A quick warning, there are curse words that are un-beaped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.
Okay,
so I want to tell you a story I'm going to start with the part you probably already know about.
In November, six Democrats, all veterans of the U.S.
military or intelligence communities, came out with a video saying to people in uniform,
you took an oath like we did.
Our laws are clear.
You can refuse illegal orders.
You can refuse illegal orders.
You must refuse illegal orders.
Those are senators Mark Kelly and Alissa Slotkin and Congressman Chris DeLuzio.
They did not specify what illegal orders they might be referring to.
At the time, just like now,
the Trump administration was shooting boats of supposed drug runners out of the water off the coast of Venezuela.
And lots of military experts and veterans were saying this did not seem to be illegal.
In the past, if we found boats of drug runners, We arrested them.
We didn't just kill them on the spot in cold blood with no due process.
The video also didn't mention the president trying to order the National Guard into American cities,
Portland and Chicago, where judges stopped the orders, saying they were illegal.