Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Category: Full Text Articles – Audio Posts
Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
“Don’t cry.” That’s how Phil Robertson, who found fame and fortune through his hunting-business empire and some controversy but also popularity for his outspoken religious and political beliefs, requested people respond to his death. “Dance, sing, but don’t cry when I die,” he said on a podcast with his son Jase in 2023 after undergoing back surgery.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
The Duck Dynasty patriarch died at age 79 on Sunday after being diagnosed in 2024 with Alzheimer’s disease, his family announced in statements on social media.
Phil Robertson’s daughter-in-law Korie, who is married to another of Robertson’s four sons, Willie, said in a Facebook post on behalf of the family: “We celebrate today that our father, husband, and grandfather, Phil Robertson, is now with the Lord.” She quoted the Bible, writing of Phil Robertson: “He reminded us often of the words of Paul, ‘you do not grieve like those who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.’”
“We know so many of you love him and have been impacted by his life,” the statement added. “We’re having a private service for now, but we’ll share details soon about a public celebration of his life.”
Jase Robertson posted on X: “My dad has gone to be with the Lord today! He will be missed but we know he is in good hands, and our family is good because God is very good! We will see him again!”
Phil Robertson’s granddaughter Sadie Robertson, daughter of Willie and Korie, took to Instagram to pay tribute. “One of the last things he said to me was ‘full strength ahead!’ Amen!”
Jase first publicly spoke about his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which he said was in its “early stages,” in a December episode of their podcast Unashamed With the Robertson Family. “According to the doctors, they’re sure that he has some sort of blood disease that’s causing all kinds of problems,” Jase said. “He’s just not doing well. He’s really struggling.” In an April 2 episode, Jase gave an update, saying that his father’s status was “not good” and that he has since needed “some professional care.”
Robertson, a Louisiana-based college football player turned professional hunting entrepreneur, invented the Duck Commander duck call instrument in 1972 that went on to be the namesake product of a multimillion-dollar hunting gear company led by Robertson and his family.
Beginning in 1987, the family business extended into media with the direct-to-video series Duckmen. In 2012, A&E began airing what would become one of its most-famous programs, Duck Dynasty, which through 2017 followed the Robertson family and their business. The reality-television series has spawned a number of spinoffs, including Duck Dynasty: The Revival, which is set to center on Willie and Korie and their children and is expected to premiere this summer.
Robertson has also gained popularity for being unapologetic about his Christian faith and conservative views. In 2013, Robertson was briefly suspended by A&E after telling GQ when he was asked to describe sin: “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there.” Robertson has also been vocal about abortion, which he opposes, and has endorsed Republican candidates for local and national political office, including first backing Ted Cruz in 2016 before announcing his support for Donald Trump in 2016 and again in 2020.
Robertson is survived by his wife since 1966 Marsha ‘Miss Kay’ Carroway; his sons Alan, Jase, Willie, and Jep; his daughter from another relationship Phyllis; his brother and “best friend” Silas; and a number of grandchildren as well as many friends and supporters.
“Phil Robertson was a living example of what God can do in all of our lives if we follow Him,” Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, who previously served as White House press secretary during Trump’s first term, posted on X. “He was a bright light for the world to see. Bryan and I are praying for the whole Robertson crew tonight.”
Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Rehearsal Season 2 finale.
Throughout The Rehearsal Season 2—and really, throughout the entirety of his career—Nathan Fielder has proven time and again that he always has another trick up his sleeve. So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sunday night’s finale of his hit HBO series features what is perhaps his longest and most involved comedy con to date. And yet, it’s still pretty difficult to believe he managed to pull this one off.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
After spending the first five episodes of Season 2 building an argument in support of his thesis that many plane crashes are caused by co-pilots facing difficulty speaking up to their captains when they think something is amiss, the finale flashed back two years earlier to show how Fielder spent months obtaining his commercial pilot license in order to be able to captain a real Boeing 737 plane with real passengers onboard at risk of all the real dangers of flying. However, he first had to learn how to do said flying, which he soon discovered required a skillset that didn’t come easily to him.
“When I first began this project, I decided there was no better way to understand pilots than by becoming one myself,” he explained in a voiceover accompanying clips of himself taking flying lessons. “But it became clear very quickly that I was not a natural at this, especially when it came to landing the plane.”
While Fielder was told that most students master landings and are able to fly solo after about 10-30 hours of flight time, he still hadn’t managed to prove his ability to his instructors’ satisfaction by the time he had spent over 120 hours in the air. After witnessing another student pilot and their instructor fatally crash while he was in the sky above an airport for one of his own training sessions, Fielder took a month off to rehearse flying at home as a pilot who wasn’t afraid of anything. Following that break, something clicked, and he was finally allowed to fly solo. But the roadblocks interfering with his plan didn’t stop there.
Considering you need 1,500 hours of flying experience to even be considered as a commercial airline pilot and Fielder had only racked up around 270-280 after two years, he realized he would need to utilize a loophole in the system that would require him to not only complete a FAA-approved 737 training course and obtain his own secondary-market passenger plane (on HBO’s dime, of course), but also convince nearly 150 actors to pose as passengers on the flight to avoid regulations surrounding paying customers.
Noting that, at the time, he was the least experienced person licensed to fly a 737 in North America, Fielder prepared for the big day by recruiting Aaron, one of the pilots he enlisted as a judge for his “Wings of Voice” singing competition earlier this season, as his co-pilot. He then laid out his objectives for the flight, which was set to take off from the San Bernardino airport and fly east to the Nevada border before looping back around to San Bernardino.
“I’m trying to demonstrate how hard it can be for any pilot to say what they’re thinking in a cockpit environment. And this dangerous phenomenon that leads to planes crashing I truly believe happens in some form on every single airline flight,” he said. “Now, obviously with this flight, I don’t want to let anything unsafe happen. So the second I see my co-pilot thinking something that he’s not saying, you’re going to get to see that. And then I’m going to quickly jump in and ask him about how he’s feeling so he can share that with me and be comfortable sharing that. And nothing will be left unspoken.”
In the end, nothing of real consequence occurred in the cockpit during the flight. But after deplaning to applause and cheers from his group of actor-passengers, Fielder came to the conclusion that since no one sees what goes on in the cockpit anyway, “as long as you get everyone down safely, that’s all it takes to be their hero.”
While Fielder is known for always committing to the bit, making the real-life stakes of his stunts truly bonkers, this time, they have never been higher. But he didn’t even stop there, as the closing minutes of the finale revealed that, in his spare time, Fielder has also started working for a company that relocates empty 737s wherever they are around the world.
Turns out, despite being a comedian, Fielder does have the capacity to be taken seriously. Or maybe, it simply all boils down to practice. As he put it earlier in the episode, “I’ve always believed that if you rehearse long enough and hard enough, nothing will be left to chance.”
There was a time when the idea of a video game adaptation sounded alarm bells, with all but guaranteed audience disappointment and critical dismissal. But the times have changed, especially with the success of HBO’s The Last of Us, based on the video game of the same name. The series earned massive acclaim from fans and critics alike, including 8 Primetime Emmys. The game-changing show follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they survive a harsh and unforgiving America that’s been taken over by the undead—and the other humans who have survived aren’t exactly friendly.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
It’s not hard to see why The Last of Us has broken the video game curse. The adaptation takes the game’s hugely engaging story and expands it for the screen, bringing tremendous performances, stunning effects, and impeccably shot action. It’s a tale of humanity’s survival at its most desperate, the unshakable bond between two unlikely people, and a zombie horror all in one. As the second season of the series comes to an end on Sunday, we’ve got some suggestions on how to fill that Last of Us-shaped hole in your lives. From other world-building epics and post-apocalyptic dramas to other worthy video game adaptations, these choices should fit the needs of every kind of Last of Us fanatic.
Post-Apocalyptic Dramas
Silo
A mysterious and unknown event means that all of humanity now lives deep underground in a Silo, a complex and gigantic 144-level community with firmly entrenched class systems and plenty of intrigue. Juliette (a sensational Rebecca Ferguson), an engineer working at the very bottom of the Silo, begins to unravel a theory that may change everything that’s understood about their way of life. The AppleTV+ series benefits from spectacular world-building, with carefully layered details that reveal more and more about life in the Silo as episodes progress. Silo is a wicked and bingeable slow burn with a tantalizing central mystery. And there’s no fear of it being cancelled too soon, as the show has been confirmed for Season 3 and plans to conclude the story in Season 4.
Chernobyl
A miniseries with universal acclaim, including winning 10 Primetime Emmys, Chernobyl hones in on the nuclear fallout in the Soviet Union city of Chernobyl. Created and written by Craig Mazin (who went on to co-create and write The Last of Us), the series is bleak, heartbreaking, and utterly haunting, yet nearly impossible to look away from. Like The Last of Us, it’s a provocative exploration of humanity on the brink, fighting back against what feels like an impossible force. The impressive ensemble cast includes Jessie Buckley, Jared Harris, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, and Stellan Skarsgård.
Station Eleven
The 10-episode miniseries uses multiple timelines to explore the lives of those who survived a vicious and widespread flu that wiped out much of humanity as they strive to rebuild society. What’s fascinating about Station Eleven, created by Patrick Somerville (Maniac), is that it doesn’t follow the kind of people you might expect, like societal leaders or rebellious groups. Instead, we see the world through a theatre troupe known as the Traveling Symphony, which performs Shakespeare in the new world as they attempt to make sense of the carnage that took so much life. This is a magical series about the healing power of art and how the key to survival lies in community.
World-building Epics
The Walking Dead
Both an apocalyptic drama and a world-building epic, AMC’s The Walking Dead has everything a fan of The Last of Us could want: a horde of undead, beloved characters, and great action. The series begins with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), a sheriff’s deputy who wakes from a coma to find the world taken over by creatures called “walkers,” and goes from there. As a bonus, once you get into the series, you may not need to look for your next show for many months; on top of the 11 seasons of The Walking Dead, there’s an array of spinoffs, including Fear the Walking Dead, World Beyond, and The Ones Who Live.
The Leftovers
A shocking event changes the world forever when 2% of the entire world’s population vanishes without a trace.Created by Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen) HBO’s The Leftovers examines the impact of the event, dubbed the “Sudden Departure,” on a series of people in a small New York town. There’s police chief Kevin (Justin Theroux), Reverend Matt (Christopher Eccleston), and his sister Nora (Carrie Coon), grieving the loss of her husband. The impressive ensemble cast also includes Regina King, Margaret Qualley, Amy Brenneman, Liv Tyler, and Ann Dowd. At just three seasons, epic might not be the best world to describe The Leftovers, but this unpredictable, thought-provoking series is so expansive in its ideas that it deserves to be discussed alongside the biggest and best of them.
Other Video Game Adaptations
Twisted Metal
The number of video game adaptations are fairly limited, and the ones that are actually worth recommending are even fewer. But Peacock’s Twisted Metal is genuinely fun, and a much lighter look at a post-apocalyptic landscape than The Last of Us, though there’s still plenty of thrilling action sequences. Writers had a lot less to work with here, adapting a game where you drive a car around and blow stuff up into an intriguing story about John Doe (Anthony Mackie) who’s saddled with a strange package he must deliver across a ruthless America with foes that try to wipe him out at every turn.
Fallout
Created in 1997 by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky of Interplay Entertainment, Fallout has emerged as one of the most beloved role-playing game franchises in history. The retro futuristic games have been given TV series treatment, which Amazon has already renewed for two additional seasons. Occurring hundreds of years into the future, Lucy (Ella Purnell) leaves her very secure home in Vault 33 (most people live in bunkers called Vaults after a nuclear war in 2077), heading into unforgiving wastelands to try and find her kidnapped father. It looks and sounds terrific, and delivers exciting action and intriguing characters with a welcome comic edge.
Devil May Cry
Perhaps the show most tonally opposite to The Last of Us on this list, Netflix’s Devil May Cry is a riotous, colorful blast of punk energy. Based on the extremely popular (and fun) action series from Capcom, Devil May Cry follows mercenary demon hunter Dante (voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) as he tries to take down a terrorist known as the White Rabbit (Hoon Lee). This animated series helmed by Adi Shankar is visually adventurous and stylish, and its action sequences are fast paced and inventively choreographed. The first season’s sixth episode is a particularly strong standout, and a great example of why the show is so damn fun.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 finale.
The vicious cycle of revenge is cycling on in The Last of Us. What began with Joel (Pedro Pascal) wiping out the Fireflies in Salt Lake City, progressed into Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) torturing and killing Joel, and more recently evolved into Ellie (Bella Ramsey) setting out on her own warpath, has now resulted in Abby and Ellie coming face to face in a blaze of violence.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
After a penultimate episode made up entirely of flashbacks, the finale of the show’s second season played out over the course of Day 3 of Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie’s stay in Seattle. In the aftermath of Ellie torturing Nora (Tati Gabrielle) for information about Abby’s whereabouts, Ellie and Jesse (Young Mazino) spent the following morning trying to make it to the rendezvous point Jesse had agreed on with Tommy (Gabriel Luna) while a wounded and pregnant Dina remained behind at the theater. But after hearing a report on their stolen radio that the Wolves were under attack by a sniper—i.e. Tommy—at the marina, Jesse pushed to change course.
In the process of surveying the city, Ellie realized the two words Nora had given up, “whale” and “wheel,” were likely in reference to Seattle’s aquarium, and decided to instead make her way there to finish what she’d started. However, it wasn’t Abby she found at the aquarium, but Abby’s friends, Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). Although Ellie insisted she would let them live if they told her where Abby was, Owen tried to pull a gun on her and Ellie fired off a shot that went straight through Owen’s throat, killing him instantly, before also nicking Mel’s neck. It was a fatal wound, but Mel was still alive for long enough to reveal she was heavily pregnant and try to convince Ellie to perform an emergency C-section on her to save the baby. It was clear Ellie was devastated about what she had done and wanted to help, but had no idea how to do the surgery before Mel bled out. Tommy and Jesse then showed up to bring a distraught Ellie back to the theater.
Unfortunately for the Jackson crew, just as they were getting ready to get the hell out of the war zone of Seattle, Abby finally showed back up and didn’t waste any time getting down to business. After subduing Tommy and killing Jesse, she recognized Ellie and realized who she was dealing with. Ellie begged her to let Tommy go and she responded by instead pointing the gun at Ellie and telling her that she had let her live and Ellie had “wasted it” before we hear her fire a shot. However, we didn’t see if the bullet hit its mark, as the show flashed back in time to three days earlier in Seattle—except this time we were seeing things from Abby’s perspective. The episode then cut to black, meaning Ellie’s fate will remain up in the air for a few years until Season 3 eventually rolls around.
“Now, we’re actually in more of a traditional cliffhangery mode, where you’re telling a story, and then you end the season with something that says, ‘Whoa, this is going to change a whole bunch of things, and we’ll see you when we get back and pick it up from there,’” series co-creator Craig Mazin told Collider. “I’m always thinking about, what are the things that only The Last of Us does? Let’s do those as much as we can. And then, you go for it and you make your decisions and mostly just try as best as you can to think about the audience experience and how they’re going to feel when they arrive at the end of something. Hopefully, we set them up to want to return when we come back for the next run.”
In the meantime, however, The Last of Us Part II video game can provide some insight about what’s likely to come in the show. So, for those who don’t already know what happens in the game, now’s your chance to stop reading before we get into some spoilers.
This cliffhanger ending heralds a major switch-up in the Last of Us story, as it marks the controversial moment in the game when the main playable character flips from Ellie to Abby. And while Ellie does survive this encounter with Abby, it’s likely that won’t be revealed in the show until at least a few episodes into Season 3, as we’ll first need to see everything that happened to Abby during those same three days in Seattle.
The change is intended to show you things from Abby’s point of view and make you empathize with her as well as Joel and Ellie. However, that’s not always the reaction it prompted in the game, seeing as some fans hated Abby so much that the actor who voiced and provided the motion-capture performance for her in the game, Laura Bailey, was subjected to significant harassment and death threats directed not only at her, but at her infant son. On a 2024 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Isabela Merced revealed that HBO also felt the need to increase security for Dever during filming due to concerns over the toxicity directed at Abby. However, Mazin has said he was pleasantly surprised by how much better Joel’s death went over with fans of the show than it originally did with the gaming community.
“They understood, ‘Oh, my God, no! Somebody that we loved is dead. What will happen now?’ It was not, ‘Let’s go stand in front of HBO and throw eggs or blame Kaitlyn Dever.’ No. People reacted like a normal audience would theoretically react,” he told Collider. There are people who are angry at the video game who will stay angry forever, and they will be angry at the show. If Neil [Druckmann] hands out free money, they’ll be angry about the denominations that the cash was in. It was amazing, actually, to see how many people were like, ‘I hate Abby. Kaitlyn Dever should win an Emmy.’ They understood what that’s about, and that was actually quite encouraging.”
How the show will handle Abby’s POV is obviously still up in the air. But, according to Mazin, it won’t be possible to finish telling the Last of Us story in just three seasons of television. “There’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump made it clear he is losing patience with Vladimir Putin, leveling some of his sharpest criticism at the Russian leader as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday night.
Trump said Putin is “needlessly killing a lot of people,” pointing out that “missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.”
The attack was the largest aerial assault since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, according to Ukrainian officials. At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured.
The U.S. president warned that if Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine, it will “lead to the downfall of Russia!” But Trump expressed frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well, saying that he is “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump wrote on social media.
The president has increasingly voiced irritation at Putin and the inability to resolve the now three-year-old war, which Trump promised he would promptly end as he campaigned to return to the White House.
He had long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and repeatedly stressed that Russia is more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.
But last month, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” assaulting Ukraine after Russia launched another deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, and he has repeatedly expressed his frustration that the war in Ukraine is continuing.
“I’m not happy with what Putin’s doing. He’s killing a lot of people. And I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters earlier Sunday as he departed northern New Jersey, where he spent most of the weekend. “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don’t like it at all. ”
A peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine remains elusive. Trump and Putin spoke on the phone this past week, and Trump announced after the call that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire talks. That conversation occurred after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Turkey for the first face-to-face talks since 2022. But on Thursday, the Kremlin said no direct talks were scheduled.
The European Union has slapped new sanctions on Russia this month in response to Putin’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. But while Trump has threatened to step up sanctions and tariffs on Russia, he hasn’t acted so far.
Two conservative GOP senators on Sunday said the “big, beautiful bill” passed at President Trump’s behest by House Republicans needs to be cut down to size, signaling huge challenges in enacting Trump’s plans in the Senate.
The two GOP senators, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, are both Trump allies, but they signaled they are unhappy with House legislation that they say will bust the budget.
“I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the debt,” Paul said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Paul had earlier said he was a hard “no” on the House GOP bill, which was passed by the House on Thursday.
On Sunday, Paul said “the math doesn’t add up” and that language allowing the government to increase the debt ceiling by $4 trillion has to be removed because it is “not conservative.”
“There’s got to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong and wants to go in the other direction,” he said.
“Somebody has to stand up and yell, ‘The emperor has no clothes,’” Paul added. “And everybody’s falling in lockstep on this, pass the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ don’t question anything.”
Johnson has not said he would vote against the House bill, but he was similarly dismissive on Sunday.
“We need to be responsible, and the first goal of our budget reconciliation process should be to reduce the deficit,” Johnson said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. “This actually increases it.”
Johnson warned the bill is not going to get to Trump’s desk in its current form, expressing confidence there were enough votes in the Senate to stop it.
“I think we have enough [senators] to stop the process until the president gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Johnson said in remarks likely to be noticed in the White House.
Republicans are using special budgetary rules to move the Trump package through the Senate and around a Democratic filibuster. As a result, Democrats cannot block the bill given the GOP’s 53-47 seat majority. Every Democrat in the House opposed the package, along with two House Republicans.
If Johnson and Paul both opposed the bill but the other 51 Republicans in the Senate were unified in support, the bill could still inch through the Senate and even still lose another vote, with Vice President Vance positioned to a break a 50-50 tie in such a circumstance.
However, Johnson and Paul’s defiance likely signals problems for the bill from other conservative senators.
Even in the House, there were conservatives who reluctantly provided votes for the bill despite their worries it would add trillions to annual deficits.
“The consequences of this bill will add to the debt, and if we don’t get the bond market under control, then we’re going to be paying a whole lot of money,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a Freedom Caucus member, said after the vote. “We’re already close to a trillion dollars in debt payments now. That is a real concern. It ought to be a concern of more people in Washington that this is an unsustainable path. We’ve got to get that under control.”
At the same time, there is likely to be pressure in the Senate to make some changes to the bill that could actually increase the measure’s cost.
Reforms to Medicaid that according to the Congressional Budget Office could cause more than 7 million people to lose coverage have particularly caused heartburn.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has described cutting Medicaid as politically suicidal given the large number of GOP voters who enjoy Medicaid benefits. His concerns have been joined by some other Republican senators, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Reductions to green energy tax credits in the House bill have also won scorn from some GOP senators, indicating another battle in the Senate.
The House bill includes a big change to the ceiling for state and local taxes that was a big win for a group of New York House Republicans. It may be targeted in the Senate by Republicans seeking to pay for other changes to the bill, but that could cost the package votes in the lower chamber, where it would need to be approved again.
Both chambers are also dealing with some huge deadlines.
Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent has said the debt ceiling will need to be raised in July, which sets up one critical deadline for the package.
The “big, beautiful” bill’s key provisions are the extensions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Congress has essentially the rest of the year to get those extended and prevent a massive tax hike, raising the possibility that the debt ceiling portion of the bill could be cut off from the rest of the package. But getting a debt ceiling increase done separately may not be easy given the reluctance of many Republicans in both chambers to take such a vote.
Johnson in his remarks on Sunday was careful to compliment Trump’s work on the bill, but he also emphasized the need to reduce spending.
“I have nothing but support for what President Trump is trying to do, and I love the way he’s acting boldly and swiftly, decisively, to fix the enormous messes left by the Biden administration,” Johnson said. “We have to reduce the deficit, and so we need to focus on spending, spending, spending.”
For his part, Paul said it was critical for conservatives to stand up and be counted.
“Well, conservatives do need to stand up and have their voice heard,” he said. “This is a problem we’ve been facing for decades now, and if we don’t stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going.”
