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.

America says wait your turn. Take it. Peter Vazquez sits with Maát Reed, a woman who fought from foster care to the corner office and built On The Move Contracting Services the old way: service, discipline, and results. She turns MWBE certification into contracts, not talking points; uses APEX to cut through red tape; and proves that mentorship beats slogans because slogans do not build payrolls.

A caller throws heat: Do Black entrepreneurs truly network? Can women lead women without the drama? Maát answers with evidence—active directories, real partnerships, high standards, and a leader’s spine. She refuses the victim script and chooses motion over grievance. Where a door will not open, she finds another.

We go inside her Social & Economic Equity cannabis license, far from pop-culture haze: compliance, lending hurdles, medical relief for pain and sleep, and the hard math of running a lawful business. We confront the tired debate over “institutional” barriers with a sharper truth: jerks exist, but they do not get the last word. Tenacity, competence, and community do.

The verdict is blunt. Government can nudge. Freedom builds. Build anyway. Then reach back and lift the next builder.

The dust has not settled in New York. It shifted. On this episode, Peter Vazquez walks listeners through a post-election landscape where Monroe County’s old firewall collapsed, Greece and Perinton flipped, and City Hall doubles down on “progress.”

Callers light up the lines: Keith demanding Trump turn fully domestic and fix the kitchen table economy; John warning of nickel and dime governance; Lorraine pressing the information war the Right keeps losing; Charles pointing to turnout math and hard lessons ahead; Gary tracing thirty years of classroom conditioning and broken voter rolls.

Peter connects the dots: culture beats campaigns, schools precede city halls, and parties that ignore their own “Growth and Opportunity” playbook keep reliving the same losses. He uses National Men Make Dinner Day as a parable: lead at home first, model dignity, and rebuild the foundations of God, country, and family.

He contrasts poetic promises of “free” solutions with the prose of reality, crime, costs, and a city told “this democracy is yours,” though not for those who still believe virtue, work, and faith matter.

This is not despair. It is a summons. Turnout is a duty. Culture is the battleground. Leadership begins at the dinner table and radiates outward to precincts, school boards, and budgets. Truth has fallen in the streets; pick it up. Join The Next Steps Show and take your place in the rebuilding.

Election Day, 11/4/25. I sit with Monroe County GOP Vice Chair James VanBrederode to cut through the noise: victims sidelined, bad policy fueling poverty and crime, and media narratives smearing conservatives. We weigh Cuomo versus Mandami, when endorsements are strategy, SNAP with work as dignity, and rebuilding local leadership with candidates who serve. City races and courts matter; jurists of character and Marcus C. Williams offer real choices. Turnout lags, independents surge. Faith, family, freedom, duty. Vote by 9 P.M.

Henrietta stands at a turning point. Corey Brown, engineer and father, joins Peter Vazquez to confront failing leadership, rising assessments, and cultural decay with solutions, not slogans. He built schools that deliver 100% grade-level literacy and wants that same results-first mindset in town hall: real transparency through interactive budgets, resident alerts, and fast, bias-free permitting. Brown backs small business districts, early tax relief for startups, and fair, evenhanded code enforcement that targets blight, not homeowners.

He rejects Albany’s energy overreach, defends faith, family, and country, and defines diversity by merit and contribution. To restore roots, he proposes Victory Gardens, orchards, and food forests after Henrietta lost 250 acres of farmland, linking neighbors to land and lowering costs. He calls for Monroe County town cooperation, citizen participation, and a return to responsibility—where informed voters shape a free, orderly, and hopeful community.

America stands at a crossroads: liberty versus control, truth versus narrative. As federal distrust rises—nearly 70% of Americans say media bias threatens our representative republic—Peter Vazquez speaks with Joshua Philipp of The Epoch Times to expose foreign influence operations, media compliance, and the legal contours of the Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C. §§ 251–255), invoked only 30 times in U.S. history to restore order when states fail to act. Project 21’s Phil Bell follows, championing faith, family, free markets, and civic grit over dependency, reflecting the truth that only one in three Americans believe government makes life better. No excuses, no fear—build, serve, and guard the Constitution.