Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Oil’s War Premium, Empty Diplomacy and Ukraine’s Expanding Drone Campaign

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Oil’s War Premium, Empty Diplomacy and Ukraine’s Expanding Drone Campaign · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

• 0:00
  Hello, good morning.
• 0:00
  Welcome.
• 0:01
  I am Samuel Trapp.
• 0:02
  This is International Flavor.
• 0:05
  You are listening to DAM Radio coming to
• 0:07
  you live from the Lake Ozark Real Estate
• 0:08
  of the Art Studio.
• 0:10
  You can always listen live at damradio.com
• 0:12
  forward slash live.
• 0:14
  You can go to internationalflavor.com and get
• 0:17
  all the past episodes of this show or
• 0:19
  you can go to damradio.com forward slash
• 0:21
  podcast and get all the other great content
• 0:24
  on this radio platform.
• 0:29
  If you like music, listen all week long
• 0:33
  because there's some great music on here.
• 0:36
  Many, many decades of music and it's good
• 0:41
  stuff.
• 0:42
  Maynard, I got a couple of musical selections
• 0:44
  for you today that I'll play while I
• 0:46
  take a break and drink some coffee because
• 0:49
  that's what I like to do.
• 0:51
  If you feel like calling in, you can
• 0:53
  573-746-8020.
• 0:55
  But let's start with the fact that everybody
• 0:59
  knew, according to Hunter Biden, that Lindsey Graham
• 1:04
  was gay.
• 1:07
  Yep, that's what he said.
• 1:09
  So Washington is controlled by a closeted gay
• 1:14
  mafia made up of Republican politicians, former U
• 1:19
  .S. President Joe Biden's scandal-plagued son Hunter
• 1:24
  claims, alleging that everybody knew the late Senator
• 1:29
  Lindsey Graham was gay.
• 1:32
  The longtime Russian, Russia hawk Lindsey Graham died
• 1:36
  earlier this month at 71 from an aortic
• 1:40
  dissection.
• 1:41
  According to preliminary findings of the medical examiner,
• 1:44
  the Senator's day came a day after his
• 1:46
  return from Kiev, where he met Vladimir Green
• 1:51
  Goblin Zelensky.
• 1:54
  And there was many a scandal that they
• 1:59
  attempted to create around that fact.
• 2:02
  But so far, nothing has taken root.
• 2:06
  Biden made these remarks while discussing Republican politicians
• 2:10
  in Washington for a podcast interview released on
• 2:13
  Saturday.
• 2:15
  The son of former U.S. President Joe
• 2:17
  Biden has spent the last several years in
• 2:20
  legal trouble, publicly acknowledges his years of drug
• 2:24
  addictions.
• 2:25
  You know, in the United States, if you
• 2:27
  just claim you were addicted to drugs, this
• 2:29
  is what helps you.
• 2:31
  So if you're a lawyer, which I believe
• 2:34
  he is, and you have a drug addiction
• 2:36
  and you've got problems, they come after you.
• 2:38
  I could name a few around here that
• 2:39
  they've done it to.
• 2:40
  But all those guys got to do to
• 2:42
  get their license back is cry.
• 2:45
  Even if they steal all their money from
• 2:47
  their clients, all they got to do is
• 2:49
  cry and say, it was an addiction.
• 2:52
  And that's okay.
• 2:54
  They aren't guilty of doing anything unethical.
• 2:58
  They had a drug problem.
• 3:00
  So that excuses all kinds of stuff.
• 3:03
  And everybody always excuses Hunter Biden for that.
• 3:07
  But, you know, those who have valid arguments
• 3:11
  against the B.S. that came up to
• 3:14
  them, those aren't even listened to.
• 3:16
  Oh, no, no, no.
• 3:17
  If you just would have had a drug
• 3:18
  problem, you'd be okay.
• 3:20
  Is that bitter?
• 3:21
  Is that sour grapes?
• 3:24
  Maybe so.
• 3:26
  But that point is a valid frigging point
• 3:29
  all over the country.
• 3:30
  And all you got to do if you're
• 3:31
  Hunter Biden is claim you have a drug
• 3:33
  problem and everything is fine.
• 3:35
  Right.
• 3:36
  He also admitted he's accumulated massive debt, mostly
• 3:42
  legal fees, despite receiving a presidential pardon for
• 3:46
  federal gun and tax convictions from his father
• 3:49
  during the final days of the Biden presidency.
• 3:53
  He is pardoned.
• 3:55
  The biggest problem in America, he said, is
• 3:58
  not the oligarchy.
• 3:59
  It's the closetocracy, Biden said.
• 4:03
  Everybody knows.
• 4:05
  Here's the quote.
• 4:06
  Everybody knows there is this closeted gay mafia,
• 4:11
  largely Republican, that exists in Washington, D.C.,
• 4:15
  and everybody knows that every single one of
• 4:18
  them who's gay.
• 4:21
  Biden argued that politicians who conceal their sexuality
• 4:24
  often channel their frustration into public life.
• 4:29
  I believe that internal conflict creates so much
• 4:32
  vitriol inside a person that they take it
• 4:34
  out on the rest of the world.
• 4:36
  Well, you know what?
• 4:37
  That's a valid point.
• 4:38
  I believe that.
• 4:39
  Listen to me on Civic Outlaws tomorrow morning
• 4:42
  and you'll hear some of that from these
• 4:44
  people who like to beat up on others
• 4:47
  and that some reason that, you know, then
• 4:49
  they take they take the public life in
• 4:52
  order to do that.
• 4:53
  And the more power they get, the more
• 4:55
  they beat up on people they feel are
• 4:59
  lesser than.
• 5:00
  OK.
• 5:01
  And I despise those type of people.
• 5:03
  Sounds like me and me and Neil Hunter
• 5:05
  got something in common, right?
• 5:08
  He suggested that after spending their entire lives
• 5:13
  in the closet, these officials developed a blackened
• 5:18
  heart because they aren't able to be who
• 5:21
  they want to be and they take it
• 5:24
  out on everybody else through their policies.
• 5:28
  When asked whether Graham was among these politicians
• 5:32
  he was referring to, Biden replied, Yeah, of
• 5:34
  course.
• 5:35
  He said he liked the South Carolina Republican
• 5:38
  when I was a kid, but he said
• 5:40
  everybody knew that he was gay.
• 5:44
  After returning to the White House in 2025,
• 5:47
  U.S. President Trump prioritized combating what he
• 5:50
  calls woke bias.
• 5:53
  He signed several executive orders rolling back diversity,
• 5:56
  equity, inclusion and what he calls the radical
• 5:59
  gender ideology in the federal government.
• 6:03
  Rumors about Graham's sexuality have been circulating for
• 6:07
  years, but the senator repeatedly denied them.
• 6:11
  I ain't gay, he told the New York
• 6:13
  Times magazine in 2010.
• 6:16
  Graham represented South Carolina in the Senate from
• 6:19
  2003, building a reputation as one of Washington's
• 6:23
  most hard line foreign policy hawks.
• 6:26
  And after opposing Barack Obama's Iranian nuclear deal
• 6:30
  and repeatedly calling for strikes on Iran, he
• 6:34
  became one of Congress's fiercest Iranophobes and Russophobes.
• 6:41
  Graham repeatedly called for increased economic pressure on
• 6:45
  Moscow, threatening Russia with what he called bone
• 6:49
  crushing sanctions.
• 6:51
  In recent months, he promoted a bill that
• 6:53
  would impose 500 percent tariffs on countries purchasing
• 6:59
  Russian oil.
• 7:00
  He described U.S. military aid to Ukraine
• 7:03
  as the best money we've ever spent because
• 7:07
  the Russians are dying.
• 7:11
  That is your Lindsey Graham.
• 7:13
  According to Hunter Biden, isn't that fantabulous that
• 7:19
  Hunter can come out and call a dead
• 7:22
  guy gay?
• 7:24
  Isn't that crazy?
• 7:26
  You know, why weren't you saying this before?
• 7:29
  Why are you out there?
• 7:30
  Oh, gee, I was in the know.
• 7:31
  The guy can't defend himself now.
• 7:33
  You know what?
• 7:34
  Screw you, Hunter Biden.
• 7:36
  And I don't care if he was or
• 7:38
  wasn't.
• 7:38
  I don't like Lindsey Graham.
• 7:39
  I think he was a horrible, horrible era.
• 7:46
  And he represents a terrible era in the
• 7:50
  U.S. Senate.
• 7:51
  He's he said some evil things, which I
• 7:54
  already played.
• 7:55
  I don't think the guy was a good
• 7:56
  dude at all.
• 7:58
  He is a bully.
• 8:00
  He was a I don't know what person
• 8:05
  who thought that it's it's always got to
• 8:08
  be his way.
• 8:09
  And there's zero diplomacy in that guy.
• 8:12
  It only is military power, political power, financial
• 8:18
  power, whatever power you can come to and
• 8:22
  spread it around to other people below you
• 8:25
  to convince them to act on your behalf.
• 8:27
  So you don't have to send yourself or
• 8:30
  your family, your son, your relatives, your close
• 8:33
  people to war.
• 8:35
  You have other people do it and you
• 8:36
  fund it.
• 8:37
  I I think that's disgusting.
• 8:39
  And I had zero respect for that guy,
• 8:42
  which was reflected over this whole program and
• 8:45
  probably all the way back to my days
• 8:47
  in central Missouri at K.R.M.S.
• 8:53
  when I had that after that Saturday morning
• 8:55
  radio show called Question Everything.
• 8:58
  And I always questioned and I questioned that
• 9:00
  guy a lot because he's nothing but a
• 9:03
  you always knew what he was going to
• 9:05
  say.
• 9:05
  There was there was no question, no deviating.
• 9:08
  He was war.
• 9:10
  Doesn't matter where.
• 9:11
  Doesn't matter who.
• 9:13
  Give me war.
• 9:14
  If somebody somebody says something, you know, geez,
• 9:17
  you know, pick some some Chinaman slapped a
• 9:21
  Pakistani.
• 9:22
  Oh, geez, it's time to throw a nuclear
• 9:23
  bomb over there.
• 9:25
  We'll fix that.
• 9:27
  We'll take care of that problem for you.
• 9:30
  He that was Lindsey Graham, in my humble
• 9:34
  opinion.
• 9:34
  There's been a lot going on.
• 9:40
  So I did a bit of an analysis.
• 9:42
  Everybody I don't know if you know this
• 9:43
  about me or not.
• 9:44
  No idea.
• 9:45
  It doesn't matter if you do or don't.
• 9:46
  But I had an economics focus in my
• 9:50
  undergrad at the University of Illinois.
• 9:54
  I always whenever I say University of Illinois,
• 9:56
  I always think of Tom Cruise in that
• 9:59
  movie where he was trying to get into
• 10:02
  Princeton.
• 10:04
  I forget what the name of the show
• 10:06
  was, but where he's a kid, has a
• 10:09
  big party at his house and selling hookers
• 10:11
  at his house while his mom and dad
• 10:14
  are on vacation.
• 10:15
  And he didn't get accepted to Princeton because
• 10:17
  his appointment was during the hooker show.
• 10:19
  And he goes, looks like University of Illinois.
• 10:23
  Well, that's where I went.
• 10:25
  And so I always say that.
• 10:27
  Anyway, stupid.
• 10:29
  Let's see.
• 10:29
  But I did an economics sort of look
• 10:33
  because I was interested and probably foolishly interested.
• 10:38
  Why am I interested in this?
• 10:40
  I wanted to look at the oil prices,
• 10:43
  gasoline and what I call the 2026 wartime
• 10:49
  premium.
• 10:50
  And so my conclusion came to this.
• 10:54
  Oil in 2026 hasn't behaved like the normal
• 10:59
  commodity market.
• 11:01
  It began the year with WTI around 60
• 11:06
  dollars a barrel and Brent around 67.
• 11:12
  Then became a war and shipping market after
• 11:16
  February 28.
• 11:18
  The U.S. Israel attack on Iran and
• 11:20
  Brent's monthly average reached 117 in April and
• 11:26
  had a daily spot price of 138.21
• 11:32
  on April the 7th.
• 11:34
  Then they collapsed during de-escalation only to
• 11:38
  rise again with renewed U.S. Iran fighting.
• 11:42
  So the initial shock was the U.S.
• 11:47
  and Israel through the February 28 attack, the
• 11:50
  immediate supply disruption mechanism, Iranian retaliation, tax on
• 11:55
  shipping, impairment of the Strait of Hormuz.
• 11:59
  And then there was secondary pressure, Ukrainian attacks
• 12:01
  on Russian refineries, export terminals, commercial energy shipping.
• 12:06
  And then what happened?
• 12:08
  We have what I call an amplifier.
• 12:12
  The amplifier is future market speculation.
• 12:17
  The insurance costs, which went out of control,
• 12:20
  freight rates, which are sanctions and rapidly changing
• 12:23
  sanction waivers.
• 12:25
  Because everybody's trying to figure out, wait a
• 12:26
  minute, that doesn't work.
• 12:28
  We can't do that.
• 12:29
  And then there was a partial relief.
• 12:31
  You know, we have this partial relief valve.
• 12:34
  The Russian oil, emergency stock release and increased
• 12:37
  purchasing diversification by India, Asia, others.
• 12:43
  And whether they release, release or don't release
• 12:48
  their strategic reserves and how that played out
• 12:51
  through this entire six-month period, it's been
• 12:53
  an increasing and extremely volatile period, right, for
• 12:58
  those prices per barrel.
• 13:00
  Now, the price of gasoline is somewhat, you
• 13:05
  know, the national average in June is $3
• 13:09
  .92. And so that, you know, July the
• 13:14
  20th, it's $4.01 is the average.
• 13:18
  So I'm thinking that I thought I would
• 13:20
  put together a two-point graph line, right,
• 13:24
  and take the national monthly average through June,
• 13:29
  follow it by the latest matched pricing, and
• 13:33
  take out February because February figures where we
• 13:38
  know that Western Texas was $64.51 a
• 13:42
  barrel.
• 13:43
  Brent was $70.89 a barrel.
• 13:46
  And gas in February was an average price
• 13:50
  of $2.90 a barrel, okay?
• 13:53
  So if we go back, and here in
• 13:57
  Missouri, I paid $2.39 in February, like
• 14:00
  February 15th or something.
• 14:02
  So I've been talking about that for a
• 14:04
  little while.
• 14:05
  And so what I did was I went
• 14:06
  back and I did a, so here's the
• 14:09
  scoop.
• 14:09
  You start at Western Texas crude in January
• 14:16
  was $60 a barrel, $60.
• 14:21
  And in February, it was $70.89. Now,
• 14:27
  in January, the average price of gas around
• 14:30
  the country was $2.80, $2.80. And
• 14:34
  here in Missouri, it was around there.
• 14:37
  I remember traveling a little bit, it was
• 14:39
  around there.
• 14:42
  And I paid in either late January or
• 14:47
  early March, fill up my truck a couple
• 14:49
  times a month, I paid $2.39 in
• 14:52
  Missouri, okay?
• 14:54
  And so we had a slightly lower price.
• 14:58
  Ours is usually lower than the average, okay?
• 15:01
  We're a little lower than the average.
• 15:05
  The last place I went was Utah.
• 15:08
  And when I was in Utah a couple
• 15:10
  of months ago, it was in May sometime,
• 15:12
  their prices are significantly higher than ours at
• 15:16
  the pump.
• 15:18
  When it was here, when it was $3
• 15:20
  .40 something, there it was $4.10 already.
• 15:24
  And so they pay more out there than
• 15:29
  we pay here.
• 15:31
  Excuse me.
• 15:33
  So in January, it was $60 and $2
• 15:36
  .81. In March, it already had gone to
• 15:39
  $91 a barrel and $3.60. In April,
• 15:48
  we're at $100.32 and $4.10 national
• 15:53
  average.
• 15:54
  In May, $102 and $4.40. So they
• 15:59
  released some crude at that time, released some
• 16:02
  of the strategic reserves to help out in
• 16:05
  April and May to keep that prices low.
• 16:08
  And then every week, the old Trumpster would
• 16:11
  get on on Friday night and say something
• 16:13
  so that all his buddies could make money.
• 16:16
  And then on Monday morning, the prices had
• 16:18
  changed and all the rich folk could get
• 16:20
  richer, right?
• 16:21
  And that's how it works.
• 16:24
  And he would wait until after 4.30,
• 16:27
  after the market closed to bomb somebody or
• 16:30
  to do some damage or make some announcement
• 16:33
  that everything's going to be great.
• 16:35
  The US is seizing the straight-a-whore
• 16:37
  moves.
• 16:39
  So in May, it was at $102.
• 16:43
  In June, they had released all this stuff
• 16:45
  and it's $84.81. And in July, it's
• 16:49
  $84.38. And the average price in May
• 16:54
  for gasoline at the pump was $4.47,
• 16:57
  almost $4.48. In June, it was $4
• 17:00
  .05. And right now, it's at $4.
• 17:03
  Well, as close to now as you can
• 17:05
  get, it's $4.
• 17:07
  So January through June are monthly average prices,
• 17:14
  those prices that I gave you.
• 17:16
  And so from January to May, Western Texas
• 17:21
  rose about 70% and national gas rose
• 17:24
  about 59%.
• 17:26
  But gasoline doesn't follow crude instantaneously.
• 17:30
  You have refining costs, inventory, seasonal fuel fluctuations,
• 17:35
  and stuff like that, and transportation and retailer
• 17:38
  replacement costs.
• 17:40
  So by July 20, gas has fallen to
• 17:43
  about $0.48 from May, but it's still
• 17:46
  42% above what we're paying in January.
• 17:50
  So the official EIA spot series currently ends
• 17:54
  on July 20.
• 17:55
  So in early trading, July the 23rd, Brent
• 17:59
  had risen to about 98.16, and WTI,
• 18:04
  as it hit Western Texas, is at 89
• 18:07
  because continued fighting is impeding tanker passage through
• 18:11
  Hormuz.
• 18:12
  These are intraday market figures, you know, don't
• 18:15
  mix them with the monthly average, but 98.
• 18:19
  So it was 84 for the average in
• 18:21
  July, but we're back up to the 98
• 18:23
  right now because of the increased fighting.
• 18:26
  So then I went back and was trying
• 18:28
  to find out what I thought the anchor
• 18:29
  points would be.
• 18:31
  And so the anchor points, and you can
• 18:34
  look in the Urals, you can look, you
• 18:36
  know, there's Ural gas, or oil, I mean,
• 18:39
  and where you can get all of these
• 18:41
  things.
• 18:41
  And so the reference of Middle East comparisons
• 18:45
  and stuff like that, they use Basra medium,
• 18:51
  Iran heavy, and OPEC references, you know, instead.
• 18:54
  The Urals represents Russia's principal export grade of
• 18:58
  Ural.
• 18:59
  Okay, and over there, it's pretty funny because
• 19:01
  their gas is refined to a much higher
• 19:03
  level.
• 19:04
  You know, they buy 92, where ours is
• 19:06
  like 87 or 89, and their minimum is
• 19:10
  usually 82, and then they have, I'm sorry,
• 19:13
  92, and then they have a 94 or
• 19:15
  95 for their supers, you know, and it
• 19:18
  makes your car run cleaner than our pieces
• 19:21
  of crap over here.
• 19:22
  We don't refine as far as they do.
• 19:25
  So the January average is Western Texas 60,
• 19:30
  Brent, March average 91, April 100, May 102,
• 19:34
  June 84, and then June or July, I
• 19:38
  mean, 86 is where we are.
• 19:41
  So the Urals, at the same time in
• 19:44
  early July, has gone up from $37 in
• 19:49
  January to 73 in March, 95 in April,
• 19:53
  84 in May, and 60, back to 60
• 19:55
  in June.
• 19:56
  And it's about 55 right now, so still
• 19:59
  a good 30% higher.
• 20:01
  And then the Basra mediums are even higher
• 20:04
  than that.
• 20:04
  They're 61 back in January, they rose up
• 20:08
  to 120 in May, and now they're back
• 20:11
  down to 85, and they haven't done July
• 20:15
  yet, no average.
• 20:16
  Then the Iranian heavy is 60 in January,
• 20:23
  same price as Western Texas, basically, and now
• 20:26
  it's 98, also same price as Texas, had
• 20:29
  a rise up to about 115.
• 20:31
  And the OPEC basket, similar numbers.
• 20:35
  So this is an important contradiction in Western
• 20:38
  policy.
• 20:39
  Renewed conflict increased the demand for non-golf
• 20:42
  barrels and pushed the Urals from 55 to
• 20:45
  66, even as the EU debates continuing their
• 20:49
  $44.10 service-linked price ceiling sanctions, right?
• 20:54
  And the January sanctions market, but not yet
• 20:58
  a war market, started in January.
• 21:00
  Western Texas average was 60, we went through
• 21:03
  the numbers already, but what was happening around
• 21:05
  that time?
• 21:05
  The supply was broadly available, but sanctions, shipping
• 21:09
  restrictions, and the forced recognition of Russian exports
• 21:12
  depressed the Ural grade, and tankers connected to
• 21:17
  Russia were being seized, intercepted, attacked, including the
• 21:21
  Russian-bound Elbis in the Black Sea, remember
• 21:23
  when that happened?
• 21:25
  And then who do we blame for this?
• 21:27
  I don't know.
• 21:27
  Do we blame Western sanctions and maritime interdiction
• 21:30
  created by the large discount on Russian oil?
• 21:34
  I don't know.
• 21:35
  They hadn't yet removed the global supply, you
• 21:38
  know, it wasn't gone yet.
• 21:39
  They still had plenty coming through Hormuz to
• 21:41
  create a price explosion, you know, that hasn't
• 21:43
  happened.
• 21:44
  And so the low-quoted Urals price didn't
• 21:48
  mean Russian oil was irrelevant.
• 21:50
  It meant Russia was accepting a discount and
• 21:53
  used alternative shipping, insurance, payment, refining arrangements to
• 21:56
  keep the fuel moving, because that's what's gonna
• 21:59
  happen.
• 22:00
  It's gonna keep running.
• 22:01
  People are gonna keep making money.
• 22:03
  So that was starting in January.
• 22:05
  And then March, it was, by that time,
• 22:08
  a full war market, okay?
• 22:10
  And the initial U.S.-Israeli strike produced an
• 22:15
  immediate oil price increase of like 13 to
• 22:18
  15 percent, sharply reduced tanker movement, ships were
• 22:22
  anchoring outside the Gulf, and there was a
• 22:25
  great increase in insurance cost.
• 22:28
  And China's foreign ministry on March 1st said
• 22:31
  that U.S.-Israeli attacks during negotiations was unacceptable,
• 22:36
  violated international law, and pushed the entire Persian
• 22:40
  Gulf in a dangerous wider war.
• 22:42
  And China called for a halt in return
• 22:43
  negotiations.
• 22:44
  So who do we blame for this?
• 22:46
  The first causal act in this price shock
• 22:49
  was the U.S. and Israel decision to
• 22:52
  attack Iran.
• 22:54
  That's what it was.
• 22:57
  Yep.
• 22:58
  And Iran's retaliation, the resulting danger to commercial
• 23:01
  shipping, transformed the military action, which was supposed
• 23:06
  to be quick, short, brief, into an oil
• 23:09
  supply crisis, okay?
• 23:12
  Now, you could blame only Washington for this,
• 23:15
  and a lot of us do.
• 23:17
  But once Iran began attacking and obstructing shipping
• 23:21
  lanes, those independently created, you know, enlarged this
• 23:27
  price shock, regardless of who initiated the conflict.
• 23:31
  So the trouble is, is the world is
• 23:34
  no longer in a restrained sort of war.
• 23:38
  You realize that previously people, well, commanders, generals,
• 23:44
  war was not intended to destroy the lives
• 23:50
  of the people not fighting the war.
• 23:53
  You know, the shift in this is something
• 23:56
  that everybody's going, fine, screw them all, you
• 23:59
  know, screw, screw, we're not, we're not, we're
• 24:02
  not, it's gonna sound crazy, but it's not
• 24:05
  principled, task-based warfare.
• 24:09
  Everything has turned strategic.
• 24:12
  So there's no tactical, there's no tactics, it
• 24:14
  doesn't matter.
• 24:15
  So I told, talked to you yesterday about
• 24:18
  the difference between Sierski and that Fyodorov, and
• 24:22
  Fyodorov being the foreign minister, and Sierski being
• 24:26
  the war general.
• 24:28
  And the difference is strategy, basically, versus tactical.
• 24:35
  You have your tactics, and then you have
• 24:37
  your strategy.
• 24:38
  And now the strategy is, destroy the entire
• 24:42
  country of the other guy.
• 24:45
  And we, as Americans, never used to think
• 24:48
  that way.
• 24:49
  And now we're advertising it all over social
• 24:52
  media and everywhere else, where it's acceptable to
• 24:56
  bomb the crap out of an entire civilization.
• 25:00
  Well, if that's the case, why don't you
• 25:01
  just nuke them and be done with it?
• 25:04
  I mean, seriously, and because that's what this
• 25:07
  type of thinking leads to.
• 25:09
  This is the horror story of it all.
• 25:11
  This type of thinking is complete bullshit.
• 25:16
  It just is.
• 25:17
  And, you know, sorry to use those words,
• 25:19
  but hey, man, it's true.
• 25:22
  You can't, there's no such thing.
• 25:27
  Now, I don't want to say that they
• 25:29
  weren't cruel and brutal and killers and everything
• 25:32
  on an individual basis, but you don't kill
• 25:35
  entire societies.
• 25:37
  You know, this is the same as genocide,
• 25:39
  in my opinion.
• 25:41
  This is not what you do.
• 25:44
  You do not take another culture, another people,
• 25:46
  another something, and destroy their existence.
• 25:50
  That's not how it works.
• 25:51
  That's not how it's supposed to work.
• 25:53
  That is not how, you know, if you
• 25:56
  believe in God, I can't imagine any God
• 25:59
  who says, this is what you're supposed to
• 26:02
  do, is destroy the others, whether you believe
• 26:05
  they follow your beliefs and principles or not.
• 26:09
  And if that's the type of God you
• 26:11
  believe in, well, I don't support that.
• 26:16
  And I think we, it offends me what
• 26:22
  we are now doing in Iran.
• 26:25
  Oh, let's have bridge day.
• 26:26
  We'll just bomb all their bridges and we're
• 26:29
  killing civilians on these bridges, number one.
• 26:31
  Well, let's just bomb the Amazon equivalent called
• 26:35
  wild berries in Russia and really damage their
• 26:38
  people, their economy.
• 26:41
  Let's damage all their oil refineries, because if
• 26:44
  we can't have it, nobody can have it.
• 26:48
  That's your bully on the playground.
• 26:50
  He'd rather bust a toy than share a
• 26:54
  toy.
• 26:54
  And this is something your parents never taught
• 26:57
  you.
• 26:58
  You know, the toy, which is the resources,
• 27:01
  should be around for everybody to use.
• 27:03
  But oh no, we can't have them.
• 27:06
  We don't control them.
• 27:08
  And therefore, you can't have them either.
• 27:12
  It's nonsense.
• 27:14
  But that's the world we live in these
• 27:17
  days.
• 27:17
  And the trouble is, you cannot beat that
• 27:20
  way of thinking.
• 27:22
  You have to join them.
• 27:24
  You have to do the exact same thing.
• 27:27
  So if you think that escalation is going
• 27:29
  to do anybody any favors, I think that
• 27:34
  you should think again.
• 27:35
  You know, I'd never tell you what to
• 27:36
  think, but you should probably rethink that position
• 27:39
  because the wars of escalation can always result
• 27:44
  in more war.
• 27:46
  You know, it's not going to result in
• 27:48
  less war.
• 27:49
  You could have the ultimate, the BS move
• 27:53
  of, you know, you could bomb Nagasaki and
• 27:56
  you could bomb Hiroshima, and that is, you
• 28:01
  know, that'll end a war.
• 28:03
  Is that what we're going to do?
• 28:05
  We're going to bomb Kiev with a nuclear
• 28:07
  bomb to make them capitulate?
• 28:10
  We're going to bomb Moscow, kill Putin, and
• 28:16
  the entire Russian culture so that we can
• 28:19
  have their resources and split them up how
• 28:23
  we see fit?
• 28:25
  Is that where we're going, Lindsey Graham?
• 28:27
  Maybe he could tell us from above.
• 28:30
  So in April, the Brent did average out
• 28:34
  a little bit, but here we are, the
• 28:35
  June de-escalation and the financial reversals.
• 28:39
  So OPEC reported that their basket of crude
• 28:44
  declined by $24 in a month, and money
• 28:47
  managers were selling the equivalent of 245 million
• 28:51
  barrels in Brent and WTI futures in late
• 28:56
  May and June the 30th.
• 28:58
  That tells you two things.
• 29:00
  Physical supply and diplomacy improved, and financial positioning
• 29:05
  made the decline faster and larger than the
• 29:08
  physical change alone should have produced.
• 29:10
  At the same time, India reported it had
• 29:13
  diversified among more than 41 suppliers.
• 29:18
  41 suppliers.
• 29:20
  And America doesn't want them to get from
• 29:22
  Russia, but trust me, they're getting from Russia.
• 29:24
  They need this.
• 29:25
  They have to figure something out.
• 29:26
  41 separate suppliers.
• 29:28
  60 days of crude requirements was operating all
• 29:32
  of its refineries at more than 100 percent
• 29:34
  utilization.
• 29:36
  Indian officials said replacement barrels from outside the
• 29:39
  Gulf more than compensated for the interruption of
• 29:42
  Hormuz supplies.
• 29:43
  And we really haven't heard a lot about
• 29:45
  the lines and about all things going on
• 29:48
  in India, but there are restrictions still.
• 29:51
  So, de-escalation.
• 29:53
  Here, we'll give some credit to how this
• 29:56
  happened.
• 29:57
  And, you know, Trump knows this market far
• 29:59
  better than I do.
• 30:01
  And there should be some credit.
• 30:03
  De-escalation, the release of emergency strategic reserves.
• 30:08
  Russian increased supply everywhere.
• 30:10
  They reduced the sanctions.
• 30:12
  India diversified and restored shipping expectations.
• 30:17
  Now, this brought pricing down.
• 30:20
  But the June decline doesn't mean that the
• 30:22
  underlying risk disappeared.
• 30:24
  It means that the traders began pricing in
• 30:27
  some sort of a rapid change normalization that
• 30:31
  was a little bit premature, because now we're
• 30:34
  right back into war.
• 30:36
  Here we are in July.
• 30:37
  WTI rose from 72 to 79 on July
• 30:41
  13.
• 30:42
  So, it started at 71, 79.
• 30:43
  Brett went from 74 to 81.
• 30:47
  And by July 20, they're at 84 and
• 30:50
  86 respectively.
• 30:52
  And right now, they're above 98.
• 30:56
  At the same time, Ukrainian drone strikes are
• 30:58
  targeting an Omsk refinery in early July.
• 31:02
  Facility had annual processing capacity of 20.5
• 31:06
  million tons and is a significant producer of
• 31:10
  gas, diesel, and aviation fuel.
• 31:13
  Two tankers were struck in Taninrog Bay on
• 31:17
  July the 8th.
• 31:18
  Ukraine's drone commander said that eight tankers targeted
• 31:21
  in the Sea of Azov.
• 31:22
  They're trying to disrupt gas deliveries to Crimea.
• 31:27
  And the two vessels identified were empty.
• 31:31
  So, the immediate cargo loss was zero.
• 31:34
  But the attack increased shipping and insurance risk,
• 31:37
  because those ships were already empty, right?
• 31:40
  So, that is going on.
• 31:42
  And they've destroyed, Jesus, I mean, they're destroying
• 31:45
  grain tankers for food, but a large amount
• 31:48
  of these gas ones.
• 31:50
  So, everybody in the world is worried about
• 31:52
  what's going to go on with gas.
• 31:54
  And then the renewed U.S. and Iranian
• 31:57
  fighting is again interfering with tanker passage through
• 32:00
  Hormuz.
• 32:01
  And I don't know who to blame.
• 32:02
  I mean, who do you blame?
• 32:03
  The idiots who believe in continued war can't
• 32:06
  blame Lindsey Graham anymore.
• 32:07
  He ain't around.
• 32:08
  But he has replacements that'll act just like
• 32:11
  him.
• 32:13
  The immediate July price increase is a renewed
• 32:16
  Hormuz and U.S.-Iran war premium.
• 32:19
  Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining and shipping are
• 32:22
  adding pressure.
• 32:23
  But there are all kinds of things that
• 32:27
  push it toward that $100 and further.
• 32:32
  And I wanted to check out days where
• 32:35
  the price of crude moved more than $5
• 32:41
  one way or the other in a day,
• 32:45
  okay?
• 32:46
  And that happened on March the 5th.
• 32:49
  That happened on March, up and down.
• 32:53
  March the 6th, it went up $9.89.
• 32:57
  March the 10th, it went down to $11
• 33:00
  almost.
• 33:01
  March the 12th, it went up $8.
• 33:03
  March 16th, down $5.
• 33:06
  March 23rd, down $9.38. Four days later,
• 33:12
  up $5.
• 33:14
  April the 2nd, up $11.
• 33:16
  April the 8th, down $18.
• 33:18
  April the 14th.
• 33:20
  And you can tie these, each one of
• 33:22
  these changes, you know, what causes the reversals.
• 33:25
  So March 2 and 6, you would have
• 33:28
  to credit that to the initial war shock.
• 33:30
  Hormuz and tanker immobilizations, they're not moving.
• 33:33
  That's March 2 to 6.
• 33:35
  That's right after the attack on February 28th.
• 33:38
  And from the 10th, they had alternation, you
• 33:43
  know, of back and forth among escalation, emergency
• 33:47
  reserve announcements, shipping reports, and, you know, where
• 33:51
  these, who was being held and for how
• 33:54
  long they were going to be held, remember
• 33:55
  all that news, and the expectation that there
• 33:58
  would be some kind of a negotiated settlement.
• 34:01
  And then March 7 to April 7, there
• 34:04
  were fears of prolonged supply interruption because of
• 34:07
  continued war and scarcity of immediately available crude.
• 34:10
  So you can watch these.
• 34:12
  It would be too strong to take every
• 34:13
  one of these moves and say one missile
• 34:15
  strike or one tanker incident.
• 34:18
  You know, the prices respond to expectations before
• 34:21
  the facts are confirmed.
• 34:24
  And several reports arrive during the same trading
• 34:27
  session and what they're doing.
• 34:29
  So in America, we're used to that.
• 34:31
  We love it.
• 34:32
  All the rich people make money off of
• 34:34
  that.
• 34:35
  And, you know, people give news so that
• 34:38
  the prices are changed.
• 34:40
  And all their buddy, you know, important people,
• 34:43
  Donald Trump, others, make statements.
• 34:47
  And the prices change.
• 34:51
  So China's official diplomatic position was a little
• 34:56
  more explicit than is publicly available.
• 34:59
  You know, the weekly crude, I mean, Foreign
• 35:02
  Minister Wang Yi condemned the attacks in Iran,
• 35:05
  opposed the use of force without Security Council
• 35:08
  authorization.
• 35:08
  That's what they bitch about all the time.
• 35:10
  If you're going to go to war, you
• 35:12
  must have Security Council authorization.
• 35:15
  And we never get it.
• 35:16
  So we all talk about Congress.
• 35:17
  We don't even bother with that.
• 35:19
  But let alone, we don't say anything about
• 35:21
  going to the Security Council.
• 35:24
  And it's continual.
• 35:25
  And they all bitch about it and say
• 35:27
  America and NATO, they do whatever they want.
• 35:30
  And they don't even follow the rules of
• 35:33
  the Security Council.
• 35:34
  Why do we have it?
• 35:36
  We have it to force other people to
• 35:38
  do things.
• 35:38
  That's it.
• 35:39
  And it's run by the West.
• 35:41
  And so, you know, oh, yeah, Security Council
• 35:43
  matters.
• 35:43
  Right.
• 35:44
  But only if it's Russia taking action or
• 35:47
  China, if they take action, you know, it's
• 35:50
  it's crazy.
• 35:52
  So the position of China appears to be
• 35:55
  because they're not very public about the whole
• 35:57
  thing.
• 35:57
  Preserve their Russian supply because they got a
• 36:00
  ton of it.
• 36:01
  Avoid being bound by Western sanctions.
• 36:04
  They don't want Western sanctions.
• 36:06
  So they work outside the sanctions and create
• 36:08
  their own payment mechanisms.
• 36:10
  They continue to have access to Iranian and
• 36:12
  Russian energy through non-Western financial and shipping
• 36:15
  arrangements.
• 36:16
  And that's critical for them.
• 36:19
  That's why they're doing it.
• 36:20
  And they oppose any war that threatens China's
• 36:23
  Gulf supply lines.
• 36:24
  So but I didn't find anything authoritative, no
• 36:27
  official Chinese released.
• 36:30
  It says that China increased Russian purchases.
• 36:33
  I know they are because some of the
• 36:35
  projects they have ongoing, you know, Siberia one
• 36:40
  and two.
• 36:41
  Those those are big deals.
• 36:43
  And so I don't know.
• 36:47
  But the July surge, you know, I didn't
• 36:50
  find anything in the July surge between Russia
• 36:54
  and China.
• 36:54
  So I can't say it's happened, but it
• 36:57
  wouldn't surprise me if it is.
• 36:59
  India, their responses are a little bit easier
• 37:01
  to document.
• 37:03
  They got substantially more Russian crude once the
• 37:07
  Middle East became trapped or endangered.
• 37:09
  And they have now, like I said, 41
• 37:12
  suppliers.
• 37:13
  Seventy percent of imports are arriving through routes
• 37:17
  outside of Hormuz.
• 37:19
  Previously, that was only 55 percent.
• 37:22
  So they've you know, they're not doing it
• 37:24
  anymore.
• 37:25
  And it has forward supplies and refineries are
• 37:28
  running at above 100 percent capacity.
• 37:31
  India's behavior demonstrates that they're very much aware
• 37:35
  of sanctions.
• 37:36
  And they also know that sanctions discipline is
• 37:41
  weaker when compliance is threatening their national energy
• 37:45
  security.
• 37:45
  So they're not complying.
• 37:46
  They're saying, screw you, we're buying more Russian
• 37:49
  and because you're destroying the rest of the
• 37:51
  world.
• 37:52
  So New Delhi has not abandoned Russian oil.
• 37:55
  The Iran crisis made Russian oil more strategically
• 37:58
  valuable than ever.
• 38:00
  So that is what is going on at
• 38:04
  worldwide, you know, kind of that.
• 38:08
  You know, let's you know, oil began in
• 38:11
  26 at 60 to 67 dollar commodity.
• 38:15
  It's 100 to 138 dollar commodity after the
• 38:20
  Israeli attack on Iran and tanker traffic through
• 38:23
  Hormuz is no longer certain.
• 38:27
  So when diplomacy, emergency reserves and Russian supplies
• 38:31
  restore a little bit of confidence, it rose
• 38:35
  again because war and shipping.
• 38:37
  But now that war and shipping disruption has
• 38:39
  returned and the attacks on Russian refineries and
• 38:42
  tankers, you know, can't be called the main
• 38:45
  cause, but they're taking the removing from from
• 38:49
  the market, the very alternative supply that the
• 38:52
  needs when Persian Gulf oil is endangered.
• 38:57
  And that is the collapse.
• 38:58
  Washington is attempting to sanction Russian oil out
• 39:02
  of the market completely.
• 39:04
  But once they realize what's going on, they
• 39:06
  relax those restrictions when its own war against
• 39:11
  Iran made Russian oil more necessary.
• 39:14
  And so India responds by buying a lot
• 39:17
  more Russian crude and China doesn't accept the
• 39:19
  legal or strategic premises of the of the
• 39:23
  attack at all.
• 39:25
  And the big point for us, for me,
• 39:29
  is American motorists are now paying four bucks
• 39:32
  or more per gallon for the continued consequence
• 39:36
  of idiotic wars, sanctions, stupidity, disrupted shipping and
• 39:41
  contradictory energy policies.
• 39:44
  And that is what is occurring overall.
• 39:48
  And to me, it's foolish.
• 39:51
  It's stupid.
• 39:54
  And I don't like it.
• 39:56
  But you know what I do like?
• 39:58
  I like the next song that I'm gonna
• 40:01
  play for you.
• 40:53
  I understand.
• 40:56
  You gave me something.
• 43:46
  I understand.
• 43:51
  You gave me love.
• 43:54
  I.
• 44:53
  Well, that was exciting, wasn't it?
• 44:55
  I want to talk about, you know, the
• 44:58
  the big international news, right?
• 45:02
  Frankly, I think it should have been it
• 45:04
  is a nothing burger.
• 45:06
  And that's the problem.
• 45:07
  This is a nothing burger.
• 45:10
  And that is a problem for me.
• 45:12
  Why bother at all?
• 45:15
  Okay.
• 45:16
  And I'm speaking about the Lavrov Rubio meeting.
• 45:23
  You know, basically, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,
• 45:28
  Sergei Viktorovich, and U.S. Secretary of State
• 45:32
  Marco Rubio met on Thursday on the sidelines
• 45:39
  of the summit in Manila, Philippines.
• 45:43
  The two diplomats didn't make any statements or
• 45:47
  take any questions from reporters before or after
• 45:51
  the meeting lasted only 35 minutes.
• 45:57
  Due to tight scheduling, they say they had
• 45:59
  tight schedule.
• 46:00
  So but I can give you 30 minutes.
• 46:04
  First in person talks of any kind since
• 46:07
  September of 2025 by two of the highest
• 46:11
  level people on the planet.
• 46:14
  And you go 35 minutes and waste my
• 46:17
  time with this, I mean, your own time.
• 46:19
  What the hell?
• 46:20
  So the story from the Russian side of
• 46:22
  the planet is this minister, foreign ministry spokeswoman
• 46:26
  Maria Zakharova, who I love to listen to,
• 46:28
  said that after the meeting, you know, she
• 46:31
  said the talks focused on bilateral relations and
• 46:34
  major international issues, including the Ukraine conflict and
• 46:38
  the situation in the Persian Gulf.
• 46:40
  Well, what are you going to do?
• 46:41
  Give each one three minutes?
• 46:43
  Yep.
• 46:43
  You're a bunch of assholes.
• 46:44
  Well, so are you.
• 46:45
  Okay.
• 46:46
  Bye.
• 46:47
  That's it.
• 46:48
  This is what a waste of time.
• 46:50
  And so while discussing the Ukrainian crisis, she
• 46:55
  said that Lavrov briefed Rubio on the real
• 46:58
  state of affairs along the front line.
• 47:02
  Real state of affairs on the front line
• 47:04
  are that Russia is kicking the crap out
• 47:06
  of Ukraine.
• 47:07
  The only thing positive or that's attempting to
• 47:11
  change the narrative are all these strategic, if
• 47:14
  you want to call them that, drone strikes
• 47:16
  against civilians in Russia.
• 47:19
  And Russia are retaliating in kind.
• 47:23
  They're doing the same thing, you know.
• 47:26
  And so, oh, they have a nice picture
• 47:28
  of them all staring at each other.
• 47:30
  There's one guy in the picture glaring at
• 47:32
  Rubio.
• 47:34
  You can tell he doesn't like him at
• 47:36
  all.
• 47:37
  It's not a good picture, in fact.
• 47:41
  But Rubio was also warned against further arms
• 47:46
  deliveries to Kiev, and Lavrov accused the European
• 47:51
  countries of pursuing a destabilizing policy worldwide aimed
• 47:55
  at inflicting strategic defeat on Russia.
• 47:59
  And so Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow's readiness for diplomatic
• 48:03
  settlement and its commitment to the US proposals
• 48:07
  accepted by President Putin at the Anchorage summit
• 48:11
  last year.
• 48:13
  So they're still saying what we talked about
• 48:16
  in Anchorage last year that the old Trumpster
• 48:19
  agreed to, we'll accept.
• 48:23
  And now there was a slight bit of
• 48:26
  movement in that the other day because that
• 48:28
  anticipated Ukraine accepting the state of affairs on
• 48:35
  the front line, giving up Donetsk, Lugansk, which
• 48:38
  one of them's already fully covered.
• 48:40
  The other one's like 94 percent or something
• 48:42
  taken.
• 48:44
  Giving up those two and then recognizing the
• 48:46
  rest as where we are on the front
• 48:48
  lines and just be done with it.
• 48:51
  And so that was one of them.
• 48:54
  But now they're saying they aren't.
• 48:56
  There was a press release yesterday that I
• 48:58
  saw that said that they weren't going to
• 49:01
  agree to that any longer.
• 49:02
  Not sure if that's true or not.
• 49:05
  It was a YouTube source that I saw
• 49:07
  that on and, you know, they exaggerate on
• 49:09
  YouTube.
• 49:10
  The only thing that gets by is, you
• 49:13
  know, they like to push heavy, you know,
• 49:16
  Russia's threatening more war.
• 49:17
  You know, they like to create that stuff,
• 49:20
  but they throttle people who speak the truth.
• 49:24
  Zakharova stated that the two diplomats welcomed the
• 49:28
  resumption of contact between Russia's state space agency,
• 49:33
  Roscosmos, and NASA and supported expanding parliamentary and
• 49:38
  cultural exchange changes as well.
• 49:40
  Well, I'm up for that.
• 49:41
  You know, give me a call.
• 49:43
  I'll help you out.
• 49:44
  They discussed improving conditions for Russian and U
• 49:47
  .S. diplomatic missions and agreed to maintain contact
• 49:50
  between their foreign ministries, including through international
• 49:53
  organizations.
• 49:54
  Now, that is new.
• 49:56
  Not sure it'll ever happen, but it's new.
• 49:59
  And speaking after the meeting, Rubio said the
• 50:02
  talks were good, frank conversations.
• 50:04
  The U.S. remains prepared to play a
• 50:08
  constructive role in bringing about an end to
• 50:12
  a senseless war.
• 50:14
  Yeah.
• 50:15
  Wonder who started it and how.
• 50:17
  Why don't we go back in history and
• 50:18
  have a look?
• 50:20
  Maybe that's why you should put more effort
• 50:23
  into forcing these guys to quit being so
• 50:26
  anti-Ruski.
• 50:30
  But he did note that the Anchorage proposals
• 50:33
  were no longer viable because Kyiv rejected them
• 50:37
  and that a peace agreement will only work
• 50:40
  if both sides accept it.
• 50:42
  So he's saying we can't force Ukraine to
• 50:44
  do anything, just like I told you yesterday.
• 50:46
  Don't speak to me in the term of
• 50:48
  ultimatums.
• 50:49
  You know, we're we're Nazis and that's how
• 50:51
  we act.
• 50:52
  You know, that's that's you know, if we
• 50:54
  wish to, you know, we're better than you.
• 50:56
  Who are you to tell us anything?
• 50:57
  We don't talk.
• 50:59
  We fight.
• 51:00
  That's it.
• 51:01
  We're Ukraine.
• 51:02
  Well, you're losing.
• 51:03
  Also, he said that eventual settlement would require
• 51:07
  new ideas and concepts.
• 51:09
  Yeah.
• 51:09
  The concepts of listening to the other side
• 51:12
  for once.
• 51:13
  How about that?
• 51:14
  Adding that Washington is ready to put forward
• 51:16
  fresh proposals and play a constructive role if
• 51:20
  the circumstances are right.
• 51:21
  Yeah.
• 51:22
  If Russia capitulates, we'll come in and tell
• 51:25
  them how they're going to capitulate.
• 51:27
  You know, if if you just say that
• 51:30
  the Green Goblin is the master and you
• 51:33
  are not, then we'll talk to you.
• 51:37
  The Kremlin cautioned against reading anything into the
• 51:40
  meeting.
• 51:41
  Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said continued contacts were positive
• 51:45
  but didn't amount to anything new, no new
• 51:48
  momentum, no acceleration in talks.
• 51:51
  He said Moscow remained in dialogue with Washington
• 51:53
  through existing channels and hoped face to face
• 51:56
  discussion would continue once U.S. negotiators were
• 52:00
  available to travel to the Russian capital.
• 52:04
  Zahadova previously noted that the meeting had been
• 52:06
  requested by the American side.
• 52:09
  And it was it was seen as an
• 52:12
  attempt by Rubio to revive peace negotiations.
• 52:15
  But they're not serious about it.
• 52:17
  If you give it a half an hour,
• 52:19
  you know, you can't take a few hours
• 52:22
  and speak to, you know, your counterpart to
• 52:26
  try to get rid of something.
• 52:28
  No, they don't have any ideas.
• 52:30
  Rubio's neocon.
• 52:31
  He is all about the Lindsey Graham.
• 52:35
  You know, we're buddies in most of this
• 52:36
  stuff.
• 52:37
  They are on the same page.
• 52:39
  And, you know, he likes to say that
• 52:41
  he's going to follow what Donald Trump is
• 52:43
  doing.
• 52:43
  But they've co-opted the old Trumpster internationally,
• 52:46
  in my opinion.
• 52:50
  Allegedly, President Trump has sought to mediate this
• 52:54
  affair since returning to the White House early
• 52:56
  last year.
• 52:57
  Haven't.
• 52:57
  What have you done for me lately?
• 53:00
  Nothing.
• 53:01
  So although initially promising, the talks have failed
• 53:05
  to produce any breakthrough and have stalled.
• 53:10
  Certainly, since the U.S. became embroiled in
• 53:15
  the Iranian nonsense in the Middle East.
• 53:19
  So.
• 53:20
  I don't know.
• 53:23
  Moscow praised Trump's efforts initially, but blames Ukraine's
• 53:27
  European backers for sabotaging the negotiations.
• 53:31
  They do that intentionally to say, you know,
• 53:32
  we'll still work with you, Trump, if you
• 53:34
  pull your pull your head out of your
• 53:36
  rear end and quit listening to all of
• 53:39
  the neocons and forcing more war upon people.
• 53:43
  And they added that the reserve of goodwill
• 53:46
  is a great line.
• 53:48
  I love this.
• 53:49
  The reserve of goodwill and hope has been
• 53:52
  exhausted.
• 53:53
  So basically, there's no hope for anything except
• 53:56
  winning the war on the ground and suffering
• 53:59
  in the meantime with, you know, new new
• 54:02
  types of war, which like bombing the crap
• 54:05
  out of Iran.
• 54:07
  Ukraine bombs the crap out of Russia and
• 54:10
  Russia bombs the crap out of Ukraine and
• 54:14
  Iran bombs the crap out of U.S.
• 54:17
  bases.
• 54:18
  And this is what this is, war these
• 54:20
  days.
• 54:21
  And nobody will recognize the front lines while
• 54:24
  there's still bombs in its arsenal.
• 54:26
  And there are always plenty of bombs in
• 54:30
  the arsenal because now they're just little tiny
• 54:32
  drones.
• 54:33
  They cost $500 and you can load C4
• 54:37
  all over them and buy a block of
• 54:39
  C4, attach it to the bottom, have it
• 54:42
  explode when it hits inside there, blow up
• 54:45
  school buses and terrorize people, blow up concert
• 54:49
  halls, blow up beach with and put some
• 54:53
  scatter munitions in there, some fragmentations.
• 54:59
  And that is war today.
• 55:01
  You can blow up a girl's school in
• 55:03
  Iran.
• 55:05
  You know, blow up, blow up ships in,
• 55:10
  you know, the NASA, where are all the
• 55:12
  environmentalists now?
• 55:14
  When you're blowing up oil tankers all over
• 55:17
  the world, nothing is safe anymore.
• 55:19
  You blow them all up.
• 55:20
  Remember when it was Exxon, what was that?
• 55:24
  ExxonMobil ship up in Alaska that was such
• 55:26
  a big deal, you know, and that went
• 55:28
  on for years.
• 55:29
  People were bitching about that and not that
• 55:31
  they shouldn't have, but silence here, you know,
• 55:34
  ships are being blown up, oil everywhere, and
• 55:37
  nobody's saying a word.
• 55:39
  Nobody's saying a word of the destruction of
• 55:41
  all this.
• 55:42
  And nobody, it's nonsense.
• 55:45
  President Putin said last month that Russia is
• 55:48
  sticking to its original terms, same terms that
• 55:51
  it always had, including the demands that Ukraine
• 55:54
  recognize the new borders and abandon its plans
• 55:58
  to join NATO in favor of neutrality permanently.
• 56:03
  And permanent's never permanent, so I don't understand
• 56:06
  why they wouldn't just agree with it and
• 56:07
  move on.
• 56:09
  But that is the news of the, wow,
• 56:16
  very important meeting between Lavrov and Rubio.
• 56:21
  So, meanwhile, Ukraine is out there switching around
• 56:29
  their commanding general and their minister of defense
• 56:33
  and trying to figure what they're doing.
• 56:35
  Everybody's up in arms and the drama is
• 56:37
  going on everywhere.
• 56:38
  And, you know, their Instagram channels are full
• 56:41
  of crazy nonsense in there.
• 56:44
  And now it gets worse.
• 56:47
  So, an arms maker, Firepoint, is claiming a
• 56:54
  ceasefire with Russia for Ukraine would be the
• 56:58
  worst case scenario for Ukraine, threatening the country's
• 57:04
  statehood.
• 57:05
  Now, this is the head of Vladimir Zelensky's
• 57:07
  favorite arms manufacturer, Firepoint said.
• 57:10
  His name is Denis Stilerman.
• 57:14
  I wonder if that guy lives in Israel.
• 57:17
  Denis Stilerman met with or made the remarks
• 57:20
  at an interview on Ukrainian outlet LigaNet Wednesday.
• 57:25
  The company, which recently was embroiled in a
• 57:28
  number of corruption scandals, surprise, surprise, stands to
• 57:32
  profit from the conflict as usual.
• 57:35
  Stilerman argued that the fighting should continue regardless,
• 57:41
  insisting that a truce with Russia will leave
• 57:46
  Ukraine in an even worse position.
• 57:48
  He questioned whether Kyiv's western backers would honor
• 57:52
  any security commitment made as part of any
• 57:55
  ceasefire.
• 57:57
  So, they don't trust the West either.
• 58:02
  Nobody trusts the West.
• 58:04
  You make a truce and you break it.
• 58:07
  Look, here's his quote.
• 58:09
  It's a long quote.
• 58:10
  But, look, if a truce is reached, it
• 58:13
  would most regrettably be the worst case scenario
• 58:17
  for our state.
• 58:18
  He's Ukrainian.
• 58:19
  We must remember how the U.S. and
• 58:22
  other countries treat their obligations, he said.
• 58:27
  I'm talking about international agreements in which they
• 58:30
  guarantee territorial integrity and independence of other states.
• 58:35
  And what do we see?
• 58:37
  Nothing.
• 58:39
  Stilerman also said that Kyiv would be abandoned
• 58:43
  and forgotten by its backfires if a ceasefire
• 58:46
  was reached.
• 58:47
  He said that, you know, this is the
• 58:50
  same as any Russian officials who warn that
• 58:52
  Ukraine is only useful for the West as
• 58:55
  a tool against Russia.
• 58:57
  That's true.
• 58:59
  Is there any, if there, he says this,
• 59:02
  says Stilerman, the arms maker, if there's any
• 59:06
  kind of truce, all I can see when
• 59:09
  I see this is I think of, who
• 59:11
  was it?
• 59:14
  Oh, man.
• 59:16
  An awesome actor, Nick, Nick, is it Nick?
• 59:21
  Nicholas Cage.
• 59:21
  Yep.
• 59:22
  I'm thinking of Nicholas Cage as an arms
• 59:24
  dealer in this, right?
• 59:26
  And imagine him saying this.
• 59:28
  If there's any kind of truce, we will
• 59:30
  be forgotten very quickly.
• 59:32
  There will be no investment appeal.
• 59:34
  There will be no money here.
• 59:36
  The borders will open and all the men
• 59:38
  will leave.
• 59:39
  By the way, they've already done that.
• 59:40
  After that, the Russians will come in and
• 59:42
  seize the country, said Stilerman.
• 59:45
  Firepoint, which originally operated as a film scouting
• 59:48
  agency owned by Zelensky's associate, the dude who
• 59:52
  ran off to Israel in the last scandal,
• 59:55
  you know, so they were a scouting agency
• 59:58
  and now they manufacture arms.
• 1:00:02
  I forgot about that story.
• 1:00:04
  That's pretty funny.
• 1:00:05
  I forgot that part was in here because
• 1:00:07
  that in and of itself is a hilarious
• 1:00:09
  story.
• 1:00:09
  So the lawyer that had to run off,
• 1:00:12
  what the hell was his name?
• 1:00:13
  That was in his inner circle and controlled
• 1:00:16
  all the money laundering for Ukraine for years
• 1:00:19
  was the guy who, who owned Firepoint, which
• 1:00:22
  was Zelensky's scouting agency.
• 1:00:27
  And now it's an arms control because they
• 1:00:29
  sent all the money to them and said,
• 1:00:31
  you know, go buy arms stuff.
• 1:00:32
  And so that's what they did.
• 1:00:34
  All the money goes to your friends in
• 1:00:35
  Ukraine.
• 1:00:36
  That's how, well, everywhere it works that way.
• 1:00:40
  Let's see, originally operated as a film scouting
• 1:00:43
  agency has emerged as a miracle player in
• 1:00:47
  Ukraine's defense sector and produces an array of
• 1:00:50
  long range drones and missiles.
• 1:00:53
  So you go from scouting agency to drone
• 1:00:56
  and missile manufacturing, and they use these to
• 1:00:59
  strike deep inside of Russia.
• 1:01:01
  So these are definitely very personal to this,
• 1:01:06
  the green goblin.
• 1:01:07
  The company has been actively promoted by the
• 1:01:10
  Ukrainian leader during his regular overseas trips.
• 1:01:13
  He's, he's pumping this Firepoint company and has
• 1:01:17
  secured contracts worth up to $1 billion in
• 1:01:21
  the last several months.
• 1:01:22
  The image of the country was damaged by
• 1:01:24
  the corruption scandal related to Zelensky's inner circle
• 1:01:28
  and his former close associate Tumor Mindich, that's
• 1:01:32
  the guy's name, central figure in a hundred
• 1:01:34
  million dollar corruption scheme in the energy sector.
• 1:01:38
  Surveillance recordings published in Ukrainian media say that
• 1:01:42
  Mindich controlled Firepoint, but enjoyed preferential treatment from
• 1:01:47
  then defense minister Rustem Umarov.
• 1:01:52
  And that, that's how it works in Ukraine.
• 1:01:57
  Well, everywhere else too, but there it's pretty
• 1:02:00
  open, you know, and they don't worry about
• 1:02:02
  it.
• 1:02:02
  Um, I wanted to include, uh, a look
• 1:02:06
  at this drone war and I've said it
• 1:02:09
  for a while that the strategic versus the
• 1:02:12
  tactical is, is an important part of it.
• 1:02:14
  And there was an article that came out,
• 1:02:16
  um, I don't know, maybe a month ago
• 1:02:19
  about the drone war, uh, it's just a
• 1:02:24
  distraction and you need to watch the front.
• 1:02:27
  Okay.
• 1:02:28
  And, uh, I'm going to share that article
• 1:02:30
  with you because and it's not too long,
• 1:02:33
  but it, uh, well, I also want to
• 1:02:40
  get to the new top general and about
• 1:02:42
  his theories.
• 1:02:44
  And I'm wondering if I have enough time
• 1:02:45
  to do that while we figure that out.
• 1:02:49
  You know what I'm going to do?
• 1:02:50
  I'm going to play another great song for
• 1:02:53
  you and figure out what I'm going to
• 1:02:56
  say next, whether it's one path or the
• 1:03:00
  other it's, this happens to be echo and
• 1:03:06
  from the songs to sing is the album.
• 1:03:45
  Your arms too late to fail you or
• 1:03:49
  cancel it though.
• 1:03:50
  I know it must be the killing time.
• 1:04:27
  I saw you so cruelly.
• 1:04:33
  You kissed me.
• 1:04:35
  You live magic.
• 1:04:37
  world.
• 1:04:39
  Your sky will haunt with jewels.
• 1:04:43
  The killing moon will come too soon.
• 1:04:51
  Fate up against your will.
• 1:04:57
  Through the thick and thin.
• 1:05:00
  He will wait until you give yourself to
• 1:05:06
  him.
• 1:05:48
  Under a blue moon I saw you.
• 1:05:52
  So soon you'll take me.
• 1:05:56
  Up in your arms too late to beg
• 1:06:00
  you.
• 1:06:00
  I'll cancel it though I know it must
• 1:06:03
  be.
• 1:06:04
  The killing time unwillingly mine.
• 1:06:12
  Fate up against your will.
• 1:06:18
  Through the thick and thin.
• 1:06:22
  He will wait until you give yourself to
• 1:06:27
  him.
• 1:06:32
  Fate up against your will.
• 1:06:37
  Through the thick and thin.
• 1:06:41
  He will wait until you give yourself to
• 1:06:47
  him.
• 1:06:49
  You give yourself to him.
• 1:08:03
  Fate up against your will.
• 1:08:07
  Through the thick and thin.
• 1:08:10
  He will wait until you give yourself to
• 1:08:20
  him.
• 1:08:57
  I always liked Echo and the Bunnymen.
• 1:08:59
  Wasn't Morrissey part of Echo and the Bunnymen?
• 1:09:02
  They weren't around very long and that sounded
• 1:09:04
  certainly like Morrissey, but I can't remember.
• 1:09:08
  I never really paid that much attention to
• 1:09:10
  people jumping back and forth between bands or
• 1:09:13
  going off and starting their own or whatever.
• 1:09:16
  But Morrissey, I always liked to listen to
• 1:09:18
  Morrissey.
• 1:09:20
  But that was Echo and the Bunnymen and
• 1:09:23
  a good song.
• 1:09:24
  I wanted to go to another video and
• 1:09:30
  I'm hoping it plays correctly.
• 1:09:31
  I watched it and it is not too
• 1:09:35
  long.
• 1:09:36
  Let's see if we can listen to it
• 1:09:38
  in here.
• 1:09:39
  And basically they're talking about Ukrainians hunting civilians,
• 1:09:45
  chasing them with drones and shelling them in
• 1:09:49
  the Donbass.
• 1:09:50
  And there was a story on it that
• 1:09:52
  I watched and I'm hoping it'll play here.
• 1:09:54
  Hold on.
• 1:09:55
  Well, Western countries are providing a vital aid
• 1:09:58
  to Kiev's troops in establishing a complete industry
• 1:10:01
  of hunting down civilians in Donbass.
• 1:10:03
  This is according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
• 1:10:06
  Maria Zakharova when speaking during a conference devoted
• 1:10:10
  to Ukrainian war crimes committed in the frontline
• 1:10:13
  town of Konstantinovka.
• 1:10:16
  An entire industry for remotely killing civilians has
• 1:10:20
  been established in Donbass.
• 1:10:21
  It has its own technology, its own logistics
• 1:10:23
  and perhaps most terrifyingly, daily support from the
• 1:10:26
  West.
• 1:10:26
  We often hear a word in the reports
• 1:10:28
  from various witnesses that they constantly return to.
• 1:10:31
  It's the word hunt.
• 1:10:33
  A hunt for people who went out to
• 1:10:34
  get water debris, for those trying to evacuate
• 1:10:36
  towards Russian troops.
• 1:10:38
  These are all war crimes and have no
• 1:10:39
  statute of limitations.
• 1:10:40
  And specific drone operations are behind each incident.
• 1:10:43
  And every single one of them must be
• 1:10:45
  identified and held accountable.
• 1:10:47
  The International Public Tribunal on Crimes of Ukrainian
• 1:10:51
  Neo-Nazis presented a new dossier focusing on
• 1:10:55
  the settlement of Konstantinovka.
• 1:10:57
  Now, this presentation focused on Kiev's crimes against
• 1:11:00
  the peaceful Russian-speaking population.
• 1:11:03
  Now, the room itself was packed with officials,
• 1:11:05
  investigators and lawmakers all gathered around a very
• 1:11:09
  difficult theme, a theme focusing on testimony.
• 1:11:13
  Now, dozens of eyewitness accounts were read out
• 1:11:16
  loud, one after the other.
• 1:11:18
  Now, the first speaker opened by laying out
• 1:11:20
  this immensely documented campaign targeting Russian-speaking civilians,
• 1:11:26
  particularly with the use of drones, even dating
• 1:11:29
  back years before Konstantinovka's capture.
• 1:11:32
  Mothers describing neighbors chased down by drones, families
• 1:11:36
  recalling loved ones killed while simply stepping outside
• 1:11:39
  for air.
• 1:11:41
  October was, of course, very harsh.
• 1:11:44
  They were simply chasing us with drones.
• 1:11:46
  It was impossible to go outside.
• 1:11:49
  If you leave the basement, if you're spotted,
• 1:11:52
  expect to be attacked.
• 1:11:55
  My wife, daughter and son-in-law all
• 1:11:58
  died.
• 1:11:59
  Our house was set on fire.
• 1:12:01
  They were sitting in the cellar and it
• 1:12:03
  turns out they were trapped by the fire.
• 1:12:05
  I didn't have time to save them.
• 1:12:07
  They suffocated to death.
• 1:12:12
  My son died after a Ukrainian missile landed.
• 1:12:14
  Two fragments hit him in the chest and
• 1:12:17
  punctured his lung.
• 1:12:18
  The missile was coming from Kramatorsk.
• 1:12:21
  Russian troops were coming from the other direction.
• 1:12:24
  Then we also heard from Russia's Foreign Ministry
• 1:12:26
  spokeswoman Maria Zaharova.
• 1:12:28
  Now, she described this new form of Ukrainian
• 1:12:31
  warfare, a remote form of warfare.
• 1:12:35
  She says operators watching civilians through drone cameras
• 1:12:38
  from a distance are essentially treating killing like
• 1:12:42
  a video game.
• 1:12:43
  She also pointed to accounts of blocked evacuations,
• 1:12:47
  of children targeted and of parents threatened custody
• 1:12:50
  by the Ukrainian police if they refuse to
• 1:12:53
  leave under the pretense of evacuation.
• 1:12:56
  All of it, she says, is a direct
• 1:12:58
  violation of, as we know, the Geneva Conventions
• 1:13:00
  of International Law.
• 1:13:02
  Multiple speakers raised the question hanging over the
• 1:13:05
  entire room.
• 1:13:06
  How can Kiev claim to want these regions
• 1:13:08
  back while targeting the very same people who
• 1:13:11
  live there?
• 1:13:12
  Now, we also heard from a lawmaker who
• 1:13:14
  cited a case in particular which Ukrainian forces
• 1:13:17
  essentially deliberately set a church on fire.
• 1:13:20
  Now, this was on the 25th of June
• 1:13:22
  in Konstantinovka, and people were apparently inside sheltering
• 1:13:26
  from the shelling.
• 1:13:27
  Now, we also heard from investigators from Russia's
• 1:13:29
  investigative committee, and they added a detail that
• 1:13:32
  testimony gathering work is still ongoing.
• 1:13:35
  All speakers essentially returned to the same main
• 1:13:37
  point, that international bodies simply aren't really listening,
• 1:13:41
  that past dossiers sent to Western institutions remained
• 1:13:44
  unopened.
• 1:13:45
  They frankly did not care.
• 1:13:46
  So the tribunal says its findings will now
• 1:13:49
  go to supposed international platforms.
• 1:13:51
  Whether they will gain traction in these remains
• 1:13:54
  to be seen.
• 1:13:55
  Yeah, they won't gain any traction.
• 1:13:58
  Stories like that that get shared will only
• 1:14:02
  be shared by me.
• 1:14:05
  Nobody else will even talk about it, and
• 1:14:08
  I've said it for a long time.
• 1:14:09
  They've been hunting down Russians.
• 1:14:11
  The Ukrainians have been hunting down Russians in
• 1:14:15
  the Donbass since 2014.
• 1:14:19
  2014, they've been doing this.
• 1:14:22
  And in the Donbass regions where 80-90
• 1:14:26
  % Russian, Russian-speaking, Russian culture, Russian people,
• 1:14:30
  that is what the Minsk Accords were supposed
• 1:14:34
  to allow, was Russian-speaking over there.
• 1:14:37
  But, oh, no, they outlawed Russian-speaking also.
• 1:14:41
  You must speak Ukrainian.
• 1:14:42
  None of them speak Ukrainian.
• 1:14:44
  That'd be like saying in Texas, you've got
• 1:14:46
  to speak that English.
• 1:14:47
  You can't speak any of that.
• 1:14:49
  You can't speak that Mexican.
• 1:14:51
  Mexican, by the way, is not a language.
• 1:14:53
  Spanish is, but that's what they would say.
• 1:14:56
  You can't speak.
• 1:14:57
  You're in America.
• 1:14:58
  Okay, well, you're in Ukraine.
• 1:15:00
  It's the same old, this is, we're Texas.
• 1:15:04
  We're Ukraine, where men are men and sheep
• 1:15:07
  are scared, right?
• 1:15:10
  That is the plan.
• 1:15:13
  And so, you know, we kill folks.
• 1:15:17
  We chase them with drones.
• 1:15:19
  They can't go outside.
• 1:15:21
  And that are your Ukrainian neo-Nazis, by
• 1:15:25
  the way, and there are plenty of them
• 1:15:27
  around.
• 1:15:28
  I wanted to talk about the new, Zelensky's
• 1:15:34
  new commander.
• 1:15:35
  Ukraine has replaced one controversial commander-in-chief,
• 1:15:40
  Sirsky, with another, but the change is far
• 1:15:44
  less significant than any headline will suggest.
• 1:15:47
  Major General Mikhail Drapaty, commonly rendered as Mikhail
• 1:15:53
  Drapaty in Russian language reporting also, has taken
• 1:15:57
  command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine following
• 1:16:00
  Zelensky's dismissal of Alexander Sirsky.
• 1:16:04
  The appointment comes amid battlefield setbacks, internal political
• 1:16:08
  turmoil, mostly so that brief report I just
• 1:16:13
  gave to you was from Konstantinovka when they
• 1:16:15
  were saying it.
• 1:16:16
  Well, they just lost Konstantinovka, and then I
• 1:16:19
  reported a month or so ago that if
• 1:16:22
  he lost Konstantinovka, that would be bad news.
• 1:16:26
  Plus, this Fyodorov stuff, and Fyodorov representing the
• 1:16:30
  new war, which is only treating war like
• 1:16:33
  a video game, like the reporter said, and
• 1:16:37
  bombing inside of the Donbass, and that's going
• 1:16:41
  to be their if we can't have it,
• 1:16:44
  you can't have it either campaign, which is
• 1:16:48
  the way they think.
• 1:16:50
  That's how it is.
• 1:16:52
  You can't have it because we can't have
• 1:16:54
  it.
• 1:16:55
  And you can't speak that Russian.
• 1:16:57
  Don't speak that Russian.
• 1:16:59
  Don't speak that Mexican.
• 1:17:00
  Get out.
• 1:17:04
  So Ukraine and Western coverage largely tries to
• 1:17:08
  paint this Tripathi as a younger, energetic combat
• 1:17:12
  commander, a man associated with military reform, with
• 1:17:16
  NATO standards, and the other guy was a
• 1:17:20
  Soviet, a relic from the Soviet past, from
• 1:17:24
  the war and the fundamental frontline tactics of
• 1:17:30
  the last century.
• 1:17:33
  Several celebrated episodes from Ukraine's post-Maidan military
• 1:17:38
  history also help out this Tripathi, but a
• 1:17:41
  closer examination of the guy's record produces a
• 1:17:45
  much darker and more complicated picture.
• 1:17:48
  One of the articles I read in preparation
• 1:17:51
  was called what was the name of that
• 1:17:54
  thing?
• 1:17:54
  It was an opinion piece.
• 1:17:56
  Where is it?
• 1:17:58
  Because I know I have it listed here
• 1:17:59
  somewhere.
• 1:18:04
  Well...
• 1:18:06
  I can't find it.
• 1:18:08
  What?
• 1:18:09
  Oh, yeah, this was a bad, bad news.
• 1:18:13
  The headline was, and it was written by
• 1:18:15
  Tariq Cyril Omar, the historian I cover sometimes,
• 1:18:20
  and it's called, if you get a chance,
• 1:18:22
  you should read it.
• 1:18:23
  It's called, Ukraine has a new butcher-in
• 1:18:25
  -chief.
• 1:18:26
  All the better to feed Ukrainians to the
• 1:18:29
  grinder on the front line.
• 1:18:32
  Now, that is harsh, but a lot of
• 1:18:35
  people say it's true.
• 1:18:38
  Tripathi isn't an outsider arriving to change Ukraine's
• 1:18:42
  direction.
• 1:18:43
  He's a product of the same military system,
• 1:18:45
  the same political ideology, and the same attrition
• 1:18:49
  strategy that defines Siersky.
• 1:18:52
  His appointment doesn't suggest that Kiev is preparing
• 1:18:55
  to negotiate.
• 1:18:56
  On the contrary, Zelensky has openly instructed his
• 1:18:59
  new commander to intensify offensive operations, expand strikes
• 1:19:04
  deep inside of Russia, and develop further long
• 1:19:08
  -range and mid-range attacks.
• 1:19:10
  They can't win on the front lines.
• 1:19:12
  He's basically admitting it.
• 1:19:14
  Zelensky's own official announcement says that Ukrainian operations
• 1:19:18
  must continue without interruption.
• 1:19:20
  The country's long-range strike program will be
• 1:19:23
  carried out with what he calls absolute precision.
• 1:19:27
  But the following day, Zelensky again demanded increased
• 1:19:30
  pressure on Russia through long-range, medium-range
• 1:19:33
  strikes inside of Russia.
• 1:19:36
  So the real significance of Tripathi's appointment is
• 1:19:40
  Ukraine is changing commanders, but isn't changing course
• 1:19:44
  at all.
• 1:19:45
  But the disturbing introduction is this.
• 1:19:49
  After accepting his appointment...
• 1:19:52
  Get this.
• 1:19:54
  After accepting the appointment, Tripathi thanked Zelensky for
• 1:19:59
  his trust and ended his public message reportedly
• 1:20:03
  with the phrase, Slava Ukraini smert drugo.
• 1:20:11
  Now, which way did they do it?
• 1:20:13
  There's an evil term they use for enemies.
• 1:20:15
  Basically, the way it translates is glory to
• 1:20:18
  Ukraine.
• 1:20:19
  Slava Ukraini is what they all say.
• 1:20:21
  But it has a follow-up.
• 1:20:23
  But they quit saying it after it was
• 1:20:27
  given as kind of a Nazi thing.
• 1:20:29
  This guy ate it right up, and he
• 1:20:31
  said it right there because he's the commander
• 1:20:34
  -in-chief.
• 1:20:35
  And he said...
• 1:20:36
  And basically, it was glory to Ukraine, death
• 1:20:39
  to all others.
• 1:20:41
  Death to everyone else, basically.
• 1:20:45
  This phrase is associated with Ukraine's radical nationalists
• 1:20:49
  and far-right political traditions.
• 1:20:52
  Whatever effort may be made to normalize the
• 1:20:55
  language, it's hardly reassuring vocabulary of a professional
• 1:20:59
  military reformer introduced to a country supposedly defending
• 1:21:04
  liberal European values.
• 1:21:07
  Drapati also listed the tasks assigned to him
• 1:21:10
  by Zelensky, which include intensifying offensive operations and
• 1:21:15
  developing new action behind Russian lines.
• 1:21:18
  So in practical terms, that means more drone
• 1:21:21
  and missile attacks against targets in the internationally
• 1:21:24
  recognized Russian territory and the Russian-controlled regions
• 1:21:28
  that Moscow now considers part of the Russian
• 1:21:30
  Federation.
• 1:21:31
  You know, these drone attacks against civilians are
• 1:21:34
  going to be more and more of them,
• 1:21:36
  is what I say.
• 1:21:40
  These operations increasingly have struck oil refineries, power
• 1:21:44
  facilities, transportation networks, and more importantly, civilian areas.
• 1:21:49
  In that article I just played for you,
• 1:21:50
  they attacked a church on a Sunday where
• 1:21:53
  people were hiding, trying to avoid bombing, and
• 1:21:57
  they bombed the church.
• 1:21:58
  Well, you don't hide there.
• 1:22:00
  We'll bomb that church.
• 1:22:01
  And they have no qualms with that stuff.
• 1:22:03
  Like I said earlier, this is the way
• 1:22:06
  of thought for the people who will say,
• 1:22:10
  glory to Ukraine, death to enemies.
• 1:22:13
  And they've shortened it because in the West
• 1:22:16
  it's not acceptable to speak that way.
• 1:22:19
  And they only say Slavukraine, and then stop.
• 1:22:23
  But they know what the next sentence is.
• 1:22:25
  So even when they say that, they're really
• 1:22:27
  saying it and basically saying who they are.
• 1:22:30
  We're the Nazis, basically.
• 1:22:32
  When they say that, and they know it.
• 1:22:35
  They claim it's not, but it's highly nationalist,
• 1:22:40
  highly confrontational, and it means white Ukrainian.
• 1:22:46
  That's what it means.
• 1:22:47
  And nobody else has any business participating.
• 1:22:55
  Ukrainian or die is basically it.
• 1:22:59
  So I don't like that.
• 1:23:02
  I don't like that they try to normalize
• 1:23:04
  the language.
• 1:23:05
  But it's hardly reassuring vocabulary from an alleged
• 1:23:10
  reformer.
• 1:23:11
  He's defending liberal European values like democracy.
• 1:23:15
  My ass.
• 1:23:17
  That is not what Ukraine has been doing
• 1:23:19
  at all.
• 1:23:20
  They don't care about Western democracy.
• 1:23:23
  You will not speak to us in the
• 1:23:25
  terms of ultimatums.
• 1:23:27
  Remember that article from yesterday?
• 1:23:30
  In practical terms, the drone and missile strikes
• 1:23:33
  are going to increase.
• 1:23:35
  And so Kiv calls these long-range sanctions.
• 1:23:41
  That's what Kiv calls them.
• 1:23:42
  Long-range sanctions or strategic strikes.
• 1:23:46
  This is all they got left, by the
• 1:23:47
  way.
• 1:23:48
  So Moscow calls them acts of terrorism.
• 1:23:51
  You're blowing up churches.
• 1:23:52
  You're blowing up school buses.
• 1:23:54
  You're blowing up schools.
• 1:23:55
  Regardless of what you call them, Drapati has
• 1:23:58
  not been appointed to reduce the war's intensity.
• 1:24:01
  He's been appointed to expand it.
• 1:24:04
  So there's also two criminal cases, Russian, connected
• 1:24:08
  to the shelling of Donbass that he's associated
• 1:24:12
  with.
• 1:24:12
  This guy's a killer.
• 1:24:14
  In 2016, the Russian investigative committee opened a
• 1:24:18
  case accusing him of employing prohibited methods of
• 1:24:22
  warfare during attacks against civilians in Donetsk.
• 1:24:29
  These drone attacks and stuff, somebody is manipulating
• 1:24:32
  them.
• 1:24:33
  And the people in the Donbass are talking
• 1:24:35
  about it all the time.
• 1:24:37
  The Ukrainians drone us and blow up our
• 1:24:39
  cars.
• 1:24:40
  We can't even go outside.
• 1:24:42
  You know, how many people were in that
• 1:24:44
  story I just shared with you that said,
• 1:24:46
  you know, they killed my wife and kids?
• 1:24:48
  And they follow them.
• 1:24:50
  The drones follow them.
• 1:24:51
  You can find them all over Telegram, these
• 1:24:53
  videos.
• 1:24:55
  And they glorify it, the Ukrainian drone operators.
• 1:24:59
  They treat it like a video game.
• 1:25:00
  They post a video game outside, or on
• 1:25:03
  -site, you know, on many sites, on Telegram,
• 1:25:07
  stuff like that, how they're blowing people up.
• 1:25:09
  They chase them down, blow them up, post
• 1:25:11
  it on Telegram.
• 1:25:13
  So a second case was opened to cover
• 1:25:16
  attacks conducted in the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics,
• 1:25:20
  and Russian authorities maintain that units under Draupadi's
• 1:25:23
  command carried out more than 70 attacks, killing
• 1:25:27
  more than 150 people, or injuring them.
• 1:25:31
  These are Russian criminal accusations, by the way,
• 1:25:34
  not convictions handed down by any sort of
• 1:25:37
  international tribunal, right?
• 1:25:40
  So you have the...
• 1:25:42
  They occurred in the Donbass, and they occurred
• 1:25:45
  while Russia is in control.
• 1:25:47
  So basically, they're a war crime, and Russia
• 1:25:50
  intends to prosecute.
• 1:25:51
  If they ever catch this guy, they'll charge
• 1:25:54
  him for it, so...
• 1:25:57
  But you can't simply dismiss these allegations because
• 1:26:00
  they originated in Russia, right?
• 1:26:03
  They concern identifiable military operations, named commanders, specific
• 1:26:08
  locations, civilian targets.
• 1:26:12
  The proper response would be some sort of
• 1:26:14
  independent examination, not the automatic silence that we
• 1:26:19
  give it in the West.
• 1:26:21
  And we only do that because the victims
• 1:26:23
  live in Donetsk or Lugansk.
• 1:26:26
  So they just ignore it.
• 1:26:27
  The Western presentation of Draupadi as a clean,
• 1:26:30
  modern, and forward-looking commander doesn't address any
• 1:26:34
  of those.
• 1:26:35
  The Mariupol.
• 1:26:36
  Was it an attack on a hostile population?
• 1:26:39
  Sure as hell was.
• 1:26:40
  Draupadi gained widespread attention in May 2014 when
• 1:26:44
  he commanded the battalion of Ukraine's 72nd Mechanized
• 1:26:48
  Brigade near Mariupol.
• 1:26:50
  The Ukrainian version says the episode is a
• 1:26:52
  legendary military breakthrough.
• 1:26:54
  Draupadi led an armored column through a barricade
• 1:26:57
  into the city during fighting between Ukrainian government
• 1:27:00
  forces and the opponents in the post-Maidan
• 1:27:03
  government.
• 1:27:04
  Videos of the incident show an infantry fighting
• 1:27:07
  vehicle accelerating through a barricade, and Ukrainian accounts
• 1:27:11
  portray the column as entering Mariupol to rescue
• 1:27:14
  security personnel, but profiles of other people say
• 1:27:18
  the episode is the action that established his
• 1:27:20
  reputation as a decisive commander.
• 1:27:27
  But the footage has some uncomfortable parts.
• 1:27:30
  It does not show any sort of enemy
• 1:27:33
  formation resisting armored vehicles at the barricade.
• 1:27:37
  It shows civilians standing along the road and
• 1:27:41
  several men throwing stones at passing military vehicles.
• 1:27:46
  Draupadi later acknowledged that the local population was
• 1:27:49
  hostile toward Ukraine.
• 1:27:51
  They're Russian!
• 1:27:52
  He described hearing hostile slogans and seeing stones
• 1:27:57
  thrown, and asked whether he saw substantial support
• 1:28:00
  for Kiev inside the city.
• 1:28:02
  He reportedly said that there was very little
• 1:28:05
  support inside.
• 1:28:06
  That detail is usually removed from the hero
• 1:28:10
  version they try to portray of him.
• 1:28:12
  Ukrainian military wasn't taking a city from a
• 1:28:15
  foreign country.
• 1:28:16
  It was imposing authority of a post-Maidan
• 1:28:19
  government on a population.
• 1:28:21
  By Draupadi's own account, largely rejected that government,
• 1:28:25
  and his task was to prevent that strategically
• 1:28:28
  important city from escaping Kiev's control.
• 1:28:32
  That was Mariupol.
• 1:28:33
  They killed people.
• 1:28:34
  The critical question is, therefore, not simply whether
• 1:28:37
  Draupadi displayed personal courage.
• 1:28:39
  That didn't take courage, being a tank or
• 1:28:42
  a BMP, fighting people with stones.
• 1:28:46
  But it's the political purpose that his alleged
• 1:28:49
  courage served.
• 1:28:51
  In Mariupol, it served a government using armed
• 1:28:55
  forces against an overwhelmingly hostile local population.
• 1:29:01
  There are more stories about that, which maybe
• 1:29:03
  I'll put in.
• 1:29:05
  There's one where he kneeled before a sword,
• 1:29:07
  and, you know, all kinds of stuff that
• 1:29:10
  isn't good.
• 1:29:12
  But I'll have to share that tomorrow, because
• 1:29:13
  I've run out of time.
• 1:29:14
  I appreciate you being with me today here
• 1:29:17
  on International Flavor.
• 1:29:18
  Join us again tomorrow and every day, Monday
• 1:29:21
  through Thursday from 7.30 to 9.00.
• 1:29:23
  Actually, tomorrow is today Thursday.
• 1:29:25
  Tomorrow is Civic Outlaws.
• 1:29:26
  We'll be doing Civic Outlaws from 7 a
• 1:29:30
  .m. to 8.30. Join us then, and
• 1:29:33
  International Flavor will join you come Monday.
• 1:29:39
  Thank you.
• 1:29:40
  Have a good day.