. Um, this is from the Havanah Times. This is from right out of Cuba, right out of Cuba media. Here it's an article titled relaunching relations between Cuba and Russia. Just that phrase gives me a chill. Um. Let's see

Cuba and Cuba and Russia have announced plans to strengthen their economic and trade relations, but experts doubt that they can achieve a new bilateral golden age, and they glimpse geopolitical interests in difficult times for both countries. This week, the Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero is in Russia for the Eurasian inter Governmental Council in the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, while the opposition warns of a new Russification quote unquote. The visit, the last after those of several ministers and President mcguel diaz Canal himself last November, comes shortly after Havana announced preferential treatment for Russian investors from transfers of agricultural land for thirty years to tax exemptions.

These measures complete a flight of announcements, including the entry of three Russian ruble banks on the island and the presentation of a package of reforms. This kind of gets into the weeds a little more than I want to. You know what, I never liked the Havana Times anyway, I'm kidding, I've never had any opinion. I do want to look at the timeline though, and then probably in the second hour, we'll get more into the Russia part of this, with um, the Russians now supplying oil to Cuba. But there's a great this is from CFI dot org Council on Foreign Relations dot org.

It's a timeline of US Cuba relations and it's pretty pretty informative. But where I want to actually pick this up is twenty eleven to twenty thirteen, and we'll go forward from there because I want to look at again, Um,

well, we could go back. We actually could go back to nineteen sixty two. Now maybe we should actually, now you know what, we should go back to nineteen Let's go back to nineteen sixty growing antagonism between the United States and Russia. I mean, I'm sorry, the United States in Cuba.

Just just we'll kind of speed through part of this. But I want to get to because ultimately where I want to end up is U when you know, we had an opportunity to really kind of improve things long term and then we didn't. But we have a call. Hi, Welcome to Matt Connerton. Unleash. Who is this? Oh knee, how mom, Matt oh Bosha? Ridley pancha bhaja? Uh? Is that Cantonese? What is that? Oh? That's Mandarin. I just think I'm Ridley, but I'm a beginner, Ridley. I I yes, I'm sorry, Dave Ridley. You know I often, uh, this is a failing of mine.

I often get Cantonese and Mandarin confused. Yeah. I don't really know much of anything about Cantonese. In fact, I don't really understand. You know, whenever you search, like when I if you want to say so much, well, what happens is when you try to figure out what you're speaking or what you're listening to, it will tell you that you're speaking Chinese or you're here you're listening to Chinese, and then it called it Chinese simplified in Chinese traditional. I know that Chinese traditional as Mandarin, but I don't know what the difference is between Cantonese and Chinese simplified.

Do you uh? You know? I actually I do know, but it's just too much to get into here. Yeah. Well, anyway, I'm just gonna say I told Cold War two, Cold War two point zero, I don't know how to say that in Mandarin. I have no idea. Ah, yes, yes, I go ahead, Dave, I am surious, serir thoughts. Well, yeah, so this is really tough. You know. Look from a pro freedom standpoint, if you look at the history of the First Cold War, the United States was more of a pro freedom place than the Soviet Union was. But in finding the Soviet Union, it eviscerated some of its own freedoms and we haven't gotten those backs yet.

In addition, obviously it committed a lot of abuses in in beating the Soviet Union. Does that make sense?

Say it again, Dave, I just, I just I'm not sure I've quite followed all of it. I definitely got part of it. But yeah, say it again if you would. I guess what I'm trying I guess what I'm trying to say is what's happened before is what will happen again. The US will be more pro freedom than China, but it will lose some of its freedoms in fighting China. Does that make sense? The US will lose some of our freedoms in fighting China. Yeah, just the way we lost some of our freedoms in fighting the Nazis and then fighting the Soviets and we never get them back.

Can you expand on that, because I'm actually not sure exactly what you mean. Well, I hope I'm not starting to drift off topic here. But just for example, the reason we have income tax withholding is because they started withholding income taxes to paper World War two, because its temporary wartime measures that's been in effect since I think nineteen forty two, So we can expect that kind of thing to happen again in fighting this actual legitimate threat from China. It's just it's gonna they're gonna use that as an excuse to take our freedoms away here.

But do you think that it's Some people think it's inevitable. I actually don't call me an optimist. I think there are a lot of reasons to believe that it's actually not inevitable war with China. But do you think that it is because you sound like you're pretty concerned. Well, yeah, I mean cold war is inevitable and we're already in one. Yes, but there are solutions. They're all kinds of solutions. It don't cost taxpayers a dime, and the government wants to cover those up. They don't want anyone talking about it, and no one does talk about it, it seems like, and that the obvious one is just to let us defend ourselves.

They've got the American people so twisted into not over what guns they can even own, and and all the permissions they have to get to own a gun or to carry a gun, and so for some you know, that just all needs to go away, and then we don't have to worry about having this expensive, federally funded centralized defense. So you're not interested in So I assume you're not interested in defending Taiwan if it comes to that, Well, anyone who wants to help defend Taiwan should have the full moral support of the federal government.

I think they shouldn't. They should, you know, that should probably be encouraged. But people, there's no it's not right to steal from taxpayers to send the money off to Taiwan. It's just it's not right for the federal government to centralize the process of defending Taiwan. It's something to be done by individuals, companies, organizations, militias, that sort of thing. Yeah, well, I understand what you're saying, but it's not that's never going to be the reality of how any of this works, so well as not as long as the federal government is monopolizing defense, right, which is what I mean by that's not ever going to be the reality of how any of this works, because that's never going to change.

What's the reality of how it works in Switzerland. But this ain't Switzerland, and it's never going to be. That's the whole point, and that's why we have these problems. Right. Switzerland is not having these problems with China. And by the way, either is Closta Rica, which has no military at all and no and no allies. But when you say are problems with China, what do you mean exactly? Because when I think of problems with China, I think about things like them. See you know, they seel our intellectual property, they spy on us.

They Um, I mean, what do you what do you mean by problems with China?

Well, I'm more concerned about their interference with free speech in America, which it's not very intense yet, but there have definitely been some high profile cases where they interfered with people's ability to speak against their government, even though they're like Anglo Americans living in America or African Americans living in America. They have nothing to do with China except opening and closing their mouths in criticism of its government. Are you talking about those? Uh? Well, give me an example.

Well, it wasn't there an NBA guy who made some pro Taiwan statement or made pro Hong Kong statement or something that he was forced to retract it, right, right? I somewhat remember that, Yes, yeah, And there was also I think, well there's an NBA official who was forced to do that, or I think there was also a player, and you know, we're there's there was also that example of the there was a student in Australia who just led this really minor, like twelve person sign wave in support of Hong Kong or something like that at university.

And he was he was such a small event and such an unimportant thing. I don't even think he was on time to his own protests, right, It was just almost a non event. And suddenly, out of the blue, these these goons show up and start beating up the protesters, like the the you know, the the twelve point five you know, twenty year olds holding a little sign. And it turned out in the Beijing embassy got involved in the university ejected the young man who organized up the sign wave instead of coming after the people who beat him up for no particular reason.

This is all videotaped. They ejected the student because the university was bought by the bought and paid for essentially by the Chinese government. And so that's just an example of how free speech is interfered with closer to China, and they're they're expanding their interference with free speech to the US. UM. I do remember you talking about that story with the protester and getting beaten up, and uh, pretty wild. Um

well, I mean, you know, the reality is that there's a larger reality and part of this is part of why I don't think war is inevitable. Uh particularly but um, we are so economically interlocked with China. Um. I think probably more than a lot of people realize. Um, So there's no it's not like it's not like our relationship with Russia, for example, where we can just say, well, you know, screw you, we don't want your oil, you know, we being NATO, I guess, um. But with China, it's it's very very complicated and and we're very economically dependent on each other, and the Chinese are much more economically dependent on the United States.

And I think people realize too, some people I heard. I heard one analyst saying that, you know, people think of China as like, you know, like like the US is six feet tall and China is like ten feet tall, and it's really the other way around. But um so, I don't know what the solution is. They're always They're always going to have influence here. Dave, Are you the one who originally brought up the the Chinese police stations operating in the United States? Was that you they're not well the ones I was talking about, or not police station, you were talking about the Confucius Confucius Center.

That's right, the Confucius centers. Okay, it was my dad who brought up the police stations. Yeah, that that really shocked me. But um so, what's what what's the answer, Dave? If realistically, now I understand what you would like to happen, but realistically, knowing that we are economically interdependent, and knowing that, uh, you know that the situation is what it isn't terms of the federal government controlling defense, what what do you think should happen?

Well? The realistic thing to hope for is that the United States government does not make any new steps to limit gun rights. Right, so just make sure making sure that Americans maintain at least what rights they still have in terms of the ability to defend themselves. That would probably be the realistic thing to hope for. Um. Well, that's the that's not going to change. I mean, you know, we're not going to continue We're we're not going to not have gun rights. Uh, certainly, even even if they are somewhat more regulated.

But um, but I don't think that has any effect on our foreign policy with China. I mean it doesn't. Well it's it should you know, the gun gun rights are a key element of any sort of domestic defense. Oh, domestic. Yes, that this is the reason why this is the reason why Ukraine was invaded was because they didn't There's a key reason. I think it was a deciding factor was if there were not enough guns in the hands of civilians. Seven seven guns civilians. Yeah, in New Hampshire. It's in New Hampshire.

It's one hundred and twenty guns for hundred civilians. You can't imagine that that doesn't have a big impact on the decision of anyone to invade. I understand, Dave. I think I think we might have been talking about two different things because I'm not I'm not talking about invasion. I'm talking about a war with China. But I'm not. I'm not talking about China trying to invade the United States. I can't imagine any circumstance under which that would happen. That would be uh. I understand their long term planners.

You know, they've got fifty year plans, one hundred year plans and whatnot. But I don't think they're planning to invade the US. I'm not. I'm not when I talk that's yeah, go ahead. That's the reason. That's a reason why they're not planning on hitting the United States. They would be able to do something like that in certain there'd be certain circumstances where they could if United States people didn't have gun freedom. Does that make sense? I disagree with you there. I mean, I'm pros I'm pro two A and I support gun freedom.

But um, we've got quite the nuclear arsenal. So even if even if we were to do something like what Australia did and confiscate guns, we've still got a whole lot of nukes, So I don't think China would be I don't think anyone would be interested in invading the United States. I think if if we were to get into some sort of a war with China, it would be over Taiwan. It wouldn't be the Chinese coming to American soil. Yeah, but just just bear in mind how how much it frees up the US military for individuals in the United States that we've kind of got their back here right Like the United States military could they could send all the US military out of the United States if they want wanted to.

Every last soldier could be sent away from the United States and it would still be able to defend itself because of the gun freedom and the large number of firearms. Does that make sense? That does no? I understand what you're saying logically. Mike from Queen City Cabinetry points out in the chat room, they would be too tired to fight from swimming all that way. That's a good point. I don't know how many boats they have. I know they've got a huge army, because you know, it's a lot of they don't have.

I think India now has the largest global population. If I'm not mistaken. I think China's second. Is that correct? Do you know, Dave? Actually, I don't know if India history pasted him yet. I think India has, but I could be wrong. Okay, Now what about so what about Cuba? Any any thoughts there? Well, I'm not sure exactly what you know should be done. Just as long as it's not an act of aggression, go for it. Anything it's not an active aggression, It's fine to do against this Chinese base or against the government of Cuba or anyone else.

The problem is if the federal government is taking action against some base in Cuba using your tax dollars, that's an active aggression against you. Yeah, well, I know you and I see that differently, both in a broader sense, and I would say, more specifically, if if something is being done using my tax dollars and to protect to protect me, and you might say, well, how is it the government's job to decide for me? What is it or is not in the best interests in terms of my protection? I understand, But but I guess what I'm thinking about and what I've been taught about today really is I just wish that that this wasn't even on the table in terms of China potentially having I mean, I guess it hasn't happened yet, but potentially even having a base in Cuba, because I wish that we had continued the Obama administration policy with Cuba where we were kind of trying to normalize relations and get things to a more positive place where someone like China or Russia would not come in and kind of fill that vacuum, you know what I mean.

Yeah, Well, but again, it's also important to keep things in perspective. Look how many military bases? Well, I don't know what you tell me, what is the number of military bases that the United States has within one hundred miles of China. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what that number is. I don't either, But the US has eight hundred military bases overseas and constantly putting military bases right X two countries that it's hostile towards. Right, there's that saying. You know, you know, obviously Iran is the aggressor because look how close they put their country to our eight hundred military bases.

Right. I understand your point, Dave, I do um, But again, I just I think back to um I don't know how much of the show you heard earlier, but I talked a lot about the Cuban the Cuban missile crisis earlier. And um, when you're talking about putting, when we're talking about a Chinese base one hundred miles off the coast of Florida, UM, I get very very concerned, and I just feel and that's I mean, that's how that's how China looks at Taiwan. They said, that's that's the American military base, you know, ninety I guess, about ninety miles off the coast of mainland China.

We don't have an actual base on Taiwan, do we, Well, not a big one. I don't think there's US troops there, but I don't think there's a de facto like official US MILITI. There's not an official US military base on the island of my knowledge. Yeah, I didn't think so that would be because I don't I don't think the Chinese would tolerate that. UM. I think if we tried to put an actual military base on Taiwan, UM, I do think it would be uh, that would be akin to actually them putting a military base on Cuba.

UM. But I'm very worried about that. Well, I'm sorry, oh I was saying, but I'm very worried about this go ahead. Well again, that's the other solution is for the Taiwanese government to stop taking its people's guns, and they have its situation as Taiwan is much worse than than the one in Ukraine was before the invasion in terms of in terms of guns freedom. You know, Ukrainians had seven guns per one hundred civilians and Taiwan has officially zero guns in the hands of civilians per hundred civilians.

So their government has brought their their bad defense on itself, their lack of defense on itself. I see, yeah, I didn't know that about Taiwan. It doesn't surprise me, but I didn't know that what the policy there was. And obviously the Thaiwan they do have a Taiwanese military, but it's it would be no um, no match for for for China. Uh, that's uh, that's for sure if they do ever decide to move on Taiwan. Well, what do you think about that? Do you think that's inevitable that the Chinese decide?

I know Ji Jingping has said it will happen, but he never says when, And again I remain cautiously optimistic that it won't. But what do you think do you think it's inevitable? No, I don't think it's inevitable. Uh. The Chinese revert they're sort of reverting to the reverting to totalitarian, isn't now. So that's going to start damning their economy and shutting down the progress that they made, So they will start following. Probably eventually this move will catch up with them, and it'll start affecting their technological lead wherever they have one, because you can't be totalitarian and have a you know, decisive technological lead, you can't maintain that.

I think I think it's going to start a rooting. I'm not sure, but that's what I hope will happen. Their economy, as pretty fragile as it is, they've did a horrendous job, as we all know, managing COVID, and uh, they're they're in a lot of they're in a lot of economic trouble right now, by the way, and I hope you'll take this as a compliment. Dave Rondo Ferverro in the chat room says, Uh, the guy on the phone sounds exactly like the back in the day talk show hosts Dick Cavett. And I never noticed it before until Ronda pointed it out.

But you do sound like Dick Cavett. Oh great, you're you know Dick Cavett. Right, Well, I saw just a couple episodes that I'm not very with him. My dad used to watch Dick cave It when I was a kid. He would he would watch him every night. And um, yeah, I like to have it. But you do sound like him. You do have a very similar voice, You're you you speak a little bit faster than he does. Dick cav It kind of um speaks a little more slowly, but but your your actual voice is h is very very close. Um, well, Dave, we're we're we're well past the top of the hour, so we should we should let you go and we we've got to get to a break.

Did you have anything to add? No? Thanks? Okay. Oh by the way, pork Fest that's already coming, gone right, yeah, I could bosh you just call him separately about all the Porkfest news. Well, now I'm curious did anything because when you had called before, you said there was some controversy about involving a couple of the speakers like RFKA didn't want any guns in the room, and some other guy was threatening to cause a problem if there were trans people or something. Did anything, Did anything happen the rf case thing went smoothly.

Carla Garrick, the president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence or the former president of it, was able to heckle him a little bit or something, or she jumped up and asked him a question about New Hampshire declaring independence and whether he would whether he would fight us militarily if we did that, right, and he answered kind of evasively, he said that he wants to bring people together. And the other thing that happened with regard to the guy that was the guy that was making threats against like he said, if there anyone tries to do a drag Queen story hour, I'm going to come get him, you know, or something.

He didn't sound like he was going to physically do something to them. Yeah, So this resulted in someone having like a transit story hour or whatnot. Uh. The guy who was making the threats, like this big speaker who was going to come in and like a paid speaker, I guess he just never like he never showed up. And I think he was like arrested them the week before the fork Fast or something like that, really, and I think it was an unrelated arrest. He was in an event or something like it. So I think he was in jail or something when when fork Fast happened, or that's my understanding.

So that's pretty dramatic, and there's other stuff that happened. But I should just call it in separately enlisted all. Yeah, I am. I am very curious to hear about it, so please, yeah, call call back soon about that. But do you do you know the identity of the person yet or or no? I feel like it's something like I just I never can say it correctly, but I'm just afraid I'll say the wrong name and implicate the wrong person. Yeah, I have it, I have it in my head, but I'm just afraid to say it. Is it a long name.

It's not. It's like a two syllable thing. Okay. I keep meaning to know that before I call you, and keep forgetting to look it up. I'm just super curious. I tried to find out myself. I just I looked online and I couldn't. I couldn't figure it out. But I'm just very I'm just very very curious. Well, all right, Dave, did you want to plug anything Ridley Report or an NH exit or anything before you go? All I've taken enough of your time, all right, Dave. Well, I do enjoy talking with you, and I appreciate the call.

Thanks, Matt, all right, you got it? Bye bye? All right. That is Dave Ridley from the Ridley Report and NH Exit. We will let's do this because yes we are late for Oh actually we have another call. Let's see. It looks like our friend Ron is on the line, so we always have time for Ron. Hey, Ron, Hey, Matt. I'll try to be brief. I've got kind of questions and thinks that I can, you know, take answers off the year. I'm sure I was misinterpreting what Dave was heading at with arming the civilians. Um, you know, wars are just fought conventionally, not by you know, a handguns and back guards.

But that's I think that would only cause anything. I think he knows it would only cause walm and good. Even if everybody, every family had guns, it would just cause Woma good he does. What I wanted to ask, so, is um with Cuba setting up, with China setting up a base in that sort of up only one hundred miles from my from from the US? What we would just talk about is that really matter? Because the United States has more nuclear vessels than anybody else, and like a large of quantities of nuclear vessels, So we kind of already have a base at sea anywhere any time between the air, between the carriers and the fighters and and all of the above.

So I don't know, it's just there's one hundred miles away be matter because well, you know what, what does that matter? You could get a plane in the year I'll kind of shoot down anything kind of rapidly from if they're only a hundred miles away. I mean, I don't know. I'm just saying this. We don't need to have a base that close because our basis are all over the seas between the submarines and everything else, right, you know. So, And the last thing I wanted to say was this wasn't even commented.

I wanted to ask Um, I hear all these countries you know where this one I wrote that just wore, and this one and this one and this one. But it is Japan falling all of us. I haven't heard much about Japan.

Yeah, I mean just this, Um, there was a dumb question. No, No, not at all. There was something about Japan recently. Actually, um, I forget what it was now, though I might look that up during the break. There was something. I mean, we don't hear a lot about Japan. You know, they don't go to war with anybody. Um, they do have nuclear weapons, but um, we don't hear a lot about Japan. But there was something recently foreign policy related that was important regarding Japan. And I can't remember what it is, but I will look it up.

Ron. I'm glad you asked about that because it was okay. And last pace, Yes, the sanctions that got imposed, do they affect I'm not saying US Japan. Are any of the sanctions that we have polls on these other places. Does that affect Japan's ability to get products and manufacture and create? I mean, I don't know. The sanctions would seem like they were doing good, but I don't hear anything about it anymore. Sanctions on who um, Oh my god, I'm nervous, and now you get me on this spot. Oh that's okay, I mean, yeah, go ahead.

No. Um, when Trump was in place, UM, sanctions were put in place against I wasn't as a freshet, I'd tell you, I don't know, just seem the next stanctions were pres it pulls everywhere and it was affecting everybody. Um have we and we've been listening the sanctions under Oh do you mean that? Do you mean the tariffs that were imposed on China? Because Trump was very big on having a trade war with China, and we thank you, thank you. Yeah, not not sanctions, but but tariffs and um, some of those I think a few of those have been rolled back under Biden, but most of those have remained in place from what I understand, which actually surprises me a little bit.

I thought more of those what would have been rolled back, but maybe because things are so tense with China, they're leaving them in place. But but yeah, there were those tariffs that Trump did put a lot of tariffs on China. All right, Matt, I h I really loved you show. I wish you could want it to lad Flock today. Me too, me too, But thank you, Ron, I appreciate it very much, and I appreciate the call. All right, buddy, all right, Ron, take care bye bye. All right, that was our friend Ron. Let's get to a break.

But Ron did ask a couple of very interesting questions that will address on the other side. But we'll get to a break. I'm gonna play a track from Where Did It Go? Oh? Here it is. I'm gonna play this song so tomorrow on the show. I'm very excited because in the second hour, we're gonna talk to my old friend from high school, Dave Wally, and he's got this band, Satellite Union, and we're gonna play. This is a performance, live performance of that I found on the website for his band, Satellite Union, and the website is Satellite Union music dot com.

Dave sent me some specific tracks to play, but I'm gonna save those for tomorrow. But I found this and I really like it. The name of the song is if You Don't Go and this is really really cool. So we're gonna play, and we're going to show some love to our amazing sponsors, and then we will be back with the balance of our program today and we'll answer those questions, those other questions that Ron had. Welcome back everybody, as we cruising our final segment today of Matt Connerton Unleashed, and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast ninety seven.

If you're in Manchester and hello to Oliver our online listeners across the nation and around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all your live streaming options, social media links, contact in folk show archives, etc. Etc. Today is Thursday, July thirteen, two thousand to twenty three, so nice to have you all with me. By the way, that song I played as a live performance of If You Don't Go from the band Satellite Union, and tomorrow on the show in the second hour, my friend Dave Wally will be skyping in all the way from the Windy City, Chicago to talk about the band, and Dave and I will get caught up.

We're old friends. I actually went to high school with Dave, so I'm really looking forward to this. Dave's a great guy and enormously talented, and he sent me some tracks for tomorrow. But I found that live performance online of that song and I said, you know what, I think I'm gonna play that today, kind of give everybody a little sneak peak. So that'll be tomorrow on the show. And of course we also have tomorrow because it will be Friday, Eric Pilcher's Classic film review and this week the subject is National Lampoon's Vacation, so that will be tomorrow as well.

So we have a busy, busy show tomorrow. But if you'd like to join us today, six ZO three two five six Z seven is a studio line six ZO three two five six seven. You can also text me at six I'm sorry six one seven. Uh see, I screwed myself up. Wow, I never do that. Six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I never screw up the phone number. Six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm all worried about this whole Cuba stuff. I'm distracted. Let's see. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton.

You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact and no pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that we can here and enjoy your dulse at Tones is to give us a call at six three two five H six Z seven. By the way, speaking of the Facebook lap chat, I see a new name in there. Lewis Tivee joins us in the chat. Hello, just uh and again just to follow up. Oh, and Joe Friday joins us in sus Aloha peeps, Aloha to you. Joe Friday. Ron had asked some questions during his when he called in earlier regarding Japan.

Mike from Queen City Cabinetry set in the chat room. I think it was either we were sending troops there to train their troops or we are having

our troops there. Yeah, we um. You don't hear Japan come up a lot in foreign policy discussions, but I do know that Japan gets very nervous about and we're not gonna get into this today in detail. We won't have time. But North Korea, of course constantly saber rattling every now and again, and sometimes I get concerned that it's becoming increasingly common, these test launches of missiles and shooting them right over Japan. And you know, Kim Jong un, we have to figure out how to contain him and control him, and that can just keeps getting kicked down the road, doesn't it.

But uh yeah, so Japan is always very nervous. Another thing that Ron had asked about, by the way, was what Dave Ridley was saying about guns. No, you you did not misunderstand him. Ron. What the argument that Dave was making. And this is something that you often hear. You'll hear Second Amendment activists say this, and you know, and I'm a I'm a pro Second Amendment guy. That's an issue where I tend to be more conservative. But of course we live in New Hampshire. Where you're in New Hampshire, we're one of the most heavily armed states in the entire country, but we're also one of the safest, interestingly enough, But you'll often hear activists say that part of the reason why the United States never gets invaded is because so many people here have guns.

So if anyone tried to invade the United States, there would be somebody hiding behind every bush with a gun waiting to shoot them. Now, the context that Dave Ridley was bringing that up in, though I thought, was a little again, I had to push back on it a little bit because I understood what he was saying. I understood his point but and it's not that he's wrong. From a logical standpoint, of course, it would be difficult to invade the United States because not only do we have the largest military in the world, exponentially larger than any other military, certainly with what we spend on it, but we are also a such a heavily armed populace.

But the thing is, even with us being so heavily armed as individuals gun owners in the United States, we still have the largest military in the entire world. No one is ever, ever, ever going to invade us, regardless of whether the citizen re is armed or not. Joe Farriday says, shout out to firefighters, police and first responders. God bless them, be safe. So I think that answers Ron's question. Oh no, I'm sorry. So the other thing that's right. There was another thing Ron brought up, and it's it's a he makes a good point.

Does it really matter if the Chinese do establish a base on Cuba because we have bases all over the world and we have the military capability to shoot anything down, to fuse any situation, etc. In other words, even if they do have a base in Cuba, is that really a threat to US. Now, my response to that would be whether it is a direct threat or not. First of all, I think it could be. But I'll circle back to that the broader point that I would make about that, and this is kind of the underlining point of what I've been talking about today in terms of Cuba and they're ever growing relationship with China and of course the rekindling, to an extent of their relationship with Russia.

The broader point is that we don't need our enemies being able to set up shop and spy on us or established themselves in any way militarily one hundred miles off the coast of Florida. Even if even if what happens there and what is established there is not necessarily a threat in the sense that it's not anything that we can't handle, it certainly doesn't feel very good, and I think it would be destabilizing. Sorry, I just got a weird pop up on my computer that distracted me. But going back to would it be a direct threat, Well, what if the Chinese, the Chinese, they have nuclear weapons.

What if the Chinese, in the course of setting up their base there, they put nuclear missiles there? Allah the Cuban missile crisis and what we had to deal with with Russia. Now that is a direct threat. The whole reason in sixty two with the Cuban missile crisis, why that was so harrowing and so dangerous, And again, as I talked about in the first hour of their show, thank god we had a president at the time, JFK who was able to you know, Shepherd and stewarts us through that that terrible time. I mean us, I say us as in America.

I wasn't here yet, And like I said, I'm glad I wasn't. I'm glad I wasn't alive for that because that would have been terrifying. So I'm glad that. You know, if you talk to somebody who does remember it, yeah, they'll tell you it's pretty pretty scary because at any given moment, you know, they knew it could be the end. But the reason that was so massively destabilizing was because that gave the Russians first strike capability to the extent that first strike capability matters in the terms of global thermonuclear war.

If nuclear war breaks out, you know, it'll ultimately even if you're not in a blast zone, there's going to be radiation, and there's going to be a nuclear winter that will kill everyone on the planet anyway, So it almost doesn't matter who has first strike capability. But if you've got nuclear missiles one hundred miles off the coast of Florida, you can probably get those in the air pretty quickly and hitting the United States before we have any chance to respond. And that's scary to think about.

So it does matter in the sense that. Look, and I'm not naive, I understand that even if there is not a military base near the United States it is occupied by a foreign power, there are nuclear submarines that can launch missiles, that can sail up nice and close, not sail what do you call it sailing, You don't sail underwater, But anyway they can get in there. You can get in with a nuclear submarine, probably largely undetected, and you can launch something right off the coast and hit US. I understand that.

I'm not naive to it. But again, the idea of the Chinese having a base, because once that military base has expanded, remember when the Russians first started putting, they hadn't become operational yet. Okay, they had to set them up and I'm sure the technology has changed over the decades. But when the United States first detected that there were Russian missiles on the island of Cuba via that aerial photography, it's not like we knew. I mean, obviously we knew that the Russians we're bringing something to Cuba.

Anyone could see that, could see those ships. But we didn't know what was on those ships. And you know, it could have been could have been anything, could have been food, you know, grain for food, could have been anything. Right, we didn't know they were missiles until they were spotted from the air. Now you could see it with a satellite. I mean, I think we had satellite technology then too, but not like now. But you know, but there were flyovers that were done by the military to they were able to take those pictures, and then those pictures were you know, those were clearly missiles.

Again, they weren't operational yet, and then it became a race against time. Well, you know, what do we do. Do we go and bomb Cuba and bomb those missiles where those missiles are and wind up killing a whole lot of Russians in the process. Do we do that? Because those missiles were going to become operational. And by the way that that timetable kept getting moved up, where you know, JFK was told, okay, well we've got we've only got so many days until those missiles are operational, and then it became actually, probably within the next forty eight hours, those missiles are going to become operational, and thank god, you know, we're not for the back channel communication that was happening, you know, thank god Khruschev back down and that was the end of that.

In exchange for the Jupiter missiles in that we're in Turkey at the time, I think that we had there. Those were actually scheduled to be decommissioned anyway because they were outdated, so they need needed to be taken down and disassembled. But the Russians didn't know that. So that was something that JFK could offered a cruse chef, We'll take those missiles out that you don't like sitting there on your doorstep in exchange for you taking your missiles out of Cuba before they even become operational.

And that's ultimately what happened. But yeah, the idea of the Chinese having a base on the island of Cuba again one hundred miles off the coast of Florida is unacceptable and we cannot We cannot have that. Lots of comments in the Facebook live chat, so I do want to get to some of these. Crispy says, China needs us and we need China, but NATO now out guns everybody. China needs us and we need China, referring to of course, says Dave and I were talking about the interdependence economically, we are intertwined and which I hope will will prevent ultimately prevent war.

And Saturn says, we hashtag Matt Connerton. We have to take a shower and so enjoy your afternoon show. Thank you, en Saturn, you enjoy your shower. Crispy says, sorry, but guns are nothing compared to bombs, and China can't afford to attack us, and we can't afford to attack China. But we do need to protect Taiwan at all costs. After all, a bully regime won't be stopped until they are stopped. Yeah, I, and that is something that we've talked about on the show too. I had some criticism of President Biden when he said flatly that yes, we would defend Taiwan when he was asked, This was months ago, when he was asked, if China were to move on Taiwan, would we defend Taiwan?

And Biden said yes. I'm personally a big fan of strategic ambiguity. Although I also found it fascinating that in that moment, you know, when people were kind of pulling their hair out saying, Wow, I can't believe Biden just discarded strategic ambiguity. Strategic ambiguity, of course, being where you keep your opponent off balance by not letting them know exactly, by not telegraphing or saying outright exactly how you might respond to whatever move that they make. You know, it's a bit of a chess game.

It all is right in terms of foreign policy, and you don't want to You don't want your opponent to know what your move will be in response to their move if you can help it. And I had some criticism of Biden for that, but it was interesting how when everybody was so upset, everybody just kind of collectively forgot that George W. Bush had done the exact same thing. When George W. Bush became president. It was very early in his presidency, so early I believe it was before nine to eleven happened. It was within that first eight months he was asked the same quite almost the exact same scenario.

He was asked by somebody, what will you do? What will the response be if China were to attack Taiwan? Will you defend Taiwan? And he said yes, and same thing. People people went nuts, well, what about strategic ambiguity? He just went said it out loud, he can't do that, but so it had already been done by a previous administration. Strangely enough, I thought Trump recently in an interview was it with Bret bare That interview with Bret Bair I thought was disastrous for Trump in a lot of ways legally.

But one thing I did give Trump credit for. I thought he gave a smart answer. And you won't hear. Look the list of things that I give Trump credit for, and if you're a regular listener, you know how I feel about Donald Trump. It's a short list. But I did think

something really smart that he said during that interview was when Brett Baer asked him about what would your policy be on if China were to move on Taiwan. Trump said, well, I'm not going to answer that. But but Jijing Ping he knows what I would do. I thought that was a smart because that is strategic ambiguity. I'm not going to answer that hypothetical, but he knows what I would do, so it's strategic ambiguity, but with a little bit of a threat underneath. I thought that was I thought that was a smart uncharacteristically, so let's see.

Oh my goodness, Scott Robinson said in the chat room. Now, this is in response to what Ronda said about

Dave Ridley. Sounds like Dick Cavett, which I'd never noticed before. But Scott Robinson said, the difference being with Dick Cavett. Dick Cavatt didn't hate America. I don't think Dave Ridley hates America, but he does want to leave America. He wants for newer listeners who don't know the reason Dave Ridley mentioned Nhxit, or maybe I mentioned it. He didn't want to be a shy about plugging anything. Today. Dave Ridley is part of a secessionist movement called nh Exit, and they want to secede from the United States and have New Hampshire be its own country.

But I don't think he hates America. I wouldn't. I wouldn't characterize it quite that way. Crispy points out US dollar is strongest dollar than any other country. That is true. Chrispy also points out our nuke submarines are everywhere. That is also true. And I think that goes to Ron's point. Joe Friday says, bad guys will get weapons. Responsible weapon owners don't need to secure them, don't leave them in an unlocked car or a closet. Absolutely, we only have a little bit of time left, but if you'd like to get in with a quick call six three two five six seven six three two five six seven.

I did want to go through this timeline just quickly. This is from CFR dot org,

This timeline of our relationship with Cuba, which has been the subject today on the show. But we're gonna pick it up at nineteen fifty nine, and we're gonna try to get all the way into the present day with this time permitting. So in nineteen fifty nine there was growing antagonism. Castro nationalizes all foreign assets in Cuba, hikes taxes on US imports, and establishes trade deal with the Soviet Union. So this is prior to just a couple of years prior to the Cuban Missile crisis. So Castro is getting cozy with Cuba and antagonistic toward the United States.

We're going to kind of speed through this, so I'm gonna leave a lot of this out. But nineteen sixty one, of course, the Bay of Pigs invasion, Executing a plan developed and approved by the Eisenhower administration, JFK deploys a brigade of fourteen hundred CIA sponsored Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro. The Cuban military defeats a force within three days after several mishaps, disadvantage the invaders and reveal US involvement. Despite the failed invasion, US administrations over the next several decades conduct covert operations against Cuba.

Okay, here we go the main event, or at least we're getting to it, Okay, So nineteen sixty two. In February of sixty two, the Kennedy administration imposes an embargo on Cuba that prohibits all trade. Cuba, whose economy greatly depended on trade with the US, loses approximately one hundred thirty billion dollars over the next sixty years according to Cuban government and UN estimates. All right here it is the Cuban missile crisis from October fourteen to October twenty eight. This is this is the big one.

This is again to me, this is the single most fascinating moment in American history and also the most terrifying. US spy Saddle I discover the Cuba has allowed the Soviet Union to build nuclear missile bases on the island. In response, Kennedy demands the Soviet weapons be removed and orders a naval quarantine of Cuba, igniting a thirteen day standoff. By the way, they were very careful to call it a quarantine and not a blockade, even though it really was a blockade. But a blockade is considered an act of war, so they were very careful, you know, a little semantic game, but they called it a quarantine for that reason.

With the threat of nuclear war on the horizon, the US negotiations with Russia. Negotiates with Russia via back channels. As the crisis nears its third week, Kennedy secretly agrees to withdraw US nuclear missiles from Turkey within a few months if the Soviet Union withdraws its missiles from Cuba. And again those missiles were outdated anyways, and they were already scheduled to be decommissioned. But Krushchev didn't know that, didn't need to know that. Kennedy also pledges to invade Cuba. Soviet Premier Nikita, by the way, and you know the reason that he needed to say that was because of the Bay of Pig.

Had the Bay of Pigs not happened, maybe there would never have been any paranoia regardless. Okay, So Nikita Khrushchev accepts the deal and announces that he will order the missiles removed. The following July, Kennedy prohibits US nationals from traveling to Cuba. So we're going to kind of skip forward here.

There was a little bit of diplomacy here and there, but in March of nineteen eighty two, US labels Cuba a terrorism sponsor nineteen ninety two US titan sanctions after Soviet collapse. Um, I'm skipping ahead because we're so low on time. We're gonna go although, oh remember the nine ten ninety nine, Wow, that was all the way back then, the Elian Gonzales controversy, I always thought they shouldn't have sent him back. They took him to Disney World. How could they send him back after taking him to Disney World.

Okay, we're gonna skip all the way forward to the Obama administration. Okay, So December of twenty fourteen, A moved to restore diplomatic ties. Barack Obama and Raoul Castro announced they will restore full diplomatic ties following the exchange of a jail US intelligence officer for the three remaining Cuban five prisoners. All right, So that was the beginning of that. And in twenty fifteen, Cuba was removed from the terrorism list in twenty fifteen July of that year, US and Cuba reopen embassies.

In twenty sixteen, Obama made in March of twenty sixteen, Obama makes a historic visit to Cuba. In November, Fidel Castro dies, but Raoul was already running things because Fidel was in poor health.

And then Trump came in and in June of twenty seventeen, Trump reinstated travel and business restrictions, and in September of twenty seventeen, US cuts embassy staff in Cuba. This is what I was talking about at the top of the show. There was a lot of work done during the Obama administration to re establish diplomatic ties and try to normalize things. And Trump came in and they dismantled all of that. And then Biden came in and you know, made a pretty meager attempt at re establishing some of it, but really didn't do much.

In May of twenty twenty two, Biden eased Trump era sanctions. But that's about it. So the point of all that, and again, it was a long way to get there, I know, because I started this all the way at the beginning of the show today. But I go back to my original point, and if you've hung in with me for the whole thing, I appreciate it. But my original point was we're at a point now where we're worried about Cuba. They're growing relationship with China, and they're sort of a re establishment of a strong relationship with Russia.

Cuba this island that is one hundred miles off the coast of Florida, and this is strategically very bad for US. And this is being not covered enough in the media in my opinion. It is getting mainstream media coverage, but not enough. This is an important moment in this whole as as as we continue to have problems with our two greatest adversaries currently in the world, Russia and China, and we've got this island of Cuba, who during the Obama administration made a good faith attempt and made some real progress in terms of re establishing our relationship with Cuba in a very positive way.

Trump administration come in and came in and dismantled that. Biden administration came in, failed to re establish most of what Obama had done, and so there's blame to go around. I blame both the Trump and the Biden administrations for the fact that now again without us having a positive strategic relationship with Cuba, of course, of course our adversaries fill that vacuum, and we didn't even get to a lot of what Russia's doing right now. We talked a lot about China, we didn't even get to what Russia's doing with Cuba.

And it's I mean, we did a little bit, but you know, in terms of supplying them oil and so forth, because Cuba's having a rough time right now, kubas having a very difficult time. They're having their own energy crisis. Maybe we could have helped with that and had a good strategic relationship with that little island that sits one hundred miles off the coast of Florida, But no, we let somebody else do that. And I think that this is a very dangerous moment and it's probably too late for us to do anything about it now in terms of Cuba.

But none of this had to happen, as my point, and I blame both the current administration and the previous administration for allowing this to happen. And it didn't have to be this way. That's my view of it. All Right, we are out of time, don't forget tomorrow. We got a big show tomorrow. Of course, we have Eric Ulter's classic film review National Lampoon's Vacation, the original Vacation film, and then and then in the second hour tomorrow we have Dave Wally from the band Satellite Union skyping in from Chicago.

Really looking forward to that. And if you miss any part of today's show, it'll be up in just a little bit at WMH radio dot org and on my website Matt Connerton dot com. And thank you to Dave Ridley and Ron of course, both for calling in and everybody in the chat room and easyg if you're listening, I hope everything is okay. He might be taking another break. There was no entertainment report today and I haven't heard from him, so hopefully he's all right. Hopefully all as well. But that's gonna do it for us for now.

I'll leave you with a little more Satellite Union, a little more, a little more of a preview for tomorrow's show. Really looking forward to that. And I'll talk to y'all a little bit later. Oh and if you're listening live on Thursday, coming up next immediately after this show, Through the Stage Door, hosted by the Great Rob die On. All right, I'm out of here, by everybody,

Matt Connarton Unleashed 7-13-23

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