In this episode, I sit down with Virginia Proden, an International Human Rights attorney, author of a book that came out a few years ago called Saving My Assassin, and a fellow Dallas resident that I can t believe I haven t met until just now. She talks about her life growing up in communist Romania and how she was able to stand up for the truth.
00:21:52.020Now, General Lawston, is there no honor in shame? Can you spell Bagram without the letters in blame? Did Uncle Joe stick a drip in your veins? Hands.
00:22:22.020And I can't hear her scream. If she's not, she's not, she's not on TV. I can't hear him scream. If he's not, he's not, he's not on TV.
00:22:46.340Heave to every African ally that we left behind. Every child who won't know freedom faces covered and blind.
00:23:03.340For this American promise. Now, hell in the fire.
00:23:50.200It's a wild experience. I don't know if the camera could have caught this, but it's a wild experience to sit this close to you because I could see the emotion.
00:24:00.200And, and, and which lines hit you deeply.
00:24:09.200When did you, when did, when did you, what were you seeing that you were like?
00:24:16.200Well, you know, like, like all of us, I was, I was horrified by the images coming out of Afghanistan. And when our 13 troops were killed and the hundred Afghans by the suicide bomber, again, that, that made me very angry. I was banging on my piano.
00:24:32.200And I've told you this before. I had no intention of writing a song or releasing a song. I take no joy in releasing this song. But when, when our last troops left, I got a call from a friend who was organizing evacs.
00:24:45.200And I said, are you really risking your life to, to go rescue the citizens we left behind? And I'll tell you, Glenn, it's a little emotional sitting in front of you, cause I know you're doing just that.
00:24:54.200So to be able to play the song in front of you, knowing that every day you're on the phone rescuing people, kind of, kind of talking to the same folks I am, it shouldn't be this way. It's, it's insane. It's insane that we're doing what our government should be doing.
00:25:10.200It's the first time in listening to the song that I, and I think it's because when you sang it, you looked at me and you shook your head about blood on my hands. It is, that's the way I have felt. I've never, I didn't get that from the song that you are, you are really feeling the same way I am is that we have done some, we, not the government, we have done something horrible.
00:25:40.200No, it is us. And people ask me the white, well, there's no blood on my hands. I didn't vote for this person, but we're Americans. We're Americans. We're the American promise.
00:25:51.800Nobody cares. You know, when, when the Europeans look at us and say, why did you leave our people behind? They're not checking our, our voting record. And, and you're right. It's when you said it's, it's a national shame. We have lost the peace of our soul.
00:26:04.160And I think until we admit that complicity, which we have not done, until we find some accountability, our moral conscience will continue to erode and fester. And it's, it's something like nothing else. We have these political fights and we have these bullets in the cultural war.
00:26:20.400But this to me is something more consequential. It really speaks to who we are. Who are we? Who is America? You just had a guest on talking about the great light that's America, that people can come and find their dreams.
00:26:33.340Well, those, that America doesn't break their promise to American citizens and allies that we fought with and maybe save some of our soldiers lives. So it's a, it's a, it's a scary song. And again, I take no pleasure in writing it or even singing it, but someone had to say it.
00:26:49.700What is the response? I know you've been on the road. We've been calling each other, talking to each other and we're at the opposite ends of the clock.
00:26:55.880What is the reaction when you sing it?
00:26:59.240It's been fascinating because I, I, I was mostly blue states on my tour. And at the end of my show, I asked my quartet to leave because I don't want them, frankly, cut up in the council game. And I talk about the song before I sing it. I talk about the fact that if Donald Trump were president or any Republican president, and we were in this situation, I'd write the song. I talk about it's a moral message, not a political one. And I ask people to just listen.
00:27:23.440And it's amazing. When I play it, you could hear pin drops. There's some people crying. There are some soldiers screaming, oorah. And there's some people looking kind of cocky in their head. But everyone listens. And it gives me hope for this country. Because I think if we speak in a way that is not partisan, that is not tribal, we're not going to make everybody agree.
00:27:42.680But I think everybody knows deep down this Afghanistan tragedy is, is something that we can't just push under the rug. And it's been emotional. You know, veterans come after me, Afghan vets, they can't even talk, Glenn. They're, they're in tears, their shame, their pain, you see the suicide rates are up. You know, my mission has expanded from just keeping Afghanistan on the front foot accountability to really letting our vets know that, hey, this is not about you.
00:28:09.460You did the right thing. You did the right thing. And take care of their mental health. And I see that every night with the veterans and the military families.
00:28:16.280I want to share with you probably with the podcast, or at least just personally, something that happened at the end of, I think, last week's last Wednesday's television broadcast to people that had been saved from Afghanistan.
00:28:36.620And they're 20 something girls. They were on a bus of all of these school girls. And at the end, it wasn't even part of the show. We added it. It was after we cut the show, but the cameras were still rolling.
00:28:54.160And I said, I want to introduce you to somebody who is my chief researcher. He was one of the first in Afghanistan. And he's been questioning and really struggling with what happened. And what they said to him was remarkable.
00:29:11.360They immediately said, don't ever question what you did. We're here. Generations have changed because of this. You know, it ended poorly.
00:29:23.800Right. But because you were there. We we have we have a chance. We have a chance.
00:29:30.660There's a classical piano player named Ilan Fanous, an Afghanistan young man. And for veterans, if you're feeling that your sacrifice was in vain, Google him and read his letter.
00:29:43.140He wrote a letter, I think it was in the Wall Street Journal, saying, thank you. I have a life of freedom. I have an ability to practice my art. And it's all because of you.
00:29:53.060And you know what? It's going to be hard to stamp out that freedom in Afghanistan. Certainly, we have a lot of work to do, but there's still a lot of hope and there's still a lot of work that can be done.
00:30:02.300And to a certain degree, we can fix it if we keep our eyes on it.
00:30:05.700John Andrasik, he is the singer songwriter five for fighting who's joining me now.
00:30:11.520And it's interesting that you say that you ask the rest of the band to leave because you don't want them drawn in to the into the blowback from this.
00:30:21.660It is shocking to me how even Eric Clapton or Van Morrison are writing songs about in in in England.
00:30:33.500They're writing it about covid. Yeah. And, you know, it's kind of a kind of important questions and they are being pilloried and no one is playing their music.
00:30:46.500It can't get anywhere. And when you're going after Eric Clapton for writing a song that's questioning the man.
00:30:56.420Yeah. What the hell has happened to rock and roll and artists?
00:31:01.260Yeah, it's funny. Like Rolling Stone is now the man. Right. Yeah.
00:31:04.900You know, there was talking about Afghanistan. There was a folk singer named Farood Andarabi, who in the initial days was dragged from his home and murdered by the Taliban in front of his house.
00:31:14.000It's a folk singer. And you would think the music media, especially the Rolling Stones of the world, would have that guy on their cover saying, hey, it's about freedom of expression.
00:31:23.100It's about music, the suppression of music by the Taliban and its crickets.
00:31:27.860And it just shows how deeply tribalism has infected our culture.
00:31:31.920It is so malignant that they won't talk about any issue that that they perceive may hurt their side.
00:31:37.900And it's frankly disgusting. It's shameful. We should be having concerts for the people of Afghanistan, the orchestra, the children's orchestra.
00:31:47.000We've got half of them out. Half of them are still there.
00:31:49.420The music community should be, you know, should be in Qatar right now organizing, you know, U2, Paul McCartney, Springsteen.
00:31:59.100We should all be down there screaming for the human rights of Afghanistan. And why are we not?
00:32:04.700Here's the facts. If it was a Republican president, you wouldn't be hearing my song. You know why?
00:32:09.240Because there'd be 20 other ones, you know, calling about, oh, Afghanistan, the women in Afghanistan, the children in Afghanistan.
00:32:17.500Tribalism is destroying this nation and the music media and the media in general are a big participant in that.
00:32:23.240It is. I'm thrilled to have you here. It's so great to finally meet you.
00:32:28.220He's going to be on the podcast, which will come out for Blaze subscribers on Thursday, and you'll be able to find it wherever you get your podcasts.
00:32:36.640John Andrasik, the song is Blood on My Hands.
00:32:41.420Find it on YouTube and share it while you can.
00:32:44.660One of the songs that has been banned on YouTube for medical misinformation is coming up next.
00:32:53.740The artist that, the rapper that did the song, Let's Go Brandon, joins us next.
00:38:00.500When did we get to the point where we banned art?
00:38:02.500Have you heard the rap songs that exist?
00:38:04.940Like, has anybody ever sat down and listened to the most popular rap songs?
00:38:09.100That's not banned, but you banned my song, because you don't like the, you don't like that it questions the narrative, and it goes against the consensus of the CDC, even though the CDC changes their consensus every two weeks.
00:39:00.740And it has only gotten so much worse, the things that are said in rap.
00:39:06.400And they are allowed to say it, and I raise the flag for them being allowed to say it, but it is being consumed in such vast quantities, and no one is even thinking about the effect on our culture and the effect on our children that are listening to it.
00:39:26.900And yet you come out with some questions, and you're questioning the man, which I think rock and roll and rap, I think that's what you do, and you're shut down.
00:40:12.200This is where you draw the line like that?
00:40:13.680This is, man, this is, and the fact that people on the left are supporting it, like, people are mocking, like, me on Twitter saying, I'm glad your song got banned.
00:40:55.820Is there something that's changing in America?
00:40:58.920I do think it's changing, but I think if we actually started paying attention more, it could change faster in a positive light.
00:41:09.140Because there's obviously something changing in a negative way to where, if you want to be honest, in this country, I know we'd like to say we're all free.
00:41:15.900But in reality, in the public space, only one side has free speech.
00:41:20.120They can say whatever they want about Jesus and just get away with it.
00:41:24.200They can literally do whatever they want.
00:41:25.960Meanwhile, we can't even question, make a joke.
00:41:30.660Then we're banned off platforms if we do that.
00:41:33.380But the good side of it is, if you see what happened with this song, it shot up to number one.
00:41:39.980Like, I do not think it would be number one if they didn't ban it.
00:41:49.200The only problem with that is, I feel like we do that for like a week or two, and then we go back to normal.
00:41:54.920And if you actually listen to the lyrics in my Let's Go Brandon song, my whole point was it's time for us to, like, stand up and stop allowing and succumbing.
00:42:05.460I think, though, that there is also something, and you're an example of it, John's an example of it, and as Cantor is an example of it, where people are starting to stand up, and there seems to be a little bit of a snowball that is starting.
00:42:28.320It's a culture war right now, and they have, the left has had the grip on the culture war for so long.
00:42:34.660Like, I don't know if you saw, but there's some website wrote an article and said, I can't believe this moronic song passed Adele.
00:42:44.020And then at the end of the article, it said Adele will be back number one by the morning.
00:42:48.000This is just a MAGA, cult, nonsense, blah, blah, blah.
00:42:51.280Now, that was yesterday, and, of course, this is the morning currently, and she's actually dropped the number three behind another Let's Go Brandon song.
00:43:01.280It is, it's great to talk to you, and I just, I wanted to thank you for your courage to do this.