Charges of adultery, prostitution and providing classified intelligence to taiwan and possibly also, china. But this scandal is only the tip of the iceberg. Because in 2016, the navy remains roiled by the socalled fat leonard scandal in which a number of enior officers have been charged for accepting kickbacks from a private maritime supply contractor. And note this oddity. A possible target of investigators, current director of naval intelligence, Vice Admiral Ted Branch has had his security clearance suspended since late 2013. Question is the navy in crisis, pat buchanan . Pat i would say no, john, but it is under great stress and the reason that we had about a 600ship navy under Ronald Reagan. Its about half that size and after the old cold war, we have the baltic sea and the black sea and the South China Sea and all these places to police by the u. S. Navy and the challenges to it from both china and russia are growing dramatically and secondly, even ith countries like iran, any antishipped weapons and missiles are very sophisticated are being developed. For example, some could be in the South China Sea which represent a real threat to our aircraft carriers. So in terms of strength, the United States navy is the most powerful on earth but in relative terms, other nations are growing in strength. John go ahead. Eleanor i wouldnt use the word cry is and i think the u. S. Navy still dwarfs the capacity of any other navy force in the world. And, ok, its not good when you find a spy, a potential spy in your ranks and thats being investigated and theyre being very quiet about it. So we dont know how far that goes. But the fat leonard scandal is typical kickbacks. Its money. And i dont connect that with the strength of the navy. So, i say no. The navy is not in crisis. Whoever the next president is, theyre probably going to want to look at the capacity of our forces. But i dont think theres anything wrong with our navy. John so you dont think the navy is underfunded . Eleanor no. Well, i think the military is making the case that under the sequester budget that theyre not getting enough money. But i would not single out the navy. I think again, the u. S. Military dwarfs. I think were bigger than the next 10 countries combined. This is not a problem. John you know robert gates . Eleanor i sure do. John and his memoir duty president obama proposed to cut half of 1. 2 trillion of total cuts and d. O. D. Represents 20 of the total budgets. So hes lamenting that. Eleanor well, he was the former defense secretary, i think . Yeah. They always want more. John eleanor, you know robert gates . Eleanor yes. He served up to im a big fan of bill gates. I would like to think in my heart but theres not a chance in the universe he has proven t by action. Hes one of the few people that is respected by everyone. The oblem with end is navy has very strict requirements for qualifications. They have to study very, very hard, very intellectually rigorous. Very welltrained crews that make it so proficient at the senior levels. And the best example there is ted branch is the head of naval intelligence. His security cleaners clearance is being suspected. It put twos different levels. One for the admirals and one for other people. There has to be consistency. But in terms of whether u. S. Army and marines have evolved over through afghanistan and iraq to deal with threat, the navy needs to do that as well. More focusing now probably on submarinforests because as pat says, one missile from china, you got 5,000 dead american sailors. Eleanor im waiting for the navy cries is so be introduced into the president ial contest. Then ill begin to pay attention. Clarence i dont think its going to happen. Well, what i see as a problem and i know a number of other people do. There have been seven officers named in this scandal and nothing resembling discipline or punishment or whatever for any of them. That means youve got a culture that tolerates corruption and thats a danger. It doesnt sound like a crisis. But we dont know who else might be involved in this. And the lid is on this right now. But i think if you dont show that you really care about cleaning up that sort of atmosphere that leads to people getting kickbacks and thats utright bribery. Pat you can talk about the largest expenditure in the country, but half of thats paid in benefits. Secondly, the United States is an island continent. So we have to have a navy all the way across the other side of the atlantic and the persian gulf and the other side of the 7,000mile pacific ocean. There arent russian war ships floating around the gulf of mexico but were sitting there in the baltic sea and our destroyers and others and youre right there in their backyard. And so i think the United States quite obviously, if youre going to be a global power, were the ones that need a gigantic navy. Clarence thats the debate. How much of a global power do we want to be . How much do we want to take care of these protective duties . Pat what are we doing in the baltic sea . Pat why cant the germans and the brits and the others, why cant hey manage that . Tom were dealing with poland , estonia and lithuania who are supporting. Pat why dont the germans put some ships in there . Tom they absolutely do. John is the navy overextended . Clarence thats the debate john and is it underfunded . Clarence the two work together. What is your mission . Pat thats clarences point. If wore going to defend everybody on earth in southern and eastern black sea and the indian ocean and the korean sea and the South China Sea, youre going to need a bigger navy. [laughter] eleanor were going to honor our treaty commitments and so far, i havent heard one squawk out of any of the president ial candidates that this is a problem. So lets we have so many other issues to worry about. Clarence you do not criticize the level of spending when youre running for president whether a democrat or republican. Eleanor ok. Fair enough. Tom one of the question and stuff that goes on behind the scenes is in the event of a conflict, because of the synergy of the different services, and i think People Struggle to understand. One of the big lies in europe is that the americans have all the kit but none of the skill. Actually, they have all the kit and all of the skills. To become a sub mariner, youve got to be be a Nuclear Physicist and a potential warrior. At is a sub mariner a sub machinest also . Eleanor i think hes been checking that out as career option. Tom i could be under the water, yeah. Clarence you might be too tall. Tom maybe. John im working on the assumption that we are in agreement that the navy is overextended and underfunded. And we all agree that that is a yes answer. The water is increasing its capacity in cunks with the widening of its navigationle channel. John seven years in the works and 102 years after the canal first opened in 1914, upgrades to the panama canal are nearly finished. He upgrades will allow super amaxe quoteunquote neopan transport vessels to navigate the 48mile route between the atlantic and pacific oceans. That increased trade will increase sufficiency and reduce hipping costs. Panamas government will also benefit of higher canal toll revenues. But note that later this year, construction will begin on a chinesefundsed nicaraguan canal to compete with the panama canal and with all the ice melting, the coming years will see new trade routes opening. Is the chinese canal through icaragua a viable project . Ill like to ask engineer pat buchanan. Pat john, its doable but its not costeffective to build it especially when youve dot the got the panama canal now taking very large container ships and its a very efficient canal. And this is an incredible project. T would take digging through nicaragua a longer length, even reflate nicaragua and through panama. It would be redundant. I think the chinese talked through their hat a lot and i dont think theyre going to go build in that canal, but theyre welcome to try. Maybe the nick juans will make ome money nicaraguans will make some money. Clarence they have found nothing and you can look throughout the continent of africa, the chinese have made all kinds of promises and supposed commitments to build these enormous projects and they havent delivered on virtually nything. The economy is slowing. But when they go into these areas, they generally bring their own workers. They really dont do much to benefit the local area and people are beginning to understand that the chinese are not great as partners in these kind of big construction efforts. Pat theyre selfish and selfinterest. Eleanor well, thats the government, not the people. People are wonderful. Tom the chinese in africa, they burn bridges. Regardless that you have fro trade or more protectionist policies. One of the great advantage the United States have is when you have a rules base system only engagement. Of engagement. Not with china because they do not obey the rules but for example, developping economies for philippines and vietnam and the United States can offer something to those people that is tangible and real. We get protections in terms of law. So the trading relationships are more about where the chinese can come in, pick winners and losers and leave the people to rot. And the chinese dont care about hat. Clarence ive seen a couple of those projects in africa. They not only bring their own material and their own people, they build their own compound there. They so they dont even mingle with the local population. Its a very contained economic environment. A lot of this may just be a public relations, really, sign of ventures into the third world to a new empire. Pat when you look at whats happening in china, they are tremendously overextended at home. Theyve started all these things that they cant follow through on. Theyve got a real crisis in that economy. And i think projects like building the nicaraguan canal are well down at the bottom. I think theyre going to have to retrench to a degree. China is second in the world but in many ways, the commons Chinese Party is overextended and the chirse are overextended. Clarence theyre just as paranoid as ever. And they still have too big of a gap between rich and poor. John wang jing lost 80 of his fortune in the chinese stock arket last year. 172 canal has multiple delays and may never be built here. Eleanor what about the panama canal . Now, that is one of the worlds wonders and youll remember, i believe Ronald Reagan built his president ial campaign on it. We paid for it. We built it. Its ours. And jimmy carter, of course, had turned the panama canal, turned it back to the people there and a lot of democrats lost their seat to the senate over that. But it was the right thing to do. Pat i was in that debate with reagan when he debated buckley and george was buckleys second. We where they used to say, we stole it fair and square. [laughter] eleanor ok. Clarence that was the line. Tom they cant compete at that low wage economy. They get undercut in terms of those cheap products that they sell to the world by sexram philippines. But what theyre doing is the South China Sea. Heres a big problem pause all those global trade routes going through there. If they own that pat that makes sense to them like the americans drove the british navy out of the gulf of mexico, and out of the caribbean and basically took over and the brits wisely had the great motto. They said will the the americans let the americans have it. Were going to need the americans for our problems in europe that are coming up. It was brilliant diplomacy and part of the British Empire from about 1900s to 1914. Tom what about those countries in Southeast Asia that would become under chinese dominion . And the trading relationships that we have with them . Will it affect american wallets . Pat i think the chinese, if they want those islands and theyre willing to fight for them, my guess is theyre going to go to the chinese. Eleanor theyre so far, thats not willing to fight. Everybodys avoiding that kind of confrontation over there. Tom because weve given it to them. Eleanor right. John Climate Change. Made the Northwest Passage a trade route. Pat it already is. Its more and more you can pass through there more and more months and weeks on the year now and its warming up and the russians are up there and a lot of folks are going north of canada and its an easy route from europe to asia. John hold on. Ust to inform pat, theres a geo physical research, letters in 2015 thats a research letter, 2015 says arctic ice will remain too thick for routine shipping but decades, even then, icebergs will be problems. Picture the titanic. What do you think of that . Pat no, its already the Northwest Passage is being used more and more. There are problems attended and its not all yearround all of it. But, john, it is widening and you can use it longer and longer. Eleanor the impact of Climate Change is being felt throughout the globe. And pat may think its a natural no. Maybe beneficial temporarily in some places thats going to create a lot of disruption and we should point out that paris accord was just signed recently at the u. N. A number of nations coming together under the leadership of president obama and the chinese president , the two biggest admitters of Greenhouse Gases really drove that treaty and thats very good. John Technology Like 3d will Technology Like 3d rinting reduce shipping . Pat whats in containers tom thats what i thought. Big consumer. Pat cant get all those toyota cars with the consumer machine. Its the u. S. Navy, its their opportunity again, to say why they are relevant and the question is how do they reform to be able to protect those . Its not just about the South China Sea. And this is the Global Responsibility thing. South china sea to the batic to the arctic. You see whats very interesting is the level of military training exercises, the u. S. Just sent an attacks to breach through to the p. R. , the russians planting flags. Pat there are ships amassed again. Tom its the great game again. The 19th century has returned. Clarence the jets are buzzing our ships. Pat thats our ship sitting there again in the baltic sea near leningrad. If he russian ship was sitting in florida, you think some navy guy might buzz that . John will panama reap the economic benefits of broadening the canal . Yes or no . Pat undeniably, its going to get some benefits and frankly, i hope there are a lot. Eleanor yes. Tom very big benefits. Clarence theyre ahead of the game right now. Ironically, those also reports about el nino causing a slowdown in the expansion of the canal. Theres another case of where climate is having an impact. John yes, arctic shipping is many decades away if ever. And the nicaraguan canal is more a pipe dream than a project. The panama and suez canal remains vital for world shipping. Issue three. Millenial challis. Challis. Mall lay. In a recent report, andrew woo of the Apartment ListCompany Raises key concerns about millenial Home Ownership. Ownership by millennials, mr. Woo explains, continues to decline each quarter. And across the nation. 37 of millennials have saved nothing for their first home purchase. But for the mclaughlins millennial viewers, seeking to buy a house, jack, james and samantha, the most affordable city for a down payment is detroit, michigan rget the most expensive city, San Francisco. Where the average millennial renter needs 28 years to save enough for a 20 down payment on a property. John what can be done to make millennial homes purchase more affordable . Pat one of the problems youre addressing here, first, is that millennials, people who buy homes used to be when clarence and i that were younger, theyre folks that were building families, bringing kids into the world and they want to move enter a community. A lot of the millennials are putting off marriage toon older age. Theyre enjoying the good life well, if you, of the cities. Gentrification is taking place. They prefer to rent and mobility and be able to move. Theyre not putting down roots the same way our generation did. Its a dramatic change and its one of the reasons, i think, and also the housing prices going up, its quite obvious what is happening, you know. And theres another point here, which is people kids coming out of college and a lot of kids, theyre not doing as well, moving up as well as we all seemed to be back in the 1950s and early 1960s when you got out of school. Eleanor well, there are a number of distinguishing features of millennials. Its a huge generation. 80 million, the biggest, obviously in history. And they have enormous student debt. So they come out of school, the ones who are fortunate enough to go to college and they owe a lot of money. And they dont really see the value in owning a lot of different things. And so they want to be mobile. They may get around to buying houses at some point but maybe the Housing Market touting think about more affordable housing, more apartments in cities. I mean, thats how people want to live. And they want to live in walkable communities. The suburb yan house with the lawn and the suburb yan with the lawn and red picket fence is not ideal anymore. Well, i have a red picket fence. I call it red. Clarence the apartment rent is so incredible. Lets turn to a young person. Tom one of the things is that when i first came out, im very lucky. And i still live there because the rent is so low because theres so many of us crammed in. But it allows i would say thats something that millennials should do. Dont go to the nicer place. Unpleasant and just push through it, save some money and then give yourself the chance to buy a property. But i would say one of the other things that i find troubling is number one what, we could do is its very hard to increase supply. We should reform that. But also, i think there is this trend in our society, unfortunately, away from young people. Obama care is the example and the problem with that is obviously, that drain is going to continue and the final point is we do need to get a grip on college tuiti