Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Putin’s Residence, Rogue Drones, Frozen Fortunes, and the Financial War Nobody Wants to Admit Is Already Here

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Putin’s Residence, Rogue Drones, Frozen Fortunes, and the Financial War Nobody Wants to Admit Is Already Here · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:00
Hello, good morning.
0:01
Welcome.
0:02
I am Samuel Trapp.
0:04
This is International Flavor.
0:06
You are listening to DAMN Radio and I'm
0:10
damn glad to have you.
0:12
I'm coming to you live from the Lake
0:14
Ozark real estate of the Art Studio.
0:18
You can phone in 573-746-8020 should
0:21
you feel the urge to discuss anything with
0:25
me this morning.
0:26
That would be fun.
0:27
You can send me emails that I rarely
0:29
read to live at damnradio.com.
0:32
You can send me emails to samuelt at
0:36
internationalflavor.com, samuelt at civicoutlaws.com, samuelt at
0:44
modernlawecosystem.com.
0:49
So before I get into the...
0:53
I have several topics, two main topics and
0:55
then a bunch of of other things I
0:58
want to discuss.
0:58
A couple of them I didn't get to
1:00
yesterday and there's so much news going on.
1:03
It isn't hard to come up with show
1:04
content these days, that's for sure.
1:07
And all of the ridiculousness going on in
1:10
the world.
1:11
By the way, just so you know, Walt
1:14
is labeling the fraud investigation against him as
1:18
white supremacy.
1:20
But isn't he white?
1:22
You know?
1:24
I don't know.
1:25
Wasn't there an encouragement a couple of weeks
1:27
ago that I read that the Equal Employment
1:34
Opportunity Commission was encouraging white men over 40
1:38
to submit claims of discrimination?
1:41
It's curious, very curious.
1:45
I'm...
1:46
I don't know.
1:48
We're in the realm of ridiculousness in the
1:51
world with everything that is going on.
1:54
And there's a couple of things that I
1:55
want to go into.
1:56
I am one of these...
2:01
everybody has heard, I don't know.
2:03
I sent the story to JR yesterday.
2:08
Sadly, I was unable to join his program
2:11
and I'm distraught over it even now.
2:15
I was unable to join his program and
2:18
so I don't know if he shared it.
2:21
But I sent a story into him yesterday
2:26
which I'm going to share with you again
2:29
if I'm able to find it.
2:32
Well, again, if he did.
2:33
And for the first time, if not.
2:36
And some of you may have heard this
2:37
in other sources as well already because it
2:40
has been fairly big news.
2:44
But here's the story.
2:46
It came in at about...
2:48
probably around...
2:51
I suppose it would have been about 10
2:55
a.m. here because it came in in
2:58
the afternoon.
2:59
Ukrainian military fired a barrage of 91 kamikaze
3:04
drones at the Russian president's state residence.
3:08
Trump was allegedly shocked by Ukraine's attack on
3:13
Putin's residence, according to the Kremlin.
3:16
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Trump
3:23
was shocked by the Ukrainian attack on the
3:26
state residence and said that, according to Trump,
3:30
he did not foresee such crazy actions, according
3:33
to Kremlin foreign policy aide.
3:36
A presidential advisor made these remarks to the
3:39
Russian media after a call made between Putin
3:43
and Trump on Monday.
3:44
Shortly before the conversation became known to the
3:47
public, Moscow said the Ukrainian military targeted Putin's
3:50
state residence in Novgorod.
3:53
More than 90 kamikaze drones sent there.
3:59
The Russians made it clear that such reckless
4:02
actions will certainly not go unanswered.
4:05
I've been waiting to see what Lavrov says
4:09
in this regard.
4:11
But according to Ushakov, the U.S. president,
4:13
according to Putin, was shocked by the news
4:16
and expressed outrage, stating he could not have
4:19
imagined such crazy actions.
4:21
Ukraine, blah, blah, blah.
4:22
They keep repeating it.
4:23
Given the current situation, Russia's position on a
4:26
number of previously reached agreements and pending solutions
4:30
will be reviewed.
4:32
This was stated very clearly.
4:34
And the Americans should take this with due
4:37
understanding, meaning they're rethinking all this.
4:40
Don't tell us we're going to resolve this
4:43
because this attack occurred at the time of
4:48
the meeting with or the press conference with
4:53
Trumpster in, you know, when Z Monster was
4:56
meeting with Trumpster.
4:58
So the Z man has strongly denied these
5:02
attacks.
5:03
And Moscow, he says, is only seeking a
5:06
pretext to jeopardize the progress, according to him,
5:10
which I went through with you yesterday, why
5:12
it's not progress.
5:13
It's just more noise, you know, and more
5:16
money for them.
5:17
He has no desire to end this war
5:19
and neither does Europe.
5:22
So, you know, the attack and he he
5:27
says that this allegation is so they can
5:30
attack the government quarter in Kiev, Russia.
5:34
And so this attack came days after barrage.
5:39
Well, many of them, but there was also
5:42
a weird Christmas address by Zelensky, which he
5:46
wished for certain unnamed person, presumed to be
5:50
the president, Russian president to perish simultaneously with
5:55
the death wish.
5:56
The Ukrainian leader urged everyone to pray for
5:59
peace, except for except for Putin.
6:03
We wish him death.
6:05
He said Moscow condemned his address with Kremlin
6:08
spokesman Peskov, stating it appeared uncultured, embittered and
6:13
coming from an unhinged person whose ability to
6:16
make rational decisions is very much debatable.
6:22
And, you know, what nonsense, no matter how
6:25
you slice it, it's it shouldn't go this
6:30
way.
6:31
And so there's been a little more news
6:34
about this that I've tried to find, although
6:36
getting true news about it from any source
6:38
is really difficult.
6:42
So but here's what I've been able to
6:43
gather from a lot of commentary and a
6:46
lot of different folks.
6:48
So here's what's on the record, according to,
6:51
you know, quite a few sources as of
6:54
December twenty nine, late twenty ninth and some
6:58
some this morning.
6:59
Russia's foreign ministers, Lavrov, Sergei Lavrov says Ukraine
7:02
attempted to attack Putin's residence in Novgorod, ninety
7:05
one drones, all were neutralized, according to Lavrov.
7:09
Ukraine, Zelensky denies it.
7:13
Reuters reports the allegation comes during renewed peace
7:17
discussions and Russia signaling a more hard line
7:21
approach and but still says it won't withdraw
7:24
from talks.
7:25
That's according to Reuters.
7:28
Lavrov says you can certainly expect, you know,
7:32
some kind of a response from us and
7:36
we will have to specifically consider our.
7:43
But approach after this, you know, now, you
7:49
know, for the inside baseball version.
7:52
Is the claim that the incident was discussed
7:57
in a Putin Trump call, according to Ushakov,
8:00
that Trump is shocked and outraged, plus about
8:02
the there's allegedly a line that is going
8:06
around that says, thank God we didn't give
8:08
them tomahawks that that according to the transcript
8:13
that but I don't know if that's true
8:15
or not.
8:16
Reuters reports Ushakov describing Trump's reaction in that
8:21
call as well said that, you know, he
8:23
was you know, outraged that they did report,
8:29
but he didn't say.
8:32
That it was exactly going to be that.
8:35
What did they say?
8:37
Reuters Ushakov said it, according to the to
8:41
the to Reuters anyway.
8:45
And Zelensky says, though, that it is a
8:49
complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against
8:55
Kiev.
8:56
And that is that.
8:58
But there were quite a few comments on
9:03
this.
9:04
This is so the public picture, though, you
9:06
know, this secrecy breach.
9:08
I heard a guy, a commentator yesterday saying
9:12
that.
9:14
Because this attack occurred simultaneously with the Zelensky
9:20
Trump visit and presser immediately afterward, and because
9:27
Trump outlined in the beginning of that meeting
9:32
with the Z monster, that they were that
9:38
he had had a discussion, a good two
9:40
and a half hour discussion with Putin earlier
9:42
in the day before the meeting, and that
9:46
he was going to have him, you know,
9:50
call him afterward and speak to him and
9:53
give him an update on it after he
9:55
had spoken with the leaders of Europe and
9:58
Zelensky and whatnot, that basically the allegation or
10:06
fear is that somebody in the American side
10:09
shared the location of Putin's where he was
10:14
in Novgorod, because Novgorod is not Moscow.
10:17
It's west of Moscow, I believe, a certain
10:20
amount of space, and I don't remember how
10:22
far, but I'm pretty sure that Novgorod is
10:24
to the west of Moscow and a significant
10:28
amount, you know, like an hour or something
10:29
like that, at least, and that he has
10:31
a residence out there.
10:34
And that because they were going to be
10:38
chatting again after the Zelensky meeting, that there
10:44
was going to be.
10:47
That he would that Trump Putin was going
10:49
to stay there on that location, and so
10:51
therefore, they were afraid that the leaks or
10:54
somebody on the Zelensky team or somebody involved
10:57
had heard that he was in Novgorod, and
11:00
they sent these drones in at that time,
11:02
you know, in order to do it.
11:03
So I don't know.
11:04
We shall see.
11:06
But the insinuation is that this represents a
11:09
leak of presidential movements in location that somebody
11:13
in the US inner circle failed at the
11:15
most basic rule.
11:17
You don't let an adversary know where the
11:19
head of state is located, specifics, right?
11:22
So let's be, you know, I don't know,
11:25
this could be just, you know, a BS
11:28
claim, you know, but the allegation isn't just
11:31
that Ukraine launched the drones, it's that Ukraine
11:33
launched drones at the correct place and the
11:37
correct time, and 91 of them.
11:40
And so this, you know, arguably is a
11:45
large scandal for the US presidency.
11:49
Because if the Russians believe location secrecy was
11:52
compromised, Russia isn't going to treat the US
11:54
as a mediator, but the US as a
11:57
participant, which they've been trying not to do.
12:00
They've been trying to stay off of that
12:03
and and repair relations.
12:05
Now, I don't think any of this is
12:07
gonna fix it anyway.
12:09
Well, gonna fix the war, or create further
12:14
problems between the US and Russia.
12:16
I don't think so.
12:19
Trump was pretty clear about, you know, ceasefire
12:22
isn't going to do anything.
12:23
But if Moscow believes Washington can't control its
12:27
own information flow, or worse, it can't control
12:30
its own agencies, they've never been able to
12:33
do that, then every negotiation becomes a verification,
12:39
a trap check, instead of a peace process.
12:42
So, you know, but let's not go, you
12:45
know, crazy with it.
12:46
But he said, you know, said that, the
12:51
public claim that the who do you believe
12:53
question is a real question, because nobody knows
12:58
who to believe.
12:59
And if we, believed anything that anybody told
13:02
us, it would be a different, it'd be
13:04
a different game completely.
13:06
But nobody does.
13:07
I mean, over here, that, you know, my
13:09
big issue isn't that I that I disbelieve
13:12
what we hear over here and believe everything
13:15
that they put out in Russia or in
13:17
Al Jazeera, or in Times of India or
13:19
something, it's just, I don't believe any of
13:21
it.
13:22
And so I will go through it and
13:24
try to figure out, you know, what it
13:25
is, I don't believe any of this crap,
13:27
you know, in between all of the stories
13:30
is usually where the truth resides.
13:32
And that's the issue.
13:33
So we have three plausible, you know, models,
13:39
I suppose you can call it.
13:41
It happened as it was alleged that that
13:44
could be model one, meaning Ukraine or elements
13:47
inside of Ukraine, aimed for the symbolism of
13:51
attacking the presidential residence in Novgorod or assassination
13:56
pressure, or maybe hoping for a strike, you
14:00
know, I've talked to a couple of people
14:01
who said, Well, this is wartime.
14:03
This is what you expect.
14:04
Well, I suppose that's true.
14:07
I suppose Russia could be, you know, bombing.
14:13
Who knows what bombing the Kiev presidential palace.
14:18
I haven't seen anything about that.
14:21
Nothing recent they've talked about a in the
14:25
very beginning, there was some talks that so
14:27
that's model one, it happened, as they say,
14:29
it is for symbolism or assassination pressure.
14:31
Model two, it happened, but not as intended.
14:35
Maybe there was a strike against some other
14:37
object, or communication node, not necessarily the residents.
14:42
And it got narrated into a residence attack.
14:45
So quite often in Ukraine, they claim that
14:49
Russia is bombing, you know, homes, and Russia
14:53
does the same, only the evidence is far
14:56
greater on the Russian side of that, you
14:59
know, and it and I'm, I tend to
15:03
believe it, because I saw the aftermath of
15:07
what happened on the beach in on a
15:10
Sunday afternoon, when the Ukrainians targeted families with
15:15
cluster rounds back a couple of years ago.
15:19
And that was truly evil.
15:23
And to do that over a, over a
15:30
beach goer afternoon, on a Sunday afternoon, killing
15:35
children, women, you know, families, old people, you
15:38
know, that's nonsense.
15:39
And, and that did happen.
15:41
And, you know, there's quite a bit of
15:46
targeting of, you know, apartment complexes, residences, buses,
15:52
you know, like stuff of that nature from
15:57
the Ukrainian side, especially in Belgrade, especially in
16:03
the Kursk regions, and areas just across the
16:08
border that have been going on for a
16:10
while.
16:11
And they also do it in Donetsk and
16:12
Lugansk.
16:14
They bomb civilian targets over there.
16:18
And they argue that that, you know, that
16:20
on the Russian side, they do this, they've
16:22
done the same thing.
16:23
But most of the time that is not
16:28
the the target of of either side, you
16:33
know, they're not attempting to target the the
16:41
residents, for example, they're targeting something else.
16:44
And when somebody blows up the the drone,
16:48
or the missile, or whatever the the parts
16:53
of that rain down upon the residential areas
16:57
or create further damage that way, but not
17:00
as you know, war is war, it's gotta
17:03
suck, you know, I've not been involved in
17:05
a war was in the military during two
17:08
wars, but I, you know, was a Russian
17:11
interpreter, we weren't at war with them.
17:14
At that time, it was always in Arabic
17:17
countries or something like that.
17:20
So model two, it happened, but not as
17:22
intended.
17:22
And number three, it didn't happen at all.
17:26
The so it's a narrative that Russia created
17:29
it to justify the next Russian strike.
17:34
I don't think they got to justify any
17:35
strike Russia's been pretty solid on, you know,
17:40
bombing the hell out of out of out
17:45
of all parts of Ukraine, and we cover
17:49
it fairly well here, I don't think they
17:51
need to justify any of it.
17:52
They're they're playing to win.
17:54
And, you know, the the Ukrainians aren't playing
18:00
to defend themselves against attacking troops, they're destroying
18:05
civilian objects, or allegedly infrastructure objects inside of
18:12
Russia in order to get that done.
18:14
And, you know, that's the last of what
18:16
they have.
18:17
So, you know, either way, you could justify
18:20
which, you know, anything that either side is
18:23
doing, but take take the attack on the
18:26
residents, as I believe it happened, you know,
18:30
that they did do this, because it's a,
18:32
there's always been a history of this type
18:34
of stuff, especially from the Ukrainian side.
18:37
And, you know, I don't, I don't, I
18:41
have zero faith that their commanders aren't targeting
18:44
these types of things.
18:45
They are some brutal folks over there.
18:50
So let's talk about the the next part
18:58
of it, right?
18:59
It's, if you talk about this secrecy breach,
19:04
it isn't that, you know, the targets are
19:13
perceived as a command center for the nuclear
19:16
triad.
19:17
So a guy named Restovich, I've talked about
19:19
him before, he talks about the of the
19:22
commander of the armed forces and the nuclear
19:24
triad, that under any nuclear doctrine, the duty
19:28
officer doesn't get to assume it's a harmless
19:30
target, right?
19:31
He's describing the decision pressure created by attacking
19:35
command and control infrastructure.
19:37
This was also an interesting argument that he
19:39
came up with.
19:40
Even a conventional drone swarm could create a
19:43
nuclear adjacent crisis if the target reads it
19:46
as a strategic command center, right?
19:48
So if you call it a strategic command
19:50
center, this could be quite a bit more
19:52
dangerous than just another drone attack.
19:55
You know, I mean, drone attacks happen every
19:56
day, you know, several hundred a night, you
19:59
know, missiles of 10, 20 a night, you
20:02
know, and then all these, these things.
20:05
It's about how these are interpreted at the
20:07
top.
20:07
And Restovich says that, you know, they call
20:13
it when it gets personal humiliating flexibility drops
20:20
and payback is mandatory.
20:22
So attacking the Russian presidential residents means that
20:29
you will, there will be repercussions one way
20:32
or the other, whether they're fake or not,
20:34
it's gonna happen.
20:35
And so it will occur.
20:40
And so what retaliation looks like, we don't
20:43
know.
20:43
Lavrov said is that, and the only part
20:48
I heard was he's saying that a retaliation
20:50
is planned, targets are being selected, but Russia
20:54
will not withdraw from negotiations.
20:57
And that's according to multiple sources, Reuters included.
21:01
And so there's a, you know, a couple
21:04
other rumors, potential strikes on Ukrainian governmental buildings
21:08
and activity around Kapustin Yar and Oreshnik speculation.
21:14
I don't know if I said this, but
21:17
there's big news going around Russia that the
21:20
Oreshnik, which you remember from, what was that
21:23
October Lavrov 24.
21:27
I don't remember November.
21:29
Maybe it was a little more than a
21:30
year ago that the Oreshnik, those big strikes
21:34
from that very powerful weapon occurred.
21:39
Well, there's been big news this year that
21:43
the Oreshnik is in production now and is
21:47
slated to be fielded, will be fielded for
21:53
2026.
21:55
And so we need to watch for this
21:57
Oreshnik now because there's all kinds of talk
22:01
that that's gonna happen.
22:03
And I mean, none of that is confirmed
22:05
mainstream, but this is a watch list.
22:08
What are we going to watch for?
22:09
We're going to watch for a symbolic reciprocity.
22:12
You aim at a leadership space, we can
22:14
aim at one, you know, command and control
22:17
targeting.
22:17
We're going to target telecom, intelligence, power nodes,
22:21
you know, like they're doing anyway.
22:24
And negotiation leverage strikes, calibrated punishment that says
22:29
we can hit deeper anytime we like.
22:32
And here's the key, if Russia believes that
22:35
somebody leaked the location, the retaliation might be
22:39
designed less for Ukraine and more as messaging
22:42
to the West, right?
22:46
So I don't know what I'd necessarily believe
22:51
on that, you know, but this attack has
22:54
been a big topic for discussion.
22:56
It's something to follow some more today and
23:00
to discuss further.
23:01
I wanted to give a quick review of,
23:06
where is it, of the, any latest news.
23:16
There was another article that came out that
23:20
said the goal, according to quite a few
23:29
places, Kyiv's attempt to strike the official residence
23:33
of Putin was an attempt to undermine peace
23:37
talks, is what most people are saying.
23:40
And so again, and they tell what it
23:42
is, Ukraine's, let's see, the attempted assault was
23:48
an act of terrorism aimed at derailing the
23:51
negotiations and not just President Putin personally.
23:56
This was Dmitry Peskov that said that.
24:04
You know, I told you about the Christmas
24:06
address where every Ukrainian citizen's wish for the
24:10
holiday was death to him, understood to be
24:14
Putin.
24:16
We wish death to him and joy to
24:18
everybody else, basically.
24:20
So according to Peskov, he said this was
24:24
directed against Trump, against his efforts to facilitate
24:27
peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict, he said.
24:31
And I don't know, he said that Trump
24:37
was very angry, you know, we already covered
24:39
that part.
24:40
And there's been other foreign leaders that have
24:43
come out and said some things.
24:45
The UAE and a couple other countries have
24:50
strongly condemned the Kamikaze drone attack targeting the
24:54
residence of President Putin.
24:57
The UAE has strongly condemned the attempt to
25:00
target the residence of His Excellency Vladimir Putin,
25:04
President of the Russian Federation, and denounced this
25:07
deplorable attack and the threat it poses to
25:10
security and stability, said the UAE foreign ministry.
25:15
And then the co-presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel
25:19
Ortega and Rosario Murilla, sent a letter to
25:22
Putin and expressed their most active solidarity in
25:26
the face of the terrorist attack by Ukraine.
25:29
It is only logical that fascism behaves in
25:32
this way, attempting to nullify strength of conversations
25:36
that seek to bring peace closer, they wrote.
25:41
Moscow warns that the response will be blah,
25:44
blah, blah, will not be diplomatic and blah,
25:49
blah, we've already heard that part.
25:51
Russian lawmakers uniformly condemned the attack as state
25:55
terrorism in a deliberate attempt to disrupt the
25:59
peace process.
26:01
So plenty of news on that.
26:04
And who knows, but continue watching.
26:08
I don't think the peace talks are going
26:10
to get anywhere anyway, as we discussed yesterday.
26:15
And on that, you know, I watched over
26:19
the weekend, an interesting kind of a documentary
26:26
show.
26:28
And it was pretty good.
26:30
And basically, it went through the states of
26:35
money.
26:36
And again, I've followed this up, and I've
26:39
followed it fairly closely.
26:40
I talk here on this program quite a
26:43
bit about BRICS and quite a bit about
26:45
the mistakes that America is making, well, the
26:50
entire West, but, but us started, started, you
26:54
know, long ago with this lecturing the rest
26:57
of the world, this is what we do
26:59
as if there's only one important country in
27:05
the world, you know what I mean?
27:07
And, and, you know, I do, do I
27:10
think that our country is the most powerful,
27:13
and we have a beautiful country, and we
27:15
are, you know, we, we have high ideals,
27:18
you know, us regular Americans, our government doesn't
27:22
share those ideals, though, unfortunately.
27:25
I don't believe they do.
27:27
The bulk of government, I have very little
27:31
respect for most government employees, you know, because
27:34
I always said stuff that, you know, those
27:37
who, who can do those who cannot, you
27:41
know, join, join the government service, because, you
27:43
know, you can't be fired, you know, you
27:45
can't be touched, it's easy.
27:47
And, you know, politicians, I have even less
27:51
respect for.
27:53
It's a, you know, popularity contest.
27:55
And, you know, when I read stories, like,
27:58
was it Mitch McConnell that wrote the book,
28:00
or, you know, his dad bought him, you
28:02
know, paid for his pizza, and he got
28:04
his first taste, being like president of his
28:07
class or something, and his dad bought pizza
28:10
for everybody.
28:11
And so, you know, he got votes, and
28:13
that's how, and, and, and that star was
28:15
born, right?
28:16
You just, you get the right people to
28:18
fund you.
28:20
And you can do anything, you know, you
28:22
get, you use other people's money, and you
28:25
get the power.
28:26
So your pops backs you, and there you
28:29
are, it's good stuff.
28:30
Anyway, in this, so, so I take all
28:34
of this crap with a grain of salt
28:35
when it comes to the rest of the
28:37
stuff, because I don't trust any of them,
28:38
you know what I mean?
28:39
And so I want to talk about, and
28:41
I've been following for a while, the bricks
28:44
and the decline of the opinion of the
28:47
rest of the world.
28:48
And maybe it's always been this way, and
28:51
I just didn't realize it as much when
28:54
I traveled.
28:54
You would notice it if you travel, and
28:56
I've said this several times, that when you
28:58
travel, and have been to as many places
29:00
as I have, and you're as open as
29:03
I am with people, when I travel, I
29:06
want to find things out.
29:07
I want to find out about their country,
29:10
their culture, how they live, these type of
29:13
things, and not just Russia.
29:14
I'd like to do it everywhere.
29:16
I regret that I haven't been able to
29:18
go to Ukraine.
29:18
Hell, I'd be afraid to go there now,
29:20
because of my less than favorable opinions of
29:24
the government over there.
29:25
Although the people, the Ukrainians that I know
29:27
are fantastic, you know?
29:29
And I do know a good number of
29:31
them.
29:31
But this, I have very little respect for
29:36
how this stuff works, and what has been
29:39
going on with Europe stirring the pot, America
29:42
stirring the pot, pushing Russia through through expansion
29:47
of NATO, and all of that over the
29:49
last more than 30 years.
29:53
And one of the things I've been following,
29:56
as all of you know, is the seizure
29:58
of money by the EU.
30:06
Ursula von der Leyen of the world are
30:08
trying to seize all of Russia's money, and
30:11
they've frozen it, they've taken it.
30:14
And I saw this, and I'm going to
30:17
share a little bit, if I can find
30:20
the original transcript, because I have it.
30:25
And I wanted to share a little bit
30:27
of this story.
30:32
Because, let's see, we're going to share like,
30:36
I'll share probably the first few paragraphs of
30:42
it at least, okay?
30:44
And Europe seized $105 billion from Russia to
30:51
fund Ukraine.
30:53
And in response, Russia nationalized $120 billion in
30:59
European corporate assets.
31:01
And these were from places like Volkswagen, Shell,
31:04
Siemens, you know, large companies.
31:08
Remember me, I don't know if you've listened
31:11
to me all that long, but I've been
31:14
doing this now for, geez, a while, both
31:17
in Russian and in English.
31:18
And I would always talk about what happened
31:24
in Russia, you know, when I went there
31:26
three, four years ago, they had McDonald's, you
31:32
know, there were McDonald's everywhere.
31:33
And now, they are not McDonald's.
31:36
They are вкусная иточка, which means tasty, period.
31:41
And your Starbucks coffee is now Star Coffee,
31:45
although Bean Arts is much better than Starbucks.
31:49
And no doubt, and the food is 10
31:51
times better.
31:52
And the coffee is fantastic.
31:55
And they're all over, all over Russia, Bean
31:58
Arts.
31:58
And they have a couple other ones too,
32:00
that are really, really good.
32:02
But there is still Starbucks.
32:03
And the Starbucks were everywhere too.
32:05
But now, Starbucks isn't Starbucks over there, it's
32:08
Star.
32:09
So, basically, they nationalized all of this.
32:12
So, imagine you own several Starbucks franchises, and
32:17
you go over there, and America says, oh,
32:19
do you know what we're gonna do?
32:21
We're gonna isolate Russia.
32:24
And everybody's, you know, forced, and they're not
32:28
really forced, but they're, through politics, through cancel
32:32
culture, they're told, Russia is the enemy.
32:37
Leave.
32:38
You know, oh, geez, it's so dangerous to
32:39
go to Russia, and you hear crap like
32:41
that.
32:42
And so, what was happening was, what happened
32:46
to McDonald's, to become вкусная иточка?
32:49
Some people came over, they sold it to
32:51
other investors, okay?
32:53
They sold Star, Starbucks assets.
32:58
They seized them all, and sold them.
33:01
That's what Russia did.
33:02
They took them.
33:04
And it was selective, you know, which ones
33:07
they took, which ones they didn't.
33:08
But it happened with Siemens, Volkswagen, Shell, and
33:11
they had been investing for 30 years, since
33:14
the, I interviewed with Shell years ago, and
33:18
they wanted me to go overseas, you know,
33:21
when I was now in the military, in
33:22
the 90s.
33:23
I lived in Washington, D.C. when I
33:24
was getting out, and I coulda, maybe shoulda
33:27
stayed, you know, in hindsight, 2020, right?
33:32
But I coulda and shoulda maybe gone over
33:35
to Russia, right, and hung out over there,
33:37
but Russia was kind of a mess then.
33:41
It was a little bit, you know, I
33:43
woulda not taken my family there in those
33:45
days, you know, I had younger children at
33:47
the time.
33:48
And, but they've spent 30 years, Western corporations
33:52
have spent 30 years growing business models, growing,
33:58
I don't know, supply lines, building a brand.
34:06
I mean, 30 years of investment gone because
34:09
of a political deal.
34:11
Shell lost 30 years of investment.
34:15
Plenty of future exploitation of Russian oil and
34:23
gas, you know.
34:27
This was just, the opening move was Europe
34:31
getting this smart idea, you know, they thought
34:34
that they were wielding a weapon, you know,
34:36
the idea was just wrong in principle, because
34:39
they fundamentally, they just completely misunderstood who had
34:45
more to lose, whether it was Russia or
34:49
whether it was Europe.
34:50
And they had the serious problem of thinking
34:54
that they were in charge.
34:58
They thought they were wielding the financial weapon
35:00
because they own the, you know, the West
35:04
controlled the IMF, controlled the swift banking system,
35:09
controlled insurance and shipping, and all of this
35:13
controlled with West.
35:16
Everything was paid for in dollars.
35:19
And instead, they handed Russia a roadmap for
35:22
destroying European economic credibility.
35:26
That's what they did.
35:27
And Russia didn't just follow this roadmap, they
35:30
have improved upon it.
35:32
And it is now rushing upon us, these
35:36
alternate financial streams.
35:39
And many, many, many more countries are looking
35:42
at it, not just because of BRICS, but
35:44
because of alternate structures altogether.
35:47
And so, let's go back to February 2024.
35:50
Brussels was, you know, under enormous pressure.
35:55
And the war in Ukraine was in its
35:57
third year.
35:58
And Ukraine needed more money.
36:00
European voters, you know, were rioting.
36:03
They don't want to give more checks.
36:04
They don't want to give more money.
36:06
And then Brussels had this brilliant idea to,
36:09
you know, take this $105 billion in assets
36:13
in European financial institutions and central bank reserves,
36:18
sovereign wealth funds, investment accounts, just sitting there.
36:22
They're frozen.
36:23
Why not seize them, use them to fund
36:25
Ukraine, punish Russia at the same time?
36:29
No domestic tax.
36:31
You know, we don't have to increase taxes.
36:33
We don't have to, you know, legally justify
36:36
it.
36:36
You know, that's a huge mistake.
36:38
But they didn't justify it.
36:40
They just froze the assets during this conflict.
36:43
And so, confiscating is unprecedented.
36:48
But European lawyers found a pathway.
36:51
And the announcement came in March of 2024.
36:54
They would be seized and transferred to Ukraine
36:56
for reconstruction.
36:58
And the initial reaction was pretty triumphant.
37:01
European leaders were all happy.
37:03
Financial newspapers said it was bold.
37:06
Ukraine celebrated, of course.
37:08
And it was simple.
37:09
Russia's gonna pay for its own war with
37:12
money that it can't defend because it's held
37:15
outside of Russia.
37:17
And it looked like a great, you know,
37:19
a great idea.
37:21
But then guess what happened?
37:24
Three moves.
37:26
So devastating.
37:27
You know, Russia announced, number one, that it
37:30
was nationalizing all European corporate assets on Russian
37:34
territory.
37:35
Not suspending operations, not a temporary seizure, but
37:39
permanent nationalization.
37:41
And the value of all this?
37:43
Just the assets?
37:44
120 billion dollars.
37:47
More than Europe had taken.
37:49
So, Volkswagen had been operating in Russia since
37:53
the 90s.
37:54
They built factories.
37:55
They developed supply lines.
37:56
Had workers.
37:58
Billions invested.
38:00
And in many cities, VW plants are the
38:02
largest employers.
38:04
Thousands of jobs.
38:05
You know, everything gone.
38:08
And the government took their factories, their equipment,
38:11
intellectual property, everything.
38:13
And these Russian subsidiaries just simply ceased to
38:17
exist as German companies.
38:19
They didn't exist anymore.
38:21
And Siemens, same thing.
38:23
They had built power infrastructure across Russia.
38:26
Rail systems, industrial equipment.
38:29
Russia didn't just take the assets.
38:31
They took the maintenance contracts, too.
38:33
Nothing was allowed to stay.
38:36
Spare parts, service agreements, you know, all of
38:39
this.
38:39
Shell had it even worse.
38:41
Major stakes in Russian energy projects.
38:43
Sakhalin 2, Arctic LNG, joint ventures with Gazprom
38:48
worth billions.
38:50
And Russia nationalized it all.
38:52
Shell went from an equity partner to nothing,
38:55
and they never got a penny for it.
38:58
Nothing.
38:58
Just taken.
39:00
And lots and lots of companies, not just
39:02
these ones, but plenty more.
39:05
Midsize manufacturers, service providers, all of their Russian
39:09
operations were just confiscated.
39:13
Dannon lost dairy plants.
39:15
Carlsberg lost breweries.
39:17
I can't remember what the name of the
39:19
breweries were, but when I was over there
39:20
last time, the old Carlsberg breweries are called
39:24
something else.
39:25
And I wish I could remember what it
39:26
was.
39:27
I went to try one of their beers,
39:28
and they nationalized a beer.
39:30
And had different factories, and the list goes
39:32
on and on of what it is.
39:34
So, you know, what they did with these
39:38
things is if there weren't oligarchical people inside
39:43
of Russia that wished to buy the asset,
39:47
then Russia was selling them to Chinese companies
39:52
at large discounts.
39:54
Think about that.
39:57
Russia's been tired of trying to take over
39:58
the world and expand everywhere, and I don't
40:01
mean that, you know.
40:03
They've been trying to be an active trade
40:07
person everywhere, and they have been.
40:10
And now they're everywhere in Russia.
40:12
Their visas are open.
40:14
There's a huge interchange between.
40:18
It's now more favorable for them to go
40:20
to Russia than to come to America.
40:22
You know, they're thought of poorly here in
40:26
many instances, right?
40:28
And, you know, oh, geez, they're buying property
40:32
over here.
40:33
It doesn't look good for them, right?
40:35
So, these corporate losses were pretty staggering because,
40:38
you know, they sold these to, you know,
40:42
China, other countries, and they've given huge market
40:46
positions, factories that already existed, they've given them
40:51
up to China.
40:55
So, here's how it began, you know, how
40:59
these moves, encounter moves, have destroyed what
41:09
they were trying to, you know, create.
41:13
So, I mean, think about this.
41:16
It's the names that matter, you know, the
41:20
big ones, Volkswagen, Siemens, Dan and Carlsberg, and,
41:25
you know, Russia reallocated all of these things.
41:29
And, you know, these frozen reserves that have
41:33
been frozen, and Russia still says, you take
41:35
it, it's theft, because those are sovereign assets.
41:39
They're not privatized.
41:40
They're not private assets.
41:41
They're Russian money.
41:43
But Russia took private assets and just said,
41:47
sorry, you can't operate here anymore.
41:49
Whatever licenses you have to operate are canceled.
41:52
Your people must leave.
41:54
We've nationalized everything that you have.
41:57
That's a totally different set of laws, right?
42:00
It's what the U.S. was doing against
42:03
the RT that I told you about.
42:06
They used the confiscation processes in order to
42:09
get to that.
42:11
And so, the core thesis of this isn't,
42:13
you know, poor Europe, oh, gee, poor Europe,
42:16
they've lost a bunch of stuff.
42:17
It's the thought process should be that the
42:24
reserve currency of the world isn't really money
42:29
at all.
42:31
It's trust.
42:32
And who's going to trust a dollar and
42:35
euro based system that creates rules as it
42:39
goes along?
42:40
That's one of my core thesis of my
42:42
own is why would anybody trust what the
42:46
West is doing when the rest of the
42:48
world is going, rules for me, but not
42:52
for you, of course.
42:53
So, once West demonstrates that sovereign reserves can
42:57
be confiscated for political reasons, everybody starts to
43:02
diversify.
43:03
Saudi, Singapore, even Switzerland.
43:07
So, Saudi Arabia has huge amounts of sovereign
43:12
reserves.
43:14
And trust me, they've been changing who's holding
43:17
them.
43:18
Singapore, the big financial area over there as
43:21
well.
43:22
Lots of assets held there.
43:24
And Switzerland, you know, Switzerland has been neutral
43:27
since I was a kid.
43:29
I mean, that's all I knew was Switzerland.
43:31
Oh, geez, those are the neutral people.
43:33
They're not.
43:34
They participated in this seizure of Russian money.
43:38
That did more damage to them.
43:40
This non-neutrality has killed them.
43:44
It will.
43:45
It hasn't killed them.
43:46
It'll take a while.
43:49
But the big move is that people are
43:52
diversifying.
43:53
The bigger move is, you know, these are
43:56
pushing commodity settlements toward rubles, yuan, rupee, anything
44:02
else.
44:03
The alternative infrastructures like SPFS, China's SIPs, their
44:08
exchange networks that are non-dollar, non-Swift
44:12
base exchanges, are being accepted all over the
44:17
rest of the world.
44:18
And is it going to change overnight?
44:21
Nope.
44:21
But it's going a lot faster than anybody
44:24
would have possibly imagined even, you know, well,
44:28
before 2022.
44:30
That's for sure.
44:31
So, whether every statistic is a perfect statistic
44:34
is less important than the direction that we're
44:38
heading.
44:38
The more that finances are weaponized, the more
44:42
alternatives are attractive to everyone else.
44:48
And how do you get them to come
44:51
back here if there's no trust in the
44:56
system, in the dollar?
44:58
There's certainly no trust in the euro, you
45:01
know, with all of this talk about the
45:03
300 billion being seized and Zelensky openly saying,
45:10
you know, they're going to give him a
45:11
loan for all of this and he doesn't
45:14
have to pay it back unless he gets
45:17
reparations.
45:18
Well, what about Donbass getting reparations for the
45:21
eight years that Ukraine bombed its own citizens,
45:28
you know, and they wanted out?
45:30
I don't know.
45:32
Let's tie this back into the drone story.
45:34
So, if the peace process is as wobbly
45:38
as it is, I believe it is, and
45:41
the escalation risk is going up, well, the
45:45
financial side is going to get harder as
45:49
well.
45:49
It's not going to soften.
45:51
There's going to be more confiscations, more counter
45:56
sanctions, more forced divestment of assets, more yuan,
46:02
ruble, rupee settlement experimentation.
46:05
So, you know, the narrative about these drones,
46:10
it's a trigger that could possibly tighten every
46:15
other screw at the same time, right?
46:19
It's, I don't know.
46:22
The last 72 hours, here we are at
46:25
the end of the year, and people are
46:26
giving a lot of year in review what
46:30
we expect for 2026.
46:33
I was talking with a couple of people
46:34
yesterday about some of the things that I
46:38
think are very positive about 2026.
46:40
I've got some things going on in my
46:43
personal life that are just fantastic.
46:47
I've got some nightmares, too.
46:50
But I'm looking forward very positively to going
46:55
forward, you know, and to having a good
46:58
2026, and I want to share it with
47:00
people, and I want to talk about it.
47:03
I've talked a little bit here about civic
47:05
outlaws and keeping track of it, and I
47:07
want to get into that a little bit
47:09
more.
47:10
I'm waiting for just a few things.
47:12
We've got our 501c3, and we're creating this,
47:15
and our website isn't quite done, but you
47:18
could go out to civicoutlaws.com, and we're
47:20
going to be making changes over the next
47:22
month or so, and it'll be ready to
47:24
go.
47:24
But we're going after government.
47:28
That's what we do.
47:29
You know, I'm excited about this process.
47:32
That's what I like anyway.
47:34
It's not that I'm anti-government.
47:36
I think that government ought to be accountable,
47:39
and they never are, and so what we
47:42
are creating is a mechanism to force accountability,
47:47
and here in Missouri, it's particularly bad, and
47:49
I do intend to do a show hopefully
47:51
even this week, but I don't know.
47:54
I'm thinking that tomorrow might be my last
47:56
day of the week again.
47:57
Depends on a couple of things, but you
48:01
know, with the holidays and all that, I'm
48:03
not going to go too crazy, but there's
48:06
so much news going on.
48:07
I couldn't decide what to talk about yesterday,
48:12
and excuse me.
48:14
I'm dying over here.
48:17
I'm going to take a sip of my
48:19
coffee that's getting all cool on me anyway,
48:21
so let's talk about some of these other
48:26
things that are going on because the peace
48:30
process is, you know, a lot of people
48:33
say it's on the brink.
48:35
You know, Russia says it's not going to
48:37
withdraw from talks.
48:38
I told you about the girl that I
48:44
exchange commentary and opinion with inside of Russia,
48:49
both in Russian and in English, that we
48:52
had a conversation about, you know, our thoughts,
48:58
and neither one of us are optimistic that
49:04
this is going, and Trump wasn't even optimistic.
49:07
We went through that yesterday.
49:09
You know, there's very little commitment from anybody
49:12
saying that this is going to be resolved
49:16
any other way than through continued war, continued
49:23
advancing by the Russians.
49:26
There may be short-term gains.
49:28
The more money you pump into it, you
49:31
know, you can save them for a little
49:33
bit longer, but ultimately it's going to go
49:37
Russia's way anyway, and so it's foolish to
49:40
not settle this at some point, and, you
49:43
know, Russia's not going to withdraw from the
49:49
talks, but retaliate, they're going to.
49:52
We talked about that before.
49:55
Zelensky versus independent actors.
49:58
Now, you realize he's under a huge amount.
50:01
There was another scandal, another two scandals put
50:05
out over the weekend.
50:07
You know, we had the $110 billion one
50:09
with this Mindich who ran off to Israel,
50:15
and there was something going on with him
50:17
in Israel, too, and I only got to
50:19
see a little bit of it.
50:20
I might have to go back and look
50:21
that, but apparently he's just living life beautifully
50:25
down there.
50:26
He's out at the beach, you know, having
50:29
some some public time, you know, out, and
50:32
it's like nothing happened to him.
50:34
He's just got his $100 million and ran
50:36
away.
50:36
He's a multi-millionaire, and there were talks
50:40
over here about sending some Ukrainians home.
50:45
Where is that?
50:50
Let's see.
50:52
Russian.
50:53
Zelensky's traumatized by a couple of things.
50:58
Damn it.
50:58
I can't find the article.
50:59
I'm going to confuse myself if I go
51:02
back looking for it.
51:03
So, the political angle, you know, in this
51:07
intelligence services that I was telling you about
51:09
before, there are concerns that elements within the
51:12
CIA are pursuing an agenda that is independent
51:16
of Trump's agenda, and you know what?
51:19
That wouldn't surprise me remotely, and you know
51:22
what's really funny is every show you watch,
51:25
I watched Tom Cruise, whatever that is, Mission
51:31
Impossible 97 or whatever it was, the last
51:34
one, well, the last one to come out.
51:36
We'll see if he does another, and by
51:38
the way, I like him.
51:39
I don't mean to make fun of him.
51:40
I do like those movies, but they're all
51:42
exactly the same, and they each one's this
51:45
world's gonna end, and Tom Cruise saves it,
51:48
and it's no different here in this one,
51:50
but in all of these movies, there's always
51:53
an undercurrent that CIA, secret societies, you know,
52:02
people in the shadow parts of government are
52:06
really running the show, and you know what?
52:09
Many of us believe that those things are
52:15
maybe not absolute, but highly likely.
52:19
You know, these people that are in government
52:21
forever, and they're unelected bureaucratic a-holes that
52:26
control everything over a long term may truthfully
52:31
be more powerful than a president in the
52:33
four years.
52:34
You know what I mean?
52:35
Long term, they hold more power because all
52:38
they gotta do is all Marco Rubio has
52:41
to do is mark time.
52:42
I like Marco Rubio.
52:43
I don't mean to, you know, I like
52:45
him far more than I did when he
52:47
first got elected or selected by Trump.
52:49
I was like, oh God, you know, here's
52:51
another another neocon, but you know, I like
52:58
him more than I dislike him, let's put
53:00
that, but I don't trust any of this,
53:02
and there's plenty of people who are gonna
53:03
believe that the CIA is doing this anyway,
53:06
and there's plenty of that going around the
53:09
internet.
53:09
There's even some sources that are, you know,
53:13
these elements within the CIA and this separate
53:16
agenda, not proven facts, stated concerns in everybody's
53:20
conversation, but it's just the kind of thing
53:24
that we don't have any trouble believing it.
53:27
I sure don't.
53:27
You know, I understand how it works, you
53:32
know, the $80 toilet seat, you know, that
53:35
we talked about in the 90s, the $1
53:38
,200 bag of bolts for the space shuttle,
53:41
you know, that kind of thing, and so
53:44
it's hard not to believe that the deep
53:47
state does indeed exist, and it's alive and
53:50
well, even now, even if you believe that
53:53
Trump is really running the show, which I'm
53:57
not so positive I believe anyway, but if
54:00
Moscow believes it, if, I don't know, United
54:04
Arab Emirates believes it, if everybody believes that
54:08
there's this deep state type of thing, they're
54:11
going to act accordingly.
54:14
So this tends to destroy trust in your
54:17
talks.
54:19
Diplomacy is dead.
54:20
There was an article I read that just
54:22
in the last few days that said the
54:25
same thing, that the 2025 diplomacy has turned
54:30
into a joke.
54:31
Everything, and you hear the Russians complain about
54:33
it all the time, but they're not alone.
54:36
The Chinese do it, even the Japanese have
54:38
started to do it, and over on the
54:39
other side, India is doing it regularly.
54:42
They say that, listen, this isn't diplomacy.
54:46
Diplomacy isn't posting crap on X and telling
54:50
everything, you know, airing your dirty laundry when
54:54
you're getting divorced on Facebook is not the
54:57
way to go, right?
54:59
You know, you practice law, you get a
55:01
client coming, it's like, look, please, please eliminate
55:06
Facebook.
55:07
Don't take pictures of your new girlfriend, you
55:09
know, with her tongue down your throat, and
55:11
put it, publish it on Facebook.
55:13
It ain't gonna help.
55:16
Donald Trump, my biggest beef with him since
55:20
2015.
55:22
I was living in Qatar, making comments on
55:24
my little radio podcast back then, how, you
55:29
know, I thought that he would be the
55:30
best of all of those, remember, there were
55:32
like 17 or 18 candidates that were wanting
55:36
to be president on the Republican side, and
55:39
I thought, you know, there was one girl
55:41
who was always, oh, well, who's gonna be
55:43
the president?
55:43
Oh, Donald Trump, and everybody laughed at her,
55:45
and I was like, nah, you know what?
55:47
He's got a good shot at it, because
55:49
all of us are sick of everybody else
55:51
on the other side.
55:53
I was pro him, but I was very
55:55
much anti his continual beating up on anybody.
56:04
You know, I was very much against that.
56:05
I'm very much against diplomacy through X post,
56:10
you know, diplomacy through truth social.
56:12
That's crap.
56:14
There ought to be something a little more
56:16
formal, and some people argue, oh, no, that's
56:19
public commentary, and people, you know, it's a
56:23
way to speak to us all directly.
56:25
No, it's not.
56:26
It's an advertising space for him to justify
56:30
what he wants to do in his own
56:33
way, and I think it leads us to
56:35
problems, particularly in places like Venezuela, okay, and
56:38
particularly because he tends to change his mind,
56:43
like some people change their underwear, you know,
56:46
and it's some people, I say, because some
56:49
people don't change their underwear at all.
56:52
I'd rather not talk about that.
56:54
No, I'm kidding, but the trust in America,
56:59
the trust in the West has declined over
57:01
years, in part because of this type of
57:04
thing, and if people think that, you know,
57:08
like in the CIA stuff when they were
57:10
talking about these independent actors versus Zelensky, Zelensky
57:16
not being aware that they were bombing the
57:19
Russian president's home, that's a possibility, or he's
57:26
got his own little deep state or Lindsey
57:29
Graham types, you know, hell, maybe they're all
57:31
in the same group, you know, sharing this
57:33
information, you know, I wouldn't put it past
57:36
Lindsey Graham ever to further the war narrative
57:40
anywhere.
57:41
It doesn't matter.
57:42
He will support war anywhere, no problem, and
57:48
so, you know, and what Restovich said, you
57:52
know, he was talking about, he said, Trump,
57:55
decide whether you control your own side, you
58:00
know, is one of the things, one of
58:02
the comments he made.
58:03
Either you're negotiating or you're letting these little
58:07
gangs sabotage the deal.
58:10
You make these deals, but you're letting these
58:12
little gangs sabotage it by bombing, you know,
58:16
Trump.
58:16
If you're in charge, stop this crap.
58:19
Get them to stop this.
58:21
Russia's been saying it forever, and allegedly, you
58:25
know, the commentary that I shared at the
58:26
beginning of the show, well, that allegedly was
58:29
said on the phone call, that, well, it's
58:33
a good thing we didn't give them tomahawks.
58:36
There's been talk that these storm shadows have
58:38
been, you know, sent over, you know, the
58:40
EU provided that the storm shadows have been
58:44
used to bomb inside of Russia.
58:46
So, I don't know.
58:47
The head of the state's location is implicated.
58:50
There's only three options, according to Moscow.
58:52
Somebody screwed up, somebody talked, or somebody wanted
58:55
it known.
58:57
Those are the only three options, right?
59:00
If it's true that they were bombed.
59:03
And so, negotiations require predictable, you know, confidentiality.
59:09
Predictable.
59:10
If Moscow believes there's no confidentiality and it's
59:13
been compromised, it's going to seek, you know,
59:18
of, you know, validation through the only currency
59:23
of war that anybody understands, deterrence and further
59:27
attacks, right?
59:30
So, I don't know.
59:33
I still got an issue with some of
59:39
this.
59:41
And by the way, you know, let's talk
59:43
about the wider war that's going on already
59:47
worldwide.
59:48
You know, this is the part that Americans
59:50
tend to miss because we like, you know,
59:53
single cause, single things, you know, stories like
59:57
this.
59:57
We don't like to frame this as anything,
59:59
a larger picture.
1:00:02
We want to call what's going on in
1:00:04
Venezuela just narco trafficking.
1:00:11
You know, that's what's going on there.
1:00:13
This is policing.
1:00:14
We're just policing.
1:00:15
Policing the bad guys.
1:00:16
This is not a war.
1:00:17
But this is a stack of wars.
1:00:20
The battlefield, the diplomacy lack thereof, the economic
1:00:23
endurance, war for public, I don't know, public
1:00:30
leaning.
1:00:31
And if you don't understand that, you're going
1:00:34
to misread everything that happened this past week,
1:00:37
including the 91 drone strike and the nationalization
1:00:42
property, whether you buy the politics or not.
1:00:46
The architecture, the messaging is that you think
1:00:50
it's Ukraine versus Russia.
1:00:53
It isn't.
1:00:54
And it never has been.
1:00:56
It is Russia against the system.
1:01:00
It is, you know, I have arguments with
1:01:03
other people about this, that, you know, it's
1:01:06
been Trump against the system as well.
1:01:10
If he wants to keep that, he's going
1:01:12
to have to do something about this BS
1:01:14
going on in Venezuela.
1:01:16
And he's going to have to keep his
1:01:19
finger on the pulse of this Ukraine and
1:01:22
Russia thing.
1:01:22
And he might actually be able to pull
1:01:24
this off.
1:01:25
I still think he would prefer peace over,
1:01:29
you know, more war.
1:01:31
But, you know, this, if Zelensky really is
1:01:37
playing him, which I tend to believe, you
1:01:40
know, Zelensky and Europe are playing him or
1:01:44
attempting to, nobody plays Trump.
1:01:46
You know, he allows himself to be played,
1:01:49
you know, that happens.
1:01:51
Hang on a second.
1:01:54
Getting a little scratchy in the throat.
1:01:56
Needed some now cold coffee.
1:02:00
So, if the strike narrative is true, the
1:02:07
target isn't only Putin, it is Trump.
1:02:11
If you can humiliate the dealmaker, you know,
1:02:15
and you do humiliate him by creating chaos
1:02:20
during negotiations.
1:02:22
I believe they've been targeting negotiations and him
1:02:26
trying to lay this out.
1:02:27
And they are all over Europe, all over
1:02:30
the Zelensky team.
1:02:33
They have been trying to keep this war
1:02:36
going, if at all possible.
1:02:40
And so, you know, this European money problems,
1:02:47
you know, everybody knows I like to listen
1:02:49
to Solovyov.
1:02:49
He gave his, he was given a year
1:02:51
-end one.
1:02:52
And I haven't heard his last one.
1:02:54
I heard his Christmas Day one, which was
1:02:56
a pretty good one.
1:02:57
But his year-end framing, you know, everybody
1:03:00
is now talking about, like people do, here's
1:03:04
the end of the year.
1:03:05
And Solovyov talked about some of the same
1:03:08
topics that I discussed.
1:03:10
And it was interesting.
1:03:12
It's like he said, let's widen this out
1:03:15
a little bit.
1:03:17
Because what has happened in the last couple
1:03:20
three years, especially this year, has hit Europe
1:03:23
very hard.
1:03:24
Trump's America first, according to Solovyov, implies that
1:03:29
the security umbrella is for sale.
1:03:33
I liked that comment.
1:03:35
Europe is left to choose between its endless
1:03:38
funding for Kiev itself and its own militarization.
1:03:47
And there isn't enough money for everything to
1:03:51
go around.
1:03:51
That's not just rhetoric.
1:03:52
That's the truth.
1:03:54
It's the core constraint for 2026 going forward.
1:03:57
Europe can posture all day long, but their
1:04:00
treasuries cannot breathe.
1:04:02
They are losing their asses.
1:04:05
You know, Volkswagen shutting down factories in, where
1:04:08
was it, Dresden that I told you about?
1:04:11
And the war plan, you know, isn't helping
1:04:17
them.
1:04:17
And the industrial war reality all over.
1:04:20
The reserves, ammo reserves, short war is a
1:04:24
myth.
1:04:25
There's no such thing.
1:04:26
And it's the long war quote from Britain's
1:04:29
top general.
1:04:30
Modern Western forces were built to win fast
1:04:33
with small quantities of high-end equipment.
1:04:37
But Ukraine proves that wars can go a
1:04:40
long time.
1:04:41
And what matters is stockpiles, industrial base, and
1:04:46
ammunition.
1:04:47
That's what matters.
1:04:49
Well, and on the Ukrainian side, having enough
1:04:51
men, because Russia uses in a week, a
1:04:56
week.
1:04:56
This is still true.
1:04:58
They use in a week what the West
1:05:01
produces in a year at their current capacity.
1:05:06
They have to say, well, what are they
1:05:08
saying?
1:05:08
They're saying it'll take them five years to
1:05:10
ramp up to get to the point where
1:05:13
they can keep track of or compete with
1:05:17
the amount of weaponry, ammunition, missiles, everything that
1:05:24
Russia is all geared up to provide.
1:05:28
And we say stuff, oh, now we're cooking
1:05:32
with gas.
1:05:32
Russia's been cooking with gas.
1:05:34
And Europe, by the way, has no gas.
1:05:36
They have to buy it from the United
1:05:38
States.
1:05:39
So there you have it.
1:05:40
So when you hear retaliation is coming, when
1:05:43
you hear peace is close, remember, you know,
1:05:47
sometimes the factory floor is getting a vote.
1:05:50
The warehouses get a vote, and the supply
1:05:52
chain gets a vote, and Russia's are far
1:05:55
stronger than Ukraine's.
1:05:57
Cross the board.
1:05:58
There are no men left, no warehouses, no
1:06:01
supply chains, no factories.
1:06:04
And Ukraine's over here begging for money again.
1:06:07
That was another part of the conversation over
1:06:09
the week.
1:06:10
So, you know, and the who controls credit?
1:06:15
Who controls the credit for them?
1:06:20
The argument is that modern financial capitalism stripped
1:06:24
states of the power to issue money for
1:06:26
their own development and push countries into borrowing
1:06:30
from allegedly independent banking structures of the West.
1:06:35
And then if the central bank is independent
1:06:38
from the economic needs of the country, whose
1:06:43
interests does it favor?
1:06:47
I mean, seriously, the West, right?
1:06:50
You can disagree with this, but it matters
1:06:52
because nationalization of multiple countries all over the
1:06:59
planet, including the BRICS countries, and backing off
1:07:03
of Western-based systems, you know, they're happening
1:07:08
for a reason.
1:07:10
And when the state says we're at war,
1:07:15
property rights are negotiable.
1:07:17
We talked about that earlier in the show,
1:07:19
and they always will be.
1:07:21
Frozen assets escalations, European freezes, Russian counters, everybody
1:07:26
inventing new rules all the way along the
1:07:29
line.
1:07:29
And they're creating these rules, people leaving to
1:07:32
get to more stable platforms for more places
1:07:35
to store their money.
1:07:38
It's, I don't know, what are we going
1:07:41
to watch in the next 72 hours when
1:07:44
the New Year's, well, we're going to watch
1:07:46
the ball drop, you know.
1:07:47
You know, I've been trying to figure out
1:07:49
what I want to do for New Year's.
1:07:51
I truly believe I'm going to end up
1:07:53
being a lame-o and not doing anything.
1:07:57
It's so terrible.
1:07:59
I don't want to say I don't care,
1:08:01
I do.
1:08:02
It'd be fun to go out and have
1:08:03
a little bit of fun and do whatever,
1:08:06
but I just don't do that anymore.
1:08:08
And I don't care to.
1:08:11
For the last five years, I've been in
1:08:12
a foreign country.
1:08:14
And so, as I tell you what to
1:08:16
watch for in the next 72 hours, retaliation
1:08:20
patterns, etc., what they should watch for.
1:08:23
This isn't my prophecy as a pattern, and
1:08:25
I will keep track of it because I
1:08:28
have to.
1:08:30
And, you know, watch for symbolic targets being
1:08:33
hit inside of Kiev, government buildings, decision centers,
1:08:39
places like that.
1:08:39
And the timing tied to whatever diplomacy efforts
1:08:45
are going on, retaliation that lands right when
1:08:49
a negotiation milestone is supposed to happen, like
1:08:53
Russia is claiming happened with the tax on
1:08:57
the Putin residents.
1:09:01
Messaging discipline, like Democrats are so good at,
1:09:05
and Republicans aren't too bad either.
1:09:07
They will repeat phrases like, you know, in
1:09:10
Russia they'll say, these tax won't go unanswered.
1:09:15
Our targets are being selected.
1:09:17
These aren't emotional, they're choreographical.
1:09:20
If retaliation comes, it will come with a
1:09:24
speech attached to it.
1:09:26
And so, I'm watching for Lavrov to appear.
1:09:29
And for this Friday's Zakharova commentary, you know,
1:09:35
her two and a half hour, two, two
1:09:37
plus hour press conference, which goes on every
1:09:43
week, usually on Fridays.
1:09:45
Not sure what will happen this year.
1:09:47
So, is this the year where the long
1:09:51
war becomes the plan?
1:09:53
You know, is, we all expected when Trump
1:09:59
was taking office, you know, oh geez, he's
1:10:04
going to end the war.
1:10:05
Because remember, when he was taking office, he's
1:10:07
like, oh, we'll have it scheduled to be
1:10:09
finished before I actually take office, it'll be
1:10:12
done.
1:10:12
But we're a year in.
1:10:15
And if anything, we're further away from a
1:10:19
real settlement than closer.
1:10:26
So, Solovyov, the guy that I like to
1:10:28
watch, he says 2025 was the year of
1:10:32
illusions.
1:10:33
And those illusions in the West were, have
1:10:36
ended, you know, they ended.
1:10:40
And economic dimensionalisms became unavoidable.
1:10:46
Dimensionalism is probably not a word, but he
1:10:49
said the dimensions of the economies on a
1:10:52
global scale, you know, the conflicts have become
1:10:56
unavoidable.
1:10:57
And so, I don't know.
1:10:59
This drone conflict, the confiscation drama, and long
1:11:04
war in industrial reality is, you know, bottom
1:11:09
line, everybody keeps asking who fired the shots
1:11:12
at Putin's house, but the bigger question is,
1:11:17
who can afford the next thousand?
1:11:20
And it ain't Ukraine, you know?
1:11:22
So, I don't know.
1:11:26
It, I could continue on that, but I'm
1:11:29
not going to.
1:11:30
I wanted to go to a couple of
1:11:32
other topics that, see if there's anything recent
1:11:36
that was put out there.
1:11:41
And either were a couple of, where is
1:11:45
it?
1:11:48
How, damn it.
1:11:52
There's, this is just the beginning.
1:11:58
German, here it is.
1:12:00
Here's the article I wanted to share with
1:12:01
you.
1:12:01
German arms exports to Ukraine, and this is
1:12:05
Germany, are down significantly.
1:12:09
Which, that's not what we're hearing, you know,
1:12:12
over here.
1:12:13
But German arms supplies to Ukraine dropped dramatically
1:12:16
this year.
1:12:17
And the government issued far fewer export licenses
1:12:21
for arms manufacturers in 2025 compared to the
1:12:25
previous two years.
1:12:26
In response to an inquiry, the ministry said
1:12:30
that Berlin approved the export of weapons and
1:12:32
other military equipment worth 1.14 billion to
1:12:37
Kiev from January through December.
1:12:40
The figure marks a nearly eightfold decline from
1:12:44
last year's 8.15 billion.
1:12:49
Since the escalation of the conflict in February
1:12:52
2022, Germany has been the second largest supplier
1:12:56
of weapons to Ukraine, surpassed only by the
1:13:01
United States.
1:13:04
And according to the economy ministry, excerpts of
1:13:07
their report were published by several media outlets
1:13:11
Monday.
1:13:11
Berlin has allowed 8.4 billion in overall
1:13:16
arms exports since the start of this year.
1:13:18
This is a considerable decline.
1:13:21
2023 and 2024, when they did 13.3
1:13:28
and 12.15 of arms, respectively.
1:13:31
And Politico cites internal government documents that show
1:13:35
that German government planned 377 billion expansion of
1:13:39
its own armed forces over the next few
1:13:42
years.
1:13:43
And this move is part of a broader
1:13:45
move toward, you know, much of the European
1:13:48
Union, you know, being.
1:13:50
And German Friedrich Merz has said that Germany
1:13:53
is going to have the strongest conventional army
1:13:57
in Europe.
1:13:59
Does that scare anybody?
1:14:01
Berlin has set 2029 as the deadline for
1:14:05
the Bundeswehr to become war ready, citing an
1:14:10
alleged Russian threat.
1:14:13
And Putin, of course, says this is pure
1:14:16
nonsense.
1:14:17
And Lavrov described Germany's military push and aggressive
1:14:22
statements as clear signs of re-nazification of
1:14:29
Germany.
1:14:30
That's probably a bit much, but I get
1:14:32
the sentiment.
1:14:34
I also wanted to share with you this
1:14:37
brand new corruption here in Ukraine.
1:14:42
Here we go.
1:14:43
And how long is this article?
1:14:45
This isn't too long.
1:14:50
So we will.
1:14:55
We will go ahead and share all of
1:14:58
it with you.
1:15:00
Ukrainian prosecutors expose yet another criminal scheme that
1:15:05
illegally siphons off electricity worth millions of dollars
1:15:10
from Ukrainergo, Ukrainian energy, according to a statement
1:15:16
by the prosecutor general's office on Monday.
1:15:19
Officials at the enterprise signed a supply contract
1:15:23
with no intention of paying for the power
1:15:27
they consumed.
1:15:28
The supplier, in turn, avoided purchasing electricity through
1:15:33
normal market channels and instead exploited technical imbalances
1:15:38
in the national grid operated by Ukrainergo and
1:15:43
didn't pay for them.
1:15:44
This led to a loss of about four
1:15:47
million dollars, which is about 168 million hryvnia
1:15:51
in losses for Ukrainergo from the illicit diversion
1:15:55
of the money.
1:15:57
The scheme reportedly included internal facilitation.
1:16:03
A senior Ukrainergo official with oversight authority is
1:16:07
accused of deliberately failing to apply sanctions, allowing
1:16:11
the theft to continue.
1:16:14
There's three participants and all three have been
1:16:18
notified of their suspension with key evidence seized
1:16:22
from their homes.
1:16:23
Prosecutor's statement come as Ukraine has been hit
1:16:26
by a series of high-profile corruption scandals
1:16:30
recently.
1:16:30
Last month, the country's anti-graft body revealed
1:16:34
the blah, blah, blah with Timur Mindik in
1:16:37
the 100 million.
1:16:40
So, crazy.
1:16:43
The New York Times says that Zelensky is
1:16:47
allowing corruption to flourish.
1:16:52
Vladimir Zelensky's government sabotaged oversight in Ukraine's state
1:16:57
firms and allows hundreds of millions of dollars
1:16:59
to be embezzled through long-running corruption schemes,
1:17:03
says the New York Times.
1:17:05
Since 2022, there's been billions poured into Ukraine
1:17:11
and safeguards obviously are demanded, but they are
1:17:16
not followed.
1:17:18
That doesn't happen.
1:17:19
So, the paper's findings come as Ukraine, you
1:17:22
know, again, they talk about all these huge,
1:17:25
huge scandals and they're constant.
1:17:32
The energy ministry inserted a favored candidate onto
1:17:36
the board of Ukrainergo in 2021 and later
1:17:40
used a deadlock vote to fire the chief
1:17:43
of Vladimir Kudritsky, prompting foreign ministry members to
1:17:49
resign in protest.
1:17:51
There's another corruption story that corrupt Ukrainian officials
1:17:58
could have bagged over 100 billion in Western
1:18:03
aid.
1:18:04
Remember that story?
1:18:05
That was put out by Nikolai Azarov.
1:18:09
And it ain't going away.
1:18:12
These allegations are not going to disappear.
1:18:18
They're just not.
1:18:21
And let's see, where else are we going
1:18:24
to go today?
1:18:26
I wanted to go to one of the
1:18:27
opinions.
1:18:29
There was an interesting story, well, there's a
1:18:38
couple of them.
1:18:39
And one of them is a kind of
1:18:42
an Eastern interpretation of the Epstein files, Epstein,
1:18:47
Epstein.
1:18:48
And there was another one about Zelensky being
1:18:55
traumatized by his February meetings with Trump.
1:18:59
Remember those and how horrible that went?
1:19:03
And then NATO, Mark Rutte is trying to
1:19:07
invoke history against Russia.
1:19:10
And in an effort, everybody says in this
1:19:14
opinion page to point them away from the
1:19:21
scandals that are rocking all over Ukraine and
1:19:26
NATO, because NATO is the one pumping the
1:19:30
money in there and the EU is pumping
1:19:32
the money there.
1:19:33
So it's important to understand that.
1:19:35
So I'm trying to decide maybe I'll add
1:19:42
that maybe I'll be able to do them
1:19:43
both.
1:19:43
Let's go ahead and get one of them
1:19:45
going and see if I can finish it.
1:19:47
Where is it?
1:19:49
Here's one on Starmer.
1:19:51
Haven't heard much about him lately, have we?
1:19:55
And it's a bit of a long article.
1:20:01
And I did want to get into a
1:20:03
little bit about Iran.
1:20:05
And I am not an expert on Iran.
1:20:08
But I met and became friends with several
1:20:13
Iranians when I lived in Qatar.
1:20:17
And I thought they were fantastic people.
1:20:21
You know, they were ordinary, like us.
1:20:26
I mean, same thing.
1:20:28
They're very interesting people, you know.
1:20:32
And I don't have any preconceived notions about
1:20:36
people or people in regards to where they
1:20:38
came from.
1:20:38
So I would like to share that article
1:20:40
too.
1:20:41
But I want to talk about the Starmer
1:20:44
regime that is allegedly turning Britain into a
1:20:48
police state.
1:20:49
So the UK is witnessing the largest and
1:20:52
most significant prison hunger strike.
1:20:56
Anybody heard about this?
1:20:57
Since 1981.
1:20:59
Since the beginning of November, eight activists in
1:21:04
pretrial detention for standing up against Gaza genocide
1:21:08
have been protesting against Israel's mass murder, they
1:21:14
call it.
1:21:14
And I think it's BS, you know, what
1:21:17
they're doing over there.
1:21:18
I think it's, you know, way overboard.
1:21:21
But that's me.
1:21:23
And I don't know enough about it in
1:21:25
order to offer.
1:21:27
I'll offer you my opinion, but I won't
1:21:29
offer, you know, I won't tell you.
1:21:32
Find out for yourself what you choose to
1:21:35
believe on that.
1:21:36
Well, like anything on your own.
1:21:40
But, you know, Britain, according to these people
1:21:43
that are hunger striking, are complicit.
1:21:47
And, you know, they've been, these people have
1:21:50
been abused and they're treated poorly by the
1:21:54
same infamous legal and incarceration system that used
1:21:58
to torture Julian Assange on behalf of the
1:22:01
United States.
1:22:03
According to this author.
1:22:06
So these hunger strikers demands include releasing documents
1:22:11
showing how Britain's powerful Israel lobby has been
1:22:15
influencing the government and an end to the
1:22:18
absurd prescription of the activist owned Palestine Action
1:22:23
Organization as terrorists.
1:22:26
The charges against the activists refer to two
1:22:30
cases.
1:22:31
One, the break in at the British branch
1:22:33
of Israeli arms manufacturer.
1:22:37
And two, the infiltration of the Royal Air
1:22:40
Force base to damage two planes with red
1:22:43
paint and crowbars.
1:22:45
So one of these, the Elbit Systems facility
1:22:49
is one of many Israeli and multinational companies
1:22:53
that are deeply involved in Israel's tax in
1:22:57
Gaza.
1:22:58
And it's, you know, according to these people,
1:23:02
ceaseless crimes everywhere else.
1:23:06
And so the UN special reporter, Francesca Albanese,
1:23:10
has shown in her recent report from the
1:23:12
economy of occupation to the economy of genocide,
1:23:18
British Royal Air Force flies reconnaissance missions over
1:23:25
Gaza, supports Israel there.
1:23:28
Official denials insist that these operations exclusively serve
1:23:33
to rescue hostages.
1:23:36
But everybody says this is just preposterous.
1:23:40
You know, that's not true at all.
1:23:41
A guy named Matt Kennard, who has been
1:23:44
tracking and analyzing these flights, concluded in addition,
1:23:48
since the flights are embedded in Israeli intelligence
1:23:51
gathering, the flights also make the UK an
1:23:55
accomplice in that crime, according to them.
1:24:00
Ages ago, as an undergraduate, you know, many
1:24:05
thought that this would be Britain's finest hour
1:24:08
when the country faced off against a threat
1:24:10
of invasion by Nazi Germany, and thousand brave
1:24:15
Spitfire pilots who fought in World War II
1:24:18
must now be turning in their graves.
1:24:21
They defended their country against fascism, blah, blah,
1:24:25
blah.
1:24:25
I don't want to read that part of
1:24:26
the opinion.
1:24:27
It doesn't matter.
1:24:27
What an incredible shame, because by now, some
1:24:31
former officers of high rank and with no
1:24:34
conscience left are raising their voices to demand
1:24:38
that Britain end its self-degrading support for
1:24:41
Israel.
1:24:42
The hunger strikes that I'm talking about, I
1:24:46
mean, how long has it been since people
1:24:48
have been, I mean, since you've heard of
1:24:50
a, of a, you know, good hunger strike.
1:24:52
So the hunger strikes are facing official stonewalling.
1:24:58
Justice Secretary David Lammy ducks away from participants'
1:25:05
relatives.
1:25:07
As always in NATO Europe, the mainstream media
1:25:11
follow the government line.
1:25:16
Some of the activists who are, you know,
1:25:19
physically exhausted and at a high risk of
1:25:21
dying suspended their hunger strikes, but others are
1:25:25
continuing.
1:25:26
Meanwhile, there's a good amount of public support,
1:25:29
but the Starmer regime, why don't we hear
1:25:32
about them?
1:25:33
That's what I want to know.
1:25:34
And, you know, those are, they, they, they're
1:25:38
very selective in who they arrest.
1:25:40
And it's always anti, you know, if you
1:25:43
go out and you protest, you know, against
1:25:49
Israel, you'll be arrested.
1:25:51
But if you swapped it the other way
1:25:53
around, nobody's going to get arrested.
1:25:55
I mean, that doesn't happen, right?
1:25:57
It, it, it, it's the same over here.
1:26:00
It's, the unfortunate truth is that most of
1:26:05
the protesting that goes on is, is target,
1:26:14
is a good target for people to arrest,
1:26:17
but only on one side do the arrests
1:26:19
occur.
1:26:20
It's the same here.
1:26:21
You know, remember Black Lives Matter?
1:26:23
We have the same sorts of issues over
1:26:26
here.
1:26:27
Anyway, it was an interesting article with people
1:26:30
doing their, their hunger strikes.
1:26:37
And I found, I found it an interesting
1:26:39
opinion on it, although I don't agree with
1:26:41
all of it.
1:26:42
You know what I mean?
1:26:44
I wanted to finish up with, and it
1:26:47
looks like I'm not going to have time
1:26:48
to finish up with it, but these remember
1:26:53
me right before the end of last week,
1:26:57
going through the front lines inside of Russia?
1:27:03
Well, they're still progressing the same.
1:27:07
There's been one or two attempts at counter
1:27:11
strikes or counter attacks, counter actions to push
1:27:18
the Russians back while these negotiations take place.
1:27:23
They have failed miserably.
1:27:25
They haven't helped at all.
1:27:27
So we'll follow up with some more on
1:27:29
that tomorrow.
1:27:30
And I also want to get into before
1:27:33
the end of the week and before the
1:27:34
end of the year, our exciting activities regarding
1:27:42
Civic Outlaws and Modern Law Ecosystem.
1:27:48
And you can check out Civic Outlaws at
1:27:51
civicoutlaws.com.
1:27:52
I want to add some of that here
1:27:54
in the, certainly in the coming weeks.
1:27:58
And we target government overreach.
1:28:00
That's what we do.
1:28:02
And I've got some letters I would like
1:28:03
to share, but I haven't.
1:28:06
I'm waiting to hear about something before I
1:28:10
take that approach.
1:28:12
So stay tuned this week, and hopefully we'll
1:28:15
get some further information in that regard.
1:28:19
As always, I ask you to listen every
1:28:21
morning, 7.30 to 9 a.m., Monday
1:28:24
through Friday, here at damradio.com.
1:28:28
You can listen to all of our old
1:28:30
podcasts at damradio.com forward slash podcast.
1:28:34
And my show in particular is always uploaded
1:28:38
to internationalflavor.com.
1:28:42
So join me again tomorrow morning, and I
1:28:46
very much look forward to seeing you or
1:28:48
hearing from you then.
1:28:49
Have a nice day.