Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Shots Fired, Wars Ignored, and Leaders Adored: Another Calm Week in America’s Totally Stable Political Circus
Transcript
- 0:00Hello, happy Monday to you.
- 0:02I am Samuel Trapp, and this is the
- 0:04first show of the week, isn't it, on
- 0:06DAM Radio?
- 0:08And here I am coming to you live
- 0:10from the Lake Ozark Real Estate of the
- 0:12Art Studio.
- 0:13Listen every day at damradio.com forward slash
- 0:17live for great music like some of that
- 0:19that was just playing.
- 0:20I've actually got a couple of songs I
- 0:21picked out for this for this program today,
- 0:24and I don't know why I'm usually not
- 0:26a huge into the music arena on my
- 0:29programs, having plenty to talk about with the
- 0:33lunacy of the world today.
- 0:35But I have a couple of songs that
- 0:38I don't know what happened.
- 0:40They showed up in a playlist I was
- 0:41listening to whilst driving somewhere, and it was
- 0:44a long time since I heard either one
- 0:46of these songs.
- 0:47So you know what I did?
- 0:48I added them to the mix, and we're
- 0:50going to be listening to them even later,
- 0:53probably around the half hour mark.
- 0:55I got three sort of concrete topics I'm
- 1:00going to discuss today with you, and by
- 1:03the way, feel free to call in 573
- 1:04-746-8020 should you feel the urge to
- 1:08discuss any of these things or have an
- 1:10opinion on the news of the day.
- 1:13Don't go off the wall with weird stuff
- 1:15from out of nowhere.
- 1:16I don't really care for that.
- 1:17I'd like to stick with the show.
- 1:18The big news, everything on everybody's lips is
- 1:23about the dinner.
- 1:28Let's call it the correspondence dinner, which has
- 1:30been a joke most of the time anyway
- 1:32that you watch that thing.
- 1:34It's just a time for people to get
- 1:36together and congratulate themselves on being in power
- 1:41and every once in a while to make
- 1:43fun of each other.
- 1:44The old Trumpster didn't go for many years
- 1:46because they were beating up on him so
- 1:49much.
- 1:50I always used to say that if they
- 1:52beat up on you a lot, that really
- 1:54means that they're frightened of you.
- 1:57If that's all they've got, that's the tool
- 2:00is to beat up on you, to laugh
- 2:05about you, to kick you out of the
- 2:07room, and that's all they got.
- 2:09That means you're a pretty powerful mofo.
- 2:12Wouldn't that be right?
- 2:15I've said that about the Trumpster.
- 2:17You can hate him, you can dislike him,
- 2:19you can disagree like I do on many,
- 2:21many, many, many things internationally with what the
- 2:25old Trump monster does, but he's a hell
- 2:28of a lot better than the Biden, the
- 2:30Obidinator, whatever he was, and the Obominator before
- 2:33him.
- 2:34Those guys are nuts.
- 2:37I'm starting to worry.
- 2:39You know the saying, the whole world is
- 2:41crazy but me and thee, and often I
- 2:43worry about thee, that kind of thing.
- 2:46If you're looking around the room and wondering
- 2:49who's the craziest, it's probably you, right?
- 2:55But anyway, it's a crazy old world out
- 3:00there, especially right now, and this attack, I've
- 3:02been listening to things, four or five programs
- 3:07on it yesterday, commentaries, some of the news
- 3:10stuff, and what this lunacy means, and I
- 3:18don't know, it just seemed, and I listened
- 3:20to several that were, called it a false
- 3:23flag sort of thing, and I listened to
- 3:25several that were, oh gee, look, just shows
- 3:27how wonderful Trump is, and everybody's after Trump,
- 3:30therefore we go.
- 3:31I saw the little snippet where Carolyn Leavitt
- 3:36said, shots will be fired tonight, you know,
- 3:40like that.
- 3:41She made some kind of commentary like that
- 3:43right before the program.
- 3:45I wrote most of the, wrote the speech,
- 3:48or I participated in writing the speech, and
- 3:50shots will be fired tonight.
- 3:53Well, you know, a little bit apropos, don't
- 3:56you think?
- 3:57But there you have it.
- 3:59I wanted to talk a little bit about
- 4:03that.
- 4:04So, you know, here on International Flavor, where
- 4:07the truth just tastes better, we wonder if
- 4:10the truth will ever be known about any
- 4:13of this.
- 4:14I suppose the biggest question for me is,
- 4:17why isn't this guy dead?
- 4:21And I don't mean that he should be,
- 4:23I'm not into this, you know, shoot first,
- 4:25ask questions later, normally.
- 4:28But if you watch the little videos, they
- 4:36didn't jump to protect Trump.
- 4:38Everybody ran for J.D. Vance.
- 4:41It's like, let's save J.D. And they
- 4:44didn't guard the president.
- 4:47It just looks a little on the odd
- 4:49side to me.
- 4:51And that maybe it was the way it
- 4:55was supposed to be, but Trump's just sitting
- 4:57there.
- 4:59You know, nothing happened, just wondering what's going
- 5:02on.
- 5:03And nobody's protecting him.
- 5:06But you know, here in America, unfortunately, this
- 5:09is always just another incident, another headline.
- 5:12And we're far too comfortable with this sort
- 5:15of chaos.
- 5:15I mean, I'm even here joking about it.
- 5:17It's disgusting.
- 5:19And, you know, this is not how the
- 5:22world is supposed to be.
- 5:23But, you know, why don't we slow it
- 5:26down just a tiny bit, wind it back
- 5:28a tiny, tiny bit, and look at what
- 5:32happened at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
- 5:36And I don't know, maybe it is just
- 5:38an isolated act of violence.
- 5:40Maybe it is something more telling, more revealing
- 5:44about a system that is becoming more and
- 5:48more volatile to, you know, especially the participants.
- 5:54And you know me from my Civic Outlaws
- 5:57broadcasts on Fridays and my continual discussions of,
- 6:03you know, neocons, all of the RINO chat
- 6:10and all of the horror story of alleged
- 6:14leadership today, where the leadership portion of leadership
- 6:19is definitely lacking.
- 6:21Power is not, but leadership definitely is.
- 6:25And, you know, I wouldn't follow any of
- 6:29these people, you know, to try to take
- 6:32over a drug store, you know, no way.
- 6:35This is not the people that I would
- 6:37admire as a leader or want to follow
- 6:40or execute a plan.
- 6:43I don't think so.
- 6:44And I keep looking at this and just
- 6:46going, what are these people thinking?
- 6:49And it's unfortunately the obtuse bureaucracy, which is
- 6:56all power, all the time.
- 6:59And that's that.
- 7:01And so I hate to be so blunt
- 7:03about it, but geez, you can always, you
- 7:05know, you can always tell when the bureaucrats
- 7:09are in charge, you get endless wars, you
- 7:11get stuff that makes no sense.
- 7:13All the way down the line, you get
- 7:15massive money.
- 7:17You know, I remember when I was actually
- 7:19living in Washington, D.C. and checking out
- 7:22the $30,000 conference table because we had
- 7:26money left over toward the end of the
- 7:28year, or, you know, the bag of screws
- 7:31way back then that you would find these
- 7:33bolts that you could buy in any, you
- 7:36know, I don't know, Ace hardware for, you
- 7:39know, $3 and you're charging 78 bucks or
- 7:43something for a bunch of screws because a
- 7:47government contractor is involved.
- 7:49You watch people like my buddy telling me
- 7:52several weeks ago that, you know, bidding on
- 7:55a state contract meant he had to increase
- 7:58the rates of pay for his his workers,
- 8:01which are just service.
- 8:03I don't mean just.
- 8:04I mean, it's I just mean that their
- 8:07their pay rate was in the $20 an
- 8:09hour range anyway.
- 8:11And he found out in order to apply
- 8:13for a government contract, he'd have to charge
- 8:1540, pay them 45 bucks an hour when
- 8:18they were working for the state or where
- 8:21they're working for a municipality.
- 8:23He's got to pay prevailing wage.
- 8:25And it's and that is contracting one to
- 8:27one.
- 8:28If you're going to jump in, the best
- 8:30bet is to triple charge for everything because
- 8:34that's what everybody else is doing.
- 8:35And frankly, that's what they expect, because the
- 8:38bureaucrat wants to go in and go, oh,
- 8:40my God, it's like the rich person who
- 8:42likes to flaunt his money and going, oh,
- 8:45my God, it cost me eight thousand dollars
- 8:48to fix my muffler on my car.
- 8:51Isn't that terrible?
- 8:52Well, yeah, it is terrible.
- 8:53You idiot.
- 8:54Why would you pay a thousand dollars to
- 8:56fix your car and go get a new
- 8:59one, do something else?
- 9:01But the people who got to focus on
- 9:04the cash all the time, that's the bureaucrat.
- 9:06Oh, look at the we got this contract.
- 9:09They want to go home and tell their
- 9:11spouse that, oh, gee, I had to deal
- 9:14with some some multimillion dollar contracts, not telling
- 9:18anybody that.
- 9:19Oh, by the way, we could have gotten
- 9:20a competitor bid for three hundred thousand, you
- 9:23know, but we can't hire that guy.
- 9:26Well, because he's not paying prevailing wage.
- 9:28You know, you can't do that.
- 9:29We have to pay three times more.
- 9:31So when you look at the failures of
- 9:33government, you know, you wonder, at least I
- 9:37do, if the failures of government are what
- 9:41occurred at the correspondent's dinner when they rushed
- 9:45to protect the vice president and leave Donald
- 9:49Trump sitting on a chair.
- 9:52I don't know.
- 9:53At the Hilton, during one of the most
- 9:55high profile, profile, political and media gatherings in
- 10:00the US every year, an armed individual, I
- 10:04think they said he was 32 or something
- 10:06like that, made his way into the building.
- 10:08He had a room there.
- 10:09He wasn't outside on the street.
- 10:11He wasn't stopped in some disparate perimeter.
- 10:13He was inside the hotel.
- 10:16He was a guest.
- 10:17He was carrying weapons that should have never
- 10:19been anywhere near that event.
- 10:21At some point near a security screening area,
- 10:24shots were fired.
- 10:26Law enforcement did respond quickly.
- 10:27An officer was struck, but protected by a
- 10:29vest.
- 10:30The attacker was stopped before reaching the ballroom
- 10:33itself.
- 10:34You got pictures of him laying on the
- 10:35floor.
- 10:36No blood, no shots, no nothing.
- 10:38And there's got to be armed people all
- 10:40over that place.
- 10:42And nobody, you know, and I'm not saying
- 10:44they should have been, but that's a fact,
- 10:47you know, and where the president, the vice
- 10:50president, concentration of political and media folks were
- 10:54hanging out.
- 10:55And that's the official version.
- 10:57That's the version that, you know, fits into
- 11:00your little news package.
- 11:01You know, process, oh, geez, somebody, another nut
- 11:04came to get it.
- 11:06But if you believe that, then I think
- 11:08you might be just missing the point, the
- 11:10tiniest of bits, because what you had in
- 11:13that building at that moment wasn't something you
- 11:17should, you know, just ignore.
- 11:21It's something that should make any serious observer
- 11:24pause.
- 11:25Think about it.
- 11:26You had the sitting president, you had the
- 11:27vice president, you had cabinet level officials, you
- 11:31had the upper tier of the national press,
- 11:33people who filter, shape, mold, and distribute what
- 11:41we're supposed to understand with the way they
- 11:45sell it to us.
- 11:47They're supposed to mold all that to us.
- 11:50And all in one place, in one room,
- 11:54not just a dinner.
- 11:55This isn't just tradition.
- 11:57This is concentrated power, political power.
- 12:02You get invited.
- 12:03This 32-year-old kid, you know, engineer
- 12:05from California, I'm sure, probably isn't among that
- 12:11list of people, okay?
- 12:14You have political power, information power, symbolized, you
- 12:20know, symbolic, all of it, power under one
- 12:23roof.
- 12:24By its very nature, it shouldn't function as
- 12:27a hardened security environment.
- 12:29But they should have one, right?
- 12:33Because the question isn't simply what did this
- 12:36guy do?
- 12:37It's how is it possible that he was
- 12:38in a position to do it at all?
- 12:41That's the question.
- 12:43Hotels are complicated.
- 12:44I used to go into DC hotels.
- 12:47I've been at functions nowhere near as vital
- 12:51as this.
- 12:52But constantly when I was in the on
- 12:55-site inspection agency in the military, we were
- 12:58subordinate to the State Department in a lot
- 13:01of stuff.
- 13:02We worked basically with the foreign ministries, right?
- 13:07And so when a team of diplomats would
- 13:12arrive from the Soviet Union, later Russia, any
- 13:16other countries, you know, and we would go
- 13:18to, there was always an advanced team, right?
- 13:21And that advanced team would go clear the
- 13:24spaces, clear of everything.
- 13:26The Soviet people would have their security people
- 13:29come in and do the exact same thing,
- 13:32setting it up.
- 13:32You know, there are people outside, you know,
- 13:34that generally didn't sit in on the meetings
- 13:37or anything, but security was a big part
- 13:39of it.
- 13:40And it was, you know, you had your
- 13:41briefings before and against all the security people
- 13:44would call you in and go, okay, here's
- 13:46how security is going to work.
- 13:47Here's where you enter in.
- 13:49Don't bring those diplomats any other way, but
- 13:51this way, blah, blah, blah.
- 13:52And you'd get all of these instructions on
- 13:58what you're going to do.
- 13:59And I assume that anybody who's going to
- 14:02this correspondence dinner isn't just going to the
- 14:05hotel and having a hotel security guard do
- 14:07it when the president and vice president and
- 14:09tons of other important dignitaries, you know, prior
- 14:13presidents are going to be sitting there.
- 14:15You know, there's got to be security up
- 14:18the wazoo.
- 14:20There's got to be tons of it.
- 14:22And then hotels are complicated environments.
- 14:25We all know this, many entrances, many exits.
- 14:27They have to be because of laws and
- 14:29because of what we have.
- 14:30And they have guests, staffs, deliveries, elevators, service
- 14:34corridors, back entrance, constant flow of movement, right?
- 14:38And it's different from having a secure government
- 14:42facility.
- 14:43And when we would take these conference rooms,
- 14:45we would ask for the conference room closest
- 14:47to the farthest outlying wing door or whatever,
- 14:51where we could meet these people.
- 14:53And unless it was some kind of a
- 14:54final mission and there would be, you know,
- 14:56we've done a whole liquidation of a whole
- 14:58series or a whole type of weapon that
- 15:04we were eliminating.
- 15:05We'd ask for something bigger, like, you know,
- 15:07if you're inviting dignitaries and stuff, but it's
- 15:09just the teams.
- 15:10Well, then the teams would be, you know,
- 15:12and the teams are about eight, 10 people
- 15:14on the nuclear side.
- 15:16There's sometimes 26 scientists, you know, is about
- 15:19the largest that we ever got to, right?
- 15:22But you had to think about security.
- 15:24I mean, hell, have me as your, you
- 15:28know, your $100 an hour, or maybe more
- 15:32than that, but done your security consultant to
- 15:36go do the correspondence dinner.
- 15:38It's like, geez, what were these guys doing?
- 15:40What are they getting paid for?
- 15:42You know, what are they getting paid for?
- 15:44I don't know.
- 15:46Well, paid to be there, you know, of
- 15:50course, but what do you do?
- 15:53You know, it's great to be at these
- 15:54parties, but they're not supposed to be a
- 15:56party for you.
- 15:57You're supposed to be working.
- 15:59And so you can control a ballroom, don't
- 16:02you think?
- 16:03You can control a checkpoint, but controlling a
- 16:05hotel is going to be a little bit
- 16:07more difficult.
- 16:09But that is where one of the most
- 16:10sensitive gatherings in the country takes place year
- 16:13after year under the assumption that the system's
- 16:16going to, you know, hold up, everything will
- 16:18be fish efficient and nothing will slip through.
- 16:21But somebody got lazy because it did.
- 16:23So this isn't just about security, but the
- 16:26illusion of security, because for years, the American
- 16:28public has been told that the system works.
- 16:31Agencies are in control.
- 16:33Protective apparatus around leadership is impenetrable.
- 16:37You'll never get to him.
- 16:38And this guy didn't get to him.
- 16:40So I suppose that's a victory.
- 16:42Right.
- 16:42And yet, what we saw here is an
- 16:44impenetrability.
- 16:46We saw permeability.
- 16:48A man with weapons got in the building.
- 16:50He made it close enough to create a
- 16:52real and active threat.
- 16:54And if one or two variables had shifted
- 16:56timing position, the conversation today would be a
- 16:59little bit different.
- 17:00But let's talk about the tone, because this
- 17:02is important.
- 17:03This isn't about partisan politics.
- 17:05It's not about whether you like Donald Trump
- 17:08or you dislike him.
- 17:09It's not about Republicans and Democrats.
- 17:12If you reduce it to that, you're once
- 17:14again missing the story.
- 17:16This is about a system, a political system,
- 17:18a security system, a system of society that
- 17:23is showing visible signs of inability of strain.
- 17:28These signs aren't subtle any longer.
- 17:31This is happening too much.
- 17:32And I'm one of those guys that, you
- 17:34know, geez, you know, everybody checked their phone,
- 17:39you know, before you come in the hotel.
- 17:41So you're not taking pictures of so and
- 17:44so or everybody getting cavity searched.
- 17:47You know, I'm not for that.
- 17:48But obviously, we need more than what we've
- 17:51been getting, especially under the old Trumpster.
- 17:53Now, Trump threw something out there.
- 17:55He said, well, you know, somebody asked him
- 17:59why they think he was attacking it.
- 18:01I'm paraphrasing.
- 18:02But he said something about, well, they only
- 18:04go after the guys that are significant, the
- 18:06ones that matter.
- 18:08Well, you shouldn't be proud of you shouldn't
- 18:11be proud of the some of the things
- 18:12that you've done.
- 18:13And I don't mean that you shouldn't be,
- 18:15but you shouldn't be proud of the fact
- 18:16that people are coming to get you.
- 18:18And, you know, there are a lot of
- 18:20people talking about this was a false flag.
- 18:22I listened to a couple of them yesterday.
- 18:25And I get the point.
- 18:26But I'm more a bit in the middle
- 18:29on this.
- 18:29I don't think so.
- 18:31And I wouldn't put it past the FBI
- 18:34for doing something like that, you know, for
- 18:36getting someone to do it.
- 18:39That wouldn't surprise me a bit.
- 18:41You know, don't don't get me thinking that
- 18:44it cannot happen.
- 18:45It has happened.
- 18:46You know, I'm I'm probably far more on
- 18:49the side of that.
- 18:52The Kennedy assassination was, I don't want to
- 18:58say planned, but certainly supported, in my view,
- 19:03by by some insiders.
- 19:06Let's let's say political violence in the U
- 19:10.S. isn't an abstract concern any longer.
- 19:13It's no longer something you read about in
- 19:15the history book.
- 19:16It's here.
- 19:17It's present.
- 19:18It's it's increasing.
- 19:20It's increasing in boldness and perhaps most troubling.
- 19:23It's becoming normalized.
- 19:26We've reached a point where an incident like
- 19:28this occurs and within hours it's already been
- 19:31absorbed, categorized, debated, and pushed aside to make
- 19:35room for the next attack.
- 19:37Right.
- 19:38It's depressing, really.
- 19:40And that's not stability.
- 19:42It's acclimation and or acclimatization.
- 19:47You know, you're getting used to it, you
- 19:51know.
- 19:52And when society begins to get used to
- 19:55this kind of instability, then it's a danger,
- 19:57not necessarily the next incident, but the gradual
- 20:00erosion of what you expect.
- 20:04We expect this now because it happens so
- 20:07often.
- 20:07We just expect it.
- 20:09And nobody has to be a professional anymore.
- 20:12Nobody has to.
- 20:12For example, you don't shoot to kill.
- 20:15You go and you knock him over, you
- 20:17know, and you know, well, OK, I'm generally
- 20:20against killing perpetrators.
- 20:22You know, I don't think that's the result.
- 20:25But if you're actively killing someone or you're
- 20:29an immediate threat to someone or if you
- 20:32got weapons, you're shooting and nobody knows what's
- 20:36going to happen.
- 20:37Better you than me.
- 20:38Right.
- 20:39And you're the idiot out here with guns.
- 20:41You you took that choice.
- 20:43And so you if you off somebody in
- 20:47that regard.
- 20:48OK.
- 20:49You know, I don't like shoot first, ask
- 20:53questions later as a general theory.
- 20:55You know, I don't like it, but I
- 20:58don't say that it's not sometimes, unfortunately, necessary.
- 21:04But security failures are unfortunate, but they're not
- 21:09shocking any longer.
- 21:11And once that mindset takes a hold, the
- 21:14threshold of what's considered acceptable.
- 21:18Varies, right?
- 21:20There are details around this event that raise
- 21:23legitimate questions, not wild theories, not conclusions, but
- 21:27questions.
- 21:28Reports say that the attacker wasn't immediately neutralized
- 21:32in a high threat environment.
- 21:36And there are conflicting descriptions of exactly how
- 21:40far he got, exactly what level of access
- 21:43he was able to get and exactly how
- 21:45the response unfolded.
- 21:47There are discussions about how individuals were evacuated,
- 21:50in what order and under what protocols and
- 21:54grabbing the vice president first.
- 21:57I'm not so sure.
- 21:59I mean, not that he shouldn't be protected,
- 22:01but it seems to me he's second in
- 22:05command.
- 22:06That's the way it is.
- 22:07These aren't trivial details.
- 22:09These are the kind of details that in
- 22:11any serious security review would determine whether an
- 22:14incident is contained effectively or whether it exposed
- 22:17procedural weaknesses like I believe this one did.
- 22:21And then there's a strange coincidence is it
- 22:24should be treated as nothing more than that.
- 22:27It's a coincidence which involved the pre-event
- 22:30remark of the phrase shots fired by Carolyn
- 22:34Levin.
- 22:34She says, oh yeah, there'll be some shots
- 22:37fired tonight.
- 22:38She's talking about the speech, a bad phraseology
- 22:43right there.
- 22:43But it happened, you know, clearly intended in
- 22:47a rhetorical or comedic sense.
- 22:49And in politics, that phrase, you know, isn't
- 22:51unusual.
- 22:53But it means a verbal attack, sharp remarks,
- 22:56live exchanges.
- 22:58But when actual gunfire follows later the same
- 23:01evening, it creates a moment, not no proof,
- 23:05no conspiracy, but of something that goes, you
- 23:08know, there's a forecast for you.
- 23:11It reminds you that language, tone and reality
- 23:13aren't as separate as sometimes we pretend they
- 23:16are.
- 23:16But they're going to be those who immediately
- 23:18jump to conclusions.
- 23:19And I've heard some of them already.
- 23:22Some will say this was simply a lone
- 23:23actor.
- 23:24I doubt that.
- 23:25Me personally, a disturbed individual exploiting opportunity.
- 23:29Others will say the security failures are too
- 23:32significant to ignore and that something about the
- 23:35situation just doesn't add up.
- 23:37That's me.
- 23:38And then inevitably there will be those who
- 23:40move further on the speculation realm and say
- 23:43this was orchestrated.
- 23:45It's a false flag staging the narrative or
- 23:48manipulating outcomes.
- 23:49Now, I'm not saying that doesn't happen in
- 23:51government all the time.
- 23:53They're a bunch of manipulative a-holes.
- 23:56You know, it's all there is to it.
- 23:57And they, you know, will definitely manipulate a
- 24:01story to squeeze the most out of it.
- 24:03Never let a good crisis go to waste.
- 24:07Right.
- 24:07The responsible position I try to maintain sometimes
- 24:11without success is not to embrace these conclusions,
- 24:16but also not to get rid of the
- 24:18questions, because skepticism should work both ways.
- 24:23You know, I'm a skeptic, no doubt, but
- 24:25I'm generally a skeptic in both directions.
- 24:29You don't trust any of them.
- 24:31They're all a bunch of lying a-holes.
- 24:33That's it.
- 24:33And they tell you what they think you
- 24:35want to hear, because the truth doesn't matter.
- 24:39What matters is what you want to hear.
- 24:41And these people at this event are the
- 24:44kings and queens of that theory, no doubt.
- 24:48But it's irresponsible to just accept every official
- 24:52explanation without digging a little deeper or assume
- 24:55every inconsistency is evidence of something more sinister.
- 24:59Right.
- 24:59Somebody explains something.
- 25:01Oh, that's it then.
- 25:03You know, the truth, as always, requires patience,
- 25:07evidence, and willingness to sit in uncertainty longer
- 25:11than most people are comfortable with.
- 25:13For years, I have been one of those
- 25:16people that, if possible, takes my time to
- 25:24make decisions.
- 25:26And people go, well, I already told you
- 25:27everything you need to know.
- 25:28Yeah, but I need to process it.
- 25:31You know what I mean?
- 25:32I need to process.
- 25:34And so, you know, I remember practicing law,
- 25:37I'd write some big brief, some big something
- 25:39I had to file somewhere in federal court
- 25:41or whatever.
- 25:41And, you know, I tried to write it
- 25:44at least three times, you know, write it
- 25:48once, get my initial arguments, what I thought,
- 25:51you know, and then leave it sit a
- 25:53couple of days and then come and write
- 25:55it again.
- 25:56And then, you know, maybe a week before
- 26:00it was due, try to write it a
- 26:01third time, you know, do some research, put
- 26:04some thought process.
- 26:05And it mixes in your brain, you know,
- 26:08while you're sitting there thinking about it, and
- 26:11you come to your conclusion.
- 26:12Now, a lot of people, that takes too
- 26:15long.
- 26:16And a lot of time, you can't take
- 26:18that much time to figure out your path
- 26:20into where you're going to go.
- 26:22But for me, once you've done that, and
- 26:25you're solid and where you want to be,
- 26:27you know, all the arguments, you know, all
- 26:29the counter arguments, you know, everything to it.
- 26:31But it's nice to take something like this
- 26:34and discuss, you know, what does it mean?
- 26:38And how do you think about it?
- 26:40So this does, this thing, again, revealed another
- 26:44issue, you can say this with confidence, okay?
- 26:49A serious breach occurred at a high profile,
- 26:52high security environment, it exposed vulnerability, whether that
- 26:57was logistic, procedural, structural, that shouldn't exist at
- 27:02that high of a level, it demonstrated the
- 27:04protective bubble around political leadership sucks, you know,
- 27:10again, once again, and it highlighted once again,
- 27:14internal stability of the US isn't as solid
- 27:16as it's portrayed.
- 27:18And perhaps most importantly, it revealed something about
- 27:22the times in which we are living.
- 27:25This is a country where political tension is
- 27:27high, where trust in institutions and in government
- 27:31is extraordinarily low, where rhetoric has become sharp,
- 27:37more personal, far more aggressive than it used
- 27:39to be.
- 27:40It's a country where a significant portion of
- 27:43the population is disconnected from the system.
- 27:46They are ignored by leadership of this type.
- 27:50And they're increasingly willing to view politics, not
- 27:53as a process, but as a battleground.
- 27:56When those conditions exist, as they do here,
- 28:01incidents like this aren't entirely surprising, but they're
- 28:05not inevitable either.
- 28:08And then, you know, unfortunately, they're not unthinkable
- 28:12these days.
- 28:13And that's an uncomfortable reality.
- 28:15Because it means that this event isn't just
- 28:18about one guy, it's about the environment in
- 28:21which that individual exists, the pressure, the narrative,
- 28:25the tension that shape behavior of idiots that
- 28:29have nothing to do with any of it.
- 28:31Over time, you can't separate that act from
- 28:35the context in which it occurs.
- 28:37So, you know, I suppose the question shouldn't
- 28:40simply be what happened at the dinner.
- 28:43The question should really be, what does it
- 28:45say about who we are?
- 28:48If political leadership of a country and the
- 28:50media leadership of a country can be back
- 28:52gathered in one place in a major city
- 28:54under heavy security and still face a one
- 28:58-off lone dude, what does that tell you
- 29:00about the broader system?
- 29:02Seriously, if the illusion of control can be
- 29:05broken this easily, even momentarily, what else is
- 29:10less secure than we think it is?
- 29:13What else isn't as, what else aren't they
- 29:15telling us?
- 29:16And if this becomes just another story, just
- 29:18another headline, what does that say about what
- 29:21we're used to?
- 29:22We're used to this idiocy.
- 29:24Well, so there you have it.
- 29:26I tell you what, it is a bother
- 29:29to me that this kind of thing goes
- 29:33on and it goes on far too often.
- 29:37I'm going to share with you something to
- 29:39break the mood because I tell you what,
- 29:42this is one of the songs I heard
- 29:44and it's only a couple minutes long, but
- 29:46it's probably not something you'll hear on this
- 29:49station very much, you know, it's, but I
- 29:52like it and we're going to listen to
- 29:56it in its entirety.
- 29:58It is called Freaks.
- 32:20Tell me where the freaks at.
- 32:55Freaks everywhere, including at the correspondence dinner.
- 33:00Oh, here he is on the headline, shooter
- 33:02behind the headline.
- 33:04There he is laying on the floor.
- 33:06He's all laying on the floor.
- 33:09Wonder how he feels after that?
- 33:11Well, he got a little bit attacked there,
- 33:13didn't he?
- 33:15But he didn't get shot.
- 33:17So, I don't know.
- 33:19That's the end of that tune.
- 33:20What we're going to, what did Trump say?
- 33:22Trump says he ordered the Navy to shoot
- 33:23and kill the Iran mine laying boats in
- 33:27the Straits of Hormuz.
- 33:28I've ordered the United States Navy to shoot
- 33:30and kill any boat, small boat, as though
- 33:34they may be at the bottom of the
- 33:38sea.
- 33:38That is putting mines in the water in
- 33:41the Straits of Hormuz.
- 33:42There is to be no hesitation, et cetera,
- 33:45et cetera.
- 33:46Yep.
- 33:47This is getting better, isn't it?
- 33:50No, it's not.
- 33:53I'm going to do a segment on Iran
- 33:55as well that we're going to go through.
- 33:58But I want to go to, where am
- 34:02I going?
- 34:02I'm going, I believe, to Ukraine, going off
- 34:09to Ukraine.
- 34:11And I want to, where am I?
- 34:14I'm still in the correspondence dinner.
- 34:17Hold on.
- 34:19We're going to, let's see.
- 34:24Oh, that's the Iran one.
- 34:26Sorry.
- 34:26We're going to get to Iran in just
- 34:27a minute.
- 34:28But we need some, well, you know what?
- 34:34Let's do Iran second.
- 34:35We're going to, no, Ukraine.
- 34:38So, the core argument, so Lavrov gave some
- 34:41speeches over the weekend.
- 34:43Zakharova gave a speech.
- 34:45I listened to both of them whilst driving
- 34:46somewhere.
- 34:48And they're interesting.
- 34:52And Lavrov's core argument is that the collective
- 34:56West has openly moved from indirect pressure to
- 35:00open war.
- 35:02So, over the weekend, there was a series
- 35:06of, so Russia is testing borders.
- 35:10Okay?
- 35:10So, one, I listened to another guy that
- 35:14analyzes war all the time.
- 35:16And I forget which one it was, whether
- 35:19it was Alex Cristoforo or whether it was
- 35:21a military summary channel guy, I don't remember.
- 35:24But they showed the video and showed the
- 35:26radar scenario of, call it 40 to 50
- 35:32Russian drones flying over the Black Sea into
- 35:38Odessa area, and then going south toward the
- 35:41Romanian border.
- 35:42Okay?
- 35:43And they were headed toward the Romanian border.
- 35:46And suddenly, two thirds of them disappeared.
- 35:53Suddenly, a little bit further.
- 35:55And normally, that would be if they all
- 35:57were blown, you know, had reached their target
- 36:00and blown something up.
- 36:01Of course, they're no longer going to be
- 36:02visible as a signal, you know, radar signal
- 36:07that you have it.
- 36:09But the curiosity in the method of this
- 36:16attack, so the Russians have been doing in
- 36:20the neighborhood of 600, there was a big
- 36:24deal about 666, everybody knows the three sixes
- 36:28deal, 666 drones flying into Ukraine in the
- 36:34one day period, you know, that the Ukrainians
- 36:36were attacking.
- 36:37And then the curiosity of how they went
- 36:40then, this one came up.
- 36:41And so, Russia is pushing because the summer
- 36:44offensives are all coming.
- 36:46And Ukraine doesn't have any people left.
- 36:48So, the joke is that they've received $90
- 36:52,000 from people that don't have the money
- 36:54to loan them, Europe, to fight a war
- 36:58they cannot win against Russia, to buy weapons
- 37:03from the United States that no longer exist,
- 37:06because the US has either used them all
- 37:09or has refused to sell them because they're
- 37:13going to need them for their own purposes,
- 37:16with, and all this is going to be
- 37:17done with a $90 billion that's going to
- 37:23help defend soldiers that can't use any of
- 37:26the weapons anyway, because they don't exist either.
- 37:29So, the only thing that does exist is
- 37:32the 90 billion in Zelensky's pocket.
- 37:35There was a story, where is this, that,
- 37:38uh, hang on a second, I got to
- 37:42find this, where the Zelensky is headed now,
- 37:48because Zelensky, he's, he's going everywhere trying to
- 37:52get more people.
- 37:52I reported that last week, where he was
- 37:54going all over Europe trying to get more
- 37:56people.
- 37:56And he's trying to, to, to get them
- 37:58to send their, at least the men back
- 38:02to stop giving them free money, stop giving
- 38:05them free housing, and ship them back to
- 38:07Ukraine, so he can send them to the
- 38:08front lines to die.
- 38:10And so, Kiv, right now, Zelensky's in the
- 38:14Middle East, and he's trying to sell his
- 38:17war experience to United Arab Emirates, to Saudi
- 38:23Arabia, to Qatar, he's trying to, you know,
- 38:26to Bahrain, he wants to sell this.
- 38:28And so, his activity in the Middle East
- 38:30is an attempt to find new political financial
- 38:33oxygen at a moment when usual supporters are
- 38:36far less reliable.
- 38:38For years, he's been able to build its
- 38:40strategy on the assumption that the US and
- 38:42Europe are going to continue to give him
- 38:45weapons, money, intelligence, and diplomatic protection as a
- 38:50non-president for the second year now.
- 38:53But now, American support, nobody wants it.
- 38:57I mean, what the hell have we heard
- 38:59about Ukraine here lately?
- 39:01Nothing.
- 39:02There are people that are very angry about
- 39:04this, a lot of Democrats still want their
- 39:05money laundering schemes to be going on, but
- 39:08now the money laundering is exclusively the territory
- 39:11of Europe, you know, and Europe is the
- 39:21one given 90 billion.
- 39:23They are the money launderer, and they launder
- 39:25the money through Ukraine, just like everybody else
- 39:29did.
- 39:30But now, you know, it doesn't go to
- 39:31the Bidenopolis, you know, to come in and
- 39:35go to Biden's son through Burisma.
- 39:39Well, now it's figuring out how to fund
- 39:41Jared Kushner.
- 39:42It's the other way around.
- 39:44Everybody else gets the money.
- 39:46And so, we just exchange it around.
- 39:50But Zelensky either way is finding out that
- 39:52a lot of these things are no longer
- 39:54as profitable for him, and he's trying to,
- 39:58you know, maybe every once in a while
- 40:00he is still trying to protect his country
- 40:02long term.
- 40:03It just doesn't seem like it.
- 40:05You know, everybody's dying, and you've got to
- 40:08stop the bleeding first.
- 40:10So, you know, his, you know, European concert
- 40:15tour, and now his Middle East concert tour,
- 40:18where he gets to take the comedy on
- 40:20the road, aren't going to pan out for
- 40:23him, is what, you know, there's an entire
- 40:25article on it, if you're interested in reading
- 40:27it, that somebody wrote.
- 40:29And I'm not going to share the whole
- 40:31thing, but it's written by a guy who's
- 40:33the president of Middle East Studies, and a
- 40:36visiting lecturer at the, Moscow, it's an international
- 40:42political institute, a guy named Murad Zadigzadya, I
- 40:50can't spell it, Zadigzadya, I can't sell it,
- 40:53say it correctly.
- 40:58I don't know, crazy times indeed, crazy, crazy
- 41:02times.
- 41:02But in Ukraine, they're not being treated as
- 41:05a sovereign country by the West, and haven't
- 41:08been for a long time.
- 41:10And this activity on the south border of
- 41:14Ukraine, and the activity of Zelensky in the
- 41:18Middle East, are just indicators of what's really
- 41:22going on.
- 41:24Allegedly, now, there's no, I haven't finalized this
- 41:29review yet, to see whether it really occurred.
- 41:32It wouldn't surprise me if it did.
- 41:35But the talk is that these, that Europe
- 41:39has taken an additional step further, specifically Great
- 41:42Britain, England has taken another step.
- 41:46And what happened was, as these Ford 30
- 41:49to 50 missiles were headed toward the border
- 41:53of Romania, which, you know, they would have
- 41:58never crossed anyway, in my view, but they
- 42:01were attacking south of Odessa.
- 42:04It wouldn't surprise me if there was some
- 42:06kind of a test, because they've been talking
- 42:08about it for a long time.
- 42:09The drones are coming from, from the Ukrainian
- 42:13side, they're flying over NATO territories and coming
- 42:16across.
- 42:17And so, you know, Finland is talking about
- 42:20removing everything for nuclear weapons.
- 42:22And so Russia is prepping also for a
- 42:27war by 2030 with Europe, all of it,
- 42:31because the Europeans are pushing for that.
- 42:33And so the Russians, you know, what do
- 42:34you think they're going to do, not defend
- 42:36themselves?
- 42:37And so now they're testing because they believe
- 42:39two things.
- 42:40One, that some huge shipments of new missiles,
- 42:43new weaponry is coming up specifically through the
- 42:46ports, but they'll land instead of the city
- 42:49of Odessa, they'll land in port cities in
- 42:51Bulgaria and Romania, come that way, right?
- 42:56And on the Black Sea, and Romania is
- 42:59just south of Odessa.
- 43:00And so what they will do is, what
- 43:03Russia, I believe, was doing, it was make
- 43:06reasonable sense to me, is flying these drones
- 43:09up to the border to see what had
- 43:12happened and taken, there's a couple of small
- 43:14cities, I forget what they are, but they
- 43:16were attacking some of those cities.
- 43:18And there were a decent amount of attacks
- 43:19in those two cities, but they're only three,
- 43:22four kilometers from the border of Romania.
- 43:26And so what they're alleging occurred is that
- 43:31the British foreign ministry gave the authority to
- 43:39British fighter pilots flying in Romania to shoot
- 43:46down Russian drones over Ukraine.
- 43:51Now that's an act of war against Russia.
- 43:55And there's no doubt of it.
- 43:58Remember, there was huge talks about whether Poland
- 44:01could shoot down Russian drones that are flying
- 44:04in the western half of Ukraine because Ukraine
- 44:08doesn't have enough air defense to do it.
- 44:10And Russia has said consistently, you shoot down
- 44:15our airplanes, our drones, our missiles, that is
- 44:21an act of war.
- 44:23You are involved, and there's no doubt that's
- 44:25true.
- 44:26You're involved.
- 44:27So it's definitely an act of war.
- 44:34And now that Romania has done it, the
- 44:36British have quickly said, nope, not us.
- 44:38The Romanians are going, yeah, they did.
- 44:41Romanians are saying they sure did give the
- 44:44authority to these British pilots flying British planes
- 44:48over Romania to fire into Ukraine and take
- 44:52out drones in Ukraine, Russian drones in Ukraine.
- 44:58Now that's an air defense because there is
- 45:00no air defense down there really.
- 45:02Ukraine's out of air defense anyway.
- 45:04So basically it's the British providing air defense.
- 45:07So Lavrov coming out and saying Ukraine isn't
- 45:10being treated as a sovereign country by the
- 45:13West, it's being treated as a weapons system.
- 45:17And he says that the US, unlike Europe,
- 45:19has at least publicly acknowledged some of the
- 45:22concerns of Russia, no NATO for Ukraine, recognition
- 45:26of territorial reality after the referendums.
- 45:29The Europeans are still speaking the language of
- 45:31total victory, just like Trump is in Iran.
- 45:34They're talking about total victory.
- 45:35We're winning.
- 45:36You're not winning.
- 45:38And Russia has to move away.
- 45:42We don't move.
- 45:43Why?
- 45:43Because the rules only apply to others, never
- 45:47to us.
- 45:49The Americans sometimes are speaking the language of
- 45:53ugly reality, according to Lavrov.
- 45:55That does not make Washington innocent.
- 45:58It just means Europe may be more delusional
- 46:01than Washington, which isn't a contest anyone should
- 46:05really want to win.
- 46:07These people are nuts.
- 46:08And the Ukraine is reportedly received or is
- 46:12approved for this 90 billion euro loan package
- 46:15and already has signaled that it needs another
- 46:1720 billion.
- 46:19We need another 20 billion.
- 46:2090 billion is not enough.
- 46:21That's only going to cover us, you know,
- 46:23that'll only mean we can keep this war
- 46:25going another year and a half.
- 46:27We need a full two years out of
- 46:28it or we're never going to beat those
- 46:30ruskies.
- 46:31We're not going to beat them.
- 46:33We're not going to beat them anyway.
- 46:36And the fact that all of Europe is
- 46:39leaning toward this total global thermonuclear war, they
- 46:44should bring in.
- 46:47What was the kid from war games?
- 46:49Um, same kid from Ferris Bueller's day off,
- 46:54you know, bringing that guy.
- 46:57Let's play.
- 46:58Shall we play a game global thermonuclear war?
- 47:02That's where we're headed, people.
- 47:04If you listen to all the smarty pants
- 47:09is in Europe, that's where we're headed.
- 47:13And that is truly what they wish for
- 47:17the rest of us.
- 47:18And, uh, I don't know.
- 47:21I, I'm, I mean, think about this.
- 47:25Here's the Finnish government here.
- 47:27Here's what the Finnish government says to us.
- 47:33Well, her name is Rika Pura.
- 47:36She has warned of growing pressure on the
- 47:40country's finances.
- 47:42The warrant, this is Finland of a pretty
- 47:44rich country.
- 47:45The warning comes just days after the government
- 47:48unveiled a multi-year fiscal plan, increasing military
- 47:52aid to Ukraine and domestic spending cuts to
- 47:58their own citizenry.
- 48:00The government's fiscal plan for 2027 to 2030
- 48:04was presented earlier this week.
- 48:07It includes 240 million Euro in cuts to
- 48:12social and healthcare spending, but increase of 30,
- 48:16300 million to increase military support for Ukraine.
- 48:22The state of public finances, she said, is
- 48:26extremely difficult.
- 48:27And the debt to GDP ratio ratio is
- 48:30approaching 90%.
- 48:32She said in an interview on Saturday, we've
- 48:35been hit not only by external shocks.
- 48:38She said, adding the nation struggles with high
- 48:42unemployment, zero economic growth, and an aging population.
- 48:47The fiscal plan agreed to by the government
- 48:49sets out public spending cuts and changes to
- 48:52household costs and welfare healthcare, but planned savings
- 48:57are higher customer fees.
- 48:59You know, that's okay.
- 48:59We'll pass it on to them across the
- 49:02healthcare system, covering specialist exams, surgery, outpatient visits,
- 49:07health center, and dental care, as well as
- 49:10charges for storing a deceased person and determining
- 49:14his cause of death, meaning they're not going
- 49:18to spend as much time on that.
- 49:20Apart from providing increased military support for Ukraine,
- 49:23the plan allocates additional fundings to strengthen drone
- 49:26defense.
- 49:28In further setting out for more money, they
- 49:33want the ambition to gradually raise the defense
- 49:37target toward the 5% that daddy Trump
- 49:41required for NATO.
- 49:43Finland joined NATO in April of 2023.
- 49:46According to the world bank, the country spent
- 49:50around 1.3 to 1.7% of
- 49:53GDP on defense prior to that time.
- 49:57Helsinki has since increased its defense budget with
- 50:00plans to raise spending to 3.2%
- 50:03by 2030, bringing the nation closer to the
- 50:07target of 3.5% by 2035.
- 50:11Finnish officials repeatedly echo other NATO members claiming
- 50:15that Russia is a permanent threat to EU
- 50:18members.
- 50:20And while increasing defense spending to counter it,
- 50:23Finland shares a 1300 kilometer or 800 mile
- 50:29border with the Russkies.
- 50:31The Kremlin and me reject these claims and
- 50:35accuse the West of fueling Russophobia to justify
- 50:39military buildup and also to divert attention from
- 50:43their own domestic problems.
- 50:45Everything has to be blamed by the, blamed
- 50:51on the Russians.
- 50:51There was an interesting article.
- 50:54And I wonder if it's a, just a
- 50:56movie.
- 50:57No, they have the article too.
- 51:00A guy named Sergei Karaganov.
- 51:04He was on a program in an interview
- 51:09with Alexander Karevsky on Russia 24.
- 51:12And he argued that it's been a source
- 51:14of global conflict.
- 51:16He said, Western Europe is becoming increasingly drawn
- 51:19into the war in Ukraine, citing the stuff
- 51:22going on South of Odessa and this idiocy
- 51:27going on in the rest of Europe.
- 51:32Statements are already being made by officials and
- 51:35news reports regarding EU prep for war with
- 51:39more concerns and questions.
- 51:41How should Russia respond?
- 51:42As an example, he said, let's mention the
- 51:45news.
- 51:46The Germans have already produced 5,000 drones
- 51:49based on Ukrainian designs.
- 51:51It's laughable to hear that.
- 51:53What Ukrainian designs?
- 51:54He said, it is clear the German defense
- 51:57industry is directly working on drones striking Russia.
- 52:01And you remember the Taurus missiles?
- 52:04The Germans have made a clever move.
- 52:07They don't formally supply such weapons.
- 52:10And now they've decided to say they provide
- 52:13drones.
- 52:13And what they're doing is they're manufacturing them
- 52:15now or claiming that they're manufactured in Ukraine.
- 52:22But the targeting still has to be provided
- 52:25by the Germans, just like our tomahawks would
- 52:30require U.S. and the storm shadow would
- 52:33require British or whichever was French.
- 52:35And it's nuts.
- 52:37So sooner or later, a countermeasure will have
- 52:39to be found for drones that are drones
- 52:43are far more dangerous than missiles nowadays.
- 52:46And that depends on how they're being used.
- 52:49But the issue is still very complex.
- 52:51And Sergei Shoygu said that there are legitimate
- 52:55targets on EU territory because they were talking
- 52:59about drones being shot down over Ukraine by
- 53:03other countries.
- 53:04And he says that makes them just like
- 53:07U.S. providing tomahawks would make the U
- 53:09.S. an enemy combatant.
- 53:12And they've been pretty consistent in saying that.
- 53:16And the Europeans have generally been fairly careful
- 53:21about making sure that they don't cross those
- 53:24lines.
- 53:24But they're crossing.
- 53:26You know, they're seizing, trying to seize ships.
- 53:28Somebody said they wanted to take Kaliningrad.
- 53:30Kaliningrad is a little chunk of Russia that
- 53:33is west of the Baltic states.
- 53:35It's separate from Russia, just like the part
- 53:40in Moldova Transnistria that is a separate sliver
- 53:44of Moldova that stayed with Russia.
- 53:46And Kaliningrad, same thing.
- 53:48It's on the Baltic Sea, but it's not
- 53:50connected to the rest of Russia.
- 53:52And you got to go through Latvia, Estonia,
- 53:54Lithuania, you know, to get there, a little
- 53:56bit of Poland, even certainly Belarus, to be
- 53:59over there.
- 54:00And so it's not attached.
- 54:03And so there's somebody else, the Englands, they're
- 54:06going to take Kaliningrad.
- 54:08We're just going to take Kaliningrad.
- 54:11Russians can't have that.
- 54:12Let's have an act of war.
- 54:13I mean, it was a sort of tongue
- 54:16in cheek, you know, like I used to
- 54:18think that Donald Trump, oh, geez, we're stealing
- 54:21Greenland, you know, kind of the same thing.
- 54:23But people are just the world's nuts these
- 54:26days.
- 54:27And so Sergei Shigu said that there are
- 54:31legitimate targets in the EU.
- 54:33Ministry of Defense published a list of locations
- 54:35where the drones are being manufactured.
- 54:37I shared that with you last week.
- 54:38And in response, the EU spokesperson, Anita Hipper,
- 54:42stated that here's a quote, the European Commission
- 54:45has no evidence of the Russian Federation claims.
- 54:48In other words, in their view, we're making
- 54:50up attacks on our cities, on our infrastructure.
- 54:54This is, what's his name, continuing to speak,
- 54:59Alexander Kerevsky.
- 55:01Actually, he was interviewing this other guy.
- 55:03But he said the country's reported includes strategic
- 55:07civilian infrastructure.
- 55:09Countries reported this.
- 55:10Finland, Baltic states are pretending they don't know
- 55:13anything about these drones flying over their territory.
- 55:17And they said, we see something flying past
- 55:19here.
- 55:20And they didn't.
- 55:21It was a way to say that Russia
- 55:22was flying.
- 55:23Anyway, these type of stories are becoming more
- 55:26and more prevalent.
- 55:29I mean, he also said, he made in
- 55:32his comment, he said, World War Lavrov did
- 55:37in this part, he said, World War Three
- 55:39is already upon us.
- 55:41That is what he said.
- 55:43And he said, you know, in a lot
- 55:44of respects, World War Three is already here.
- 55:49And, you know, it's hard to stay out
- 55:57of it.
- 55:58You know, it's hard to not believe that
- 56:01kind of thing.
- 56:02And, you know, the global military spending is
- 56:05freaking unbelievable these days.
- 56:09It is a record high.
- 56:11There was a report that came out.
- 56:14The continent's expenditure, the European continent, the expenditure
- 56:20has risen by 14%.
- 56:23European military spending has propelled global defense expenditures
- 56:28to a record high of nearly $3 trillion
- 56:33in 2025, despite the U.S. decreasing its
- 56:37own outlay.
- 56:39This was reported by the Stockholm International Peace
- 56:41Research Institute.
- 56:44Worldwide military expenditures rose 2.9% in
- 56:48real terms last year to $2.887 trillion,
- 56:55marking the 11th consecutive annual increase and lifting
- 57:00the global military burden to 2.5%
- 57:04of GDP.
- 57:08CPRI experts explain the trend by citing several
- 57:11conflicts and persisting geopolitical tensions.
- 57:16The entire European continent accounted for the largest
- 57:19increase with spending going up 14% to
- 57:24$864 billion.
- 57:27CPRI linked the surge to the Ukraine conflict,
- 57:30a standoff with Russia, the ongoing pursuit of
- 57:33European self-reliance and increasing pressure from the
- 57:36United States for burden sharing within the alliance.
- 57:42In total, NATO members in Europe spent a
- 57:45combined $559 billion in 2025.
- 57:49Germany's outlays all by itself
- 57:59went up 24% to $114 billion, and
- 58:04Spain jumped up 50% to $40 billion,
- 58:08but they're still far too low.
- 58:09U.S. military expenditure fell 7.5%
- 58:15to $954 billion.
- 58:19CPRI linked a surprise decline to the Trump
- 58:23administration's refusal to approve new assistance to Ukraine,
- 58:27in contrast to previous years when $127 billion
- 58:31in direct military support was authorized.
- 58:33The U.S. continues deliveries through the NATO
- 58:38-coordinated programs and other Western countries are footing
- 58:41the bill.
- 58:42So that's the difference.
- 58:43Last week, Pentagon officials said Trump was advocating
- 58:46a military budget.
- 58:47I brought this to you.
- 58:49$1.5 trillion to provide new funds for
- 58:53a Golden Dome missile system, AI capabilities, and
- 58:57a new class of battleship.
- 59:03I'm not for this.
- 59:04That's the silence part right there.
- 59:07CPRI noted Russia's defense expenditure is $190 billion,
- 59:12while Ukraine's spending went up by 20%
- 59:16to $84 billion, the equivalent of 40%
- 59:21of its GDP, which is the seventh largest
- 59:24military spender in the world.
- 59:26China increased its military spending by 7.4
- 59:30% to $336 billion, and Japan went up
- 59:35to $62 billion.
- 59:36Taiwan is at $18.2 billion.
- 59:40Moscow condemns what it described as reckless militarization
- 59:45by the EU, especially since it is aimed
- 59:48at Russia.
- 59:49Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the
- 59:54European propaganda seeks to turn Russia into a
- 59:58model external enemy to divert attention from their
- 1:00:03own internal crises.
- 1:00:07Things in Europe.
- 1:00:11There's something that I might end up sharing
- 1:00:14with you after I watch it later this
- 1:00:16week.
- 1:00:16There's something called Chernobyl 40, the true story
- 1:00:21of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe, is something
- 1:00:25in my block to watch, because we are
- 1:00:31the 40th anniversary of that.
- 1:00:35So I played a song that I heard
- 1:00:38over the weekend, and I haven't heard it
- 1:00:41in forever, and so I played it for
- 1:00:43you earlier.
- 1:00:44Here is another one, and this might bring
- 1:00:46back some memories as it did for me,
- 1:00:49because this was a little bit on the
- 1:00:52funny side for me.
- 1:00:56I hope you enjoy it.
- 1:01:07You know what?
- 1:01:08We're going to start that over.
- 1:01:09I've moved up the wrong panel, so we're
- 1:01:12going to start over, just because we don't
- 1:01:14want to miss it.
- 1:01:15This is a song that we're going to
- 1:01:16ruin if we don't hear it all.
- 1:02:04I ain't going to put that basketball underneath
- 1:02:06my pillow.
- 1:02:08Maybe that's why I can't sleep at night.
- 1:02:11I need help, ladies and gentlemen.
- 1:02:14I need someone to stand beside me.
- 1:02:16I need someone to set a pit for
- 1:02:19me at the free throw line of life.
- 1:02:22Someone I can pass to.
- 1:02:24Someone to hit the open man on the
- 1:05:04terrible, terrible times.
- 1:05:05That was what?
- 1:05:071970-something?
- 1:05:09You know who that was?
- 1:05:11That was Cheech and Chong, actually, that came
- 1:05:15out with that song.
- 1:05:16I remember my older brothers playing that song.
- 1:05:19So when you have 11 kids in your
- 1:05:20family, you share a bedroom, right?
- 1:05:24Me and my brother were in a basement
- 1:05:26room with a concrete floor.
- 1:05:28It was mostly an unfinished basement, and it
- 1:05:32had a living area down there that was
- 1:05:36always full of Dad's old...
- 1:05:38Dad always took TVs and radios, tore them
- 1:05:42apart, and would, you know, make new ones
- 1:05:46or turn around.
- 1:05:47So he played with electronics and stuff like
- 1:05:49that in his very little bit of spare
- 1:05:52time.
- 1:05:52And then my brothers were on the other
- 1:05:56end of the house.
- 1:05:57They were the three older, older, in the
- 1:05:59basement anyway, it was all, there were five
- 1:06:01of us boys in the basement.
- 1:06:04And then, geez, that was a crowded little
- 1:06:08house.
- 1:06:11But you'd hear my brothers playing their music
- 1:06:14and you'd get stuff like this.
- 1:06:16Lots of Jethro Tull coming from that end
- 1:06:18of the house too, though, but also plenty
- 1:06:20of Cheech and Chong, and that was a
- 1:06:24Cheech and Chong album.
- 1:06:25I want to finish off the show today
- 1:06:29with a little bit of discussion about Iran.
- 1:06:36And I've had some time to think about
- 1:06:40this and put things together, but I, you
- 1:06:43know, I don't want to, you know, the
- 1:06:48advertising going around about this from the powers
- 1:06:54that be doesn't match reality.
- 1:06:57And I think that's important to note from
- 1:07:01the jump.
- 1:07:02But I don't want to frame Iran as
- 1:07:05winning.
- 1:07:06I don't think anyone is winning this war.
- 1:07:10It is not the, I don't know, presumption
- 1:07:17I want to put out there.
- 1:07:18It is too cheap, too childish for the
- 1:07:21scale of what is really happening.
- 1:07:23Iran has suffered assassinations, decapitations of power up
- 1:07:29on top, bombing all over, economic pressure everywhere,
- 1:07:33infrastructure threat.
- 1:07:34And I mean, here we are back again
- 1:07:36to what was going on two, three weeks
- 1:07:38ago.
- 1:07:39We're going to take out all your power
- 1:07:40plants and we're going to destroy all your
- 1:07:43desalinization and any water abilities and blah, blah,
- 1:07:47blah.
- 1:07:48And then the decapitation strikes are going to
- 1:07:50continue.
- 1:07:51We're going to take out the next level.
- 1:07:52Well, that's not victory for Iran.
- 1:07:57Sure as hell isn't victory for the United
- 1:07:59States.
- 1:08:00But the mistake in Washington, in my view,
- 1:08:05is assuming that because Iran has and is
- 1:08:09suffering, Iran has lost and Iran is therefore
- 1:08:14broken.
- 1:08:15This is the old imperial fantasy still, still
- 1:08:20rearing its ugly head, you know, hit a
- 1:08:23country, a country hard enough, kill enough of
- 1:08:26its leaders, freeze enough of its money, seize
- 1:08:30enough of its ships, and eventually the people
- 1:08:33will crawl out from under the table and
- 1:08:35thank you for allowing them the opportunity, in
- 1:08:40fact, the privilege of surrendering and allowing you
- 1:08:44to be the new leader of their country.
- 1:08:48I don't think that's going to happen.
- 1:08:50That is not how old civilizations behave.
- 1:08:53That's not how a proud country behaves.
- 1:08:57And it's especially not how Iran behaves after
- 1:09:01nearly a half a century of resisting American
- 1:09:06pressure.
- 1:09:07Trump said something about, well, you know, all
- 1:09:12these other, all these other presidents before me
- 1:09:15for the last 50 years have just been
- 1:09:18idiots.
- 1:09:18You know, we were in charge of Iran
- 1:09:20under the Shah.
- 1:09:22I mean, sure, that was another imperial.
- 1:09:26We're like imperial stormtroopers from Star Wars.
- 1:09:29We're in charge of Iran.
- 1:09:31That doesn't mean Iran wanted us there even
- 1:09:33then, you know.
- 1:09:35And, you know, I was just a kid
- 1:09:39when that happened.
- 1:09:41You know, when 79, I remember it.
- 1:09:44You know, I remember the assassinations.
- 1:09:47I remember all of those things that went
- 1:09:49on and what happened in Iran.
- 1:09:52Trump is still complaining about that.
- 1:09:54And he made some commentary that, well, you
- 1:09:57know, all these other presidents, they should have
- 1:09:59done something.
- 1:09:59And people are bringing up this 49 years,
- 1:10:03you know, we've been fighting Iran.
- 1:10:04Well, because you had put in a leadership
- 1:10:09that wasn't their leadership.
- 1:10:11You know what I mean?
- 1:10:12It was your leadership.
- 1:10:14It was totally subordinate to America.
- 1:10:17And that's that.
- 1:10:19And it had to, you know, you had
- 1:10:20to do what the CIA told you to
- 1:10:22do.
- 1:10:22And that's the end.
- 1:10:24And they got out of that.
- 1:10:27Whether you agree with it or not, doesn't
- 1:10:29matter that that is their country, their self
- 1:10:32-determination U.S. is not the colonialist of
- 1:10:36the world or shouldn't be, in my humble
- 1:10:38opinion.
- 1:10:39Anyway, the Trump's policy of non-negotiation, capitulation
- 1:10:46dressed up as diplomacy, you know, another demand
- 1:10:49every day, another demand every day, something different
- 1:10:53where we demand X.
- 1:10:56And, you know, this capitulation is all he's
- 1:10:59after.
- 1:11:00Same thing that the Europeans are demanding of
- 1:11:03Russia.
- 1:11:03Well, capitulate.
- 1:11:04We're right.
- 1:11:06You're wrong.
- 1:11:07We're we're important.
- 1:11:08You're not.
- 1:11:10Our opinions are important.
- 1:11:12Yours are not.
- 1:11:14And that is absolutely not the case.
- 1:11:19If you're an Iranian, they don't think that
- 1:11:22way.
- 1:11:22So I'm not.
- 1:11:24And I don't know.
- 1:11:25I'm only taking this from the point of
- 1:11:27view of claiming that, you know, we've already
- 1:11:29won, you know, and put me in coach.
- 1:11:32Seth is always ready to, you know, talk
- 1:11:36about, oh, we already won.
- 1:11:38You know, it's over.
- 1:11:39We're done.
- 1:11:39We're we're up here, you know, that we
- 1:11:43don't need peace.
- 1:11:43We just need to keep on bombing them.
- 1:11:45And eventually they'll give up.
- 1:11:48Well, I'm not so sure that's the case.
- 1:11:51Financially, I'm totally positive.
- 1:11:53I'm almost positive it's not the case.
- 1:11:55But financially, they've been they've been sanctioned forever,
- 1:12:03you know, and they've been, you know, their
- 1:12:04assets frozen forever.
- 1:12:06The money has been, you know, probably the
- 1:12:09same as our Social Security system has already
- 1:12:12been robbed.
- 1:12:13It's gone.
- 1:12:15And so this Trump is demanding that Iran
- 1:12:20surrender to America and Israel and then says
- 1:12:24it plainly, you know, the Iranians say, well,
- 1:12:27that ain't happening.
- 1:12:28We're not we're not just going to surrender.
- 1:12:31It will not happen.
- 1:12:33So the point isn't that Iran is invincible.
- 1:12:36They're not.
- 1:12:37The point is that the Trump assumption that
- 1:12:39they will capitulate is wrong.
- 1:12:42You can continue to hurt Iran.
- 1:12:44You can continue to make them bleed.
- 1:12:46You can even continue to punish them.
- 1:12:49But the idea that is going to, you
- 1:12:51know, fold, the government's going to fold because
- 1:12:54Netanyahu and Trump want to or because Trump
- 1:12:58says I'm not going to be Mr. Nice
- 1:13:00guy anymore is schoolyard bully policy.
- 1:13:04That's it.
- 1:13:06And it's not going to happen.
- 1:13:09You know, it's not going to happen.
- 1:13:12And Americans have no appetite right now for
- 1:13:17sending troops, putting them on the ground inside
- 1:13:19another Afghanistan.
- 1:13:22And this would be worse than Afghanistan by
- 1:13:25far worse.
- 1:13:28And I think that is a crucial point.
- 1:13:31Trump needs to have an exit strategy because
- 1:13:35the U.S. has no military option that
- 1:13:38can allow it to win the war.
- 1:13:40Now, I watched something over the weekend with
- 1:13:43two allegedly the not the top level, not
- 1:13:47not the secretary of the army or secretary
- 1:13:50of defense, but the so Trump is the
- 1:13:53one who gives the orders.
- 1:13:55Those orders go to the operational commander sent
- 1:13:59Central Command and stuff like that, and that
- 1:14:02those commanders have pushed back hard and said
- 1:14:07this is this is not a good idea,
- 1:14:10no matter how you slice it.
- 1:14:12This is it's not something that, you know,
- 1:14:15is going to be.
- 1:14:18Profitable, there's also been a lot of reports
- 1:14:20over the weekend, and I suggest you check
- 1:14:23them out that the that the depth of
- 1:14:25destruction of American military might in the Middle
- 1:14:29East is vastly underreported, at least as far
- 1:14:34as the major bases like Al Udeid in
- 1:14:38Qatar and whichever the ones are in Bahrain
- 1:14:42and even into Saudi Arabia that the there's
- 1:14:46been stories for a long time about the
- 1:14:49U.S. military that were housed on those
- 1:14:52bases living in local hotels.
- 1:14:55A couple of hotels have been blown up
- 1:14:57and then they twist the the rhetoric to
- 1:15:00say, well, look, these guys are attacking hotels.
- 1:15:03They're attacking hotels because those the ones where
- 1:15:05the military are staying, that they are moving
- 1:15:09into hotels and the depth of destruction of
- 1:15:12American might in the Middle East, at least
- 1:15:16on land in these air in these bases
- 1:15:18that were initially bombed is astronomical.
- 1:15:23And it'd be nice to go over there
- 1:15:24and check this out.
- 1:15:25Truthfully, I'd like to go see it myself,
- 1:15:27but I don't believe necessarily either side of
- 1:15:31that.
- 1:15:31But there are plenty of stories about it.
- 1:15:34And, you know, this allegation that the U
- 1:15:37.S. has no military option to allow it
- 1:15:40to win the war is only the escalation
- 1:15:43ladder favors Iran, not Washington.
- 1:15:46And I think that's an important point.
- 1:15:49The U.S. can bomb.
- 1:15:50It can seize more ships.
- 1:15:51It can threaten bridges, power plants, refineries and
- 1:15:55ports.
- 1:15:55But if Iran ran response by fully disrupting
- 1:15:59the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Gulf energy
- 1:16:02infrastructure, desalinization plants and continues to affect these
- 1:16:07vital shipping arteries, then Washington is no longer
- 1:16:10punishing Iran all by itself.
- 1:16:13And unfortunately, that's what's happening.
- 1:16:17So one some economist or another, I forget
- 1:16:19who I was listening to, said that.
- 1:16:23We're now eight weeks in to the war
- 1:16:26in Iran, eight weeks, and the eight weeks
- 1:16:30of war is about the length of time
- 1:16:34it takes for shipping of container ships and
- 1:16:39oil ships and aluminum ships and whatever, fertilizer
- 1:16:45ships from the Straits of Hormuz area, from
- 1:16:51the, you know, Iran area, from Iranian ports
- 1:16:57to around the world.
- 1:16:59And that the first ones that left those
- 1:17:01days, the last that were leaving, are arriving
- 1:17:04right now.
- 1:17:06And so we don't even recognize how much
- 1:17:10the next four weeks, let's say, is going
- 1:17:15to have an effect on the prices, because
- 1:17:17now is when it's going to become far
- 1:17:21more noticeable because of the ship, just the
- 1:17:29realities of shipping and how it works.
- 1:17:32So I don't know.
- 1:17:33That doesn't mean Iran's won a victory, not
- 1:17:36remotely.
- 1:17:37Nobody has.
- 1:17:38But Iran has survived the very first premise
- 1:17:41of the war, which said that it would
- 1:17:43collapse, panic, surrender.
- 1:17:45And that's the real story.
- 1:17:47And if we just hit them and they
- 1:17:49fold, you know, put me in coach can
- 1:17:51say, you know, well, we got him.
- 1:17:56We got him on the run.
- 1:17:57He can fire a few more generals if
- 1:17:59he likes, you know, for disagreeing and for
- 1:18:01saying that everything isn't absolutely positive.
- 1:18:04You know, let's fire the next level of
- 1:18:05them.
- 1:18:06You know, who are we decapitating here?
- 1:18:08You get rid of all your military experience
- 1:18:12in the command.
- 1:18:13And that's the end of that.
- 1:18:15Right.
- 1:18:16It just it doesn't go that way.
- 1:18:20Let's see here.
- 1:18:21Perhaps we'll take a take a call here.
- 1:18:29Hello, sir.
- 1:18:30How may I help you?
- 1:18:34Hey, how are you doing?
- 1:18:36Pretty good on a Monday.
- 1:18:39Awesome.
- 1:18:40Hey, on the Iran topic, suppose those 13
- 1:18:46bases are blown up and you know, if
- 1:18:51they won't talk about the aircraft carriers won't
- 1:18:54charge right into the Gulf and dominate, right?
- 1:18:57Oh, they won't do that.
- 1:18:59And that'd be a fool's errand to do
- 1:19:01that.
- 1:19:02It really would.
- 1:19:04So why did they send another aircraft carrier
- 1:19:07then?
- 1:19:07Well, because they're there.
- 1:19:09All we have left are threats and stealing
- 1:19:13of other people's shipments.
- 1:19:16You know, we stopped another Iranian ship today.
- 1:19:19And I don't believe it's going to work.
- 1:19:22And you know that.
- 1:19:22But how does the news get away with,
- 1:19:26like you said, if we're winning, won't they
- 1:19:29show a tally?
- 1:19:32You know what I'm saying?
- 1:19:33I think one thing I'd like to see
- 1:19:36have been hit and three out of four
- 1:19:38thads have been knocked out.
- 1:19:41And yeah, I'm certain of that.
- 1:19:42And those those that those that radars, I
- 1:19:45don't believe many of them exist.
- 1:19:47And those are extreme, extremely expensive.
- 1:19:52I went to when I lived in Qatar,
- 1:19:54I was on Al Udeid rather frequently, I
- 1:19:57could go out there and use the PX
- 1:19:59and go buy stuff out there, stuff like
- 1:20:00that.
- 1:20:01And I tried to get a couple of
- 1:20:03contracts out there, you know, speaking Russian or
- 1:20:06something, going out and trying to do something.
- 1:20:08And I was in the contractor pool out
- 1:20:10there.
- 1:20:11And so I would go out and see
- 1:20:13what they were doing in there.
- 1:20:14And there didn't appear to be a ton
- 1:20:17of defense.
- 1:20:18Now it was 2015, the year that I
- 1:20:20lived there.
- 1:20:21So that's 10 years ago.
- 1:20:23But what I have, what I would love
- 1:20:26to do, and I haven't been to Qatar.
- 1:20:27I was there a couple of years ago.
- 1:20:29I went, went and got her.
- 1:20:31Yeah, it's Qatar.
- 1:20:33They say Qatar.
- 1:20:34And so that's how I say it.
- 1:20:35But but it doesn't matter.
- 1:20:37And it's I was out there and I
- 1:20:41would go and check these places out.
- 1:20:44And I would love to.
- 1:20:46And I think if I go back, I'm
- 1:20:47trying to schedule a trip to to Egypt.
- 1:20:51And I'm also trying to get back to
- 1:20:53Turkey and maybe go into southern Russia again
- 1:20:57later this summer.
- 1:20:58And I think I'm going to take Qatar
- 1:21:02Airways because I like flying into Doha.
- 1:21:05And there's a couple of things I want
- 1:21:06to take care of in Doha that I
- 1:21:08want to break in for a second, please.
- 1:21:11Uh, what?
- 1:21:13So it's going to hurt the Iranians if
- 1:21:16they have to stop pumping oil, but it's
- 1:21:18not going to hurt the Saudis or.
- 1:21:21It's absolutely going to hurt all of them.
- 1:21:23And that's the unfortunate part is we're just
- 1:21:26going to notice this right now, because right
- 1:21:30now it's eight weeks later and the real
- 1:21:34effect.
- 1:21:35Everything is talked about oil futures.
- 1:21:38But what about oil today's oil today?
- 1:21:42What's being delivered today is far more important
- 1:21:46than the futures of what's coming on.
- 1:21:48And every time one of some, whether it's
- 1:21:51a Trump ally or not, making millions and
- 1:21:54millions of dollars betting on oil futures, that
- 1:21:57doesn't matter.
- 1:21:59What matters is the actual flow.
- 1:22:01And all over East Asia, they are without,
- 1:22:06they have strict limits on how much they
- 1:22:09can buy.
- 1:22:10And we don't want that to come to
- 1:22:11this country.
- 1:22:12I mean, I hate it that it's in
- 1:22:13those countries, you know, they have, they're just
- 1:22:15normal people do trying to get through their
- 1:22:18days in the government.
- 1:22:19And we, we meaning Iran, Israel, United States
- 1:22:24are cocking it up for the rest of
- 1:22:26the world.
- 1:22:27That's what's happening, unfortunately.
- 1:22:29And it's affecting everyone.
- 1:22:33I listened to another show and the guy
- 1:22:36says that Trump's going to wrap it all
- 1:22:38up and they're going to win the midterms.
- 1:22:42And I am less sure of that.
- 1:22:47I am not sure of that at all.
- 1:22:53Not sure at all.
- 1:22:56Not remotely sure.
- 1:22:58I mean, all kinds of bets, people bet
- 1:23:00out there.
- 1:23:02And, you know, did you hear about the
- 1:23:05guy who bet on Maduro?
- 1:23:06And he was a member of the, of
- 1:23:09the strike team.
- 1:23:10And he put a $30,000 bet that
- 1:23:13Maduro would be taken out of power.
- 1:23:15And he made $400,000 on his bet.
- 1:23:18Did you hear about that?
- 1:23:19Did you hear, did you hear about the
- 1:23:22Trump son buying into the drone company that
- 1:23:26they got the giant contract?
- 1:23:28Yeah, I know.
- 1:23:31It's funny how mega people learn the leering
- 1:23:35center.
- 1:23:36They know, they know some, some, some things
- 1:23:38that are so inconsequential and they know how
- 1:23:41Hunter Biden had a cush ass job, but
- 1:23:44ask any of them if they know anything
- 1:23:45about their, their coin exchange or, or taking
- 1:23:52money for that ballroom.
- 1:23:53Well, I'm, I'm not a, I'm not an
- 1:23:55anti-Trumper by any stretch.
- 1:23:57I am, I am anti-Trump ideas of
- 1:24:01internationally for sure.
- 1:24:03If it's not, if it's not a dictatorship,
- 1:24:06it sure is close because the Congress ain't
- 1:24:08going to do anything to him.
- 1:24:09Well, no, but they're lazy anyway.
- 1:24:11They don't do anything to anybody.
- 1:24:13You know, that does, that's not necessarily Trump's
- 1:24:16fault.
- 1:24:16He just using the system as it's presented
- 1:24:19and, uh, that's America's fault.
- 1:24:22Well, but it's the same in any party.
- 1:24:24I mean that, that, that I have equal
- 1:24:26contempt for all the way across the board.
- 1:24:28You know, it doesn't matter who's in charge.
- 1:24:31I'm against it in a, you're supposed to
- 1:24:34rule upon some sort of consensus and consensus
- 1:24:37never matters.
- 1:24:38Day one, new president comes in, everything reverses
- 1:24:42180 degrees and you're supposed to hate everybody
- 1:24:45that was there the day before.
- 1:24:47And that is exactly how, what we do.
- 1:24:50The same thing's going to happen in two
- 1:24:51and a half years when the next guy
- 1:24:53comes in and it's going to be the
- 1:24:55same thing.
- 1:24:56That's America, buddy.
- 1:25:00Yay.
- 1:25:01Yay.
- 1:25:03All right.
- 1:25:03I got to wrap up the show.
- 1:25:04We only have a few more minutes.
- 1:25:05I appreciate your call.
- 1:25:06You have a very nice day.
- 1:25:08Okay.
- 1:25:09Well, and there he goes.
- 1:25:13So, uh, I want to, you know, I
- 1:25:15kind of call this, um, you know, if
- 1:25:18I, if I had to come up with
- 1:25:19something that, you know, I'd call the Trump
- 1:25:22presidency kind of a stick in the eye
- 1:25:24sort of presidency.
- 1:25:27Trump's posture on many, many things.
- 1:25:29Um, and, and by the way, again, I'm
- 1:25:32not anti-Trump, especially nationally, you know, nationally.
- 1:25:36I like a lot of that.
- 1:25:37I wouldn't go as far as he did,
- 1:25:39you know, on a many things, you know,
- 1:25:41like, uh, I don't know what, I don't
- 1:25:44want to want to pick them, but I
- 1:25:45wouldn't go as far as some of the
- 1:25:47things he did.
- 1:25:47Tariffs, international stuff.
- 1:25:49I've disagreed with a lot of this stuff.
- 1:25:51Not saying absolutely not, but there are better
- 1:25:53ways to skin a cat.
- 1:25:55And the Trump way is less like diplomacy
- 1:26:00and more like a guy trying to close
- 1:26:02a hostile business deal.
- 1:26:05Has he ever had a friendly business deal?
- 1:26:07That's what I want to know.
- 1:26:08Is it always gotta be hostility?
- 1:26:10He never says here's some mutual guarantees, Iran.
- 1:26:14Here's some mutual guarantees, Russia, Ukraine.
- 1:26:17Let me help resolve this.
- 1:26:18Here's the security architecture.
- 1:26:20He says, surrender, call me.
- 1:26:23I'll take care of everything after that.
- 1:26:25You don't need leaders.
- 1:26:27I'll appoint your leaders.
- 1:26:29Or I'll, if you don't do that, I'll
- 1:26:31just destroy more of your country.
- 1:26:33And it's like, it's an incredible arrogance.
- 1:26:38I mean, it's just, I'm God, that's that.
- 1:26:41And I don't, you know, I understand and
- 1:26:46appreciate that he's a successful and, uh, I
- 1:26:50don't know what, I still, you know, think
- 1:26:52highly of some of the things that he
- 1:26:53does, but more and more internationally, you know,
- 1:26:57there's a lot of, um, lack of MAGA
- 1:27:00support for what he's doing.
- 1:27:02And because people are finally catching on that,
- 1:27:05this really isn't a good idea and it's
- 1:27:08really not.
- 1:27:09And, uh, I'm definitely on that side, although
- 1:27:12I, you know, this is not a part
- 1:27:14of a deeper disease.
- 1:27:16Trump didn't invent it.
- 1:27:17Trump didn't invent this disease.
- 1:27:19People, he just says it louder with less
- 1:27:22diplomacy.
- 1:27:26He doesn't pretty it up at all.
- 1:27:28And he puts more exclamation points and capital
- 1:27:31letters in it.
- 1:27:32And so the Obama Biden comparison, you know,
- 1:27:34you think these guys had, you know, they
- 1:27:37had, you know, some day one stick in
- 1:27:40the eye policies.
- 1:27:41We won, we're doing it, live with it.
- 1:27:43Elections have consequences, you know, that kind of
- 1:27:46thing.
- 1:27:46This is what we have watched for my
- 1:27:49entire adult life.
- 1:27:51It's crap.
- 1:27:52You know, it's really crap.
- 1:27:54This is not what normal thinking people want.
- 1:27:58They want stability and we don't have it.
- 1:28:01Every four years we have some kind of
- 1:28:02weird upheaval and a bunch of people on
- 1:28:05TV saying, you know, cheerleading and that's it.
- 1:28:08We have lunatics running into, uh, uh, press
- 1:28:11correspondence dinners and trying to kill people.
- 1:28:14We have people shooting at politicians.
- 1:28:17It's nuts.
- 1:28:18This is not persuasive to me, any of
- 1:28:22it.
- 1:28:22And it's not state craft.
- 1:28:24It's dominant performance brought to you by Hollywood
- 1:28:27and the people that believe this is how
- 1:28:30you're, it's supposed to be.
- 1:28:32We have a hero at the end of
- 1:28:34every movie.
- 1:28:35The heroes got to win, right?
- 1:28:38The heroes got to win.
- 1:28:39That ain't how life works.
- 1:28:41It sure as hell ain't how state craft
- 1:28:42really works.
- 1:28:43It's performative.
- 1:28:45It's politics of humiliating the other side in
- 1:28:51public and then acting surprised when the other
- 1:28:54side doesn't cooperate with you.
- 1:28:57It might work for campaign rallies, but it
- 1:28:59doesn't work with nations that have history, pride,
- 1:29:02religion, memory, and their own dead bodies all
- 1:29:06over the ground.
- 1:29:07The political cost is very real.
- 1:29:10And I'm not so sure that in November,
- 1:29:13people aren't going to be punished for this.
- 1:29:16I appreciate you listening to the show.
- 1:29:18This is international flavor.
- 1:29:20I am Samuel Trapp.
- 1:29:22You're listening to damn radio and we're damn
- 1:29:24glad that you do listen to us all
- 1:29:27the time.
- 1:29:28Um, damn radio.com forward slash live.
- 1:29:33If you'd like the international flavor shows, go
- 1:29:36on out to international flavor.com and download
- 1:29:38them all for your listening pleasure.
- 1:29:41And, uh, damn radio.com forward slash podcast
- 1:29:44for all the rest of the programs.
- 1:29:46Have a beautiful mid Missouri week.