FED UP Lt. General RIPS Trump PENTAGON DISASTER

What this episode is about

Retired Lieutenant General Russell Honore critiques the Trump administration's focus on serving corporate interests, particularly regarding U.S. involvement in Venezuela's oil industry. He highlights the detrimental implications of prioritizing business over the needs of the American people, as seen in Trump's comments about oil and military intervention.

Key takeaways

• When oil's at stake, national interest often plays second fiddle to corporate avarice.
• Retaliation against dissenters in military ranks signals a dangerous trend in democratic oversight.
• Past wars remind us: fighting for oil rarely benefits the common people involved.
• Disobeying illegal orders isn't just protocol; it's a moral compass for military integrity.
• General Honore's critique of Secretary of Defense’s theatrics shows how low military rhetoric has sunk.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Ken Harbaugh (Host) · 9 min speaking
• Lieutenant General Russell Honore (Guest) · 14 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Lieutenant General Russell Honore, Department of Defense, Donald Trump, Freedom Watch Media
2. 5:00 – 10:00: American Giant
3. 10:00 – 15:00: American Giant
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Freedom Watch Media

Notable quotes from "FED UP Lt. General RIPS Trump PENTAGON DISASTER"

• It's Ken Harbaugh with the Midas Touch Network. A few weeks ago, I watched an interview with retired Lieutenant General Russell Honore, who commanded the National Guard during…

  about Lieutenant General Russell Honore · at 0:22

• Has long been a hero of mine. I highly recommend the short film he did for Freedom Watch Media. The link is below.

  about Freedom Watch Media · at 1:56

• Finding one that's genuinely warm, comfortable, and built to last isn't easy. That's why I wear American Giant.

  about American Giant · at 9:20

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Lieutenant General Russell Honore — Person · 2 mentions · first at 0:26
• Donald Trump — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:59
  To serve business. After America's attack on Venezuela and the brazen admission by Donald Trump of the role that Venezuela's oil reserves played in that decision, I wanted to…

Companies & orgs

• American Giant — Company · 3 mentions · first at 9:25
• Freedom Watch Media — Company · 2 mentions · first at 2:00
• Department of Defense — Company · 1 mention · first at 2:12
  Thank you so much for joining the Ken Arbar Show. General Honore, you posted recently about the Department of Defense moves against Senator Kelly for his video telling the…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 spoken with the oil companies in the Venezuelans from the oil companies. They want to go in so badly.

0:11 You speak to them before the operation took place. You maybe tip them off before and after and they want to go in and they're going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela.

0:22 It's Ken Harbaugh with the Midas Touch Network. A few weeks ago, I watched an interview with retired Lieutenant General Russell Honore, who commanded the National Guard during its response to Hurricane Katrina and who was later tapped to investigate the security failures surrounding the January 6th insurrection. During that interview, General Honor said something that many of us have known for some time, but it mattered coming from him. He said that the purpose of the US government, at least as the Trump regime would have it, is not to serve the American people, but to serve business. After America's attack on Venezuela and the brazen admission by Donald Trump of the role that Venezuela's oil reserves played in that decision, I wanted to talk to General Honor. Before I get to our conversation, here's Donald Trump talking about Venezuela's oil,

1:13 the oil infrastructure. in Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, oil industry, massive oil Venezuelan oil and rebuild the oil infrastructure, the oil companies. We're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be. They stole our oil. Oil is very dangerous. We're in the oil business. We'll be selling oil. We'll be selling large amounts of oil. We have the greatest oil companies in the world. America has gone to war for oil before and it hasn't worked out well. General Honore and I get into that in this conversation and we also talk about the DoD's outrageous attacks on Senator Mark Kelly as a way of intimidating other critics of the regime. General Honore has long been a hero of mine. I highly recommend the short film he did for Freedom Watch Media. The link is below.

2:03 Here is me and Lieutenant General Russell Honore. Thank you so much for joining the Ken Arbar Show. General Honore, you posted recently about the Department of Defense moves against Senator Kelly for his video telling the truth about the obligation of military personnel to disobey illegal orders. And your conclusion was that this attempt to censure him, well the censure has been issued, but the attempt to potentially demote him and reduce his rank and pay uh is about silencing disscent. You wrote that this administrative action is an effective way to stop all retired officers, that includes you, from making negative comments about this administration.

2:55 Can you explain to our audience just how exceedingly rare this kind of move against a former retired military officer is and why it should alarm us so much. Yeah, it's almost unprecedented to take a situation as what uh Senator Ketty is and the comment he and his colleagues in the uh Congress have made to remind soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marine and guardians, hey, look, uh you've got an obligation to uh not to follow illegal orders as a reminder. And again, one might question the timing of that and but it was not illegal in my estimate in my 37 years uh studying and following the uniform code of military justice. And it's uh something that has been said before to include by the secretary of defense himself some years ago reminding warriors to uh only follow legal orders.

4:01 Uh I think this uh is a case of retribution. Uh they see Senator Kettle and they've targeted him as a potential candidate in the next presidential election. He's outspoken. he's from the different party. Uh as an opportunity to silence him, but also send a message to that battalion of general officers out there that go on TV or write opeds. Uh keep your mouth shut. This is a shot over the bow to all of us that we need to watch what we're saying because uh under the rules they've used for Senator Kelly, which I don't see as a violation of anything in the uniform code of military justice, they've used this idea of sedition uh uh as a uh as a talking point, but it it meet none of the standards that I understand uh as someone loses the general court marsh communing authority at one time, but I'll defer it to the lawyers. I do think it's retribution and it's a sign of keep your mouth shut.

5:15 Don't say anything that's negative about this administration. What do you make of Secretary Hegsth's dramatic pivot from where he was just a few years ago? as you alluded to, he said the the military has an obligation to disobey illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional orders to where he is now, struting on a stage in front of all the assembled general and flag officers, talking about the warrior ethos, reportedly issuing orders for the boat strikes in the in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific to to leave no survivors. asking you as a general officer who had to report to civilian leadership, how do you respond to that kind of posturing and the and the puffery around the Department of War and all of this performative BS?

6:08 Yeah, it kind of remind me of an amateur musician starting to believe in his own magic, [clears throat] particularly when he's crossing the stage quoting from his own book something to do with warrior ethos like that. He invented that word. And I say that with uh with ample respect because as a commander, you remember yourself in firing the troops up. You look worse for inspiration. But I I don't think the the uh the squeeze was worth the juice they got out of that meeting. And his comments were uh would remind me of a junior company commander meeting in Stroops and said, "We're going to be real warriors now. we're going to really get things done right and you're going to be happy about it regardless of what it is. Uh and morale will get better or the or the beatings will continue at a higher rate. So it was a very amateur move but uh he is the secretary of defense but I I uh I regret having witnessed [clears throat] that.

7:13 Uh I'm happy I didn't have to sit in that audience. uh and this idea of uh uh of war ethos, the idea and and [clears throat] it's not so much what they've said, is what they've done. Uh relieving all of the judge, advocate general officers in the uh department. At the same time he made that speech, he was under investigation for a single single gate which which has not been resolved yet to have the audacity to go after uh not what Senator Kennedy did. Kelly did which was a a vocal expression of following the constitution to what he did which was an actual act and taking classified information and moving it to an unclassified site. So it's a big contradiction there but I think it brings up the idea is that we've filled the administration with a bunch of loyalists and loyalists do what the kings say. Thank God there are still some patriots around that follows the constitution and this administration is

8:27 full of loyalists. So whatever the king see you repeat it. Obviously he did a major uh turnaround on the idea of legal orders from being a Fox News host to becoming the secretary of defense. But at the same time uh it's a demonstration to the troops of what is this guy talking about? And thank God between him uh and the troops there are still patriots that follow the constitution.

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11:00 Codeken. Are you worried that there aren't more general and flag officers speaking out? You talked about the intimidation factor of this persecution of Mark Kelly. They have gone after others who have spoken out uh non-military retirees as an attempt to silence denters. It clearly hasn't intimidated you, but I get the feeling that others would be speaking out if they could find the the spine to do it. And there, I'm not going to name anyone in particular. Folks who watch the show know who I'm referring to, though. There are some in particular who I'm really disappointed in for not joining the likes of you and and saying what they know to be true.

11:49 Well, [clears throat] if you speak up, uh, it comes with some risk to be cancelled off of boards, off of association, off of speakers, uh, bureau. I I've uh I've witnessed that myself uh after I had conducted the 16 investigation for the house the security of the capital and today being the fifth year uh com or anniversary of that event I can tell you my speaking engagement dropped by over 50%. just because I did the investigation, an unbiased uh investigation of security at the White House. So, it comes with some risk. But again, we're retired and I think the American people expect [clears throat] those that have the uh the courage to do it. Uh many of these uh officers uh themselves deal with their past uh and dealing with uh 20 years of war on terror and uh they're looking for peace in the golf course. Others sit on boards and commissions that uh prohibit them from being engaged in uh what might

13:11 beceived as political or current news. uh uh issues of the day. Uh I think that has a big and it's against our culture. Look, we grew up in an army where you look down, you don't look up because you assume the orders coming in were all vetted by the Jags and you your chain of commands got it. Uh but when we look at some of the recent operations, I like the boot strikes like sending the guard in the streets of California. Uh many folks that from my era look a little cross-sided. That doesn't look right. Uh we've never done this before. That this is not normal. But you assume that the chain of command up to some fourstar somewhere has reviewed this and they've given you an order that you should deploy to California.

14:15 What that reminder from General Kelly was is you deploy, but you think twice before you pick up arms and shoot live bullets at American citizens. You wouldn't have the right to do that if you were defending yourself. If a if a a mad person rode up, which could happen, and start shooting at you under the old chairman's right of self-defense, you can shoot back. But you wouldn't shoot people for yelling at you or for even uh minor disfiguration of some federal property. You find a way to deal with it, but you don't shoot Americans.

14:56 And and that that's an echo that I've said for a long time. [clears throat] once we start shooting America or apply our arms against the citizens when we've really lost our weight.

15:06 I rewatched your brilliant interview on Freedom Watch media. One thing in that really stood out to me and it was when you said that it seems like the purpose of government is no longer to serve the American people but to serve business. and listening to Trump and the people around him talk about Venezuelan oil and the phone calls with the oil companies before, during, and after the operation. It made your words seem prophetic. How do you feel about that now?

15:40 Well, it's been a trend, this idea of uh gunboat diplomacy. Uh but it's more evident now because it's advertised. You know, there were a lot of people when we went into Iraq the second time uh uh said, "Uh, this could be about the oil. This may not be about weapons of mass destruction." But the grunts put their head down, go get the job done, and let's get back home. Uh and that was always speculation by people that uh it had something to do about the oil flow in the Middle East. Not necessarily to own it, but to keep the oil flowing, not only for our economy, but for the world economy. And that the oligarchs kind of said, "Okay, you need to go get rid of this guy and keep the oil flowing." And and that that's been shed around a mini campfire.

16:37 uh over time. Uh but it was uh also with cause to deal with uh the ISIS terrorist groups that had attacked uh not only our troops but our allies in the region for control of a country. But it became evident in the last year that the purpose of government is to serve business and now the purpose of the military is to enhance business opportunities. When they say well they got oil and they got rare earth and oh by the way Iceland has I mean Greenland has rare earth and oh by the way uh Nigeria has rare earth and they have oil. uh basic gunboat diplomacy to enhance business interests around the world. Uh troopers didn't sign about this is a volunteer army.

17:31 We don't sign up for that. Uh and I don't know what the long-term impact is, but it's a conversation American people need to have going to the next election.

17:41 Last question, and I I try as hard as I can to end this show on a positive note. It's dark times, but I'm going to I'm going to give it my best shot. You also made the observation in that interview, and I think we'll put the link in the show notes, that you don't sharpen a knife with a cloth, you sharpen it with stone. And you were talking about your own upbringing and the hardships you endured and the character in you that that forged. I am wondering, I am hopeful that maybe that is a metaphor we can apply to America. This nation emerged stronger after its darkest periods. We emerged stronger after the civil rights movement, after the civil war. How hopeful are you that we will learn enough from this period we're going through now and survive it uh that we can make the kinds of changes in our institutions, in our national character that will survive another 250 years? Well, that's a deep

18:46 question and uh off the top of my head, you know, you look a little bit at history, we've had hard times before. We've survived uh uh the Civil War. We survived the Jim Crow uh with all the biases and impact it had on our human uh capital, the people of America. We survived an a time when women couldn't vote. We got past all those. We just got to remind people that we are free today because of the sacrifice of those who preceded us. And we all will have to do some sacrifice to save as we move forward. Cuz we owe it to the next generation to leave America free for the next generation.

19:34 I hope this turmoil we're going through will inspire other people your age who are some of them who went into this mission the other night in Karacas and drop bombs in their next life to come back and get engaged in the political process whether it's a a county uh official a governor's office senator or a congressman that we need them now in their future, many of them to get involved with government because we need patriots that support the Constitution because the number of loyalists we have now in Washington is scary. I think we can bypass this. The thing that keep me smiling is America is resilient.

20:22 And as I look around in my backyard this morning across the golf course, there guys playing golf. I don't think they're talking about Venezuela. [clears throat] and moms dropped their kids off at day school this morning. We'll pick them up from elementary school and all over the country and soccer will start to be played in South Louisiana in a couple weeks that America moves on and they're not all just sitting out watching the news, but they trust the leadership that the Congress have to do their damn job. And the way the Congress do their job is we've got to be resilient and contact our congressman because if they don't hear from us, they can go to Washington and take a whole different position and we'll do something that's popular with the administration as loyalist as opposed to being uh patriots. The patriotism in us must endure or we will settle for anything that's coming out of the White House because we need that

21:21 spirit of Washington and the the initial uh those who wore a cloth that uh stood the test of time and lived up to the Declaration of Independence and established the Constitution and the amendments. We need people today because most of America can read. We're literate. His army wasn't literate and 20% of it were uh people that were not free and native people. But they fought for the concept of freedom. We must live up to our ancestors sacrifice. And if you're not sacrificing, if you're not engaged and you don't vote, then you're going to be a hell of a disappointment to your ancestors. And I'm optimistic America will pass this, too. Well, thank you so much, General. Uh, we'll end with those words. It's been an honor speaking with you.

22:13 God bless America. God bless our troops. Love this video? Support independent media and unlock exclusive content. Add free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "FED UP Lt. General RIPS Trump PENTAGON DISASTER"?

Ken Harbaugh (Host), Lieutenant General Russell Honore (Guest).

What is "FED UP Lt. General RIPS Trump PENTAGON DISASTER" about?

Retired Lieutenant General Russell Honore critiques the Trump administration's focus on serving corporate interests, particularly regarding U.S. involvement in Venezuela's oil industry. He highlights the detrimental implications of prioritizing business over the needs of the American people, as seen in Trump's comments about oil and military intervention.

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

5 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including American Giant, Lieutenant General Russell Honore, Freedom Watch Media, Donald Trump, Department of Defense. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "FED UP Lt. General RIPS Trump PENTAGON DISASTER"?

The episode runs 23 min; the transcript is about 3,371 words in 29 timestamped sections.

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