Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Shots Fired, Ukraine Escalation, Iran Tensions — Is Anyone Actually in Control?

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Shots Fired, Ukraine Escalation, Iran Tensions — Is Anyone Actually in Control? · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, happy Monday to you. I am Samuel
• 0:03
  Trapp. This is the first show of the
• 0:05
  week, isn't it? On damn radio. And here
• 0:08
  I am, coming to you live from the Lake
• 0:10
  of the Ozarks real estate of the art
• 0:12
  studio. Listen every day at
• 0:15
  damnradio.com/live
• 0:17
  for great music like some of that that
• 0:19
  was just playing. I've actually got a
• 0:20
  couple of songs I picked out for this
• 0:22
  for this program today. And I don't know
• 0:25
  why. I'm usually not a huge into the
• 0:27
  music arena on my programs having plenty
• 0:30
  to talk about with uh
• 0:33
  the lunacy of the world today. But I
• 0:37
  have a couple of songs that I just I
• 0:39
  don't know what happened. They showed up
• 0:40
  in a playlist I was listening to whilst
• 0:42
  driving somewhere and it was long time
• 0:45
  since I heard either one of these songs.
• 0:47
  So, you know what I did? I added them to
• 0:49
  the mix and we're going to be listening
• 0:50
  to them even later, probably around the
• 0:54
  the half-hour mark. I got I got three
• 0:57
  sort of concrete
• 0:59
  uh uh topics I'm going to discuss today
• 1:01
  with you. But then uh and by the way,
• 1:03
  feel free to call in 573-746-8020
• 1:07
  should you feel the urge to discuss any
• 1:09
  of these things or have an opinion on
• 1:11
  the news of the day.
• 1:13
  Uh don't go off the wall with weird
• 1:14
  stuff from out of nowhere. I don't
• 1:16
  really care for that. I'd like to stick
• 1:18
  with the show. The big news uh the
• 1:20
  everything on everybody's lips
• 1:23
  is about the
• 1:27
  Oh, the dinner. Let's call it the
• 1:29
  correspondents dinner, which has been a
• 1:31
  joke most of the time anyway. That you
• 1:33
  you watch that thing, it's just a a time
• 1:35
  for people to get together and
• 1:37
  congratulate themselves on being in
• 1:39
  power and controlling the world and blah
• 1:41
  blah blah. And every once in a while
• 1:42
  they make fun of each other. Uh the old
• 1:44
  Trumpster didn't go for many years
• 1:46
  because uh they were beating up on him
• 1:48
  so much.
• 1:50
  Um Do you know I was used to say that if
• 1:52
  they beat up on you a lot, that really
• 1:54
  means that they're frightened of you.
• 1:57
  And uh so if that's all they've got,
• 1:59
  that's the tool is to beat up on you to
• 2:03
  uh laugh you laugh about you to kick you
• 2:07
  out of the room and that's all they got,
• 2:09
  that means you're pretty powerful mofo.
• 2:12
  Wouldn't that be right? You're uh now
• 2:15
  and so I've said that about the
• 2:16
  Trumpster, you know, you can hate him,
• 2:18
  you can dislike him, you can disagree
• 2:20
  like I do on many many many many things
• 2:22
  internationally with what the old Trump
• 2:25
  monster does. But he's a hell of a lot
• 2:28
  better than the the Biden the
• 2:30
  Obidenator, whatever he was, and the
• 2:32
  Obaminator before him. Those guys are
• 2:35
  nuts. And uh well,
• 2:37
  I'm starting [laughter] to worry. You
• 2:39
  know the saying, "The whole world is
• 2:41
  crazy but me and thee and often I worry
• 2:43
  about thee." You know, that kind of
• 2:45
  thing. Um you know, if you're looking
• 2:47
  around the room and and and and
• 2:49
  wondering uh you know, who's the
• 2:52
  craziest, it's probably you, right? And
• 2:54
  >> [laughter]
• 2:55
  >> But anyway, it's uh
• 2:57
  uh there's it's a crazy old world out
• 3:00
  there, especially right now. And this
• 3:02
  attack I've been listening to things uh
• 3:04
  well,
• 3:05
  I did four or five
• 3:07
  programs on it yesterday, commentaries,
• 3:10
  uh some of the news stuff and uh
• 3:12
  what this um
• 3:15
  lunacy means and uh
• 3:18
  I don't know. It just seemed I and I
• 3:20
  listened to several that were
• 3:22
  called it a false flag sort of thing and
• 3:25
  I listened to several that were, "Oh
• 3:26
  gee, look, this just shows how wonderful
• 3:28
  Trump is and everybody's after Trump and
• 3:30
  therefore we go." I saw the little
• 3:32
  snippet where um
• 3:35
  uh Carolyn Levitt did said uh "Shots
• 3:38
  will be fired tonight." You know, so
• 3:40
  like that. She's she made some kind of
• 3:42
  commentary like that right before the
• 3:44
  program. I wrote I wrote most of the
• 3:46
  most of the speech or I I participated
• 3:49
  in writing the speech and shots will be
• 3:51
  fired tonight. Well, you know, a little
• 3:54
  bit apropos, don't you think?
• 3:57
  Um but uh there you have it. It's um
• 4:01
  Uh I wanted to talk a little bit about
• 4:03
  that. So, you know, here on
• 4:05
  International Flavor where the truth
• 4:07
  just tastes better, we wonder if the
• 4:11
  truth will ever be known about any of
• 4:13
  this. I suppose the biggest question for
• 4:16
  me is
• 4:19
  why isn't this guy dead?
• 4:21
  Um and and I don't mean that he should
• 4:23
  be. I'm not into this, you know, shoot
• 4:25
  first, ask questions later uh normally.
• 4:28
  But
• 4:30
  if you watch the the the little videos,
• 4:33
  um
• 4:36
  they didn't jump to protect [laughter]
• 4:37
  Trump. Everybody ran for J.D. Vance.
• 4:41
  It's like, "Let's [laughter] save J.D."
• 4:44
  And they didn't guard the president. It
• 4:47
  just looks a little on the odd side to
• 4:50
  me. And uh that
• 4:53
  maybe it was the way it was supposed to
• 4:55
  be, but Trump's [laughter] just sitting
• 4:57
  there.
• 4:59
  No, you know, nothing happened. Just,
• 5:01
  "Huh, wonder what's going on?" And
• 5:03
  nobody's nobody's protecting him. Uh but
• 5:06
  you know, here in America,
• 5:08
  unfortunately, this is always just
• 5:10
  another incident, another headline. And
• 5:13
  we're far too comfortable with this sort
• 5:14
  of chaos. I mean, I'm even here joking
• 5:17
  about it. It's disgusting. And uh you
• 5:20
  know, it's this is not how the world is
• 5:22
  supposed to be. But you know, why
• 5:27
  don't we slow it down just a tiny bit,
• 5:30
  wind it back as as a tiny tiny bit and
• 5:34
  look at what happened at the White House
• 5:36
  correspondents
• 5:37
  it is just an isolated act of violence.
• 5:40
  Maybe it is something more telling, more
• 5:43
  revealing about a system
• 5:46
  that uh is becoming more and more
• 5:50
  volatile to uh
• 5:52
  you know, especially the participants.
• 5:54
  And and you know me from my Civic
• 5:56
  Outlaws uh broadcasts on Fridays and my
• 6:00
  continual discussions of you know,
• 6:04
  uh
• 6:05
  neocons, uh
• 6:07
  my all of the the rhino chat and all of
• 6:10
  the the horror story of alleged
• 6:14
  leadership today where the leadership
• 6:18
  portion of leadership is definitely
• 6:20
  lacking. Power is not, but
• 6:23
  leadership definitely is. And uh you
• 6:26
  know,
• 6:28
  I wouldn't follow any of these people.
• 6:31
  >> [laughter]
• 6:31
  >> You know, to try to take over a
• 6:32
  drugstore, you know, no way. It's a this
• 6:35
  is not the people that I would admire as
• 6:38
  a leader or want to follow or execute a
• 6:42
  plan. I don't think so. And I keep
• 6:45
  looking at this and just going, "What
• 6:47
  are these people thinking?" And and and
• 6:49
  it's unfortunately the uh
• 6:53
  obtuse bureaucracy, which is all power
• 6:58
  all the time and that's that. And so I I
• 7:01
  hate to be so blunt about it, but jeez,
• 7:04
  you can always, you know,
• 7:06
  you can always tell when the bureaucrats
• 7:09
  are in charge. You get endless wars, you
• 7:11
  get stuff that makes no sense all the
• 7:14
  way down the line. You get massive
• 7:16
  money, you know, I remember when I was
• 7:19
  actually living in Washington, D.C. and
• 7:21
  checking out the the $30,000 conference
• 7:25
  table because we had money left over
• 7:27
  toward the end of the year or you know,
• 7:29
  the the the bag of screws way back then
• 7:32
  that you would find these bolts that you
• 7:34
  could buy in any, you know, I don't
• 7:36
  know, Ace Hardware for, you know, $3 and
• 7:40
  you're you're charging 78 bucks or
• 7:43
  something for a a bunch of screws be-
• 7:46
  because a government contractor is
• 7:48
  involved. You watch people uh like my
• 7:51
  buddy telling me several weeks ago that
• 7:53
  he, you know, bidding on a state
• 7:56
  contract meant he had to increase the
• 7:58
  rates of pay for his uh his workers,
• 8:01
  which are are just service and I don't
• 8:04
  mean just, I mean it's
• 8:05
  I I just mean that their their pay rate
• 8:08
  was in the $20 an hour range anyway and
• 8:11
  he found out in order to apply for a
• 8:13
  government contract, he'd have to charge
• 8:15
  40 pay them 45 bucks an hour when they
• 8:18
  were working for the state or where they
• 8:21
  were working for a a municipality. He's
• 8:23
  got to pay prevailing wage and it's and
• 8:25
  that is contracting 101 if you're going
• 8:28
  to jump in. The best bet is to triple
• 8:32
  charge for everything cuz that's what
• 8:34
  everybody else is doing. And frankly,
• 8:36
  that's what they expect because the
• 8:37
  bureaucrat wants to go in and go, "Oh my
• 8:40
  god." It's like the rich person who
• 8:42
  likes to flaunt his money and go, "Oh my
• 8:45
  god, it cost me $8,000 to fix my muffler
• 8:50
  on my car. Isn't that terrible?" Well,
• 8:52
  yeah, it is terrible, you idiot. Why
• 8:54
  would you pay $8,000 to fix your car?
• 8:57
  And you know, go get a new one.
• 9:00
  Do something else. But the the people
• 9:02
  who got to focus on the the cash all the
• 9:05
  time, that's the bureaucrat. Oh, look at
• 9:07
  it. Jeez, we got this contract. They
• 9:09
  want to go home and tell their spouse
• 9:12
  that, "Oh gee, I had to deal with some
• 9:14
  some multi-million dollar contracts."
• 9:17
  Not telling anybody that, "Oh, by the
• 9:19
  way, we could have gotten a competitor
• 9:21
  bid for 300,000, you know, but we can't
• 9:24
  hire that guy." Why? Because he's not
• 9:26
  paying prevailing wage. You know, you
• 9:28
  can't do that. We have to pay three
• 9:30
  times more. So, when you look at the
• 9:32
  failures of government, you know,
• 9:35
  uh you wonder, at least I do,
• 9:38
  if the failures of government are what
• 9:41
  occurred at the correspondents dinner
• 9:45
  when they rushed to protect the vice
• 9:47
  president and leave Donald Trump sitting
• 9:49
  on a chair.
• 9:51
  Uh
• 9:53
  I don't know. At the Hilton during one
• 9:55
  of the most high-profile
• 9:57
  political and media gatherings in the US
• 10:00
  every year.
• 10:02
  An armed individual, I think they said
• 10:04
  he was 32 or something like that, made
• 10:06
  his way into the building. He had a room
• 10:08
  there.
• 10:09
  He wasn't outside on the street. He
• 10:11
  wasn't stopped in some distant
• 10:13
  perimeter. He was inside the hotel. He
• 10:16
  was a guest. He was carrying weapons
• 10:18
  that should have never been anywhere
• 10:20
  near that event. At some point, near
• 10:23
  security screening area, shots were
• 10:25
  fired. Law enforcement did respond
• 10:27
  quickly. An officer was struck, but
• 10:29
  protected by a vest. The attacker was
• 10:31
  stopped before reaching the ballroom
• 10:33
  itself. You got pictures of him laying
• 10:35
  on the floor. No blood, no shots, no
• 10:37
  nothing. And there's got to be armed
• 10:40
  people all over that place. And and
• 10:42
  nobody, you know, and I'm not saying
• 10:45
  they should have been, but that's a
• 10:46
  fact, you know, um and where the
• 10:49
  president, the vice president,
• 10:51
  concentration of political and media
• 10:53
  folks were were hanging out. the
• 10:55
  official
• 10:57
  version. That's the version that, you
• 10:58
  know, fits into your little news
• 11:00
  package. You hear, you know, process, oh
• 11:03
  jeez, somebody another nut came to get
• 11:05
  it. But if you believe that, then I
• 11:08
  think you might be just missing the
• 11:10
  point the tiniest of bits. Cuz what you
• 11:12
  had in that building
• 11:14
  at that moment wasn't something you
• 11:17
  should, you know,
• 11:19
  just ignore.
• 11:21
  It's something that should make any
• 11:23
  serious observer pause. Think about it.
• 11:26
  You had the sitting president, you had
• 11:27
  the vice president, you had
• 11:29
  cabinet-level officials, you had the
• 11:31
  upper tier of the national press.
• 11:34
  People who
• 11:36
  filter, shape,
• 11:38
  um mold, and distribute
• 11:41
  what is what we're supposed to
• 11:43
  understand with the way they sell it to
• 11:46
  us.
• 11:47
  They're supposed to mold all that to us.
• 11:50
  And all in one place. In one room.
• 11:54
  Not just a dinner. This isn't just
• 11:56
  tradition. This is concentrated
• 11:59
  power.
• 12:00
  Political power. You get invited. This
• 12:03
  32-year-old kid, you know, engineer from
• 12:06
  California, I'm sure
• 12:08
  probably isn't among that list of
• 12:12
  people. Okay?
• 12:14
  You have political power, information
• 12:17
  power, symbol- sym- symbolized, you
• 12:20
  know, symbolic. All of it. Power under
• 12:22
  one roof.
• 12:24
  By its very nature, it shouldn't
• 12:26
  function as a hardened security
• 12:28
  environment, but
• 12:31
  they should have one, right?
• 12:33
  Cuz the question isn't simply what did
• 12:35
  this guy do, it's how is it possible
• 12:38
  that he was in a position to do it at
• 12:40
  all. That's the question.
• 12:43
  Hotels are complicated. You know, I used
• 12:45
  to go into DC hotels. I I I've been at
• 12:48
  uh functions nowhere near as as vital as
• 12:51
  this, but uh constantly when I was in
• 12:54
  the in the on-site inspection agency in
• 12:56
  the military, we were subordinate to the
• 13:00
  State Department in a lot of stuff. We
• 13:02
  worked basically with the uh foreign
• 13:05
  foreign ministries, right?
• 13:07
  And so when a team of of diplomats would
• 13:12
  arrive from the uh
• 13:14
  uh Soviet Union, later Russia, many
• 13:16
  other countries, you know, and we would
• 13:18
  go to uh
• 13:19
  there was always an advanced team,
• 13:21
  right? And that advanced team would go
• 13:23
  clear the spaces, clear of everything.
• 13:26
  The uh the the Soviet people would have
• 13:28
  their security people come in and do the
• 13:30
  exact same thing. Setting it up, you
• 13:33
  know, there are people outside, you
• 13:34
  know, that generally didn't sit in on
• 13:36
  the meetings or anything, but security
• 13:38
  was a big part of it. And it was you
• 13:41
  know, you had your briefings before and
• 13:43
  against. All of the security people
• 13:44
  would call you in and go, "Okay, here's
• 13:46
  here's how security's going to work.
• 13:47
  Here's where you enter in. Don't bring
• 13:49
  those diplomats any other way but this
• 13:51
  way. Blah blah blah." And and you'd get
• 13:53
  all of these
• 13:55
  uh
• 13:57
  instructions on what you're going to do.
• 14:00
  And I assume that anybody who's going to
• 14:02
  this Correspondents Dinner isn't just
• 14:04
  going to the hotel and having a hotel
• 14:06
  security guard do it when the president
• 14:08
  and vice president tons of other uh
• 14:11
  important dignitaries, you know, prior
• 14:13
  presidents are going to be sitting
• 14:14
  there.
• 14:16
  You know, there's got to be security up
• 14:18
  to, you know, wazoo. There's got to be
• 14:20
  tons of it.
• 14:22
  And uh then hotels are complicated
• 14:24
  environments. We all know this. Many
• 14:26
  entrances, many exits. They have to be
• 14:28
  because of laws and because of what we
• 14:30
  have. And they have guests, staffs,
• 14:32
  deliveries, elevators, service
• 14:34
  corridors, back entrance, constant flow
• 14:36
  of movement, right?
• 14:38
  And uh they're they're it's it's
• 14:40
  different from having a secure
• 14:42
  government facility. And when we would
• 14:44
  take these conference rooms, we would
• 14:46
  ask for the conference room closest to
• 14:48
  the farthest outlying wing, door,
• 14:50
  whatever, where we could meet these
• 14:52
  people. And unless it was some kind of a
• 14:54
  final mission and there would be, you
• 14:56
  know, we've done a whole liquidation of
• 14:58
  a a whole series or a whole a whole
• 15:01
  uh type of weapon that we were
• 15:04
  eliminating, we'd ask for something
• 15:06
  bigger. Like in a you know, if you're
• 15:07
  inviting dignitaries and stuff. But if
• 15:09
  it's just the teams, well, then the
• 15:11
  teams would be, you know, and the teams
• 15:13
  are about 8-10 people. On the on the
• 15:15
  nuclear side, there there sometimes 26
• 15:17
  scientists, you know, is about the
• 15:19
  largest that we ever got to, right?
• 15:22
  But yeah, they think about security. I
• 15:24
  mean, hell,
• 15:26
  have me as your [clears throat]
• 15:28
  you know, your $100 an hour
• 15:31
  maybe more than that. But but on your
• 15:34
  security consultant to go do the
• 15:37
  Correspondents Dinner dinner, it's like,
• 15:39
  "Jeez, what did what were these guys
• 15:40
  doing? What are they getting paid for?"
• 15:42
  You know, what are they getting paid
• 15:43
  for?
• 15:45
  I don't know.
• 15:46
  Um
• 15:48
  Pay well, paid to paid to be there, you
• 15:50
  know, of course. But what do you do? You
• 15:53
  know, it's it's great to be at these
• 15:54
  parties, but they're not supposed to be
• 15:56
  a party for you. You're supposed to be
• 15:58
  working.
• 15:59
  And uh so you you can control a
• 16:01
  ballroom, don't you think? You can
• 16:03
  control a checkpoint, but controlling a
• 16:05
  hotel is going to be a little bit more
• 16:08
  difficult. And but that is where one of
• 16:10
  the most sensitive gatherings in the
• 16:11
  country takes place year after year.
• 16:14
  Under the assumption that the system's
• 16:16
  going to, you know, hold up. Everything
• 16:17
  will be fish- fishing and nothing will
• 16:20
  slip through. But somebody got lazy cuz
• 16:22
  it did. So this isn't just about
• 16:25
  security, but the illusion of security
• 16:27
  because for years the American public
• 16:29
  has been told that the system works.
• 16:31
  Agencies are in control. Protective
• 16:34
  apparatus around leadership is
• 16:36
  impenetrable.
• 16:37
  You'll never get to them. And this guy
• 16:39
  didn't get to them. So I suppose that's
• 16:41
  a victory, right? And yet what we saw
• 16:43
  here isn't impenetrability. We saw
• 16:47
  permeability. A man with weapons got in
• 16:49
  the building. He made it close enough to
• 16:52
  create a real and active threat. And if
• 16:54
  one or two variables had shifted,
• 16:56
  timing, position,
• 16:58
  the conversation today would be a little
• 17:00
  bit different. But let's talk about the
• 17:01
  tone because this is important. This
• 17:03
  isn't about partisan politics. It's not
• 17:06
  about whether you like Donald Trump or
• 17:08
  you dislike him. It's not about
• 17:09
  Republicans and Democrats.
• 17:12
  If you reduce it to that, you're once
• 17:14
  again missing the story. This is about a
• 17:17
  system, a political system, a security
• 17:19
  system, a system of society
• 17:22
  that is showing visible signs of
• 17:26
  inability, of strain. These signs aren't
• 17:29
  subtle any longer. This is happening too
• 17:32
  much. And I'm not one of those guys
• 17:34
  that, you know, jeez, you know,
• 17:36
  everybody check their phone, you know,
• 17:39
  before you come in the the hotel so
• 17:42
  you're not taking pictures of so-and-so
• 17:45
  or everybody getting cavity searched.
• 17:47
  You know, I'm not for that. But
• 17:49
  obviously we need more than what we've
• 17:51
  been getting, especially under the old
• 17:52
  Trumpster. Now, Trump threw something
• 17:54
  out there. He said uh
• 17:57
  Well, you know, somebody asked him why
• 17:59
  they think he was attacking him. I'm
• 18:01
  paraphrasing, but he said something
• 18:03
  about, "Well, they only go after the
• 18:04
  guys that are significant, the ones that
• 18:07
  matter."
• 18:08
  Well, you shouldn't be proud of you
• 18:10
  should be proud of the some of the
• 18:12
  things that you've done. And I I don't
• 18:13
  mean that you shouldn't be, but you
• 18:15
  shouldn't be proud of the fact that
• 18:16
  people are coming to get you.
• 18:18
  And
• 18:19
  you know, there are a lot of people
• 18:20
  talking about this was a a false flag. I
• 18:22
  listened to a a couple of them
• 18:24
  yesterday.
• 18:25
  And
• 18:26
  I get the point, but I'm more a little
• 18:27
  bit in the middle on this. I I don't
• 18:30
  think so.
• 18:31
  Um
• 18:32
  >> [clears throat]
• 18:32
  >> I wouldn't put it past the FBI for doing
• 18:34
  something like that, you know, for
• 18:37
  getting someone to do it. That wouldn't
• 18:39
  surprise me a bit. You know,
• 18:42
  >> [laughter]
• 18:42
  >> don't don't get me thinking that it
• 18:44
  cannot happen. It has happened. You
• 18:46
  know, I I'm I'm probably far more on the
• 18:49
  side of that
• 18:52
  the Kennedy assassination was uh
• 18:58
  I don't want to say planned, but
• 19:00
  certainly supported in my view by uh
• 19:04
  >> [clears throat]
• 19:05
  >> by some insiders, let's let's say.
• 19:08
  Um political violence in the US isn't an
• 19:11
  abstract concern any longer. It's no
• 19:13
  longer something you read about in the
• 19:15
  history book. It's here. It's present.
• 19:18
  It's It's increasing. It's increasing in
• 19:21
  boldness and perhaps most troubling,
• 19:24
  it's becoming normalized. Um we've
• 19:26
  reached a point where an incident like
• 19:28
  this occurs and within hours it's
• 19:31
  already been absorbed, categorized,
• 19:33
  debated, and pushed aside to make room
• 19:35
  for the next attack, right?
• 19:39
  It's depressing, really. And that's not
• 19:41
  stability, it's acclimation.
• 19:44
  Um and or acclimatization, you know,
• 19:47
  you're getting um
• 19:49
  used to it.
• 19:51
  You know?
• 19:52
  And when society become begins to get
• 19:54
  used to this kind of instability, then
• 19:56
  it's a danger. And not necessarily the
• 19:59
  next incident, but the gradual erosion
• 20:01
  of what you expect.
• 20:04
  We expect this now because it happens so
• 20:07
  often. We just expect it. And nobody has
• 20:10
  to be a professional anymore.
• 20:12
  Nobody has to For example, you don't
• 20:14
  shoot to kill. You go and you knock him
• 20:16
  over, you know? And and you Well, okay.
• 20:19
  I'm generally against killing
• 20:21
  perpetrators, you know? I don't think
• 20:23
  that's
• 20:24
  the the result. But if you're
• 20:26
  actively killing someone or you're an
• 20:29
  immediate threat to someone or if you're
• 20:32
  you got weapons and you're shooting and
• 20:34
  nobody knows oh what's going to happen,
• 20:37
  better you than me, right? And you're
• 20:39
  the idiot out here with guns. You you
• 20:42
  took that choice. You you and so you
• 20:46
  if you off somebody in that regard,
• 20:48
  okay.
• 20:49
  You know, I don't like um
• 20:52
  shoot first, ask questions later as a
• 20:54
  general theory. You know, I I don't like
• 20:56
  it. But
• 20:58
  I I don't say that it's not
• 21:01
  sometimes unfortunately necessary. But
• 21:05
  security
• 21:06
  failures [snorts]
• 21:07
  are unfortunate, but they're not
• 21:09
  shocking any longer.
• 21:11
  And once that mindset takes a hold, the
• 21:14
  threshold hold of what's considered
• 21:16
  acceptable
• 21:19
  varies, right? There are details around
• 21:21
  this event that raise legitimate
• 21:23
  questions. Not wild theories, not
• 21:26
  conclusions, but questions. Reports say
• 21:29
  that the attacker wasn't immediately
• 21:32
  neutralized
• 21:33
  in a high-threat environment.
• 21:36
  And there are conflicting
• 21:38
  descriptions of exactly how far he got,
• 21:41
  exactly what level of access he was able
• 21:44
  to get, and exactly how the response
• 21:46
  unfolded. There are discussions about
• 21:48
  how individuals were evacuated, in what
• 21:51
  order, and under what protocols.
• 21:54
  And grabbing the vice president first,
• 21:58
  I'm I'm not so sure. I mean, not that he
• 22:00
  shouldn't be protected, but
• 22:03
  seems to me
• 22:04
  >> [laughter]
• 22:04
  >> he's second in command. That's the way
• 22:06
  it is. These aren't trivial details.
• 22:09
  These are the kind of details that in
• 22:11
  any serious security review would
• 22:13
  determine whether an incident is
• 22:15
  contained effectively or whether it
• 22:17
  exposed procedural weaknesses, like I
• 22:19
  believe this one did.
• 22:21
  And then there's a strange coincidence
• 22:23
  is uh-huh. It should be treated as
• 22:26
  nothing more than that. It's a
• 22:27
  coincidence, which involved the
• 22:29
  pre-event remark of the phrase shots
• 22:32
  fired by Carolyn Levitt. She says, "Oh
• 22:36
  yeah, there'll be some shots fired
• 22:37
  tonight."
• 22:38
  She's talking about the speech. A bad
• 22:41
  phraseology right there, but it
• 22:44
  happened. You know, clearly intended in
• 22:47
  a rhetorical or comedic sense. And in
• 22:49
  politics, that phrase, you know, isn't
• 22:51
  unusual.
• 22:53
  But it's it means a verbal attack, sharp
• 22:56
  remarks, live exchanges. But when actual
• 22:59
  gunfire follows later the same evening,
• 23:02
  it creates a moment. Not not no proof,
• 23:05
  no conspiracy, but of something that
• 23:07
  goes hmm.
• 23:08
  You know, there's a forecast for you.
• 23:11
  It reminds you that language, tone, and
• 23:13
  reality aren't as separate as sometimes
• 23:15
  we pretend they are. But there are going
• 23:17
  to be those who immediately jump to
• 23:18
  conclusions. And I've heard some of them
• 23:21
  already. Some will say this was simply a
• 23:23
  lone actor. I doubt that, me personally.
• 23:26
  A disturbed individual exploiting
• 23:29
  opportunity. Others will say the
• 23:30
  security failures are too significant to
• 23:33
  ignore.
• 23:34
  And that something about the situation
• 23:36
  just doesn't add up. That's me.
• 23:38
  And then inevitably, there will be those
• 23:40
  who move further on the speculation
• 23:42
  realm and say this was orchestrated.
• 23:45
  It's a false flag.
• 23:47
  >> [clears throat]
• 23:47
  >> Staging the narrative or manipulating
• 23:49
  outcomes. I'm not saying that doesn't
• 23:50
  happen in government all the time. There
• 23:53
  are a bunch of manipulative
• 23:55
  a-holes, you know? It's all there is to
• 23:57
  it. And they you know, will definitely
• 24:00
  manipulate a story to squeeze the most
• 24:03
  out of it. Never let a good uh
• 24:05
  crisis go to waste, right? The
• 24:07
  responsible position I try to maintain,
• 24:10
  sometimes without success,
• 24:13
  is not to embrace these conclusions, but
• 24:17
  also not to get rid of the questions
• 24:19
  because skepticism should work both
• 24:22
  ways. You know, I'm a skeptic, no doubt.
• 24:25
  But I'm a I'm generally a skeptic in
• 24:28
  both directions. You know, I don't trust
• 24:30
  any of them. They're all a bunch of
• 24:32
  lying a-holes. That's it. And they tell
• 24:34
  you what they think you want to hear
• 24:36
  because the truth doesn't matter.
• 24:39
  What matters is what you want to hear.
• 24:41
  And these people at this event are the
• 24:44
  kings and queens of that theory, no
• 24:47
  doubt. But it's irresponsible to just
• 24:50
  accept every official explanation
• 24:53
  without digging a little deeper. Or
• 24:55
  assume every inconsistency is evidence
• 24:57
  of something more sinister, right?
• 24:59
  Somebody explain something.
• 25:02
  Oh, that's it then, you know? The truth,
• 25:04
  as always, is requires patience,
• 25:07
  evidence, and willingness to sit in
• 25:09
  uncertainty
• 25:11
  longer than most people are comfortable
• 25:13
  with. For years,
• 25:15
  I have been one of those people
• 25:19
  that
• 25:21
  if possible, takes my time to make
• 25:25
  decisions. And people go, "Well, I
• 25:27
  already told you everything you need to
• 25:28
  know." Yeah, but I need to process it.
• 25:31
  You know what I mean? I need to process.
• 25:34
  And so, you know, I remember practicing
• 25:36
  law, I'd write some big brief, some big
• 25:38
  something I had to file somewhere in
• 25:40
  federal court or whatever. And and
• 25:43
  you know, I tried to write it at least
• 25:46
  three times, you know? Write it once,
• 25:48
  get my initial arguments, what I
• 25:50
  thought, you know? And then
• 25:52
  leave it sit a couple of days. And then
• 25:55
  come and write it again. And then
• 25:58
  you know, maybe a week before it was
• 26:00
  due, try to write it a third time, you
• 26:03
  know? Do some research, put some thought
• 26:05
  process. And
• 26:06
  it mixes in your brain, you know? While
• 26:09
  you're sitting there thinking about it.
• 26:10
  And you come to your conclusion. Now,
• 26:13
  a lot of people, that's takes too long.
• 26:15
  And a lot of lot of time you can't take
• 26:18
  that much time to figure out your path
• 26:20
  into where you're going to go. But for
• 26:23
  me, once you've done that and you're
• 26:25
  solid in where you want to be,
• 26:27
  you know all the arguments, you know all
• 26:29
  the counterarguments, you know
• 26:30
  everything to it. But it's it's nice to
• 26:32
  take something like this and discuss,
• 26:36
  you know, what does it mean? And how do
• 26:38
  you think about it? So,
• 26:40
  this does this thing again revealed
• 26:43
  another
• 26:45
  uh
• 26:46
  issue. You can say this with confidence,
• 26:48
  okay?
• 26:49
  A serious breach occurred at a
• 26:51
  high-profile, high-security environment.
• 26:54
  It exposed vulnerability,
• 26:57
  whether that was logistic, procedural,
• 27:00
  structural, that shouldn't exist at that
• 27:02
  high of a level. It demonstrated a
• 27:04
  protective bubble
• 27:06
  around political leadership sucks, you
• 27:09
  know? Again, once again. And it
• 27:12
  highlighted once again, internal
• 27:14
  stability of the US isn't as solid as
• 27:17
  it's portrayed.
• 27:18
  And perhaps most importantly, it
• 27:20
  revealed something about the times in
• 27:23
  which we are living.
• 27:25
  This is a country where political
• 27:27
  tension is high, where trust in
• 27:29
  institutions and in government is
• 27:31
  extraordinarily low,
• 27:34
  where rhetoric has become sharp, more
• 27:37
  personal, far more aggressive than it
• 27:39
  used to be. It's a country where a
• 27:41
  significant portion of the population is
• 27:44
  disconnected from the system.
• 27:46
  They are ignored by leadership of this
• 27:49
  type. And they're increasingly willing
• 27:52
  to view politics not as a process, but
• 27:54
  as a battleground.
• 27:56
  When those conditions exist,
• 27:59
  as they do here,
• 28:01
  incidents like this aren't entirely
• 28:04
  surprising, but they're not inevitable
• 28:06
  either.
• 28:07
  And
• 28:08
  you know,
• 28:09
  unfortunately, they're not unthinkable
• 28:12
  these days. And that's an uncomfortable
• 28:14
  reality cuz it means that this event
• 28:17
  isn't just about one guy. It's about the
• 28:19
  environment in which that individual
• 28:22
  exists. The pressure, the narrative, the
• 28:25
  tension that shape behavior
• 28:28
  of idiots that have nothing to do with
• 28:31
  any of it.
• 28:32
  Over time, you can't separate that act
• 28:35
  from the context in which it occurs. So,
• 28:38
  you know, I suppose the question
• 28:40
  shouldn't simply be what happened at the
• 28:42
  dinner?
• 28:43
  The question should really be what does
• 28:45
  it say about who we are? If political
• 28:48
  leadership of a country and the media
• 28:50
  leadership of a country can be back
• 28:52
  gathered in one place in a major city
• 28:54
  under heavy security and still face
• 28:57
  a one-off lone dude, what does that tell
• 29:00
  you about the broader system? Seriously.
• 29:03
  If the illusion of control can be broken
• 29:05
  this easily,
• 29:07
  even momentarily, what else
• 29:09
  is less secure than we think it is?
• 29:13
  What else isn't as What else aren't they
• 29:15
  telling us? And if this becomes just
• 29:17
  another story, just another headline,
• 29:19
  what does that say about what we're used
• 29:22
  to? We're used to this idiocy. Well, so
• 29:25
  there you have it. I
• 29:27
  I'll tell you what, it it is a bother to
• 29:30
  me that this kind of thing
• 29:32
  uh goes on. And it goes on far too
• 29:36
  often.
• 29:37
  Um I'm going to share with you something
• 29:39
  to break the mood because uh I'll tell
• 29:42
  you what, this is one of the songs I
• 29:43
  heard. And it's only a couple minutes
• 29:45
  long, but it's uh
• 29:47
  probably not something you'll hear on
• 29:49
  this station very much.
• 29:51
  You know, it's but I like it and we're
• 29:54
  going to listen to it in its entirety.
• 29:59
  It is
• 30:00
  uh
• 30:02
  called Freaks.
• 30:15
  >> [music]
• 30:20
  [music]
• 32:54
  >> Freaks everywhere, including at the
• 32:58
  correspondence dinner.
• 33:00
  Oh, here he is on the headline. Shooter
• 33:02
  behind the headline. There he is laying
• 33:05
  on the floor.
• 33:06
  He's all uh laying on the floor. Wonder
• 33:09
  how he feels after that. Well,
• 33:12
  he got a little bit attacked there,
• 33:13
  didn't he? Um but he didn't get shot.
• 33:17
  So, I don't know.
• 33:19
  That's the end of that tune. What we're
• 33:21
  going to What did Trump say? Trump says
• 33:22
  he ordered Navy to shoot and kill the
• 33:24
  Iran mine laying boats in the Strait of
• 33:27
  Hormuz. I've ordered the United States
• 33:29
  Navy to shoot and kill any boat small
• 33:32
  boat
• 33:34
  as though they may be
• 33:36
  at the bottom of the sea that is putting
• 33:39
  mines in the water in the Strait of
• 33:41
  Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation,
• 33:44
  etc. etc.
• 33:46
  Yep.
• 33:47
  This is getting better, isn't it?
• 33:49
  >> [snorts and laughter]
• 33:50
  >> No, it's not. Uh I wanted to I'm going
• 33:53
  to do a segment on Iran as well that
• 33:56
  we're going to go through uh but I want
• 33:59
  to go
• 34:00
  uh to Where am I going? I'm going, I
• 34:04
  believe, to
• 34:06
  Ukraine.
• 34:08
  Going off to Ukraine.
• 34:11
  And uh
• 34:12
  I want to Where am I? So, that I'm still
• 34:15
  in the correspondence dinner. Hold on.
• 34:19
  We're going to
• 34:21
  uh
• 34:24
  Let's see. Oh, that's the Iran one.
• 34:25
  Sorry. We're going to get to Iran in
• 34:27
  just a minute. But we need some some um
• 34:32
  some Well, you know what? Let's do Iran
• 34:34
  second. We're going to No, Ukraine. This
• 34:37
  This So,
• 34:39
  the core argument uh so Lavrov gave some
• 34:41
  speeches uh over the weekend. Zakharova
• 34:43
  gave speech I listened to both of them
• 34:46
  whilst driving somewhere and uh uh
• 34:50
  they're pre- they're
• 34:51
  interesting. And Lavrov's core argument
• 34:54
  is that the the collective West has
• 34:57
  openly moved from indirect pressure to
• 35:00
  open war.
• 35:02
  So, over the weekend there was a uh
• 35:05
  a
• 35:05
  series of So, Russia is testing borders,
• 35:09
  okay? So, one I I I listened to to
• 35:12
  another guy that uh analyzes war all the
• 35:16
  time and uh I forget which one it was
• 35:19
  whether it was Alex Christoforou or
• 35:21
  whether it was one military summary
• 35:22
  channel guy, I don't remember. But they
• 35:24
  showed the video and showed the
• 35:26
  the radar scenario of call it 40 to 50
• 35:32
  Russian drones
• 35:35
  flying over the Black Sea into Odessa
• 35:39
  area and then going south toward the
• 35:41
  Romanian border, okay? And they were
• 35:43
  headed toward the Romanian border and
• 35:47
  uh suddenly
• 35:49
  uh
• 35:51
  2/3 of them disappeared. Suddenly, a
• 35:54
  little bit further and normally that
• 35:56
  would be if they all were blown you
• 35:59
  know, had reached their target and blown
• 36:00
  something up. Of course, they're no
• 36:02
  longer going to be visible on as uh
• 36:05
  as a as a signal, you know, radar signal
• 36:07
  that you have it.
• 36:08
  And but the the curiosity in the the
• 36:14
  method of of this attack. So, the
• 36:17
  Russians in in have been doing in the
• 36:20
  neighborhood of uh 600. There was a big
• 36:24
  deal about 666.
• 36:26
  Everybody knows the three sixes deal.
• 36:28
  666
• 36:30
  drones flying into Ukraine uh the in the
• 36:34
  one-day period, you know, that the
• 36:36
  Ukrainians were attacking. And then the
• 36:38
  the curiosity of how they went. Then
• 36:40
  this one came up. And so, Russia is
• 36:42
  pushing because the summer offensives
• 36:45
  are all coming.
• 36:46
  And Ukraine doesn't have any people
• 36:48
  left. So, the joke is that they've
• 36:50
  received $90,000 from people that don't
• 36:54
  have the money to loan them, Europe,
• 36:57
  to fight a war they cannot win
• 37:00
  against Russia
• 37:02
  to buy weapons from the United States
• 37:05
  that no longer exist because the US has
• 37:08
  either used them all or has uh
• 37:11
  refused to sell them cuz they're going
• 37:13
  to need them for their own purposes with
• 37:16
  and all this is going to be done with uh
• 37:20
  $90 billion that's going to help defend
• 37:24
  soldiers that can't use any of the
• 37:26
  weapons anyway cuz they don't exist
• 37:29
  either. So, the only thing that does
• 37:31
  exist is the 90 billion in Zelensky's
• 37:34
  pocket. There was a story
• 37:36
  uh Where is this?
• 37:38
  that uh
• 37:39
  uh
• 37:41
  Hang on a second. I got to find this.
• 37:44
  where the uh Zelensky is headed now cuz
• 37:48
  Zelensky he's he's going everywhere
• 37:51
  trying to get more people. I reported
• 37:53
  that last week or he was going all over
• 37:55
  Europe trying to get more people. And
• 37:57
  he's trying to to to get them to send
• 38:00
  their at least the men back to stop
• 38:03
  giving them free money, stop giving them
• 38:05
  free housing, and ship them back to
• 38:07
  Ukraine so he can send them to the front
• 38:09
  lines to die. And uh so, Kyiv right now
• 38:13
  Zelensky's in the Middle East.
• 38:16
  And he's trying to sell his war
• 38:18
  experience to
• 38:21
  uh United Arab Emirates, to Saudi
• 38:23
  Arabia, to Qatar. He's trying to you
• 38:26
  know, to Bahrain. He wants to sell this.
• 38:28
  And so, his activity in the Middle East
• 38:30
  is an attempt to find new political
• 38:32
  financial oxygen at a moment when usual
• 38:35
  supporters are far less reliable.
• 38:38
  For years he's been able to build his
• 38:40
  strategy on the assumption that the US
• 38:42
  and Europe are going to continue to give
• 38:45
  him weapons, money, intelligence, and
• 38:47
  diplomatic protection as a non-president
• 38:51
  for the second year now.
• 38:53
  Uh but now American support, nobody
• 38:56
  wants it. I mean,
• 38:58
  what the hell have we heard about
• 38:59
  Ukraine here lately? Nothing. There are
• 39:02
  people that are very angry about this. A
• 39:04
  lot of Democrats still want their money
• 39:06
  laundering schemes to be going on. But
• 39:08
  now the money laundering is exclusively
• 39:10
  the territory of uh
• 39:13
  of uh
• 39:16
  uh
• 39:18
  uh Europe, you know, and Europe is the
• 39:21
  one giving 90 billion. They are the
• 39:23
  money launderer and they launder the
• 39:25
  money through uh through Ukraine, just
• 39:28
  like everybody else did. But now, you
• 39:30
  know, it doesn't go to the Bidenopolis,
• 39:33
  you know, to uh to come in and go to
• 39:36
  go to Biden's son through Burisma. Or
• 39:39
  now it's figuring out how to fund Jared
• 39:41
  Kushner.
• 39:42
  >> [laughter]
• 39:43
  >> It's the other way around. Everybody
• 39:45
  else gets the money and so we just
• 39:49
  we just exchange it around, but Zelensky
• 39:51
  either way is finding out that a lot of
• 39:52
  these things are no longer as uh
• 39:55
  as profitable for him and he's trying to
• 39:58
  you know, maybe every once in a while he
• 40:00
  is still trying to protect his country
• 40:02
  long term. It doesn't seem like it, you
• 40:05
  know, everybody's dying and it and and
• 40:07
  you got to stop the bleeding first. So,
• 40:11
  you know, his
• 40:13
  you know, European
• 40:15
  concert tour and now his Middle East
• 40:17
  concert tour where he gets to take the
• 40:19
  comedy on the road aren't aren't going
• 40:22
  to pan out for him is what uh
• 40:24
  you know, there's an entire article out
• 40:26
  of it if you're interested in reading it
• 40:28
  that somebody wrote and
• 40:30
  I'm not going to share the whole thing,
• 40:31
  but it's written by a guy
• 40:33
  who's the president of Middle East
• 40:35
  studies and a visiting lecturer
• 40:39
  at the uh
• 40:40
  Moscow. It's a international uh
• 40:43
  uh political institute. A guy named
• 40:47
  Murad Zazadixadya.
• 40:50
  I can't spell it. Zadidixadya. I can't
• 40:53
  sell it say it correctly.
• 40:55
  Um
• 40:57
  Uh
• 40:58
  I don't know. Crazy times indeed. Crazy
• 41:01
  crazy times, but in Ukraine they're not
• 41:04
  being treated as a sovereign country by
• 41:06
  the West and haven't been for a long
• 41:09
  time. And this
• 41:12
  activity on the south border of Ukraine
• 41:15
  and the activity of Zelensky in the
• 41:18
  Middle East are just indicators of
• 41:21
  what's really going on. Um allegedly,
• 41:25
  now there's no I haven't
• 41:27
  finalized
• 41:28
  this review yet to see whether it really
• 41:32
  occurred. It wouldn't surprise me if it
• 41:34
  did. But the talk is that these that
• 41:38
  Europe has taken an additional step
• 41:41
  further. Specifically, Great Britain
• 41:43
  England has taken another step.
• 41:46
  And what happened was as these 430 to 50
• 41:50
  missiles were headed toward the border
• 41:54
  of
• 41:55
  uh Romania which you know, they would
• 41:58
  have never crossed anyway is in my view,
• 42:00
  but they were attacking south of
• 42:04
  Odessa. Wouldn't surprise me if there
• 42:05
  was some kind of a test because they've
• 42:07
  been talking about it for a long time.
• 42:09
  The drones are coming from
• 42:12
  from the Ukrainian side. They're flying
• 42:14
  over NATO territories and coming across.
• 42:17
  And so you know, Finland is talking
• 42:19
  about removing everything for nuclear
• 42:22
  weapons and so Russia
• 42:25
  is prepping also for a war by 2030 with
• 42:29
  Europe all of it because the Europeans
• 42:32
  are pushing for that. And so the
• 42:34
  Russians, you know, what do you think
• 42:35
  they're going to do? Not defend
• 42:36
  themselves? And so now they're testing
• 42:38
  because they believe two things. One
• 42:40
  that some huge shipments of of new
• 42:42
  missiles, new weaponry is coming up
• 42:44
  specifically through the ports, but
• 42:47
  they'll land instead of the port city of
• 42:49
  Odessa, they'll land in port cities in
• 42:52
  Bulgaria and Romania come that way,
• 42:55
  right?
• 42:56
  And
• 42:57
  on the Black Sea and Romania is just
• 42:59
  south of Odessa. And so what they will
• 43:01
  do is
• 43:03
  what what Russia I believe was doing it
• 43:05
  was make reasonable sense to me is
• 43:07
  flying these drones up to the border to
• 43:12
  see what had happened and taken there's
• 43:13
  a couple of small cities. I forget what
• 43:15
  they are, but they were attacking some
• 43:17
  of those cities and there were decent
• 43:18
  amount of attacks in those two cities,
• 43:20
  but they're only 3 4 km from the border
• 43:24
  of Romania. And so
• 43:27
  what they're alleging occurred is that
• 43:31
  the British
• 43:32
  um
• 43:34
  Foreign Ministry gave the authority
• 43:38
  to uh
• 43:40
  British fighter pilots flying in Romania
• 43:45
  to shoot down Russian drones over
• 43:50
  Ukraine.
• 43:51
  Now that's an act of war against Russia.
• 43:55
  It and there's no doubt of it. You know,
• 43:57
  they they they Remember there was huge
• 43:59
  talks about it whether Poland could
• 44:01
  shoot down Russian drones that are
• 44:04
  flying in the western half of of Ukraine
• 44:07
  because Ukraine doesn't have enough air
• 44:09
  defense to do it and Russia has said
• 44:12
  consistently you you shoot down our
• 44:17
  airplanes, our drones, our missiles,
• 44:21
  that is an act of war. You are involved
• 44:24
  and there's no doubt that's true. You're
• 44:26
  involved. So it's
• 44:29
  um
• 44:31
  it's
• 44:32
  definitely an act of war. And now
• 44:35
  [clears throat] that Romania has done
• 44:36
  it, the British have quickly said nope,
• 44:38
  not us. The Romanians are going yeah,
• 44:39
  they did.
• 44:40
  >> [laughter]
• 44:41
  >> Romanians are saying they sure did give
• 44:43
  the authority to these British pilots
• 44:46
  flying British planes over Romania to
• 44:50
  fire into Ukraine and take out uh drones
• 44:55
  in Ukraine. Russian drones in Ukraine.
• 44:57
  Now that's an air defense because there
• 45:00
  is no air defense down there really.
• 45:02
  Ukraine's out of air defense anyway. So
• 45:04
  basically, it's the British providing
• 45:06
  air defense. So Lavrov coming out and
• 45:08
  saying Ukraine isn't being treated as a
• 45:11
  sovereign country by the West. It's
• 45:14
  being treated as a weapon system.
• 45:17
  And he says that the US unlike Europe is
• 45:19
  at least publicly acknowledged some of
• 45:22
  the concerns of Russia. No NATO for
• 45:24
  Ukraine, recognition of territorial
• 45:27
  reality after the referendums. The
• 45:29
  Europeans are still speaking the
• 45:30
  language of total victory just like
• 45:32
  Trump is in in Iran. They're talking
• 45:34
  well total victory, we're winning.
• 45:36
  You're not winning.
• 45:39
  And Russia has to you know, move away.
• 45:41
  We we don't move. Why? Because the rules
• 45:44
  only apply to others, never to us,
• 45:49
  right? The Americans sometimes are
• 45:51
  speaking the language of ugly reality
• 45:54
  according to Lavrov. That does not make
• 45:56
  Washington innocent. It just means
• 45:59
  Europe may be more delusional than
• 46:02
  Washington.
• 46:04
  Which isn't a contest anyone should
• 46:05
  really want to win. These people are
• 46:07
  nuts. And the Ukraine is reportedly
• 46:11
  received or is approved for this 90
• 46:13
  billion euro loan package and already
• 46:16
  is signaled that it needs another 20
• 46:17
  billion.
• 46:19
  We need another 20 billion. 90 billion's
• 46:21
  not enough. That's only going to cover
• 46:22
  us, you know, we would that'll only mean
• 46:24
  we can keep this war going another year
• 46:26
  and a half. We need a full 2 years out
• 46:28
  of it or we're never going to beat those
• 46:30
  Russkies.
• 46:32
  We're not going to beat them.
• 46:34
  We're not going to beat them anyway.
• 46:36
  And the the fact that all of Europe is
• 46:39
  leaning toward this total
• 46:41
  global thermonuclear war, they should
• 46:45
  bring in uh
• 46:47
  you What was the kid from WarGames? Um
• 46:51
  same kid from Ferris Bueller's Day Off,
• 46:55
  you know. Bring in that guy.
• 46:57
  Let's play Shall we play a game? Global
• 47:00
  thermonuclear war. That's where we're
• 47:03
  headed, people.
• 47:05
  If you listen to all the uh
• 47:08
  smartypantses
• 47:09
  in
• 47:11
  Europe, that's where we're headed. And
• 47:14
  that is truly what they wish for the
• 47:17
  rest of us. And uh
• 47:20
  I don't know. I I'm
• 47:24
  I mean, think about this. Here's the
• 47:26
  Finnish government. Here's what the
• 47:28
  Finnish government says to us.
• 47:33
  Well, her name is Riikka Purra.
• 47:37
  She has warned of growing pressure on
• 47:40
  the country's finances.
• 47:42
  The warn This is Finland, a pretty rich
• 47:44
  country. The warning comes just days
• 47:47
  after the government unveiled a
• 47:49
  multi-year fiscal plan increasing
• 47:51
  military aid to Ukraine
• 47:54
  and domestic spending cuts to their own
• 47:59
  citizenry.
• 48:01
  The government's fiscal plan for 2027 to
• 48:03
  2030 was presented earlier this week. It
• 48:07
  includes
• 48:08
  240 million euro in cuts to social and
• 48:12
  health care spending, but increase of 30
• 48:16
  300 million to increase military support
• 48:19
  for Ukraine.
• 48:22
  Hm. The state of public finances, she
• 48:25
  said, is extremely difficult and the
• 48:28
  debt to GDP ratio ratio is approaching
• 48:31
  90%.
• 48:33
  She said in an interview on Saturday.
• 48:35
  We've been hit not only by external
• 48:37
  shocks, she said, adding the nation
• 48:41
  struggles with high unemployment, zero
• 48:43
  economic growth, and an aging
• 48:45
  population. The fiscal plan agreed to by
• 48:49
  the government sets out public spending
• 48:51
  cuts and changes to household costs and
• 48:54
  welfare, health care. But plan savings
• 48:57
  are higher customer fees. You know,
• 48:59
  that's okay, we'll pass it on to them
• 49:01
  across the health care system covering
• 49:03
  specialist exams, surgery, outpatient
• 49:06
  visits, health center, and dental care
• 49:09
  as well as charges for storing a
• 49:11
  deceased person
• 49:13
  and determining his cause of death.
• 49:17
  Meaning they're not going to spend as
• 49:18
  much time on that. Apart from providing
• 49:21
  increased military support for Ukraine,
• 49:23
  the plan allocates additional fundings
• 49:25
  to strengthen drone defense. In further
• 49:29
  setting out um
• 49:32
  for more money, they want the ambition
• 49:34
  to gradually raise their defense target
• 49:38
  toward the 5% that Daddy Trump required
• 49:42
  for NATO. Finland joined NATO in April
• 49:45
  of 2023.
• 49:47
  According to the World Bank, the country
• 49:49
  spent around 1.3 to 1.7%
• 49:53
  of GDP on defense prior to that time.
• 49:57
  Helsinki has since increased its defense
• 50:00
  budget with plans to raise spending to
• 50:02
  3.2% by 2030, bringing the nation closer
• 50:06
  to the target of 3 and 1/2% by 2035.
• 50:11
  Finnish officials repeatedly echo other
• 50:13
  NATO members claiming that Russia is a
• 50:16
  permanent threat
• 50:18
  to EU members. And
• 50:20
  while increasing defense spending to
• 50:23
  counter it, Finland shares a 1,300 km or
• 50:27
  800 mi border with the Russkies. The
• 50:31
  Kremlin and me reject these claims and
• 50:35
  accuse the West of fueling Russophobia
• 50:38
  to justify military build-up and also to
• 50:42
  divert attention from their own domestic
• 50:44
  problems. Everything has to be blamed by
• 50:48
  the
• 50:50
  blamed on the Russians. There was an
• 50:52
  interesting article and I wonder if it's
• 50:55
  a just a movie now that they have the
• 50:58
  article, too.
• 51:00
  A guy named Sergey Karaganov, he um
• 51:07
  was on a
• 51:08
  program in an interview with Alexander
• 51:10
  Kadievsky on Russia 24 and he argued
• 51:13
  that it's been a source of global
• 51:15
  conflict. He said Western Europe is
• 51:17
  becoming increasingly drawn into the war
• 51:20
  in Ukraine, citing the stuff going on
• 51:24
  south of Odessa and this idiocy going on
• 51:28
  in the rest of of Europe.
• 51:30
  Um
• 51:32
  Statements are already being made by
• 51:34
  officials and news reports regarding EU
• 51:37
  prep for war with more concerns and
• 51:40
  questions. How should Russia respond? As
• 51:43
  an example, he said, let's mention the
• 51:45
  news the Germans have already produced
• 51:47
  5,000 drones based on Ukrainian designs.
• 51:51
  It's laughable to hear that. What
• 51:53
  Ukrainian designs? He said, it is clear
• 51:56
  the German defense industry is directly
• 51:58
  working on drones striking Russia. And
• 52:02
  you remember the Taurus missiles? The
• 52:05
  Germans have made a clever move. They
• 52:07
  don't formally supply such weapons and
• 52:10
  now they've decided to say they provide
• 52:13
  drones. And what they're doing is
• 52:14
  they're manufacturing them now or
• 52:17
  claiming that they're manufactured in
• 52:20
  Ukraine.
• 52:22
  But the targeting still has to be
• 52:24
  provided by the Germans, just like our
• 52:29
  Tomahawks would require US and the Storm
• 52:32
  Shadow would require British or
• 52:34
  whichever it was French and then you
• 52:35
  know, there's it's it's nuts. So sooner
• 52:38
  or later a countermeasure will have to
• 52:39
  be found for for drones that are drones
• 52:43
  are far more dangerous than missiles
• 52:45
  nowadays.
• 52:47
  And that depends on how they're being
• 52:48
  used, but the issue is still very
• 52:50
  complex and Sergey Shoigu said that
• 52:54
  they're legitimate targets on EU
• 52:56
  territory
• 52:58
  because they were talking about drones
• 53:00
  being shot down over Ukraine by other
• 53:03
  countries. And he says that makes them
• 53:06
  just like US providing Tomahawks would
• 53:08
  make the US an enemy combatant.
• 53:12
  And that's
• 53:14
  They've been pretty consistent in saying
• 53:16
  that and the Europeans have generally
• 53:18
  been fairly
• 53:21
  careful about making sure that they
• 53:23
  don't cross those lines, but they're
• 53:25
  crossing. You know, they're season
• 53:27
  trying to seize ships. Somebody said
• 53:28
  they wanted to take Kaliningrad.
• 53:30
  Kaliningrad's a little chunk of Russia
• 53:32
  that is
• 53:33
  west of the Baltic states. It's separate
• 53:36
  from Russia.
• 53:38
  Just like
• 53:39
  the the part in Moldova in Moldova,
• 53:42
  Transnistria, that is a separate sliver
• 53:44
  of Moldova that stayed with Russia. And
• 53:47
  Kaliningrad, same thing. It's on the
• 53:49
  Baltic Sea, but it's not connected to
• 53:51
  the rest of Russia and you got to go
• 53:53
  through Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, you
• 53:55
  know, to get there. A little bit of
• 53:56
  Poland even and certainly Belarus to to
• 53:59
  to be over there. And so it's not
• 54:02
  attached. And so there's somebody else
• 54:05
  England's
• 54:06
  they're [laughter] going to take
• 54:07
  Kaliningrad. We're just going to take
• 54:10
  Kaliningrad. Russians can't have that.
• 54:12
  Well, let's have an act of war. I mean
• 54:14
  it was a
• 54:15
  sort of tongue-in-cheek, you know, like
• 54:18
  I used to think that that Donald Trump
• 54:20
  OG's were stealing Greenland, you know,
• 54:22
  kind of the same thing, but people are
• 54:23
  just
• 54:25
  the world's nuts these days. And so
• 54:27
  Sergey Shoigu Sergey Shoigu said that
• 54:31
  they're legitimate targets in the EU.
• 54:33
  Ministry of Defense published a list
• 54:35
  locations where the drones are being
• 54:36
  manufactured. I shared that with you
• 54:38
  last week. And in response to EU
• 54:40
  spokesperson Anita Hipper stated, here's
• 54:43
  a quote, the European Commission has no
• 54:45
  evidence of the Russian Federation
• 54:47
  claims. In other words, in their view,
• 54:50
  we're making up attacks on our cities,
• 54:53
  on our infrastructure. This is
• 54:55
  uh what's-his-name
• 54:57
  continuing to speak Alexander Kadievsky
• 55:01
  say actually he was interviewing this
• 55:03
  other guy, but they he said the
• 55:05
  countries reported include strategic
• 55:07
  civilian infrastructure. Countries
• 55:09
  reported this, Finland, Baltic states
• 55:11
  are pretending they don't know anything
• 55:13
  about these drones flying over their
• 55:16
  territory. And they said, we see
• 55:18
  something flying past here and they
• 55:20
  didn't. It was a way to say that Russia
• 55:22
  was flying. Anyway, these type of
• 55:24
  stories are becoming more and more
• 55:28
  prevalent. I mean
• 55:30
  he also said he made in his comment. He
• 55:33
  said
• 55:35
  World War Lavrov did on this part. He
• 55:38
  said World War III is already upon us.
• 55:41
  That is what he said. And he said, you
• 55:44
  know, in a lot of respects, World War
• 55:46
  III is already here.
• 55:49
  And you know,
• 55:51
  it's hard to uh
• 55:54
  uh
• 55:56
  stay out of it. You know, it's hard to
• 55:59
  not believe that kind of thing.
• 56:02
  And you know, the global military
• 56:04
  spending is freaking
• 56:07
  unbelievable these days. It is a record
• 56:10
  high. There was a report that came out
• 56:13
  um
• 56:14
  the continent's expenditure. The the the
• 56:17
  European continent
• 56:19
  and the expenditure has risen by 14%.
• 56:24
  European military spending has propelled
• 56:26
  global defense expenditures to a record
• 56:30
  high of nearly 3 trillion dollars in
• 56:33
  2025
• 56:35
  despite the US decreasing its own
• 56:38
  outlay. This was reported by the
• 56:40
  Stockholm International Peace Research
• 56:42
  Institute. Worldwide military
• 56:45
  expenditures rose 2.9%
• 56:48
  in real terms last year to 2.887
• 56:53
  trillion dollars, marking the 11th
• 56:57
  consecutive annual increase and lifting
• 57:00
  the global military burden to 2.5%
• 57:04
  of GDP.
• 57:08
  SIPRI experts explain the trend by
• 57:10
  citing several conflicts and persisting
• 57:14
  geopolitical tensions. The entire
• 57:16
  European continent accounted for the
• 57:18
  largest increase with spending going up
• 57:23
  14% to 864
• 57:26
  billion. SIPRI linked a surge to the
• 57:28
  Ukraine conflict, a standoff with
• 57:31
  Russia, the ongoing pursuit of European
• 57:34
  self-reliance and increasing pressure
• 57:36
  from the United States for
• 57:38
  burden-sharing
• 57:40
  within the alliance.
• 57:42
  In total, NATO members in Europe spent a
• 57:45
  combined 559 billion in 2025.
• 57:49
  Germany's outlay is 24% of that.
• 57:53
  Uh
• 57:55
  It it went up Well, no, I'm sorry,
• 57:56
  that's not right. Germany's outlay is
• 57:58
  all by itself went up 24%
• 58:01
  to 114 billion.
• 58:03
  And Spain jumped up 50% to 40 billion.
• 58:08
  And but they're still far too low. US
• 58:09
  military expenditure
• 58:13
  fell 7.5%
• 58:16
  to 954
• 58:18
  billion. SIPRI linked a surprise
• 58:20
  decline, that is a surprise, to the
• 58:22
  Trump administration's refusal to
• 58:24
  approve new assistance to Ukraine
• 58:27
  in contrast to previous years when 127
• 58:30
  billion in direct military support was
• 58:32
  authorized. The US continues deliveries
• 58:36
  through the NATO coordinated programs
• 58:39
  and other Western countries are footing
• 58:41
  the bill, so that's the difference. Last
• 58:43
  week, Pentagon officials said Trump was
• 58:45
  advocating a military budget, I I
• 58:48
  brought this to you, of 1.5 trillion
• 58:51
  dollars to provide new funds for a
• 58:53
  Golden Dome missile system, AI
• 58:56
  capabilities and a new class of
• 58:58
  battleship.
• 59:03
  I'm not for this. That's the silence
• 59:05
  part right there. SIPRI noted Russia's
• 59:08
  defense expenditure is 190 billion while
• 59:13
  Ukraine's spending
• 59:15
  went up by 20% to 84 billion, the
• 59:19
  equivalent of 40% of its GDP, which is
• 59:23
  the seventh largest military spender in
• 59:26
  the world. China increased its military
• 59:28
  spending by 7.4%
• 59:30
  to 336
• 59:32
  billion and Japan went up to 62 billion.
• 59:37
  Taiwan is at 18.2 billion. Moscow
• 59:41
  condemns what it described as a reckless
• 59:44
  militarization by the EU,
• 59:47
  especially since it is aimed at Russia.
• 59:49
  Kremlin smoke spokesman Dmitri Peskov
• 59:52
  has said
• 59:54
  that the European propaganda seeks to
• 59:56
  turn Russia into a model external enemy
• 1:00:01
  to divert attention from their own
• 1:00:04
  internal crises.
• 1:00:08
  Things in Europe
• 1:00:09
  um
• 1:00:11
  there's a a something that I might end
• 1:00:13
  up sharing with you after I watch it uh
• 1:00:15
  later this week. There's something
• 1:00:17
  called Chernobyl 40,
• 1:00:19
  the true story of the world's worst
• 1:00:23
  nuclear catastrophe is something in my
• 1:00:26
  uh
• 1:00:26
  in my block to watch and uh because we
• 1:00:30
  are uh the 40th
• 1:00:33
  uh anniversary of that.
• 1:00:35
  Um so I played a a song that I uh heard
• 1:00:39
  over the weekend and I haven't heard it
• 1:00:41
  in forever. And so I played it for you
• 1:00:43
  earlier. Here is another one and this
• 1:00:45
  might bring back some memories uh as it
• 1:00:48
  did for me because this was a little bit
• 1:00:51
  on the uh on the funny side for me. I
• 1:00:56
  hope you enjoy it.
• 1:01:07
  You know what? We're going to start that
• 1:01:09
  over. I moved up the wrong pedal. So
• 1:01:12
  we're going to start it over just
• 1:01:13
  because we don't want to miss it. This
• 1:01:15
  is a a a song that we're going to ruin
• 1:01:17
  if we don't hear it all.
• 1:02:36
  >> [music]
• 1:03:15
  [music]
• 1:05:04
  >> Terrible, terrible times. That was what?
• 1:05:06
  1970
• 1:05:08
  something? You knew who that was?
• 1:05:11
  That was
• 1:05:12
  Cheech and Chong actually that came out
• 1:05:15
  with that song. I remember my older
• 1:05:17
  brothers playing that song. So when you
• 1:05:19
  have 11 kids in your family, uh you
• 1:05:22
  share a bedroom, right?
• 1:05:24
  Me and my brother were in a basement
• 1:05:26
  room with a concrete floor, you know, it
• 1:05:29
  was a um mostly an unfinished basement.
• 1:05:32
  And it had a uh
• 1:05:34
  uh living area down there that was
• 1:05:36
  always full of dad's old
• 1:05:38
  Dad
• 1:05:39
  always took TVs and radios tore them
• 1:05:42
  apart and uh would, you know, make new
• 1:05:46
  ones or turn around so you played with
• 1:05:48
  electronics and stuff like that in his
• 1:05:50
  uh very little bit of spare time. And
• 1:05:52
  then uh my uh
• 1:05:55
  my brothers were on the other end of the
• 1:05:56
  house. There were the three older older
• 1:05:59
  in the basement anyway. It was all there
• 1:06:01
  were five of us uh boys in the basement.
• 1:06:04
  And then uh
• 1:06:06
  jeez, that that was a crowded little
• 1:06:08
  house.
• 1:06:10
  >> [laughter]
• 1:06:10
  >> And
• 1:06:11
  but you'd hear my brothers playing their
• 1:06:14
  music and you'd get stuff like this.
• 1:06:15
  Lots of Jethro Tull coming from that end
• 1:06:18
  of the house too though, but uh also
• 1:06:20
  plenty of uh
• 1:06:21
  Cheech and Chong and that was a Cheech
• 1:06:24
  and Chong album. I want to finish off
• 1:06:27
  the uh
• 1:06:28
  the show today with a little bit of a
• 1:06:30
  discussion about um
• 1:06:34
  the
• 1:06:35
  Iran with with what is what and and I've
• 1:06:38
  had some time to think about this and
• 1:06:41
  and put things together, but I you know,
• 1:06:46
  I don't want to
• 1:06:47
  you know, the the advertising going
• 1:06:50
  around about this from the uh powers
• 1:06:54
  that be doesn't match reality. And uh I
• 1:06:58
  think that's important to note from the
• 1:07:01
  jump. But I don't want to frame Iran as
• 1:07:05
  winning. I don't think anyone is winning
• 1:07:09
  this war. It is not the the
• 1:07:13
  the
• 1:07:16
  I don't know, presumption I want to put
• 1:07:18
  out there. It is too cheap, too childish
• 1:07:21
  for the scale of what is really
• 1:07:23
  happening. Iran has suffered
• 1:07:24
  assassinations,
• 1:07:26
  decapitations
• 1:07:28
  of power up on top, bombing all over,
• 1:07:31
  economic pressure everywhere,
• 1:07:33
  infrastructure threatened. I mean, here
• 1:07:35
  we are back again to what was going on 2
• 1:07:38
  3 weeks ago. We're going to take out all
• 1:07:40
  your power plants and we're going to
• 1:07:41
  destroy all your abilities and blah blah
• 1:07:44
  blah. And then the decapitation strikes
• 1:07:47
  are going to continue. We're going to
• 1:07:48
  take out the next level.
• 1:07:52
  Well, that's not victory for for
• 1:07:56
  uh um
• 1:07:57
  Iran. Sure as hell isn't victory for the
• 1:07:59
  United States, but the mistake in
• 1:08:01
  Washington,
• 1:08:03
  in my view,
• 1:08:05
  is assuming that because Iran has and is
• 1:08:09
  suffering,
• 1:08:11
  Iran has lost and Iran is therefore
• 1:08:14
  broken. This is the old Imperial fantasy
• 1:08:18
  still
• 1:08:20
  still rearing its ugly head. You know,
• 1:08:22
  hit a country a country hard enough,
• 1:08:25
  kill enough of its leaders, freeze
• 1:08:28
  enough of its money, seize enough of its
• 1:08:31
  ships, and eventually the people will
• 1:08:33
  crawl out from under the table and thank
• 1:08:36
  you
• 1:08:37
  for the for allowing them
• 1:08:39
  the opportunity, in fact, the privilege
• 1:08:42
  of surrendering and allowing you to be
• 1:08:45
  the new leader of their country.
• 1:08:48
  Um I don't think that's going to happen.
• 1:08:50
  That is not how old civilizations
• 1:08:53
  behave. That's not how a proud country
• 1:08:56
  behaves. And it's especially not how
• 1:08:59
  Iran behaves
• 1:09:01
  after nearly a half a century of
• 1:09:04
  resisting American pressure.
• 1:09:07
  Um Trump said something about uh well,
• 1:09:12
  you know, all these other all these
• 1:09:13
  other presidents before me for the last
• 1:09:16
  50 years have just been idiots, you
• 1:09:18
  know, we were in charge of Iran under
• 1:09:21
  the Shah. I mean,
• 1:09:22
  sure, that was another Imperial
• 1:09:25
  Impe- We're like Imperial storm troopers
• 1:09:28
  from Star Wars. We're we're we're in
• 1:09:30
  charge of Iran. That doesn't mean Iran
• 1:09:32
  wanted us there even then.
• 1:09:34
  You know, and and you know, I I I was
• 1:09:38
  just a kid when that happened, you know,
• 1:09:41
  when
• 1:09:42
  '79. I remember it. You know, I remember
• 1:09:45
  the the assassinations. I remember all
• 1:09:48
  of those things that went on.
• 1:09:50
  And what what happened in Iran. Trump is
• 1:09:52
  still complaining about that.
• 1:09:55
  And he made some commentary that well,
• 1:09:57
  you know, all these other presidents
• 1:09:58
  they should have done something. And
• 1:09:59
  people are bringing up this 49 years,
• 1:10:03
  you know, we've been fighting Iran.
• 1:10:04
  Well, because you had put in
• 1:10:08
  a leadership that wasn't their
• 1:10:10
  leadership. You know what I mean? It was
• 1:10:13
  your leadership. It was totally
• 1:10:15
  subordinate to America, and that's that.
• 1:10:19
  And it had the, you know, you had to do
• 1:10:21
  what the CIA told you to do, and that's
• 1:10:23
  the end. And they
• 1:10:26
  got out of that.
• 1:10:27
  Whether you agree with it or not doesn't
• 1:10:29
  matter. That that is their country,
• 1:10:31
  their self-determination. The US is not
• 1:10:35
  the colonialist of the world, or
• 1:10:37
  shouldn't be in my humble opinion.
• 1:10:39
  Anyway,
• 1:10:40
  the Trump's policy of non-negotiation,
• 1:10:45
  capitulation dressed up as diplomacy,
• 1:10:48
  you know, another demand. Every day
• 1:10:50
  another demand. Every day something
• 1:10:53
  different. Where we demand
• 1:10:55
  X.
• 1:10:56
  And
• 1:10:57
  you know, this capitulation is all he's
• 1:10:59
  after. Same thing that the that the
• 1:11:02
  Europeans are demanding of Russia. Well,
• 1:11:04
  capitulate. We're right, you're wrong.
• 1:11:07
  We're We're important, you're not.
• 1:11:10
  Our opinions are important, yours are
• 1:11:13
  not.
• 1:11:14
  And that is
• 1:11:16
  absolutely
• 1:11:18
  not the case if you're an Iranian.
• 1:11:20
  >> [laughter]
• 1:11:20
  >> They don't think that way. So, I'm not
• 1:11:23
  sure and and I and I don't know. I'm
• 1:11:26
  only taking this from the point of view
• 1:11:27
  of claiming that, you know, we've
• 1:11:29
  already won, you know, and
• 1:11:31
  put me in coach. Hegseth is always ready
• 1:11:34
  to, you know, talk about oh, we we
• 1:11:37
  already won, you know, it's over. We're
• 1:11:39
  done. We're We're up here. You know, um
• 1:11:42
  that we don't need peace. We just need
• 1:11:44
  to keep on bombing them, and eventually
• 1:11:46
  they'll give up.
• 1:11:48
  Well, I'm not so sure that's the case.
• 1:11:51
  Um and financially, I'm totally I'm
• 1:11:53
  almost positive it's not the case. Um
• 1:11:58
  financially.
• 1:11:59
  Um they've been they've been sanctioned
• 1:12:02
  forever, you know, and they've been, you
• 1:12:04
  know, their assets frozen forever. The
• 1:12:07
  money has been, you know, probably the
• 1:12:09
  same as our social security system has
• 1:12:12
  already been robbed.
• 1:12:13
  It's gone. And so, this
• 1:12:18
  Trump is demanding that Iran surrender
• 1:12:21
  to America and Israel, and then says it
• 1:12:24
  plainly.
• 1:12:25
  You know,
• 1:12:26
  the Iranians say, "Well, that ain't
• 1:12:28
  happening. We're not We're not just
• 1:12:29
  going to
• 1:12:31
  surrender. It will not happen." So, the
• 1:12:34
  point isn't that Iran is invincible,
• 1:12:36
  they're not. The point is that the Trump
• 1:12:38
  assumption that they will capitulate is
• 1:12:41
  wrong. You can continue to hurt Iran.
• 1:12:44
  You can continue to make them bleed. You
• 1:12:46
  can even continue to punish them. But
• 1:12:49
  the idea that it's going to, you know,
• 1:12:51
  fold, the government's going to fold
• 1:12:54
  because Netanyahu and Trump want to, or
• 1:12:57
  because Trump says I'm not going to be
• 1:12:59
  Mr. Nice Guy anymore, is
• 1:13:02
  schoolyard bully policy. That's it. And
• 1:13:06
  it's not going to happen.
• 1:13:09
  You know, I
• 1:13:10
  It's not going to happen. And Americans
• 1:13:13
  have no appetite
• 1:13:15
  right now for sending troops, putting
• 1:13:18
  them on the ground inside another
• 1:13:21
  Afghanistan.
• 1:13:22
  And this would be worse than
• 1:13:24
  Afghanistan, by far.
• 1:13:27
  Worse.
• 1:13:28
  And I think that is a crucial point.
• 1:13:31
  Trump needs to have an exit strategy
• 1:13:34
  because the US has no military option
• 1:13:38
  that can allow it to win the war. Now, I
• 1:13:41
  watched something over the weekend with
• 1:13:43
  two allegedly,
• 1:13:45
  the not the top level, not not the
• 1:13:48
  Secretary of the Army or Secretary of
• 1:13:50
  Defense, but the So, Trump is the one
• 1:13:54
  who gives the orders.
• 1:13:55
  Those orders go to the operational
• 1:13:58
  commanders, CENTCOM, Central Command,
• 1:14:01
  and stuff like that. And that those
• 1:14:02
  commanders
• 1:14:04
  have pushed back hard and said, "This is
• 1:14:08
  this is not a good idea, no matter how
• 1:14:11
  you slice it. This is it's not something
• 1:14:14
  that,
• 1:14:15
  you know, is going to be
• 1:14:18
  profitable." There's also been a lot of
• 1:14:20
  reports over the weekend, and I suggest
• 1:14:22
  you check them out, that the that the
• 1:14:25
  depth of destruction of American
• 1:14:27
  military might in the Middle East is
• 1:14:30
  vastly underreported,
• 1:14:33
  at least as far as the the major bases
• 1:14:37
  like Al Udeid in Qatar and
• 1:14:40
  whichever the ones are in Bahrain, and
• 1:14:43
  even into Saudi Arabia, that the uh
• 1:14:46
  There's been stories for a long time
• 1:14:49
  about the US military that were housed
• 1:14:51
  on those bases living in local hotels. A
• 1:14:55
  couple of hotels have been blown up, and
• 1:14:57
  then they twist the
• 1:14:59
  the rhetoric to say, "Well, look, these
• 1:15:01
  guys are attacking hotels." They're
• 1:15:03
  attacking hotels because those the ones
• 1:15:05
  where the military are staying.
• 1:15:08
  That they are moving into hotels. And
• 1:15:10
  the depth of destruction of American
• 1:15:13
  might in the Middle East, at least on
• 1:15:16
  land in these Arab in these bases that
• 1:15:18
  were initially bombed, is astronomical.
• 1:15:23
  And I'd be nice to go over there and
• 1:15:24
  check this out, truthfully. I'd like to
• 1:15:26
  go see it myself. But I don't believe
• 1:15:29
  necessarily either side of that. But
• 1:15:31
  there are plenty stories about it. And
• 1:15:34
  you know, this
• 1:15:36
  allegation that the US has no military
• 1:15:38
  option to allow it to win the war is
• 1:15:41
  only the escalation ladder favors Iran,
• 1:15:45
  not Washington. And I think that's an
• 1:15:48
  important point. The US can bomb. It can
• 1:15:50
  seize more ships. It can threaten
• 1:15:52
  bridges, power plants, refineries, and
• 1:15:55
  ports. But if Iran Iran responds by
• 1:15:58
  fully disrupting the Persian Gulf, the
• 1:16:00
  Red Sea, Gulf energy infrastructure,
• 1:16:03
  desalinization plants, and continues to
• 1:16:06
  affect these vital shipping arteries,
• 1:16:09
  then Washington is no longer punishing
• 1:16:11
  Iran all by itself.
• 1:16:14
  And unfortunately, that's what's
• 1:16:16
  happening. So, one some economist or
• 1:16:18
  another, I forget who I was listening
• 1:16:20
  to, said that um
• 1:16:23
  we're now eight weeks into the war in
• 1:16:27
  Iran. Eight weeks.
• 1:16:29
  And the eight weeks of war
• 1:16:32
  is about the length of time it takes for
• 1:16:36
  shipping of container ships and oil
• 1:16:39
  ships and aluminum ships and whatever
• 1:16:44
  fertilizer ships from uh the
• 1:16:49
  Straits of Hormuz area from from the uh
• 1:16:52
  uh
• 1:16:54
  you know, Iran area from Iranian ports
• 1:16:57
  to around the world. And that the first
• 1:17:00
  ones that left those days, the last that
• 1:17:02
  were leaving, are arriving right now.
• 1:17:06
  And so, we don't even recognize how much
• 1:17:11
  the next four weeks, let's say, is going
• 1:17:15
  to have an effect on the prices because
• 1:17:17
  now is when it's going to become
• 1:17:21
  far more noticeable
• 1:17:23
  because of uh
• 1:17:25
  uh
• 1:17:28
  the ship just the realities of shipping
• 1:17:30
  and how it works. So, I don't know. Um
• 1:17:33
  that doesn't mean Iran's won a victory,
• 1:17:36
  not remotely. Uh nobody has, but Iran
• 1:17:39
  has survived the very first premise of
• 1:17:42
  the war, which said that it would
• 1:17:43
  collapse, panic, surrender. And that's
• 1:17:46
  the real story. And if they we just hit
• 1:17:48
  them and they fold, you know, put me in
• 1:17:50
  coach can say,
• 1:17:52
  uh uh
• 1:17:53
  you know,
• 1:17:54
  uh
• 1:17:55
  "Well, we got him. We got him on the
• 1:17:56
  run." He can fire a few more generals if
• 1:17:58
  he likes, you know, for disagreeing and
• 1:18:00
  for saying that everything isn't
• 1:18:02
  absolutely positive, you know, let's
• 1:18:04
  fire the next level of them. You know,
• 1:18:06
  who are we decapitating here? You get
• 1:18:09
  rid of all your military
• 1:18:11
  experience in the command, and
• 1:18:14
  that's the end of that, right?
• 1:18:16
  >> [snorts]
• 1:18:17
  >> It just It It doesn't go that way. Um
• 1:18:20
  let's see here. Perhaps we'll uh
• 1:18:24
  take a take a
• 1:18:26
  call here.
• 1:18:29
  Hello, sir. How may I help you?
• 1:18:33
  Hey, uh
• 1:18:35
  how you doing?
• 1:18:36
  Hm? Pretty good on a Monday.
• 1:18:39
  Awesome.
• 1:18:40
  Yeah, hey, on the on the Iran topic, uh
• 1:18:45
  suppose those 13 bases are blown up, and
• 1:18:48
  uh
• 1:18:50
  you know, what they won't talk about the
• 1:18:52
  aircraft carriers
• 1:18:53
  won't charge right into the
• 1:18:56
  the Gulf and dominate, right?
• 1:18:57
  >> Oh, they they won't do that. And and
• 1:18:59
  that that'd be a fool's errand to do
• 1:19:01
  that. It really would.
• 1:19:03
  So, why did they send another
• 1:19:06
  aircraft carrier then? Well, because
• 1:19:08
  they're they're the All we have left are
• 1:19:10
  threats and stealing of other people's
• 1:19:15
  shipments. You know, we stopped another
• 1:19:17
  Iranian ship today. And I I I I I
• 1:19:20
  believe it's going to work. And you know
• 1:19:22
  that.
• 1:19:24
  How do How does the news get away with
• 1:19:26
  Like you said
• 1:19:28
  If we're winning, won't they show uh
• 1:19:31
  a tally?
• 1:19:32
  You know what You know what I'm saying?
• 1:19:33
  I I think uh
• 1:19:34
  One thing I'd like to see
• 1:19:41
  And
• 1:19:41
  >> Yeah, I'm I'm certain of that. And those
• 1:19:43
  those THAAD those THAAD radars I don't
• 1:19:45
  believe uh many of them exist and those
• 1:19:48
  are extreme
• 1:19:50
  extremely expensive. Um I I went to When
• 1:19:53
  I lived in Qatar, I was on Al Udeid
• 1:19:56
  rather frequently. I could go out there
• 1:19:57
  and use the PX and go buy stuff out
• 1:20:00
  there, stuff like that. And uh I I tried
• 1:20:02
  to get a couple of contracts out there,
• 1:20:04
  you know, speaking Russian or something,
• 1:20:06
  going out and trying to do something.
• 1:20:08
  And I was in the contractor pool out
• 1:20:10
  there.
• 1:20:11
  And so I would go out and see what they
• 1:20:13
  were doing in there and there would
• 1:20:15
  didn't appear to be
• 1:20:17
  a ton of defense. Now, it was 2015,
• 1:20:20
  okay, the year that I lived there. So,
• 1:20:21
  that's 10 years ago. But what I have
• 1:20:25
  what I would love to do and I haven't
• 1:20:27
  been to Qatar I was there a couple years
• 1:20:29
  ago. I went went and
• 1:20:30
  >> Qatar
• 1:20:31
  Yeah, it's Qatar. They say Qatar and so
• 1:20:34
  that's how I say it. But it But it
• 1:20:36
  doesn't matter. And uh um it's
• 1:20:40
  I was out there and I would go and check
• 1:20:42
  these places out and I would love to and
• 1:20:46
  I think if I go back I'm trying to
• 1:20:48
  schedule a trip to um
• 1:20:50
  to Egypt and uh I'm also trying to get
• 1:20:52
  back to uh Turkey and and maybe going to
• 1:20:55
  southern Russia again later this summer.
• 1:20:58
  And I I think I'm going to take Qatar
• 1:21:02
  Airways because I like flying into Doha
• 1:21:05
  and there's a couple of things I want to
• 1:21:07
  take care of in Doha that I want to go
• 1:21:09
  see
• 1:21:09
  >> in for a second? Please. Uh
• 1:21:12
  What What's So, it's going to hurt the
• 1:21:15
  Iranians if they have to stop pumping
• 1:21:17
  oil, but it's not going to hurt the the
• 1:21:19
  Saudis.
• 1:21:21
  It's absolutely going to hurt all of
• 1:21:23
  them. And And that's the unfortunate
• 1:21:25
  part is we're just going to notice
• 1:21:28
  this
• 1:21:29
  right now because right now it's 8 weeks
• 1:21:31
  later and and the real effect Uh
• 1:21:35
  everything is talked about oil futures.
• 1:21:38
  But what about oil today's oil today?
• 1:21:42
  What's being delivered today is far more
• 1:21:45
  important than the futures of what's
• 1:21:47
  coming on. And every time one of what
• 1:21:50
  some Whether it's a Trump ally or not
• 1:21:53
  making millions and millions of dollars
• 1:21:55
  betting on oil futures, that doesn't
• 1:21:58
  matter. It What matters is the actual
• 1:22:00
  flow and and all over East Asia they are
• 1:22:04
  without They have strict limits on how
• 1:22:09
  much they can buy. And we don't want
• 1:22:11
  that to come to this country. I mean, I
• 1:22:12
  hate it that it's in those countries,
• 1:22:14
  you know, they have They're just normal
• 1:22:15
  people too trying to get through their
• 1:22:17
  days and the government and we
• 1:22:20
  >> [laughter]
• 1:22:21
  >> We, meaning Iran, Israel, United States,
• 1:22:24
  are cocking it up for the rest of the
• 1:22:26
  world. That's what's happening,
• 1:22:27
  unfortunately. And And it's affecting
• 1:22:30
  everyone.
• 1:22:33
  I listened to another show in the And
• 1:22:35
  And the guy says that
• 1:22:37
  Trump's going to wrap it all up and uh
• 1:22:40
  they're going to win the midterms and
• 1:22:41
  and uh
• 1:22:43
  I I am less sure of that.
• 1:22:47
  I I I am
• 1:22:49
  I am
• 1:22:50
  not sure of that at all.
• 1:22:53
  Not sure at all
• 1:22:56
  Not remotely sure. I I mean, all kind of
• 1:22:59
  bets people bet out there and uh
• 1:23:03
  uh you know, did you hear about the guy
• 1:23:05
  who bet on Maduro? Um and he was a
• 1:23:07
  member of the uh of the strike team and
• 1:23:10
  he put a $30,000 bet that Maduro would
• 1:23:13
  be taken out of power and he he made
• 1:23:16
  $400,000 on his bet. Did you hear about
• 1:23:19
  that? Did you hear Did you hear about uh
• 1:23:22
  uh the Trump son buying into the the
• 1:23:25
  drone company that that got the giant
• 1:23:27
  contract and
• 1:23:28
  >> Yeah, I know. You You know, they
• 1:23:31
  It's funny how they
• 1:23:33
  uh MAGA people learn the Learing Center.
• 1:23:36
  They know They know some some some
• 1:23:38
  things that are so inconsequential and
• 1:23:40
  they know how Hunter Biden had a a cush
• 1:23:43
  ass job, but ask any of them if they
• 1:23:45
  know anything about uh
• 1:23:47
  uh their their coin exchange or or
• 1:23:51
  taking money from that ballroom or
• 1:23:53
  >> Well, I'm I'm not a I'm not a
• 1:23:55
  anti-Trumper by any stretch. I am I am
• 1:23:58
  anti-Trump ideas of internationally, for
• 1:24:03
  sure. If If If If it's not If it's not a
• 1:24:05
  dictatorship, it's sure as close because
• 1:24:07
  Congress isn't going to do anything to
• 1:24:09
  him. Well, no. That But they're lazy
• 1:24:11
  anyway. They don't do anything to
• 1:24:12
  anybody, you know, that does That's not
• 1:24:14
  necessarily Trump's fault. He's just
• 1:24:17
  using the system as it's presented and
• 1:24:20
  uh Well, that's that's MAGA's fault.
• 1:24:22
  Well, but it's the same in any party. I
• 1:24:24
  mean, that that that I have equal
• 1:24:26
  contempt for all the way across the
• 1:24:28
  board, you know, it doesn't matter who's
• 1:24:30
  in charge. I'm against it. And you're
• 1:24:33
  supposed to rule upon some sort of
• 1:24:35
  consensus and consensus never matters.
• 1:24:38
  Day one, new president comes in,
• 1:24:40
  everything reverses 180°
• 1:24:43
  and you're supposed to hate everybody
• 1:24:45
  that was there the day before. And that
• 1:24:48
  is exactly how what we do. The same
• 1:24:50
  thing's going to happen in 2 and 1/2
• 1:24:52
  years when the next guy comes in. And
• 1:24:55
  it's going to be the same thing. That's
• 1:24:56
  America, buddy.
• 1:25:00
  Yay.
• 1:25:03
  All right, I got to wrap up show. We
• 1:25:04
  only have a few more minutes. I
• 1:25:05
  appreciate your call. You have a very
• 1:25:07
  nice day.
• 1:25:09
  Okay, you too. Bye-bye.
• 1:25:11
  Well, and there he goes. So, uh I I
• 1:25:14
  wanted you know, I kind of call this um
• 1:25:17
  you know, if I if I had to come up with
• 1:25:19
  something, you know, I'd call the Trump
• 1:25:22
  presidency kind of a stick in the eye
• 1:25:25
  sort of presidency. Trump's posture on
• 1:25:28
  many many things. Um
• 1:25:30
  And And by the way, again, I'm not
• 1:25:32
  anti-Trump, especially nationally. You
• 1:25:35
  know, nationally, I like a lot of that.
• 1:25:37
  I I wouldn't go as far as he did, you
• 1:25:39
  know, on a many things, you know, like
• 1:25:42
  uh I I don't know what. I don't want to
• 1:25:44
  want to pick them, but I wouldn't go as
• 1:25:46
  far as some of the things he did.
• 1:25:47
  Tariffs, international stuff, I've
• 1:25:49
  disagreed with a lot of this stuff. Not
• 1:25:51
  saying absolutely not, but there are
• 1:25:53
  better ways to skin a cat. And the Trump
• 1:25:56
  way is
• 1:25:58
  less like diplomacy and more like a guy
• 1:26:01
  trying to close a hostile business deal.
• 1:26:05
  Has he ever had a friendly business
• 1:26:06
  deal? That's what I want to know. Is it
• 1:26:08
  always got to be hostility? He never
• 1:26:11
  says, "Here's some mutual guarantees,
• 1:26:13
  Iran. Here's some mutual guarantees,
• 1:26:15
  Russia, Ukraine. Let me help resolve
• 1:26:18
  this. Here's a security architecture."
• 1:26:20
  He says, "Surrender. Call me. I'll take
• 1:26:24
  care of everything after that. You don't
• 1:26:26
  need leaders. I'll appoint your leaders.
• 1:26:29
  Or I'll do If you don't do that, I'll
• 1:26:31
  just destroy more of your country." And
• 1:26:33
  it's like
• 1:26:35
  it's an incredible arrogance. I mean,
• 1:26:38
  it's just "I'm God. That's that." And I
• 1:26:41
  don't, you know,
• 1:26:44
  I
• 1:26:45
  I understand and appreciate that he's a
• 1:26:47
  successful and
• 1:26:50
  I don't know what. I still, you know,
• 1:26:51
  think highly of some of the things that
• 1:26:53
  he does. But more and more,
• 1:26:55
  internationally, you know, there's a lot
• 1:26:57
  of um
• 1:26:58
  lack of MAGA support for what he's doing
• 1:27:02
  and because people are finally catching
• 1:27:04
  on that this really isn't a good idea.
• 1:27:07
  And it's really not. And uh I'm
• 1:27:10
  definitely on that side. Although I you
• 1:27:12
  know, this is not a part of a deeper
• 1:27:15
  disease. Trump didn't invent it. Trump
• 1:27:18
  didn't invent this disease, people. He
• 1:27:20
  just says it louder with less
• 1:27:24
  diplomacy.
• 1:27:25
  He doesn't pretty it up at all and he
• 1:27:28
  puts more exclamation points and capital
• 1:27:30
  letters in it. And so the Obama-Biden
• 1:27:33
  comparison, you know, you think these
• 1:27:35
  guys had, you know, they had, you know,
• 1:27:38
  some day one stick in the eye policies.
• 1:27:41
  We won, we're doing it, live with it.
• 1:27:43
  Elections have consequences, you know,
• 1:27:46
  that kind of thing. This is what we have
• 1:27:48
  watched for my entire adult life. It's
• 1:27:51
  crap, you know, it's really crap. This
• 1:27:54
  is not what normal thinking people want.
• 1:27:58
  They want stability.
• 1:28:00
  And we don't have it. Every 4 years we
• 1:28:02
  have some kind of weird upheaval and a
• 1:28:04
  bunch of people on TV saying, you know,
• 1:28:06
  cheerleading. That's it. We have
• 1:28:08
  lunatics running into uh uh press
• 1:28:11
  correspondents dinners and trying to
• 1:28:13
  kill people. We have people shooting at
• 1:28:16
  politi- politicians. It's nuts. This is
• 1:28:19
  not persuasive to me. Any of it. And
• 1:28:22
  it's not statecraft. It's dominant
• 1:28:25
  performance brought to you by Hollywood
• 1:28:27
  and the people that believe this is how
• 1:28:30
  your it's supposed to be. We have a hero
• 1:28:34
  at the end of every movie.
• 1:28:36
  The hero's got to win, right? The hero's
• 1:28:38
  got to win. That ain't how life works.
• 1:28:40
  It sure as hell ain't how statecraft
• 1:28:42
  really works. It's performative. It's
• 1:28:45
  politics of humiliating humiliating
• 1:28:48
  humiliating
• 1:28:50
  the other side in public and then acting
• 1:28:53
  surprised when the other side doesn't
• 1:28:55
  cooperate with you. It might work for
• 1:28:58
  campaign rallies, but it doesn't work
• 1:29:00
  with nations that have history, pride,
• 1:29:02
  religion, memory, and their own dead
• 1:29:05
  bodies all over the ground. The
• 1:29:08
  political cost is very real. And I'm not
• 1:29:11
  so sure that in November people aren't
• 1:29:14
  going to be punished for this. I
• 1:29:17
  appreciate you listening to the show.
• 1:29:19
  This is International Flavor. I am
• 1:29:20
  Samuel Trapp. You're listening to Dam
• 1:29:22
  Radio.
• 1:29:24
  And we're damn glad that you do.
• 1:29:26
  Uh listen to us all the time.
• 1:29:28
  Um
• 1:29:30
  damradio.com/live
• 1:29:33
  If you'd like the International Flavor
• 1:29:35
  shows, go on out to
• 1:29:36
  internationalflavor.com and download
• 1:29:38
  them all for your listening pleasure.
• 1:29:41
  And uh damradio.com/podcast
• 1:29:44
  for all the rest of the programs. Have a
• 1:29:46
  beautiful Mid-Missouri week.