Good Grief Camps Hope for the Next Generation. If We Stop, We Die: Ukraine’s Trauma.

Memorial Day is not a sale. It's not a barbecue. It's a debt. In this special episode, Paul sits down with Bonnie Carroll — Medal of Freedom recipient, veteran, and founder of TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) — for the 31st annual National Military Survivors Seminar and Good Grief Camp in Arlington. Bonnie has spent three decades building the community that catches Gold Star families when the country looks away, and she brings the kind of clear-eyed, hope-forward leadership the Angry Middle is starving for.

This conversation covers the ground most cable hits won't touch: the kids who grow up at TAPS and come back as mentors, the undiagnosed traumatic brain injuries showing up in autopsies of veterans lost to suicide, the moral injury still rippling out of Afghanistan, and the families on the front lines in Ukraine that TAPS helped stand up. Bonnie also explains why TAPS stays fiercely apolitical, what the Love Lives On Act would change for surviving spouses, and how she keeps going when the hits keep coming. If you've felt tired, isolated, or unsure how to honor this day, this is the briefing for you.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

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It's Memorial Day weekend. Americans are visiting Arlington, honoring generations who stepped forward with integrity, sacrifice, and honor. And days before that solemn marker, the President of the United States floated cash payouts to the domestic terrorists who violently attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Not a pardon. A payout. Paul Rieckhoff and the panel break down why this isn't a tantrum or a distraction — it's strategy. Call it Plan C: when the military won't move and ICE is uncertain, you incentivize the insurrectionists themselves. You signal to every desperate, despised foot soldier that violence against the government will be rewarded.

From there the conversation pivots to the other sucking chest wound of the week: House Republican leaders scrapping the Iran war powers vote because they didn't have the votes. Congressman Pat Ryan, a West Point grad and combat veteran, says out loud what veterans across the country are feeling — a generation of chicken hawks is sending other people's kids to die again, with Cuba teed up next and an aircraft carrier already in position. The panel maps the fracture lines: Massie carving out an anti-war, anti-tariff, pro-transparency lane; the manosphere abandoning the regime-change crowd; and the 45% of Americans who are independent and unaffiliated, looking for someone — anyone — who will speak for the angry middle.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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The pigs are at the trough. Trump's expected overseas real estate income has tripled to $430 million in his second term. Eric Trump is doing deals in China while Taiwan goes unmentioned and Iran keeps arming the people killing Ukrainians and Americans. Nvidia's CEO is being paraded around as the administration floats opening AI chip markets to Beijing. Don Jr. is tied to a drone company that just landed a Pentagon contract — inside a defense budget heading toward $1.5 trillion, a 40% spike with no apparent guardrails on family conflicts of interest. This isn't politics. It's a national security fire sale, and the Angry Middle smells it.

This solo briefing connects the dots the legacy press keeps siloed: the foreign income filings, the Saudi-linked licensing deals, the Pentagon trough, Kash Patel's reality-TV FBI tour, and the lesson from Hungary — that corruption, not ideology, is what finally moved Orban's voters. With 45% of Americans now independent and 60% of young people unaffiliated, the rigged two-party system is on notice. The question isn't whether people are furious. It's whether that fury gets channeled into November, into independent veteran candidates, and into the structural reforms — the Raskin list and beyond — that should already be law.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

• Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms
• Read more at Substack
• Support ad-free episodes at Patreon
• Connect: Instagram • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook

-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year.

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media.

And now part of the BLEAV network!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.