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Empire Without Pretense: Trump, Venezuela, and the End of International Law · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, good morning. Welcome. I am
• 0:03
  Samuel Trap. This is International
• 0:05
  Flavor. You are listening to DAM Radio.
• 0:10
  Um, I'm coming to you live today from
• 0:12
  the Lake Ozark Real Estate Art Studio.
• 0:15
  Please feel free to call in 5737468020.
• 0:20
  Although, what I have mostly today is a
• 0:22
  is an essay. Uh those of you um who
• 0:28
  I kind of went off the rails on Saturday
• 0:30
  and uh when I first found out about the
• 0:34
  the the [snorts] Trump uh [laughter]
• 0:38
  Trump's the king of the world. I'm the
• 0:40
  king of the world. And uh he gets to u
• 0:43
  dictate. He is. I I've gotten some
• 0:46
  disturbing messages uh you know
• 0:51
  that I I I wrote a I wrote an article
• 0:53
  yesterday. I spent a little bit of the
• 0:55
  day writing an article and uh I think I
• 0:58
  want to share it with you and uh I did
• 1:01
  [clears throat] some research. I
• 1:02
  translated it into Russian later. I sent
• 1:04
  it over. It's going to be published. Um
• 1:08
  or they might change some of the formats
• 1:10
  you told me already this morning. But
• 1:12
  this is a big deal, folks. And uh it's
• 1:15
  disturbing uh what what what the United
• 1:17
  States of America has done is is pretty
• 1:20
  disturbing. And uh once again we
• 1:23
  demonstrated that uh international law
• 1:26
  for Washington
• 1:28
  is not an obligation but a selectively
• 1:31
  applied instrument. I am talking about
• 1:34
  Venezuela. I'm talking about what went
• 1:36
  on there. Um it's selective completely.
• 1:41
  the seizure of Venezuela's sitting
• 1:44
  president sitting a sitting president
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  all right without authorization from the
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  UN security council without an
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  international mandate without lawful
• 1:56
  jurisdiction most importantly
• 1:59
  I' I'd like anybody to call in and tell
• 2:02
  me how the eur US takes jurisdiction now
• 2:06
  they have you know but how's the judge
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  at at noon today they say it was at noon
• 2:12
  Eastern or something. But um
• 2:16
  this is this is not lawful jurisdiction.
• 2:18
  This is the same. So I I [ __ ] about
• 2:21
  government overreach a lot. You know
• 2:23
  that. And uh and this is classic
• 2:27
  overreach. It's it's this is wrong.
• 2:31
  [laughter]
• 2:32
  Okay. No matter how much you know the
• 2:35
  the cheerleader of war, Lindsey Graham
• 2:38
  and Marco Rubio too, by the way, they
• 2:40
  they both are very much into uh war and
• 2:44
  force. They just are. And uh Rubio's
• 2:49
  been going on about Venezuela for years.
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  And uh uh and and I told you on
• 2:54
  Saturday, if you go back and listen to
• 2:56
  that, there's there's the pathway, you
• 2:59
  know, the the stretching the truth as
• 3:02
  much as the outright lying. Let's let's
• 3:04
  call it what it is. These people are
• 3:07
  lying to you. Okay? Don't believe it.
• 3:10
  Okay? And we're going to walk through a
• 3:12
  lot of that today. But I'm going to
• 3:14
  share with you this uh fairly short
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  article I wrote. It's only I don't know
• 3:18
  thousand words or something. It's not
• 3:20
  that long. And uh um it uh
• 3:24
  the English version goes like this. You
• 3:26
  US United States of America once again
• 3:28
  demonstrated that international law for
• 3:31
  Washington is not an obligation but a
• 3:34
  selectively applied instrument. the
• 3:36
  seizure of Venezuela's sitting
• 3:38
  president, without authorization from
• 3:40
  the UN Security Council, without an
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  international mandate
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  and without lawful jurisdiction has
• 3:48
  become a clear example of how a state
• 3:50
  that has lectured the world
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  for decades about the rule of law now
• 3:58
  openly dismantles
• 4:01
  [laughter]
• 4:01
  even the effort to pretend that this is
• 4:04
  lawful. Donald Trump on the Air Force
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  One last night was unbelievable.
• 4:09
  I mean, wait till I get into that. I
• 4:11
  mean, the comments that he made this
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  what occurred cannot be described as a
• 4:16
  special operation,
• 4:18
  a law enforcement action, or a
• 4:21
  counterterrorism measure. That's gone.
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  You You can't claim this is narco
• 4:25
  terrorism cuz it has nothing to do with
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  it. It was oil and other resources. It
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  was a direct use of armed force against
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  a sovereign state and the state
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  sponsored kidnapping of the head of
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  another country. This constitutes a
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  blatant and demonstrative violation of
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  the UN charter particularly article 2
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  sub paragraph 4 which explicitly
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  prohibits the use of force against
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  political independence of any state.
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  Claims of self-defense are untenable.
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  Venezuela did not carry out an armed
• 5:04
  attack against the United States. Posed
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  no imminent threat, provided no grounds
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  for invoking article 51 of the UN
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  charter, even if we had bothered to ask
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  for it. The UN Security Council neither
• 5:20
  authorized nor debated the use of force.
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  The United States deliberately bypassed
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  the collective security mechanism,
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  placing itself above, as usual,
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  international law. The question of
• 5:36
  jurisdiction is equally critical. US
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  courts do not possess lawful authority
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  over a foreign head of state acting
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  within his own country.
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  Extr territorial criminal jurisdiction
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  exists only in narrowly defined
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  circumstances under international
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  conventions and does not justify the
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  forcible removal of an individual from
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  the territory of a sovereign state.
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  manufacturing jurisdiction by physically
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  abducting and transporting an accused
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  person to the United States is a legal
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  fiction and a serious violation of
• 6:17
  international norms. Now, that's not to
• 6:19
  say that we won't stretch the system to
• 6:22
  create it. You know, you we'll get
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  creative, no doubt, [snorts] and do
• 6:28
  something for him. But a real judge,
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  tell you what, would say this is not the
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  way it goes. You don't you don't kidnap
• 6:37
  somebody to create jurisdiction. The use
• 6:39
  of the term narot terrorism in this
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  context is a political device rather
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  than any sort of legal category. It is
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  not codified in the UN charter. Does not
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  confer automatic authority for military
• 6:53
  intervention. If combating drug
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  trafficking were the genuine objective,
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  other countries in the region would
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  logically be the primary focus.
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  Venezuela, however, possesses what many
• 7:07
  others do not. The world's largest
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  proven oil reserves.
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  Control over resources, not concern for
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  democracy, absolutely not. Or security
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  is the real motive. This has been openly
• 7:24
  acknowledged at the highest political
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  levels. What we are witnessing right now
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  is a textbook case of 21st century
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  resource imperialism
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  disguised as law enforcement. History
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  provides a familiar pattern. Panama,
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  Nicaragua, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya,
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  Syria. Each case involves accusations,
• 7:54
  military intervention,
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  so-called transition periods, and
• 7:59
  long-term instability while the US
• 8:02
  steals the resources. None of these
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  countries ever emerged more stable or
• 8:09
  free. The reaction of the international
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  audience indicates that the global
• 8:14
  question is no longer whether such
• 8:16
  actions are legal. The question now is
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  why the U. United States no longer even
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  pretends that rules apply to it. What
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  happened in Venezuela is not an isolated
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  incident, but a dangerous precedent. A
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  state that permits itself to abduct
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  foreign leaders demonstrates a
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  willingness to act completely without
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  restraint. Today it's Venezuela.
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  Tomorrow Cuba. He's already threatened
• 8:48
  it after that. Greenland, he threatened
• 8:51
  that [clears throat] on Air Force One. I
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  mean, it's nonsense. I I I have been a
• 8:56
  Trump fan for the most part. You know,
• 8:59
  I've said that. But I tell you what,
• 9:02
  that's quickly changing. This is nuts.
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  Tomorrow, it could be any country whose
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  resources or political alignment are
• 9:10
  deemed inconvenient by Lindsey Graham or
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  Marco Rubio. This is crap. This is
• 9:15
  nonsense. And uh uh I get I get a rant
• 9:18
  about this and I plan to you know I'm
• 9:21
  going to I'm going to keep on trucking
• 9:22
  on this and I had some things I wanted
• 9:24
  to talk about. I wanted to talk about um
• 9:27
  um going further on this but this get it
• 9:30
  trumps everything that is important. I
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  mean and and you know you don't have to
• 9:36
  agree with me. I know people that do not
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  I know people oh jeez it's on our
• 9:41
  southern border and we're protecting the
• 9:43
  planet. you aren't protecting [ __ ] This
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  is not for protection. This is theft.
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  Period. And uh I'm going to I'm going to
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  go through that. So this AC I listened
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  to a a buttload of transcripts over the
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  weekend, [snorts] you know, and listened
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  to to some things and the core
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  allegation across every transcript in
• 10:09
  every language,
• 10:12
  the same accusations appear in
• 10:14
  different, you know, languages.
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  The United States under Donald Trump
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  with Rubio and Graham of course driving
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  the train [snorts] is no longer
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  pressuring pressuring Venezuela. It is
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  under their control. Listen to this.
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  Listen to what is being said.
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  The US will run Venezuela.
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  What? When did we get that right? It's
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  nonsense. Someone else's oil is now
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  ours.
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  >> [laughter]
• 10:49
  >> direct administration through force,
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  sanctions, and detention. Not regime
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  change, regime ownership. We own it. And
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  by God, they put in a a a what do you
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  call it? A vice president. She was sworn
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  in, you know, to keep the country going
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  constitutionally. She said some pretty
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  rough things on what what she was going
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  to say. Wasn't there. And it was uh
• 11:12
  well, you know, we'll we'll deal with
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  her. [laughter]
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  Basically, the language is Imperial
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  language. This is Imperial. This is this
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  is Darth Vader in the Empire Strikes
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  Back. This is what this is. And the
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  language used is Imperial British East
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  India Company behavior. Remember that.
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  This is this is it. Um, Iraq 2003, but
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  faster, blunter, no shame of any kind
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  about it. This is banana republic
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  doctrine without pretense. We're not
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  pretending about it. We aren't
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  pretending. What was discussed? Whether
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  Maduro was captured, detained, coerced,
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  or simply placed under US custody.
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  Whether this constitutes kidnapping, an
• 12:02
  act of war, extr territorial arrest,
• 12:05
  violation of the Vienna Convention.
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  Think about that. We're we're we're
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  comparisons to Noriega, but with no
• 12:14
  legal theater. This is uh there is no
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  legal basis, no international warrant,
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  pure power politics. Law has been
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  invoked only after the force has
• 12:26
  succeeded. Now we claim law, right? Um I
• 12:31
  listen to Jeffrey Saxs. If you listen to
• 12:32
  him, he's always interesting. He says
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  it's illegal under international law. He
• 12:37
  says Washington has abandoned even the
• 12:39
  fiction that rules apply
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  and the multipolar backlash is going to
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  be huge. It was never ever about drugs.
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  This is not about drugs. Drugs was an
• 12:53
  excuse. Democracy. Oh yeah. It's about
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  democracy, right? We'll put we'll put
• 13:00
  elections in after we have stolen
• 13:03
  everything. That's what Trump said. When
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  we feel it's necessary, we will allow a
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  foreign country to have uh uh have
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  elections. This is a joke. I mean, you
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  can't.
• 13:17
  This is nuts. We will run Venezuela.
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  Period. Democracy
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  gone. Human rights, they don't exist.
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  Oil is the meal we have create. You
• 13:29
  know, hey, smorg is bored for us.
• 13:31
  Lindsey Graham, right? Marco Rubio,
• 13:34
  [snorts] you know, the Oronooco belt
• 13:37
  reserves referenced again and again.
• 13:40
  That's all they wanted. US refineries
• 13:43
  are designed for Venezuelan crude if
• 13:45
  you're Donald Trump, right? [snorts]
• 13:46
  Sanctions are conveniently timed with
• 13:48
  energy pressure elsewhere. The narco
• 13:51
  state language is selective, not not not
• 13:54
  consistent. Um, if this were about
• 13:57
  drugs, Colombia would be on the plate,
• 14:00
  wouldn't it? Peru would be on the plate.
• 14:03
  That's not it. It India has been, you
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  know, I I made a special effort to go
• 14:08
  out and find the story on India. Okay.
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  Now India is not
• 14:16
  India has acted has tried to act
• 14:19
  diplomatically in its best interest
• 14:21
  under everything and uh uh there was
• 14:24
  very little to glean you know to go out
• 14:28
  there and find but India is expressing
• 14:30
  grave concern I'm expressing grave
• 14:34
  concern this is not how adults act this
• 14:38
  isn't it you know what about sovereignty
• 14:41
  Does it does that exist? What about
• 14:43
  non-intervention? Does it exist? What
• 14:46
  about diplomatic resolutions? You know,
• 14:50
  votes are supposed to come first.
• 14:53
  You know, we get to dictate who's
• 14:56
  legitimate, who's not, anywhere in the
• 14:58
  world that we want to. We've done it
• 15:00
  everywhere where, you know, it's the
• 15:02
  west that gets us mostly that gets to
• 15:05
  say uh that the uh referenda in Crimea
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  or in Donbass or in any of those that
• 15:13
  well we don't like them, you know, and
• 15:15
  it's only our interpretation of it here.
• 15:18
  What do we We're still doing the same
• 15:20
  freaking thing in Serbia. We've run
• 15:23
  Serbia, you know, there's a king in
• 15:25
  Serbia. I told you about this. you know,
• 15:27
  the king that's over there and we we put
• 15:29
  this in here. We're doing it again. And
• 15:30
  Americans just forget about it. We just
• 15:32
  Oh, yeah. Well, you know, yeah, we got
• 15:35
  him. I mean, I can't tell you how much
• 15:37
  I've heard that over the weekend. Yeah,
• 15:39
  we took them down. Oops.
• 15:42
  Like, was there any was there any
• 15:44
  question that we could or couldn't?
• 15:47
  Nonsense. Uh, you know, India is
• 15:50
  emphasizing sovereignty supposed to
• 15:53
  matter. non-intervention supposed to
• 15:55
  matter diplomatic resolutions.
• 15:59
  They don't endorse US action. They're
• 16:02
  very uncomfortable with this uh uh uh
• 16:06
  action. They don't didn't give any
• 16:07
  theatrical outrage or anything like
• 16:10
  that. But India certainly didn't bless
• 16:12
  the action. India is protecting its own
• 16:15
  energy interests and it is quietly,
• 16:20
  you know, we're we're a bunch of nuts.
• 16:22
  You know, you got to watch out for these
• 16:24
  guys. Next move, Greenland. And people
• 16:26
  are happy about it. Oh yeah, we're going
• 16:27
  to take Greenland. What the hell is
• 16:29
  wrong with you people? [snorts] And know
• 16:33
  it's nuts. The the the the solidarity
• 16:36
  and the destruction of any potential
• 16:39
  global order is upon us. There is no
• 16:43
  global order without rules. And the
• 16:47
  rules only apply to somebody else. They
• 16:50
  don't apply to you. Not remotely. We
• 16:53
  just We're Lindsey Graham. We're Marco
• 16:56
  Rubio and now Donald Trump. You know, I
• 16:58
  I I I hate to think about what goes on
• 17:00
  in these in these chambers. You know,
• 17:03
  when you know what's going on with I got
• 17:06
  a little a little bit to add about a
• 17:09
  little later. I I have a did an analysis
• 17:13
  of uh Lindsey Graham [laughter]
• 17:16
  from the time he get from the 2000 on.
• 17:20
  The guy's been wrong about everything
• 17:23
  he's done. And yet, who are we getting
• 17:25
  the advice from as president?
• 17:28
  Freaking Lindsey Graham, the the the
• 17:31
  wararmongering [ __ ] who wants nothing
• 17:34
  but to be reelected and to take over the
• 17:37
  world. I swear to God, it's Pinky in the
• 17:39
  brain, you know. And uh uh you know um
• 17:43
  unfortunately in this scenario, Pinky is
• 17:46
  Donald Trump and the brain is uh you
• 17:48
  know what what are we going to do now
• 17:50
  Lindsay? Same thing we do every day.
• 17:52
  Donald plan to take over the world. This
• 17:56
  this is what we're living. This is nuts.
• 18:00
  Uh let's see. India is not is refusing
• 18:03
  to legitimize this president. It's you
• 18:06
  know India has historically you know at
• 18:09
  least for the last 15 years
• 18:12
  they talk uh calmly
• 18:15
  they have a they have a long memory
• 18:17
  though you know they were they were
• 18:19
  imperial uh subjects
• 18:23
  for a long time you know they were
• 18:26
  imperial and China they they feel you
• 18:28
  know feel the same way China commentary
• 18:31
  theme
• 18:33
  Venezuela is a proxy battlefield US move
• 18:36
  seen it as an escalation of US China
• 18:39
  economic war. China has a hundred how
• 18:42
  much hundred billion dollars that they
• 18:45
  have invested in uh Venezuela.
• 18:49
  You know if you want to know what's
• 18:50
  really going on this is an escalation of
• 18:52
  US China economic war. They they and and
• 18:56
  by the way they're making no bones about
• 18:58
  it. It's like well screw everybody on
• 18:59
  the planet. We're taking charge. I
• 19:02
  encourage you. I I doubt I'll I'll play
• 19:04
  it. Maybe I will, but it's like 30
• 19:06
  minutes long. And I'm not going to play
• 19:08
  it all. I'm definitely going to quote
• 19:10
  some of it. I'm not very good at taking
• 19:12
  out cuts of it out of the 30 minutes.
• 19:14
  And I I I I didn't have time to go and
• 19:17
  pick all of the stuff. But if you get on
• 19:20
  YouTube and watch the the joke of a
• 19:23
  press conference or the questions being
• 19:25
  asked on Air Force One, it's alarming
• 19:29
  what what he is saying. And there there
• 19:31
  is
• 19:32
  no law. I mean lob law. Come on Sam.
• 19:36
  What are you talking about? You know if
• 19:39
  if Venezuela falls this way,
• 19:43
  no assets of any country are safe. It's
• 19:46
  just you can't do it. I mean this
• 19:50
  [laughter]
• 19:51
  we we are the big bully on the block.
• 19:56
  Period. That's all there is to it. We we
• 19:59
  have be we have we have sunk to some
• 20:02
  horrible lows and all we are are
• 20:06
  bullies. What has Russia said? Sivkov uh
• 20:09
  Russian several panel shows. This is
• 20:12
  once again neoc colonial seizure. The US
• 20:16
  has abandoned the international order.
• 20:18
  It claims to lead definitely
• 20:21
  um links Venezuela to, you know, more,
• 20:25
  you know, frozen assets, selective
• 20:27
  legality. You you you cannot here here's
• 20:31
  a quote from this guy.
• 20:34
  You cannot feed the beast. The more you
• 20:37
  give it, the hungrier it becomes.
• 20:41
  Even Emanuel Mcronone in Europe has
• 20:43
  developed a split personality. He's
• 20:46
  being publicly cautious, but privacy
• 20:49
  privately he's pretty uneasy. He's
• 20:51
  emphasizing process, but he's not
• 20:54
  defending the outcome. Um, other
• 20:57
  European guys, Germany talks about
• 20:59
  procedural language quietly. By the way,
• 21:02
  they're all talking very very quietly.
• 21:05
  Uh, Southern Europe is is is displaying
• 21:08
  anxiety over energy precedent. the EU
• 21:12
  silent
• 21:13
  or vague. This is not accidental and
• 21:16
  accidental. They cannot
• 21:19
  uh
• 21:21
  what do you call it? They can't uh uh
• 21:24
  you know confront
• 21:27
  the Trumpster. They can't do it. He'll
• 21:29
  he'll he'll he'll destroy them next. And
• 21:32
  you know all the Trumpers out there. Oh
• 21:34
  great. This is fantastic. This is not
• 21:37
  fantastic. If you're not sad over this,
• 21:40
  an America that uh uh you know that does
• 21:44
  this kind of thing, I I truly I feel for
• 21:48
  you. Uh the the only great one, think
• 21:50
  about this. Here's one. Ready? Vote
• 21:53
  Zalinski changes name from Vladimir to
• 21:55
  Voteir uh Zalinski and his uh uh he he
• 22:00
  indirectly says what? This is proof that
• 22:04
  might makes right. The US rules are
• 22:07
  situational. But then they say Ukraine
• 22:10
  is definitely watching. China is
• 22:12
  watching. Everybody is taking notes. And
• 22:16
  everybody's only watching. You know,
• 22:18
  everybody, and trust me, they are
• 22:20
  thinking, they are absolutely thinking.
• 22:23
  You want to rush bricks, you want to
• 22:27
  rush these other things. You You might
• 22:28
  think you've destroyed bricks by
• 22:30
  stealing the oil from Venezuela. I don't
• 22:34
  think so, bud. you you [snorts] you
• 22:36
  you've destroyed the UN. If anything, it
• 22:38
  means nothing. And uh you know, we've
• 22:41
  got we've got we got some strange people
• 22:45
  running this country. Um George
• 22:48
  Galloway, the guy I met in Kazan, I like
• 22:50
  listening to him and I I I went out to
• 22:52
  get a a a strategic thought. I figured
• 22:55
  I'd get him correct and uh before I ever
• 22:58
  listened to it and I did. And he the key
• 23:01
  thing from what uh the theme that he
• 23:03
  gave he called it piracy.
• 23:06
  He makes fun of anything about
• 23:08
  liberation. You aren't liberating [ __ ]
• 23:11
  You're just putting a new ma a new
• 23:13
  master in charge. That's it. A new
• 23:15
  dictator. If if the
• 23:19
  if the
• 23:21
  uh vice president can't speak her mind
• 23:26
  and you say, "Uh, maybe we'll let her be
• 23:28
  in charge." But she better get in line.
• 23:32
  That's that is that is not liberation,
• 23:36
  people. Where is the democracy? It's
• 23:41
  it's just gone. Um it's piracy. It's uh
• 23:44
  there is no liberation. Straight line.
• 23:47
  Iraq, Libya, Venezuela. Same same [ __ ]
• 23:50
  different day. They don't even bother
• 23:52
  lying properly anymore is what he said.
• 23:55
  They don't even bother to lie about it
• 23:57
  anymore. Now it's just straight up. He's
• 23:59
  uh he's pretty comical. George Galloway
• 24:02
  go out. I mean, he's he doesn't mean to
• 24:03
  be comical. He's harsh, you know, and
• 24:05
  what he put out there. Alex
• 24:07
  Christophorum, the guy that I like to
• 24:08
  listen to, his whole show, the entire
• 24:11
  thing. And he doesn't do this. He covers
• 24:13
  different uh news aspects, but his whole
• 24:16
  show is really good coverage. You go out
• 24:20
  and find Alex Christophoro and and and
• 24:22
  he says it's the moral collapse of US
• 24:25
  foreign policy. Now, I reacted without
• 24:27
  any of this. You know, it's it's a you
• 24:29
  know, anybody with a brain, I got news
• 24:31
  for you. This is what you're going to
• 24:33
  think. The the moral collapse of US
• 24:35
  foreign policy is, you know, gone.
• 24:37
  Historical analogies, Rome, Caligula,
• 24:41
  uh, warning that this normalizes the
• 24:43
  language of conquest. Trump is now
• 24:46
  saying the quiet part out loud. Screw
• 24:48
  it. We're we're we're big. Uh,
• 24:51
  we're we're we're bigger than you. We're
• 24:53
  better than you. We got a best military
• 24:55
  in the world and we did something
• 24:57
  nobody's ever done before. Why does it
• 25:00
  always have to be the exact same thing?
• 25:03
  You can you can anticipate it. We're the
• 25:06
  best. We're the biggest. If it wasn't
• 25:08
  for me, boy, I tell you what,
• 25:10
  [clears throat] uh what did he say when
• 25:11
  on the on the Air Force One? He said, uh
• 25:14
  uh Venezuela is dead. Yeah, Venezuela is
• 25:18
  dead. And by you know, if I hadn't
• 25:20
  become president, we'd be dead. Yeah.
• 25:23
  You know this this is not partisan. This
• 25:26
  is civilizational
• 25:28
  people. This is not international. What
• 25:31
  about nationalism? What about being
• 25:34
  proud to be from Venezuela? What about I
• 25:36
  mean they got their own freaking
• 25:38
  problems. Now we they have an even
• 25:40
  bigger one. And it's all for theft.
• 25:43
  Every bit of it. Um Trump is the
• 25:46
  emperor. He's not the president. Power
• 25:49
  is detached from restraint. The mask is
• 25:51
  completely off. We're just supposed to
• 25:53
  applaud now. Yay, Donald. Whoa, you've
• 25:56
  done it again. You're such a genius.
• 25:59
  That's what we're supposed to be doing
• 26:01
  is just applauding him, right?
• 26:05
  This is terrible. Uh recurring phrases.
• 26:09
  Think Think about some of these. This is
• 26:11
  This is someone else's oil is now ours.
• 26:15
  Running Venezuela. We're running
• 26:17
  Venezuela. This is custody of a country,
• 26:20
  not diplomacy. Sanctions as a siege,
• 26:24
  rules for you, force for us, and feeding
• 26:27
  the beast. Those were pretty common. And
• 26:30
  uh you know, the US has crossed from
• 26:32
  coercion into ownership. We own it. It's
• 26:35
  ours. Venezuela is ours. We took it.
• 26:38
  It's a risk board. That's it. It is a
• 26:41
  risk board. And Donald Trump is rolling
• 26:43
  dice.
• 26:44
  >> [snorts]
• 26:44
  >> only the dice are always going to come
• 26:46
  up six because we're the biggest
• 26:47
  baddest, right? Especially if you're
• 26:48
  going against Venezuela, right?
• 26:52
  We own it. Allies are pretty nervous.
• 26:54
  They're not supportive. You know,
• 26:56
  there's not been a lot of support for
• 26:58
  this from anywhere except here at home.
• 27:01
  You know, the standard voices. Um the
• 27:03
  Lindsey Grahams of the world. You know,
• 27:05
  the guy's nuts. Um non-western powers
• 27:08
  are cataloging this president. law has
• 27:12
  been demoted to some kind of a press
• 27:14
  release and some kind of a district
• 27:16
  court judge in New York. They had to
• 27:20
  specifically pick I'm interested to see
• 27:23
  what lies he comes up with today to
• 27:25
  establish jurisdiction over a foreign
• 27:28
  leader. You know, [snorts] everybody's
• 27:29
  going to be watching his joke of a
• 27:32
  hearing today. The Empire is speaking
• 27:35
  once again quite plainly and that is the
• 27:39
  real story. Let's be blunt. Let's Let's
• 27:42
  be completely blunt. This isn't about
• 27:44
  Venezuela. This is a memo for the rest
• 27:47
  of the world. This is a memo. You You
• 27:50
  just This is what you're getting,
• 27:52
  people. You better get used to it. You
• 27:54
  know, I I mean, what we've seen over the
• 27:56
  past several days is not just another
• 27:58
  Venezuelan story, not sanctions, not
• 28:01
  strong words from Washington. What we
• 28:04
  are watching is something dangerous and
• 28:07
  far more revealing for the first time in
• 28:09
  history [clears throat] a very long time
• 28:12
  at least. The US isn't pretending.
• 28:16
  We are pretending.
• 28:18
  We, you know, at least in Iraq, Libya,
• 28:21
  Syria, there we pretended that we were
• 28:24
  doing the right thing. Even Trumpster
• 28:25
  when he was bombing uh Iran was
• 28:28
  pretending that, you know, he was doing
• 28:30
  it because it was the right thing to do.
• 28:32
  But we're not we're not even pretending
• 28:34
  anymore. We're just well why bother
• 28:37
  telling them everybody knows. Everybody
• 28:40
  knows the language matters. You know,
• 28:42
  Venezuela is being treated not as a
• 28:45
  country, but as another asset on your
• 28:47
  balance sheet. That's it.
• 28:50
  It's crazy. The United States isn't
• 28:53
  pressuring Venezuela anymore. It's
• 28:55
  taking responsibility.
• 28:58
  That should make your skin crawl. That's
• 29:00
  I mean we don't own Venezuela. This is
• 29:03
  nuts. And it it goes straight back to
• 29:06
  Trump whose remarks over the weekend
• 29:08
  take away any ambiguity. He didn't speak
• 29:11
  about negotiation. He didn't speak about
• 29:13
  mediation. He spoke as if Venezuela
• 29:16
  were already his. It's his. We're not
• 29:19
  letting a country like that sit on
• 29:21
  resources like that anymore. That's a
• 29:24
  direct quote. We're not letting a
• 29:28
  country like that sit on resources like
• 29:32
  that. Tell me this is about narco
• 29:35
  terrorism and blowing up boats that
• 29:37
  happen to get out of the get out of the
• 29:40
  uh ocean area that you don't like.
• 29:44
  What's missing? There's not a mention of
• 29:46
  Venezuelans,
• 29:48
  not a mention of elections, no mention
• 29:51
  of law. Just resources. That's it.
• 29:56
  It's crazy, you know. It's it's
• 30:00
  unbelievable. Chinese aligned
• 30:03
  commentary. Uh, you know, this is a test
• 30:06
  case. They're they're keeping track of
• 30:07
  it. This is not about what what they
• 30:10
  said in Beijing. This is not about
• 30:12
  Maduro. This is about whether force
• 30:14
  replaces law in the global system. That
• 30:18
  matters. China isn't thinking
• 30:19
  emotionally. It's thinking structure.
• 30:22
  Think about this. Here's a Chinese
• 30:24
  foreign policy analyst. If [snorts] a
• 30:26
  government can be removed and its assets
• 30:28
  administered by another state, then no
• 30:31
  overseas investment is secure.
• 30:35
  That's not Venezuela talking. That's
• 30:37
  global finance. That's bricks talk.
• 30:42
  That's the sounds of countries quietly
• 30:45
  recalculating their exposure to the
• 30:48
  dollar.
• 30:50
  That's what's happening. And here here's
• 30:53
  Russia saying the quiet part out loud.
• 30:56
  They they dropped being polite. Russian
• 30:59
  analysts and officials didn't even dance
• 31:01
  around words like concern, regret. They
• 31:04
  used words like seizure, co coercion,
• 31:07
  and neoc colonialism. One Russian
• 31:10
  military guy said, uh uh the United
• 31:13
  States no longer hides that it believes
• 31:16
  might creates legitimacy.
• 31:19
  Here's another one. They are not
• 31:21
  changing regimes anymore. They're
• 31:23
  managing territories. We're going to run
• 31:26
  Venezuela.
• 31:28
  This is critical distinction here.
• 31:30
  Regime change is temporary. Management
• 31:32
  is permanent. You know, we're taking
• 31:35
  over. That's it. And this is where
• 31:37
  Venezuela gets tied directly to Ukraine.
• 31:39
  Frozen assets, sanctions. More broadly,
• 31:43
  another Russian com commentator said it
• 31:45
  this way. If Venezuela's leadership can
• 31:48
  be handled this way, then frozen assets
• 31:51
  are only the beginning. This is how the
• 31:54
  rest of the world is reading the
• 31:56
  situation. Not as an isolated event, but
• 31:59
  as a signal. And it's not isolated.
• 32:01
  We're coming for you Cuba. We're coming
• 32:04
  for you Greenland. That was Donald
• 32:06
  Trump. For God's sake, we need
• 32:09
  Greenland. I mean, he said it on Air
• 32:10
  Force One yesterday. We We're Well,
• 32:13
  Greenland, we're we're coming.
• 32:16
  Unbelievable. Emanuel Mcronone talked
• 32:19
  about process, stability, dialogue. He
• 32:21
  didn't defend this action. He didn't
• 32:23
  defend it either. He's he's
• 32:25
  uncomfortable with this. If energy rich
• 32:28
  states can be directly administered,
• 32:31
  then Europe's own dependency upon, you
• 32:34
  know, energy
• 32:38
  comes back into sharp focus, doesn't it?
• 32:41
  And the silence from Brussels isn't
• 32:43
  ignorance. It's Jesus. What are we going
• 32:45
  to do now? We've cut off Russia. What if
• 32:48
  we cut off America? What if we don't bow
• 32:52
  to the beast that is out there feeding
• 32:54
  and grazing? The beast might not let us
• 32:57
  have any Venezuelan oil that they're
• 32:59
  stealing
• 33:01
  that they're stealing. And I want to get
• 33:03
  to the lies that he's told about that
• 33:05
  Trump has told lies about Venezuela
• 33:09
  stole our stuff. It's it's absolutely
• 33:11
  false. It is not true. Okay.
• 33:16
  Zalinski,
• 33:18
  I hate to go back to No, I'm not even
• 33:19
  gonna forget him. He's not even
• 33:21
  important. But everywhere, everywhere,
• 33:24
  everywhere. This is not about drugs.
• 33:26
  This is not about democracy. This isn't
• 33:29
  even about Maduro.
• 33:31
  When they mention him, oh gee, he was he
• 33:35
  was charged with having a machine gun.
• 33:38
  Having machine guns. What the hell are
• 33:41
  you talking about? He can have machine
• 33:44
  guns in his own country if he wants to.
• 33:46
  This is nuts.
• 33:48
  And And we're just making it up. And
• 33:50
  Americans are eating it up. I mean, the
• 33:54
  You need to think about this. You truly
• 33:56
  do. This is about resources, precedent,
• 34:00
  and raw power. If this were about
• 34:03
  narcotics,
• 34:04
  we'd be in Colombia and Peru. This is
• 34:08
  not about narcotics.
• 34:11
  Not remotely. Don't believe it. I'm
• 34:15
  going to be very clear. What we are
• 34:18
  watching is not strength. This is rot.
• 34:23
  Empires do not collapse when they're
• 34:26
  challenged. They collapse when they stop
• 34:30
  pretending to follow the law. When they
• 34:33
  stop needing an excuse. when they start
• 34:37
  talking about other people's countries
• 34:40
  the way landlords talk about a
• 34:43
  foreclosure.
• 34:44
  This is not leadership,
• 34:48
  not remotely. And here's the part that
• 34:51
  should scare everybody left, right,
• 34:53
  indifferent. And by the way, I'm I'm far
• 34:57
  more uh conservative than liberal. Uh
• 35:01
  once this language is normalized, it'll
• 35:04
  never get rolled back. If Venezuela can
• 35:08
  be managed, then so can anyone else who
• 35:11
  falls out of line. Right? Today it's
• 35:13
  Caracus. Tomorrow it's Cuba. After that
• 35:17
  it's somebody else's energy, somebody
• 35:19
  else's uh Arctic ports. We need we need
• 35:23
  Greenland. He set that up a year ago.
• 35:26
  within a year he's already stolen a
• 35:30
  country.
• 35:32
  This is I I'm don't know this is I I
• 35:35
  cannot
• 35:38
  I cannot not say something this you got
• 35:41
  to say something. I can't imagine that
• 35:43
  people think this is, oh geez, smart.
• 35:45
  This is not smart. This is stupid. This
• 35:48
  is stupid long term. We're a joke on the
• 35:52
  planet. Rest of the world is listening.
• 35:55
  They're taking notes and they're
• 35:57
  preparing for a future without
• 35:59
  permission. That is not a warning.
• 36:01
  That's a diagnosis. We're rotten. This
• 36:04
  is rot.
• 36:06
  Um I I tell you what, I don't like it. I
• 36:09
  don't like this at all. This is not
• 36:11
  another Venezuelan crisis. This is not
• 36:13
  another sanctioned pre, you know,
• 36:15
  nothing like that. From regime change to
• 36:18
  regime control. One of the most
• 36:20
  important points that you know that you
• 36:22
  you need to become aware of is is this
• 36:26
  is not regime change. Regime change is
• 36:29
  disruptive, right? But it's temporary.
• 36:33
  They're we're we're not interested in
• 36:36
  who governs Venezuela.
• 36:39
  We're interested in how Venezuela is
• 36:41
  governed by us. If [snorts] the issue
• 36:44
  were about Maduro personally, the
• 36:45
  negotiations, exile deals, internal
• 36:47
  transition would be sufficient. But
• 36:50
  that's not the conversation we're
• 36:51
  having. The conversations about
• 36:53
  administration,
• 36:55
  oversight, custody, management by Rubio.
• 36:59
  Rubio's going to, you know, manage
• 37:02
  Venezuela. This is nuts. [snorts] You
• 37:05
  know, you don't talk about
• 37:08
  running another country unless you
• 37:11
  believe the question of who owns it is
• 37:13
  already settled. This is why this story
• 37:16
  is exploding internationally and
• 37:19
  everybody's paying attention. This is
• 37:22
  nuts. The illusions are gone. And uh uh
• 37:26
  I [laughter]
• 37:29
  I don't know the uh I I wanted to get
• 37:33
  into um pay attention to uh
• 37:37
  the the what is her name? Rodriguez. I
• 37:40
  can't remember what her name is.
• 37:44
  What is her name? The vice president.
• 37:48
  she came on with a pretty extended um
• 37:53
  uh statement.
• 37:56
  So, it's important to understand
• 37:58
  [clears throat] something. The world
• 37:59
  isn't uh reacting to speculation.
• 38:02
  They're reacting to his explicit threats
• 38:06
  and declarations. This is this isn't you
• 38:09
  know Trump declares the second attack on
• 38:12
  Venezuela will will occur if Maduro
• 38:15
  Deputy Deli disobys
• 38:18
  his statement that the US in charge if
• 38:20
  she disobys him. Think think about that.
• 38:24
  The US is in charge. That that is not
• 38:27
  diplomatic language that we are the
• 38:31
  occupier. We are occupying another
• 38:34
  country.
• 38:36
  Trump's position is that Deli Rodriguez,
• 38:39
  who is now described in US discourse as
• 38:43
  acting or interim leadership, is subject
• 38:47
  to some kind of direct obedience to
• 38:50
  Trump. One line directly from Trump. If
• 38:54
  she disobys, there will be consequences.
• 38:57
  We are not playing games anymore.
• 39:01
  If she disobys,
• 39:04
  that's command and control. That's
• 39:06
  [laughter]
• 39:06
  they no longer have a country. There is
• 39:09
  no self-determination.
• 39:11
  This is command and control. This is not
• 39:14
  a warning. And this is, you know, cross
• 39:16
  the line. US allies should be
• 39:18
  uncomfortable with this. You cannot
• 39:20
  threaten military action based on
• 39:22
  obedience to a foreign executive without
• 39:25
  admitting you believe you are sovereign
• 39:27
  over that country. That isn't policy.
• 39:29
  That is empire.
• 39:31
  We are the empire. We are Darth Vader.
• 39:35
  That is us or the emperor because the
• 39:36
  empire emperor controlled Darth Vader.
• 39:39
  Maybe Trump's Darth Vader would be
• 39:41
  Lindsey Graham and Trump is the emperor.
• 39:45
  You know that is what's going on.
• 39:49
  So the Venezuelan response. So
• 39:53
  the the the tone from Caracus was
• 39:55
  initially defiant and talked about their
• 39:58
  own constitution. No foreign power can
• 40:01
  swear in a president of Venezuela. That
• 40:04
  authority belongs to the Venezuelan
• 40:07
  people and the constitution. Not
• 40:10
  Washington.
• 40:11
  What the United States is doing is not
• 40:14
  diplomacy. It's declaring its own
• 40:17
  parallel chain of command. Parallel
• 40:20
  chain of command. That's devastatingly
• 40:22
  accurate because that's exactly what
• 40:25
  Donald Trump is issuing orders about.
• 40:29
  And he's threatening force if you don't
• 40:31
  follow it follow it.
• 40:34
  They call it mismanagement.
• 40:37
  We call it independence.
• 40:40
  They want our oil under their
• 40:42
  supervision. That word keeps on coming
• 40:45
  up, right? They want it uh they want our
• 40:49
  oil under their supervision.
• 40:55
  Wow.
• 40:57
  So there's I don't know if any of you
• 40:59
  ever listen to him. I don't listen to
• 41:00
  him all that often, but there's a guy
• 41:02
  named Larry Johnson. He's a former CIA
• 41:04
  analyst. And uh uh I was paying
• 41:06
  attention to him. He said something
• 41:07
  interesting. He said, "Yes, Trump
• 41:09
  crossed the line
• 41:12
  and did not accidentally."
• 41:15
  He said that threatening force based on
• 41:17
  obedience to US authority
• 41:20
  constitutes deacto occupation doctrine.
• 41:25
  Once you declare you are in charge,
• 41:28
  international law is no longer
• 41:30
  ambiguous.
• 41:31
  You know, it's just not it's uh it's
• 41:34
  it's nuts. This is no longer about left
• 41:36
  or right. It's about whether the world
• 41:39
  is governed by law or by whoever says
• 41:42
  I'm in charge. When when presidents
• 41:45
  start issuing orders to other countries
• 41:48
  leaders, when oil is justification for
• 41:51
  obedience. When sovereignty is
• 41:54
  conditional, history tells us where that
• 41:57
  leads.
• 41:59
  Yep.
• 42:01
  This is nuts. Oh,
• 42:06
  let's see. [sighs]
• 42:08
  Where did the next part go? The US is in
• 42:13
  charge.
• 42:15
  US is in charge.
• 42:18
  Yeah.
• 42:21
  We need obedience. Uh
• 42:24
  Venezuela said, "You do not swear in our
• 42:28
  president in uh Venezuelan analysts said
• 42:34
  uh no foreign power has the authority to
• 42:37
  swear in a Venezuelan president." Did
• 42:39
  you watch that? What Washington is
• 42:42
  declaring is is not diplomacy. They
• 42:45
  don't like it. It's uh
• 42:50
  I I
• 42:54
  Sam who can always find something to
• 42:55
  speak about. Uh I I am especially
• 42:58
  disturbed about and you should go listen
• 43:01
  to it on Air Force One. It's like a 30
• 43:04
  minute 35 minute uh maybe J.R. will play
• 43:08
  it later today. [snorts] Um that the
• 43:11
  basically the we are in charge. Um, most
• 43:15
  important thing to understand is that
• 43:16
  Trump never speaks as if Venezuela is a
• 43:21
  foreign country.
• 43:23
  He speaks as if the authority to run
• 43:27
  Venezuela actually exists. It doesn't.
• 43:31
  He He speaks as if decisions have
• 43:34
  already been made. We'll let the vice
• 43:38
  president. If Maduro was the problem,
• 43:40
  why can't the vice president do
• 43:42
  something? Why are you going to say when
• 43:45
  elections can be? We're going we're not
• 43:49
  going to invest anything. Here's what he
• 43:52
  said. This is actual quote. We're not
• 43:55
  going to invest anything. We're going to
• 43:58
  just take care of the country.
• 44:02
  That sentence would have caused an
• 44:04
  international crisis if spoken by any
• 44:07
  prior US president. Take care of the
• 44:11
  country. Who who are you? [laughter]
• 44:14
  They have no sovereignty. They have
• 44:16
  external management and indefinite
• 44:18
  control. That's what they got. And this
• 44:21
  is there is no self-determination. One
• 44:24
  of the things that we push for all over
• 44:26
  the place is self-determination. It
• 44:28
  never is self-determination. By the way,
• 44:30
  we've been watching that forever. Trump
• 44:33
  lays out a sequence that appears
• 44:35
  multiple times. We're going to fix it.
• 44:38
  We'll have elections at the right time.
• 44:41
  The main thing is you have to fix a
• 44:44
  broken country.
• 44:47
  The main thing is you have to fix a
• 44:50
  broken country. This is important.
• 44:52
  Elections are no longer a source of
• 44:54
  legitimacy.
• 44:56
  They're a reward.
• 44:58
  Granted, after you comply,
• 45:01
  you comply and we'll give you some
• 45:03
  elections, but you can't have them
• 45:05
  before that cuz we're coming in to fix
• 45:08
  your country.
• 45:10
  That's I mean,
• 45:13
  India fought this against Britain for
• 45:15
  how long? I mean, seriously.
• 45:19
  I mean, this is nuts. Sovereignty is
• 45:21
  suspended. Governance is conditional.
• 45:24
  democracy that we're supposed to live
• 45:26
  for is postponed until Washington
• 45:28
  approves. That's colonialism,
• 45:32
  not democracy.
• 45:34
  And get this, this is even worse. We
• 45:37
  need total access. This is an actual
• 45:39
  quote from Donald Trump. We need total
• 45:42
  access. We need access to the oil and to
• 45:45
  other things in their country that allow
• 45:48
  us to rebuild their country. who died
• 45:52
  made you God to build their country.
• 45:56
  What the hell is this? That sentence is
• 45:58
  a staggering sentence. Total access, no
• 46:04
  sovereign control, no negotiated terms,
• 46:07
  no reciprocity. And when he was pressed
• 46:09
  on what these other things meant, guess
• 46:13
  what? Guess what he said? He skipped he
• 46:16
  skipped uh gold, but they are one of the
• 46:19
  largest producers of gold. He switched
• 46:21
  to steel, aluminum, minerals, rare earth
• 46:25
  processing.
• 46:27
  It's he's extracting [laughter]
• 46:29
  anything of value from Venezuela
• 46:32
  [snorts] and he's given the money to
• 46:34
  Western companies. So Venezuela will
• 46:38
  never profit. They will be Africa 2.0
• 46:42
  under France. That's what it'll be. And
• 46:44
  and get this here's here he's reversing
• 46:47
  reality. this. He repeatedly claims and
• 46:50
  he's wrong. He's he's he's stretching
• 46:52
  the truth to be kind about it. He's
• 46:55
  stretching the truth. Trump repeatedly
• 46:57
  claims that Venezuela stole US oil
• 47:01
  infrastructure. It here's here's the
• 47:04
  direct quote and he said this
• 47:06
  repeatedly.
• 47:08
  It was the greatest theft in the history
• 47:10
  of America. Nobody has ever stolen our
• 47:12
  property like they have. This is
• 47:15
  historically false. Okay. quite false.
• 47:19
  By redefining nationalization as theft,
• 47:22
  Trump reframes, Venezuelan sovereignty
• 47:25
  as a criminal act, US retaliation
• 47:29
  against it as recovery, and invasion is
• 47:33
  a repossession. The same logic used in
• 47:36
  Iraq, oil contracts, Iran assets, Libya,
• 47:40
  frozen money. Once this framings is is
• 47:43
  accepted, force is just a collection
• 47:46
  activity, right? We were ready for a
• 47:48
  second wave. He casually references, you
• 47:51
  know, escalating it. Oh, we're ready for
• 47:53
  a second wave. No problem. And later,
• 47:55
  we'll do a second strike. No
• 47:57
  congressional language, no international
• 47:59
  mandate. It It's a unilateral strike
• 48:02
  doctrine spoken as if it were routine
• 48:05
  maintenance. you know, gez. Well, you
• 48:07
  know, you got a you you got a pump out
• 48:10
  on floor two over there and it's the
• 48:13
  exact same. Ah, well, if we got to a
• 48:15
  bomb the [ __ ] out of Venezuela, okay,
• 48:17
  you know, this is now we talk about near
• 48:20
  the end. Somebody asked a question about
• 48:22
  the Monroe Doctrine. Here's what he
• 48:24
  said. He said, "It's our hemisphere. The
• 48:28
  Monroe Doctrine was very important when
• 48:31
  it was done. Other presidents lost sight
• 48:33
  of it. I didn't. This is one of the most
• 48:36
  important lines in this trans. He's not
• 48:38
  referencing history. He's reviving a
• 48:40
  dead doctrine. It's simply external
• 48:43
  power stay out because we're in charge.
• 48:46
  He places Venezuela inside that frame
• 48:48
  framework. Why Lindsey Graham was on Air
• 48:52
  Force One. Get this. Lindsey Graham,
• 48:55
  he's it's not accidental why he's there.
• 48:58
  This this warmongering a-hole has been
• 49:02
  wrong for years. The loudest Senate
• 49:07
  advocate of regime change is Lindsey
• 49:10
  Graham. The architect of sanctions plus
• 49:13
  force doctrine.
• 49:15
  Lindsey Graham, the bridge between
• 49:18
  neocons and MAGA militarists, which
• 49:22
  didn't exist before. Whatever happened
• 49:23
  to make America great again? Do you
• 49:26
  remember Trump actually said it last
• 49:28
  week? Make Venezuela great again.
• 49:32
  What the? Who gives a [ __ ] Pardon my
• 49:35
  French. I don't care if Venezuela's
• 49:37
  great and I don't want to own it. And
• 49:40
  why do we wish to own Venezuela? I don't
• 49:43
  care what injustices are occurring in
• 49:46
  Venezuela. I don't care. And the
• 49:49
  majority Americans don't. And those of
• 49:51
  you out there, you know, backs slapping.
• 49:54
  Oh yeah, look what we done again. Old
• 49:56
  Trumpsters doing it now. All [snorts]
• 49:58
  that is is bullies in a classroom that
• 50:01
  are taking joy over the football kid
• 50:04
  beating up the dork. You know, or the
• 50:06
  football kid beating up the geek and you
• 50:09
  know the same old popularity contest.
• 50:12
  That's what this is. The crap that I
• 50:15
  rail about against government all the
• 50:18
  time. Here it is again. using the
• 50:22
  government as your own personal weapon.
• 50:26
  That's what's going on here.
• 50:29
  Crazy.
• 50:31
  The bridge, you know, the bridge of
• 50:33
  Neocon and MAGA that is Lindsay. Trump
• 50:37
  invited him into the conversation mid
• 50:40
  rant. He was on the plane ranting and
• 50:43
  response some question. He said,
• 50:45
  "Lindsay would know that you might say
• 50:47
  something on that, Lindsay." And Graham
• 50:49
  didn't hesitate a drop. He he's a well
• 50:52
  it's naroterrorism aligned with
• 50:53
  Hezbollah and responsible for American
• 50:56
  deaths you know one of our most
• 50:57
  sophisticated military operations in the
• 51:00
  history of the country you know there he
• 51:02
  goes again this is classic Graham idiocy
• 51:06
  he's a maximalist he he he wants to
• 51:10
  stress morality oh gez we're doing the
• 51:12
  right thing he's violent and he's
• 51:15
  permanent when Graham is traveling with
• 51:18
  a president it can't mean anything good.
• 51:21
  It means escalation is being normalized,
• 51:26
  not debated. When Lindsey Graham is
• 51:29
  helping, war and destruction and defeat
• 51:34
  follow. You know this here.
• 51:37
  The most disturbing line for me at all
• 51:41
  is this.
• 51:44
  this. I'll tell you what, Maduro's
• 51:46
  country, which isn't really his country
• 51:50
  anymore,
• 51:52
  it's certainly not his country anymore.
• 51:56
  That's what Trump said. Let's say that
• 51:57
  again. Maduro's country, which isn't
• 52:00
  really his country anymore, it's
• 52:01
  certainly not his country anymore.
• 52:05
  Trump is explicitly declaring that
• 52:08
  Venezuela
• 52:09
  no longer belongs to its own government.
• 52:13
  That isn't rhetoric, people. That's
• 52:16
  talk. That's a claim of a sovereign
• 52:18
  transfer. He took it. This wasn't a pro
• 52:22
  press gaggle. This wasn't even I mean,
• 52:25
  it was bravado. He talks about it all.
• 52:28
  You know, he can't talk without, you
• 52:30
  know, bragging. But the doctrine is
• 52:32
  being spoken out loud. He's a trustee.
• 52:35
  He's talking about our resources,
• 52:38
  conditional elections, unilateral
• 52:41
  strikes, hemispheric ownership, and
• 52:45
  contempt for international law. No
• 52:48
  euphemisms, only empire. That's what
• 52:51
  this is. And I tell you what, when
• 52:55
  leaders start speaking this way
• 52:57
  casually, incoherently, but confidently,
• 53:00
  it means internal breaks are gone.
• 53:04
  They are gone. There are no breaks. And
• 53:07
  trust me, Lindsey Graham is there
• 53:10
  stoking stoke throwing more coal in the
• 53:12
  engine. That's what he is doing. This is
• 53:16
  troubling. It is, you know, unguarded
• 53:19
  truth. This is this is not polished
• 53:23
  messaging. Trump's never very polished,
• 53:25
  but you know, they they catch him on
• 53:27
  this and and this is he probably should
• 53:29
  have thought about some of things. This
• 53:31
  is This is uh
• 53:34
  I tell you what, I I'm I'm I'm outraged.
• 53:39
  I really am. And Lindsey Graham, he he's
• 53:43
  earned this. You know, Graham earns all
• 53:48
  of this. Uh the president of the United
• 53:51
  States speaking casually to reporters.
• 53:54
  No teleprompter, no prepared remarks,
• 53:58
  only instinct. and his instinct is where
• 54:01
  he leaks out the truth.
• 54:04
  We're not going to invest anything.
• 54:08
  We're going to just take care of the
• 54:10
  country that we own it. It's ours
• 54:13
  basically. Fix it. We'll have elections
• 54:16
  at the right time. Main thing is you
• 54:18
  have to fix a broken country. We'll have
• 54:21
  elections.
• 54:23
  The thing that supposedly gives
• 54:25
  legitimacy, they're postponed until
• 54:27
  Washington decide Washington decides the
• 54:29
  country is actually fixed. You're on
• 54:32
  probation. Colonial probation for you,
• 54:35
  Venezuela. [laughter]
• 54:37
  You're on probation. We'll tell you when
• 54:40
  when we think you're allowed to have
• 54:42
  elections. This is cocked up, friends
• 54:45
  and neighbors. [snorts] Uh let's talk
• 54:48
  about the resources. Again, this is
• 54:50
  negotiated access, not shared access,
• 54:53
  not compensated access. This is total
• 54:55
  access. This is we're taking it, we win,
• 54:59
  you lose, you're done. Okay? It [snorts]
• 55:03
  It's They call it one of the greatest
• 55:05
  thefts in American history.
• 55:07
  Nationalization is not theft. It's
• 55:10
  sovereignty.
• 55:11
  If you redefine sovereignty as theft,
• 55:14
  then suddenly invasion is allowed.
• 55:16
  Right?
• 55:18
  Same old garbage logic that destroyed
• 55:21
  Iraq, Libya, half the credibility of the
• 55:23
  West. Now the rest is gone. He says,
• 55:26
  "We're ready for a second wave. We're
• 55:28
  going to keep coming." Um, you know, we
• 55:31
  hate Lindsey Graham. I mean, Lindsey
• 55:33
  Graham, surprise, surprise. We hate
• 55:35
  Lindsey Graham because wherever he goes,
• 55:38
  war follows. He don't want to fix
• 55:40
  anything. He wants to bomb everything.
• 55:43
  We hate Lindsey Graham because he treats
• 55:44
  the world like his own personal risk
• 55:47
  board and America lives like poker, you
• 55:49
  know, American lives like poker chips.
• 55:53
  And uh Trump invites him in, you know.
• 55:55
  Oh jeez, come on in. One of the most
• 55:58
  sophisticated military operations in the
• 56:00
  history of the country. Lindsey Graham
• 56:02
  in his natural habitat, smiling at
• 56:05
  chaos, clapping at force, demanding
• 56:09
  more.
• 56:10
  Yeah, we need more of this.
• 56:14
  Mhm.
• 56:16
  It's our hemisphere. It's our
• 56:20
  hemisphere. That's it, folks.
• 56:24
  So, I wanted to talk to you a little bit
• 56:26
  about this stealing of problem, you
• 56:28
  know, of of stealing of American
• 56:31
  property. Okay. So, what Trump is
• 56:33
  referring to, but mangling horribly when
• 56:36
  he says it, cuz he said it several
• 56:38
  times. No, no details, no fact, no
• 56:41
  nothing. Uh what he what he says is
• 56:45
  they've stolen our property and you know
• 56:48
  that's [ __ ] Ready? But remember
• 56:52
  there were two major nationalization
• 56:55
  movements. One under Hugo Chavez in 2006
• 56:58
  and 2007.
• 57:00
  This has got to be the core event that
• 57:02
  Trump is pointing at because the other
• 57:04
  one occurred in 7576,
• 57:07
  the first nationalization movement when
• 57:09
  they were when they created that uh
• 57:12
  PDVSA, which is the uh oil company of
• 57:15
  Venezuela.
• 57:17
  And uh but the core event that Trump is
• 57:19
  talking about when he says that they're
• 57:21
  stealing
• 57:23
  is Venezuela required foreign oil
• 57:26
  companies to convert their operations
• 57:29
  into joint ventures and accept PDVSA
• 57:35
  majority ownership. Why? So that people
• 57:38
  wouldn't do this. So that you know they
• 57:40
  they they weren't subject to this.
• 57:42
  Several US companies objected. The
• 57:45
  biggest one, Exxon Mobile. Exxon refused
• 57:49
  the new terms.
• 57:51
  Then Venezuela expropriated Exxon's
• 57:55
  projects in the Oronoka belt in 2007.
• 57:58
  Exxon sued Venezuela in international
• 58:01
  arbitration. This was not theft under
• 58:04
  international law. It's not that is it's
• 58:07
  state nationalization is permitted. It's
• 58:11
  legal if compensation is paid.
• 58:15
  Arbitration happened. The arbitration
• 58:18
  took place and US companies won. This is
• 58:22
  where Trump's claim really falls apart.
• 58:25
  This is [ __ ] right? Arbitration
• 58:27
  rulings at the international courts, uh,
• 58:31
  international tribunals. Exon Mobile was
• 58:33
  awarded billions. Venezuela paid
• 58:36
  significant compensation. Some awards
• 58:38
  were reduced later on appeal. Chevron
• 58:40
  stayed in Venezuela, negotiated,
• 58:43
  continued operating even through
• 58:45
  sanctions with US permission. So the
• 58:48
  idea that they stole our property and
• 58:51
  never paid is simply false. This was
• 58:54
  litigated, arbitrated, settled in
• 58:57
  stages, and ongoing legally, not
• 59:01
  militarily. So let's be clear about what
• 59:03
  did not occur. Nothing under Maduro.
• 59:07
  Nothing under Maduro to to change what
• 59:12
  happened under Chavez in 2007. Nothing.
• 59:16
  No new mass nationalization in the last
• 59:19
  decade. No US infrastructure stolen in
• 59:22
  the Trump or Biden years. No event that
• 59:25
  justifies Trump's greatest theft in
• 59:28
  history language. Nothing even remotely
• 59:32
  close. Why is Trump saying this now?
• 59:34
  because he's a salesman. He has to he
• 59:37
  has to justify this. He has to try to
• 59:40
  keep some of us, you know, on board with
• 59:43
  the [ __ ] that he is conducting. I am
• 59:46
  not on board obviously, not remotely for
• 59:49
  this. This is [ __ ] We are bullies.
• 59:54
  That's it. And uh politically and
• 59:58
  psychologically, he's trying to keep
• 1:00:00
  three things in order. He wants to
• 1:00:03
  reframe nationalization as theft by
• 1:00:07
  calling it theft. He can turn
• 1:00:09
  sovereignty into a crime,
• 1:00:12
  arbitration into some sort of injustice
• 1:00:15
  and an invasion. He can justify that
• 1:00:18
  because we need recovery. This justifies
• 1:00:20
  force. What he's doing is he's justing
• 1:00:22
  it because uh justifying it because if
• 1:00:25
  he can reframe nationalization as theft,
• 1:00:28
  well, geez, we have a right right to go
• 1:00:31
  in there. you don't have any right to do
• 1:00:33
  so. And he's been very clear. We're
• 1:00:35
  still in the oil. That's it. Um and and
• 1:00:39
  and now everything else long as we're
• 1:00:42
  here, we might as well take all the
• 1:00:44
  aluminum, all the gold, everything that
• 1:00:46
  that Venezuela has in abundance, we're
• 1:00:48
  stealing. The profits will go to the
• 1:00:51
  American extraction companies and the
• 1:00:54
  the the go. But we'll take we'll take
• 1:00:57
  care of you. will will dribble out you
• 1:00:58
  know just like just like the colonials
• 1:01:01
  in uh you know the colonialists in uh
• 1:01:06
  the crown in India well and the United
• 1:01:10
  States you know we were a colony now
• 1:01:12
  we're colonialists now we're taking over
• 1:01:15
  the world let's collapse time uh Trump
• 1:01:18
  is blending Chavez era disputes from
• 1:01:21
  2006 and 2007 long settled arbitrations
• 1:01:24
  modern sanctions and current regime
• 1:01:26
  pressure into one emotional blob that he
• 1:01:30
  and Rubio and and U Graham turn into
• 1:01:34
  something that sounds urgent and
• 1:01:36
  unresolved, but it's not. He's preparing
• 1:01:40
  a legal fiction. If Venezuela stole
• 1:01:43
  American property, then US action is
• 1:01:47
  repossession,
• 1:01:48
  asset seizure is recovery of property
• 1:01:51
  that you stole, and occupation is just
• 1:01:54
  management of another oil field. You
• 1:01:56
  know, that's it. This is exactly how
• 1:01:58
  empires talked themselves into
• 1:02:00
  intervention.
• 1:02:02
  And why the 70s idea doesn't quite fit.
• 1:02:05
  You know, Venezuela did nationalize oil
• 1:02:08
  in the 70s, but that was widely
• 1:02:10
  accepted. It was gone. US companies were
• 1:02:12
  compensated. PDVSA was formed with
• 1:02:15
  international cooperation. And Trump is
• 1:02:18
  not in any way. He's not really talking
• 1:02:20
  about that. that he's talking about
• 1:02:21
  Chavez in 2007,
• 1:02:24
  20 years ago, you know, that's, you
• 1:02:26
  know, that that's that's recent, right?
• 1:02:29
  He was looking at
• 1:02:32
  what you know what what he can do is he
• 1:02:35
  can go into uh Venezuela with no
• 1:02:37
  environmentalists, you know, coming
• 1:02:39
  after the US, right? This is dangerous
• 1:02:42
  language. This is dangerous. When a
• 1:02:45
  sitting US president says the greatest
• 1:02:47
  theft in the history of America about a
• 1:02:50
  foreign government action settled in
• 1:02:52
  international courts, he's doing
• 1:02:53
  something specific.
• 1:02:55
  He's delegitimate
• 1:02:57
  delegitimizing
• 1:03:00
  international law itself.
• 1:03:03
  International law no longer counts if
• 1:03:08
  you're Donald Trump and you have the
• 1:03:10
  greatest armed forces in the world on
• 1:03:13
  your side. Cuz if arbit arbitration
• 1:03:16
  outcomes don't count, then courts don't
• 1:03:19
  matter, treaties don't matter, only
• 1:03:22
  power matters. Which brings us right
• 1:03:25
  back to why Lindsey Graham's presence is
• 1:03:28
  radioactive.
• 1:03:30
  because he has spent his career arguing
• 1:03:34
  that if law gets in the way, law should
• 1:03:37
  move. That's it.
• 1:03:41
  You know, Trump creating stories from
• 1:03:44
  old disputes, partially true, you know,
• 1:03:48
  halftruth from long ago. He's factually
• 1:03:51
  wrong. Legally, it's indefensible. And
• 1:03:54
  rhetorically, it it's preparation for
• 1:03:57
  force. That's it. He isn't describing
• 1:04:00
  reality. He's manufacturing a
• 1:04:02
  justification. That's it.
• 1:04:05
  That is what is happened.
• 1:04:08
  That's all. Uh there were some exact uh
• 1:04:12
  let's see there were uh Exxon Mobile um
• 1:04:15
  affiliates versus Venezuela Chavez 2007
• 1:04:19
  on the Oronoo project.
• 1:04:21
  uh [snorts] they were awarded 98 million
• 1:04:26
  and then they got another award award at
• 1:04:29
  the World Bank of 1.6 billion as
• 1:04:32
  compensation and then they were allowed
• 1:04:34
  to deduct the first 98 million. Uh so
• 1:04:38
  they've been disputing that for a little
• 1:04:40
  while. So that wasn't theft. It was a
• 1:04:42
  nationalization dispute that went to
• 1:04:45
  international arbitration. Exxon sued,
• 1:04:48
  tribunals ruled. There were awards and
• 1:04:50
  98 million. Um, Venezuela even argued in
• 1:04:54
  their proceedings that it had already
• 1:04:56
  paid the ICC amount and it should be
• 1:04:58
  deducted. That's true. Um, there were uh
• 1:05:02
  one with Kico Phillips versus Venezuela.
• 1:05:04
  The award was 2 billion and they've paid
• 1:05:08
  uh how many 700 million of that that
• 1:05:12
  they were making payments on. Um,
• 1:05:17
  so when you decode what Trump means when
• 1:05:19
  he says
• 1:05:21
  Venezuela stole American property and
• 1:05:25
  created the greatest theft, you know,
• 1:05:28
  he's talking about 2007.
• 1:05:32
  Um,
• 1:05:33
  it's, you know, I'm I I ranted about
• 1:05:36
  that quite a bit here. What exactly was
• 1:05:39
  stolen from whom, it's not much. It's uh
• 1:05:43
  it's really nonsense.
• 1:05:47
  You know, there it'd be fun to
• 1:05:48
  cross-examine him to to get him up
• 1:05:51
  there. The greatest theft in history.
• 1:05:53
  Okay. Facts. Let's establish the
• 1:05:56
  timeline, please, for the jury. The oil
• 1:05:59
  nationalization was in 2007, 18 years
• 1:06:02
  ago. Well, uh, [clears throat] those
• 1:06:05
  disputes, international arbitration, you
• 1:06:08
  know, they stole our property, they took
• 1:06:11
  our infrastructure. No, they
• 1:06:13
  nationalized an oil project. That's
• 1:06:16
  allowed if they, you know, get paid and
• 1:06:19
  they followed the rules afterward. They
• 1:06:21
  had awards of 8.7 billion, separate
• 1:06:24
  awards of 2 billion. PDVSA paid 700
• 1:06:27
  million. Um, you know, so counselor,
• 1:06:31
  when you say they stole, do you mean
• 1:06:33
  before or after the World Bank Tribunal
• 1:06:35
  ruled upon it? Because last I checked,
• 1:06:37
  thieves don't usually show up to
• 1:06:39
  arbitration and write checks. You know,
• 1:06:42
  that's us. That's what we're doing.
• 1:06:44
  We're going in, no doubt, to steal it.
• 1:06:49
  And then here's a rhetorical trick. They
• 1:06:51
  took our stuff. We're just fixing it.
• 1:06:53
  Trump Trump says they they took our
• 1:06:55
  stuff and we're fixing this. You know,
• 1:06:58
  sovereignty is a crime. Arbitration is
• 1:07:00
  injustice. I mean, this is so
• 1:07:02
  nonsensical. Why weren't we paid? They
• 1:07:05
  took it and they never paid. That's not
• 1:07:07
  true. This isn't robbery. It's a
• 1:07:10
  sovereign debt enforcement problem. And
• 1:07:12
  by the way, you limited their ability to
• 1:07:14
  do it when you put sanctions on them. I
• 1:07:17
  guarantee you there won't be sanctions
• 1:07:19
  when you steal the oil from Venezuela,
• 1:07:22
  will there? I mean, we're going to take
• 1:07:26
  care of the country. How about that? No
• 1:07:29
  treaty, no mandate, no UN process, just
• 1:07:32
  oh, we'll take care of it, Marco. Marco,
• 1:07:34
  I think you're going to be uh running
• 1:07:36
  Venezuela, aren't you? Isn't that how we
• 1:07:38
  decided?
• 1:07:40
  Oh, boy.
• 1:07:45
  All these exhibits. Let's talk about
• 1:07:46
  Lindsey Graham in exhibit A. Lindsey
• 1:07:50
  Graham and his career of disaster.
• 1:07:54
  Right. Okay. Anybody on the jury, anyone
• 1:07:58
  still pretending that this is some kind
• 1:08:00
  of a something new, something uh
• 1:08:04
  exciting, something positive? I submit
• 1:08:08
  exhibit A, the career of Lindsey Graham.
• 1:08:11
  Let's establish this pattern, motive,
• 1:08:13
  and foreseeable harm, shall we? This
• 1:08:16
  isn't a one-off. It's not bad luck. This
• 1:08:18
  is consistent behavior over decades, and
• 1:08:22
  the result is always the same. Where
• 1:08:24
  Lindsey Graham goes, fire and war
• 1:08:27
  follows. And then he walks away every
• 1:08:29
  time shocked. Every single time. Let's
• 1:08:33
  start when with his first original sin,
• 1:08:37
  Iraq, 2002, 2003. He was an enthusiastic
• 1:08:42
  supporter of weapons of mass
• 1:08:43
  destruction, regime change, the Iraq
• 1:08:46
  war, they'll greet us as liberators.
• 1:08:50
  What did Iraq get? A million dead
• 1:08:53
  people. A shattered state. ISIS.
• 1:08:58
  Endless regional instability. Still
• 1:09:00
  there. What did Lindsey Graham get?
• 1:09:03
  Re-election promoted zero
• 1:09:05
  accountability. So, your honor, the
• 1:09:07
  witness supported a war based on claims
• 1:09:10
  that were false, outcomes that were
• 1:09:12
  predictably catastrophic and
• 1:09:14
  consequences that never touched him
• 1:09:17
  personally.
• 1:09:19
  That's exhibit A. Exhibit B, count two,
• 1:09:24
  Libya 2011.
• 1:09:27
  We came, we saw, he died. When NATO
• 1:09:30
  moved against Libya, Lindsey Graham was
• 1:09:32
  again front and center. He openly
• 1:09:35
  celebrated the overthrow and murder of
• 1:09:38
  Muamar Gaddafi. What happened next?
• 1:09:43
  Quiet. What happened? Libya collapsed
• 1:09:46
  into chaos. Slave markets reemerged.
• 1:09:50
  Weapons flooded into North Africa.
• 1:09:53
  Terror groups multiplied everywhere.
• 1:09:56
  Libya went from authoritarian but
• 1:09:58
  functioning to permanent failed state.
• 1:10:01
  So, your honor, at what point does total
• 1:10:04
  state collapse stop being called a
• 1:10:06
  success?
• 1:10:08
  Count three, Syria. The war that never
• 1:10:11
  ends. Lindsey Graham is still involved.
• 1:10:13
  He's still with it. He pushes for arming
• 1:10:16
  rebels, no fly zones, direct
• 1:10:18
  confrontation. What's the result? Same
• 1:10:20
  thing. Prolonged war, millions
• 1:10:23
  displaced, extremists empowered, US
• 1:10:26
  credibility shredded. Once again, when
• 1:10:29
  it goes bad, what did he do? He blamed
• 1:10:32
  Obama,
• 1:10:34
  then Trump, then Biden, then complained
• 1:10:38
  that we never used enough force. Never
• 1:10:41
  ever did he have any internal
• 1:10:43
  reflection, never ever any
• 1:10:45
  accountability for himself.
• 1:10:48
  His solution to every failure is more of
• 1:10:52
  the same failed policy.
• 1:10:56
  Let's go to Iran. Where? Where's next?
• 1:10:58
  Count for Iran. The perpetual almost
• 1:11:02
  war. Lindsey Graham has spent years
• 1:11:06
  advocating strikes on Iran. In fact,
• 1:11:08
  he's he's running around right now
• 1:11:09
  saying, "Iran, you're next." He's
• 1:11:12
  undermining diplomacy. He's cheering
• 1:11:15
  sanctions escalation. The result,
• 1:11:17
  nuclear deals destroyed. Iran closer to
• 1:11:20
  weapons uh capability. The region is far
• 1:11:24
  less stable in his position. We should
• 1:11:26
  have hit him harder. At what point do
• 1:11:29
  all most wars become strategic
• 1:11:32
  addiction?
• 1:11:34
  And then move on to his, you know, count
• 1:11:37
  five, Ukraine.
• 1:11:40
  That guy has spent more time in Ukraine
• 1:11:42
  than he spends in his home state.
• 1:11:45
  Sanctions, escalation, long war. Graham
• 1:11:48
  is among the loudest voices constantly
• 1:11:52
  for maximizing sanctions. no negotiated
• 1:11:56
  settlement until victory. We're not
• 1:11:59
  going to win. Ukraine is not going to
• 1:12:02
  win. Not remotely. The idiots that think
• 1:12:06
  that are finally, you know, accepting
• 1:12:10
  that it's unlikely. Finally. What What
• 1:12:13
  did this meant in reality? Cuz Lindsey
• 1:12:15
  Graham never pays the price. Never. In
• 1:12:18
  fact, now here he is recommending [ __ ]
• 1:12:20
  to Trump again. and and and any any one
• 1:12:23
  of these five should go, Jesus, this
• 1:12:25
  guy's we're find that on a resume and
• 1:12:28
  say you want to hire a guy like that.
• 1:12:30
  This is nonsense. Five failures in a row
• 1:12:34
  and you're going to bring him into
• 1:12:35
  Venezuela. That's great. He's flying an
• 1:12:38
  Air Force One recommending the same old
• 1:12:41
  crap.
• 1:12:43
  Graham is among the loudest voices in
• 1:12:45
  Ukraine for same old crap. We'll go
• 1:12:48
  until victory. Throw in more men. lower
• 1:12:51
  your lower your uh age to u uh your uh
• 1:12:55
  recruiting age to 18.
• 1:12:58
  Hundreds of thousands of people dead.
• 1:13:01
  Europe seriously destabilized. Global
• 1:13:04
  food and energy shock. Every time talks
• 1:13:07
  are mentioned, Graham attacks them and
• 1:13:11
  tries to uh uh harpoon them out of
• 1:13:15
  existence.
• 1:13:16
  So, your honor, the witness equates
• 1:13:18
  compromise with weakness and endless war
• 1:13:22
  as a virtue. War is a virtue if you're
• 1:13:25
  Lindsey Graham. And now, count six,
• 1:13:28
  Venezuela. Same script, new country.
• 1:13:32
  There you go again. Remember when Ronald
• 1:13:34
  Reagan said that? And here we are again.
• 1:13:37
  Call the country narot terrorists.
• 1:13:41
  That's not true. Call nationalization
• 1:13:45
  theft. That's not true. Call arbitration
• 1:13:49
  a failure. That's not true. And call
• 1:13:52
  force justice. There he is traveling
• 1:13:56
  with the president, nodding, smiling,
• 1:13:59
  encouraging escalation. The same man,
• 1:14:02
  the same playbook, the same results
• 1:14:05
  loading up in the background. If Lindsey
• 1:14:09
  Graham is advising you, the outcome is
• 1:14:12
  already known. You just haven't seen the
• 1:14:15
  body count yet. But his pattern,
• 1:14:20
  you know, let's summarize this for the
• 1:14:22
  jury or for the judge. Iraq disaster.
• 1:14:26
  Libya disaster. Syria disaster. Iran
• 1:14:32
  destabilization
• 1:14:33
  and disaster. Ukraine endless war and
• 1:14:37
  disaster. Venezuela lining up to be
• 1:14:41
  next. Disaster. This is not a
• 1:14:45
  coincidence. This is his career long
• 1:14:48
  continuity.
• 1:14:50
  And why does this keep happening? What's
• 1:14:52
  his motive? What I mean seriously,
• 1:14:55
  [snorts] what's his motive? Why does
• 1:14:57
  this keep happening?
• 1:14:59
  Because Lindsey Graham never personally
• 1:15:02
  pays the cost.
• 1:15:05
  In fact, he gets promoted. He gets more
• 1:15:06
  money. The military-industrial complex
• 1:15:09
  gives him more money. Every time he's
• 1:15:10
  the idiot out there pumping this thing,
• 1:15:12
  and he does it with a straight face. He
• 1:15:14
  can He has learned the art of of making
• 1:15:18
  himself believe is [ __ ] And he
• 1:15:21
  never pays the cost himself. He never
• 1:15:24
  apologizes.
• 1:15:26
  If he learns,
• 1:15:28
  it's not evident anywhere.
• 1:15:33
  And by the way, he never stops. War is
• 1:15:36
  an abstract to him. It's [clears throat]
• 1:15:38
  nothing realistic because he doesn't
• 1:15:40
  have to deal with it. It's not for him.
• 1:15:43
  It's a it's a risk board. That's it.
• 1:15:47
  Suffering. That's no theoretical, you
• 1:15:50
  know. Oh jeez. You know, that's
• 1:15:53
  yeah, there's some suffering, but at
• 1:15:54
  least it's not me and my family,
• 1:15:56
  [laughter] you know, is basically what
• 1:15:58
  he says. you know, suffering is, you
• 1:16:00
  know, theoretical consequences are for
• 1:16:03
  other people, not for him. He's never,
• 1:16:05
  and they've never had one consequence
• 1:16:09
  come his way. Whenever Lindsey Graham
• 1:16:11
  appears near a foreign policy decision,
• 1:16:13
  one of two things is going to happen.
• 1:16:15
  The situation gets worse or it just
• 1:16:17
  explodes. The evidence is overwhelming
• 1:16:19
  and then he moves on to the next war.
• 1:16:22
  He's already on his way to Cuba and
• 1:16:24
  Greenland. He's on his way there.
• 1:16:27
  >> [snorts]
• 1:16:27
  >> Therefore, I ask that the court, the
• 1:16:29
  public, the listeners, anybody with a
• 1:16:32
  memory longer than a year or two render
• 1:16:36
  the only reasonable verdict that this
• 1:16:38
  guy is not an adviser, he is a warning
• 1:16:42
  sign. And when he's on the plane smiling
• 1:16:46
  and whispering in the president's ear,
• 1:16:49
  you shouldn't be reassured by that. That
• 1:16:52
  ought to be a smoke alarm going off
• 1:16:56
  badly.
• 1:16:58
  Now, let's go on to uh
• 1:17:01
  Marco Rubio. Now, remember when I told
• 1:17:03
  you when uh Trump got elected and he was
• 1:17:06
  appointing people and he appointed Rubio
• 1:17:08
  and I was going, "Oh my god, that guy
• 1:17:11
  that's junior [laughter] that's junior
• 1:17:16
  mode Lindsey Graham." That those two
• 1:17:19
  were always there. this is neocon, you
• 1:17:22
  know, exhibit and Trump has been totally
• 1:17:24
  commandeered by the neocons and but but
• 1:17:27
  now he's in on it, you know, he's given
• 1:17:29
  up on Ukraine. He just walked away from
• 1:17:31
  that. You know, that's it. You know,
• 1:17:33
  can't be done. Now he can just use it as
• 1:17:35
  a way to beat Putin. Look what I did in
• 1:17:38
  one night taking over uh you know uh um
• 1:17:42
  Maduro, capturing Maduro by paying
• 1:17:44
  everybody off by the way.
• 1:17:47
  Maybe maybe uh uh Putin should do that
• 1:17:51
  to Zalinski. Is that what you recommend?
• 1:17:54
  Would the world like that if he did the
• 1:17:56
  same thing to Zalinski?
• 1:18:00
  Seriously? You know, is that is is that
• 1:18:02
  what we're supposed to agree that uh um
• 1:18:06
  that Putin should just go in and kill
• 1:18:08
  Zilinski? Zalinsky called for the
• 1:18:11
  killing of Putin several times.
• 1:18:14
  So same old neocons no matter who's the
• 1:18:17
  president you know Marco Rubio special
• 1:18:19
  attention for him. So the prosecution
• 1:18:23
  will now turn from the individual repeat
• 1:18:26
  offender to the organization that comes
• 1:18:28
  by because Lindsey Graham doesn't
• 1:18:29
  operate alone and he never has. Behind
• 1:18:32
  every urgent intervention, every last
• 1:18:36
  chance, every we must act now speech is
• 1:18:40
  a group of serially wrong club that
• 1:18:43
  never leaves. Different presidents but
• 1:18:46
  same advisors, same disasters, the same
• 1:18:50
  neocon conveyor belt and it never stops.
• 1:18:54
  The formula neocon formula
• 1:18:58
  declare the target country uniquely evil
• 1:19:02
  you know tell you what that the
• 1:19:04
  Venezuela is evil Maduro's evil Saddam
• 1:19:08
  Hussein evil you know ISIS evil
• 1:19:11
  everybody's evil you know Muar Gaddavi
• 1:19:14
  evil reduce history to a cartoon moment
• 1:19:18
  you know it's cartoon ignore diplomacy
• 1:19:20
  that's a weakness you don't want to have
• 1:19:22
  you know you can't have that. Call
• 1:19:24
  economic warfare pressure. Call military
• 1:19:28
  force inevitable. And when it collapses,
• 1:19:32
  blame somebody else.
• 1:19:35
  Uh-huh. Remember that movie Live, Die,
• 1:19:37
  Repeat with Tom Cruz? I don't know why I
• 1:19:40
  like that movie. I I could watch that
• 1:19:41
  probably, you know, every few months,
• 1:19:44
  but I just like that movie here. Rinse,
• 1:19:46
  repeat, rebrand. Live, die, repeat. Same
• 1:19:49
  old crap, only they don't die. you know,
• 1:19:52
  they're not the ones dying. They're
• 1:19:54
  killing off everybody else. So, enter
• 1:19:57
  Marco Rubio, the permanent crisis
• 1:19:59
  merchant. Now, let's go to him. Let's
• 1:20:02
  let's bring him to the stand. Rubio has
• 1:20:04
  built his entire foreign policy brand on
• 1:20:06
  one idea.
• 1:20:09
  Every problem requires maximum pressure,
• 1:20:12
  especially in the Western Hemisphere.
• 1:20:14
  Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, China,
• 1:20:18
  Russia, always sanctions, always
• 1:20:19
  threats, always escalation,
• 1:20:22
  never results. Cuba,
• 1:20:26
  60 years of failure, zero reflection.
• 1:20:29
  He's one of the loudest advocates for
• 1:20:31
  tightening embargos, punishing
• 1:20:32
  engagement, blocking normalization. What
• 1:20:36
  has that achieved? Seriously, Cuban
• 1:20:38
  government still in power. Cuban people
• 1:20:40
  uh ever poorer. US influence reduced.
• 1:20:44
  And but every time he says something, we
• 1:20:46
  just didn't go far enough. We need to
• 1:20:47
  take it over. How many decades of
• 1:20:50
  failure does it take before a policy is
• 1:20:53
  allowed to be called what it is?
• 1:20:55
  Seriously,
• 1:20:56
  how long do we have to fail? His
• 1:20:59
  obsession in Venezuela.
• 1:21:01
  Rubio has been personally obsessed with
• 1:21:03
  Venezuela for years. He's championed
• 1:21:06
  crippling sanctions, paralleled
• 1:21:08
  government, regime change openly, and he
• 1:21:11
  cheers economic collapse as a leverage.
• 1:21:14
  What happened? Well, until now, until
• 1:21:16
  recently, Maduro is still there. The
• 1:21:19
  economy has been, you know, nearly
• 1:21:22
  destroyed. Millions have been displaced.
• 1:21:24
  US credibility gone. Rubio says, "Oh,
• 1:21:28
  it's working." If his goal was
• 1:21:30
  stability, he's creating malpractice. If
• 1:21:34
  the goal is suffering, this is working.
• 1:21:37
  You know, this is not this is nonsense.
• 1:21:40
  Um, count three, maximum pressure as a
• 1:21:44
  religion. He he likes sanctions. You
• 1:21:46
  know, he's just like Graham. Sanctions
• 1:21:48
  with zero offramps, sanctions with no
• 1:21:51
  negotiation, sanctions with no
• 1:21:54
  humanitarian planning. What are the
• 1:21:56
  results? civilian suffering, black
• 1:21:59
  market, hardened regimes, more
• 1:22:01
  criminals, and alliances shifting away
• 1:22:04
  from the United States. What's his
• 1:22:05
  answer? More pressure. Where the biggest
• 1:22:07
  dogs on the block were the biggest
• 1:22:09
  bullies. At what point does Maximum
• 1:22:12
  pressure
• 1:22:13
  say what it really is, which is maximum
• 1:22:15
  denial? Iran again destroy the deal.
• 1:22:19
  Shrug at the consequences. Rubio
• 1:22:21
  celebrates the destruction of the Iran
• 1:22:24
  nuclear deal. What followed?
• 1:22:27
  Iran is even closer to nuclear
• 1:22:29
  capability. The region is less stable.
• 1:22:31
  The US is isolated from its allies. And
• 1:22:33
  what does Rubio say? We should have hit
• 1:22:35
  him harder.
• 1:22:38
  [laughter]
• 1:22:39
  This is like the guy that destroys the
• 1:22:40
  fire extinguisher and then complains
• 1:22:42
  that the house is burning. This is Rubio
• 1:22:45
  and to some ext
• 1:22:51
  right. He always wants to talk about
• 1:22:53
  freedom, democracy, and human rights.
• 1:22:56
  Where's that for Venezuela? Seriously,
• 1:22:59
  the abuses are ignored. His own abuses,
• 1:23:03
  our abuses. Enemy abuses are weaponized.
• 1:23:06
  You talk about how horrible they are.
• 1:23:08
  They're masters at this.
• 1:23:11
  Suffering is acceptable if it's useful
• 1:23:14
  to your argument.
• 1:23:16
  It's selective outrage as a strategy.
• 1:23:20
  So, the neocon network is always landing
• 1:23:24
  on their feet.
• 1:23:27
  Here's the, you know, the most damning
• 1:23:29
  part. You know, if you,
• 1:23:32
  these people are never wrong enough to
• 1:23:34
  be fired, never wrong enough, you know,
• 1:23:36
  the they're promoted, they're invited
• 1:23:39
  back on TV, they write op-eds, they
• 1:23:42
  board planes, they there's no
• 1:23:44
  consequences, no accountability. Never
• 1:23:46
  do they learn. Rubio isn't loud like
• 1:23:49
  Graham. He's smoother.
• 1:23:51
  That makes him more dangerous, not less.
• 1:23:54
  He packages escalation as seriousness.
• 1:23:57
  Failure is resolve. Stubbornness is his
• 1:24:00
  principle. He sells disaster, you know,
• 1:24:02
  with a law degree in a calm voice.
• 1:24:06
  What's the pattern? Same people, same
• 1:24:08
  assumptions, same tools, same results.
• 1:24:10
  Only the country names have changed.
• 1:24:14
  That's it. That's crazy, isn't it? you
• 1:24:18
  know, think tanks, same thing from think
• 1:24:20
  tanks. They're all fed, validated,
• 1:24:23
  covered. You know, the basic scam. A
• 1:24:27
  think tank publishes a warning every
• 1:24:29
  single time. The warning assumes
• 1:24:32
  escalation is inevitable. Diplomacy is
• 1:24:35
  naive or dangerous. Military options are
• 1:24:37
  described as credible. Sanctions are
• 1:24:40
  called measured. War happens. Nobody
• 1:24:42
  ever gets fired. Funding is increased to
• 1:24:44
  each of the think tanks.
• 1:24:48
  This is career continuity. It's not
• 1:24:50
  analysis. It's BS. It's telling people
• 1:24:52
  what they want to hear. American
• 1:24:54
  Enterprise Institute, you know,
• 1:24:57
  nonsense. Wrong about Iraq, Libya,
• 1:25:00
  Syria, Iran, Venezuela. Somehow they're
• 1:25:03
  still giving money, still treated as
• 1:25:05
  serious. Atlantic Council, NATO's echo
• 1:25:08
  chamber. They escalate, escalate some
• 1:25:10
  more. A test of credibility, a moment of
• 1:25:13
  resolve, a line in the stand. Ukraine
• 1:25:16
  escalate. Russia escalate. China
• 1:25:18
  escalate. Venezuela of course escalate.
• 1:25:22
  [laughter]
• 1:25:22
  Same old people. At what point does the
• 1:25:25
  echo chamber become a liability to
• 1:25:27
  national security? Never. They What
• 1:25:30
  about the Brookings Institute?
• 1:25:33
  They're polite, but they're wrong. Uh
• 1:25:35
  they're respectable version of the same
• 1:25:37
  disease cuz they don't shout. They don't
• 1:25:38
  pound the table. There's There are no
• 1:25:40
  good options. They say force may be
• 1:25:42
  unavoidable. The risk of inactions are
• 1:25:45
  greater than inaction is framed as a
• 1:25:48
  decision. War is framed as you know
• 1:25:50
  gravity. They get there. How about the
• 1:25:53
  Council on Foreign Relations?
• 1:25:56
  This is nonsense. Is it serious? People
• 1:25:58
  are considering. Consensus is forming.
• 1:26:02
  The windows are closing. This is elite
• 1:26:05
  signaling that you know we're giving you
• 1:26:09
  this consensus that we need to take
• 1:26:11
  over. follow the money. Same old folks
• 1:26:15
  doing the same old thing. And you know,
• 1:26:18
  that doesn't mean that every scholar is
• 1:26:20
  corrupt, but it does mean the
• 1:26:22
  conclusions are are some are safer than
• 1:26:25
  others, right?
• 1:26:27
  They're supported by defense
• 1:26:28
  contractors, energy interests, financial
• 1:26:31
  firms, foreign policy donors. So, who do
• 1:26:34
  you think they're going to cater to?
• 1:26:38
  You do lose influence if you say we
• 1:26:40
  should stop, right?
• 1:26:43
  So you got to say we got to keep on
• 1:26:45
  trucking, right? Why does this matter
• 1:26:47
  for Venezuela?
• 1:26:49
  [gasps and sighs]
• 1:26:49
  Cuz before Trump ever said they stole
• 1:26:52
  our property, before Rubio ever demanded
• 1:26:54
  maximum pressure, and before Lindsey
• 1:26:56
  Graham ever boarded that plane, these
• 1:26:59
  think tanks had already framed Venezuela
• 1:27:03
  as illegitimate, described
• 1:27:05
  nationalization as criminal, normalized
• 1:27:08
  trustee language, dismissed negotiation
• 1:27:10
  as appeasement, and got the media
• 1:27:15
  got the media to
• 1:27:19
  uh label everything as narco terrorism.
• 1:27:25
  So, you know, the media is always in
• 1:27:28
  there. They amplify all of these jobs.
• 1:27:31
  The panels always agree.
• 1:27:34
  You always have a hawk. You have a
• 1:27:36
  slightly quieter hawk, one moderate
• 1:27:38
  hawk, but who agrees and size while
• 1:27:40
  saying so. No skeptics. This could get
• 1:27:43
  worse. This violates the law. You know,
• 1:27:47
  this is crazy stuff.
• 1:27:50
  Friends and neighbors, that's all I'm
• 1:27:52
  going to rant about it uh this week. I
• 1:27:54
  think I think I'm going to uh um you
• 1:27:58
  know, just check out this lost. This is
• 1:28:02
  nonsense. And and I don't like it. And I
• 1:28:05
  think it is unfortunate what uh what is
• 1:28:10
  happening in the world today. I don't
• 1:28:13
  like it.
• 1:28:15
  and uh but there's very little I can do
• 1:28:17
  about it except complain about it and uh
• 1:28:20
  which I just have uh for a good hour and
• 1:28:22
  a half. I appreciate you being here on
• 1:28:25
  the program this morning. I encourage
• 1:28:27
  you to listen every morning from 7:30 to
• 1:28:30
  9:00 a.m. Tomorrow I'm going to get back
• 1:28:33
  into the Missouri debacles that are
• 1:28:36
  occurring around here.
• 1:28:38
  some of the stories stories that I got
• 1:28:40
  started with last week I'm going to
• 1:28:42
  continue with
• 1:28:44
  and uh we're going to keep on trucking
• 1:28:47
  in that regard. You can listen to
• 1:28:50
  damradio
• 1:28:52
  damradio.comlive
• 1:28:55
  damradio.commpodcasts
• 1:28:57
  to get all the wonderful content and um
• 1:29:00
  from other other commentators
• 1:29:04
  and great music um at other times. Um
• 1:29:08
  you can catch our schedule at
• 1:29:11
  damradio.comschedule.
• 1:29:15
  And for me, my shows, I upload them all
• 1:29:20
  uh daily, put them out at
• 1:29:23
  internationalflavor.com,
• 1:29:27
  and uh you can go out there and listen
• 1:29:30
  to them at your leisure and I hope that
• 1:29:33
  you do. I hope you have a very good
• 1:29:35
  week. It's a brand new year. Let's look
• 1:29:38
  out for some brand new things and make
• 1:29:40
  it a good year for you individually
• 1:29:43
  because it's going to hell in a hand
• 1:29:44
  basket nationally and internationally.
• 1:29:47
  Have a very good day.