Jason Hartman invites Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin onto today’s Solomon Success Show to discuss the various threats facing America’s current economic and social state, as well as to give his opinion on the Obama administration. Having worked in previous administrations, Boykin has a unique perspective on just what the Government is doing right and wrong, and how they can still change the fate of America.
Key Takeaways
02.14 – Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin discusses the economic and foreign threats that could face America in the near future.
04.39 – We need to be as prepared as possible; the events of 9/11 showed us that.
07.21 – Maybe the powers that be need to take a look at the state of the world and reassess their priorities?
08.44 – It’s a difficult position, but we have to look at terrorists’ motivations to try and understand.
12.28 – If someone doesn’t stop and think about the implications, the US economy will fall into ruin.
14.33 – Heading towards a more Marxist standpoint? What does that mean for society?
Mentioned in this episode
The Coalition: A Novel by William G. Boykin and Kamal Saleem
Tweetables
How long could we really last without electricity? It wouldn’t be the world as we know it.
As a population and as societies, we’re not a very difficult target to hit.
If we can’t learn from history, the future looks as bleak as the past.
Transcript
Introduction:
This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company. For more information and links to all our great podcasts, visit www.HartmanMedia.com
Welcome to the Solomon Success Show, where we explore the timeless wisdom of King Solomon and the Bible as it relates to business and investing. False profits and get-rich-quick schemes are everywhere; let’s not be distracted by these. Instead, let’s go to the source – the eternal principles that create a life of peace, power and prosperity. Here’s our host, Jason Hartman.
Jason Hartman:
Welcome to the Solomon Success Show, this is your host, Jason Hartman, where we talk about biblical principles applied to business and investing, learning from King Solomon of course. We will be back with a fantastic guest for you in just a moment, here, but be sure to visit our website: www.SolomonSuccess.org, or www.SolomonSuccess.com. Take advantage of our extensive blog library and our free content; I think you’ll find some fantastic things there, so be sure to visit us on the web at www.SolomonSuccess.com.
It’s my pleasure to welcome Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin to the Show, he is the former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush and former Commander of the US Army’s elite and secretive Delta Force. He’s Executive Vice President of the Family Research Council and author of The Coalition: A Novel. Jerry, welcome, how are you?
Jerry Boykin:
I’m well and it’s great to be with you.
Jason:
Well it’s good to have you on the show, and we appreciate you taking the time for us, I know it’s a little bit late where you are so we appreciate it even more given that. I just want to get your take on things; you’ve got a vast and really quite an amazing resume. First talk about some of the economic threats that could be facing the country, especially as it relates to foreign threats.
Jerry:
Yeah, sure. Listen, the first one I think that people should reflect on is what happened in 2008 when there was a run on our markets and the Congress actually shut the markets down to stop it. One of the things that people need to understand is that there is compelling evidence now that that was done very deliberately and it was done by either the Chinese or by some group out of the Middle East. Knowing that they have that capability, it should be a matter of concern for us that they can manipulate our markets in that way.
The second thing is I think that we are still dependent upon Mid-East oil. We’re improving our capabilities here for gas and oil, but we’re still dependent on imported oil and our economy is still tied to imported energy. Any kind of conflict in the Persian Gulf, for example, will cause the prices of energy to sky-rocket because we’ll eventually re-open the Straits of Hormuz. Really, what we need to be looking at is the Iranians shutting it down if there’s some kind of conflict there. We’ll re-open it, but what are the insurance rates going to be on tankers that go in and out of the Persian Gulf after that?
I think it’s important to understand that we have ISIS, as well as Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah in America right now – they’ve come across our Southern borders, and if they target our refineries, for example, and they if they were able to shut down any significant percentage of our refineries, that is another problem that we’re going to have to contend with and that is going to have a significant impact on our economy.
Jason:
Yeah, interesting. So how real is that threat, though?
Jerry:
Well. [Sighs]. The threats to a shut-down of the Straits of Hormuz is probably very real, it’s the most probable. That is because if the Israelis determine that they can wait no longer to do a preemptive strike on the Iranian nuclear program, the Iranians have already told us what they’ll do, and they will go in and try to shut down the Straits of Hormuz. That’s very real because the Israelis don’t play around, and the Israelis are reaching a point where they don’t have much choice. It’s a matter of their existence, so if they do strike, then I think we can expect that to be the scenario that unfolds.
Now, with regards to targeting refineries and so forth in America, it’s a prime target. That and power grids, and thirdly would be transportation modes, like rail and so forth. If they were to attack us – now, people say ‘Well that’s not going to happen, we’re protected now’. Don’t be so sure of that. We thought that on 9/11 too, when they brought down two big buildings, but they also had a devastating impact on Wall Street. Don’t underestimate the sophistication of these people and the fact that they will target things that will hurt us economically because they know that’s our soft spot.
Jason:
I know. I mean, post-9/11, I thought September 12th 2001, we would have hermetically sealed the Southern border, but not even close. [Laughs]. I mean, it’s just unbelievable how porous that border is, isn’t it?
Jerry:
It is, and as a matter of fact, just 30 minutes ago I was talking with a guy that spent 30-something years with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and he is an expert on the Southern border and he was talking about how bad it really is down there, as opposed to what we’re being told by the administration about what’s really coming across that border.
I must tell you, we’ve got to understand that when members of Congress like Jason Chaffetz out of Utah stands up and says “We have caught members of ISIS coming across our Southern border”, they’re not just blowing smoke, they’re very serious. We need to recognize that this is a serious issue.
Jason:
Okay, so how do you think that attack might happen? When you talk about our power system – I tell you, some of the things I’ve profiled on the show in the past, where it be a solar flare or an EMP. I mean, we are incredibly dependent on electricity, to the extent that without electricity, in a matter of a very short time, we’d basically be living in the Stone Age, or almost. It’s just incredible. I mean, that’s obviously a figure of speech to some extent, but not completely! It’s mind boggling how dependent we are.
Jerry:
That’s right. What we have to reflect on is the fact that, I think it was back when that Malaysian airliner just disappeared – one of the things that that overshadowed were two attempts to attack power grids out in California. Most people probably even missed it, but the reality is there were people that tried to break into power grids and it appeared that they were basically running a rehearsal.
We know that these terrorists are in America. That’s one of the things that we try to do with the book, The Coalition, is point out the realities of radical Islam and how threatening it is to Western society as a whole. We have to recognize that they’re in America; they’ve come across our Southern border and they’ve flown right into our airports and they have established cells here. The FBI Director, about six years ago, acknowledged that we had terrorists coming across our Southern border and we have yet to take it seriously.
If it was up to me, I would forget about sending 4,000 people to fight Ebola in Liberia. I’d say the most pressing threat is our Southern border, and I’d do something about trying to protect that.
Jason:
It’s hard for me to really believe all the stuff the Government tells us as far as the terrorism threat. The reason that’s hard for me to believe is I just keep asking myself if they wanted to get us, wouldn’t they have gotten us by now? It’s so easy. Trains could have been derailed, assassins could have been placed in cities – some of this stuff isn’t very hard to do. I hate to say that and it’s not like I’m the first person who thought of it, so I’m sure I’m not giving any of them ideas! It’s not very hard to get us, right?
Jerry:
No, that’s right, but what do they want? That’s the question. What do they want to do? What they want is something that is bigger and more spectacular than 9/11. You can go in and set off a bomb at a professional football game, but you’re not going to kill that many people. It’ll be devastating and the news will whip it into a frenzy, but you’re not going to kill that many people. What they want to do is something that’s spectacular. Stop and think about it – if you bring down the American economy, that has greater impact and longer term impact than anything else. That’s why I think that we’ve got to be looking seriously at economic targets and how they would attack our economic targets. Part of that is our power grids. Everything runs on electricity. Our currency is worthless if you can’t buy and sell things because they can’t be moved from the market to the consumer – your currency is not worth anything.
Jason:
Speaking of currency, I’m glad you brought that up – what do you think? Borrowing some of the calamitous types of things that you’re mentioning; Obama’s been creating money out of thin air, along with his cronies in the Federal Reserve and it’s just been an amazing amount of money creation. Are we looking at some pretty significant inflation in the near future?
Jerry:
Well, you’re the economist, I’m not. But just look at history, look at the history of Germany, for example. My goodness. They had wheelbarrows full of worthless money, and I think that’s exactly what we have to be concerned about. We’re not backed by gold anymore, so what is the value of our currency, particularly given that the Chinese and the Russians are pushing the rest of the world to move away from the dollar and to adopt a new global currency. If the world market started buying oil with some other currency, what’s that going to do to America’s dollar? I think it’s going to de-value it significantly and we’re going to have a real problem.
Jason:
I think that’s entirely possible, and we will see what will happen with that. Let’s talk about this administration for a moment. We talked about the money creation, Jerry, and you hear about the way the Left just hated, with venomous hatred, George Bush and all the ways that he impinged on privacy with the Patriot Act. I really think the Democrats and the Republicans nowadays are almost two sides of the same coin; they’re not that different. They’re a little bit different, for sure, but there’s certainly not a striking different. I think you’ll hopefully agree with me on that.
Obama’s been a continuation and a worsening of the worst of George Bush. I don’t know how anybody on the Left could argue that.
Jerry:
Well, I don’t think there’s any comparison between Obama and George Bush. First of all, we’ll start with the fact that George Bush loved America. I cannot say that about Obama. I don’t think that he does; I don’t think that he has the same patriotic love for America that George Bush did. Now, I disagree with Bush on a lot of things, but that said, I also think that you are right in that at the end of the day, if the Democrats would just stop and think about what they’re doing. If they would play this thing out to its ultimate conclusion, what they would have to realize is they’re going to wreck our economy. What you just talked about is going to result in huge inflation and de-valuation of our currency.
This re-distribution of wealth and this bringing people onto the Government dole is certainly going to give them a constituency, but at the end of the day, it’s going to ruin the small businesses which are obviously the biggest part of our economy, because of this re-distribution. They don’t want that to happen. They happen to believe in social welfare progress, but at the end of the day, they really don’t want to destroy the American economy.
What they haven’t done is they haven’t thought this out all the way. It sounds good, it feels good to talk about these giveaway programs, but what they have yet to come to grips with is you’re taking that money from somebody to re-distribute it, to give it to those that are going to receive it. Some need it and some should have it, but at the end of the day, I don’t think that they really want to destroy the fiber of our society, which is exactly what they’re doing by making people dependent upon the government.
Jason:
Very interesting. What about Obama and his leanings toward Communism and Marxism? By the way, I do have to disclose to you and the listeners – of course many of my listeners know, but I did have Bill Ayers on the show and I gotta tell you, as much as I disagree with Bill Ayers who calls himself a ‘communist with a small ‘c”, rather than a capital ‘C’ – whatever that means! – but I had him on the show and the man was an interesting interview. Obama seems to have a lot of unusual affiliations in his past and then you look at his policies now. Thoughts?
Jerry:
Well okay, so Bill Ayers – who was his mentor? Frank Marshall Davis in Hawaii. Who was his pastor?
Jason:
Well, that Reverend Wright was not exactly a kosher guy, that’s for sure!
Jerry:
Well how about his Father? Was his Father a Marxist? Of course he was. He wrote about it, he talked about it, he spoke about it. His brother Roy and his cousin Odinga are hardcore Marxists; they’ve talked about it, they’ve spoken about it. The people he’s surrounded himself by, and look at the fact that he was an apostle of Saul Alinsky, the fact that not only did he study Saul Alinsky, but he taught Saul Alinsky – Rules for Radicals, a hardcore Marxist. All the evidence is there.
Now, you can look at what I just said and you can say ‘Well, okay, so he’s a Marxist. That doesn’t sound pejorative to me’ and that’s fine. It does to me. I don’t subscribe to any of the Marxist fundamentals or the Marxist beliefs, and particularly when Karl Marx said “My objective is to de-throne God and to destroy capitalism”, and he said “Religion is the opiate of the masses”. That’s one of the things that gives me the greatest concern about this whole movement towards Marxism. You can say ‘well, that’s good for certain sectors of our society’. Well, is it really? Prove that to me. It’s never succeeded – anywhere that you’ve had Marxism, it’s never succeeded in doing anything other than destroying the fiber of the family and the integrity of the society as a whole.
Jason:
Well, you know, you’d have to argue that it succeeded for the people at the top, right? For the people that ran things, they lived well!
Jerry:
You’re right, there’s a ruling elite that is very wealthy and very, very prominent.
Jason:
Yeah. It’s a really scary thing. It’s amazing that history has shown us over and over, Jerry, that these ideas do not work, they only lead to human misery, and yet people are still willing to try them again. It’s shocking, it’s just totally shocking.
Jerry:
I have said that on a number of occasions – it’s never worked, but there are still people who are absolutely committed to it. It’s almost as if they know nothing about history.
Jason:
Yeah, well, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, as they say, right?
Jerry:
Absolutely.
Jason:
Yeah, no question about it. Well, give out your website, if you would, and tell people where they can find out more about you.
Jerry:
Well, my website is www.KingdomWarriors.net. You can get our new book – mine and Kamal Saleem’s new book – at that website if you want a signed copy, or you can go to Barnes & Noble or Amazon and you can get an unsigned copy on any of those. Wherever books are sold, they’ll have it and it seems to be doing pretty well right now.
Jason:
Good stuff. I’ve just got to ask you – how was it working under George W. Bush? Were you working in the White House every day? What was that like? I’m just curious.
Jerry:
I was at the Pentagon; although I had interface with Bush, I was actually working for Don Rumsfeld.
Jason:
So Rummy, yeah.
Jerry:
There are a lot of people that don’t like Rumsfeld, but I’m a fan of his. He can be cantankerous at times, but that said, I think Rumsfeld was very committed to doing the right thing, and sometimes it took a little more work than others to convince him of what was right, but he was a good man. He is a good man.
Jason:
Yeah, what’s he up to nowadays?
Jerry:
He’s running a foundation in which he’s trying to help youths into college and university with scholarships and other programs to help them through school.
Jason:
Fantastic. Well very interesting, it’s been great talking to you and hearing about this stuff. Let’s hope and pray for the best, and thank you for coming on, Jerry, I appreciate it.
Jerry:
I am so glad to be with you, God bless you.
Outro:
This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company, all rights reserved. For distribution or publication rights and media interviews, please visit www.HartmanMedia.com or email [email protected]. Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own and the host is acting on behalf of Empowered Investor Network Inc. exclusively.