We continue today with chapter 19, the unreality of sin. The attraction of guilt is found in sin, not error. Sin will be repeated because of this attraction. Fear can become so acute that the sin is denied the acting out. But while the guilt remains attractive, the mind will suffer and not let go of the idea of sin. For guilt still calls to it and the mind hears it and yearns for it, making itself a willing captive to its sick appeal. Sin is an idea of evil that cannot be corrected and yet will be forever desirable. As an essential part of what the ego thinks you are, you will always want it. And only an adventure with a mind unlike your own could stamp it out through fear. The ego does not think it is possible that love, not fear, is really called upon by sin and always answers. For the ego brings sin to fear, demanding punishment. Yet punishment is but another form of guilt's protection for what is deserving punishment must have been really done. Punishment is always the great preserver of sin, treating it with respect and honoring its enormity for what you think is real you want and will not let it go. An error, on the other hand, is not attractive. What you see clearly as a mistake you want corrected. Sometimes sin can be repeated over and over with obviously distressing results, but without the loss of its appeal. And suddenly you change its status from sin to a mistake. Now you will not repeat it, you will merely stop and let it go, unless the guilt remains. For then you will but change the form of sin, granting that it was an error, but keeping it uncorrectable. This is not really change in your perception, for it is sin that calls for punishment, not error. The Holy Spirit cannot punish sin. Mistakes He recognizes and would correct them all as God entrusted Him to do. But sin He knows not, nor can He recognize mistakes that cannot be corrected. For a mistake that cannot be corrected is meaningless to Him. Mistakes are for correction, and they call for nothing else. What calls for punishment must call for nothing. Every mistake must be a call for love. What then is sin? What could it be but a mistake you would keep hidden, a call for help that you would keep unheard and thus unanswered? In time the Holy Spirit clearly sees the Son of God can make mistakes. On this you share His vision. Yet you do not share His recognition of the difference between time and eternity. And when correction is completed, time is eternity. The Holy Spirit can teach you how to look on time differently and see beyond it, but not while you believe in sin. An error, yes, for this can be corrected by the mind. But sin is the belief that your perception is unchangeable and that the mind must accept as true what it is told through it. If it does not obey, the mind is judged insane. The only power that could change perception is thus kept impotent, held to the body by fear of changed perception, which its teacher who is one with it would bring. When you are tempted to believe that sin is real, remember this. If sin is real, both God and you are not. If creation is extension, the Creator must have extended himself and it is impossible that what is part of him is totally unlike the rest. If sin is real, God must be at war with himself. He must be split and torn between good and evil, partly sane and partially insane. For he must have created what wills to destroy him and has the power to do so. Is it not easier to believe that you have been mistaken than to believe in this? While you believe that your reality or your brothers is bounded by a body, you will believe in sin. While you believe that bodies can unite, you will find guilt attractive and believe that sin is precious. For the belief that bodies limit mind leads to a perception of the world in which the proof of separation seems to be everywhere and God and his creation seem to be split apart and overthrown. For sin would prove what God created wholly could not prevail against it nor remain itself before the power of sin. Sin is perceived as mightier than God before which God himself must bow and offer his creation to its conqueror. Is this humility or madness? If sin is real, it must forever be beyond the hope of healing. For there would be a power beyond God's capable of making another will that could attack his will and overcome it and give his son a will apart from his and stronger. And each part of God's fragmented creation would have a different will opposed to his and an eternal opposition to him and to each other. Your holy relationship has, as its purpose now, the goal of proving this is impossible. Heaven has smiled upon it and the belief in sin has been uprooted in its smile of love. You see it still because you do not realize that its foundation has gone. Its source has been removed and so it cannot be but cherished a while before it vanishes. Only the habit of looking for it still remains.  You will not see sin long for in the new perception the mind corrects it when it seems to be seen and it becomes invisible. Errors are quickly recognized and quickly given to correction to be healed, not hidden. You will be healed of sin and all its ravages, the instant that you give it no power over your brother. And you will help each other overcome mistakes by joyously releasing one another from the belief in sin. In the holy instant you will see the smile of Heaven shining on both of you and you will shine upon each other in glad acknowledgement of the grace that has been given you. For sin will not prevail against the union Heaven has smiled upon. Your perception was healed in the holy instant Heaven gave you. Forget what you have seen and raise your eyes and faith to what you now can see. The barriers to Heaven will disappear before your sight for you who were sightless have been given vision and you can see. Look not for what has been removed but for the glory that has been restored for you to see. Look upon your redeemer and behold what he would show you in your brother and let not sin arise again to blind your eyes. For sin would keep you separate but your redeemer would have you look upon your brother as yourself. Your relationship is now a temple of healing, a place where all the weary ones can come and rest. Here is the rest that waits for all after the journey and it is brought nearer to all by your relationship. And from the workbook, Lesson 152 The power of decision is my own. No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects the state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants and no one dies without his own consent. Nothing occurs but represents your wish and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world complete in all details. Here is its whole reality for you and it is only here salvation is. You may believe that this position is extreme and too inclusive to be true yet can truth have exceptions? If you have the gift of everything, can loss be real? Can pain be part of peace or grief of joy? Can fear and sickness enter in a mind where love and perfect holiness abide? Truth must be all inclusive if it be the truth at all. Accept no opposites and no exceptions for to do so is to contradict the truth entirely. Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true and nothing else is true. This you have heard before but may not yet accept both parts of it. Without the first the second has no meaning but without the second is the first no longer true. Truth cannot have an opposite. This cannot be too often said and thought about for if what is not true is true as well as what is true then part of truth is false and truth has lost its meaning. Nothing but the truth is true and what is false is false. This is the simplest of distinctions yet the most obscure but not because it is a difficult distinction to perceive. It is concealed behind a vast array of choices that do not appear to be entirely your own and thus the truth appears to have some aspects that belie consistency but do not seem to be but contradictions introduced by you. As God created you, you must remain unchangeable with transitory states by definition false and that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations and conditions of the body and the mind in all awareness and in all response. This is the all inclusiveness which sets the truth apart from falsehood and the false kept separate from the truth as what it is. Is it not strange that you believe to think you made the world you see as arrogance? God made it not. Of this you can be sure. What can he know of the ephemeral, the sinful and the guilty, the afraid, the suffering and the lonely and the mind that lives within a body that must die? You but accuse him of insanity to think he made a world where such things seem to have reality. He is not mad. It only madness makes a world like this. To think that God made chaos contradicts his will invented opposites to truth and suffers death to triumph over life, all this is arrogance. Humility would see at once all these things are not of him. And can you see what God created not? To think you can is merely to believe and perceive what God will not to be. And what could be more arrogant than this? Let us today be truly humble and accept what we have made as what it is. The power of decision is our own. Decide but to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe and all you think you made will disappear. What rises to awareness then will be all that there ever was eternally as it is now. And it will take the place of self-deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the Father and the Son. Today we practice true humility abandoning the false pretense by which the ego seeks to prove it arrogant. Only the ego can be arrogant. But truth is humble in acknowledging its mightiness, its changelessness, and its eternal wholeness, all encompassing God's perfect gift, gift to His beloved Son. We lay aside the arrogance which says that we are sinners, guilty and afraid, ashamed of what we are, and lift our hearts in true humility instead to Him who has created us immaculate, like to Himself in power and in love. The power of decision is our own and we accept of Him that which we are and humbly recognize the Son of God. To recognize God's Son implies as well that all self-concepts have been laid aside and recognized as false. Their arrogance has been perceived and in humility the radiance of God's Son, His gentleness, His perfect sinlessness, His Father's love, His right to heaven and release from hell are joyously accepted as our own. Now do we join in glad acknowledgment that lies are false and only truth is true. We think of truth alone as we arise and spend five minutes practicing its ways, encouraging our frightened minds with this. The power of decision is my own. This day I will accept myself as what my Father's will created me to be. Then will we wait in silence, giving up all self-deceptions as we humbly ask for our self that He reveal Himself to us. And He who never left will come again to our awareness, grateful to restore His home to God as it was meant to be. In patience we wait for Him throughout the day and hourly invite Him with the words with which the day began, concluding it with this same invitation to yourself. God's voice will answer for He speaks for you and for your Father. He will substitute the peace of God for all your frantic thoughts, the truth of God for self-deceptions and God's Son for your illusions of yourself. Amen.


And so in conclusion, young ladies, let me again remind you, there's a psychological reason behind every crime. Now, once we have that reason, we have the motive. And once we have the motive, the finding and apprehension of the criminal is merely a matter of police routine. And as for murders, we find that the greater percentage result from the psychological reactions to frustrated ambitions, jealousy, and hate. I thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Danfield. This year college is offered by your family. The honor is all mine, Dean Chase. Now I believe Ms. Perpex and I will run along. Oh, ready, Rusty? Right, where do you dance? Goodbye, Dr. Danfield. Goodbye, Dean Chase. Yeah, how'd you like to meet your Rusty? Yeah, I... Listen, I have you autographed, Doc.  There you are. Oh, thank you. Danny? I asked you, Rusty, how was my lecture?  Why? What do they do? Well, they didn't hear a word you said. What makes you think that? Well, they were too busy watching that cute way you raise your eyebrows when you talk. Well then, how did you like my lecture? Well, I... Hello, Dan, you do look like Michael Dunn. Dr. Danfield, student of crime psychology, has many times provided the police with the solution to a battling crime. There's an interesting case ahead for the doctor today. We'll call it the case of a little meteorite who wanted to be a star. Hello, I'm disappointed in you, Rusty. You, of all people, not listening to my lecture. Oh, I've heard it before. What's going on? What a hotel. My room doesn't have a door. Still snowing on? What a hotel. My room doesn't even have running water. Of course not. Neither is mine. Rusty, is it still snowing? Just as hot as ever. Well, I guess that's it. This keeps up. We won't get out of this town for a couple of days. Well, at least not tonight. Oh, what do they do on a snowy night in Elmhurst? Oh, what are they doing? I've got a couple of good ideas. Mm-hmm. What brings them? Well, look, there must be a theater in this town. Oh, yes, there is. I noticed it this afternoon. Tonight, they're playing Vogueville. Vogueville? I thought Vogueville was dead. It is. Believe me. This is just some way resurrected. I think you know all about music, do you, Tiny? Sure, Slim. I know all about music. Okay, then. What is a scale? A scale? Yes, a scale. What is a scale? A fecalon of fish. No, no. A scale is a system of notes running from sea to sea. Well, doesn't a fish run from sea to sea? Forget about the fish, Tiny. A scale starts with dough. Oh, money. Oh, no, not money. Not money? Of course not. Dough is the first note of the scale. Now, I have to tell you. A scale is a system of notes running from sea to sea. Well, doesn't a fish run from sea to sea? Dough is the first note of the scale. Now after dough comes raised. Oh, raised after the money. Raised not after the money. Then she isn't the same way that I know. Those fellows are stopping at our hotel. Oh, yeah. They're leaving just because they're making money. After eight comes me. I thought so. Raised after the money and you have to raise. Not me. I didn't say me. Then what did you say? I said me. Oh, that's what I thought you said. I said me. Am I me? Am I spelled me in Italian? Now, why don't you speak English?  Then comes soul. Ah! Yeah, now that I've got that move, Tony, I'm supposed to tell you. Yes, but that's the only thing. Why do I have to give the poor guy a chance? I don't say no fish. Now, after soul comes large sea dough. Oh, no dough, yes. A scale has dough on the top and dough on the bottom. Dough on the top and dough on the bottom? Yes.  Sure. All right, then. What is a scale? A piece of apple. Why did you stink tonight? What do you mean me? Come on, let's take another bow. I can smell you clear down a forest. Oh, yeah? Hey, another bow. Won't you ever learn to wait for laughs? Me wait? Why, you jumped all over? Oh, hiya, peaches. Hi, Tony.  Oh, I was okay, but trim here, brother.   I can find a better comic than you down at the zoo. Boys, boys, what do you want to do? Break up a good act? Oh, nuts. I'm going to change. Yeah, me too. Well, I got a song this thing. See you after, Tony. Yeah, see you after. Brother! That wasn't for peaches. I quit the act right now. I may do it anyway. That's another thing. That peaches thing. Well, she's a troublemaker. I'm warning you. Don't you say anything about peaches? Well, Bob, she's the reason for all of it.  If it wasn't for her, we'd have...  You slap me. Next time, I'll knock your teeth out.  In a moment, we'll return for the second act of danger Dr. Danfield. But first, now back to Michael Dunn for the second act of danger Dr. Danfield. Sure that was. No wonder Vaudeville did.  Oh, they weren't so bad. The tall ones kind of cute. I guess they'd be alright if they had some decent material. Well, the picture wasn't bad till the evening wasn't entirely wasted anyway. Would it ever stop snowing? I guess not. Well, here's the hotel. And what a hotel. Must have been built before this country had ended. Well, at least it's a roof over our heads. These gas lights really get me. Dan, that was screened. You see the cutest things, Rusty. No. Come on, it came from up there. Sounds like our landlady, Mrs. Main. She's got a voice like an air raid alarm, too. Come on in here, Rusty. Mrs. Main, what is it? What's the matter? Dr. Danfield, I'm so glad you're here. Oh, this is terrible, terrible, terrible. What is? Look. Dan on the bed. Yes, as I see, our little Vaudeville friend. The fat one. And he's as gold and stiff as an iceberg. Oh, stop it, Mrs. Main. Try and get a hold of yourself. I need a cigarette. Rusty, don't light it. This room is full of gas. Yes, he's dead, all right. I'm fixated. There must be a leak in the light. Oh, dear, oh, dear, the poor man. Poor man. Oh, Mrs. Main, how did you discover this? I was coming up to deliver this telegram. All the actors stopped here. I thought it might be important. A telegram for Tiny Hill? One of us for the both of them. Actors always get telegrams. Oh, poor, poor man. Mrs. Main, Mrs. Main, please. Coming down the hall, I smell the gas. Actors are such nice people. I knock on the door. There wasn't any answer, so I opened the door and it comes in. And there it was, just as stiff and cold as an iceberg. Oh, tell me, Mrs. Main. Tiny's parking is slim. Slim miles, is he around? Oh, wonderful man. A fine actor. I saw him down to California. He gave me a ticket. I know, but have you seen him tonight? Yes, come on. Come on. I don't know what I said. That's it. That's it. That's it. Wonderful man seems to be staggering in. Yeah. Oh, hello, folks. This is your friend yours?  Bring him right in, will you, officer? Okay, okay. Yep. Oh. You know, with his load, that makes two roads you carry him. That's Jones. Now, don't anybody like a match. You, uh... You don't like a match. You ain't his partner, young fella. I know he ain't. I've seen him down to Calvin. Well, he'd give me a ticket. No, no, no. His partner is over there. Oh, oh, oh. Sleep, man. No, dead. What? What's that? Who's dead? Tiny is slim. Can't do this to me. Tiny can't do this to me. I'm afraid it's already been done. Tell him there's a telegram for you. I wish you'd please open it. Telegram? Uh, give it to him, will you, Mrs. Main? Here. Um, my agent. He's got an opening for us in Hollywood. In the picture. Tiny. Tiny, what did you do it? Oh, no. No, you can't be dead. It's you pretty hard, doesn't it, Slim? Tiny. Tiny, I loved you like a brother. Now, what's gonna happen to me? You'll never get another partner like Tiny. Why? Why did he do it? Oh, you seem to be pretty sure he was a suicide, don't you, Slim? Of course it was. What's going on in here? Where's Tiny? Over there on the bed, Miss Darling. On the bed? What's the matter with him? He's dead. Oh, the poor old man. He's dead. Oh, no. No, not Tiny. I'm afraid he is, Miss Darling. No. Oh. No. Oh. Quick. Put him on the mattress. Oh, Miss Darling, please. Please, try and get a hold of yourself. Tiny, I... Oh, rest will help me. Will you please take Miss Darling to her room? Of course, Danny. The rest of you, it better go to your rooms. And Mrs. May, lock the door, please, and give the key to the chief. No, no, no, no, no, Sean. She better give it to you. No, I'm not much good in investigating things. All right, if you wish, Chief. Come on, Miss Darling. Rusty? No, no, honey, don't cry. I'm sorry, I can't help it. Tiny was nuts, but he was a good guy. Yes, yes, yes. Help her to a chair, will you, Miss Darling? There. There you are, peaches. Well, nobody knew what a good guy he was. Nobody. Dr. Denman, you just got to find the guy who killed him. Oh, and you think he was murdered? Of course he was murdered. Tiny didn't want to die. Can't have everything to live for. I'm afraid, Miss Darling, that everything points to an accident. Well, it could have been one of several things. Tiny could have come home intoxicated, for instance. Nobody was. I met him after the show. We had one drink with Slim and then came straight to the hotel. Tiny was tired. Went to bed early. Well, there's still the possibility of a leak in the gas fixer. I don't believe it. Well, of course I can settle that with further investigation. Oh, by the way, Miss Darling, just why are you so upset over Tiny's death? If you can't guess, I'm not going to tell you. Oh, that's easy, Dave. If you think Tiny was murdered, just who do you think did it? That's something I'm not going to tell you either. This is something I'm going to settle in my own way, myself. You know, I'm not a bit satisfied. This was an accident, Rusty. Well, it looks simple enough to me. What's worrying you? Well, Miss Darling, for one thing, and this light fixture for another, doesn't sound reasonable for it to spring a leak all of a sudden. Well, gas will leak if there's a hole in it. Yes, if there's a hole. You know, well, hand me a match, Rusty, will you? Here's my lighter. Thank you. Now, if there is a leak, it will burn when I hold the flame around. This fixture is up high. Let me reach it. There. Now, you see, Rusty? No gas leaking out of this thing. What do you mean? That means somebody turned it on. You better have this valve checked for fingerprints, Rusty. This has to be either suicide or a peaches his right. It's murder. Uh, pass Mr. Miles and meet Dr. Danfield. That big one's for you, Slim. I received a report on the fingerprints, Mrs. Maine. Fingerprints? Yes, on the gas valve in your room, Slim. The only ones on it were yours, Mrs. Maine. Mine? Yes.  When you entered that room, did you turn off the gas? Of course I did. Will you mind passing Mr. Miles the codfish cake stuff, then? Certainly, yes. Here you are, Slim. Now, Mrs. Maine, was the gas lighted when you entered the room? Of course it wasn't. But gas cost money if it's lit or not. I smelled it, so I knew it was on, so I turned it off. And, uh, how may I ask, did you turn it off? You're quite, uh, short. Well, I climbed up on a chair. That's how I turned it off. I see. A lighter counts for Mrs. Maine's fingerprints, then? Yes, it does not, though. Oh, then what, Mrs. Maine? Well, then I took a look at Mr. Corbett. Sorry, I was dead and began screaming like any respectable woman would. Would you mind passing Mr. Miles the big bean's doctor? Yeah, yeah, it was pleasure. Here you are, Slim. Thanks. Actors are the hungriest, people. Now, peaches, are you ready to tell me why you were broken up over Tiny's death? I-I love the guy. Oh, I see. Yeah, him and me was going to get married. Did you know about that, Slim? Ah, she's talking through her head. That's the first time I heard of him. Oh, Tiny was playing her all right, but...  What?   Doctor, would you please pass Mr. Miles the brown bread? Yes, yes, of course. Go on, Mrs. Darling. Just to prove that we was going to get married, Tiny went out and sat down payment on the farm just three days ago. You mean you and Tiny were going to quit your business? Sure we was. And Tiny was going to tell you to take the old act and go to a nantucket and a buck. Oh, my, what language? Slim, what about you? Yeah, what about me? Well, judging from your condition last night, you'd spent quite a spongy evening. Tell me, did you and Tiny ever have any argument? Oh, sure we did. And what act doesn't? We had one yesterday in fact. Oh, serious? Nah, just the usual stuff. We made up. Him and pictures of me went in and had a drink together. Tiny was tired, so he'd come up here to the hotel. Now, some of the boys at the bar said that you were telling them that Tiny, uh, spun. Nah, they got it all wrong. But Tiny was the greatest comic that ever lived. Uh, Doctor. Uh, yes, Miss. Oh, would you mind passing Mr. Miles the Apple Pie? Yes, yes, of course. Here you are. Thanks. Uh, Mrs. Mayne. Yes, Doctor Danfield. Would you mind passing me the nuts, please? In a moment we'll return for the third act of Danger, Doctor Danfield, but first... And now back to Michael Dunn for the third act of Danger, Doctor Danfield. Danny, what a beautiful day. Yes, yes, isn't it, Rusty? The snow has stopped snoring, the wind has stopped blowing. Oh, by the way, did I tell you that Elmhurst was my hometown? You know, I used to live on Elizabeth Street. Do you mean that people are actually born here? That is not very funny, Rusty. I'm sorry. Dan. Hi. My hands are cold.  Oh, Dan! I'm sorry, honey. I was kidding. Here, let me blow on them. What are we coming way out here for? Oh, I thought you'd like to play a ride. Oh, I do, but what are we coming way out here for? Well, I can't quite reconcile it. They think that Peacock has made it. She and Tiny were going to be married. Fine, Dan. Oh. Now, if we're holding this, won't it get cold again? Sure. Look, no hand. Oh, well, a horse probably knows the way anyway. What's the matter with Peacock and Tiny getting married? What's driving way out here got to do with it? Well, despite the fact that Peacock's kind of rough, she's a very beautiful girl, and strictly broadway, if you know what I mean.  Because she loves him? Well, if she does, she's got more character than she's shown her so far. After coming out here, I... Well, I want to check up on that farm story, see if they really did make a down payment. And, incidentally, while we're on that subject, this must be the place. Hmm. Look at it, Dan. A rocky and wind-down it is. Yes. Hold it there, Doven. Hello? Howdy. What do you want? I want to talk to you in a minute. Hey, Dan, it's the policeman. In miles, that's nice. Yes, that's nice. Hey, what do you want? Oh! Hey, you, Dr. Dainty. Yes, yes, Chief. I just wanted to ask you a few questions. Yeah, go ahead, Chief. Tell me, do you own this place? I sure do. Did, uh... Did Tiny Corbett and Peacock's darling make a down payment on it? I mean, before Tiny died, of course. Ah, yes, Dag. Remember, it did. Now, I suppose you'll never sell the place. Or do you suppose he went and committed suicide? He probably came out and looked at the farm when it wasn't smelling. You, uh... You believe it was suicide? Of course you do. Of course you do.  Okay, Chief, that's all. Oh, uh... If you're in town tonight, you better drop by the hotel. I might just happen to be able to close the case. A closed case, huh? Yeah. Well, it was just a shame to you. I'd rather get open one. I can joke, sir. See you later, Chief. Goodbye, sir. Get up there, Doven. Well, then, you didn't learn much there. Oh, but I did, Rusty. Yes, what? You were right. She really loved the guy. Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. Come on, Rusty. I want to take one more look at Tiny's room. Oh, right, but I... Close the door, will you, please? Sure. Dan, what are you going to find? Hey, take a look at this confection. The gas, Jim? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look. Oh! Jokey! Okay. Okay, it's off. That's all the Rusty needs to tighten up. What is that prove? I've noticed the handle on this valve. One of those one-sided kind. It sticks straight up when it's closed. Well, for what? So I think we'd better have another little talk with Mrs. Maine. Well, here's the good lady in person. Well, what are you two doing in here? Having no respect for the dead? Enough to want to avenge his murder. Murder? Oh! Mrs. Maine, just where did you find that telegram that came for Tiny and Slim? I didn't find it. It was delivered. When? Around supper time. And, uh, did you keep it in your possession until you gave it to Slim? Of course not. Put it on the hall table where I always put telegrams. Well, honey, do you know who, uh, someone else saw it with you? Well, how do I know? They could have. It was laying there long enough. I see. Now, once more. Exactly what did you do when you went to the boy's room? I already told you. I kicked his clothes out of the way.  His clothes? What clothes? His clothes. Mr. Corbett. It is in the middle of the floor, at least it cold was. Had to kick it out of the way so as it could get the chair and the gas jet. I see. That's well, Mrs. Maine. Well, please notify all your other guests to meet me here at the supper. Now, it's time for a tiny at a good old-fashioned wake. I don't know what they want to do. Are they all here, Rusty? I think so. Let's see, Slim. This is Miles. Peaches and, oh yes, the Chief. Well, glad you could come, Chief. By the way, is there anything you would like to say? No, don't go ahead, sir. It's your party. Thanks. I don't see why you had to drag everybody down. Quiet, Peaches. Dad knows what he's doing. Now, as we all know, tiny was killed, asphyxiated by gas escaping from the gas jet. Sure, we know. A leak. But it wasn't a leak, Slim. Somebody turned the gas on. Poor man. He must have come home and turned on the gas and forgot the light. Oh, that was it. Must have been. Tiny was drunk. He'd had... Didn't you say he had just one drink, Slim? Well, yes. But human peaches probably stopped in somewhere else and had some more. I could be. But how do you account for the fact that tiny's coat was lying directly under the gas jet when Mrs. Maine came in? His coat. Tiny? Yes.  I don't know why. Well, let me give you my idea. Let's suppose Tiny did have a few more drinks. He comes in pie-eyed, takes off his coat, and hangs it up on the gas jet. The gas jet is loose. The weight of the coat gradually turns it on. Now, as the handle on the valve comes down under the weight of the coat, the coat slips off and falls to the floor. Tiny is asleep. The room fills with gas. Tiny dies. Oh, the poor, poor man. Danny, if you say it was an accident. For us to, it was murder. But you said... I said it was murder, Slim. He couldn't possibly have hung his coat on that jet. Why? Why couldn't he? Tiny wasn't tall enough, Slim. To do a trick like that would take a man as tall as... Well, let's say a man as tall as you. In a moment we return for the conclusion of Danger Dr. Danfield, but first, now back to Michael Dunn for the conclusion of Danger Dr. Danfield. Now, let's get away from that town, even if you were born there. No more rundown hotels or gas lights for me. Say, Rusty, look out the window. Isn't New England beautiful? It's a white and clean under a new blanket of snow. Get him waxing poetical again. Ah, it's lovely, Rusty. Lovely. Then, how did you ever guess it was murder instead of an accident? Hmm? Oh, one little mistake. A murderer always makes at least one, you know. What was that? A sack of other fingerprints on the gas jet. Slim had wiped them off. But how were they proven? Well, he and Tiny had used that room for about a week, so his fingerprints would have to be there under Mrs. Mayne. I see. But how did you ever figure out it was Slim? Well, if you had listened to my lecture, Rusty, you wouldn't have to ask. Well, what has your lecture got to do with it? I said there was a psychological reason behind every crime, and once we had that reason, we had the motive. Well, I know, but what was the motive in this case? Frustrated ambition, jealousy, and hate. Like any good Greek, you will always have a word for it. You see, Rusty, Slim saw the telegram lying on the whole table and read it. He knew about the offer to make pictures in Hollywood, but Tiny was sick and tired of Slim's bullying. He had already made up his mind to buy a farm, quit show business, marry peaches, and settle down. Now, Slim was jealous of Tiny. He secretly knew that Tiny was the best part of the act. He knew that Hollywood wouldn't buy the act without Tiny. So his ambitions to become a movie star were thwarted and frustrated. Well, how about the hate part of it? Well, wouldn't you hit a guy who did that to you?  Hmm, yes, I would.  I see. Uh, then... Yes, Rusty? What's a scale? A scale, my dear Rusty, is what a poet starts with when he wants to write a song, a system of notes which when properly welded together and combined with beautiful words and sung with, say, a voice such as mine, makes the beautiful ladies fall right into our lap. Oh, pussies, oh, damn. You know, I was afraid you were going to say it was a frical on a fish.


I'm a university distinguished professor at the Ohio State University in the School of Earth Sciences and in the Bird Polar Research Center. You can go to the polar regions either by going to higher level of latitude or by going to high elevation. So for the last 35 years we've been perfecting the drilling of glaciers above 20,000 feet in remote parts of the world. And quite a challenge, it takes a special team to do that and it takes special lightweight equipment to get it up to 20,000 feet to drill the cores. And a number of years ago we developed the first solar powered ice core drill because if you go to the tropics and you go 20,000 feet you have over half the Earth's atmosphere below you. So every panel works 20 to 30 percent above manufacturer specs. And it's a beautiful source of power. There's no pollution at the drill site. And the only thing you have to worry about is that in the tropics drilling starts when the sun comes up. You reach your maximum drilling rate at noon and you've got to make sure you get to drill up before sun sets in the evening. Keeping the ice frozen. I mean if you're working over in the Himalayas, you're in a very remote part of the world that the logistics, food supplies, medical kits, we have to take in everything so our team is self-sufficient. You couldn't do it without our colleagues in China that help us arrange what we need in the way of logistics. But if you're drilling, the highest we've drilled is 23,500 feet. The top of the Himalayas is a place called Dasupu, wonderful history of the monsoon records. You can't get that out of the polar regions. But getting up there, living up there for six weeks is a real challenge. And then keeping those cores frozen because we use Sherpas to backpack them from the high elevation down to the edge of the glacier. But even when you get to the edge of the glacier, you're still 3,000 or 4,000 feet below where the trucks are out on the plateau. And you've got to transfer that to special insulated boxes. And in that part of the world, we put those boxes on yaks that carry the cores down to the trucks and valleys below. And we drill five to 600 meters of core and you can get two of these insulated boxes on a yak. You can get about 12 meters of core on one yak. So if you're transporting 500, 600 meters, you've got to have a whole herd of yaks. And the yaks are kind of like cats. They got a mind of their own. So you're trying to move them down to where the trucks are. And then once you get them to the trucks, there's a dash across the plateau to Lhasa where there are freezers where we can divide our samples between our Chinese colleagues and then we air cargo them to Beijing, go through Chinese customs, then air cargo them to Chicago in the US and go through US customs and then we put them on freezer trucks and ship them down to Ohio State University. They're usually in transit for a month after we leave the field site. It's a long story. It actually is a remarkable story in many ways. I grew up in a small town called Gasway in West Virginia, which is a coal mining state in the US. Very poor family. No one in my family had ever gone to college. But I was very interested in science. I knew that when I was in sixth grade. And so there was a group of us, about eight of us that hung out together. We competed with each other and all eight of this group went on to go to college. And we got scholarships to go and went to Marshall University and I started out in physics because I knew I wanted to be a scientist, but I wasn't sure what kind of scientist. But that kind of is the basis for any science. And then when I was a junior, I took a geology class and I really liked it because you could see it dealt with big processes and you could see them. And you wouldn't have to spend the rest of your life in an office building. You go out in remote parts of the world and so I really, really liked that. And then when I graduated from there, I went to Ohio State University to study cogeology because I grew up in West Virginia and as a young person, I was looking for a job, a good paying job. And I was at Ohio State for about a quarter and I got a message that there was an opening in what was then the Institute of Polar Studies to look at ice cores. And I'd had geomorphology and I knew that glaciers only cover 10% of the planet and they're in places where people don't live. So how could they possibly be important? But if you took the research position, you could get your master's degree faster and therefore get out and get your job faster. So I took it and it took about a year and a half of working with ice cores to start to realize what their potential was. And so it's not like I started out in that direction. And so I always tell my students that, you know, and it's true. Most of them come, families want them to get a good education and to get a good job to have a secure life. But I tell them if they're really lucky in this process, they will find their passion, the thing that they'll get up for every morning and go to work. And once you find your passion, you don't worry about anything else because it takes care of itself. I made my first trip to Antarctica in 1973 as a graduate student and the following year it's kind of interesting that the way things come to be because all the work at the time I started on ice cores was being done in the polar regions in Greenland and Antarctica. And all the pioneers in our field were alive and I had a chance to meet them when I was a student. And it was in 1973 that there were so many people working in Antarctica and in Greenland that came up with this idea that wouldn't it be great to have a record somewhere in between to compare the, look at the connectedness between Antarctica, climate from Antarctica and climate from Greenland. And so there was a geographer who had made an atlas of the glaciers of the world. And he had all these aerial photos and in these photos we found this tropical glacier called Kalkia in the Andes of Peru, 18,670 feet and took the photos to what was then the polar programs because they were the only agency at the time that funded ice core research, made a case to the program manager that wouldn't it be great to look at something in the low latitudes to connect to the high latitudes. And he lessened and he said afterwards his name was Jay Zawalli, he said, you know Lonnie that sounds really interesting but you know I can't fund it because we can't fund anything that's not north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle. So in 73, 74 in the winter I went to Antarctica and back then they had telexes and in February I got a telex from Jay Zawalli saying, quote, that I have funded all of my real science projects and I have $7,000 left, what could you do on that tropical glacier for $7,000? And I tell the expert, hey, I think we could get there. And in the summer of 74 we made our first excursion to Peru up in the Andes, found this ice cap and that opened up a whole new area of research, not quickly I might add, because it was clear there was a record there but we still had to find the funding to be able to go there and being young and naive I thought we would just make a contract with Approving Air Force and bring the drill and the generator from Antarctica and we would fly the helicopter up through the Andes and get it up on the ice field, get the drill out, drill the cores, put them into the helicopter and fly them out. That was a great idea but when we got a contract and we actually tried this in 1979 and we had to fly the helicopter 13 hours to get it into the region and there were no airports up there so we had to bring the fuel in by train on a boxcar and we staged out over the back of a small town in Sequani in the Andes but when you got the helicopter up to 19,000 feet it would, I mean even in beautifully blue skies it would just fall because there were updrafts and downdrafts and there was not enough air to support it and eventually the pilot said no we can't do this and so I mean it was my first really big failure I mean I've been funded by NSF to do this, I was told by the pilots they could do it but in the end they couldn't and there was a two day journey from the end of the nearest road to this ice cap and so you can only get there either walking or using horses and the drills from Antarctica were too big, the generator, no way you could put that on a horse. So that year we actually went to the ice cap and we sampled down a crevasse, got a record going back 25 years which we published in Science and but it's one of, it's those things in life where you come to a point where is this possible? I mean you know and this was the first time we thought about using solar power because a panel, a solar panel can go into special made bags that can be put on horses and you can, it's just you need 40 panels, you get as many horses as you need to transport them to the edge of the ice and so we came up with this idea and we took panels there and sure enough they performed 20 to 30 percent above specs of manufacturers but of course we had to get reviewed for getting money to build a solar power drill and this is 1983 and solar power was just coming on line and so Willie Dansgard who was one of the pioneers in our field reviewed the proposal and he sent me a copy of the review he sent to NSF, National Science Foundation and it was very short, it said the Kalkaya ice cap is too high for human beings and the technology does not exist to drill it therefore you should not fund this project and fortunately there was a program manager who said he was interested in monsoons and I'd got his PhD studying monsoons and he said well maybe Willie Dansgard is right but we won't know unless we try and so we built this solar power drill we tested on a parking garage in Columbus Ohio we brought him blocks of ice and we were able to drill through the blocks of ice looked like it would work but two weeks before we left on the expedition to drill there I passed the MBA exam Fisher School of Business because this if it failed it would be my second failure and I figured I'd need a new career life and I really liked Willie Dansgard I had read all of his papers when I was a student and so we went down in 1983 and we succeeded in not just drilling one quart of bedrock but two and bringing back 6,000 bottled water samples because we hadn't devised a technology to keep the ice frozen but we could cut it prepare it in field and carry it out with horses and we brought it out and one set of those samples I sent to Willie Dansgard who analyzed them and it was such a fantastic record that from that day on he was our greatest supporter on why we needed to drill in the high mountains around the world but I'm a very firm believer in a 10,000 hour rule that if you want to be an expert in anything you got to be willing to put in 10,000 hours which turns out to be about eight and a half years of your life and I did that on the Calcaya ice cap between the time of the concept and before we actually succeeded to drill it in 1983 using solar power so so and so the other thing I always tell my students it's very important at an early age to fail because it's in failure that you you're really pushed to think about you know is this what you really want to do and to think about okay how can I accomplish it you know success you don't learn that much failure you learn a lot and so and it's good to do it when you're young because no one knows who you are and if you fail yeah it's a big deal to you but it's probably not for the rest of the world so that that's kind of how we we got started in that ice core opened up a whole new field and we've now drilled in 16 countries including Antarctica and Greenland we've run I just finished my 58th expedition to New Guinea no other time in human history would it be possible for one human to do this because we move six tons of equipment to these countries and go through customs and get them up to these remote areas and get the ice core back frozen and so it's amazing I would never thought when we started out that this would be possible but now we have an archive we have over 7,000 meters of core stored at minus 35 degrees and our freezers at Ohio State it's the only tropical collection on earth and no one has duplicated this because of the team it's really comes down to people the team that we were able to put together that they know what they're getting into and it's tough working at above 20,000 feet and but they're marvelous records 58 expeditions over four decades what changes have you seen well the the glaciers again when we started in the 70s you know there no there was no discussion of global warming in fact they were talking about the coming Ice Age because there had been crops failures and in what was then the Soviet Union because there had been some cold winters and so we didn't go there to look at changing climate as much as to understand how a tropical glacier works versus those in the polar region but and going back to these places we were able to document the changes that taking place and what was really incredible was the initially how slow the glaciers were retreating and then how they have accelerated coming forward in time and in such that many of the sites that we drilled early in my career have disappeared and you cannot go get those records now and therefore the archive we have I mean we cut our cores in half and half of them go in the freezer for the future because we know there'll be new techniques there'll be new ideas but you're not going to be able to go out and recover an ice core from the summit of Kilimanjaro in Africa because the ice is not going to be there and so I think that has a when I look into the future and have 100 years from now when all forgotten I think what will be remembered are that the quality of the records that have been obtained because those isotope values those dust measurements those chemistry measurements they're not going to change the interpretation of those may change but those records will be there and then the archive for future generations to work on to me is it will be a good legacy as time proceeded it became very clear that especially the lower elevation glaciers by that I mean glaciers at 5,000 meters 18,000 feet we're going to disappear first and so getting those archives has has really been it's in recent years have become almost a salvage mission when we went to New Guinea I mean in the center of this tropical rainforest I mean this is middle of nowhere and that it was to capture what's left we should have drilled there in 1935 because we have some old photos there's a lot of ice there but but we we got a record at 32 meter cores to bedrock and they have a marvelous record in them but they they won't be there my best guess is that glacier will disappear in 2017 three years from now it's I mean these glaciers it's not just their area that's ranking they're no longer accumulating on top they're they're losing mass from the surface down and to me this is a this one of the problems of using satellites to measure glaciers is that you're not really change measuring the volume change of that ice and yet if you are in the Himalayas where you have millions of people downstream depending on water those glaciers will appear to be there on a satellite image but they are thinning vertically one year there'll be glaciers and the next year if that glacier will be gone on Kilimanjaro those ice fields are thinning in about half a meter a year from the top down and so when the fewer longer glacier if you're looking at it from the satellite in 2017 they'll appear to be a glacier and 2018 just be bedrock because it's it's it's going from the top down so they I think the implications for water supplies in these remote areas I mean if you go to a country like Peru 70% of the tropical glaciers on earth are in Peru and the Andes are Peru here you have a country of 34 million people over 50% live in the desert on the west coast of Peru depending on rivers that originate in the glaciers up in the Andes 76% of their electricity comes from hydro power the water coming from those glaciers they have a very distinct wet and dry season so that you know glaciers are kind of like an insurance policy they accumulate snow during wet seasons and wet periods and then they melt and release that during droughts and dry seasons but they're getting smaller so their ability to do that becomes less and less so this has tremendous implications for people who live in areas that depend on those water resources because downstream that water goes for those hydroelectric plants it goes in the irrigation goes in the municipal water supplies for cities and you go to a city like Lima Peru that have 15 million people in it they are looking at putting in tunnels through the Andes to capture water now that goes into the Amazon and bring it back to the west coast for water supply for people so the implications of the change are are tremendous in these areas and I think in the tropics there's that there's where you're going to see the first real impacts on people because the people are living right downstream below the glaciers and their large numbers of people living downstream so what's happening to those glaciers become extremely important when I first started working on this and seeing the system change I think it was 1992 when I first testified at US Senate on climate change and back then I talked about prevention so that time has come and gone I think now it's the mitigation the adaptation or the suffering and so we're as we go further down this road our options are becoming less and less of how we deal with these these changes if you're working in Tibet there are 46,000 glaciers there and you take a river like the Indus River it flows through China through Pakistan and through India all nuclear power countries all depend on that river for its water supplies so these are these are places of geopolitical hot spots in the future you look at population projections for the world by 2050 50% of the world's population will live in mega cities in southern China and India so that water becomes more and more important as we go forward in time it's interesting that you've studied cold geology and also business and then going to climate science yeah there's a common I guess argument against to cast out on climate science is that climate scientists are only agreeing with the human cause global warming because they're in it for research I have never understood that argument anyone who's in science will tell you up front it's not where you go to make money science is it's where you if you have a passion you go there to seek that past and fulfill a drive that you have within you and but I must say that I I've come to understand skeptics and climate change much better because of a incident that happened now two and a half years ago two and a half years ago I should go back and say 20 years ago I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma and because I I'd have a hard time breathing when I'm doing exercise and and that's always an issue when you go to high elevation but the doctor told me that the good thing about it was that there if you had to write medicine there's nothing in the world you couldn't do so you know I'm climbing mountains drilling ice cores and and putting getting harder and harder to work at those high elevations and when I came back from Peru in 2009 I went to the Ross heart hospital and I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and my cardiologist looked at me he said Lonnie he said you know in your future you have one choice and one choice only and that is you're gonna have to have a heart transplant and I looked at him and I said you're crazy I've been climbing the highest mountains in the world for about 63 years old at the time and I I fought this guy every step of the way for for two years I mean I was running expeditions to New Guinea and I was in the Alps drilling in 2011 and in one day I couldn't get up from my tent to go to the drill site I couldn't breathe and I came down and I ended up getting out of Italy back to the Ross heart hospital at Ohio State University went right in the emergency room they put me in put put me initially on a heart pump and then they had to put in an L VAD system which is a turbine that was invented six years earlier that goes into your old heart and you you have a computer on the outside and you have a drive line and during the day you run on batteries and at night you plug in to the wall and six months later there was they found a what turned out to be a pretty good match and I got a heart transplant one year after that I was in in 2013 I was at 20,000 feet and West Central Tibet and doing what my passion is recovering these records but I use the story because I believe that I had two things two options the reason I didn't want to believe that was congestive heart failure is that if you put that on your medical form there's no way you'd be permitted to go climb the next mountain to run the next project so I'd rather believe that it was asthma and but the fact is at the end of the day we deal with what is and what is was that I had to have a heart transplant and when it comes to climate change we will deal with what is because the system is changing and we will have to deal with it but unfortunately as human beings we don't usually do these things until we have no choice and and then sometimes we can still deal with it it may be touch and go for a while but things can get better on the other side first of all yeah we work with ice cores and we have now an 800,000 year history of CO2 methane nitrous oxide and and we know that we have not had levels of CO2 at 400 parts per million bavarium in 800,000 years of history and we know that that's rising about 3.2 parts per million every year and we know where that CO2 is coming from because we do the isotopes of the carbon we know it's coming from fossil fuels so we know we're changing the composition of our atmosphere we know the temperature of the earth is going up because we have thermometers all over the world and we have a record that goes back 130 years that documents that fact that temperatures are going up at the same time the glaciers all over the world are melting and retreating and that's what you would expect if the world was getting warmer and that water is flowing into the world's oceans and sea level is rising and the rate of sea level rise is accelerating as the rate of glacier melt accelerates so the evidence is very clear where where we're headed and the fact that the humans are driving it it's a it's a matter of physics and chemistry and at the end of the day science is about what is and what is is we're changing the climate system how long it takes us to actually make meaningful advances on dealing with this problem to me is is the only question the fact that we will deal with it is a given


is there anything you could do to shake up the lineup a little bit just just to get some guys attention or maybe just try something a little different. I mean back in the day a manager would completely change a lineup right when a team was struggling in the world of analytics I don't know if that's gonna happen but I think you can make a legitimate case should Anthony Rizzo still be hitting where Anthony Rizzo was hitting.  I know Tyler Glass now was on top of his game but that was a lifeless performance from the New York Yankees offensively. If I'm Aaron Boone I got to be changing it up a little bit just to maybe if not get some production you get you get the players attention that we're just not going to roll the same lineup out there every day and hope it gets better. This is apples and oranges but I remember covering the Yankees many many years ago and Paul O'Neill was hitting out of his shoes and was batting fifth and Don Mattingly who was the team captain and was obviously Don Mattingly was hitting third and Buckshaw Walter was reticent to move O'Neill up in the lineup and supplant Mattingly and eventually the evidence was overwhelming and he had to do it. Guess what? The evidence is now overwhelming. You can't have Rizzo in that spot right now until he finds himself more. He did hit the ball hard once but we're talking about a more than 50 game stretch right now where the average is under 200. He's only left the ballpark once. To John's point you need somebody hitting behind judge that is going to have more of an intimidation factor. Judge since he came back has walked six times. He has not scored in any of those situations.


look again what we're focused on is preventing the crisis in Israel as it relates to the conflict between Israel and Hamas from expanding into the broader region so far it's our assessment that that has been contained Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza now that's not to say that there aren't elements you know in Iraq and Syria that are attempting to exploit the situation as you've seen with these rocket and drone attacks oh by the way it's not the first time these groups have done these sorts of things so as they again try to use this situation to advance their broader objective which is to expel us forces from Iraq and Syria again we have a very important mission there focused on the defeat ISIS mission it's the only reason our forces are there they will stay focused on that and we're going to stay focused on protecting them as it relates to the Houthis again I've highlighted that that we will continue to consult with international allies and partners on an appropriate way to protect commercial shipping going through that region and at the same time ensuring we do what we need to do to protect our forces you've been following this region for a long time you know that the Houthi forces Houthi rebels have been engaged in conflict throughout that region for a while now just in this case now they're targeting international shipping and so the United States along with many countries in the region have provided a presence there to ensure international security and stability we will continue to play an important role in that effort all right good afternoon everyone have quite a bit to share at the top today so thank you in advance for your patience then we'll get right to your questions this morning the air force announced that the search and rescue effort for the air force special operations command osprey aircraft mishap in japan has transitioned to a search and recovery effort of the eight airmen on board the aircraft at the time of the mishap the remains of three airmen have already been recovered and the remains of another three airmen have been located and are in the process of being recovered the recovery operation will now focus on locating and recovering the remaining two airmen and aircraft debris all families have been contacted about and notified about the loss of their loved ones and our deepest condolences go out to the families friends and colleagues of these eight American airmen who are impacted by this tragic mishap and the immeasurable loss of life we want to thank the government of japan for all of their assistance air force special operations command is investigating this mishap and i'd refer you to them for any further questions separately secretary austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general brown will join other senior leaders from across the interagency today in a closed session to all members of congress to brief on the urgent need to pass the administration's supplemental budget request as secretary austin has said the supplemental request must be passed to fund our critical national security requirements to stand by our partners in their moment of need and to invest in our defense industrial base notably without additional funding the department may soon reach a point where it cannot sustain the current level of security assistance support to ukraine the situation underscores the importance of continued congressional support for ukraine at a pivotal moment in their campaign to defend their freedom as they push back on russia's war of aggression also on ukraine senior leaders from do d to include secretary austin and undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment dr william will plant will participate in a ukraine industrial base summit tomorrow here in washington dc alongside our ukrainian partners and interagency counterparts from the departments of state and commerce the summit will reinforce our shared commitment to enhance ukraine's defense industrial base and to further security cooperation between our two nations of note on thursday dr will plant will convene the eighth meeting of the national armament directors under the auspices of the ukraine defense contact group the meeting will be held here at the pentagon the first time the forum is convened in the united states the session is a vital forum that brings together more than 40 nations nato and the e you and is aimed at collaboratively solving industrial base and sustainment challenges in support of ukraine both to meet immediate requirements while also supporting ukraine's long-term defense and national security needs we will post additional details of both of these important uh events on defense dot gov after their conclusion in the middle east united states continues to support us a id and un humanitarian relief operations in gaza at the request of us a id the department of defense airlifted another 16.3 metric tons or 36 000 pounds of vital supplies to the people of gaza today providing more vitally needed medical supplies warm clothing and food and nutrition as in our previous airlift these supplies were delivered via a us air force c 17 to egypt to subsequently be transported via ground into gaza and then distributed by un agencies today's delivery follows the november 28th delivery by dod of 54 000 pounds of supplies to the people of gaza additional flights are expected in the coming days and for more information on these ongoing efforts i would refer you to us a id and other updates the secretary will host swedish minister of defense pal johnson at the pentagon later today to discuss key defense and security topics during the meeting secretary austin and minister johnson will sign the first ever us sweden defense cooperation agreement the agreement will enable enhanced defense cooperation such as the legal status of deployed us military personnel access to deployment areas and prepositioning of military material the dca also creates the conditions necessary for us military support when requested and is therefore an agreement of great importance to both countries shared security objectives we'll post a readout of the meeting to the defense department website afterwards and earlier today principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs tressa guanoff joined the u.s. department of state to lead the department of defense delegation to the 50th anniversary session of the u.s. portugal standing bilateral commission in angra do here ismo azores to discuss key bilateral defense priorities including transatlantic security and to recognize 80 years of defense partnership at lodges field finally more than three dozen national guardsmen from the arkansas international guard are in guatemala this week to work alongside guatemalan physicians to provide free medical care for civilians in guatemala city these guard airmen have been treating as many as 500 patients a day providing dental optometry family medicine and orthopedic care since 2002 arkansas and guatemala have been joined as part of the national guard state partnership program and take part in 20 to 30 military to military exchanges per year for more information about the state partnership program and its important impact on supporting allied and partner nations worldwide you can reach out to the national guard bureau public affairs and with that happy to take your questions we'll go to associated press lita thanks pat can you give us the secretary's reaction to senator tuber bill lifting his hold on the vast majority of the nominations and also what impact does it have on the department that he has suggested he would continue to hold four star nominations what what problems does that create well certainly we're encouraged by the news and we'll continue to stay engaged with senator tuber bill and the senate directly to urge that all the holds on all our general flag officer nominations be lifted to include those nominated for four star as you know there have been upwards of 455 nominations concerning 451 general and flag officers at the senate for consideration in terms of the number of four stars there what there would be at least 11 four stars that would be impacted by those continued holds and and all of those positions obviously are key senior leadership positions to include the vice chiefs of the various services the commander of us pacific fleet the commander of pacific air forces commander of air combat command as well as the commander of united states northern command cyber command and space command so clearly vital and critical organizations all of which require experienced senior leaders in those positions create any complications as some of the people move up into the three star jobs and and some move up into other positions or because this create complications with people in the same post or what and what happens with those who are nominated yes sure so that that is something that we will continue to work through you know this is obviously developing but clearly something that the department has experienced in in terms of managing general and flag officers but to your point it's not just flicking a switch and suddenly everyone moves into these new positions you have to consider things like when people can move where the the people that are moving out of the positions are going and so all that has to be carefully orchestrated and done in a way that enables us to continue to conduct the operations without having significant impact not only on the mission but also on the individual family members so that will that will be something clearly that will continue to work through and have more information on in the coming days Jennifer Pat what was accomplished by Senator Tuberville's hold I'd have to refer you to Senator Tuberville to talk about that I mean clearly from a Department of Defense standpoint we have an mission to do and we require senior leaders in key positions to help lead and conduct the operations of the Department of Defense and so I'll just leave it at that can you be more specific about the impact it actually had in terms of the officers and their families what what impacted it yeah well clearly again as evidenced by everything that's going on in the world right now we have a very important mission in terms of defending this nation and anytime you add a level of uncertainty into the chain of command it creates an unnecessary friction it has an impact on readiness as we try to stay focused on the mission which we are going to do and so this department is very focused on a daily basis on getting that mission done but when it's unclear whether or not your senior leaders are going to be in place at the time in place they're needed that of course creates unnecessary friction and does have impact on readiness any agreement made with Senator Tuberville what changed I'd have to refer you to Senator Tuberville for that Matt I have a question about Iraq and Syria so we know about the AC 130 that struck it ran back to militants in Syria after an attack on American forces last month and we know about the U.S. drone that preempted an attack by militants in Iraq over the weekend can you tell us how many of these sort of unplanned swift either counter-battery or preemptive strikes the U.S. has launched in the region since October 17th yeah thanks Matt I don't I don't have anything else to read out to you clearly we have and always have had the inherent right of self-defense and so if our forces on the ground are attacked it is certainly within their right to take appropriate action and respond and so in those cases obviously you know we we were able to highlight that information for you but I don't have any additional updates to provide for troop safety in the region that you've talked about in the past should we expect more of these kind of preemptive strikes against these militants going forward so I'm not going to telegraph what we may or may not do other than to say we're going to do what's necessary to protect our forces in this particular case again you know it's what I would consider a dynamic strike in the sense that they saw this attack about to happen took appropriate action to to eliminate the threat and so the bottom line is we will do what we need to do to protect our forces thank you very much let me go over here to Fadi and then I'll come back to Joseph I have two separate questions first on the Secretary's speech in in California where he talked in length about the war in Gaza and he said that the only way to win an urban warfare is to protect civilians and he personally pushed as he said Israeli leaders to protect to do more to protect civilians since the end of this pause on Friday health authorities in Gaza are saying that more than 1200 civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes how satisfied is the Secretary from the way Israel is going about protecting civilians in Gaza yeah thanks Fadi so I can't comment on the numbers that Hamas the Hamas health ministry is is putting out so I can't verify those numbers but what I can say what I can't can I answer your question what I can say is that the Secretary work his words speak for themselves and we will continue to consult with our Israeli partners on the importance of taking civilian safety into account as he highlighted not only is it a moral obligation but it's a strategic imperative at the same time again we do recognize that Israel is engaged in a very difficult fight when it comes to preventing Hamas from conducting the kinds of attacks they did on October 7th in a very dense urban environment in which Hamas has intertwined itself among the civilian population in effect using them as human shields so again I'm not going to speak to Israel's operations per se other than to say that again we will continue to talk with our Israeli partners and expect them to conduct their operations in accordance with the law of on conflict thank you on the numbers just just want to note that the UN is using those numbers and even the US government and we saw that in a hearing in congress where US officials said there are more well what you said was that since the operations started again on Friday that the Hamas ministry of health has said to and I just can't vouch for those numbers but what I'm saying is even the US government is acknowledging that these numbers are accurate but on the second thing issue amnesty international new investigation has said that 43 Palestinian civilians have been killed in two unlawful airstrikes by Israel using US made weapons and amnesty is saying these are apparent war crimes does US have any or this apart department any understanding of how many civilian Palestinians have been killed by weapons provided to Israel by the US yeah thanks fatty so as far as the report goes we're reviewing that report as you know as a general matter we don't offer public evaluation or we don't offer evaluations of public reports that are by outside groups but again I'd go back to what I said earlier is that we are going to continue to consult closely with our Israeli partners on the importance of taking civilian safety into account and conducting their operations let me go to Joseph thanks today earlier today the Lebanese army announced that the Israeli strike and the Lebanese base killed one Lebanese soldier injured three others it seems like it's the first of this kind and without speaking to Israeli operations it also comes on the heels of last week's call between general brown and the Lebanese army chief and general brown reiterated the the need to restore calm along the blue line so does the department have any any comment or response to the attack today which the Lebanese army until today says they're not involved in any of these combat operations yeah thanks Joseph I I don't have any information on on that particular report clearly the Lebanese armed forces are an important partner in the region but I just don't have any insight into that again as the chairman highlighted we do not want to see an escalation of the conflict along the the northern border of Israel and so I'll just leave it at that just to follow up on a question this last week dr carlin a few weeks ago said that there's a civ cas office here the department's tracking civilian casualties in Gaza do you have any can you elaborate at all and what what exactly they're doing are there any reports that are expected to come out I'll have to take that question I don't have any further information let me go back here to wafa and then Nancy general uh the Israeli defense secretary said uh or predicted that the war and its current intensity uh may last for at least another two months does the pentagon share this assessment and will the united state be providing or continue to provide Israel with the security assistance as long as this war would take yeah so I I can't put a timeline on an Israeli operation that's really a question for the Israelis to address I can tell you what we're focused on and you've heard me talk about this before number one is protecting us forces and citizens number two is ensuring that Israel has what it needs to defend itself from future terrorist attacks by Hamas we're also continuing to work closely with Israel in terms of hostage recovery and then also ensuring that this crisis does not escalate into a broader regional conflict so that will continue to remain our focus so you you continue to provide the military assistance as long as this war will take we will continue to consult closely with Israel to ensure that they have what they need to defend themselves to prevent a future terrorist attack one more thing uh can you confirm that the us is flying is our flights over Lebanon and also if you can tell us if you resume the is our flights over reza off to take that question I don't have that Nancy thank you I wanted to follow up on some of the comments that secretary awesome made over the weekend in his speech he warned that um that there was the possibility that in that Israel could replace tactical victory with a strategic defeat and so I'd like to understand is if he is if that worry is leading to any changes in terms of the types of weapons that the united states provides Israel or or how it advises Israel to prevent the strategic defeat that he warned us yeah thanks Nancy so I'm not going to get into the the specifics um other than to say again we uh consult closely with Israel secretary Austin speaks as counterpart on a near daily basis uh and part of those discussions includes the kind of security assistance Israel needs to prevent a future terrorist attack uh in the future um those conversations also include a robust discussion as he highlighted in his remarks of ensuring that civilian safety uh is taken into account as well as the importance of ensuring that humanitarian assistance is being provided to the people of Gaza so I'll just leave it at that thank you very much ma'am um so the Wall Street Journal actually they reported um yesterday that the Israelis are weighing a plan to flood uh Gaza's tunnels used by Hamas with seawater and I'm just wondering if that's something that US defense officials have been told about by the Israeli counterparts a plan that they've been consulting on and or something they would support yeah I'd have to refer you to the IDF to talk about their operations thanks Natasha let me go to the phone here before I get in trouble uh let's go to Lara Seligman Politico hi yes thanks Pat sorry I hope you can hear me I'm in kind of a loud space but I'm just wondering um if the secretary has uh had any discussions or presented any options about whether to about striking back potentially um on any of the Houthi targets um in in Yemen or the Houthis that have been launching attacks at commercial shipping yeah thanks Lara so again I'm not going to telegraph or or speculate on potential strikes in the future as you've heard us say we're going to do what's necessary to protect our forces now let's take a step back here and talk about the situation in the Red Sea um as as you've heard uh yesterday most likely from uh the White House in terms of the uh or the national security advisor talked about the fact that we are in discussions uh with our partners and our allies about a maritime task force it's important to highlight that the Houthi uh strikes against commercial vessels in international waters underscore the fact that this is an international problem all three of these ships were sailing in international waters representing a variety of countries in terms of where they were flagged and who they were crewed by so those talks are ongoing I don't have any specifics to announce but I would highlight we already have the framework in place to enable such a task force through the combined maritime task force now the important thing to understand about that task force it's an international task force made up of 38 nations it is a coalition of the willing and it does not prescribe a specific level of participation from any member nation so those contributions are determined from each country and so therefore can vary depending on its ability to contribute assets and its availability to provide those assets at any given time so uh we are definitely uh looking to take action here uh as it relates to working with with partners and allies throughout the region oh by the way something that we've been doing for years thank you amya go to jeff shogle task and purpose thank you uh you had mentioned some of the uh four star positions that remain vacant including the head of air combat command uh cyberspace northern command how is the department affected or how is it limited by these uh continuing vacancies yeah thanks jeff well to be clear uh there are people uh in a lot of those positions uh in some cases though they've been extended or in some cases there's uh an acting role in the case of the vice chief positions to your point currently there there would be no vice chief so it's a combination um and then again in terms of the impact we've got a lot of work to do uh and you you need to have the right leaders in place uh in order to carry out those operations oh by the way in some cases when you're in an acting capacity you don't have the full authorities necessary to sign off on policies or to make decisions uh or by virtue of uh statutes that may exist that require a senate confirmed leader uh to be able to carry out certain duties so again um we've talked about this ad nauseum and the importance of making sure uh that all holds are lifted and that nominations can make their way through the senate chris thanks pat there were many uh elected leaders at the reagan forum secretary austin was there um did secretary austin discuss um the hold issue with any senators or their staff um at the reagan forum um has yet any recent conversations either in person by phone letter other beings that may have put a renewed sense of uh urgency on this issue yeah thanks chris so i'm not going to get into the private conversations uh that he had other than to say he did have the opportunity to engage with congressional leaders uh at the reagan defense forum but but look he's been very clear on this both publicly and privately for a very long time now and the importance of lifting these holds thanks very much joe thank you general rider uh i want to go back to what you have said about the maritime task force uh does the pentagon believe that the gcc should and egypt should play a role in this uh international yes international effort thanks joe again i don't have anything to announce today in terms of the specifics other than to say we do have a framework in place as it relates to the combined maritime force so when we have additional details to provide we certainly will do that thank you very much sir thank you very much general um regarding to the new york times airport yesterday um ahmas missile struck an idf facility um housing israel's nuclear capable missiles so do you have any um knowledge about that attack that attack will be uh that's happened already on 7th of october last october and how much does the doti concerns about impact on us strategic stack pile in israel because of this war yeah thanks uh as it relates to that that news report i don't have anything on that i'd refer you to israel clearly though when you take a step back uh and to your point there are missiles being launched into israel which again highlights the threat uh that hamas does pose to israel jj uh sir you you mentioned three things that were part of the objective for sending the added presence to the region um since the october 7th uh massacre in israel and the third one which was to prevent the crisis from expanding um to other parts of the region given the frequency and the types of attacks and the those that have been involved is depending on satisfied that this conflict hasn't already expanded yeah look again uh what we're focused on is preventing the crisis uh in israel as it relates to the conflict between israel and hamas from expanding into the broader region so far it's our assessment that that has been contained israel is fighting hamas in gaza now that's not to say that there aren't elements uh you know in iraq and syria that are attempting to exploit the situation as you've seen with these rocket and drone attacks oh by the way it's not the first time these groups have done these sorts of things so as they again try to use this situation to advance their broader objective which is to expel us forces from iraq and syria again we have a very important mission there focused on the defeat isis mission it's the only reason our forces are there uh they will stay focused on that and we're going to stay focused on protecting them as it relates to the hoothies again i've highlighted uh that that we will continue to consult with uh international allies and partners on an appropriate way to protect commercial shipping going through that region um and at the same time ensuring we do what we need to do to protect our forces you've been following that this region for a long time you know that the hoothy forces hoothy rebels have been engaged in conflict throughout that region for a while now just in this case now they're targeting international shipping and so the united states along with many countries in the region have provided a presence there to ensure international security and stability we will continue to play an important role in that effort let me go back to the phone and i'll come back to jennifer here let me go to howard warzone hey thanks back um the idea of saying that about uh two civilians for um killed to every Hamas fighters are you tracking that that that level of casualty figure uh look again i i don't have any uh information to provide on specifics of casualties howard other than we know uh and you've heard me say before uh that thousands of civilians have been killed in this fighting we regret any loss of life uh and and any loss of life is tragic uh which is why you see us working so hard to make sure that not only does civilians uh or humanitarian assistance get in but also that we're continuing to consult closely with the israelis on the importance of mitigating any civilian harm jennifer just a quick follow-up in terms of the freedom of navigation operations what message should the chinese be taking from the us reaction in the red sea you had ballistic missiles and drones fired at us vessels would this be the same response in the pacific and what message should china take from us yeah so a couple things so first of all uh just to clarify um in in the case uh of what we saw over this weekend with the drones um those drones were coming in the direction of the carney which is why you know they took it down i can't stand here and tell you that we know definitively that they were headed towards the carney but they were within the threat ring and the commanders took the appropriate action to ensure that they were defending themselves um every single time you're in one of these situations you have to judge it on your own merit which is again why it's important to have qualified experienced people in command uh in order to make sure that you're not taking actions that could potentially escalate the situation so to your question as it relates to uh inappropriate unprofessional behavior in the south china sea again a lot of times it's target identification uh or aircraft identification and knowing what you're dealing with here uh same thing if you're flying over syria and you are interacting with any russian assets uh you you need to make appropriate decisions on um on on that situation and what the appropriate action is going to be all that to say all of our forces always maintain the inherent right of self-defense uh and if there is a threat perceived they could take appropriate action and we'll do so ballistic missiles were fired at three international ship ships and they hit those ships if the same thing happened in the south china sea would the u.s still not respond i'm not going to get into hypothetical situations other than again we'll take appropriate action based on the situation jenny thank you general excuse me why not the national security advisor so libon said uh united states budget to support to ukraine around is excuse me i got really husky voices ukraine has run i'm sorry i'm going to do all over again why does national security advisor so libon said that the united states budget to support ukraine has run out and he also said that uh south korea had supplied large quantities of artillery shells to ukraine so how will the budget be covered and should the south korea more artillery shells support to increase yeah so um just to kind of underscore what mr selvin said you know time is really of the essence when it comes to congress passing the supplemental uh request uh or else we will find ourselves in a position where we're not able to support ukraine's security assistance requirements much longer and so we will as i highlighted at the top of this briefing secretary austin general brown will both be on the on the hill today to again speak with members of congress and to highlight again we want to work closely with them to have this supplemental pass so that we can continue to support ukraine and meet their urgent security needs to prevent further russian aggression time for a few more tony do you have the current figure of how much pdf about presidential drawdown authority is still available and once that's exhausted do the services have other sources they could tap for ukraine yeah so um right now uh there is roughly 4.8 billion dollars in restored uh presidential drawdown authority still available um and there is uh 1.1 billion in existing resources available to backfill us stocks so in terms of funding as i as i highlighted without funding we will not be able to provide ukraine with the critical security assistance it needs to protect its cities its people its critical infrastructure um and we may reach a point where we can't sustain the current level of security assistance support to ukraine uh and our our spending decisions are going to be informed by multiple factors which include ukraine's immediate needs their equipment availability and our capacity to replenish our resources ensuring that our aid is both strategic and sustainable so again we would just continue to urge congress to pass the supplemental circle back on the amnesty international issue and you said we're looking at the report is the civilian mitigation and response force uh unit that's in the policy shop are they the ones actively looking at that report is is this the kind of uh report that that unit would be is looking at to advise senior leadership here in their discussions with israel yeah so kind of similar to what uh joseph was asking so i'll i'll take that question back and and we'll look at that holistically sir can't because that's of use to the public to know that you got it thank you very much sir i still working on determining how much military assistance has been sent to israel so because you've been working on that for a couple weeks yeah so um what what i would tell you here because again i you know i think we've talked about previously in terms of why are you able to provide information on ukraine but you're not able to provide information on israel and so i have dug into this a little bit further and i would say that it's it's important to differentiate the security assistance we're providing to ukraine uh in israel the department of defense budgeted for ukraine uh which is trackable via the presidential drawdown authority announcements that we've made but the situation in israel is different so do d has not received appropriated funds or drawdown authority for israel so instead israel is using its own funds to pay for us defense articles and services to include state department provided foreign military financing for some items that are sold through foreign military sales uh as well as direct commercial sales uh and so um if you know congress acts on the supplemental budget and funds are appropriated then certainly there will be an ability to track those funds but congress has yet to act on a supplemental budget request for ukraine and israel and as i highlighted it's essential that they they do so so at this time do d has not been provided any funding for support to israel and our previous funding for ukraine is nearly exhausted so again we would just call on congress to pass it now that israel has resorted to a military campaign this administration said that no red lines are drawn and also no preconditions on the usage of the u.s ammunition and weapons is that still the case can you confirm well again i just go back to how we got here right on october seventh when hamas attacked israel killed over 1200 people took over 200 hostages um half of which are still being held so we understand fundamentally israel's right to defend itself from these kinds of attacks um but again as i highlighted earlier we also expect that israel will conduct its operations in accordance with the law of armed conflict and we'll continue to have those conversations uh for all the reasons i've highlighted and as secretary austin highlighted in his remarks uh at the reagan national defense forum let me take just a couple more from the phone james uh messenger uh thanks for the question um on pda funding i'm going to answer the first question uh part of the question that i had on that on on pda funding uh and i understand if you can't talk about this because you don't want to yeah i understand you're a man who doesn't like the telegraph but um i was wondering when we talk about that the pda funding is about to run out we're not able to replenish our stocks we're talking weeks we're talking months is there any sort of timeline that's you know and again i understand you don't want to telegraph to the russians but what does soon mean james um again you know part of this i i don't want to get into a specific date since a lot will depend on the size of upcoming pda packages uh and again those spending decisions are informed by the the factors that i highlighted um but the bottom line is it's going to be sooner rather than later and so this is why again uh the department to include secretary austin has made clear that we need congress's support now to provide ukraine with the capabilities uh we need congress's support now so that we can provide ukraine with the capabilities that they urgently need to defend themselves okay take one more from the root here sir hi thanks for doing this um human rights watch reported i believe this morning that satellite imagery that they reviewed showed that the israeli military destroyed extensive farmland in the northeast gaza strip including during the uh recent truce when the idf was in control of the territory in which the farmland was destroyed um does the department see a tactical reason to do this when the idf is already in control of that territory and does the department support uh this proposition that israeli officials have thrown out there about creating a buffer zone inside the border of gaza yeah thanks i i don't have any information on that jared so i'd refer you to the israelis to talk about their operations thanks thanks very much everybody