Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Putin Residence Drone Claim, Peace Talks in Peril, and the Financial War Reshaping the World

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Putin Residence Drone Claim, Peace Talks in Peril, and the Financial War Reshaping the World · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, good morning. Welcome. I am uh
• 0:03
  Samuel Trap. This is International
• 0:05
  Flavor. You are listening to DAM Radio
• 0:10
  and I'm damn glad to have you. Um
• 0:13
  [clears throat] I'm coming to you live
• 0:14
  from the Lake Ozark real estate of the
• 0:16
  art studio. You can phone in 57374-68020
• 0:21
  should you feel the urge to discuss
• 0:24
  anything uh with me this morning. That
• 0:26
  would be fun. You can send me emails
• 0:28
  that I rarely read to livedradio.com.
• 0:33
  You can send me emails to Samuel T at
• 0:37
  internationalflavor.com.
• 0:38
  Samuel T at civicoutlaws.com.
• 0:43
  Samuel todernawecosystem.com.
• 0:45
  [clears throat]
• 0:49
  So, [clears throat] before I get into
• 0:52
  the to the I have several topics, two
• 0:54
  main topics and then a bunch of uh of
• 0:57
  other things I want to discuss. Couple
• 0:59
  of them I didn't get to yesterday. And
• 1:01
  uh there's so much news going on. It
• 1:03
  isn't hard to come up with show content
• 1:05
  these days, that's for sure. And uh all
• 1:08
  of the ridiculousness going on in the
• 1:10
  world. Um, by the way, just so you know,
• 1:13
  Waltz is labeling the fraud
• 1:16
  investigation against him as white
• 1:19
  supremacy.
• 1:21
  But isn't he white? You know, you know,
• 1:24
  I don't know. Wasn't there an
• 1:25
  encouragement a couple of weeks ago that
• 1:28
  I read that uh the uh
• 1:32
  uh Equal Employment Opportunity
• 1:35
  Commission was encouraging white men
• 1:37
  over 40 to submit claims of
• 1:40
  discrimination.
• 1:42
  It's curious. Very curious. Uh I'm I'm
• 1:46
  uh [laughter]
• 1:47
  I don't know. We're on the realm of
• 1:49
  ridiculousness in the world with
• 1:52
  everything that is going on. And uh
• 1:54
  there's a couple of things that I want
• 1:56
  to go into. I I am one of these uh
• 2:02
  everybody has heard. I don't know. I I I
• 2:04
  sent the the the story to uh to JR
• 2:08
  yesterday. Sadly, I was unable to join
• 2:10
  his program and I'm distraught over it
• 2:14
  even now. uh I was unable to join his
• 2:17
  program and so I don't know if he shared
• 2:20
  it but I sent a a story into him
• 2:26
  yesterday which I'm going to share with
• 2:28
  you again if I am able to find it well
• 2:32
  again if he did and for the first time
• 2:35
  if not and some of you may have heard
• 2:37
  this in other sources as well already
• 2:39
  because it has been fairly big news um
• 2:44
  but here's the story uh came in at about
• 2:48
  uh uh probably around
• 2:52
  I suppose it would have been about 10:00
• 2:55
  a.m. here uh cuz it came in in the
• 2:58
  afternoon. Um Ukrainian military fired a
• 3:01
  barrage of 91 kamicazi drones at the
• 3:05
  Russian president's state residence.
• 3:08
  Trump was allegedly shocked by Ukraine's
• 3:12
  attack on uh Putin's residence.
• 3:15
  According to the Kremlin, uh Russian
• 3:17
  presidential aid Yori Ushakov
• 3:21
  uh said that Trump was shocked by the
• 3:24
  Ukrainian attack on the state residence
• 3:27
  and said that he uh according to Trump,
• 3:30
  he did not foresee such crazy actions.
• 3:33
  According to Kremlin foreign policy aid,
• 3:36
  uh, presidential advisor made these
• 3:38
  remarks to the Russian media after a
• 3:41
  call made between Putin and Trump on
• 3:44
  Monday. Shortly before the conversation
• 3:46
  became known to the public, Moscow said
• 3:48
  the Ukrainian military targeted Putin's
• 3:50
  state residence in Nokur. Uh, more than
• 3:55
  90 kamicazi drones sent there.
• 3:59
  Uh the Russians made it clear that such
• 4:01
  re reckless actions uh will certainly
• 4:04
  not go unanswered. I've been waiting to
• 4:06
  see uh what um Lavrov says with in this
• 4:10
  regard. Um but according to Ushakov, the
• 4:12
  US president, according to Putin, was
• 4:14
  shocked by the news and expressed
• 4:17
  outrage, stating he could not have
• 4:19
  imagined such crazy actions. Ukraine
• 4:21
  blah blah blah. They keep repeating it.
• 4:23
  Given the current situation, Russia's
• 4:25
  position on a number of previously
• 4:27
  reached agreements and pending solutions
• 4:30
  will be reviewed. This was stated very
• 4:34
  clearly and the Americans should take
• 4:36
  this with due understanding, meaning
• 4:39
  they're rethinking all this. Don't tell
• 4:41
  us we're going to resolve this because
• 4:44
  this attack occurred at the
• 4:47
  time of the meeting with or the press
• 4:52
  conference with uh Trumpster in you know
• 4:55
  when Zmon was meeting with Trumpster. So
• 4:59
  the Zman has strongly denied these
• 5:02
  attacks and Moscow he says is only
• 5:05
  seeking a pretext to jeopardize the
• 5:08
  progress according to him which I went
• 5:11
  through with you yesterday why it's not
• 5:13
  progress it's just more uh noise you
• 5:15
  know and more money for them he has no
• 5:18
  desire to end this war and neither does
• 5:21
  Europe um so uh you know the attack and
• 5:26
  and he he says that this allegation is
• 5:30
  so they can attack the government
• 5:31
  quarter in Kiev, Russia. And so this
• 5:35
  attack came days after a barrage um
• 5:40
  uh well many of them. But there was also
• 5:42
  a weird Christmas address by Zalinski
• 5:45
  which he wished for certain unnamed
• 5:48
  person presumed to be the president uh
• 5:52
  Russian president to perish.
• 5:54
  Simultaneously with the death wish, the
• 5:56
  Ukrainian leader urged everyone to pray
• 5:59
  for peace except for except for for
• 6:03
  Putin. We wish him death, he said.
• 6:06
  Moscow condemned his address with uh
• 6:08
  Kremlin spokesman Pescov [snorts]
• 6:10
  stating it appeared uncultured
• 6:12
  embittered and coming from an unhinged
• 6:14
  person whose ability to make rational
• 6:17
  decisions is very much debatable.
• 6:22
  and uh you know what nonsense. Uh no
• 6:25
  matter how you slice it, it's um it it
• 6:28
  it shouldn't go this way. And uh so
• 6:32
  [clears throat] there's been a little
• 6:33
  more news about this that I've tried to
• 6:35
  find, although getting true news about
• 6:37
  it from any source is uh really uh uh
• 6:42
  difficult. So, but here's what I've been
• 6:43
  able to gather from a lot of commentary
• 6:46
  and a lot of different folks. Um,
• 6:49
  so here's what's on the record according
• 6:51
  to, you know, quite a few sources as of
• 6:54
  December uh 29, late 29th and some some
• 6:58
  this morning. Russia's foreign minister
• 7:00
  Lav Sergey Lavough says Ukraine
• 7:02
  attempted to attack Putin's residence in
• 7:04
  Novar with 91 drones. All were
• 7:07
  neutralized. According to Lavough,
• 7:09
  Ukraine uh Zalinsky denies it. Um
• 7:13
  Reuters reports the allegation uh comes
• 7:16
  during renewed peace discussions and
• 7:19
  Russia signaling a more hardline
• 7:21
  approach and but still says it won't
• 7:24
  withdraw from talks. That's according to
• 7:26
  Reuters. Um, Lavrev says you can
• 7:29
  certainly expect um uh you know some
• 7:33
  kind of a response from us and
• 7:36
  um we will have to specifically
• 7:39
  uh consider our
• 7:45
  approach after this. But you know now uh
• 7:49
  you know for the inside baseball version
• 7:51
  um
• 7:53
  is the claim that the incident was
• 7:56
  discussed in a Putin Trump call
• 7:58
  according to Ushakov that Trump is
• 8:00
  shocked and outrage plus about the uh
• 8:04
  there's allegedly a line that is going
• 8:06
  around that says thank god we didn't
• 8:08
  give them tomahawks that uh uh that uh
• 8:12
  according to the transcript that but I
• 8:14
  don't know if that's true or not.
• 8:16
  Reuters um reports Ushakov describing
• 8:20
  Trump's reaction in that call as well
• 8:22
  said that you know he was uh um you know
• 8:27
  outraged that they did report but he
• 8:29
  didn't say
• 8:32
  uh that it was exactly going to be that
• 8:35
  what did they say Reuters Ushakov said
• 8:39
  it that according to the to the uh to
• 8:42
  Reuters anyway
• 8:44
  And
• 8:47
  Zalinski says though that it is a
• 8:49
  complete fabrication
• 8:52
  intended to justify additional attacks
• 8:55
  against Kiev. And uh that is that. But
• 8:59
  there were
• 9:01
  um quite a few comments on this this so
• 9:04
  the public picture though you know this
• 9:07
  secrecy breach. I I heard a guy a
• 9:10
  commentator yesterday saying that
• 9:15
  because this attack occurred
• 9:17
  simultaneous with the Zalinski
• 9:20
  uh Trump visit and presser immediately
• 9:24
  afterward.
• 9:26
  [clears throat] And because Trump
• 9:28
  outlined in the beginning of that
• 9:32
  meeting with the Zmon that um they were
• 9:37
  that he had had a discussion, a good two
• 9:40
  and a half hour discussion with Putin
• 9:42
  earlier in the day before the meeting
• 9:45
  and that he was going to have him um
• 9:50
  you know call him afterward and and
• 9:52
  speak to him and give him an update on
• 9:54
  it after he had spoken with the
• 9:56
  you know, leaders of Europe and Zilinsky
• 9:59
  and whatnot that that basically the
• 10:05
  allegation or fear is that somebody in
• 10:08
  the American side shared the location of
• 10:13
  Putin's uh where he was in Ngur because
• 10:16
  Ngur is not Moscow. It's west of Moscow
• 10:18
  I believe. um certain amount of space
• 10:21
  and I don't remember how far but I I'm
• 10:23
  I'm pretty sure that Nof good is to the
• 10:25
  west of of Moscow and a significant
• 10:28
  amount you know like an hour or
• 10:29
  something like that at least and uh that
• 10:31
  he has a residence out there and that
• 10:36
  because they were going to be chatting
• 10:38
  again after the Zalinski meeting that um
• 10:44
  there was going to be um that he would
• 10:48
  that Trump would um Putin was going to
• 10:50
  stay there on that location and so
• 10:52
  therefore they were afraid that the
• 10:54
  leaks or somebody on the Zalinsky team
• 10:56
  or somebody involved had heard that he
• 10:58
  was in in Novkar then they sent these
• 11:00
  drones in at that time you know in order
• 11:03
  to do it. So I don't know we we shall
• 11:05
  see. Um but the insinuation is that this
• 11:09
  represents a leak of presidential
• 11:11
  movements in location that somebody in
• 11:13
  the US inner circle failed at the most
• 11:16
  basic rule. You don't let an adversary
• 11:19
  know where the head of state is located,
• 11:21
  specifics, right? So, let's be, you
• 11:23
  know, I I don't know. This this could be
• 11:26
  just, you know, a BS claim, you know,
• 11:30
  but the allegation isn't just that
• 11:31
  Ukraine launched the drones. It's that
• 11:33
  Ukraine launched drones at the correct
• 11:36
  place and the correct time and 91 of
• 11:40
  them. And so this uh you know arguably
• 11:44
  is a large scandal for the US presidency
• 11:49
  uh because if the Russians believe
• 11:51
  location secrecy was compromised, Russia
• 11:53
  isn't going to treat the US as a
• 11:55
  mediator, but the US as a participant,
• 11:58
  which they've been trying not to do.
• 12:01
  They've been trying to stay off of that
• 12:03
  end and repair relations. Now, I don't
• 12:06
  think any of this is going to fix it
• 12:08
  anyway. uh well gonna uh fix um the war
• 12:13
  or create further problems between the
• 12:15
  US and Russia? I don't think so. Um
• 12:19
  Trump was pretty clear about uh you know
• 12:22
  ceasefire isn't going to do anything.
• 12:24
  But if Moscow believes Washington can't
• 12:26
  control its own information flow or
• 12:29
  worse it can't control its own agencies
• 12:31
  and they've never been able to do that.
• 12:34
  um then every negotiation becomes a a a
• 12:38
  verification a trap check instead of a
• 12:41
  peace process. So, you know, but let's
• 12:44
  not go, you know, crazy with it. But,
• 12:46
  uh, he said, um,
• 12:50
  you know, said that, uh, the public
• 12:52
  claim that the who do you believe
• 12:53
  question is a a real question because
• 12:57
  nobody knows who to believe. And if we
• 12:59
  if we believed anything that anybody
• 13:02
  told us, it would be a different it'd be
• 13:04
  a different game completely. But nobody
• 13:07
  does. I mean over here that you know my
• 13:09
  big issue isn't that I that I disbelieve
• 13:12
  what we hear over here and believe
• 13:14
  everything that they put out in Russia
• 13:17
  or in Alazer or in Times of India or
• 13:19
  something. It's just I don't believe any
• 13:21
  of it and so I will go through it and
• 13:24
  try to figure out you know what it is. I
• 13:26
  don't believe any of this crap. You know
• 13:28
  in between all of the stories is usually
• 13:31
  where the truth resides and that's the
• 13:33
  issue. So we have three plausible um um
• 13:38
  you know models I suppose you could call
• 13:40
  it. Um it it happened as it was alleged
• 13:44
  that that could be model one meaning
• 13:46
  Ukraine or elements inside of Ukraine
• 13:49
  aimed for the symbolism of attacking the
• 13:52
  presidential residence in Ngurod or
• 13:56
  assassination pressure or maybe hoping
• 13:58
  for a strike. You know, I've talked to a
• 14:01
  couple of people who said, "Well, this
• 14:03
  is wartime. This is what you expect."
• 14:05
  Well, I suppose that's true. Um I
• 14:08
  suppose uh Russia uh could be, you know,
• 14:11
  bombing um um who knows what. Bombing
• 14:15
  the Kiev presidential palace. Um I I
• 14:19
  haven't seen anything about that.
• 14:21
  Nothing recent. They've talked about uh
• 14:24
  uh in the very beginning there was some
• 14:26
  talks that. So that's model one. It
• 14:28
  happened as they say it is for symbolism
• 14:30
  or assassination pressure. Model two, it
• 14:33
  happened but not as intended.
• 14:35
  Maybe there was a strike against some
• 14:37
  other object or communication node, not
• 14:40
  necessarily the residence and it got
• 14:43
  narrated into a residence attack. So
• 14:46
  quite often in Ukraine they claim that
• 14:49
  Russia is bombing uh you know homes and
• 14:52
  Russia does uh the same only the
• 14:55
  evidence is far greater on the Russian
• 14:57
  side of that you know and and it and I'm
• 15:02
  I tend to uh believe it because I saw
• 15:06
  the aftermath of what happened on the
• 15:08
  beach in uh u on a Sunday afternoon when
• 15:13
  the Ukrainians targeted families with
• 15:15
  cluster rounds back a couple of years
• 15:17
  ago. And uh that was truly evil.
• 15:23
  [snorts] And uh to to to do that over a
• 15:26
  um over a uh a beachgoer
• 15:32
  afternoon on a Sunday afternoon, killing
• 15:35
  children, women, you know, families, old
• 15:37
  people, you know, that's nonsense. And
• 15:40
  uh and that did happen. And uh I'm you
• 15:43
  know
• 15:44
  there's quite a bit of uh targeting of
• 15:47
  uh you know apartment complexes,
• 15:50
  residences, buses, you know um like uh
• 15:55
  stuff of that nature from on the
• 15:57
  Ukrainian side especially in uh uh Belg
• 16:02
  especially in the uh Kursk regions and
• 16:06
  and areas just across the border that
• 16:09
  have been going on for a while and They
• 16:11
  also do it in Daetsk and Lugansk.
• 16:14
  They're um they they bomb civilian
• 16:17
  targets over there and they argue that
• 16:19
  that you know that on the Russian side
• 16:21
  they do they've done the same thing but
• 16:24
  most of the time that is u uh not the
• 16:29
  the target of of either side. you know,
• 16:33
  they're not attempting to target the uh
• 16:39
  the
• 16:41
  residents, for example. They're
• 16:43
  targeting something else. And when
• 16:44
  somebody blows up the uh the drone or
• 16:48
  the missile or whatever, the uh
• 16:53
  the parts of that rain down upon the uh
• 16:56
  residential areas or create further
• 16:59
  damage that way, but not as in, you
• 17:02
  know, war is war. It's got to suck. You
• 17:04
  know, I've not been involved in a war.
• 17:07
  Uh was in the military during two wars,
• 17:09
  but I, you know, was a Russian
• 17:11
  interpreter. We weren't at war with
• 17:13
  them.
• 17:14
  at that time it was always uh in in
• 17:17
  Arabic countries or something like that.
• 17:20
  Uh so model two it happened but not as
• 17:22
  intended and number three it didn't
• 17:24
  happen at all. Um the so it's a
• 17:27
  narrative that Russia created it um to u
• 17:31
  justify the next Russian strike. I don't
• 17:34
  think they got to justify any strike.
• 17:36
  Russia's been pretty solid on uh uh you
• 17:40
  know bombing the hell out of out of um
• 17:45
  out of uh all parts of Ukraine. And we
• 17:48
  we cover it fairly well here. I don't
• 17:50
  think they need to justify any of it.
• 17:52
  They're they're playing to win. And um
• 17:55
  you know uh the the Ukrainians aren't
• 18:00
  playing to defend themselves against
• 18:02
  attacking troops. they're destroying
• 18:06
  uh civilian objects or allegedly
• 18:10
  infrastructure objects inside of Russia
• 18:12
  in order to get that done. And uh you
• 18:15
  know that's the last of what they have.
• 18:17
  So, you know, e either way you could
• 18:20
  justify which, you know, anything that
• 18:23
  either side is doing, but take take the
• 18:26
  attack on the residents as I I believe
• 18:29
  it happened, you know, that they did do
• 18:31
  this because it's a there's always been
• 18:33
  a history of this type of stuff,
• 18:35
  especially from the Ukrainian side. And
• 18:37
  uh uh you know, I don't I don't I have
• 18:41
  zero faith that their commanders aren't
• 18:44
  targeting these types of things. They
• 18:46
  are some brutal folks over there. Um
• 18:50
  so let's talk about the uh
• 18:55
  um
• 18:57
  the the next part of it, right? It's um
• 19:00
  if you talk about this secrecy breach
• 19:05
  um it isn't that
• 19:09
  um
• 19:11
  you know the targets
• 19:13
  are perceived as a command center for
• 19:15
  the nuclear triad. So, a guy named
• 19:18
  Arastovich, I've talked about him
• 19:19
  before, he talks about the of the
• 19:22
  commander of the armed forces in the
• 19:24
  nuclear triad, then under any nuclear
• 19:27
  doctrine, the duty officer doesn't get
• 19:29
  to assume it's a harmless target. Right?
• 19:31
  He's describing the decision pressure
• 19:34
  created by attacking command and control
• 19:36
  infrastructure. This was also an
• 19:38
  interesting argument that he came up
• 19:40
  with. Even a conventional drone swarm
• 19:42
  could create a nuclear adjacent crisis
• 19:45
  if the target reads it as a strategic
• 19:47
  command center. Right? So if you call it
• 19:49
  a strategic command center, this could
• 19:52
  be quite a bit more dangerous than just
• 19:54
  another drone attack. You know, I mean
• 19:55
  drone attacks happen every day, you
• 19:57
  know, several hundred a night, you know,
• 20:00
  missiles of 10, 20 a night, you know,
• 20:02
  and then all these uh these things. It's
• 20:05
  about how these are interpreted at the
• 20:07
  top. And Aristovich says that uh you
• 20:11
  know
• 20:13
  they call it um uh when it gets personal
• 20:17
  humiliating
• 20:19
  flexibility drops and payback is
• 20:21
  mandatory. So attacking the Russian
• 20:25
  presidential residence
• 20:27
  uh means that you will there will be
• 20:30
  repercussions one way or the other
• 20:33
  whether they're fake or not. It's going
• 20:34
  to happen. And um so
• 20:39
  it it will occur and so what retaliation
• 20:42
  looks like we don't know. Lavrov said uh
• 20:46
  is that a and the only part I heard was
• 20:48
  he's saying that a retaliation is
• 20:50
  planned targets are being uh selected
• 20:54
  but Russia will not withdraw from
• 20:56
  negotiations.
• 20:58
  And that's according to multiple sources
• 20:59
  Reuters included. And uh so the there's
• 21:03
  a you know a couple other rumors
• 21:05
  potential strikes on Ukrainian
• 21:07
  governmental buildings and uh activity
• 21:10
  around Capinar and Arashnik speculation.
• 21:14
  I don't know if I said this um but
• 21:18
  there's big news going around Russia
• 21:20
  that the Arashnik which you remember
• 21:22
  from what was that October love 24 I
• 21:27
  don't remember November maybe it was a
• 21:29
  little more than a year ago that the
• 21:32
  archnic
• 21:33
  those big strikes from that um very
• 21:37
  powerful weapon occurred. Well, there's
• 21:40
  been big news this year that uh the
• 21:44
  Arashnik is in production now and is uh
• 21:48
  slated to be uh fielded will be fielded
• 21:53
  for 2026.
• 21:55
  And so we need to watch for this now
• 21:58
  because uh there's there's all kinds of
• 22:00
  talk that that's going to happen. And uh
• 22:04
  I mean none of that is confirmed
• 22:06
  mainstream, but this is a a watch list.
• 22:08
  What are we going to watch for? We're
• 22:10
  going to watch for symbolic reciprocity.
• 22:12
  You aim at a leadership space. We can
• 22:14
  aim at one, you know, command and
• 22:16
  control targeting. We we're going to
• 22:19
  target telecom intelligence power nodes,
• 22:22
  you know, like they're doing anyway. And
• 22:24
  negotiation,
• 22:26
  uh, leverage strikes, calibrated
• 22:28
  punishment that says we can hit deeper
• 22:30
  anytime we like. Um, and here's the key.
• 22:34
  If Russia believes that somebody leaked
• 22:36
  the location, the retaliation might be
• 22:40
  designed less for Ukraine and more as
• 22:42
  messaging to the West, right? So, um I I
• 22:48
  I don't know what I'd necessarily
• 22:51
  believe on that, you know, but uh this
• 22:53
  attack has been a big topic for
• 22:56
  discussion. It's something to follow
• 22:58
  some more today and to discuss further.
• 23:01
  I wanted to give a a quick review of
• 23:07
  um where is it of the um any latest
• 23:13
  news.
• 23:16
  Um there was another article that came
• 23:20
  out that said uh the goal according to
• 23:26
  uh
• 23:27
  um quite a few places K's attempt to
• 23:31
  strike the official residence of Putin
• 23:34
  was an attempt to undermine
• 23:36
  peace talks is what most people are
• 23:39
  saying. And so again and they tell what
• 23:42
  it is. Um, Ukraine's uh, let's see, the
• 23:47
  attempted assault was an act of
• 23:48
  terrorism aimed at derailing the
• 23:51
  negotiations
• 23:52
  and not just President Putin personally.
• 23:56
  Um this was uh uh Dimmitri Pescov that
• 24:00
  said that um
• 24:04
  the you know this I told you about the
• 24:06
  Christmas address where every Ukrainian
• 24:08
  citizens wish for the holiday was death
• 24:12
  to him understood to be you know Putin
• 24:16
  we wish death to him and joy to
• 24:18
  everybody else basically. So uh
• 24:21
  according to uh uh Pescov he said this
• 24:24
  was directed against Trump against his
• 24:26
  efforts to facilitate peaceful
• 24:28
  resolution of uh the Ukraine conflict.
• 24:30
  He said and uh
• 24:36
  I don't know he said that Trump was very
• 24:38
  angry. You know we already covered that
• 24:39
  part and there's been other foreign
• 24:41
  leaders that have come out and said some
• 24:44
  things. The UAE and uh a couple other
• 24:49
  countries have strongly condemned the
• 24:52
  kamicazi drone attack targeting the
• 24:54
  residents of uh President Putin. Uh the
• 24:57
  UAE has strongly condemned the attempt
• 25:00
  to target the residents of his
• 25:01
  excellency Vladimir Putin, president of
• 25:05
  the Russian Federation, and denounced
• 25:07
  this deplorable attack and the threat it
• 25:10
  poses to security and stability, said
• 25:12
  the UAE Foreign Ministry.
• 25:15
  And then the co-presidents of Nicaragua,
• 25:19
  Daniel Ortega and Rosario Marila, sent a
• 25:22
  letter to Putin and expressed their most
• 25:24
  active solidarity in the face of the
• 25:27
  terrorist attack by Ukraine. It is only
• 25:30
  logical that fascism behaves in this
• 25:33
  way, attempting to nullify strength of
• 25:36
  conversations that seek to bring peace
• 25:39
  closer, they wrote. Moscow warns that
• 25:42
  the response will be blah blah blah. Um
• 25:46
  will not be diplomatic and uh blah blah.
• 25:49
  We've already heard that part. Um
• 25:52
  Russian lawmakers uniformly condemn the
• 25:54
  attack as state terrorism in a
• 25:56
  deliberate attempt to disrupt the peace
• 26:00
  process.
• 26:01
  So plenty of news on that and who knows
• 26:06
  but continue watching. Um, I don't think
• 26:09
  the peace talks are going to get
• 26:10
  anywhere anyway, as we discussed
• 26:13
  yesterday. Um, and on that, you know, I
• 26:17
  I watched uh over the weekend a uh an
• 26:22
  interesting
• 26:24
  um
• 26:25
  kind of a documentary show and it it was
• 26:29
  pretty good. And basically it went
• 26:33
  through the states of of money. And
• 26:36
  again, I I've I've followed this up and
• 26:39
  I've followed it fairly closely. I talk
• 26:41
  here on this uh program quite a bit
• 26:43
  about bricks and quite a bit about the
• 26:46
  mistakes that uh America is making.
• 26:49
  Well, the entire West, but but us
• 26:52
  started started, you know, long ago with
• 26:55
  this lecturing the rest of the world.
• 26:58
  this is what we do as if there's only
• 27:01
  one um
• 27:04
  important country in the world. You know
• 27:06
  what I mean? And and you know I I do
• 27:10
  does do I think that our country is the
• 27:12
  most powerful and we have a beautiful
• 27:14
  country and we are you know we we have
• 27:17
  high ideals you know us regular
• 27:20
  Americans. Our government doesn't share
• 27:22
  those ideals though unfortunately.
• 27:25
  [snorts] Um I don't believe they do. the
• 27:28
  the bulk of government. I I have very
• 27:31
  little respect for most government
• 27:33
  employees, you know, because I I always
• 27:36
  said stuff that, you know, those who who
• 27:39
  can do those who cannot, you know, join
• 27:42
  join the government service cuz, you
• 27:44
  know, you can't be fired, you know, you
• 27:45
  can't be touched. It's easy. And uh you
• 27:48
  know, politicians I I I I have even less
• 27:51
  respect for. It's a you know, popularity
• 27:54
  contest. And uh you know when I read
• 27:57
  stories like um was it Mitch McConnell
• 28:00
  that wrote the book or you know his dad
• 28:02
  bought him uh you know paid for his
• 28:04
  pizza and he got his first taste being
• 28:06
  like president of his class or something
• 28:08
  and his dad bought pizza for everybody
• 28:11
  and so you know he got votes and that's
• 28:13
  how and and and then a star was born
• 28:16
  right you just you get the right people
• 28:18
  to fund you
• 28:20
  and you can do anything you know you get
• 28:22
  you use other people's money and you get
• 28:25
  the power. So, your pops backs you and
• 28:29
  and there you are. It's good stuff.
• 28:30
  Anyway, um in this uh so, so I take all
• 28:34
  of this crap with a grain of salt when
• 28:36
  it comes to the rest of the stuff cuz I
• 28:37
  don't trust any of them. You know what I
• 28:39
  mean? And uh so I want to talk about and
• 28:42
  I've been following for a while the
• 28:44
  bricks and the decline of the opinion of
• 28:47
  the rest of the world. And maybe it's
• 28:49
  always been this way and I just didn't
• 28:52
  realize it as much when I traveled. You
• 28:54
  would notice it if you travel and I've
• 28:56
  said this several times that when you
• 28:58
  travel uh and have been to as many
• 29:00
  places as I have and you're as uh open
• 29:03
  as uh I am with people when I travel, I
• 29:06
  want to find things out. I want to find
• 29:08
  out about their country, their culture,
• 29:11
  how they live, these type of things. And
• 29:13
  and not just Russia. I' I'd like to do
• 29:15
  it everywhere. I regret that I haven't
• 29:17
  been able to go to Ukraine. Hell, I'd be
• 29:19
  afraid to go there now because of my my
• 29:22
  less than u favorable opinions of the
• 29:25
  government over there. Although the
• 29:26
  people, the Ukrainians that I know are
• 29:28
  fantastic, you know, and I do know good
• 29:30
  number of them. But this I I have very
• 29:34
  little respect for how this stuff works
• 29:37
  and uh and what has been going on with
• 29:40
  Europe stirring the pot, America
• 29:42
  stirring the pot, pushing Russia through
• 29:45
  uh through expansion of NATO and all of
• 29:48
  that over the last uh more than 30
• 29:51
  years. And uh one of the things I've
• 29:55
  been following as all of you know is the
• 29:58
  uh seizure of money by uh
• 30:03
  by uh you know the EU and Ursula
• 30:07
  Lefanderines of the world are trying to
• 30:09
  seize all of Russia's money and they've
• 30:12
  frozen it. they've taken it and and I I
• 30:15
  saw this this and I'm going to share a
• 30:18
  little bit if I can find the original
• 30:22
  transcript cuz I have it and I wanted to
• 30:26
  share a little bit of this um story
• 30:32
  because let's see we're going to share
• 30:34
  like
• 30:36
  um I I'll share probably
• 30:40
  the first the first few paragraphs of it
• 30:43
  at least. Okay. And Europe seized $15
• 30:49
  billion from Russia to fund Ukraine. And
• 30:53
  in response, Russia nationalized
• 30:57
  $120 billion in European corporate
• 31:00
  assets. And these were from places like
• 31:02
  Volkswagen, Shell, Seammens, you know,
• 31:06
  large companies. Remember me? Uh, I
• 31:09
  don't know if you've watched or listened
• 31:11
  to me all that long, but I've been doing
• 31:14
  this now for gez a while. Uh, both in
• 31:17
  Russian and in English. And I I would
• 31:20
  always talk about um um what happened in
• 31:25
  Russia, you know, when I when I went
• 31:26
  there uh 3 four years ago,
• 31:30
  they had McDonald's. You know, there
• 31:32
  were McDonald's everywhere. And now they
• 31:35
  are not McDonald's. They are etoska
• 31:38
  which means uh tasty period and your
• 31:42
  Starbucks coffee is now star coffee
• 31:45
  although bean arts is much better than
• 31:48
  Starbucks and no doubt and the food is
• 31:51
  10 times better and the the coffee is
• 31:54
  fantastic and they're all over all over
• 31:57
  Russia beanards and uh they have a
• 32:00
  couple other ones too that are really
• 32:01
  really good but there is still Starbucks
• 32:03
  and the Starbucks were we're everywhere
• 32:06
  But now Starbucks isn't Starbucks over
• 32:08
  there. It's Star. So basically, they
• 32:11
  nationalized all of this. So imagine you
• 32:14
  own several Starbucks franchises and you
• 32:17
  go over there and America says, "Oh, you
• 32:20
  know what we're going to do? We're going
• 32:21
  to uh isolate Russia and everybody's u
• 32:26
  you know forced." And they're not really
• 32:28
  forced, but they're uh through politics,
• 32:31
  through uh cancel culture, they're told,
• 32:34
  "Russia is the enemy.
• 32:37
  Leave, you know, oh jeez, it's so
• 32:39
  dangerous to go to Russia." And you hear
• 32:40
  crap like that. And uh so what was
• 32:43
  happening was
• 32:45
  what happened to to McDonald's to become
• 32:48
  Fuska.
• 32:49
  Some people came over, they sold it to
• 32:51
  other investors. Okay? They sold um star
• 32:56
  Starbucks assets. They seized them all
• 33:00
  and sold them. That's what Russia did.
• 33:03
  They took them and and and and and it
• 33:06
  was selective, you know, which ones they
• 33:07
  took, which ones they didn't. But it
• 33:09
  happened with Seammens, Volkswagen,
• 33:11
  Shell, and they had been investing for
• 33:13
  30 years since and since since the uh I
• 33:17
  interviewed with Shell years ago and
• 33:19
  they wanted me to go overseas um you
• 33:21
  know when I was getting out of the
• 33:22
  military in the '9s. I lived in
• 33:23
  Washington DC when I was getting out and
• 33:26
  I could have maybe should have stayed
• 33:28
  and [laughter] you know hindsight 2020,
• 33:31
  right? But uh I could have and should
• 33:33
  have uh maybe gone over to Russia,
• 33:36
  right? and hung out over there cuz cuz
• 33:38
  but Russia was kind of a mess then. as a
• 33:41
  little bit uh you know I would have not
• 33:44
  taken my family there in those days you
• 33:46
  know I had younger children at the time
• 33:48
  and uh but they've spent 30 years
• 33:50
  western corporations have spent 30 years
• 33:54
  growing uh business models growing uh
• 34:00
  I don't know supply um supply lines
• 34:04
  building a brand I mean 30 years of
• 34:07
  investment gone because of a political
• 34:10
  deal. Shell lost 30 years of investment,
• 34:16
  plenty of future
• 34:18
  uh exploitation of Russian
• 34:21
  um oil and gas, you know, um you know,
• 34:27
  this was just the opening move was
• 34:30
  Europe getting this smart idea. You
• 34:33
  know, they thought that they were
• 34:35
  wielding a weapon. You know, the idea
• 34:37
  was just wrong in principle cuz they
• 34:40
  fundamentally
• 34:41
  they just completely misunderstood
• 34:45
  who had more to lose whether it was
• 34:48
  Russia or whether it was Europe and they
• 34:51
  had the serious problem of thinking that
• 34:55
  uh they were in charge.
• 34:58
  They thought they were wielding the
• 35:00
  financial weapon because they own the,
• 35:03
  you know, the West controlled the IMF,
• 35:06
  controlled the swift banking system,
• 35:09
  controlled insurance and shipping and
• 35:13
  all of this controlled with West.
• 35:16
  Everything was paid for in dollars. And
• 35:19
  instead, they handed Russia a road map
• 35:22
  for destroying European economic
• 35:25
  credibility. That's what they did. And
• 35:28
  Russia didn't just follow this road map.
• 35:30
  They have improved upon it. And it is
• 35:33
  now rushing upon us these these
• 35:36
  alternate uh financial streams and and
• 35:40
  many many many more countries are
• 35:42
  looking at it not just because of bricks
• 35:44
  but because of alternate structures
• 35:46
  altogether. And so let's go back to
• 35:49
  February 2024. Brussels
• 35:52
  was uh you know under enormous pressure
• 35:55
  and the war in Ukraine was in its third
• 35:58
  year and Ukraine needed more money.
• 36:00
  European voters are you know were
• 36:02
  rioting. They don't want to give more
• 36:04
  checks. They don't want to give more
• 36:06
  money. And then Brussels had this
• 36:08
  brilliant idea to uh uh you know take
• 36:11
  this 105 billion in assets and European
• 36:14
  financial institutions and central bank
• 36:17
  reserves, sovereign wealth funds,
• 36:19
  investment accounts just sitting there.
• 36:22
  They're frozen. Why not seize them? Use
• 36:24
  them to fund uh Ukraine. Punish Russia
• 36:27
  at the same time. No domestic tax, you
• 36:31
  know, we don't have to increase taxes.
• 36:33
  we don't have to, you know, legally
• 36:35
  justify it. You know, that's a huge
• 36:38
  mistake. But they didn't justify it.
• 36:40
  They just froze the assets during this
• 36:43
  conflict. And so, um, confiscating is
• 36:47
  unprecedented, but European lawyers
• 36:50
  found a pathway and the announcement
• 36:52
  came in March of 2024. They would be
• 36:55
  seized and transferred to Ukraine for
• 36:57
  reconstruction. And there and the
• 36:58
  initial reaction was pretty triumphant.
• 37:01
  European leaders were all happy.
• 37:03
  financial newspaper said it was bold. Uh
• 37:06
  Ukraine celebrated, of course, and and
• 37:08
  it was simple. Russia's going to pay for
• 37:11
  its own war with money that it can't
• 37:14
  defend because it's held outside of
• 37:17
  Russia. And it looked like a great, you
• 37:19
  know, a great idea. But then guess what
• 37:21
  happened?
• 37:25
  three moves so devastating, you know,
• 37:28
  Russia announced number one that it was
• 37:30
  nationalizing all European corporate
• 37:33
  assets on Russian territory. Not
• 37:36
  suspending operations, not a temporary
• 37:38
  seizure, but permanent nationalization.
• 37:41
  And the value of all this, just the
• 37:44
  assets, $120 billion,
• 37:47
  more than Europe had taken. So, uh,
• 37:50
  Volkswagen had been operating in Russia
• 37:53
  since the '9s. They built factories.
• 37:55
  They developed supply lines. They had
• 37:57
  workers. Billions invested. And in many
• 38:00
  cities, uh, VW plants are the largest
• 38:03
  employers. Thousands of jobs, you know,
• 38:06
  everything gone. And the Russian
• 38:08
  government took their factories, their
• 38:10
  equipment, intellectual property,
• 38:12
  everything. And these Russian
• 38:14
  subsidiaries just simply ceased to exist
• 38:17
  as German companies. They didn't exist
• 38:20
  anymore. And Seamans, same thing. They
• 38:23
  had built power infrastructure across
• 38:25
  Russ Russia rail systems, industrial
• 38:28
  equipment. Russia didn't just take the
• 38:30
  assets, they took the maintenance
• 38:32
  contracts, too. Nothing was allowed to
• 38:35
  uh stay. Spare parts, service
• 38:37
  agreements, you know, all of this. Shell
• 38:39
  had it even worse. Major stakes in
• 38:42
  Russian energy projects, Sakalene 2,
• 38:44
  Arctic LNG, joint uh ventures with
• 38:48
  Gazprom worth billions, and Russia
• 38:50
  nationalized it all. Shell went from an
• 38:53
  equity partner to nothing and they never
• 38:56
  got a penny for it. Nothing. Just taken.
• 39:00
  And uh lots and lots of companies, not
• 39:02
  just these ones, but plenty more.
• 39:05
  Midsize manufacturers, service
• 39:06
  providers, all of their uh Russian
• 39:09
  operations um were just confiscated.
• 39:13
  Danon lost uh dairy plants. Carlsburg
• 39:16
  lost breweries. Um, I can't remember
• 39:18
  what the name of the breweries were, but
• 39:20
  when I was over there last time, the uh
• 39:22
  old Carlsburg beer breweries are called
• 39:24
  something else. And I wish I could
• 39:26
  remember what it was. I wanted to try
• 39:27
  one of their beers, and they
• 39:28
  nationalized a beer and had different
• 39:31
  factories, and the list goes on and on
• 39:33
  of what it is. So, uh, you know
• 39:37
  what they did with these things is if
• 39:39
  there weren't oligarchical people inside
• 39:43
  of Russia that wish to buy the asset,
• 39:47
  then Russia was selling them to Chinese
• 39:52
  companies at large discounts. Think
• 39:55
  about that.
• 39:57
  Russia's been tired trying to take over
• 39:59
  the world and expand everywhere. And I I
• 40:01
  don't mean that, you know. I don't
• 40:04
  They've been trying to be a trade an
• 40:06
  active trade person everywhere and they
• 40:09
  have been and now they are everywhere in
• 40:12
  Russia. Their visas are open. There's a
• 40:15
  huge interchange between uh it's now
• 40:19
  more favorable for them to go to Russia
• 40:21
  than to come to America. You know, they
• 40:24
  they're thought of poorly here in many
• 40:26
  many instances, right? and uh you know
• 40:29
  with oh gez they're buying uh they're
• 40:32
  buying property over here it doesn't
• 40:33
  look good for them right uh so these
• 40:36
  corporate losses were pretty staggering
• 40:38
  because you know they they sold these to
• 40:41
  to you know China other countries and
• 40:44
  they've given huge market positions
• 40:47
  factories that already existed they've
• 40:50
  given them up and uh to to China so
• 40:57
  here's how it began, you know, how how
• 41:00
  these
• 41:02
  um
• 41:04
  moves and counter moves have destroyed
• 41:08
  what uh they were trying to create, you
• 41:13
  know, create. So, I mean, think about
• 41:15
  this. It's um
• 41:19
  the names that matter, you know, the big
• 41:21
  ones, Volkswagen, Seaman's, Dan and
• 41:24
  Carlsberg, and uh you know, Russia
• 41:27
  reallocated all of these things. And you
• 41:30
  know, these frozen reserves that have
• 41:33
  been frozen and Russia still says you
• 41:35
  take it, it's theft. Because those are
• 41:38
  sovereign assets. They're not
• 41:39
  privatized. They're not private assets.
• 41:42
  They're Russian money. But Russia took
• 41:45
  private assets and just said, "Sorry,
• 41:47
  you can't operate here anymore. Whatever
• 41:50
  licenses you have to operate are canled.
• 41:53
  Your people must leave. We've
• 41:55
  nationalized everything that you have."
• 41:57
  That's a totally different set of laws,
• 41:59
  right? It's uh it's what the what the US
• 42:02
  was doing against RT that I talked to
• 42:05
  told you about. They they used the
• 42:07
  confiscation processes uh in order to
• 42:10
  get to that. And so the core thesis of
• 42:13
  this isn't, you know, poor Europe, oh
• 42:15
  gee, poor Europe, they've lost a bunch
• 42:17
  of stuff. It's
• 42:19
  the the the thought process should be
• 42:23
  that the reserve currency
• 42:25
  [clears throat]
• 42:26
  of the world
• 42:28
  isn't really money at all. It's trust.
• 42:32
  And who's going to trust a dollar and
• 42:35
  eurobbased system that creates rules as
• 42:39
  it goes along? That's one of my core
• 42:41
  thesis of my own is why would anybody
• 42:45
  trust what the west is doing when the
• 42:48
  rest of the world is going what rules
• 42:50
  for rules for me but not for you of
• 42:53
  course. So once west demonstrates that
• 42:56
  sovereign reserves can be confiscated
• 42:59
  for political reasons. Everybody starts
• 43:02
  to diversify. Saudi, Singapore, even
• 43:06
  Switzerland got so so Saudi Arabia has
• 43:09
  huge amounts of uh sovereign reserves.
• 43:14
  And trust me, they've been changing
• 43:16
  who's holding them. Uh Singapore, the
• 43:19
  big financial area over there as well.
• 43:22
  Lots of lots of assets held there. And
• 43:24
  Switzerland, you know, Switzerland has
• 43:27
  been neutral since I was a kid. I mean,
• 43:29
  it's all I knew was Switzerland. Oh
• 43:32
  geez, those are the neutral people.
• 43:33
  They're not. [laughter] They
• 43:35
  participated in this seizure of of
• 43:38
  Russian money that did more damage to
• 43:40
  them. This non-neutrality
• 43:42
  has has killed them. It it well, it
• 43:45
  hasn't killed them. It'll it'll take a a
• 43:48
  a while. But the big move is is that
• 43:51
  people are diversifying. The bigger move
• 43:54
  is you know these are pushing commodity
• 43:58
  settlements toward rubles yuan rupee
• 44:01
  anything else the alternative
• 44:04
  infrastructures like SPFS China's sips
• 44:08
  you know their their exchange networks
• 44:10
  uh that are non-dollar nonswiftbased
• 44:13
  exchanges they're ex are being accepted
• 44:16
  all over the rest of the world and it is
• 44:20
  it going to change overnight nope but
• 44:22
  it's going a lot faster faster than
• 44:24
  anybody would have possibly imagined
• 44:26
  even uh you know well before 2022 that's
• 44:30
  for sure. So whether every statistic is
• 44:34
  a perfect statistic is less important
• 44:36
  than the direction that we're heading.
• 44:39
  The more that finances are weaponized,
• 44:42
  the more alternatives
• 44:45
  are attractive to everyone else.
• 44:49
  And how do you get them to come back
• 44:52
  here if there's no trust in the the
• 44:57
  system, in the dollar? There's certainly
• 44:59
  no trust in the euro, you know, with all
• 45:02
  of this talk about the the the 300
• 45:04
  billion being seized and uh oh, and and
• 45:08
  Zalinski openly saying, you know,
• 45:10
  they're going to give him a loan for all
• 45:12
  of this and uh uh he doesn't have to pay
• 45:15
  it back unless he gets reparations.
• 45:18
  Well, what about what about Donbass
• 45:20
  getting reparations for the for the uh 8
• 45:23
  years that um
• 45:26
  Ukraine bombed its own citizens, you
• 45:29
  know, and and they want it out. I don't
• 45:31
  know. Let's tie this back into the drone
• 45:34
  story. So, so if the peace process is as
• 45:38
  wobbly as it is, I believe it is, and
• 45:41
  the escalation risk is going up, well,
• 45:45
  the financial side is going to get
• 45:48
  harder as well. It's not going to
• 45:51
  soften. There's going to be more convers
• 45:53
  uh confiscations, more counter
• 45:56
  sanctions, more forced divestment of
• 45:59
  assets, more yuan, rubble, rupee
• 46:03
  settlement experimentation.
• 46:05
  So, you know, the nar narrative about
• 46:09
  these drones,
• 46:11
  it's a trigger that uh could possibly
• 46:15
  tighten every other screw at the same
• 46:17
  time, right?
• 46:20
  It's um I don't know the last 72 hours
• 46:24
  uh you know here we are at the end of
• 46:25
  the year and people are giving a lot of
• 46:28
  uh year in review uh what we expect for
• 46:32
  2026. I was talking with a couple of
• 46:34
  people yesterday about uh uh some of the
• 46:37
  things that I think are very positive
• 46:39
  about 2026. I've got some things going
• 46:42
  on in my uh in my personal life that are
• 46:45
  that are just uh fantastic. you know, I
• 46:48
  got some nightmares, too. I [laughter]
• 46:50
  mean, we all, but I'm looking forward
• 46:53
  very positively to to uh going forward,
• 46:56
  you know, and to having a good 2026, and
• 46:59
  I and I want to share it with people and
• 47:01
  uh I want to talk about it. You know,
• 47:03
  I've talked a little bit here about
• 47:05
  Civic Outlaws and keeping track of it,
• 47:07
  and I want to I want to get into that a
• 47:09
  little bit more. I'm waiting for just a
• 47:11
  few things. We got our 501c3 and we're
• 47:14
  creating this and uh our website isn't
• 47:17
  quite done, but you could go out to
• 47:18
  civicoutlaws.com
• 47:20
  and we're going to be making changes
• 47:21
  over the next month or so and it'll be
• 47:24
  ready to go. But we're we're uh we're
• 47:26
  going after government. That's what we
• 47:28
  do. You know, I'm I'm excited about this
• 47:31
  process. That's what I like anyway. I'm
• 47:34
  It's not that I'm anti-government. I
• 47:36
  think that government ought to be
• 47:38
  accountable and they never are. And so
• 47:42
  what we are creating is a mechanism to
• 47:45
  force accountability. And here in
• 47:47
  Missouri, it's particularly bad. And I
• 47:49
  do intend to do a show hopefully even
• 47:52
  this week. But I don't know. Um I I'm
• 47:54
  thinking that tomorrow might be my last
• 47:56
  day of the week. again depends on uh on
• 47:59
  a couple of things, but uh um you know,
• 48:01
  with the holidays and all that, I don't
• 48:03
  want to uh not going to go too crazy,
• 48:06
  but there's so much news going on, I
• 48:08
  couldn't decide what to uh what to talk
• 48:10
  about yesterday. And [cough]
• 48:14
  excuse me, I'm dying over here. Um I'm
• 48:17
  going to take a sip of my coffee that's
• 48:20
  getting all cool on me. Anyway, so
• 48:24
  let's talk about uh some of these other
• 48:26
  things that are going on because the the
• 48:30
  peace process is uh you know, a lot of
• 48:32
  people say it's on the brink. You know,
• 48:35
  Russia says it's not going to withdraw
• 48:37
  from talks. I told you about the girl
• 48:40
  that I uh um exchange um uh commentary
• 48:46
  and opinion with inside of Russia both
• 48:49
  in Russian and in English that uh we had
• 48:53
  a a conversation about um you know our
• 48:57
  thoughts and neither one of us are
• 49:02
  optimistic
• 49:03
  um that this is gonna and Trump wasn't
• 49:06
  even optimistic. We went through that
• 49:08
  yesterday. You know, there's very little
• 49:10
  commitment from uh anybody saying that
• 49:13
  this is going to uh be resolved any
• 49:16
  other way than uh through um through
• 49:21
  continued war, continued advancing um by
• 49:25
  the Russians. Uh there may be short-term
• 49:28
  gains. the more money you pump into it,
• 49:30
  you know, you can save them for a little
• 49:33
  bit longer, but ultimately it's uh it's
• 49:36
  it's gonna go Russia's way anyway. And
• 49:38
  so it's it's foolish to not settle this
• 49:42
  at some point. And uh you know, there
• 49:48
  Russia's not going to withdraw from the
• 49:49
  talks, but retaliate, they're going to
• 49:52
  we talked about that before. um Zalinski
• 49:56
  versus independent actors. Now you
• 49:59
  realize he's under a huge amount. There
• 50:02
  was another scandal, another two
• 50:03
  scandals um put out over the over the
• 50:06
  weekend. You know, we had the 110
• 50:08
  billion one with his uh mind who uh ran
• 50:12
  off to uh to uh Israel. And there was
• 50:16
  something going on with him in Israel,
• 50:17
  too. And I I only got to see a little
• 50:19
  bit of it. I might have to go back and
• 50:21
  look that, but apparently he was he's
• 50:23
  just living life beautifully down there.
• 50:26
  He's out at the beach, you know, have
• 50:28
  [laughter] having some uh some uh public
• 50:31
  time, you know, out and it's like
• 50:33
  nothing happened to him. He's just got
• 50:34
  his 100 million and ran away. He's
• 50:37
  multi-millionaire. And uh there were
• 50:40
  talks over here about uh sending some of
• 50:42
  the uh some Ukrainians home there. Where
• 50:46
  is that? Um,
• 50:50
  uh, let's see. Russian
• 50:53
  Zilinski's traumatized by, uh, a couple
• 50:57
  of things. Damn it, I can't find the
• 50:59
  article. I'm going to I'm going to
• 51:01
  confuse myself if I go back looking for
• 51:03
  it. So um the political angle, you know,
• 51:06
  this intelligence services that I was
• 51:08
  telling you about before, there are
• 51:10
  concerns that elements within the CIA
• 51:13
  are pursuing an agenda that is
• 51:15
  independent of Trump's agenda. And you
• 51:19
  know what that wouldn't surprise me
• 51:21
  remotely. And you know what's really
• 51:22
  funny is every show you watch I watched
• 51:26
  um Tom Cruz um
• 51:29
  whatever that is Mission Impossible 97
• 51:32
  or whatever it was the last one well the
• 51:35
  last one to come out. We'll see if he
• 51:37
  does another by the way I like them. I
• 51:39
  don't mean to make fun of him. I I I do
• 51:41
  like those movies but they're all
• 51:43
  exactly the same and they each one's
• 51:45
  this world's going to end and Tom Cruz
• 51:48
  saves it and it's no different here in
• 51:50
  this one. But in all of these movies,
• 51:52
  there's always an undercurrent that
• 51:56
  CIA,
• 51:58
  uh, secret societies, you know, people,
• 52:02
  uh, in the shadow parts of government
• 52:06
  are really running the show. I And you
• 52:09
  know what? Many of us believe that those
• 52:13
  uh, those things are
• 52:16
  maybe not absolute, but highly likely.
• 52:19
  You know, these people that are in
• 52:21
  government forever and they're unelected
• 52:23
  bureaucratic a-holes that control
• 52:27
  everything over a long term may
• 52:30
  truthfully be more powerful than a
• 52:32
  president in the four years. You know
• 52:34
  what I mean? Long term, they hold more
• 52:37
  power because all they got to do is all
• 52:40
  Marco Rubio has to do is mark time. I
• 52:42
  like Marco Rubio. I don't mean to, you
• 52:44
  know, I I like him far more than I did
• 52:46
  when he first got elected or selected by
• 52:49
  Trump. I was like, "Oh god, you know,
• 52:51
  here's another another neocon." But I,
• 52:53
  you know,
• 52:56
  I
• 52:58
  like him more than I dislike him, let's
• 53:00
  put that. But I don't trust any of this.
• 53:02
  And there's plenty of people who are
• 53:03
  going to believe that the that the CIA
• 53:06
  is doing this anyway. And there's plenty
• 53:07
  of that going around the internet.
• 53:10
  There's even um some sources that are uh
• 53:13
  you know these elements within the CIA
• 53:15
  and this separate agenda, not proven
• 53:18
  facts, stated concerns in everybody's
• 53:21
  conversation, but it's just the kind of
• 53:24
  thing that we don't have any trouble
• 53:26
  believing it. I sure don't. You know, I
• 53:28
  understand I understand how it works.
• 53:32
  you know, the the $80 toilet seat, you
• 53:35
  know, that we talked about in the '9s,
• 53:36
  the the $1,200 bag of bolts for uh the
• 53:41
  space shuttle, you know, that kind of
• 53:42
  thing.
• 53:43
  And uh so it's hard not to believe that
• 53:46
  the the uh deep state does indeed exist
• 53:49
  and it's alive and well even now even if
• 53:53
  you believe that Trump is really running
• 53:55
  the show which I'm not so positive I
• 53:58
  believe anyway. But if Moscow believes
• 54:01
  it, if if I don't know, United Arab
• 54:04
  Emirates believes it, if everybody
• 54:07
  believes that there's this deep state
• 54:10
  type of thing, they're going to act
• 54:12
  accordingly.
• 54:14
  So, this tends to destroy trust in your
• 54:18
  talks. Diplomacy is dead. There was an
• 54:20
  article I read that that that uh just in
• 54:23
  the last few days that said the same
• 54:25
  thing that the 2025 diplomacy
• 54:29
  has turned into a joke. Everything and
• 54:32
  you hear the Russians complain about it
• 54:34
  all the time. But they're not alone. The
• 54:36
  Chinese do it. Even the Japanese have
• 54:38
  started to do it. And over on the other
• 54:39
  side, India is doing it regularly. They
• 54:42
  say that uh listen, this isn't
• 54:44
  diplomacy. Diplomacy isn't posting crap
• 54:48
  on X and and telling everything, you
• 54:52
  know, airing your dirty laundry when
• 54:54
  you're getting divorced on Facebook is
• 54:56
  not the way to go, right? [laughter] You
• 54:59
  know, you practice law, you get a client
• 55:02
  coming, it's like, look, please, please
• 55:05
  eliminate Facebook. Don't take pictures
• 55:08
  of your new girlfriend, you know, with
• 55:10
  their tongue down your throat and put it
• 55:12
  publish it on Facebook. It ain't going
• 55:15
  to help
• 55:17
  Donald Trump. My biggest beef with him
• 55:20
  since 2015.
• 55:22
  I was living in Qatar making comments on
• 55:24
  my little radio podcast back then. How,
• 55:28
  you know, I I thought that he would be
• 55:30
  the best of all of those. Remember there
• 55:32
  like 17 or 18 candidates that were
• 55:36
  wanting to be president on the
• 55:38
  Republican side. And I thought, you
• 55:40
  know, there was one girl who was always,
• 55:42
  "Oh, well, who's going to be the
• 55:43
  president?" Oh, Donald Trump. And
• 55:44
  everybody laughed at her. And I was
• 55:46
  like, "No, you know what? He's got a
• 55:48
  good shot at it." Because all of us are
• 55:50
  sick of everybody else on the other
• 55:52
  side. I was pro him, but I was very much
• 55:56
  anti
• 55:58
  his continual
• 56:02
  beating up on anybody. You know, I was
• 56:04
  very much against that. I'm very much
• 56:06
  against uh diplomacy through expost, you
• 56:10
  know, diplomacy through truth social.
• 56:12
  That's crap. There there ought to be
• 56:15
  something a little more formal. And some
• 56:17
  people argue, oh no, that's a that's
• 56:20
  public commentary and people, you know,
• 56:22
  it's it's a way to speak to us all
• 56:24
  directly. No, it's not. It's an
• 56:27
  advertising space for him to justify
• 56:30
  what he wants to do in his own way. And
• 56:34
  I think it leads us to problems
• 56:35
  particularly in places like Venezuela.
• 56:38
  Okay. And particularly because he tends
• 56:42
  to change his mind like some people
• 56:44
  change their underwear, you know, and
• 56:46
  and it's uh some people I say cuz some
• 56:49
  people don't change their underwear at
• 56:51
  all. Rather not talk about that. Um but
• 56:54
  no, I'm kidding. Um but [clears throat]
• 56:56
  these the trust in America, the trust in
• 57:00
  the west has declined over years in part
• 57:03
  because of this type of thing. And if
• 57:05
  people think that uh you know like
• 57:08
  Budanov and this CIA stuff when they
• 57:10
  were talking about these independent
• 57:12
  actors versus Zalinski
• 57:16
  Zalinski not being aware that they were
• 57:18
  bombing the uh Russian president's uh
• 57:22
  facil home. Uh, that's a possibility. Or
• 57:25
  he's got his own little deep state or
• 57:28
  Lindsey Graham types, you know, hell,
• 57:31
  maybe they're all in the same group, you
• 57:32
  know, sharing this information, you
• 57:35
  know. I I wouldn't put it past Lindsey
• 57:36
  Graham ever to further the war narrative
• 57:40
  anywhere. Doesn't matter. He will for he
• 57:44
  will support war anywhere. No problem.
• 57:48
  And uh so there you know and what
• 57:50
  Restovich said uh you know he was
• 57:52
  talking about um he said Trump decide
• 57:56
  whether you control your own side you
• 58:00
  know he is one of the things one of the
• 58:02
  comments he made either you're
• 58:04
  negotiating or you're letting these
• 58:07
  little gangs sabotage the deal. You make
• 58:11
  these deals, but you're letting these
• 58:12
  little gangs sabotage it by bombing. You
• 58:15
  know, Trump, if you're in charge, stop
• 58:18
  this crap. Get them to stop this.
• 58:21
  Russia's been saying it forever. And uh
• 58:24
  allegedly, you know, the commentary that
• 58:26
  I shared at the beginning of the show,
• 58:28
  well, that allegedly was uh said on the
• 58:30
  phone call that uh uh well, it's a good
• 58:33
  thing we didn't give them tomahawks.
• 58:36
  There's been talk that these storm
• 58:37
  shadows have been uh you know sent over
• 58:40
  you know the EU provided that uh the
• 58:43
  storm shadows have been used to bomb
• 58:44
  inside of Russia. So I don't know the
• 58:47
  head of the state's location is
• 58:49
  implicated. There's only three options
• 58:51
  according to Moscow. Somebody screwed
• 58:53
  up, somebody talked or somebody wanted
• 58:55
  it known.
• 58:58
  Those are the only three options, right?
• 59:00
  If if if it's true that they were
• 59:01
  bombed. And so negotiations require
• 59:05
  predictable,
• 59:07
  you know, confidentiality. Predictable.
• 59:10
  If Moscow believes there's no
• 59:12
  confidentiality and it's been
• 59:14
  compromised, it's going to seek, you
• 59:17
  know,
• 59:18
  you know,
• 59:21
  validation through the only currency of
• 59:23
  war that anybody understands, deterrence
• 59:27
  and further um attacks, right? So,
• 59:32
  I don't know. I still got um
• 59:38
  issue with some of this.
• 59:41
  Um and by the way, you know, let's talk
• 59:43
  about the wider war that's going on
• 59:46
  already worldwide. You know, this is the
• 59:50
  part that Americans tend to miss cuz we
• 59:52
  like, you know, single cause, single
• 59:55
  things, you know, stories like this. We
• 59:57
  don't like to frame this as anything a
• 1:00:01
  larger picture. We want to call what's
• 1:00:03
  going on in Venezuela just um just uh
• 1:00:09
  narot trafficking. You know, that's
• 1:00:11
  that's what's going on there. This is
• 1:00:13
  this is policing. We're just policing
• 1:00:15
  policing the bad guys. This is not a
• 1:00:17
  war. But this is a stack of wars. the
• 1:00:20
  battlefield, the diplomacy, lack
• 1:00:22
  thereof, the economic endurance, war for
• 1:00:25
  public
• 1:00:28
  um I don't know public leaning. And if
• 1:00:32
  you don't understand that, you're going
• 1:00:34
  to misread everything that happened this
• 1:00:36
  past week, including the 91 drone strike
• 1:00:40
  and the nationalization property.
• 1:00:43
  Whether you buy the politics or not,
• 1:00:46
  the architecture, the messaging is that
• 1:00:49
  that you think it's Ukraine versus
• 1:00:52
  Russia.
• 1:00:53
  It isn't and it never has been. It is
• 1:00:57
  Russia against the system.
• 1:01:00
  It is, you know, I have arguments with
• 1:01:03
  other people about this that uh uh you
• 1:01:06
  know, it's been Trump against the system
• 1:01:09
  as well. if he wants to keep that, he's
• 1:01:12
  going to have to do something about this
• 1:01:14
  BS going on in Venezuela, and he's going
• 1:01:17
  to have to keep his uh uh finger on the
• 1:01:20
  pulse of this Ukraine and Russia thing,
• 1:01:22
  and he might actually be able to pull
• 1:01:24
  this off. I still think he would prefer
• 1:01:28
  peace over um you know more war. But you
• 1:01:33
  know this
• 1:01:35
  if Zalinski really is playing him, which
• 1:01:38
  I I tend to believe, you know, Zalinski
• 1:01:41
  and and Europe are playing him or
• 1:01:44
  attempting to. Nobody plays Trump. You
• 1:01:46
  know, he allows himself to be played.
• 1:01:49
  You know, that happens. Um hang on a
• 1:01:52
  second.
• 1:01:55
  getting a little scratchy in the throat.
• 1:01:57
  Needed some now cold coffee. Um, so
• 1:02:03
  if the strike narrative is true,
• 1:02:07
  the target isn't only Putin, it is
• 1:02:10
  Trump. If you can humiliate the deal
• 1:02:13
  maker,
• 1:02:15
  you know what? And you do humiliate him
• 1:02:17
  by uh creating chaos during
• 1:02:21
  negotiations. I believe they've been
• 1:02:24
  targeting negotiations and him trying to
• 1:02:26
  lay this out and they they are all over
• 1:02:29
  Europe, all over the uh the Zalinski
• 1:02:32
  team. They have been trying to keep this
• 1:02:36
  war going if at all possible. And so
• 1:02:42
  um you know this European money problems
• 1:02:46
  uh there you know everybody knows I like
• 1:02:48
  to listen to Soliv. gave his uh he was
• 1:02:51
  given a year-end one and uh I haven't
• 1:02:53
  heard his last one. I heard his
• 1:02:55
  Christmas Day one which was a pretty
• 1:02:57
  good one. Um but his year-end framing uh
• 1:03:00
  you know everybody is now talking about
• 1:03:02
  like people do here's the end of the
• 1:03:04
  year and and Saliv talked about some of
• 1:03:07
  the same topics that I discussed and it
• 1:03:10
  was it was interesting. It's like uh he
• 1:03:13
  said let's uh let's widen this out a
• 1:03:16
  little bit because what has happened in
• 1:03:19
  the last couple three years especially
• 1:03:21
  this year has hit Europe very hard.
• 1:03:24
  Trump's America first according to Soliv
• 1:03:28
  implies that the security umbrella is
• 1:03:32
  for sale. [laughter]
• 1:03:34
  I liked that comment. Europe is left to
• 1:03:37
  choose between its endless funding for
• 1:03:39
  Kiev
• 1:03:42
  itself and its own militarization.
• 1:03:47
  And
• 1:03:48
  there isn't enough money for everything
• 1:03:50
  to go around. That's not just rhetoric.
• 1:03:53
  That's the truth. It's the core
• 1:03:55
  constraint for 2026 going forward.
• 1:03:57
  Europe can posture all day long, but
• 1:04:00
  their treasuries cannot breathe. They
• 1:04:03
  are losing their asses. Um, you know,
• 1:04:06
  Volkswagen shutting down factories in
• 1:04:08
  where was it? Dresden that I told you
• 1:04:10
  about and uh [clears throat] the war
• 1:04:12
  plan,
• 1:04:14
  you know,
• 1:04:16
  isn't helping them. And the industrial
• 1:04:18
  war reality all over the the reserves,
• 1:04:22
  ammo reserves, short war is a myth.
• 1:04:25
  There's no such thing. And it's the long
• 1:04:27
  war quote from Britain's top general.
• 1:04:30
  [snorts] Modern western forces were
• 1:04:32
  built to win fast with small quantities
• 1:04:35
  of high-end um equipment. But Ukraine
• 1:04:38
  proves that wars can go a long time. And
• 1:04:41
  what matters is stockpiles,
• 1:04:44
  industrial base, and ammunition.
• 1:04:48
  That's what matters. Well, and on the
• 1:04:50
  Ukrainian side, having enough men
• 1:04:52
  because Russia uses in a weak
• 1:04:56
  a week. This is still true. They use in
• 1:05:00
  a week what the West produces in a year
• 1:05:04
  at their current capacity. They have to
• 1:05:07
  say what what are they saying? They're
• 1:05:08
  saying it'll take them five years to
• 1:05:10
  ramp up to get to the point where they
• 1:05:13
  can keep track of uh or compete with the
• 1:05:19
  amount of weaponry, ammunition,
• 1:05:23
  missiles, everything that Russia Russia
• 1:05:26
  is all geared up to provide. And the is
• 1:05:29
  is you know we used to say stuff oh now
• 1:05:31
  we're cooking with gas Russia's been
• 1:05:33
  cooking with and Europe by the way has
• 1:05:36
  no gas [laughter] they have to buy it
• 1:05:37
  from the United States. So there you
• 1:05:39
  have it. So when you hear retaliation is
• 1:05:41
  coming, when you hear peace is close,
• 1:05:45
  remember,
• 1:05:47
  you know, sometimes the factory floor is
• 1:05:49
  getting a vote. The warehouses get a
• 1:05:51
  vote and the supply chain gets a vote.
• 1:05:54
  And Russia are far stronger than
• 1:05:56
  Ukraine's across the board. There are no
• 1:05:59
  men left, no warehouses, no supply
• 1:06:02
  chains, no factories. And uh Ukraine's
• 1:06:05
  over here begging for money again. that
• 1:06:07
  that was another part of the
• 1:06:08
  conversation over the week. So, you
• 1:06:11
  know, and the the who controls credit,
• 1:06:16
  who controls the credit for them?
• 1:06:20
  The argument is that modern financial
• 1:06:23
  capitalism stripped states of the power
• 1:06:25
  to issue money for their own development
• 1:06:28
  and push countries into borrowing from
• 1:06:30
  allegedly independent banking structures
• 1:06:34
  of the West. And then if the central
• 1:06:37
  bank is independent
• 1:06:41
  from the economic needs of the country,
• 1:06:43
  whose interests does it favor?
• 1:06:47
  I mean, seriously,
• 1:06:49
  the wests, right? You can disagree with
• 1:06:51
  this, but it matters because
• 1:06:53
  nationalization
• 1:06:55
  of multiple countries
• 1:06:58
  all over the planet, including the BRICS
• 1:07:01
  countries, and backing off of
• 1:07:04
  westernbased systems, you know,
• 1:07:08
  they're happening for a reason. And when
• 1:07:12
  the state says we are at war, property
• 1:07:16
  rights are negotiable. We talked about
• 1:07:18
  that earlier in the show. and uh they
• 1:07:20
  always will be frozen assets
• 1:07:22
  escalations, European freezes, Russian
• 1:07:25
  counters, everybody inventing new rules
• 1:07:28
  all the way along the line and they're
• 1:07:30
  creating these rule people people
• 1:07:32
  leaving to get to more stable platforms
• 1:07:34
  for more places store their money.
• 1:07:37
  [snorts] It's uh uh I don't know what
• 1:07:41
  are we going to watch in the next uh 72
• 1:07:43
  hours when the New Year's Well, we're
• 1:07:45
  going to watch the ball drop. You know,
• 1:07:47
  you know, I've been trying to figure out
• 1:07:49
  what I want to do for New Year's. I I
• 1:07:52
  truly believe I'm going to end up being
• 1:07:54
  a lameo and not doing anything.
• 1:07:56
  [laughter]
• 1:07:58
  It's so terrible. I I don't want to say
• 1:08:01
  I don't care. I do. It'd be fun to go
• 1:08:03
  out and have a little bit of fun and uh
• 1:08:05
  and do whatever, but I just don't do
• 1:08:07
  that anymore. And uh I I don't uh I
• 1:08:10
  don't care to. For the last 5 years,
• 1:08:12
  I've been in a foreign country. And uh
• 1:08:14
  so as I tell you what to watch uh for in
• 1:08:17
  the next 72 hours, retaliation patterns
• 1:08:21
  etc. what they should watch for. This
• 1:08:23
  isn't my prophecy as a pattern and I
• 1:08:26
  will keep track of it uh because I have
• 1:08:29
  to. And uh uh you know watch for
• 1:08:32
  symbolic targets being hit inside of
• 1:08:34
  Kiev um government buildings, decision
• 1:08:38
  centers, places like that. And the
• 1:08:40
  timing tied to uh whatever diplomacy
• 1:08:45
  efforts are going on. Um, retaliation
• 1:08:48
  that lands right when a negotiation
• 1:08:50
  milestone is supposed to happen like
• 1:08:54
  Russia is claiming happened with the
• 1:08:57
  attacks on the um on the Putin
• 1:09:00
  residents. Uh, messaging discipline like
• 1:09:03
  like Democrats are so good at and
• 1:09:05
  Republicans aren't too bad either. uh
• 1:09:07
  they will repeat phrases like you know
• 1:09:10
  in Russia they'll say these these
• 1:09:12
  attacks won't go unanswered
• 1:09:15
  um our targets are being selected these
• 1:09:18
  aren't emotional they're choreographical
• 1:09:20
  if retaliation comes it will come with a
• 1:09:24
  speech attached to it and so I'm
• 1:09:26
  watching for Lavough to appear and for
• 1:09:29
  this Friday's um uh Zahadava uh
• 1:09:34
  commentary you know her her two and a
• 1:09:36
  half hour and 22 plus hour uh um press
• 1:09:42
  conference which goes on every every
• 1:09:44
  week usually on Fridays not sure what'll
• 1:09:46
  happen this year so
• 1:09:49
  is this the year where the long war
• 1:09:52
  becomes the plan you know is is uh
• 1:09:57
  we all expected when Trump was u taking
• 1:10:01
  office you know oh gez he's going to end
• 1:10:04
  the war because remember when he was
• 1:10:06
  taking office. He's like, "Oh, we'll
• 1:10:08
  have it scheduled uh to be finished
• 1:10:10
  before I actually take office. It'll be
• 1:10:12
  done. We're a year in and if anything,
• 1:10:16
  we're further away from a real
• 1:10:20
  settlement than closer."
• 1:10:24
  So
• 1:10:26
  Soliv the guy that I like to watch, he
• 1:10:29
  says 2025 was the year of illusions and
• 1:10:34
  those illusions in the west were have
• 1:10:36
  ended. You know they ended
• 1:10:39
  um and economic dimensionalisms
• 1:10:43
  became unavoidable.
• 1:10:46
  Dimensionalism is probably not a word,
• 1:10:48
  but he said the the dimensions of the
• 1:10:51
  economies on a global scale, you know,
• 1:10:54
  the conflicts have become unavoidable.
• 1:10:57
  And so I don't know the the this drone
• 1:11:00
  conflict, the confiscation drama and
• 1:11:04
  long war in industrial reality is um you
• 1:11:08
  know bottom line everybody keeps asking
• 1:11:11
  who fired the shots at uh at Putin's
• 1:11:15
  house, but the bigger question is who
• 1:11:17
  can afford the next thousand?
• 1:11:20
  And it ain't Ukraine,
• 1:11:22
  you know. So, I don't know. It uh I
• 1:11:28
  could continue on that, but I'm not
• 1:11:29
  going to. I wanted to go to a couple of
• 1:11:32
  other topics that uh see if there's
• 1:11:35
  anything recent that uh
• 1:11:39
  was put out there. And there were a
• 1:11:41
  couple of uh where where is it?
• 1:11:48
  How? Damn it.
• 1:11:52
  There's uh this is just the beginning.
• 1:11:56
  Um
• 1:11:59
  German here it is here's the article I
• 1:12:01
  wanted to share with you. German arms
• 1:12:03
  exports to Ukraine, and this is Germany,
• 1:12:06
  are down significantly,
• 1:12:09
  which that's not what we're hearing, you
• 1:12:12
  know, over here, but German arm supplies
• 1:12:14
  to Ukraine dropped dramatically this
• 1:12:17
  year, and the government issued far
• 1:12:19
  fewer export licenses for arms
• 1:12:22
  manufacturers in 2025
• 1:12:24
  compared to the previous two years. In
• 1:12:27
  uh response to an inquiry, the ministry
• 1:12:30
  said that Berlin approved the export of
• 1:12:32
  weapons and other military equipment
• 1:12:35
  worth 1.14 billion to Kiev from January
• 1:12:39
  through December. The figure marks a
• 1:12:42
  nearly 8fold decline from last year's
• 1:12:45
  8.15
• 1:12:48
  billion. Since the escalation of the
• 1:12:51
  conflict in February 2022, Germany has
• 1:12:55
  been the second largest supplier of
• 1:12:57
  weapons to Ukraine,
• 1:13:00
  surpassed only by the United States. And
• 1:13:04
  according to the Economy Ministry,
• 1:13:07
  excerpts of their report were published
• 1:13:09
  by several media outlets Monday, Berlin
• 1:13:12
  has allowed uh 8.4 billion in overall
• 1:13:16
  arms exports since start of this year.
• 1:13:18
  This is a considerable decline um 2023
• 1:13:24
  um and 2024 when they did 13.3 and 12.15
• 1:13:29
  of arms respectively. And Politico sites
• 1:13:32
  internal government documents that show
• 1:13:35
  that German government planned 377
• 1:13:38
  billion expansion of its own armed
• 1:13:40
  forces over the next few years. And uh
• 1:13:44
  this move is part of a broader move
• 1:13:46
  toward uh you know much of the European
• 1:13:48
  Union uh you know being and German uh
• 1:13:51
  Friedrich Mertz has said that Germany is
• 1:13:54
  going to have the strongest conventional
• 1:13:57
  army in Europe. Does that scare anybody?
• 1:14:01
  [snorts]
• 1:14:02
  Berlin has set 2029 as the deadline for
• 1:14:05
  the Bundeswear to become war ready,
• 1:14:09
  citing an alleged Russian threat. And uh
• 1:14:13
  Putin of course says this is pure
• 1:14:16
  nonsense. And uh Lavrov described
• 1:14:19
  Germany's military push and aggressive
• 1:14:22
  statements as clear signs of
• 1:14:26
  renazification
• 1:14:28
  of Germany. That's probably a bit much,
• 1:14:31
  but I I get the sentiment.
• 1:14:34
  Um, I also wanted to share with you this
• 1:14:37
  brand new corruption here in in Ukraine.
• 1:14:42
  Here we go. And how how long is this
• 1:14:45
  article? This isn't um too long.
• 1:14:51
  So, we will
• 1:14:54
  um
• 1:14:56
  we will go ahead and share all of it
• 1:14:58
  with you.
• 1:15:00
  Ukrainian prosecutors expose yet another
• 1:15:03
  criminal scheme that uh illegally
• 1:15:06
  siphons off electricity worth millions
• 1:15:09
  of dollars from Ukraine
• 1:15:13
  Ukrainian energy. According to a
• 1:15:15
  statement by the prosecutor general's
• 1:15:18
  office on Monday, officials at the
• 1:15:21
  enterprise signed a supply contract with
• 1:15:23
  no intention of paying for the power
• 1:15:27
  they consumed. The supplier in turn
• 1:15:30
  avoided purchasing electricity through
• 1:15:33
  normal market channels and instead
• 1:15:36
  exploited technical imbalances in the
• 1:15:38
  national grid operated by uh Ukraine go
• 1:15:42
  and didn't pay for them. This led to a a
• 1:15:46
  loss of about $4 million which is about
• 1:15:49
  168 milliona
• 1:15:52
  losses for Ukrainer go from the illicit
• 1:15:55
  diversion of the money.
• 1:15:57
  The scheme reportedly included internal
• 1:16:00
  facilitation.
• 1:16:03
  A senior Ukraine Argo official with
• 1:16:05
  oversight authority is accused of
• 1:16:07
  deliberately failing to apply sanctions
• 1:16:11
  allowing the theft to continue.
• 1:16:15
  There's three participants and all three
• 1:16:18
  have been notified of their suspension
• 1:16:20
  with key evidence seized from their
• 1:16:22
  homes.
• 1:16:24
  Prosecutor statement come as Ukraine has
• 1:16:26
  been hit by a series of high-profile
• 1:16:29
  corruption scandals recently. Last
• 1:16:31
  month, the country's anti-graft body
• 1:16:34
  revealed blah blah blah with Timor
• 1:16:36
  Mindick in the 100 million.
• 1:16:40
  So
• 1:16:42
  crazy.
• 1:16:43
  The New York Times says that Zalinski is
• 1:16:47
  allowing corruption to flourish.
• 1:16:52
  Vladimir Zilinsk's government sabotaged
• 1:16:55
  oversight in Ukraine state firms and
• 1:16:57
  allows hundreds of millions of dollars
• 1:16:59
  to be embezzled through longunning
• 1:17:02
  corruption schemes, says the New York
• 1:17:04
  Times.
• 1:17:06
  Since 2022,
• 1:17:09
  there's been billions poured into
• 1:17:10
  Ukraine. Um, and safeguards obviously
• 1:17:14
  are demanded, but they are not followed.
• 1:17:18
  That doesn't happen. So the paper's
• 1:17:21
  findings come as Ukraine, you know,
• 1:17:23
  again, they talk about all these huge uh
• 1:17:26
  huge
• 1:17:28
  um
• 1:17:30
  scandals and they're constant. The
• 1:17:33
  energy ministry inserted a favored
• 1:17:36
  candidate onto the board of Ukraine in
• 1:17:38
  2021 and later used a deadlock vote to
• 1:17:42
  fire the chief of Vladimir Kudritzki.
• 1:17:45
  uh prompting foreign ministry
• 1:17:48
  members to uh resign in protest. Um
• 1:17:52
  there's another corruption story that uh
• 1:17:56
  corrupt Ukrainian officials could have
• 1:17:59
  bagged over 100 billion in Western aid.
• 1:18:04
  Remember that story that was put out by
• 1:18:06
  Nikolai Azarov?
• 1:18:09
  And uh it's
• 1:18:11
  it ain't going away. these uh
• 1:18:14
  allegations are not going to disappear.
• 1:18:18
  They're just not.
• 1:18:21
  And uh let's see where else are we going
• 1:18:24
  to go today. I wanted to go to one of
• 1:18:27
  the opinions.
• 1:18:30
  Um there was an interesting um
• 1:18:36
  um story. Well, there's a couple of them
• 1:18:39
  and uh one of them is a kind of an
• 1:18:43
  eastern interpretation of the Epstein
• 1:18:46
  files. Epstein Epstein.
• 1:18:48
  And uh there was another one about uh
• 1:18:53
  um Zalinski being traumatized by his
• 1:18:57
  February meetings with Trump. Remember
• 1:18:59
  those? And how horrible they went. Um
• 1:19:03
  and then NATO
• 1:19:05
  Mark Rut is trying to invoke history
• 1:19:08
  against Russia,
• 1:19:10
  you know, and uh in an in an effort,
• 1:19:13
  everybody says in this opinion page to
• 1:19:16
  uh to uh point them away from from the
• 1:19:21
  scandals that are rocking all over
• 1:19:25
  Ukraine and NATO because NATO is the one
• 1:19:29
  pumping the money in there in the EU is
• 1:19:32
  pumping the money there. So, it's
• 1:19:34
  important to understand that. So, I'm
• 1:19:36
  trying to decide maybe I'll um um
• 1:19:41
  add maybe I'll be able to do them both.
• 1:19:43
  Let's go ahead and get one of them going
• 1:19:45
  and see if I can finish it. Where is it?
• 1:19:49
  Here's one on Starmer. Haven't heard
• 1:19:52
  much about him lately, have we?
• 1:19:55
  >> [snorts]
• 1:19:55
  >> And uh it's a bit of a
• 1:19:59
  long article and I did want to get into
• 1:20:03
  a little bit about Iran. And I am not an
• 1:20:07
  expert on Iran, but I I met and became
• 1:20:11
  friends with several Iranians
• 1:20:15
  when I lived in Qatar. And I thought
• 1:20:17
  they were
• 1:20:19
  fantastic people, you know, they were uh
• 1:20:23
  or I mean ordinary like us. I mean, same
• 1:20:27
  thing. They're very um interesting
• 1:20:31
  people, you know, and uh and I don't
• 1:20:34
  have any preconceived notions about
• 1:20:36
  them. People are people regardless where
• 1:20:38
  it came from. So, I would like to share
• 1:20:40
  that article, too. But um I want to talk
• 1:20:43
  about the Starmer regime that is
• 1:20:46
  allegedly turning Britain into a police
• 1:20:48
  state. So, the UK is witnessing the
• 1:20:52
  largest and most significant prison
• 1:20:54
  hunger strike. Anybody heard about this?
• 1:20:58
  Since 1981,
• 1:21:00
  since the beginning of November, eight
• 1:21:03
  activists in pre-trial detention for
• 1:21:06
  standing up against Gaza genocide, have
• 1:21:09
  been protesting against Israel's mass
• 1:21:13
  murder, they call it. And I I think it's
• 1:21:16
  BS, you know, what they're doing over
• 1:21:17
  there. I think it's, you know, way
• 1:21:20
  overboard. But but that's me. [snorts]
• 1:21:23
  Um, and I don't know enough about it in
• 1:21:25
  order to uh offer uh I'll offer you my
• 1:21:28
  opinion, but I won't offer you know I
• 1:21:31
  won't tell you [laughter]
• 1:21:33
  find out for yourself what you choose to
• 1:21:35
  believe on that uh well like anything on
• 1:21:38
  your on your own. Um but you know
• 1:21:41
  Britain according to these people that
• 1:21:44
  are uh hunger striking are complicit and
• 1:21:47
  uh you know they've been these people
• 1:21:50
  are have been abused and they're treated
• 1:21:53
  poorly [snorts] by the same infamous
• 1:21:56
  legal and incarceration system that used
• 1:21:58
  to torture Julian Assange on behalf of
• 1:22:01
  the United States
• 1:22:04
  according to this author.
• 1:22:07
  So these hunger strikers demands include
• 1:22:10
  releasing documents showing how
• 1:22:12
  Britain's powerful Israel lobby has been
• 1:22:15
  influencing the government and an end to
• 1:22:18
  the absurd prescription of the activist
• 1:22:21
  owned Palestine action organization as
• 1:22:25
  terrorists.
• 1:22:26
  The charges against the activist refer
• 1:22:29
  to two cases. one, the breakin at the
• 1:22:33
  British branch of Israeli arms
• 1:22:35
  manufacturer and two, the infiltration
• 1:22:39
  of the Royal Air Force base to damage
• 1:22:42
  two planes with red paint and crowbars.
• 1:22:45
  So, one of these, the Elbert Systems
• 1:22:49
  facility, is one of many Israeli and
• 1:22:52
  multinational companies that are deeply
• 1:22:54
  involved in Israel's uh attacks in Gaza.
• 1:22:58
  And it's uh you know according to these
• 1:23:01
  people ceaseless crimes everywhere else.
• 1:23:05
  Um and so the UN special reporter
• 1:23:09
  Francesca Albanese has shown in her
• 1:23:11
  recent report from economy of occupation
• 1:23:15
  to the economy of genocide.
• 1:23:18
  uh British Royal Air Force
• 1:23:21
  um
• 1:23:23
  flies reconnaissance missions over Gaza,
• 1:23:26
  supports Israel there. Official denials
• 1:23:30
  insist that these operations exclusively
• 1:23:33
  serve to rescue hostages,
• 1:23:37
  but everybody says this is just
• 1:23:39
  preposterous. You know, that's not true
• 1:23:41
  at all. a guy named Matt Canard who's
• 1:23:44
  been tracking and analyzing these
• 1:23:45
  flights um concluded in addition since
• 1:23:48
  the flights are embedded in Israeli
• 1:23:50
  intelligence gathering
• 1:23:53
  the flights also make the UK an
• 1:23:55
  accomplish in that uh crime according to
• 1:23:59
  them ages ago as an undergraduate um
• 1:24:04
  you know many thought that this would be
• 1:24:07
  Britain's finest hour when the country
• 1:24:09
  faced off against a threat of invasion
• 1:24:11
  by Nazi Germany and um thousand brave
• 1:24:15
  Spitfire pilots who fought in World War
• 1:24:17
  II must now be turning in their graves.
• 1:24:21
  They defended their country against
• 1:24:23
  fascism and blah blah blah. I don't want
• 1:24:25
  to read that part of the opinion. It
• 1:24:27
  doesn't matter. What an incredible shame
• 1:24:29
  because by now some former officers of
• 1:24:32
  high rank and with uh no conscience left
• 1:24:35
  are raising their voices to demand that
• 1:24:38
  uh Britain end its self-degrading
• 1:24:40
  support for Israel. The hunger strikes
• 1:24:43
  that I'm talking about.
• 1:24:46
  I mean, how long's it been since people
• 1:24:48
  have been I mean, since you've heard of
• 1:24:50
  a of a you know, good hunger strike. So,
• 1:24:53
  the hunger strikes are facing official
• 1:24:56
  stonewalling.
• 1:24:58
  Justice Secretary David Lammy
• 1:25:02
  um ducks away from participants
• 1:25:05
  relatives.
• 1:25:08
  As always in NATO Europe, the mainstream
• 1:25:11
  media follow the government line.
• 1:25:16
  Some of the activists who are, you know,
• 1:25:19
  physically exhausted and at a high risk
• 1:25:21
  of dying suspended their hunger strikes,
• 1:25:24
  but others are continuing. Meanwhile,
• 1:25:27
  there's a good amount of public support.
• 1:25:29
  But the Star regime, why don't we hear
• 1:25:32
  about them? That's what I want to know.
• 1:25:34
  And you know, those are they they're
• 1:25:38
  very selective in who they arrest. And
• 1:25:41
  it's always anti you know if you go out
• 1:25:44
  and you protest um
• 1:25:48
  you know against Israel you'll be
• 1:25:50
  arrested but if you swapped it the other
• 1:25:53
  way around nobody's going to get
• 1:25:55
  arrested. I mean that doesn't happen
• 1:25:57
  right? It uh it it's the same over here.
• 1:26:00
  It's uh uh the unfortunate truth is that
• 1:26:04
  most of the
• 1:26:06
  um
• 1:26:08
  protesting that goes on is uh is
• 1:26:14
  target is is a good target for people to
• 1:26:17
  arrest but only on one side do the
• 1:26:19
  arrest occur. It's the same here you
• 1:26:21
  know remember Black Lives Matter we we
• 1:26:24
  have the same sorts of issues over here.
• 1:26:27
  Anyway, it was an interesting article
• 1:26:29
  with people doing their uh um their
• 1:26:35
  uh hunger strikes and I found I found it
• 1:26:38
  an interesting opinion on it, although I
• 1:26:40
  don't agree with all of it. You know
• 1:26:42
  what I mean? Um I wanted to finish up
• 1:26:46
  with and it looks like I'm not going to
• 1:26:48
  have time to finish up with it, but uh
• 1:26:51
  these um um remember me right before the
• 1:26:54
  end of uh last week um going through the
• 1:27:01
  front lines inside of Russia. Well,
• 1:27:04
  they're still progressing the same.
• 1:27:07
  there's uh been one or two attempts at
• 1:27:11
  counter strikes or uh counteratt
• 1:27:13
  attacks,
• 1:27:15
  counter um actions to push the Russians
• 1:27:19
  back while these um negotiations take
• 1:27:23
  place. They have failed miserably. They
• 1:27:25
  haven't helped at all. So, we'll follow
• 1:27:28
  up with some more on that tomorrow. And
• 1:27:31
  uh I also want to get into before the
• 1:27:33
  end of the week and before the end of
• 1:27:35
  the year our exciting
• 1:27:38
  activities regarding uh
• 1:27:43
  civic outlaws and um modern law
• 1:27:47
  ecosystem.
• 1:27:48
  And you can check out civic outlaws at
• 1:27:51
  civicoutlaws.com.
• 1:27:52
  I want to add some of that uh here in
• 1:27:55
  the certainly in the uh coming weeks.
• 1:27:58
  And we target government overreach.
• 1:28:00
  That's what we do. And I've got some
• 1:28:03
  letters I would like to share, but I
• 1:28:05
  haven't u I I'm prefer I'm waiting to
• 1:28:08
  hear about something before I before I
• 1:28:11
  take that approach. So stay tuned this
• 1:28:14
  week and hopefully we'll get some um
• 1:28:16
  further information in that regard. Um
• 1:28:19
  as always, I ask you to listen every
• 1:28:21
  morning 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. Monday through
• 1:28:25
  Friday here at damradio.com.
• 1:28:28
  You can listen to all of our old
• 1:28:30
  podcasts at damradio.com/mpodcast.
• 1:28:35
  And my show in particular is always
• 1:28:37
  uploaded to internationalflavor.com.
• 1:28:42
  So, uh, join me again tomorrow morning
• 1:28:45
  and I very much look forward to seeing
• 1:28:48
  you or hearing from you then. Have a
• 1:28:50
  nice day.