Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Lukashenko, Sanctions, Internal Erosion and FIFA Warning Signs

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Lukashenko, Sanctions, Internal Erosion and FIFA Warning Signs · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:00
Hello.
0:00
Good morning.
0:01
Welcome.
0:02
I am Samuel Trapp.
0:04
This is international flavor.
0:06
You are listening to damn radio.
0:10
I'm damn glad to have you this morning.
0:12
We're gonna listen to a few things today.
0:17
Got a few, uh, I've been having music
0:20
all weekend.
0:21
So a little bit personal crap because we
0:23
always got to get to personal crap.
0:24
First.
0:25
I got a, a new kitty cat, uh,
0:27
uh, over the weekend in a kitty cat's
0:30
name is Koshka and a Koshka means cat.
0:34
So my cat's name is cat.
0:36
And, uh, so there you have it.
0:38
You could call him Kotic because Kotic is
0:41
a little tiny cat.
0:42
And, uh, so there you go.
0:44
Uh, anyway, I have a cat and this
0:46
cat is pretty cool.
0:47
He's, um, very tiny.
0:49
Um, just learning this place and, uh, geez,
0:53
I'll tell you what, haven't had anybody hang
0:55
on me since the, uh, since to hang
0:58
on me that closely since the frigging eighties.
1:02
I can't get rid of, I can't get
1:04
rid of the damn thing.
1:05
No, I'm kidding.
1:06
But, uh, it's a pretty damn funny.
1:09
Um, at any rate, I want to jump
1:10
right into something this morning.
1:12
I'm gonna play a few tunes for you.
1:13
Cause I don't know, I have these songs.
1:15
They just go through my mind.
1:16
So I've had to look them up cause
1:18
I checked out to see if they were
1:20
in the library and they are not.
1:23
Um, which means that Jr doesn't have them
1:25
in his library.
1:26
And so therefore I have to dig them
1:27
up.
1:28
And, uh, my library probably wouldn't be the
1:31
same as Jr's.
1:32
Um, every once in a while, I throw
1:33
in some, some country and Western, you know,
1:37
just like in, uh, went to law school
1:39
in Fort Worth, Texas.
1:40
And you get down there to, uh, whatever
1:42
that great big places with the mechanical bulls,
1:46
uh, which I did on a couple of
1:48
occasions, but I even bought some cowboy boots,
1:50
a pair of ropers and a pair of,
1:53
uh, alligator black that I got in Mexico
1:57
many years.
1:58
Well, actually, no, I got him from a
2:00
guy who got him in Mexico at the
2:02
same time I did.
2:03
Cause I didn't even pay for the damn
2:04
things.
2:04
He bought them and they were the wrong
2:06
size.
2:07
He either gave him the wrong size or
2:09
something.
2:09
And I got a free pair of boots
2:11
out of the deal.
2:11
Cause there was, I was the only one
2:13
with feet small enough to fit them.
2:14
They gave, gave him something and whether he
2:16
tried on the first pair and came back
2:18
and they were like four sizes too small,
2:20
he couldn't wear them.
2:21
And so, you know, you know what they
2:23
say about people with small hands and small
2:26
feet, well, small gloves and small shoes.
2:29
That's what they say.
2:31
And so we're going to talk about, I
2:33
watched something interesting.
2:35
Does anybody know who, uh, Alexander Lukashenko is?
2:39
And does anybody know who, uh, what is
2:44
his name?
2:44
Now?
2:44
I don't even remember his name, but, uh,
2:46
there was a, uh, an interview.
2:50
So there's a dude who's gone over.
2:51
I don't know if he lives there.
2:53
I don't know how it is.
2:54
I thought he lived in Qatar because I've
2:56
watched a few of his, of his shows
2:59
before.
3:00
And, uh, it's, um, uh, is Sanchez, the
3:06
Sanchez effect, I think is what he's called.
3:09
And he's, he's trying to do, he's doing
3:11
a hell of a lot better job than
3:13
me about it.
3:13
But, uh, he, and, and yesterday on my,
3:16
on my show, I, um, uh, I did
3:18
it in Russian yesterday, like I try to
3:20
do every week.
3:21
And, uh, you know, it's difficult for me
3:23
to do it.
3:23
And, uh, um, I don't get anything done
3:26
on a personal level.
3:28
And so I, but I did it yesterday.
3:30
And some of the commentary that I get
3:32
on that, uh, in Russian is that, you
3:36
know, we're doing a noble thing.
3:39
And people like me, Scott Ritter, certainly your
3:42
guys like, uh, uh, the big timers like,
3:46
um, uh, uh, Jeffrey Sachs and couple of
3:52
those guys who really understand the international politics
3:56
in the, in, in what causes the things
3:59
that, that go on, especially on the European
4:01
side and European and whatnot.
4:04
I watched two notable, well, I watch a
4:07
bunch and I always refer to a bunch
4:09
of them.
4:09
I always have them on in the background
4:11
or whatever.
4:12
I was, I was redoing a bathroom yesterday
4:14
and Saturday.
4:15
And, uh, I was, uh, listening in the
4:19
background to, uh, this Lukashenko interview and Lukashenko
4:24
is the, uh, leader of, um, of Belarus
4:31
and Belarus, of course, is a country to
4:34
the North of Ukraine and, um, West of
4:38
Russia.
4:39
I took a train through there.
4:42
And I don't know if any of you
4:43
remember this, but do you remember, uh, the
4:45
Seinfeld show where, uh, George had a book
4:50
from the library that, uh, he never returned
4:53
and he, the, the, the wrestling coach, they
4:57
run into and Jay, uh, uh, what's Jerry's
5:01
being, uh, uh, uh, chased by the library
5:05
police in the book that George borrowed, uh,
5:09
and, and put in his, above his gym
5:11
locker was, uh, um, the erotic tales of
5:16
a girl traveling from Moscow to Minsk on
5:19
a train.
5:20
Right?
5:20
Well, I've tried taking the train, both directions
5:24
from Moscow to Minsk, of course, I went
5:26
from Minsk to Moscow and then returned.
5:29
It's only a six hour trip or something.
5:32
And, uh, for that, well, I don't even
5:34
remember it's, but it's a, it's a decent
5:38
distance on a train.
5:40
And it's, but it's a cool trip and
5:41
it's a very nice train ride and stuff
5:44
like that.
5:45
Anyway, I don't even know why I'm getting
5:46
there, but, uh, Moscow to Minsk and, um,
5:49
but there, it's a beautiful country, beautiful people.
5:53
Um, you know, it's, uh, Minsk was, uh,
5:56
outstanding and Belarus, uh, on the West of
5:59
it is, is the city of Brest.
6:02
And, uh, uh, that has very, very large
6:05
historic, um, fortress events all the way up
6:09
until a world war two.
6:11
And, uh, way before that, it was a
6:14
large, um, it's an Island in between several,
6:19
uh, river, large bodies of water on the
6:22
river.
6:23
And so it's a, a large fort that
6:25
controlled the whole area, you know, and, uh,
6:28
and it's gone from the Polish to the
6:31
Lithuanians, to the Russians, to, you know, I
6:33
think the Turks overran it one time, but
6:36
it's been around forever.
6:37
And so, um, um, going from there anyway,
6:42
uh, the country has been under the same
6:46
rule, Alexander Lukashenko for a long time.
6:52
And he was interviewed on this show, the
6:54
Sanchez effect.
6:55
And Sanchez is an, is an American.
6:58
He, uh, spent 20, 30 years with, uh,
7:03
a TV state.
7:04
I forget which one even, but, uh, he's
7:06
been around for a long time.
7:07
And I thought he had gone on to
7:10
Qatar because the last one I saw of
7:12
him, he was interviewing a group of people.
7:14
In fact, one of them was a Scott
7:15
Ritter in Qatar.
7:17
And, uh, it had to do with the,
7:20
um, with the, uh, war in Iran that
7:25
they were talking about.
7:26
Cause Ritter, after being a, uh, a, uh,
7:30
an inspector for the same agency that I
7:32
worked in the onsite inspection agency, doing stuff
7:35
for the INF treaty and whatnot.
7:37
He went on to become a UN weapons
7:40
inspector and he worked with the UN doing
7:42
the same thing.
7:43
And, uh, that kind of defined his career
7:45
and, you know, the weapons of mass destruction
7:47
stuff.
7:47
He was, uh, uh, pretty much, and you
7:53
know, the government, the government tears you down.
7:55
If you go after the government, you know,
7:57
that's just what they do.
7:58
It's what they did to me in the
8:00
Missouri level.
8:01
It's what they did to him on the
8:02
international level.
8:03
They arrested him.
8:05
Um, and then if you question them, that's
8:07
not what you're supposed to do.
8:09
And, uh, Oh, had I just shut my
8:13
mouth and I'm sure he feels the same
8:15
thing.
8:15
Sometimes I interviewed him on my shows at
8:17
one time, but I, I, I had a,
8:20
a, a, a chance yesterday while doing this
8:24
bathroom and kicking the cat away from my
8:26
feet every two seconds to, uh, and I'm
8:29
kidding about that.
8:30
I wouldn't, he's a cute little guy, but,
8:31
uh, he's, uh, um, certainly needy.
8:36
Let's call it that.
8:37
But, uh, among all of the, the, uh,
8:40
listening to the background noise of the Lukashenko
8:43
interview, um, on a Belarus channel, because the
8:48
Sanchez effect interview hasn't even come out yet,
8:51
but the Russian portion of it, um, is,
8:55
is put out already on a Belarus, uh,
8:59
TV station.
9:00
And so I got to watch that yesterday
9:02
and part of me wanted to share it
9:05
with you in its entirety because it was,
9:09
it was pretty well done.
9:10
But what I think I will do is
9:12
I will keep an eye out for the
9:14
Sanchez effect show with Lukashenko in it and
9:19
give you a little bit more content, but,
9:22
uh, of, of what was developed in that
9:25
show.
9:25
But, um, Lukashenko, I, I, I, I swear
9:30
the people that I like listening to world
9:36
leaders are not afraid to speak, you know,
9:40
and nor should they be.
9:41
They're leaders of major countries in the world,
9:44
but they're also not afraid of questions and
9:48
maybe his power is absolute.
9:50
Maybe Vladimir Putin's power is absolute.
9:54
You don't screw with the man because they're
9:58
there to take you down in the event
10:01
you do.
10:01
But it's the same thing here.
10:03
People, you don't screw with the government.
10:05
You end up like Scott Ritter, you know,
10:07
you end up like me.
10:08
Not that, not that there's anything horrible about
10:11
it, but they certainly kick you in the
10:13
nuts while you're down or take you by
10:16
the short hairs and try to destroy you.
10:18
And that's what people do.
10:21
And that's what the government does.
10:23
And it's, it's, it, it's all governments at
10:26
all levels.
10:27
And I'm not, it's just a nature of
10:29
the bureaucracy.
10:31
You know, you can't, you can't say things
10:34
and it all boils down to what freedom
10:37
of speech.
10:38
And so that was part of the discussion
10:40
of what they were having with Lukashenko yesterday.
10:44
And Sanchez is pretty damn direct.
10:47
And he, he got to sit down with
10:49
Lukashenko and and Lukashenko is very well spoken.
10:54
And he's, and he, he, you know, he's
10:59
been very well received by, you know, the,
11:03
the Trump organization.
11:04
They went over there trying to get him
11:06
to do some things and they're trying to
11:07
get Belarus on their side.
11:10
And if it wasn't for having an ally
11:12
of that nature or somebody that understands what
11:15
the global order is trying to do between
11:18
Poland and Russia, the, the Western, the US
11:27
hegemony would have stretched through Belarus too.
11:31
And you know, the countries that lose their
11:34
identity and become part of a big pot
11:37
like has happened in Europe where they're all
11:40
supposed to be, I don't know, bringing in
11:42
Africans and Middle Easterners and Southeast Asianers and,
11:46
and Far East people that they're supposed to
11:49
bring in to all these countries and change
11:51
the very nature of the countries themselves.
11:56
And where's your culture?
11:59
I mean, I suppose if you take it
12:03
from the enormous point of view, we're all
12:05
citizens of the world anyway, and everybody's going
12:10
to be the one huge melting pot before
12:13
too long anyway because of technology and because
12:18
of all that other stuff.
12:19
And I suppose you could take the point
12:20
of view of who do you want to
12:23
be in charge of the melting pot, US
12:29
hegemony and our alleged democratic values, you know,
12:37
our democratic values of Europe that are so
12:41
honored, but everybody knows are full of crap.
12:46
You know, JD Vance goes over and tears
12:48
them down and says, uh, you know, you
12:50
don't have any freedom of speech.
12:53
The fact that there, there are elections, I
12:55
think they're going on today in England, Scotland,
13:00
uh, Wales, and there's actually, according to, uh,
13:05
um, the, uh, George Galloway show, who's another
13:10
guy that's fun to listen to.
13:12
He said that, uh, the elections are coming
13:15
and Keir Starmer, geez, maybe he's going to
13:19
be put out.
13:20
There's some really bad, uh, some bad things
13:22
going on.
13:23
I haven't seen what happened on it today.
13:27
And we have, uh, uh, have to keep
13:32
an eye on that.
13:33
But allegedly it's allegedly there's a, there's a
13:39
potential that Wales and Scotland leave England.
13:44
And, uh, now I don't know the truth
13:46
of that and I haven't been able to
13:47
find any backing of it, but I only
13:48
heard that, you know, yesterday evening, fairly late.
13:52
But when you listen to how careful leaders
13:54
like Lukashenko frame the current global situation, what,
13:59
what stands out immediately, the difference isn't just
14:02
the content or what they're saying, but the
14:04
structure of how they think it isn't chaotic.
14:08
It's not improvised.
14:09
It's systematic, methodical and reflects a worldview that
14:15
has been forming over the past 20 years,
14:19
two decades.
14:20
My, my take on it is at least
14:22
since the, uh, 2007, um, 2007 Munich peace
14:31
conference, uh, where Putin stood up and shocked
14:36
the world was saying that, you know, this
14:39
is no way to run a nation and
14:41
nobody's going to put up with it in
14:42
about, uh, not for long.
14:44
It's not, this, it's not going to happen
14:46
forever.
14:47
So think about this.
14:48
It took, even if you go from the
14:50
point of view that it was only 20
14:51
2007 when that peace conference took place and
14:56
in Munich and Putin said the hegemonic role
15:03
of the US and the UN and all
15:06
the stuff is wrong, but nobody listened.
15:08
Nobody listened to India.
15:10
Who's been talking about it for nearly the
15:13
same time.
15:14
It was right when brick was formed.
15:18
South Africa hadn't joined yet in Brazil, Russia,
15:21
India, China formed an Alliance in 2000 and
15:24
late 2007, 2008 that they began talking about
15:29
it.
15:29
And South Africa was added a couple of
15:31
years later.
15:32
Now they've added a group of other ones
15:34
and it's the same discussion all the time.
15:38
So it's a worldview that's been forming for
15:41
at least 19 years.
15:44
And whether you agree with it or not
15:46
is beside the point.
15:47
You know, it doesn't matter.
15:48
What matters is understanding how the other people
15:51
are thinking, how that operates because it influences
15:54
decisions, policies and ultimately the behavior of others
16:00
on the international stage at the core of
16:02
this is a rejection, a complete rejection of
16:05
the idea that modern conflict begins with visible
16:09
fourth force.
16:12
The argument is that by the time you
16:15
see the tanks moving or the missiles flying,
16:17
the real battle has already been underway for
16:20
a long time and this is just a
16:23
new form of it.
16:24
You know, the tanks are just a next,
16:26
the next level of it from this perspective,
16:29
the primary battlefields aren't people dying on the
16:35
ground.
16:36
The primary battlefield is internal, not external and
16:39
the tools used aren't the military, not always.
16:44
Instead they're information, economic and psychological information and
16:51
the psyche of, you know, the objective isn't
16:53
to defeat a country outright to, but to
16:56
weaken it to the point where it begins
16:58
to destabilize itself.
17:01
And this was an interesting concept that he
17:03
brought up.
17:04
This is where the concept of internal erosion
17:06
becomes critical.
17:08
The claim is that if you can influence
17:10
internal dynamics of a country, it's public opinion,
17:14
it's economic confidence, it's institutional trust.
17:17
You can achieve results that would be far
17:20
more difficult than you could through direct confrontation
17:23
like war.
17:24
So as a, as a, as a quick
17:26
short example, it'd be this, you drop leaflets
17:31
all over Iran.
17:33
You tell people for 47 years that Iran
17:35
is the bad guy and that, uh, you
17:37
know, these leaders are evil and they sliced
17:40
their babies in half and they behead their
17:42
wives and stuff like that.
17:44
And, uh, that's all you say about them.
17:47
You don't talk about anything else.
17:49
That's it.
17:49
That's what you do for 47 years with
17:52
the hope being that by the time you
17:54
get ready to throw bombs, you can just
17:56
say, all right, we've done all the hard
17:58
work.
17:58
All you got to do is topple your
17:59
own government and they do it.
18:02
And then you don't have to send in
18:04
any, any war planes.
18:06
You don't have to send in any, any
18:08
troops.
18:08
We've tried this.
18:10
We've tried this so many times thinking that
18:14
people want the same thing that we want.
18:17
And do you know that, that we who
18:18
grew up with the system that we have,
18:21
we think that we, that they want the
18:24
same, but they don't look at us the
18:26
same way that we look at ourselves.
18:28
We go to the ballot box thinking, you
18:30
know, Oh, this is great.
18:32
And that the government is always gonna take
18:34
care of us first and themselves second.
18:37
And it's the same thing as if it
18:38
was a dictatorship in North Korea.
18:42
It's the, they take care of themselves first.
18:44
That's human nature and they take care of
18:46
themselves.
18:47
And that's that.
18:48
Sometimes we might get the crumbs of whatever
18:52
slips down and at a local level, maybe
18:55
you have some form of realistic control, maybe,
19:00
but it depends on the side.
19:01
I don't think you have any realistic control
19:03
in the state of New York.
19:04
You might in a town of, you know,
19:07
5,000 or less, you know, maybe you
19:10
got something there and it depends on, it's
19:13
a, it's a scaling system.
19:15
There's no doubt.
19:16
And it's a slower process to tear down.
19:20
Imagine if you, if you have big money
19:25
coming in to secure a mayoral race in
19:28
some place where you're, you know, I don't
19:32
know, figure it out.
19:33
If you're going to do it in, in
19:34
a, let's pick a town the size of
19:36
Eldon because you know, you can come in
19:39
and let's say that somebody really needs that
19:41
space and they don't want to bring in,
19:43
you know, $200,000 and control the campaigning
19:46
and control what goes on there.
19:48
You think they could win the mayoral race
19:51
with a couple hundred thousand bucks that if
19:53
they have a lot of it and the,
19:54
uh, the, the good guy who's been doing
19:56
it for years, uh, doesn't, well, of course
19:59
they can.
20:00
And, uh, it's just a bigger scale.
20:02
It's all a question of scale.
20:05
And when you're buying elections, don't go pretending
20:08
that our democracy is really democracy.
20:11
You know, you, you give me a billion
20:13
dollars and I could probably give myself a
20:17
good enough reputation with a, you know, billion
20:19
bucks or so to become the governor or
20:22
something.
20:22
A hundred, a hundred million ducks.
20:23
I forget what it is, but somebody gave
20:25
me a sheet years ago that said, here's
20:27
how much money it costs to, uh, to
20:30
buy a seat.
20:31
You, you want to be a state rep,
20:33
you know, it's going to cost you, you
20:35
know, $50,000, $70,000, $200,000, you
20:39
know, and all you got to do is
20:40
look at the averages of what the winner
20:42
spent on each of these.
20:43
And you can figure out what it costs
20:45
you to, uh, become a, a state rep.
20:50
It's, that's the simple formulation of it, right?
20:54
And, uh, you can reach, achieve those results
20:57
without any, you know, you don't have to
20:59
go to war with a guy.
21:00
You just got to convince the public that,
21:03
uh, that you're, you know, the better guy,
21:06
the better guy.
21:07
And the only way it's done in a
21:08
democratic system is money.
21:10
But we have the arrogance to believe that
21:12
we can do the same thing to other
21:14
countries, right?
21:15
So that we go and we take other
21:17
countries by the same force with us.
21:19
All the money that member doge that disappeared
21:22
after about, you know, six months or so,
21:25
uh, they, their whole job was to dismantle,
21:29
um, the prior way that it happened.
21:33
It's still happening.
21:34
Don't, don't go acting like the money is
21:36
still not getting out and sends the same
21:37
way.
21:38
It's just picked by the insiders who control
21:40
the place and it doesn't allow the, uh,
21:43
the other party.
21:44
So as soon as, as soon as Democrats
21:46
get back into power, they'll be the ones
21:48
controlling it all.
21:49
Marco Rubio sucked it all into the state
21:51
department, right?
21:53
So now those funds aren't through NGOs, they're
21:55
through the government.
21:56
And so they get a pick which radio
21:58
stations are funded and to use against, um,
22:02
I don't know, Victor Orban picket that they
22:05
get a pick.
22:06
Well, you know, who gets to spend that?
22:08
And it's, and it's, it's very transparent.
22:11
Everybody knows where the money's coming from.
22:12
So when Donald Trump comes out and says,
22:14
uh, well, we, you know, we've done the
22:16
hard work.
22:17
We've, we've, we've destroyed the top two, three
22:20
levels of your leadership.
22:23
Now all you gotta do is bring in,
22:26
you know, some democracy.
22:27
You'll have that democracy.
22:28
You've all been wanting for so long.
22:30
They don't want democracy.
22:32
They want to go back to the, to
22:33
their, to their comfortable lives because they're doing
22:36
the exact same thing that the normal of
22:39
us are doing below the normal folks.
22:41
We're living our lives and they're living theirs
22:45
and you want to do it with as
22:47
little interference as possible.
22:49
So when somebody comes in and tries to
22:51
disrupt your life through war, through a civil
22:54
war, through whatever, people don't appreciate it.
22:58
Imagine, you know, I mean, we all think
23:00
poorly of the people trying to buy elections,
23:03
you know, Oh, George Soros doing this.
23:05
Well, so does everybody else.
23:07
And that's what they do.
23:09
Apparently you get rich and you buy yourself
23:11
elections.
23:12
That's how it works.
23:13
And so Lukashenko, the interview, and we were
23:16
talking about, he was talking about some of
23:18
these things, the public opinion, the economic confidence,
23:22
institutional trust, you know, you, you erode all
23:25
those things through NGOs and you can achieve
23:29
results that are far more difficult than they
23:33
would be.
23:34
I'm sorry that it's far more easy to
23:36
do than if you wanted to go to
23:38
war, you want to go to war with
23:40
Belarus, you know, get in line, you know,
23:42
Poland's waiting, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, they're all on
23:46
board.
23:47
You know that man, if we could just
23:48
take them over and suck them into the
23:50
European Union, if only Lukashenko wasn't there, we
23:53
could have somebody more Western friendly, man.
23:56
We'd be right on the borders.
23:58
We'd be, we'd be six hour train ride
24:00
for four or whatever it is from Minsk
24:02
to Moscow.
24:04
And look how close we are.
24:05
You think Ukraine is close.
24:06
You take Belarus and boy Russia's really going
24:09
to be hating it then.
24:11
And yep, they are.
24:12
So that is why they, they try hard
24:15
to keep those alliances together and this slow
24:18
processes are also less risky because they avoid
24:23
the immediate consequences of open conflict.
24:26
It only took us 25 years in Ukraine
24:28
to get them to hate Russia.
24:32
They never hated Russia before.
24:34
They were, they didn't hate him.
24:36
They've never hated him.
24:37
There's been a tiny little group of Bandera
24:39
of ski, bandera of who, uh, who, who,
24:43
you know, attribute the second world war, not
24:47
to Hitler, but to Stalin.
24:49
And it's nuts, nuts.
24:50
It's crazy.
24:52
And everybody knows it's crazy, but that's what
24:54
they do.
24:55
And that's what we have pushed in the
24:57
West, in Ukraine.
24:59
Trust me, they did the same thing in
25:01
the, in the Baltic States.
25:03
They've done the same things in Poland and
25:06
they've done the same things all over Belarus.
25:11
So I think if you get a chance
25:13
and if it's done well, the interpretation of
25:17
this, it would be well worth the watch
25:20
to find this Sanchez effect and watch the
25:22
Lukashenko a bit because it's a pretty big
25:27
deal.
25:28
And, uh, I am going to play for
25:30
you something that Jr probably wouldn't play here.
25:35
And, uh, you know what I'm gonna do?
25:37
I'm going to switch it.
25:38
I'm going to play that one is the
25:39
second break song.
25:40
I'm going to use this first break to
25:42
song because I, I promised I would.
25:44
And so I'm gonna, I promised I would
25:47
play the first version.
25:49
The other day I played the, uh, the,
25:51
wait, this can't be a mix.
25:54
No, no, no.
25:56
Well, maybe it's not.
25:57
Okay.
25:58
Well, I didn't listen to the whole song
25:59
first, but we're going to see what it
26:01
plays for us.
26:02
And if it's the wrong one, well, we'll
26:03
go back to the other one and find
26:05
the real one for you.
26:06
But this is uneasy rider edition one, the
26:10
first one.
26:11
Okay.
26:14
Why isn't it playing?
26:15
Hello?
26:18
Hmm.
26:19
Hmm.
26:19
Hmm.
26:19
Well, maybe, maybe I won't be sharing that
26:23
with you.
26:24
It doesn't look like any sounds coming out
26:26
of there on that side of the, uh,
26:28
this, the screen.
26:30
Wonder why?
26:31
Very strange.
26:33
Very strange.
26:35
I hear nothing coming out of it.
26:39
Nope.
26:39
I got zero.
26:40
Well, Oh, there it is.
26:48
Okay.
26:51
I was taking a trip out to LA
26:53
tooling along in my Chevrolet token on the
26:57
number and digging on the radio.
27:01
Just as I crossed Mississippi line, I heard
27:04
that highway starting to find that left rear
27:07
tire was about to go.
27:10
Well, the spare was flat.
27:12
I got up tight cause there wasn't a
27:14
filling station in sight.
27:15
So I just limped on down the shoulder
27:18
on the ramp.
27:20
I went as far as I could to
27:22
stop the car.
27:23
It was right in front of this little
27:25
bar kind of a redneck looking joint called
27:28
the dew drop in.
27:30
Well, I stuffed my hair up under my
27:33
hat and told the bartender that I had
27:35
a flat and would he be kind enough
27:37
to give me change for a one?
27:40
Well, there was one thing I was sure
27:42
proud to see.
27:43
There wasn't a soul in the place except
27:45
for him and me.
27:45
And he just looked distested and pointed toward
27:48
the telephone.
27:50
I called up a station down the road
27:52
aways.
27:53
He said he wasn't very busy today and
27:55
he could have somebody there in just about
27:57
10 minutes or so.
28:00
He said, now you just stay right where
28:02
you're at.
28:03
And I didn't bother to tell the darn
28:05
fool that I sure as hell didn't have
28:07
any place else to go.
28:10
I just ordered up a beer and sat
28:12
down at the bar when some guy walked
28:14
in and said, who owns this car?
28:16
With the peace sign and the mag wheels
28:18
and four on the floor.
28:20
Well, he looked at me and I damn
28:22
near died.
28:23
And I decided that I'd just wait outside.
28:26
So I laid a dollar on the bar
28:27
and headed for the door.
28:30
Just when I thought I'd get out of
28:32
there with my skin, these five big dudes
28:35
come strolling in with this one old drunk
28:37
check of some fellow with green teeth.
28:40
And I was almost at the door when
28:42
the biggest one said, you tip your hat
28:44
to this lady, son.
28:46
And when I did all that hair fell
28:48
out from underneath.
28:51
Now the last thing I wanted was to
28:52
get in a fight in Jackson, Mississippi on
28:55
a Saturday night, especially when there was three
28:57
of them and only one of me.
29:00
But they all started laughing and I felt
29:02
kind of sick.
29:03
I knew I'd better think of something pretty
29:05
quick.
29:05
So I just reached out and kicked old
29:08
green teeth right in the knee.
29:11
He let out a yell, let him curl
29:13
your hair.
29:13
But before he could move, I grabbed me
29:15
a chair and said, watch him, folk, because
29:17
he's a thoroughly dangerous man.
29:21
Well, you may not know it, but this
29:22
man's a spy.
29:23
He's an undercover agent for the FBI.
29:26
And he's been sent down here to infiltrate
29:28
the Q Club's plans.
29:31
He was still bent over, holding on to
29:33
his knee, but everybody else was looking and
29:35
listening to me.
29:36
And I laid it on thicker and heavier
29:38
as I went.
29:40
I said, would you believe this man has
29:43
gone as far as tearing Wallace stickers off
29:45
the bumpers of cars?
29:46
And he voted for George McGovern for president.
29:50
Well, he's a friend of them long haired
29:52
hippie type picko fags.
29:54
I bet you he's even got a commie
29:56
flag tacked up on the wall inside of
29:58
his garage.
30:01
He's a snake in the grass.
30:02
I tell you guys, he may look dumb,
30:05
but that's just a disguise.
30:06
He's a mastermind in the ways of espionage.
30:11
They all started looking real suspicious at him,
30:14
and he jumped up and said, now, just
30:15
wait a minute, Jim.
30:16
You know, he's lying.
30:18
I've been living here all of my life.
30:21
I'm a faithful follower of Brother John Birch,
30:24
and I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church.
30:26
And I ain't even got a garage.
30:28
You can call home, ask my wife.
30:31
Then he started saying something about the way
30:33
I was dressed, but I didn't went around
30:35
to hear the rest.
30:36
I was too busy moving and hoping I
30:38
didn't run out of luck.
30:41
When I hit the ground, I was making
30:43
tracks and they were just taking my car
30:45
down off the jack.
30:46
So I threw the man a 20 and
30:48
jumped in and fired that mother up.
30:52
Mario Andretti would have sure been proud of
30:54
the way I was moving when I passed
30:56
that crowd coming out the door and hitting
30:58
toward me in a trot.
31:01
And I guess I should have gone ahead
31:03
and run, but somehow I just couldn't resist
31:06
the fun of chasing them all just once
31:08
around the parking lot.
31:11
Well, they're headed for their car, but I
31:13
hit the gas and spun around and headed
31:15
them off at the pass.
31:17
I was slinging gravel and putting a ton
31:19
of dust in the air.
31:21
Well, I had them all out there stepping
31:24
and fetching like their heads were on fire
31:25
and their asses was catching, but I figured
31:27
I'd better go ahead and split before the
31:29
cops got there.
31:31
When I hit the road, I was really
31:34
wheeling, had gravel flying and rubber squealing, and
31:37
I didn't slow down until I was almost
31:39
to Arkansas.
31:41
Well, I think I'm going to reroute my
31:44
trip.
31:44
I wonder if anybody would think I flipped
31:47
if I went to L.A. via Omaha.
31:49
And that, my dear friends
31:59
and neighbors, was Uneasy Rider, the original version.
32:04
The other day, I played Uneasy Rider 2
32:06
for you just because I was of the
32:10
opinion that it probably wouldn't get played here
32:14
because it's country, you know, or well, I
32:18
don't even know if I'd call Charlie Daniels
32:20
country, though.
32:20
But Charlie Daniels has some, you know, I
32:25
think the man passed away several years ago,
32:27
but I don't recall.
32:29
And I'll play a little bit more for
32:31
you.
32:31
But this will be a little bit of
32:35
a different focus.
32:36
Think further, further into California.
32:40
Think about this next one that I'll play
32:43
for you if we get another break in
32:45
here.
32:46
So anyway, I wanted to get back to
32:52
the other points of the Lukashenko interview, and
32:55
I had quite a few of these lined
32:57
up, but I've spent a decent amount of
32:59
time on the Lukashenko.
33:01
The concept of internal erosion of countries is
33:05
central to the theme of what he was
33:07
talking about.
33:08
The claim is that if you can, you
33:12
know, make that influence in the internal dynamics
33:17
of a country, it's public opinion, it's economic
33:21
confidence and institutional trust.
33:24
You know, there's plenty of ways to tear
33:27
it down.
33:30
There's a strong emphasis on what might be
33:34
described as a network influence.
33:36
The idea that modern communication systems create channels
33:41
through which external actors can shape internal conversation.
33:46
Social media platforms, think Telegram, WhatsApp, stuff like
33:53
that.
33:53
Messaging applications, digital news outlets.
33:57
These are all seen as vectors through which
33:59
ideas, perspectives, narratives can be introduced and amplified.
34:04
So even when a government attempts to control
34:06
or limit the access to certain platforms, the
34:09
influence does not just disappear, it adapts, it
34:14
reroutes.
34:14
And in many cases, it re-enters the
34:17
system through indirect means.
34:21
What makes this particularly challenging, according to this
34:25
line of thinking, is that governments find themselves
34:28
responding to external narratives, even when they recognize
34:33
them as such.
34:34
So you see all this influence coming in
34:36
from the NGOs and you got to respond.
34:39
And by responding, they legitimatize the narratives and
34:43
bring them into official discourse and give them
34:45
a level of visibility they might not otherwise
34:48
get.
34:50
You know, this creates a feedback loop where
34:53
external input generates internal reaction, which in turn
34:58
reinforces the original influence several fold.
35:02
It's described as a trap, one that is
35:04
difficult to avoid once established.
35:07
And this perspective isn't limited only to information,
35:10
it extends to economic policy.
35:13
This is where the internal critique is particularly
35:16
influential, I'd suppose.
35:20
There's a recognition and an acknowledgment that economic
35:24
structures are the points of vulnerability themselves.
35:29
The argument is that if an economy is
35:32
reliant on financial mechanisms rather than real production,
35:36
it's more susceptible to disruption.
35:39
This is the sanctions effect, the austerity measures
35:48
required by the World Bank, you know, stuff
35:51
like that.
35:52
These external flows, you have to borrow money
35:54
from me?
35:55
Well, you know, you can't borrow it from
35:59
the World Bank without the West, namely Europeans
36:05
and Americans who control the Western banking systems.
36:09
You can't get anything from them unless you
36:11
agree to their way of life.
36:14
So this is like step two, you know.
36:16
The first one is they degrade your...
36:18
They advertise Coca-Cola all over the place
36:22
and jeans and everybody wants to, you know,
36:24
the wall to collapse so they can have
36:26
Coke and jeans.
36:27
That's it.
36:28
They have their own version of Coke and
36:30
jeans.
36:30
They have Quass.
36:31
I love Quass.
36:33
It's tasty, but, you know, it's a soda
36:36
-style drink over there.
36:38
They also have compote, which compote is better
36:41
than any soda.
36:42
And it's...
36:43
Well, versions of it are bad news.
36:46
You know, they're full of sugar just like
36:47
everything else, but compote is good stuff.
36:50
And it's better than soda, frankly.
36:53
And so...
36:54
And the food is better than McDonald's.
36:56
I mean, you know, the world doesn't revolve
36:58
around Coke and Big Mac, you know.
37:01
And anyway, the argument is that the economies
37:04
that are heavily reliant on financial mechanism instead
37:08
of production, it's ways to be disrupted.
37:12
Money can be moved, restricted, devalued in ways
37:16
that physical production cannot.
37:19
China's always engaged in physical production, right?
37:22
Where are they?
37:25
I mean, seriously.
37:27
I mean, countries that are building their own
37:29
infrastructure.
37:30
I've had this conversation before.
37:34
You know, they can build their own internal
37:39
mechanism, internal infrastructure.
37:41
And China has been loaning money to people
37:44
without and building infrastructure for them without telling
37:48
them that they have to engage in austerity,
37:52
that you can't do this and you can't
37:54
do that.
37:55
And where's your democracy?
37:57
We need that democracy.
37:59
And it's not really democracy.
38:00
I mean, if anybody thinks democracy is going
38:03
on in Ukraine, you better think again.
38:06
You know, that's not happening at all.
38:09
Lukashenko said in his analysis was talking about
38:12
it.
38:12
So in practical terms, this sort of critique,
38:15
you know, which he calls a strategic weakness,
38:19
focuses on the allocation of resources.
38:22
When large sums of money are directed into
38:24
banking systems, credit programs, or asset markets without
38:28
a corresponding increase in production, the result is
38:31
inflation.
38:33
This is not presented as theory.
38:35
It's described as an observable pattern.
38:38
The emphasis is on the idea that real
38:40
economic strength comes from the ability to produce
38:43
goods to maintain industrial capacity and support a
38:46
workforce engaged in a tangible output, not just
38:49
services.
38:50
When those elements are secondary to financial flow,
38:55
the system is unbalanced.
38:57
And this imbalance is compounded by changes in
39:00
labor.
39:01
There's a growing acknowledgment that what is often
39:04
labeled as a labor shortage may in fact
39:07
reflect a deeper structural shift.
39:10
For many years, economies have benefited from relatively
39:14
low labor cost, whether through domestic condition or
39:17
through the external labor market, as those conditions
39:21
change through shifting demography, policy, and economic trend.
39:28
The cost of labor does nothing but increase,
39:31
and the assumptions that underpin that previous growth
39:34
model begins to break down.
39:36
So I had a conversation with a friend
39:39
of mine over the weekend that has a
39:43
cleaning company, and they was telling me about
39:48
applying for some, you know, putting a bid
39:51
on, on some government job that he had
39:54
to do.
39:55
And I said, oh, how'd that go?
39:57
And if you're not familiar with what, with
39:59
the term prevailing wage, you know, it's why
40:03
most people can't get into government work.
40:08
You have to agree to pay your, pay
40:11
your employees a government wage.
40:14
And he was telling me that, and I
40:17
don't remember the exact number, I have no
40:18
clue.
40:19
But when we were talking about it, he
40:21
was saying it was some ungodly amount.
40:22
Like he had to pay for his cleaners,
40:26
he had to agree to pay him prevailing
40:28
wage.
40:28
It's like 40 bucks an hour, 45, some
40:31
crazy number.
40:32
For a cleaning crew, you know, it's nuts
40:36
that you got to pay these guys.
40:38
And so nobody can afford to do it.
40:40
And these prevailing wage limits that they put
40:43
in are scams that they can give.
40:45
It's one hand washes the other.
40:47
It's the exact same thing all the way
40:49
up and down the line.
40:50
So these internal economic considerations are directly linked
40:56
to external security concerns.
40:58
The argument that economic weakness doesn't exist, and
41:03
well, economic weakness does not exist in isolation.
41:09
It creates a condition that can be exploited
41:12
by others.
41:13
So a country that struggles to maintain its
41:15
growth, to manage its inflation, or to support
41:18
its workforce is seen as more vulnerable.
41:20
Not necessarily to immediate attack, but to strategic
41:23
pressure.
41:24
How much pressure has been placed on Iran?
41:26
Seriously, how much pressure has been placed on
41:30
Russia?
41:36
Now, think about this, because this is probably
41:39
the biggest tool that has been used in
41:41
the last 10 years, at least, are these
41:45
sanctions.
41:46
And if the sanctions worked, any, any marginally
41:52
competent economist will tell you they have not.
41:57
The rest of them are pumping some, oh,
41:59
yeah, it's working.
42:00
You know, Besson, put him in that crowd.
42:03
You know, that there's a, the dimension of
42:07
his analysis is pretty flat, right?
42:10
The idea is not that conflict is imminent,
42:14
but that, you know, they're preparing.
42:16
They're preparing for the next level, right?
42:19
And how many packages of sanctions have been
42:22
leveled?
42:22
What are they, on package 24 of sanctions
42:27
against Russia?
42:28
And now they're talking about seizing their tankers
42:31
when they come across, seizing Chinese tankers.
42:35
Or, you know, we're pushing war, saying, oh,
42:38
we're going to stop your tankers if they
42:40
go through Straits of Hormuz.
42:41
And we're going to stop Russia's if they
42:43
come through the Baltic Sea.
42:47
Tell you what, these are, these are bad
42:49
plans.
42:51
The idea isn't that conflict is imminent, but
42:55
that it's being prepared for over a long
42:57
time.
42:58
In Europe, they're being flat out about it.
43:00
War, you know, we expect to go to
43:03
war with Russia by 2030.
43:05
They're gearing it up.
43:06
They're, I saw an article yesterday that said
43:11
that Ukraine has been, that old Z-Monster
43:18
has been cruising around Europe for the past
43:20
two weeks, getting commitments from several countries, you
43:28
know, six, seven, eight.
43:30
Poland's probably next, although they haven't done it
43:32
yet.
43:33
Germany's sending back like 56,000 people, men,
43:41
Ukrainians.
43:42
They're cutting off their, they're cutting off their
43:45
benefits and stuff like that.
43:47
The, the, it's 56,000 Ukrainians.
43:52
Where is it?
43:53
First, we're going to talk about, let's see,
43:56
there's the Church Ukraine.
43:57
Weird things are happening.
43:59
You hear they blew up some more churches
44:01
over there?
44:01
And there's a guy that went in there,
44:03
had some shootings in there.
44:04
And there's, there's a lot of stuff going
44:06
on.
44:07
Another shooting incident, several of them in Ukraine,
44:10
with casualties among civilian, civilians.
44:14
You know, because they're, they're tired of the
44:18
war, you know, and you're not hearing much
44:20
come out of there.
44:22
And the European countries are returning refugees back
44:29
to Ukraine, trying to improve the situation along
44:33
the front lines.
44:34
And the France is sending back 40,000.
44:37
And you know, Ireland is sending back 16
44:41
,000 by the end of the year.
44:44
And the voluntary term, termination of programs with
44:48
cash payments all over Europe are being terminated.
44:52
Because they want to send up to allegedly,
44:57
between all the countries, all the numbers.
45:01
They're going to send back all these people,
45:03
these refugees that were allowed to leave Ukraine,
45:06
are now being sent back because Ukraine has
45:10
nowhere else to go.
45:11
There was a video going around, and it's
45:13
a crazy video, crazy video.
45:17
And I, I don't, I, I have very
45:20
mixed feelings about it.
45:21
But get on, on Telegram, if you will,
45:24
and look up.
45:26
And you wonder, it's like, Jesus, if somebody
45:29
really made this up with AI, this whole
45:33
video, then that's just wrong, that you would
45:38
make something up like this in the first
45:39
place.
45:40
But it's been allegedly vetted on several different
45:44
levels.
45:46
And it's the boosification guys in Ukraine, chasing
45:50
around a, like a three and a half
45:54
foot tall midget guy.
45:56
A dwarf guy.
45:57
And they're chasing him around.
45:59
And, and there's other, there's other people, you
46:03
know, fighting him off.
46:04
And they're, you know, there's, they're chasing him.
46:07
Allegedly, allegedly, they're gonna boosification all sorts of,
46:14
there, there have been plenty of articles about,
46:17
there's a, a long term video of a
46:19
guy who's mentally retarded that is has, has
46:27
him in uniform.
46:28
And they said, oh, it's great.
46:29
We just use him in the, in the
46:31
headquarters.
46:33
I mean, think about that for a second.
46:36
Let's take our mentally challenged and, oh, it's
46:41
okay.
46:42
We'll just put, give him a gun and
46:43
put him in the headquarters, you know?
46:46
And if, you know, last resort, everybody has
46:49
a right to fight.
46:50
No, okay.
46:52
You know, the days are long gone from
46:55
George Bailey having a hearing problem in his
46:57
left ear and not being able to, you
46:59
know, put in 4F or whatever you call
47:02
it.
47:02
So he's not draftable.
47:04
And so he, he ran the, the food
47:08
brigade and the food drives and whatever, you
47:11
know.
47:12
Instead of going to war like his brother,
47:15
George, George Bailey, you know, or whichever one,
47:19
one of the Bailey boys who got to
47:21
go to war and the other one didn't.
47:23
But at any rate, these are, this, this
47:27
is not limited to discussions on military strength.
47:30
What emerges from the analysis of Lukashenko is
47:34
a view of the world fundamentally different from
47:38
the one that is presented in Western discourse.
47:41
It is less focused on formal institutions and
47:45
more focused on underlying dynamic.
47:47
It places greater emphasis on resilience, adaptability, and
47:51
ability to operate under pressure.
47:53
He talked for quite a bit of time
47:55
about the the fact that he's a, he's
48:02
been in power for close to 30 years.
48:06
And he says, he says, you, he says,
48:09
you don't have democracy.
48:11
In fact, at the end of the show,
48:12
he said, you in the West don't have
48:15
any, your democracy is no better than ours.
48:18
He said, we have democracy too.
48:20
He said, yours changes direction.
48:23
Ours has stability.
48:25
And he said, and he enjoys, he really
48:26
does, according to all the polls that come
48:28
out in there.
48:29
Now, who wonders how they were, but I
48:31
was in Belarus last year.
48:32
They didn't seem real upset about the fact
48:34
that Lukashenko was in power.
48:36
The places run well.
48:38
They can go about their lives and they
48:40
can live as they see fit.
48:42
And Belarusians get, they get to go into
48:45
the Schengen system.
48:47
They get to get visas.
48:48
They get to travel.
48:48
They can go to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.
48:51
They can go to Poland.
48:52
They can go to places like that.
48:54
But they also have the, the ability to
48:56
go east and go to Russia.
48:57
Now, some countries restrict their travel because they're
49:00
Belarus and not, not, not part of the
49:04
Schengen system.
49:06
But the people there, you know, the young
49:08
people, I told you, I was out there,
49:10
we're out seven o'clock in the morning,
49:13
just recovering from the bars that don't close.
49:16
They stay open all night, just like it
49:18
used to be when I went to Europe
49:20
when I was in the military.
49:21
You know, the bars don't even friggin' open
49:23
till 11.30 at night.
49:25
There's nobody there.
49:27
And then when they get there, they stay
49:28
there all night.
49:29
And that's, that's Europe.
49:30
That's just how it is.
49:32
And it's, it's a different world, but they're
49:35
no different in Belarus than they are in,
49:38
in, in any of the other parts of
49:40
Europe that I saw.
49:41
And you know, they got McDonald's.
49:43
You know, they got all that crap that,
49:45
that is everywhere else that has been foisted
49:48
upon them.
49:49
But they also have some pretty good types
49:52
of other food.
49:53
Anyway, he, he was talking about what he
49:56
went through in in the election process, the
50:00
fact that he's there.
50:01
And at the end of it, one of
50:04
the funniest parts is at the end of
50:05
it.
50:08
Sanchez says, well folks and, and he's been
50:12
around a little bit too.
50:13
Now he, he knows what's going on and
50:15
he's a, he's very, and to, to be
50:18
able to get to interview Lukashenko, that's a
50:20
big deal by the way.
50:22
And he, he got to interview him and
50:24
it's a, it's a, it's a very good
50:26
interview.
50:26
And if you get a chance, watch it.
50:30
There'll be an English version out pretty soon.
50:33
And I watched the reverse of it, you
50:36
know, in Russian.
50:36
But at the end of it, Sanchez says,
50:39
well, if, if what, let's see.
50:48
I forget how he put it, but he
50:49
said, if this isn't democracy, he said, the
50:53
U.S. is a, because they're, he, he
50:55
beats up on, on the West.
50:57
And he says, you know, if, if this
50:59
isn't democracy, or I don't remember the exact
51:02
way he put it, and I didn't, I
51:04
didn't, I didn't put it in there.
51:05
He says, then I'm the Queen of England.
51:07
You know, if, if the U.S. is
51:09
really the, the last bastion of democracy, then
51:13
I'm the Queen of England or something.
51:15
And and so anyway, it's, it'll be well
51:18
worth the watch when it comes out on
51:20
the English version.
51:22
The Sanchez effect is the name of the
51:24
show.
51:25
And he's had a few good ones, like
51:27
one a few weeks ago with the other
51:30
people.
51:31
Okay, I'm going to play another song for
51:32
you.
51:32
I told you I was going to go
51:34
further along the road and get all the
51:38
way to California.
51:40
Remember when Charlie Daniels was making a trip
51:43
out to LA, tooling along in my Chevrolet
51:46
with these people?
51:48
I believe we're already there and probably never
51:51
left.
51:51
So we're going to play one for you
51:53
here that isn't in JR's library that I've
51:59
been able to find either, but that's okay.
52:01
I mean, but I have various tastes.
52:04
I listen to music from all over the
52:06
damn place.
52:07
And here's one, this one came out in
52:09
the 80s, I forget where.
52:11
And it, I always liked it, I don't
52:13
know why, but it's the Pet Shop Boys.
52:16
And here we go.
56:03
Go west,
56:58
the Pet Shop Boys.
57:00
Now many argue that that was a gay
57:04
national anthem sort of thing.
57:07
And others argued that it was because of
57:10
the video was all about about all these
57:13
images of Soviet Union and pointing to the
57:17
West.
57:18
They took pictures and video and red square
57:21
and whatnot when they did that video in
57:23
the 80s so who knows whether it's a
57:25
gay theme or whether it's a it was
57:28
done well before the wall came down so
57:31
they got to go there and take some
57:32
video and maybe they were talking about that
57:34
who knows.
57:36
So finally on today's show I wanted to
57:38
talk about something that's going on that you
57:42
ever want to look at indicators so I
57:44
like I like to look at indicators and
57:48
figure out what they mean right and and
57:53
or postulate or take other people's points of
57:57
view and there's a a reality that's happened
58:03
you know that's happening right now that FIFA
58:07
the soccer well football for the rest of
58:12
the world soccer here there's a tendency in
58:15
the United States to dismiss signals of culture
58:18
as a secondary as entertainment or something that
58:21
exists outside of the real world of politics
58:25
economics but that's a mistake and it's always
58:29
been a mistake culture is often the earliest
58:32
indicator of a deeper structural shift because it
58:37
reflects behavior before policy and economic data can
58:41
catch up so before the reports come out
58:44
that say oh gee here's what happened in
58:46
economic data that catches up and you get
58:49
you the analysis comes later right and right
58:54
now one of the clearest cultural signals available
58:57
is something that on its face should be
59:00
very much uncontroversial completely and that is international
59:05
football you know soccer now if you step
59:09
outside of the United States for a moment
59:12
you understand immediately that football soccer isn't just
59:16
a sport it's a global institution now when
59:21
I lived in they had these enormous I
59:26
mean huge building-size screens put up that
59:32
you could go into these I don't know
59:38
what a paved you would go in and
59:41
drink and these these things were fantastic they'd
59:44
have buffet all day and huge screens everywhere
59:49
televising eight to ten different football games international
59:56
rugby every once in a while you'd see
1:00:00
American football but not very often and but
1:00:04
everything everything was was around these enormous crowds
1:00:08
around football well international football soccer but if
1:00:14
you step outside for just a I mean
1:00:16
it's a it's really is a global institution
1:00:19
it's one of the few things that truly
1:00:21
crosses the border the language political systems entire
1:00:26
regions pause for major matches people they were
1:00:31
building with one of the reasons I was
1:00:32
in Qatar was because FIFA 2022 was being
1:00:37
built for Qatar to host and I was
1:00:40
there in 2015 and they were building stadiums
1:00:43
Olympic complexes huge they spent so much money
1:00:47
you wouldn't believe it and there were millions
1:00:50
there helping them recreate an atmosphere that brought
1:00:56
the FIFA the World Cup to Qatar and
1:00:59
the tourism that they got off of that
1:01:03
was astronomical they have some sort of is
1:01:09
it a badminton I think it's the international
1:01:12
bad thing when I'm maybe I'm incorrect in
1:01:16
that but there were several different international events
1:01:19
because Qatar has long been central hub and
1:01:23
Qatar Airways is what is probably one of
1:01:26
the well if not the best it's one
1:01:27
of the best in the world and UAE
1:01:30
United Arab Emirates air is also Turkish Airways
1:01:34
though those three are my preferable you know
1:01:36
anymore if you're flying international jeez don't take
1:01:39
an American plane that's crap compared to these
1:01:45
other service levels on the other ones that
1:01:47
you know that they give you decent food
1:01:49
they take care of you you still get
1:01:51
a little package of stuff you know a
1:01:54
toothbrush you know and they give you all
1:01:55
this stuff and an American Airlines you get
1:01:58
some old lady telling you sit down put
1:02:01
a mask on you know it's crazy but
1:02:04
if anyway one of the people travel across
1:02:08
continents not just to for leisure but because
1:02:12
they want to it shows you as a
1:02:15
world citizen right and it's as close to
1:02:19
them as the modern world gets to a
1:02:21
universal cultural experience seriously so when a FIFA
1:02:25
event is hosted in a country like the
1:02:27
United States the expectation is huge it's not
1:02:32
mine it's not small the expectation is overwhelming
1:02:36
demand people are gonna come packed stadiums that's
1:02:40
why do you think we wanted it I
1:02:42
think they changed the structure of who was
1:02:44
gonna have it before us wasn't it Donald
1:02:47
Trump say he brought it to us or
1:02:48
something they're talking overflow crowds hotels booked months
1:02:53
in advance flights filled up streets have international
1:02:58
fans everywhere this isn't optimism it's a historic
1:03:01
norm it happens every single time and what
1:03:06
we're seeing now in the US doesn't match
1:03:08
that expectation at all there are empty seats
1:03:12
not just a few scattered gaps but noticeable
1:03:16
absence in places where there should be none
1:03:19
and the first instinct particularly from an American
1:03:22
perspective is to look inward for explanations that
1:03:26
are familiar maybe the sports just not as
1:03:28
popular here maybe marketing isn't strong enough maybe
1:03:32
scheduling is off maybe ticket prices are too
1:03:35
high those explanations are comfortable but they are
1:03:39
far from complete because when you look at
1:03:43
the big picture when you step outside of
1:03:46
the domestic assumption and examine how the rest
1:03:49
of the world interacts with such events you
1:03:53
see something far more significant the issue is
1:03:57
not lack of interest the issue is access
1:04:01
perception and policy let's talk about this traveling
1:04:06
to the US has never been the simplest
1:04:09
process in the world for international people but
1:04:12
it's been historically manageable especially for individuals coming
1:04:16
from countries with strong travel ties their procedures
1:04:20
sure but there was also an understanding that
1:04:23
the effort would be worth it the United
1:04:25
States was a destination not just geographically but
1:04:29
culturally and economically now that equation has changed
1:04:33
there's an increased discussion and I mean serious
1:04:37
discussion about requiring visa applicants to provide financial
1:04:42
guarantees like a bond a visa bond as
1:04:46
a condition of entry they're talking $15,000
1:04:49
so the concept is straightforward from a bureaucratic
1:04:53
standpoint the government wants to ensure that visitors
1:04:56
don't come here and stay and overstay their
1:04:59
visas so the idea is to require a
1:05:02
deposit that would be forfeited if the individual
1:05:05
doesn't leave as expected on paper that's a
1:05:09
simple compliance mechanism but in reality it's something
1:05:12
very different take it from the perspective of
1:05:15
potential traveler a young person which is typical
1:05:19
a fan someone who's not wealthy but willing
1:05:22
to spend what they have for a once
1:05:24
-in-a-lifetime experience it introduces a huge
1:05:27
amount of uncertainty it introduces risk and most
1:05:30
importantly it introduces the feeling that you're not
1:05:33
being invited but scrutinized now think about who
1:05:38
makes up the core audience for international football
1:05:40
it's not just corporate sponsors and high-income
1:05:44
tourists it's students it's workers it's fans who
1:05:48
save money for months or years to attend
1:05:50
a single match they aren't individuals who are
1:05:54
going to go casually place a financial deposit
1:05:57
at risk for the opportunity of a visit
1:05:59
so what do they do they don't come
1:06:02
they go to the they go to Qatar
1:06:04
and watch it on these huge events that
1:06:07
I saw it and that was an event
1:06:08
let me tell you well I went several
1:06:10
times to that sort of event but it's
1:06:12
pretty it's well worth it and when enough
1:06:16
people make that decision which they have you're
1:06:20
gonna get empty seats who wants to come
1:06:21
to America when you got ice in the
1:06:24
in the airports interrogating everybody interrogate everyone now
1:06:31
I'm not against closing our borders and having
1:06:36
a valid you know process that did not
1:06:40
exist in the Biden years but I'm also
1:06:43
against Gestapo tactics in treating everybody like there's
1:06:48
some kind of criminal who all they want
1:06:51
to do is come see a soccer game
1:06:53
people aren't coming our hotel what is it
1:06:57
they say there's a 30% vacancy rate
1:06:59
and the lower rates in Dallas one of
1:07:01
the largest places to go see games but
1:07:06
access is only part of it second was
1:07:08
the perception of all people all of where
1:07:11
everywhere else in the world there's a sense
1:07:12
internationally the United States is far less welcoming
1:07:16
than it was before far less predictable and
1:07:20
transactional in how it engages with the rest
1:07:23
of the world this isn't about one administration
1:07:25
or one policy it's a cumulative sort of
1:07:28
thing it's the result of years of shifting
1:07:31
rules tightening procedures and broad tone that suggests
1:07:35
caution caution not openness from within the United
1:07:39
States maybe this isn't as obvious the country
1:07:41
sees itself as open accessible central to global
1:07:45
activity but perception isn't determined by us it's
1:07:50
determined externally it is shaped by how others
1:07:53
experience our systems our policies and our behavior
1:07:57
and right now that external position is definitely
1:08:00
shifting the US is powerful of course it's
1:08:04
influential of course but it's no longer automatically
1:08:08
seen as a place to go a welcome
1:08:11
place to visit or even a straightforward place
1:08:14
to engage with their alternatives many many beautiful
1:08:20
wonderful alternatives and they are far more attractive
1:08:24
by comparison Europe despite its own issues is
1:08:30
still relatively accessible parts of Asia are actively
1:08:34
promoting international travel and engagement I've been dating
1:08:38
is beautiful over there even regions that were
1:08:40
once considered you know as peripheral are now
1:08:44
positioning themselves as hubs for events tourism business
1:08:48
so when a fan in South America or
1:08:51
Africa or Eastern Europe decides whether to attend
1:08:53
a major football event are they going to
1:08:56
do it in 2026 are they going to
1:08:58
do it in 2022 going to Qatar which
1:09:00
was simple are they going to do it
1:09:03
in wherever it is in 2030 maybe they'll
1:09:06
just put it off for another four years
1:09:07
and then go to a an event a
1:09:10
big one there they're not just choosing based
1:09:12
on the event itself they're choosing based on
1:09:15
the entire experience the ease of travel the
1:09:18
cost the risk in the overall atmosphere and
1:09:22
increasingly the US is not the easiest choice
1:09:26
and so they're making alternatives now a lot
1:09:28
of people go yeah it's America it's good
1:09:31
keep them out yeah but we're supposed to
1:09:34
make billions off of that you know you
1:09:38
know what I'm not sure what the right
1:09:41
answer is I really don't know but this
1:09:44
is this is information and food for thought
1:09:46
and certainly in in my opinion it is
1:09:49
so we come to the third and the
1:09:51
most perhaps important layer from my point of
1:09:55
view isolation not in the traditional sense of
1:10:00
political withdrawal but in a subtle sense of
1:10:02
being disconnected the US has always had a
1:10:06
unique relationship with the rest of the world
1:10:08
it's separated geographically economically we're self-sufficient to
1:10:14
a large degree and we dominate culture in
1:10:18
quite a few areas but those areas are
1:10:21
shifting even now and that conversation combination has
1:10:26
allowed us to operate with a level of
1:10:30
kind of independence that most countries don't have
1:10:33
but the independence comes with a bit of
1:10:36
a trade-off it reduces our need for
1:10:40
engagement with the rest of the world Americans
1:10:43
on average travel internationally less than people from
1:10:48
many other developed countries that isn't a criticism
1:10:51
it's a fact and it's shaped by geography
1:10:54
by infrastructure when you can travel thousands of
1:10:57
miles within your own country and still encounter
1:11:00
different climates culture experience the incentive to go
1:11:03
broad as low abroad is a lower number
1:11:06
one but the result is a population that
1:11:09
in many cases are far less connected to
1:11:14
how the rest of the world functions on
1:11:15
a day-to-day basis or what they
1:11:17
think what they do at the same time
1:11:19
the rest of the world is very much
1:11:21
interconnected people move across borders all the time
1:11:26
they experience different systems different cultures different expectations
1:11:30
and they compare and when they compare and
1:11:33
they make decisions so what you're seeing now
1:11:36
is a divergence the u.s. is becoming
1:11:39
more inward in its behavior whether intentionally or
1:11:43
not while the rest of the world continue
1:11:46
continues to operate in a you know they're
1:11:50
far more interconnected and when those two trends
1:11:54
meet there's a definitely friction that's going to
1:11:57
develop the FIFA situation is a perfect example
1:12:00
of that from the Americans perspective hosting a
1:12:04
major international event should be straightforward the infrastructure
1:12:07
is already here the stadiums are already world
1:12:10
-class we don't have to do it cut
1:12:11
our didn't build these huge stadiums it built
1:12:14
like six of them and I mean imagine
1:12:17
building six pick one you know how about
1:12:20
where the Dallas Cowboys play build six of
1:12:23
those similar in size seating 70,000 people
1:12:28
apiece you know it's crazy the FIFA situation
1:12:31
is the perfect example of such friction international
1:12:36
perspective the calculation is different is it easy
1:12:40
to get there no is it affordable and
1:12:44
depends is it predictable nope and is it
1:12:49
all in the end is everything that you're
1:12:51
comparing worth the effort and if the answer
1:12:54
to those questions is increasingly no then behavior
1:12:58
changes they're all gonna go watch it on
1:13:00
a big screen somewhere instead of coming here
1:13:02
now I'm not saying right wrong and different
1:13:05
I'm just saying reality some of the numbers
1:13:08
that they're citing let's let's talk about this
1:13:13
is about how countries you know what is
1:13:15
the soft power the ability to to attract
1:13:18
rather than compel people has always been one
1:13:21
of the US's greatest strengths people want to
1:13:23
come here they want to experience the country
1:13:26
participate in its culture be part of its
1:13:28
events not everybody wants to come here and
1:13:30
stay and it didn't require an enforcement but
1:13:34
soft power isn't permanent has to be maintained
1:13:37
has to be reinforced and when policies create
1:13:41
barriers and then again I don't know the
1:13:46
right answer what do you do for people
1:13:49
who want to come from Bangladesh and see
1:13:51
their team if they're playing even I don't
1:13:53
even know if they have teams that qualified
1:13:55
but but and I'm just picking that off
1:14:00
the top of my head but what if
1:14:02
they wanted to come nobody's gonna let somebody
1:14:03
from Bangladesh come here because they'll go well
1:14:06
geez they're their country's a backwards third world
1:14:10
country probably not true but I've been to
1:14:13
Bangladesh yet you can say it about Sri
1:14:15
Lanka Sri Lanka was pretty cool and they're
1:14:19
they're not backwards you know they they have
1:14:23
decent facilities decent hotels decent stuff good food
1:14:29
plenty of manufacturing and stuff I don't know
1:14:32
what's the right answer but when processes are
1:14:36
complex the overall experience is definitely less inviting
1:14:39
and you know empty seats you know the
1:14:44
economic dimension can they afford to come here
1:14:46
boy for some of them that come from
1:14:49
other places there's there's a lot of money
1:14:52
at stake for them so when you look
1:14:54
at what's happening with FIFA with visas with
1:14:57
international travel all I'm saying is you shouldn't
1:15:00
dismiss it as a minor issue don't treat
1:15:03
as an isolated problem it's a signal it's
1:15:06
an early indicator of a broad shift in
1:15:08
how the United States is perceived and how
1:15:12
we interact with the rest of the world
1:15:14
if you want to understand where things are
1:15:16
gonna go pay attention to signals like this
1:15:19
because they often tell you what official reports
1:15:22
do not and and I just you know
1:15:25
think it interesting you know to keep to
1:15:28
keep track of it how what is the
1:15:30
rest of the world think of Americans it's
1:15:33
never been all that positive do they want
1:15:35
to become one anyway for the most part
1:15:38
we do have people that want to come
1:15:39
here but sometimes we're looked upon as the
1:15:43
as the weirdos what I mean as the
1:15:47
as the third world country as it were
1:15:50
you know we're not but you know we're
1:15:53
equivalent to any of the cool places that
1:15:56
I've been in and I want to see
1:15:58
some more but that doesn't mean that other
1:16:00
places aren't just as cool cheaper well more
1:16:04
affordable let's say and just as developed or
1:16:08
more so you know if I far if
1:16:12
our if New York City had subways like
1:16:14
Moscow subway I got news for you'd be
1:16:17
a joy to travel there and I was
1:16:19
I was far more scared being in New
1:16:22
York City at night than I ever was
1:16:24
in Moscow at night even in the 90s
1:16:27
by the way that's a frightening place to
1:16:30
be at night anyway I'm Samuel trapped this
1:16:33
is international flavor that you've been listening to
1:16:36
this morning we're here every morning 730 to
1:16:39
9 a.m. Monday through Friday through Thursday
1:16:44
Friday nights we do civic outlaws from 7
1:16:46
a.m. to 830 you can find all
1:16:49
prior versions at internationalflavor.com you can go
1:16:52
to damn radio.com forward slash live to
1:16:57
pick up all the same older versions past
1:17:03
versions and all of the content from other
1:17:09
hosts on this channel if you like music
1:17:12
you should continue to listen to damn radio
1:17:15
in your off time and keep it on
1:17:18
there's an app you can download and have
1:17:20
the music I'll be in tomorrow at 730
1:17:24
and I very much anticipate your arrival with
1:17:31
me at that time and I hope you
1:17:33
have a very good day