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Houthis KILL an American as Trump Weighs Striking Back | Mike Drop Newsroom
MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 12 OCTOBER 2026
A Houthi strike on Riyadh’s airport killed an American, the attacks haven’t stopped, and President Trump says the U.S. “may” join Saudi Arabia’s fight.
Former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland breaks down what the Houthis mean for the war with Iran and why the U.S. response has been so quiet.
Mike doesn’t think the American was targeted for being American, but he says the Houthis’ escalation demands a response if the goal is to crush Iran and its proxies. Then Iran says it’s done answering Washington and threatens undersea cables, data centers and AI facilities. Mike explains why undersea threats fall squarely in Naval Special Warfare’s lane, and whether Tehran can actually deliver or this is more “Baghdad Bob.”
Also covered: Trump’s push for a Russia–Ukraine energy ceasefire as senators call his export plan illegal, the rush to fix things before the midterms, and Gov. Newsom’s reversal on wealth taxes.
Should the U.S. go after the Houthis now? Tell us in the comments 👇
Subscribe for daily breakdowns from a former Navy SEAL on the stories that matter to America’s military.
0:00 Houthis kill an American at Riyadh airport
0:50 Targeted, or wrong place at the wrong time?
2:05 The Houthis' role in the war with Iran
3:20 Why hasn't the U.S. hit the Houthis harder?
4:30 Your call: how should we handle the Houthis?
5:25 Iran stops talking, threatens undersea cables and data centers
6:15 A SEAL's view: the undersea threat
8:45 Real threat or "Baghdad Bob"?
10:45 Trump's Russia energy ceasefire push
12:50 Scrambling before the midterms
13:30 Newsom's wealth-tax reversal
14:55 Wrap-up
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Former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland reads the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times so you don't have to. No cable news spin, no recycled talking points, just the actual front pages and a straight take on what they mean for you.
On Mike Drop Newsroom, Mike picks the day's biggest headlines, compares how two of the country's largest papers cover them, and says what he thinks. That covers everything from AI and national security to the economy, foreign policy and the stories cable TV skips. He's not here to push a party line. As Mike puts it, if you want to put a label on him, he's an American who wants to see America succeed.
Every episode ends with a question for you. Tell us where you land in the comments, because Mike reads them and your answers shape what we cover next. Subscribe so you don't miss a morning.
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WEBVTT
00:01.300 --> 00:06.782
[SPEAKER_00]: Houthis Kill and American at Riyadh Airport Trump says the U.S. may join the fight.
00:07.283 --> 00:16.827
[SPEAKER_00]: Houthis strike on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, killed at least 12 people and wounded 309 CBS reports in American was among the dead.
00:17.207 --> 00:21.128
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump said the U.S. may join Saudi Arabia's fight against the Houthis.
00:21.909 --> 00:22.769
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to look at it.
00:23.329 --> 00:27.771
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the Houthis kept firing a projectile hit Riyadh's terminal four on Sunday.
00:30.533 --> 00:42.365
[SPEAKER_00]: Demams airport was attacked, Al Jazeera reports a new re-odd strike Monday, killed one and wounded 11 hours after Houthi linked media reported an air strike on Sunai airport.
00:43.446 --> 00:44.347
[SPEAKER_00]: No idea is this matter.
00:45.028 --> 00:46.029
[SPEAKER_00]: An American is dead.
00:46.450 --> 00:53.597
[SPEAKER_00]: The attacks have not stopped, and the next move is Trump's send the U.S. forces against the Houthis or stay out.
00:54.662 --> 00:57.623
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about this in one of the stories yesterday.
00:57.663 --> 01:08.865
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the broader question is, what role do the Houthis play in kind of the broader spectrum, or the big picture with the fight against Iran, and to me that is significant.
01:08.905 --> 01:13.667
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, any time an American has killed in any type of terrorists like attack.
01:13.707 --> 01:17.868
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always something that needs to be considered.
01:17.888 --> 01:19.168
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the distinction
01:20.728 --> 01:37.817
[SPEAKER_00]: at least from my perspective is if you're looking at striking solely because of that is, you know, were Americans or that Americans specifically targeted because they're an American or was this an American at the Saudi airport that just happened to be in the wrong place the wrong time.
01:37.837 --> 01:42.139
[SPEAKER_00]: I suspect that it's the latter, obviously the Houthis are attacking.
01:43.170 --> 01:46.852
[SPEAKER_00]: Saudi infrastructure, Saudi airports, Saudi targets.
01:47.712 --> 01:55.356
[SPEAKER_00]: They know that some Americans are there, but I can't imagine that they knew that one American was there at the airport, so that's why they targeted them.
01:55.456 --> 01:58.198
[SPEAKER_00]: So to me, that's not necessarily the justification.
01:59.019 --> 02:13.037
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that nothing should be done, but I think, you know, in making that distinction it's important to be consistent with policy and that's usually how we kind of operate as if Americans are targeted or that's how we should operate maybe.
02:13.958 --> 02:14.920
[SPEAKER_00]: Is the better way to put it.
02:15.857 --> 02:22.603
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the broader point is, you know, the hoothies in their relationship with Iran is obviously significant.
02:23.284 --> 02:32.132
[SPEAKER_00]: Iran, I think, you know, with the actual borders within Iran being choked off with sanctions with...
02:33.373 --> 02:54.748
[SPEAKER_00]: air strikes with, you know, so many targeted sororities on, you know, different infrastructure pieces, leadership, military sites, you know, all of the strikes that we've enacted on Iran over the last seven or eight months has done significant damage and has obviously made them pivot to a certain extent.
02:54.868 --> 02:57.670
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the Houthis are kind of the clear cut example.
03:02.470 --> 03:10.436
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and the tit for tat that was going on with Israel as far as their involvement goes ramped everything up significantly.
03:11.437 --> 03:23.426
[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me is why the escalation on the Houthi side towards Saudi and even the Houthi forces targeting U.S. targets, why that hasn't had a bigger response.
03:23.766 --> 03:28.570
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in every other case where, you know, Iran has
03:29.871 --> 03:34.255
[SPEAKER_00]: via proxy or directly struck U.S. interests or targets.
03:34.295 --> 03:36.537
[SPEAKER_00]: There's generally been a response.
03:37.298 --> 03:40.862
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's measured, but you know, unquestionably a response.
03:40.902 --> 03:43.405
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this case, it seems like we've done a lot less.
03:44.686 --> 03:50.011
[SPEAKER_00]: I go back to the point I made maybe last week about whether or not
03:52.414 --> 04:04.505
[SPEAKER_00]: The Yemen, the Yemeni government, and their inability to contain the Houthis and defeat them is maybe our broader interest in letting the Houthis completely take over the country.
04:06.106 --> 04:19.117
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way to know that unless the administration actually came out and said that which they're never going to do, but that aspect of the Houthis being escalating in their
04:21.440 --> 04:33.426
[SPEAKER_00]: is something that A is worth noting, and B, I think, needs a response if our goal or intended goal in the region is to, you know, completely squash our ran and all of its proxy.
04:33.486 --> 04:47.513
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to kick that question back to you guys, for those of you who agree with the involvement in a ran, how would you escalate force and strikes against the hoothies?
04:47.573 --> 04:49.434
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you help the Yemeni government
04:49.997 --> 04:53.279
[SPEAKER_00]: would you say, OK, we'll just take this over now and attack them.
04:53.379 --> 05:01.765
[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you who don't think we should be in our end, I can ascertain that you probably don't think we should be doing anything against the who these should stay out of it.
05:01.825 --> 05:14.093
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me, it is a curious thing that we continue to kind of sit on our hands more so with the whoothies than we have with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran generally speaking.
05:14.714 --> 05:16.275
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of bleeds over into
05:17.758 --> 05:34.923
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say the other story, the next story, which is a broader policy kind of debate or point made by the Iranian government, and it says Iran says it's done answering the U.S. and threatens undersea cables and data centers.
05:35.944 --> 05:41.265
[SPEAKER_00]: Iran called the latest U.S. response insufficient, said it's no longer responding to Washington
05:47.783 --> 05:54.430
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump has said that the U.S. won't attack Iran before November 3rd mid-terms while the blockade stays on.
05:55.511 --> 05:59.576
[SPEAKER_00]: VP Vance says Iran must make a meaningful cut to enrichment.
05:59.616 --> 06:02.999
[SPEAKER_00]: The Pentagon's official war toll now stands at 21 U.S. dead and 865 wounded.
06:03.019 --> 06:04.621
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, why does this matter?
06:04.681 --> 06:04.921
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk
06:10.753 --> 06:15.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Iran is naming new targets, and there's a clock, November 3rd, which is several weeks from now.
06:17.735 --> 06:24.538
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the new targeting is, is interesting to me, you know, the fact that they're actually naming the threats.
06:25.018 --> 06:31.900
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular, these regional cables, these undersea cables, and that's where kind of peaks my interest as a former seal.
06:31.920 --> 06:38.162
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's kind of our bread and butter is the maritime operation, whether it's STV in the region.
06:39.731 --> 07:01.872
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, whether it's special boat units in conjunction with Seedles, you know, any units that are targeting undersea cables, you know, that's right in our theater of operations specific to Iran, and so I would imagine that, you know, our naval special warfare forces are for sure on call and on notice.
07:02.567 --> 07:13.490
[SPEAKER_00]: when a threat like that is made and I would imagine that there's going to be an uptick in activity with both naval special warfare and U.S. Marines in that region.
07:15.571 --> 07:25.093
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the interesting kind of components of, I would say, under sea warfare, not necessarily
07:31.677 --> 07:55.350
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that that undersea component is very different than, you know, land or fair and air or fair, you know, and I'd be curious to see, you know, what their capabilities are at this point, how degradated they are, you know, with the attacks that we've sustained on the Iranian Navy.
07:56.651 --> 08:00.813
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I can't imagine that their capacity and capability is all that significant,
08:02.378 --> 08:11.565
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, be curious to see if they actually have the ability to strike those cables and kind of what our countermeasures might be to prevent that.
08:11.625 --> 08:29.697
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't want to get too in-depth in terms of, I guess, divulging the playbook, I would just say that I have no doubt that we've got some preemptive measures in place to potentially combat that and I'd be curious to see how that pans out.
08:31.151 --> 08:44.782
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, as far as the data centers and AI facilities, you know, it's another interesting thing and that, you know, they, they know what, what to hit and where to hurt us as far as, you know, data centers and AI capacity goes.
08:45.483 --> 08:56.152
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I'd be curious to see how, how diminished their capacity is if this is just paper tiger BS threats or if they actually have the ability to pull any of these things off.
08:59.348 --> 09:19.383
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say generally speaking with whether it's Iraq in the early days, you know, when they still had a state-run media department, you know, a lot of kind of announcements coming out of Afghanistan at the time, I mean the northern coast of Africa and our involvement there over the years, you know, there's always
09:21.097 --> 09:28.442
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of that Baghdad Bob approach of, you know, way over your skis making threats or saying things are going to happen.
09:28.462 --> 09:39.710
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the streets are going to be filled with blood and, you know, we're going to end your society and all these other things that, you know, to up to this point of not really ever been followed through on in any meaningful way.
09:39.790 --> 09:39.990
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
09:41.336 --> 09:50.306
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't put too much salt in those threats, but I also think it makes sense to put some preemptive measures in place.
09:51.548 --> 10:00.018
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the question for you as the audience is what impact do you think that they're capable of achieving and how big of an impact do you think that that will make?
10:02.443 --> 10:27.438
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing that's interesting about the infrastructure with those undersea cables and their ability to disrupt that, if that's actually the case, is that could potentially mean an uptick or a shift in our desire and ability to actually attack them in a way where it does happen
10:31.708 --> 10:44.132
[SPEAKER_00]: any types of attacks like that that disrupts undersea cables and an AI data centers and things of that nature I think you'd see a significant uptick immediately in our response or at least I would hope so.
10:45.733 --> 10:53.756
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple other stories that I wanted to get into real quick and this ties into a little bit about what we talked yesterday.
10:53.796 --> 10:57.597
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Trump's Russia energy deal gets pushed back.
10:58.523 --> 11:05.644
[SPEAKER_00]: As U.S. President, or as President presses a Ukraine ceasefire, senators call his export plan illegal.
11:06.384 --> 11:22.167
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump pushed Russia and Ukraine to agree to halt strikes on each other's energy infrastructure as the White House continued to face bipartisan criticism over moves in recent days to ease U.S. pressure on Moscow and shift blame for the continued fighting to keep.
11:22.247 --> 11:26.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump on social media Sunday said that there was an immediate energy ceasefire.
11:27.167 --> 11:31.870
[SPEAKER_00]: despite Moscow's rejection of such a deal so far and no sign that there was an agreement in place.
11:32.051 --> 11:48.803
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I certainly can't blame Trump for a trying to assuage the energy and infrastructure attacks in that region because it's proved to be catastrophic, you know, both for our economy and oil and gas prices here.
11:49.954 --> 11:58.587
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't seem like it's maybe working if, you know, if Putin and Russia are not even acknowledging that that's even a thing.
11:59.903 --> 12:12.133
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you can't really fault the guy for trying to lower oil prices and halt energy attacks, but maybe a little bit too little too late, obviously they're doing everything that they can.
12:12.554 --> 12:19.560
[SPEAKER_00]: Republicans, I would say generally speaking, are doing everything that they can prior to the midterm elections to try to
12:20.260 --> 12:34.810
[SPEAKER_00]: improve the economy and kind of diminish some of the anger and frustration that I think, you know, so many Americans citizens have with how the economy and country are being run at that current time.
12:34.870 --> 12:44.657
[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't seem like it's probably going to, you know, make a huge impact or maybe even get done if Russia's not really agreeing to it.
12:44.717 --> 12:44.817
[SPEAKER_00]: But
12:45.960 --> 12:55.664
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, to me, the broader point is the frustration I have with, you know, the hurried up push to try to improve things right before an election.
12:55.684 --> 12:58.785
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that that should be front of mind all the time.
12:58.965 --> 13:11.671
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think there was an expectation that the Iran war was going to go super quick off the heels of the Venezuela operation that went pretty much textbook and lasted, you know,
13:15.089 --> 13:29.382
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there was an expectation that there was going to be similar success in Iran and obviously that hasn't happened and now it's bleeding over into the midterms and they're kind of scramble to try to save a little bit of face before that happens and you see a blue wave.
13:29.462 --> 13:34.907
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know that it's going to have any real meaningful impact but we shall see.
13:34.927 --> 13:38.570
[SPEAKER_00]: I found this interesting California government
13:39.184 --> 13:49.233
[SPEAKER_00]: Governor Newsom, who has long opposed a ballot measure that would tax billionaires wealth is endorsing a different measure aimed at prohibiting wealth taxes.
13:50.014 --> 14:05.307
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a flip-flop based on now not running for president and his time and office coming to an end relatively soon is that, you know, now instead of trying to punish the wealthy because he is one of the wealthy is trying to
14:06.254 --> 14:23.200
[SPEAKER_00]: and acts some sort of policy right before things wrap up for his career as governor to now limit taxes on wealth, which I think is a pretty good summation of exactly what the overwhelming majority of politicians in this country.
14:23.220 --> 14:29.642
[SPEAKER_00]: How they conduct themselves is that when it's election time and they're trying to get votes, it's
14:30.841 --> 14:57.820
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bill Clinton thumbs up all about the people and, you know, what can we do to make the rich pay their fair share and let's make everybody happy and et cetera, et cetera, and now that he's about to, you know, become just a rich citizen in the state of California, he's trying to protect his nest egg and shouldn't come as a surprise, but I think it's worth mentioning because it highlights the U.S. politician in a pretty, pretty general mind frame.
14:58.760 --> 14:59.902
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all a story is for today.
15:00.704 --> 15:03.169
[SPEAKER_00]: As always, I appreciate you guys tuning in.
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[SPEAKER_00]: God bless everybody.
15:04.712 --> 15:06.415
[SPEAKER_00]: Love y'all and we will see you tomorrow.
00:01.300 --> 00:06.782
[SPEAKER_00]: Houthis Kill and American at Riyadh Airport Trump says the U.S. may join the fight.
00:07.283 --> 00:16.827
[SPEAKER_00]: Houthis strike on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, killed at least 12 people and wounded 309 CBS reports in American was among the dead.
00:17.207 --> 00:21.128
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump said the U.S. may join Saudi Arabia's fight against the Houthis.
00:21.909 --> 00:22.769
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to look at it.
00:23.329 --> 00:27.771
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the Houthis kept firing a projectile hit Riyadh's terminal four on Sunday.
00:30.533 --> 00:42.365
[SPEAKER_00]: Demams airport was attacked, Al Jazeera reports a new re-odd strike Monday, killed one and wounded 11 hours after Houthi linked media reported an air strike on Sunai airport.
00:43.446 --> 00:44.347
[SPEAKER_00]: No idea is this matter.
00:45.028 --> 00:46.029
[SPEAKER_00]: An American is dead.
00:46.450 --> 00:53.597
[SPEAKER_00]: The attacks have not stopped, and the next move is Trump's send the U.S. forces against the Houthis or stay out.
00:54.662 --> 00:57.623
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about this in one of the stories yesterday.
00:57.663 --> 01:08.865
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the broader question is, what role do the Houthis play in kind of the broader spectrum, or the big picture with the fight against Iran, and to me that is significant.
01:08.905 --> 01:13.667
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, any time an American has killed in any type of terrorists like attack.
01:13.707 --> 01:17.868
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always something that needs to be considered.
01:17.888 --> 01:19.168
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the distinction
01:20.728 --> 01:37.817
[SPEAKER_00]: at least from my perspective is if you're looking at striking solely because of that is, you know, were Americans or that Americans specifically targeted because they're an American or was this an American at the Saudi airport that just happened to be in the wrong place the wrong time.
01:37.837 --> 01:42.139
[SPEAKER_00]: I suspect that it's the latter, obviously the Houthis are attacking.
01:43.170 --> 01:46.852
[SPEAKER_00]: Saudi infrastructure, Saudi airports, Saudi targets.
01:47.712 --> 01:55.356
[SPEAKER_00]: They know that some Americans are there, but I can't imagine that they knew that one American was there at the airport, so that's why they targeted them.
01:55.456 --> 01:58.198
[SPEAKER_00]: So to me, that's not necessarily the justification.
01:59.019 --> 02:13.037
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that nothing should be done, but I think, you know, in making that distinction it's important to be consistent with policy and that's usually how we kind of operate as if Americans are targeted or that's how we should operate maybe.
02:13.958 --> 02:14.920
[SPEAKER_00]: Is the better way to put it.
02:15.857 --> 02:22.603
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the broader point is, you know, the hoothies in their relationship with Iran is obviously significant.
02:23.284 --> 02:32.132
[SPEAKER_00]: Iran, I think, you know, with the actual borders within Iran being choked off with sanctions with...
02:33.373 --> 02:54.748
[SPEAKER_00]: air strikes with, you know, so many targeted sororities on, you know, different infrastructure pieces, leadership, military sites, you know, all of the strikes that we've enacted on Iran over the last seven or eight months has done significant damage and has obviously made them pivot to a certain extent.
02:54.868 --> 02:57.670
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the Houthis are kind of the clear cut example.
03:02.470 --> 03:10.436
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and the tit for tat that was going on with Israel as far as their involvement goes ramped everything up significantly.
03:11.437 --> 03:23.426
[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me is why the escalation on the Houthi side towards Saudi and even the Houthi forces targeting U.S. targets, why that hasn't had a bigger response.
03:23.766 --> 03:28.570
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in every other case where, you know, Iran has
03:29.871 --> 03:34.255
[SPEAKER_00]: via proxy or directly struck U.S. interests or targets.
03:34.295 --> 03:36.537
[SPEAKER_00]: There's generally been a response.
03:37.298 --> 03:40.862
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's measured, but you know, unquestionably a response.
03:40.902 --> 03:43.405
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this case, it seems like we've done a lot less.
03:44.686 --> 03:50.011
[SPEAKER_00]: I go back to the point I made maybe last week about whether or not
03:52.414 --> 04:04.505
[SPEAKER_00]: The Yemen, the Yemeni government, and their inability to contain the Houthis and defeat them is maybe our broader interest in letting the Houthis completely take over the country.
04:06.106 --> 04:19.117
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way to know that unless the administration actually came out and said that which they're never going to do, but that aspect of the Houthis being escalating in their
04:21.440 --> 04:33.426
[SPEAKER_00]: is something that A is worth noting, and B, I think, needs a response if our goal or intended goal in the region is to, you know, completely squash our ran and all of its proxy.
04:33.486 --> 04:47.513
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to kick that question back to you guys, for those of you who agree with the involvement in a ran, how would you escalate force and strikes against the hoothies?
04:47.573 --> 04:49.434
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you help the Yemeni government
04:49.997 --> 04:53.279
[SPEAKER_00]: would you say, OK, we'll just take this over now and attack them.
04:53.379 --> 05:01.765
[SPEAKER_00]: For those of you who don't think we should be in our end, I can ascertain that you probably don't think we should be doing anything against the who these should stay out of it.
05:01.825 --> 05:14.093
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me, it is a curious thing that we continue to kind of sit on our hands more so with the whoothies than we have with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran generally speaking.
05:14.714 --> 05:16.275
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of bleeds over into
05:17.758 --> 05:34.923
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say the other story, the next story, which is a broader policy kind of debate or point made by the Iranian government, and it says Iran says it's done answering the U.S. and threatens undersea cables and data centers.
05:35.944 --> 05:41.265
[SPEAKER_00]: Iran called the latest U.S. response insufficient, said it's no longer responding to Washington
05:47.783 --> 05:54.430
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump has said that the U.S. won't attack Iran before November 3rd mid-terms while the blockade stays on.
05:55.511 --> 05:59.576
[SPEAKER_00]: VP Vance says Iran must make a meaningful cut to enrichment.
05:59.616 --> 06:02.999
[SPEAKER_00]: The Pentagon's official war toll now stands at 21 U.S. dead and 865 wounded.
06:03.019 --> 06:04.621
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, why does this matter?
06:04.681 --> 06:04.921
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk
06:10.753 --> 06:15.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Iran is naming new targets, and there's a clock, November 3rd, which is several weeks from now.
06:17.735 --> 06:24.538
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the new targeting is, is interesting to me, you know, the fact that they're actually naming the threats.
06:25.018 --> 06:31.900
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular, these regional cables, these undersea cables, and that's where kind of peaks my interest as a former seal.
06:31.920 --> 06:38.162
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's kind of our bread and butter is the maritime operation, whether it's STV in the region.
06:39.731 --> 07:01.872
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, whether it's special boat units in conjunction with Seedles, you know, any units that are targeting undersea cables, you know, that's right in our theater of operations specific to Iran, and so I would imagine that, you know, our naval special warfare forces are for sure on call and on notice.
07:02.567 --> 07:13.490
[SPEAKER_00]: when a threat like that is made and I would imagine that there's going to be an uptick in activity with both naval special warfare and U.S. Marines in that region.
07:15.571 --> 07:25.093
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the interesting kind of components of, I would say, under sea warfare, not necessarily
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that that undersea component is very different than, you know, land or fair and air or fair, you know, and I'd be curious to see, you know, what their capabilities are at this point, how degradated they are, you know, with the attacks that we've sustained on the Iranian Navy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I can't imagine that their capacity and capability is all that significant,
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[SPEAKER_00]: you know, be curious to see if they actually have the ability to strike those cables and kind of what our countermeasures might be to prevent that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't want to get too in-depth in terms of, I guess, divulging the playbook, I would just say that I have no doubt that we've got some preemptive measures in place to potentially combat that and I'd be curious to see how that pans out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, as far as the data centers and AI facilities, you know, it's another interesting thing and that, you know, they, they know what, what to hit and where to hurt us as far as, you know, data centers and AI capacity goes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I'd be curious to see how, how diminished their capacity is if this is just paper tiger BS threats or if they actually have the ability to pull any of these things off.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I would say generally speaking with whether it's Iraq in the early days, you know, when they still had a state-run media department, you know, a lot of kind of announcements coming out of Afghanistan at the time, I mean the northern coast of Africa and our involvement there over the years, you know, there's always
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[SPEAKER_00]: kind of that Baghdad Bob approach of, you know, way over your skis making threats or saying things are going to happen.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the streets are going to be filled with blood and, you know, we're going to end your society and all these other things that, you know, to up to this point of not really ever been followed through on in any meaningful way.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't put too much salt in those threats, but I also think it makes sense to put some preemptive measures in place.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the question for you as the audience is what impact do you think that they're capable of achieving and how big of an impact do you think that that will make?
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[SPEAKER_00]: One thing that's interesting about the infrastructure with those undersea cables and their ability to disrupt that, if that's actually the case, is that could potentially mean an uptick or a shift in our desire and ability to actually attack them in a way where it does happen
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[SPEAKER_00]: any types of attacks like that that disrupts undersea cables and an AI data centers and things of that nature I think you'd see a significant uptick immediately in our response or at least I would hope so.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A couple other stories that I wanted to get into real quick and this ties into a little bit about what we talked yesterday.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's Trump's Russia energy deal gets pushed back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As U.S. President, or as President presses a Ukraine ceasefire, senators call his export plan illegal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Trump pushed Russia and Ukraine to agree to halt strikes on each other's energy infrastructure as the White House continued to face bipartisan criticism over moves in recent days to ease U.S. pressure on Moscow and shift blame for the continued fighting to keep.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Trump on social media Sunday said that there was an immediate energy ceasefire.
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[SPEAKER_00]: despite Moscow's rejection of such a deal so far and no sign that there was an agreement in place.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I certainly can't blame Trump for a trying to assuage the energy and infrastructure attacks in that region because it's proved to be catastrophic, you know, both for our economy and oil and gas prices here.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't seem like it's maybe working if, you know, if Putin and Russia are not even acknowledging that that's even a thing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you can't really fault the guy for trying to lower oil prices and halt energy attacks, but maybe a little bit too little too late, obviously they're doing everything that they can.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Republicans, I would say generally speaking, are doing everything that they can prior to the midterm elections to try to
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[SPEAKER_00]: improve the economy and kind of diminish some of the anger and frustration that I think, you know, so many Americans citizens have with how the economy and country are being run at that current time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't seem like it's probably going to, you know, make a huge impact or maybe even get done if Russia's not really agreeing to it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, to me, the broader point is the frustration I have with, you know, the hurried up push to try to improve things right before an election.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think that that should be front of mind all the time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think there was an expectation that the Iran war was going to go super quick off the heels of the Venezuela operation that went pretty much textbook and lasted, you know,
13:15.089 --> 13:29.382
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there was an expectation that there was going to be similar success in Iran and obviously that hasn't happened and now it's bleeding over into the midterms and they're kind of scramble to try to save a little bit of face before that happens and you see a blue wave.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't know that it's going to have any real meaningful impact but we shall see.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I found this interesting California government
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[SPEAKER_00]: Governor Newsom, who has long opposed a ballot measure that would tax billionaires wealth is endorsing a different measure aimed at prohibiting wealth taxes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a flip-flop based on now not running for president and his time and office coming to an end relatively soon is that, you know, now instead of trying to punish the wealthy because he is one of the wealthy is trying to
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[SPEAKER_00]: and acts some sort of policy right before things wrap up for his career as governor to now limit taxes on wealth, which I think is a pretty good summation of exactly what the overwhelming majority of politicians in this country.
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[SPEAKER_00]: How they conduct themselves is that when it's election time and they're trying to get votes, it's
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Bill Clinton thumbs up all about the people and, you know, what can we do to make the rich pay their fair share and let's make everybody happy and et cetera, et cetera, and now that he's about to, you know, become just a rich citizen in the state of California, he's trying to protect his nest egg and shouldn't come as a surprise, but I think it's worth mentioning because it highlights the U.S. politician in a pretty, pretty general mind frame.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's all a story is for today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As always, I appreciate you guys tuning in.
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[SPEAKER_00]: God bless everybody.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Love y'all and we will see you tomorrow.