Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Double Standards, Drone Strikes, and Doordash Despair: Eurovision’s Politics, Venezuela’s Blockade, and the West’s Two Rulebooks Laid Bare.

Transcript

Double Standards, Drone Strikes, and Doordash Despair: Eurovision’s Politics, Venezuela’s Blockade, and the West’s Two Rulebooks Laid Bare. · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, good morning, welcome.
• 0:03
  I am Samuel Trapp.
• 0:05
  This is International Flavor and you are listening
• 0:10
  to Dem Radio.
• 0:13
  How do you like that?
• 0:14
  And coming to you live here today from
• 0:18
  the Lake Ozark Real Estate of the Art
• 0:21
  Studio.
• 0:22
  Feel free to phone in 573-746-8020.
• 0:26
  You can send me emails at live at
• 0:30
  demradio.com should you so desire.
• 0:33
  You can do it at samuelt at internationalflavor
• 0:36
  .com as well.
• 0:38
  And you can also send them to me
• 0:46
  and ask for certain issues to be addressed.
• 0:49
  I like doing that.
• 0:51
  And tell you what, there were a world
• 0:55
  full of issues that is for sure.
• 1:01
  Let's see, there was a, do you remember
• 1:05
  me telling you about all of the cancellation
• 1:09
  of Russians and anything Russian?
• 1:15
  They cancel, you know, anything Russian ever since
• 1:19
  the Ukraine war, right?
• 1:22
  And they canceled, you know, these, well, they
• 1:25
  have these media bands, but the Eurovision, Eurovision
• 1:34
  Music Festival, you know, where they have a
• 1:37
  contest and, you know, that same, I believe
• 1:39
  Eurovision is the one that was done.
• 1:43
  Do you remember the clogging sensation that went
• 1:46
  on for a while where they have the,
• 1:48
  what's not clogging, it's really tap, but from
• 1:53
  Scotland or is it Irish?
• 1:58
  Jesus, man, I can't remember.
• 1:59
  But that was on Eurovision when they did
• 2:01
  that, they did that tap ensemble.
• 2:06
  Man, that guy, David Flatley, something, I think
• 2:09
  it was his name.
• 2:10
  Geez, if you have ever seen that, if
• 2:12
  you haven't seen that, you should watch it
• 2:14
  and go watch.
• 2:15
  They stole the show in that they had
• 2:18
  a dance number in the middle of it.
• 2:19
  And it was when that sort of dance
• 2:24
  became actually, you know, David, I think it's
• 2:26
  David Flatley.
• 2:27
  And if you go out and you have
• 2:28
  a look at that, well, recently the Eurovision
• 2:35
  winner was a person named Nemo.
• 2:42
  And he returned the trophy, right?
• 2:49
  He returned the trophy to protest the fact
• 2:53
  that Israel wasn't excluded from the festival.
• 2:56
  Now, as soon as they became possible, rejection
• 3:04
  of Russia, as soon as it became possible,
• 3:07
  as soon as there was an attack on
• 3:09
  Ukraine, hey, the boy, they canceled Russia all
• 3:13
  over the globe.
• 3:15
  But here in a Swiss singer named Nemo,
• 3:19
  who won the 2024 Eurovision, said he was
• 3:24
  returning the, said they will return the winner's
• 3:28
  trophy.
• 3:28
  You know, obviously you look at the person,
• 3:30
  they use something different in their, whatever they
• 3:36
  would like you to refer them to.
• 3:38
  And the Swiss singer Nemo said they will
• 3:46
  return the trophy, right?
• 3:48
  And so they returned the trophy.
• 3:52
  And singer Nemo won the contest early Sunday
• 3:56
  with a song called The Code, a pop
• 3:59
  rap ode to the journey toward embracing a
• 4:03
  non-gender identity.
• 4:06
  So it's very political over there anyway.
• 4:09
  And so Nemo 24 is the first non
• 4:13
  -binary winner of the contest.
• 4:16
  And, you know, the contest that has long
• 4:19
  been embraced as a safe haven by the
• 4:23
  LGBT community.
• 4:25
  And he's the 60, well, he looks like
• 4:30
  he, you know, I don't know, they, you're
• 4:32
  supposed to call them, I guess.
• 4:35
  The Switzerland, you know, contestant beat Croatian rocker
• 4:40
  Baby Lasagna to the title by winning the
• 4:45
  most points from a combination of national juries
• 4:48
  and viewers around the world.
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  Nemo is the first non-binary winner of
• 4:54
  the contest.
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  He's the first Swiss singer since 1988 when
• 5:00
  Canadian Celine Dion competed under the Swiss flag.
• 5:07
  So I suppose, you know, the Canadian Celine
• 5:12
  Dion is really, you know, presented under the
• 5:18
  Swiss flag.
• 5:19
  And to make it easy, here's how they
• 5:22
  quote it in the paper, right?
• 5:24
  This makes it much simpler.
• 5:26
  Thank you so much, Nemo said, after the
• 5:30
  result from Saturday's final, because that way you
• 5:32
  don't have to refer to him as they,
• 5:36
  right?
• 5:39
  Saturday's final was announced after midnight.
• 5:42
  I hope the contest can live up to
• 5:44
  its promise and continue to stand for peace
• 5:48
  and dignity for every person.
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  Well, except Russian persons, you know, transgender, not.
• 5:55
  If you're Russian, you can't play.
• 5:58
  So the Russians have had to create their
• 6:00
  own.
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  So it's pretty funny to watch these separate
• 6:03
  set of rules because Russia, boy, they were
• 6:07
  condemned and kicked out of everything, every sport,
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  everything extremely quickly.
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  And they were done and were not able
• 6:17
  to participate.
• 6:19
  And so if you check this out, you
• 6:24
  know, let's let's go through this a little
• 6:26
  bit.
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  Right.
• 6:29
  Two rule books.
• 6:30
  There's absolutely two sets of rule books.
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  You know, culture isn't above politics and it's
• 6:36
  supposed to be, but it isn't.
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  You know, it says it is.
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  But right up until the moment that it's
• 6:42
  not, you know, the headlines, you know, Eurovision
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  returned it saying Israel, their continued participation collides
• 6:53
  with Eurovision's stated values.
• 6:56
  Right.
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  But the punchline to that idiotic, I don't
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  know, statement is that Russia didn't get any
• 7:04
  debate, no reform, no stern lecture, you know,
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  no, no, no letter saying, you know, change
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  your ways or else Russia just got kicked
• 7:14
  out.
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  So we're going to do what the modern
• 7:17
  West hates the most.
• 7:19
  We're going to compare the two cases side
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  by side and, you know, of Israel and
• 7:24
  Russia and ask why the rules look like
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  they are pre-printed on a rubber band.
• 7:32
  Let's try that.
• 7:34
  So the apolitical posture of Eurovision.
• 7:38
  Right.
• 7:39
  Supposedly not political at any stretch of the
• 7:44
  game.
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  They are not.
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  And so now I think they are.
• 7:49
  I think they're quite political because you have
• 7:52
  to make sure to tell everybody they are
• 7:54
  a they or a I don't know what
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  they are and how many different genders they
• 7:58
  got.
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  They make it up as they go along.
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  It changes weekly.
• 8:02
  So let's take the Eurovision and have a
• 8:05
  look at them in 2022.
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  So on February 24 is when the escalation
• 8:13
  occurred.
• 8:14
  Now, I like to call it an escalation
• 8:15
  and everyone should call it an escalation because
• 8:18
  it's exactly what it is.
• 8:20
  What Ursula von der Leyen said at the
• 8:22
  EU summit yesterday, and I played that for
• 8:26
  you, said she calls it the illegal invasion
• 8:29
  of the Russians into Ukraine, which was the
• 8:34
  illegal invasion.
• 8:36
  And but the war, you know, that's when
• 8:38
  the war started, according to her, started on
• 8:42
  February 24th.
• 8:45
  Of 2022.
• 8:48
  Yes.
• 8:49
  And on February the 25th, I mean, the
• 8:53
  next day, Eurovision said they announced that no
• 8:58
  Russian act could participate in Eurovision 2022, citing
• 9:04
  that their inclusion would bring the competition into
• 9:10
  disrepute.
• 9:11
  Right.
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  So they did that themselves.
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  So.
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  Days later, the.
• 9:21
  Group contest suspended Russian member broadcasters.
• 9:27
  From showing up from broadcasting from there.
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  So not only can your Russian people not
• 9:34
  appear, nobody can show up.
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  So the translation is Eurovision is a song
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  contest, not a parliament, unless the target is
• 9:42
  Russia, in which case it turns into a
• 9:44
  the cultural wing of the of NATO overnight.
• 9:49
  You know, that's how it is.
• 9:50
  So let's look at the Israel competition since
• 9:55
  2024 and through 2026 right now.
• 9:59
  Controversy.
• 10:00
  There's some boycotts, but of course they get
• 10:03
  a play.
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  Hell, they're invited.
• 10:04
  Right.
• 10:05
  Nemo says they're returning the trophy.
• 10:07
  They are returning the trophy.
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  I wonder how many people have to carry
• 10:13
  it for him to return the trophy over
• 10:17
  Israel's inclusion.
• 10:18
  Reuters said that Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia and
• 10:22
  Iceland also announced boycotts of Eurovision after the
• 10:28
  contest declined to exclude Israel.
• 10:33
  And Israeli broadcasters aren't being booted out.
• 10:37
  The EBU publicly defended Israel broadcaster participation.
• 10:42
  Well, you know, they said the EBU regarding
• 10:45
  who can show up this EBU's Eurovision broadcasters.
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  So in December 2025, the EBU announced voting
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  rule reformed, you know, that they're going to
• 11:01
  reform it.
• 11:02
  They want trust and transparency.
• 11:04
  So for Russia, expulsion for Israel reforms framework
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  update.
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  Let's not be political.
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  Right.
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  Let's not do that.
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  Like having a they as your winner.
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  I didn't watch it.
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  I didn't see it.
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  But it's important to say that a transgender
• 11:23
  one for them.
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  It's something important.
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  Right.
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  They get to go.
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  Oh, look, this year, transgender ones.
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  They got to find somebody that's close.
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  But don't tell me that doesn't count among
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  people making votes and among doing all that
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  stuff.
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  The contest is a joke these days.
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  Let's look at the next part.
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  International sports.
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  Russia gets suspended.
• 11:47
  Israel gets a review.
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  Russia, rapid sweeping cross-port exclusions from 2022
• 11:53
  everywhere.
• 11:55
  This is where it's like impossible to ignore
• 11:58
  soccer, FIFA and UEFA suspend Russian clubs and
• 12:03
  national teams from any competition until further notice
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  on February 28.
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  Took them four days.
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  Right.
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  Olympic ecosystem.
• 12:15
  The International Olympic Committee issued sanctions regarding, you
• 12:18
  know, and guidance in late February 22 that
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  urged the exclusion of Russia and Belarus athletes
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  and officials.
• 12:27
  And even now, the IOC is only partially
• 12:30
  loosening those restraints in specific areas.
• 12:34
  Like in December 2025, they gave a discussion.
• 12:39
  They're having talks about youth participation.
• 12:42
  So some of the youth Olympians might be
• 12:46
  able to participate, but they still haven't even
• 12:48
  decided that, according to Reuters.
• 12:51
  That shows how long this Russia exception continues
• 12:55
  to persist.
• 12:56
  Ice hockey, where if you can't if you
• 12:59
  don't beat Russia, that means that you're not
• 13:02
  a world champion.
• 13:03
  You know, no doubt you're not a world
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  champion if you can't beat Russia.
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  If you haven't beaten them, you are not
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  a world champion.
• 13:11
  Of course, I really say that about any
• 13:13
  of these things.
• 13:14
  You know, you're not the world champion of
• 13:17
  anything if you've excluded somebody based on a
• 13:21
  political.
• 13:23
  Sentence, and that's what that's what they have
• 13:25
  done.
• 13:26
  So ice hockey removed Russia and Belarus from
• 13:29
  key championships on February 28th.
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  All it took was four days.
• 13:35
  And these are now extended.
• 13:36
  These bands are extended into 2025 and 2026.
• 13:40
  But now they're claiming it's security concerns.
• 13:45
  Figure skating.
• 13:48
  Ban on Russia, Belarus, skaters and officials from
• 13:53
  international competitions as of March 1, 2022, a
• 13:57
  week later.
• 13:59
  Tennis, Wimbledon banned Russia and Belarus in 2022
• 14:05
  and said it will decline any entries.
• 14:11
  This is from Wimbledon's website.
• 14:13
  Later, they did reverse course and allowed participation
• 14:16
  under neutrality conditions.
• 14:19
  That means you can't claim you're from Russia.
• 14:22
  You can show up.
• 14:24
  But you can't wear any Russia, Belarus colors,
• 14:28
  right?
• 14:29
  But the initial 2022 ban is still there.
• 14:34
  You know, they call it a nationality liability.
• 14:38
  So we have a liability.
• 14:40
  So are we going to do the same
• 14:42
  over us, you know, bombing bombing Venezuelan tankers,
• 14:46
  you know, or bombing?
• 14:48
  I'm sorry, Venezuelan boats with alleged drug drug
• 14:51
  runners on them.
• 14:52
  That's an attack.
• 14:53
  That's an incursion into somewhere else.
• 14:56
  Israel?
• 14:57
  No, no, no.
• 14:58
  They pressure Israel.
• 15:00
  But institutions keep Israel in in all these.
• 15:03
  So lots of pressure.
• 15:05
  You know, there's there's a lot of a
• 15:06
  lot of different people saying a lot of
• 15:08
  different things about it.
• 15:09
  And frankly, it's it's nonsense, different outcome always.
• 15:17
  Palestinian Football Association pushed FIFA toward sanction and
• 15:22
  suspension, but FIFA repeatedly defers and moves into
• 15:26
  legal review and investigation, not suspension.
• 15:31
  By October 2025.
• 15:34
  These are ongoing questions, but there is a
• 15:37
  little bit of pressure about why UEFA and
• 15:41
  FIFA haven't suspended Israel.
• 15:45
  You know, calls to bar Israel from the
• 15:47
  Paris Olympics were publicly rejected, calling it neutrality
• 15:52
  framework.
• 15:54
  You know, political leaders publicly welcomed Israeli athletes.
• 15:59
  Because what their virtue signaling signaling.
• 16:04
  So there are calls for suspension, but operational
• 16:08
  reality, you know, they aren't going to get
• 16:12
  rid of any of them.
• 16:13
  They're not going to be booted off.
• 16:14
  That's not going to happen.
• 16:17
  There's venue, maybe sometimes a venue relocation, neutral
• 16:22
  venue, not expulsion.
• 16:25
  So Russia gets collective punishment of the entire,
• 16:29
  you know, who knows what anybody as public
• 16:32
  policy or as political policy.
• 16:35
  Israel gets a little bit of questions, maybe
• 16:38
  a committee, maybe an investigation, maybe a venue
• 16:42
  change.
• 16:43
  People say things like, oh, gee, let's not
• 16:45
  politicize sport.
• 16:46
  Same theater, you know, different cast members, you
• 16:50
  know, different plot.
• 16:52
  You know, this plot is Israel good, Russia
• 16:56
  bad, Belarus bad.
• 16:59
  So let's and this is total cancellation of
• 17:02
  culture, right?
• 17:04
  The total treatment is it's unbelievable.
• 17:07
  So the cultural blacklist spreads far beyond athletes
• 17:11
  and officials.
• 17:12
  There's opera conductors.
• 17:16
  Valery Gergiev was dropped and fired by major
• 17:20
  institutions after refusing to denounce the invasion.
• 17:25
  Munich Philharmonic.
• 17:26
  He was terminated as of March of 2022.
• 17:30
  World class conductor.
• 17:32
  The Met, the opera announced Anna Netrebko's withdrawal
• 17:36
  after repudiation damage.
• 17:38
  They got rid of her March 3rd of
• 17:41
  2022.
• 17:42
  A week.
• 17:43
  Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, restricted Russian delegation
• 17:48
  March 2022.
• 17:52
  Broad press coverage captured the ban and exclude
• 17:56
  momentum across cultural venues all over early 22.
• 18:01
  Well, we got to get rid of Russia.
• 18:03
  Remember that?
• 18:03
  And then it's pretty absurd.
• 18:06
  The International Cat Federation, like kitty cat, like
• 18:11
  your cat, the Cat Federation banned Russian bred
• 18:17
  cats from participation.
• 18:21
  So a Russian cat now cannot participate regardless
• 18:26
  where it was born.
• 18:27
  A Russian cat was born in America.
• 18:33
  Properly naturalized parents, I suppose, maybe that cat
• 18:38
  would be allowed.
• 18:39
  Where do we get after that?
• 18:41
  So you naturalize your two cats, parent mom
• 18:45
  and dad cat, and then you have a
• 18:47
  cat baby.
• 18:48
  And if they're born on the territory, perhaps
• 18:51
  there would be an exception for those kind.
• 18:55
  But Russian exhibitors and Russian cats banned from
• 19:01
  shows.
• 19:02
  Yes.
• 19:03
  And that came from the Washington Post.
• 19:08
  Let's have a look at this.
• 19:10
  This is a fun story.
• 19:12
  So if the whole thing is there, we're
• 19:14
  going to share it.
• 19:17
  Let's see.
• 19:19
  Well, no, it won't let me get to
• 19:21
  that show now without putting a bunch of
• 19:23
  nonsense in.
• 19:25
  You got to say who you are and
• 19:26
  give up your left finger, let's say.
• 19:34
  So moral panic is just so wide.
• 19:38
  It's, you know, we're punishing cats now.
• 19:40
  You have to be very careful.
• 19:41
  You know, we're punishing cats, we're promoting they
• 19:45
  people, you know, we have to promote that.
• 19:49
  I wonder if you took a they person
• 19:53
  and let him carry a Russian flag, could
• 19:56
  they carry a Russian flag or I don't
• 20:02
  know, would you ban Israel unless they put
• 20:06
  up a they or them or whatever?
• 20:10
  Hmm, I don't know.
• 20:12
  Or if their cat, what if the cat
• 20:14
  was transgender?
• 20:16
  Would it then be OK if you dressed
• 20:19
  your cat up and it's typically a gray
• 20:21
  cat, but you put it in a rainbow
• 20:24
  flag?
• 20:25
  Would that be OK?
• 20:28
  I'm not so sure.
• 20:29
  I don't know.
• 20:31
  We are apolitical is what they all claim.
• 20:33
  We don't discuss politics.
• 20:35
  We are a performing platform.
• 20:41
  People can come and perform unless you're from
• 20:44
  Russia.
• 20:45
  And since 2022, you are institutionally excluded to
• 20:49
  cost any contest, sport, cultural film festival, anything.
• 20:55
  But if you're from Israel, you are, you
• 20:59
  know, sustained participation, you know, maybe some reform,
• 21:03
  you know, discussion, maybe let's investigate and see
• 21:06
  if any of these participants are really bad
• 21:10
  or if it's really just a country, if
• 21:12
  it's just a country, we'll stand back from
• 21:15
  that.
• 21:15
  And we, you know, boycott boycotts come from
• 21:19
  the participants, you know, against Israel, but not
• 21:23
  from the organizer and from the from the
• 21:27
  platform itself.
• 21:28
  So the West, as usual, runs two rule
• 21:32
  books, one for adversaries or alleged adversaries and
• 21:36
  another one for those you cannot, cannot, you're
• 21:40
  not permitted to not like Israel because then
• 21:44
  you are canceled, right?
• 21:47
  Not you never get to even question these
• 21:51
  things, you know, so values, if you have
• 21:54
  real values, you got to apply them consistently.
• 21:58
  And I don't like that they don't, you
• 22:00
  know, we're ready to, for example, another story
• 22:05
  of a boat blown up.
• 22:09
  Those are not values.
• 22:11
  Those are not values that I appreciate as
• 22:16
  an American.
• 22:17
  That's not a value that isn't defense of
• 22:19
  the country.
• 22:20
  That's not taking American property back.
• 22:24
  That's nothing.
• 22:26
  You can claim it's whatever you want, but
• 22:28
  you can't get past the fact that you're
• 22:31
  blowing people out of the water for an
• 22:33
  alleged crime with zero, zero process, do or
• 22:41
  otherwise, right?
• 22:44
  Crazy.
• 22:45
  And this is what we do.
• 22:46
  The West has two rule books.
• 22:48
  If you apply the rules selectively, then they're
• 22:52
  not values.
• 22:54
  They are branding whoever is doing it.
• 22:57
  So I don't know.
• 23:00
  Eurovision, Russia out in 2022, Israel gets to
• 23:03
  stay.
• 23:04
  And although they've been doing arguably the same
• 23:06
  thing, US, you know, we don't, I don't
• 23:09
  know if we get involved very much in
• 23:10
  Eurovision anyway.
• 23:11
  Pretty sure we do.
• 23:13
  But FIFA, Russia suspended fast, lightning fast.
• 23:17
  And then Israel, you know, FIFA defers and
• 23:20
  investigates.
• 23:21
  International Olympic Committee, Russia sanctioned immediately.
• 23:25
  Israel Olympic band called rejected because of neutrality.
• 23:30
  We have to stay neutral.
• 23:33
  Tennis, I mean, ice hockey, well, tennis too.
• 23:36
  Russia, Belarus, you know, gone immediately.
• 23:40
  Israel, not so much.
• 23:42
  Culture, Gergiev, Netrebko, tennis restrictions and Russian cats
• 23:49
  banned.
• 23:50
  Israelis, you know, they can have cats from
• 23:52
  anywhere.
• 23:54
  So, you know, this is crazy stuff.
• 23:58
  You get to cancel Russia, but you got
• 24:00
  to debate Israel.
• 24:03
  You know, Bolshoi Ballet seasons, tours were canceled.
• 24:09
  London's Royal Opera House, Bolshoi Ballet couldn't appear.
• 24:13
  Madrid's Teatro Real, Bolshoi Ballet booted.
• 24:18
  So Russian culture is toxic, right?
• 24:22
  Festivals and institutions are restricted.
• 24:24
  Any, you know, any official Russian presence is
• 24:27
  gone.
• 24:28
  No, I mean, heck, I wonder if you
• 24:30
  sat in the audience and said something in
• 24:32
  Russian, you know, if they'd boot you out
• 24:34
  for that.
• 24:35
  Conductors, singers, they have to denounce the Kremlin
• 24:38
  or lose a contract.
• 24:41
  You got to take a loyalty oath.
• 24:43
  Gee, sounds like Nazi Germany.
• 24:45
  The hell is that?
• 24:47
  Israel, maybe there's some boycotts by participants, but
• 24:50
  nothing else.
• 24:51
  You know, they have maybe some broadcasters.
• 24:54
  And this guy in Eurovision, this Nemo guy,
• 24:57
  don't know him, don't care, you know, but
• 24:59
  he takes a trophy and didn't take the
• 25:01
  trophy, gave it back, held onto it, said
• 25:04
  he won, gave it back.
• 25:05
  Now, that's taking a stand.
• 25:07
  So you can't really fault him for that.
• 25:10
  You know, I'm faulting for the transgender.
• 25:12
  I just don't agree with that stuff.
• 25:13
  But, you know, you can't be a they.
• 25:17
  There's no such gender.
• 25:19
  So I have a problem with that.
• 25:21
  But more power to him.
• 25:22
  You want to say you're a cat?
• 25:24
  Maybe if you said you're a Russian cat,
• 25:26
  what if you said you were a Russian
• 25:28
  cat?
• 25:29
  What if I identified as a Russian cat
• 25:31
  and wanted to be in Eurovision?
• 25:36
  Wow.
• 25:37
  I don't know.
• 25:38
  Russia got deplatformed by default.
• 25:41
  Israel gets, you know, oh, gee, it's just
• 25:43
  a controversy.
• 25:44
  We want to make sure that's out.
• 25:46
  How about media bands, RT, Sputnik?
• 25:49
  No equivalent for Israel.
• 25:51
  There's there's no formal, you know, prohibition against
• 25:57
  anyone from Israel.
• 25:58
  But the EU suspended RT and Sputnik broadcasting
• 26:02
  across the entire bloc in March 2022.
• 26:08
  Any legal analysis of that, friends and neighbors?
• 26:11
  This came from a Verfassungsblog March 8, 2008.
• 26:18
  Prohibited content to broadcast any content from Russia.
• 26:24
  It is against the law in the EU
• 26:28
  to broadcast any content of the Russian press.
• 26:35
  Isn't that nuts?
• 26:38
  So this was in March 2022.
• 26:42
  Denouncing Russian authorities muzzling of independent media and
• 26:48
  saying it supports media freedom.
• 26:52
  The European Union banned Russian outlets in March
• 26:56
  22.
• 26:57
  The contradiction between a statement of principle and
• 27:00
  the action can't be resolved, really, while the
• 27:03
  ban is legally justified as a measure designed
• 27:05
  to suppress propaganda.
• 27:08
  European institutions shouldn't try to justify it by
• 27:11
  pointing to these outlets track records of disinformation
• 27:15
  or propaganda to address legitimate question of double
• 27:18
  standards that come up in the wake of
• 27:20
  the inevitable.
• 27:21
  What about this?
• 27:23
  It should be stressed that the Union's measures
• 27:25
  differ decisively from any authoritarian censorship by virtue
• 27:31
  of the Union's character.
• 27:33
  So as of March 2, 2022, it is
• 27:37
  prohibited to broadcast any content of a Russian
• 27:42
  state media outlet, RT and Sputnik.
• 27:47
  And this regulation, Article 2F Regulation Number 833,
• 27:52
  was amended on March 1 by Council Regulation
• 27:56
  2022-350.
• 27:58
  As of March 1, amending the decision of
• 28:01
  2020-14, on the 23rd of February, the
• 28:06
  editor-in-chief of the English language television
• 28:09
  network, RT, Margarita Simonyan, was sanctioned with a
• 28:15
  travel ban and an asset freeze, took her
• 28:18
  stuff, and the European Commission pointed to the
• 28:21
  massive propaganda and disinformation that RT supplied for
• 28:26
  the Russian attack on Ukraine, and a significant
• 28:30
  and direct threat to the Union's public order
• 28:33
  and security.
• 28:34
  It's these direct threats that are so laughable.
• 28:37
  You know, if a word is a, you
• 28:38
  know, is a direct threat to your security,
• 28:42
  you got bigger problems than what the word
• 28:45
  is.
• 28:45
  So the Council highlighted that to justify and
• 28:49
  support aggression against Ukraine, the Russian Federation is
• 28:52
  engaged in continuous and concerted propaganda targeted at
• 28:57
  civil society in the Union and neighboring countries,
• 29:01
  distorting and manipulating facts, channeled through a number
• 29:05
  of media outlets under the permanent direct or
• 29:08
  indirect control of the leadership of the Russian
• 29:12
  Federation.
• 29:14
  Yeah, kind of like PBS, right?
• 29:19
  Having regard, or Voice of America, having regard
• 29:23
  for the gravity of the situation, Council and
• 29:26
  Commission deem the measure compatible with the freedom
• 29:30
  of expression.
• 29:31
  You know, this is freedom of expression.
• 29:34
  Limiting Russian talk is freedom of expression, and
• 29:40
  they should be maintained until the aggression against
• 29:42
  Ukraine is put at an end, and until
• 29:45
  the Russian Federation and its media outlets cease
• 29:48
  to conduct propaganda action against the Union and
• 29:52
  its member states.
• 29:53
  If you still believe that Russia is the
• 29:55
  only propaganda channel, well, you know, let me
• 30:00
  sell you my fabulous billion-dollar island in
• 30:05
  my bathtub.
• 30:07
  I'll sell you that.
• 30:08
  You send me a billion dollars by return
• 30:10
  of post, and this beautiful island in my
• 30:12
  bathtub will be yours.
• 30:15
  You can live there.
• 30:16
  The scope of this ban isn't readily apparent,
• 30:20
  but so far they've gotten rid of everything,
• 30:24
  and it is narrow, you know, and regulation
• 30:28
  prohibits any broadcasting.
• 30:32
  Regulation doesn't define what broadcasting is, but nothing
• 30:35
  can be put out, so it's pretty broad.
• 30:39
  It's a linear audiovisual media service like television.
• 30:44
  Its same meaning is to be attributed to
• 30:45
  broadcasting, and remember, YouTube's backing this up.
• 30:49
  Google's backing this up.
• 30:50
  All kinds of people are backing this up.
• 30:52
  You can't go and get Panchenko.
• 30:58
  What is her name?
• 30:59
  Diana Panchenko, you know, 1.8 million subscribers
• 31:03
  blocked her, and this was just recently.
• 31:05
  They got rid of her, so the justification
• 31:09
  they give, of course, is propaganda for war.
• 31:11
  The prohibition to broadcast Russian state media is
• 31:15
  justified as implementing the prohibition of propaganda, according
• 31:20
  to European Commission Vice President Vera Zhurova.
• 31:25
  We all stand for freedom of speech, but
• 31:28
  it cannot be abused to spread propaganda for
• 31:34
  war.
• 31:37
  Prohibition of propaganda for war is in Article
• 31:40
  20 of the International Covenant on Civil and
• 31:44
  Political Rights, and in the International Convention on
• 31:48
  the Use of Broadcasting in the Cause of
• 31:51
  Peace.
• 31:52
  All states in the world have ratified the
• 31:56
  former, and it constitutes customary international law, and
• 32:00
  as such binds the European Union.
• 32:04
  By all EU member states, the prohibition is
• 32:08
  considered a general principle of EU law, so
• 32:12
  advocating for and supporting war of aggression is
• 32:16
  thus prohibited by international and European law.
• 32:20
  So the Russian invasion, as they call it,
• 32:22
  of Ukraine constitutes such an aggression, has been
• 32:26
  confirmed not only by commentators, but also by
• 32:30
  the UN General Assembly voting to condemn Russia.
• 32:35
  Propaganda for war can be conducted through false
• 32:37
  or misleading information, but this is not constitutive
• 32:42
  of the prohibition.
• 32:44
  Advocating for aggressive war is prohibited, even in
• 32:50
  the opinion in support of such war is
• 32:54
  based only on entirely true information.
• 32:58
  How do you like that legal gymnastics or
• 33:01
  that verbal gymnastics?
• 33:03
  So advocating for an aggressive war is prohibited,
• 33:08
  even if the opinion in support of such
• 33:12
  a war is based only on true information,
• 33:17
  entirely true information.
• 33:19
  So even if it's true, if it promotes
• 33:23
  Russia over Ukraine, it has to be banned,
• 33:28
  right?
• 33:28
  So banning RT and Sputnik as propaganda for
• 33:32
  war relies on previous practice among EU member
• 33:36
  states, which has already been confirmed as lawful
• 33:38
  by the EC and the European Court of
• 33:40
  Justice.
• 33:41
  Since 2015, Lithuania and Latvia have suspended the
• 33:44
  broadcasting of Russian language TV multiple times.
• 33:48
  These decisions are based on Article 3, 4
• 33:52
  AI and 6 AVMSD, which allow for the
• 33:55
  suspension of television broadcasts if they incite hatred
• 34:01
  based on certain criteria.
• 34:03
  How do you incite hatred?
• 34:05
  By telling the truth?
• 34:07
  They just said if you tell the truth,
• 34:09
  and you know, and if it supports war,
• 34:12
  you know, but you've told the truth, you
• 34:14
  still can be, you know, limited.
• 34:16
  So the EC confirmed that Lithuania and Latvia
• 34:19
  correctly considered TV shows that called for the
• 34:22
  occupation of various states to be propaganda for
• 34:26
  war that justified suspending those broadcasts, even taking
• 34:31
  into account the restriction of the freedom of
• 34:33
  expression.
• 34:35
  Wow, the European Court of Justice, yeah really,
• 34:39
  that's that's some justice for you, recognized that
• 34:42
  countering incitement to hatred on account of nationality
• 34:46
  in the form of propaganda for war constitutes
• 34:49
  legitimate public policy objective.
• 34:52
  So if you say anything pro-Russia, that's
• 34:58
  naturally anti-Ukraine.
• 35:01
  Is that true?
• 35:02
  You know, if you say anything pro-Russia,
• 35:03
  you're Putin puppet, right?
• 35:05
  So, but what if you didn't say anything
• 35:08
  negative to Russia and still justified their move
• 35:11
  that would therefore be anti-Ukrainian, so therefore
• 35:15
  would be done.
• 35:17
  It also confirmed targeting sanctions against Dmitry Konstantinovich
• 35:21
  Kiselyov, who had been appointed as the head
• 35:24
  of the Russian Federal State Agency, Russia Today,
• 35:29
  Russia Today, for government propaganda supporting the deployment
• 35:34
  of Russian forces in Ukraine.
• 35:38
  So the problematic justifications are this disinformation and
• 35:42
  propaganda.
• 35:43
  Is a sport?
• 35:45
  Is tennis?
• 35:46
  Is the Russian ballet disinformation and propaganda?
• 35:52
  This is nonsense, people.
• 35:55
  Even though the ban of RT and Sputnik
• 35:58
  is allegedly lawful, great care must be taken
• 36:02
  to ensure that the justification employed does not
• 36:05
  establish a president that becomes problematic as a
• 36:09
  slippery slope later on.
• 36:11
  Well, it is because you don't do say
• 36:13
  crap about condemning America for Venezuela.
• 36:18
  You don't say crap about Israel, you know,
• 36:20
  for, I mean, we bomb first, ask questions
• 36:24
  later, but that's okay, right?
• 36:26
  There's no, there's no referendum.
• 36:29
  You might have a referendum that you apply
• 36:32
  later, right?
• 36:33
  But in that referendum, you know, any Russian
• 36:36
  referendum, oh gee, that's not really a referendum.
• 36:39
  Russia did it.
• 36:40
  I mean, come on.
• 36:41
  The only referendum you can have is a
• 36:47
  referendum, you know, that results in we love
• 36:52
  globalism, right?
• 36:53
  We love Western elitism.
• 36:57
  That's what we like.
• 36:58
  We don't like Slavic Russia.
• 37:00
  Oh, come on.
• 37:02
  That's terrible.
• 37:03
  Well, you know, some of us like Slavic
• 37:05
  Russia.
• 37:05
  I like traveling over there.
• 37:06
  I think it's cool in there and they
• 37:08
  have a great culture and great, great history.
• 37:11
  So what's the difference between authoritarian censorship and
• 37:14
  legitimate media regulation?
• 37:18
  You know, remember at the Munich conference when
• 37:21
  JD Vance went over there and said, you
• 37:23
  people in Europe are nuts.
• 37:25
  He was talking about it.
• 37:26
  It's essential to emphasize the difference between state
• 37:29
  sponsored media of an autocracy, according to this
• 37:34
  article, and those of a democracy, as well
• 37:38
  as the difference between state regulation of free
• 37:41
  speech.
• 37:42
  State sponsored media, i.e. PBS, of a
• 37:47
  democratic state, not only legally, but actually independent.
• 37:53
  Really?
• 37:54
  These people are actually independent?
• 37:58
  Oh, no, they're not.
• 38:00
  If they depend on the money to come
• 38:02
  from the Democratic Party, guess what they got
• 38:04
  to spout?
• 38:05
  If the only people that get appointed to
• 38:08
  PBS are Democrats and liberals, it sure as
• 38:12
  hell is not independent.
• 38:14
  They don't even put a token right winger
• 38:18
  out there.
• 38:19
  They can and do report, allegedly, on critical
• 38:23
  voices concerning their government.
• 38:25
  Yeah, but only when a Republican's in office.
• 38:29
  The BBC on a seven-year-old girl
• 38:32
  asking the British Prime Minister why he had
• 38:35
  parties during lockdown when she missed two birthday
• 38:38
  parties, and she demanded an apology.
• 38:41
  An apology.
• 38:41
  This is on BBC.
• 38:42
  So this tells you that media on BBC
• 38:48
  is independent.
• 38:50
  They can put a girl on there asking
• 38:53
  why she had to miss two birthday parties
• 38:56
  when the Prime Minister had parties.
• 38:59
  It's impossible to imagine something like this concerning
• 39:02
  the Russian president on Sputnik or RT.
• 39:05
  I'm telling you, it exists, and they do
• 39:08
  the same thing.
• 39:09
  The young people get up and ask questions,
• 39:12
  and they're not vetted beforehand.
• 39:15
  They pick and choose who they're going to
• 39:17
  see, but I've seen some very interesting and
• 39:19
  difficult questions.
• 39:21
  Legal concepts used to ban RT and Sputnik
• 39:24
  sound similar to those Russia employs against domestic
• 39:27
  and international media.
• 39:29
  Russia has restricted access to media outlets that
• 39:32
  disseminate deliberately false information on Ukraine.
• 39:38
  There's a grain of truth to that.
• 39:41
  You're not allowed to go and give blatantly
• 39:49
  false narratives over there, but you're not permitted
• 39:55
  to do it.
• 39:56
  So I don't know.
• 39:58
  I want to talk about, I think I've
• 40:00
  had enough of that topic.
• 40:01
  It's been, it irritates me that you get
• 40:05
  rid of sports people, and I want to
• 40:08
  go back to the US striking another quote,
• 40:12
  drug boat.
• 40:14
  The attack on the alleged narco-trafficking vessel
• 40:18
  comes amid rising tension in the region, right?
• 40:21
  It wasn't rising until we started blowing up
• 40:24
  boats.
• 40:26
  It wasn't.
• 40:27
  Nobody, who gives a rip?
• 40:29
  It wasn't there until it turns out that
• 40:31
  we can't steal their oil for pennies on
• 40:34
  the dollar and not let them get any
• 40:36
  of it, right?
• 40:37
  The US destroyed another alleged narco-trafficking boat
• 40:42
  in the Eastern Pacific, killing several people.
• 40:45
  The Pentagon announced Wednesday, the strike comes amid
• 40:49
  these tensions in the region.
• 40:51
  The US Southern command reported that a lethal
• 40:55
  kinetic strike was carried out against a vessel
• 40:59
  operated by allegedly a designated terrorist organization, as
• 41:05
  it was transiting along a known narco-trafficking
• 41:09
  route in international waters.
• 41:12
  Four male narco-terrorists were killed in the
• 41:17
  strike.
• 41:18
  It added the attack was part of Operation
• 41:21
  Southern Spear, an anti-drug campaign launched by
• 41:25
  Trump during when Washington has significantly expanded its
• 41:30
  presence in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific,
• 41:33
  deploying naval and air assets.
• 41:36
  The count, at least 99 people are said
• 41:40
  to have been killed in strikes on suspected
• 41:42
  drug smuggling vessels.
• 41:45
  Of course, we never know because the proof
• 41:47
  isn't there.
• 41:49
  There is no proof.
• 41:50
  You don't have to stop and identify who
• 41:53
  they are.
• 41:53
  Nothing.
• 41:55
  The operation has drawn criticism from Samuel Trapp
• 41:58
  and others internationally, with Venezuela and Colombia arguing
• 42:02
  it's an attempt by Washington to begin a
• 42:05
  resource grab in the region rather than a
• 42:10
  counter-smuggling effort.
• 42:11
  This is not about counter-smuggling.
• 42:15
  It's absolutely not about drugs.
• 42:19
  This is not about drugs, friends and neighbors.
• 42:23
  Russian Foreign Ministry Minister Sergei Lavrov argues that
• 42:27
  the act of sinking civilian ships without trial
• 42:31
  is illegal.
• 42:33
  That's what I say.
• 42:34
  It is.
• 42:35
  The latest strike was reported just ahead of
• 42:38
  Trump's primetime address to the nation Wednesday night,
• 42:41
  during which many speculated the president would declare
• 42:44
  war on Venezuela, although this did.
• 42:49
  Last month, the U.S. designated the Venezuelan
• 42:51
  cartel De Los Soles, I think is how
• 42:55
  you say it, as a terrorist organization and
• 42:58
  alleged links to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, an
• 43:03
  accusation rejected by Caracas.
• 43:05
  This week, Trump went further by saying that
• 43:08
  Venezuelan government itself is a foreign terrorist organization
• 43:14
  and ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers
• 43:17
  entering and leaving the country.
• 43:18
  You gotta steal that oil.
• 43:20
  You can't let them sell that oil.
• 43:22
  We gotta force this boy out, right?
• 43:25
  Right, Trump?
• 43:26
  This is how you do it.
• 43:28
  Force.
• 43:28
  It's gotta be force.
• 43:30
  But force can't be used anywhere else.
• 43:32
  People would question that.
• 43:34
  Russia uses force as if they were doing
• 43:36
  the same thing.
• 43:38
  Oh, that's bad.
• 43:39
  Bad, bad, bad.
• 43:40
  You can't do it.
• 43:41
  Bad, bad, bad.
• 43:42
  Us?
• 43:42
  Good, good, good.
• 43:43
  Why?
• 43:44
  Rules for thee, not for me.
• 43:46
  These moves spark concerns of direct conflict between
• 43:50
  the U.S. and Venezuela, right?
• 43:53
  But during his Wednesday address, Trump focused on
• 43:56
  domestic and foreign policy priorities and didn't make
• 43:59
  any reference to the escalating issues in Caracas.
• 44:05
  Maduro, for his part, he condemns the blockade
• 44:08
  as illegal under international law.
• 44:11
  It really is.
• 44:12
  And so they're very careful to always claim
• 44:14
  it as terrorism, right?
• 44:16
  Sending oil is terrorism, right?
• 44:20
  Drugs?
• 44:20
  Okay.
• 44:22
  But you can't arrest them.
• 44:26
  You can't stop the boat.
• 44:28
  You can't disable the boat.
• 44:30
  You must blow it to bits, right?
• 44:34
  No one can justify that to me.
• 44:37
  Nobody.
• 44:38
  You know, if we can do that, then
• 44:40
  the person here on the ground, the U
• 44:43
  .S. citizen here collecting the drugs on this
• 44:49
  side of the border and distributing them everywhere,
• 44:54
  you ought to be able to blow up
• 44:55
  his house.
• 44:56
  You don't need a judge.
• 44:57
  You don't need a jury.
• 44:59
  If you know he's in the house, you
• 45:01
  ought to be entitled to take a missile
• 45:03
  to it, right?
• 45:05
  Yeah.
• 45:05
  I mean, why not?
• 45:07
  It's the exact same logic and you can't,
• 45:10
  you will never.
• 45:11
  If there's any lawyer that wants to call
• 45:16
  and say, this is good stuff.
• 45:18
  This is how it's supposed to be.
• 45:20
  I want to know the legitimate mechanism for
• 45:24
  blowing up first and asking questions later.
• 45:27
  You know, there's, I mean, you get, once
• 45:31
  you're a criminal, once you've decided that you're
• 45:34
  a criminal, you get no rights at all.
• 45:36
  Where does this stop?
• 45:39
  Does it mean that if you've gone five
• 45:41
  miles an hour over the speed limit and
• 45:43
  you're going down the highway, that you're a
• 45:47
  threat and you should be able to be
• 45:48
  blown up?
• 45:49
  Obviously, that's ridiculous.
• 45:51
  But somewhere from the ridiculous to the other
• 45:55
  ridiculous, which is we blow up people because
• 45:58
  we claim no evidence necessary that this, that
• 46:01
  all four people on there are narco terrorists.
• 46:04
  They made sure to point out that these
• 46:06
  are males on that boat.
• 46:08
  You don't want it to be women on
• 46:09
  there, even if the women are bad news.
• 46:11
  Why is it important to say that they're
• 46:13
  males?
• 46:13
  Because that assists you in saying that these,
• 46:17
  you know, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're criminals.
• 46:19
  They're male.
• 46:20
  Look, women aren't criminals in general.
• 46:22
  That ain't true.
• 46:23
  Not remotely.
• 46:24
  What difference does it make?
• 46:25
  How about if they were males of the
• 46:27
  age of 15 that still make them narco
• 46:30
  terrorists?
• 46:32
  There are far too many questions unanswered instead
• 46:36
  of answered.
• 46:37
  And if you're not blowing up people in
• 46:40
  a drug house in St. Louis, if you're
• 46:43
  not just blowing it up, even though, you
• 46:46
  know, they do drugs there and they sell
• 46:48
  drugs out of there, if we're not blowing
• 46:50
  up houses there, we shouldn't be blowing up
• 46:53
  boats in open territory.
• 46:58
  That's all there is to it.
• 47:00
  So I don't know.
• 47:04
  We're going to get into some, some money
• 47:07
  parts.
• 47:08
  I wanted to share with you, and I
• 47:09
  still say you should read about this oligarch
• 47:15
  part, but let's read about what Maduro's response
• 47:20
  was, shall we?
• 47:22
  Because this came out.
• 47:24
  Venezuelan President Maduro accused the U.S. of
• 47:26
  overthrowing his government.
• 47:28
  That's what they're trying to do.
• 47:29
  And turn his country into a colony, which
• 47:32
  is exactly what it would be under the
• 47:35
  Nobel Peace Prize lady.
• 47:36
  She's already said it.
• 47:37
  Oh, we'll give you all the oil.
• 47:39
  We'll make sure that you get the oil,
• 47:41
  U.S. We'll make sure of it.
• 47:43
  And, you know, they reject it.
• 47:47
  It's just control of a different type.
• 47:49
  As long as we control it, we can
• 47:52
  be dictators.
• 47:53
  We can dictate what Zelensky will do, right?
• 47:57
  That's okay.
• 47:58
  We can dictate what Venezuela will do as
• 48:00
  long as we can just claim, look, that
• 48:03
  guy was a dictator.
• 48:04
  Yeah.
• 48:05
  But how's that going to be any different?
• 48:08
  How's it going to be any different just
• 48:11
  because we installed them?
• 48:12
  The profits will be different.
• 48:14
  We'll continue to get them.
• 48:15
  That's true.
• 48:17
  You know, it's Maduro rejects Washington's threats and
• 48:23
  oil blockade as the diplomacy of barbarism.
• 48:28
  There's an interesting topic.
• 48:29
  Speaking in a televised address yesterday, Maduro said
• 48:33
  the U.S. is attempting to impose a
• 48:36
  puppet government in Caracas.
• 48:39
  He says that puppet government wouldn't last 47
• 48:42
  hours.
• 48:43
  It wouldn't.
• 48:44
  It didn't, wouldn't last the minute it's appointed
• 48:46
  because it'll be subject to the U.S.
• 48:50
  Period.
• 48:51
  You got to do what the U.S.
• 48:53
  says.
• 48:53
  And if you didn't have the U.S.
• 48:56
  backing, you wouldn't have any support.
• 48:59
  That lady would not win.
• 49:01
  She wouldn't get it.
• 49:02
  You don't get to claim that just because
• 49:04
  she won a Nobel peace prize that the
• 49:07
  country's fixed, you know, and that they're not
• 49:10
  going to just have somebody else do the
• 49:12
  same thing.
• 49:13
  So this will be another U.S. Here
• 49:16
  it is.
• 49:16
  It's the exact same thing as Afghanistan, Iraq,
• 49:22
  everything else.
• 49:26
  What is happening?
• 49:27
  Dan Bongino is leaving.
• 49:29
  I just saw Dan Bongino stepping down as
• 49:31
  FBI deputy director.
• 49:34
  Well, there you have it.
• 49:38
  They wanted regime change in Venezuela to impose
• 49:42
  a puppet government that will hand over the
• 49:44
  constitution, sovereignty, and all of our riches and
• 49:48
  resources and turn the country into a colony,
• 49:53
  said Maduro.
• 49:54
  That is not going to happen.
• 49:57
  Never.
• 49:58
  Maduro's remarks follow Trump's announcement of the blockade
• 50:01
  on sanctioned oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude.
• 50:06
  Trump has branded the government in Caracas a
• 50:09
  foreign terrorist organization, and he accuses it of
• 50:13
  stealing U.S. oil and assets.
• 50:17
  Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada
• 50:21
  ever assembled in the history of South America,
• 50:23
  and it will only get bigger, and the
• 50:26
  shock to them will be like nothing they
• 50:29
  have ever seen before until the such time
• 50:32
  as they return to the United States of
• 50:35
  America, all the oil, land, and other assets
• 50:39
  that they previously stole from us.
• 50:44
  The Venezuelan leader insisted that the country's oil
• 50:47
  trade and exports would continue, arguing that international
• 50:50
  law and the U.N. charter protect freedom
• 50:53
  of navigation and commerce.
• 50:55
  This is not the time for Corsairs or
• 50:58
  piracy.
• 51:00
  And it's all in who's making the definition,
• 51:02
  right?
• 51:03
  He said Venezuela's wealth belongs exclusively to its
• 51:07
  people, invoking independence leader Simon Bolivar and the
• 51:12
  country's constitution.
• 51:14
  Maduro warned that the U.S. escalation represented
• 51:18
  what he called the diplomacy of barbarism, and
• 51:20
  he contrasted it with respect for international law
• 51:24
  and peaceful coexistence.
• 51:27
  Maduro said Venezuela has both the legal right
• 51:30
  and political strength to defend itself and claim
• 51:33
  support from other peoples of the world.
• 51:36
  In a regional appeal, he called on Colombia
• 51:38
  and its forces to reject foreign military intervention
• 51:41
  and uphold what he describes as Bolivar's vision
• 51:46
  of unity.
• 51:47
  He vowed that Venezuela would defend its sovereignty
• 51:50
  with strength, with truth, and love of peace.
• 51:54
  Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers, two house votes, clear
• 52:00
  the path for continued U.S. military action
• 52:04
  in the Caribbean.
• 52:05
  This is crap, too, just so you know
• 52:08
  my thoughts on the matter.
• 52:10
  U.S. House of Representatives voted down efforts
• 52:12
  to rein in Trump's military action against Venezuela,
• 52:16
  rejecting two Democrat-led resolutions that sought to
• 52:20
  limit the administration's use of force.
• 52:24
  Measures were introduced under the War Power Resolution,
• 52:27
  which allows lawmakers to challenge military operations not
• 52:31
  approved by Congress.
• 52:33
  First proposal sought to halt ongoing U.S.
• 52:36
  strikes against what they call cartel-linked narco
• 52:41
  -terrorist vessels operating in the Caribbean.
• 52:45
  This vote, failed by a vote of 210
• 52:48
  to 216, gee, wonder if that's long party
• 52:51
  lines, fell short of a majority despite near
• 52:54
  -unified Democratic support and a handful of Republican
• 52:57
  defections.
• 52:59
  Second resolution, aimed at blocking any new military
• 53:02
  action within or against Venezuela unless the U
• 53:06
  .S. Congress declares war or authorizes such operations,
• 53:11
  was also narrowly rejected in a 211 to
• 53:17
  213 vote.
• 53:19
  The votes leave Trump free to continue strikes
• 53:22
  at sea and pursuing other activity.
• 53:26
  Tied to regime change, what I say, but
• 53:30
  he call it a pressure campaign against Caracas,
• 53:33
  including measures linked to Washington's recently announced blockade
• 53:37
  on Venezuelan oil.
• 53:42
  I don't like this.
• 53:43
  This is just wrong.
• 53:46
  And Sammy doesn't like it.
• 53:50
  Let's see here.
• 53:52
  Tucker Carlson, I think, agrees with me.
• 53:55
  Let's see what he said.
• 53:59
  Conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson suggests that Trump
• 54:04
  could be preparing to declare war on Venezuela
• 54:08
  while stressing that his information is limited and
• 54:11
  unconfirmed.
• 54:13
  He was on the Judge Napolitano podcast Wednesday
• 54:16
  and he was asked whether Trump is going
• 54:18
  to start a war in Venezuela.
• 54:21
  Carlson said he had been told by a
• 54:23
  member of Congress that lawmakers had been briefed
• 54:27
  about a potential conflict.
• 54:29
  What I know so far is that members
• 54:31
  of Congress were briefed yesterday that war is
• 54:35
  coming and that it will be announced in
• 54:37
  the address to the nation tonight at nine.
• 54:39
  He said, who knows if that will happen?
• 54:42
  I don't.
• 54:43
  Well, it didn't.
• 54:44
  However, in his address, Trump focused entirely on
• 54:47
  domestic issues.
• 54:49
  I think he's embarrassed about this.
• 54:51
  I think he knows he can't justify it.
• 54:54
  But that's me.
• 54:55
  And I know people probably on this station
• 54:58
  who will say, oh, no, Trump's Trump's doing
• 55:00
  the right thing.
• 55:00
  He's blowing people up.
• 55:02
  Take names later.
• 55:03
  Hell, you never get the names.
• 55:05
  It'd be neat to do.
• 55:07
  Somebody should do.
• 55:08
  Maybe I will.
• 55:09
  And I all ninety nine of these people
• 55:11
  that have been killed.
• 55:12
  Maybe I should get a list from somewhere.
• 55:14
  He said he is just fixing a mess
• 55:17
  inherited from his predecessor.
• 55:19
  I don't remember his predecessor having a mess
• 55:22
  in Venezuela.
• 55:24
  He didn't mention Venezuela, Ukraine or any other
• 55:27
  international crisis.
• 55:29
  Trump yesterday.
• 55:31
  Carlson warned that while he had spoken to
• 55:32
  multiple people about Venezuela, he could not independently
• 55:36
  verify anything.
• 55:37
  I never want to overstate what I know.
• 55:39
  And it's pretty limited on this topic.
• 55:41
  Carlson's remarks came amid heightened tension, blah, blah,
• 55:45
  blah.
• 55:45
  Trump administration accuses Venezuela of harboring drug traffickers
• 55:49
  and narco terrorist allegations.
• 55:51
  Venezuela repeatedly denies.
• 55:55
  Caracas condemns the action, blah, blah, blah.
• 55:58
  We have all of that and we have
• 56:01
  heard it.
• 56:02
  Let's see.
• 56:04
  It was something I wanted to get to.
• 56:06
  Where is it?
• 56:09
  Oh, righty.
• 56:11
  There was a teenage Russian girl.
• 56:16
  Get this.
• 56:17
  There's problems in Russia, too.
• 56:21
  A 16 year old student attempted to bring
• 56:25
  a bomb into an administrative building after being
• 56:30
  duped by scammers.
• 56:33
  This is a crazy story.
• 56:37
  Russian law enforcement foiled a Ukrainian terrorist attack
• 56:42
  in the southern Rostov region after police detained
• 56:46
  a young teen who attempted to bring a
• 56:48
  homemade explosive device into a city administration building,
• 56:53
  said the FSB, Federal Security Service.
• 56:58
  It added that the girl had apparently been
• 57:00
  targeted by online scammers.
• 57:03
  In a statement on Thursday, the FSB said
• 57:07
  the police stopped the 16 year old student
• 57:12
  in central Volgodonsk after officers were suspicious of
• 57:18
  her large backpack.
• 57:23
  That's a way to get coffee there.
• 57:24
  Bomb disposal specialists confirmed that it contained an
• 57:28
  improvised explosive device with a yield roughly equivalent
• 57:32
  to 10 kilograms of TNT.
• 57:36
  The device was packed with screws, nuts, nails
• 57:39
  intended as shrapnel and fitted with an electronic
• 57:42
  timing mechanism.
• 57:44
  The student told investigators she had collected the
• 57:48
  backpack from a hidden stash on the outskirts
• 57:52
  of Volgodonsk.
• 57:54
  Said the FSB, the agency added that her
• 57:56
  testimony indicated she had been duped by online
• 58:00
  scammers about a month earlier and she had
• 58:04
  narrowly avoided becoming a suicide bomber.
• 58:07
  There's a video of this.
• 58:09
  The FSB released a video of the demining
• 58:12
  operation which showed an officer in a heavy
• 58:14
  blast resistant suit that approached the backpack which
• 58:18
  was on a city square and detonated it
• 58:21
  from a safe distance.
• 58:23
  The agency said the terrorist attack had been
• 58:26
  prepared by the security services of Kyiv, Ukraine.
• 58:31
  Added that it was foiled due to heightened
• 58:33
  counter-terrorist measures.
• 58:36
  Earlier this week the agency warned that Kyiv
• 58:39
  is increasingly increasingly relying on phone scam operations
• 58:43
  to recruit Russian citizens, mainly teenagers and the
• 58:47
  elderly, to carry out these acts.
• 58:51
  Ukraine on numerous occasions has attempted to carry
• 58:54
  out terrorist acts inside of Russia, targeting government
• 58:57
  officials, military commanders and opinion hosts as well
• 59:01
  as sabotage operations against critical infrastructure.
• 59:08
  Isn't that crazy?
• 59:10
  I want to do one more thing.
• 59:12
  We'll try to fit this in here before
• 59:14
  we get to some other news because the
• 59:17
  Kremlin has said a few things.
• 59:21
  And allegedly there's a Russian flagged tanker headed
• 59:24
  toward Venezuela.
• 59:26
  I heard about last night.
• 59:27
  I haven't seen anything new on that.
• 59:30
  Forgot to look it up this morning so
• 59:31
  I don't have it.
• 59:33
  And I'm not all that good at doing
• 59:34
  two things at once.
• 59:35
  So I'm either following what I've already prepared.
• 59:37
  I can't really go out and look for
• 59:39
  something else while I'm doing it.
• 59:40
  It never goes well for me.
• 59:42
  But escalating tension between the U.S. and
• 59:45
  Venezuela carries serious risks that could lead to
• 59:49
  unforeseen developments, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov today.
• 59:55
  Today, he said this.
• 59:58
  The warning came after U.S. President Trump
• 1:00:01
  intensified pressure on Caracas by announcing an expansion
• 1:00:05
  of a partial Navy blockade amid a halting,
• 1:00:09
  aimed at halting Venezuelan crude export.
• 1:00:13
  The authorities in the Latin American nation, where
• 1:00:16
  Washington does not recognize the government, expressed defiance.
• 1:00:22
  Of course, we are calling on all countries
• 1:00:24
  in the region to exercise restraint in order
• 1:00:27
  to avoid any unforeseen development of this situation,
• 1:00:32
  said Peskov, adding that Russia considers Venezuela an
• 1:00:37
  important partner.
• 1:00:39
  Earlier, Russian foreign ministry urged the Trump administration
• 1:00:43
  to adhere to rational and pragmatic approach, cautioning
• 1:00:49
  that missteps could amount to a fatal mistake
• 1:00:52
  that further inflame the situation, lead to loss
• 1:00:55
  of life.
• 1:00:57
  China voiced similar concerns.
• 1:01:00
  Beijing's foreign spokesman said the People's Republic opposes
• 1:01:07
  all acts of unilateralism and bullying.
• 1:01:12
  You think this falls into that category?
• 1:01:14
  And supports Venezuela's sovereign right to independently develop
• 1:01:19
  mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries, even if
• 1:01:24
  those countries aren't only the United States.
• 1:01:28
  Trump has highlighted the U.S. naval buildup
• 1:01:31
  near Venezuela and claims that the country is
• 1:01:33
  completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled
• 1:01:36
  in the history of South America, while demanding
• 1:01:39
  that Caracas return all oil, land and assets
• 1:01:42
  they stole from us.
• 1:01:51
  Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone killed civilians in southern
• 1:01:57
  Russia.
• 1:01:58
  Ukrainian drones attacked multiple cities in Rostov, the
• 1:02:02
  same area where the girl had the bomb,
• 1:02:04
  killing civilians, damaging residential and port infrastructure, according
• 1:02:09
  to the regional area of the cities Rostov
• 1:02:12
  -on-Don and Bataysk.
• 1:02:15
  And Taganrog came under attack early Thursday.
• 1:02:19
  Unfortunately, as a result of the UAV strikes,
• 1:02:21
  civilians were killed and injured.
• 1:02:24
  In Rostov, a drone strike on the city's
• 1:02:26
  port set a cargo vessel on fire.
• 1:02:29
  Two crew members were killed and three injured.
• 1:02:32
  The blaze was extinguished after spreading across an
• 1:02:35
  area of about 20 square meters.
• 1:02:38
  In the nearby city of Bataysk, two private
• 1:02:41
  homes caught fire following drone strikes.
• 1:02:44
  Seven people were wounded.
• 1:02:45
  Three rushed to the hospital.
• 1:02:47
  One later died.
• 1:02:50
  A governor offered condolences to the families of
• 1:02:52
  those killed with speedy recovery.
• 1:02:55
  Russian defense ministry said air defense systems intercepted
• 1:02:58
  and destroyed 77 Ukrainian drones overnight between 11
• 1:03:02
  p.m. and 7 a.m. Moscow time.
• 1:03:05
  31 shot down over Bryansk, 11 over Crimea
• 1:03:08
  and the Black Sea, four over Belgorod, and
• 1:03:11
  three over Rostov.
• 1:03:13
  Russian officials previously accused Kyiv of deliberately targeting
• 1:03:17
  civilians, linking the surging Ukrainian tanks and growing
• 1:03:21
  U.S. pressure on Zelensky to accept peace
• 1:03:24
  with Russia that would require land concessions Kyiv
• 1:03:27
  refuses to make.
• 1:03:29
  Russia conducted its own military strikes in Ukrainian
• 1:03:33
  infrastructure saying the attacks retaliated for Kyiv's terrorist
• 1:03:38
  raid.
• 1:03:40
  I saw an article yesterday that said that
• 1:03:45
  Odessa has been without power for four days.
• 1:03:51
  No power in Odessa.
• 1:03:54
  Isn't that crazy?
• 1:03:57
  I found this opinion piece interesting about the
• 1:04:03
  EU.
• 1:04:05
  This is an interesting story.
• 1:04:07
  This is Rachel Marsden again.
• 1:04:09
  I go out and I look at some
• 1:04:11
  of this because she's pretty well spoken.
• 1:04:13
  Do I agree with everything she says?
• 1:04:15
  Absolutely not.
• 1:04:19
  It's pretty long, but it's not horribly long,
• 1:04:22
  so I'm going to share it with you.
• 1:04:23
  These are not my words.
• 1:04:24
  This is Rachel Marsden, columnist, political strategist, and
• 1:04:29
  host of talk shows that come out in
• 1:04:32
  French and in English.
• 1:04:34
  It's Rachel Marsden.
• 1:04:37
  She's at RachelMarsden.com.
• 1:04:41
  I think this is an interesting take.
• 1:04:45
  A kid isn't totally to blame when it
• 1:04:49
  acts like a lunatic in public, particularly when
• 1:04:52
  you take a good look at the parents.
• 1:04:55
  Such is the case of the Bulgarian establishment,
• 1:04:59
  the European Union's latest foster kid on the
• 1:05:03
  verge of being fully adopted into the family
• 1:05:06
  despite being in the middle of a full
• 1:05:09
  -blown public meltdown.
• 1:05:11
  Bulgaria is supposed to join the Eurozone
• 1:05:23
  on January 1, 2026, which will completely integrate
• 1:05:31
  it into the bloc.
• 1:05:33
  The country's officials have had since January 2007,
• 1:05:39
  when it was accepted as a member of
• 1:05:41
  the EU, 18 years now, to get their
• 1:05:45
  act together and stop greasing each other's palms.
• 1:05:50
  You know, all of this public thievery from
• 1:05:56
  the public cookie jar.
• 1:05:59
  Ostensibly, that's why these things are done incrementally,
• 1:06:02
  because it takes time to teach politicians that
• 1:06:05
  public cookie jars are not the meal station.
• 1:06:10
  Brussels has had 19 years to teach these
• 1:06:13
  basic lessons, but since Queen Ursula von der
• 1:06:17
  Leyen and her merry band of Eurobozos are
• 1:06:22
  big on optics and lectures, but not so
• 1:06:25
  much on actual discipline and results, that did
• 1:06:29
  not happen.
• 1:06:31
  So, just as Bulgaria is supposed to integrate
• 1:06:33
  into the EU economy as the newest paragon
• 1:06:37
  of stability, it turns out that the government
• 1:06:40
  took one look at the latest protest action
• 1:06:42
  in the streets and basically hit the self
• 1:06:45
  -destruct button.
• 1:06:47
  Our coalition met, we discussed the current situation,
• 1:06:51
  the challenges we face, and the decisions we
• 1:06:54
  must responsibly make, said Prime Minister Rosen Zhulyazkov,
• 1:07:01
  said while stepping down with his coalition government,
• 1:07:04
  our desire is to be at the level
• 1:07:08
  that society expects.
• 1:07:11
  That would be ground level after a swan
• 1:07:15
  dive, says Marsden.
• 1:07:17
  Hard to imagine a better moment for a
• 1:07:20
  country to more deeply integrate into the EU
• 1:07:23
  than right when it's yanking out its own
• 1:07:25
  political wiring.
• 1:07:27
  What's truly remarkable is that the EU's fitness
• 1:07:30
  evaluation focus on technically fiscal criteria like price
• 1:07:35
  stability, public finance, exchange rate, and long term
• 1:07:39
  interest.
• 1:07:40
  Bulgaria nailed those metrics, but corruption was treated
• 1:07:44
  like a footnote, apparently because checking for graft
• 1:07:48
  is an optional add-on service.
• 1:07:53
  Other EU bodies like the European Public Prosecutor's
• 1:07:57
  Office and the Anti-Fraud Office have been
• 1:07:59
  investigating serious allegations of systemic corruption involving top
• 1:08:05
  Bulgarian officials and EU funds.
• 1:08:08
  No big deal though, just waltz on in.
• 1:08:12
  Here are those minor details.
• 1:08:14
  The EU has identified irregularities over €140 million
• 1:08:22
  in EU funding for railway infrastructure in 2023.
• 1:08:29
  Gone.
• 1:08:30
  An indictment over fraud involving EU funds for
• 1:08:34
  employment support made headlines in 2025.
• 1:08:37
  Also gone.
• 1:08:38
  Charges were laid against Bulgarian officials over alleged
• 1:08:41
  fraud last year relating to $3.4 million
• 1:08:44
  fishing port in Varna that EU investigators found
• 1:08:49
  to be imaginary.
• 1:08:51
  The EU accused Bulgarian officials of procurement fraud
• 1:08:55
  for a million euro green space project in
• 1:08:58
  Plovdiv.
• 1:08:59
  An indictment was brought earlier this year over
• 1:09:03
  suspected six million in EU construction funds that
• 1:09:06
  were stolen.
• 1:09:07
  But when it comes to integration into European
• 1:09:11
  fiscal family, it's almost like corruption is treated
• 1:09:13
  as some kind of quaint local tradition rather
• 1:09:16
  than an actual problem.
• 1:09:18
  Not exactly the white-gloved cleanup crew that
• 1:09:21
  Brussels markets itself as to Europeans.
• 1:09:26
  Or maybe it just needs to keep some
• 1:09:29
  glove-free sticky fingers handy just in case
• 1:09:33
  because they're corrupt too.
• 1:09:34
  Hello, how's the family?
• 1:09:36
  Anyway, the Bulgarian people seem to have decided
• 1:09:39
  to take matters into their own hands even
• 1:09:41
  after being told by Brussels that it and
• 1:09:43
  the euro will be their guardian angel in
• 1:09:46
  a dangerous world.
• 1:09:48
  Guess they're not into fairy tales since they
• 1:09:50
  flooded the streets after their leaders decided to
• 1:09:53
  boost spending.
• 1:09:55
  Spending on themselves and their cronies, that is.
• 1:09:58
  The EU didn't seem to care much about
• 1:10:00
  any of that.
• 1:10:01
  Not enough to postpone eurozone integration anyway.
• 1:10:07
  What really seems to matter to Brussels is
• 1:10:09
  that the Bulgarian government, despite being unable to
• 1:10:12
  stick to legal basics, did stick firmly to
• 1:10:15
  establishment-approved script on Ukraine.
• 1:10:23
  Curious.
• 1:10:24
  This government, which lasted less than a year,
• 1:10:27
  turned the country into one giant ammo assembly
• 1:10:31
  line to jack up European GDP for washing
• 1:10:35
  public cash into weapons for Ukraine.
• 1:10:39
  Germany's weapons maker and stock market champion, Rheinmetall,
• 1:10:44
  happily siphoning public cash to the point that
• 1:10:48
  its stock value graph looks like a rocket
• 1:10:51
  launch, announced in August that it is building
• 1:10:54
  an ammo plant in Bulgaria.
• 1:10:58
  Surely that has nothing to do with Bulgaria
• 1:11:01
  still not fully weaning itself off cheap Russian
• 1:11:05
  gas.
• 1:11:06
  Bulgaria has been bragging about cutting off Russian
• 1:11:09
  gas supposedly by 2028.
• 1:11:13
  But the average Bulgarian citizen wasn't too thrilled
• 1:11:16
  about paying more for energy like the rest
• 1:11:18
  of Europe, so now the folks in charge
• 1:11:20
  have been chased into the political wilderness by
• 1:11:24
  their own people.
• 1:11:26
  Time will tell whether the EU will continue
• 1:11:30
  turning Bulgaria into one giant dodgy weapons factory
• 1:11:34
  fueled by Russian gas they claim to hate
• 1:11:38
  all under the guise of freedom and democracy.
• 1:11:42
  For whom?
• 1:11:43
  That's always the real question.
• 1:11:44
  Whose interests are truly served when government so
• 1:11:48
  clearly falters and oversight is blatantly selective?
• 1:11:54
  The citizens or vested elites?
• 1:11:57
  Now I like that article.
• 1:11:59
  I think that she nailed it right on
• 1:12:01
  the forehead there.
• 1:12:04
  That's all correct.
• 1:12:07
  It's there.
• 1:12:11
  There was another interesting piece by another person,
• 1:12:14
  and it might be too long.
• 1:12:17
  I think I'm going to try it because
• 1:12:19
  I think it might apply somewhat here too,
• 1:12:21
  and it makes you think.
• 1:12:23
  I'm not saying I agree with it, but
• 1:12:25
  the article is called America's Moment.
• 1:12:35
  What DoorDash culture says about economic decline?
• 1:12:41
  And this is written by a guy named
• 1:12:43
  Henry Johnston.
• 1:12:45
  He's a Moscow-based editor who has been
• 1:12:51
  in finance for a decade, and this is
• 1:12:53
  interesting because it's a western article written for
• 1:12:58
  an eastern newspaper.
• 1:13:00
  So his article, you know, the great baseball
• 1:13:03
  legend and jokester Yogi Berra once quit.
• 1:13:06
  This guy's name, like I Henry Johnston, Yogi
• 1:13:10
  Berra quit that a restaurant had become so
• 1:13:14
  crowded that nobody goes there anymore.
• 1:13:17
  Here's a version for today.
• 1:13:19
  Young people in America have such dismal economic
• 1:13:22
  prospects that they spend more money than ever.
• 1:13:26
  A Reddit thread appeared recently in which a
• 1:13:28
  man posed the question of where kids in
• 1:13:31
  America are getting the money to live a
• 1:13:34
  DoorDash lifestyle.
• 1:13:36
  DoorDash is one of several smartphone apps in
• 1:13:39
  the U.S. that deliver restaurant meals to
• 1:13:41
  your door for a steep premium.
• 1:13:44
  And that's true.
• 1:13:45
  I use it every now and again, but
• 1:13:46
  it's pretty rare because of how expensive it
• 1:13:49
  is.
• 1:13:49
  And I got to really be feeling lazy
• 1:13:52
  to not cook something or not have anything
• 1:13:55
  in the house because I've been too lazy
• 1:13:56
  to go shopping or something.
• 1:13:58
  But I don't go shopping anymore.
• 1:14:00
  I have I have I have the shopping
• 1:14:04
  done for me, you know, and I pull
• 1:14:08
  up, pick it up, and that's that.
• 1:14:11
  Or I have it delivered.
• 1:14:13
  It's terrible, you know, but I'd rather pay
• 1:14:15
  the ten bucks to get that done than
• 1:14:16
  to than to go myself.
• 1:14:19
  I can't stay.
• 1:14:19
  I don't like going.
• 1:14:21
  And it's not worth it to drive somewhere
• 1:14:22
  and go in for for one deal, you
• 1:14:25
  know, to cost you an extra, what, ten
• 1:14:27
  bucks, I suppose.
• 1:14:28
  The thread went viral, you know, but was
• 1:14:31
  subsequently deleted for reasons that are unclear to
• 1:14:35
  me, though many screenshots do exist.
• 1:14:40
  And it's somebody and it's our money.
• 1:14:43
  And Andrew Dot Today put this out.
• 1:14:48
  It was where it was on the thread
• 1:14:50
  on Instagram.
• 1:14:52
  Here's what it says.
• 1:14:54
  Supposedly the young.
• 1:14:55
  Well, let's read the original article first.
• 1:14:57
  Can someone explain to me where kids are
• 1:15:00
  getting the money to live a door dash
• 1:15:02
  lifestyle?
• 1:15:02
  I can't figure it out.
• 1:15:05
  I'm a 44 year old male.
• 1:15:06
  No kids own and operate a fast, casual
• 1:15:08
  restaurant with four locations.
• 1:15:10
  I'm intimately familiar with the insane amount of
• 1:15:12
  money it costs to have food door dash
• 1:15:15
  Uber eat grub hubbed to your front door
• 1:15:17
  at my own restaurant.
• 1:15:19
  A 16 dollar poke bowl delivered with a
• 1:15:23
  tip will run you close to 30 dollars
• 1:15:27
  for someone making six figures.
• 1:15:29
  Sure, have at it.
• 1:15:31
  But trust me when I tell you almost
• 1:15:33
  every high school age kid these days seems
• 1:15:35
  to be using door dash multiple times a
• 1:15:38
  week, including my own employees who offer a
• 1:15:41
  free meal to when they work, literally any
• 1:15:44
  shift.
• 1:15:45
  Yet even then, I will see Taco Bell
• 1:15:47
  or Chick-fil-A being delivered to my
• 1:15:49
  own store because a 16 dollar an hour
• 1:15:53
  employee ordered it.
• 1:15:55
  That's the story.
• 1:15:57
  And then a guy named Andrew Dot Today,
• 1:16:00
  supposedly the younger generation is so absurdly priced
• 1:16:04
  out of traditional big purchases like houses and
• 1:16:07
  cars, kids, they just skip those things and
• 1:16:12
  spend all their money on food.
• 1:16:14
  That makes sense actually.
• 1:16:15
  And they feel hopeless for the future and
• 1:16:17
  end up spending their money on things like
• 1:16:19
  designer clothes, phones, extravagant vacations or door dash
• 1:16:23
  because that's all that is legitimately within reach.
• 1:16:29
  So that's the article that he showed with
• 1:16:31
  the screenshot that's later been taken down.
• 1:16:34
  This thread got ping ponged around on X
• 1:16:38
  and one user jumped in with an explanation.
• 1:16:41
  You know, they're behaving like people living in
• 1:16:44
  a post middle class economy where ownership is
• 1:16:47
  unattainable.
• 1:16:48
  Savings are pointless.
• 1:16:49
  Buying a home is impossible and upward mobility
• 1:16:52
  is gone.
• 1:16:54
  So what happens?
• 1:16:55
  They shift to a present maximization mindset.
• 1:17:00
  If the future is unaffordable anyway, why not
• 1:17:03
  buy the burrito now?
• 1:17:05
  Young people are not reckless.
• 1:17:07
  They are rational inside a broken incentive system.
• 1:17:12
  Luke Grohman, one of today's most incisive financial
• 1:17:16
  analysts, chimed in.
• 1:17:17
  Watch the movie Cabaret.
• 1:17:19
  The youth in Weimar, Germany behave similarly.
• 1:17:23
  For most of the post-war period, saving
• 1:17:26
  money made sense.
• 1:17:27
  A young person or family would convert savings
• 1:17:30
  into a down payment and pay it off
• 1:17:32
  gradually, thanks to stable and reliable jobs.
• 1:17:36
  There was a direct connection between the ability
• 1:17:38
  to save and prospects for future prosperity.
• 1:17:41
  The value of money was proportional to the
• 1:17:43
  middle class goodies that one sought.
• 1:17:45
  This rewarded discipline and delayed gratification and attested
• 1:17:50
  to people's optimistic view of the prospect for
• 1:17:54
  stability.
• 1:17:57
  Interesting take.
• 1:17:59
  The world is shattered and broken, he says.
• 1:18:02
  For starters, home ownership is an ever-receding
• 1:18:05
  mirage for many.
• 1:18:07
  Bankrate recently reduced a report claiming that the
• 1:18:10
  average American household has been priced out of
• 1:18:13
  75 percent of the housing market.
• 1:18:16
  Home ownership rate for households under the age
• 1:18:18
  of 35 fell again last year, while shares
• 1:18:21
  of first-time homebuyers of all ages has
• 1:18:23
  plummeted to a historic low of 21 to
• 1:18:27
  24 percent, well below the historical average of
• 1:18:31
  40 percent.
• 1:18:33
  Even Charles Schwab published a piece advising Gen
• 1:18:37
  Zers how to avoid doom spending and defined
• 1:18:41
  it as responding to a poor outlook on
• 1:18:43
  your future of your finances or the planet
• 1:18:46
  we are living in by saying what is
• 1:18:48
  the point of saving for the future.
• 1:18:51
  Financial analyst Dimitri Kofinas coined the term financial
• 1:18:56
  nihilism to describe how individuals who, having lost
• 1:19:01
  faith in the real value of money and
• 1:19:04
  in the traditional ways of earning it, turn
• 1:19:07
  to various high-risk behavior.
• 1:19:10
  The old trades of gambling and prostitution return
• 1:19:15
  in new guises, reckless crypto speculation, betting on
• 1:19:20
  the outcome of real-world events via Kalshi,
• 1:19:24
  and of course, only fans.
• 1:19:27
  What this points to is a disconnect between
• 1:19:31
  the wealth that can be generated by earning
• 1:19:33
  wages, working the gig economy, or relying on
• 1:19:36
  sporadic Venmo transfers from family members, and what
• 1:19:40
  can be generated by holding assets, such as
• 1:19:43
  real estate nobody can afford.
• 1:19:45
  These two parallel tracks are diverging more and
• 1:19:48
  more as the real-life current economy diverges
• 1:19:52
  from the financialized paper economy.
• 1:19:55
  We still benchmark everything to the dollar, however,
• 1:19:58
  because the store of value is going down
• 1:20:02
  faster than the ordinary person can earn dollars
• 1:20:05
  through labor.
• 1:20:06
  The path to success lies in asset ownership
• 1:20:09
  and not in simply earning marginally more dollars.
• 1:20:14
  In the current American economy, it is the
• 1:20:16
  asset ownership that matters, or a very high
• 1:20:20
  wage in an industry in a business of
• 1:20:22
  asset ownership.
• 1:20:23
  Accordingly, Gen Zers correctly identify $30 as not
• 1:20:28
  being worth much more than a poke bowl.
• 1:20:31
  For a good comparison, in 17th century England,
• 1:20:35
  historians estimate that beer and ale accounted for
• 1:20:38
  as much as 10 to 25 percent of
• 1:20:41
  a laborer's cash outlay.
• 1:20:44
  This wasn't because England was populated by inveterate
• 1:20:47
  drunks or fantastically irresponsible people, but because there
• 1:20:52
  was no point in saving the marginal unit
• 1:20:55
  of money in a rigid hierarchical system in
• 1:20:59
  which the barriers to true social advancement were
• 1:21:02
  too high.
• 1:21:03
  Door-dash culture is the digital version of
• 1:21:06
  that phenomenon.
• 1:21:08
  If this sounds a bit like feudalism, it
• 1:21:12
  is because that's exactly what it is, or
• 1:21:14
  more precisely, it's a hybrid of feudalism and
• 1:21:17
  the type of pre-Weimar detachment that arises
• 1:21:20
  when wages don't match prices.
• 1:21:23
  The currency is being debauched and the future
• 1:21:26
  is profoundly uncertain and ominous.
• 1:21:31
  To take the analysis a step further, think
• 1:21:34
  of the U.S. economy as not just
• 1:21:37
  a post-middle-class economy, but a post
• 1:21:39
  -growth economy.
• 1:21:41
  Let's run a simple comparison of two different
• 1:21:43
  eras.
• 1:21:44
  The 60s were a time of growth driven
• 1:21:46
  by manufacturing, industrial innovation, infrastructure, and rising
• 1:21:50
  productivity.
• 1:21:51
  GDP gains reflected the expansion of real-world
• 1:21:55
  economic activity.
• 1:21:56
  Markets functioned without hand-holding by central banks.
• 1:22:00
  Debt levels were manageable.
• 1:22:01
  High interest rates rewarded saving.
• 1:22:05
  Housing was affordable for a working family.
• 1:22:08
  The 2020s are a time of growth driven
• 1:22:10
  by financial services, asset inflation, and debt-fueled
• 1:22:16
  consumption, with government spending and central bank liquidity
• 1:22:20
  the primary engines rather than real productivity gain.
• 1:22:24
  Central banks engage in all manner of gimmicks
• 1:22:27
  to prop up a system that no longer
• 1:22:28
  self-corrects.
• 1:22:30
  Asset prices are inflated.
• 1:22:32
  Housing is unaffordable.
• 1:22:33
  Real wages are declining.
• 1:22:35
  These days there isn't much growth and whatever
• 1:22:38
  there is has to be with great exertion
• 1:22:42
  as if out of an empty toothpaste tube.
• 1:22:45
  And it takes a whole lot of debt
• 1:22:46
  to even attempt that squeeze.
• 1:22:49
  The U.S. economy managed to expand at
• 1:22:51
  a clip of 2.4% in 2024.
• 1:22:54
  Hardly impressive, but it did so with deficit
• 1:22:57
  spending that reached a staggering $1.8 trillion
• 1:23:02
  and by vastly understating the systemic inflation.
• 1:23:06
  It bears keeping in mind that the 2
• 1:23:09
  .4% figure is already distorted because GDP
• 1:23:12
  makes no distinction between organic growth and the
• 1:23:15
  growth created by debt-fueled consumption.
• 1:23:18
  This brings us back to the notion of
• 1:23:19
  feudalism.
• 1:23:20
  This is the type of system that coalesces
• 1:23:22
  in one form or another when the economy
• 1:23:24
  exits a growth phase and enters a zero
• 1:23:27
  -sum mode.
• 1:23:28
  Periods of economic expansion are dynamic and tend
• 1:23:30
  to reshuffle the cards.
• 1:23:33
  Avenues appear for upward mobility.
• 1:23:35
  New elites are created and savings can be
• 1:23:37
  deployed to productive endeavors.
• 1:23:40
  In the post-growth world, by contrast, the
• 1:23:43
  main mechanism defining economic relations becomes rent rather
• 1:23:47
  than production.
• 1:23:48
  You're renting.
• 1:23:50
  It's the little-known fact, but the period
• 1:23:52
  from about 950 to 1250 in Europe was
• 1:23:56
  very economically dynamic.
• 1:23:58
  The heavy plow became widespread, which allowed northern
• 1:24:02
  Europe's heavy soil to be brought under cultivation.
• 1:24:05
  The three-field system replaced the two-field
• 1:24:08
  system, which increased yields.
• 1:24:10
  The horse collar, horse shoes, and windmills all
• 1:24:14
  appeared or spread widely during this period.
• 1:24:17
  There were incremental but transformative innovations.
• 1:24:22
  Deforestation and reclamation advanced.
• 1:24:24
  Lots of forests and swamps were converted to
• 1:24:26
  farmland across France, Germany, England, Poland.
• 1:24:29
  Europe's population doubled between the years 1000 and
• 1:24:33
  1300.
• 1:24:34
  The great cathedral building boom of the 12th
• 1:24:36
  and 13th centuries was a direct expression of
• 1:24:39
  this surplus.
• 1:24:40
  The Reconquista in Spain, German eastward expansion, and
• 1:24:44
  the Crusades all represented outlets for surplus population
• 1:24:48
  and ambition.
• 1:24:49
  By the late 13th century, however, the limits
• 1:24:52
  of this expansion were being reached.
• 1:24:54
  Virtually all arable land had been brought under
• 1:24:58
  cultivation.
• 1:25:00
  Marginal lands were being farmed, temporarily increasing outputs
• 1:25:05
  but with falling yield.
• 1:25:06
  Population growth began to outstrip food supply.
• 1:25:10
  It was this world of economic stagnation, after
• 1:25:14
  a long period of expansion, that produced feudalism
• 1:25:18
  of the high Middle Ages.
• 1:25:20
  Hierarchies hardened and social structures rigidified as mobility
• 1:25:25
  and opportunity shrank.
• 1:25:27
  The feudal pyramid froze.
• 1:25:29
  A static hierarchy of rent-seeking landed elites
• 1:25:32
  presided over a peasantry with declining freedom.
• 1:25:36
  Cities and noble courts were often fiscally overextended
• 1:25:39
  and clung tenaciously to existing structures because the
• 1:25:43
  changes felt dangerous.
• 1:25:46
  I don't think I'm gonna be able to
• 1:25:48
  finish this.
• 1:25:48
  I hope I am.
• 1:25:50
  We are exactly at that point except the
• 1:25:52
  feudalism of today isn't recognizable to us.
• 1:25:55
  But how different are things really?
• 1:25:57
  The elites own scarce assets while everyone else
• 1:26:02
  pays ever more for participation costs while securing
• 1:26:05
  less ownership.
• 1:26:07
  Perpetually rising asset values are perfect defense against
• 1:26:10
  those rising participation costs.
• 1:26:13
  If that is, you're fortunate enough to be
• 1:26:15
  part of the asset owning class.
• 1:26:18
  What's 8% inflation and 15% higher
• 1:26:21
  child care costs if your stock portfolio is
• 1:26:24
  up 25% and your home is now
• 1:26:26
  worth over 2 million?
• 1:26:27
  Asset prices are always rising because the system
• 1:26:30
  is designed to prioritize preserving balance sheet stability.
• 1:26:35
  Markets are always too big to fail and
• 1:26:37
  a disorderly decline in asset prices is treated
• 1:26:40
  as a systemic emergency requiring intervention.
• 1:26:43
  But this means that losses are socialized on
• 1:26:46
  the downside where gains remain private.
• 1:26:49
  The result, asset prices trend upward over time
• 1:26:52
  by definition.
• 1:26:54
  To put it bluntly, central banks and government
• 1:26:56
  guarantees that asset prices stay ahead of inflation.
• 1:27:00
  An updated form of the old noble privileges
• 1:27:05
  dished out by the medieval king.
• 1:27:08
  We can extend that analogy.
• 1:27:10
  Power is tied to control of finite resources.
• 1:27:14
  Not so much land and financial claim, maybe
• 1:27:16
  more importantly, access to credit.
• 1:27:18
  Whereas average people need funding, pay 25%
• 1:27:21
  on a credit card, too big to fail.
• 1:27:23
  Banks have underwater bonds as collateral at full
• 1:27:27
  face value, not to mention a full bailout
• 1:27:30
  if anything goes wrong.
• 1:27:31
  This becomes even more perverse when you realize
• 1:27:34
  that this abundant and essentially free credit provided
• 1:27:36
  to certain institutions is being used to bid
• 1:27:39
  up asset prices even more.
• 1:27:42
  Elites, meanwhile, protect their assets via political capture
• 1:27:45
  while the rest of society pays rent rather
• 1:27:48
  than shares in growth.
• 1:27:50
  In medieval feudalism, power was decentralized.
• 1:27:53
  Nobles had their own justice, militia, and taxes.
• 1:27:56
  Today, corporations and asset holders function like many
• 1:27:59
  sovereigns.
• 1:28:00
  Hedge funds and private equity control housing, employment,
• 1:28:04
  and the list goes on.
• 1:28:05
  However, this is not the feudalism of Arthurian
• 1:28:08
  legend that can exist in a state of
• 1:28:10
  bucolic status for centuries.
• 1:28:13
  This version is perched precariously on highly financialized
• 1:28:16
  economies that itself is kept afloat by unsustainable
• 1:28:21
  debt.
• 1:28:22
  It is a system that is both highly
• 1:28:24
  unstable and rigid at the same time, however
• 1:28:26
  paradoxical that sounds, and Generation Z senses both
• 1:28:30
  sides of that equation.
• 1:28:32
  This is where feudalism meets Weimar Germany.
• 1:28:35
  The U.S. is nowhere near hyperinflation, but
• 1:28:37
  Doordash culture points to the psychological preconditions of
• 1:28:41
  a world that can quickly turn very inflationary.
• 1:28:45
  Spending money because saving it is pointless is
• 1:28:47
  a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• 1:28:49
  This is more about wheelbarrows of devalued money.
• 1:28:53
  It was an era drenched in a deep
• 1:28:55
  cynicism and foreboding, and nihilism, financial or otherwise,
• 1:29:00
  was rampant.
• 1:29:01
  That brings us to the sudden strangeness of
• 1:29:04
  the moment.
• 1:29:05
  Underneath the glittering digital panacea of food delivery
• 1:29:10
  apps, an instant frictionless tap to pay everything,
• 1:29:14
  and despite the familiar signposts of American life,
• 1:29:18
  lies an economic system now operating under very
• 1:29:22
  different premises.
• 1:29:23
  I finished it.
• 1:29:25
  I like that article, and I think it
• 1:29:27
  makes sense, and a lot of it rings
• 1:29:29
  true.
• 1:29:30
  Well, here we have about a half a
• 1:29:33
  minute to go.
• 1:29:34
  I appreciate you listening to the show.
• 1:29:36
  I appreciate you being here.
• 1:29:37
  You can always listen to me every morning,
• 1:29:39
  7 30 to 9 here on DAM radio,
• 1:29:42
  and you can listen to all shows previously
• 1:29:45
  recorded at internationalflavor.com or at damradio.com
• 1:29:49
  forward slash podcasts.
• 1:29:53
  Please join me again tomorrow, and have a
• 1:29:55
  very good day.