The Bill Walton Show The Bill Walton Show

"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 p

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

Former Navy U.S. Seal and founder of the private military company Blackwater Erik Prince says that “We are fighting wars the wrong way.” Stephen Bryen is known as the “Yoda” of the Arms Trade. Time Magazine comments, “He knows every sinkhole in the regulatory swamp. Ignore him at your peril." He is also a former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense and founder of the Defense Technology Security Administration. This week, we are discussing Erik’s new paper “Too Big to Win: How the Military and Industrial Complex and the Neocons Keep America Losing.” One of the central questions posed by Prince – How has America transitioned from a post-Cold War era of dominance to its current state of disarray?
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Website: https://www.thebillwaltonshow.com 
 

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.

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.  
 

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!