- 8 minutes ago
CTP (S3EMarSpecial8) Combat Spy Truth Tests
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
We talk with former Army intelligence professional Pete A. Turner about what a “combat spy” really does and why verification matters more than outrage. We break down how target decisions get made, how propaganda hooks people, and why emotional headlines can be a warning sign.
• What “combat spy” means in Army intelligence and how it differs from strategic espionage
• Why commanders demand proof and how a target package is built from multiple intel sources
• How interdiction and counter-smuggling decisions work in practice and why misidentification is taken seriously
• Collateral damage, the fog of war, and what investigations and battle damage assessment are meant to do
• Why “trust but verify” applies to journalism and why anonymous sourcing can erode credibility
• How loaded adjectives and crisis language function as influence operations
• Ukraine, corruption, and the challenge of holding nuance without slipping into propaganda
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
We talk with former Army intelligence professional Pete A. Turner about what a “combat spy” really does and why verification matters more than outrage. We break down how target decisions get made, how propaganda hooks people, and why emotional headlines can be a warning sign.
• What “combat spy” means in Army intelligence and how it differs from strategic espionage
• Why commanders demand proof and how a target package is built from multiple intel sources
• How interdiction and counter-smuggling decisions work in practice and why misidentification is taken seriously
• Collateral damage, the fog of war, and what investigations and battle damage assessment are meant to do
• Why “trust but verify” applies to journalism and why anonymous sourcing can erode credibility
• How loaded adjectives and crisis language function as influence operations
• Ukraine, corruption, and the challenge of holding nuance without slipping into propaganda
https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP
CTP Audios: https://tinyurl.com/CTPonBuzzsprout
CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE
https://tinyurl.com/CTPgear
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to another episode of Perstitutionalist Podcast.
00:06I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard.
00:09That's L-E-N-A-R-D, it's the French, it's not, it's Leonard without an O.
00:17Thank you for tuning in, as Graham Norton used to say, on his show.
00:24Let's get on with the show!
00:26Hello! Special segment for February and March, midweek drops.
00:35Normally Saturday monologues and normally a guest appearance on a Wednesday.
00:42February and March, two a week, Tuesday and Thursdays,
00:46in order to get caught up on some interviews that have been stacking up. Enjoy.
00:52Joining me today is Pete A. Turner, and I already joked with him, and you, my audience, knows I can't
01:02pass on a joke, so the biblical joke, for every season there's a Turner, Turner, Turner.
01:10Ba-dum-bum, right?
01:11Hey!
01:14And his profile says, combat spy turns podcast host.
01:20Well, the other obvious joke of, well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, right?
01:26That's true.
01:26So, we'll see what Pete can share.
01:30We sure don't want him disclosing anything classified and getting into trouble.
01:35And the differentiation and distinction between a combat spy and a CIA kind of type spy.
01:45But before we get to that, welcome to the show, Pete A. Turner.
01:49Wow.
01:50Thanks, man.
01:51I appreciate you having me on.
01:52Yeah, it's a crazy world, being a spy and trying to figure out how to communicate things.
01:57Because even if I tell the truth, would you believe me?
02:00You know?
02:01And so, it's one of those queer conundrums, right?
02:04Part of your job is just so disinformation at times.
02:08Absolutely.
02:09Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:10Or at least what I would call information, and you might not like it, but all of a sudden, it's
02:15like, no, he was right.
02:16You know, it's, yeah, there's a lot of negotiating what the truth is in any given point in time.
02:23Well, first and again, I don't want you to dox yourself, so I don't know if you want to answer
02:30the question.
02:31Where were you born and raised?
02:33Where are you now?
02:34Places you've been to in between.
02:36What you can tell us that won't get you killed.
02:40Yeah, it's not that dangerous to be me.
02:42You know, my time doing all that stuff has passed, and no one's looking for me.
02:47So, and if they want to come show up, I guess they're looking for me.
02:50Oh, wait, I hear a knock at your door.
02:52No, I'm kidding.
02:53Joke.
02:53Joke.
02:54Joke.
02:55Yeah.
02:55No, it wouldn't be a knock.
02:57It'd just be boots knocking in the door.
02:59Probably at 3 a.m. or something.
03:01Yeah.
03:02Yeah.
03:03No, it's, you know, the classified stuff really doesn't, it's not that big of a deal.
03:08You know, because most of the stuff, in my particular line of work, it was all tactical.
03:13So it was short term.
03:14And once we left, most of those classification things go away because it's just not relevant
03:19anymore.
03:19You know, so for my line of work, even though I was a spy, I did things, it was all
03:23about
03:24that specific commander's intent.
03:26And so that's sort of the difference between maybe a combat spy, you know, more of a strategic
03:30spy or a national level service spy.
03:33You know, I'm an army spy, so short-lived, but I grew up in California, to answer your
03:39question, in the Bay Area.
03:41And, you know, I'm just a California kid.
03:43That's what I am, you know, from the 80s and had a great time, had a good life.
03:47And, you know, ultimately working in the army, kind of by happenstance.
03:52Yeah, now the way my OCD brain always works, the rest of the night, I'm going to have Journey
03:59in my head.
04:00The lights go on in the city by the bay.
04:06Whoa.
04:07Sorry for the bad singing.
04:09I used to have a reasonable voice.
04:11I wrote and recorded music in the past, but, oh, my voice is shot these days.
04:19Anyway, you know, by the time this airs, this will be old news now, but, and I don't want
04:28you to chime in with thoughts on the Ukraine-Russia situation.
04:33I'm only bringing it up here to make a point about social justice keyboard warriors online
04:40who wouldn't know where Ukraine or Russia is even on the map, don't know what the Budapest
04:47Accord is.
04:48I make that point, though, because even as author of Terror Strikes Coming Soon to a City
04:55Near You, there are about 180 nation states on the planet, and researching that, I know
05:04of most of them, but I've got to admit myself, this Benin, Benin, Benign, where this coup just
05:12took, it tried to take place, I have no idea where that is on the map, so I've got some
05:18studying to do to determine whether, you know, maybe the military needed to overthrow that
05:25nation.
05:25I don't know.
05:27Do you know anything about it?
05:29About Benin?
05:30No, no.
05:30I mean, you know, I know some things about it.
05:33You know, I know it's on the, I guess you would call it the south-facing west coast of
05:38Africa.
05:39It's near Ghana and Ivory Coast.
05:43That puts it into perspective a little, yes.
05:46Over there by, I think Nigeria is to their east because they are on the southern-facing
05:52hunk, and then it comes back around to, like, Morocco, right?
05:55So on that southern part, almost back to the elbow, like the elbow kind of happens around
06:00Nigeria.
06:01Yeah, so there's stuff there.
06:03There's resources there.
06:04I mean, if you think about where that locks into South America, a lot of oil, right?
06:09So, I mean, Ghana and...
06:11And the world still turns on oil, like it or not.
06:15It's, yeah, that's not going to stop.
06:17Not in my lifetime.
06:18You know, I mean, oil is a miracle.
06:20You know, it's so energy-dense.
06:22Yeah.
06:22But these resources, like, you know, heavy metals, things we're making, magnets.
06:27Rare earth minerals nowadays is a big military strategic concern.
06:33Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:33Natural gas.
06:34Like, Ghana has a ton of oil and gas, and we're just now figuring out how to get to it.
06:39That country's well-being is going to change dramatically.
06:42Well, that...
06:43I'm a spy.
06:44Like, I know that if that was my area of South America, was my area, I would have to get
06:49hip
06:49to that.
06:50What's that going to mean?
06:50Who's going to be the new power players?
06:52All that stuff.
06:53That all comes into play.
06:54And if we don't have influence there, we can't let Russia, China, Iran, North Korea have the
07:02influence there.
07:04Right, right.
07:05And so there's a competition there, too.
07:07You know, like, right now in the news is this stuff with the drug runners coming out of
07:13Venezuela, right?
07:14So, look, I don't care about politics.
07:17So I might have been...
07:18All I'm going to say is, like, I don't care about the politics.
07:20But if you're telling me...
07:21I know drug smugglers.
07:23And they don't smuggle drugs anymore, but they did.
07:25And so when I ask them, are these guys moving product in these boats?
07:30They're like, yes, of course.
07:32Shoot them.
07:34Shoot them, right?
07:35These are reformed smugglers.
07:38And so, look, boats can stop.
07:41They can get fuel.
07:42You can portage the chemicals.
07:44You can portage the product.
07:46You know, these guys are good at what they do.
07:48And they're not going to run it in a boat that's like drug smuggler.
07:51They're not going to do that.
07:52Right.
07:53And so all of these things are people who aren't in that illicit world.
07:57They are in a political world.
07:58They can't understand.
08:00And the other thing about that particular thing is there's no admiral.
08:04There's no staff of a ship or a collection of ships that's like, yeah, let's kill innocent people today.
08:11Like, that's just...
08:12That's not a thing at all, right?
08:13So if the boss, in this case Donald Trump or Pete Hegseth, says, hey, sink any boats that we identify
08:19as carrying drugs.
08:21Well, the commander who's there on the ground is not just going to shoot on Pete Hegseth's order.
08:27Like, obviously, they're going to do their job.
08:28They're due diligence.
08:29And they're going to use a guy like me.
08:30And they're going to say, hey, Pete, tell us when one of these boats leaves.
08:34To properly identify legit versus unlegit targets.
08:39Right.
08:39Which is not to say, on occasion, a misidentification can happen.
08:44Of course.
08:44Collateral damage.
08:46And that's what...
08:47Yeah.
08:47It drives me crazy that people that want to talk on this will only take a political angle and not
08:55factor in all the things.
08:57Now, the war on terror, which the president has been given congressional authority to do, has been going on for
09:05decades now.
09:07Sure.
09:07The war on drugs has been going on for decades beyond that.
09:12Are you going to...
09:13If you take both those seriously, how do you have a problem with this happening?
09:20Yeah.
09:21Yeah.
09:21And that's the other thing.
09:22I mean, backing up, first off, to the...
09:24If you put together a target package and you say, hey, there's a drug boat coming out of this port
09:29or whatever it is, the commander is going to look at you and say, okay, where's your proof?
09:35Right?
09:35And so, I'm a guy who's put together a target package before.
09:39And I'm going to say, here's our signals intelligence.
09:41Here's our imagery intelligence.
09:43Here's our human sources.
09:44And I've got to put together this package to say, hey, I think this is a good bet.
09:49Sometimes intel is wrong.
09:50Sometimes we get played.
09:52Right?
09:53And so, the commander knows this.
09:54They've been up and up and up.
09:56There are competing enemy forces who want us to look bad.
10:03They will misinform us to hopefully hit an innocent target so that they can then attack us in the court
10:14of public opinion.
10:16Look what the U.S. did.
10:18That's a collateral damage situation.
10:22And shit happens in the fog of war.
10:26Yes.
10:27Yeah.
10:27All of that.
10:28Everything you're saying, right?
10:29That's totally normal.
10:30And what that commander is trying to do is discern, is there fog here?
10:36Or is this clear?
10:37How strong is this signal?
10:38Go back and get more.
10:40The next time a commander says, well, maybe not for me anymore.
10:43But the next time the commander says to a local spy or a local analyst, go get more information.
10:49Get me another mode of intel.
10:51You know, go get me something else because I don't feel comfortable.
10:55Right?
10:56Well, it's like journalism, right?
10:59Sure.
11:00There's no such thing as it anymore.
11:03They're just reporters.
11:05Say what you want to say and we won't fact check it.
11:08We'll just let you say it and report it as if it were true, even if it's bullshit.
11:14Right?
11:15You need multiple, legitimate, reliable sources, not all anonymous or, you know, well, we think
11:25we might be able to trust them sources.
11:28No.
11:29As Reagan used to say, right?
11:31Trust, but verify.
11:34Yeah.
11:34Yeah.
11:34And the next time they write to whoever they is that this is an unnamed inside source,
11:40you know, I don't, I no longer believe you.
11:42You know, these, these are the same people.
11:44Which is your opinion you're attributing to these fantasy sources nine times out of ten.
11:50Yeah, right, right.
11:51And, and it'd be one thing if it's like, well, you know, the New York Times is the standard
11:56and the paper of record, but they have routinely been bamboozled by Hamas Ministry of Health
12:01where they've had to print retractions, right?
12:03And so you only get to do that so many times before.
12:06I'm not saying the New York Times is all bad, but they've compromised their integrity as
12:11a paper willingly to go back to the same bad source, all to, to tell me a narrative.
12:16So I, I won't consume this.
12:19Just Pete, the spy say this.
12:20I won't consume them as a credible source.
12:22I may be there's a particular reporter that I'll listen to, but for the most part, yeah.
12:26I mean, you only get so many of those shots before you aren't.
12:30And so if it was a commander and Pete keeps coming back and went, oh yeah, for sure, you
12:35know, whatever.
12:36And then he keeps getting burned and be like, F Pete.
12:39I'm never listening to him again, right?
12:41Again, a source can accidentally be wrong, but if they're always wrong over and over and
12:51over, you're the moron for continuing to use them as a supposed credible source.
12:58Yeah, yeah.
12:59And that's a hundred percent true.
13:00And so when, when we find out that there is a drug boat, nobody's just wantonly shot
13:06people.
13:06And by the way, and you know, and look, let's have an investigation.
13:10Okay.
13:10Let's, let's let the job, like, let's figure that part out.
13:13Military is good at that.
13:14And you can always have people, Congress can come in, by the way, the next time Congress
13:18does anything with any of these investigations, let me know.
13:20Cause they don't do shit about it.
13:21It's all about pointing your finger at somebody and getting notoriety.
13:25But the, um, we have a mechanism for, for checking these things.
13:30And when you shoot a boat, when the, when the order is take down, you know, interdict
13:34and destroy boats, uh, in the Caribbean, you can, you do that.
13:38You shoot the boat and you do the thing called a battle damage assessment.
13:42And so they look, I'm using binoculars to look, they look, they're like, still there.
13:47And there's dudes trying to put drugs back into, or whatever it is, right?
13:50Um, whatever they say is happening, they're looking at it real time, deploy a team, do
13:55this, do that, all these options.
13:56One of the options is send another missile, send another round, put, you know, whatever.
14:02Nobody cares that the coast guard gets into tactical fights fairly routinely, never makes
14:09the news.
14:10No one feels sad for anything, nothing.
14:13Right.
14:13So we have to be honest that a lot of this is media manipulation because the military
14:18is not in the habit of blowing up innocent fishermen.
14:22They don't just guess and go, I guess that, that, that is so insulting to the quality of
14:27people that are sitting on the watch.
14:29Like these are pros.
14:31Again, we already met.
14:33Amazing how there's plumes of coke fluid filling there, ne'er a fishing pole to be
14:39found in the debris.
14:41Right.
14:41And again, keep in mind, I know smugglers.
14:45I know these guys.
14:46And they're like, yeah, man, screw those dudes, kill all of them.
14:50And I'm like, that seems kind of harsh.
14:51He's like, I, my own friend, I don't care.
14:53They're bringing drugs in.
14:55Drugs are going to harm our people.
14:56And this kind of, you know, so.
14:57And it isn't like we're talking drugs from the seventies and eighties.
15:03We're not talking weak marijuana or pure coke.
15:08We're talking dangerous fentanyl.
15:11That's lacing things.
15:13These aren't overdoses.
15:15These are purposeful, willful poisonings.
15:19Well, I take back the purposeful, willful.
15:22To a degree, China wants some deaths with them.
15:26But these drug dealers and that, a lot of them, they don't want to kill their customers.
15:32They themselves at the local level don't know that this Xanny or Ritalin, they think somebody's
15:42buying and they're selling may be what they're selling.
15:47They don't know themselves how much fentanyl may or may not be in it.
15:52These are poisonings.
15:53They're not overdoses.
15:56Yeah.
15:57And some of them are inadvertent.
15:58Like, let's say that there's enough fentanyl in that room to poison the next person who
16:02comes up or he gives mouth to mouth or responds in some way.
16:06It doesn't take much.
16:07I mean, fentanyl used in a controlled manner for medical purposes.
16:10Okay, great.
16:11You know, like that's, that's a good thing.
16:12But we don't get that from a bunch of dudes on the boat.
16:15And I don't know if it's, look, I don't know if it's fentanyl.
16:17I don't know if it's coke.
16:18I don't know if it's weed.
16:19I just know that no military member is going to go, what do you mean you don't have any
16:24confirmation?
16:25Let's shoot anyhow.
16:26Like that, that isn't how that works.
16:27That is not.
16:28Look, that admiral who's in charge.
16:30Right.
16:30Because we're supposed to be the good guys.
16:33We've got procedures and protocols.
16:35Yeah.
16:35We try, unlike Hamas, who purposely willfully attacks civilians, not one military target
16:44was struck on October 7th.
16:47We go out of our way, as does the IDF.
16:51They draw flyers for God's sake.
16:54Hey, Hamas is hiding there under your civilian seats.
17:00Get out.
17:01It's a legit target.
17:02We're going to hit it.
17:03Get out.
17:04They, as we try to avoid collateral damage, where our enemies do not care about civilian
17:13collateral damage at all.
17:15Yeah.
17:16Yeah.
17:17Yeah.
17:17And all the things you're saying are exactly right.
17:20And, you know, when I see these stories make it around the news, I just, I get a little
17:27dismayed.
17:27Well, first off, I don't watch the news partly because I don't want to consume this kind of
17:31stuff.
17:32And you can say, oh, well, you're not aware.
17:34And I'm like, look, I'm aware of how the military works.
17:36I'm aware of how spying works.
17:37I know drug smugglers.
17:39So if I see all a whole bunch of people who are overly passionate, look, the amount of
17:43people that had big, deep feelings about the IDF and Hamas, I mean, without having any
17:51real knowledge, you know, we can all pick a bad guy.
17:53I'm going to tell you this is most people don't have the understanding.
17:56They haven't done the work.
17:57They've been informed by somebody who's not there to inform them.
18:00And that happens all the time.
18:01And so when you see news, and there's so many examples, and it goes in all political
18:06directions.
18:06So it's not.
18:07Which is not to say the IDF is perfect either.
18:10Of course not.
18:11No, no.
18:12No one, the U.S. military isn't perfect.
18:15Again, collateral damage mistakes happen at times.
18:19Yeah.
18:20But do you try?
18:22Do you try to limit civilian casualties?
18:26Right.
18:27Yeah.
18:27And should we be getting involved in these things?
18:30That's another different and very fair question.
18:32Whole other debate again.
18:33Yes.
18:34Again.
18:34But in the war on terror vein, it's never chamberlain as am I going to when terror strikes
18:42coming, right?
18:43Fortress America doesn't work.
18:46There's these things called ICBMs, balloon bombs, right?
18:51Sure.
18:52The China balloon bomb matters because the Japanese did hit us with balloon bombs in World War II
19:00and even took out the Manhattan Project for several days, taking the power out.
19:06We kept all that classified fervor because we didn't want the enemy to know how successful
19:12they were, and we didn't want panic here.
19:15But NOCO or China can send a dirty nuke over on a balloon, and if we're not shooting it down,
19:25imagine the massive damage a dirty nuke of a balloon bomb would be.
19:30Yeah.
19:30No, it's terrible.
19:32And I will say this.
19:33It is the boss's prerogative.
19:35You know, President Trump, President Biden, President Trump, President Obama.
19:39All of these guys get elected to do the job.
19:42It's their prerogative to act in the way they want to act.
19:46Do you want to let the balloons go over?
19:47That's their call, right?
19:48You don't like that?
19:49Vote that guy out.
19:51That's how this works.
19:52So, you know, again, like, I'm not political in this statement.
19:55Both sides make mistakes.
19:56I don't care about sides.
19:57I care about performance.
19:59And if you're asking me, you know, what do I think about Benin?
20:03I'm like, I don't know that I have enough.
20:06I have some knowledge.
20:07I have some World Book-level knowledge of, you know, CIA World Book knowledge of Benin.
20:11You at least know where it's at.
20:14I don't.
20:14Yeah.
20:17Well, and if you ask me, like, what are its neighbors left and right?
20:21I'm pretty sure it's Nigeria, but if it was, you know, like, Chad is kind of over there,
20:26but I don't think it touched the ocean.
20:27But most people on social media right now don't know anything and won't.
20:35I admit I don't know because I don't know because I have honor and integrity.
20:40But let's move on because the time is flying by already.
20:44I know you have YouTube.com slash Pete A. Turner.
20:50Part of that initial statement, Combat Spy Turns Podcast.
20:55So what's the name of the show beyond just YouTube.com slash Pete A. Turner?
21:03It's the Break It Down Show.
21:04The Break It Down Show.
21:06Okay.
21:07That's right.
21:07Yeah.
21:07Yeah.
21:08And you do what with it?
21:10I talk to interesting people doing fascinating things.
21:12Sometimes it's spies.
21:14But just today, just right by, I actually left a guy's house to come and do this show at my
21:17house.
21:18He is a professional volleyball coach, former professional player.
21:22And so he lives in the Mecca for beach volleyball down in Hermosa Beach.
21:27And so I might talk to him.
21:28I might talk to an author.
21:29I've got a new person tomorrow.
21:31And so I get to talk to amazing people who have incredible tales.
21:36Some of them are famous, hyper, hyper, hyper famous.
21:38Some of them you just got to know.
21:40And some I just adore.
21:41Maybe old friends or whatever.
21:43I just, I can't get enough.
21:45And you get this, man.
21:46There's so much power in these exchanges.
21:49And we can have these conversations.
21:51I'm not vying for a political party.
21:53I'm saying, slow down.
21:54Maybe there was some wrongdoing.
21:56The military is going to investigate this.
21:58Should we trust that?
21:59Okay, no, let's not.
22:00Because they've lied to us before, too.
22:01So let's make sure that they do stand in front of Congress.
22:04Who's watching the watchers, right?
22:07Oh, yeah.
22:07Yeah.
22:08And look, I know you get this.
22:11Very good chance that in two weeks, nobody cares about the outcome of this.
22:14They're just in a rage now.
22:15They've moved on to the next crisis that they cannot let go to waste, as you know.
22:22And I don't want to do that on my show.
22:23I want to develop friendships and talk about challenging things.
22:27Sure, you know.
22:28But life is too sweet to be investing in something that's purposely poisoning us.
22:34And this is just the thing I'll say, and then I'll shut up about the news.
22:37When you see headlines and it says, the horrific, the grisly, the tragic, you are being manipulated.
22:44Can I say that any more clearly?
22:45It's not news, it's propaganda.
22:48Right.
22:48Those adjectives are always there to trigger your emotional response.
22:54That's called information operations, influence operations.
22:57Diops.
22:58Internally, those are each are individual psychological operations.
23:03That's what they do.
23:04So don't buy into that.
23:06Go see your grandkid.
23:08Go for a walk.
23:09Go write a piece of music.
23:11Whatever it is.
23:12We need people to be informed.
23:15But yes, you need to know those informing you are indeed trying to, and all sides do it.
23:23In war, I'd like to talk about Ukraine and Russia.
23:27Again, not to position there, but all sides.
23:31The good side, the bad side, our side.
23:34There's all sides engage in propaganda, all sides, period.
23:43Well, and because of what I do and the kind of work I do, I get to know a lot
23:48of these people who are involved in these things.
23:50And let me tell you, Ukraine is not an innocent player.
23:53Yes, Russia should not have invaded.
23:55Of course, the amount of corruption in Ukraine makes it hard to even see a future for them because you
24:03can't reliably, if you and I had a bunch of money to invest in Ukraine, I would say, let's go
24:10somewhere else because you don't, you have to, you have to pre-account for all of the greasing of palms
24:16that you have to do.
24:16And there's always another hand out waiting for more grease.
24:20And so you're better off going to a place that, look, all places have corruption, but it's so thick there.
24:27Like you can, and this is a real thing, a real story.
24:29You can have a legal case that you lose in Ukraine as a business person in the business world.
24:34And you say, you know what?
24:36There's a bunch of nonsense going on.
24:37I'm going to take this to the, you can exit that court and go to the European court and elevate.
24:41And you'll get your positive thing.
24:43Like, yes, we see this is political.
24:45Yes, we see this is illegal.
24:46Yes, we see this is corruption.
24:48Finding in your favor.
24:49Take that piece of paper.
24:51Legal document.
24:52Back to Ukraine.
24:53No, like, yeah, enforce that.
24:55And you can't.
24:55Right?
24:56Right.
24:57And if you go into the, if you see in the Ukrainian court, it's money, money, money, money.
25:02And all that money is to buy the outcome.
25:04If the other guy has more money, you still, you still put your money in and you compete and you
25:08see, you lose.
25:09So the corruption in Ukraine is unsustainable.
25:13Have they done things to improve?
25:14Yes.
25:15Am I at all surprised that some of Zelensky's closest advisors, they've had their hand in the till?
25:22No.
25:22Me neither.
25:23I don't support Zelensky.
25:26I support the innocent Ukrainian people who have been invaded upon.
25:32Because I know the history for the last hundred years of that region.
25:38And you could go back to the movie, Mr. Rogers does a great job of talking about the Stalin famine,
25:48purposely starving Ukrainians.
25:51The Russians have always wanted Ukraine to be its bread basket.
25:56It doesn't care about those people.
26:00And Germany would take it back as well, you know?
26:05But yeah, no, so I don't, Zelensky, no, I don't support him.
26:09But Putin has corrupted Zelensky also.
26:14And all the people Putin has put to death with polonium.
26:18And to say Putin is not a dictator, oh, please.
26:22But yeah, anyway.
26:24I got to be fair about this and say, too, like our side, on the foreign policy side, on the
26:29national intelligence side, we struggle with Ukraine because we think they're a bunch of former Soviets, which they are.
26:37But also, a lot of these folks are like, we just want to be Western.
26:40We want to finally have our own country, not be under someone else's influence.
26:44And we hate that.
26:46We want them so desperately to do exactly what we tell them to do.
26:50And that causes also this tumult.
26:53So, you know.
26:54But we're in this because of the Budapest Accord, most of which the online whiners have no idea what the
27:02hell that is.
27:03That's true.
27:04And also, we tend to pick, like we snap a chalk line across the country.
27:10Anybody on this side of the chalk line is bad.
27:12They're a Russian, whether that's true or not.
27:14But we love to find the person that fits into our little pattern.
27:17The people are intermingled.
27:18Yeah.
27:19Oh, for sure.
27:19And even some of the leadership.
27:21You know, you've got good business owners that are like, I don't care about that stuff.
27:24I'm here to do this.
27:25Are they going to play political games because they're a high-level business player in that country?
27:29Yeah, of course.
27:30Of course.
27:30But it doesn't make them a Soviet.
27:32It doesn't make them a felon.
27:33You know, and we hear it whenever you hear.
27:35So here's the other one.
27:35When you hear the word oligarch, you're being manipulated.
27:38When you hear the word billionaire, you're being manipulated.
27:41Yeah.
27:41You want to see that negative response.
27:43Just think about a business owner, right?
27:45And do all these guys have sharp elbows?
27:47Yes.
27:48Just like senators have sharp elbows.
27:50But we don't go, the senator.
27:51It's the same everywhere.
27:53Yes.
27:53Right.
27:53And they all do it, right?
27:56Bernie drives me crazy.
27:58Oh, the oligarchy.
28:00When he's been in the Senate, how long?
28:02And three mansions, one of them a beachfront property, still trying to peddle climate alarmism, which his home he bought
28:12would be underwater by now, if what they were saying were true.
28:15And the quarter of a million-dollar sports car.
28:19So he wants to attack the billionaires.
28:21He doesn't say anything about millionaires anymore because he is a multimillionaire.
28:27But anyway, to wrap things up, people can find you at youtube.com slash Pete A. Turner.
28:34Thank you for stopping by, Pete.
28:38It was a good – and back to your – I mean, I do the same with – despite my
28:44name, my Saturday monologues stick to the politics usually.
28:50But my weekday guest shows, indeed, can be, like you said, can be just frivolous stuff, just interesting people to
29:00talk to.
29:01We can't talk about this stuff all the time or we'll go crazy.
29:07Yeah.
29:08And also, we're not talking politics.
29:09We're talking policy and practice, right?
29:12And so you're asking me, intel guy, about smuggling.
29:15I don't care who the president is.
29:17You know, that's out of my control.
29:18But this is the policy that we're acting under.
29:21So how does that work?
29:22Well, at our best, it works very responsibly and solidly.
29:25You know, do we make mistakes?
29:26And these are the laws that both Democrats and Republicans over decades have passed into law and have been signed
29:36into law.
29:37And, of course, complicating that street.
29:39I was going to mention, I saw the cat earlier.
29:42My cat was here up on the couch, too.
29:45I shushed him off so he wouldn't be in the screen.
29:47But give your cat a hug for me.
29:52I will.
29:53I will.
29:54She loves it.
29:54Yeah.
29:55No, I love my cat.
29:56She can do whatever she wants.
29:57And if she wants to be in this window, then she's in that window.
30:00Yeah.
30:01She's not your pet.
30:03She has a house and a human happens to live there, right?
30:08And she gets hugs and kisses and attention all the time.
30:11I love it.
30:12Yeah.
30:12She puts a big smile on my face, though.
30:14That's her job.
30:14Let's put a smile on my face.
30:15Yeah.
30:16Yeah.
30:16Well, I appreciate you, man.
30:18Thank you so much for having me on.
30:19It really means a lot to me.
30:20I appreciate it.
30:21All right.
30:21Take care.
30:22God bless.
30:23Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes.
30:30We need your help.
30:31Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist Podcast show.
30:38I really appreciate that you stopped by.
30:43Again, please like, share, subscribe.
30:46We need you to help spread the Christitutionalist Movement.
30:52Thank you again.
30:53Take care.
30:54God bless.
30:56Love you all.
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