Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Power, Pretense, Piracy, and Propaganda: Politics, Policing, and the Perilous Performance of Global Power

Transcript

Power, Pretense, Piracy, and Propaganda: Politics, Policing, and the Perilous Performance of Global Power · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

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  We interrupt this incredibly awesome music to bring
• 0:03
  you some incredibly awesome political talk on damn
• 0:07
  radio Hello, good morning.
• 0:10
  Welcome.
• 0:11
  Merry christmas and all of that rot Uh
• 0:17
  everything that I would normally say like here.
• 0:19
  I am live Coming to you live from
• 0:23
  the lake ozark real estate of the art
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  studio I suppose i'll say it i'm coming
• 0:29
  to you live from the lake ozark real
• 0:31
  estate of the art studio studio studio Feel
• 0:35
  free to phone in five seven three seven
• 0:37
  four six eight zero two zero and wish
• 0:39
  me a merry christmas because it was merry
• 0:44
  and uh Also, you might uh feel the
• 0:47
  urge to send in an email to live
• 0:49
  at damn radio dot com You can send
• 0:52
  an email to me Samuel t at international
• 0:56
  flavor dot com.
• 0:58
  Um We have a new Organization built the
• 1:02
  website is only partially done uh for our
• 1:06
  new 501 c3 which is called civic outlaws
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  and we are accepting donations and doing some
• 1:17
  very cool stuff And uh, there are some
• 1:22
  state folks that are Already frightened of what
• 1:26
  we have been able to accomplish against them
• 1:29
  And I I think I might even read
• 1:31
  it to you today.
• 1:32
  We received the most ridiculous sunshine law or
• 1:37
  um Sunshine law demand.
• 1:40
  Okay, if you start pushing guess what they
• 1:43
  do They push back if they don't comply
• 1:46
  All right, and by the way, if they
• 1:49
  come after you and you are asked for
• 1:51
  information and you don't comply Oh, it's the
• 1:54
  end of the freaking world.
• 1:56
  They give a new charge if you're samuel
• 1:58
  edward, uh trap Um, you know you get
• 2:03
  a new charge in your in your ridiculous.
• 2:06
  Missouri bar charges from a corrupt Uh individual
• 2:10
  who wanted you to go after greg williams
• 2:12
  and you refused and so he came after
• 2:15
  you instead for virtually Something that was much
• 2:19
  less than greg williams did but he came
• 2:21
  after you anyway, and then dumped on other
• 2:24
  stuff and why?
• 2:26
  Because you are failing to cooperate, but they
• 2:29
  put a law out there that says the
• 2:31
  government should be All Open they should have
• 2:37
  open records that we should get to do
• 2:39
  things and we have Received from them and
• 2:42
  now they're bitching and complaining.
• 2:44
  We've already provided 3600 pages of records and
• 2:48
  you know what it costs us to get
• 2:49
  that 3600 pages of records more than $5
• 2:53
  ,000 and now We've requested so much that
• 2:57
  get this letter is freaking hilarious I might
• 3:01
  share it with you today because it's but
• 3:03
  I want to get to some other stuff
• 3:04
  because we did have some big International news,
• 3:07
  but I certainly this week I will I
• 3:09
  haven't prepped that sort of show yet But
• 3:13
  I plan to and so keep an eye
• 3:15
  on civic outlaws because we have only just
• 3:18
  begun Reminds me of the carpenter.
• 3:21
  Shall I sing for you?
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  We've only just begun To live I should
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  start crying when I do it because Karen
• 3:28
  Carpenter, you know, she always sounded like she
• 3:30
  was Virtually in tears or very close to
• 3:36
  it when she sang that their song Anyway,
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  I'm babbling already here.
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  Look at me already haven't spoken to you
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  since before Christmas And now here it is
• 3:48
  a few short days after Christmas.
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  It's been maybe a week Well, it's not
• 3:53
  even been a week because I did Monday
• 3:55
  and Tuesday, I think yep, I sure did
• 3:58
  So it's I did miss a few shows
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  and I had planned to do them and
• 4:02
  I just opted not to you know and
• 4:04
  I really needed the Break if you'd like
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  to call in five seven three, seven, four
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  six eighty twenty I do plan to get
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  into Maria's a hot of a Trump and
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  Zelensky some Lavrov news coming up.
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  He's supposed to give a an annual Press
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  briefing and you know Putin does one every
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  year and they they have that before too
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  long.
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  I Discovered when my visa expires and I'm
• 4:34
  really a little pissy about it because I
• 4:35
  got to go pretty soon or not go
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  at all To get over there.
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  I've only got 60 something 65 short days
• 4:44
  remaining and I got to get my fat
• 4:46
  butt over there in the winter I really
• 4:49
  wanted to do that because I've been there
• 4:52
  in the remains of winter but nothing not
• 4:54
  really cold and I really wanted to do
• 4:57
  a New Year's trip and If If it
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  didn't take so long, I'd leave like right
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  now You know to fly over there, but
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  it's a it's a long flight.
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  That's a long flight back.
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  And so I Hope I don't miss out
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  on the boat Entirely man, I really am
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  all over the map and I've got some
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  stuff to get to as well That we
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  watched I might play a little bit of
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  the Trump Zelensky presser that was Last night,
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  but I think I'd prefer to start with
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  Mari as a hot of a every Friday
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  she gives a a Briefing and Usually this
• 5:46
  is like a Friday ritual and it's a
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  two-hour she's the spokesperson for the Ministry
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  of Defense works directly for Sergei Lavrov and
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  it's always the gives the weekly press briefing
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  and so everything that I'm about to tell
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  you came from her Christmas Day press briefing
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  and It was interesting it's good the last
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  one of the year there you know the
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  next one won't be till after the new
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  year New Year's Day or whatever it is
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  on the on the first and I'm not
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  sure there will be one but it won't
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  be until the new year either way So
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  this is the last one of the year
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  and basically what she did was go over
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  some of the things she did talk about
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  Lavrov's yearly press brief Annual state of affairs
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  that kind of thing which will come up
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  to us in in Mid to late January.
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  She says I'll be keeping an eye out
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  for that and she was talking about Certain
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  themes and there's no particular order to this
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  For me she did in a particular order
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  But I split it out in the way
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  that I thought it might make a little
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  bit More of a flowing sense for us,
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  especially from the point of view of the
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  war in Ukraine the Zelensky Trump meeting coming
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  up which was quite Contradictory shall we say
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  and Trump is already giving And it's not
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  excuses because it's not his war to end
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  But he is giving you know, what do
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  they call it?
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  Managing our Expectations is what he's doing.
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  He is Managing to make sure that we
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  don't Say but you told me X you
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  took them and it's been and there's some
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  Contradictions certainly in the way that these are
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  framed, but I thought What the hot of
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  a was saying was quite?
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  Interesting And I think That and I and
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  I and I watched another one, you know,
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  I keep track of Mr. The Trump gave
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  us some interesting numbers in his presentation was
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  the Z monster yesterday and he said that
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  there's a very small Percentage that want to
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  continue the war And it's it and that's
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  true and he gave a number and I
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  wish I could remember what it was Maybe
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  we will listen to that part, but I
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  want to say it was like 20%
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  or less But Zelensky doesn't have any backing
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  right now and There are plenty of reasons
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  for that.
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  You know, the Ukrainians are certainly tired of
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  this and there's a little bit of what?
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  What I found quite interesting was that the
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  heart of a and Aristovich who I've told
• 9:08
  you about before the two of them are
• 9:11
  Say are coming to the same results on
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  a few things, but for different reasons So
• 9:17
  I definitely want to plow into that a
• 9:19
  little bit later in the show And I
• 9:23
  do want to let you know that I
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  believe Monday Tuesday and probably Wednesday is New
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  Year's Eve.
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  I'm not sure if we're gonna have a
• 9:33
  show on New Year's Day or not I'm
• 9:36
  not sure of that and there's a slight
• 9:38
  chance that I may be Traveling somewhere and
• 9:41
  I might do the same thing this week
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  that I did last and so those Shows
• 9:50
  Shows this week Don't follow the schedule Necessarily
• 9:54
  at least for me But you will be
• 9:57
  able to get all of my shows on
• 9:59
  International flavor calm just like always I've thought
• 10:02
  about putting up a couple or doing some
• 10:04
  live on a different platform My pod being
• 10:07
  platform because you can go live on there,
• 10:10
  too And it's a when I'm traveling maybe
• 10:12
  a little more stable and do it there
• 10:14
  and then record it here or something like
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  that So they may not be live, but
• 10:19
  these are live to you in the in
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  the mornings.
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  I'm I'm Usually live yes, and so I
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  want to talk to you about you know
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  as a hot of us she talked about
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  the IOC International Olympic Committee decision to allow
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  youth Russian and Belarus athletes a Little bit
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  of a Crack in this artificial wall that's
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  been placed You know of politicized exclusion of
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  Russians from well.
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  We've never done that they didn't do that
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  to the Nazis Do it to them?
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  But we do it to everybody else her
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  argument isn't really celebratorial it's Fatalistic you know
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  the Olympic Charter cannot indefinitely survive being bent
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  into a sanctions tool I mean, that's true.
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  You can't You can't twist it all up
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  as some kind of a world Organization that
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  doesn't represent the world and if you don't
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  include Russia It's a very bad plan from
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  you know Russia shows very well at most
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  of the Olympics and Excluding them or telling
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  them they've got to participate only under another
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  flag is is foolish number one and it's
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  Not what has happened in the past you
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  know it's just not People haven't been kept
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  out of that Olympic Games they are you
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  know if anything they're a non-political show
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  of You know Ukrainians beating Russians, maybe you
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  know give them an opportunity to beat them
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  in a different sphere or something like that
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  and So she she contrasts this IOC incremental
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  return to You know foundational principles that she
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  calls She calls it this and I thought
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  found the word.
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  You know that this was this was Very
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  appropriate she calls it cave level Russophobia among
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  EU officials and Denmark's culture minister is her
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  example of a you know broad pathology there
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  These are politicians with zero sporting authority that
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  attempt to dictate who can compete and under
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  what?
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  Conditions these are people who never competed a
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  day in their lives Anything except how much
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  money to put in their bank account, and
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  they're certainly not sportsmen and Her claim is
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  pretty blunt banning athletes does not punish the
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  government it Destroys the sport itself, and that's
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  you know kind of what she said And
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  she said if you want your athletes on
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  the podium you don't do it by banning
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  others you do it by developing sports now
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  that's a very Smart Approach you know what
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  she said she also said the full restoration
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  of Russian athletes rights is not a question
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  of if it's only a question of time
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  and And both of those you know are
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  are things that are directly that she said
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  and she's correct She's absolutely correct, and it's
• 13:42
  a you know Western governments are weaponizing everything
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  and they're weaponizing a political institution supposedly a
• 13:52
  political and those Institutions are trying to claw
• 13:56
  their way back to some sort of credibility
• 13:59
  Especially after the joke of Olympics that occurred
• 14:02
  this past summer I'm sorry in 2024.
• 14:06
  What a joke you got the you know
• 14:08
  all it was was a Transgender party you
• 14:12
  know and that's nonsense I got I hate
• 14:16
  to rat out one of my sons, but
• 14:18
  I was with two of them over the
• 14:21
  The the little break that I had there
• 14:23
  at Christmas And we traveled and we talked
• 14:27
  and one of them has a friend from
• 14:29
  high school Who has decided and it was
• 14:32
  his best friend in high school who decided
• 14:34
  that he is?
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  Transgender and I met him one time, and
• 14:37
  I was nice.
• 14:37
  I didn't say anything You know I don't
• 14:39
  like that, and I especially don't like it
• 14:42
  if it's some kind of a drama Scenario
• 14:46
  or You're taking attention from somebody's very special
• 14:50
  day and putting it on yourself.
• 14:52
  You can't for one day just Attempt to
• 14:57
  put somebody else's day Ahead of your own,
• 15:02
  and I just find that to be so
• 15:04
  selfish.
• 15:05
  You know I just that you have to
• 15:08
  You can't and and I could comment on
• 15:12
  some more But I really don't want to
• 15:14
  on that on that topic on this and
• 15:17
  and I and but we did get into
• 15:18
  That part of it anyway, but we got
• 15:21
  into the times that I don't care if
• 15:24
  you want to you know where your A
• 15:30
  Christmas story bunny rabbit suit all over the
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  planet You know if that's what you'd like
• 15:35
  to wear wear it.
• 15:37
  I don't care if you want to wear
• 15:39
  women's You know underwear you know I don't
• 15:43
  care what you wear You know some of
• 15:46
  the I laugh at some of it.
• 15:47
  You know you see some pretty ridiculous outfits
• 15:49
  at Walmart and if you ever seen the
• 15:53
  the The Fashion of Walmart things on YouTube.
• 15:57
  I think they've taken a bunch of them
• 15:59
  down and gotten rid of them But oh
• 16:01
  my god There's some frightening photos of all
• 16:04
  of that stuff caught at Walmart or something
• 16:07
  like that was what it was called and
• 16:09
  some of those things were just so Frightening
• 16:12
  right what people are wearing and At any
• 16:17
  rate, but we we had a discussion about
• 16:19
  about this And I said that the only
• 16:22
  times it really bothers me is actually there
• 16:25
  are three that are closely related the first
• 16:28
  is you're gonna be a your Desire right
• 16:36
  whatever you want to call it right to
• 16:38
  be different impacts someone else's Day to be
• 16:44
  normal perhaps you're having a Graduation perhaps you're
• 16:50
  having a wedding and you want to invite
• 16:52
  them, but if it's me, and it's a
• 16:55
  wedding I'm inviting them and saying look.
• 16:57
  I really don't want you here because this
• 16:58
  day isn't about you It's about me, and
• 17:03
  if you wish to you know if I'm
• 17:04
  the one getting married, and if it and
• 17:06
  if it's me I'm saying look I think
• 17:09
  you should Just give it a rest for
• 17:12
  a day.
• 17:12
  Please you know I don't Or please don't
• 17:17
  come I would you know I I'm asking
• 17:19
  I don't I'm not inviting you You are
• 17:22
  not invited because I don't want this so
• 17:25
  if somebody had somebody expressly desires that it's
• 17:28
  their day And not yours, please don't mess
• 17:31
  up my day by doing X.
• 17:33
  I think that's one example number two You
• 17:36
  don't go teaching kids this if people are
• 17:38
  over 18 And you don't normalize it for
• 17:41
  them in schools by having Transgender teachers and
• 17:45
  all of this rot so that your kids
• 17:49
  Decide that it's cool, or they teach them
• 17:52
  that it's cool Against what you are teaching
• 17:56
  those things belong in the family, and that's
• 17:58
  number two Number three is probably the most
• 18:02
  important for me Women have fought for years
• 18:05
  to be in sports, and they have fought
• 18:08
  for this right, and now what are we
• 18:10
  doing?
• 18:10
  we've taken it away, but I'm not we
• 18:13
  sure as hell a me and but the
• 18:16
  these assholes that want to come in and
• 18:20
  take You know some some failing Wrestler who
• 18:25
  couldn't wrestle his way out of you know
• 18:27
  a chicken coop.
• 18:28
  You know we're A male chicken coop is
• 18:32
  gonna go in and and beat a bunch
• 18:35
  of girls kickboxing champions beating the crap out
• 18:38
  of women Knocking them flat in seconds because
• 18:41
  they're stronger bigger faster and those are the
• 18:45
  realities of life and I don't believe that
• 18:50
  it should be allowed you want to have
• 18:51
  a trend here.
• 18:52
  Here's here's the joke of it All right
• 18:55
  if you took men in one group women
• 18:59
  in another group and created a third group
• 19:02
  of transgenders Transgender men or if you wanted
• 19:07
  to have men's bathrooms women's bathrooms and transgenders
• 19:10
  bathrooms I could support that and I'm and
• 19:12
  I'm not against someone's ability or desire to
• 19:15
  be transgender or claim There, but you know
• 19:18
  I don't know what you know a different
• 19:20
  a different sex.
• 19:21
  It's not a mental Well I believe it
• 19:24
  is a mental condition, but it's not a
• 19:26
  mental decision.
• 19:27
  It's a it's a Biological decision you know
• 19:31
  you're you you may think you're a woman
• 19:34
  and your body might But your penis says
• 19:37
  otherwise if you're in and vice versa now
• 19:40
  I don't give a crap book about gay.
• 19:42
  You know that doesn't bother me in the
• 19:43
  slightest.
• 19:44
  I give a rip and You know if
• 19:46
  you want to be gay, but this transgender
• 19:48
  stuff that is taking over the the planet
• 19:51
  I I dislike and for those three reasons
• 19:54
  now you can beat up on me over
• 19:56
  that But that's my point of view and
• 19:58
  I share that point of view with with
• 20:00
  a number of people And I believe it's
• 20:02
  fair women fight to have Sporting events, and
• 20:06
  then they can't even win in something Because
• 20:09
  some man comes in and takes and steals
• 20:12
  their day steals their thunder steals their ability
• 20:14
  to compete and I have the exact same
• 20:17
  thing with taking a field and narrowing it
• 20:20
  by Artificial means if you want if if
• 20:25
  women want to compete if a woman decided
• 20:27
  that she wanted to be a man, and
• 20:29
  she's going to Take testosterone and say that
• 20:33
  she can compete against man great more power
• 20:36
  to her You know I think that's foolish
• 20:38
  because she's gonna get her ass handed to
• 20:40
  her And I don't believe that's anything to
• 20:43
  do with testosterone, okay, and The Same is
• 20:48
  true for men wanting to go the other
• 20:51
  way.
• 20:51
  I imagine if you had a third category
• 20:54
  transgenders or You know call it confused.
• 20:57
  You know men women and confused put them
• 20:59
  in there, then It would be all Biological
• 21:03
  men because the women had be in the
• 21:05
  same boat they would prefer to be on
• 21:08
  the side of the women you know And
• 21:10
  they'll dress up in men's clothing and be
• 21:12
  a transgender man But if they're gonna be
• 21:14
  in sports They're gonna go on the women's
• 21:16
  side because they wouldn't they wouldn't win on
• 21:19
  the men's side now there may be minor
• 21:21
  Exceptions to that things like archery or something
• 21:24
  like that who knows but but in the
• 21:27
  physical sports swimming individual sports Shot put stuff
• 21:33
  that require huge upper body strength you know
• 21:37
  pole vaulting figure it out running The difference
• 21:42
  between men and women in a Marathon is
• 21:46
  is at least 12 minutes you know the
• 21:50
  the averages 12 minutes that's for for for
• 21:55
  the fastest of men that is literally three
• 21:59
  miles faster and So at any rate that's
• 22:03
  that's enough about that, but these a political
• 22:06
  institutions trying to dictate what?
• 22:09
  What we believe what we think what you
• 22:13
  believe and to demonize Certain types of people
• 22:17
  they demonize me if they heard what I
• 22:18
  just said And there's other You know Juxtapositions
• 22:24
  you know of this war rhetoric and soft
• 22:27
  power.
• 22:27
  You know that certainly were brought about by
• 22:29
  Maria Zakharova she spent some time on the
• 22:34
  Alexandra of ensemble international tour and emphasized the
• 22:38
  packed halls local officials and attendants and performances
• 22:42
  in national Languages because they say the same
• 22:46
  thing you know there's a lot of propaganda
• 22:49
  But you can't let a Russian ensemble show
• 22:51
  up.
• 22:52
  You can't let the Russian ballets show up
• 22:55
  You can't you know this is this is
• 22:57
  bad.
• 22:58
  You can't have them show up.
• 22:59
  You're sanctioning them You're sanctioning culture, which is
• 23:03
  idiotic, and she says you know these things
• 23:07
  That these performances that show up to packed
• 23:09
  halls and stuff like that.
• 23:11
  It's not nostalgia It's rebuttal of the idea
• 23:13
  that Russia is isolated her argument was that
• 23:17
  culture travels where sanctions cannot and That audiences
• 23:21
  are separating government from civilization.
• 23:24
  I thought that was a pretty astute Claim
• 23:27
  she ties this to humanitarian aid food assistance
• 23:31
  to Africa through UN world food programs the
• 23:35
  point she hammers is Consistency Russia speaks about
• 23:38
  global South development, and then writes checks and
• 23:42
  ships foods and food and backs it up
• 23:45
  You know they're doing it.
• 23:46
  They you know these performances are not Russian
• 23:49
  propaganda they are shared human values was her
• 23:52
  quote and Humary Humanitarian aid is not charity
• 23:57
  she said it's a responsibility So it's kind
• 24:00
  of a parallel reality sanctions politics versus Global
• 24:05
  engagement Russia is not cut off which one
• 24:09
  shapes long-term influence you think it's It's
• 24:13
  keeping somebody out of the Olympics is not
• 24:15
  going to shape it sure is but if
• 24:18
  you Participate You know in these food programs
• 24:23
  and things like that.
• 24:24
  It's a you are creating a different world
• 24:26
  so Germany here's some sanctions.
• 24:30
  You know they were talking about there's some
• 24:32
  petty authoritarianism that she's been bringing on to
• 24:35
  this is the was a pretty emotional does
• 24:39
  a section of her her her Press Conference
• 24:45
  and rightly so she she talked about multiple
• 24:48
  cases of German customs authorities seizing the personal
• 24:55
  belongings of Russian citizens clothing cash gifts under
• 25:01
  the pretext of sanctions enforcement so there are
• 25:04
  stories about them traveling abroad for Christmas and
• 25:07
  stuff like that and the Horror story of
• 25:10
  flying into Germany and being being You know
• 25:16
  It'd be the equivalent of the anal probe
• 25:19
  here.
• 25:19
  You know what I mean stealing their stuff
• 25:22
  and take you know Seriously harassing these travelers
• 25:25
  and her claim wasn't that it's a legal
• 25:27
  overreach, but it's a moral degradation Humiliation shouting
• 25:33
  intimidation and expectations that victims won't pursue remedies
• 25:38
  because You know they're Russian and they live
• 25:40
  abroad she calls Germany a territory of lawlessness
• 25:45
  for Russians and advises Russian citizens to avoid
• 25:50
  travel there unless Absolutely necessary because you know
• 25:55
  the Gestapo is about And she said they
• 25:58
  robbed this one woman in broad daylight and
• 26:00
  called it compliance and when it comes to
• 26:03
  Russians Human rights suddenly do not apply this
• 26:07
  was a brutal takedown for her that you
• 26:10
  know this entire show that's why I'm sharing
• 26:12
  it with you because you know, it's You
• 26:16
  know talk about the broader discussion about selective
• 26:19
  legality how you know our so-called democracies
• 26:24
  justified behavior that would be condemned instantly if
• 26:28
  Done the other way around if this happened
• 26:31
  to me when I traveled to Russia and
• 26:33
  the Russians You know we're stealing my gifts
• 26:36
  and calling you know Me names and treating
• 26:41
  me poorly just because I'm an American I've
• 26:44
  been nothing, but I've been questioned every time.
• 26:47
  Why are you here?
• 26:48
  What are you doing?
• 26:49
  You know sometimes pretty detailed and especially while
• 26:52
  the war part has been going on before
• 26:54
  that it was pretty straightforward You know who
• 26:56
  you coming to see why you can why
• 26:58
  you here?
• 26:59
  You know you got a register at whatever
• 27:01
  hotel you're in and that kind of thing
• 27:03
  you know little details that they talk about
• 27:05
  I want to make sure that you're Coming
• 27:07
  to comply with the law and you're not
• 27:09
  coming to do anything clandestine or ridiculous, but
• 27:12
  they're not stealing your stuff They're not anal
• 27:14
  probing you they're not Doing anything that they're
• 27:17
  not doing to any other person for a
• 27:20
  security part of the state That's not what's
• 27:23
  going on in Germany, and there's other places,
• 27:25
  too And Zakharova was pretty brutal about it
• 27:29
  and she talked about Latvia in the arrest
• 27:32
  of a guy named Viktor Gushkin and Gushkin
• 27:36
  I think at well.
• 27:37
  I don't remember exactly how to say in
• 27:39
  the repression that goes on in the Baltics
• 27:41
  I told you that from my trip there
• 27:43
  this past fall that place is It's frightening
• 27:46
  they are Very much anti Russia you can't
• 27:51
  even speak Russian in the ubers they go
• 27:53
  crazy on you And they don't like it,
• 27:56
  and it's like Jesus.
• 27:57
  I'm hiring you.
• 27:58
  I'll speak whatever language.
• 28:00
  I feel like you know and She she
• 28:03
  now this Viktor Gushkin is a historian and
• 28:07
  Russian community leader and They arrested him and
• 28:11
  she calls it political intimidation not law enforcement
• 28:14
  his academic and cultural work And the case
• 28:18
  of him is a warning shot about Russian
• 28:20
  speaking population It's a she references gestapo style
• 28:25
  tactics suppression of dissent ethnic targeting She situates
• 28:29
  Latvia within the broader Baltic pattern not as
• 28:32
  an outlier But as a test case for
• 28:34
  how far EU members will go against Russian
• 28:37
  minority populations.
• 28:39
  It's not justice It's intimidation 80 years after
• 28:42
  the victory over Nazism its shadow is returning
• 28:45
  to Europe is what she said and You
• 28:49
  know this a serious conversation about minority rights
• 28:53
  inside the EU especially when those minorities are
• 28:55
  just you know Inconvenient you know same thing
• 28:58
  going on with Norway and fisheries.
• 29:01
  They're attacking fishing in Norway and Russia and
• 29:06
  the sanctions and treaties She's like it's technical
• 29:10
  international laws she accuses Norway of Undermining decades
• 29:14
  -old bilateral fishing agreements by so-called EU
• 29:19
  sanctions against Russian companies with no evidence fisheries
• 29:24
  management in the Barents and the Norwegian Seas
• 29:27
  is a shared ecological Responsibility and they have
• 29:31
  politicized it And it's risking the collapse of
• 29:34
  a system that has worked very well for
• 29:36
  more than half a century she warns that
• 29:39
  Norway is political is Surrendering its political and
• 29:44
  policy sovereignty to Brussels and Acting against their
• 29:48
  own long-term interests.
• 29:50
  I found this extremely interesting.
• 29:52
  She said this is not Solidarity with the
• 29:55
  EU its abdication of responsibility and who benefits
• 29:58
  from destroying a functioning system You know how
• 30:03
  do sanctions spill into environmental governance?
• 30:06
  You know, it's you know without and then
• 30:10
  she talked about the shadow fleet in the
• 30:13
  abuse of maritime law and I found this
• 30:16
  very interesting because the law is Definitely on
• 30:19
  her side and it folds into a little
• 30:22
  bit that I'm going to follow up with
• 30:23
  on Trump in this nonsense going on in
• 30:26
  Venezuela Zakharova, you know dismantled this term shadow
• 30:31
  fleet and she said it does not exist
• 30:34
  in Any sort of international maritime law, it's
• 30:40
  a made-up term and It's it's completely
• 30:45
  Ridiculous, it has never existed before if a
• 30:48
  ship sails under another country's flag.
• 30:51
  You can't say that It's really Russian That's
• 30:55
  not how it works Under the law and
• 30:58
  they're just making these things up And so
• 31:01
  she argues that the EU has been the
• 31:03
  u.s. Too because they're starting to do
• 31:05
  it too has been retrofitting legal language to
• 31:08
  justify ridiculous actions inspections detentions seizures pressure that
• 31:15
  would violate the United Law of the Sea
• 31:22
  UNCLOS, I forget what the C stands for
• 31:25
  Particularly the freedom of navigation and all of
• 31:28
  these invoke it and and what Trump's doing
• 31:29
  violates it too and she invokes Mara Libra
• 31:34
  and Liberty on the sea and accuses the
• 31:37
  EU of doing what it historically condemned Bending
• 31:41
  the law to match the power you wish
• 31:43
  to grab and she invited European legal scholars
• 31:47
  to explain Publicly what they think the term
• 31:50
  actually means since definitions keep shifting and the
• 31:54
  term shadow fleet exists Nowhere in international law,
• 31:57
  and it's a legal distortion Not valid enforcement,
• 32:02
  and it's tell you what yeah I did
• 32:05
  a little bit of a deeper dive into
• 32:07
  customary maritime law several weeks ago when Trump
• 32:10
  started this Nonsense, and we were talking about
• 32:12
  the Russian alleged shadow fleet when they were
• 32:15
  seizing stuff on on the on the Black
• 32:19
  Sea in crazy stuff Poland is Seizing Russian
• 32:25
  property the heart of address reports of Polish
• 32:29
  appropriating former Russian diplomatic properties Specifically in the
• 32:34
  city of Gdansk and her position was that
• 32:36
  the property belongs to Russia under post-war
• 32:39
  Agreements and any attempts to seize it is
• 32:41
  illegal and she said Reciprocity will absolutely follow
• 32:46
  in one of she said we advise Warsaw
• 32:49
  to calculate the Consequences she talked about cultural
• 32:54
  revisionism and Ukraine.
• 32:55
  She spent a good amount of time to
• 32:59
  Ukraine's removal of more monuments and renaming historical
• 33:03
  references in Ukraine's icing everything and claiming that
• 33:07
  Ukraine and not Russia developed these You know
• 33:13
  these history parts, and they they got rid
• 33:15
  of the Great Patriotic War They can't you
• 33:18
  can't even call it that anymore, and she
• 33:20
  argues.
• 33:20
  That's not desovietization but cultural amputation and extends
• 33:26
  even to figures like Tchaikovsky and Bulgakov and
• 33:29
  other artists and other authors and you know
• 33:33
  she's talking about erasing of shared culture and
• 33:36
  You erase shared memory as well, and how
• 33:40
  is that going to reconcile these two?
• 33:44
  these two places It's it's not and so
• 33:48
  she said you can't build a future by
• 33:51
  erasing civilization and you know memory politics cancel
• 33:56
  culture and the weaponization of history is exactly
• 33:59
  what you see and She spent a little
• 34:01
  bit of time on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
• 34:04
  as the target of state-sponsored Repression which
• 34:08
  used to be the Russian Orthodox Church They
• 34:10
  made him change the name to Ukrainian Orthodox
• 34:13
  Church to get rid of the Russian reference
• 34:16
  And then told them they couldn't be subordinate
• 34:19
  to any route.
• 34:20
  You know to the Russian Hierarchy even though
• 34:23
  they were the exact same church just in
• 34:25
  your Ukraine And she calls it a rival
• 34:28
  structure, that's a political instrument, and they've been
• 34:31
  targeting Everybody and you know there are court
• 34:34
  delays international concern and manipulation to argue that
• 34:39
  mass religious Changes forced upon you by government
• 34:47
  That she says these are there and now
• 34:50
  Ukraine of course is saying this is false
• 34:52
  And this has nothing to do with faith
• 34:55
  You know you know to God it has
• 34:57
  to do with control by the government just
• 35:00
  like everything else Religious freedom just like everything
• 35:04
  else in Europe is selectively enforced or selectively
• 35:09
  defended You know Depending on you know who
• 35:13
  you choose to align with She's been a
• 35:18
  long time talking about Western financing sustaining Ukraine's
• 35:23
  war economy, but not Ukrainian society This is
• 35:31
  a big deal, and this is where Erastovich
• 35:33
  talked some as well she highlighted desertion Which
• 35:37
  is huge forced mobilization public statements admitting systemic
• 35:43
  failure of their system the money flows through
• 35:46
  Ukraine She says not to Ukraine it enriches
• 35:51
  networks and Individuals and exhausts the population of
• 35:56
  population don't get any of this then the
• 35:59
  Westerners are funding the war until the last
• 36:02
  Ukrainian and then they are asked you know
• 36:05
  the Oligarchs that are left are asking for
• 36:08
  more.
• 36:09
  This is precisely what's happening now over the
• 36:12
  weekend Zelensky was begging for more money to
• 36:15
  said we don't have enough money.
• 36:16
  They had 12,000 bodies returned And they
• 36:20
  can't afford it.
• 36:21
  It's crazy.
• 36:23
  It's Russia gets like 20 bodies back you
• 36:28
  know that Have been killed by Ukrainian forces,
• 36:34
  and then Ukraine receives 12,000 and they
• 36:38
  don't want them because they cannot afford the
• 36:42
  Payment that has to come to the family
• 36:45
  when The bodies are identified.
• 36:49
  You know everybody gets two three hundred thousand
• 36:51
  or whatever that number is and it's approximate
• 36:53
  and that they get in Grievnia which which
• 36:57
  are The Ukrainian money, but they equate to
• 37:01
  right around twenty two hundred and sixty two
• 37:04
  to three hundred thousand dollars and You know
• 37:10
  They Can't afford it And and we'll get
• 37:13
  further into that and we talk a little
• 37:14
  bit about What a rest over which was
• 37:16
  talking about over the weekend to and and
• 37:19
  talk about the Trump the Trump?
• 37:23
  Zelensky meeting She was talking about civilian casualties
• 37:29
  inside of Russian territories And she listed regions
• 37:33
  dates weapons used victims by age including children
• 37:37
  and infants Infants this is not an accident.
• 37:41
  She always does this and she does it
• 37:43
  at least once a month and You know
• 37:46
  that they keep talking about you know the
• 37:48
  differentiation between frontline and rear and that Ukrainian
• 37:53
  strikes especially drone attacks are not collateral damage,
• 37:58
  but are deliberate terror tactics Because they aren't
• 38:02
  attacking Oil refineries except once in a while
• 38:07
  they are attacking civilians in border regions and
• 38:11
  major cities She repeatedly uses the word terrorism
• 38:15
  and reinforces it by citing criminal prosecutions of
• 38:20
  People they talked about some more, and there
• 38:23
  was a number.
• 38:24
  I want to say it's 278 children that
• 38:27
  have been killed By the Ukrainians since the
• 38:31
  war began and This is how Kiev treats
• 38:35
  children.
• 38:35
  She said these are not Military targets these
• 38:39
  are acts of terror, and she's laying the
• 38:41
  groundwork for legal not just military escalation sanctions
• 38:46
  narratives are reversed into Criminal liability you know
• 38:50
  there's high-profile Assassinations and internal sabotage there
• 38:55
  was a killing of a senior Russian military
• 38:57
  official with a car bombing in Moscow She
• 39:03
  points the finger with restraint says that Ukrainian
• 39:06
  special services are definitely Suspected and this escalation
• 39:12
  method once assassination enters the capital the conflict
• 39:15
  is not geographically Containable she links this to
• 39:21
  Western intelligence backing without naming the agencies the
• 39:25
  investigation is on going, but the method speaks
• 39:28
  for itself was what she said and They
• 39:33
  talked to she talked about foreign mercenaries and
• 39:35
  individual criminal liability There were several there was
• 39:39
  a Swedish British and indictment of Ukrainian drone
• 39:42
  operators It's short you know, but she talked
• 39:44
  about it She said nationality won't shield these
• 39:47
  combatants from terrorism charges and Western passports are
• 39:52
  not diplomatic immunity and She says responsibility will
• 39:58
  follow on the battlefield and in court and
• 40:02
  so She's you know they're trying to deter
• 40:05
  private military volunteers and contractors.
• 40:08
  She talked a little bit about EU frozen
• 40:11
  assets in the illusion of reparations, and this
• 40:15
  is why you're not gonna have a settlement
• 40:18
  because This First of all let's talk about
• 40:23
  the EU's 90 billion loan plan that Ukraine's
• 40:27
  not gonna pay it the EU knows Ukraine
• 40:30
  isn't gonna pay it and Frozen Russian assets
• 40:33
  are being eyed to covered this gap And
• 40:35
  they you know everybody including me calls it
• 40:39
  theft not policy Zelensky statement that Ukraine would
• 40:43
  only repay the money the 90 billion that
• 40:47
  they're receiving He's already saying we're not gonna
• 40:49
  repay it, and we'll only repay it if
• 40:52
  Russia pays reparations is a Moment of his
• 40:56
  accidental honesty you know the guy's never honest
• 40:59
  and her deeper argument is demographic and generational
• 41:02
  European taxpayers and their children will pay this
• 41:06
  debt there was talk that it's a 3
• 41:08
  .8 billion a year just for Germany to
• 41:12
  to pay the Interest on the loan for
• 41:16
  their part, and it's a debt for a
• 41:18
  war that doesn't benefit them And so you
• 41:20
  know that's who's gonna end up paying this
• 41:22
  back.
• 41:22
  This isn't assistance.
• 41:24
  This is robbery dressed as Solidarity and they
• 41:28
  will never see this money again She said
• 41:31
  and I I mean you can't not agree
• 41:34
  with her you got to agree with her
• 41:35
  it's because she's speaking the truth, and she
• 41:38
  talks about this loan discussion and argues that
• 41:41
  the war is now a financial ecosystem Not
• 41:45
  a defensive effort The Rammstein format commitments Ukrainian
• 41:50
  defense budget that exceed domestic capacity expectation that
• 41:55
  Western states permanently fund Ukrainian military spending Which
• 41:59
  is exactly what they're asking for we're on
• 42:02
  the eastern front against these big bad Russians
• 42:05
  Well, you shouldn't have been killing their people
• 42:07
  then you should have behaved properly and not
• 42:10
  said oh geez we don't have to worry
• 42:11
  about Them they're Russia.
• 42:13
  They'll collapse in a heartbeat.
• 42:14
  They didn't did they?
• 42:16
  Her claim is that the money cycles back
• 42:18
  through corruption networks Same old folks getting rich
• 42:23
  off of this through all the corruption the
• 42:25
  contractors the intermediaries Do you hear the Zelensky
• 42:28
  was hit again with another scandal?
• 42:30
  Corruption they don't nobody talks about this stuff
• 42:33
  here In the West you don't see large
• 42:37
  articles about it here, and they're no no
• 42:39
  no, but there's another scandal Come on.
• 42:42
  That's that's been Outlined it's it's and here.
• 42:46
  We are funding this they're not funding peace
• 42:50
  They are funding the circulation of more Western
• 42:53
  money in the theft and putting into the
• 42:55
  hands of other people You know because everybody
• 42:58
  gets their share, and you know this is
• 43:01
  this money laundering under Humanitarian branding you get
• 43:05
  a call.
• 43:06
  Oh geez we gotta save Ukraine Go ahead
• 43:08
  and take my money.
• 43:09
  Give it to them.
• 43:10
  Why all they're gonna.
• 43:12
  Do is steal it It's not like the
• 43:15
  people in Ukraine are getting any of it
• 43:17
  because they're not And the people that are
• 43:21
  getting it are the same old assholes that
• 43:23
  always get it And they have this mobilization
• 43:27
  crisis, you know their people the soldiers aren't
• 43:30
  getting paid there plenty of stories of that
• 43:33
  Mobilization crisis and social breakdown the Ukrainian society
• 43:37
  has been bled dry Not mobilized the desertion
• 43:42
  statistics are extremely high They were their last
• 43:46
  numbers that I saw were some 300,000
• 43:48
  criminal penalties are replacing consent officials are admitting
• 43:53
  the internal failure both in the Verhovna Rada
• 43:56
  and In Political newspapers and commentary She she
• 44:05
  cites a Ukrainian commentary that admits people choose
• 44:10
  prison over death People are choosing jail over
• 44:14
  the front line that tells you everything they
• 44:17
  would rather go to jail Then go to
• 44:19
  the front line, and this is mobilization is
• 44:23
  not patriotic it's a coercive extraction these people
• 44:27
  are being are being just sent out to
• 44:30
  slaughter and you know, it's it's It's it's
• 44:36
  really a horror story the things that Donald
• 44:38
  Trump was saying yesterday in his in his
• 44:41
  Part of the briefing were absolutely correct.
• 44:44
  They Something needs to happen, but he's afraid
• 44:47
  it's not going to he you know the
• 44:49
  Russian Orthodox Church issues Akharava emphasizes legal mechanisms,
• 44:54
  you know on that and She talked a
• 44:57
  little bit about Venezuela the Caribbean Caribbean and
• 45:01
  maritime hypocrisy and she condemns u.s. Naval
• 45:04
  pressure around Venezuela and because it also breaches
• 45:10
  the UN CLOS the law of the sea
• 45:12
  principles of free navigation and the EU is
• 45:16
  silent on this or worse the EU is
• 45:19
  Trying to do the same thing on Russia's
• 45:22
  shadow fleet so her argument is maritime laws
• 45:26
  and force selectively Depending on whose ships are
• 45:29
  involved And but she says here's her quote
• 45:33
  piracy is piracy even when done by a
• 45:36
  powerful state It's a good comment, it's a
• 45:42
  naval coercion dressed as enforcement is still naval
• 45:46
  coercion right so it's it was a very
• 45:51
  interesting brief that she gave and there was
• 45:58
  Quite a bit interesting in there, and I
• 46:01
  wanted to segment that a little bit into
• 46:05
  The the Trump Zelensky press conference it was
• 46:10
  23 minutes long you know it I'm just
• 46:15
  gonna summarize it for you because there's a
• 46:18
  core reality everybody pretended that this was you
• 46:23
  know momentum, you know and This is not
• 46:28
  momentum.
• 46:29
  This is this is the same and we've
• 46:30
  had momentum all year long, right?
• 46:33
  There is no momentum Nothing has come of
• 46:37
  this and nothing will come of this either
• 46:41
  Nobody nobody believes this Momentum include probably Trump
• 46:46
  himself doesn't because he was hedging his bets
• 46:49
  on it This was framed as some sort
• 46:52
  of progress, but the substance betrayed You know
• 46:56
  the theater of it all you know the
• 46:57
  the the camera opportunity Trump used Optimistic language
• 47:03
  so did Zelensky 95% were there were
• 47:06
  very close We're almost agreed You know I
• 47:10
  always told my kids horseshoes only counts in
• 47:12
  horseshoes atom bombs and hand grenades, right?
• 47:17
  Because you can get a point for being
• 47:19
  close and horseshoes you can get close with
• 47:22
  the hand grenade and still blow something up,
• 47:24
  and you can get fairly close with an
• 47:26
  atom bomb and And you'll still kill the
• 47:29
  target, but the close only kept close, but
• 47:32
  no cigar But There was no and Trump
• 47:37
  didn't he was asked is a couple of
• 47:38
  times refused to name a single resolved strategic
• 47:42
  issue any of these 20 points remember he
• 47:45
  had 20 or Trump had a 28 point
• 47:47
  plan Zelensky provided a 20 point plan with
• 47:51
  the same old nonsense and Trump acknowledges that
• 47:54
  and he said it he said it in
• 47:56
  the briefing and He said that he had
• 47:59
  a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with
• 48:02
  Putin the day before and he had spoken
• 48:06
  with him about this, and he said there
• 48:08
  isn't going to be a ceasefire agreement there
• 48:12
  can be a peace agreement and Zelensky comes
• 48:16
  out and says the exact same thing the
• 48:18
  same thing he always has We won't agree
• 48:21
  until there's a ceasefire.
• 48:23
  We need a ceasefire Russia says we don't
• 48:25
  want a ceasefire May you know there is
• 48:28
  no ceasefire agreement Territorial issues are not resolved
• 48:33
  the referendums are hypothetical they act like they
• 48:37
  never occurred and Talks will fail within the
• 48:40
  next few weeks and Trump said the same
• 48:43
  thing he he and the referendums about the
• 48:47
  funny part is is You can't Um Zelensky
• 48:55
  says he can't He has to have an
• 48:58
  election in a referendum Okay in order for
• 49:01
  them to agree to end the war right
• 49:04
  that he can't just end it he needs
• 49:06
  a referendum he needs elections, and if you
• 49:09
  stop the war we'll have elections and Russia
• 49:12
  is saying why can't you have elections without
• 49:15
  the war and You know these things there's
• 49:18
  no ceasefire the the issues the referendums are
• 49:22
  hypothetical They're never gonna happen in other words
• 49:24
  Trump says this and then these talks He
• 49:28
  did say these talks.
• 49:29
  You know could fail entirely within weeks, and
• 49:31
  they said what happens then he said well.
• 49:33
  They continue fighting and That alone tells you
• 49:37
  everything if the war's core questions land sovereignty
• 49:40
  security guarantees sequencing are unsolved then nothing has
• 49:45
  moved so you know I had a conversation
• 49:50
  on telegram with a Journalist lady that I
• 49:55
  met in Kazan last year and the same
• 49:57
  one that interviews me on her television program
• 50:02
  Time to time in Russian in Russia, and
• 50:06
  she sent some things to me And we
• 50:08
  were just wishing each other Happy New Year
• 50:11
  and Christmas and all that and by the
• 50:13
  way it's important to note that in Russian
• 50:17
  culture New Year's comes first and Then Christmas
• 50:22
  comes because they celebrate Christ according to Christ's
• 50:25
  birth according to a Different calendar I forget
• 50:29
  what it's called and I can't remember Gregorian
• 50:32
  I don't remember, but they celebrate the Orthodox
• 50:36
  calendar has the birth of Christ occurring on
• 50:42
  the 7th of January so they have it
• 50:46
  the opposite We're about a week before New
• 50:49
  Year's they're about a week after New Year's
• 50:51
  so our time between December 15th and 30th
• 50:56
  we never get anything done and for Russia
• 50:58
  It's between the 1st and the 15th they
• 51:01
  never get anything done the place and basically
• 51:02
  shut down anyway She was talking to me
• 51:05
  about that, and I told her Sent her
• 51:09
  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
• 51:10
  She said our Christmas is still you know
• 51:12
  a week away I was like I understand
• 51:14
  that just She reminded me so I thought
• 51:17
  I'd remind everybody else because we say Merry
• 51:20
  Christmas and Happy New Year at the same
• 51:22
  time they don't you know they have New
• 51:24
  Year's first and then Christmas and New Year's
• 51:26
  is non sectarian and Christmas of course is
• 51:31
  quite religious But she told me that she
• 51:36
  expects nothing from the Trump and Zelensky visit
• 51:39
  It's just gonna be the same old crap
• 51:41
  is what she said she said it's gonna
• 51:43
  be the same old crap that we've been
• 51:44
  here in the whole year You know nobody
• 51:47
  has paid any attention to the root causes,
• 51:51
  and I mean we had you know Naturally
• 51:55
  I feel the same way.
• 51:56
  I mean this is gonna be the exact
• 51:58
  same thing is Trump and Putin's call he
• 52:02
  talked about Putin's call Versus Trump's Western optics
• 52:06
  the most revealing moment of this entire thing
• 52:10
  of this 23-minute press conference with the
• 52:14
  Z monster Was when Trump contradicted the Western
• 52:17
  line himself?
• 52:19
  He said Putin does not want to cease
• 52:22
  -fire first, and he actually said he can
• 52:25
  understand that he said I understand why and
• 52:27
  it's the same thing that Putin told him
• 52:29
  in August in Alaska And it can you
• 52:32
  believe it was that long ago?
• 52:34
  Putin believes stopping and restarting war is far
• 52:38
  worse than continuing it and Trump understands that
• 52:41
  position and He also you know Putin explained
• 52:46
  again to him why this Stopping and restarting
• 52:51
  because it gives the Ukrainians time to regroup
• 52:54
  everybody in the West time to resupply This
• 52:57
  is the exact opposite of Zelensky's demands EU
• 53:01
  rhetoric and the media framing that is constant
• 53:04
  So you're having two parallel?
• 53:06
  Conversations one with Putin about an end to
• 53:10
  the war and one with Zelensky and Europeans
• 53:12
  about the process These two are not compatible,
• 53:16
  and it's not gonna It's not gonna end
• 53:18
  in this goes back to what Zakharova said
• 53:20
  she said a ceasefire without a political Resolution
• 53:23
  is not peace.
• 53:24
  It's time to rearm reorganize reset on the
• 53:27
  battlefield and Trump Acknowledges that whether intentionally or
• 53:31
  instinctively knows that this is not going to
• 53:34
  get anywhere Because the Zelensky will never do
• 53:38
  it and Zelensky's latest performance.
• 53:41
  You know latest Show Stopper he gives language
• 53:47
  and just follows along With zero leverage zero
• 53:52
  anything his remarks were you know critically procedural
• 53:56
  You know although he was a little more
• 53:58
  polished, and he's making sure to talk about
• 54:01
  You know the diplomacy been thanking the president
• 54:04
  now And he spoke about his 20-point
• 54:07
  plan security guarantees from the West the framework
• 54:12
  Referendums and sequencing none of these exist without
• 54:16
  Enforcement power and there is no enforcement power
• 54:19
  the moment that gave the game away from
• 54:21
  me Was when they talked on the referendum
• 54:24
  discussion?
• 54:26
  Zelensky insisted that any deal had to be
• 54:29
  approved by Parliament or public vote and Trump
• 54:32
  openly doubted whether this was feasible or even
• 54:35
  necessary and Putin per Trump Rejects the ceasefire
• 54:39
  condition tied to a referendum this creates a
• 54:43
  political impossibility It's a triangle Russia won't stop
• 54:46
  fighting for a vote Ukraine won't concede land
• 54:49
  without a vote the West wants a ceasefire
• 54:52
  first This is a stalemate all of it
• 54:55
  and dressed as dialogue and the questions asked
• 54:59
  at the end of this Conference tell the
• 55:01
  real story when they talked about territory He
• 55:05
  was quizzed quizzed about territory Trump admitted that
• 55:08
  land has been taken It's up for grabs
• 55:10
  and much more may be taken soon This
• 55:13
  is an extraordinary admission from the US president
• 55:16
  on the ceasefire.
• 55:17
  He said it's explicitly rejected by Russia Acknowledged
• 55:23
  by Trump and ignored by Zelensky who keeps
• 55:25
  saying I want a ceasefire And Trump concedes
• 55:29
  that talks could collapse completely on any sort
• 55:32
  of timeline They're good Do you expect anything
• 55:34
  by the end of the year by this
• 55:36
  or that on enforcement?
• 55:37
  Europe is expected to take over security.
• 55:40
  This is all vague and undefined and Unrealistic
• 55:44
  because Russia won't put up with it and
• 55:46
  on reconstruction Trump claims that Putin would help
• 55:50
  build Ukraine rebuild This is a claim that
• 55:54
  immediately collapses under sanctions reality.
• 55:57
  None of these are answers at all and
• 56:00
  So why why does Russia?
• 56:02
  Why does a heart of a why does
• 56:04
  my friend?
• 56:07
  From the newspaper Anna.
• 56:09
  Why does she believe that?
• 56:11
  nothing is gonna come of this because The
• 56:14
  heart of a keeps detailing civilian casualties being
• 56:18
  blown up in inside of Russia force mobilization
• 56:21
  in Ukraine religious persecution that's continuing and hasn't
• 56:25
  been dealt with cultural erasure of Russia war
• 56:29
  financing and corruption that continues, you know Fully
• 56:34
  a pace legal manipulation on sanctions maritime law
• 56:38
  property seizures So from mosh Moscow's perspective the
• 56:42
  question isn't how to pause the war It's
• 56:46
  why the war exists at all and she
• 56:50
  says you cannot negotiate peace with a system
• 56:53
  that profits from war criminalizes descent erases culture
• 56:59
  and Retreats ceasefire as a logistics break.
• 57:03
  So Russia sees all of these talks as
• 57:08
  process and political theater and Trump knows this
• 57:12
  Because he's spoken with Putin and his language
• 57:16
  actually leaks it his optimism You know is
• 57:21
  He has to be optimistic.
• 57:23
  What else is he gonna do but he
• 57:25
  keeps qualifying it He says if it goes
• 57:28
  well, if it goes poorly, it might may
• 57:31
  not happen I don't like to put percentages
• 57:34
  on things They in what happens if they
• 57:37
  don't finish they keep fighting and they keep
• 57:39
  dying This is not the language of a
• 57:42
  man who thinks a resolution is imminent This
• 57:45
  is the language of somebody that's managing our
• 57:47
  expectations and he quietly shifts Responsibility Europe has
• 57:52
  to take over security u.s. Is tired
• 57:54
  of this Ukraine must approve concessions and they
• 57:57
  never will Russia must want it badly enough
• 58:00
  in other words if this fails It's not
• 58:02
  on him and he mentioned again this talking
• 58:05
  about this war wouldn't happened if I was
• 58:07
  in office He's probably right.
• 58:09
  You know, I could give him that that's
• 58:12
  probably accurate and However, he was funding this
• 58:17
  stuff to you know this Escalation and I
• 58:21
  believe it may have just delayed it some
• 58:23
  but you know this this is the bottom
• 58:27
  line on all this is this isn't this
• 58:31
  Meeting with Zelensky and Trump yet again.
• 58:33
  This is no peace breakthrough.
• 58:35
  It's a public alignment exercise designed to show
• 58:40
  Activity we're trying we're getting some dead, but
• 58:42
  there's no resolution Trump knows Russia will not
• 58:46
  stop without an end state an end game
• 58:50
  Guarantee in Zelensky can't accept an end state
• 58:55
  without Political cover, you know, he's got a
• 58:59
  you know, keep the They can't lose, you
• 59:03
  know, he can't be seen to have lost
• 59:06
  Europe wants a pause Europe just wants to
• 59:09
  rearm before 2028 and then they'll jump in
• 59:14
  that's what they're spending all the money for
• 59:16
  Is there hoping to continue to come after
• 59:18
  Russia and everyone in Moscow knows this and
• 59:23
  so as a hot of us?
• 59:24
  Horror story of all this isn't rhetoric.
• 59:27
  It's a Strategic indictment on why these talks
• 59:31
  have been Stalin for the last nearly a
• 59:34
  year and they will continue to do So
• 59:37
  once again, we watched the same discussion the
• 59:40
  same promises the same Optimism and the same
• 59:44
  absence of reality peace isn't blocked by bad
• 59:47
  faith It's blocked by two Incompatible goals and
• 59:53
  anyone who's serious about this already knows it
• 59:55
  so it's not gonna it's not gonna happen
• 1:00:00
  One of these where there was a referendum
• 1:00:02
  question that nobody wanted to touch one of
• 1:00:04
  the most revealing Moments of this Trump Zelensky
• 1:00:07
  presser didn't come from what was said it
• 1:00:10
  came from what was carefully not said Said
• 1:00:13
  it after the the speeches by the two
• 1:00:16
  in the commentary and several questions.
• 1:00:18
  The Lancey was asked a legitimate Practical question
• 1:00:23
  if there were ever a referendum connected to
• 1:00:27
  a peace settlement What Ukrainians who fled the
• 1:00:31
  country be allowed to vote and his answer
• 1:00:35
  was yes And if but he focused narrowly
• 1:00:38
  on Ukrainians living in Europe Poland Germany other
• 1:00:42
  EU states He didn't talk about the u
• 1:00:44
  .s. And the logistical difficulty of building a
• 1:00:48
  voting infrastructure in those countries this answer is
• 1:00:52
  Extremely telling not because it's wrong because it's
• 1:00:56
  extremely selective what he did not address And
• 1:01:00
  the reporter didn't follow up on it is
• 1:01:03
  the existence of millions of Ukrainian passport holders
• 1:01:08
  Currently living inside of Russia Many of them
• 1:01:12
  in territories that change hands during the war
• 1:01:15
  many of them displaced evacuated resettled relocated Under
• 1:01:20
  circumstances that are politically Inconvenient for Kiev, and
• 1:01:24
  they never talk about it They won't answer
• 1:01:27
  the question and now the West doesn't even
• 1:01:29
  ask it and this silence is a big
• 1:01:32
  deal If the principle being invoked is the
• 1:01:34
  land belongs to the nation Not to the
• 1:01:38
  person Zelensky's own words Then the nation doesn't
• 1:01:42
  suddenly stop existing at the Polish border right
• 1:01:45
  or the Russian border either Ukrainians abroad are
• 1:01:50
  citizens whose voices must be heard regardless of
• 1:01:53
  their location or The referendum isn't about democratic
• 1:01:57
  legitimacy at all But it's about controlling the
• 1:02:01
  electorate or continuing to control the electorate inside
• 1:02:04
  of Ukraine or the electorate Or what result
• 1:02:08
  you want to get inside of Ukraine there
• 1:02:11
  is no third option It's just like the
• 1:02:14
  voting in Moldova where they didn't let the
• 1:02:16
  Transnistria people They didn't have as many voting
• 1:02:19
  places, and if anybody from Moldova was in
• 1:02:22
  other countries They weren't allowed to vote in
• 1:02:25
  Russia.
• 1:02:25
  They had three whole polling stations, and they
• 1:02:27
  had like 1820 in Italy remember that so
• 1:02:31
  there is no third option they're either Have
• 1:02:35
  to be heard or it's a scam and
• 1:02:38
  so from Moscow's Perspective you know and this
• 1:02:41
  is precisely the argument laid out by Maria
• 1:02:44
  Zakharova the selective framing just Reinforces their belief
• 1:02:49
  that any referendum conducted under current conditions Would
• 1:02:54
  be engineered, but you know for procedure.
• 1:02:57
  It wouldn't be a genuinely representative vote and
• 1:03:01
  a neutral International law standpoint you can't help
• 1:03:04
  but talk about this omission because it But
• 1:03:08
  if you do you know that it brings
• 1:03:10
  up all sorts of uncomfortable questions are Ukrainians
• 1:03:13
  in Russia Excluded by geography by politics or
• 1:03:18
  their expected voting behavior if participation is limited
• 1:03:22
  to Acceptable places or people can the result
• 1:03:26
  ever be called legitimate And why is no
• 1:03:29
  Western journalists willing to ask the obvious follow
• 1:03:33
  -up question to you know?
• 1:03:35
  What about those in Russia and how hard
• 1:03:37
  is that to say?
• 1:03:39
  The answer is simple because the answer who
• 1:03:43
  would complicate the narrative in the West Oh,
• 1:03:46
  yeah, we're trying to follow up on democracy
• 1:03:49
  Ukraine's democracy my ass Ukraine is not Democratic
• 1:03:54
  no matter how you slice it anyway, and
• 1:03:57
  they sure as hell aren't gonna be democratic
• 1:03:58
  here So the referendum that includes Ukrainian in
• 1:04:03
  Europe, but in but excludes Ukrainians in Russia
• 1:04:06
  would Immediately expose this process as political theater
• 1:04:10
  as well not self-determination and so that's
• 1:04:14
  why the question was allowed to die quietly
• 1:04:17
  in the room and You know as a
• 1:04:19
  heart of a talked about it to cease
• 1:04:21
  fires are proposed without in-state clarity Democratic
• 1:04:25
  mechanisms are invoked selectively and peace processes are
• 1:04:29
  framed to look legitimate but avoid outcomes that
• 1:04:33
  might contradict Western expectations if You're serious about
• 1:04:37
  a vote you don't pre-screen the voters,
• 1:04:40
  and if you do don't call it democracy
• 1:04:43
  So the one unanswered question that they had
• 1:04:47
  may be the clearest indicator that once again
• 1:04:50
  Nothing real is ready to happen because the
• 1:04:54
  moment reality intrudes the conversation stops That's what
• 1:04:58
  happens It's I mean this is Reality I
• 1:05:04
  wanted to talk a little bit about a
• 1:05:06
  murder that occurred years ago On a guy,
• 1:05:10
  but I'm gonna skip that and maybe get
• 1:05:11
  to it later in the week You know
• 1:05:16
  I Wanted to get to if we have
• 1:05:19
  enough and we have enough time because this
• 1:05:21
  isn't a long a long spot at all
• 1:05:24
  but There's a I'm pretty cynical about this
• 1:05:30
  and here.
• 1:05:31
  We are again.
• 1:05:32
  Nothing's changed on Trump of Venezuela and the
• 1:05:35
  fantasy of this legal violence So let's you
• 1:05:40
  know immediately take the varnish off of this
• 1:05:43
  what's happening with Venezuela is not law enforcement
• 1:05:47
  It is not Counter-narcotics it is not
• 1:05:51
  counterterrorism it is not International order it is
• 1:05:56
  raw power politics Dressed up in a legal.
• 1:06:00
  You know cosplay uniform, and it is one
• 1:06:03
  of the most intellectually dishonest maneuvers that the
• 1:06:07
  Trump administration has engaged in this is Nonsense
• 1:06:11
  the rhetoric sounds tough the posture looks decisive
• 1:06:15
  the legality of it all however is Non
• 1:06:20
  Existent and that is not an opinion friends
• 1:06:22
  and neighbors that is fact Okay, the core
• 1:06:27
  lie is that they are redefining a state
• 1:06:30
  as a criminal gang The foundational maneuver here
• 1:06:35
  is pretty you know simply Breathtaking Mike Waltz
• 1:06:41
  says on camera that the u.s. Does
• 1:06:44
  not recognize Nicolas Maduro as the Venezuelan president
• 1:06:48
  that Maduro is a fugitive from American justice
• 1:06:52
  and that Maduro leads a foreign terrorist organization
• 1:06:56
  called the cartel de la solace Therefore using
• 1:07:01
  military force against Venezuela becomes a law enforcement
• 1:07:08
  Operation This isn't legal reasoning people this is
• 1:07:13
  BS This is crap complete if the u
• 1:07:17
  .s. Can unilaterally declare that a sitting government
• 1:07:20
  is a criminal organization that a sovereign?
• 1:07:23
  Territory is a crime scene and military action
• 1:07:27
  is just a police raid then there is
• 1:07:29
  no such thing as International law there's no
• 1:07:34
  such thing as a UN mandate.
• 1:07:36
  There's no Security Council Authorization there is no
• 1:07:39
  claim to self-defense there is no imminent
• 1:07:43
  threat to anyone just a declaration and suddenly
• 1:07:48
  war is Policing this isn't rules based order.
• 1:07:54
  This is rule by assertion.
• 1:07:56
  We say it's the rule Therefore it's the
• 1:07:59
  rule the same thing.
• 1:08:00
  We've done a million times before Not under
• 1:08:03
  Trump, but here we are again.
• 1:08:06
  This is how it's Lindsey Graham's of the
• 1:08:08
  world When when they lose in Ukraine you
• 1:08:11
  give them something else to cheer for right
• 1:08:14
  you give them some other place to go
• 1:08:16
  That isn't going to be so politically difficult.
• 1:08:18
  That's what I say and You know if
• 1:08:22
  we can if you can back off in
• 1:08:24
  Ukraine and cut them off But take over
• 1:08:27
  another another country.
• 1:08:29
  That's a that pisses you off Well, Lindsey
• 1:08:32
  Graham will always be happy, you know and
• 1:08:34
  Mitch McConnell.
• 1:08:35
  They love that stuff the UN drug report
• 1:08:38
  fraud.
• 1:08:38
  Yes fraud Fraud is what I said.
• 1:08:42
  Here's where it crosses from hypocrisy into downright
• 1:08:46
  dishonest commentary Walt says that the UN World
• 1:08:51
  Drug Report of 2025 identifies Venezuela as the
• 1:08:55
  central trafficking hub in the Western Hemisphere this
• 1:09:01
  claim is demonstrably false Anyone can verify this
• 1:09:08
  with a basic search and Can read the
• 1:09:11
  UN document the UN document mentions Venezuela only
• 1:09:15
  twon twice once as a Geographic listing and
• 1:09:20
  once as a nationality of one of the
• 1:09:22
  contributors there is no designation whatsoever of Venezuela
• 1:09:28
  as a central trafficking node none the actual
• 1:09:33
  trafficking maps emphasize Colombia Peru Ecuador and Mexico
• 1:09:41
  so this was not a Misreading a difference
• 1:09:46
  of interpretation or a debatable conclusion this is
• 1:09:51
  a complete fabrication Delivered calmly into a camera
• 1:09:57
  and that matters because false legal Predicates are
• 1:10:01
  how we are beginning wars these days How
• 1:10:05
  about this?
• 1:10:05
  We don't need legal authorization This is a
• 1:10:08
  quiet confession one of the most revealing moments
• 1:10:11
  in the discussion is thrown away casually We
• 1:10:15
  don't need legal authorization We are the maker
• 1:10:19
  of the international rules base order This is
• 1:10:24
  not a slip.
• 1:10:25
  This is doctrine.
• 1:10:26
  It's the same doctrine reused for Iraq Libya
• 1:10:31
  Syria Panama Kosovo the law is not something
• 1:10:36
  we follow it is something we invoke when
• 1:10:40
  it's convenient and We discard it when it's
• 1:10:43
  obstructive and Trump despite his anti-establishment Branding
• 1:10:48
  is leaning fully into this Tradition this is
• 1:10:51
  not populism.
• 1:10:53
  This is empire building with a little bit
• 1:10:55
  better marketing That's what this is and people
• 1:10:59
  need to come to grips with this we
• 1:11:01
  are Going to war for what reason oil
• 1:11:05
  and oil alone these other reasons are all
• 1:11:08
  BS And we're doing it for oil well
• 1:11:11
  I shouldn't say alone because regime change But
• 1:11:13
  the regime change is to get the oil
• 1:11:16
  and to keep it from China Russia to
• 1:11:20
  keep it from BRICS nations and to Control
• 1:11:24
  South America the hemisphere that we said we
• 1:11:28
  are going to control because we got peak
• 1:11:30
  headset Who is gonna make sure that this
• 1:11:33
  is what happens follow the master, right?
• 1:11:37
  So what's the military reality?
• 1:11:39
  This is power theater?
• 1:11:41
  Not power now comes the second illusion the
• 1:11:44
  belief that force equals control Yep 15%
• 1:11:50
  of the US Navy can sit offshore Venezuelan
• 1:11:55
  right off and yep, they can launch strikes
• 1:11:57
  and Yep, they can block the ports of
• 1:12:02
  Venezuela and then what?
• 1:12:04
  Then what happens?
• 1:12:06
  Venezuela is three times the size of Vietnam.
• 1:12:09
  It's got a dense jungle mountainous terrain porous
• 1:12:14
  borders with Colombia and Brazil established Galibra Guerrilla
• 1:12:18
  and smuggling net weight networks you can blockade
• 1:12:22
  the ports, but you can't blockade geography the
• 1:12:25
  US could not Secure the road from the
• 1:12:28
  airport to Caracas prevent insurgent resupply control border
• 1:12:34
  flow Protect logistics lines.
• 1:12:37
  This isn't conjecture.
• 1:12:39
  This is Vietnam Iraq Afghanistan replayed with worse
• 1:12:44
  terrain and less legitimacy and What is the?
• 1:12:49
  Final of this the kill the leader delusion
• 1:12:52
  at the heart of Trump's approach is the
• 1:12:54
  same failed Fantasy kill the guy on the
• 1:12:58
  top and the system collapses even if you
• 1:13:01
  put in this Nobel Prize winning person, which
• 1:13:05
  is what they would do.
• 1:13:06
  We have a 20-year case study probably
• 1:13:09
  longer Proving these things wrong.
• 1:13:11
  We have Saddam Hussein dead and what happened
• 1:13:17
  insurgency exploded Libya Gaddafi dead Libya is disintegrated
• 1:13:24
  Hamas leaders are dead, but Hamas persists, doesn't
• 1:13:29
  it?
• 1:13:30
  Hezbollah commanders dead Hezbollah still around in it
• 1:13:36
  leadership decapitation does not end systems it radicalizes
• 1:13:42
  them further and Venezuela's institutions corrupt or not
• 1:13:47
  are not going to evaporate because we kill
• 1:13:51
  Maduro If anything killing him will guarantee civil
• 1:13:56
  war competing power centers and long-term instability
• 1:14:02
  as well as anti-american armed resistance and
• 1:14:08
  this will lead to the ugliest truth that
• 1:14:10
  Trump has a real problem here just like
• 1:14:14
  The Biden and him, you know Trump claiming
• 1:14:18
  he'd get it done in one day And
• 1:14:20
  he had to make some pretty pretty bad
• 1:14:22
  admissions that that isn't the case His real
• 1:14:27
  problem is he has no exit ramp He
• 1:14:31
  ran for president this second time on ending
• 1:14:35
  war avoiding regime change not repeating Iraq or
• 1:14:41
  Afghanistan or Syria or Libya and yet here
• 1:14:45
  he is Recreating the exact same structure Which
• 1:14:51
  I say is the exact same mistake He
• 1:14:55
  has either no or very vague Objective, what
• 1:14:59
  is the objective to put to put this
• 1:15:02
  other lady in in power?
• 1:15:04
  He has no post-conflict plan He has
• 1:15:08
  no political settlement framework nothing and no legitimacy
• 1:15:13
  mechanism What is it?
• 1:15:14
  We're going to force you to do it
• 1:15:16
  what we want you to do by putting
• 1:15:19
  our ships off the off the coast If
• 1:15:24
  Maduro survives an initial strike Trump looks weak
• 1:15:27
  Escalation is the only option and domestic support
• 1:15:31
  will collapse.
• 1:15:32
  I don't think he has any domestic support
• 1:15:34
  right now Anyway, except from the diehards who
• 1:15:37
  think he can't do anything wrong.
• 1:15:38
  This is wrong This is this is stupid
• 1:15:41
  and it's yet another Example of Lindsey Graham's
• 1:15:45
  of the world running crap for you if
• 1:15:47
  Maduro dies We get insurgency high casualties and
• 1:15:53
  a war he promised not to fight that
• 1:15:55
  will begin anyway Every single branch of this
• 1:15:59
  leads to failure.
• 1:16:00
  This is not strategy not Remotely it is
• 1:16:04
  hubris.
• 1:16:05
  It is I can do this.
• 1:16:07
  I can do anything.
• 1:16:08
  This is No, you can't and I believe
• 1:16:11
  Ukraine has shown that the international consequence This
• 1:16:14
  is this is another consequence why nobody believes
• 1:16:18
  the u.s. Anymore Russian and Chinese responses
• 1:16:21
  included in the program, you know Response to
• 1:16:25
  this is they do matter because the message
• 1:16:28
  is simple you accuse us of violating people's
• 1:16:32
  sovereignty All the time Then you redefine sovereignty
• 1:16:38
  So it doesn't exist you accuse us of
• 1:16:41
  aggression, but you label your own aggression law
• 1:16:44
  enforcement at some point They don't even argue
• 1:16:47
  anymore.
• 1:16:48
  They just ignore you and this is why
• 1:16:50
  Russia and China are deepening their military cooperation.
• 1:16:53
  This is why BRICS is expanding This is
• 1:16:56
  why alternative financial systems are growing and this
• 1:17:00
  is why the u.s. Moral Authority is
• 1:17:03
  collapsing or Already has collapsed because this is
• 1:17:08
  our history at least since the collapse of
• 1:17:11
  the Soviet Union Arguably before that even and
• 1:17:14
  it isn't collapsing because everybody else are saints
• 1:17:17
  because they're not but because u.s. Hypocrisy
• 1:17:20
  is just so visible and quite explicit You
• 1:17:25
  know this the you know, I'm very cynical
• 1:17:27
  about this all the time and you know
• 1:17:30
  this You know, I don't distill the truth
• 1:17:34
  for you, I don't do it at all
• 1:17:36
  I say what I believe to be true
• 1:17:38
  and that is how I Approach things.
• 1:17:41
  This is not about drugs not remotely This
• 1:17:45
  is not about democracy not remotely by the
• 1:17:49
  way the bombings of boats By the you
• 1:17:53
  know blowing up people that are allegedly Trafficking
• 1:17:57
  drugs, that's not about drugs either not remotely.
• 1:18:01
  That's about showing power So it's not about
• 1:18:05
  drugs.
• 1:18:06
  It's not about democracy as sure as hell
• 1:18:08
  isn't about law This is about preserving the
• 1:18:12
  illusion that American power can still dictate outcomes
• 1:18:18
  by declaration and declaration alone and Trump isn't
• 1:18:23
  breaking from this system that has been in
• 1:18:26
  place for a long time.
• 1:18:27
  He's revealing it as still alive and well
• 1:18:31
  That's what's happening and Venezuela is not a
• 1:18:34
  solution to this It's a another future indictment
• 1:18:39
  You know, you can't kill your way out
• 1:18:42
  of Venezuela and pretending you can is not
• 1:18:46
  strength It's the same delusion that burned every
• 1:18:50
  Presidency that created a victim in another country
• 1:18:55
  Every presidency before this one that did the
• 1:18:59
  same exact thing it's This is how it
• 1:19:05
  is, you know I Tell you what.
• 1:19:10
  This is a A Confession really the segment
• 1:19:17
  does make me angry, you know, it's not
• 1:19:19
  ideological It's a bit but legally I'm angry
• 1:19:22
  about it because what we're watching unfold with
• 1:19:25
  Venezuela.
• 1:19:26
  This is not even remotely foreign policy or
• 1:19:29
  counter narcotics, it's not even Imperial overreach, you
• 1:19:34
  know It's a you know, if it was
• 1:19:39
  it'd be dressed up very badly, but it's
• 1:19:41
  actually something far worse It's the ritualized destruction
• 1:19:45
  of law Performed calmly confidently and with the
• 1:19:50
  expectation that nobody's gonna challenge it Because we're
• 1:19:53
  not and if you care about legality at
• 1:19:56
  all, not just when it's convenient Then what
• 1:19:59
  the u.s. Is doing right now toward
• 1:20:01
  Venezuela is just indefensible and it truly is
• 1:20:08
  Let's see There is no provision in the
• 1:20:13
  UN Charter customary international law or any recognized
• 1:20:17
  doctrine of self-defense that allows a state
• 1:20:20
  to unilaterally redefine another southern sovereign government as
• 1:20:26
  a Criminal gang and then use force against
• 1:20:29
  it none under article 2 for 2 subparagraph
• 1:20:34
  4 of the UN Charter states are prohibited
• 1:20:38
  from The threat or use of force against
• 1:20:42
  a territorial integrity or political Independence of any
• 1:20:46
  state there are only two exceptions UN Security
• 1:20:50
  Council authorization under chapter 7 and self-defense
• 1:20:54
  against an armed attack under article 51 Venezuela's
• 1:20:58
  attack neither the United States nor its territory.
• 1:21:00
  There is no Security Council resolution.
• 1:21:02
  So legality is dead Before the first ship
• 1:21:06
  ever moved, right?
• 1:21:08
  We already talked about the fabricated evident evidence
• 1:21:12
  that they had the report You know doesn't
• 1:21:15
  rank or or say anything about Venezuela This
• 1:21:19
  is exactly the same thing these false predicates
• 1:21:22
  that invalidate legal justification Just like they did
• 1:21:27
  with Iraq's weapon of mass destruction Libya's imminent
• 1:21:32
  massacre of people that never occurred serious Constantly
• 1:21:36
  shifting red lines once you you tolerate these
• 1:21:39
  lies The law is the theater, you know
• 1:21:43
  the use of force doctrine, you know This
• 1:21:46
  is illegal Even if Maduro is guilty, let's
• 1:21:49
  assume for the sake of argument that Maduro
• 1:21:51
  is corrupt criminal and morally bankrupt I don't
• 1:21:54
  care if he is or is not not
• 1:21:56
  my problem that still does not authorize invasion
• 1:22:00
  International law does not permit regime change punitive
• 1:22:04
  expeditions law enforcement war or leader decapitation as
• 1:22:10
  a policy the International Court of Justice in
• 1:22:14
  Nicaragua versus the United States made this explicit
• 1:22:18
  political economic or ideological grievances do not justify
• 1:22:23
  the use of force That's the International Court
• 1:22:26
  of Justice and targeted killing of state leadership
• 1:22:30
  outside armed conflict violates prohibitions on aggression sovereignty
• 1:22:35
  and due process Calling it counterterrorism Does not
• 1:22:40
  change that and no u.s. Law saying
• 1:22:44
  otherwise applies You don't you can't do it
• 1:22:47
  that way now Let's you know, the US
• 1:22:50
  Navy positions itself.
• 1:22:52
  Here's where this hypocrisy is like Unbelievable it
• 1:22:55
  is under the United Nations Convention on the
• 1:22:59
  Law of the Sea blockades and pensions and
• 1:23:02
  interdictions Violate freedom of navigation blockades or acts
• 1:23:08
  of war and Interdiction without armed conflict or
• 1:23:12
  UN mandate is illegal yet.
• 1:23:14
  The u.s. Does this routinely?
• 1:23:17
  routinely Maria Zakharova's argument about this on the
• 1:23:20
  so-called shadow fleet her point is devastating
• 1:23:23
  the term shot Like I told you the
• 1:23:25
  term shadow fleet doesn't exist in international maritime
• 1:23:29
  law There's no legal category under UNCLOS that
• 1:23:33
  that allows vessel seizure based on ownership suspicion
• 1:23:39
  Sanctions enforcement on the high sea not allowed
• 1:23:43
  Reclassification of commercial shipping as criminal enterprises and
• 1:23:47
  yet the West does exactly that all over
• 1:23:49
  Against Russia against Venezuela and they pretend that
• 1:23:53
  maritime law still exists Crazy, so here's the
• 1:23:58
  contrast that should embarrass Washington when Russia challenges
• 1:24:02
  vessel seizures sanctions enforcement invented legal categories Western
• 1:24:07
  governments say International law has to be respected,
• 1:24:11
  but when u.s. Does the same thing?
• 1:24:13
  declares a government criminal declares a blockade as
• 1:24:16
  law enforcement declares force as Pre-authorized suddenly
• 1:24:21
  the law becomes flexible That's not a rules
• 1:24:24
  -based order.
• 1:24:25
  That's rules only for people you describe as
• 1:24:29
  enemies So the heart of us maritime argument
• 1:24:33
  isn't pro-russia It's pro-law and the
• 1:24:37
  u.s. Position on Venezuela proves her point
• 1:24:39
  better than her commentary ever could You know
• 1:24:43
  the strategic reality is you can't enforce the
• 1:24:46
  law with bombs even if you ignore legality
• 1:24:50
  the strategy is Delusional Venezuela is massive the
• 1:24:54
  jungle terrain the poorest borders the armed population
• 1:24:57
  external backers Blockading ports smugglers adapt kill Maduro
• 1:25:03
  Insurgency begins and somebody else will take over
• 1:25:05
  occupy the territory political collapse follows every historical
• 1:25:10
  example confirms this You know you don't need
• 1:25:14
  me to tell you this What's the the
• 1:25:16
  truth that I hate admitting more than anything
• 1:25:19
  and I'm a cynic But I still hate
• 1:25:22
  admitting this the u.s. No longer even
• 1:25:25
  pretends that law Constrains its acts Internationally the
• 1:25:32
  law is now an exercise in branding a
• 1:25:37
  Justification tool and a disposable narrative and that's
• 1:25:43
  corrosive not just Internationally, but domestically I'm not
• 1:25:47
  alone in thinking this friends and neighbors.
• 1:25:50
  I am NOT alone I'm not trying to
• 1:25:52
  convince you either you can believe what you
• 1:25:54
  want if you believe there's all G This
• 1:25:56
  good for the United States really this is
• 1:25:58
  not good for us.
• 1:26:00
  There are huge Problems because once you accept
• 1:26:05
  lies as a legal predicate force as policing
• 1:26:11
  you know police work and Sovereignty as optional
• 1:26:14
  concepts that depend on who it's who gets
• 1:26:17
  to claim the sovereignty You don't get a
• 1:26:20
  complaint when others do the same thing and
• 1:26:23
  why this should terrify you what why?
• 1:26:26
  I'll tell you what we're coming toward the
• 1:26:28
  end so you can't defend international law by
• 1:26:31
  violating it first You can't preserve order by
• 1:26:35
  redefining war as arrest It's police work, and
• 1:26:39
  you can't claim moral authority while inventing the
• 1:26:42
  legality on the fly What's happening in Venezuela
• 1:26:45
  is not a show of strength?
• 1:26:47
  It's the end stage behavior of a system
• 1:26:50
  that no longer believes that its own rules
• 1:26:54
  apply to it it only Can be applied
• 1:26:58
  to others and it's flexible for us and
• 1:27:02
  that more than any rival state is What
• 1:27:06
  should really scare you?
• 1:27:09
  you know when law becomes a costume power
• 1:27:12
  doesn't even pretend anymore and History will not
• 1:27:16
  forgive that it's just it's not gonna Forgive
• 1:27:20
  it.
• 1:27:20
  I Tell you what I?
• 1:27:23
  Had a little bit more to go into
• 1:27:26
  about the the military strategy and Goya Poya
• 1:27:31
  Because the the lines are collapsing all over
• 1:27:34
  the place What's actually happening on the ground
• 1:27:37
  in Ukraine is?
• 1:27:39
  You know if you want to understand another
• 1:27:41
  reason the Trump Zelensky meeting isn't going to
• 1:27:43
  go anywhere Stop listening to diplomatic language and
• 1:27:47
  look what's really happening happening tactically Institutionally and
• 1:27:51
  on the front lines the collapse of Ukrainian
• 1:27:54
  battalion command post in Goya Poya is not
• 1:27:58
  isolated is another case study on manpower shortage
• 1:28:02
  exhausted units command dysfunction which translates into battlefield
• 1:28:07
  failure and We could go into you know
• 1:28:12
  what matters to Goya Poya, but it's all
• 1:28:14
  towns It's everything and it makes the Trump
• 1:28:17
  Zelensky meeting pretty damn hollow You know the
• 1:28:21
  discussions revolved around ceasefire Referendum sequencing and guarantees,
• 1:28:26
  but none of these address What's happening on
• 1:28:29
  the field you can't negotiate from a position
• 1:28:32
  where fronts are held by understrength?
• 1:28:34
  Territorial units command posts are overrun by a
• 1:28:37
  patrol level force officers fear punishment more than
• 1:28:41
  defeat mobilization produces resentment not Resilience so this
• 1:28:48
  is why Trump's comments on acknowledging that Russia
• 1:28:50
  doesn't want to ceasefire without in-state Guarantees
• 1:28:53
  are more honest and Zelensky's you know optimist
• 1:28:58
  so up to optimistic procedure based discussions and
• 1:29:03
  Moscow's point of view echoed by everybody's a
• 1:29:06
  hot of a Arstovich a ceasefire under these
• 1:29:09
  conditions would do one thing Freeze a collapsing
• 1:29:13
  Ukrainian defense long enough to reorganize and rearm
• 1:29:16
  and that is why Russia rejects it Wow
• 1:29:21
  Diplomats talk about framework Ukrainian battalion headquarters are
• 1:29:24
  being overrun Documents are captured intact officers are
• 1:29:28
  killed or punished for surviving and entire sectors
• 1:29:31
  held by exhausted Territorial units this is not
• 1:29:36
  Negotiating position it's a warning sign Russia sees
• 1:29:39
  no incentive to pause and Trump knows nothing
• 1:29:42
  decisive will come out of this meeting I
• 1:29:44
  hope you join me every day this week,
• 1:29:46
  or I hope every day this week here
• 1:29:48
  on international flavor Thank you very much for
• 1:29:52
  being here, and I hope you have a
• 1:29:54
  very good day, and I will see you
• 1:29:57
  tomorrow