Farewell to Dolly Parton, Captain Brent Sadler on CIA Director’s Secret Moscow Flight, Cartels Driving Up Beef Prices | Your News Talk America | August 26, 2026

Your News Talk America

Show Notes for August 26, 2026

9:00 AM · Show Open: Canada and the Tariff War

Jake opens the show asking whether Canada is really an innocent victim in the tariff fight, or a protectionist economy playing both sides.

Canada keeps its own tariff barriers on U.S. steel, aluminum, and vehicles that do not meet CUSMA content rules.
Provincial liquor control boards restrict U.S. wine, beer, and spirits from reaching Canadian shelves.
Canada's supply management system props up dairy, chicken, turkey, and egg prices with tariffs as high as 245 percent on cheese and 298 percent on butter.
The Special Milk Class Permit Program discounts milk components for Canadian processors competing against U.S. imports.
More than half of Canadian cable and streaming content must be Canadian under CRTC rules, a mandate expanded by the 2023 Online Streaming Act.

Source: Trade.gov, Canada Trade Barriers

Panelist: David Hebert, PhD, economist at the American Institute for Economic Research.

9:20 AM · CIA Director's Secret Flight Into Moscow

Jake and his panelist dig into why CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly tried to slip into Russia aboard a military transport plane, and what it signals about Putin's escalating threats against NATO.

Putin's threats against NATO and member countries have been increasing.
The panel asks whether Iran sanctions, and the possibility of new Russia sanctions, were part of the discussion.

Panelist: Dr. John Marshall Callahan, professor at the Institute of World Politics and former deputy spokesperson at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

9:35 AM · Weight Loss Drugs and a Surge in Divorce

Audio courtesy of WDIV Detroit sets up a conversation about an unexpected side effect of the GLP-1 weight loss boom: marriages under strain.

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are delivering real medical benefits as more people lose significant weight.
Divorce attorney Liz Bass says she is seeing a surge of divorces tied directly to patients on GLP-1 drugs.
The panel asks whether some patients are unprepared for becoming more desirable to the opposite sex after losing weight.

Panelist: Liz Bass, partner at Berkbot, Bottger, Newman and Schein.

9:45 AM · Farewell to Dolly Parton

The show pays tribute to two losses in the entertainment world this week. Earlier in the week the country lost Coach and The Donna Reed Show star Shelley Fabares. Yesterday the country lost Dolly Parton, an American treasure.

In an era when fame and fortune often create distance between a star and the public, Dolly never acted special or privileged.
Jake says with certainty there will never be another star quite like her.

Panelist: None, DIAL producers and callers.

10:00 AM · Moscow Flight, Rubio's Warning, and 25 Years Since September 11

Captain Brent Sadler joins to unpack new video and flight data confirming a U.S. military transport landed in Moscow, plus what a possible resumption of military strikes could mean and what lessons the country should carry from September 11 as its 25th anniversary approaches.

Video captured a U.S. military transport plane landing at Moscow's Vnukovo airport Tuesday; the Kremlin reportedly claimed no knowledge of the flight.
Flightradar24 data shows the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III left Joint Base Andrews for Riga, Latvia, before continuing to Moscow.
The last direct U.S. registered flight to Russia from Europe came in January, when envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner met Putin in Moscow, according to Reuters.
The Department of War and the Kremlin stayed tight lipped about the trip.
Marco Rubio raised the possibility of resuming military strikes; the panel asks how likely that is, or whether targeted attacks will be needed to finish off the regime.
Sadler gives his assessment of what is being called Economic D-Day.
With the 25th anniversary of September 11 just 14 days away, the panel asks how the attacks reshaped American foreign policy, national security, and immigration enforcement, and how policymakers should respond to candidates who claim the U.S. deserved the attacks.
According to Israeli officials, Iranian agents were in the country in December and tried to kill Benjamin Netanyahu's son in Miami.

Source: Fox News

Panelist: Captain Brent Sadler, U.S. Navy (ret.), senior research fellow for Naval Warfare and Advanced Technology at the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation.

10:30 AM · The $40 Trillion Debt Balloon

Dr. Paul Mueller joins to explain why almost no one likes a $40 trillion deficit, yet nothing gets done about it.

U.S. national debt has passed a record $40 trillion, a milestone that reveals real vulnerabilities for the U.S. and global economy.
Debt first reached $1 trillion in 1941, then more than doubled from $20 trillion in 2017 to today's total over the past nine years.
The debt is projected to grow by $2.1 trillion in fiscal year 2026 alone.
Washington's inability to control the deficit stems in part from political incentives; cutting spending or raising taxes tends to be punished by voters.
Mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid consumes almost two thirds of the federal budget, and that share is set to grow as the median American age climbs from 35.6 in 2001 to 39.4 in 2025.
If the country wants fiscal hawks on Capitol Hill, Jake says voters need to send them there.

Source: The Conversation

Panelist: Dr. Paul Mueller, senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

10:50 AM · Mexican Cartels and America's Beef Prices

Ammon Blair joins to explain what Mexican cartels have to do with the price of a basic family staple.

Ground beef averaged $6.89 per pound in July, while steak hit a record $13.06 per pound.
Cartels are infiltrating Mexico's cattle industry by extorting ranchers, stealing livestock, corrupting records, and using fraudulent paperwork and black market cattle tags.
The USDA estimates roughly 800,000 cattle are smuggled from Central America into Mexico each year, creating an illicit market worth about $320 million.
The U.S. cattle herd has fallen by roughly 8.5 million head since 2019, tightening supply and pushing prices higher at the grocery store.
Blair warns that as Mexican cattle imports reopen, fraudulent records also create a biosecurity risk, particularly amid New World Screwworm concerns.
The Trump Administration announced last week it is reopening Mexico imports of ground beef; the panel asks what dangers come with that decision.

Source: The Federalist

Panelist: Ammon Blair, senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a 20+ year U.S. Border Patrol veteran.

11:00 AM · Trade War Fallout and the Treasury's Buyback Program

Judge Glock returns to react to the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and Canada and to explain the Treasury's debt buyback operations.

The panel revisits whether Canada is really an innocent victim in the tariff war, and whether the country is protectionist, socialist, or both.
Could Canada strike a serious trade deal with the EU, or could China fill any void the U.S. leaves behind?
Glock explains the Treasury's decision to double the size of some debt buyback operations to at least $4 billion.
The panel asks whether bond market volatility is a real concern, what separates long term and short term debt, and whether there is any improvement in housing.
When will Washington start prioritizing the deficit?

Panelist: Judge Glock, director of research and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. He was formerly senior director of policy and research at the Cicero Institute and a visiting professor of economics at West Virginia University.

11:30 AM · A New Department to Fight Government Fraud

Jonathan Dever joins to look at the Justice Department's newly launched fraud unit and what a ghost payroll actually is.

The Justice Department announced the launch of the National Fraud Detection Center, a prosecutor led, multi agency team built to investigate the most harmful actors defrauding federal programs.
DOJ says the center is necessary because agencies have lacked the ability to see fraud occurring across multiple programs, letting the same bad actors exploit several taxpayer funded systems undetected.
Dever argues outright criminal fraud is only part of the problem; government does not have to send money to a fake recipient for taxpayers to lose when billions are budgeted for positions, programs, and systems that are not producing what the public was promised.
What exactly is a ghost payroll?

Panelist: Jonathan Dever, former Ohio State Representative and former chairman of the Ohio House Financial Institutions, Housing and Urban Development Committee, retired attorney, founder and former CEO of Commercium Financial, current Chief Operating Officer of Proximity, Inc., and author of the forthcoming Grift trilogy.

11:50 AM · Salute the Troops

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Today's Salute the Troops honors the troops affected by that mission.

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