The conversation returns to its roots: one man at a microphone, facing a community wrestling with the cost of control. Peter walks listeners through a country where promises of “affordability” quietly harden into systems of dependency, where citizens are reminded that freedom fades fastest when government insists it can live life for you.

He exposes how expanding bureaucracy fails veterans, families, and taxpayers alike. The bitter reality confronts listeners: men and women who served return to red tape instead of gratitude, homelessness instead of honor, and a benefits system that moves slower than despair. Racial statistics surface, not as political weapons, but as evidence of operational collapse that demands accountability.

Callers push the conversation deeper, raising immigration pressures, youth disillusionment, collapsing urban promises, and a culture that teaches young adults to see themselves only as victims. One caller asks why God allows good people to die, and Peter answers from a place of faith, pointing toward a larger plan that human eyes cannot fully grasp.

What emerges is the portrait of a nation at a crossroads, spiritually strained and economically suffocated, yet still filled with citizens capable of reclaiming self-reliance, demanding election integrity, and restoring the dignity of personal responsibility. Peter closes with a charge anchored in discernment, courage, and an unyielding commitment to remain a voice for liberty.

Veterans Day is not a slogan. It is a standard. On today’s Next Steps Show, U.S. Army Iraq veteran and Combat News founder Sgt. Mark “Sarge” Mitchell joins Peter Vazquez to cut through the parade music and talk reality: God, Country, Family—and the duty we owe those who raised a right hand.

Sarge traces a soldier’s path from Fort Jackson to Iraq and reminds us that every veteran—combat or not—earned the title. We confront the culture that makes service “uncool,” the red tape that forces veterans to “ask permission” for basic care, and the perverse housing rules that exclude 100% service-connected vets while other programs enjoy guaranteed subsidies. Numbers matter: ~1,180 homeless veterans statewide in New York, ~17 veteran suicides per day, and 15% of earned benefits left unclaimed because no one told them how.

Callers challenge and sharpen the hour: a push to organize veterans’ advocacy with discipline, a retired lieutenant colonel on a society that prizes “for me” over “service before self,” and a reminder that military spouses carry a silent, heroic burden. The answer is not more pageantry. It is policy that works, led by boots-on-ground veterans who know the mission.

Want next steps? Start with peer support, direct access to care, and telling the truth—publicly. Join the weekly open forum on X, Wednesdays at 7 p.m., with @SGTMitchell88 and CombatNews.org. Ceremony is easy. Responsibility is victory.

The noise was deafening—half-truths dressed as compassion, headlines lit to flatter the left and bruise the right. On this episode, Peter Vazquez sits down with Eric Scheiner, Senior Director of MRCTV, to chart the maze and torch the fog. Scheiner walks through MRCTV’s receipts: lopsided shutdown coverage that framed Republicans as saboteurs while ignoring inconvenient Democratic votes; glamour shots for socialist darlings and vanishing acts for stories that cut the other way. The pattern is not subtle. It is systemic.

From New York City’s new hard-left mayor to Virginia races the press refused to scrutinize, the lesson repeats: when narrative rules, facts starve. Abroad, the persecution of Christians in Nigeria barely registers unless a disfavored figure mentions it—then the story becomes the messenger, not the murdered. At home, the same instinct targets faith, family, and anyone stubborn enough to ask for evidence.

Callers weigh in—from the Marine Corps’ costly victories to libraries captured by ideology—reminding us that institutions follow the money and the courage of those who show up. Scheiner’s closing counsel is simple and stern: search for truth, speak it, and audit your tools, including AI trained to echo the usual suspects.

This is a call to discernment and duty: God, country, family. Peace through strength. Citizenship over spectatorship. The fog lifts when men and women of conviction light the way.