Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / Hormuz Tensions, Iran War Signals, Ukraine Energy Leverage, and Missouri Regulatory Chaos from Global Power to Local Control

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Hormuz Tensions, Iran War Signals, Ukraine Energy Leverage, and Missouri Regulatory Chaos from Global Power to Local Control · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:00
I'm Samuel Trapp.
0:02
I've had a rather interesting all the way
0:05
to midweek, right?
0:07
I suppose we're here at the very beginning
0:09
of the old hump day, the old mid
0:12
week.
0:15
Let's see, we have too much news on
0:21
the screen, too many things going on in
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the world, especially here in mid-Missouri.
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We've got some, so we track legislation, does
0:32
international flavor, as does civic outlaws.
0:38
So Fridays I try to focus on civic
0:40
outlaws and civic outlaws is the program every
0:43
Friday, but sometimes it kind of bleeds over
0:46
into the other programs because there's so much
0:49
stuff going on.
0:51
I told you a little bit yesterday about
0:53
some of the success stories we've had with
0:56
our articles and with the stuff that we're
0:58
putting out.
1:00
We have basically three, I suppose, corresponding sorts
1:09
of activities that are going on.
1:11
The first, well, I suppose you could say
1:13
four if you count international flavor here, because
1:16
international flavor, I talk like I talk.
1:20
I tell you things the way I believe
1:21
them to be true, tell you a little
1:23
bit about varying perspectives upon the world and
1:28
the drama that unfolds here, well, around the
1:33
planet.
1:36
And I've been paying attention to it.
1:38
I'm real interested to see who's lying, who's
1:43
speaking the truth again, because they cannot be
1:48
mutually exclusive.
1:50
My thought is, so allegedly the Marines are
1:53
showing up today.
1:55
They show up that have been traveling from
1:58
the Japan area, Indonesia, somewhere over there, and
2:04
it's taken them a while to get to
2:06
the Straits of Hormuz.
2:09
Still got the talk that we're taking over
2:12
the island, Karg Island, and that's going to
2:14
occur.
2:15
I think that's a bad problem, a bad
2:19
idea all around.
2:22
We have that going on.
2:24
The 82nd Airborne guys are supposed to show
2:27
up a little later.
2:29
They're airborne.
2:31
They should be there in a 12-hour
2:33
flight.
2:34
Take a flight and get over there.
2:37
You don't need to, but they got to
2:39
bring all their equipment.
2:40
I'm giving you a hard time there.
2:42
Do you know, when I was in the
2:43
military way back in the dark ages, and
2:47
we would go to, we'd have these rather
2:53
large operations, training exercises.
2:58
And so I was stationed, when I was
3:01
in tactical units, I was stationed at Fort
3:04
Hood, Texas.
3:07
At the time, we were always told it
3:09
was the largest military base on the planet.
3:13
I'm not sure that's the case anymore.
3:15
I don't know, really haven't paid any attention,
3:16
but I know it was freaking huge.
3:19
And it's like 300 square miles or something.
3:24
It's pretty big.
3:25
And, you know, mini-state.
3:28
Pick a state, you know, Rhode Island or
3:30
something.
3:31
Washington, D.C., it's bigger than that, you
3:33
know.
3:34
And at any rate, we would transport equipment,
3:41
and it was an exercise, you know.
3:45
You'd have to get all your poop in
3:47
a group and get ready to go and
3:50
get everything loaded.
3:52
We would do two different versions, okay.
3:54
First was you would load up trains, train
4:00
cars in Fort Hood and go across to,
4:07
if you were going to the National Training
4:10
Center in Arizona, or Nevada, I mean, California,
4:18
you know, what is the name of that
4:20
little town there?
4:22
Little crappy town, Barstow.
4:24
Barstow, it's not a crappy town, just tiny
4:26
little, tiny little, nothing there except a military,
4:31
or entrance to a military base, training place,
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and a train yard.
4:35
And so all your equipment would show up
4:39
there.
4:40
And it was quite the process to get
4:43
everything there.
4:46
Same thing when we went to something, I
4:49
don't know what they do, you know, different
4:51
names, you come up with these great names
4:53
for your operations that make it sound like,
4:57
you know, you're taking over the planet, right.
5:00
And Operation Reforger was what we went to
5:07
every year in Germany.
5:09
And so Fort Hood, 2nd Armored Division, 3rd
5:12
Corps, 1st Cav, those three units would either
5:18
be combined or one at a time going
5:22
across the planet to get to Germany and
5:24
do some training.
5:27
And you'd send over, you know, 10,000
5:29
soldiers to Germany, or more, you know, and
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it was quite a logistics feat.
5:39
So sending over 5,000 Marines from Japan,
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that's a big deal.
5:47
And getting all their stuff together, you can
5:50
understand that it gets there.
5:52
I mean, that's one of the reasons that
5:54
leads me to believe that the administration didn't
5:58
plan appropriately, and they thought these decapitation strikes
6:01
were just going to be the be all
6:03
end all, and it was all going to
6:04
be over, right?
6:06
And oh, gee, they're going to capitulate, and
6:08
that'll be that.
6:09
And I believe they miscalculated.
6:12
And then that's why I also believe the
6:14
five-day delay isn't a five-day, I've
6:19
agreed, you know, I've said I'm going to
6:21
cease fire unilaterally.
6:23
It's a planning tactic until you get your
6:31
guys over there.
6:33
You know, on the best day, you're not
6:34
going to get 5,000 troops over, relocated
6:40
in five days, you know, in your best
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activities.
6:44
You're going to take, you know, if you
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have 5,000 guys in airplanes with rucksacks,
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that's one thing, but 5,000 guys with
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all their equipment, armored personnel carriers, BMP-style
7:03
Bradley fighting vehicles or whatever, that's an operation
7:09
that takes some time, you know, that takes
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some time to put together.
7:14
And they've got to come from somewhere around
7:17
the world.
7:18
And so, at any rate, that is why
7:23
I believe the way that I do.
7:24
And I also believe that it was an
7:27
effort to do two things.
7:29
And one is lower the price of gas,
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make sure that a lot of people make
7:35
a lot of money on the stock options
7:39
or the futures markets, and to give time
7:45
to get to that side of the planet.
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That's what I believe.
7:49
And everything else is just what they call
7:51
in the legal parlance puffery.
7:55
You are allowed to puff a contract.
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That's only puffing.
8:00
That is not the term of the contract,
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you know.
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Little old lady drove this car, you know,
8:08
just back and forth to church every Sunday.
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That's puffery.
8:12
You know, that's not a contractual term when
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you find out that really, you know, she
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drove 120 miles a day.
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Everybody knows that would be just puffery.
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And so, therefore, you know, that doesn't count.
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Well, that's Trump.
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He's a puffery god.
8:30
Everything he says, according to most people, is
8:32
positioning.
8:33
He's not telling you the truth.
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He's puffing the terms of whatever deal he
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hopes to make out.
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And he's just trying to get a reaction.
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That's called negotiation.
8:46
And, you know, or if you're in the
8:48
put it into police work, that is good
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police work, right?
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Good police work includes a hell of a
8:56
lot of lying, because the police can lie
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to you all day long to get you
9:02
talking.
9:02
That's good police work.
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But God forbid you lie back.
9:06
They come in and say, oh, yeah, I
9:08
got a truckload of drugs coming in on
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this day, and we're going to figure something
9:13
out.
9:13
And you go, yeah, I got one coming
9:15
in, too.
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You know, if we're going to talk about
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who's got what going on, I got some,
9:21
too.
9:22
Well, and if it turns out you're lying,
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you go to jail for lying to a
9:26
cop.
9:27
But the cop, that's good police work.
9:30
That's what he's supposed to do, right, is
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get you to talk.
9:34
And so Trump and the police are of
9:38
an equal caliber in this regard, not telling
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the truth about what's going on in Straits
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of Hormuz.
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So allegedly, as I indicated yesterday, now there
9:48
are complete more stories about it, Iran allowing
9:52
non-hostile ships through the straits.
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U.S. and Israeli vessels, as well as
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those that support the aggressors, are not welcome.
10:05
So despite that message, you know, and they
10:10
have to be coordinated, Middle East tensions don't
10:16
show any sign of abatement, as they call
10:21
it.
10:22
And the Pentagon has issued orders for 2
10:25
,000, 2,000 82nd Airborne Troops to deploy
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to within striking distance from Iran, as well
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as 2,500 Marines from, that are supposed
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to arrive later this week.
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I had heard something this morning that they're
10:44
showing up today.
10:45
And Trump says that Iran has made major
10:48
concessions.
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Now, I don't know what to believe, you
10:51
know, not at all.
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And senior Iranian advisor, Ali Ahmadian, dared U
11:01
.S. soldiers to come closer, said that Iranian
11:05
armed forces have trained in asymmetrical warfare for
11:08
decades.
11:10
U.S. President Trump is seeking an off
11:13
-ramp from the war with a list of
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15 peace proposals.
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Here's the latest developments.
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Trump claimed the U.S. has already won,
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you know, and he has ongoing diplomatic talks
11:27
with Iran.
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And he postponed these military strikes, which we
11:31
told you about yesterday, for five days.
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Israeli Channel 12 reports that Trump's 15-point
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proposal demands that Israel dismantle its nuclear missile
11:44
programs and abandon any regional proxy network.
11:50
Hmm.
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Yeah, that's gonna, that's gonna happen.
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And open up the Strait of Hormuz to
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unrestricted maritime passage.
11:59
Or, you know, maybe the U.S. could
12:01
take it over and charge, if the U
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.S. took it over, you know damn well
12:06
they'd charge Iran to get through the Strait
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of Hormuz.
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And in exchange, in exchange, Tehran receives a
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full lifting of international sanctions, assistance with its
12:20
civilian nuclear program, and removal of the snapback
12:24
sanction mechanism.
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Okay, now those are big gives, if they're
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actually gonna give that up.
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I wouldn't trust them.
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They've been saying, you know, similar crap for
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several years now.
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And nothing couldn't be further from the truth.
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Pete Hegseth says, we negotiate with bombs.
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That's right.
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We're gonna send over the varsity team here
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any day that we're gonna negotiate with bombs.
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And they, you know, Tehran denies that talks
12:56
of the U.S. are even taking place.
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And Iran's parliamentary speaker says that such claims
13:02
are fake news and are being used to
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manipulate financial and oil markets.
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Must be listening to what I'm saying.
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Oil prices fell five percent on Wednesday.
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Okay, so we still have it.
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A reporter by the name of Marina Kosarevia
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has looked into Israeli tactics regarding decapitation strikes,
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which critics say disregards civilian losses and lead
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to families being wiped out.
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And apparently she came to the same conclusion
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I did.
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That's why I'm sharing.
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The more they kill, and the more they
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kill families, the more people want revenge.
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And so the circle between Iran and Israel
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just continues to get to get further.
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Iran has set a high bar for entering
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peace talks, says the Wall Street Journal.
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According to newspaper sources, Tehran's primary demands include
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closure of all military bases American in the
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Persian Gulf.
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And that's been the same statement for the
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last couple of weeks, at least new rules
14:13
for shipping through Hormuz that would allow the
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Iranian authorities to collect payments from vessels.
14:19
The lifting of sanctions against Iran guarantees from
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Washington that it won't resume military action.
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Why would anybody believe that?
14:30
That's a flat out lie, you say that.
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The cessation of talks on Israel against Hezbollah
14:39
in Lebanon.
14:40
Exclusion of the issue of Iranian ballistic missile
14:43
program from the agenda of future negotiations.
14:47
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calls the U
14:51
.S.-Israeli war against Iran an absolute disaster.
14:55
And it was launched to feed the interests
14:57
of the usual suspects.
15:00
And all for what, he says, to undermine
15:02
international law, destabilize the Middle East, reignite conflict
15:07
with Iraq and Lebanon, and bury Gaza under
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the rubble of oblivion and indifference, is what
15:14
he told his parliament.
15:16
The conflict is an absurd and illegal war,
15:19
a cruel one that sets us back from
15:21
achieving our economic, social, environmental goals, said the
15:25
Prime Minister.
15:27
Sanchez suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu seeks
15:31
to inflict the same level of damage and
15:33
destruction in Lebanon as the IDF did on
15:36
Gaza during the conflict with Hormuz.
15:39
Iranian media released a video of what they
15:41
call a cruise missile launch aimed at the
15:45
Abraham Lincoln.
15:46
The U.S. has not reported any damage.
15:48
Trump claimed that Iran had launched 100 missiles
15:51
at the Abraham Lincoln, but that every single
15:54
one of them was knocked down.
15:57
Iranian authorities have claimed to have arrested 39
16:01
mercenaries working for terrorist groups and the Zionist
16:05
regime, saying that they confiscated 49 homemade bombs,
16:09
two Kalashnikov guns, as well as other weaponry
16:13
and ammunition.
16:14
Russia is sending a delivery of humanitarian assistance
16:17
to Iran.
16:19
300 tons of medical supplies, emergency ministry has
16:23
announced, saying that it will be transferred via
16:25
Azerbaijan.
16:27
Pir Hosin Kulivand, head of Iran's Red Crescent
16:32
Society, confirms these plans, said that several other
16:36
countries like China, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan are also
16:40
stepping up.
16:42
The Speaker of Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Baghdadi,
16:45
has said that Tehran is watching redeployment of
16:49
troops closely from the U.S., warning that
16:52
what generals break, soldiers can't fix.
16:56
Well, what generals have already broken that soldiers
16:59
on the ground aren't going to be able
17:00
to fix, and say that they will also
17:03
fall victim to Netanyahu's delusions.
17:06
The U.S. and Israel have plans for
17:07
another two- to three-week war against
17:10
Tehran, even if talks with Tehran take place,
17:15
says Axios.
17:17
Turkey is passing messages between the U.S.
17:22
and Iran.
17:25
Israel Electric Corporation has dismissed earlier reports of
17:30
damage to the country's power grid from Iranian
17:35
strikes.
17:37
So, lots of news to keep track of
17:41
on this lovely Wednesday.
17:49
Let's see, I'm going to switch to this
17:53
side of the planet here and tell you
17:59
a little bit about Ukraine.
18:11
So, up until about a year and a
18:13
half ago, August of 2024, when the Ukrainians
18:23
were getting involved in, you know, going into
18:27
Belgrade, going into Kursk, the Russian regions right
18:32
across the border from Ukraine.
18:35
Before that time, there were rather large gas
18:41
and oil pipelines through the entire country of
18:49
Ukraine into the Eastern European countries, and into
18:56
Hungary for sure.
19:00
So, they went, you know, the fuel and
19:05
the oil would go one direction into Europe,
19:08
and that's how they got cheap, you know,
19:11
low-cost Russian oil and gas.
19:19
But it's the reverse now.
19:22
So, electricity, other forms of energy supply come
19:28
back through Druzhba and through, come up south,
19:33
I forget the name of the other one,
19:34
TurkStream, and they come around through Greece and
19:38
then up into Hungary and region Serbia, that
19:43
area, or around through Moldova and back into
19:49
Ukraine.
19:51
So, Ukraine is getting supplies that way.
19:55
But Hungary is saying that now they're going
19:58
to halt natural gas deliveries to Ukraine until
20:02
Kiev restores the flow of Russian oil through
20:06
the Druzhba pipeline.
20:07
In a video posted to his Facebook page
20:10
Wednesday, Orban said that Ukraine has been blocking
20:13
the operation of the oil pipeline for 30
20:16
days, and as long as Ukraine does not
20:19
provide oil to Hungary, it will not receive
20:24
gas from Hungary.
20:26
Orban states that gas that would have been
20:29
sent to Ukraine will instead be stored in
20:31
Hungary, and says the move is necessary considering
20:35
that Ukraine is also attacking the southern gas
20:38
pipelines that supply Hungary, referring to TurkStream that
20:42
brings Russian gas to Hungary via Turkey and
20:46
the Balkans.
20:47
We will defend Hungary's energy security, the protected
20:52
petrol price, and the reduced gas prices, Orban
20:55
declared.
20:56
He said the country has so far been
20:58
able to successfully defend against Ukrainian blackmail, thanks
21:03
to the protected price scheme that Hungarians pay
21:07
the lowest price at gas stations in all
21:10
of Europe.
21:16
Let's see, Orban's announcement, it's a long-running
21:21
dispute, it's been going on for a couple
21:23
of months now between Budapest and Kiev, because
21:28
Ukraine halted oil shipments through January, and said
21:33
that supposedly the lines were damaged by the
21:37
Russians, it's always the Russians that have done
21:39
it.
21:40
Moscow denies the accusation, and Hungary and Slovakia,
21:44
who are reliant on the pipeline, also doubt
21:46
Kiev's excuses, they're trying to wait until after
21:50
the elections, so that Orban hopefully gets thrown
21:54
out, you get somebody far more pro-Ukraine,
21:57
pro-EU, instead of Orban, who is not
22:03
pro-Ukraine by any stretch.
22:08
Peter Zagarto, foreign minister of Hungary, says that
22:12
the satellite imagery says that a fully operational
22:16
pipeline does exist, and that Kiev is refusing
22:20
to allow a joint inspection, which proves the
22:23
decision is only political, and Budapest is also
22:28
retaliating by vetoing the 90 billion dollars that
22:32
Ukraine was supposed to get in the form
22:35
of an alleged loan, which they'd never have
22:38
to repay, and they blocked a new round
22:42
of sanctions against Russia, what is it, the
22:44
21st, 22nd, 22nd wave of package of sanctions,
22:54
right, and they oppose Kiev's EU membership, and
22:59
Orban said that Budapest is not going to
23:02
back down less than until the pipeline starts
23:05
back up.
23:07
So, same old problem, you could fast forward
23:10
a month and you'd still have the same
23:13
incidents, right?
23:17
Um, tell you what, I am going to,
23:22
uh, take a, a small break here, and
23:28
in the meantime, I believe we're gonna listen
23:31
to some jazz.
23:33
Let's see, and I'll be back with you
23:36
in just a minute.
23:47
Light spills on quiet shoes, every step removes
23:56
the blues.
24:00
I follow shadows loose and free, letting rhythm
24:08
carry me.
24:14
Gravity loosens, worries move, body speaking, subtle groove,
24:21
a moonlit groove, smooth and wide, pulls the
24:26
dark in gentle tide, not too bright, never
24:31
shy, just the night, learning why.
24:35
I danced alone through crowded bars, never
24:48
felt the beat of stars, your timing lands
24:55
like lunar art, got emotion, ooh, coming home.
25:07
The sky is closed, the floor agrees, every
25:12
movement finds its ease, moonlit groove, slow ignition,
25:18
turning silence into mission, no command, no demand,
25:25
just the sway we understand.
25:28
If clouds erase the silver hue, the rhythm
25:33
still will pull us through.
25:38
Brushes whisper, feet align, time drifts out of
25:45
line.
25:54
Moonlit groove, deep and true, every step returns
26:00
to you, held between the dark and blue,
26:04
forever moving, moonlit groove.
26:08
Bass fades low, night exhales, stars retreat behind
26:14
the veil, ooh, ooh, ooh.
26:37
Sorry for that little break there, had to
26:40
go and take care of something in the
26:45
office.
26:46
Let us see.
26:49
I wanted to share with you, I couldn't
26:52
find the story yesterday, And there's a couple
26:55
of, one of them I find to be
26:57
a little bit amusing that, again, still about
27:03
Ukraine, right?
27:09
Ukrainskaya Pravda, a newspaper in Ukraine, let's see,
27:17
Washington, they say that Washington is offering Kyiv
27:21
economic benefits and security exchanges in exchange for
27:29
a full withdrawal from whatever is remaining of
27:34
the Ukrainian-occupied Donbass region, which is mostly
27:39
Donetsk, Lugansk.
27:43
And Donetsk is basically 96, 98 percent Russian
27:51
-occupied right now.
27:53
And Lugansk is about 85, 90, and Russia
27:59
is still pushing.
28:01
There's been a little bit of counterattacks going
28:03
on in the last couple of months.
28:06
And so, allegedly, according to Ukrainskaya Pravda, the
28:11
U.S. is trying to convince Ukraine to
28:15
withdraw from the Donbass and reach peace with
28:18
Moscow while promising Kyiv security guarantees and sweeping
28:23
economic benefits in return.
28:26
Now, you aren't hearing anything but Iran, Iran,
28:28
Iran in the United States, right?
28:30
So, this is reported on Tuesday, and Kyiv
28:37
has refused the offer so far, and Ukrainian
28:40
officials, you know, probably trying to, you know,
28:42
line their own pockets first, are trying to
28:46
divert U.S. attention away from this issue,
28:49
even as Washington is allegedly running out of
28:53
patience.
28:56
Hmm.
28:58
Several Russian officials told the newspaper that the
29:01
issue of Donbass, which joined the Russian Republic
29:04
in 2022 in referenda but remains partially under
29:09
Kyiv's control, is one of the key obstacles
29:12
toward peace.
29:14
Kyiv has consistently refused to pull back from
29:17
what remains of its occupation of a part
29:20
of the region, and Moscow says this is
29:23
a key prerequisite for peace.
29:28
The Americans do not see how we can
29:31
reach an agreement on the main issue, said
29:34
an unnamed Ukrainian official, saying that the U
29:37
.S. would eventually decide to walk out of
29:39
the settlement talks to focus on Iran and
29:43
its own domestic agenda.
29:45
And, you know, officials noted that the U
29:52
.S. is even ready to offer real security
29:56
guarantees if we withdraw from Donbass.
29:59
Second source says that U.S.-Ukraine talks feel
30:02
like there are three sides present at the
30:04
meeting, and Ukraine has to constantly argue with
30:08
the Americans over the Anchorage Framework reached during
30:11
Putin and Trump Alaska Summit last summer.
30:15
Leave the Donbass, we'll build you a paradise,
30:18
as agreed in Alaska, said a source describing
30:23
the U.S. stance.
30:24
With U.S. pressure mounting, Ukrainian officials are
30:28
spending a lot of time trying to divert
30:30
Americans from the idea of withdrawal and instead
30:35
toward the creation of some economic zone or
30:37
something else.
30:38
But at some point everything is thrown aside
30:41
and we again hear you just have to
30:43
leave from the Americans.
30:45
And so it goes in circles.
30:48
Zelensky acknowledged U.S. pressure last month and
30:51
insists that Kiev is not losing the war
30:56
even while it loses the war.
31:01
The latest round of U.S.-Ukraine talks took
31:04
place last weekend, and Ukrainian officials said they
31:07
were focusing on security guarantees and prisoner exchanges.
31:10
Well, OK, you're not getting any security guarantees
31:14
till you leave the Donbass and, you know,
31:16
you exchange your 1,000, 25, 26, and
31:21
this is what happens.
31:23
Every death exchange and prisoner exchange is like
31:28
100, 10 to 15 to 1 amount in
31:33
favor of those being given away by the
31:36
Ukrainians because the Russians have far fewer, well,
31:40
far fewer dead bodies and the Ukrainians have
31:44
far fewer Russian soldiers.
31:49
So the Russians aren't seeking the return of
31:51
dead bodies and Ukraine doesn't have them, but
31:53
Russia has collected thousands of Ukrainian bodies from
31:59
the battlefield.
32:00
So the latest round of U.S.-Ukrainian talks
32:03
took place last weekend, however, trilateral talks involving
32:07
Russia are on ice amid the Iran war,
32:11
says Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman from the Kremlin,
32:20
and they're on situational pause for obvious reasons,
32:24
he says, and will resume once schedules align
32:29
with those American negotiators.
32:34
So that was entertaining.
32:37
I wanted to point out to you another
32:41
interesting story.
32:44
Where is it?
32:45
I told you a little bit about it
32:47
yesterday, but I was able to find the
32:50
article.
32:51
So Musk and Starlink have been criticized all
32:55
over Africa and criticized all over Russia and
33:00
countries in that area for they are basically,
33:05
according to them, you know, from that area
33:08
of the world, they're just an arm of
33:10
the Pentagon.
33:12
And Musk is allowed to make billions off
33:17
of the Pentagon and the Pentagon doesn't have
33:20
to worry about it, and then they provide
33:22
Starlink for free to Ukraine.
33:25
Allegedly, when the war first started over there,
33:28
Starlink couldn't be used for strikes into Russia,
33:33
but that has been not discussed recently.
33:40
The belief is that it's been some time
33:43
that the Pentagon and Musk have been supplying
33:46
free Starlink access to Ukraine.
33:54
Well, Russia, as of yesterday, well, published yesterday
34:00
with video, full video, Russian private space company
34:05
has successfully placed into orbit the first 16
34:10
satellites of their planned broadband Internet network intended
34:16
as the domestic alternative to Starlink.
34:21
On Tuesday, the developer Bureau 1440 released footage
34:27
showing Rassvet, which means dawn satellites, separating from
34:33
their launch rockets.
34:34
According to the company, all units are functioning
34:37
properly and will maneuver into their assigned orbits
34:43
after completing system checks.
34:45
Bureau 1440 carried out test launches last year
34:50
and deployed the initial three of each prototype
34:55
satellites twice last year.
34:58
The company says technology is since fully developed.
35:02
First phase of the project has more than
35:05
250 satellites to be sent into orbit, equipped
35:11
the laser transponders for in-orbit communications by
35:16
mid to late 2027, and plans to expand
35:20
the constellation to around 900 satellites total by
35:26
2035.
35:28
Starlink, which began commercial service in 2020, is
35:34
viewed very skeptically by Russia.
35:39
And they describe it as the Pentagon communications
35:44
system.
35:45
So that's that's what they call it.
35:49
So this is a Russian satellite Internet project
35:54
launched in 2020, initially funded by mobile phone
35:59
operator Megafon before being transferred to X holding
36:04
a major domestic IT group.
36:08
Bureau 1440 gets government support, relies on launch
36:11
services from the Russian national space agency Roscosmos.
36:17
And so.
36:23
During its demonstrations in the last couple of
36:26
years, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyashenko showcased technology
36:31
by conducting video calls with officials located on
36:36
Mount Fisht, a remote site 1300 kilometers away.
36:41
The company's main goal is to expand connectivity
36:44
in remote regions with undeveloped, underdeveloped ground infrastructure,
36:51
and they wish to ensure Internet access for
36:54
long distance transport for trains and aircraft.
37:01
On the similar topic, where is that?
37:06
Darn it.
37:07
What have I done?
37:12
The U.S. is now accused of smuggling
37:17
Starlink into Iran amid the riots.
37:21
So you administration of President Trump covertly smuggled
37:25
around 6000 satellite terminals into Iran earlier this
37:32
year, says the Wall Street Journal.
37:34
And they substantiate Tehran's claim of foreign interference
37:39
in the riots that occurred earlier.
37:43
The operation, which senior officials say involves State
37:46
Department funding, of course, comes after Iranian authorities
37:51
imposed a sweeping Internet blockout in January.
37:54
Trump was aware of the deliveries, officials told
37:57
the Wall Street Journal, although it remains unclear
38:00
whether he personally approved the plan.
38:03
Iranian officials accuse Washington and Tel Aviv of
38:06
fueling unrest, blah, blah, blah, blah.
38:11
At the height of the unrest, Trump encourages
38:13
the peaceful Iranian protesters to post his posts
38:18
on Truce social.
38:20
Iranian patriots keep protesting.
38:23
Take over your public institutions if possible.
38:27
He also promised that help is on the
38:30
way and he's going to deploy deploy a
38:32
beautiful armada to the region.
38:36
And she's how exciting for them back in
38:39
January, wasn't it?
38:40
And look where we are now.
38:43
Oh, my God.
38:45
Two pilots killed in the LaGuardia airport runway
38:49
collision collision shows an Air Canada Air Canada
38:55
plane.
38:56
Can't see the other one.
38:59
But so LaGuardia, two pilots killed.
39:01
That's no good.
39:04
Crashing two planes.
39:07
Crazy sauce.
39:10
So sticking with the Internet for a little
39:13
bit.
39:13
On Musk.
39:17
The Starlink has been blocked from operating in
39:23
Namibia.
39:24
Namibia is refusing to grant Starlink a license
39:28
amid mounting pushback against a U.S. satellite
39:31
Internet provider.
39:33
Communication Regulatory Authority of Namibia announced a move
39:38
Monday said it had rejected the company's application
39:41
for service.
39:43
The authority resolved to decline the award of
39:46
class comprehensiveness telecommunication service license for Starlink.
39:51
The regulator did not provide a detailed reason
39:54
for the move, but noted that Starlink's Namibian
39:57
subsidiary lacks local ownership, added the decision was
40:03
taken in accordance with applicable licensing regulations.
40:08
The regulator said it could reconsider its decision
40:12
on its own or on a petition filed
40:15
by an aggrieved party within 90 days.
40:18
The bid faces hurdles over Namibia's local ownership
40:21
law, which typically requires 51% majority domestic
40:26
shareholding with Starlink seeking an exemption as a
40:31
wholly owned foreign company.
40:40
In 2024, Starlink was issued a cease and
40:44
desist and instructed to halt all operation in
40:47
the country.
40:47
They warned the public against using Starlink equipment
40:50
or subscribing to its services, saying that such
40:53
use is illegal under Namibian law.
40:56
So the old Musk has been breaking the
40:59
law, breaking the law, breaking the law.
41:03
Cameron, let's see, Cameroon, sorry, took action against
41:09
the company in 2024, banning the import of
41:12
Starlink kits, suspending services, seizing satellite internet equipment
41:17
over licensing violations.
41:18
South Africa, Musk's country of birth, hasn't approved
41:23
the services also amid dispute over black ownership
41:27
law that require telecom license holders to have
41:30
at least 30% local ownership by historically
41:34
disadvantaged groups as well as broad regulatory commissions.
41:39
Starlink has not yet commented.
41:44
Hmm.
41:46
Yeah.
41:49
Let's see.
41:51
We're going to head back to Ukraine here
41:53
because it's so interesting, yes.
41:59
Claims of reclaimed territory prove hollow as Russians
42:06
consolidate their positions from Sumy to Zaporizhzhia and
42:12
Russian army has considerably reduced its combat activity
42:19
this spring as is usual this time of
42:22
year, typically at the end of winter and
42:25
in early spring, Russian forces take time to
42:27
prepare for a new military campaign.
42:31
But just like last year, the offensives do
42:34
not come to a complete stop.
42:36
They just slow down a little bit.
42:40
In Sumy, the expanding buffer zone is there.
42:44
Remember Trump up in Sumy, that's on the
42:46
northern side between Belgrade and Sumy area of
42:51
Ukraine.
42:52
So the Russians are trying to get in
42:53
there and take a 20, 30 kilometer wide
42:57
border position all the way across the northern
43:03
parts of Sumy.
43:07
Let's see.
43:10
At the end of last year, the northern
43:13
group of forces opened a new front in
43:15
Sumy and they have made reasonably good progress
43:20
in that side on the way toward the
43:24
state, or I'm sorry, the city of Sumy,
43:29
which is capital of the territory of Sumy
43:35
region, the region.
43:37
And in Seversk, which was captured on December
43:40
11, is an important but intermediate stop on
43:42
the key area of the Donbass, the Slavyansk
43:45
-Kramatorsk urban conglomeration.
43:49
And that's a pretty big conglomeration.
43:52
The southern group of forces needs to cover
43:55
a 25 to 30 kilometer stretch to reach
43:59
Slavyansk and Kramatorsk and overcome a significant elevation
44:03
along the way.
44:06
Where else are they going?
44:08
If you watch the supply lines, it's the
44:12
same old, same old.
44:14
They cut off access to railway, they cut
44:17
off access to major roadways.
44:20
They encircle particular cities and then end up
44:25
taking it over.
44:28
And that is the way that it goes.
44:31
So that's kind of the catch up.
44:34
And we may come back to it.
44:37
See if there's anything else on world news
44:40
that I wanted to talk about.
44:41
The Bangladesh jet
44:51
fuel prices are up 80 percent, 80 percent.
45:00
So just in the last week, let's see
45:06
if we can find this.
45:10
Bangladesh has an 80 percent hike in jet
45:12
fuel prices.
45:14
The second upward revision in March, says the
45:19
national regulator, the Bangladeshi Regulatory Commission said that
45:25
we had to adjust jet fuel price for
45:28
the second time this month because the international
45:32
fuel prices just keep going up.
45:35
Jet fuel has been set at $1.32
45:38
per liter.
45:40
That's over five bucks a gallon.
45:44
For international flights to revise rates applied to
45:47
local and foreign carriers, pricing tiers may vary
45:52
depending on how much you buy, operational category,
45:56
that type of stuff.
45:58
And remember me telling you yesterday about the
46:01
Bangladeshis really having trouble in quite a few
46:06
countries, Pakistan also cancelling crowds at
46:16
sporting events.
46:17
Can't do it.
46:19
And so that's not permitted.
46:22
Let's see.
46:25
Other South Asian nations have also been there.
46:30
Pakistan has kept petrol and high-speed diesel
46:32
prices unchanged, but jet fuel and kerosene have
46:36
been seriously increased.
46:40
India and Nepal are experiencing problems, like I
46:44
told you, on cooking oil and stuff like
46:46
that yesterday.
46:48
Okay.
46:48
Well, all that as the backdrop, I really
46:52
do hope that cooler heads prevail and war
47:00
gets somehow discussed and minimized.
47:07
So far, it's not happening, and we shall
47:10
see what shall be seen, but I see
47:16
personally a much longer war footing.
47:21
I don't see this as going away anytime
47:24
soon.
47:24
We still got all our cheerleaders out there
47:26
pushing for more, and the same old standard
47:32
folks are being the cheerleaders here, right?
47:41
I wanted to switch and talk about...
47:45
I was reading, so I get kind of
47:47
an intelligence report, an update, basically daily.
47:53
And I try to get an international one,
47:58
a national-focused one, and then I get
48:03
a Missouri, looking at what's going on in
48:07
Missouri.
48:08
And I told you yesterday a little bit
48:11
about my discussion with...
48:14
I was very encouraged, had a good conversation
48:18
with Representative Cook, who I basically thought from
48:28
my article that I shared last Friday, when
48:31
I'm gonna talk in more detail about this
48:34
Friday, thought that he was being played, okay?
48:40
Or not being told everything, when the Sunshine
48:46
documents that I've picked up and that I've
48:49
received in response to what they have been
48:53
doing from the ATC side, are telling.
49:02
They're very telling.
49:04
That ATC, after a hearing in December, immediately
49:09
started pushing for arrest authority inside of the...
49:20
Through the legislature, right?
49:21
So they're trying to get these things pushed
49:24
through the legislature.
49:26
And I told you a little bit in
49:29
that report about how they're trying to mirror
49:31
some language that come about through cannabis legislation,
49:39
if you remember me talking about that.
49:42
And so, a Missouri appeals court recently ordered
49:50
regulators...
49:51
I told you about how many licenses, 120
49:55
-ish licenses that were issued for various types
50:01
of cannabis, and of those, 36, 37 of
50:05
them had already been revoked.
50:07
And so they're looking to put more impact
50:11
on this.
50:12
And some of the changes that were part
50:14
of 3154 House Bill and House Bill 2378,
50:20
which both have been withdrawn at least as
50:23
far as they...
50:24
Well, according to Representative Cook, anyway, he says
50:28
that those two are dead further this year.
50:33
They're not gonna go on and they'll have
50:35
to revisit it, but he told me they
50:37
were pulled.
50:37
That's what he said.
50:39
And he called me.
50:41
I offered to speak with him, have him
50:43
on the program, something like that.
50:46
And he said that...
50:51
And when he contacted me, sent me an
50:52
email, contacted me, I sent him my cell
50:55
phone number, he called me.
50:58
And he says that 3154 and 2378, at
51:05
least the ATC portions thereof are dead and
51:10
has to do with the efforts and the
51:16
discussions we've taken.
51:17
We've sent out several different articles to each
51:20
and every member of the House.
51:22
I've written six by now.
51:25
And you can find those out at civicoutlaws
51:27
.com, and you can go out and have
51:29
a look at these articles.
51:30
And for me, what was important, at least
51:34
in last Friday's, and if you really want
51:37
a kind of a tell-all about what
51:39
really happened, just go back to last Friday's
51:42
program and listen to the story about the
51:48
hearing that took place in Cole County on
51:51
December 3rd, and then the immediate activities of
51:54
the state regulatory agency to create, for themselves,
52:01
arrest power.
52:02
We had talked before about how they claim
52:05
they're a police department, they deny it, but
52:08
then all their investigation reports are there.
52:12
They have licensing agents going undercover.
52:17
What in the hell is that?
52:18
Since when is a licensing regulatory agency authorized
52:23
to go undercover to investigate a liquor license?
52:29
Undercover.
52:29
Now, I'll be doing a complete investigation or
52:35
report into that, who says they can do
52:37
it and analyze the law regarding it, and
52:41
we can have a discussion about that.
52:45
But the initial thought is, what in the
52:48
world kind of nutty world do you have
52:51
to live in where a licensing agent, who
52:54
isn't even a police officer, but they're post
52:56
-certified, you can't I can't figure out just
52:59
a couple of things.
53:00
Why aren't we going undercover in licensing agents
53:09
going undercover?
53:10
Why aren't they going undercover license agents at
53:13
a doctor's office or chiropractor's office, right?
53:18
Why don't we do that?
53:19
Have them go undercover.
53:21
If you're going to go undercover, get a
53:23
police department to do it.
53:24
And alcohol, tobacco aren't police.
53:27
They are not authorized to.
53:28
They're post-certified.
53:30
They carry weapons, which is stupid and foolish.
53:33
I don't understand why that's occurring.
53:35
That makes no sense at all.
53:37
You have to do that.
53:38
You have to carry a weapon.
53:40
And then the guys go undercover.
53:42
Oh, I'm going to leave my weapon and
53:44
my badge out in the car, and I'm
53:46
going to go in and investigate.
53:48
Great.
53:50
You're going to go.
53:52
How about you?
53:54
A pharmacy has to have a license, right?
53:56
You can't just go be a pharmacist.
53:59
Well, why don't we go on undercover at
54:00
the pharmacy?
54:02
And if you did go undercover, you'd either
54:03
have to have an approved activity or a
54:07
warrant.
54:08
Not so if you're investigating on behalf of
54:11
alcohol, tobacco control.
54:13
Those guys, we don't need no stinking badges.
54:16
We will leave them in the car, and
54:20
we'll leave some backup people out there in
54:22
case they got to rush in and take
54:24
a license down, or they got to rush
54:27
in and I don't know what.
54:29
See how much alcohol content is in the
54:33
bottle of wine hanging over there.
54:37
Whole things.
54:38
I hate to be too facetious and joking
54:41
about it, but it's nuts.
54:42
It's crazy.
54:47
Let's see.
54:48
I am looking at some pretty cool stuff.
54:58
This is awesome.
55:00
I just got a text on some of
55:02
the...
55:02
There's some people...
55:06
I'm just going to say yes to this.
55:08
Sorry.
55:09
This is one of the reasons I never
55:11
read my text messages, but one of the
55:14
things I want to read to you or
55:16
tell you about is on my phone, and
55:21
I can't pull it up on there.
55:23
So now I've gotten text messages that are
55:25
showing up out there, and I didn't sleep
55:28
last night again.
55:29
Just in case you're wondering, because I don't
55:38
know, I never sleep, but I had a
55:39
dog again in the house.
55:41
He's a friend.
55:43
He is a friendly dog that's hanging out
55:45
with me in the evenings, and I heard
55:49
him yipping in the other room whilst at
55:52
one point at night there, doesn't like sitting
55:55
in there.
55:55
You got to get up in the middle
55:57
of the night and take him out.
55:58
When I wake up in the middle of
56:00
the night, sleep does not reoccur for quite
56:05
some time, which is highly frustrating.
56:08
Also, and I'm kind of all over the
56:10
map again.
56:11
Next week, I'm off to Kentucky, going to
56:14
see some horse races.
56:17
We're going to go out and do some
56:18
tourism in Kentucky.
56:22
Now, Kentucky is a very beautiful state, plenty
56:26
to see and do there, and we're going
56:28
to go to Bluegrass Stakes, I think it's
56:33
called, and take some horse tours, stuff like
56:39
that.
56:40
So next Thursday, unless I happen to record
56:47
one early, there will not be a program.
56:51
And Friday, I do still plan on doing
56:54
a pre-recording for next Friday, we're talking
56:57
about now, a civic outlaws, but that one
57:03
will be pre-recorded, okay?
57:07
But I want to go have a look
57:10
at a Missouri Court of Appeals decision that
57:13
has ordered regulators to issue licenses,
57:25
to 13 facility license, to HIPPOS, LLC, after
57:32
a finding that the 2019 scoring process was
57:36
inconsistent and performed by graders whose qualifications were
57:42
never established.
57:43
This ruling implicates potentially hundreds of decisions in
57:49
nearly 850 pending appeals, a systemic integrity crisis
57:57
for the division of cannabis regulation.
58:02
Now, I've told you before on this channel
58:05
that I am not a smoker.
58:12
I have never, you know, engaged in drug
58:16
use, I'm just not one of those.
58:18
I don't support it, I don't give a
58:20
crap if other people do, but leave me
58:23
out of it, okay?
58:26
And I don't want anything to do with
58:28
it, but I don't care.
58:34
I'm trying to get to the actual ruling
58:37
itself and get a appellate court decision, see
58:47
what it says.
58:48
So, the court orders Missouri to issue 13
58:53
licenses.
58:56
This was, and they conducted an audit, so
58:59
this was a Missouri Western Court of Appeals
59:02
case that came up.
59:04
And so, we do keep track of this
59:06
because we're starting an organization called the Missouri
59:10
License Protection Association.
59:15
That'll be a 501c6 organization.
59:24
501c3, that's our civic outlaws operation.
59:32
501c6 allows, you know, banding together for kind
59:36
of a common cause and providing defenses to
59:41
each other, so we're starting that.
59:45
And so, this decision that just came out
59:48
five, six days ago says that the Missouri
59:54
Appeals Court rebuked the state's marijuana licensing process.
1:00:02
This isn't, this is not, unfortunately, the more
1:00:06
I look into the more licensing that we
1:00:09
go further on here, the worse it gets.
1:00:16
It's not just ATC.
1:00:19
I have been, ATC has made it quite
1:00:22
easy, you know, to go after them.
1:00:24
I mean, I don't say they're run poorly,
1:00:27
I don't really care, but they're taking authority
1:00:29
that doesn't belong to them, hasn't been given
1:00:32
to them, and they're trying to expand it.
1:00:34
I mean, that much is clear, okay?
1:00:36
And now, the court has beat up upon
1:00:41
the regulatory agency for marijuana, and
1:00:50
so the unanimous ruling came after a scathing
1:00:57
state audit found flaws, erratic scoring, poor documentation,
1:01:04
and a process so opaque that it cast
1:01:09
doubt on the integrity of results.
1:01:11
Welcome to bureaucracy a la Missouri.
1:01:15
The decision, issued last week by the Missouri
1:01:18
Court of Appeals Southern District, does more than
1:01:22
revive HIPPO's long-running challenge over denied cultivation,
1:01:26
manufacturing, and dispensary license.
1:01:29
It undercuts the methodology the Missouri Administrative Hearing
1:01:35
Commission uses to resolve licensing disputes and raises
1:01:39
new questions about hundreds of rulings issued in
1:01:44
nearly 850 appeals filed by unsuccessful applicants.
1:01:50
So Lisa Cox, who's a spokeswoman for the
1:01:53
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which
1:01:57
oversees cannabis, said the agency is developing options
1:02:01
in terms of appealing the decision that would
1:02:04
go to the Missouri Supreme Court.
1:02:06
HIPPO's officials, they never got a hold of
1:02:08
them for comment.
1:02:10
When the Missouri Department of Health was working
1:02:12
in 2019 to build the framework for the
1:02:15
state's now multi-billion dollar industry, it hired
1:02:20
a Nevada-based company, Wise Health Solutions, to
1:02:25
score 2,000 applications.
1:02:29
But in each of HIPPO's applications, there were
1:02:33
instances in which identical answers to the same
1:02:36
question received inconsistent scores, said Judge Jeffrey Bates.
1:02:43
That should never have occurred if Wise's scorers
1:02:46
followed the instructions they were given.
1:02:49
Neither the department nor Wise did anything to
1:02:52
correct the situation, and HIPPO's lawsuit challenges the
1:02:56
department's denial application for two cultivations, six manufacturing,
1:03:00
and five dispensary licenses.
1:03:03
Their first stop for appealing the denied application
1:03:05
was the Administrative Hearing Commission, which is where
1:03:09
you go after your license gets removed for
1:03:11
every license in the state except for the
1:03:14
practice of law.
1:03:16
I've spoken on that ridiculous and interesting process
1:03:23
for how you get scored as a law
1:03:26
license holder or as it sits out there
1:03:31
for two and a half years before they
1:03:35
have to do anything with your application.
1:03:38
You can just leave it sit, and that
1:03:40
is a typical bureaucratic move.
1:03:43
You leave the license sit, you don't have
1:03:45
to deny it, you just don't take action
1:03:48
on it.
1:03:49
And at some point, that's an unreasonable delay,
1:03:52
right?
1:03:53
So the three appellate judges who heard this
1:03:57
felt that the commission's approach to rescoring was
1:04:01
completely flawed.
1:04:03
The raw scores provide no evidence of the
1:04:07
scorer's intent because there are no notes explaining
1:04:10
why the score was given.
1:04:12
So basically, rate this on a scale of
1:04:14
1 to 10, okay, well, I say 4.
1:04:18
Next guy goes, okay, well, I see 8.
1:04:21
But you don't have to say why, right?
1:04:23
Just like the Missouri Bar and the Supreme
1:04:26
Court of Missouri when talking about lawyers that
1:04:30
apply for a license.
1:04:31
You don't have to say why.
1:04:34
It's just yes or no.
1:04:36
How can you get 9, now these are
1:04:39
judges beaten up on the administrative, or I'm
1:04:41
sorry, beaten up on the licensing process for
1:04:44
cannabis.
1:04:47
Just a scoring, here they can't score without
1:04:51
giving a reason for the score.
1:04:54
But if you're a lawyer seeking a license,
1:04:57
the Supreme Court can just say no.
1:05:00
But they don't have to say why, just
1:05:02
no.
1:05:03
That's it.
1:05:04
And that's how the practice of law is
1:05:07
determined in Missouri if you piss off the
1:05:09
right people, right?
1:05:10
You just don't get a license, that's that.
1:05:13
But you don't get to go, well, wait
1:05:14
a minute, why?
1:05:16
Because I said no, that's it.
1:05:18
And this is what they were doing.
1:05:20
And this is the court beaten up on
1:05:22
that type of scoring in regulatory agencies.
1:05:29
And they write these raw scores.
1:05:32
There are no notes that explain why the
1:05:34
score is given.
1:05:35
Okay, well then why can the Supreme Court
1:05:38
say, no, you can't have a license, but
1:05:40
we don't have to tell you why.
1:05:42
Well, we're the Supreme Court, to hell.
1:05:46
We know why, but we don't have to
1:05:47
tell you.
1:05:48
Or, we don't even know why.
1:05:51
There's nine of us, but we've decided no,
1:05:53
or seven of us, and we haven't figured
1:05:54
out why.
1:05:56
We haven't figured out which way we're going
1:05:58
to go, depending on the court.
1:06:00
At any rate, judges agree with hippos that
1:06:02
the commission decisions affirming the state denial of
1:06:05
the company applications were arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.
1:06:10
And these decisions are not supported by competent
1:06:12
and substantial evidence on the whole record.
1:06:16
Now, that's a standard arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable.
1:06:20
That's what you have to allege.
1:06:22
And you can go sue them for damages
1:06:24
in those regards in federal court.
1:06:26
Sometimes that's fun.
1:06:28
They remanded the case back to the circuit
1:06:30
court with the direction that the lower court
1:06:32
order the department to grant hippos the cultivation,
1:06:36
manufacturing, and dispensary facility licenses for which they
1:06:42
applied.
1:06:42
And there was no rebuttal.
1:06:43
A major blow to the state's defense, the
1:06:46
judges ruled, is that hippos provided two credible
1:06:50
witnesses who testified that the application should have
1:06:54
received higher scores.
1:06:55
And the judges felt that the state didn't
1:06:58
even fight back.
1:06:59
The experts were cannabis consultants who collectively prepared
1:07:03
83 applications in Missouri.
1:07:05
And more than half of their clients' applications
1:07:08
successfully received licenses.
1:07:10
But the department offered no rebuttal of hippos'
1:07:13
expert testimony and prevented no testimony showing why
1:07:17
hippos should not be given the higher score
1:07:20
about which the experts testified.
1:07:23
So, you don't have to say why.
1:07:26
Or they're telling the cannabis regulators that you
1:07:32
have to say why.
1:07:33
But they won't tell the Supreme Court that.
1:07:36
No, no, no.
1:07:37
Some licenses are more important than others.
1:07:41
But we can destroy a person's ability to
1:07:44
have a job, you know, as a lawyer,
1:07:46
although they've paid for the education of it,
1:07:49
without saying yes or no.
1:07:50
Without saying why, we just say no.
1:07:54
And that's okay.
1:07:57
But not if you want a cannabis license.
1:07:59
Geez, you want a cannabis license?
1:08:00
You want to sell cannabis?
1:08:01
By God, you better tell them why they
1:08:06
can't sell cannabis if you're going to deny
1:08:08
them a license.
1:08:09
In the department's response to State Auditor Scott
1:08:12
Fitzpatrick's report that was released last month auditing
1:08:17
the regulation process, it argued the commission did
1:08:21
a thorough review of the scoring evidence and
1:08:24
heard from many experts during hundreds of appeals.
1:08:28
But Cox said the HIPPO's case was among
1:08:30
the first the commission heard in the process
1:08:33
of reviewing the department's licensing decisions.
1:08:36
The information in the Southern District is seeking,
1:08:42
which is expert testimony regarding the department's position,
1:08:46
has been provided in all subsequent cases and
1:08:50
supports the AHC's determination in HIPPO's case.
1:08:54
She said in an email.
1:08:56
But the department's audit response listed several cases
1:09:01
where the commission ruled in favor of the
1:09:03
department, and in at least one of the
1:09:05
cases, the commission used the same methodology that
1:09:09
the appeals court last week determined was flawed.
1:09:14
No notes, no evidence.
1:09:16
HIPPO's challenged the scores given on several questions
1:09:19
in the application.
1:09:20
The court found it difficult to justify scores
1:09:24
without seeing any notes on why the grader
1:09:27
made them.
1:09:28
After the commission concluded that it was required
1:09:31
to rescore HIPPO's applications due to the noted
1:09:35
inconsistency, the commission stated that it was searching
1:09:38
for any evidence reflecting the score's subjective evaluation.
1:09:43
Obviously, any notes from a scorer about his
1:09:46
or her reasons for giving a particular score
1:09:48
would be helpful to show consistency.
1:09:52
Hmm, sounds reasonable to me.
1:09:57
Why doesn't the Supreme Court have to do
1:10:00
the same?
1:10:02
So this is ongoing stories, okay?
1:10:07
I wanted to talk about something else because
1:10:10
this is something, well, there are several topics,
1:10:13
but the first one I want to talk
1:10:15
about, because ATC, they have more news.
1:10:18
They're getting beat up on, not just by
1:10:20
me, not just by me, other people are
1:10:23
too.
1:10:24
So get this, they have this, they have
1:10:31
an outdated, what do you call them?
1:10:35
The AS400 computer systems, do you remember those?
1:10:39
I used those in the Army a hundred
1:10:42
years ago, you know, in the early 90s
1:10:45
and 2000s.
1:10:47
You'd use the AS400, and basically it's a
1:10:51
data entry terminal, and if you go into
1:10:52
state offices or anywhere else, you see these
1:10:55
old crappy beige, beige crappy plastic colored terminals,
1:11:02
right?
1:11:02
And in them they have the green
1:11:09
matrix style text across the border, that's an
1:11:18
AS400, okay?
1:11:20
And the AS400 is still being used by
1:11:24
ATC and many other agencies to track your
1:11:28
stuff, and it's crap.
1:11:29
All it is is an old database from
1:11:31
a hundred years ago, and I can't imagine
1:11:34
that it's cheaper to keep her, cheaper to
1:11:37
keep AS400 and work on that than to
1:11:40
improve and get new data.
1:11:43
And our Sunshine requests have gone out on
1:11:46
this topic of trying to find records, and
1:11:50
they cannot manipulate the records, they have to
1:11:52
have an AS400 expert, most of which do
1:11:55
not exist anymore, except in state agencies, they
1:12:00
got to go find these guys and go
1:12:01
train them and send them to ancient schools
1:12:03
on AS400, because that's what they use, and
1:12:06
industries aren't using that crap anymore.
1:12:11
And so they have selected, ATC has selected
1:12:16
Posse ABC as a new enterprise licensing system,
1:12:22
so they're starting to require now people to
1:12:26
submit their licensing to get an alcohol license
1:12:30
or tobacco license through a new system, and
1:12:34
they selected Posse ABC from Computronics as a
1:12:39
new enterprise software system to replace the outdated
1:12:42
platform for managing alcohol licenses and law enforcement
1:12:46
data.
1:12:47
The fully integrated web-based system will modernize
1:12:52
how the division tracks licensees and enforcement actions.
1:12:59
Now, now, why are we focusing on enforcement
1:13:02
and not regulation?
1:13:04
What in the world?
1:13:04
Because enforcement, I've said this for years, law
1:13:08
enforcement, why can't you be a police officer?
1:13:11
What's wrong with that?
1:13:12
Or a peace officer when you're focused on
1:13:15
peace?
1:13:16
No, no, no.
1:13:18
We need to enforce.
1:13:19
We got to wear SWAT gear, and we
1:13:20
got to drive a tank down the streets.
1:13:23
You know, we got to, at least a
1:13:25
Bradley.
1:13:25
Give us a Bradley fighting vehicle at least,
1:13:29
and that could be, you know, better suited
1:13:32
for you.
1:13:32
And we need to carry weapons to investigate
1:13:34
licenses.
1:13:36
You know, that's nuts.
1:13:40
I made myself a very nice mint tea
1:13:43
here, and sorry, I'm drinking it up.
1:13:45
It's a little bit on the not quite
1:13:47
cool side, but certainly not warm any longer.
1:13:52
So they have this new licensing database will
1:13:57
affect how you can search public record requests
1:14:01
and how they're going to be structured and
1:14:03
fulfilled, right?
1:14:04
They don't have to provide documents in Sunshine,
1:14:08
and they don't have to create them.
1:14:10
They don't have to go out and do
1:14:11
it.
1:14:11
Now, there's a lot of activities going on
1:14:15
in Sunshine enforcement as well.
1:14:18
There's some bill tracking that I want to
1:14:20
discuss about that on Friday in Civic Outlaws.
1:14:28
Let's see.
1:14:29
The Show Me ID, you know, there's an
1:14:32
enforcement gap in that.
1:14:34
Their mobile app that ATC uses, it's discontinued
1:14:39
and has been removed from the App Store.
1:14:42
So they get out and they say, okay,
1:14:43
everybody, you can verify somebody's real ID, but
1:14:47
you can't verify it anymore.
1:14:49
The developer's contract with ATC expired September 30th
1:14:53
of 2025, and the app is no longer
1:14:57
reliable for IDs issued after October 2024.
1:15:01
And Kristen Templeton, acting state supervisor, said the
1:15:06
loss of this software is kind of a
1:15:15
big deal and said that ATC is exploring
1:15:18
replacement options with state partners, but no timeline,
1:15:22
right?
1:15:24
This is going to create a real-world
1:15:26
enforcement gap, raising questions about how ATC is
1:15:29
conducting underage sales checks and tobacco compliance inspections.
1:15:36
You know, have you ever gotten into any
1:15:39
of these places and they want a copy
1:15:40
of your license?
1:15:41
I am so offended by this.
1:15:43
I'm like 90, okay?
1:15:45
I go into some place and I'm here,
1:15:47
come in, hobbling in, you know, with my
1:15:50
walker, and these guys want to know if
1:15:53
I'm over 18 and I got to provide
1:15:55
an ID to buy certain things.
1:15:58
Nonsense.
1:15:59
I mean, all you got to do is
1:16:00
take a look at me and know that
1:16:02
I am.
1:16:03
I don't look under 40, you know, and
1:16:05
there's no way.
1:16:06
And now you can't use the real ID
1:16:12
for anything that it's supposed to because ATC
1:16:14
can't get a new vendor for this, right?
1:16:23
Why am I bitching?
1:16:24
Maybe because that's what I do.
1:16:26
There was another one, where is this?
1:16:29
This I wanted to get to.
1:16:33
So a recent state, let's see, no party
1:16:36
did that one.
1:16:37
Verified dispensary.
1:16:38
Okay.
1:16:39
Okay.
1:16:39
Here it is.
1:16:41
The Joint Resolution, Missouri Plan Judicial Selection Reform.
1:16:49
Now get this, judicial reform, and I follow
1:16:53
this on my own, okay?
1:16:55
So, H.J.R. 119, get this, proposes
1:17:03
removing, I'm for this, absolutely.
1:17:07
I am totally against this nonpartisan Missouri Plan
1:17:13
BS that they've been pumping, you know, up
1:17:16
your rear end for years, saying that it's,
1:17:20
oh, gee, it's nonpartisan.
1:17:22
My ass, it is not nonpartisan.
1:17:26
And so now, there's actually an effort to
1:17:29
do something about it.
1:17:30
H.J.R. 119 proposes removing constitutional mandates
1:17:34
for the Missouri Plan Nonpartisan Judicial Selection, is
1:17:38
what the bar likes to call it, and
1:17:40
returning two voters.
1:17:44
Gee, wow, what a concept.
1:17:45
The authority to determine whether their circuit uses
1:17:49
the Missouri Plan, which is BS, or an
1:17:53
alternative method established by law.
1:17:57
Yeah.
1:17:58
Instead of this ridiculous Missouri Plan that they're
1:18:01
trying to codify anyway, or constitutionalize, but they
1:18:05
wanna get rid of it now.
1:18:06
Proponents argue that, including Samuel, that's me, propose,
1:18:12
argue that this will restore democratic accountability to
1:18:17
judicial selection processes currently dominated by unelected commissions.
1:18:26
If you're unfamiliar with how we pick appellate
1:18:30
judges, and how we pick many counties, Greene
1:18:35
County uses it, St. Louis County uses it,
1:18:39
I can't remember, and more and more counties
1:18:41
are going this way, to have, not citizens
1:18:45
pick who gets selected.
1:18:48
So I've explained this before, but it bears
1:18:51
repeating, because it's a BS system, no matter
1:18:55
how you slice it.
1:18:56
And the way they sell it, is they
1:18:58
say, oh gee, back in the 30s, there
1:19:02
was corruption in the form of mafia sort
1:19:07
of guys.
1:19:07
Union bosses, people running, you know, boss so
1:19:11
and so ran St. Louis, and boss so
1:19:14
and so, other so and so, ran Kansas
1:19:16
City, and the court, the Supreme Court is
1:19:20
located in Jeff City, and that's run by,
1:19:23
you know, boss Jeff City, you know, five
1:19:27
families, same five families for generations, run Jeff
1:19:31
City, and get a pick who gets to
1:19:34
be in charge of whatever there.
1:19:36
And everybody knows it, you know, it's the
1:19:39
smallest state capital in the nation, and it's
1:19:44
run similarly, okay.
1:19:47
And so, this is how judges get picked,
1:19:51
you put people into, and the Missouri Bar
1:19:55
is deeply involved in this, okay, especially for
1:19:57
judicial selection, because, get this, the majority of
1:20:02
actors, right, let's say there's a, for the
1:20:05
judicial plan for electing, or for appointing a
1:20:10
Supreme Court judge, this is BS, completely, is,
1:20:15
it goes like this, three people, members of
1:20:21
the Bar, appointed by the Board of Governors
1:20:26
for the Bar, so if you kiss the
1:20:29
ass of the Bar, you have a chance
1:20:31
of being picked as a judge, at the
1:20:34
appellate, or the Supreme Court level, but if
1:20:37
you don't kiss the ass of the Bar,
1:20:38
you have zero chance of getting appointed to
1:20:42
any of those jobs, and it's gone on
1:20:43
for years, okay, since the 40s, you know,
1:20:46
Missouri was the first to create one of
1:20:47
these rather interesting plans that gives the authority
1:20:53
to the Missouri Bar, and they say it
1:20:56
doesn't, but get how this works, three lawyers,
1:20:59
appointed by the Missouri Bar, get to pick
1:21:02
candidates, and they get to send out, you
1:21:06
know, they get to have people apply, you
1:21:08
know, I remember me sending out sunshine requests
1:21:12
on this, I'm going to revive all this,
1:21:14
because I'm going to do it again, because
1:21:15
once I'm finished attacking or going after, or
1:21:20
doing some research, as it were, with the
1:21:24
alcohol tobacco control, I'm going back to the
1:21:31
Missouri Bar, they didn't even bother to answer,
1:21:33
the Governor answered, the Supreme Court answered, Missouri
1:21:36
Bar, not so much, they didn't answer, and
1:21:39
I'm sure that the reason they claim they
1:21:41
don't have to answer, they didn't even say
1:21:43
why, they weren't answering, they just didn't answer,
1:21:46
and at the time, I was involved in
1:21:47
something else, you know, and a couple of
1:21:50
things, beginning on the ATC process and doing
1:21:52
some other issues, but I'm going to reopen
1:21:55
those, they're definitely coming back, and we're going
1:21:59
to hear about those again, and here we
1:22:06
go, hey, hey, pay attention, Mark Levin blows
1:22:10
up at Joe Kent, now Mark Levin's been
1:22:13
pumping war, you know, he's just as bad,
1:22:16
he's one of the cheerleaders of war, you
1:22:19
want some cheerleaders for war, Levin's one of
1:22:22
them, you know, and I like Levin generally,
1:22:26
I like listening to him, but don't go
1:22:28
claiming he is not a cheerleader for war,
1:22:32
he, you know, he's far more pro-Israel
1:22:37
than he is anti-war, let's just call
1:22:40
it like it is, anyway, I intend to
1:22:42
get further into the, how the Missouri bar
1:22:46
things and the Supreme Court of Missouri and
1:22:49
civic outlaws is going to take a view
1:22:51
into some of that stuff, and try to
1:22:54
remain calm and reasonable about it, but I'm
1:22:57
also right, just like, you know, if somebody
1:23:02
wants to come on and discuss it, I'd
1:23:03
be happy to do that too, just like
1:23:05
I keep offering to ATC, I offered it
1:23:09
to Representative Cook to see if he wanted
1:23:14
to come and chat about some of this
1:23:16
stuff, I send emails to anybody who wants
1:23:18
to come and talk, you want to talk
1:23:20
about some of your reasons behind issues, I'm
1:23:23
happy to learn why I'm wrong, come on
1:23:26
in, it'll be fun, and we can talk
1:23:28
about it, and you can teach me why
1:23:30
I'm wrong, and we can hear, you know,
1:23:34
if you say I'm wrong, perhaps you can
1:23:37
give your version of correct, and tell me
1:23:40
why, any member of the Supreme Court, any
1:23:43
member of the Missouri bar, any, well, Board
1:23:47
of Governors, or any of these idiot committees
1:23:49
that they get appointed, you know, like, as
1:23:52
long as you suck up to the right
1:23:54
folks, you know, you can get appointed to
1:23:57
these committees, to pick judges, and how it
1:24:00
works is, three members of the bar, picked
1:24:05
by the Board of Governors, three citizen members,
1:24:10
picked by the Governor, get in a room,
1:24:14
and they figure out who's going to be
1:24:17
the candidates that are submitted to the Governor,
1:24:22
of which he must approve one of the
1:24:27
three, like, he can't provide his own, he's
1:24:30
got to, he's got to accept ones that
1:24:34
are sent to him, he don't get to
1:24:35
pick anybody, come on, that's nuts, why would
1:24:39
you get to pick anybody, and why would
1:24:41
the voters get any say at all?
1:24:44
These three citizens are appointed by the Governor,
1:24:46
okay, what good does that do to the
1:24:48
citizen?
1:24:49
The only thing the citizen can do is
1:24:52
vote against, or vote in a retention cycle
1:24:57
during the next election, so you get to
1:24:59
stay around for your first term, and perhaps
1:25:02
later, you get a say, you know, somebody
1:25:06
will say, put on the ballot a retention
1:25:09
vote, whether or not you're going to be
1:25:13
retained, so they have to vote to get
1:25:16
rid of you, not vote to elect you
1:25:18
in the first place, so you're appointed through
1:25:21
some scam process, a very lopsided process, and
1:25:27
by the way, so you have six members,
1:25:29
those are even guests, where the next member
1:25:31
comes from?
1:25:32
The Court itself, so if the Appellate Court
1:25:38
is looking for somebody, the Chief Justice, or
1:25:42
the presiding judge of that court is vote
1:25:48
number seven, so you got four lawyers, three
1:25:52
citizens, you know, could be anybody, who do
1:25:55
you think controls the room during the process?
1:25:58
I'm just curious, who controls the room?
1:26:04
Is it one of the lawyers, or perhaps
1:26:06
the judge, or is it one of these
1:26:10
three citizens appointed by the Governor, who has
1:26:13
very little to do with selections by the
1:26:17
public?
1:26:19
Well, that has come under question, even now,
1:26:23
in saying that in this House document, you
1:26:28
know, what they're trying to say, HJR, what
1:26:30
was the number again?
1:26:31
We're definitely going to keep an eye on
1:26:33
this.
1:26:34
I doubt it'll get anywhere, because the bar
1:26:37
is all powerful, right?
1:26:40
I say the most powerful organization in the
1:26:48
state of Missouri, and HJR 119, pay attention
1:26:53
to that, because it proposes removing the constitutional
1:26:57
mandate and returning to voters the authority to
1:27:03
determine whether the circuits used the Missouri plan
1:27:05
or an alternative method.
1:27:07
Now, I haven't read it yet to see
1:27:10
whether or not it applies at the Appellate
1:27:12
levels either, you know, and I hope it
1:27:15
does, because the whole system is crap, and
1:27:17
perhaps somebody is finally going to pay attention
1:27:21
to this ridiculous selection process that has, oh
1:27:28
yeah, it's the way you keep out politics.
1:27:31
Oh yeah, the bar's not politic.
1:27:34
A prior appointed judge certainly isn't political.
1:27:38
No, no, no, of course not.
1:27:41
How can you think that?
1:27:42
They're judges.
1:27:43
There's no politics among judges.
1:27:46
Certainly not in Missouri, maybe in other states,
1:27:50
maybe at the federal level, but not Missouri.
1:27:53
We'll talk some more about that on Friday.
1:27:55
So, I appreciate you listening to International Flavor.
1:27:57
Today, we got a little bit more local
1:27:59
in nature, because there are a couple of
1:28:01
things that came up that I want to
1:28:03
talk about, and that I'm still keeping an
1:28:05
eye on for us.
1:28:07
And Friday, during Civic Outlaws, new time for
1:28:11
Civic Outlaws.
1:28:12
For the second week in a row, we're
1:28:14
going to be 7 a.m. to 8
1:28:17
.30 on Civic Outlaws, and you can listen
1:28:22
to all those.
1:28:23
Go back and listen to all the old
1:28:24
shows at civicoutlaws.com forward slash podcast.
1:28:28
We've only done six of them, and the
1:28:31
last six are out there talking about issues
1:28:37
in the state of Missouri and regulation to
1:28:41
follow.
1:28:42
I'm Samuel Trapp.
1:28:44
Appreciate you being here on this beautiful Wednesday,
1:28:47
the biggest day in radio history in mid
1:28:52
-Missouri, and I hope you join us every
1:28:54
day at damradio.com.
1:28:58
All day today, we have wonderful talk content
1:29:03
for you.
1:29:04
You can listen to internationalflavor.com.
1:29:08
All the prior episodes of the show are
1:29:12
out there for your listening pleasure.
1:29:16
Thank you so very much, and have a
1:29:18
beautiful day.