Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / From Regime Change to Regime Control: How Washington Abandoned Law, Claimed Venezuela, and Spoke the Language of Empire

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From Regime Change to Regime Control: How Washington Abandoned Law, Claimed Venezuela, and Spoke the Language of Empire · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, good morning, welcome.
• 0:03
  I am Samuel Trapp.
• 0:04
  This is International Flavor.
• 0:06
  You are listening to DAM Radio.
• 0:10
  I'm coming to you live today from the
• 0:12
  Lake Ozark Real Estate of the Art Studio.
• 0:15
  Please feel free to call in 573-746
• 0:17
  -8020.
• 0:19
  Although what I have mostly today is an
• 0:22
  essay.
• 0:24
  Those of you who I kind of went
• 0:28
  off the rails on Saturday and when I
• 0:31
  first found out about the Trump, Trump's the
• 0:38
  king of the world.
• 0:39
  I'm the king of the world.
• 0:41
  And he gets to dictate.
• 0:44
  He is.
• 0:45
  I've gotten some disturbing messages, you know, that
• 0:51
  I wrote.
• 0:52
  I wrote an article yesterday.
• 0:54
  I spent a little bit of the day
• 0:55
  writing an article and I think I want
• 0:58
  to share it with you.
• 0:59
  And I did some research.
• 1:02
  I translated it into Russian later.
• 1:04
  I sent it over.
• 1:05
  It's going to be published or they might
• 1:08
  change some of the formats.
• 1:10
  You told me already this morning, but this
• 1:12
  is a big deal, folks.
• 1:13
  And it's disturbing what the United States of
• 1:18
  America has done is pretty disturbing.
• 1:21
  And once again, we demonstrated that international law
• 1:26
  for Washington is not an obligation, but a
• 1:30
  selectively applied instrument.
• 1:32
  I am talking about Venezuela.
• 1:34
  I'm talking about what went on there.
• 1:38
  It's selective, completely.
• 1:41
  The seizure of Venezuela's sitting president, a sitting
• 1:45
  president.
• 1:46
  All right.
• 1:47
  Without authorization from the U.N. Security Council,
• 1:52
  without an international mandate, without lawful jurisdiction.
• 1:57
  Most importantly, I'd like anybody to call in
• 2:02
  and tell me how the U.S. takes
• 2:04
  jurisdiction.
• 2:05
  Now, they have, you know.
• 2:07
  But how's the judge at noon today?
• 2:10
  They say it was at noon Eastern or
• 2:12
  something.
• 2:13
  But this is not lawful jurisdiction.
• 2:18
  This is the same.
• 2:20
  So, I bitch about government overreach a lot.
• 2:23
  You know that.
• 2:24
  And this is classic overreach.
• 2:28
  It's this is wrong.
• 2:32
  Okay.
• 2:33
  And no matter how much, you know, the
• 2:35
  cheerleader of war, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio,
• 2:39
  too, by the way, they both are very
• 2:41
  much into war and force.
• 2:45
  They just are.
• 2:47
  And Rubio's been going on about Venezuela for
• 2:50
  years.
• 2:51
  And I told you on Saturday, if you
• 2:55
  go back and listen to that, there's the
• 2:58
  pathway, you know, stretching the truth as much
• 3:02
  as the outright lying.
• 3:04
  Let's call it what it is.
• 3:06
  These people are lying to you.
• 3:08
  Okay.
• 3:09
  Don't believe it.
• 3:10
  Okay.
• 3:10
  And we're going to walk through a lot
• 3:12
  of that today.
• 3:13
  But I'm going to share with you this
• 3:14
  fairly short article I wrote.
• 3:17
  It's only, I don't know, a thousand words
• 3:19
  or something.
• 3:19
  It's not that long.
• 3:20
  And it the English version goes like this.
• 3:26
  U.S. United States of America once again
• 3:28
  demonstrated that international law for Washington is not
• 3:32
  an obligation, but a selectively applied instrument.
• 3:36
  The seizure of Venezuela's sitting president without authorization
• 3:40
  from the U.N. Security Council, without an
• 3:43
  international mandate and without lawful jurisdiction has become
• 3:48
  a clear example of how a state that
• 3:50
  has lectured the world for decades about the
• 3:55
  rule of law now openly dismantles even the
• 4:02
  effort to pretend that this is lawful.
• 4:04
  Donald Trump on Air Force One last night
• 4:07
  was unbelievable.
• 4:09
  I mean, wait till I get into that.
• 4:11
  I mean, the comments that he made, what
• 4:14
  occurred cannot be described as a special operation,
• 4:18
  a law enforcement action, or a counterterrorism measure.
• 4:22
  That's gone.
• 4:23
  You can't claim this is narco-terrorism because
• 4:26
  it has nothing to do with it.
• 4:28
  It was oil and other resources.
• 4:32
  It was a direct use of armed force
• 4:34
  against a sovereign state and the state-sponsored
• 4:38
  kidnapping of the head of another country.
• 4:42
  This constitutes a blatant and demonstrative violation of
• 4:46
  the U.N. Charter, particularly Article 2, subparagraph
• 4:51
  4, which explicitly prohibits the use of force
• 4:55
  against political independence of any state.
• 4:59
  Claims of self-defense are untenable.
• 5:02
  Venezuela did not carry out an armed attack
• 5:04
  against the United States, posed no imminent threat,
• 5:09
  provided no grounds for invoking Article 51 of
• 5:14
  the U.N. Charter, even if we had
• 5:16
  bothered to ask for it.
• 5:18
  The U.N. Security Council neither authorized nor
• 5:21
  debated the use of force.
• 5:24
  The United States deliberately bypassed the collective security
• 5:28
  mechanism, placing itself above, as usual, international law.
• 5:35
  The question of jurisdiction is equally critical.
• 5:39
  U.S. courts do not possess lawful authority
• 5:43
  over a foreign head of state acting within
• 5:46
  his own country.
• 5:49
  Extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction exists only in narrowly defined
• 5:54
  circumstances under international conventions and does not justify
• 5:59
  the forcible removal of an individual from the
• 6:04
  territory of a sovereign state.
• 6:07
  Manufacturing jurisdiction by physically abducting and transporting an
• 6:12
  accused person to the United States is a
• 6:14
  legal fiction and a serious violation of international
• 6:18
  norms.
• 6:18
  Now, that's not to say that we won't
• 6:21
  stretch the system to create it.
• 6:24
  You know, we'll get creative, no doubt, and
• 6:28
  do something for him.
• 6:29
  But a real judge, tell you what, would
• 6:32
  say this is not the way it goes.
• 6:35
  You don't kidnap somebody to create jurisdiction.
• 6:39
  The use of the term narco-terrorism in
• 6:41
  this context is a political device rather than
• 6:45
  any sort of legal category.
• 6:47
  It is not codified in the U.N.
• 6:49
  Charter, does not confer automatic authority for military
• 6:52
  intervention.
• 6:53
  If combating drug trafficking were the genuine objective,
• 6:58
  other countries in the region would logically be
• 7:02
  the primary focus.
• 7:04
  Venezuela, however, possesses what many others do not,
• 7:09
  the world's largest proven oil reserves.
• 7:14
  Control over resources, not concerned for democracy, absolutely
• 7:19
  not, or security is the real motive.
• 7:23
  This has been openly acknowledged at the highest
• 7:25
  political levels.
• 7:27
  What we are witnessing right now is a
• 7:31
  textbook case of 21st century resource imperialism disguised
• 7:38
  as law enforcement.
• 7:40
  History provides a familiar pattern.
• 7:44
  Panama, Nicaragua, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria.
• 7:50
  Each case involves accusations, military intervention, so-called
• 7:57
  transition periods, and long-term instability while the
• 8:01
  U.S. steals the resources.
• 8:04
  None of these countries ever emerged more stable
• 8:08
  or free.
• 8:10
  The reaction of the international audience indicates that
• 8:13
  the global question is no longer whether such
• 8:16
  actions are legal.
• 8:18
  The question now is why the United States
• 8:21
  no longer even pretends that rules apply to
• 8:25
  it.
• 8:26
  What happened in Venezuela is not an isolated
• 8:29
  incident, but a dangerous precedent.
• 8:32
  A state that permits itself to abduct foreign
• 8:36
  leaders demonstrates a willingness to act completely without
• 8:41
  restraint.
• 8:42
  Today, it's Venezuela.
• 8:45
  Tomorrow, Cuba.
• 8:47
  He's already threatened it.
• 8:48
  After that, Greenland.
• 8:50
  He threatened that on Air Force One.
• 8:53
  I mean, it's nonsense.
• 8:54
  I have been a Trump fan for the
• 8:58
  most part.
• 8:59
  I've said that, but I'll tell you what,
• 9:01
  that's quickly changing.
• 9:03
  This is nuts.
• 9:04
  Tomorrow, it could be any country whose resources
• 9:07
  or political alignment are deemed inconvenient by Lindsey
• 9:11
  Graham or Marco Rubio.
• 9:13
  This is crap.
• 9:14
  This is nonsense.
• 9:16
  I could rant about this, and I plan
• 9:20
  to.
• 9:20
  I'm going to keep on trucking on this.
• 9:23
  I had some things I wanted to talk
• 9:24
  about.
• 9:25
  I wanted to talk about going further on
• 9:28
  this, but this, get it?
• 9:30
  Trump's everything that is important.
• 9:34
  You don't have to agree with me.
• 9:37
  I know people that do not.
• 9:38
  I know people that, oh, geez, it's on
• 9:40
  our southern border, and we're protecting the planet.
• 9:43
  You aren't protecting shit.
• 9:45
  This is not for protection.
• 9:48
  This is theft, period.
• 9:52
  I'm going to go through that.
• 9:56
  I listened to a buttload of transcripts over
• 9:59
  the weekend and listened to some things.
• 10:04
  The core allegation across every transcript in every
• 10:09
  language, the same accusations appear in different languages.
• 10:17
  The United States under Donald Trump with Rubio
• 10:21
  and Graham, of course, driving the train, is
• 10:25
  no longer pressuring Venezuela.
• 10:28
  It is under their control.
• 10:30
  Listen to this.
• 10:32
  Listen to what is being said.
• 10:35
  The US will run Venezuela.
• 10:39
  What?
• 10:40
  When did we get that right?
• 10:42
  It's nonsense.
• 10:44
  Someone else's oil is now ours.
• 10:48
  Direct administration through force, sanctions, and detention, not
• 10:53
  regime change, regime ownership.
• 10:57
  We own it.
• 10:58
  By God, they put in a vice president.
• 11:02
  She was sworn in to keep the country
• 11:05
  going constitutionally.
• 11:06
  She said some pretty rough things on what
• 11:08
  she was going to say.
• 11:10
  Wasn't there, and it was, well, we'll deal
• 11:14
  with her.
• 11:16
  Basically, the language is imperial language.
• 11:19
  This is imperial.
• 11:20
  This is Darth Vader in the Empire Strikes
• 11:24
  Back.
• 11:25
  This is what this is.
• 11:27
  And the language used is imperial.
• 11:30
  British East India Company behavior.
• 11:32
  Remember that.
• 11:33
  This is it.
• 11:36
  Iraq 2003, but faster, blunter, no shame of
• 11:40
  any kind about it.
• 11:42
  This is banana republic doctrine without pretense.
• 11:45
  We're not pretending about it.
• 11:46
  We aren't pretending.
• 11:48
  What was discussed?
• 11:49
  Whether Maduro was captured, detained, coerced, or simply
• 11:55
  placed under US custody.
• 11:58
  Whether this constitutes kidnapping, an act of war,
• 12:03
  extraterritorial arrest, violation of the Vienna Convention.
• 12:09
  Think about that.
• 12:12
  Comparisons to Noriega, but with no legal theater.
• 12:15
  There is no legal basis, no international warrant,
• 12:21
  pure power politics.
• 12:23
  Law has been invoked only after the force
• 12:26
  has succeeded.
• 12:27
  Now we claim law, right?
• 12:30
  I listen to Jeffrey Sachs.
• 12:32
  If you listen to him, he's always interesting.
• 12:34
  He says it's illegal under international law.
• 12:37
  He says Washington has abandoned even the fiction
• 12:40
  that rules apply.
• 12:43
  And the multipolar backlash is gonna be huge.
• 12:47
  It was never, ever about drugs.
• 12:49
  This is not about drugs.
• 12:52
  Drugs was an excuse.
• 12:53
  Democracy?
• 12:55
  Yeah, it's about democracy, right?
• 12:59
  We'll put elections in after we have stolen
• 13:03
  everything.
• 13:04
  That's what Trump said.
• 13:05
  When we feel it's necessary, we will allow
• 13:08
  a foreign country to have elections.
• 13:13
  This is a joke.
• 13:15
  This is nuts.
• 13:18
  We will run Venezuela, period.
• 13:21
  Democracy?
• 13:22
  Gone.
• 13:23
  Human rights?
• 13:24
  They don't exist.
• 13:26
  Oil is the meal.
• 13:29
  Hey, smorgasbord for us.
• 13:31
  Lindsey Graham, right?
• 13:33
  Marco Rubio.
• 13:34
  The Orinoco Belt reserves referenced again and again.
• 13:40
  That's all they wanted.
• 13:41
  US refineries are designed for Venezuelan crude, if
• 13:45
  you're Donald Trump, right?
• 13:46
  Sanctions are conveniently timed with energy pressure elsewhere.
• 13:50
  The narco state language is selective, not consistent.
• 13:55
  If this were about drugs, Colombia would be
• 13:59
  on the plate, wouldn't it?
• 14:01
  Peru would be on the plate.
• 14:03
  That's not it.
• 14:04
  India has been, you know, I made a
• 14:07
  special effort to go out and find the
• 14:09
  story on India, okay?
• 14:11
  Now, India has tried to act diplomatically in
• 14:20
  its best interest under everything.
• 14:22
  And there was very little to glean, you
• 14:27
  know, to go out there and find.
• 14:29
  But India is expressing grave concern.
• 14:32
  I'm expressing grave concern.
• 14:35
  This is not how adults act.
• 14:38
  This isn't it.
• 14:39
  You know, what about sovereignty?
• 14:41
  Does that exist?
• 14:43
  What about non-intervention?
• 14:45
  Does it exist?
• 14:46
  What about diplomatic resolutions?
• 14:49
  You know, votes are supposed to come first.
• 14:53
  You know, we get to dictate who's legitimate,
• 14:57
  who's not.
• 14:57
  Anywhere in the world that we want to.
• 14:59
  We've done it everywhere.
• 15:01
  Where, you know, it's the West, it gets
• 15:03
  to come, U.S. mostly, that gets to
• 15:05
  say that the referenda in Crimea or in
• 15:11
  Donbass or in any of those that, well,
• 15:13
  we don't like them.
• 15:15
  You know, and it's only our interpretation of
• 15:18
  it.
• 15:18
  What do we, we're still doing the same
• 15:20
  freaking thing in Serbia.
• 15:22
  We've run Serbia.
• 15:23
  You know, there's a king in Serbia.
• 15:25
  I told you about this.
• 15:26
  You know, the king that's over there.
• 15:28
  And we put this in here.
• 15:29
  We're doing it again.
• 15:30
  And Americans just forget about it.
• 15:32
  We just, oh, yeah, well.
• 15:34
  Yeah, we got them.
• 15:36
  I mean, I can't tell you how much
• 15:37
  I've heard that over the weekend.
• 15:39
  Yeah, we took them down.
• 15:42
  Was there any question that we could or
• 15:45
  couldn't?
• 15:47
  Nonsense.
• 15:48
  You know, India is emphasizing sovereignty, supposed to
• 15:53
  matter, non-intervention, supposed to matter, diplomatic resolutions.
• 15:58
  They don't endorse U.S. action.
• 16:01
  They're very uncomfortable with this action.
• 16:06
  They didn't give any theatrical outrage or anything
• 16:09
  like that.
• 16:10
  But India certainly didn't bless the action.
• 16:13
  India is protecting its own energy interests.
• 16:16
  And it is quietly, you know, we're a
• 16:21
  bunch of nuts.
• 16:22
  You know, you got to watch out for
• 16:23
  these guys.
• 16:24
  Next move, Greenland.
• 16:25
  And people are happy about it.
• 16:26
  Oh, we're going to take Greenland.
• 16:28
  What the hell is wrong with you people?
• 16:32
  You know, it's nuts.
• 16:34
  The solidarity and the destruction of any potential
• 16:38
  global order is upon us.
• 16:41
  There is no global order without rules.
• 16:47
  And the rules only apply to somebody else.
• 16:50
  They don't apply to you.
• 16:51
  Not remotely.
• 16:53
  We just, we're Lindsey Graham.
• 16:55
  We're Marco Rubio.
• 16:56
  And now Donald Trump.
• 16:58
  You know, I hate to think about what
• 17:00
  goes on in these in these chambers, you
• 17:03
  know, when you know what's going on with,
• 17:06
  I got a little, a little bit to
• 17:08
  add about a little later.
• 17:10
  I have a did an analysis of Lindsey
• 17:15
  Graham from the time he got from the
• 17:18
  2000 on.
• 17:19
  The guy's been wrong about everything he's done.
• 17:24
  And yet who are we getting the advice
• 17:26
  from as president?
• 17:28
  Freaking Lindsey Graham, that did the warmongering asshole
• 17:32
  who wants nothing but to be reelected and
• 17:36
  to take over the world.
• 17:37
  I swear to God, it's pinky in the
• 17:39
  brain.
• 17:40
  You know, and, you know, unfortunately, in this
• 17:44
  scenario, pinky is Donald Trump and the brain
• 17:48
  is, you know, what are we going to
• 17:49
  do now, Lindsey?
• 17:51
  Same thing we do every day, Donald plan
• 17:53
  to take over the world.
• 17:55
  This is what we're living.
• 17:58
  This is nuts.
• 18:00
  Let's see.
• 18:01
  India is refusing to legitimize this president.
• 18:05
  It's a, you know, India has historically, you
• 18:08
  know, at least for the last 15 years,
• 18:11
  they talk calmly.
• 18:15
  They have a long memory though.
• 18:18
  You know, they were, they were imperial subjects
• 18:21
  for a long time.
• 18:25
  You know, they were imperial in China.
• 18:27
  They, they feel, you know, feel the same
• 18:29
  way.
• 18:30
  China commentary theme.
• 18:33
  Venezuela is a proxy battlefield.
• 18:36
  US moves seen as an escalation of US
• 18:38
  China economic war.
• 18:40
  China has a hundred, how much?
• 18:42
  A hundred billion dollars that they have invested
• 18:45
  in Venezuela.
• 18:48
  You know, if you want to know what's
• 18:50
  really going on, this is an escalation of
• 18:52
  US China economic war.
• 18:55
  And by the way, they're making no bones
• 18:57
  about it.
• 18:58
  It's like, well, screw everybody on the planet.
• 19:00
  We're taking charge.
• 19:01
  I encourage you.
• 19:02
  I doubt I'll, I'll play it.
• 19:04
  Maybe I will, but it's like 30 minutes
• 19:06
  wrong long.
• 19:07
  And I'm not going to play it all.
• 19:08
  I'm definitely going to quote some of it.
• 19:10
  I'm not very good at taking out cuts
• 19:12
  of it out of the 30 minutes.
• 19:14
  And I, I, I didn't have time to
• 19:16
  go and pick all this stuff, but if
• 19:18
  you get on YouTube and watch the, the
• 19:22
  joke of a press conference or the questions
• 19:25
  being asked on air force one, it's alarming
• 19:28
  what, what he is saying.
• 19:30
  And there, there is no law.
• 19:33
  I mean, law, law, come on, Sam, what
• 19:36
  are you talking about?
• 19:37
  You know, if, if, if Venezuela falls this
• 19:41
  way, no assets of any country are safe.
• 19:46
  It's just, you can't do it.
• 19:48
  I mean, this, we, we are the big
• 19:53
  bully on the block period.
• 19:57
  That's all there is to it.
• 19:58
  We have, we have, we have sunk to
• 20:01
  some horrible lows and all we are, are
• 20:05
  bullies.
• 20:07
  What does Russia said?
• 20:08
  Russian several panel shows.
• 20:12
  This is once again, neocolonial seizure.
• 20:15
  The U S has abandoned the international order.
• 20:18
  It claims to lead definitely links Venezuela to,
• 20:24
  you know, more, you know, frozen assets, selective
• 20:27
  legality.
• 20:28
  You, you, you cannot hear here's a quote
• 20:31
  from this guy.
• 20:33
  You cannot feed the beast.
• 20:36
  The more you give it, the hungrier it
• 20:39
  becomes.
• 20:41
  Even Emmanuel Macron in Europe has developed a
• 20:44
  split personality.
• 20:46
  He's being publicly cautious, but privately, privately, he's
• 20:50
  pretty uneasy.
• 20:51
  He's emphasizing process, but he's not defending the
• 20:54
  outcome.
• 20:56
  Other European guys, Germany talks about procedural language
• 21:00
  quietly, by the way, they're all talking very,
• 21:03
  very quietly.
• 21:05
  Southern Europe is, is, is displaying anxiety over
• 21:09
  energy precedent, the EU silent or vague.
• 21:14
  This is not accidental and accidental.
• 21:17
  They cannot, uh, what do you call it?
• 21:22
  They can't, uh, uh, you know, confront the
• 21:27
  Trumpster.
• 21:28
  They can't do it.
• 21:29
  He'll, he'll, he'll, he'll destroy them next.
• 21:32
  And you know, all the Trumpers out there.
• 21:34
  Oh, great.
• 21:35
  It's fantastic.
• 21:36
  This is not fantastic.
• 21:38
  If you're not sad over this, an America
• 21:41
  that, uh, uh, you know, that does this
• 21:44
  kind of thing.
• 21:45
  I truly, I feel for you.
• 21:48
  Uh, the, the only great one, think about
• 21:50
  this.
• 21:51
  Here's one ready.
• 21:52
  Volodymyr Zelensky change his name from Vladimir to
• 21:55
  Volodymyr, uh, Zelensky and his, uh, uh, he,
• 22:00
  he indirectly says what this is proof that
• 22:04
  might makes right.
• 22:05
  The U S rules are situational, but then
• 22:08
  they say, Ukraine is definitely watching.
• 22:11
  China is watching.
• 22:13
  Everybody is taking notes.
• 22:15
  And everybody's only watching, you know, everybody.
• 22:19
  And trust me, they are thinking they are
• 22:21
  absolutely thinking you want to rush bricks.
• 22:26
  You want to rush these other things.
• 22:28
  You might think you've destroyed bricks by stealing
• 22:31
  the oil from Venezuela.
• 22:33
  I don't think so, bud.
• 22:35
  You, you, you've destroyed the UN if anything
• 22:38
  means nothing.
• 22:39
  And, uh, you know, we've got, we've got,
• 22:42
  we got some strange people running this country.
• 22:47
  Um, George Galloway, the guy I met in
• 22:49
  Kazan, I like listening to him.
• 22:51
  And I was, I went out to get
• 22:52
  a, uh, uh, strategic thought.
• 22:54
  I figured I'd get him correct.
• 22:56
  And, uh, before I ever listened to it
• 22:58
  and I did.
• 22:59
  And he, the key thing from what, uh,
• 23:02
  the theme that he gave, he called it
• 23:04
  piracy.
• 23:06
  He makes fun of anything about liberation.
• 23:09
  You aren't liberating shit.
• 23:11
  You're just putting a new man, a new
• 23:12
  master in charge.
• 23:14
  That's it.
• 23:14
  A new dictator.
• 23:16
  If, if the, if the, uh, vice president
• 23:23
  can't speak her mind and you say, uh,
• 23:27
  maybe we'll let her be in charge, but
• 23:29
  she better get in line.
• 23:31
  That's that is, that is not liberation people.
• 23:37
  Where is the democracy?
• 23:41
  It's just gone.
• 23:43
  Um, it's piracy.
• 23:44
  It's a, there is no liberation straight line,
• 23:47
  Iraq, Libya, Venezuela, same, same shit different day.
• 23:51
  They don't even bother lying properly anymore is
• 23:54
  what he said.
• 23:55
  Didn't even bother to lie about it anymore.
• 23:57
  Now it's just straight up.
• 23:59
  He's a, he's pretty comical.
• 24:01
  George Galloway go out and he doesn't mean
• 24:03
  to be comical.
• 24:04
  He's harsh, you know, and what he put
• 24:06
  out there, Alex Cristoforo, but the guy that
• 24:08
  I like to listen to his whole show,
• 24:10
  the entire thing.
• 24:11
  And he doesn't do this.
• 24:12
  He covers different news aspects, but his whole
• 24:16
  show is really good coverage.
• 24:19
  You go out and find Alex Cristoforo and
• 24:21
  he says, it's the moral collapse of us
• 24:24
  foreign policy.
• 24:26
  And now I reacted without any of this,
• 24:28
  you know, it's, it's a, you know, anybody
• 24:29
  with a brain, I got news for you.
• 24:32
  This is what you're going to think.
• 24:33
  The, the moral collapse of us foreign policy
• 24:36
  is, you know, gone historical analogies, Rome, Caligula,
• 24:40
  a warning that this normalizes the language of
• 24:44
  conquest.
• 24:45
  Trump is now saying the quiet part out
• 24:47
  loud, screw it.
• 24:48
  We're, we're, we're big.
• 24:50
  We're, we're, we're bigger than you.
• 24:52
  We're badder than you.
• 24:53
  We got a best military in the world.
• 24:56
  And we did something nobody's ever done before.
• 24:59
  Why is it always have to be the
• 25:01
  exact same thing?
• 25:03
  You can, you can anticipate it.
• 25:05
  We're the best.
• 25:06
  We're the biggest.
• 25:07
  If it wasn't for me, boy, I tell
• 25:09
  you what, uh, what did he say when
• 25:11
  on the, on the air force one, he
• 25:13
  said, uh, uh, Venezuela is dead.
• 25:16
  Yeah.
• 25:17
  Venezuela is dead.
• 25:19
  And by, you know, if I hadn't become
• 25:20
  president, we'd be dead.
• 25:21
  Yeah.
• 25:23
  You know, this, this is not partisan.
• 25:25
  This is civilizational people.
• 25:28
  This is not international.
• 25:31
  What about nationalism?
• 25:33
  What about being proud to be from Venezuela?
• 25:35
  What about, I mean, they got their own
• 25:37
  freaking problems.
• 25:38
  Now we, they have an even bigger one
• 25:41
  and it's all for theft.
• 25:43
  Every bit of it.
• 25:44
  Um, Trump is the emperor.
• 25:47
  He's not the president power.
• 25:49
  It's detached from restraint.
• 25:50
  The mask is completely off.
• 25:52
  We're just supposed to applaud now.
• 25:54
  Yay, Donald.
• 25:55
  Whoa.
• 25:56
  You've done it again.
• 25:57
  You're such a genius.
• 25:59
  That's what we're supposed to be doing is
• 26:01
  just applauding him, right?
• 26:05
  This is terrible.
• 26:07
  Uh, recurring phrases.
• 26:08
  Uh, think, think about some of these, this
• 26:10
  is, this is someone else's oil is now
• 26:14
  ours running Venezuela.
• 26:16
  We're running Venezuela.
• 26:18
  This is custody of a country, not diplomacy
• 26:21
  sanctions as a siege rules for you forced
• 26:25
  for us and feeding the beast.
• 26:27
  Those were pretty common.
• 26:29
  And, uh, you know, the U S is
• 26:31
  crossed from coercion into ownership.
• 26:34
  We own it.
• 26:35
  It's ours.
• 26:36
  Venezuela is ours.
• 26:37
  We took it.
• 26:38
  It's a risk board.
• 26:39
  That's it.
• 26:40
  It is a risk board.
• 26:41
  And Donald Trump is rolling dice.
• 26:44
  Only the dice are always going to come
• 26:46
  up six.
• 26:46
  Cause we're the biggest, baddest, right?
• 26:48
  Especially if you're going against Venezuela, right?
• 26:52
  We own it.
• 26:53
  Allies are pretty nervous.
• 26:54
  They're not supportive.
• 26:55
  You know, there's not been a lot of
• 26:57
  support for this from anywhere except here at
• 27:01
  home.
• 27:01
  You know, the standard voices, um, the Lindsey
• 27:04
  Graham's of the world, you know, the guy's
• 27:06
  not, um, non-Western powers are cataloging this
• 27:09
  precedent law has been demoted to some kind
• 27:13
  of a press release in some kind of
• 27:15
  a district court judge in New York.
• 27:19
  They had to specifically pick.
• 27:22
  I'm interested to see what lies he comes
• 27:24
  up with today to establish jurisdiction over a
• 27:27
  foreign leader.
• 27:28
  You know, everybody's going to be watching his
• 27:31
  joke of a hearing today.
• 27:33
  The empire is speaking once again, quite plainly.
• 27:37
  And that is the real story.
• 27:40
  Let's be blunt.
• 27:41
  Let's be completely blunt.
• 27:43
  This isn't about Venezuela.
• 27:45
  This is a memo for the rest of
• 27:47
  the world.
• 27:48
  This is a memo.
• 27:50
  You just, this is what you're getting people.
• 27:52
  You better get used to it.
• 27:54
  You know, I mean, what we've seen over
• 27:56
  the past several days is not just another
• 27:58
  Venezuelan story, not sanctions, not strong words from
• 28:02
  Washington.
• 28:03
  What we're watching is something dangerous and far
• 28:07
  more revealing for the first time in history,
• 28:10
  a very long time, at least the U
• 28:13
  S isn't pretending.
• 28:16
  We are pretending we, you know, at least
• 28:20
  in Iraq, Libya, Syria, there, we pretended that
• 28:23
  we were doing the right thing.
• 28:24
  Even Trumpster when he was bombing, uh, Iran
• 28:27
  was pretending that, you know, he was doing
• 28:30
  it because it was the right thing to
• 28:32
  do, but we're not, we're not even pretending
• 28:34
  anymore.
• 28:35
  We're just, well, why bother telling them?
• 28:38
  Nobody knows.
• 28:39
  Everybody knows the language matters.
• 28:41
  You know, Venezuela is being treated not as
• 28:44
  a country, but as another asset on your
• 28:47
  balance sheet.
• 28:48
  That's it.
• 28:50
  It's crazy.
• 28:51
  The United States isn't pressuring Venezuela anymore.
• 28:55
  It's taking responsibility.
• 28:58
  That should make your skin crawl.
• 29:00
  That's, I mean, we don't own Venezuela.
• 29:03
  This is nuts.
• 29:04
  And it goes straight back to Trump whose
• 29:06
  remarks over the weekend take away any ambiguity.
• 29:10
  He didn't speak about negotiation.
• 29:12
  He didn't speak about mediation.
• 29:14
  He spoke as if Venezuela we're already his
• 29:17
  it's his we're not letting a country like
• 29:20
  that sit on resources like that anymore.
• 29:24
  That's a direct quote.
• 29:26
  We're not letting a country like that sit
• 29:30
  on resources like that.
• 29:33
  Tell me this about narco terrorism and blowing
• 29:36
  up boats that happened to get out of
• 29:38
  the, get out of the, uh, ocean area
• 29:42
  that you don't like what's missing.
• 29:44
  There's not a mention of Venezuelans, not a
• 29:48
  mention of elections, no mention of law, just
• 29:52
  resources.
• 29:54
  That's it.
• 29:56
  It's crazy.
• 29:58
  You know, it's, it's unbelievable.
• 30:01
  Chinese aligned commentary.
• 30:04
  Uh, you know, this is a test case.
• 30:06
  They're, they're keeping track of it.
• 30:08
  This is not about what, what they said
• 30:10
  in Beijing.
• 30:11
  This is not about Maduro.
• 30:13
  This is about whether force replaces law in
• 30:16
  the global system that matters.
• 30:18
  China isn't thinking emotionally.
• 30:20
  It's thinking structure.
• 30:22
  Think about this.
• 30:23
  Here's a Chinese foreign policy analyst.
• 30:26
  If a government can be removed in its
• 30:28
  assets administered by another state, then no overseas
• 30:32
  investment is secure.
• 30:35
  That's not Venezuela talking.
• 30:37
  That's global finance.
• 30:39
  That's bricks talk.
• 30:41
  That's the sounds of countries quietly recalculating their
• 30:46
  exposure to the dollar.
• 30:50
  That's what's happening.
• 30:52
  And here, here's Russia saying the quiet part
• 30:55
  out loud.
• 30:56
  They dropped being polite.
• 30:58
  Russian analysts and didn't even dance around words
• 31:01
  like concern, regret.
• 31:04
  They use words like seizure, COE, coercion, and
• 31:07
  neocolonialism.
• 31:09
  One Russian military guy said, uh, uh, the
• 31:12
  United States no longer hides that it believes
• 31:15
  might creates legitimacy.
• 31:18
  Here's another one.
• 31:20
  They are not changing regimes anymore.
• 31:22
  They're managing territories.
• 31:24
  We're going to run Venezuela.
• 31:28
  This is critical distinction here.
• 31:30
  Regime change is temporary.
• 31:32
  Management is permanent.
• 31:34
  We're taking over.
• 31:35
  That's it.
• 31:36
  And this is where Venezuela gets tied directly
• 31:38
  to Ukraine.
• 31:39
  Frozen assets sanctions more broadly.
• 31:43
  Another Russian common commentator said it this way.
• 31:46
  Venezuela's leadership can be handled this way.
• 31:49
  Then frozen assets are only the beginning.
• 31:53
  This is how the rest of the world
• 31:54
  is reading the situation, not as an isolated
• 31:58
  event, but as a signal.
• 31:59
  And it's not isolated.
• 32:01
  We're coming for you, Cuba.
• 32:03
  We're coming for you, Greenland.
• 32:05
  That was Donald Trump, for God's sake.
• 32:08
  We need Greenland.
• 32:09
  I mean, he said it on air force
• 32:10
  one yesterday.
• 32:12
  We were well, Greenland, we're, we're coming.
• 32:17
  Unbelievable.
• 32:17
  Emmanuel Macron talked about process stability dialogue.
• 32:21
  He didn't defend this action.
• 32:22
  He didn't defend it either.
• 32:24
  He's he's uncomfortable with this.
• 32:26
  If energy rich states can be directly administered,
• 32:31
  then Europe's own dependency upon, you know, energy
• 32:36
  comes back into sharp focus, doesn't it?
• 32:41
  And the silence from Brussels isn't ignorance.
• 32:43
  It's Jesus, what are we going to do
• 32:45
  now?
• 32:46
  We've cut off Russia.
• 32:48
  What if we cut off America?
• 32:50
  What if we don't bow to the beast
• 32:52
  that is out there feeding and grazing?
• 32:55
  The beast might not let us have any
• 32:57
  Venezuelan oil that they're stealing, that they're stealing.
• 33:02
  And I want to get to the lies
• 33:03
  that he's told about the Trump has told
• 33:06
  lies about Venezuela stole our stuff.
• 33:10
  It's absolutely false.
• 33:12
  It is not true.
• 33:13
  Okay.
• 33:16
  Zelensky.
• 33:17
  I hate to go back that now I'm
• 33:19
  not even gonna forget him.
• 33:20
  He's not even important.
• 33:22
  But everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
• 33:25
  This is not about drugs.
• 33:26
  This is not about democracy.
• 33:28
  This isn't even about Maduro.
• 33:31
  When they mentioned him, oh, gee, he was
• 33:34
  he was charged with having a machine gun
• 33:38
  having machine guns.
• 33:40
  What the hell are you talking about?
• 33:42
  He can have machine guns in his own
• 33:44
  country if he wants to.
• 33:46
  This is nuts.
• 33:48
  And we're just making it up and Americans
• 33:51
  are eating it up.
• 33:52
  I mean, the you need to think about
• 33:55
  this.
• 33:55
  You truly do.
• 33:57
  This is about resources, precedent and raw power.
• 34:01
  If this were about narcotics, we'd be in
• 34:05
  Colombia and Peru.
• 34:08
  This is not about narcotics, not remotely.
• 34:13
  Don't believe it.
• 34:15
  I'm going to be very clear.
• 34:17
  What we're watching is not strength.
• 34:20
  This is rot.
• 34:23
  Empires do not collapse when they're challenged.
• 34:27
  They collapse when they stop pretending to follow
• 34:31
  the law, when they stop needing an excuse,
• 34:36
  when they start talking about other people's countries,
• 34:40
  the way landlords talk about a foreclosure.
• 34:44
  This is not leadership.
• 34:47
  Not remotely.
• 34:50
  And here's the part that should scare everybody
• 34:52
  left, right, indifferent.
• 34:54
  And by the way, I'm I'm far more
• 34:57
  conservative than liberal.
• 35:01
  Once this language is normalized, it'll never get
• 35:05
  rolled back.
• 35:06
  If Venezuela can be managed, then so can
• 35:10
  anyone else who falls out of line.
• 35:12
  Right.
• 35:12
  Today, it's Caracas.
• 35:14
  Tomorrow, it's Cuba.
• 35:16
  After that, it's somebody else's energy, somebody else's
• 35:20
  Arctic ports.
• 35:22
  We need we need Greenland.
• 35:24
  He set that up a year ago.
• 35:26
  Within a year, he's already stolen a country.
• 35:32
  This is I'm I'm I don't know this.
• 35:34
  I cannot I cannot not say something.
• 35:40
  This you got to say something.
• 35:41
  I can't imagine that people think this is
• 35:44
  oh, geez, smart.
• 35:45
  This is not smart.
• 35:47
  This is stupid.
• 35:48
  This is stupid.
• 35:49
  Long term.
• 35:50
  We're a joke on the planet.
• 35:52
  Rest of the world is listening.
• 35:55
  They're taking notes and they're preparing for a
• 35:58
  future without permission.
• 35:59
  That is not a warning.
• 36:01
  That's a diagnosis.
• 36:02
  We're rotten.
• 36:04
  This is rot.
• 36:06
  I tell you what, I don't like it.
• 36:08
  I don't like this at all.
• 36:10
  This is not another Venezuelan crisis is not
• 36:13
  another sanctioned.
• 36:14
  You know, nothing like that.
• 36:17
  From regime change to regime control.
• 36:20
  One of the most important points that you
• 36:22
  know that you need to become aware of
• 36:24
  is is this is not regime change.
• 36:28
  Regime change is disruptive.
• 36:30
  Right.
• 36:31
  But it's temporary.
• 36:33
  They're we're not interested in who governs Venezuela.
• 36:38
  We're interested in how Venezuela is governed by
• 36:41
  us.
• 36:42
  If the issue were about Maduro personally, the
• 36:45
  negotiations, exile deals, internal transition would be sufficient.
• 36:49
  But that's not the conversation we're having.
• 36:52
  The conversation is about administration, oversight, custody, management
• 36:57
  by Rubio.
• 36:59
  Rubio is going to, you know, manage Venezuela
• 37:02
  is nuts.
• 37:05
  You know, you don't talk about running another
• 37:09
  country unless you believe the question of who
• 37:12
  owns it is already settled.
• 37:14
  This is why this story is exploding internationally
• 37:17
  and everybody's paying attention.
• 37:21
  This is nuts.
• 37:23
  The illusions are gone.
• 37:25
  And I.
• 37:29
  I don't know that I wanted to get
• 37:33
  into pay attention to.
• 37:36
  The what is her name, Rodriguez, I can't
• 37:40
  remember what her name is.
• 37:44
  What is her name?
• 37:46
  The vice president.
• 37:48
  She came on with a pretty extended statement.
• 37:55
  So it's important to understand something.
• 37:58
  The world isn't reacting to speculation.
• 38:02
  They're reacting to his explicit threats and declarations.
• 38:07
  This is this isn't, you know, Trump declares
• 38:10
  the second attack on Venezuela will will occur
• 38:14
  if Maduro, Deputy Delce disobeys his statement that
• 38:19
  the U.S. in charge of she disobeys
• 38:21
  him.
• 38:22
  Think about that.
• 38:24
  The U.S. is in charge that that
• 38:26
  is not diplomatic language that we are the
• 38:30
  occupier.
• 38:32
  We are occupying another country.
• 38:36
  Trump's position is that Delce Rodriguez, who is
• 38:39
  now described in U.S. discourse as acting
• 38:43
  or interim leadership, is subject to some kind
• 38:48
  of direct obedience to Trump.
• 38:51
  One line directly from Trump.
• 38:53
  If she disobeys, there will be consequences.
• 38:57
  We are not playing games anymore.
• 39:01
  If she disobeys, that's command and control.
• 39:05
  That's no longer have a country.
• 39:08
  There is no self-determination.
• 39:11
  This is command and control.
• 39:13
  This is not a warning.
• 39:14
  And this is, you know, across the U
• 39:16
  .S. allies should be uncomfortable with this.
• 39:19
  You cannot threaten military action based on obedience
• 39:22
  to a foreign executive without admitting you believe
• 39:26
  you are sovereign over that country.
• 39:28
  That isn't policy.
• 39:29
  That is empire.
• 39:31
  We are the empire.
• 39:33
  We are Darth Vader.
• 39:34
  That is us or the emperor, because the
• 39:36
  empire emperor controlled Darth Vader.
• 39:39
  Maybe Darth Vader would be Lindsey Graham.
• 39:43
  And Trump is the emperor.
• 39:45
  That is what's going on.
• 39:49
  So the Venezuelan response.
• 39:51
  So the tone from Caracas was initially defiant
• 39:56
  and talked about their own constitution.
• 39:59
  No foreign power can swear in a president
• 40:02
  of Venezuela.
• 40:03
  That authority belongs to the Venezuelan people and
• 40:08
  the constitution, not Washington.
• 40:11
  What the United States is doing is not
• 40:14
  diplomacy.
• 40:15
  It's declaring its own parallel chain of command.
• 40:19
  Parallel chain of command.
• 40:20
  That's devastatingly accurate because that's exactly what Donald
• 40:25
  Trump is issuing orders about.
• 40:28
  And he's threatening force if you don't follow
• 40:31
  it.
• 40:34
  They call it mismanagement.
• 40:37
  We call it independence.
• 40:40
  They want our oil under their supervision.
• 40:44
  That word keeps on coming up, right?
• 40:46
  They want it.
• 40:48
  They want our oil under their supervision.
• 40:55
  Wow.
• 40:57
  So there's I don't know if any of
• 40:59
  you ever listened to him.
• 41:00
  I don't listen to him all that often.
• 41:01
  But there's a guy named Larry Johnson.
• 41:03
  He's a former CIA analyst in I was
• 41:06
  paying attention to him.
• 41:06
  He said something interesting.
• 41:08
  He said, yes, Trump crossed the line.
• 41:11
  And not accidentally, he said that threatening force
• 41:16
  based on obedience to U.S. authority constitutes
• 41:21
  de facto occupation doctrine.
• 41:25
  Once you declare you are in charge, international
• 41:28
  law is no longer ambiguous.
• 41:31
  It's just not.
• 41:33
  It's nuts.
• 41:35
  This is no longer about left or right.
• 41:37
  It's about whether the world is governed by
• 41:39
  law or by whoever says I'm in charge.
• 41:44
  When presidents start issuing orders to other countries'
• 41:48
  leaders, when oil is justification for obedience, when
• 41:52
  sovereignty is conditional, history tells us where that
• 41:57
  leads.
• 41:59
  Yep.
• 42:00
  This is nuts.
• 42:03
  Oh, let's see.
• 42:08
  Where did the next part go?
• 42:12
  The U.S. is in charge.
• 42:15
  U.S. is in charge.
• 42:18
  Yeah.
• 42:21
  We need obedience.
• 42:24
  Venezuela said, you do not swear in our
• 42:28
  president.
• 42:30
  And Venezuelan analysts said, no foreign power has
• 42:36
  the authority to swear in a Venezuelan president.
• 42:39
  Did you watch that?
• 42:40
  What Washington is declaring is not diplomacy.
• 42:45
  They don't like it.
• 42:46
  It's I.
• 42:53
  Sam, who can always find something to speak
• 42:56
  about, I am especially disturbed about.
• 43:00
  And you should go listen to it on
• 43:02
  Air Force One.
• 43:03
  It's like a 30 minute, 35 minute, maybe
• 43:07
  J.R. I'll play it later today.
• 43:10
  That basically the we are in charge.
• 43:14
  Most important thing to understand is that Trump
• 43:17
  never speaks as if Venezuela is a foreign
• 43:21
  country.
• 43:23
  He speaks as if the authority to run
• 43:26
  Venezuela actually exists.
• 43:29
  It doesn't.
• 43:31
  He he speaks as if decisions have already
• 43:34
  been made.
• 43:36
  We'll let the vice president if Maduro was
• 43:39
  the problem.
• 43:40
  Why can't the vice president do something?
• 43:42
  Why are you going to say when elections
• 43:45
  can be?
• 43:47
  We're going we're not going to invest anything.
• 43:51
  Here's what he said.
• 43:52
  This is actual quote.
• 43:54
  We're not going to invest anything.
• 43:56
  We're going to just take care of the
• 44:00
  country.
• 44:01
  That sentence would have caused an international crisis
• 44:06
  if spoken by any prior U.S. president.
• 44:09
  Take care of the country?
• 44:12
  Who are you?
• 44:13
  They have no sovereignty.
• 44:16
  They have external management and indefinite control.
• 44:19
  That's what they got.
• 44:21
  And this is there is no self determination.
• 44:23
  One of the things that we've pushed for
• 44:25
  all over the place is self determination.
• 44:28
  It never is self determination, by the way.
• 44:30
  We've been watching that forever.
• 44:32
  Trump lays out a sequence that appears multiple
• 44:35
  times.
• 44:36
  We're going to fix it.
• 44:38
  We'll have elections at the right time.
• 44:41
  The main thing is you have to fix
• 44:44
  a broken country.
• 44:46
  The main thing is you have to fix
• 44:50
  a broken country.
• 44:51
  This is important.
• 44:52
  Elections are no longer a source of legitimacy.
• 44:56
  They're a reward granted after you comply.
• 45:01
  You comply and we'll give you some elections.
• 45:04
  But you can't have them before that because
• 45:06
  we're coming in to fix your country.
• 45:10
  That's I mean.
• 45:13
  India fought this against Britain for how long?
• 45:16
  I mean, seriously.
• 45:17
  I mean, this is nuts.
• 45:21
  Sovereignty is suspended.
• 45:22
  Governance is conditional.
• 45:24
  Democracy that we're supposed to live for is
• 45:27
  postponed until Washington approves.
• 45:29
  That's colonialism, not democracy.
• 45:34
  And get this, this is even worse.
• 45:36
  We need total access.
• 45:38
  This is an actual quote from Donald Trump.
• 45:41
  We need total access.
• 45:43
  We need access to the oil and to
• 45:45
  other things in their country that allow us
• 45:48
  to rebuild their country.
• 45:51
  Who died and made you God to build
• 45:54
  their country?
• 45:55
  What the hell is this?
• 45:57
  That sentence is a staggering sentence.
• 46:01
  Total access, no sovereign control, no negotiated terms,
• 46:07
  no reciprocity.
• 46:08
  And when he was pressed on what these
• 46:10
  other things meant, guess what he said?
• 46:14
  He skipped gold, but they are one of
• 46:18
  the largest producers of gold.
• 46:20
  He switched to steel, aluminum, minerals, rare earth
• 46:25
  processing.
• 46:27
  He's extracting anything of value from Venezuela.
• 46:32
  And he's given the money to Western companies.
• 46:36
  So Venezuela will never profit.
• 46:38
  They will be Africa 2.0 under France.
• 46:43
  That's what it'll be.
• 46:44
  And get this, here he's reversing reality.
• 46:47
  He repeatedly claims, and he's wrong, he's stretching
• 46:52
  the truth.
• 46:53
  To be kind about it, he's stretching the
• 46:55
  truth.
• 46:56
  Trump repeatedly claims that Venezuela stole U.S.
• 47:01
  oil infrastructure.
• 47:03
  Here's the direct quote, and he said this
• 47:05
  repeatedly.
• 47:07
  It was the greatest theft in the history
• 47:10
  of America.
• 47:11
  Nobody has ever stolen our property like they
• 47:13
  have.
• 47:14
  This is historically false, quite false.
• 47:18
  By redefining nationalization as theft, Trump reframes Venezuelan
• 47:24
  sovereignty as a criminal act, U.S. retaliation
• 47:29
  against it as recovery, and invasion as a
• 47:33
  repossession.
• 47:34
  The same logic used in Iraq, oil contracts,
• 47:38
  Iran, assets, Libya, frozen money.
• 47:41
  Once this framing is accepted, force is just
• 47:45
  a collection activity, right?
• 47:47
  We were ready for a second wave.
• 47:49
  He casually references, you know, escalating it.
• 47:52
  Oh, we're ready for a second wave, no
• 47:54
  problem.
• 47:54
  And later, we'll do a second strike.
• 47:57
  No congressional language, no international mandate.
• 48:00
  It's a unilateral strike doctrine, spoken as if
• 48:04
  it were routine maintenance.
• 48:05
  You know, geez, well, you know, you got
• 48:07
  a you got a pump out on floor
• 48:10
  two over there, and it's the exact same.
• 48:13
  Ah, well, if we got to bomb the
• 48:15
  shit out of Venezuela, okay, you know.
• 48:18
  Now, we talk about near the end, somebody
• 48:21
  asked a question about the Monroe Doctrine.
• 48:23
  Here's what he said.
• 48:25
  He said, it's our hemisphere.
• 48:28
  The Monroe Doctrine was very important when it
• 48:31
  was done.
• 48:31
  Other presidents lost sight of it.
• 48:34
  I didn't.
• 48:35
  This is one of the most important lines
• 48:37
  in this.
• 48:37
  He's not referencing history.
• 48:39
  He's reviving a dead doctrine.
• 48:42
  It's simply external power.
• 48:44
  Stay out because we're in charge.
• 48:46
  He places Venezuela inside that framework.
• 48:49
  Why Lindsey Graham was on Air Force One.
• 48:53
  Get this.
• 48:54
  Lindsey Graham.
• 48:55
  It's not accidental why he's there.
• 48:57
  This this warmongering a-hole has been wrong
• 49:03
  for years.
• 49:04
  The loudest Senate advocate of regime change is
• 49:09
  Lindsey Graham, the architect of sanctions plus force
• 49:13
  doctrine.
• 49:15
  Lindsey Graham, the bridge between neocons and MAGA
• 49:21
  militarists, which didn't exist before.
• 49:23
  Whatever happened to make America great again?
• 49:26
  Do you remember Trump actually said it last
• 49:28
  week?
• 49:28
  Make Venezuela great again?
• 49:32
  Who gives a shit?
• 49:34
  Pardon my French.
• 49:35
  I don't care if Venezuela's great, and I
• 49:38
  don't want to own it.
• 49:39
  And why do we wish to own Venezuela?
• 49:43
  I don't care what injustices are occurring in
• 49:46
  Venezuela.
• 49:46
  I don't care.
• 49:49
  And the majority of Americans don't.
• 49:51
  And those of you out there, you know,
• 49:53
  back slapping, oh yeah, look what we've done
• 49:55
  again.
• 49:55
  Old Trumpster's doing it now.
• 49:58
  All that is is bullies in a classroom
• 50:00
  that are taking joy over the football kid
• 50:04
  beating up the dork, you know, or the
• 50:06
  football kid beating up the geek.
• 50:09
  And you know, the same old popularity contest.
• 50:12
  That's what this is.
• 50:14
  The crap that I rail about against government
• 50:17
  all the time.
• 50:20
  Here it is again.
• 50:21
  Using the government as your own personal weapon.
• 50:26
  That's what's going on here.
• 50:28
  Crazy.
• 50:31
  The bridge, you know, the bridge of neocon
• 50:33
  and MAGA, that is Lindsey.
• 50:36
  Trump invited him into the conversation mid-rant.
• 50:40
  He was on the plane, ranting in response
• 50:43
  to some question.
• 50:44
  He said, Lindsey would know that.
• 50:46
  You might say something on that, Lindsey.
• 50:48
  And Graham didn't hesitate a drop.
• 50:50
  He's a, well, it's narco-terrorism aligned with
• 50:53
  Hezbollah and responsible for American deaths.
• 50:56
  You know, one of our most sophisticated military
• 50:59
  operations in the history of the country.
• 51:01
  You know, there he goes again.
• 51:03
  This is classic Graham idiocy.
• 51:06
  He's a maximalist.
• 51:08
  He wants to stress morality.
• 51:11
  Oh, geez, we're doing the right thing.
• 51:13
  He's violent and he's permanent.
• 51:16
  When Graham is traveling with the president, it
• 51:19
  can't mean anything good.
• 51:21
  It means escalation is being normalized, not debated.
• 51:27
  When Lindsey Graham is helping war and destruction
• 51:31
  and defeat follow, you know, the most disturbing
• 51:38
  line for me at all is this.
• 51:44
  This, I'll tell you what, Maduro's country, which
• 51:47
  isn't really his country anymore.
• 51:52
  It's certainly not his country anymore.
• 51:55
  That's what Trump said.
• 51:57
  Let's say that again.
• 51:57
  Maduro's country, which isn't really his country anymore.
• 52:01
  It's certainly not his country anymore.
• 52:04
  Trump is explicitly declaring that Venezuela no longer
• 52:10
  belongs to its own government.
• 52:13
  That isn't rhetoric, people.
• 52:15
  That's talk.
• 52:16
  That's a claim of a sovereign transfer.
• 52:19
  He took it.
• 52:21
  This wasn't a press gaggle.
• 52:24
  This wasn't even I mean, it was bravado.
• 52:26
  He talks about it all.
• 52:27
  You know, he can't talk without, you know,
• 52:30
  bragging.
• 52:31
  But the doctrine is being spoken out loud.
• 52:34
  He's a trustee.
• 52:35
  He's talking about our resources, conditional elections, unilateral
• 52:41
  strikes, hemispheric ownership and contempt for international law.
• 52:48
  No euphemisms, only empire.
• 52:50
  That's what this is.
• 52:53
  And I tell you what, when leaders start
• 52:56
  speaking this way, casually, incoherently, but confidently, it
• 53:00
  means internal brakes are gone.
• 53:04
  They are gone.
• 53:06
  There are no brakes.
• 53:07
  And trust me, Lindsey Graham is there stoking,
• 53:10
  stoke throwing more coal in the engine.
• 53:12
  That's what he is doing.
• 53:14
  This is troubling.
• 53:16
  It is, you know, unguarded truth.
• 53:20
  This is this is not polished messaging.
• 53:23
  Trump's never very polished, but, you know, they
• 53:26
  catch him on this.
• 53:28
  And this is he probably should have thought
• 53:30
  about some of the things.
• 53:31
  This is this is.
• 53:34
  I tell you what, I I'm I'm I'm
• 53:38
  outraged.
• 53:39
  I really am.
• 53:40
  And Lindsey Graham, he's earned this, you know,
• 53:45
  Graham earns all of this.
• 53:48
  The president of the United States speaking casually
• 53:53
  to reporters, no teleprompter, no prepared remarks, only
• 53:58
  instinct.
• 53:59
  And his instinct is where he leaks out
• 54:02
  the truth.
• 54:04
  We're not going to invest anything.
• 54:07
  We're going to just take care of the
• 54:10
  country.
• 54:11
  We own it.
• 54:12
  It's ours.
• 54:13
  Basically, fix it.
• 54:15
  We'll have elections at the right time.
• 54:17
  Main thing is you have to fix a
• 54:19
  broken country.
• 54:20
  We'll have elections.
• 54:23
  The thing that supposedly gives legitimacy, they're postponed
• 54:26
  until Washington decides Washington decides the country is
• 54:30
  actually fixed.
• 54:32
  You're on probation, colonial probation for you, Venezuela
• 54:36
  probation.
• 54:38
  We'll tell you when when we think you're
• 54:41
  allowed to have elections.
• 54:43
  This is cocked up, friends and neighbors.
• 54:47
  Let's talk about the resources again.
• 54:50
  This is negotiated access, not shared access, not
• 54:53
  compensated access.
• 54:54
  This is total access.
• 54:56
  This is we're taking it.
• 54:57
  We win.
• 54:59
  You lose.
• 55:00
  You're done.
• 55:01
  OK, it's they call it one of the
• 55:04
  greatest thefts in American history.
• 55:07
  Nationalization is not theft.
• 55:10
  It's sovereignty.
• 55:11
  If you redefine sovereignty as theft and suddenly
• 55:14
  invasion is allowed.
• 55:16
  Right.
• 55:18
  Same old garbage logic that destroyed Iraq, Libya,
• 55:22
  half the credibility of the West.
• 55:23
  Now the rest is gone.
• 55:25
  He says we're ready for a second wave.
• 55:28
  We're going to keep coming.
• 55:29
  You know, we hate Lindsey Graham.
• 55:32
  I mean, Lindsey Graham, surprise, surprise.
• 55:35
  We hate Lindsey Graham because wherever he goes,
• 55:38
  war follows.
• 55:39
  He don't want to fix anything.
• 55:41
  He wants to bomb everything.
• 55:43
  We hate Lindsey Graham because he treats the
• 55:44
  world like his own personal risk board.
• 55:47
  And America lives like poker, you know, American
• 55:50
  lives like poker chips.
• 55:52
  And Trump invites him in, you know, oh,
• 55:55
  geez, come on in.
• 55:57
  One of the most sophisticated military operations in
• 56:00
  the history of the country.
• 56:01
  Lindsey Graham in his natural habitat, smiling at
• 56:05
  chaos, clapping at force, demanding more.
• 56:10
  Yeah, we need more of this.
• 56:13
  Mm hmm.
• 56:16
  It's our hemisphere.
• 56:18
  It's our hemisphere.
• 56:20
  That's it, folks.
• 56:23
  So I wanted to talk to you a
• 56:25
  little bit about this stealing of problem, you
• 56:28
  know, of stealing of American property.
• 56:31
  So what Trump is referring to, but mangling
• 56:34
  horribly when he says it, because he said
• 56:38
  it several times, no, no details, no fact,
• 56:40
  no nothing.
• 56:42
  What he what he says is they've stolen
• 56:46
  our property.
• 56:47
  And, you know, that's bullshit, right?
• 56:50
  But remember, there were two major nationalization movements,
• 56:55
  one under Hugo Chavez in 2006 and 2007.
• 57:00
  This has got to be the core event
• 57:02
  that Trump is pointing at, because the other
• 57:04
  one occurred in 75, 76, the first nationalization
• 57:08
  movement when they were when they created that
• 57:11
  PDVSA, which is the oil company of Venezuela.
• 57:16
  And but the core event that Trump is
• 57:19
  talking about when he says that they're stealing
• 57:21
  is Venezuela required foreign oil companies to convert
• 57:28
  their operations into joint ventures and accept PDVSA
• 57:34
  majority ownership.
• 57:36
  Why?
• 57:37
  So the people wouldn't do this so that,
• 57:39
  you know, they weren't subject to this.
• 57:42
  Several U.S. companies objected.
• 57:44
  The biggest one, ExxonMobil.
• 57:47
  Exxon refused the new terms.
• 57:51
  Then Venezuela expropriated Exxon's projects in the Orinoco
• 57:56
  Belt in 2007.
• 57:58
  Exxon sued Venezuela in international arbitration.
• 58:02
  This was not theft under international law.
• 58:05
  It's not.
• 58:05
  That is, it's state nationalization is permitted.
• 58:10
  It's legal if compensation is paid.
• 58:15
  Arbitration happened.
• 58:17
  The arbitration took place and U.S. companies
• 58:20
  won.
• 58:22
  This is where Trump's claim really falls apart.
• 58:25
  This is bullshit, right?
• 58:26
  Arbitration rulings at the international courts, international tribunals.
• 58:32
  ExxonMobil was awarded billions.
• 58:34
  Venezuela paid significant compensation.
• 58:37
  Some awards were reduced later on appeal.
• 58:40
  Chevron stayed in Venezuela, negotiated, continued operating even
• 58:45
  through sanctions with U.S. permission.
• 58:47
  So the idea that they stole our property
• 58:50
  and never paid is simply false.
• 58:53
  This was litigated, arbitrated, settled in stages, and
• 58:58
  ongoing legally, not militarily.
• 59:01
  So let's be clear about what did not
• 59:03
  occur.
• 59:05
  Nothing under Maduro, nothing under Maduro to to
• 59:10
  change what happened under Chavez in 2007.
• 59:14
  Nothing.
• 59:15
  No new mass nationalization in the last decade.
• 59:20
  No U.S. infrastructure stolen in the Trump
• 59:22
  or Biden years.
• 59:24
  No event that justifies Trump's greatest theft in
• 59:28
  history language.
• 59:29
  Nothing even remotely close.
• 59:33
  Why is Trump saying this now?
• 59:34
  Because he's a salesman.
• 59:36
  He has to.
• 59:37
  He has to justify this.
• 59:39
  He has to try to keep some of
• 59:41
  us, you know, on board with the bullshit
• 59:44
  that he is conducting.
• 59:45
  I am not on board, obviously, not remotely
• 59:48
  for this.
• 59:50
  This is bullshit.
• 59:52
  We are bullies.
• 59:54
  That's it.
• 59:55
  And politically and psychologically, he's trying to keep
• 1:00:00
  three things in order.
• 1:00:02
  He wants to reframe nationalization as theft by
• 1:00:06
  calling it theft.
• 1:00:08
  He can turn sovereignty into a crime.
• 1:00:12
  Arbitration into some sort of injustice and an
• 1:00:16
  invasion.
• 1:00:16
  He can justify that because we need recovery.
• 1:00:20
  This justifies force.
• 1:00:21
  What he's doing is he's justifying it because
• 1:00:23
  if he can reframe nationalization as theft, well,
• 1:00:29
  geez, we have a right to go in
• 1:00:31
  there.
• 1:00:31
  You don't have any right to do so.
• 1:00:33
  And he's been very clear.
• 1:00:35
  We're still in the oil.
• 1:00:36
  That's it.
• 1:00:38
  And now everything else.
• 1:00:41
  As long as we're here, we might as
• 1:00:43
  well take all the aluminum, all the gold,
• 1:00:45
  everything that Venezuela has in abundance, we're stealing.
• 1:00:49
  The profits will go to the American extraction
• 1:00:52
  companies and the gold, but we'll take care
• 1:00:57
  of you.
• 1:00:57
  We'll dribble out, you know, just like the
• 1:01:00
  colonialists in the crown in India and the
• 1:01:09
  United States, you know, we were a colony.
• 1:01:12
  Now we're colonialists.
• 1:01:14
  Now we're taking over the world.
• 1:01:16
  Let's collapse time.
• 1:01:17
  Trump is blending Chavez era disputes from 2006
• 1:01:21
  and 2007, long settled arbitrations, modern sanctions and
• 1:01:26
  current regime pressure into one emotional blob that
• 1:01:30
  he and Rubio and Graham turn into something
• 1:01:34
  that sounds urgent and unresolved, but it's not.
• 1:01:38
  He's preparing a legal fiction.
• 1:01:41
  If Venezuela stole American property, then U.S.
• 1:01:46
  action is repossession.
• 1:01:48
  Asset seizure is recovery of property that you
• 1:01:51
  stole.
• 1:01:52
  And occupation is just management of another oil
• 1:01:55
  field.
• 1:01:56
  You know, that's it is exactly how empires
• 1:01:59
  talked themselves into intervention and why the 70s
• 1:02:03
  idea doesn't quite fit.
• 1:02:05
  You know, Venezuela did nationalize oil in the
• 1:02:08
  70s, but that was widely accepted.
• 1:02:10
  It was gone.
• 1:02:11
  U.S. companies were compensated.
• 1:02:13
  PDVSA was formed with international cooperation.
• 1:02:17
  And Trump is not in any way.
• 1:02:19
  He's not really talking about that.
• 1:02:21
  He's talking about Chavez in 2007, 20 years
• 1:02:24
  ago.
• 1:02:25
  You know, that's, you know, that that's that's
• 1:02:28
  recent, right?
• 1:02:29
  He was looking at what you know, what
• 1:02:33
  would what he can do is he can
• 1:02:35
  go into Venezuela with no environmentalists, you know,
• 1:02:39
  coming after the U.S., right?
• 1:02:41
  This is dangerous language.
• 1:02:43
  This is dangerous.
• 1:02:44
  When a sitting U.S. president says the
• 1:02:47
  greatest theft in the history of America about
• 1:02:50
  a foreign government action settled in international courts,
• 1:02:53
  he's doing something specific.
• 1:02:55
  He's delegitimate delegitimizing international law itself.
• 1:03:03
  International law no longer counts if you're Donald
• 1:03:08
  Trump and you have the greatest armed forces
• 1:03:11
  in the world on your side, because if
• 1:03:15
  arbitration arbitration outcomes don't count, then courts don't
• 1:03:19
  matter.
• 1:03:19
  Treaties don't matter.
• 1:03:21
  Only power matters, which brings us right back
• 1:03:25
  to why Lindsey Graham's presence is radioactive, because
• 1:03:30
  he has spent his career arguing that if
• 1:03:35
  law gets in the way, law should move.
• 1:03:38
  That's it.
• 1:03:40
  You know, Trump creating stories from old disputes,
• 1:03:45
  partially true, you know, half truths from long
• 1:03:49
  ago.
• 1:03:49
  He's factually wrong.
• 1:03:52
  Legally, it's indefensible.
• 1:03:54
  And rhetorically, it's preparation for forth.
• 1:03:57
  That's it.
• 1:03:58
  He isn't describing reality.
• 1:04:00
  He's manufacturing a justification.
• 1:04:02
  That's it.
• 1:04:05
  That is what is happened.
• 1:04:08
  That's all.
• 1:04:10
  There were some exact, let's see, there were
• 1:04:13
  ExxonMobil affiliates versus Venezuela, Chavez 2007 on the
• 1:04:19
  Orinoco project.
• 1:04:21
  They were awarded $908 million.
• 1:04:26
  And then they got another award at the
• 1:04:29
  World Bank of $1.6 billion as compensation.
• 1:04:33
  And then they were allowed to deduct the
• 1:04:35
  first $908 million.
• 1:04:37
  So they've been disputing that for a little
• 1:04:40
  while.
• 1:04:41
  So that wasn't theft.
• 1:04:42
  It was a dispute that went to international
• 1:04:45
  arbitration.
• 1:04:46
  Exxon sued.
• 1:04:47
  Tribunals ruled.
• 1:04:49
  There were awards and $908 million.
• 1:04:53
  Venezuela had been argued in their proceedings that
• 1:04:55
  it had already paid the ICC an amount
• 1:04:57
  and it should be deducted.
• 1:04:59
  That's true.
• 1:05:01
  There were one with ConocoPhillips versus Venezuela.
• 1:05:04
  Their award was $2 billion.
• 1:05:06
  And they've paid how many?
• 1:05:09
  $700 million of that that they were making
• 1:05:12
  payments on.
• 1:05:16
  So when you decode what Trump means when
• 1:05:19
  he says Venezuela stole American property and created
• 1:05:26
  the greatest theft, you know, he's talking about
• 1:05:28
  2007.
• 1:05:34
  It's, you know, I ranted about that quite
• 1:05:37
  a bit here.
• 1:05:38
  What exactly was stolen from whom?
• 1:05:41
  It's not much.
• 1:05:42
  It's really nonsense.
• 1:05:46
  You know, it'd be fun to cross-examine
• 1:05:49
  him to get him up there.
• 1:05:51
  The greatest theft in history.
• 1:05:53
  Okay, facts.
• 1:05:55
  Let's establish the timeline, please, for the jury.
• 1:05:57
  The oil nationalization was in 2007, 18 years
• 1:06:02
  ago.
• 1:06:03
  Well, those disputes, international arbitration, you know, they
• 1:06:09
  stole our property.
• 1:06:10
  They took our infrastructure.
• 1:06:12
  No, they nationalized an oil project.
• 1:06:15
  That's allowed if they, you know, get paid
• 1:06:18
  and they followed the rules afterward.
• 1:06:21
  They had awards of $8.7 billion.
• 1:06:23
  Separate awards of $2 billion.
• 1:06:26
  PDVSA paid $700 million.
• 1:06:29
  You know, so, Counselor, when you say they
• 1:06:31
  stole, do you mean before or after the
• 1:06:34
  World Bank Tribunal ruled upon it?
• 1:06:35
  Because last I checked, thieves don't usually show
• 1:06:39
  up to arbitration and write checks.
• 1:06:41
  You know, that's us.
• 1:06:42
  That's what we're doing.
• 1:06:44
  We're going in, no doubt, to steal it.
• 1:06:48
  And then here's a rhetorical trick.
• 1:06:51
  They took our stuff.
• 1:06:52
  We're just fixing it, Trump says.
• 1:06:54
  They took our stuff and we're fixing this.
• 1:06:57
  You know, sovereignty is a crime.
• 1:06:59
  Arbitration is injustice.
• 1:07:01
  I mean, this is so nonsensical.
• 1:07:03
  Why weren't we paid?
• 1:07:05
  They took it and they never paid.
• 1:07:06
  That's not true.
• 1:07:08
  This isn't robbery.
• 1:07:09
  It's a sovereign debt enforcement problem.
• 1:07:12
  And by the way, you limited their ability
• 1:07:14
  to do it when you put sanctions on
• 1:07:16
  them.
• 1:07:17
  Guarantee you there won't be sanctions when you
• 1:07:19
  steal the oil from Venezuela.
• 1:07:21
  Will there?
• 1:07:23
  I mean, we're going to take care of
• 1:07:27
  the country.
• 1:07:27
  How about that?
• 1:07:29
  No treaty.
• 1:07:29
  No mandate.
• 1:07:30
  No UN process.
• 1:07:31
  Just, oh, we'll take care of it.
• 1:07:33
  Marco, Marco, I think you're going to be
• 1:07:35
  running Venezuela, aren't you?
• 1:07:37
  Isn't that how we decided?
• 1:07:39
  Oh, boy.
• 1:07:44
  All these exhibits.
• 1:07:46
  Let's talk about Lindsey Graham in Exhibit A.
• 1:07:50
  Lindsey Graham and his career of disaster, right?
• 1:07:55
  Okay.
• 1:07:56
  Anybody on the jury, anyone still pretending that
• 1:07:59
  this is some kind of something new, something
• 1:08:03
  exciting, something positive?
• 1:08:07
  I submit Exhibit A, the career of Lindsey
• 1:08:10
  Graham.
• 1:08:11
  Let's establish this pattern, motive, and foreseeable harm,
• 1:08:15
  shall we?
• 1:08:16
  This isn't a one-off.
• 1:08:17
  It's not bad luck.
• 1:08:18
  This is consistent behavior over decades, and the
• 1:08:22
  result is always the same.
• 1:08:24
  Where Lindsey Graham goes, fire and war follows.
• 1:08:27
  And then he walks away every time, shocked,
• 1:08:30
  every single time.
• 1:08:33
  Let's start with his first original sin, Iraq,
• 1:08:38
  2002-2003.
• 1:08:40
  He was an enthusiastic supporter of weapons of
• 1:08:43
  mass destruction, regime change, the Iraq War.
• 1:08:47
  They'll greet us as liberators.
• 1:08:50
  What did Iraq get?
• 1:08:52
  A million dead people, a shattered state, ISIS,
• 1:08:57
  endless regional instability.
• 1:09:00
  Still there.
• 1:09:01
  What did Lindsey Graham get?
• 1:09:02
  Re-election promoted zero accountability.
• 1:09:06
  So, your honor, the witness supported a war
• 1:09:08
  based on claims that were false, outcomes that
• 1:09:12
  were predictably catastrophic, and consequences that never touched
• 1:09:16
  him personally.
• 1:09:19
  That's Exhibit A.
• 1:09:21
  Exhibit B, count two, Libya, 2011.
• 1:09:27
  We came, we saw, he died.
• 1:09:30
  When NATO moved against Libya, Lindsey Graham was
• 1:09:32
  again front and center.
• 1:09:34
  He openly celebrated the overthrow and murder of
• 1:09:38
  Muammar Gaddafi.
• 1:09:40
  What happened next?
• 1:09:42
  Quiet.
• 1:09:44
  What happened?
• 1:09:45
  Libya collapsed into chaos.
• 1:09:47
  Slave markets re-emerged.
• 1:09:50
  Weapons flooded into North Africa.
• 1:09:53
  Terror groups multiplied everywhere.
• 1:09:56
  Libya went from authoritarian but functioning to permanent
• 1:10:00
  failed state.
• 1:10:01
  So, your honor, at what point does total
• 1:10:03
  state collapse stop being called a success?
• 1:10:08
  Count three, Syria, the war that never ends.
• 1:10:11
  Lindsey Graham is still involved.
• 1:10:13
  He pushes for arming rebels, no-fly zones,
• 1:10:18
  direct confrontation.
• 1:10:19
  What's the result?
• 1:10:20
  Same thing.
• 1:10:21
  Prolonged war, millions displaced, extremists empowered, U.S.
• 1:10:26
  credibility shredded once again.
• 1:10:29
  When it goes bad, what did he do?
• 1:10:31
  He blamed Obama, then Trump, then Biden, then
• 1:10:37
  complained that we never used enough force, never
• 1:10:41
  ever did he have any internal reflection, never
• 1:10:44
  ever any accountability for himself.
• 1:10:48
  His solution to every failure is more of
• 1:10:52
  the same failed policy.
• 1:10:55
  Let's go to Iran.
• 1:10:57
  Where's next?
• 1:10:58
  Count four, Iran, the perpetual almost war.
• 1:11:03
  Lindsey Graham has spent years advocating strikes on
• 1:11:07
  Iran.
• 1:11:08
  In fact, he's running around right now saying,
• 1:11:10
  Iran, you're next.
• 1:11:11
  He's undermining diplomacy.
• 1:11:14
  He's cheering sanctions escalation.
• 1:11:16
  The result, nuclear deals destroyed.
• 1:11:19
  Iran closer to weapons capability.
• 1:11:22
  The region is far less stable in his
• 1:11:25
  position.
• 1:11:25
  We should have hit him harder.
• 1:11:28
  At what point do almost wars become strategic
• 1:11:32
  addiction?
• 1:11:33
  And then move on to his, you know,
• 1:11:37
  count five, Ukraine.
• 1:11:39
  That guy has spent more time in Ukraine
• 1:11:42
  than he spends in his own state.
• 1:11:45
  Sanctions, escalation, long war.
• 1:11:48
  Graham is among the voices constantly for, maximizing
• 1:11:53
  sanctions, no negotiated settlement until victory.
• 1:11:58
  We're not going to win.
• 1:12:00
  Ukraine is not going to win.
• 1:12:03
  Not remotely.
• 1:12:04
  The idiots that think that are finally, you
• 1:12:08
  know, accepting that it's unlikely.
• 1:12:11
  Finally.
• 1:12:12
  What did this meant in reality?
• 1:12:14
  Cause Lindsey Graham never pays the price.
• 1:12:16
  Never.
• 1:12:17
  In fact, now here he is recommending shit
• 1:12:20
  to Trump again.
• 1:12:21
  And any, any one of these five should
• 1:12:24
  go, Jesus, this guy's find that on a
• 1:12:28
  resume and say, you want to hire a
• 1:12:29
  guy like that?
• 1:12:30
  This is nonsense.
• 1:12:31
  Five failures in a row.
• 1:12:33
  And you're going to bring him into Venezuela.
• 1:12:36
  That's great.
• 1:12:37
  He's flying an air force one recommending the
• 1:12:40
  same old crap.
• 1:12:43
  Graham is among the loudest voices in Ukraine
• 1:12:45
  for same old crap.
• 1:12:47
  We'll go until victory, throw in more men,
• 1:12:51
  lower your, lower your age to your recruiting
• 1:12:55
  age to 18.
• 1:12:57
  Hundreds of thousands of people dead.
• 1:13:01
  Europe seriously destabilized global food and energy shock.
• 1:13:06
  Every time talks are mentioned, Graham attacks them
• 1:13:09
  and tries to harpoon them out of existence.
• 1:13:16
  So your honor, the witness equates compromise with
• 1:13:19
  weaknesses, endless war as a virtue war is
• 1:13:24
  a virtue.
• 1:13:24
  If you're Lindsey Graham and now count six,
• 1:13:28
  Venezuela, same script, new country.
• 1:13:31
  There you go again.
• 1:13:33
  Remember when Ronald Reagan said that, and here
• 1:13:35
  we are again, call the country narco terrorists.
• 1:13:40
  That's not true.
• 1:13:42
  Call nationalization theft.
• 1:13:45
  That's not true.
• 1:13:47
  Call arbitration a failure.
• 1:13:50
  That's not true.
• 1:13:51
  And call force justice.
• 1:13:54
  There he is traveling with the president nodding,
• 1:13:58
  smiling, encouraging escalation.
• 1:14:00
  The same man, the same playbook, the same
• 1:14:04
  results loading up in the background.
• 1:14:08
  If Lindsey Graham is advising you, the outcome
• 1:14:11
  is already known.
• 1:14:14
  You just haven't seen the body count yet,
• 1:14:16
  but his pattern, you know, let's summarize this
• 1:14:21
  for the jury or for the judge.
• 1:14:24
  Iraq, disaster.
• 1:14:26
  Libya, disaster.
• 1:14:28
  Syria, disaster.
• 1:14:30
  Iran, destabilization and disaster.
• 1:14:34
  Ukraine, endless war and disaster.
• 1:14:38
  Venezuela lining up to be next, disaster.
• 1:14:43
  This is not a coincidence.
• 1:14:45
  This is his career long continuity.
• 1:14:50
  And why does this keep happening?
• 1:14:52
  What's his motive?
• 1:14:53
  I mean, seriously, what's his motive?
• 1:14:56
  Why does this keep happening?
• 1:14:58
  Because Lindsey Graham never personally pays the cost.
• 1:15:04
  In fact, he gets promoted.
• 1:15:06
  He gets more money.
• 1:15:07
  The military industrial complex gives him more money.
• 1:15:10
  Every time he's the idiot out there pumping
• 1:15:12
  this thing and he does it with a
• 1:15:13
  straight face.
• 1:15:14
  He has learned the art of making himself
• 1:15:18
  believe is bullshit.
• 1:15:20
  And he never pays the cost himself.
• 1:15:22
  He never apologizes.
• 1:15:25
  If he learns it's not evident anywhere.
• 1:15:33
  And by the way, he never stops.
• 1:15:35
  War is an abstract to him.
• 1:15:38
  It's nothing realistic because he doesn't have to
• 1:15:40
  deal with it.
• 1:15:41
  It's not for him.
• 1:15:43
  It's a it's a risk board.
• 1:15:44
  That's it.
• 1:15:47
  Suffering.
• 1:15:48
  That's no theoretical, you know, geez, you know,
• 1:15:51
  that's.
• 1:15:52
  Yeah, there's some suffering, but at least it's
• 1:15:55
  not me and my family.
• 1:15:56
  You know, it's basically what he says.
• 1:15:59
  You know, suffering is theoretical.
• 1:16:01
  Consequences are for other people, not for him.
• 1:16:04
  He's never and never had one consequence come
• 1:16:09
  his way.
• 1:16:09
  Whenever Lindsey Graham appears near a foreign policy
• 1:16:12
  decision, one of two things is going to
• 1:16:14
  happen.
• 1:16:15
  The situation gets worse or it just explodes.
• 1:16:18
  The evidence is overwhelming.
• 1:16:19
  And then he moves on to the next
• 1:16:21
  war.
• 1:16:22
  He's already on his way to Cuba and
• 1:16:24
  Greenland.
• 1:16:25
  He's on his way there.
• 1:16:26
  Therefore, I ask that the court, the public,
• 1:16:30
  the listeners, anybody with a memory longer than
• 1:16:34
  a year or two, render the only reasonable
• 1:16:37
  verdict that this guy is not an advisor.
• 1:16:41
  He is a warning sign.
• 1:16:43
  And he's on the plane smiling and whispering
• 1:16:47
  in the president's ear.
• 1:16:49
  You shouldn't be reassured by that.
• 1:16:52
  That ought to be a smoke alarm going
• 1:16:55
  off badly.
• 1:16:58
  Now, let's go on to.
• 1:17:01
  Marco Rubio.
• 1:17:02
  Now, remember when I told you when Trump
• 1:17:05
  got elected and he was appointing people and
• 1:17:07
  he appointed Rubio and I was going, oh,
• 1:17:09
  my God, that guy, that's junior.
• 1:17:14
  That's junior mode.
• 1:17:17
  Lindsey Graham, that those two were always there.
• 1:17:20
  This is Neocon, you know, exhibit.
• 1:17:23
  And Trump has been totally commandeered by the
• 1:17:25
  Neocons.
• 1:17:26
  But but now he's in on it.
• 1:17:28
  You know, he's given up on Ukraine.
• 1:17:30
  He just walked away from that.
• 1:17:32
  You know, that's it.
• 1:17:32
  You know, can't be done.
• 1:17:34
  Now he can just use it as a
• 1:17:35
  way to beat Putin.
• 1:17:36
  Look what I did in one night, taking
• 1:17:38
  over, you know, Maduro capturing Maduro by paying
• 1:17:44
  everybody off, by the way.
• 1:17:47
  Maybe maybe Putin should do that to Zelensky.
• 1:17:52
  Is that what you recommend with the world
• 1:17:54
  like that, if he did the same thing
• 1:17:56
  to Zelensky?
• 1:18:00
  Seriously, you know, is that is that what
• 1:18:02
  we're supposed to agree that?
• 1:18:06
  That Putin should just go in and kill
• 1:18:08
  Zelensky?
• 1:18:10
  Zelensky called for the killing of Putin several
• 1:18:12
  times.
• 1:18:14
  So same old Neocons, no matter who's the
• 1:18:17
  president, you know, Marco Rubio, special attention for
• 1:18:20
  him.
• 1:18:21
  So the prosecution will now turn from the
• 1:18:24
  individual repeat offender to the organization that comes
• 1:18:28
  by because Lindsey Graham doesn't operate alone and
• 1:18:30
  he never has behind every urgent intervention, every
• 1:18:35
  last chance, every we must act now speech
• 1:18:39
  is a group of serially wrong club that
• 1:18:43
  never leaves different presidents, but same advisors, same
• 1:18:48
  disasters, the same Neocon conveyor belt, and it
• 1:18:52
  never stops.
• 1:18:54
  The formula, Neocon formula, declare the target country
• 1:18:59
  uniquely evil.
• 1:19:02
  You know, tell you what, that Venezuela's evil,
• 1:19:05
  Maduro's evil, Saddam Hussein evil, you know, ISIS
• 1:19:10
  evil, everybody's evil, you know, Muammar Gaddafi evil,
• 1:19:15
  reduce history to a cartoon moment, you know,
• 1:19:18
  it's cartoon, ignore diplomacy, that's a weakness you
• 1:19:21
  don't want to have, you know, you can't
• 1:19:23
  have that, call economic warfare pressure, call military
• 1:19:28
  force inevitable, and when it collapses, blame somebody
• 1:19:33
  else.
• 1:19:35
  Remember that movie live, die, repeat, Tom Cruise?
• 1:19:39
  I don't know why I like that movie.
• 1:19:40
  I could watch that probably, you know, every
• 1:19:43
  few months, but I just like that movie
• 1:19:45
  here and rinse, repeat, rebrand, live, die, repeat,
• 1:19:49
  same old crap, only they don't die.
• 1:19:52
  You know, they're not the ones dying, they're
• 1:19:54
  killing off everybody else.
• 1:19:56
  So enter Marco Rubio, the permanent crisis merchant.
• 1:20:01
  Now let's go to him, let's bring him
• 1:20:02
  to the stand.
• 1:20:03
  Rubio has built his entire foreign policy brand
• 1:20:06
  on one idea.
• 1:20:08
  Every problem requires maximum pressure, especially in the
• 1:20:12
  Western Hemisphere, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, China, Russia,
• 1:20:18
  always sanctions, always threats, always escalation, never results.
• 1:20:24
  Cuba, 60 years of failure, zero reflection.
• 1:20:29
  He's one of the loudest advocates for tightening
• 1:20:31
  embargoes, punishing engagement, blocking normalization.
• 1:20:35
  What has that achieved, seriously?
• 1:20:38
  Cuban government still in power, Cuban people ever
• 1:20:41
  poorer, U.S. influence reduced.
• 1:20:44
  But every time he says something, we just
• 1:20:46
  didn't go far enough, we need to take
• 1:20:47
  it over.
• 1:20:49
  How many decades of failure does it take
• 1:20:52
  before a policy is allowed to be called
• 1:20:53
  what it is?
• 1:20:55
  Seriously, how long do we have to fail?
• 1:20:58
  His obsession in Venezuela.
• 1:21:01
  Rubio has been personally obsessed with Venezuela for
• 1:21:04
  years.
• 1:21:05
  He's championed crippling sanctions, parallel government, regime change
• 1:21:10
  openly, and he cheers economic collapse as a
• 1:21:13
  leverage.
• 1:21:14
  What happened?
• 1:21:15
  Well, until recently, Maduro is still there.
• 1:21:18
  The economy has been nearly destroyed.
• 1:21:23
  Millions have been displaced.
• 1:21:24
  U.S. credibility, gone.
• 1:21:27
  Rubio says, oh, it's working.
• 1:21:29
  If his goal was stability, he's creating malpractice.
• 1:21:33
  If the goal is suffering, this is working.
• 1:21:36
  This is nonsense.
• 1:21:40
  Count three, maximum pressure as a religion.
• 1:21:44
  He likes sanctions.
• 1:21:46
  He's just like Graham.
• 1:21:48
  Sanctions with zero off-ramps, sanctions with no
• 1:21:51
  negotiation, sanctions with no humanitarian planning.
• 1:21:56
  What are the results?
• 1:21:57
  Civilian suffering, black market, hardened regimes, more criminals,
• 1:22:02
  and alliances shifting away from the United States.
• 1:22:05
  What's his answer?
• 1:22:06
  More pressure.
• 1:22:07
  We're the biggest dogs on the block.
• 1:22:08
  We're the biggest bullies.
• 1:22:09
  At what point does maximum pressure say what
• 1:22:14
  it really is, which is maximum denial?
• 1:22:17
  Iran, again, destroy the deal, shrug at the
• 1:22:20
  consequences.
• 1:22:21
  Rubio celebrates the destruction of the Iran nuclear
• 1:22:24
  deal.
• 1:22:25
  What followed?
• 1:22:27
  Iran is even closer to nuclear capability.
• 1:22:29
  The region is less stable.
• 1:22:31
  The U.S. is isolated from its allies.
• 1:22:33
  And what does Rubio say?
• 1:22:34
  We should have him harder.
• 1:22:38
  This is like the guy that destroys the
• 1:22:40
  fire extinguisher and then complains that the house
• 1:22:43
  is burning.
• 1:22:44
  This is Rubio, and to some extent, well,
• 1:22:46
  absolutely, Graham.
• 1:22:49
  An immorality costume, right?
• 1:22:52
  He always wants to talk about freedom, democracy,
• 1:22:55
  and human rights.
• 1:22:56
  Where's that for Venezuela?
• 1:22:57
  Seriously.
• 1:22:59
  The abuses are ignored, his own abuses, our
• 1:23:03
  abuses.
• 1:23:04
  Enemy abuses are weaponized.
• 1:23:06
  You talk about how horrible they are.
• 1:23:08
  They're masters at this.
• 1:23:10
  Suffering is acceptable if it's useful to your
• 1:23:14
  argument.
• 1:23:16
  It's selective outrage as a strategy.
• 1:23:20
  So the neocon network is always landing on
• 1:23:24
  their feet.
• 1:23:26
  Here's the most damning part.
• 1:23:29
  You know, these people are never wrong enough
• 1:23:34
  to be fired, never wrong enough, you know,
• 1:23:36
  they're promoted.
• 1:23:38
  They're invited back on TV.
• 1:23:40
  They write op-eds.
• 1:23:42
  They board planes.
• 1:23:43
  There's no consequences, no accountability.
• 1:23:46
  Never do they learn.
• 1:23:47
  Rubio isn't loud like Graham.
• 1:23:49
  He's smoother.
• 1:23:51
  That makes him more dangerous, not less.
• 1:23:54
  He packages escalation as seriousness.
• 1:23:57
  Failure is resolved.
• 1:23:59
  Stubbornness is his principle.
• 1:24:01
  He sells disaster, you know, with a law
• 1:24:03
  degree and a calm voice.
• 1:24:06
  What's the pattern?
• 1:24:07
  Same people, same assumptions, same tools, same results.
• 1:24:10
  Only the country names have changed.
• 1:24:14
  That's it.
• 1:24:15
  It's crazy, isn't it?
• 1:24:18
  You know, think tanks.
• 1:24:19
  Same thing from think tanks.
• 1:24:21
  They're all fed, validated, covered, you know, the
• 1:24:25
  basic scam.
• 1:24:26
  A think tank publishes a warning every single
• 1:24:29
  time.
• 1:24:31
  The warning assumes escalation is inevitable.
• 1:24:33
  Diplomacy is naive or dangerous.
• 1:24:36
  Military options are described as credible.
• 1:24:39
  Sanctions are called measured.
• 1:24:41
  War happens.
• 1:24:41
  Nobody ever gets fired.
• 1:24:42
  Funding is increased to each of the think
• 1:24:46
  tanks.
• 1:24:48
  This is career continuity.
• 1:24:49
  It's not analysis.
• 1:24:50
  This is BS.
• 1:24:51
  It's telling people what they want to hear.
• 1:24:53
  American Enterprise Institute, you know, nonsense.
• 1:24:58
  Wrong about Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, Venezuela.
• 1:25:02
  Somehow, they're still given money, still treated as
• 1:25:05
  serious.
• 1:25:05
  Atlantic Council, NATO's echo chamber.
• 1:25:08
  They escalate, escalate some more.
• 1:25:10
  A test of credibility, a moment of resolve,
• 1:25:14
  a line in the stand.
• 1:25:15
  Ukraine, escalate.
• 1:25:17
  Russia, escalate.
• 1:25:18
  China, escalate.
• 1:25:19
  Venezuela, of course, escalate.
• 1:25:22
  Same old people.
• 1:25:24
  At what point does the echo chamber become
• 1:25:26
  a liability to national security?
• 1:25:28
  Never.
• 1:25:29
  What about the Brookings Institute?
• 1:25:32
  They're polite, but they're wrong.
• 1:25:35
  They're a respectable version of the same disease,
• 1:25:37
  because they don't shout.
• 1:25:38
  They don't pound the table.
• 1:25:39
  There are no good options, they say.
• 1:25:42
  Force may be unavoidable.
• 1:25:43
  The risk of inaction is framed as a
• 1:25:47
  decision.
• 1:25:48
  War is framed as gravity.
• 1:25:51
  They get there.
• 1:25:52
  How about the Council on Foreign Relations?
• 1:25:56
  This is nonsense.
• 1:25:57
  Serious people are considering.
• 1:26:00
  Consensus is forming.
• 1:26:02
  The windows are closing.
• 1:26:04
  This is elite signaling that we're giving you
• 1:26:09
  this consensus that we need to take over.
• 1:26:11
  Follow the money.
• 1:26:13
  Same old folks doing the same old thing.
• 1:26:17
  And, you know, that doesn't mean that every
• 1:26:19
  scholar is corrupt, but it does mean the
• 1:26:22
  conclusions are, some are safer than others, right?
• 1:26:26
  They're supported by defense contractors, energy interests, financial
• 1:26:31
  firms, foreign policy donors.
• 1:26:33
  So who do you think they're going to
• 1:26:35
  cater to?
• 1:26:37
  You do lose influence if you say, we
• 1:26:40
  should stop, right?
• 1:26:42
  So you got to say, we got to
• 1:26:44
  keep on trucking, right?
• 1:26:46
  Why does this matter for Venezuela?
• 1:26:49
  Because before Trump ever said they stole our
• 1:26:52
  property, before Rubio ever demanded maximum pressure, and
• 1:26:56
  before Lindsey Graham ever boarded that plane, these
• 1:26:59
  think tanks had already framed Venezuela as illegitimate,
• 1:27:04
  described nationalization as criminal, normalized trustee language, dismissed
• 1:27:09
  negotiation as appeasement, and got the media, got
• 1:27:15
  the media to label everything as narco-terrorism.
• 1:27:25
  So, you know, the media is always in
• 1:27:27
  there.
• 1:27:28
  They amplify all of these jobs.
• 1:27:31
  The panels always agree.
• 1:27:34
  You always have a hawk, you have a
• 1:27:36
  slightly quieter hawk, one moderate hawk, but who
• 1:27:39
  agrees and sighs while saying so.
• 1:27:41
  No skeptics.
• 1:27:42
  This could get worse.
• 1:27:44
  This violates the law.
• 1:27:46
  You know, this is crazy stuff.
• 1:27:50
  Friends and neighbors, that's all I'm going to
• 1:27:52
  rant about it this week, I think.
• 1:27:54
  I think I'm going to, you know, just
• 1:27:59
  check out this Lost.
• 1:28:01
  This is nonsense, and I don't like it,
• 1:28:05
  and I think it is unfortunate what is
• 1:28:10
  happening in the world today.
• 1:28:12
  I don't like it, but there's very little
• 1:28:16
  I can do about it except complain about
• 1:28:19
  it, and which I just have for a
• 1:28:22
  good hour and a half.
• 1:28:23
  I appreciate you being here on the program
• 1:28:25
  this morning.
• 1:28:26
  I encourage you to listen every morning from
• 1:28:28
  7 30 to 9 a.m. Tomorrow I'm
• 1:28:32
  going to get back into the Missouri debacles
• 1:28:35
  that are occurring around here.
• 1:28:38
  Some of the stories that I got started
• 1:28:40
  with last week I'm going to continue with,
• 1:28:43
  and we're going to keep on trucking in
• 1:28:48
  that regard.
• 1:28:48
  You can listen to Dem Radio, demradio.com
• 1:28:53
  forward slash live, demradio.com forward slash podcasts
• 1:28:57
  to get all the wonderful content and from
• 1:29:00
  other commentators, and great music at other times.
• 1:29:08
  You can catch our schedule at demradio.com
• 1:29:12
  forward slash schedule, and for me, my shows,
• 1:29:18
  I upload them all daily and put them
• 1:29:22
  out at internationalflavor.com, and you can go
• 1:29:29
  out there and listen to them at your
• 1:29:31
  leisure, and I hope that you do.
• 1:29:33
  I hope you have a very good week.
• 1:29:35
  It's a brand new year.
• 1:29:37
  Let's look out for some brand new things
• 1:29:39
  and make it a good year for you
• 1:29:42
  individually, because it's going to hell in a
• 1:29:44
  handbasket nationally and internationally.
• 1:29:47
  Have a very good day.