What's Next with Iran?

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People are saying this past Olympics has been one of the more politically significant

since the 1936 Berlin Games when Hitler and the Nazis ruled Germany.

It does feel a lot more political than past Olympics. With some athletes even going on record,

saying they don't want people to get the wrong idea because they are representing the United

States as an Olympic athlete. Speed skater Hunter Hess, for example, explained,

I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that supported

me getting care. He later clarified, just because I'm wearing the flag, it doesn't mean I

represent everything that's going on in the US. Using the very freedom of speech guaranteed

by a nation to refuse to praise that nation while representing them is perhaps the ultimate

display of ingratitude. Two of the more compelling tales of this are the stories of

Gu and Alyssa Liu. On paper, the two are very similar. Both are Californians of Chinese descent

and both are competing at the top levels of their events in the Milano Olympics.

Both have left-leaning political views. Yet in terms of gratitude, it couldn't be more

dissimilar. That's because Gu made the choice to represent not the country of her birth,

the country where she was raised and trained, but the communist dictatorship of China.

This is her second Olympics representing the red flag on the world stage.

Liu, on the other hand, is the child of a man who's a refugee from China. He's wanted there

for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests. The last time she competed in the Beijing

Olympics, she needed a security detail to protect her from PRC operatives who were targeting

her and her father. Liu doesn't just represent the US. She's representing the US. Very well.

She competed on the ice with unfettered joy and pride and brought home the gold draped in the

American flag. Gu won gold too. Only she didn't bring it home in the same sense. It's China's gold

medal, not ours. And that's a bit of a sticking point with Gu's critics because despite the fact

that she competes for China, she still lives in the country where she was raised and that's the US.

She's not disturbed much by the fact that she lives in a country she doesn't condescent

to represent. She turns such criticism into an opportunity to brag, saying, if I wasn't doing well,

I think that they probably wouldn't care as much. And that's okay for me. People are entitled

to their opinions. Well, that's true in America at least. It's not just Americans who take

issue with Gu's, have your cake and eat it to attitude. Some of her Chinese critics also express

dissatisfaction with the way she keeps the very country she represents on the snow at arms link.

Gu's Chinese name is Gu Iling. But the story is that Mift Chinese are calling her Gu I

Qin, which turns her name into Gu Love's money. So she is getting criticized from that angle.

I have to say that I sympathize with the average Chinese on this one. Sure, she won

males for China, but she won't even want to live here. She doesn't really want to be connected to

China. And the insult isn't hard to detect. Gu doesn't care about her Chinese critics. I don't

think considering she grew up in the US and lives there. In 2024, she decided to try to shame them

as well by taunting quote. In the past five years, I've represented China in 41 national

competitions and have won 39 medals for China. What have you done for the country?

So that is her come back to the Chinese people. Can we say that's very goo-like of her?

The really odd thing about goo is that she shouldn't be in the US at all, honestly,

unless she is just visiting tourist visa. According to Chinese law, she's not a native Chinese,

but naturalized. And in China, when you become a citizen, you're required by law to give up your

old citizenship. Yet, here she is and stand for California. You see, America recognizes for

citizenship because she was born here. So even though she's a card-carrying Chinese communist

national, she is an American because she was born on our soil. Why doesn't China enforce their

side of the naturalization process by forcing goo to surrender her US citizenship like the law

demands? Money, status, medals, or maybe that was part of some deal when she made her decision

to represent China. That gave her half her genomes, but none of her freedom or civil rights.

Maybe it's not that unusual at all. It seems that goo isn't so much the exception as she is the

rule. You see, according to New York Times' best-selling book, Invisible Koo by Peter Schweitzer,

China has been looking the other way when it comes to her American-born citizens a lot.

And because this is the Chinese Communist Party we're talking about, you can bet this isn't your

typical bureaucratic misstep. It's very much deliberate and part of a larger plot. In an interview with

Steve Bannon that was quoted by Breitbart, Schweitzer pointed out that for the past 13 years,

roughly 100,000 Chinese babies have been born in the US. Back of the envelope math tells us that

easily over a million Chinese who also claim US citizenship. And this is not normal birth

tourism, if that's even normal. These are children of party elites and military officers,

says Schweitzer. After being born, their whisked away back to China where they're raised as

Chinese citizens, but thanks to birthright citizenship here in the US, they are still Americans.

When this million plus horde of Chinese Americans turn 18, they can do things like vote in our

elections. They can make political donations. They can work for our government and is all

perfectly legal. Well, hopefully the Supreme Court will take a look at this because this is a very

serious national security issue. Another country has immigration policies that expose its citizenry,

citizenry, to this level of exploitation by the Chinese Communist Party. Something tells me that

while these millions playing remote citizen in China would jump at the chance to work on DC,

none of them are going to do us the favor of representing the US in a future Olympic game,

for example. That's not the only area in which China is making waves these days.

It seems Beijing is absolutely furious over the result of the recent Japanese election

that one conservative, Takaichi, and unprecedented conservative majority. Among other items on

her parties to do list is the eradication of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution,

clearing the way for Japan to build up its military forces. Of course, in some sense,

the changes will be primarily linguistic, rather than a standing army Japan has a self-defense force,

which is all intents and purposes the same thing as military. The Japanese self-defense force

currently brings in the top 10 overall among the world's militaries already,

so as Jettisoning Article 9, believe going to dramatically alter things. Leave it to China to find

a reason to cut a fit over a name change. In an attempt to stop Japanese re-militarization,

the PRC has announced restrictions to 20 Japanese entities to ensure that they don't end up as

components in Japanese military hardware. Japan isn't about to outsource its new army of giant

fighting robots to Chinese manufacturers. I'm just assuming that Japanese re-militarization will include

giant fighting robots. It's the 21st century and it's finally time for that. The affected Japanese

companies include Sumitomo Mitsubishi Kawasaki Fujitsu IHI Corporation and Subaru.

So China is getting a little nervous that the Japanese might recall their previous military might.

The Chinese have been highly critical of the Prime Minister, especially since she called for

Japan to develop nuclear weapons. A militarized and nuclear arm Japan certainly seems like it would

add a few wrinkles to the Chinese goal of invading the peaceful and free nation of Taiwan.

It would also make it harder to enact a naval blockade of Japan in order to cut her off from

the rest of the world, which is another one of China's long-standing strategic goals by the way.

Across the planet, the elements needed to realize China's goals have been steadily falling into

race. They've been an economic support and arms dealer to the Ayatola in Iran for years,

and they were in the process of negotiating with Venezuela as well when our little game of

cash the dictator ended up ruining that film. Across the globe, from South Korea, Japan,

and the Philippines, and Asia, to South American countries of Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina,

China's been engaging in exported illegal fishing practices. I guess they wanted to make sure

of everyone had a reason not to like them. I mean, they certainly are eating that much fish.

No such brazen tactics allow their vests to function as a paramilitary force,

thereby allowing Beijing to exert control just below the threshold of open-armed content.

It is a surging navy in reserve, if you will. Just as their ubiquitous fishing

pleats may be other than they seem, China's population may not be as large as reported.

Fushiyan, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, asserts the country doesn't have

as many people as she claims. Why would a government want to keep its country's population size

secret? Well, because the size of the Chinese market is one of its biggest draws.

It also helps at the local level to fudge those numbers in order to get bigger government subsidies.

Well, Fushiyan believes that China's population of 1.4 billion is actually about 1.3 billion.

That translates to 100 million fewer Chinese people than reported.

Other estimates say that China's actual population is less than half of what it's reported to be.

That may be a stretch, but it would explain why there are whole sections of cities where the

buildings are completely empty. These topics and more will make for some very interesting research,

and this is something Peter Schweitzer has dived into in his recent book. He has been looking

into a lot of this, and it's very interesting to see everything he's uncovered because

it just goes to show us that the Chinese Communist Party is using America's own laws,

America's own rules in order to actually subvert the country.

I am delighted to welcome our guest today, Larry Taunton. He is an author, colonist, and cultural

commentator. His work has been covered by the BBC, The New York Times, and many other places.

Larry, thanks so much for joining us.

Great to be with you, Danielle.

Great. Well, I thought we could start off by maybe talking a little bit about the news that

transpired this weekend with Iran, and maybe you can just start by telling us your initial reaction

to all that. Well, I have so many initial thoughts, Danielle. One of them is I'm kind of tired of

the so-called America First Crowd that really is America only. They don't quite understand that

America first means that for your own house to be safe, you may have to burn down the crack house

that's across the street. And I see this very much as authentic America first, just as I see

that being the case with operations in Venezuela. I don't think the same thing about Ukraine

for example, but you know, Iran has been funding terrorism. They have they funded Hamas.

They funded the October 7th attacks in Israel, and I know that there are some who will be listening

who are not sympathetic to Israeli people who are who were murdered, mutilated, women raped.

I know that there's plenty that are within that that that crowd in that thinking, but they're

not understanding that that Iran is the head of the snake, and the Biden administration as well

as the Obama administration is a no doubt the Biden administration being directed by Obama himself.

Basically funded all of these kinds of attacks. Iran has directed attacks against the United States

more than 90 times just since 2020.

Yeah, and it's very interesting because I noticed Trump recently was saying that he thought that

Iran, you know, tried to get him first, and then he was saying, but I actually got you first.

So in a way, it was very clear why Trump was going after Camini for example.

Yeah, well, he's he's privy to a lot of intelligence, of course, that that we don't see.

But it's, you know, I'm old enough, Danielle, you're quite young, and I'm old enough to remember

when I was a kid, the storming of the U.S. embassy, 1979 in Tehran, and the holding up for more

than, I want to say, it was 445 days, something like that of American hostages that were

paraded nightly, you know, on our news screens. I'm also old enough to recall many of their

attacks murdering Americans, boarding American vessels, holding American sailors hostage,

and successive administrations doing virtually nothing about this. And I would get it, you know,

if the United States were, let's say, Cameroon, we might not have the ability to do these things.

But I'm appreciative of the fact that Donald Trump has taken seriously the care of the American

people, the attacks on our soldiers, and the realization that I saw Matt Walsh tweeted yesterday,

and I'm bats of a bright guy, but Matt had tweeted more or less implying that the attacks that

are taking place in the United States and attacking Iran, that those things are, you know, kind of

mutually exclusive, and you have to use one or the other. Well, I mean, who do you think's funding?

You know, a lot of these kinds of things. So where do they think the weaponry, you know, is coming

from? Who do they think is supplying the training? As they did with October 7th,

supplying the technical expertise for cyber attacks and things of this nature, you can go after

both at the same time. Gold and silver recently soared to record highs, then pulled back.

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Right. Do you think that it's interesting because we've seen kind of the left and the right

are almost like, especially like the the woke right sort of, not that he is, but there are people on

that side. Do you feel like they're basically becoming like the left because they're seeing a lot

of the same kind of talking points? Yeah. Well, this actually be an interesting conversation with

your dad because I hate the term woke right that's in oxymoron. It makes no sense at all.

If you're woke, you're left. I mean, just period. I realized that we kind of get stuck with these

kind of terms and I realized the individual who came up with this is an idiotic. It's an idiotic

notion. If you're woke, you're on the left. That doesn't mean that you can't hold views that are

on the right. That you can't be a combination in some sense of the two. But the woke mob,

they're totalitarian in their leanings. They're the kind of people that gather, you know,

it was just at the World Economic Forum last month or I should say now the month before last in

mid-January where these are the kind of people who meet and who want to dictate to the rest of us

the manner which we live. But yes, I think we're seeing a lot of people that we previously fought

Danielle were solid conservatives who are not actually solid conservatives. And I don't think it's

because they were lying about being conservative. I think it's what we're seeing is their world view

being exposed that these weren't individuals who are actually rooted in an absolute that is to say

in eternal principles. They were more kind of rooted in their feelings and how they, you know,

a kind of vague patriotism or a misty-eyed Americana rather than actually being rooted in, you know,

ideals, the kind of ideals that we find expressed in the declaration of independence and in our

constitution and of course ultimately in scripture. Yeah, and many of those people are actually

just liberal. They pretend to be conservative but they're not. No one. No one. Give me names. Come on,

give me one. Oh, well definitely like the next one taste type crowd because they're trying to do the

the important they want us to go for the Democrats or whatever. So they're just very open about it

of course. But then there are some other people who are maybe normal people who are just kind of like

confused or swept the middle of this stuff and they're not really sure what they think about

what's going on with Iran. Maybe you can tell us what's your kind of main argument for how

this is America first. What is your kind of way that you would explain it to someone who's maybe

not against it but is just kind of not sure. Well, I think again, I'd want to make a distinction

between the America firsters who really are America only. They're only concerned with anything

that happens inside our borders. And I get it. I understand that at a very elementary level but

it's elementary kind of thinking. As I was indicated earlier, if your own home, let's just let's

just think of it like this. If your own home is constantly being robbed and there are people

trying to break through your front door and you have a choice there. I guess you can keep

barricading it and try to make your fence as higher and these kind of things or you could try to

to clean up the neighborhood. These things tend to not happen when you're in a little better

neighborhood. And I think Trump's approach here is the recognition. Listen, I was following

all over South America. I did this for five years. You know, I was going to cartel towns,

into Dairy and Gap. I was following what we're mostly or let's just say a plurality of Venice

Waylands making their way up to Mexico City where they could board La Bestia, the beast with a

freight train where they would get on the roof of it and follow it to the 600 miles north to the

US border. I kept screaming that until we solved the problem in Venice Wayla, this is going to

keep happening. And anybody who's going to go through the Dairy and Gap in flip flops,

holding a baby and carrying a bottle of water, I promise you, your wall is not going to stop them.

Your wall isn't going to stop them. Now, according to CNN, this was all being caused by global

warring, which we know is complete nonsense. It was being caused by Marxism that was turning

economies one right after the other in South America cratering them. So this was causing a

problem. So to me, Venice Wayla was America first. Well, the same thing is true. We're talking

about Iran and we're talking about the funding of terrorism. It doesn't seem like it's received

much play in the United States, Danielle, that again, just during the first two and a half

years of Biden's term in office, there were 83 attacks on American troops in the Middle East,

either directly by Iran or sponsored by Iran. So to me, going after Iran is America first, we have

to defend our people. Yeah, definitely. Gold and silver recently soared to record highs,

then pulled back. So our precious metal still goodbye. Many Wall Street experts predict higher

prices ahead. Why? Because we still have trillions of national debt, a declining dollar,

an inflation that keeps shrinking our savings. Even with corrections along the way, gold remains

a historical hedge for wealth protection. That's why Morgan Stanley's chief investment officer

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And Trump has been so great on a lot of these foreign policy issues. And like you've said,

he is very privy to a lot of information we aren't privy to. And he's very swept in his actions.

He's very quick, very decisive. And I think does things that actually make a difference as opposed

to maybe people fearing some kind of long dragged out war situation. But Trump doesn't really operate

like that. How likely are you to see some kind of successful regime change in Iran? What do you think

is going to be the next step for people there? Do you think people are kind of rising up or

how do you see it? That's a good question. It's a complicated question. Let me deal with the first

part of that. You're right. Trump is decisive. I don't think Trump spends a lot of time

hand-ranging over issues. I think he listens to the counsel of his generals and various other

strategists and so forth and are involved here. And then he takes action. I loved what he said

yesterday, which was hilarious, that he was creating job openings in Iran. And there's no question

that he's doing that. Now, nation-building in the Middle East is not something that the United

States has proven to be particularly good at. I don't get the impression that that's his intention

here that he's not intending to turn this into another Afghanistan or something to that effect,

but rather kind of leave it, at least to some extent, to the Iranian people. But, Danielle,

something that I think that Americans are incredibly naive about. And presently, I'm in Europe,

I was just in the Middle East. So I just came here from the Middle East.

Americans do not understand Islam. They don't. They're starting to understand it, you know,

better. But the notion that, you know, like for instance, the Pope, I look at a window right here

and almost see the Vatican. I'm here in Rome. Yesterday, the Pope right here was talking about how

there just needs to be dialogue. And if we could all just get along. I mean, if only the hobbits in

the orcs could just get together and have a conversation, I'm sure they could work out all their

differences. Never mind the fact that the orcs eat hobbits. I mean, that's where we find ourselves.

In Islam, Islam is an ideology of hate. It is an ideology of conquest. It is an ideology of misogyny.

And the senator from my own state, state of Alabama, Tommy Tupperable, who I can appreciate now more

as a senator than I could when he was coach at Auburn University, Tupperable, and he's starting

to gather others around him, are pushing for the banning of Sharia. I want to say to them,

that's not the root of the tree. You have to ban Islam. And I know that they probably think,

well, we can't do that because it's covered under the bill of rights as, you know, you can practice,

you know, your religion fairly and openly in the United States. Therefore, we can't ban it. No,

I think we can. And I think we can with the Constitution because when Islam is taken seriously

and is practiced, according to the Quran, according to the Hadith, and to the life of Muhammad, which

every Muslim is supposed to model themselves after, then it is by definition anti-constitutional,

because it is by definition not about freedom of speech, not about freedom of religion.

It's not about freedom of the press. It's not about freedom of assembly. It's not about freedom

of petition. The entire bill of rights is nullified by Islam when Islam is taken seriously,

which is to say nothing of things like, you know, child marriage and, you know, human trafficking

and beheadings and these kinds of things. This is real Islam. And what people say that they know

a Muslim who's a very friendly person. I know plenty myself, but those are, those are not

Muslims who are practicing real Islam. Those are people that I like into Methodists.

In not taking their holy scriptures very seriously. And I say that I can say that as a form of

Methodist. Please don't help me. The people who are listening out there. But, you know, these are,

these are very, we'll say liberal Muslims that we're talking about in this case.

Yeah. Gold and silver recently soared to record highs, then pulled back. So,

our precious metal still goodbye. Many Wall Street experts predict higher prices ahead.

Why? Because we still have trillions of national debt, a declining dollar, and inflation that

keeps shrinking our savings. Even with corrections along the way, gold remains a historical

hedge for wealth protection. That's why Morgan Stanley's chief investment officer ditched the

6040 stock and bonds portfolio and recommended up to 20% in precious metals. They're getting educated

and you should too. Call Lear Capital at 800-992-2255 for your free gold investment kit. And learn

how you could qualify for up to $20,000 in bonus gold. Lear Capital has over $3 billion in transactions

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And I think when it comes to immigrants especially, we can decide who comes to this country. We can

decide what criteria we want to use in bringing them in because many of these people who are Muslim

are very recent immigrants to the US. It's not like we just all of a sudden have these, you know,

people who are converting to Islam here. Most of it early being imported here. So can definitely be

stopped. I wanted to ask you about, so when it comes to kind of the nation building, sort of

touched on a little bit. How do you think this might be? Do you think this might be similar? It might

be different to what happened in Japan. Do you think people in Iran are, I mean, we've seen the

videos because they're very much celebratory. They're very excited. Do you think that they're going

to step up in this time? Well, I like the reference to Japan. That's an astute reference

and a very good one. Japan serves as a model for us and a reminder, a historical reminder that we

have defeated these types of ideologies before. So the, you know, the kamikazis of the 1930s and 40s

were, you know, the suicide bombers of that era. And the Japanese ultimately, they,

somewhat argue they have the most democratic constitution in the world, was written by General

Douglas MacArthur and his staff. And it remains in effect there to this day. In Japan, having been

there, it's a, it's a remarkable peaceful country. So we have done that before. I don't know, however,

that the United States today is as committed to bringing something like that about as, as the

United States was at that time. I want to say MacArthur was, I can't remember, but he was basically

you know, as William Manchester says, an American Caesar in Japan for quite some time with extraordinary

power at his disposal. But the fact of the matter is, Japan does serve as a model that this can be

done. These types of ideologies can be defeated. Now, one of the problems, unfortunately, is while Japan

in Ireland, an emperor worship and fascist militarism that characterized Japan at that time,

was isolated to Japan. Right now, we're talking about, you know, a country that's surrounded,

you know, by other countries that share the same type of ideology, which makes it much, much

more difficult. So I don't know. I'm not sure if the United States will try to follow a policy

like that. I tend to think as much as I like Trump. And I was, gosh, I was at Mar-a-Lago a few

times and there to see your father's movie, wonderful movie, 2000 Mules. So I like Donald Trump very

much. But I think Donald Trump shares one of the flaws that is common to Americans and to American

foreign policy forever. And that is that we're a fairly trusting, give the other guy the benefit

of the doubt and a little naive when we're dealing, particularly when we're dealing with ideologies

like this. And I think we can't be. We dare not risk that in this case. Case at point, the

Israelis, if anybody in the world should know better than to be naive, it would be the Israelis.

Yaya Senwar, who engineered the October 7th attacks, spent more than half of his adult life in

Israeli prisons, who's having fainting spells, headaches, the Israelis discovered he had a

brain tumor. They took him to an Israeli hospital. Surgery was performed removing the brain tumor,

saving his life, which he himself acknowledged. In 2011 or 12, he was exchanged in a prison swap

that is for Israeli hostages. And how did he repay the Israelis? I'm sure they thought he would

feel indebted to them. He didn't. He raped and murdered and mutilated their people. That's what

we're dealing with here. And we can't let our guard down. We can't be naive in dealing with it.

Absolutely not. We cannot let our guard down be naive. Great point. Well, Larry, thank you so

much for joining us today. I really appreciate your insights here. Well, thank you so much, Daniel.

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