Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / From Nevada to New York: Interpreters, Ideologies, and How a Socialist Rapper Became Mayor in America’s Largest City

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From Nevada to New York: Interpreters, Ideologies, and How a Socialist Rapper Became Mayor in America’s Largest City · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

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We interrupt this incredibly awesome music to bring
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you some incredibly awesome political talk on damn
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radio Hello, good evening.
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Welcome.
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I am samuel trap.
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This is international flavor.
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You are listening to damn radio Live from
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the late gozark real estate of the art
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studio this what day is today?
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Monday this Monday night and here we are
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like we are every night from 9 p
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.m. To 10 30 p.m with me
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Highly entertaining where if you feel like calling
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in tonight, you might do so 5 7
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feel free to send in emails that I
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rarely read at live at damn radio.com
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or To my personal email at Samuel T
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at international flavor calm.
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I Can't remember if I reported this or
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not, I think I did but I got
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a Request last week to do a regular
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TV and radio appearance on Russian TV and
1:19
I was asked to Do that.
1:22
The first thing was this morning and they're
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right Basically, what we're gonna do is we're
1:27
gonna I'm gonna submit my articles and my
1:30
article regarding nuclear testing Was like I did
1:36
in a show last week.
1:37
It was published in the Russian news This
1:42
morning or yesterday I believe no it was
1:45
this morning went out this morning and it
1:47
was published They published an article of mine
1:49
about a week ago and then this is
1:52
like article number five or something that they
1:55
have published a mine in Russian that I
1:57
basically do a summary of my deep dive
2:00
shows and Turn them into a Russian version
2:07
in Written article format and then I do
2:14
some sort of small blurb with them on
2:18
various topics a couple of weeks ago did
2:22
a interview lasted about 20 minutes half an
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hour and then they take bits and pieces
2:30
of it and put it out and or
2:32
they'll take my my Commentary and turn it
2:35
into stories, but what we're gonna try to
2:37
do There's a girl over there that I
2:40
met at the BRICS conference.
2:42
Her name name is Anna you've given you've
2:45
near Chair Kosovo and she Anna would be
2:50
the the short, you know word but formal
2:53
as Anna you've given you and she is
2:57
one of the editors at this newspaper, or
3:00
I'm sorry at this outlet because it has
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TV radio and pretty strong internet presence and
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so I Found it what I told them
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was that I would appreciate at least knowing
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a topic right Before we just get on
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and I start I don't know what you
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know Because and this is one of the
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things I'll tell you a funny interpreter story
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and it wasn't funny at the time Trust
3:27
me on this but when I as a
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kid I Lived in when I lived in
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Washington DC.
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It was very young.
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I wonder how old I was at that
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time couldn't have been Well, I don't know.
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I was still working at the Nevada nuclear
3:43
test site.
3:43
So I had to have been Close to
3:47
a call at 28, maybe 29 was the
3:50
oldest that I would have been at that
3:53
time very responsible position for a guy as
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young as I was and Had to be
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in 94 Maybe late 93 coming to the
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end of my active service in Washington DC
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and I got One of the commanders that
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was that always preferred to have me as
4:22
his interpreter I mean he wanted me as
4:24
his interpreter every time he was somehow connected
4:27
with the governor of the state of Colorado
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who I don't remember his name at the
4:33
time, but they were creating a Connection with
4:40
a drilling company that was going to be
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in former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan plus have
4:49
some some drilling operations in the Ural Mountains
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and stuff like that and I Got this
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this guy asked me he said do you
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want to make some extra money?
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Well, hell yeah, you know I want to
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make some extra money.
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What do I have to do?
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He says nothing.
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He goes you just got to go interpret
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he said there's a Russian Wow oil mogul
5:17
some guy that is coming over and and
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what was going on at that time was
5:22
everybody was taking chunks of business and Basically
5:29
what was happening when the Soviet Union collapsed,
5:33
so let me give you an example so
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a factory closes down right and and this
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well It doesn't close down, but it's no
5:43
longer operated by state funds so Everything is
5:48
allegedly being privatized so what really happened the
5:54
same people who ran the Factories call it.
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Let's say you got a factory making baby
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food and this baby food factory produces I
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Don't know 20-3040 different versions of baby
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food and they send it out and it's
6:14
run the same way that a baby food
6:16
factory here in the United States would be
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run.
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You got a plant manager.
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You got you know operations guys that are
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supervisors managers you have Administration accounting all of
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these other things.
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So you have these Management teams that when
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the factories are suddenly being privatized the Managers
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are trying to come up with the way
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to take the ownership of these factories and
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Transfer it to the people that work at
6:56
the factories because what?
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The process was back then was allegedly everything
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was owned by the people anyway so your
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workers control the means of production blah blah
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blah all those things from Marxism that that
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say that Everybody's equal, you know but some
7:16
are more equal than others, of course under
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the communist rule and under Marxism and stuff
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like that and so the people are trying
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to figure out what to do to Privatize
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these things and so Russia was capitalist overnight,
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right?
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This screwed Everyone.
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Okay, so everybody gets their Share of the
7:40
factory so everybody gets their share and so
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What would happen would be the guy on
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the line You know, I don't know the
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cooking line of cooking the food He don't
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know how to run a plant the guy
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on the bottling line He don't know how
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to run a plant, but everybody's getting their
8:01
share of the factory and so everybody would
8:05
pull their shares and but the people who
8:09
had more money on the top ends were
8:13
Better suited to do several things one run
8:16
a factory and to Figure out how to
8:21
privatize and and you know some guy that's
8:24
just bottling Of a food on the plant,
8:28
you know, he he's just trying to survive
8:30
and feed his family and stuff like that
8:33
so what was happening was The people at
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the top were ending up with the the
8:38
plant managers Let's call it are ending up
8:41
with the whole plant under their control just
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like before and all the ownership shares and
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they're giving away The people down below are
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just trying to figure out how to survive
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a month or two And it was horrible
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times for people and if they could possibly
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keep the plant running Well, there wasn't a
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lot of money in it because nobody had
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any money And so people were getting these
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were horror story times.
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This was like the you us the u
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.s Depression era right only probably worse Because
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these people aren't even getting paid in cash
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they're getting paid with baby food so you
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you know, you'd come to get your paycheck
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and instead you'd get several cases of baby
9:29
food and Then you'd take your baby food
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out and you'd try to trade some baby
9:34
food to get other things that you need
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for your family my my my spouse her
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mother told stories about Or They tell stories
9:47
about getting paid in canned goods That they
9:51
got canned goods and that's all they had
9:53
and they had to trade up the canned
9:55
goods to other types of things so in
9:58
the 90s, these were horrible times for them
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and so Long story short.
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This was going on in many many industries
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and Some of the biggest ones where this
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was going on were places that were gonna
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be a huge impact on the rest of
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the world And they were attempting to privatize
10:19
oil fields tempting to privatize fertilizer factories that
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have massive exports all over the world and
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always have and So I was tasked to
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and this is a long Stupid story to
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tell you but I want you to understand
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where we're going with this and This guy
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that was coming over when we were gonna
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go to the World Bank okay, and he
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had a Proposal, but he really had no
10:51
real appointment.
10:52
He had no real Support he had no
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real ownership of where he was going Basically,
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he was trying to come over and get
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some kind of a Hail Mary and save
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this oil Platform that he worked on from
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I believe it was Kazakhstan and I can't
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remember the guy's name and I barely Remember,
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I remember the lady that hired me when
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we talked on the phone and we went
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through it and we talked about drilling Operations
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and we talked about what was going on
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at the Dumbata nuclear test site, which was
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heavy on drilling and equipment and upon things
11:35
like that, but the terminology isn't even remotely
11:39
similar because Drilling for oil is a hell
11:44
of a lot different than drilling to put
11:46
in a nuclear bomb, right?
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These are not the same thing just so
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you know and also the topics that they
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were trying to discuss were something completely different
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and To complicate the matter even further was
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that if you watch TV there and you
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ever have watched this it interests me because
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it's a it's a suppose sort of a
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professional deal for me is I Cannot They
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call it simultaneous Interpretation I Cannot do it.
12:27
It is just some some deal that doesn't
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it does not work My brain doesn't work
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that way.
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I can't listen to two things at once
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and Or I can't listen to one and
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take it in and the one ear and
12:44
spout it out of my mouth at the
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same time I cannot do that and I
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was pretty clear that I couldn't do that
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That is not what we did.
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We did not simultaneously interpret during arms control
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treaty Verification neither and not not in the
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INF treaty not in start one Not and
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certainly not in the nuclear threshold test ban
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treaty.
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What you did was instead you would Translate
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what is called?
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A Consecutive Or something like that you would
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basically They would give two or three sentences
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and then you would interpret the two or
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three sentences and then they would give The
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answer would come in two or three sentences
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and the other Interpreter would Interpreted back.
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Okay, so it was a very Painstaking and
13:42
detail oriented process because you didn't want to
13:47
Not understand what was going on.
13:50
So this planning came up came upon us
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very very quickly It was less than a
13:55
week from the time.
13:56
My first was contacted until the time it
13:58
was to get there I had asked them
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to send me, you know kind of a
14:04
not a script but sort of a at
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least a Thought process into what we were
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gonna speak about So I could look up
14:14
some terminology or topics and the lady didn't
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take me seriously.
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She said well, it's Russian Well, yeah, of
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course, it's Russian.
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I said it's English, but you know hell
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I don't yeah, I don't I Need to
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understand some of the words, you know, or
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know what you're gonna be talking about.
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I got nothing I mean, I'm serious.
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I got nothing she goes Well, you're gonna
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meet the guy, you know half an hour
14:37
an hour before we get there his flight
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comes in a blah blah blah and then
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we're gonna go to the to the World
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Bank in in downtown, DC and You'll interpret
14:47
down there.
14:48
There's a meeting that comes up and we'll
14:50
have to listen to some some hearings that
14:54
are taking place first because there's a there's
14:57
a whole Slew of people that we're discussing
15:01
getting Getting funding for various things in various
15:08
Various industries in also in various countries not
15:12
all of them Russian-speaking, but that since
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they were talking about Oil and gas there
15:18
were going to be several oil and gas
15:20
people from different places So there were several
15:23
different types of people at the IMF that
15:26
were look International Monetary Fund and the World
15:29
Bank that we're all gonna be there This
15:30
is my first bumping up against these guys
15:33
and I had no idea who they were
15:34
I was in the I was in arms
15:36
control, right totally separate so the story goes
15:42
We pick up this guy at the airport
15:43
and it was the far away Airport the
15:46
Dulles Airport not the Reagan National Reagan Nationals
15:49
right downtown and it would have been five
15:51
minutes away from the World Bank so it
15:54
was very nice do we got picked up
15:56
in some limo and I was there to
15:58
meet the guy and the the governor of
16:01
Colorado was not there, but his representative was
16:04
like some deputy governor or something like that
16:07
and was going with this guy and she
16:10
was a Older little older.
16:13
She's probably in her 40s.
16:14
And then the guy was a pretty cool
16:17
guy that came from Russia He was somebody
16:19
that I instantly liked and he and I
16:21
instantly fell into conversation and we're speaking about
16:25
some of the things we had done and
16:28
You know the the Russian going back and
16:30
forth for half an hour going down the
16:32
road and we were you know in the
16:34
car It was pretty much small talk.
16:36
I asked him what we were gonna talk
16:38
about.
16:38
He said well, there's nothing very major That's
16:40
gonna go on here And he says I
16:43
just need to be able to put out,
16:44
you know I'm here to ask for money
16:47
and I'm here that we're gonna put this
16:50
out and this is my first Trip, and
16:53
so I'm not positive what's gonna happen here
16:56
either but we need to be able to
16:59
understand what they're asking for and how these
17:02
things are are Going to go on and
17:05
I was like, oh, well I said we're
17:07
gonna have to play it by ear because
17:08
I said I've never Been in one of
17:11
these I'm in arms control you we talked
17:13
about, you know People think oh, geez if
17:16
he can talk about nuclear arms in Russian
17:19
Clearly he can talk about anything and I
17:21
can talk about taxes.
17:22
I can talk about all these other things,
17:25
but But important safety tip here we get
17:31
in there and we walk into a room
17:34
full of All up at the front of
17:38
the room there were seven or eight people
17:40
seated on some dais, you know, and they
17:42
were discussing various and they were IMF and
17:47
World Bank people sitting up on the top
17:50
and they were giving a an overview of
17:54
funding of Oil interests in many different places
18:00
and this guy happened to be one of
18:04
Six or seven oil interest people from former
18:08
Soviet Republic's looking to get funding for their
18:13
particular Places like somebody drilling oil is different
18:17
than somebody Doing processing of oil products into
18:22
refineries.
18:23
So you had oil drilling oil refineries oil
18:28
Production oil shipment oil export.
18:31
Oh, I mean there were all kinds of
18:33
things going on and these people were all
18:36
up there sitting sitting around talking and not
18:39
in Russian and part of it was in
18:42
other languages also and so you're you're having
18:47
to listen to There's a simultaneous translator up
18:51
in the front translating from English to Arabic
18:56
or English to something else and so there
18:59
was a lot of different Things there was
19:02
so many things going on in that room
19:04
I was just like in shock and so
19:07
these people are speaking English and I'm listening
19:10
to not only the English but I'm listening
19:13
to a simultaneous interpreter interpreting it into Arabic
19:16
for the people from Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan or
19:20
wherever or in Tatarstan language because there's some
19:24
oil going on down in those areas and
19:27
Then I'm supposed to take this and turn
19:29
it into something coherent for this guy in
19:32
a manner that I am absolutely not used
19:35
to nor had anybody told me about and
19:39
it all had to do with finances and
19:42
refineries and all these are the topics long
19:45
and the short of it was this representative
19:48
of the governor was looking at me in
19:50
horror and When she had heard me speaking
19:53
Russian with him all the way to the
19:55
airport And it was going really really well
19:58
and we get in here, and I can't
20:00
even keep track of the hearing let alone
20:02
tell the guy what's going on and It
20:07
went Pretty poorly the fortunate part was that
20:11
it was recorded and these people were paying
20:13
me some ungodly amount of money for at
20:15
the time You know they said for the
20:17
day.
20:18
I was gonna get paid.
20:19
I don't remember It was like an eight
20:21
-hour day, and I was getting paid at
20:24
least a hundred dollars an hour you know
20:26
it was gonna be good money back then
20:28
and But it was completely crap and the
20:31
governor's office didn't didn't want to but I'm
20:34
like look You know I've really a pun
20:36
and when we walked out of that room
20:38
about two hours later And my brain was
20:42
completely fried I had listened to it in
20:45
English, but I had to summarize it all
20:47
for him in Russian and tell him what
20:50
what it was going on, but anyway I
20:54
have had One that's probably the worst one
20:57
But I had another one or two incidents
21:00
where I didn't understand the terminology going in
21:04
and those will kick your rear end if
21:07
you're stuck in them and And trying to
21:10
keep track of this I mean you must
21:12
know and so now before I get involved
21:15
in something like that I make sure that
21:18
I understand what at least what the topic
21:21
is going to be and whether it's going
21:24
to be something that I'm going to embarrass
21:27
myself with or not and at any rate
21:31
the this morning And this is a horribly
21:36
long story.
21:37
I'm really sorry about that, but this morning.
21:39
I get a An email From and I
21:45
woke up.
21:46
You know I don't know 630 or so
21:48
and in I you know got up started
21:52
getting coffee and stuff like that and then
21:54
checked my emails real quick, and it was
21:58
I got an email from Annie Evgenia, and
22:02
I I I Read she said can we
22:06
meet this morning at 10, and I was
22:08
like Wow and she goes literally just for
22:12
five minutes We just want some commentary and
22:14
so I sent it back to her I
22:16
said look I'll agree you know to meet
22:18
with you you want five minutes of Commentary
22:21
that you can use on your TV Before
22:25
you were gonna do it by zoom or
22:27
through telegram or whatever and I'm perfectly happy
22:30
to do that But you need to give
22:32
me what topics are of interest to you
22:34
what we are gonna be talking about because
22:37
I don't want to be Blindsided with something
22:39
that I don't understand how to do it
22:42
in in the Russian language You know I
22:44
want to be able to at least look
22:45
at it Well come to find out that
22:48
they are very much interested in this Mamdani
22:55
guy and what is going on in New
22:58
York, and and they you know this there
23:00
are quite a few stories on it in
23:04
on The other side of the planet not
23:06
just in Russia, but in Ukraine and other
23:08
places people are interested in this because It's
23:14
a It's different than what I mean that
23:19
whether it's blown out of proportion or what
23:22
people are saying that this is Something so
23:25
completely different for New York for America for
23:28
everything else.
23:29
It's I Frankly I never I don't see
23:34
it even now as a big deal for
23:37
me.
23:37
I don't give a rip, but with Trump
23:38
out there on True social or wherever talking
23:42
about you know he don't want to you
23:44
shouldn't vote for this guy and people all
23:47
Worried about you know the effect.
23:50
He's gonna have frankly.
23:51
I don't think it's gonna be much effect
23:52
three years four years Okay, you know I?
23:58
Have this argument with certain other people that
24:00
we all know and love as well about
24:02
the effect that Trump is gonna have I
24:04
don't Believe it's a permanent change.
24:06
I don't believe it's a anything our Term
24:11
limit our Effect on on the system and
24:17
effect on all of it is so short
24:20
You know four years is a blip you
24:23
know in in the the life of of
24:26
America it's a blip and It's different for
24:30
places like China where people are there for
24:35
Forever And they also plan differently than us.
24:39
They think differently than us, and I've talked
24:41
about that several times, so I do have
24:45
Off the shelf sorts of thought processes about
24:49
mom Donnie But I I don't have anything
24:53
concrete to say for or against him as
24:58
a person as a politician even as a
25:01
socialist you know I'm I Don't necessarily care
25:09
To me.
25:10
It's not all that important, but to Anna
25:13
Turka Anna Evgenia nature Kosovo's her last name,
25:17
but to Anna you've given She wanted to
25:20
speak about this topic and so what I
25:22
did Was I got on and I did
25:25
a bit of a search into his background
25:27
just very short And what screwed it up
25:30
was okay, so by the time I left
25:31
my house.
25:32
It was eight o'clock I stopped at
25:35
Starbucks got a coffee.
25:37
You know took my time getting around and
25:39
then What I discovered was that?
25:44
They had given to me a ten o
25:47
'clock, but they had missed the and it's
25:50
a good thing I caught it they had
25:52
missed the time zone They had put me
25:55
in Where I was You know a month
26:00
or two ago in the Florida time zone
26:04
So we're an hour before that so really
26:07
this was gonna be a nine o'clock
26:10
So I didn't get a chance to do
26:12
to do a Whole lot of anything, and
26:16
I didn't want to be embarrassed on it
26:17
and fortunately it was only gonna be five
26:19
minutes so there couldn't be anything all that
26:21
involved in it and so I get in
26:25
I run to my office and I I
26:28
do my Mini prep on it look up
26:32
the old mom Donnie, and what he has
26:36
Going on in life and And dug into
26:43
it, and then we had a brief five
26:46
minute and seven minute Conversation and then we
26:50
got to talking a little bit about my
26:52
last article on the nuclear on the nuclear
26:55
testing which very much interests me on the
26:58
nuclear testing anyway that that long story about
27:02
Interpreting was really only to tell you how
27:06
I want to make sure that I can
27:09
at least speak somewhat intelligently and not Be
27:15
I always make the joke that I'm illiterate
27:18
in two languages.
27:19
You know I'm I'm I'm I'm a raving
27:23
moron in two different languages.
27:25
You know I can do it in English
27:27
Just like I can in Russian, but I
27:29
really don't want that to be To be
27:32
the case and so I do try to
27:35
Review before I get there, but I'm very
27:38
excited about this This Opportunity that is presenting
27:45
itself because what they're gonna want to do
27:48
is speak with me and what I want
27:50
to do is Because they always ask me
27:53
how Regular Americans think about these kind of
27:58
things it's always a specific thing well What
28:00
do regular Americans think about this well?
28:03
I've always considered myself the average white man
28:07
You know I'm I'm five foot nine.
28:10
I'm average height.
28:11
I weigh one one eighty nine 192 somewhere
28:15
in there, that's average weight for a guy
28:17
my height I You know Make the average
28:22
income I live in the middle of America.
28:24
I'm just the average dude right all the
28:27
way along There's nothing spectacular about me.
28:30
There's nothing too horrible about me well depending
28:32
on who you are and so I Feel
28:35
that I'm about and and I and I
28:37
think middle-of-the-road ish type of
28:40
things.
28:40
You know I Like my drill sergeant.
28:44
You know I Don't discriminate against any you
28:48
mofos He would say I hate every one
28:51
of you equally is what he would say
28:53
so a middle of the road in that
28:55
regard, too and at any rate All of
29:00
that to be said that I always go
29:03
out of my way to say look.
29:05
I don't speak for America I certainly don't
29:09
speak for our government I don't speak for
29:13
Democrats or for Republicans or for anyone else
29:17
I speak for myself But I do consider
29:20
myself to be somewhat Middle of the road
29:23
now, I don't go that far in it,
29:25
but but I make sure that people understand
29:28
that I'm just you know a Regular American
29:32
that I'm nobody special.
29:33
You know I don't have I Don't know.
29:36
I don't have a million followers.
29:38
I'm not in the government You know I'm
29:42
not I don't speak for anybody else, and
29:45
I think that's important for me to say
29:48
but I also think that I can Relate
29:53
to many points of view with many points
29:55
of Emphasis or interest right and I I
30:01
also feel like I'm very Acceptable I accept
30:05
various Opinions very I don't condemn people for
30:12
having certain opinions or not following certain ways
30:16
I honor other people's opinions, and so I
30:20
always try to get it from that point
30:21
of view and but When I go and
30:24
I and I look back on some of
30:26
the things that the Opportunity that has been
30:30
created for me.
30:31
Just because I went to the BRICS conference
30:35
last year I Think this is important.
30:39
I want to create a Russian American friendship
30:44
society I've created a What do you call
30:50
it a nonprofit Organization and that nonprofit organization
30:54
is going to do quite a few things
30:57
I want to as part of that have
31:00
a structure that that encourages Communication on things
31:07
like freedom of speech freedom of expression freedom
31:12
of association government overreach targeting of individuals Ike
31:19
Ike's camera Fiasco, you know and it's not
31:23
his but you know the this idiotic flock
31:25
cameras these these government targeting individuals and taking
31:31
away their freedoms and and I I dislike
31:35
that and And I always have and and
31:39
it's it's I want to use these nonprofit
31:43
As this nonprofit setting to talk to target
31:47
government That's targeting people and to get people
31:51
familiar With what it's got from both sides
31:56
of the political aisle by the way because
31:59
both sides are are equally guilty in this
32:04
and they're all a bunch of scammers in
32:07
in in my In the unfortunate history of
32:11
my research into these areas you can target
32:14
our Government is no different than the overbearing
32:17
governments of many other countries especially those that
32:23
trod upon the the rights if you want
32:28
to call them that upon the God-given
32:30
rights of normal people everywhere and you know
32:34
I talk about it reasonably often on on
32:38
this platform, and I'm very glad I get
32:41
the opportunity to do so so What I
32:45
thought I would do because I have a
32:47
good amount of material that I have provided
32:50
Or that I have reviewed in keeping with
32:53
tonight's.
32:54
I wanted to talk about mom Donnie and
32:57
his And his issues.
33:00
I have a couple other stories.
33:01
I want to get to before that, but
33:02
I have some of the little bit of
33:06
the story from mom Donnie and some of
33:08
the stuff that I looked into that I
33:10
want to kind of dig in and and
33:14
tell you what I really think about him
33:16
and and I started that for my efforts
33:19
in In Russian this morning, but that was
33:23
a very short deal But what what came
33:27
of that is that we're going to have
33:30
a small platform Every couple of weeks and
33:36
we're trying to so that will be a
33:38
video platform She and I get together and
33:40
we do a video The last time I
33:43
did a video on zoom.
33:45
I couldn't figure out how to which was
33:47
the last version from 10 days of two
33:51
weeks ago or whatever that It was I
33:57
Had a background on zoom that I couldn't
34:00
figure out how to get rid of and
34:02
it was some Seascape behind me and I
34:07
couldn't figure out how to get rid of
34:09
it and the thing started and you know
34:11
She we would have preferred something else well
34:13
today she asked if I could get rid
34:15
of that and I didn't have any other
34:17
picture in my zoom and she we were
34:19
ready to Get started and it was a
34:21
picture of my living room Which in Florida
34:25
the picture of my living room in Florida
34:28
and so that was the background for today
34:30
so next time I'm gonna I will organize
34:33
this at some point remember when I started
34:35
this channel with JR how how oh Boy,
34:40
let's call it jacked up because I shouldn't
34:43
use the words cocked up That's doesn't just
34:45
doesn't sound right and so I won't do
34:47
that But it was I was a little
34:49
jacked up for a little while trying to
34:52
figure out how the technology worked especially remotely
34:55
and I have gotten better with that in
34:58
the in the troubles have have gone away
35:02
in that regard in For the most part
35:05
and so but now I don't want to
35:07
experience the same thing while I'm trying to
35:11
work in with a Russian audience that I
35:13
would like them to To pay attention to
35:15
me and not think I'm some kind of
35:17
a wacko over there That can't figure out
35:21
his own technology.
35:22
So but I'm very excited about the opportunity
35:25
and I also intend to take my certain
35:29
weekly deep dives the ones that I have
35:31
time to put together a full a full
35:34
topic chase like my nuclear testing one from
35:38
Last week, which is now an article in
35:42
Russian it's basically it's a very good article
35:45
and she sent me the whole thing and
35:47
I Shouldn't say it's a very good article.
35:50
I believe it's a well-written article that
35:54
put forth my opinion on What Donald Trump
36:00
said a week ago and what Sergei Lavrov
36:03
said over the weekend?
36:05
Because both of these countries our country and
36:09
the Russians according to Lavrov are now Looking
36:16
into starting up again underground or other Nuclear
36:22
testing.
36:23
Okay.
36:23
Now Trump mistakenly in my opinion talked about
36:28
The run well everybody else is testing nuclear
36:31
weapons We're the only ones not testing and
36:33
it's completely false.
36:35
Nobody is testing nuclear weapons anywhere they're talking
36:40
they're they're using Different platforms for the delivery
36:47
of a nuclear weapon, but that is not
36:50
the same thing Okay, nuclear weapons testing is
36:54
what I did for the last time when
36:57
I was on-site in 92 when the
37:01
US was finishing up its underground nuclear testing
37:05
we were the last ones to do one
37:07
and Right after that when the comprehensive threshold
37:12
or the comprehensive test ban treaty went into
37:16
effect Of course, it's gone into effect without
37:19
being ratified as I went into the other
37:22
day and now I have an article put
37:25
out about that in Russia and it starts
37:30
out with my own personal experiences just like
37:33
I did here and it's gotten a Lot
37:36
of views over there that people are reading
37:38
it and and paying attention to it.
37:41
So there was a guy To Talk about
37:47
there's a guy named Dmitry Vidrin If I
37:51
pronounce that correctly could be Vidrin, but I'm
37:54
pretty sure it's Vidrin and he wrote an
37:57
article that I have translated Which I'm gonna
38:01
share with you that is yeah, maybe a
38:04
five seven minute read that I can provide
38:08
to you and That is his article was
38:15
published on November the 10th That today obviously
38:22
and it was it's called from nuclear testing
38:28
to nuclear upbringing the Russian way and So
38:33
I'm gonna share this with you Dmitry Vidrin
38:40
Not long before the Union collapsed I read
38:43
a much-discussed novella in a then popular
38:47
magazine I no longer remember the author or
38:51
the title the small details of the plot
38:54
have faded, too But the essence of the
38:57
story seems to have stayed with me on
39:00
a tiny island Almost the last people on
39:03
the planet found themselves Miraculously saved from a
39:07
nuclear apocalypse a Soviet commander of a nuclear
39:11
submarine who had taken part in Armageddon an
39:14
American pilot a Russian girl the girlfriend of
39:19
our captain How they ended up there isn't
39:23
important the intrigue lay in the nature of
39:27
their relationship After much inner torment the young
39:32
woman makes her choice She moves from the
39:35
hut of the strong and courageous, but narrow
39:39
-minded and ideologically blinded Submariner to the little
39:44
wigwam of the pilot radiation stricken but advanced
39:49
and humane She cannot accept or forgive Russian
39:54
narrowness and stupidity For the sake of defending
39:58
some state their captains pressed red buttons and
40:03
destroyed the world The irradiated yank is different
40:08
He stood above state ambitions and propaganda cliches.
40:12
He lived and died for universal values the
40:16
sort of hero a Tonka fill in fallen
40:21
to the earth, but destined to bloom again
40:24
the ailing Chrysanthemum I'll admit at the time.
40:29
I sympathized more with the pilot I'd have
40:33
gone to his shack myself and I wasn't
40:37
alone Already at the Moscow Mint hefty medallions
40:42
Ruble dollars were being struck out of the
40:45
cladding of cut-up missiles There was a
40:49
firm belief then that the uniting of our
40:52
two huts would in Tandem equalize our currencies
40:56
exchange rates Already polls were being conducted among
41:02
commanders of strategic missile carriers About their willingness
41:06
to press the button Officers ready to refuse
41:10
the political leadership's orders were extolled already in
41:16
Short back then there was a lot of
41:19
connected.
41:20
Oh I'm sorry.
41:21
There was a lot connected with the denigration
41:24
of those who supported the nuclear shield and
41:28
nuclear deterrence Perhaps there was its own logic
41:33
defense especially one paid for at an exorbitant
41:37
price presupposes a worthy object of protection Only
41:43
then does the cry we will not spare
41:46
the cost arise spontaneously within the social organism
41:51
rather than being imitated by sly ventriloquists Excuse
41:58
me.
41:58
That is the misfortune of the Union of
42:02
Unions Was that the might of the chief
42:06
means of defense at a certain stage?
42:11
fell into dissonance with the set of spiritual
42:14
and material goods which it sheltered and sanctified
42:18
and Explained not every good is perceived as
42:22
a good if it isn't lit for example
42:25
by art or ideology for that matter I
42:30
Had a remarkable acquaintance Valeri Veris cool commander
42:35
of a regiment of Soviet tu-160 strategists
42:40
station near Poltava He told me how the
42:44
American partners Already in the new times sick
42:50
to the aviation ground crews on the swans
42:53
Which is the tu-160 by suggesting that
42:57
their bellies held a vast trove of precious
43:01
metals the pilots hand-in-hand Resisted the
43:06
attacks of greedy warren officers as best they
43:08
could Those men armed with wire cutters crowbars
43:12
and screwdrivers were tearing into the perfect bodies
43:15
of aircraft gnawing at their very insides Once
43:20
the colonel came to my home straight from
43:23
the airfield He drank the hard stuff without
43:26
getting drunk on television in a live broadcast
43:29
We watched the Yankees with gigantic pincers like
43:34
monstrous crabs Snipping the most perfect machines in
43:38
the world in two Today the Americans are
43:42
supplying their combat aircraft to Ukraine back Then
43:46
they were slicing up Soviet ones on Soviet
43:49
territory Along the way Valeri recalled an old
43:53
story How his unit once received an order
43:57
to deliver a nuclear strike against America's West
44:00
Coast?
44:01
He himself opened the envelope with the combat
44:04
order in flight He cut his finger on
44:08
the sharp wax seal The whole text was
44:12
in blood and through the blood the substance
44:15
of the order emerged Split into threes and
44:19
attacked the principal targets of the potential adversary
44:24
He was shaking with a nervous tremor But
44:28
not from fear not from a premonition of
44:31
the end of the world rather from a
44:34
sense of greatness that he represented a state
44:39
capable of delivering an unthinkable answer to any
44:44
conceivable threat Pride in his country and in
44:48
himself drowned out all other thought and doubt
44:52
The true colonel admitted that he never told
44:55
anyone afterward about that inner state of his
44:59
Times were coming when people suddenly began to
45:03
be ashamed of such feelings no longer proud
45:06
of them The Union collapsed when its politicians
45:10
lost the secret of initiating both elite military
45:15
men and Ordinary civilians into this sense of
45:19
greatness when they began to mock that feeling
45:23
in a true hologram even if it is
45:27
broken Every fragment conveys the fullness of that
45:31
image in a true state Every citizen bears
45:35
the imprint of a common greatness in a
45:39
sham state the imprint is of Powerlessness all
45:45
these thoughts were prompted by the report that
45:48
the United States is going to resume nuclear
45:51
testing Trump is already trembling and he should
45:56
be trembling as I recall We were the
45:59
first to stop them the testing in the
46:03
90s Yes out of the most peaceful motives
46:06
do the Russians want war?
46:09
But just before its dissolution the country had
46:13
also begun to be ashamed of its own
46:16
nuclear might and to be embarrassed by its
46:20
international influence its sovereign essence and its complex
46:26
history Nuclear weapons in our world are not
46:31
only an indicator of military technical potential They
46:36
are a projection of political will if there
46:40
is no will there is nothing to test
46:43
If there is no faith, there is nothing
46:47
to defend Important, isn't it?
46:52
The Americans stopped testing much later than we
46:56
did it wasn't much later It was only
46:58
like a year and a half for entirely
47:00
different reasons The main opponent as they thought
47:04
had disappeared died.
47:07
So why spend the money?
47:10
thrifty people but not always Understanding they didn't
47:15
notice apparently he's talking about Americans how the
47:19
wheel of history turns They after all thought
47:23
that history had ended my old acquaintance Francis
47:28
Fukuyama slyly convinced the whole country that Americanism
47:33
had triumphed fully and finally but history is
47:38
relationships and Relationships take shape among those who
47:43
are taken into account The state's didn't intend
47:47
to take anyone else into account Because there
47:51
was no one to take into account no
47:54
one to fear and even less to respect
47:58
and suddenly Russia rose from the ashes From
48:04
the very ashes strewn along the symbolic road
48:08
in Cormac McCarthy's novel That is unknown to
48:12
me personally in his brilliant tale the road
48:16
about a post-nuclear Journey of a father
48:19
and son the writer merely reminded the American
48:23
reader that the world may be left Only
48:26
with roads strewn with dust radioactive dust It
48:31
turned out they do have someone to fear
48:33
us Because our motherland has will it has
48:38
faith in its path and it has something
48:41
to defend That is why the topic of
48:45
American nuclear testing suddenly arose assuming of course
48:52
they have preserved the Incompetencies in this fear
48:56
I spoke on that in my article and
48:58
in my show last week Fear does not
49:02
always substitute for technology and only our country
49:07
this is a Russian guy possesses the technical
49:10
ability to respond in a mirror fashion and
49:15
fatally and instantly which by the way is
49:20
unreal for the states themselves One serious Commentator
49:26
made a slip of the tongue He called
49:30
nuclear testing nuclear upbringing and that slip as
49:36
they say Hit the mark for a quarter
49:39
century the big boys across the ocean were
49:43
Bringing us up today.
49:45
The process has begun in the opposite direction
49:50
It so happens I found that article Enlightening
49:56
now you may disagree.
49:58
I mean, I don't agree or disagree with
50:00
it It's just a different point of view
50:02
and but there's something to be spoken about
50:05
here My article on nuclear testing that I
50:10
put out had to do with the mistakes
50:13
of What you know how how I grew
50:19
up You know how where I cut my
50:23
teeth on international relationships and in the testing
50:28
how I felt that there were possibilities to
50:37
Have a peaceful Coexistence to have I don't
50:43
know what mutual Development Mutual growth mutual Understanding
50:51
the Russians this this article what you need
50:54
to understand about it The Russians are quite
50:58
proud of their country Just like we're proud
51:01
of our own and and they should be
51:03
there is no reason for them not to
51:05
be Extremely proud of their country.
51:08
They they are doing things.
51:11
They are they have Even in this article,
51:15
it's very clear that that many Russians and
51:18
I've met bunches of them I've seen it
51:21
personally by the way, they have risen up
51:25
from the ash heap of the Soviet Union
51:29
and a lot of them feel that They
51:35
were Betrayed back then by the leaders by
51:39
the by the Gorbachev's of the world by
51:42
the Yeltsin's especially of the world, you know
51:45
and some of the things that they did
51:48
that they they are oh they are demonized
51:55
for what they did at that time and
51:58
The Russians it I mean first of all,
52:02
it is a great country.
52:03
Second of all, they have every reason to
52:06
Understand that they are a great country just
52:09
like us and one of the things that
52:12
they never get Is parity they never get
52:17
treated like an equal by the United States?
52:22
They just don't and and now Trump Comes
52:26
close and he is one of the first
52:29
to come close.
52:31
It's is Trump and But even so he
52:37
changes his mind every time you turn around
52:41
his mind is Changing and it does drive
52:45
me somewhat crazy that he does so and
52:50
so it's I Don't know I I very
52:55
much liked that article I'm gonna do a
53:01
little bit of Of looking into I have
53:09
to type something here.
53:10
Sorry about that I want to I have
53:18
quite a bit more to go into and
53:20
I have to get to it But I
53:22
have to type in order to get there
53:24
into And I have quite a bit more
53:30
to go into so please be patient with
53:33
me because I will get there in just
53:35
a Second of Let's see Into I'm trying
53:44
to get up.
53:48
I'm gonna I Just have a very hard
53:50
time doing two things at once and all
53:53
I'm trying to do is Get to the
53:58
right page of where I'm going So, let's
54:01
see here what we are going to do
54:04
now.
54:05
I can focus on where I'm supposed to
54:07
be There were quite a few interesting articles
54:11
that I covered today and interesting videos that
54:14
I went I was able to Summarize for
54:17
you a little bit of Maria's a hot
54:19
of us Friday a little bit last night
54:22
And there is more to go into tonight
54:25
from several different sources and there's been Quite
54:32
a bit if you if you were on
54:34
the front lines and and like I read
54:36
I go through my mappers And I and
54:39
I followed today.
54:40
There were some serious advances on the Russian
54:43
side today as well and yesterday we covered
54:47
quite a bit about the blackouts and about
54:51
the the Lack of heat and The even
55:00
getting to the lack of water, you know
55:03
that is going to be there over the
55:06
winter But today I wanted to start with
55:11
a story of some of the Western outlets
55:14
that are finally Acknowledging the uncomfortable truth that
55:25
Zelensky has a dark side that there's an
55:28
uncomfortable side of Zelensky especially as a wartime
55:34
presidency Centralization of power Prosecutions that look like
55:41
you know What happened to?
55:44
Trump, you know this lawfare that these are
55:47
rampant over there media space that is that
55:52
targets people that there is no freedom of
55:55
speech that doesn't exist and then You know
56:00
all kinds of Martial law antagonistic stuff these
56:09
people being taken into custody custody basically and
56:13
thrown on the front lines bribery schemes that
56:17
are going on all of this Politico's latest
56:22
piece calls it Zelensky's dark side so Let's
56:28
let's dig into that a little bit.
56:30
So the case that is making waves It's
56:36
a guy named Volodymyr Kudritsky Who's the ex
56:41
-head of you Ukraine ergo?
56:44
He was sacked last year loudly after grid
56:49
failures during Russia's airstrikes two independent board members
56:54
quit in protest Called the firing political right
56:59
so get rid of Volodymyr Kudritsky But it
57:03
wasn't I mean obviously wasn't his fault that
57:05
these things are coming part Russia's just bombing
57:07
the snot out of them You know this
57:09
is being taken care of but they called
57:12
fast forward Now he's being charged with fraud
57:17
tied to the 2018 substation contracts a Kiv
57:23
court ordered custody with bail at around 14
57:28
million and he posted it and walked Calling
57:32
it all political lawmakers from multiple multiple parties
57:37
stood up for him in court This isn't
57:40
a fringe protest.
57:42
This is institutional Pushback right saying that he's
57:48
not so they're what they do if you
57:51
disagree with Zelensky if you Cross him in
57:59
some way or if he just wants to
58:02
target you the political thesis is the president
58:06
will come President Zelensky will come out and
58:09
take you out and they will keep on
58:12
digging Then they will charge you with the
58:15
next round so they sacked him that wasn't
58:19
enough to Get rid of his popularity so
58:22
then they charged him with fraud and and
58:25
taking money having to do with contracts back
58:28
in 2018, so You know Critics call this
58:34
lawfare Supporters say not so fast These are
58:38
real irregularities and wartime requires a firm hand
58:43
well sure, but He this corruption happened before
58:49
that right and so yes wartime powers Harden
58:53
pretty quickly, but wartime doesn't nullify what the
58:57
standards are you can charge corrupt and still
59:00
follow the rules?
59:02
Which Zelensky doesn't and that is the test
59:06
so if you can?
59:10
If you can check it out, you know
59:13
the You have to follow these you have
59:17
to follow the rules and political says they're
59:20
not so let's talk about The centrist line
59:24
if the state has the goods on somebody
59:27
I would agree that they have if they
59:30
have evidence chain of custody Independent oversight bring
59:35
it on you know those are the things
59:37
that should be charged if not stop Dressing
59:43
you know dressing up vendetta against a political
59:48
enemy in Judicial robes we're very used to
59:52
this in America as well You bring charges
59:56
against a political enemy The government backs it
1:00:00
up you bring them in front of the
1:00:02
right judge that judge Helps you in backing
1:00:05
these things up The the Kudritsky case is
1:00:10
a bellwether case it'll show us whether Ukraine's
1:00:15
anti-corruption banner is a shield or a
1:00:20
sword and because the defendants team includes MPs
1:00:28
from from the members of Parliament from across
1:00:32
both factions I Don't believe this case is
1:00:36
gonna go away anytime soon so it's an
1:00:41
his arrest many people there the OSW it's
1:00:47
a Polish newspaper is Saying that his arrest
1:00:53
is mere this Kudritsky the guy who ran
1:00:57
the the Energo Ukraine ergo that his arrest
1:01:03
is an attempt to intimidate the representation of
1:01:06
representatives in the Verhovna Rada, which is their
1:01:12
Parliament, right?
1:01:14
And so now the the part the Western
1:01:18
press still seems to sidestep Things like remember
1:01:23
the case of Gonzalo Lira the Chilean American
1:01:27
blogger Who died in Ukrainian custody in January?
1:01:32
2024 and he was taken into custody only
1:01:36
because of his opinions against the Ukrainian government
1:01:40
against Lenski, you don't have to like his
1:01:44
ideas to demand humane detention and transparent accountability
1:01:49
After his death in custody, you don't have
1:01:53
to agree with what he said But the
1:01:55
man shouldn't have died in custody and he
1:01:58
was an American and Chilean Blogger all he
1:02:02
was was a guy over there Telling his
1:02:05
opinion and he died for it and he
1:02:08
died because they just left him, you know
1:02:11
to die That is basic human rights US
1:02:17
outlets did complain the death But many did
1:02:21
not The State Department complained that there wasn't
1:02:26
any proper notification That's not Russian disinformation, by
1:02:32
the way, that's public record they weren't told
1:02:36
the State Department knew nothing and They didn't
1:02:40
get it another one common Another name in
1:02:44
activist media circles for and all of this
1:02:47
is about Zelensky regime Not being the good
1:02:50
guys, okay So could Ritzky Gonzaga a Gonzalo
1:02:55
Lira, and there's another name Bodan Syrota yuk
1:02:59
Syrota yuk.
1:03:00
Sorry a leftist opposition figure that was detained
1:03:05
for Justifying aggression and subversion per Ukrainian authorities
1:03:14
What does that mean Mainstream outlets are all
1:03:18
quiet Socialist sites are not you can discount
1:03:23
Ideology and still spot the pattern if you
1:03:26
have harsh speech Plus a war means a
1:03:32
very small window for allowing the freedom thereof
1:03:38
this freedom to speak and So, you know,
1:03:42
you need to handle such things with care,
1:03:44
but the people are still being arrested that
1:03:46
comes from the From lemon to the French
1:03:51
newspaper that says that Ukraine is intensifying in
1:03:55
its controversial methods for military mobilization They're beating
1:04:00
the snot out of people and taking them
1:04:01
into custody Right, and so let's talk a
1:04:05
little bit on mobilization Forced conscription and all
1:04:11
this came is about is anti Zelensky from
1:04:13
the Politico article On forced conscription there are
1:04:17
videos of draft officers grabbing men Beating them
1:04:22
and throwing them into many of many buses.
1:04:25
These things go viral all the time There's
1:04:28
a slang term that they call it Bucification
1:04:32
is actually has actually become the Ukrainian word
1:04:36
of the year for 2024 in a Respected
1:04:42
lexicon poll of how what the words are,
1:04:45
you know, how they are.
1:04:45
This tells you how common and resented Bucification
1:04:51
has become it is not popular with what
1:04:55
the Ukrainians and how they are Affecting people
1:04:58
so wartime mobilization isn't pretty in any country,
1:05:03
but a government that was somewhat wise Which
1:05:08
they claim that's the lens case is not
1:05:11
happen to agree You know a wise government
1:05:16
would minimize these spectacles and abuse It seems
1:05:21
to be going On and then there was
1:05:24
and I spoke about this a little bit
1:05:27
last night so now Angelina Jolie and her
1:05:33
saga.
1:05:33
Yes the now-famous Checkpoint incident and it
1:05:38
wasn't famous until a couple of days ago
1:05:40
reports say Then which I shared with you
1:05:44
last night Angelo Angelina Jolie's local driver or
1:05:48
bodyguard.
1:05:49
We don't know which Was detained routed to
1:05:53
a draft center during her unannounced visit to
1:05:57
Kherson and Mykolaev Reuters confirmed the visit multiple
1:06:03
outlets report the driver story Ukrainian military posts
1:06:08
appeared about the story But then got deleted
1:06:12
later statements were hedging the bets The outcome
1:06:16
is still quite fuzzy.
1:06:18
We don't know what happened to this guy
1:06:20
He put a video out of his own
1:06:24
Saying that he was gonna stay in the
1:06:26
army, but he appeared pretty well Subdued let's
1:06:32
call it It was if that was a
1:06:35
subdued dude right there But the Ukrainian post
1:06:40
appeared got deleted later the statements come out
1:06:43
put their heads in their bets Nobody says
1:06:45
anything the outcome remains fuzzy, but the optics
1:06:49
of all of this are pretty brutal if
1:06:52
your best defense is a paperwork issue They're
1:06:57
talking about his paperwork, but they seized him
1:07:00
took him into custody Sending him to the
1:07:03
front lines and you know forcing him to
1:07:06
be conscripted your mobilization rules might need a
1:07:13
What's the popular saying here in America an
1:07:16
adult in the room you know, especially somebody
1:07:19
with a PR adult in the room somebody
1:07:22
that could that could talk to you about
1:07:24
this stuff, so That also looks pretty bad
1:07:28
you know people are the name of this
1:07:31
article as people are or one of the
1:07:33
articles is that people are finally realizing that
1:07:37
Zelensky is not one of the good guys
1:07:40
that he's not as as you know as
1:07:45
Good as he claims to be and he's
1:07:48
certainly not a man of the people you
1:07:50
know as they've claimed in his party is
1:07:53
was named, you know, it's kind of a
1:07:55
hats off to his To his prior TV
1:08:01
show man of the people that he was
1:08:03
a school teacher Turned into president of Ukraine,
1:08:08
right and then he did it in reality
1:08:11
so a democracy at war has to be
1:08:14
twice as pure as an autocracy at peace
1:08:20
if Kiev wants to join The EU Club
1:08:25
on rule of law terms.
1:08:28
It has to show that its prosecutions aren't
1:08:32
a presidential office hobby and that mobilization isn't
1:08:38
a Street mafia lottery, right the Kudritsky trial
1:08:44
the guy from Ukraine ergy Ukraine ergo is
1:08:49
is a chance to To show us something
1:08:55
win it on evidence not on intimidation and
1:09:00
maybe My skepticism and other Westerners skepticism Might
1:09:07
go away might be lessened but lose it
1:09:10
on process I mean like here.
1:09:12
I don't trust our process anymore frankly in
1:09:15
America Everything is political here and it's the
1:09:19
same.
1:09:19
It's it's ten times worse in in Ukraine
1:09:23
but lose it on process and the the
1:09:27
dark side that politico talks about That phrasing
1:09:32
will actually be you know Seen as not
1:09:36
enough Calling it a dark side.
1:09:39
It'll be geez the guys just corrupt as
1:09:41
hell, you know, and so it's I Don't
1:09:46
know There are a lot of people out
1:09:48
there that are now Openly saying that Zelensky
1:09:52
is not one of the good guys now.
1:09:54
I haven't been saying good bad or indifferent
1:09:57
I've just been saying that he is he
1:10:03
is He has overstayed his welcome and he
1:10:07
needs to have an election and he's not
1:10:10
doing it.
1:10:11
And why not?
1:10:12
Because he doesn't want to give up the
1:10:14
power.
1:10:15
There's no reason he couldn't have an election
1:10:17
right now If you're so into Democracy EU
1:10:23
so into supporting Ukraine Jesus have some good
1:10:27
elections have some Something come out on this
1:10:32
You know, what else is there There's there's
1:10:39
Plenty to discuss on this as Zelensky on
1:10:43
the election question He says he's open to
1:10:47
elections.
1:10:47
His latest came from Reuters and when was
1:10:50
this back in?
1:10:52
late August Zelensky is the last time he
1:10:56
was questioned about elections least publicly That he
1:11:00
says back then he said he was open
1:11:02
to elections when it's safe and legal after
1:11:08
the war that's the same line that he's
1:11:11
been given all summer and Is that sensible,
1:11:16
you know under martial law?
1:11:18
I don't know you can you can still
1:11:22
support Ukraine's defense if you wish to and
1:11:26
You can still support Zelensky But I think
1:11:29
it's important to insist on what they call
1:11:32
rule of law in Institutions and in elections.
1:11:37
I think that's the only kind of support
1:11:39
that That would last right?
1:11:45
Let's talk about anti-corruption Ukrainians Nabu that's
1:11:49
that special anti-corruption prosecution that say they've
1:11:54
run a 15 month probe with a thousand
1:11:58
hours of audio targeting high-level schemes of
1:12:02
influence at Energo atom and Other state companies
1:12:07
the code name is Midas real subtle.
1:12:10
They raided properties linked to former energy Minister
1:12:14
Herman Halashenko and a businessman named Timur Mindig
1:12:19
long tagged in Kiev gossip groups as Close
1:12:23
to the president's circle From the Kvartal 95
1:12:28
days now Kvartal 95 was one.
1:12:32
It was Lenski's TV comedy Channel or program
1:12:38
called Kvartal 95 But 95th block basically a
1:12:44
Kvartal is a block and so this is
1:12:48
the this came from A 16 hours ago
1:12:57
from the Ukrainian Newscasts so who's who of
1:13:04
these they're targeting more people for corruption Ukrainskaya
1:13:11
Pravda Ukrainian Pravda truth reported the raids Many
1:13:17
outlets say that this Mindig left the country
1:13:20
hours before that several Supports claim u.s.
1:13:24
Interest in his past dealings, especially in the
1:13:28
Odessa port plant but Ukrainian media media say
1:13:32
the FBI Might be looking That's not a
1:13:37
u.s. And DOJ indictment.
1:13:39
It's a leak and So we need to
1:13:42
you know treat that accordingly, but but what
1:13:45
is really going on?
1:13:46
Nobody knows because these stories come out and
1:13:50
this Naboo is but they're attacking as a
1:13:53
Lenski guy here and I'm not so sure
1:13:56
if this is gonna be he left the
1:13:59
country.
1:13:59
So the core allegation is a group of
1:14:01
insiders skimmed 10 to 15 percent through controlled
1:14:06
contractors steered personnel decisions and channeled the cash
1:14:12
classic capture and Naboo this agency we've talked
1:14:16
about before that a is backed by and
1:14:20
supposed to be outside of the typical Ukrainian
1:14:26
they're not controlled by the presidency or not
1:14:29
supposed to be But they terminated that several
1:14:32
months ago, and then they brought it back
1:14:34
allegedly without any Without any change, but I
1:14:39
don't know that I trusted at all anymore
1:14:41
But they said they have photos of the
1:14:44
cash and clips of the audio files if
1:14:47
it's verified in court This isn't going to
1:14:49
be small potatoes.
1:14:50
This is going to be pretty big Patronage
1:14:55
chain if that has to be closed if
1:14:59
Ukraine wants to enter the EU So why
1:15:03
does this matter behind besides any?
1:15:07
Details because it pits still independent anti-graft
1:15:12
block in civil society Against the president's office
1:15:16
right against the Lenski's office Kiv has tried
1:15:20
to before to coordinate they call it coordination
1:15:23
of these Agencies, but it didn't stick because
1:15:27
the West wants to keep it clean and
1:15:31
but as if we're clean I don't know
1:15:34
how that's gonna work But a clean Midas
1:15:37
case would show that this system actually works
1:15:40
if it's a botched one and the guy
1:15:42
gets away with it Like he will then
1:15:44
it will be selective justice note that an
1:15:47
ergo and Ergo, Adam is strategic screw this
1:15:51
up, and you spook the rest of Europe's
1:15:55
energy partners, right?
1:15:57
Which are already?
1:15:58
Spooked in the first place So you P
1:16:01
published a long piece hinting that the operation
1:16:04
may have been compromised that a deputy Might
1:16:07
have tipped the targets that it was if
1:16:10
that's true That's a prosecutor's office with a
1:16:13
hole in it.
1:16:14
You know with a leak.
1:16:15
It's a leaky vessel It's a rat ship
1:16:18
of seagoing snitches.
1:16:20
Do you remember that from?
1:16:23
What was the name of that show I
1:16:25
don't know but it was Al Pacino as
1:16:27
a Colonel If false, this is fat factional
1:16:32
mud either way every leak weakens chain of
1:16:35
custody confidence and anti-corruption Which is just
1:16:39
a theater in that case and I think
1:16:42
this is just a theater you know, I've
1:16:45
I've talked about this sort of thing for
1:16:47
for years if you want to break a
1:16:51
Corrupt system you just you don't get to
1:16:55
just perp walk a villain.
1:16:57
You have to make the rules harder to
1:17:01
bend or break That means public Open data
1:17:08
by default it means signoffs on on Multi
1:17:17
-level signoffs on energy contracts and stuff like
1:17:20
that They aren't going to be a third
1:17:23
-party audits They're not going to be able
1:17:25
to do any of this, you know and
1:17:27
protected whistleblowers right now.
1:17:30
They're not you know the this is For
1:17:35
them this is like going to be climbing
1:17:37
up Mount Everest.
1:17:38
It's you know What what percentage of those
1:17:42
people actually make it and or don't make
1:17:45
it and I I this is a critical
1:17:48
legal Scaffold and I don't believe they're gonna
1:17:51
make it But if the u.s. If
1:17:56
u.s. Law enforcement of u.s. FBI
1:17:58
is truly sniffing around these players offshore webs
1:18:04
of money It might come out eventually Filings
1:18:10
indictments, but until then the FBI is on
1:18:14
to him as they're trying to report in
1:18:17
Ukraine its rhetoric in its it's it's nothing.
1:18:21
It's uncorroborated Kiev's domestic knife fight, you know
1:18:27
trying to say it's got rumors about Washington
1:18:31
Being involved I think it's I think it's
1:18:35
nonsense So I don't think that Story is
1:18:39
gonna go anywhere.
1:18:40
I'll keep an eye on it, but corruption
1:18:43
in Ukraine.
1:18:44
Jeez.
1:18:44
What else is new?
1:18:47
Tell me something but people are talking about
1:18:50
this as if it as if it's going
1:18:52
to matter So I thought I'd share it
1:18:56
with you if you Think that it's gonna
1:19:01
matter, but I don't think it's going to
1:19:03
so I Wanted to talk about one other
1:19:09
This is this is efforts on the ground
1:19:12
and specifically in put cross But you know
1:19:17
what I wanted to get to that mom
1:19:19
Donnie story, I wonder if I should go
1:19:21
to that first Where is it?
1:19:26
Uh, well, let's talk up, you know what
1:19:29
let's do that because I might not be
1:19:31
able to get done with this Let's call
1:19:33
it the mom Donnie experiment the left turn
1:19:37
of New York the mandate the math and
1:19:40
the next 18 months that I was Talking
1:19:43
about a little bit on Russian TV this
1:19:46
morning.
1:19:47
I really it was only a Five-minute
1:19:49
interview was nothing serious.
1:19:51
So this this shouldn't go on all that
1:19:53
long, but New York City Just hired a
1:19:56
34 year old Ugandan born Democratic socialist to
1:20:00
run the biggest municipal municipal government in America,
1:20:04
and that's not the start of a stand
1:20:06
-up routine it's actual news Zoran mom Donnie
1:20:09
beat Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Silva and We'll
1:20:13
walk into City Hall with a promise list
1:20:16
that leads like Scrooge McDuck You know his
1:20:19
wish list rent freezes free buses Universal child
1:20:23
care city-owned grocery stores voters said try
1:20:26
it out now.
1:20:27
He has to make it work legally fiscally
1:20:30
practically Who he is how he won what
1:20:34
he could actually do and what trips him
1:20:36
the second he gets into office If you
1:20:41
want to understand him start with a resume
1:20:43
that your guidance counselor warned you about He's
1:20:46
the son of a renowned scholar and filmmaker
1:20:49
and a filmmaker he grew up between Kampala
1:20:52
and New York and Wrapped under the name
1:20:57
young cardamom He curated the Queen of Katwa
1:21:01
soundtrack Dropped a track with met her Joffrey
1:21:05
in the video and then pivoted into foreclosure
1:21:08
Prevention work and Queens housing fights only in
1:21:12
New York could that?
1:21:14
tumble-dryer of a life story spit out
1:21:16
a mayor he won a state assembly seat
1:21:19
and 2020 out of Astoria and made his
1:21:23
name in the streets as much as in
1:21:26
the chamber most Visibly by joining taxi drivers
1:21:30
and a hunger strike that helped trigger hundreds
1:21:33
of millions in debt relief That episode branded
1:21:38
him as a politician who doesn't just signal
1:21:41
solidarity He'll sleep on the sidewalk to get
1:21:44
a headline That's not normal in America and
1:21:48
voters did notice so fast forward to 2025
1:21:52
he ran for mayor on Affordability gospel, and
1:21:56
it wasn't theoretical mark Marxism It's New York
1:22:00
nuts and bolts.
1:22:01
You can't afford rent the bus is slow
1:22:04
and pricey Childcare costs a second mortgages and
1:22:07
eggs costs like you're flying them in from
1:22:09
Zurich He promised a rent freeze by steering
1:22:13
the rent guideline board Free buses universal child
1:22:17
care and a chain of city-run grocery
1:22:20
stores to pressure prices down That simple repeated
1:22:24
message was ad Amplified by a large volunteer
1:22:28
machine, and it did the job He did
1:22:31
not just inch across the finish line with
1:22:34
Russ roughly 51% of a high turnout
1:22:37
electorate he cleared Cuomo by a healthy margin
1:22:41
It wasn't a base only squeaker this matters,
1:22:45
right?
1:22:46
He got a near mandate who is who's
1:22:49
the coalition young rent young renters?
1:22:53
Muslim voters parts of organized labor plenty of
1:22:57
outer borough families drowning in bills You know
1:23:00
things are shifting when the man who wants
1:23:02
to make the bus free Gets love from
1:23:05
some transit union leaders who are usually allergic
1:23:08
to that sort of experiment So the first
1:23:12
Muslim, New York City mayor first South Asian
1:23:15
first open Democratic socialist and will keep these
1:23:19
national cameras Pinned on him for a long
1:23:23
time and that notoriety cut both ways it
1:23:26
buys leverage and it invites 24-7 pile
1:23:29
on if anything Goes poorly What did he
1:23:34
promise?
1:23:36
Let's break that down The City Hall rent
1:23:40
freeze he the rent Guardian guideline board I'm
1:23:45
sorry is nine members all appointed by the
1:23:47
mayor it sets annual rent Adjustments for stabilized
1:23:51
apartments about a million units changes don't happen
1:23:55
by decree they move by appointments hearings and
1:23:57
votes Translation he can't wave a wand, but
1:24:00
stacked appointees and clear directive make freeze Plausible
1:24:05
he did he might possibly able to do
1:24:08
it Procurement pilot and city funded offset City
1:24:13
Hall can pilot free service Where it pays
1:24:16
the bill that matters for buses because the
1:24:19
MTA is state-controlled But the city already
1:24:22
subsidized part of the bus network and can
1:24:25
do it if it writes to check City
1:24:28
money offsets foregone fares on selected routes Building
1:24:32
from the state's five-route fare free pilot
1:24:37
It's doable he actually might be able to
1:24:40
do it What about city run groceries the
1:24:42
idea is to stand up rent and tax
1:24:45
exempt municipal stores and food insecure neighborhoods?
1:24:49
cities have played in this sandbox feasibility studies
1:24:52
in Boston postmortems in Chicago and Rural municipal
1:24:56
stores from Kansas to Alabama some work some
1:25:00
flop, New York can pilot a few locations
1:25:04
Staff them well cite them well partner like
1:25:07
crazy Execution is going to be the ballgame
1:25:11
people don't know if that's going to work
1:25:14
Universal childcare the city can expand 3k and
1:25:18
pre-k at the margins universal cradle the
1:25:21
kindergarten is multi-billion dollar territory libraries You
1:25:27
know and budgets combined even friendlier Comptrollers call
1:25:31
the out year gap alarming without new revenue
1:25:35
and This looks like it's probably not going
1:25:40
to happen New millionaire and business taxes the
1:25:46
mayor cannot unilaterally raise income and corporate tax
1:25:50
he can propose lobby and threaten, but the
1:25:53
legislature and the governor have the gavel even
1:25:56
sympathetic analysts warm about flight risk if you
1:25:59
overshoot the mark and Say you're gonna tax
1:26:01
every new millionaire.
1:26:03
It's not gonna happen in other words local
1:26:05
minimum wage above the state level, New York
1:26:08
preempts locals from Freelancing a wage floor there
1:26:12
are bills to let cities set their own
1:26:14
minimum wages.
1:26:15
They've died before Expect him to revive them
1:26:18
at City Hall But again Albany will probably
1:26:22
cut them down, what's the bottom line mom
1:26:24
daddy can quickly move on rent Equalization target
1:26:31
fare free pilot programs, but the rest he
1:26:35
can only negotiate so What's the New York
1:26:39
laugh?
1:26:41
Versus you know he adopted or the adopted
1:26:44
fiscal year 26 budget is around a hundred
1:26:48
and sixteen billion The city city's independent scorekeepers
1:26:53
say that the gap Is in the eight
1:26:56
to ten billion range when you talk about
1:26:59
predictable under budgeting and mandates They can't get
1:27:02
rid of if you add universal health care
1:27:05
and large transit operating subsidies You're not Nibbling
1:27:10
you're asking this Thanksgiving table To Last you
1:27:18
know a year to it's not gonna happen
1:27:22
Millionaire tax and corporate hikes great TV hard
1:27:26
to pass in law and that that won't
1:27:29
be a miracle on him property tax return
1:27:33
Reform everybody loves the idea until they're the
1:27:37
one that has to pay the freight One
1:27:40
-time money you can squeeze some overtime trim
1:27:43
vendors maybe slow some things, but it the
1:27:47
translation he needs a Sequencing plan to keep
1:27:52
the money so the politics I Don't think
1:27:56
he's gonna make it.
1:27:57
I don't think he's gonna be able to
1:27:59
create most of these things So New York
1:28:03
just bet on an idea with this guy
1:28:06
the mayor who grew up between Nairobi bound
1:28:08
flights and Queen Streets can turn ideology into
1:28:12
service if mom Donnie sticks to the do
1:28:14
the next thing well Faster buses first clean
1:28:17
rent freeze honest child care ramp up.
1:28:20
He might be more than a headline He
1:28:22
can't resist trying to rewrite the social Contract
1:28:27
of but you know either way the experiment
1:28:31
matters because This will mean something if it
1:28:35
happens in New York, he might actually be
1:28:37
able to Go somewhere else might be able
1:28:42
to do something more, but I don't think
1:28:45
so Let's see I Wanted to do a
1:28:52
little bit more, but it looks like that's
1:28:55
gonna be impossible Because we're coming up on
1:29:00
the end of the program My name is
1:29:04
Samuel trap This is international flavor We come
1:29:09
to you every night Sunday through Thursday from
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the Lake Ozark real estate of the art
1:29:19
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1:29:26
them all you can get them at damn
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radio.com forward slash podcast or you can
1:29:33
go to international flavor calm where each of
1:29:37
my shows show up and you can go
1:29:39
back and listen to them in perpetuity for
1:29:42
as long as you like I very much
1:29:46
appreciate your listenership and if you want to
1:29:50
get a hold of me do so at
1:29:52
Samuel T at international flavor calm good night