This week on episode 37 Don and Offie cover President Trumps decision and announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the INF Treaty with Russia, the initiatives up for vote on Washington States mid-terms this year, and in the grab bag we discuss the recent pipe bombs that were mailed to prominent left-leaning public figures, hunting adrenaline in even the most experienced hunters, how many games to start a winning streak, and is Demon House legit? and as always, a quick SPORTS!!

 

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Halfway through the book and this chapter is short and sweet. Rule number 6 is to “set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world”. I think the best thing about this rule is that it can be taken in a lot of different ways and to me, like a good movie I get something a little different each time I read it. However, I think the most prevalent meaning I take from it is to look inward, and do what is best for myself.

When Offie and I went to see Dr. Peterson he spoke largely about seeing the world through a prism of your own experiences and that it was so deeply ingrained in you that it would affect the options that display themselves to you when thinking or problem solving. This same prism through which I and everyone else sees the world, sets a value system that are your core beliefs and wants, the things that are most important to you. That in itself, is going to set forth what you strive for in your life. Whether you marry early or wait, have kids early or wait, work as much as you possibly can in your youth or use it to travel and experience the world.

Once you are able to look inward and identify that value system in a way that you can comprehend and make tangible in your life, you can set forward solid steps on how to strive for and achieve the goals you’ve set base on said value system. You can also better identify things you are doing in your life that are actively fighting against your effort to reach your goals. Maybe you didn’t know before you had clearly laid out your values for yourself but now that you know what you’re going for you can see what you are doing wrong and stop doing it. Set yourself in order.

I also think it can be taken at a little more face value; don’t be hypocritical. Don’t be judgmental. If you are leading a life in which you make mistakes, which everyone does, then you have no room to judge anyone for anything they do in their life. I am will be the first person to admit that I make comments all the time about any manner of things I see people do in public simply for my own entertainment and the entertainment of my wife, but I can also honestly say that none of the silly judgments I make in the name of comedy would actually bare any relevance on my opinion were I to meet any of these people.

I have made more mistakes in my 23 years than I would ever like to admit. There are still things to this day that I have done in my past, that upon recollection often make me feel sick. I have identified these mistakes and carry them with me consciously. There are few inexcusable acts that I feel comfortable judging an individual on, none of which I have ever or would ever commit. I do not like the idea of just keeping your head down and nose to the grind stone because I think it’s important to understand what’s happening around you and be able to interact well with the people around you, but the actions of other people often bare no relevance or have really any affect on what you are doing or your pursuit of your value system based goals.

However the chapter is perceived by you, I think this is one rule that everyone can find something valuable in. There are a lot of people in internet media that like to say that Dr. Petersons writings are full of dog whistles for all right male youth, but I don’t know a single person who couldn’t be leading their life more effectively or a little less focused on the person next to them. I think most people have seen the meme of one of the last times Michael Phelps won a gold medal. Near the very end of the race, Phelps is looking forward focused on himself and finishing as fast as he can. His competitor is watching Phelps. Worry about what you are doing before you worry about the person next to you. Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.

 

-Donavan Phillips

This week Don and Offie break down the disappearance and murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the troubling ties with the Americans handling it with striking similarities to some Bush era corruption, the responsibility or lack there of of the media to disclose classified material and the leakers who provide it, and in the grab bag we go over Fiensteins heritage, Louis C.K., and high thoughts from Offie and Don, and as always SPORTS!!

Here is the episode where we broke down the crisis in Yemen and a fair amount about Saudi Arabia a few weeks back. We put out some articles while we are recording but anything else we used is available upon request.

Our podcast and all of our episodes are available on SoundCloud and everywhere else you can get a podcast, the pre show for this episode is available on our YouTube with the rest of our videos and the full episode video will be up tomorrow. Any inquiries for T-Shirts can be made here or on any of our social media. Reach out and you WILL hear back from us.

Written By: Colin Offenbacker

On Wednesday this week, news began to break about yet another “leaker” coming from the top tiers of our governmental bureaucracy being arrested for distributing sensitive information. This time it was Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, a senior adviser at the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. She was was arrested and charged with unauthorized disclosure of Suspicious Activity Reports and conspiracy to make such unauthorized disclosures by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. On Wednesday she was released on $100,000 bond and ordered to appear in court next month. Each of the two charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 5 years in prison.

The documents released are what is called “Suspicious Activity Reports” also known as SARs. In short they are used by financial institutions to flag possible illegal transactions, which Edwards stored on a flash drive. According to the Department of Justice, the leaked SARs were linked to the Robert Muller investigation. Among the numerous disclosed SARs some were related to the accused Russian spy Maria Butina, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his long time business partner Rick Gates. In the indictment handed down from federal prosecutors it said “…the flash drive files appear to contain thousands of SAR’s, along with other highly sensitive material relating to Russia, Iran and the terrorists group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), among other things. Multiple files also bear labels referencing Paul Manafort and Reporter-1’s name.”

Though, the reporter isn’t named in the indictment, reporter-1 seems to be someone from BuzzFeed News. A string of articles released via BuzzFeed News seem to corroborate this, I’ve attached links below to see for yourself if interested.
This whole situation isn’t really new in our contemporary news cycle, in fact DOJ investigations of leakers is up nearly 800%. I’ve said as much on the podcast before but I would like there to be no leaks in our government, I would also like it if there was never a “need” for such leaks, but given the current political and social climate I can at least understand where the drive to leak comes from. What I really want to focus on here though is the relationship between reporters and these would be leakers.

After reading through some of these articles in question, I’m torn by many questions, whether or not “we” as the public really need all of the information, whether or not the articles are written to promote a political agenda or perhaps it’s just the free-press doing there jobs. I’m sure that during the investigation into Ms. Edwards, any nefarious activity on the part of “report-1” would have been uncovered if any existed, which would rule out any coercive activity on the side of the press in this situation.
This however leaves me with another question, a question of ethics. To front load this a little, there is a very stark difference between a leaker and a so called whistle blower, and for the purposes of this blog post I’m going to assume that we know the difference between the two. With that in mind, does the press have the ethical responsibility to publish known illegally obtained documents, like those in this particular court case? Or perhaps the opposite?

I feel like I could easily make arguments on both sides of this situation and perhaps Don and I will talk more about it on the podcast soon. For now I feel like I’m just left with more and more questions. What is in it for leakers like Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards? Like James Wolf, a former intelligence committee staffer who just earlier this week plead guilty to leaking a subpoena? It’s fairly simple to see what’s in it for the press, a scoop no one else will get, a chance to tell a story no one else would know, there’s a million reasons there, and some might even say an ethical duty to relay it to the public.

With that, I think this is some great conversation material so I’ll leave the ball in your court. Leave us a reply in the comments and let us know what your take is on leaks, leakers and the press running stories on them. Do you like leaks? Are all leaks good? Are no leaks good? Let us know what you think! And of course don’t forget to catch the podcast when it drops on Monday or catch the video podcast when it hits YouTube on Tuesday to see if your comments make it on the show!

Senior Treasury Official Indicted for Leaking Secret Information to Buzzfeed and She Won’t Be the Last

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/politics/treasury-official-charged-with-leaking-docs-related-to-russia-manafort/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-treasury-employee-charged-with-leaking-documents-related-to-russia-probe/2018/10/17/74f67faa-d226-11e8-83d6-291fcead2ab1_story.html?utm_term=.c928f40f7058

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/treasury-official-arrested-charged-leaking-data-russia-probe/story?id=58580073

On episode 35 Don and Offie go over the New York Times investigation into how the Trump family made their money, the repeal of the death penalty in Washington State, how Sprint decides how much your credit will be, and with intermittent Ducks updates a trip to the grab bag for why polygamy is illegal, a look at the 17th Amendment, FINAL notes on Brett Kavanaugh and the Judiciary Committee and of course SPORTS!!

 

This episode and all of our others are available on our SoundCloud and every else you can get a podcast, the pre show video for this episode and all of our other videos can be found on our YouTube under Salt of The Streets, look out for the full show video tomorrow afternoon. All inquiries for T Shirts can be made through here or any of our social media. Leave us a rate and review and send us a screen shot and we will give you $5 off your first shirt. Hit us up and you WILL hear back from us.