The Bill Walton Show

In-depth and thought-provoking conversations with leaders, thinkers, artists, entrepreneurs and activists. Smart, original and interesting people…lovers of freedom and the American idea.

Episode 277: "NATO Taunts Russia" with Stephen Bryen and Brandon Weichert 06/04/2024

Episode 277: "NATO Taunts Russia" with Stephen Bryen and Brandon Weichert "He who tries to defend everything defends nothing." ~ Frederick the Great of Prussia This episode examines the three explosive national security crises the United States and world are embroiled in today, any one of which could escalate into igniting a World War III. Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Hamas and Taiwan/China. Disturbingly, there’s a lot of sabre rattling with far too many politicians in both Europe and the United States engaged in reckless rhetoric. To provide cogent analysis and a healthy dose of sobering realism at a time when we face dire risks, Bill is joined by national Security experts and returning guests Stephen Bryen and Brandon Weichert. Dr. Stephen Bryen, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, has over 50 years national security experience including many stints in the Pentagon where he became one of the world’s leading experts on the arms trade. Brandon J. Weichert, author of The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy is publisher of the Weichert Report and author of the soon to be published A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine. Some excerpts: “The neoconservative, neoliberal cabal running Washington believe fully that they have to fight everywhere all the time to preserve America's unipolar standing and our hegemony in the world. But this quest for hegemony has led to the absolute destruction of America's post-Cold War primacy,” warns Weichert. “And if we are not careful, in the next six months, we will not only lose that primacy., but we may become like the declining Ottoman Empire or Austro-Hungarian Empire on our way out. We’ve overcommitted and overextended, and we’re paying the price.” “NATO is flirting with war and extinction,” worries Bryen. “France is now "officially" sending troops to Ukraine and NATO countries are demanding strikes deep inside Russia. Meanwhile the US has secretly made a "policy shift" that somewhat falls short of what Zelensky wanted, but opens the door to deep strikes by the US on Russian territory.” “It’s very hard to see how NATO could defend Poland or the Czech Republic or Estonia. These are not easy countries to defend, and NATO doesn't have today the core countries of NATO, the French, the Germans, the British, it doesn't have the wherewithal to do it. It doesn't have the army or armed forces. It doesn't have the air defenses. It doesn't have the air forces, it doesn't have the tanks. It doesn't have anything sizable enough, and the ability to actually logistically move it to the battlefield.” “So the notion of NATO fighting a war, which is what French President Macron and all these clowns are essentially taunting the Russians with, is a very dangerous thing because it means that Europe could be enveloped in a war can't win.” “Russians have developed a pretty sizable air defense capability,” explains Bryen. “They have very good artillery capability. They have increasingly shown their capability with drones and drone warfare, none of which we’re prepared for, and our best tank, the Abrams, which our only tank, we’ve put all our eggs in this one tank. The Abrams is a disaster.” “The think tank community and the Biden Administration have a plan to contain Russia by rolling it back to its medieval borders, so that it's never again a threat to Europe and the West,” marvels Wiechert. “This is utterly fantastical thinking, this is childish thinking. Russia is not going to let it happen without a fight.” “Well, their plan not going to happen,” agrees Bryen. “The underlying error, and I think it was a huge error, was that we should confront a nuclear power, a significant nuclear power with the dismemberment. We were going to break up the Soviet Union, now Russia. We're going to dismember it, and we're going to sponsor the opposition in Russia, and somehow create this great transformation. But we're messing around with a nuclear power.” “We’ve essentially forced the Russians into the arms of the Chinese through our policies, which was complete stupidity,” says Bryen. The neocons are very explicit the US must be the unchallenged superpower. In every place in the world, in every region, we must dominate. This is the thinking that got us into the Middle East. This is the exact thinking that led us down the wrong path in Iraq and then the Arab spring. “They believed the notion that there was going to be only one superpower and it was going to be the United States,”reminds Bryen. “And since we were to be the only superpower we had to take on these responsibilities. Well, we weren't the only one superpower, and today, we’re just one of three, and increasingly the weaker of the three.” /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/31600387

Episode 276: Is Technology a Force for Good or Evil? 05/29/2024

Episode 276: Is Technology a Force for Good or Evil? For the last 200 years, innovation and technology have produced dramatic increases in living standards and our quality of life. Yet today there is a widespread and growing belief that technology has become the root of all evils with all sorts of claims being made that it destroys privacy, spreads misinformation, undermines trust, and democracy, eliminates jobs, discriminates by race, and gender, increases inequality, rips off the consumer, harms children, and even threatens the human race. This is quite a bill of indictment! But is any of this true? Bill’s guests on this show, Rob Atkinson and David Moschella, believe this is mostly agenda driven bunk and have written a persuasive book to prove it. “Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths About Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy” Robert D. Atkinson is the founder and president of ITIF, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and author of many books including “Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage” David Moschella is a nonresident senior fellow at ITIF and previously was head of worldwide research for IDC, the largest market analysis firm in the information technology industry. “America's always flourished more than anybody else in the world,” declares Atkinson, “because we have had this underlying faith in innovation, in the future, in taking risks, in going forward into the unknown. And now, that's really at risk. People are saying things like, ‘Wait a minute, we shouldn't deploy facial recognition because it's racially biased’ or that ‘technology innovation has not improved the average worker's living standards.’” “Well, both those statements are wrong. They are 100% myth.” “As someone who grew up in the Boston area in the 60s and 70s,” says Moschella, “Massachusetts was considered a dead economy with no future. And then, this thing called the minicomputer was designed out of MIT, and created companies like Digital Equipment, and Prime, and Wang and all the others. And all of a sudden you had the so-called Massachusetts Miracle. People are forgetting these realities.” Some of the most damaging myths stem from a deep-seated rejection of the Western capitalist system. But to gain traction for this agenda, anti-capitalists must first convince voters that the current system is failing, and a top target is technology driven innovation. “Also, what’s happened is that some of the legitimate criticism of globalization has morphed into criticism of automation,” says Moschella. “People didn't like globalization, but then said, ’Well, automation is really more the cause than globalization, and of course technology drives automation, so we can blame technology automation for the problems globalization has created.’’” “I’ve actually heard members of Congress say, ‘The pace of change is so rapid and we have to slow it down,’ worries Rob. “Now think about that. When has America ever said that? That the average person can't handle change. That it's too fast. We've got to slow things down.” In this episode we also take on the myth that the pace of technological change is accelerating. Compare current era to the early 20th century, which saw the introduction of transformative technologies like electricity, radio, automobiles, and airplanes. The perception of rapid change today is often skewed by the digital revolution's visibility, but in reality, the physical and infrastructural advancements of the past were probably more transformative. America has shifted its focus from delivering technological wonders to preventing “harmful” change. Once widely seen as a savior of humanity, technology is increasingly used as a scapegoat for just about every societal ill. But if we see innovation as a necessary force for good, with government’s role as a constructive enabler, there will be thoughtful innovation policies and more innovation But if the dominant narrative is that technology is an out-of-control force for harm, there will be destructive policies and a stultifying future. Agree or disagree, this conversation wanders into some interesting waters and challenges a lot of today’s conventional wisdom about technology. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/31511982

Episode 275: We won the Cold War and lost the peace : A Tour de Force with Erik Prince and Stephen Bryen 05/22/2024

Episode 274: Behind the Curtain: Unveiling the Arabella Network's Vast Influence on U.S. Politics 05/06/2024

Episode 274: Behind the Curtain: Unveiling the Arabella Network's Vast Influence on U.S. Politics In this episode of The Bill Walton Show, Bill wades into the murky waters of the Left’s “dark money” manipulation of American politics with Scott Walter and Kristen Eastlick with the Capital Research Center. We often use the phrase follow the money. Scott and Kristen are among the best at doing just that. Centerpiece of the discussion is Scott’s new book Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America. In it, he reveals the vast influence that the Arabella Network - by deploying billions of dollars - plays in American politics under the guise of progressive philanthropy. To name just a few issues, Arabella has played a major role in battles over Supreme Court nominations, abortion, men in women’s sports, school discipline, Medicare for All, environmental policies, fake local news outlets, and the “Zuck Bucks” used to manipulate elections. Many believe that most of the attacks on American institutions by the Left are financed and organized in part by Arabella. This episode’s conversation gets into revealing detail about how this network operates as a "dark money” brain trust with a for-profit manager (of course) at its epicenter, commanding several billion dollar nonprofit action groups. These funds in turn create hundreds of “pop-up” entities that appear suddenly, giving the appearance of huge popular groundswells, when in fact they’re the creations of Arabella and other similarly deeply disguised operations on the Left. Rather than being innocent grassroots outfits, they are the creation of their secretive dark money operations. The sheer quantity of money that has flowed through Arabella’s channels is staggering. In the 2020 election cycle, Arabella’s nonprofits took in $2.4 billion, more than the fundraising of the Democratic and Republican National Committees combined. In the 2022 election cycle, Arabella’s fundraising rose to $3 billion. Arabella is a big part of the reason for the Left’s stunning advantage in money and sophisticated political machinery that shapes our lives and elections. Scott and Kristen describe the “three rivers of money” flowing into politics. “With the first river of hard dollars, traditional political giving, the Left has an advantage, but it's slight,” explains Scott. “In the second river, the independent expenditures, dark money and super PACs, the left has a little advantage, but it’s also slight. But in the third river,” and here Scott grows animated, “where the Left’s charitable public policy groups operate, it's not even close. It's over a 10 to one in the Left’s favor and totals to over a $35 billion advantage. This is really the death star for the lefties.” It’s shocking to learn how Arabella has covertly developed the darkest of “dark money” networks. It’s also shocking to learn who has been by far the largest single individual contributor to the abortion industry to the tune of $6+ billion. (Revealed at the 18:36 minute mark) In fact, the further you go in this episode, the more disturbing the political swamp and the people behind it reveal themselves to be. If you really want to follow the money, start here. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/31152473

Episode 273: Investing in a Polarized America: Federalism and Entrepreneurship with Jim Pinkerton 04/22/2024

Episode 273: Investing in a Polarized America: Federalism and Entrepreneurship with Jim Pinkerton In this lively episode of the Bill Walton Show, Bill talks with Jim Pinkerton in a thought-provoking discussion about investing in the turbulent waters of today's toxic political climate. With a focus on the stark Red-Blue divide in America, Jim offers a contrarian view that it’s fertile ground for what he terms "directional investing." Drawing from his upcoming book, "The Secret of Directional Investing: Making Money Amidst the Red-Blue Divide," Pinkerton—a veteran of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and a long-time Fox News contributor—unpacks the intriguing idea that political polarization, while daunting, can be a goldmine for the astute investor and entrepreneur. The conversation digs into a deeper exploration of Federalism and the concept of states as laboratories, not just of democracy, but also micro-economic innovation hubs. Pinkerton paints a picture of a "United States of Arbitrage," where individuals and businesses pick states for their cultural climates and regulatory frameworks, much like how businesses today scout for tax havens. Bill and Jim weave through topics with ease, touching on the explosive potential of AI and its voracious energy demands, the dynamics of state-driven economic incentives, and the possible futures shaped by these forces. They muse on how states compete to attract burgeoning industries by aligning social policies with corporate needs, imagining a nation where your address might reflect your ideology as much as your lifestyle. “If a red state were really on its game, thinking for itself,” says Jim, “it would announce to the world that any student who got an 800 on his or her math SAT would get a free ride.” The episode doesn't just dissect current trends; it offers a visionary look at how today's divisions could be tomorrow's opportunities, making it a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the intersection of politics, economics, and the future of innovation in America. Also, you’ll learn which state seems to think its idea of economic development is transgender surgery, hoping to become to transgenderism what the Cleveland Clinic or Johns Hopkins are to cancer. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30936643

Episode 272:The Art of the Flail: Expert Takes on US National Security Blunders with Stephen Bryen and Brandon Weichert 04/18/2024

Episode 272:The Art of the Flail: Expert Takes on US National Security Blunders with Stephen Bryen and Brandon Weichert This episode of The Bill Walton Show is a riveting discussion with two astute geopolitical analysts, Dr. Steven Bryen and Brandon Weichert. Together they dissect the exploding tensions in the Middle East, specifically the dramatic escalation by Iran’s air attack on Israel. And the big questions: How are global players like the US, Russia, and even China moving their chess pieces in this high-stakes game? The episode is a whirlwind tour through the strategies, fears, and potential flashpoints that will likely redraw the map of global power. Dr. Bryen, with over 50 years national security experience including many stints in the Pentagon where he became a leading expert on the arms trade, shares his insights into Iran's unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel. Despite its scale, it was largely thwarted by robust air defenses from Israel, the US, and even regional players like Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Still, Iran considers it a success. He highlights the remarkable and historic aspect of Arab nations rallying in defense of Israel. Brandon Weichert, author of The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy and known for his pulse-racing analyses, shifts the lens to the broader geopolitical chessboard, articulating how the Shia-Sunni divide and the shadows of the Abraham Accords are playing out in real-time. Weichert critiques the current US administration's handling of deterrence, and its tacit support of Iran which will destabilize the already volatile region. Dr. Bryen also skeptically views the Biden administration’s Middle East strategy while applauding CENTCOM's pivotal coordination role. Weichert and Bryen also debate potential military strategies that could weaken Iran's capabilities, while worrying about the critical weaknesses in the US and global defense arsenals. This discussion shines a light on the complex and now dire landscape of international relations that the Biden Administration has wrought. Buckle up, listeners, because geopolitics just doesn’t get more electrifying than this! /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30887453

Episode 271: Modern Dilemmas: Regulatory Capture, Global Governance, and the Surveillance State with Dr. Robert W. Malone 04/16/2024

Episode 271: Modern Dilemmas: Regulatory Capture, Global Governance, and the Surveillance State with Dr. Robert W. Malone In this episode Bill Walton is joined by Dr. Robert Malone in a wide ranging and engaging discussion about modern societal and financial control mechanisms. Their great concern is the relentless and growing overreach of both governments and corporations into personal freedoms through the guise of security, safety and public health. Robert W. Malone is an internationally recognized scientist/physician and the original inventor of mRNA vaccination as a technology. He holds numerous fundamental domestic and foreign patents in the fields of gene delivery, delivery formulations, and vaccines: including for fundamental DNA and RNA/mRNA vaccine technologies. He has developed some 100 scientific publications with over 14,000 citations of his work. He now focuses on daily podcasts, interviews, op-eds, advocacy with legislators and building a twitter feed of over a million people. His life changed from that of a scientist to an advocate because of his personal experiences and concerns regarding the safety and bioethics of how the COVID-19 genetic vaccines were developed and forced upon the world. He discovered the many short-cuts, database issues, obfuscation and frankly, lies told in the development of the Spike protein-based genetic vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. Some of the topics covered: The regulatory capture of the federal government has warped and shaped the work of Congress and Federal agencies to such an extent that they no longer represent what is in the best interests of the nation, the world, and humanity. WHO's Pandemic Treaty is intended to override most of our national sovereignty in health policy decisions, effectively allowing a global body to dictate local health measures. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) which have the potential to be a sinister tool for government financial surveillance and social control. Financial Privacy Concerns The payment processor Stripe, which recently demanded Malone's financial details, reflecting broader concerns about privacy and autonomy in financial transactions. Labeling Dissent as extreme, such as "far-right" or "Nazi," to delegitimize and silence criticism, comparing it to historical tactics used during the McCarthy era. Surveillance and Control under the guise of safety and security, suggesting a slippery slope toward more intrusive governmental and corporate practices. Robert Malone is a courageous and deep thinker, a man who should be listened to. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30850973

Episode 270: Voices in the Supreme Court: Protecting Our Free Speech with Aaron Kheriaty and Jenin Younes 04/13/2024

Episode 269: How the United States’ Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed Fueled China’s Rise with Jim Fanell and Brad Thayer 03/28/2024

Episode 269: How the United States’ Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed Fueled China’s Rise with Jim Fanell and Brad Thayer After achieving victory in the Cold War against the Soviet Union, US political leadership, starting with the Clinton Administration, has made a continuing string of strategic blunders that have brought the United States to the point where - after building China up for decades - we face an enemy determined to become the new global hegemon and that now possesses equal economic, military and diplomatic resources. To learn how this came about, in this episode Bill talks with James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer, Ph.D, authors of Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure. Jim Fanell, a retired U.S. Navy captain and the former Director of Intelligence and Information Operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, is now a Government Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Brad Thayer is an expert in Chinese grand strategies and the history of Chinese and Western strategic thought; and a former visiting fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. “How did China go from an underdeveloped country in 1990 with about 0.6 of 1% of world gross domestic product to over 20% of world GDP today?” asks Brad. “The answer in large part is that the United States aided and abetted the rise of the Chinese Communist Party and kept it in power. That has never happened before in international politics where one state, the dominant state, has funded the rise of an enemy.” U.S. foreign policy toward the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been dominated by the so-called “Engagement School” since the end of the Cold War. They believed that U.S. political and economic engagement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would transform the PRC into a “responsible stakeholder” in the Western economic system and, ideally a democracy. Of course, none of that happened. Instead, the Engagement School saved the CCP and ensured that the PRC became wealthier and more powerful year-after-year and used that power to re-make the international order to suit the CCP’s interests and to threaten U.S. national security, allies, and partners. “Engaging” with China has led to the offshoring of manufacturing jobs, the loss of intellectual property, and making the U.S. energy future dependent on China, just to name a few of our strategic blunders. “We thought we could make China and CCP become more like us, that they would see the value of the being part of a US dominated system created in the post-World War II era. We assumed they would just naturally drift into becoming a liberal democracy. So we didn't fundamentally understand communism. We didn't understand the Chinese Communist Party's commitment to that ideology,” explains Jim. The Trump administration began the difficult task of ending Engagement. However, under Biden, it has now returned in a supercharged form. The Biden “reset” began in earnest in May when CIA Director Nicholas Burns made a secret trip to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterparts. Then began a cavalcade of visits to the PRC from senior Biden officials: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Climate Czar John Kerry, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo who was most explicit regarding why nothing could jeopardize the approximately $750 billion per year trade relationship with the PRC. “But the apotheosis of the engagement paradigm was the summit meeting in November between Xi and Biden. The meeting with Biden was just Xi’s doormat to get to what really mattered: the meeting with the 400 business leaders,” explain Jim and Brad. “Never in our history have Americans so openly and brazenly celebrated a communist and murderous dictator. It was an appalling and shameful moment in American history.” “The U.S. has little to show in return for all these meetings, except for the loss of face and its own national power—again, year-after-year. It is stunning that so few Americans have asked what good has America received from the Engagement School. The elite have gotten wealthier, so they and the CCP are the winners. But it’s the Chinese and American people that bear the costs.” /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30585903

Episode 268: Conspiracy: Why FDR's White House Ignored a Chance to Change History with Chris Farrell and Shea Bradley-Farrell 03/26/2024

Episode 268: Conspiracy: Why FDR's White House Ignored a Chance to Change History with Chris Farrell and Shea Bradley-Farrell “What if in 1943 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his White House advisors had acted on an offer from high-ranking German officials that they were prepared to kidnap Adolf Hitler and all of his top cronies. They would then turn Hitler over to the United States and sign an armistice ending the war with Germany. The German high officials wanted then to join with the United States to stop the Communist Soviet Union from advancing in Europe. They had a well-thought out plan as to which units they knew were loyal, what units they knew would actually move on the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's Prussian, and the East Prussian headquarters. FDR learned of this proposal from a man the Germans believed would be their most credible emissary: George H. Earle III, a Main Line Philadelphia millionaire, war hero awarded the Navy Cross, Pennsylvania governor, Ambassador to Austria and Bulgaria, friend and supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, generous donor to humanitarian causes, colorful playboy, and spy. Yet FDR did not act on the stunning offer, and the rest as they say, is History. The Soviets conquered part of Germany and all of Eastern Europe and closed it behind an iron curtain that would endure for over four decades. Here to tell this story is Chris Farrell, who for the last 25 years has been the Director of Investigations & Research at Judicial Watch and author of “Exiled Emissary: George H. Earle III” and Dr Shea Bradley Farrell, author of “Last Warning to the West”, the founder of Counterpoint Institute and who has written extensively about the agonies of Eastern Europe under Communism. “This is not one of these books that examines an alternative history,” explains Chris. “Everything in the book is documented, for example, from the National archives, the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg, or the Pennsylvania Historical Society in Pennsylvania. Or from personal records from the Earle family.” Why this story matters today is not just that FDR did not act but why he didn’t. As records have become public, we have learned that were many staunch supporters of the Soviet Union and its Marxist social experiment in both the FDR and Truman White Houses. Alger Hiss was FDR’s key aide at Yalta. “What Earle was saying was, “Look, the real threat is the Soviet Union. We may have been allied during the war for whatever reason you want to explain, but they're a civilizational threat."” But many in the 1940s White House did not want to act against the Soviet Union. They supported it. The Soviets then. China today. The United States has a long troubled history of “elite capture.” Chris and Shea tell a compelling story. You can learn much about history from this episode. But it’s how it reflects on today that’s really chilling. What does John Kerry say when he’s meeting with the Chinese? /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30545458

Episode 267: CO2: The Miracle Molecules with Dr Will Happer and Greg Wrightstone 03/19/2024

Episode 267: CO2: The Miracle Molecules with Dr Will Happer and Greg Wrightstone Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is portrayed as the worst villain in climate alarmism’s pantheon of satanic gases. The claim is that increasing levels of greenhouse gases are purportedly driving atmospheric warming to dangerous and unprecedented levels which is said to be leading to ever increasing natural disasters, severe weather events and human health concerns. But what if these claims are wrong, catastrophically wrong. What if, rather than being at unprecedented high levels, CO2 is at one of its lowest concentrations in the long history of the Earth and that the modest warming anticipated from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases will be benign. More carbon dioxide will bring huge benefits to agriculture, forestry and life in general. Returning guests Dr Will Happer Professor Emeritus of Physics at Princeton University and geologist Greg Wrightstone, both with the CO2 Coalition, make a convincing case in this episode for just that. Atmospheric CO2 is the primary carbon source for life on Earth. Carbon dioxide concentrations - in part due to human emissions - are slowly growing from near-famine, pre-industrial values toward levels that are optimum for plant growth and which have prevailed over most of the geological history of higher life forms. Carbon dioxide, at a current concentration of about 420 ppm, represents just 0.04% of the atmosphere, or about 420 molecules out of every million. Current levels are an incredibly small percentage of the atmosphere, albeit a critical one, as advanced plant life could not survive without at least 150 ppm. Recent declines in concentration have pushed the world dangerously close to that 150 ppm “line of death.” Nearly all great leaps in human history occurred during warm periods. Before climate science became politicized, historians called warm periods “climate optima” because Earth’s ecosystems and humanity benefited from the blessed warmth. Contrary to the demonization of the gas, CO2 is essential to life on Earth. CO2 is not a poison. Without CO2, there would be no photosynthesis, no plant food and insufficient oxygen to breathe. Just some of the benefits of CO2: • Increasing crop growth • Increasing soil moisture • Shrinking deserts • Expanding forests • Lengthening growing seasons • Declining cold-related mortality What we should be worried about is that throughout most of Earth’s history, carbon dioxide existed in beneficially high levels that were multiples of our current concentration. Geological sequestration of CO2 into fossil fuels has depleted our atmosphere to levels below the optimum for plant growth. The great irony is that through the burning of fossil fuels, the carbon stored in the remains of ancient plants and organisms is now being liberated and helping to return the planet’s atmosphere to more beneficial levels of CO2. We can correctly refer to fossil fuels as “natural solar-powered energy” or, if you like, giant solar energy storage batteries! Without fossil fuels there would be no reliable, low-cost energy worldwide and less CO2 for photosynthesis to make food. Eliminating fossil fuels to attempt to reduce CO2 emissions would be disastrous for the world’s people, especially for the two billion impoverished poor. An underreported consequence of the “green” energy transformation is the loss of habitats and species. The “green” solution to a non-existent climate crisis is to encourage a great acceleration in habitat loss by abandoning efficient fossil fuels for inefficient wind and solar energy that requires vast swaths of forest, grasslands and farmlands for solar and wind installations and further habitat loss through: open-pit mining of minerals needed for batteries, photovoltaic cells and electric transmission, conversion of diverse jungle habitat to plantations for biofuel, large-scale electricity transmission lines and destruction of mature forests to make wood pellets as biofuel. So-called green energy is causing the destruction of massive numbers of birds, bats and insects slaughtered by wind turbines. Offshore wind projects are killing whales, dolphins and other cetaceans. We have been seized by a great madness. Under the false claims of coming calamity, bureaucrats and politicians seek to shut down coal-fired power plants, kill the internal combustion engine, ban natural gas for home use and advance the misguided objective of a “net zero” economy. “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” - Charles MacKay “What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that carbon dioxide from human industry was a dangerous, planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world—that carbon dioxide, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison.” - Dr. Richard Lindzen “I don’t see a whole lot of difference between the consensus on climate change and the consensus on witches. At the witch trials in Salem the judges were educated at Harvard. This was supposedly 100 per cent science. The one or two people who said there were no witches were immediately hung. Not much has changed.” - Will Happer /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30437508

Episode 266: It’s Time to Leave the WHO with Reggie Littlejohn and Meryl Nass 03/12/2024

Episode 266: It’s Time to Leave the WHO with Reggie Littlejohn and Meryl Nass At a meeting of the World Health Assembly at the end of May, less than three months from now, the World Health Organization (WHO) will be voting to amend its International Health Regulations agreement and to create a brand new Pandemic Agreement. Until now the World Health Organization has been largely an advisory organization. If voted in, these changes would make its edicts compulsory. The proposed amendments replace the word “may” with “shall” over 100 times and the word “non-binding” has been deleted to make the recommendations of the WHO binding. The agreements authorize the Director-General to declare unilaterally a potential or actual “public health emergency of international concern” and the imposition and enforcement of sanctions on nations that don’t comply with WHO dictates. Some of the directives that the Director-General could issue to the 196 sovereign state members could include: quarantines, masks, mandatory testing, vaccination requirements, lockdowns, and border closures coupled with vaccine passports. This has the full support of the World Economic Forum, the European Union, the World Bank, Bill Gates, Big Pharma, the Chinese Communist Party and the Biden Administration. Their aim is to substitute “global governance” for the sovereignty of the U.S. and the 195 other state parties to the agreement, ultimately eroding most all of our personal medical freedoms. To explain the planned WHO power grab, and what we can do to prevent it, are two of the founders of the Sovereignty Coalition: Dr. Meryl Nass, the founder of Door to Freedom, a physician and researcher who proved the world's largest anthrax epidemic was due to biological warfare. A leader in the fight for healthcare freedom, her license was suspended for prescribing COVID medications and “misinformation.” Reggie Littlejohn is the founder and President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. A graduate of Yale Law School and an experienced litigation attorney, she is an acclaimed international expert on China’s human rights offenses. The proposed Pandemic Treaty establishes global surveillance requirements and commits governments to censor dissenting views “with the aim of countering and combating false, misleading misinformation or disinformation." Struck from the IHR is the crucial guarantee of human rights as a foundation of public health: “The implementation of these Regulations shall be with full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons…” has been replaced with “shall be based on the principles of equity, inclusivity, and coherence...” Worse, the agreements embraces a “One Health” approach which includes not only human health, but also the health of animals, agricultural plants and the environment. The WHO essentially is claiming control over every aspect of existence on earth. The Director General could declare “climate change” as a “public health emergency of international concern.” “The best thing is simply to get out of the WHO. Just say this is going in the wrong direction and we’re out. The WHO doesn't do anything for the United States,” advises Meryl. “How have we benefited from this organization?” This a huge issue that isn’t being covered in the so-called mainstream media. If you thought the nightmare of the last heavy handed response to the pandemic was over, think again. Listen in and learn from two passionate and knowledgeable defenders of our healthcare freedoms. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30337418

Episode 265: Ukraine: Has the US Lost Yet Another Proxy War? with Stephen Bryen 03/07/2024

Episode 265: Ukraine: Has the US Lost Yet Another Proxy War? with Stephen Bryen While Americans have become preoccupied with other things - the election, the border, the economy - events in Ukraine are spinning out of control. People have been talking hopefully about a ceasefire and a truce. Instead, with a couple of more blunders we could be heading for a World War III. To learn where this might be headed next, I’m back talking in this episode with my go to guru on all things national security Stephen Bryen - Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy Some takeaways from our conversation: The head of NATO Jen Soltenberg’s reckless statements and actions are escalating the situation in Ukraine and increasing the risk of a full-scale war. The Biden Administration’s objective of regime change in Moscow has failed. Russia seems certain to prevail. At this point, they have few incentives to stop the fighting. Ukraine has suffered massive casualties, perhaps up to 800,000 killed, and is on its third army. Ukraine President Zelensky is on the way out, we just don’t know how or when. Sanctions against Russia haven’t worked. China has replaced the European Union as Russia’s top energy buyer and goods supplier, giving Russia both the cash and the manufactures it needs to sustain itself. Total trade between China and Russia has reached $240 billion in 2023, more than double what it was in 2018. Russia now has become China’s biggest supplier of crude oil, second for coal and third for natural gas. Stephen predicted that Victoria Nuland would be out as acting Deputy Secretary of State. She resigned this week. The Biden administration aims to drag the war out as long as possible. Biden doesn't want Ukraine to collapse while he's running for president. Sending more money to Ukraine for ammunition and armaments doesn’t address its real issues: its lack of manpower and low morale. Finding a peaceful solution and stabilizing the situation in Ukraine should be our highest priority. Up to now, it hasn’t been. As always, Stephen provides a deep and informed take on events. Definitely worth a listen. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30269303

Episode 263: Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness with Carrie Sheffield 03/05/2024

Episode 263: Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness with Carrie Sheffield In this episode Bill follows up from his last conversation with Carrie Sheffield to talk about her extraordinary memoir, which is being published this week: Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness. As you’ll learn, the book is much more than her riveting and heartwrenching personal story. It is a beacon, reminding us that even the direst circumstances need not dictate the outcome of our lives. Carrie Sheffield grew up fifth of eight children with a violent, mentally ill, street-musician father who believed he was a modern-day Mormon prophet destined to become U.S. president. His obsessions led Carrie, her mother and seven siblings to live as vagabonds, remaining on the move across the country, subsisting in sheds, tents, and motorhomes, enduring a dysfunctional drifter existence, camping out in their motorhome in Walmart parking lots. She eventually seized control of her life, transcended her troubled past, and overcame her toxic inner voice (and a near death experience)—thanks to the power of forgiveness, cultivated through her conversion to Christianity. She left the Mormon church when she 22, then went through a period she calls secular agnostic hell, became a Christian at age 35, transforming her life. She evolved from a scared and abused girl to a Harvard-educated professional with a passion for empowering others to reject the cycles of poverty, depression, and self-hatred. “I see my life in some ways as a microcosm of what's happening with the West,” she shares. “The West is committing suicide, rejecting all of our foundational Western principles, because the West has not been perfect. No society has.” “Destructive and alienating ideas like CRT and DEI have us throwing the baby out with the bath water. This is what I did when I became a secular agnostic because I was so angry at a flawed Judeo-Christian interpretation that had been forced on me by a toxic family environment.” Carrie Sheffield is a compelling young woman. Listen in to learn about her journey and its lessons for us. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/30235933

Episode 262: Are you on a CIA or FBI list? with J. Michael Waller 02/15/2024

Episode 261: Last Warning to the West with Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell 02/13/2024

Episode 260: How do we know what we think we know is true? with Jim Agresti 01/26/2024

Episode 260: How do we know what we think we know is true? with Jim Agresti In this age of fake news, disinformation, shadow banning and government agencies like CISA aiming to manipulate what it calls our “cognitive infrastructure” it is hard to answer this question. To explore how we can go about finding what’s true and what is not, Jim Agresti, the founder of , returns to help clarify our thinking. Just Facts is an institute dedicated to publishing facts about public policies and teaching research skills using exacting Standards of Credibility to determine what constitutes a fact and what does not. The vision of Just Facts is to equip people with facts “to make truly informed decisions. This means facts that accurately and fully convey reality—not pseudo-facts, half-truths, or talking points.” “Do you have the information you need to make quality decisions in your life and in the voting booth? You can rarely get the full picture of what something is about from an 800-word news article or commentary. You have to dig much deeper,” explains Jim. In this episode we talk about Just Facts exacting Standards of Credibility that is uses to produce research that is accurate and truly informative. Here’s a summary: Comprehensiveness: It’s a simple thing to distort reality by selecting only facts that align with partisan views while ignoring others. Half the truth can amount to a total lie. Primary Sources means identifying credible primary sources instead of secondary ones that often reflect an “interpretation” of the facts instead of the actual facts. Rigorous Documentation means documenting facts far more thoroughly than academic standards require, footnoting every fact with creditable sources, and citing quotations or data exactly. Harvard’s Claudine Gay should have consulted with Jim. Raw Data presents data in its rawest comprehensible form to safeguard against data corrupted by errors, rhetorical mischaracterizations, or statistical manipulation. Verification uses different sources, methodologies, and calculations to double-check verifiable facts. If they’d done this, NASA wouldn’t have lost a Mars Climate Orbiter because they mixed up metric and English units when coding the mission software. Clarity means using language that is precise and unambiguous in order to minimize the potential for misinterpretation. Balance: In this age of raging partisanship, almost no one does comprehensive accuracy or tries to balance views. Instead, sound bites are laced with rhetoric and misinformation, and opposing views given short shrift. Of course, not everyone is interested in a disinterested discussion rooted in a dispassionate comparison of facts. Vladimir Lenin - and most all on the Left who have followed him - said that “moral and factual considerations are irrelevant when it comes to how to sway the public most effectively. Our morality is entirely subordinated to our interest of advancing communism.” So the question we have to ask is: even if we know what’s factual and true does it matter in today’s world of raw power politics? Listen in to decide for yourself. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/29662588

Episode 259: The Virtues and Beauties of Freedom with Jeffrey Tucker 01/16/2024

Episode 259: The Virtues and Beauties of Freedom with Jeffrey Tucker When Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina in November, Argentinians empowered the first self-proclaimed “anarcho capitalist” as a head of state in modern history. It’s a wild, even dangerous sounding term and almost no one knows what it means. So in this episode, Jeffrey Tucker and I dig into what Javier Milei and the philosophy of anarcho capitalism are all about. Jeffrey, a brilliant and prolific author and founder of the was a protege of Murray Rothbard, the economist who developed the ideas and coined the term. Javier Milei campaigned by bluntly declaring the failures of socialism, communism, fascism, central planning, and political despotism over society. His push for free-market reforms was backed up by his 20 years as a university professor of economics, with two master’s degrees in economics and author of more than 50 academic papers and myriad books on the matter. He celebrates the virtues and beauties of freedom itself, how business needs to be free of regulations, the critical interrelationship between private property and freedom and the enforcement of property rights at all levels of society. He believes that society doesn't require an entrenched entity of legalized compulsion and coercion called the State in order to provide these things. An astonishing and bold claim. Yet he won convincingly with almost 56% of the vote and his victory has sent shock waves through the political establishment, not only in Argentina, but throughout Latin America. Milei now faces the daunting task of taming out of control inflation (Argentina’s year-on-year inflation rate hit a staggering 142 percent during election week), a bloated self dealing administrative state, a corrupted court system and an entrenched elite opposition that's determined to preserve its power and prerogatives. “How does one man take all this on?”asks Jeffrey. “We don’t really know the answer to this question. No leader of a Western democratic developed nation has ever attempted a full-scale routing of a corrupted establishment on this level.” Milei’s wasting no time. Forty-eight hours after taking office on December 10th he unveiled measures to cut public spending by 3% of GDP. He devalued the peso, pledged to slash subsidies, and eliminated nine of 18 government ministries. One week later he decreed that state-owned companies would be privatized, price controls would be eliminated, and labour laws reformed. Of course we’re now seeing headlines like this one in The Economist: The fightback against Javier Milei’s radical reforms has begun. Argentina’s powerful trade unions are preparing to strike on January 24th Our hope is that Mr. Milei is just the beginning of a movement that could spread throughout the world. People are fed up and are ready for a radical new agenda to stop the relentless march of the forces of tyranny in Western nations. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/29506558

Episode 258: Natural Asset Companies: A Scheme to Profit From the "Degrowth" Agenda with Margaret Byfield 01/12/2024

Episode 258: Natural Asset Companies: A Scheme to Profit From the "Degrowth" Agenda with Margaret Byfield On September 27, 2023, the New York Stock Exchange and the Intrinsic Exchange Group submitted a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a new type of company called a “Natural Asset Company”, or “NAC” whose primary purpose would be to manage and grow so-called “ecosystem services” on land throughout the United States. NACs would be empowered to manage every type of property: federal, state, and private land, including conservation easements to maximize their so-called “ecological value.” Critically, what they are not allowed to do is anything considered “unsustainable” including: mining, agriculture that uses traditional fertilizers and machinery, managing timberlands, grazing, hunting, and most every type of recreational activity. Instead of maximizing traditional economic value, NACs would put this land off limits from any productive purpose involving oil, gas, coal, yellowcake production, lithium mining and processing, steelmaking and anything else essential to national defense that produces CO2, which is their definition of sustainability. In other words, everything that makes land valuable to ordinary human beings and to America’s national security. The goal is to create not only a new kind of company, but also a new asset class that could attract billion of investment dollars, including from global sovereign wealth funds from, say China, Russia, or other nations. (What better way for a foreign adversary to cripple the United States than through locking up America’s natural resources without a fight?) The greed factor is also front and center in this proposal. By some estimates, trading markets in “natural assets” could reach $100 to $150 trillion with market makers like Black Rock, Goldman Sachs, and big green energy utilities like NextEra, in the thick of the action. If these numbers seem fantastic, consider this new math. Today the value of our existing real economic land assets is estimated to be about $1.5 quadrillion dollars globally. Proponents of these new Natural Assets claim the value of “ecosystem services” to be $5 quadrillion dollars. The problem with this estimate is that you can’t get there using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles which measures basic cash flows to describe value and net present value. Instead, it is based on a new accounting system called SEEA EA, invented out of whole cloth by the United Nations, which claim to be able put a monetary value on the ability of NACs to block others from putting land to productive uses. There are massive problems with this accounting system. There are massive problems with this whole Scheme. The SEC and the New York Stock Exchange must know this. To avoid scrutiny and opposition, they have put it on an unprecedented fast track for approval. To read the filings, it looks intentionally confusing, and intentionally made to make it difficult to weigh in on. The Intrinsic Exchange Group is partly owned by the New York Stock Exchange and is backed by the Rockefeller Foundation. But one thing is clear: it’s their desire to permanently embed the mechanism and monetary values for the disuse of federal lands, easement properties and ultimately private properties in our federal securities laws. Joining me to unpack this proposal and its underlying agenda, is Margaret Byfield, the Executive Director of , a non-profit organization working to protect private property rights and the liberties they secure. It's going to be very important to take direct action, make comments, reach out to your lawmakers and try to stop NACs from becoming a reality. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/29457778

Episode 257: Biden’s Foreign Policy Team Staggers into 2024 with Brandon Wiechert 01/09/2024

Episode 257: Biden’s Foreign Policy Team Staggers into 2024 with Brandon Wiechert Is 2024 going to be the year that determines whether the United States remains as the global superpower or whether it truly becomes a declining power surrounded by rising powers, especially China? Lots of strong views in this episode as Brandon Weichert again joins The Bill Walton Show to discuss geopolitics and national security. It’s filled with some dire warnings, as well as gallows humor. At one point during the conversation we wondered whether we’d need to put a warning label on the episode: “Beware gloomy scenarios. This is dire, children.” Just some of conversation: The Houthi in Yemen have been lobbing every sort of drone and missile at shipping in the Red Sea. They’re also attacking US bases. And of course, we know they're backed by Iran, and we haven't responded, leading us towards a potential 21stCentury Suez Canal crisis. Biden, like his former boss, Obama, very badly wants to have an appeasement or accommodation to make a deal with Iran. There are deep and dark reasons for this that Brandon reveals in detail. If we don’t respond, it’s likely the Israelis will, leading to a full scale conflagration in the region, drawing in dozens of participants, each with multiple and conflicting interests. From the beginning, the odds of Ukraine defeating Russia were vanishingly small, and it now looks like if they haven't already lost the war, they certainly are not going to win. Congress is likely to pull the plug on more money, further sealing their fate. How does that play out? Brandon’s new book titled “A Disaster of Our Own Making” is about US diplomatic blunders. The Ukraine/Russia conflict was never a morality tale. It’s about interests. When will Zelensky depart the stage? Is he a tragic figure? Brandon’s Amazon author page is . Why chaos is a ladder for China’s interests. Homeland Secretary Mayorkas tells us border crossing “immigrants are fleeing climate change” The United States Space Force is now headed by a man who dresses as a woman. Our genius strategists ( Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland and Tony Blinken) are thinking about seizing Russian dollar assets to the tune of almost $300 billion, jeopardizing the dollar’s reserve currency status. There’s much more in this lively conversation, yet we do manage to end on a positive note. “The problems we face are massive--and growing--and while a new president will not solve all our ills, many of these foreign policy crises will be resolved if we get the right POTUS in November.” Would love to get your thoughts about this episode. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/29417508

Episode 256: The Sins of Arrogance and Stupidity are now Visited Upon the Children with Jennifer Sey 12/13/2023

Episode 256: The Sins of Arrogance and Stupidity are now Visited Upon the Children with Jennifer Sey World-class gymnast, author, filmmaker, and next-in-line to become CEO of Levi Strauss, Jennifer Sey talks pandemic-era school lockdowns and the backlash she received for speaking out against the school shutdowns with Bill Walton. Jennifer was a seven-time member of the U.S. Women's National Gymnastics Team and the 1986 U.S. Women's All-Around National Champion. Her transition from the world of sports to the corporate arena saw her rise to a pivotal leadership role at Levi Strauss, contributing significantly to its resurgence. Along the way, she produced a documentary “Athlete A” and wrote a book “Chalked up” exposing the abuse of children and young women gymnasts that spurred radical change in the sport. Sey was ostracized in deep blue San Francisco for publicly opposing the closures of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. She felt compelled to speak out for the children whose development and education were detrimentally affected by the isolation of virtual school. Levi Strauss top management and the board told her to shut up or leave. So she left. “I think what people failed to predict, which I saw from the beginning, societally, we sent children the message that their education was not a priority, that they were not a priority, and in fact, if they missed things like having friends and an everyday life and key milestones, like graduations and football games, they were selfish, horrible people. Imagine what that does to a child’s psyche. So, now, the depression, the anxiety persists, not surprisingly, and we’re seeing record high levels of absenteeism,” Sey said. She is now determined to make these effects clear to the American public with a documentary film titled Generation COVID. The documentary will highlight the stories of ten different families and the struggles of their children in the post-pandemic education environment. The damage to be wreaked upon children by school closures was abundantly clear to many of us at the time. “But the mainstream outlets like the New York Times vilified any dissenters,” reminds Jennifer. “Even renowned doctors, people like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya from Stanford, Martin Kulldorff from Harvard, Sunetra Gupta from Oxford. These are not fringe scientists or fringe epidemiologists, but they were shunned and delegitimized by the mainstream press.” Yet seemingly forgetting the principal role it played in keeping the lockdowns in place, we now read this from the New York Times: “The evidence is now in, and it is startling,” it exclaims. “The school closures that took 50 million children out of classrooms at the start of the pandemic may prove to be the most damaging disruption in the history of American education.” There’s a lot to be answered for here, starting with the amnesiac NYT. This episode is more than just a conversation; it is a call to arms. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/29067493

Episode 255: Surprising Facts About CO2 with Dr William Happer and Gregory Wrightstone 11/28/2023

Episode 255: Surprising Facts About CO2 with Dr William Happer and Gregory Wrightstone We’re inundated with reports from media, governments, think tanks, and "experts" saying that our climate is changing for the worse, and that it is our fault because of man-made CO2 emissions. But despite apocalyptic predictions about climate, our earth, the planet is improving. Why? And why aren’t we hearing about it? It is possible that Co2 is not a pollutant? Rather, that it’s a miracle, and not a curse? In this episode of Dr. William Happer, Co-Founder and Chair of the CO2 Coalition and Gregory Wrightstone, its Executive Director explain why they believe this to be true. The CO2 Coalition, an independent, non-profit organization, aims to provide scientific facts and data to counter the prevailing narrative on climate change and promote a more balanced understanding of the role of CO2 in the environment. Available scientific facts have persuaded Coalition members that additional CO2 will be a net benefit. First and foremost, CO2 is plant food. Green plants grow faster with more CO2. CO2 increase is enhancing corn production… a lot. The 140-million-year trend is that the CO2 level is dangerously decreasing. Observations show no significant change in extreme weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, or droughts. Rising sea levels and melting glaciers confirm modern warming predated increases of CO2. We are living in one of the coldest periods ever. For most of Earth’s history, it was about 10°C (18°F) warmer than today. Temperatures changed dramatically during the past 10,000 years. It wasn’t us. An “ideal” temperature is not that of 150 years ago. IPCC models have overstated warming up to three times too much. For human advancement, warmer is better than colder. "The true horror will be when the next cold period comes. Because we look back over the last 5,000 years of human history, the warm periods have been hugely beneficial to humanity and the cold periods have been horrific." Greg Wrightstone. Dr. Happer is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Princeton University, has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers and served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Emerging Technologies on the National Security Council. Mr. Wrightstone, a geologist, is the bestselling author of Inconvenient Facts and has published more than 200 papers, publications and commentaries concerning climate change and energy. Listen in to learn some of the surprising truths about CO2 that you won’t hear from the self-interested parties pushing “solutions” to a declared climate change crisis. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28823098

Episode 254: A Global Reality Check with Stephen Bryen 11/24/2023

Episode 254: A Global Reality Check with Stephen Bryen In this candid and insightful episode of the "Bill Walton Show," Stephen Bryen, a seasoned expert with over half a century of experience in national security and arms trade, shares his incisive views on the current state of global geopolitics. Stephen Bryen’s been called the Yoda of the arms trade. He was the Pentagon's top cop, the man whose job it was to ensure that sensitive technology would be kept from enemies, potential enemies and questionable allies. As both the wars for Ukraine and Gaza Strip have the potential to widen, even while Taiwan looms, Bryen warns about the United States' diminishing influence in global affairs that have led to a weakened strategic position, particularly in relation to China, Iran and even Russia. Some excerpts: "We're not controlling events. Events are controlling us. And we're doing some things which are reckless." “Yes, we're a nuclear power. We have a strong air force, a less strong army and an even less strong Navy, except for submarines, but we're being challenged by Russia. We're being challenged by China. We're being challenged by countries like Iran, and we're letting them get away with it. “We’re emptying our arsenal to support Ukraine, leaving NATO exposed, very exposed, if the Russians really chose to be troublesome in Europe" “One of the amazing truths about the US and its NATO allies supplying millions of tons of ammunition and hardware to Ukraine is that the allies paid almost no attention to contingencies and freely raided stockpiles that were put there for US and NATO national security defense needs.” We’re still sending billions of dollars to Iran, serving interests that are not our own. "Our national interest is not to allow Iran to conquer nearby countries. And to destabilize the Middle East because it's not in our interest, it's not in Europe's interest, it's not in the world's interest.” ”Iran’s equation is different than ours. They think in terms of how they can destroy Israel, how they can take over that whole crescent of territory … Iraq, Lebanon, Syria.” “In Asia, we're weak. There's no doubt about that. The Chinese have been building up and building up, and we have failed to set up any kind of defensive scheme or alliance that works to put pressure back on China. Taiwan has been simply left out of the equation. The only real hope against the China threat is that internally, it can't compete. China's biggest roadblock to global domination might just be itself.” “It's got troubles, economic problems, political problems, internal clashes of interests. So maybe it'll implode, but if it doesn't, we're in for a hard time.” Tough words from a savvy and clear-eyed observer of global conflicts. These are not what you’re hearing from the national security state complex. All the more reason to listen in. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28780898

Episode 253: Growth, Innovation and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet w/Marian Tupy 11/14/2023

Episode 253: Growth, Innovation and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet w/Marian Tupy You can’t fix what is wrong in the world if you don’t know what’s actually happening. Polls show that most smart people tend to believe that the state of the world is getting worse. In the United States, almost 3/4 of Americans believe the world is getting worse and only 6% think it's getting better. But according to Marian Tupy, our guest on this episode, “this dark view of the prospects for humanity, and the natural world is, in large part, badly mistaken.” As a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, coauthor of the Simon Abundance Index and editor of the website , he has produced compelling research on this topic. Abundant evidence from individual scholars, academic institutions, and international organizations shows dramatic improvements in human well-being throughout much of the world. In recent decades, these improvements have been especially striking in developing countries where there’s been a significant decline in extreme poverty and improvements in child mortality rates. For thousands of years, the average income around the world was about $2 per person per day. Today, globally, it's $35. So the average inhabitant of the world adjusted for inflation is 18 times better off than he or she was 200 years ago. “These days, young people especially are freaked out about the environment. They think everything is bad,” observes Marian. “That is not true. The United States and the European Union have added 35% more new forests in recent decades. China, 15% more forests.” Unfortunately, there is often a wide gap between the reality of human experience, which is characterized by incremental improvements, and public perception, which tends to be quite negative about the current state of the world and skeptical about humanity’s future prospects. "Journalism is about things that happen, not things that don't happen,” explains Marian. “When a bunch of crazy fanatics fly an airplane into a building in New York, it ends up on all the front pages. But what is never covered is human progress, the things that are happening in the background every year, like how by quarter of a percent or half a percent, absolute poverty is declining and growth is increasing.” Tupy emphasizes the importance of economic and political freedom in driving these positive changes, and that we do need to worry that these freedoms are under attack throughout the world. To innovate, people must be allowed to think, speak, publish, associate, and disagree. They must be allowed to save, invest, trade, and profit. In a word, they must be free. Tupy brings abundant historical and real world evidence to support this assertion. We ignore these basics at our peril. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28636448

Episode 252: Confronting Brute Force Economics with Rob Atkinson 11/07/2023

Episode 252: Confronting Brute Force Economics with Rob Atkinson The Chinese Communist Party sees technology innovation as the main battlefield of its industrial policy - and its ultimate weapon for achieving global dominance. The United States and the Biden Administration needs to confront the reality of what has been called China’s “brute force economics” and abandon the possibility that competing on a level playing field with China’s is possible. We have to face up to the fact that we are not simply in an economic competition with China. We’re in a war. Joining the Bill Walton Show to explore this troubling reality is our returning guest: Robert D. Atkinson. Rob is the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, one of the world’s top think tanks for science and technology policy. China’s tactics are not merely an assortment of cutthroat moves made by individual actors. Rather, they are features of Beijing’s long-term strategy and are backed up by the full force of the country’s party-state system, creating a challenge that Washington cannot afford to ignore. Beijing is intent on employing predatory and mercantilist practices to acquire leadership positions in virtually every emerging and advanced industry that matters. It’s doing this through market access restrictions, massive industrial subsidies that fuel overcapacity, technology transfer requirements for market access, preferential financing and procurement contracts for domestic firms, intellectual property theft, cyber- and human-enabled espionage, coercion and bullying, forced labor and other poor labor conditions, and other market-distorting policies. They’ve already established dominance in industries including steel, solar panels, drones, shipbuilding, pharmaceutical ingredients, high-speed rail, and telecommunications equipment; and are making rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI), aerospace, semiconductors, biotechnology, networking technologies, and electric vehicles and batteries, cloud computing, flat panel displays, advanced materials, autonomous systems, and LiDAR technology. Fortunately, as Rob explains, there are some straightforward and implementable actions the United States can take to push back against China’s agenda. If you’ve been wondering about what the economic battle with China is all about, this conversation is a great place to understand its essentials. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28547213

Episode 251: A Conversation with the Extraordinary Winsome Earle-Sears 10/31/2023

Episode 250: The Terrifying Truth About China's Grip on America | A New Cold War Unveiled - Frank Gaffney and Bradley Thayer 10/23/2023

Episode 250: The Terrifying Truth About China's Grip on America | A New Cold War Unveiled - Frank Gaffney and Bradley Thayer China is the single most formidable strategic threat the United States has ever faced. It alone has the potential to replace the United States as the world’s hegemon. China is not a typical foreign adversary on another shore, gathering behind its army, aggressive, thinking about land warfare, even nuclear warfare. This is an enemy that's permeated the United States, it's infiltrated into our culture and China’s strategy of “elite capture” is working. A lot of the leadership class in America seems to be in the pocket of the Chinese. Deng Xiaoping, probably the greatest strategist of the 20th century, determined that China was not going to be vulnerable the way the Soviets were and that he was going to enter the world’s economic and governance ecosystems with prodigious assistance from the West. He was going to make partners with Wall Street, the Chamber of Commerce and of the Democrat, and in time the Republican, parties and the fear today is that he has succeeded. Joining The Bill Walton Show in this episode to discuss the China Threat are: Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is the founder and executive chairman of the Center for Security Policy. He’s coauthor of The Indictment: Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party, vice chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger: China and the host of Securing America with Frank Gaffney on the Real America’s Voice Network, and Bradley A. Thayer is Director of China Policy at the Center for Security Policy and the coauthor of Understanding the China Threat and How China Sees the World: Han-Centrism and the Balance of Power in International Politics. Together Frank and Brad have a profound and clear eyed assessment of China’s history, its strengths and weaknesses, and its intentions on the world stage today. Whether the United States can maintain its position as the preeminent force for free and open societies in the face of the China Threat is the defining element of international politics in the 21st-century. After listening to this episode, you will understand China in an entirely new way. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28395992

Episode 249: You Can’t Win the Culture War Without Making Movies -Michael and Thomas Pack 10/17/2023

Episode 248: “The Golden Gate: Power, Sex, Class and Justice in 1940s California” with Amy Chua 10/11/2023

Episode 248: “The Golden Gate: Power, Sex, Class and Justice in 1940s California” with Amy Chua In this episode of the Bill Walton Show, my conversation is with Amy Chua, a provocative and original thinker about culture, world politics, and political tribes. Our main topic is her latest book, The Golden Gate, is a novel set in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1930s and 1940s. Best known for her Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a memoir about her parenting journey using strict Confucianist child rearing techniques, she is a highly accomplished professor at Yale Law School, and has been named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, The Atlantic's “Brave Thinkers” and Foreign Policy's “Global Thinkers.” The Golden Gate is compelling historical thriller that paints a portrait of a California from another era beset by the crosswinds of a world at war and an American society about to undergo massive changes in how race and class define the essence of power, sex, and justice. It’s also filled with fascinating details, like groundbreaking forensic advances, the story of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the presence of China’s Madame Chiang Kai-shek in Berkeley in the 1940’s Amy brings to this book - and our conversation - her depth of understanding about class structures, culture and ethnic divisions seen in her non-fiction writings. Her first book, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, explored the ethnic conflict caused in many societies by "market dominant minorities.” In her Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - and Why They Fall examined seven major empires and the theory that their success depended on their tolerance of minorities. Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, examined how group loyalty often outweighs any other ideological considerations and argues that the failure to recognize the place of group loyalty has played a major role in the failure of US foreign policy. The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America was called by the Financial Times’ Lucy Kellaway, “the best universal theory of success I've seen." This is a wide ranging and fun conversation. Highly enjoyable. Listen in. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28282067

Episode 247: “You Can Prevent a Stroke” with Dr Joshua Yamamoto 10/04/2023

Episode 247: “You Can Prevent a Stroke” with Dr Joshua Yamamoto Our guest on this episode of Backstage with Bill Walton is Bill’s cardiologist Dr. Joshua Yamamoto who has some startling and optimistic things to say about our heart health. “There is almost no such thing as heart disease: it’s just natural aging and you can manage it,” declares Josh. “We now look at aging not just as a bag of diseases, but as a process.” While health issues are not normally among our Show topics, unlike our polarized politics, our personal health is something we can actually do something about. The biology of aging is no longer mysterious. If we start paying attention when we are young, heart and blood vessel health is knowable, measurable, and manageable. In You Can Prevent a Stroke, Dr. Joshua Yamamoto and Dr. Kristin Thomas help us understand what we can do, and what we can ask of our doctors, to manage the effects of aging on our circulation so that we do not have a stroke. Josh Yamamoto is one of America’s leading cardiologists with a degree in physics from Princeton University and who trained at Dartmouth Medical School, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, National Naval Medical Center and Georgetown University. He was the cardiology consultant to the US Congress and Director of Cardiac Imaging and served in Kuwait as the theater cardiologist for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Old school” medicine said that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. A great emphasis was placed on symptoms. What are your complaints? If you don’t have a complaint, then all must be well. Not necessarily. To keep your brain (and yourself as a whole) healthy, you need to know the answers to the questions: 1. What is the actual health of my heart and circulation? 2. What can I do, or what can I do differently, to keep my circulation working as safely and efficiently as possible? Fundamentally, these are the only questions you need to ask. The questions are simple, but the answers are different for every one of us. “The leading cause of death is supposedly heart disease. And I always roll my eye at that notion because heart disease isn't simply one thing. It's like if you take your car to the mechanic, and he says, "Oh, I know what's wrong. You have engine trouble." Really? How did that help? So, you have to understand what are all the processes affecting the heart.” “A famous bioethicist once said that there is no meaningful life after the age of 75, so why should anyone go to the doctor after that point?” “In my practice, I can spend an entire day and see no patient younger than 90. And they are active and healthy, and enjoying life. I have 96-year-olds still wearing suits to the office. I have a 106-year-old complaining that no one will dance with her. I have an 89-year-old who wanted a stress test to make sure he could keep up with his new girlfriend (who in fact is older than he). I prescribe plenty of Viagra.” This is just a sampling of Josh’s original thinking, deep insights and humor. Listen in and learn how to anticipate, navigate and manage the aging process. /episode/index/show/thebillwaltonshow/id/28216067

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