[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. Happy Labor Day, ladies and gentlemen. Sam Bushman live with Lowell Nelson, CampaignForLiberty.org as always. So be ready for hard-hitting news the networks refuse to use. By the way, I've been off the air last week. I went traveling to Texas, went to a baptism for my granddaughter.
[00:00:34] It was a wonderful experience. Came back and got the COVID for the fourth time, ladies and gentlemen. I've had enough of this garbage, man. It's out of control. Anyway, the first couple of times got me sick and had me with post-COVID symptoms. And then the third time almost killed me. And now this fourth time, not so bad. So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. But we are coming back and we're not that easy to take out. But, hey, it does take us off the air for a couple of days.
[00:01:03] Not necessarily because we could never do the show, but, man, we just sound horrible. So I don't sound perfect now, but hopefully I'm at least back in fine form enough to make things happen. Lowell, welcome to the show, sir. Well, glad to be with you again, Sam. It's always a pleasure. And you do sound great. And the good news is your mind is always active, always thinking, regardless of how you sound. That's a plus. Amen to that. But, man, it's true that the COVID makes your mind kind of foggy.
[00:01:31] So compared to my, you know, I'm only firing on six cylinders now or eight cylinders now, not 12, sir. Well, if that's a V12, you're in great shape, man, my friend. But the good news is, ladies and gentlemen, even with eight cylinders, or as Rush Limbaugh liked to say, hey, I can take people on and take care of business and think through things with my arms tied behind my back because the Lord's on our side. And there you go. Now, he said talent on loan from God and everything else. I'm just saying the Lord's on my side.
[00:02:00] I don't know how much talent I have, but there you go. The definition of insanity is kind of an interesting topic. Lowell? Well, that is attributed to the definition of insanity is, you know, basically doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, right? Right. That's one definition of insanity, I think, attributed to Albert Einstein. Dr. Ron Paul says this definition really describes quite well Trump's war with Iran.
[00:02:27] See, it's the warmongers that convinced Trump he could decapitate Iran, which would result in regime change, right? Change in leadership in Iran. But that didn't work, as you know. And, Lowell, what's interesting to me is that Trump would fall for this because we've seen this hawkish, ballistic, psychotic, nonsense agenda from president to president to president. We've seen this for longer than we've been alive, sir.
[00:02:56] And plus, he campaigned on the notion that he would not go to war, these foolish wars, and he would not start any new wars, and he would stop the old ones. That's what he campaigned on. So I said thousands and thousands of people voted for him. And I stand with him on that promise. Let's keep it. Let's go. Yeah, absolutely right. Well, yeah, the people of Iran, they rallied around their new leadership and mourned the death of their old leader. What do you expect them to do?
[00:03:24] I mean, it's exactly what would happen in this country if someone took out our leadership. So anyway, the U.S. began to bomb Iran, just what John McCain wanted, and, of course, just what Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted. But that didn't work. It simply depleted our supply of bombs, resulting in a windfall for munitions companies asked to create more bombs. So the U.S. turned to diplomacy.
[00:03:49] They signed a memorandum of understanding, in fact, and then immediately broke that agreement when it attempted to open a new ship corridor by force. Then missiles began flying again. Bombs began dropping again. And they just rinsed and repeated the same thing over and over again. And the results did not change. Imagine that. And if you want to put a scripture focus on that, Satan continues to rage in the hearts of men, my friend.
[00:04:19] He does. Yeah. He delights in violence. He delights in war. Delights in separating families from each other. He delights in the killing. In the torture of the humankind, unfortunately. And people who are lusting for power and for money, they facilitate the adversary's wiles by doing so. It's terribly unfortunate.
[00:04:45] And I pray for the day when peace will again prevail over the earth. But meanwhile, we've got the U.S. involved in this war with Iran. Trump has repeatedly said, we've won the war and that the Strait of Hormuz is open. But that's simply not true. If we won, let's just bring everybody home then, Lowell. Let's take it with his word. We're all done. Let's kind of bring everybody home and declare victory and just bring them all home then, buddy. Prove it. Nobody believes him.
[00:05:14] And the sailors and the Marines aboard the USS Lincoln and other ships who have endured record-breaking deployment. We're talking nine months without port of call. See, what if you're a military leader and you just started loading up planes and flying people home? You're like, hey, man, he said we won. We're done. We're rolling home. That would be awesome. Well, you know, some generals, some high military officers are doing just that. They're pushing back.
[00:05:42] Army Secretary Don Driscoll resigned his position, reportedly due to disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the toll the war is taking on military readiness. Driscoll follows several high-ranking U.S. Army officials who have resigned. It seems clear that U.S. military leadership does not believe in the mission. That was a quote right from Ron Paul's column.
[00:06:07] Well, Dr. Ron Paul is wishing President Trump would listen more to them than to the Prime Minister of Israel, which is what I'm hoping and wishing as well. And Dr. Paul goes on to get some additional definitions of insanity, which I thought were fairly provocative but spot on.
[00:06:29] He says, maybe insanity is starting a war halfway across the globe against a country that has neither attacked nor threatened you. Maybe insanity is starting a war based on the self-serving lives of a foreign leader who just happens to benefit from the fighting. Boy, how is he pointing straight, buddy? I'll say. Maybe insanity is depleting the U.S. arsenal of missiles and other weapons after years of proxy war against Russia through Ukraine.
[00:06:58] Maybe insanity is burdening future generations with a national debt of $40 trillion and climbing. Sam, I think all of those definitions are apt definitions of the word insanity. Well, they are, but they also point at fundamental truths that are happening as well. Think about the point that maybe the definition of insanity is drawing down our weapons capabilities. I mean, that's a real hard truth that Trump has been denying and that others have been saying.
[00:07:27] And then Trump's now mad at the people that have been saying it, claiming they're talking out of turn. And, hey, we just want the truth, folks. The truth is you can't tell me that we have an unlimited supply. I just don't buy that. We don't have an unlimited supply of gasoline for the Americans, and we don't have an adequate supply or enough supply of the military capabilities.
[00:07:46] And even though you can say, well, we have plenty, my response is when you draw it down that fast, that much with multi wars, funding Ukraine, funding all these different things, at some point it's got to take its toll. And for Trump to just continue to claim that there's just no effect, it just can't be reality. And that's the problem with it. And so he's pointing at these fundamental truths about what's really occurring while he's talking about the definition of insanity. So take it two ways. Yes, it is the definition of insanity.
[00:08:16] But these truths are reality, too. Let's not lose sight of it. Spot on, Sam. Bottom line, folks, is that this war with Iran will not be won by dropping bombs or attempting to negotiate with them. They've given up negotiating with the United States. They don't believe what we say because we break our agreements every time we make them. So the only course of action for the U.S. is simply to pack up and come home.
[00:08:46] Dr. Paul writes, quote, let the people of the region solve their own problems, end of quote. So, you know, I obviously think that example can mean a lot to other countries. And our example really ought to be just get out of there and, right, be friends with people who want to trade with us, but don't make alliances, especially with Israel. They are just a warmongering regime over there.
[00:09:15] I don't think the people are that way, but their officials are that way, just like our public officials are that way. And we, the people, are not that way. I think most Americans want to be done with the war. They don't want it. They see the results economically, internally. They also see the capital spent overseas that we don't have, the debt rising. It's over $40 trillion and no end in sight. And I really want to make this point that I think is vital for people to understand. The war won't be won by us dropping bombs. That's true.
[00:09:45] But the greater conflict, so think about this war as kind of a battle in a greater conflict. The greater conflict might be won by our enemies if they draw us down too far. If we foolishly allow that to occur, one of the definitions of insanity Ron Paul points to, if we get drawn down too much to where we become weak, eventually we may not be the free leader of the world anymore. And that's a reality we cannot ignore, Lowell. Well, in the other articles we're going to discuss today,
[00:10:13] point out the shortages and the supply chain and the interdependence of the global economy. And if you have choke points, like the semiconductor trade in Taiwan, if that's a choke point, they make like 75% of all semiconductors nowadays. And if they're hurt and they stop that supply chain and we depend on that supply chain,
[00:10:39] then we are now in a world of hurt because we can't get the components we need to continue to defend ourselves the way we want. That's a serious issue, ladies and gentlemen. When we come back, we'll talk exactly about that. These shortages are real, folks. They're not imaginary. Question. Can a nation conceived in liberty carry its head high if it denies protection
[00:11:08] to the youngest and most vulnerable of its citizens? Can a country founded on God-given rights continue to thrive without understanding that life is a precious gift from our Creator? I believe that great nations and great civilizations spring from a people who have a moral compass. I don't think a civilization can long endure that does not have respect for all human life,
[00:11:38] born and not yet born. I will be in earnest. I will not equivocate and I will not excuse. I will not retreat an inch and I will be heard. One thing I promise you, I will always take a stand for life. Looking for an IT partner that truly understands your needs? Managed IT Services is the answer. We meet with you regularly to discuss your goals and form a tailored technology plan.
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[00:12:40] Well, back with you, ladies and gentlemen. Lowell Nelson here, Riding Shotgun this morning with your host, Sam Bushman, Liberty RoundTable Podcast. We're talking about a world of ongoing shortages. This great little article by Madge Wagge is instructive. The subtitle of this column is Structural Collapse and the End of Abundance.
[00:13:04] Why Stockpiling Food Represents the Only Rational Investment When Given the Current Economic Collapse. She writes this, quote, For 70 years, Americans inhabited an economy anomaly unprecedented in human history. The expectation that any material desire could be satisfied within hours. The shelves would remain perpetually replenished. But the distance between wanting and having would collapse to near zero.
[00:13:33] This expectation was never natural. It was constructed from cheap petroleum, globalized manufacturing, debt-fueled consumption, and a just-in-time logistics system so optimized that it eliminated every buffer, every redundancy, every margin of safety in pursuit of efficiency. And by the way, that was only accomplished by making the dollar the currency of the world. Because of that, there was no exchanges necessary.
[00:14:03] There was no other monetary confluences that caused issues or backups or any pipeline concerns or transactional concerns due to currency fluctuations. All that was eliminated as well. And that was the only unique factor that's different, Lowell. Very good. You know, we discussed this 30 years ago in my MBA classes at Brigham Young University,
[00:14:29] basically how to reduce costs by improving just-in-time delivery of goods. This just-in-time concept was fairly innovative, you know, 30 years ago, 35 years ago. And so we made it a subject of discussion and study. And the world benefited from that significantly, certainly America did, because of the reserve currency status of the dollar.
[00:14:58] But that's also now getting us into trouble if we have a shortage of goods, supply of goods somewhere in this global network, then it hurts every other aspect of the network. It depends on it. Continuing her column, Mads Wagge writes, quote, The system is breaking, not temporarily, not cyclically.
[00:15:23] The fractures you see in your local supermarket are surface manifestations of tectonic shifts in manufacturing capacity, labor availability, energy costs, and monetary stability, end quote. That monetary stability is just what you mentioned, Sam. And in my opinion, all the other things are breaking because the monetary stability is breaking. See, what keeps people aligned oftentimes is finance.
[00:15:49] If everybody's on board together and everybody uniquely, mutually prosper, then it's beneficial. But the second you start to take people out of the game for certain reasons, you start to sanction somebody, you start to... And so war overlays this reality, folks, that people don't understand. Because then when war starts to happen, you say, hey, we're going to put our oil into the yen or we're going to put our oil into the whatever. And pretty soon you don't have a world currency anymore. And now the world's going to fractionalize to wherever their payday comes from, buddy.
[00:16:20] Yeah, well put. You know, and Madge refers to various signs and manifestations of these shortages occurring all around us. She talks about grocery store shelves being empty or being scant. She talks about shrinking package sizes, climbing prices while wages remain stagnant, increase in delivery times, whereas before, you know, it was on your doorstep the next morning.
[00:16:48] Now it's maybe on your doorstep a week later. I mean, these are all real things happening around us right now. And so she continues here writing this, quote, the shortages will not resolve because they're not accidents. They are the new equilibrium emerging from the collision of demographic decline, resource depletion, geopolitical fragmentation that Sam just talked about,
[00:17:12] and the long-term consequences of monetary policies that treated money as a limitless resource while ignoring that it represents claims on finite actual goods, end of quote. Then comes the most important paragraph in the column, Sam, in my opinion. And I want to spend some time on this, Lowell, because we both have some comments that really hammer this home. This is, in my mind, the takeaway of the whole show, folks. Yeah, right here. Quote,
[00:17:38] Well, you need to understand what comes next, not as an academic exercise, but as a survival imperative. The families who navigate their coming decade successfully will be those who recognize the transition early and adjusted their strategies accordingly. Finally, they will be the ones who understand that in a world of contracting supply, the best investment is not financial instruments denominated in depreciating currency,
[00:18:05] but tangible reserves of the necessities that sustain life, end of quote. Now, Madge provides several excellent examples of how and why the supply chain or the supply web, as she puts it, breaks down. Now, Madge, we're talking about car dealerships. That was just one example.
[00:18:35] Another example is during the 2022 harvest, California saw 22% of its tomato crops rot in the fields, while sauce prices jumped 34% in supermarkets. This is real life, Sam. These are real life examples of what happened. And Madge doesn't give just two. She gives a half a dozen of these examples. But to make the point, she summarizes these examples and writes this, quote,
[00:19:04] These failures cascade. A shortage of computer chips prevents manufacturing of farm equipment, which reduces agricultural yields, which increases food prices, which drives inflation that forces the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, which makes housing unaffordable, which reduces consumer spending, which triggers layoffs. And, of course, I mean, it's just one thing impacts another over and over.
[00:19:30] Well, and let me back you up to your classes, Lowell, that you took in 1996 that highlights this, this just-in-time inventory. What that really does is it takes out any buffer in any of those trigger points that you've highlighted. And it streamlines all those. And when it's working efficiently, it's brilliant. And it saves a lot of money. It's really neat and cool. And it sounds like it's awesome.
[00:19:56] But the problem is it's only awesome if you have a world-dominated dollar so that everybody's aligned economically. And you don't have choke points of war or choke points of anger or, you know, people going in different directions. Everybody's, you know, the world's singing and holding hands and, you know, kumbaya. It's all good. Then the just-in-time inventory is incredible. But if there's any glitches in that made by economic issues that nobody's wanting to do the dollar anymore,
[00:20:26] people are not aligned economically or morally or, you know, and there's war, anything that disrupts that now, that supply chain that's optimized for just-in-time, and I know a lot about inventory because I've been working at that as an IT guy for literally decades in the supply chain and everything. I'm telling you that that is the key. And when that happens, though, just-in-time becomes your biggest enemy. Yeah, well put. We've got like the Strait of Hormuz shut down, so oil's not shipping.
[00:20:57] And that's causing energy, a pinch in energy availability. And you've got the monetary warfare, economic warfare going on, you know, blockages, blockades and so forth. And so nobody's trusting one another. You've got this huge inflation going on because of the printing of the dollars, trillions of dollars just out of thin air.
[00:21:26] And so other people see this happening too, and they see the value of the dollars that they hold declining in value. And so they're dumping dollars. They're investing in gold and other commodities just like this author is recommending that we do. And this inflation is not going to recede. We're told that it will recede, but it won't.
[00:21:49] Quote, the United States expanded its money supply by 40% between 2020 and 22 through quantitative easing, stimulus packages, and COVID relief bills that contain hundreds of billions of dollars in unrelated spending. End of quote. Quote, she then went on to remind us about the hyperinflation in Argentina in the 1980s, in Zimbabwe in the 2000s, and in Venezuela just eight or nine years ago.
[00:22:17] Now, the one thing that we've pointed out that makes the U.S. dollar different at this moment in time is that it is a dove world reserve currency. So it's not likely to spin into hyperinflation the same way it did in Argentina, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela. But their point is that the currently inflated prices will remain inflated. They are not going to be going down. And it will dismantle itself, though, Lowell.
[00:22:43] Think of how when you sit at a stoplight and you watch a wreck unfold in front of you, it seems like it's in slow motion. You're sitting there, and seconds become long. And you sit there, and you go, oh, no. Oh, my God. Wait. Oh, no. And then, you know, you watch this thing unfold, and it feels like it's in slow motion, like a massive car wreck in front of you. It's like that. You feel unable to stop it. You feel that you can see what's going to happen. That's what's happening with our economy.
[00:23:11] And the reason it's slower is because we've been the world currency. And so people can't just divorce themselves and make their own self-determination until they can build infrastructures and build, you know, ways around things. The Strait of Hormuz blowup is one example of that. They're working out their own ways to circumvent that. So are we. And every time that happens, the reality changes in terms of economics. The dollar gets weaker every time one of these things happen.
[00:23:39] They're at war with us, so they'll get money elsewhere. They'll get capabilities, whether it be military or sustainability, elsewhere. And so on. And so the whole world will remake over these things. And as they get their own supply chains and their own finances and their own, you know, traffic ways. I'm trying to think of the best way to trade routes, whatever you want to call them. So once that stuff gets built solid enough, the game will change.
[00:24:07] And so you'll watch a slow train wreck going down with this thing as opposed to what happens in some of these other countries because of that. But I'm telling you, once the dollar ain't dominant, all bets are off. We're going to continue with Lowell Nelson, ladies and gentlemen, and drill into this a little bit more. We need to get into the discussion about the store shelves and your own pantry. And you better listen up and take action. We'll tell you more in seconds. Lowell Nelson, CampaignForLiberty.org, ladies and gentlemen.
[00:24:36] We're discussing some very serious columns because we are live on Labor Day. Put your labor into your family. We beg you. God save our constitutional republic.