Pentagon: $200B for Iran. 4,500 More Marines to Mid-East.

Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Righteous Media | Bleav

Politics, News, National Security, News Commentary, Daily News, Veteran

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's episode 470 and Paul Rieckhoff is solo in New York on the first day of spring, bringing his trademark mix of independence, insight, and righteous outrage as March Madness tips off across America. From Curtis Blow’s “Basketball” to bracket-busting Cinderella stories like 12-seed High Point, Paul lays out his “fab five” vibes—integrity, independence, information, inspiration, and impact—and explains why this tournament is one of the few things still uniting the country. But he also exposes a much darker kind of March madness: Trump’s escalating war with Iran, the Pentagon’s stunning 200 billion dollar funding request, and the hidden lifetime costs of traumatic brain injuries and VA care that the White House refuses to own.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So this means a task force of 4,500 sailors and Marines is expected to head across the Pacific,
0:05.8	may be replacing the 31st Mu in the Middle East.
0:08.5	The 31st Mu is dispatched about a week ago and is closing on the region now.
0:12.4	They might overlap.
0:14.4	Each mu contains an infantry battalion landing team of about 800 Marines with aviation and logistical support.
0:21.1	So the bottom line, more troops into the Middle East, more money into the Middle East,
0:27.2	more danger in the Middle East, and I'm coming to you from
0:58.0	New York City, USA, and the weather is getting better. It's getting better, and it's the first day of
1:04.5	spring. Here it is. Spring is finally here. Damn, did we earn it? Winter's going out with a hell of a fight, but spring is now
1:12.4	finally here, which means tomorrow is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday to my mom. And today's
1:19.5	artist is Curtis Blow, because they're playing basketball, right?
1:29.2	It is basketball time.
1:30.7	It is March Madness.
1:34.4	Curtis Blow, the legendary artist, I'm dropping my basketball.
1:38.4	These are the breaks from 1980, if you don't know that song.
1:45.0	But basketball, the legendary song, was released in 1984, on his fourth album called Ego Trip.
1:49.0	If you don't know, according to below, the idea for the song came from his girlfriend,
1:52.4	who he later married, who told him, you need to make a song about basketball.
1:56.4	It's the number one sport for African Americans, and nobody has done it yet.
1:59.6	He did it, and he created an iconic song.
2:03.6	25 famous basketball players are mentioned in the song. When the music video was done, they had a $25,000 budget,
2:06.6	and Blow wanted to include NBA footage, but they said no.
	...

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