I think also he was, King Jordan was making reference as well to expansionism within of the Israeli state and then sort of Golan Heights and et cetera saying, I feel like

he was saying that it ain't going to stop where you think it's going to stop.

They're going to keep on going.

Absolutely.

And you see again and again, Israeli politicians and officials standing at podiums with maps of quote unquote Israel, but spanning lots of the Middle East or the Levant or Southwest Asia.

Greater Israel, so scary stuff.

Sheikh Tamim, the Emir of Qatar, he again, he didn't mince his words.

Any idea sort of what he's going to say? Is he going to have props?

Is there anybody else in the room wishing to give public comment this evening? There's one more.

Hi, my name's John Cole, Ridgefield resident.

Again, I want to echo what everyone else has been saying.

Thank you so much for your letter to the port.

You've always seemed like you've been listening.

Your passion for the city, your work for the city is much appreciated, and that letter is frankly stunning.

So anyhow, still, and I know this support issue, but as others have said, they're really not listening to their constituents.

So what exactly is

new here? Well, in essence, we don't really know yet.

So Besant, the US Treasury Secretary, has come out and he's announced that there will be a new package of sanctions named Operation Economic Outcast, which I think US planners might come to regret given the way that things are going, for instance, with Canadian trade talks at the moment.

But essentially, we don't really know because they've announced the sanctions and they're going to countries one by one and giving them a shopping list of measures to take to So essentially, the aim would be to exclude further exclude the Iranian economy from the dollar financial system.

And this would have the effect of essentially, well, hopefully applying more pressure to the regime, of course, because this can be very much seen as a failure to bring the Iran war to an end.

Despite Trump assuring the press earlier today that it's all going very well, as he has done countless times.

The big trading partners are, well, previously the UAE, but since attacks on their territory, they've stopped.

good

Go ahead, sir.

My name's John Cole.

I'm a 30-year townie.

So as Ridgefield grows, and I know you folks are looking to update the long-term growth plan, there's a lot of emphasis on increasing the housing density to limit the urban sprawl, which, you know, it makes sense.

We need to keep some farms.

We can grow food some places, things like that.

But the impacts need to be considered and mitigated as much as possible.

If there's something that you can help with, I appreciate it.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

Come on up, sir.

Hello.

My name is John Cole.

I've lived here in Ridgefield for 30 years.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

I mean, it's a lot of people just turn this stuff off because they're like, man, every day I'm just lucky to be alive with all the risks we all take daily.

I agree.

The challenge is, this is my analogy.

We're on the USS, United States Corporation, Titanic, and it shows sign of sinking.

I don't want it to sink.

You don't want it to sink, but that's not the point.

If it sinks...

I said, I, you know, I'm all ears.

Tell me about how... your time in the Marine Corps forged your path as a civilian?

Um, I would probably say that I'm going to do this in two different, I'm gonna give it in two different answers if that's okay.

Um, I'll say the first answer I'm going to give you is kind of the reason I truly believe everything happens for a reason, like good or bad, like everything always happens for a reason.

And the reason I want to tell this part of it is because if I would have came in in 2003 when I was originally supposed to, I was actually coming in as a grunter infantry at that point in time.

And after being in the Marine Corps for some time, I started learning the kind of the timeline of the Marine Corps within the global war on terrorism.

If I would have came in in 2003, I would have been done with recruit training and ITB by the end of 2003.

The spring of 2004 was the first Fallujah.

So.

Uh, how did you get started in racing, John?

I've just been a fan of racing really my whole life.

I, my first experience with it was building a demolition derby car with my dad in the garage when I was 8 or 10, something like that.

And then me and my buddies found out about Wilmot when we were in high school, started going up to watch.

Started seeing the four cylinder division.

I'm like, "You know what? I think that's something I could do, something I could afford to do more than anything." [laughs]

[laughs]

No.

No, thanks for having me, Mike.

Yeah.

So like you said, um, I'm a host of the book house podcast as well, but, um, before even all that started, it's just an old rodeo cowboy from Western North Carolina who decided to join the Marine Corps.

And, um, when I, when I went in, um, I enlisted in 2006, um, and actually a little bit before that I was supposed to join out of, uh, once I graduated high school in 2003, but I was riding bulls at the time and hurt my knee.

And so got discharged from the depth, um, during that time.

And so, and my recruiter was like, you never think about the Marine Corps ever again.

Um, and at that time I was actually coming in as, as a grunt and infantryman.

pill that makes me not want to hate everybody forget men i just don't want to hate everybody um so including myself so what what what brought you into the mental health aspect of it what like really got you you know i i've watched some of your your podcasts and stuff and it was it was really cool but what what actually brought you into that what got you geared for that i guess

there

were a lot of them were already making that commute anyways.

And we're going to see that program grow or the other programs grow.

So we'll have those students stay in Vermillion.

The faculty, of course, as those programs grow, the faculty will replace that as well.

I think the hardest part about the community is the change, right? Nobody likes change, especially in South Dakota.

And I think the, uh, uh, the, the faculty that are currently working with the med school and present guest has been really good about, uh, working with them on, on either if they want to stay in Vermillion and, you know, Reject me at any time.

I get older, and the chicks stay the same age.