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The Green Goblin in a Suit: Half a Show, Half a Disaster · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:02
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we are alive.
0:08
We are here in the studio at present, and I just got done watching something
0:17
that is just a real shocker.
0:19
I don't know if any of you got the opportunity to see it.
0:22
It took place just a little bit ago.
0:26
The press conference, the old press conference, and I suppose the most shocking
0:34
part of it for me is the green goblin was in a suit.
0:38
I can't believe it.
0:40
I am in shock even as I sit here pondering.
0:46
This guy wore a suit.
0:50
Now, it was all black, and you couldn't really tell the time, but he was
0:54
wearing one, and so much so that even one of the reporters
1:04
gave us a little tidbit, said, oh, you look very nice in your suit.
1:09
Look, and then I knew somebody would have to mention it as soon as I saw that
1:14
he was wearing it.
1:16
I thought there would be something mentioned, and there sure enough was mention
1:23
of the suit.
1:26
It makes me wonder, it really does, what brought that about.
1:32
It certainly wasn't me, although I did my share of bitching about it when he
1:38
showed up at the White House the last time looking the way he did.
1:45
He's meeting with somebody who, by all reports, doesn't care for him a whole
1:55
lot, doesn't want to, I don't know, associate with, hasn't been very nice, but
2:03
the press conference this time or the show in the Oval Office was a hell of a
2:09
lot different than the one the last time.
2:13
It just really was, and so he's listening to somebody, and he knows he's going
2:21
to be forced to accept something he doesn't like, but the impression I got, my
2:27
very first impression of the meeting, and I'm not sure because nothing has been
2:34
broadcast yet about the meeting that is taking place even now among the
2:44
EU leaders and Donald Trump and Zelensky, that there will be kind of a tag team
2:53
sort of beat up on Donald Trump and get him to change his mind again and get
3:02
him to backtrack on trying to get a deal done, but Trump spent quite a bit of
3:08
time talking about his legacy and his own efforts to end wars, and I know he
3:17
wants this over.
3:19
I also get the feeling he wants to, you know, just from listening to him, he
3:26
wants to get rid of these obstacles to working with the Russians.
3:34
I think he wants to work with Russia.
3:36
I think he is trying to, he really does want to end this war, and the fact that
3:45
there is all of this killing still going on, he does not like that, but then I
3:54
heard some things that I didn't really like, like talks about talks about
4:04
arms, you know, what are we going to get for arms?
4:10
Who's going to give Ukraine more money?
4:14
The justification for selling things to NATO and then NATO giving them to
4:23
Ukraine is kind of a trick, you know,
4:33
because the American people don't want it.
4:36
I'm not sure that them continuing to give the things to Zelensky to try to get
4:44
rid of this, you know, to continue the war isn't going to help get rid of the
4:50
war, you know what I mean?
4:52
And so there's lots of, there's like an update, a daily update with these
5:01
meetings that are taking place at the White House today, so they have a daily
5:06
plan.
5:08
Trump met Russian President Putin in Alaska Friday, and they were cautious
5:15
about, you know, being optimistic, well then that idiot Lindsey Graham, of
5:23
course, has to get on and say, oh, it's not going to work, you know, if we give
5:27
him everything we need, we might get the war done by Christmas.
5:31
You know, that's him slamming Trump, and that was really not a good look for
5:41
him to come out and do that, but he doesn't have a good look anyway, except for
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give me war, give me more, give me more, but this time at least Zelensky didn't
5:52
get booted out of the White House, but Zelensky did say on Saturday he was
5:59
coming to meet he, if you take them in order of where they were put out,
6:06
Zelensky arrived at the White House, and you know, he wasn't wearing a tie, he
6:14
had on a suit coat though, you know, but he was all in black, and so
6:23
I don't know, the meeting, they were, you know, J.D. Vance was there, Marco
6:32
Rubio was there, White House Chief of Staff was there, Whitkoff and Kellogg
6:36
were there, and we're going to continue to be there.
6:39
Trump expressed confidence that a trilateral meeting is possible between the
6:47
three of them, and he said that President Putin wants to bring the conflict to
6:52
an end as well, you know, they took a number of questions while they were
6:55
there, said that any meeting they come up to or any progress that they make
7:03
during the meeting that they have with Zelensky and the European leaders are
7:10
going to be more ideas, and hopefully they can, you know, come to something,
7:15
but a question was given about whether Zelensky would agree to any territorial
7:23
concessions, and he said he didn't, he didn't answer it, and then he asked when
7:30
they would be holding elections in Ukraine, and he said that security
7:35
conditions would be required in order for elections, and so once again, the
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waffling starts now, the why we don't, why we cannot agree to anything, that
7:48
starts now, and you know, I, I, I'm not as cautiously optimistic about the
7:57
rest, if this is going to end, it's not going to be by what I heard in this
8:01
press conference, so because in the press conference, of course, we haven't
8:06
heard, we haven't, nobody's given out any of the things that are going to be
8:10
required, there were alleged leaks, and Rubio came out against these leaks and
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said whoever's leaking or saying things, they're not accurate, and that's not
8:23
what was discussed, and you know, trying to downplay any of those leaks, but he
8:31
said the U.S. is not going to talk about Ukraine being a part of NATO, but
8:41
giving some kind of guarantees they will consider, and they did try to, you
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know, get him to pin that down a little bit more, didn't work, you know, the
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Ukraine conflict, they did talk about getting rid of it through a permanent
9:01
agreement, and Trump said he, you know, he was making the point that, well, you
9:07
know, we've not required ceasefires in every other war before we make a
9:14
settlement, and well, I think, I think he realizes that that's a, you want to
9:20
talk about red lines, that's a red line, you're not going to give that to
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Ukraine so that they can just rebuild from the Russian point of view, which
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we've discussed far too many times to, to count, but Trump might get that,
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Trump might understand it, that no, we won't agree to a ceasefire, but we will
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agree, now that I believe they tried the ceasefire, the limited ceasefires, and
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they just never worked, and they didn't work, because Ukraine and the U.S.,
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well, they have no intention of making them work, they're always going to blame
9:59
it on, on Russia anyway, and so, I don't, I don't see that happening, but Trump
10:08
did say that having peace is better than, you know, just a ceasefire, and
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he made it much more regular, because people have been trying to say that you
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can't have a war without a ceasefire.
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Well, I mean, I'm sorry, you can't have the end of the war without a ceasefire.
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That's not true, and Trump finally said, well, that really isn't true, we
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haven't had them in any of the other wars that we've settled, we haven't had
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that ceasefires, the conflict was just over.
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He said, so we want to end the conflict, and I can understand why that's
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important on the Putin side, so, but to see how that goes, and see, see what,
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if anything, comes from any of this, but Trump did say that Ukraine won't be a
11:02
part of NATO.
11:04
He said that they're, you know, that Vladimir Putin is waiting for his call
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after he has discussions with the, with the European leaders that were waiting
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in the wings, all in person, apparently.
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Everybody was there, and so the meeting at, as of about 10 minutes ago, was
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still going on behind closed doors, and no jointment, no joint statement is
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expected afterwards, they're just going to be done, and, and Trump said he's
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going to be phoning Putin right afterward, that he will
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be, he will be having a conversation with him, so, I don't know, the, the
12:02
reports are coming in, little things that are getting leaked out, like I told
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you some of last, in, in last night's show, that Italy is opposing deployment
12:15
of any troops, they couldn't pin Trump down on that, but they were trying to
12:21
talk about security guarantees, they were talking about Ukraine having a strong
12:28
army, and he, and he brought it up again, he said he wanted to have this strong
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army, and so it's, it's going to be an interesting what actually comes out of
12:43
this meeting, and when they get finished with it, but it's ongoing right now.
12:48
I told you this morning, or late last night anyway, about the, you know,
12:54
tantrums that are being thrown Europe-wide, with all these leaders, and all of
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the drama that surrounded this visit, and every little guess of every little
13:05
thing that went on with the Alaska summit, but now you're getting the Zelensky
13:12
team, the Zelensky, Zelensky group to come over, and the, whatever they come up
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with after this meeting, I don't think is going to be anything drastically
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different than what it's been before, and whether it's acceptable or not, and
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so I think, and I was trying to make this point earlier, and I distracted
13:40
myself, but I think that when they were talking about, because Zelensky was
13:49
talking about still receiving military supplies from the U.S., whether it's
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through NATO, or whether it's through the U.S., whether he's still willing to
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send people to their deaths, which he never answered the question, or whether
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or not he, what they're going to do about getting military intelligence from
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the United States, he said that's all part of it, and I think the only way to
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end this war, the only way, is going to be for Trump to cut him off, to cut
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Ukraine off, to cut Europe off from the military and government mammary
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gland of the United States.
14:39
If you don't give them the weapons to fire inside of Russia, if you quit
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providing them military intelligence for targeting purposes, if you don't
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provide them the troop configurations on the field, then this war will be over
15:06
in a matter of no time at all, and it would also be an indication of who is
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winning and who is losing in this war, because I think Trump gets it now, who
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is winning and who is losing.
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He may have always gotten it, he just hasn't really paid much attention to it,
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because he's thinking that he still controls, you know, the planet and the
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players, but I think, after the summit, I think he knows he doesn't control the
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players.
15:47
I think he knows his cards are short.
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One of the questions that they asked in the briefing was whether or not, you
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know, Zelensky had any cards left to play, and he really doesn't, except, you
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know, we're not quitting, you know, we're not quitting, we're brave and we're
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not quitting, but if you didn't give them all the crap that they're demanding
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money, weapons, intelligence, then they would quit, they would lose, they would
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be forced to, but Trump keeps talking about this being Biden's war.
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I'm not so sure I agree.
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I think it has become their war.
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Meanwhile, last night, Russia, you know, attacked pipelines and they attacked a
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key oil pipeline to the EU, and this came out just yesterday.
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The attack on the pipeline that delivers Russian oil to Hungary is proof that
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there are no boundaries.
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Hungarian foreign minister Peter Sojarto said, I told you what he said this
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morning when I read it, that the oil being supplied to his country had run dry
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after Ukraine targeted the Druzhba pipeline system.
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He said that the outrageous attack was an attempt by Kiev and its supporters in
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Brussels to drag Budapest, which insists upon its neutrality, into the
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conflict.
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And Maria Zakharova is the one who, you know, talked about this.
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Russia has been warned and warning the ideologues nurturing the Kiev regime
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that this monster, immoral and bloodthirsty, will never stop and will spread
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like a nasty infection all over the world.
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Those are some pretty harsh words.
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The Ukrainian authorities have already committed terrorist attacks in Africa.
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They've shown up in the Middle East.
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They've drawn citizens of Central Asia into terrorist attacks.
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In Europe, they mastered the black arms market.
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They've got the illegal organ trade for Western customers, she wrote.
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Last year, Mali and Nigeria severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine after their
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Zelensky government admitted to providing aid to the Tuareg militants who
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ambushed a patrol of Malian government troops and Russian contractors.
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Moscow previously accused Ukraine of cooperating with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
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HTS, the armed group which overthrew the Syrian government of Assad last year.
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Russia has also accused Ukrainian intelligence of masterminding the terrorist
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attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue a couple of years ago.
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It was March 20.
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Well, geez, it wasn't even that long ago.
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It was March of 2024.
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I was thinking it was two years.
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And 149 people were killed and 600 were injured in those talks.
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On Monday, Zelensky met with Trump, but they're talking about this pipeline and
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whatever efforts that the Ukrainians can make to continue this war.
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Haven't heard of any false flag operations yet, but we shall see what comes of
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that.
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It's more lies, more and more of the same, more of everything, and that it'll
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be exactly the same as it was before.
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I hate to be pessimistic because I really want to be optimistic that we're
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going to get rid of this war and that it will just be gone, and I truly hope
20:06
that that is the case.
20:08
But it's hard to be positive with the statements that they're making as if
20:16
Ukraine is not losing this war.
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I think somebody has to sit down and tell these people, hey, you're really not
20:26
in a position to be dictating all of these things when you are losing it.
20:31
But maybe that is what's going on behind closed doors.
20:40
There's an interesting article that was published that said why Zelensky's main
20:47
argument against peace is a lie, and it's worthy of the read.
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It might take a little bit, but it's not really that long.
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It's fairly short, okay, so I'll get to it for you.
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Commenting on the outcome of the Trump-Putin summit, Vladimir Zelensky
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declared, the constitution of Ukraine does not allow the surrender of
21:18
territories or the trading of land.
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On paper, that sounds even noble.
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The message is quite clear.
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Kiev won't let others decide Ukraine's fate behind its back.
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They should take a closer look, and this principled stance starts to look less
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like a constitutional fidelity and more like a political theater, which sounds
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like they were listening to me last night.
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Because the very constitution that Zelensky is suddenly invoked as sacred has
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long been on hold, and that's not an accusation.
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It's his own admission.
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Back in December of 2022, while addressing Ukraine's ambassadors, Zelensky
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said, all the rights guaranteed by the constitution are on pause.
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The context?
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He was joking about how diplomats don't get holidays, but the phrase stuck,
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because it turned out to be more than a joke.
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It became official policy.
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Since then, Ukraine's democratic institutions haven't just been paused, they've
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been dismantled under the banner of wartime necessity.
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National election, canceled indefinitely.
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Not just presidential or parliamentary, even local races are suspended,
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eliminating the public's ability to hold any level of government accountable.
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Zelensky's current term, once set to expire, has been extended without a vote
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and with no clear end date.
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Opposition media silenced, you know, tell us about Diane Ponchenka.
23:08
What happened to her?
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Dozens of TV channels and online outlets critical of government have been shut
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down or merged into state approved broadcast platforms.
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Independent journalism in Ukraine now walks a legal tightrope, one foot over
23:28
prison.
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Religious freedom eroded the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, seen as too closely
23:36
linked and harassed, evicted from centuries old monasteries and branded a
23:44
security threat.
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Worshippers face criminal charges for sermons, symbols, or prayers deemed
23:51
unpatriotic.
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Brutal, indiscriminate, coerced into enlisting.
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Videos of forced mobilizations circulate regularly and are met with silence or
24:10
spin from authorities.
24:12
Political dissent treated as treason.
24:17
Opposition politicians have been arrested, exiled, or sanctioned without trial.
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Entire parties have been banned.
24:25
Ukraine's Security Council now acts as a judge and jury.
24:29
It blacklists citizens, freezes assets, and decides guilt with no courtroom.
24:37
Rights weren't just paused, they were overwritten.
24:42
To be fair, the erosion didn't start with Zelensky.
24:45
It began in 2014 when President Yanukovych was ousted in a manner that skipped
24:53
any constitutional procedure at all.
24:56
The army was deployed, and for the first time in post-Soviet history, against a
25:03
domestic protest.
25:05
The rule of law gave way to rule by necessity.
25:09
Courts rubber-stamped sanctions lists.
25:13
Parliament is a formality.
25:15
The Constitution is increasingly treated as a suggestion, not a boundary.
25:21
Zelensky merely completed what others started on that path.
25:26
Under his watch, Ukraine is no longer governed by its Constitution, it's
25:31
governed by presidential decree.
25:34
The Constitution hasn't been a check on executive power for years.
25:39
Instead, it's a stage prop.
25:44
Shelled when inconvenient, quoted when useful, which is what happened after the
25:50
Trump-Putin summit, as it became clear that the fate of the conflict was being
25:56
discussed without Kiev at the table.
26:00
Zelensky rushed to invoke constitutional law, not to restore legality, but to
26:06
cling to legitimacy.
26:09
And I completely agree with that sentiment.
26:13
And it wasn't just the critics in Moscow who noticed this contradiction.
26:18
Donald Trump, a few days before the summit, couldn't resist pointing out this
26:22
absurdity.
26:24
He said, I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying I have to
26:31
get constitutional approval.
26:34
He has approval to go to war and kill everybody, but he now needs approval to
26:38
do a land swap because there will be some land swapping going on, he said.
26:45
So, crude, maybe, but not wrong.
26:50
Trump's sarcasm cuts to the score.
26:55
Zelensky governs under emergency powers, he suspends elections, cracks down on
27:01
the opposition, and yet suddenly needs constitutional sign-off to negotiate
27:07
peace.
27:08
In reality, Zelensky isn't protecting the Constitution, he's using it.
27:13
It's not a framework that restrains him, it's a card he plays when cornered.
27:19
When it's time to justify cancelling a vote, the Constitution gets in the way.
27:25
When it's time to refuse compromise, he has 75-10.
27:34
So, it's untouchable after that.
27:37
And when the optics may still work in Western capitals, a democracy under siege
27:43
does sound good on TV, the internal procedure is far less flattering.
27:49
Ukraine today is run by decree, not by debate, by security councils, not by
27:56
courts, by urgency, not by accountability.
28:01
The Constitution, once a blueprint for law and liberty, has become a little
28:07
more than a sign on a boarded-up storefront left hanging, so no one has to
28:13
admit that the place is empty inside.
28:18
So, that was a pretty reasonably good article and fairly on point.
28:24
I think it's going to be difficult for Zelensky to give up on the fact that
28:31
he's not wanting to lose his position.
28:44
He's not going to just fade out.
28:48
He's going to have to be removed, is what I believe, and I think that those
28:54
days are on the way that he will be removed.
28:59
That's what I think.
29:01
I think he will be removed sooner rather than later, especially if he doesn't
29:10
toe the line on this, whatever the plan is, and I keep paging through the news
29:18
in the hopes of seeing something updated, that there's anything new.
29:28
Here you go.
29:32
No, continuing, they did a family photo, if you want to call it that, a family
29:42
photo of European leaders and Zelensky, he did that, and we shall see if
29:51
there's anything that comes on about that.
29:56
Where's this one?
30:01
There was a another multilateral meeting.
30:06
The meeting between has begun, it stated.
30:11
The meeting has begun between European leaders and officials, and then Trump
30:20
has said that his meeting with European leaders and Zelensky will include
30:25
discussion of a possible exchange of territories.
30:30
He said that any such talks between Russia and Ukraine would take into account
30:36
the current line of contact at the front, and I think that's as it should be.
30:43
They're not going to just capitulate.
30:49
Russia's not going to capitulate.
30:52
It's not going to happen.
30:58
There's plenty to be waiting for, but we're not getting we're not getting much
31:09
news rather quickly, but it's only been going on for 15-20 minutes, and so we
31:16
shall see.
31:18
Trump wants Ukraine to make territorial concessions, according to a lot in the
31:24
media that are posting and saying things.
31:28
He has endorsed a plan that says they're going to give up Donetsk, Lugansk,
31:36
Crimea, and maybe some more.
31:39
Who knows what it's going to be, but we're just waiting for them to give us
31:48
some little tidbit of news about whether the Z
31:58
-man is still defiant over potential Trump pressure like he was even a month
32:05
ago.
32:06
Do you guys remember these articles from a month ago?
32:12
Here's a couple of the quotes from that article.
32:15
Ukraine is not afraid of Donald Trump being re-elected, or I'm sorry, of his re
32:21
-election.
32:22
They're committed to not bowing to the pressure that he will be pushing their
32:31
way.
32:32
Remember that?
32:33
That was an article from some time ago, and if you go back and you look at all
32:40
the discussions between Trump and Zelensky, between meetings of
32:49
their staff, you don't...
32:56
Well, I don't.
32:57
I've never gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling that these people are on the same
33:01
page, because they aren't.
33:12
I don't think so.
33:16
I read you that timeline that gave you all of the events and
33:28
the drama that went on afterward.
33:32
Putin briefed Modi on Alaska.
33:37
He had a direct call with him.
33:41
Modi has thanked President Putin for sharing insights on the recent summit with
33:46
President Trump.
33:48
He commented on X and said that New Delhi hopes for a peaceful resolution of
33:54
the conflict.
33:55
Putin and Trump met in Anchorage, and then after that is when Modi said India
34:04
has consistently called for peaceful resolution, and he looks forward to
34:09
continuing exchanges in the days to come.
34:13
So I hope it does work out for us.
34:19
Also on Saturday, India's foreign ministry, also, they discussed the dialogue
34:28
and diplomacy, and I wonder if Russia talked about it, the
34:38
removal of these penalties for importing Russian oil, which was an additional
34:44
25% blanket tariff from India for supplying or for continuing
34:53
to purchase Russian oil.
34:57
I think that this meeting is probably going to go on far into the night, and
35:10
well, maybe not far into the night, but far into the afternoon.
35:15
It would be nice to get some kind of resolution, but so far, there has been
35:22
nothing posted about it or listed about it or discussed about it in any format
35:32
from anywhere.
35:34
So we're still waiting to see what they elect to tell us next, and I'm
35:44
refreshing the screen on a reasonably good basis.
35:48
Well, let's see.
35:55
German Chancellor Merz has said he cannot imagine the next meeting on Ukraine
36:02
conflict taking place without a ceasefire and urging that pressure needs to be
36:08
put on Russia, but Trump said the conflict should be ended through a permanent
36:13
agreement rather than just a ceasefire.
36:16
So we have some disagreement, it appears, between Frederick Merz and Donald
36:25
Jayovich Trump.
36:28
Wow.
36:31
I'm not sure how this is going to get to us people.
36:34
I am hopeful.
36:40
Hmm, but that was the latest post on that thread to see where it ends up going.
36:51
Let's see.
36:52
I told you about the Ice Empire the other day, and the Arctic Circle.
36:59
I don't think we'll go through that again.
37:05
I think we're going to go straight back into Russia.
37:14
And chat some.
37:16
In fact, you know what though?
37:17
I think I'm going to end the show here on this note
37:26
because I'm, well, it doesn't matter.
37:30
I appreciate you joining me.
37:31
Please join us several times a week.
37:34
We are live radio, I'm sorry, damradio.com forward slash live from 9pm to 10
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.30pm Eastern Standard Time at Chicago.
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Please feel free to listen to us.
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All my podcasts are later uploaded into internationalflavor.com.
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So I'd appreciate it if you continue to listen.
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You can go out and read the Dam Radio schedule at damradio.com forward slash
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schedule.
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I appreciate you and have a very good evening.