Thank you John and Now we will hear from the student elected to speak from the bachelor's class of 2017 Joe Shea Joe's policy focus area at the Ford school has been health care policy, and he's also completed a minor in business He's been the communications director for the university central student government and served as a student representative On the advisory committee that searched for the next dean of the Ford school Joe has also been one of our peer advisors Counseling other BA students on their coursework and providing input to faculty and student faculty and Administrators he is secured a position as a junior associate at sugarman communications group in LA Which is a LA based public affairs and corporate communications consulting firm Joe's father and his godfather are both proud Ford school alumni class of 1985 So that's a wonderful legacy and he's been described by staff as and I quote the ultimate Ford school cheerleader And so it's really a pleasure to welcome Joe Shea now to address his the graduates Thanks for all and Thank You Dean Collins So last year in my Ford school course on political campaign strategy My professor Rusty Hills told our class that we should always open a speech by either thanking someone or telling a joke So I'd like to thank all of the speakers who have come before me and offered a joke But really distinguished guests faculty That's all I got distinguished Distinguished guests faculty staff Family friends and my beloved classmates at the undergraduate and graduate level Good afternoon. It's an honor to be here with you today as we truly have so much to celebrate in fact My cohort has been celebrating this milestone for the past month Through barbecues bar crawls and gatherings at local eateries I think it's telling that so many of us have chosen to spend our final days in college together Because it shows that the Ford school is just as much a community as it is an academic institution at some point along this transformative Educational experience we became more like a family than simply a collection of students interested in policy And I can't tell you for sure when this happened Maybe it was the early mornings during professor Chorchari's class where we discussed topics that ranged from the Grand Bargain in Detroit To the effect of the poppy trade on Afghanistan's economy Or maybe it was the late nights in the Betty Ford auditorium Putting the finishing touches on or perhaps just starting our policy memos do the following morning Regardless what I can tell you is that getting to know the 74 individuals seated in front of me Has been one of the greatest blessings of my life Simply put our cohort is full of change makers From Emma Zorfus who designed a program to educate Michigan students on how to recognize sexual misconduct and intervene To Meredith Joseph and Gabe Dell Who traveled to the United Nations in order to advocate on behalf of refugees These individuals along with so many others inspire me every day with their compassion intellect and dynamism and It's this inspiration from my classmates that when combined with the guidance that I've received from Ford's incredible faculty Has given me this gift of an enduring faith in the practice of public policy to make a positive lasting impact Now those of us with this faith in the potential of policymaking Also know that at some point this faith will surely be tested Just last week I was reminded of the frustratingly nonlinear process of public policy formulation While talking to dr. Joe Schwartz a former member of Congress and current Ford school professor Dr. Schwartz told me that one of his proudest moments on the hill was when he passionately Advocated for two bills that were never actually signed into law Both were aimed at increasing the federal government's investment in embryotic stem cell research as a medical doctor Dr. Schwartz fought hard for these bills because he believed in the potential of his research of this research To discover breakthrough treatments and fighting deadly diseases however Each bill passed the house Then the Senate Only to be vetoed at the desk of the president It wasn't until dr. Schwartz was out of office Four years later that a new White House administration issued an executive order that increased federal investment in embryotic stem cell research But dr. Schwartz's two pieces of legislation played a role each served as a litmus test of the political feasibility Ultimately indicating that this executive order could withstand congressional scrutiny To me stories like this demonstrate that it's necessary to have a deeply rooted faith in Policymaking in order to withstand the inevitable setbacks and the potential slow slow rate of change This story also reinforces the idea that hope can be found in efforts to create thoughtful policy regardless of the outcome a Quote I love is from mother Teresa Who says that we are not called to be successful, but faithful. I would argue that in policy making Success is based on faith in the process of it So class of 2017 as we prepare to take on the world I hope that you will join me in continuing to embrace this faith in the potential of public policy And I can think of no better way to honor the incredible individuals in this Ford school community this Ford family of ours and I want to end by saying on behalf of my class undergraduate and graduate To all the parents out there Including my own who are responsible for making this day possible Thank you You have given us the world and to everyone at the Ford school from Dean Collins To the student services and building maintenance staff Thank you You have empowered us to find our place in it. Thank you and go blue


Hi friends and welcome back to another episode of our Pokemon VGC 2020 Battle Series. My name is Leo Sononos Osiris and this week on the channel we're going to be starting and kicking off with a brand new team.  Restricted combination I took a lot of inspiration. If you caught it over the weekend the regional over in Germany when Fevzi was playing that weather ball Hoho. So big shout out to Fevzi for that inspiration. I built the team around his concept put a few tweaks and twists of my own on the team to start us off this week to test with and what we'll do as always is we'll take it into battles we'll see how we're performing see what we're struggling with see what we're doing well against and adjust accordingly as we go along and so we get that finished product at the end of the week or the two-week cycle whichever we play this for because we've had a few murmurings around playing maybe a Reoga and sorry not a Reoga a Requiser and Groudon team which would be a lot of fun we've also had Zekrom thrown up as well so if there's any other core combinations that you'd like to see played on the channel going forward do leave them in the comment section below and let me know and I will try and get round to playing as many of them as possible but onto today's team as they say is revolving around that Hoho with the weather ball taking advantage of Kyoga's Primordial C ability it is going to be Prima Kyoga of course not Skaft Kyoga and then we've got the mega of the team going to be Gengar we've got Hitmon Top in there an alternative option or two Incineroar what you'd normally see predominantly on this team it still has the Intimidate still has fake out support but I felt the wide guard and helping hand really provided a little bit of a different dimension to the team going forward and something that I do want to test and try out with so helping hand shadow ball for instance gets the one hit kill through shadow shield on Lunala which I think is incredibly useful which otherwise this team might struggle a little bit against we've got the Tabakoko again with the farium this time helps us a bit more against the dragons it could be a little bit more problematic to the team Salamence, Rayquaza etc and then we've linked and patched the end up of the team with Solfess Cartana. Cartana are another favorite Pokemon of mine I think with the Solfess it fits in this team quite well so gives us a little bit more firepower against opposing Kyaga which again could be something a little bit awkward to deal with especially as Houto is one of our restricted Pokemon so just having that extra utility there does help us out a lot I think personally and so we'll see how that goes one thing that I would say straight away when building this team and something that I'm a little bit skeptical of is our ability to deal with opposing Tabakoko very well and this might be something that will have to patch for later in the week we'll see how we get on in this first episode today but it might be something that we're struggling with a little bit all of the details and the pace of the team is down in the description as always there is a roll pace poker pace do let me know if you try it out and take a look at the details of the team EV spreads and movesets in your own time but without further ado let's jump into this first one today I'll just say a big shout out before anything to all of you guys that purchased and grabbed yourselves a flinch shirt last week we're repping one of the new ones here living that flinch life but we had that promo code last week on the channel to celebrate the launch of our new teespring store with lots of new designs so if you did buy a shirt last week do send me a photo on Twitter or Instagram you can find both links to where my social feeds down in the description and I'd love to retreat them and show them share them with the world and the rest of the flinch squad but the the tees and the huddies are still available if you'd like to grab one for future events that you're attending or just generally wearing and repping the flinch squad wherever you are I know there was a lot of people over in klon and germany this weekend repping and wearing their flinch shirts so huge shout out to all of you as well keeping that flinch squad strong we've got a first opponent of the episode though so we'll hop straight into team preview right my first opponent today playing Kai Ogre iveltil gengo going to be the mega tapulele instador and moonga so very early ultra series team kind of very standard with the kai ogre and the iveltil here you're going to see speed control from the iveltil more than likely scarf tapulele is the obvious item there i would say and then you're going to have gengo going to be the the mod to trap things in with incinero fake out support pivot support as well and then the moongas to help against any sort of trick room shenanigans straight away i see like tapoco is going to be like really good here but we have to be careful around the opposing mega gengo and the opposing tapulele now it kind of makes me feel like a tapulele a mega gengo of our own isn't probably the right pokemon to bring unless we get some speed control up over on we've got to start deciding because things are going pretty quickly so i'm going to just lock in because we're running out with these four pokemon we'll get to that in a moment but as always if you do enjoy this sort of content please remember to drop a like on the video do subscribe to the channel for more pokemon content and like i say as always leave your comments down in the comment section below let me know your thoughts on today's episode let me know your thoughts on today's team if you were attending any of the regionals over this past weekend in germany or the u.s where they were where they're being held do let me know how you got on at those events how much fun you had hope you had a lot of fun at least and it would be great to hear from you all about those events if you did attend sad that i wasn't able to go over myself but all in all the streams were amazing from what i caught i couldn't catch a lot of them because there was a way this past weekend but from what i have seen um the matches and the commentary was just amazing so production was just on top this past weekend so we're going to see tapu lele and gengo come out for my opponent i think like straight away i would like to get tail wind up i just worry about the gengo carrying taunt to shut down our hall um which could be a little bit of an issue um but the thing is if we can get i'm kind of tempted to leave him on top in here as well to be honest um because i don't really want to switch kai oga in and take a bunch of damage from tapu lele but i think you you probably do target down the hall rather than anything else i'll go for the tailwind we'll switch in kai oga and we'll see where we go from there but on hindsight tim on top not really feeling like the best option straight away in this match especially with that that tapu lele that's denying us that fake out support um again something like eval tolva would be useful and especially if incinero came out next that gengo again would be quite useful there um like i said i do fear the taunt from this gengo and whether or not it goes for it into our hall or now is another thing if we can get the tailwind up i mean pretty much and start closing out this game pretty quickly with with war spats and stuff actually going to see the gengo protect which is crazy i think and we are going to see the tapu lele go for a side shock is into the kai oga which is a little bit unfortunate um but we do get the tailwind up and that is huge for us because now we can start really taking advantage of uh i think we double into the lele as well um because i feel like the gengo protecting the last turn it's probably going to switch out um so the lele is the one thing right now that we can definitely get rid of and it makes life a lot easier for our him on top when it comes back in later and in tapu koko as well we do see the gengo switch out for my opponent kai oga actually going to hit the field now which is fine um and ho is in a nice position because you haven't been intimidated up to this point so um i've got to imagine ivelto is probably the last pokemon my opponent's side of the field um oof oh the scald crit okay well that means we get a free brave bird into this kai oga um yeah ho becomes way less effective once it's intimidated and this is what i was about to say was these these brave birds are still going to be chucking out lots of damage like if it is ivelto that comes in next and things do get a little bit easier but we're still going to be mindful that the gengo is in the back for my opponent and it's not going to be like really clean cut to deal with the gengo with something like tapu koko for ourselves especially if you're going to be control active on the field um but i mean right now another brave bird should get the kai oga from that last bunch of damage that we just launched onto it and a scald will do a hefty chunk to the gengo i don't think the gengos in a position where it can pick up a knockout onto either pokemon that we've got here so uh we're just seeing the double protect from my opponent makes it a bit easier for us to target them and things the next turn um then we could double the gengo knowing what we've got in the back um but i'm still kind of i still want to get the kai oga and i still want to go do i does the kai oga switch out here knowing that it goes down to another brave bird or do we see it switch i'm not really sure i'm gonna go for a scald i'm just gonna go for the same play again because i feel like scald will do yeah kai oga does switch we're gonna see the fourth pokemon which is going to be valto for my opponent so we'll get a brave bird into that slot now what's the gengo gonna do sludge bomb probably the hot all but it might chase down a kai oga burn we got the burn it makes it so much easier okay we get the brave bird as well into the sea beltle so our kai oga's been a good boy today getting that crit was pretty big for us meaning we got the brave bird into the kai oga sludge bomb coming out it's gonna be into our speed control set about hot all being able to take that the gengo going down now and allowing kai oga to come back onto the field as our tailwind does pit her out um but this isn't too bad because with tapakoko on the back now you've got to think tapakoko comes in for us and it's gonna be pretty easy sailing from there on out um it depends what speed this kai oga's running i would imagine our hot all's a little bit faster though um we don't have protect on hot all so it's not really an option here so we can protect kai oga um and just go for the tailwind and if hot all speeds are supposing kai oga then get the tailwind up and i think we've got this pretty much locked gotta be a bit careful around the evalto as well because the evalto could still have sucker punch in as soon as we bring the tapakoko onto the field then it does have access to those sucker punches um but i think the kai oga's definitely the thing that we need to to focus down on first we're gonna see a tailwind from the evalto it's gonna match our tailwind if we can get it which we do and then see this kai oga um probably gonna take down our origin pulse yeah and it will take down our yeah oh going down now okay but that's not the worst like it isn't the worst thing in the world because we are going to be able to get koko onto the field and like i say we've matched tailwind so it's not it's not the end of the world here because koko now puts on so much pressure to deal with this kai oga and we've still got him on top in the back so i think what i probably like to do is just switch him on top in for kai oga so we get a listen into it onto that evalto while we we've got the opportunity to and i'll go for a thunderbolt into the kai oga and um this one's been pretty straightforward for us i think and i think a lot of things kind of leaned on our side of good fortune here because um it has meant dealing with the kai oga and the pressure from my opponent's side of the field is a lot worse than it would have been if we didn't get the the um the kai oga with the skull onto the lele which we never would have done if it hadn't crit so it means that brave bird into the kai oga i mean took a lot more damage and put my opponent in a much worse position but it just goes to show i think that how important it is if your primary speed control is tailwind making sure that you get that up as soon as possible against these sort of teams because it puts you in a position where you can do a lot more work and put your opponent under pressure and you see by the time they get their tailwind set up it's just not it's not really as effective as it would have been early game you maybe see the evalto come out as a lead from my opponent and then go for it that way it might have been a bit easier for them to go with now we just seen the evalto the last pokemon standing and we might see a full video we'll go for a fake out and thunderbolt and that should be enough for us to close this first one up and we pick up a win which is really nice for us so um a good little start with us we've not got that weather ball going yet but uh i'm going to be hopeful stay hopeful for our next game we may see a groudon hopefully we do watch we'll not play a single groudon team all week it would be it would be typical typical i'm cursing us but no i'm only joking i'm sure we'll bump into groudon soon enough but yes um and i did have a premiere challenge to attend this weekend but unfortunately being the only person from vg that the the chard meant there was no no event so i was pretty sad so next pc lined up is going to be bristol this this coming weekend which is going to be a lot of fun i'm really looking forward to obviously my hometown um so i'm going to be good and i'm sure we're going to have good numbers for it as well we're not going to see a groudon next which is really sad but uh we'll get into team preview and we'll see what we can do against this architect all right so my next opponent is playing a realga team uh accompanied by taba koko metagross which is going to be the mega of the team or a secondary mega of the team you've got to think behind that mega requiser the incineral and taboo finny so um all in all taba koko does amazingly well for us we've got to be careful around the opposing taba koko for sure um because it does threaten our kyogre and our hotel pretty badly but gengar isn't bad we've got to watch out for obviously the incineral we'll take big damage from things like requiser and kyogre but we can use it to pin my opponent in i feel i'm gonna lead gengar hit my top do i want to bring katana to this match katana could be good um what's gonna be better against the ray i think probably koko here and then we won't probably kyogre i think in our last slot yeah let's go with kyogre let's leave the whole odd home it's a little bit sad it's a little sad that we've not got the matchups today to really showcase what the team's all about but you've got to play against these other archetypes these are the popular archetypes and see that you can come on the other side looking rosy because if you can't then it there's something wrong because you're going to show up to tournaments with this sort of build and you're definitely going to come up against these sort of teams um two or three times in a tournament so you've got to have the right answers for these sort of teams going forward and this is why the testing phase is always good because you can go into bad spot or showdown or whatever and just test the team out against these opponents see how you do against them see what your answers are like against them because if they aren't coming up positive that's when you know you've got to go back to the team to the draw board look at where you can maybe patch things to have a little bit of a better outcome going forward right we are going to see tap koko and requires a come out for my opponent um i'm gonna i really want to target the koko to be honest i really want to get rid of this koko it's so such a pain for the team and like i already mentioned at the start of the episode how awkward the koko can be for us to deal with um but i'm so tempted just to go sludge bomb into it hopefully win the speed time get rid of it it's risky because we could take a z move uh an electrum um but i've got i think i have to fake out the requiser there's also the i'd like to fake out the koko and double into it but i don't want to leave this requiser unchecked because it can drag in his hands it can do so much damage and just rip through a lot of things and koko gonna protect here okay i mean we're not losing out too much yeah we do get to fake out into the ray it is a mega evolving which is quite interesting uh we do get the sludge bomb into that koko so what do we do i'm kind of can we could protect gengar here and bring in our own type of koko it's probably not a bad move to be honest and with the koko protecting the last turn we could take this opportunity go for the sludge bomb again and then switch top out for koko because we could see a dragon ascent into that slot to get rid of the hint on top and koko is probably the one thing on the team that can take that a lot better than anything else we lose the speed tie though which is really really really really unfortunate for us because yeah now we're gonna lose gengar and it's a risk you know we both went for it like if my opponent loses the speed tie they lose their koko we lose the speed tie we lose our gengar i think they're getting the better end of the trade regardless here because we lose the mega and they're not and now our ability to deal with the koko becomes a lot more difficult um and a tailwind tailwind from ray wow okay right now i think what i do is i will bring in kayoga which doesn't make a lot of sense but my logic is i'm going to switch it straight out i don't want this koko protecting this next turn i won't i want it targeting my kayoga so i can go for the pharium into the opposing koko and hopefully pick up the knockout there um dig up the rain up and maybe we'll force the hand of this ray to to mega evolve as well we'll get another intimidate onto it which is always going to be useful but we've got to go for that z move now i'm hoping that we don't see earth power from the ray because earth power from the ray requires that into our koko i mean that that's going to be game over right now tailwind ray though something i've always thought about but never actually played around with so i'll get another intimidate onto the ray with a hit on top and there's the mega evolution here please don't be a fan please there's the delta screen kicking up destroying our screen uh calm mind is this it's definitely ticking the twinkle tackle now there's a dragon ascent this will take down a hit on top oh we actually survive okay minus two that's not that bad then calm mind koko so it's got thunderbolt or thunder calm mind protect and probably dazzle dazzle dazzle dazzle here's as they move i feel sort of flattered now you see something like you're like ah come on but we have to kind of continue we have to see what we can do it's not something that you see that commonly used um but when it comes up in situations like this it makes a match up so much harder especially when it's the one pokemon that you're already feeling like you've got issues with uh to deal with um right i don't know if a dazzle is going to be enough to get the opposing koko we'll protect kairoga we need to try and start these tailwind turns and we'll go for dazzling game though we'll see if we can get the opposing koko i don't know if dazzling game is going to be enough to get it but it's going to probably dazzle us now i'd imagine and maybe in extreme speed dazzle would be enough to get it but then if they dazzle they're kind of giving the kairoga an opportunity to attack here do they want to do that or do they want to go for the thunderbolt i mean the protect from our end is pretty obvious so it would open the door for my opponent to probably go for that dazzling game knowing that the kairoga is not going to protect and they're quite safe godless it requires that is eventually going to um switch out we're going to see incinero get the feel now for my opponent the ray doesn't want to take a dazzle and then the koko going to protect here okay so we are going to be able to stall out this tailwind which is good and we're going to get some damage at least on to the the incinero here um not very much though not very much at all um i think you see dazzling gleam but i just don't think you risk letting this kairoga attack we're going to bring in him on top and protect our koko i don't think we're going to be able to win this one we need our koko to be as healthy as possible at least we're getting an intimidate on to the incinero the only thing is if they go for a thunderbolt into our koko for some weird reason then there's a chance that we can like if we came on top still around no they got a thunderbolt into top okay and then the tailwind bit of that the electric train does disappear as well which means this thing is a little bit easier for us it's still not super easy okay we've got to make a call here i think do you throw the ball into the kairoga i think you've got to we could win two speed ties you see and probably get the koko with two dazzles i just don't think one dazzle is enough and it's still difficult because i think when the rayquaza comes back in we're still gonna have a kairoga to deal with alongside the rayquaza which makes it so much more difficult like especially without the electric train to to boost our electric type attacks to make sure that we're getting the knockout under that kairoga um we are seeing the incinero switch out kairoga gonna hit the field in place okay so i'm over i mean any damage is quite it's good at this point isn't it and if we win the speed tie and if by some chance we can take down this koko then we're not out of really still in this match it's just at the minute it's feeling very difficult we do win the speed tie we do take it down and it's not even a crit we didn't even have to worry we just have the faster type of koko okay excellent right well we're back in this but it's still not going to be easy at all because we've got to we've got a thunderbolt this kairoga and ice beam the ray and hope the ray goes for a dry innocent and hope lots of things happen kairoga gonna switch out yeah makes sense the incinero coming back in it will take a thunderbolt um now ideally you want to see dragon descent into kairoga which we should take and then okay the rayquaza gonna protect which is fine we'll get a bit more damage into that incinero a bit critical here to helping us out massively right now we have to double protect you i don't want to i don't want to risk any 50 50 like guess where they're gonna fake out and get it wrong because that will be the end of the game straight away we want to try and risk any like just mitigate any risk if we can all right okay so double protect we'll see fake outcome out into koko no kairoga okay tailwind now this makes things a little bit more tricky because the kairoga coming in we could scald like i just need to get rid of the ray really need to get rid of the ray could we double the ray though i'm not really worried about the incinero i worry about the ray switching out to the kairoga to take an ice beam i'm gonna double the ray with a thunderbolt as well in case the kairoga comes in on that slot because the kairoga and tailwind okay it's gonna be extreme speed like this doesn't help us at all either really okay well this is the other option my opponent's got yeah and we don't take that and then ice beams not gonna be enough to take down the ray and now i think that's it so probably the one turn my opponent could have done to close out the game i just worried there too much i think about the ray switching out for the kairoga to come in and then take instant advantage of the tailwind but i guess at the same time it's kind of risky switching in on tapakoko like once you get rid of the tapakoko you've got to think about that things get a bit easier because then your kairoga's not really in any any danger at all when it comes in a little bit of an issue but i think really like just highlighting how much of an issue tapakoko actually is for this team to deal with um and i already knew it going into this episode what i'm gonna do actually is go away from this episode it'd be great to have your opinions on what you think would be good adjustments to deal with tapakoko in this team um and i'm gonna go away as well i'm gonna come back tomorrow and we're gonna have a little bit of a variation on this build maybe toga tomorrow could be a nice option there maybe something like uh raichu kanto raichu could be good mega monetrick as well could be an option over mega gengar um but i think we definitely need something to um to help mitigate because at the moment it's feeling like it's such a problem where there's so much pressure that it's putting onto the team that it's cool it's affecting other areas of how the team can actually perform and i think with tapakoko means such a common pokemon at the moment it's definitely something that we can't really continue with without addressing and that would be my thought on it and i think that's something that you should always take away with you when you're doing your own team building yourselves very good game to my opponent good game to both my opponents today i think we've learned some valuable lessons going into the rest of the week especially in concerned being concerned with this archetype anyway so like i said i'm going to go away i'm going to make some changes we'll come back tomorrow we'll adapt the team um excited still to play this for the rest of the week so i hope you are as well and we'll come back to tomorrow so i'm just going to say thank you so much for tuning in today my friends have a great day morning afternoon night whatever time it is and i'll catch you all for another episode tomorrow so until then take care and bye bye


Thank you very much for that very generous and overly generous introduction. John, it's really nice to see you, Neil. Great to see you as well. I want to say thanks to everybody at the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, past and present, for your contributions to America's security and global leadership. Let me just name three people in particular, all three whom I've just seen. Juan Zarate, who I just saw out in the hallway. Stuart Levy and obviously David Cohen. These are three unbelievably capable leaders, and these are three people whom I've always grateful knowing are on my team. The work of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence is vital, as you've been talking all morning, to our country's security and to the world. And it's possible because of the tireless efforts of many of you who are here today, people whom I've been fortunate enough to work with over the last few years. But let me just name some of them. I've seen some of them as well as I've walked in, and I'm sure many others are still back at their desk working away. I want to just name four in particular, Adam Zubin, Leslie Ireland, Danny Glazer, and Jennifer Shasky Calvary. Four unbelievably dedicated and capable people who have been working, and I've seen them working firsthand and implementing the TFI work day in and day out, month after month. This is work that frankly out-thinks, out-maneuvers, criminals and terrorists in every corner of the world. And I believe, having watched this government work very closely now for nearly six years, today, those four individuals plus the three I mentioned a minute ago are the embodiment of public service, and I'm deeply grateful for their work. The threats we face, obviously, as you've been discussing and living, are increasingly complex. It's our job to stay at least one step ahead of them. That means using every tool at our disposal, every element of our national power, to protect ourselves and our allies and to stop bad actors of all kinds, whether they're political regimes, terrorist networks, or solitary extremists. We have to be innovative and adaptive, always willing to consider new ideas and revise our approach as needed, and above all, we need to be persistent to keep our heads down and forge ahead for as long as it takes. That's what the President believes, obviously. And we saw an example of his leadership this weekend. After nearly five years in captivity, Sergeant Bullberg Dahl is coming home. This was a result of several years of effort by our diplomats and brave men and women in uniform who helped recover the one remaining prisoner of war from Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's also be clear about how we got this done. We've been consulting with members of Congress about this effort, including the potential transfer of five Gitmo detainees for years. I know this because I participated in many of those consultations myself when I served on the staff of the National Security Council. So this should not have been a surprise to any of the members of Congress who have been consulting about it, commenting about it. And I was with the President this weekend when he met with the Bergdals. All Americans should share in the joy that they feel. And all Americans should know that we did what was necessary to get Bull back. We did not have 30 days to wait to get this done. And when you're Commander-in-Chief, you have to act when there's an opportunity for action. And let me be clear. There's absolutely no qualification or caveat to the principle that guided the President in this instance. The United States of America does not leave our men and women in uniform behind ever. More broadly, our efforts in Afghanistan and beyond remind us that counterterrorism is never easy. Oftentimes, the world and the American people, frankly, don't even learn of our success. That's the nature of this work, of your work, of TFI's work. But persistent, dedicated efforts pays off. And few know that better than all the people who at TFI do this work day in and day out. Ten years ago, when this unit was created, the notion of using financial tools to stop terrorism and international crimes was still pretty new. And frankly, was seen as an issue of defense. Today, it's a core asset of our national security, and it has us on offense. On behalf of the President, I want to thank you for the enormous range of your work, from the efforts of FinCEN to stop money laundering, to the efforts of the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes to stop money from getting to terrorists and criminals. At OFAC, Adam and his team are designated sanctions against the regimes that violate international rules. At the Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture, you've directed forfeited funds to law enforcement initiatives. At the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, you help policymakers at the highest levels better understand about how illicit finance works, and therefore, how we can stop it. All this work is sophisticated, creative, and ever more nuanced. They've got both scalpels and sledgehammers in their box of tools, and I can't count the number of times the President and his team have relied on their work and their judgment. When it comes to many of the President's national security priorities, TFI, as David just said, has been an absolutely invaluable asset. A few years ago, the Iranian nuclear program was rapidly advancing. Since then, the United States has built a coalition of nations and businesses willing to impose crippling sanctions on Iran and isolate it from the international financial system. And TFI, obviously, is critical to that work. That included cutting off many of Iran's banks and shrinking its oil sales, which helped bring Iran to the negotiating table. When Muammar Gaddafi brutally suppressed a democratic uprising, the President issued an executive order directing this office to prevent him from using Libyan government assets located in the United States to fund that brutality. Within hours, might have even been minutes, David, TFI made sure that more than 30 billion in Libyan assets were beyond Gaddafi's reach. Finally, consider Burma. Only a few years ago, that nation was an intractable dictatorship hostile to the United States. But thanks to the extraordinary courage of people in that country, and thanks to Treasury's efforts to design, build and maintain sanctions against the ruling junta, we have seen political reforms open in a once closed society. We have seen a movement away from partnership with North Korea in favor of engagement with America and our allies, such that our Secretary of Commerce will be traveling there later this week. And today, we're supporting this reform through aid and investment, but also through, as I've just said, commercial ties. U.S. companies investing in Burma now are now required to publicly report on their activities as a condition of a Treasury license, because transparency is key to Burma's economic growth and to ensure that it won't end up consolidating power and strangling democratic progress. And by maintaining the specially designated nationals list of individuals and entities in Burma, still subject to sanctions, TFI provides a powerful incentive to those who would resist democracy. Do the right thing, and you can get off the list. And if Burma succeeds in its political and economic reform, America will have a critical new partner in a vital region at a vital time. Examples like this illustrate just how far the United States has come in terms of the financial tools we use worldwide. Instead of full-fledged trade embargoes, we can now apply targeted financial sanctions on selected individuals and entities. Instead of imposing drastic economic costs on entire people, we can selectively deny a regime, the financing and tools it uses to repress its citizens. And we can use and harness to our national security benefit the power of reputational harm that international businesses are eager to avoid by associating themselves with targeted regimes. But the source of our strength abroad has always been our prosperity here at home. And the tools that this office has developed allow us to better protect our own financial system from money laundering, corruption, and other illicit activity. That doesn't just protect our families and businesses from economic malfeasance. It defends the very credibility of our financial system, the bedrock of the global financial system. So really what the men and women of TFI do every day goes far beyond their job descriptions. TFI combines the processing power of financial analysts with the guile and determination of a seasoned investigator and the soft touch, maybe David's softest of all, of a diplomat. They're kind of like IBM, CSI, and James Bond all rolled into one. Or a financial Batman. As a result, the economic power we exert worldwide has become much more targeted and effective. With fewer costs to our country, less collateral damage to innocent people, and much stronger results for us and for our national interest. Like superheroes generally, they bring light to dark spots where bad guys ply their trade. And as with superheroes generally, I would not bet against them. TFI has revolutionized our approach and looking ahead, its importance will continue to grow. The work of detecting, disrupting, and dismantling the financial infrastructure of terrorist organizations is as vital today as it has ever been. And every day there are more players to engage, domestic and international businesses, foreign regulators and ministries, international organizations. When it comes to stopping terrorism, proliferation, transnational crime like trafficking, financial tools alone won't do the job. But we won't succeed without them. One final thought. We were reminded by the president last week that the world is a very, very messy place. And indeed there's no end to history. And when this group reconvenes for TFI at 20, we will again marvel at how good work and creative thinking by TFI kept us stead, steps ahead of the messy world and the dark corners that hide bad actors. Then as now, we'll work to strengthen our own economy while bringing economic pressure to bear on bad actors everywhere. Because as I've said, a strong United States is the foundation for a strong and stable world. So let me close by saying again how grateful the president is for the work of the dedicated men and women of TFI. They've been incredibly valuable to this administration and to this country. I'm proud to call them colleagues. I'm honored to have heard David's comments earlier. And I know that the next 10 years will continue to build on this amazing success. So David, thank you very much.


Legal terms you should know if you're in the criminal justice system It is super important to know whether you're charged with a misdemeanor or a felony in the state of Florida Felonies can send you to prison a third-degree felony You're looking at a maximum of five years in prison a second-degree felony a maximum of 15 years in prison And then it goes up from there But a misdemeanor you're looking at county jail time and hopefully are possibly probation But the max you can get is time in the county jail It's an important distinction because also once you're convicted of a felony it affects your rights because then you're a convicted felon