Trump 2.0: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly with Billy Dees

Special guest co-host, podcast star Billy Dees. Politics shouldn’t feel like picking a jersey. We take the gloves off groupthink and dig into what Trump 2.0 has actually changed—where the policies hit, where they help, and where they hurt. From tariffs that brought in cash and recalibrated leverage to the real costs for small importers and tech supply chains, we unpack the trade math without hiding the downside. We pair that with a hard look at the border: near-zero illegal crossings, the case for strict screening, and why nuance died once the issue became a forever football for both parties.

The conversation widens into the systems that power prosperity. We question a college-first culture and make the case for skilled trades, faster pre-professional tracks, and a workforce ready to build what policy tries to onshore. Then we move to defense and space. If spending is sky-high, why are we behind on hypersonics? Where are the dollars that put armor on soldiers instead of gathering dust in procurement? We argue for NASA not as nostalgia but as an engine of GPS, microchips, materials, and medical breakthroughs that lift everyday life.

If you’re ready for policy without pom-poms—and solutions that trade heat for light—hit play, subscribe, and share this with someone who still believes nuance is worth saving. Leave a review and tell us the one policy you’d fix first.

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Chapters

• 0:00 New Name, New Era, Bold Premise
• 4:03 Framing A Nuanced Take On Trump
• 7:18 Tariffs: Revenue, Risk, And Reality
• 14:43 Education, Skills, And Workforce Gaps
• 22:12 Immigration Wins, Costs, And Polarization
• 32:32 Media Bubbles And Lost Common Sense
• 38:57 Government Waste, DOGE Audits, And Fallout
• 47:07 Defense Spending, Space Payoffs, And Priorities
• 55:37 Health Care Models And Catastrophic Coverage

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:54

Our world is undergoing the most powerful, the most exciting, the most dramatic change ever seen in the history of humanity. We have entered the age of AI and the age of Aquarius simultaneously, and that is no mistake. You know, we human beings, we needed to evolve. We needed to change. We needed to get in the driver's seat of our world so that we could ensure that the benefits of artificial intelligence and all the change going on around us benefit as many of us as possible. Hi, I'm Spiritual Leader Cynthia L. Elliott, also known as Shaman Isis, and I invite you to join us on our show where we interview incredible authors, change makers, entrepreneurs, tech gurus, all sorts of fabulous people who share their journey, their skills, their beliefs with us to inspire you and the world around you. Please join us for Soul Tech with Shaman Isis and get inspired. Hey, hey, hey, and welcome to Soul Tech with Shaman Isis. I'm your host, Cynthia Elliott, also known as Shaman Isis, and I am super excited about tonight's show. We have a special co-host guest, Mr. Billy Dees himself. Hey, Billy, what's up?

SPEAKER_02: 2:03

Thank you so much for having me on and uh really enjoyed your intro there, the passionate uh voiceover. That was fantastic. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11

Thank you. Thank you. That's new. For those of you who are regular listeners, the show was called up with Shaman Isis for um, I guess like a year or so. And uh, we decided to upgrade the name to Soltech with Shaman ISIS to match with everything that we do here at shamanisis and soultechfoundation.org. And um, so I'm delighted about this. It's the first episode under our official name. And so welcome, welcome to those of you who are new. Um, tonight we've got a special show. Billy and I have done many shows together, uh, particularly on his podcast, Abilities Podcast. Congratulations, Billy. It's going on like 10 years, right?

SPEAKER_02: 2:46

Yes, it is. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:49

He won't say it, but I will. His show generally ranks in the very top, particularly on Good Pods, where it's always up there in the uh news and marketing category.

SPEAKER_01: 2:58

So thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:00

Yeah, you're welcome. Tonight's show, we are gonna be talking uh the good, the bad, and the ugly of President Trump's 2.0. We'll call it Trump 2.0, his second uh swing at the presidency. Billy, what do you think about tonight's theme?

SPEAKER_02: 3:18

Well, it's it's great. And uh, you know, in this day and age, how well this is going to be received, I don't know, because you're either on a team or you're against it. That's the way things work now. And uh when I say I support President Trump, um it's not because of any um, you know, uh I ideology that I'm trying to advance, or I personally like uh, you know, him. Um you either when I say I support a president, I support their presidency and most of what they're doing. No president, I I don't care who they are, uh, does everything perfectly. And in a country of uh 300 and some odd million people, there is no way that everyone is going to agree with everything that a president does. So it's uh nice to have a nuanced uh conversation about this. Uh, but like I said, I I I know from what I get on the show, you know, it's it I have a lot of uh uh Trump followers, and when I criticize this Trump, you know, the negative comments always come in. And and you can't, uh, like I said, it's very hard to provide nuance these days. So I hope the audience allows for that. Um, and uh, you know, uh this type of discussion is what we need more of, uh, rather than yay, he's my man or no, he's the devil. You know, that there's nothing in between in today's world.

unknown: 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 4:43

So I hope hopefully we can cover that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: 4:46

I agree. Uh uh, I uh I I really I dislike the fact that we have gotten to a place where we're either on A team or B team, and and some some people are very almost violent in their reaction to whatever the team is that you're on that they disagree with. I mean, I know I've lost friendships over the fact that I've been honest about feeling the need that to vote for Trump because we needed change so desperately in this country. Um, and so I I like to be up front with that, uh, with my audience about that. Um, I really believed that we were in a very dire situation. It's why I wrote my third book, A New American Dream. It was because I was as a futurist, I was like, oh, we're in trouble. And if we don't do some pretty drastic stuff, we're gonna we're going to die as a country. And so I felt like this was necessary. But I do believe that it behooves any assism to look at our leaders and be uh critical thinkers about the choices that they make and be able to have open and honest conversation about the things that you think are good, bad, and and ugly. And and I we need, like you just said, we need more of that.

SPEAKER_02: 5:49

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 5:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 5:52

Your show notes are quite good. So I'm not sure what you want to start with, but there's a there's a lot of meaty stuff here, and she has the official um question cards.

SPEAKER_00: 6:03

And then just for you, Billy, just for you. I had to do I had to go full branding.

SPEAKER_02: 6:08

Yeah, go full branding, and it's awesome. And and you know what? Well, you could do like the Letterman thing when you're done with one, you could throw it at the camera and we could put the sound effect of glass breaking. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00: 6:17

There you go. Oh, I like that idea. So we're gonna start with the good, and um, some of these are gonna be on multiple categories because they have uh dual uh results to them. So the first on my list is actually the tariffs. Um Trump made what was considered a very controversial move uh to go after uh a new tariff policy, and he really got a lot of pushback and a lot of uh uh people who are very upset about it. However, you know, on the good side of it, it appears that the tariffs have um created a uh a bounty uh of money that we that we needed desperately as a country. And so in the good favor, I think it's awesome that we're we're making the money. We our tariffs needed to be needed to be raised for a really long time. I mean, we were just getting suckered by half the globe. And so, you know, it is about time that we started to see that money, especially given that we spend so much money on countries like China's exports, and we weren't just we weren't seeing that ourselves. So, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02: 7:17

Well, you know, it's just like uh anything else. Um, in moderation, tariffs can be a good thing. And I believe the initial thing of bringing more money in, especially when you consider that a lot of these markets that we were slapping tariffs on are not fair to the United States. So it's one of those deals where, yeah, you can buy our stuff, but we're not bringing any of your stuff in. Uh, so in that situation, there was an imbalance that needed to be corrected. Um but with so many other things, and one of my criticisms of Trump is uh when he's borderline in a gray area, he has a tendency to turn things up a notch when he faces criticism and makes it even you know, even more hardline. Um, and uh this is where you know there's a lot of private uh uh entities in the United States who make products that are uh hard to get uh within the United States. You know, this is uh particularly true of the tech world. Uh semiconductors and things like that are are coming offshore. Now the quick everybody says, well, that should be made to the United United States. And yeah, that makes sense, but you have to understand that uh in particular with technology, places like Taiwan, China, other places have entire marketplaces, entire uh uh industries set up by highly skilled workers. And it's just not, oh, well, let's just bring it here. Uh, you know, it would take five years uh to get some of the key things uh made well within the United States. And and it's it's unfortunate, but uh, you know, the the pay scale in the United States makes it hard to do that as well. So there's a lot of factors involved. Um, and I think one of the big things that has to be a part of this uh outlook is the way we regard education because a four-year degree has been put up on a pedestal. Um, and you know, I believe Elon Musk said that um, you know, if you're 18 years old and you walk into a bank and you say, I want to start a new business, your chances of getting anything, even a small amount, like ten thousand dollars, is almost zero. But they'll give you they'll they'll perfectly fine with letting you get in get into a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt to go to a four-year college.

SPEAKER_00: 9:45

Yeah at 19.

SPEAKER_02: 9:47

Yeah. Um, and so what what you what you have here is a situation where uh that's people start as soon as a baby is is born, parents start talking, well, we got to start putting money away for college, you know. So 20 years ago, the kids that are in college now uh their parents started saving for their education, let's say, in you know, in a just as an example, and they're going there and they're learning about uh social studies and uh you know media theory and all this other kind of stuff. And the Chinese are training workforces that can actually do stuff. So, you know, uh I personally would like to have the the educational system if you know uh four-year degrees. I the people ask all the time um why do uh colleges charge so much? And the simple answer is a greedy. Well, yeah, the the the answer is because they can. Everybody pays it because oh, you gotta get a job, you know, you gotta do this. Um I I really kind of like the idea of even if you want to be a doctor, you know, the I say uh after high school there should be some sort of a two-year pre-med program, and then you go into why does a doctor need to learn social studies and and yeah, yeah, media theory and waste all his time or her time on that BS yeah, that's all that's padding just to drag it out.

SPEAKER_00: 11:18

I really think we could have fitted into two years.

SPEAKER_02: 11:21

Uh oh, yeah, and the same goes uh why not go into pre-law right away if that's what you want to get into or anything else, and uh, I think on that order, electricians, uh, you know, uh electric engineers, uh, plumbers, all these things should be thought of in the same way. There is absolutely no reason why a plumber or somebody who we all everybody in the United States wants a nice house. Okay, so uh if you really want a nice house, you have to invest in people who know how to do this stuff. I know that AI is going to be a big part of that, but AI can only do so much. You know, people still have to get out in the field, set that stuff up, make it work. A lot of these uh printing houses and everything, you know, how they print houses now, that's all done with equipment that people have to know how to run, have to know how to maintain, you know. Uh, so we need to rethink how we evaluate our workforce. It would be very hard, very, very hard to find a million people in the United States who know have the vocational skills to do the kind of work that's being done in China, Taiwan, and elsewhere. It would be very difficult right now. And that's a big that's a big part of the problem.

SPEAKER_00: 12:32

Yeah, I think that's actually a big shift that we're gonna see. Uh uh, first of all, I really and we'll get back to the good of Trump's administration in just a second, his second term. Um, I do I really believe that's uh that kids uh should should not be allowed to go to college, not be allowed, but I think all kids in this country should take one year to work after school. I actually love the fact that Israel has people join the military for two years because I think it creates a level of discipline in their culture that you don't see here in America. Um, but uh, but you know, that aside, that that's a whole other conversation. I really think they should spend a year working. And if they can get a job uh, you know, as a low-level employee in the field that they're interested in, I think that would actually save a lot of people getting degrees that they end up being miserable with. Because most of these people end up spending four, six, eight years getting ready for a job that they've never actually worked. And then they work the job and they're miserable because it because they were in the pursuit of something that they weren't even sure what that actual, the the actual experience of that job was. So anyway, um, yeah. So back to back to the the topic at hand, tariffs. Uh, I think it's a big win for Trump because we we needed a lot of money. And we also, and beyond that, it wasn't just about the money, it was about saying saying to the world, America's done being uh taken advantage of, you know, especially it was really there during Obama and uh Biden, and I'm sorry, this is just the truth. I I was a Democrat for a really long time. And uh and I was very upset with some of the choices that were made by both of those presidents. I mean, it was so it was embarrassing on uh the lack of strength, the lack of of sticking to what they actually committed to and said, and and I felt like that made us look weak. And watching, particularly towards the end of Biden's term when it became very obvious to everybody that he was really struggling to even function on any level. It was very clear to me for the his entire administration that he was not the president of this country. But you could see it in the behavior with the other leaders, and you know what, nobody seems, and I never hear this talked about with Democrats, nobody was acknowledging that if the president of the United States is sitting across from world leaders acting befuddled, what the hell does that say to foreign leaders about where America's at and what they can do to America? Anyway, uh it's nice to see us being coming back, going back to them and saying, I'm sorry, but you've had a free-for-all for the last few decades and we're done. It's time for you to start paying up. But um uh as far as the bad, because we're doing the good, the bad, and the ugly, uh, the bad is that uh to some uh some people are claiming, and I and I don't know if this is really true, that the tariffs have actually caused an increase in prices. Have you heard that?

SPEAKER_02: 15:36

Yeah, there's been different studies. Some indicate that it has, and some indicate that it won't. But here again, in the short term, you you don't you very seldom see something happen, and this has only been going on now for for less than a year. Um, this starts to take its toll as time goes on. I know a lot of small businesses have been impacted. Uh, there's been a lot of local businesses here, for example, that uh you know sell the different types of rugs and imports, uh, you know, ceramics, all these things that have been imported, and uh you know they've had to hike their prices to to get by because they just simply cannot just absorb that. Um, now you you can make the argument that people that buy that kind of stuff, those things aren't necessities. People buy them out of desire. So uh it has less of an impact because uh people who have the resources to spend money on fancy China will will buy it if they want it. Uh, but you don't know. Uh, you know, in other cases, there are other things that are more critical uh to everyday function. And I think the studies are still kind of unclear on exactly where this is going to land. Uh, if this continues, uh, then I think we might have some better data over a period of time.

SPEAKER_00: 16:45

Yeah, it's interesting. It is, it's been interesting to watch. It's such a huge shift. Um, so uh next on our list is uh near zero illegal crossing since uh Trump took office, which is just goes to show you that you know that whole back and forth. I mean, you we talked about this recently when we did an episode of Billy D's podcast, your show. Um the uh the border turned into a political football. And and now that there's zero it's interesting that you don't hear anything about the border now because there's almost zero crossing, so the the football's gone cold.

SPEAKER_02: 17:23

Yes. Um, this was uh, you know, we talked uh this really started to become an issue during the Reagan administration, and he wanted to do something about it then. And it's become a uh a political issue that both sides have manipulated over the since since Reagan. Uh Bush, for example, uh let a lot of uh border crossings happen. And one of his critics was Obama, uh, when Obama started running. Uh and it was the the positions were entirely flip-flop then. Uh it was uh Obama who was saying you can't have uh a controlled society when you got people coming in and you don't know who they are or what their intentions are, which he was correct. Okay, right. Um, and uh so uh we have the situation now where you know the uh the last five years was untouched flooding across the border. And I quote uh Senator Kennedy on this from Louisiana. You know, he made the statement that uh you lock your doors at night, not because you hate the world, but you don't want anybody coming in until you know who they are. And that's that's the common sense attitude that has been lost in all this. Uh left-leaning individuals will make no distinction uh between illegal and legal legal immigration. They they just say conservatives and right-wingers are against, they hate immigrants, and they just make no distinction at all that it's a security issue, no matter who is coming across unchecked, uh, that they shouldn't be coming across unchecked. And I I I've said this, I'll and I'll throw this out there. Um, I and I don't I don't want to get the com the conversation off track, but I I I think not only have uh a criminal element element been allowed in into the country, but even the FBI acknowledges that there could be some really bad acts in the country right now.

SPEAKER_00: 19:11

Yeah, there are. There are. I'm telling you, it just isn't intuitive. There are some really bad people in this country, and they were allowed in like it just it actually on this how and I can't I have to bring this up because this is one of the things that absolutely has has just astonished me. Like I have been around a long time, I've seen it all. I know how how extreme people can get in their beliefs. The behavior around allowing people into this country without knowing who they are, looking into who they are and being able to track who they are, and the behavior, because on the list of the good and the bad is both deportation, so mass mass mass immigration, illegal immigration and now mass deportations, which um is on is both good and bad depending on your perspective, but you know, the the it's good that we are finally deporting them. It astonishes me that we're even having a conversation about this being something that's bad. And it's also on the bad list because there's been so much negative publicity around it. And the thing that that astonishes me is this inability to understand that you cannot allow people into this country that we know nothing about and we have not had a chance to look into them. And when we finally do get a chance to look into them, or we catch them, we find out that they're murderers and they're on the run from their own country, or they're they're they get arrested and discovered because they've raped a child, which is actually, I mean that I pulled a list of how what's happened just in the last year, and I was absolutely stunned at the horrific crimes that have actually happened because of people who are in this country illegally and they hate this country. They don't want to assimilate, they're here because they see it as a free-for-all, which apparently, based on all the money we're finding, has been stolen and the fraud. That's true. Um, but um uh the inability for people who are pro-immigration to have a conversation about why it's not okay to be in this country and be untraceable. Like the people are committing crimes, we can't we can't even find them. We don't even know who they are. And people seem to be they're just okay with that. And to try to have a conversation, there's an inability to have a critical conversation. And I cannot figure out what that is about, like how. How do you even justify that just on any level? It's not about immigration, it's about it's about something really serious. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02: 21:28

Well, you have a lot of people now that are uh brainwashed. Uh you know, I've said before we've had a disintegration of traditional news when news was news, it wasn't news you can use or news you can like. And uh, you know, this is kind of one of those situations. I'm not sure which one feeds the other, but it's very hard to maintain a news program now with ratings unless you take a side. And if you try to do like a you know, uh an old-fashioned uh newscast with some uh you know nerd on the on the with uh with with uh dark room glasses and a pocket protector just reading a bunch of facts, people aren't gonna listen to that. So uh I'm I'm not sure how it became so that we have people now that are in their own bubbles, and uh you have people that are fully convinced that ICE is the Gestapo, that uh you know Republicans and Trump are are are Nazis and on down the line, and they are they are fully entrenched in this belief. Fully.

SPEAKER_00: 22:35

I mean, they're to the point where if you bring up if you bring up Obama, this is the thing that I this is where it gets to me like I don't I I I feel like I'm having a conversation with somebody who's literally brainless. Obama deported more people ever. He he grew the size of ICE more than any president ever, since since I think it was Bush, um, when it was I believe it was founded under Bush. Um, but Obama deported millions of immigrants, and 56 immigrants died, illegal immigrants died during that process. And when you bring that up, when they want to talk about Renee Good, it's like, well, 56 died under all sorts of circumstances with Obama. And and yet they just it's like it reminds me so much of dealing with the narcissist when you have a you have a good point and you bring it up to them and they just pretend like you didn't speak.

SPEAKER_02: 23:26

Yeah. Well, uh here again, uh the polarization was getting started in the in the early 2000s for sure. Uh but uh when Obama took office, which was 2008-2009, when he was actually brought in, um the uh social media did not have the power that it does now. It was it was it existed. I had a Twitter account probably about that time, but the uh Facebook and all that existed. Uh, but it has the the people were not entrenched in bubbles like they are now. And what you have now is people that don't watch news at all, real news of any kind, whether it's biased or not, uh, they get all their information from their social media feeds, and the algorithm feeds what they already believe. Things that react positively to is where they stay. And I don't think these people are some of these people that think, well, first of all, I I always make a little joke. If you can't tell me who the Axis powers were and the Allied powers were during World War II, I don't want you, I don't want to hear any lectures about Hitler. Um, and most people don't know basic history, they don't know the battle of the bulge and anything. Uh, but they're they're good, they're gonna they're gonna tell me about Hitler. Uh the all they know is Hitler bad. That's that's what they yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:39

I don't think they've ever seen the videos and the footage and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 24:42

Uh and and the other thing is uh, you know, get getting back to this, they don't realize that some of these bad people that are in this country, it is their dream to have some sort of a horrible detonation, whether it be uh biological or low-grade nuclear in this country. That is their dream. And a lot of them would love to go out in in that uh ball of fury. They that would be their their ultimate desire is is is to martyrdom themselves in a nuclear explosion, uh, not by brought in by missiles, uh, but walked right across the border. And uh the only saving grace that we have with this is that uh the knowledge of how a nuclear uh reaction is done, the the the the the the genie's out of the bottle, there's no putting it back in. Okay, that knowledge is out there, and it's not as exclusive as it was during the 1950s. However, getting all the componentry, uh, especially uh you know when it comes to uh uh the devices that set off the uh the reaction on all these things. There's only so many sources for that in the world, and the intelligence agencies around the world do a pretty good job of when stuff starts accumulating somewhere, you know, right? We better check this out. Where's this stuff going? Um, but it's not impossible. And you know, there's a lot of uh, especially from the old Soviet Union and stuff like that, there's a lot of stuff that's unaccounted for. That's not spoken about too much, but a lot of people don't know where that stuff is. Um so uh the potential for something like that is real, and I would say it's more of a threat than an incoming missile. We we we're always afraid of World War III and we think about this giant missile coming in. Uh, but quite frankly, I would I'm more concerned about uh a lone wolf uh going out there and and blowing himself up in the back of a van, uh and just enough to throw radiation through an entire city, right? Yeah, so I mean, and and and don't kid yourself, those people who want to do that are already here.

SPEAKER_00: 26:48

Oh, yeah. I mean, you you know it's crazy because you know, when you used to say things like that, there wasn't really a lot of evidence around, but all you need to be is on social media for a little bit, and you'll see videos of people who are in this country illegally and legally, some of them have become citizens, some of them are are politicians, and they absolutely hate this effing country, and they want horrible things to happen to, particularly to white people, which is I'm not saying to be to upset people. The fact is uh the the white hatred is bizarre. I mean, it's so uh it's so strange to me at this point. Uh, the delusional behavior, it's like uh, you know, I don't know. I just it's it's difficult to hear. I I honestly, there's parts of me that really almost wishes I was the person I was 10 years ago, or actually I'd say before 9-11, honestly, when I didn't know so much and see so much, because it's difficult uh to maintain, you know, to be a carrier of love and a spiritual leader and see just how much evil it has become obvious. But I guess, you know, it was always that way. We just it was just hidden, and we were all in our nice little bubble with our TVs being telling us what to think because they were scripted by the powers that be anyway, anyway, anyway. Um, next on our list of the good, which I guess depending on the which end of the stick you're on, you might think it's bad is Doge. Uh, the government efficiency cuts, which I was I I was on the one hand thrilled. But I have to tell you, part of me was get has been getting kind of pissed off for for all year. I got to a point where I couldn't hear it anymore because I was like, if I hear about one more person, like the$700 million found in suitcases in the airport in Minnesota or Minneapolis, whatever it was. Um my sister, when she got sick with cancer years ago, um, it was a cancer she got from being a human trafficking victim. I could not get her help from the government agencies, um, particularly the one that's supposed to take care of you when you're dying. Uh, and I couldn't get her help, like, you know, to so that she could have uh the best, you know, better health care and the, you know, a proper medicine and a place to stay and all that stuff, you know, just the basics really. And the woman told me that I kept saying, why it has been six months and she doesn't have that much longer to live. And she told me that they were waiting for her to die because they didn't want to take on the dead. And so when you've lived through that, and I watched my mother seek help and be turned down, and I myself, at times in my life when I was, you know, as a as a kid who grew up in the orphanage and foster care system, I needed help. At times I've repeatedly been turned down when I was growing up or put into horrible situations. And then to grow up in the country and find out that you can be an illegal immigrant and break laws to get in here and somehow make millions of dollars through daycares and things like that. Like it's it was difficult. So anyway, uh I had to share that because I think I think sometimes people forget that for they especially they make assumptions like as a white person, it's as though I I will, you know, like every white person gets some like platform of of abundance uh to live off of, and and that's just simply not the not the case. I as many, you know, I know many African Americans who struggle, but I knew many white people who struggle too and get support. But apparently, if you're uh supporting the Democrat Party and you want a few billion dollars, it's it's a free-for-all. So, what are your thoughts on Doge?

SPEAKER_02: 30:03

Well, here again, in theory, um, I liked a lot of what was found. Absolutely. Who couldn't? The amount of waste and uh fraud. A lot of times we use the word phrase, uh use the phrase waste when it comes to government, but what it really is is fraud. And there was a lot of fraud going on. Um, what I what I didn't like, it was implemented uh I think a little too quickly in some cases. Uh there were a lot of people who were you know very legitimate services uh to the community which were impacted. Um this impacts various things in in terms of social services, uh mental health services across the country. Uh there were a lot of veterans who were impacted by some of the cuts, and not know it necessarily directly, but there's a lot of funding. If if you know how funding works with the federal government, it's it's obviously coming from the federal government to the different states, but it's often piggybacked on different state functions. So there were a lot of state services and things like that who were held up by these audits because they wanted to make sure that these things weren't being um you know being misused. And in the process, there were a lot of people who needed those funds that didn't get them. So you have to be very careful how you you implement these things. And uh so all in all, yes, I like the idea of auditing the federal government. I think the the federal government has a lot of quote unquote waste, which is actually fraud, and how all these millions were lost, let's say, with these daycare centers, is is a perfect example of that. You know, if you go if I want to go to the federal government for anything, I'm gonna have to, you know, cut myself open and give my DNA and this and that and the other thing, and then they turn around and give give away these billions of dollars thoroughly unchecked.

SPEAKER_00: 31:54

Oh, yeah, Stacey Abrams getting two billion dollars. Yeah, what the f.

SPEAKER_01: 31:59

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:00

Come on, come, I mean, come on. Yeah, astonishing. The whole doge thing. Like, I I I just kept I was like, I had to keep meditating. I was like, gotta meditate, gotta meditate, get this anger out of you because it was astonishing. I knew I knew it would be bad. I did not know that it was going to be nearly as shameless. I mean shameless. I I know that if we were allowed to actually finish looking into all that money, we would have actually been able to find many, many trails that led back to Washington and people making a lot of money who somehow who somehow make 150 grand a year but are worth like 30 million dollars.

SPEAKER_02: 32:38

Yeah, worth like uh a ton of money. And and I'll tell you too, I you know, I'm I'm all for uh defense spending, or as they say, war spending now. And originally it was the the the Department of War. Uh they changed it to defense to make it uh you know a little bit more uh um uh public relations friendly. But um the uh I'm all for strong defense. I I like the United States having very powerful weapons. However, this is a big however, I want it spent the right way. You know, a lot of times these things become uh social work programs, you know, just like the tanks that were built a couple of years ago when the Pentagon said they didn't want them, they were outdated. Uh but they went through anyway because somebody in in in Congress somewhere had a had a you know uh a pack of voters that uh that would would impact, so they it got pushed through. Um, and the other thing is I'm very uh upset, alarmed, I should say, that uh you know the Chinese have these hypersonic missiles now. Uh and these hypersonic missiles uh but the Pentagon pretty much has admitted uh are unstoppable. Uh because especially if they're fired at close range, because they come so fast, by the time you're aware they're on their way, they're there. Um, and uh we're behind on that technology. And how is that possible? Well, when you consider the the hundreds of millions of dollars that this country depends on spends on defense, what in the hell are they doing with it?

SPEAKER_00: 34:04

Oh, I think they've been I think part of the problem, and we talk about efficiency, and one of the reasons that Doge, and you know, you got to give Musk a lot of credit. I think he was given it an incredibly difficult time with what he was trying to do. And he was moving at a pace that I I like because that's the pace I move at. I'm very decisive. And and if I see something that's wrong, it's done. Let's cut it. Like I got it, but for a lot of people, it was just it was too dizzying and too much speed. Um, and I'm sure there were some mistakes made that happens when you're getting going fast. But um uh our our government has been allowed to become lazy and slow and spendthrift, and a lot, particularly, you know, I'm a huge fan of the defense, a huge fan of the military, but the military industrial complex had become uh lazy and stupid. And some of the bigger defense contractors were doing some sloppy work, as evidenced by the inability for almost anybody to compete, uh uh except for Boeing to be able to compete with SpaceX. Um, which on another note, I'm so psyched. We're going back to the moon saying, go NASA, go NASA, woo, woo, woo. Um, but uh yeah, they they were allowed to get sloppy and lazy and and on on, I don't know whose timeline they were on. Like for me, I've always functioned in any effort to get things as done as quickly, efficiently, and intelligently as possible. But that does not seem to be the case for a lot of our government agencies. I mean, if you've ever gone to a DMV, it's like a it's like a microcosm of what's what goes on with the these things. And on top of that, because they were allowed to just, you know, I think it started, you know, in the 80s with the excess and the the Cold War. And then uh people just, you know, they got used to the money, they got used to the spending, they got used to the high life of the corporation, and it just uh uh and they stopped uh evolving and they stopped uh operating on a on a must-be ahead of everyone else's basis, and and that's a that's coming back to bite us a little bit, but you know, we're badasses, I have faith.

SPEAKER_02: 35:55

Yeah. Well, well, I hope so. Um, you know, I I'm a firm believer in the space program as well. I know a lot of people criticize that. Why we go into space? Well, well, the fact of the matter is, is if you're listening to this on a mobile device, the microprocessors, the GPS, all that stuff came from the space program, and that's just the beginning. There's so many medical breakthroughs that have gone through, whether it be bone density, cell structure, all that stuff was done, you know, in in the interest of space, fire retardant materials, uh, how to extinguish fires, aerodynamics, weather prediction, um, like I said, microprocessors. Uh, I could go on and on with this. All of this stuff that makes life better here on Earth, helps our economy, helps your health uh in terms of uh how the body works, all that stuff. We've gotten uh dividends from space explorer exploration that uh it NASA, in my opinion, is probably the most worthwhile program the government has ever had.

SPEAKER_00: 36:49

I 100% agree with you, Billy. Like I've been a huge fan for decades. I was very fortunate to get the chance to work with uh people at uh the space in the space program, particularly Johnson Space Center, um, because of a client that was uh doing work with them. And it was it was one it was one of the most fun aspects of my job for years. And um I'm I I'm aware of the recent research and very supportive, but I I really think they are the greatest thing that this country has had to offer the world uh in terms of outside of you know helping end World War II and things like that that we've done and helped rescue you know many uh countries and peoples uh throughout our history. But it's our our space program and our and NASA in particular that has uh that is it's the greatest pride that I I think we have. It's it's just extraordinary the work that they do.

SPEAKER_02: 37:36

Yeah. So I'm all for that, as long as it's and here again, that NASA's budget is an infinitesimal fraction of of the overall budget, and almost nothing in comparison with what defense gets. And here again, getting back to defense, I was very angry during the Iraq War hearing about soldiers who were having you know, having their parents send them bulletproof vests, having their parents send them bullets. This is absolutely insane. It is absolutely insane. If we can't give the soldiers on the ground, the very brave men and women on the ground, the materials they need, then if I was president of the United States, and then one more bomber being bought. There ain't no everything's freezes right now until the ground soldiers have everything they need, including the health care for when they get when they come back with either yeah, with with uh a physical uh you know, uh injury or uh PTSD or whatever it is they need, they should have to stand on their head and and go through a bunch of red tape to get the help that they need.

SPEAKER_00: 38:36

Yeah, our soldiers should have the finest care when they return. Uh, I that was the one time with Doge that I got really pissed off when they were cutting and slashing, uh particularly things like mental health, and people suddenly couldn't get an appointment. And I was like, no, no, no, no. Now you're you can move on all sorts of other things, but if it's going to touch someone's health care, you need to go a little bit slower. Save that till you guys have gotten your feet wet, and as a couple months in, I remember it was like happening so fast. This was just a few weeks into Trump taking over. Um, but uh on a separate note, um, in terms of good uh and bad, um I remember when they were trying to implement Obamacare and I was getting angry because I was trying to explain to people how how do you think this is going to actually work? We have had the VA for years under the government auspice of the government, um, and we've we've screwed it up completely, and it's a hot mess, and they get treated like garbage and they have to wait forever. And like if you think if you think we can't run the VA, but we're somehow going to run healthcare for every American, you're insane. Like, I I I was really upset about it. And so I'm I'm happy to see that um Trump in the good category will will hold off on criticizing something that we don't know, but his um great healthcare plan where Americans will get to choose uh and the the the prices will come down. I mean it's about time that we're not um that insurance world's bitch.

SPEAKER_02: 39:59

Yeah. Well, you know, it's uh insurance is is uh medical insurance. I'll I'll I'll say this, and you know, because we could do a whole program about this, but uh the concept of insurance really doesn't belong in healthcare. Yeah, no, it's insurance is is is a backup plan, you know, and it works for car insurance because if you let let's say we we want to start our own insurance and there's a hundred of us, and we put each put a small amount into a big pot, and that's predicated on the notion that of a hundred people, probably none of us, maybe one or two of us, will have an accident. And if and if and if it does happen, there's money to pay for it. And if we go into the next year, whatever funds are left over, we can retain those and add to it again. And as an insurance company, that's where your profit profit of profitability comes through, comes in. Now, the reason that doesn't work with healthcare is it's guaranteed everybody is going to need it, even if it's preventative health care, everyone is going to get sick or injured during the course of their life. There's absolutely no avoiding it. So, um, what what this comes down to then is you have to change the idea of a backup plan because there is no backup plan. We don't call it retirement insurance. If you live long enough to retire, you're going to need a retirement plan. Yeah. And we really need to start. thinking about um health as an an as a health plan for everyone and uh me personally i kind of like the idea and this would just be my idea but where the uh quote unquote insurance health insurance uh um companies get bogged down is with getting nickel and dimes everybody turns everything into their insurance all the time trying to get it through me personally i would kind of like the government to have a uh uh insurance for catastrophic care so if you get a heart disease or you get cancer you need chemo you all you are not devastated by that diagnosis financially yeah then i would let the private sector take care of the rest let the private sector take care of dental and vision and and and do whatever you want to do with that stuff and if you want insurance for your doctor visits and everything and see most people are probably like me you know if I get a sore throat and I have to go to the doctor and it's let's say it's a hundred dollars for the doctor visit or whatever it is I'm not particularly happy about it but those that's not the type of thing that keeps me up at night what keeps me up at night is having a catastrophic diagnosis you know missing work having you know a hundred thousand dollar medical bill you know that's the type of thing that scares people and I think that's the type of thing that we need to concentrate on uh if we're going to somehow have universal care I would I I would want it to be for catastrophic care yeah and let the private sector take care of the rest.

SPEAKER_00: 42:47

It really shocks excuse me it really shocks people from other countries when they find out that Americans end up filing for bankruptcy because they got sick. Yeah um I was in Europe uh like 15 years ago something like that 10 years 10 or 15 years ago and I had to go to the hospital and it was like a real hospital. Long story short uh uh uh they thanked me and let me go and I was like well are you gonna send the bill to me and they were like there's no charge and I was like I just went to a hospital and spent the day the night and you're not you're not asking me for my passport or my driver's license or my credit card or my home address in the in in the States so you can build like what? Um anyway hopefully we'll get there someday last on our list Billy is uh the ugly uh sorry the last on our list is the ugly um uh and I think we'll just go with uh the Qatar luxury jet influence pedaling uh that's something Trump's been accused of uh what were your thoughts on the jet um i i if he takes the jet for personal use uh after his term is over I actually don't have a problem with that um if he takes the jet and I I've heard talk of it being put into a museum or something like that you know turned back over to to the United States government for use that's fine too I don't believe it's realistic to believe that that jet could ever be used for Air Force One uh yeah I agree I agree if if you know the technology that is in Air Force One uh it is unbelievable okay uh that jet is not just an ordinary 747 that thing will do amazing things in terms of the thrust the speed the maneuvering it can fire missiles even though the they they deny it but it can uh and uh the uh the technology that's in that jet in terms of navigation and how long I can stay in the air and all that stuff is just absolutely incredible and a lot of people don't know this but there's another 747 that is even more radical it's called the doomsday plane yeah yeah they saw that recently I think it was in LA yeah and uh you know the technology uh that's in every inch of that plane is beyond imagination in terms of how it can withstand radiation and uh you know nuclear shock waves and all these other kind of things um and uh to uh put that yeah that uh the that plane that came um that was a gift they would practically have to completely disassemble it to make sure that there's nothing in there that's what I thought too I was like how do you know there's not some kind of device in that I mean like they're so small now yeah uh they would practically have to disassemble it uh they would have to hit it with all their best technology in terms of you know picking up radio signals and everything else and it still would not have the capability that the Air Force One has so I I I think that's very unrealistic but it makes for a good talking point gets the liberals all upset. Oh I know I know I know uh well I have to say um Trump is doing exactly what what I hoped he would do. Uh I mean I knew after everything they put him through which is a whole other episode I mean it was it was shocking to me what was going on for years there what was allowed to happen and the excuse making around the the behavior um he's done an excellent job uh if you don't you know uh sorry if you're one of my listeners and you don't like Trump um I I would I was deeply concerned that the country was was was going to um really crash out. We were definitely toppling that way. And if the Democrats had had their way as with all the billions and billions being stolen by Democrat voters and supporters and and the illegals that they apparently love so much um we were headed towards a disaster. We really were and it it has been um wonderful to see Trump step in and just go gangbusters he's gotten more done in one year than I'm sure Biden ever got done in the entire time he was in the White House and that includes vice president and president I mean I just find him to be completely ineffective. And um and I I think it's been I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the coming years. I mean if he's already done this much just in the first year um I think he's gonna have really helped put the country back on good feet fit footing and um hand it over to most likely JD Vance who I think would I I I believe and I didn't really know what to think of him at first but uh I think he would actually make a really wonderful president.

SPEAKER_02: 47:24

I've been impressed by JD Vance uh but I I want to warn your your listeners and everybody out there not to take anything for granted a lot can happen in two or three years that's that's an eternity in terms of politics um I I think AOC is a potential if she changes don't see that woman's name on my if they moved her towards the center if they moved her towards the center over the next couple years uh and I'm telling you she's got the look can I just tell you I the I don't I don't care about her look I find her stupid like the things that she supports and backs and says are obscene to me and it's like if you took her appearance away we wouldn't even be having this conversation and that is a woman pisses me off. Yeah well I'm just being honest with you here oh no no no I'm not criticizing you you're being honest and I agree I I've heard the talk too and I'm like she's a fucking idiot excuse my you put some spit and polish on her moved her more towards the center gave her some moderate talking points uh and she has the look uh in two years you could be looking at a for formidable candidate uh and that's just that's uh it it don't matter whether you agree with me or not oh that'll never happen I'm telling you they said the same thing about someone it would never happen I mean look at Kamala Harris come on like the fact that she was even vice president and the and let's just just top that one I was thinking about this recently it was like Tim Walls was almost the vice president oh yeah which meant he was second in line for president yeah how the hell does that even happen?

SPEAKER_00: 48:55

Yeah come on anyway I I can't stand AOC because I think she's a shameless fame whore uh sorry I know some people don't if they you don't are familiar with me I'm the I'm the spiritual leader who cusses like a sailor because I believe in spirituality is about um self-actualization and breath and life and you know being in mind, body and soul harmony doesn't mean you can't be colorful and spicy and I I think um uh she's an embarrassment as a woman I'm embarrassed by her and Omar or Ilan Omar who's a another idiot a disgusting idiot who's kissing all over the flag right now yeah she she's worse than an idiot uh she is a a bad figure she's a terrorist yeah uh the um you know getting back to AOC if you get her in the middle and you give her some moderate talking points and if the economy starts to falter in the next couple years I'm telling you she could be a candidate she could be a candidate and don't count her out if you if you're dismissing what I I I know that the Democrats are are really big on her I just it fascinates me because it's like Kamala Harris like watching her run for president I was like this is going to be interesting because she's an idiot who can't string two sentences together is constantly slurring but apparently the Democrats think she's the best thing since fried rice and then you see all these celebrities trotting out to to talk about how you know and I see this all the time on social media even today people will be like just and if if Kamala had had if you'd voted for Kamala and it's like really are we still having that conversation yes we are and you know what even Gavin Newsom quite frankly the idea that that that guy could become president it's real because his voters the people that support that type of individual don't care. He's an idiot they don't know they're all is there anybody in the Democratic Party that's left in the Democratic Party that's not an idiot that supports bizarre ideals that are destructive to the country because I think they're the worst thing I've seen in my lifetime on this planet.

SPEAKER_02: 50:51

The only thing that's going to hold them back if if the economy holds and if for the most part things stay the way they are the next couple years uh chances are uh I think the Republicans because of the fact that the Democrats embrace radicalism they embrace the absolute worst that the party has to offer if there is a concerted effort by Democrats to embrace more moderate ideals more common sense ideals then I think they could give uh the Republicans you know a pretty good run in 2028. But I as it stands they just the the more radical the more goofball things say like the ocean is boiling okay uh that gets embraced by Democrats. Uh there is no there is no nuance to anything there's no nuance to ICE there's no nuance to immigration everything should just be wide open uh and they're they're almost anarchist they don't want any any police presence anything as long as that continues um I I I I I I don't see them putting a good campaign together but don't dismiss the fact that they could make a good move from a marketing standpoint to create a moderate candidate uh a young um light on their feet candidate whether that's Gavin Newsom or AOC or somebody else you know they need another Barack Obama they need another young Bill Clinton that type of figure could do well in 2028.

SPEAKER_00: 52:26

Don't dismiss the fact that it could happen wow words from the wall from Billy D's uh so Billy if people wanted to find you or find out more about you what what would they do to track you down?

SPEAKER_02: 52:40

Well you know you can just Google Bill Billy D's and uh I come right up the the Billy D's podcast in its current form is now pretty much over 10 years old. So we have a long history on all the major podcast platforms. We've been on them all for a very long time. For whatever reason the growth of that podcast in the last 18 months has really really risen um so uh we're very easy to find as far as social media goes I'm on most of them although I have to say the old Twitter which is now X uh at Billy D's that's kind of like my social media home uh Twitter is very or X is very um trending it's very real time uh news happens on X as much as it is reflected there and that just works really well for podcasters. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 53:30

Um awesome no thank you Billy for coming and being on Soltec with Shavanisis. It was an awesome conversation as always with you. If you are not already subscribed to Soul Tech with Shavanisis hit that subscribe button and go check us out on all the we're on all the major platforms. So you can uh you can stream us in your car or watch us on YouTube when you're uh getting work done. Uh all sorts of we cover everything from wellness to AI to uh entrepreneurship business uh health uh so go check out all the past episodes uh and uh if you want to learn more about me and my books and of course stay on top of of all my uh breaking news and get invitations to good things then go check out shamanisis.com and of course you can find me on all the social media platforms which are all linked on my website but uh if you just google shamanis uh you'll find me or Cynthia Elliott so go check it out and support the show and share it with your friends and family thanks for listening and we'll be back soon enough with another episode of Celtec with Shaman ISIS bye