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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know.

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Speaker 2: A production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 3: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt.

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Speaker 3: Our colleague Nol is on an adventure, but will be

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Speaker 3: returning shortly.

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Speaker 2: They call me Bed, and you can too. We're joined

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Speaker 2: as always with our super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan.

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Speaker 2: Most importantly, you argue you are here. That makes this

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Speaker 2: the stuff they don't want you to know. Now, Friends

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Speaker 2: and neighbors, fellow conspiracy realists, travelers and hometown kids alike,

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Speaker 2: we could admit the world is in kind of a

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Speaker 2: dicey play right, kind of a dicey place.

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Speaker 3: The as we're recording this, The Oscars occurred last night

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Speaker 3: and Conan O'Brien got up there on the stage and

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Speaker 3: was being jokey and joking around, and then at one moment,

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Speaker 3: just before the monologue finished, he said, now let me

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Speaker 3: be real for a second, and he just pointed out

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Speaker 3: how insane everything feels and how nice it is to

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Speaker 3: celebrate storytelling and dreaming at the Oscars, which just warmed

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Speaker 3: my heart a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Conan. Yeah, we're big fans of Conan. Keep it up. Actually,

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Speaker 2: I recently ranked you as the number one Conan, so

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Speaker 2: sorry to Conan the Barbarian.

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Speaker 3: Oh that's a tough sell for me. Okay, tough one.

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Speaker 2: It's a tough one, but you earned it, O'Brien, and

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Speaker 2: we'd love to hang out with you in the future.

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Speaker 2: The thing is so much keeps happening. It is honestly

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Speaker 2: difficult now for the average person to keep track of

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Speaker 2: every new allegation or conspiracy that pops up nowadays, not

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Speaker 2: to mention the old conspiracies that turn out to have

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Speaker 2: more truth to them than initially thought. Cough cough, Havana syndrome.

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Speaker 2: Cough cough, Jack O'Brien, I was right, cough, cough, cough.

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Speaker 2: So I had a cough there. I had a cough

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Speaker 2: at a cough, had a little bit. I'll flap. But

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Speaker 2: we love Daily Zeit guys, We love you all for

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Speaker 2: tuning in. In tonight's episode, we are looking at a

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Speaker 2: story that Matt, Dylan, Nolan and I spent a lot

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Speaker 2: of time thinking about. It's a story much of mainstream

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Speaker 2: media seems to have forgotten even though it occurred just

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Speaker 2: a few months ago. It reached a culmination point just

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Speaker 2: a few months ago. Our question is this, and you

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Speaker 2: know what, beat me here, I'll say it. Plain what

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Speaker 2: the fuck is going on in Venezuela, money Baby, We'll

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Speaker 2: be right back. Here are the facts, all right, Matt.

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Speaker 2: I think it's mission imperative, mission critical for us to

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Speaker 2: note for anybody who is not aware, the nation of

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Speaker 2: Venezuela located at the top of South America and the

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Speaker 2: United States, they're historically not friends.

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Speaker 3: It's weird. It hasn't always been this way with Venezuela

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Speaker 3: in the United States, but some things, you know, have

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Speaker 3: have gone down, specifically a guy named Hugo Chavas that

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Speaker 3: we're going to talk about a little bit. And then

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Speaker 3: you know, Maduro was like his number two, and you

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Speaker 3: could see why maybe there was a target on his head.

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Speaker 3: But it has to do with who your friends are.

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Speaker 3: A lot of times as a country, who are you

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Speaker 3: really tight with, and that might dictate how the US treats.

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Speaker 2: You, Like Tupac said the legendary statesman Tupac sh for

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Speaker 2: if you ride with them, then screw you too. It's

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Speaker 2: a lot of guilt by association, right or skepticism by association.

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Speaker 2: Part of the part of the modern tension between Venezuela

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Speaker 2: and the United States is due to the geography of

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Speaker 2: those two countries. Because Uncle Sam, in practice we talked

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Speaker 2: about this earlier, considers all of Latin America its own backyard.

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Speaker 2: So you can be sovereign, but not that sovereign. You

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Speaker 2: can be free, but not that free.

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Speaker 3: Yes, And all you gotta do is take a look

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Speaker 3: at US history and CIA intervention in Latin and South

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Speaker 3: America just to see how much the United States sees

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Speaker 3: the entirety of the America's as its own little money

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Speaker 3: making playground.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And I love the point you're bringing up there

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Speaker 2: about alliances, because Venezuela is in oil rich country. Will

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Speaker 2: give you some stats in a little bit, But as

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Speaker 2: a country with tremendous resources, it established ties with other

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Speaker 2: crews that the United States does not care for in

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Speaker 2: the modern age, those being in particular Cuba, Russia, and China.

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Speaker 2: A little bit of a rod, but it's a you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a long way.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's put one stat out there, because it really

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Speaker 3: does encompass I think everything we're talking about today. According

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Speaker 3: to most places on the Internet and the CIA World

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Speaker 3: fact Book. Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves,

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Speaker 3: like the world's.

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Speaker 2: Largest that is true, the world's largest proven oil reserves.

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Speaker 2: And as we'll get to it, the badger in the

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Speaker 2: bag is that oil reserves are not created equally. So

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Speaker 2: they've got a lot of stuff, but they don't have

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Speaker 2: the primost stuff, you know what I mean. They've got

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Speaker 2: like one hundred pounds of off brand cereal, but sometimes

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Speaker 2: people just want a box of fruit loops or what's

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Speaker 2: that one you're on raisin brand?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? No, two scoops, baby, Sorry, Well.

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Speaker 2: It's the differences that make for a good friendship.

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Speaker 3: So pointing out that fact is that that just on

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Speaker 3: paper and the knowledge that there is a lot of

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Speaker 3: oil in that country can shape the way other countries

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Speaker 3: view Venezuela.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, because the alliance with some of these more

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Speaker 2: communist forces they would be called those alliances don't occur

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Speaker 2: just because people like hanging out with each other. Geopolitics

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Speaker 2: is not vibes. Geopolitics is resource extraction and control. So

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Speaker 2: the Strains, I love that you mentioned one of our

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Speaker 2: favorite talk show host the Strains on the relationship between

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Speaker 2: Venezuela and the United States really accelerate when a guy

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Speaker 2: named Ugo Chavez becomes president of Venezuela in nineteen ninety nine.

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Speaker 2: And when he becomes president, this guy is doing everything

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Speaker 2: he can to identify with his crew because listen, country

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Speaker 2: alliances are no different from gang alliances, folks, if you

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Speaker 2: want to be honest about it. Hugo Chavez is known

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Speaker 2: for rocking his workers like basically his car hearts and

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Speaker 2: rocking them in a bright red color, saying, hey, screw

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Speaker 2: the US, rage against the machine is right. I don't

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Speaker 2: know if he ever cited them, but that kind of stance,

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Speaker 2: and he reigned until his death in twenty thirteen, despite

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Speaker 2: multiple coup attempts. His time as a ruler could be

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Speaker 2: an episode of stuff they don't want you to know

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Speaker 2: all its own. It's filled with conspiracies and believe it

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Speaker 2: or not, a very weird talk show that we loved

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Speaker 2: back in the day, because again, like our show was

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Speaker 2: around in twenty thirteen, when Ugo Chavez was still in power,

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Speaker 2: and when he somehow, despite being the president of a country,

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Speaker 2: when he somehow managed to make an hour's long talk

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Speaker 2: show called Allo Presidente and.

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Speaker 3: It was what I can do.

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Speaker 2: We used to skip lunch and watch Allo Presidente. Guys.

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Speaker 3: It was kind of fun, I gotta admit, just when

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Speaker 3: they were there, it felt like there were no stakes

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Speaker 3: for me as a viewer, you know, right in office

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Speaker 3: in Atlanta.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was very fun for us because, okay,

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Speaker 2: to be clear, we were not watching it live, folks.

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Speaker 2: We were watching our favorite clips of it, and because

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Speaker 2: we are somewhat obsessive personalities, we would sometimes rewatch the

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Speaker 2: same clips and get all our poor coworkers to watch

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Speaker 2: it with us. It's an unscripted show where the president

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Speaker 2: of Venezuela purportedly takes random calls from his fellow his

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Speaker 2: fellow Venezuelan's and then instantly solves whatever problem they have

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Speaker 2: mm hmm and and just it's like a it's a

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Speaker 2: call in show. That's the craziest thing. For years, this

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Speaker 2: guy did a call.

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Speaker 3: In show man.

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Speaker 2: And he would be like, why why haven't they fixed it? Okay,

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Speaker 2: and he would yell at his producers go fix it

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Speaker 2: for that lady out there, and they would. It was nuts.

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Speaker 2: It was authoritarian af.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if you get his attention, though, you could you

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Speaker 3: can make some stuff happen. You can only see so

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Speaker 3: much as an authoritarian ruler, right, E're up so high? Yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's well. One thing I do want to point out

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Speaker 3: about Chavez that you can find in our video series

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Speaker 3: if you want to look that up we talked about

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Speaker 3: is his moves with oil, specifically a thing that we

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Speaker 3: have called out by name. I think it's called Petro

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Speaker 3: Caribe is how you would say it. And it's basically

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Speaker 3: an agreement between Caribbean countries in South American countries and

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Speaker 3: Venezuela to trade oil in different than ways that are

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Speaker 3: normalized by US relations in trading dollars in stocks essentially

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Speaker 3: for oil.

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Speaker 2: Supplies, circumventing the petro dollar. Yeah, tut tut, tut, tut tut.

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Speaker 2: We're not saying Goadafi was a good guy, but he

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Speaker 2: messed with the money and that's part of what Chavez

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Speaker 2: was doing. So yeah, So Chavez maintains his rule until

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Speaker 2: twenty thirty he passes way and after Chavez comes Nicholas Maduro.

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Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduro is a former union leader and he ruled

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Speaker 2: Venezuela from twenty thirteen after the death of Chavez, up

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Speaker 2: until January third, twenty twenty six in practice. So technically,

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Speaker 2: as we record now Monday March sixteenth, twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 2: Maduro is still the president of Venezuela officially. Effectively, he

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Speaker 2: is not. His administration ended in practice on that day

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Speaker 2: because he and his wife in the early morning hours

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Speaker 2: local time, were captured by US forces. They were spirited

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Speaker 2: away to the United States to face drug trafficking and

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Speaker 2: narco terrorism charges. But he's still again, we cannot emphasize

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Speaker 2: this enough. He is still considered the dejore or official

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Speaker 2: president of Venezuela. That's even been confirmed by the current

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Speaker 2: acting president, Delsi Rodriquez.

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Speaker 3: And let's not forget that Nicholas Maduro was vice president

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Speaker 3: under Hugo Chavez before Chaves. So it was a true

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Speaker 3: passing of the baton, like an immediate passing of the

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Speaker 3: baton to the next person in that instance. In this

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Speaker 3: next instance, it's a little more complicated when you get

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Speaker 3: to Rodriguez.

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Speaker 2: I bet it is.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And then let's also not forget who Koschovez said

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Speaker 3: publicly a whole bunch of times he believed he had

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Speaker 3: been given cancer. Oh yeah, the United States like some

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Speaker 3: kind of special operations thing.

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Speaker 2: Or perhaps some sort of special weaponry, right, and when

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Speaker 2: he was doing that, he did appear to sincerely believe

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Speaker 2: it based on what we can find. But he also

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Speaker 2: was harkening back to our CIA's notoriously ineffective efforts to

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Speaker 2: do all kinds of shenanigans to the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.

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Speaker 2: So he's not pulling from whole cloth. There. Intelligence agencies

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Speaker 2: have done dirty things very much.

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Speaker 3: So we know about the heart attack gun, and we

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Speaker 3: know that's really We know about the discombobulator now, so we.

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Speaker 2: Know that someone thinks there's a discombobulator.

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Speaker 3: Well, yes, yes, a couple of people talk to CBS

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Speaker 3: about having that weapon and then testing it.

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Speaker 2: Right right, shout out Havana syndrome. The situation now remains

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Speaker 2: incredibly tense, and we were talking about this with a

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Speaker 2: brother Dylan off air a little bit. The news in

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Speaker 2: the United States, the news cycle, the spotlight of the

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Speaker 2: thing has shifted away from a twenty four to seven

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Speaker 2: focus on developments, but there remains a ton of international

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Speaker 2: scrutiny and there are multiple storied institutions that are calling

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Speaker 2: for a stable, democratic transition of power in Venezuela, and

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Speaker 2: as we're recording now, maybe we'd love to start and

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Speaker 2: end with good news when we can. The United States

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Speaker 2: and Venezuela are opening channels of diplomatic dialogue, so they

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Speaker 2: are talking again. The embassy for Uncle Sam has reopened

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Speaker 2: in the capital of Venezuela and Caracas, but the public

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Speaker 2: in the United States in particular, is still trying to

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Speaker 2: figure out what's going on. The public is still divided

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Speaker 2: on why Uncle Sam invaded in the first place, The

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Speaker 2: international community is divided on how they got away with

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Speaker 2: kidnapping a sitting president, and most importantly, the world overall,

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Speaker 2: including big oil companies, is trying to figure out what

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Speaker 2: happens next.

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Speaker 3: Dude, someone's wrapped up in it.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, how if you've removed the proper nouns from it?

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Speaker 3: How strange is it that country A goes into country B,

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Speaker 3: extracts your president and first lady takes them away and

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Speaker 3: charges them with a bunch of stuff, and then comes

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Speaker 3: back in and says, hey, we're cool now, right, we're

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Speaker 3: going to reopen our embassy.

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Speaker 2: I'd be like, you know why I had to do that, right,

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Speaker 2: you know, like you kind of made me like we're

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Speaker 2: cool though. We're cool though, democracy right, you get me,

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Speaker 2: you know what I mean. We're both in the Americas,

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Speaker 2: like we came up in the same frat they did.

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Speaker 3: This is Shell and here's Chevron.

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Speaker 2: My boy Chevy, my boy, big Shell. You remember him.

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Speaker 2: We were at some parties earlier. Anyway, That's that's the question.

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Speaker 2: What happens next? To answer this billion barrel question, we're

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Speaker 2: diving deep into the lead up of the incursion, a

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Speaker 2: brief timeline of that incursion, along with some remaining questions

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Speaker 2: about the operation and maybe some of the more out

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Speaker 2: there speculation about motives and goals. The best way to

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Speaker 2: put is this, right now, there seems to be a

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Speaker 2: lot of stuff the authorities don't want you to know

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Speaker 2: about Venezuela, or.

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Speaker 3: At least don't want you to think about.

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Speaker 2: Here's where it gets crazy. Okay, we can start with

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Speaker 2: the capture of Maduro, but to understand that, actually, wait,

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Speaker 2: let's start a few years before matt. One of the

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Speaker 2: things we have to note, Dylan Weather, the things we

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Speaker 2: have to know is a lot of people who just

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Speaker 2: read the news about the incursion, they may not be

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Speaker 2: aware that Madudro was very much a divisive character way

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Speaker 2: before twenty twenty six. And this is far from the

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Speaker 2: first time Uncle Sam tried to molly wop him. Six

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Speaker 2: months after he was elected, This former union leader, this

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Speaker 2: one guy, this one resident is given the power to

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Speaker 2: rule by decree. Rule by decree is the tastiest superpower

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Speaker 2: you can have as an authoritarian, and it does not

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Speaker 2: exist in a legitimate democracy. Rule by decree means that

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Speaker 2: you can wake up one day and you can enact

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Speaker 2: a law on your own without legislative approval. You don't

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Speaker 2: have to check with anybody else in your parliament, your congress,

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Speaker 2: your political class, your judiciary. You can literally wake up

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Speaker 2: one day and say paperback novels are illegal, or you

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Speaker 2: can wake up one day and say nobody can wear.

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Speaker 3: Shoes, and everybody just has to go, oh, oh, okay,

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Speaker 3: well all right, and let us say that is not

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Speaker 3: the same thing as installing a whole bunch of siccophants

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Speaker 3: in all of the primary offices throughout a land and

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Speaker 3: then issuing a whole bunch of executive orders. It's not

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Speaker 3: the same thing.

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Speaker 2: It's much more direct. Yeah, And that's a good point.

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Speaker 2: It's it's a lot less like the game mouse trap

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Speaker 2: there because the idea of installing sycophants and guess folk

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Speaker 2: ultimately can if it works out for you, it can

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Speaker 2: give you rule of decree in practice, but it's going

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Speaker 2: to be a lot more complicated with many more opportunities

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Speaker 2: for failure in the mechanism. So ideally, there's a message

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Speaker 2: to all our dictators in the crowd, all or would

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Speaker 2: be authoritarians. Ideally, what you want to do is get

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Speaker 2: a greed official rule by decree so that you can

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Speaker 2: wake up and make your decisions without any of that

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Speaker 2: pesky red tape or you know, feedback from the people.

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Speaker 2: You oversee.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I just have a weird dream, have a little

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Speaker 3: cup of chemical leche, and just let it writ.

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Speaker 2: Just let it right roll that ice. So this this

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Speaker 2: is something we see. We see rule by decree historically

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Speaker 2: happened in the aftermath of chaos, or historically occur when

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Speaker 2: the public is desperate for help. When people don't jibe

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Speaker 2: with what's going on in their immediate day to day,

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Speaker 2: then they will naturally logically start looking for alternatives. That's

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Speaker 2: why the United States got very close to having an

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Speaker 2: overthrow of democracy back back in the thirties. You know,

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Speaker 2: there was this real pill, a real drip, like not

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Speaker 2: a good person named Smentley Butler, a marine general who

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Speaker 2: probably stopped Prescott Bush and Co. From overthrowing the United

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Speaker 2: States and instituting a fascist government. And people in modern

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Speaker 2: day Venezuela are no different really from people who were

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Speaker 2: suffering through the interwar years in the United States. They're

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Speaker 2: desperate for help, you know. In so Maduro in the

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Speaker 2: death of Chaves, Chavez promised to bring a new life

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Speaker 2: to Venezuela, to revive the economy. I almost said revivify,

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Speaker 2: to revive the economy, to get food in people's pantries, right,

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Speaker 2: to give people jobs, to give kids better schooling. And

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Speaker 2: he struggled with that for a lot of his administration.

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Speaker 2: He also nationalized the oil, which is we'll get to it.

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Speaker 2: So Maduro promises a change with this. He is the

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Speaker 2: descendant of the school, or the inheritor of the school

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Speaker 2: of political thought called Chavismo, which is Ugo Chaves. In

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Speaker 2: a very humble way. His reign for several factors, Maduro's

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Speaker 2: coincided with the opposite of what he promised, was a

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Speaker 2: decline in overall socioeconomic status, even worse than the early

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Speaker 2: days of Chavez, there was a rise in all the

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Speaker 2: things you don't like to see rise inflation, crime, hunger, poverty.

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Speaker 2: A lot of analysts, most of whom are Western by

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Speaker 2: the way, began predicting the country was headed for a

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Speaker 2: Soviet style collapse, kind of similar to what we talked

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Speaker 2: about in our earlier episode on oligarchs. Mm hmm, So

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Speaker 2: the country's going to fall, the rich will get richer,

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Speaker 2: the poor will become poorer.

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Speaker 3: It's a trend we've seen several times, at least within

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Speaker 3: my lifetime in the United States, and not you know,

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Speaker 3: just in Venezuela and not just in you know, these

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Speaker 3: countries that analysts often would look at and say, oh,

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Speaker 3: there's a despot there, that's why it's going bad. It

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Speaker 3: just makes me wonder sometimes when you see these larger

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Speaker 3: or the like the macro trends in global markets then

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Speaker 3: in regional markets, and down trends and things like the

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Speaker 3: nineteen thirties in the US when things are not great

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Speaker 3: for most people, you know what happens and then is

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Speaker 3: there anything that could spark some kind of internal revolution,

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Speaker 3: a civil war of some sort, or a coup. They're

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Speaker 3: they're the analys were definitely looking at Venezuela as that

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Speaker 3: possibly being a reality very soon.

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Speaker 2: And it's important to note that at the same time,

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Speaker 2: the international order, the capitalist side of it, the Western order,

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Speaker 2: was also waging economic warfare on Venezuela. There's that a

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Speaker 2: way around it. The sanctions was sanctions. Sanctions are a

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Speaker 2: huge part of it. Check out our episode or whether

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Speaker 2: sanctions work. Check out also the phenomenal book Confessions of

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Speaker 2: an Economic hit Man. Yeah, the Medudal administration is saying

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Speaker 2: at this time, they're saying, hey, we are doing our best,

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Speaker 2: but things are going wrong that are not our fault.

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Speaker 2: Our domestic political opponents are teaming up with the spooky guys,

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Speaker 2: you know, the spooky guys from up north, and these

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Speaker 2: folks are not really freedom fighters. We're also getting hammered

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Speaker 2: by these international moves against us and restricting our ability

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Speaker 2: to participate in international trade in this era of time

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Speaker 2: is a lot like dropping bombs on us. It's just

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Speaker 2: slower in terms of its effect, but those effects will

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Speaker 2: ultimately be the same, And there's a lot of objective

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Speaker 2: truth to stuff like that. Economic warfare is very real.

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Speaker 2: It's one of the most dangerous forms of asymmetrical aggression

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Speaker 2: out there, right, I would compare it to drones.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, yes, and just that point. Then, collapse is

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Speaker 3: a slow thing. Collapse generally doesn't happen in one big move,

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Speaker 3: right or one big action. You wake up in the morning,

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Speaker 3: you read the news, Oh, this nation collapsed. Now they're

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Speaker 3: no longer solvent as a country, and something must be done. No,

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Speaker 3: it takes a long long time, and you can see

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Speaker 3: it happening, like when you're in the midst of it.

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Speaker 3: Just a little point out to everybody right now.

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Speaker 2: I also wonder, I mean, some people can see it

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Speaker 2: in the midst of the fog, but I think a

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Speaker 2: lot of people see it in retrospect because as long

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Speaker 2: as the world feels normal for me, says the protagonist

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Speaker 2: of their own lives, then these other things are happening

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Speaker 2: outside of me. They don't become real until they affect

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Speaker 2: me directly. Right, don't lecture me about a rod. Tell

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Speaker 2: me why gas is four thirty five?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, absolutely right. What's in my immediate sphere? I

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Speaker 3: just think there are enough people, as we kind of

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Speaker 3: outlined in our Oligarchs episode, that are on the pulse

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Speaker 3: of financial stuff, looking at you know, deals that occur

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Speaker 3: across countries, looking at the kinds of movements that occur

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Speaker 3: where you've got maybe an NGO operating in an area

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Speaker 3: via economic hitman style, that kind of thing. I think

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Speaker 3: there are enough people who see the signals and they

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Speaker 3: take those actions, like we talked about changing currencies, making

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Speaker 3: other investments, buying state owned oil companies and things like that.

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Speaker 2: I sure hope that a lot of us are paying

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Speaker 2: attention to the signs the historical presidents. Also look at

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Speaker 2: the look at the statements of the macro investors who

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Speaker 2: are not in the news. Ordinarily you're not going to

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Speaker 2: find them necessarily quoted in your See It ins or

389
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Speaker 2: your Fox news is or your Reuters or whatever. You're

390
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Speaker 2: going to find them quoted in an insurance trades and

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Speaker 2: they have some scary stuff to say because they're very

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Speaker 2: smart people. Also, we don't know what was up with

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Speaker 2: Peter Thiel's meeting in Rome recently. Just gonna throw that

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Speaker 2: one in there and keep it moving.

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Speaker 3: So just take a look.

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Speaker 2: Just take a look when you get a chance. Folks,

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Speaker 2: you're already on the internet if you're tuning into our show,

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Speaker 2: all right. So we also see that despite the valid

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Speaker 2: allegations of the Meduro regime about Western forces purposely trying

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Speaker 2: to sink their boat. Medudo is not necessarily a good

401
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Speaker 2: guy by any means. There are rampant human rights violations

402
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Speaker 2: occurring during his administration, especially as it leads up to

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Speaker 2: the events of January third, twenty twenty six. Amnesty International,

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Speaker 2: which I have put in our keep it until it

405
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Speaker 2: which I put in our notes is Amnesty Internation, Amnesty

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Speaker 2: and National noted that there were eight thousand, two hundred

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Speaker 2: and ninety two extra judicial executions carried out just between

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Speaker 2: twenty fifteen and twenty seventeen. Extra judicial Matt, we know

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Speaker 2: what that means.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like when you fire a missile at a

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Speaker 3: boat the military says has drug traffickers on it. There's

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Speaker 3: no process to prove whether or not there were drugs

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Speaker 3: on that boat and who those people were and how

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Speaker 3: culpable they were for the things that were supposedly illegal.

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Speaker 2: Murdering without a judicial process. Yeah. The true definition of

416
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Speaker 2: the state, and this comes from the old beings, but

417
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Speaker 2: the true single definition of what makes a government a

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Speaker 2: government or a state state is the monopoly on violence.

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Speaker 2: So if Dylan wakes up and has a bad mood right,

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Speaker 2: or SIPs the wrong Earl Gray and says, hey, we

421
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Speaker 2: got to execute somebody. We got to kill nol and

422
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Speaker 2: we hop too, and we put Noel Brown in an

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Speaker 2: electric chair and we kill him. Then we've murdered someone.

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Speaker 2: We should get in trouble. But if the state does it,

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Speaker 2: because it is the state, it is judicious and right

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Speaker 2: to do so. So that's the argument, right, The argument

427
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Speaker 2: of what makes a state credible is ultimately, aside from

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Speaker 2: all the pretty words and pretty ideologies, it's who gets

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Speaker 2: to decide when violence is right or called for the.

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Speaker 3: Maduro and you'll generally only get in trouble for that

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Speaker 3: kind of thing once you're out of power or your

432
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Speaker 3: party is out of power, loses control. Then there might

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Speaker 3: be some hearings and some judges getting involved.

434
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 2: And we know that extra judicial then, is a term

435
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 2: only applied when the government violates its own self created,

436
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 2: self imposed rules about how violence can be administered. Right.

437
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 2: That's happening now in the United States in a smaller way,

438
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 2: but it can always happen because democracy is always in

439
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 2: danger of being eroded. True democracy is not exactly what

440
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 2: true capitalism dreams about. You know, when it goes to

441
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,959
Speaker 2: sleep at night. So when we say extra judicial executions

442
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 2: by the Madudro administration, what we mean is that that

443
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 2: own administration, leveraging Maduro's right to rule by decree, violated

444
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 2: the democratic norms that they had set in stone previously. Also,

445
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 2: Amnesty International said, look at this. In one year alone,

446
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:04,440
Speaker 2: twenty two percent of all the recorded homicides were not

447
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 2: committed by criminals. They were committed by Venezuela's own security forces.

448
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 2: They were targeting street gangs, right or they were targeting

449
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:19,080
Speaker 2: what they would see as cartel operatives, and they arrested

450
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:22,320
Speaker 2: thousands and thousands of people, and they were primarily yes,

451
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 2: you can guess, they were primarily targeting very poor neighborhoods.

452
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 3: It's a weird thing for me personally to come to

453
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 3: terms with looking at the news and the actions that

454
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 3: the US has been taking, you know, since the fall

455
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 3: of last year, where you know, we are kind of

456
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,479
Speaker 3: referencing these boats that are being bombed in the East

457
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 3: Pacific and the Caribbean Ocean, and there are arguments being

458
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 3: made by the current administration about, you know, why it's

459
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 3: good to make these killings happen, right, But then I

460
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 3: think if you think about it a little further and

461
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 3: you realize, oh, there's no way to prove any of

462
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 3: the things that are supposedly happening. These are just killings

463
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 3: of human beings and bombs being dropped on boats. And

464
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 3: it only gives you an achy feeling because it's not

465
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 3: the same thing. Right, guess what we're describing happening in

466
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 3: Venezuela with thousands of people being killed, But it is,

467
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 3: it's right along the same vein to me, at least

468
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 3: from my observation.

469
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 2: I hear you, I often sound like the old Exorcist

470
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 2: in that was it that Bladdie novel The Exorcist. He

471
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:37,200
Speaker 2: comes in and says, no, it's always the same demon.

472
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 2: It's always the same fiend. It can be dressed up

473
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 2: in different ways, right. Governments and power structures can be

474
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 2: can appear to be different, but when they're possessed by

475
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 2: the same evil, that evil remains the same. Like these

476
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 2: people in Venezuela, these people in these boats, they're never

477
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:58,720
Speaker 2: going to get a day in court. They're never going

478
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:03,960
Speaker 2: to get to say, hey, I actually wasn't transporting drugs.

479
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? This is to me again,

480
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 2: without sounding without sounding too dogmatic or too I guess brainwashed.

481
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 2: In my own background, I am taught to identify evil

482
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 2: like that, and that that is evil stuff.

483
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 3: Well, I agree, it's hard for me to square it

484
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 3: with how does eighty two hundred extra judicial killings by

485
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 3: Venezuela match up with the number of human beings that

486
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 3: get killed by law enforcement officers in the United States

487
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 3: every year? Right, especially ones that aren't brandishing a weapon,

488
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 3: you know, and eminently threatening an officer. Amazing too much

489
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 3: to think about. It's hurting me a little bit.

490
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 2: It's the right thing to think about, and it should

491
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 2: hurt all of us to think about it, because it's

492
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 2: a man in the mirror kind of moment. We know

493
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:05,320
Speaker 2: that sanctions increase, sanctions ratchet up again in twenty nineteen,

494
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 2: and when this happens, Madudo abandons the old price and

495
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 2: currency controls imposed by the Chavez administration. And when those

496
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 2: price controls and currency controls are removed, it seems to

497
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 2: help write the ship a little bit. But it's not

498
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 2: enough to satisfy the West, because the West begins claiming

499
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 2: the government of Venezuela is juicing their economic numbers. They're

500
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 2: selling gold from illegal minds and they're selling narcotics despite

501
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 2: the fact that Venezuela is a transit country, not an

502
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 2: origin country. H oh oh, we got to do this.

503
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,840
Speaker 2: Oh oh man, Okay, So that all the stuff that

504
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 2: we're still leading up to the second coupe, to the kidnapping, right,

505
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,880
Speaker 2: the big kidnapping January third, twenty twenty six. What needs

506
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 2: to be reported more often in the mainstream news is

507
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,040
Speaker 2: that this was not the first swing at bat. The

508
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 2: first US attempt to overthrow and capture Maduro in specific

509
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,359
Speaker 2: was not January. It was almost six years earlier, and

510
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 2: it was a home man, this one. This one. It

511
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 2: was apparently not the US's plant. Per what the US says.

512
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 3: Are we saying they denied it or I would.

513
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,919
Speaker 2: Use I would use the word disavowed. Personally, I would

514
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 2: say disavowed. Matt. Remember we were chatting off air about

515
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 2: a little thing called Silvercore USA.

516
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 3: Silvercore USA. That sounds like some kind of paramilitary contractor.

517
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you were great at this man, because

518
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:57,280
Speaker 2: it certainly is this. Back in twenty twenty a private

519
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 2: security firm head by guy named George Goodreau, attempted to

520
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 2: capture Maduro. He had a crew of sixty troops. They

521
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:14,280
Speaker 2: were trained in Colombia. There were at least two former

522
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 2: members of US Special Forces. Venezuela said, look, Uncle Sam

523
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 2: and the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration were one hundred

524
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:29,399
Speaker 2: percent responsible for this, and they got backing from those

525
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 2: bastards in Colombia. The government of Colombia. Columbia denied everything,

526
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:38,760
Speaker 2: but then stuff started to shift. The leader of Silver

527
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 2: Corps said no. The literal president of Colombia came to

528
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 2: us with two of his boys, and we agreed that

529
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 2: they would pay US two hundred and thirteen million dollars

530
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 2: to do this operation. Unsuccessful. Eight of the attackers are killed,

531
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 2: thirteen or captured. Two of those thirteen prisoners, by the

532
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 2: way American nationals. The Trump administration denied any role in

533
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 2: what the BBC calls the Bungled incursion.

534
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 3: Did we talk about this back in twenty twenty?

535
00:36:12,640 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 2: I think if we had our Strange News segment, I

536
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:19,280
Speaker 2: may have spoken about it then, because I remember talking

537
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:20,120
Speaker 2: with you guys about it.

538
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds so familiar, but I don't know the

539
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 3: specifics here. This is fascinating.

540
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 2: Disavowed it, sure is. We had nothing to do with it.

541
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 2: We have no idea. What these people are doing Silvercore USA?

542
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 2: What are they a company? This interview is over. That's

543
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 2: what happened. So it's twenty twenty, and this was almost

544
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:52,040
Speaker 2: a blip in US news reporters and media outlets for

545
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 2: some reason, quickly moved on to other stories. I'm just

546
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,959
Speaker 2: saying it makes you think, especially with what happened next

547
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:01,560
Speaker 2: to me. It makes you think.

548
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:05,760
Speaker 3: And just as a reminder, the US president in twenty

549
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:10,320
Speaker 3: twenty at the time of this attempt was the current

550
00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 3: president we have today right now.

551
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:18,360
Speaker 2: Yes, that is true. We should also mention that the

552
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:27,360
Speaker 2: creator of silver Core, Gaudreau, is currently wanted by the FBI. Yep,

553
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:31,279
Speaker 2: he has failed to appear at a court hearing related

554
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 2: to his participation in this program. This is uh yeah, yeah,

555
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 2: street name Operation Gideon.

556
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 3: Fair.

557
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,400
Speaker 2: Eric Prince is fine. Eric Prince is fine. I know

558
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 2: that's going to be your next question is.

559
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna ask you about Eric to make

560
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 3: sure he's okay.

561
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's check where is job rule? Where is Eric Prince? Uh? So, okay.

562
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,319
Speaker 2: The US has quote unquote nothing to do with that

563
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:06,320
Speaker 2: first fail operation, but US courts indict Maduro on drug charges,

564
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:13,320
Speaker 2: narco terrorism, and conspiracy to import cocaine. They had put

565
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 2: a bounty on Maduro's arrest, fifteen million US dollars. Just

566
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 2: bring the man to us. And then later right the

567
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:26,719
Speaker 2: US administration changes. Now we've got the former Barack Obama

568
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:32,359
Speaker 2: vice president, lifetime politician Joe Biden. So President Biden's administration

569
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:37,439
Speaker 2: looks at the Maduro case and they say, you know what,

570
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 2: we're going to bump it up. We're going to juice

571
00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 2: that number fifteen million dollars. We're going to make it

572
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,879
Speaker 2: twenty five million dollars. If you can just buy hook

573
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,560
Speaker 2: or by crook, bring us this Maduro guy.

574
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 3: Oh baby. Just as a reminder, there's some things in

575
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 3: the United States that no matter who has the reins,

576
00:38:58,120 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 3: will always remain the same.

577
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's why perhaps to your point there, the

578
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 2: next Trump administration, so Donald Trump gets re elected in

579
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 2: the US, this administration doubles that offer. We see that

580
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:15,680
Speaker 2: the Trump administration said twenty five million dollars, let's make

581
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:19,200
Speaker 2: it fifty million dollars if you can arrest Maduro. He

582
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:23,240
Speaker 2: is one of the world's largest narco traffickers. He's working

583
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 2: with those cartels. You guys worried about fentanyl in your

584
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:31,640
Speaker 2: cocaine or in a cocaine They said, to be diplomatic, Well,

585
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,360
Speaker 2: this is the guy with fifty million dollars if you

586
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 2: get him. And that's I want to go back to

587
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 2: that point with just mad Because, for some reason, despite

588
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 2: the fact that Venezuela is more a transit country for

589
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 2: narcotics rather than an origin country, and despite the fact

590
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,360
Speaker 2: that there are tons of other powerful folks in Latin

591
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 2: America who have much more influence on the drug trade,

592
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 2: Uncle Sam had it out for this guy in p

593
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:04,520
Speaker 2: particular in a way that went across the usual political

594
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 2: divide the two parties. The two big political parties in

595
00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:10,839
Speaker 2: the United States are the Elephant and the ass and

596
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 2: they hate each other to our cartoonish like spy versus

597
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:18,839
Speaker 2: spy degree. But again, for some reason, they both put

598
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 2: aside their differences and they agreed that Maduro must be gone.

599
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:25,120
Speaker 2: Isn't that weird?

600
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's also weird that, allegedly, during that

601
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 3: first attempt to get Maduro, Colombia is the country that

602
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 3: is supposedly in cahoots with the DEA during that first

603
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 3: attempt at capturing Maduro, Because isn't Columbia the world's largest

604
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 3: producer of cocaine.

605
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 2: So this just in, folks, We know there's an arson

606
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:58,839
Speaker 2: problem on our street, so we teamed up with the

607
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,760
Speaker 2: most famous arsonist on the block to arrest his neighbor.

608
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 3: Makes sense, makes sense.

609
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,359
Speaker 2: Makes sense. Yeah, we'll take questions at the end. This

610
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:14,720
Speaker 2: is this is crazy too because in October of twenty

611
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 2: twenty five, right, so we're still a few months out

612
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 2: from the successful coup. Uh October of twenty twenty five,

613
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:28,279
Speaker 2: Uncle Sam attempts to get to Maduro through a covert operation,

614
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:34,520
Speaker 2: recruiting his personal pilot, a guy named General Bittner Viegas.

615
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:37,400
Speaker 2: And this comes to us from the Associated Press. We

616
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:41,399
Speaker 2: had a homeland set guy named Edwin Lopez who meets

617
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:45,360
Speaker 2: Vegas non Caracus. Obviously, he meets him in the Dominican

618
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 2: Republic and he offers him a ton of money. We

619
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 2: still know how much, but he offers him a lot

620
00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:56,160
Speaker 2: of money and probably some like sweetheart extradition exfiltration stuff

621
00:41:57,160 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 2: if he will do them one solid when you're flying

622
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,120
Speaker 2: the President of Venezuela take him to a place where

623
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 2: the US can arrest him and they talk for like

624
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,439
Speaker 2: this started before October twenty fifth. Is when we found

625
00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 2: out about it. But they talk for like more than

626
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:20,800
Speaker 2: a year, for sixteen months, they're they're talking over encrypted

627
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 2: chat and eventually Viega says, I can't do this, I

628
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:28,399
Speaker 2: can't portray my president. And that's when we learn about it.

629
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:35,200
Speaker 2: When Viegas refuses to play ball, Maduro's opponents in Venezuela

630
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:40,440
Speaker 2: publicize the agent's contact with Homeland Security in the US.

631
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:41,719
Speaker 3: What yah.

632
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 2: Veegas disappears for a bit, but then later he comes

633
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:47,919
Speaker 2: back in public and he says, you know who I love,

634
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 2: Nicolas Maduro alive? Yeah, Well, because they had to get

635
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:54,560
Speaker 2: the statement.

636
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:56,359
Speaker 3: Okay, I guess so yeah, you.

637
00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:59,359
Speaker 2: Know what I mean, another swing, another miss, but Cyotosu

638
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:04,520
Speaker 2: and curious or this is the background that I think

639
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:10,319
Speaker 2: everybody should include when they're reporting on the second successful incursion. Right,

640
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 2: this did not come out of whole cloth. This is

641
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 2: something the US was trying to do for a while

642
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 2: for some reason. And maybe here we take a break, folks,

643
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 2: and when we get back, we'll introduce you to Operation

644
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 2: Absolute Resolve. Not my favorite name, isn't Resolve already? Absolute?

645
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:30,640
Speaker 2: What is tevid resolved?

646
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 3: It's a little generic too. I just you know, all right,

647
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 3: what is middlings whatever, Let's see what these ads have

648
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:37,439
Speaker 3: to offer.

649
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 2: We have returned. So after these swings and misses, Operation

650
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 2: Absolute Resolve begins at around two am local time in

651
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 2: Gracas on January third, twenty twenty six. For those of

652
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:02,839
Speaker 2: us in the East coast of the US, this time

653
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,160
Speaker 2: zone is going to be about an hour ahead, so

654
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 2: it occurs around one am US East Coast time. They

655
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:13,000
Speaker 2: got to go ahead from the President Donald Trump at

656
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:17,200
Speaker 2: the time around ten forty six or so. Imagine how

657
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 2: terrifying it must be if you're just average person living

658
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:26,120
Speaker 2: in northern Caracas and you see these explosions. The US

659
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 2: reigns fire down on the infrastructure of northern Venezuela. They're

660
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:37,080
Speaker 2: suppressing any possibility of local air defenses. We're talking the

661
00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 2: dangerous cinematic drones. We're talking manned fighter jets. At the

662
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 2: same time, while they're doing this, operators are infiltrating using

663
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 2: some of our special helicopters and attacking the Medoudal compound

664
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:57,880
Speaker 2: in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. So imagine a foreign

665
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:02,160
Speaker 2: army rocking up to the White House or rocking up

666
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:07,440
Speaker 2: tomor A Lago as they're bombing any air fields or

667
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:11,400
Speaker 2: any artillery batteries in the area. That's end of the

668
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 2: world stuff, right.

669
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would mean all at war if something like

670
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:21,600
Speaker 3: that occurred, and it wouldn't stop until one of the

671
00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:25,799
Speaker 3: sides gets completely defeated. I think I don't see how

672
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 3: you could ever have this kind of action, especially just

673
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:34,320
Speaker 3: the fact that you said special helicopters. I haven't seen

674
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:38,919
Speaker 3: any kind of official writing about the stealth helicopters being

675
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:41,879
Speaker 3: used in this raid. And have they talked about that

676
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 3: in this at all anywhere, because I'm assuming that's what

677
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:45,359
Speaker 3: they did.

678
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 2: Yeah. They I mean, when you want to get close

679
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,560
Speaker 2: like that, you're probably going to have to use the helicopters, yeah,

680
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:56,719
Speaker 2: or else you're going to have to have people in

681
00:45:56,840 --> 00:46:00,120
Speaker 2: place for a while. And they they spent months in

682
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 2: the intel, you know, just like just like Masaude with Iran.

683
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 3: Well, and let's talk about how they get how they

684
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 3: got so close and got such amazing intel there. The

685
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 3: United States was engaged in negotiations with Venezuela while this

686
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:16,080
Speaker 3: is happening.

687
00:46:16,239 --> 00:46:18,279
Speaker 2: They're talking, that's correct.

688
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 3: They're they're pretending the US side at least, I have

689
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 3: probably both sides. But the US side, for sure is

690
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:26,720
Speaker 3: pretending to use diplomatic relations as a way to resolve

691
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:32,319
Speaker 3: the conflict here. And all the while planning this, they're

692
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:32,959
Speaker 3: buying time.

693
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:35,040
Speaker 2: Yeahm hm, that's what they were doing.

694
00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:35,799
Speaker 3: Uh.

695
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 2: Primarily unfortunately, as a lot of our fellow listeners know, unfortunately,

696
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:46,839
Speaker 2: the US government UH and Intel agencies are fractured in

697
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 2: a way that hasn't occurred for some time. So it's

698
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 2: quite possible that maybe State was negotiating in good faith,

699
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:59,400
Speaker 2: but maybe they didn't have visibility on what was being planned.

700
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 2: That's just bad operational hierarchy there.

701
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:06,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just at this point, I just don't believe

702
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 3: that could be the case. I don't believe it could be.

703
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 2: The case at the top. No, at the top, I

704
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 2: mean maybe for maybe for an attache who's coming in

705
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:22,919
Speaker 2: and you know, maybe they're big conspiracy is that they

706
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:29,280
Speaker 2: secretly are in line for a plumb consulting gig with Chevron,

707
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 2: right if they can get the conversation to go right.

708
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 2: So everybody has their own conspiracies. Maybe they don't know

709
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,320
Speaker 2: the larger conspiracy is to come in and snag that

710
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:43,800
Speaker 2: ice called Madudo. I mean, look, people died in this, Okay,

711
00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 2: we know that we know the numbers of security officers.

712
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:52,040
Speaker 2: We don't know the number of civilians. So Venezuelan officials

713
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:57,240
Speaker 2: initially stated twenty three security officers were killed during the attack.

714
00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 2: The estimates leader grew to forty two. That's a lot

715
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 2: of dead people who are just doing their jobs. The

716
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:07,440
Speaker 2: Cuban government later stated thirty two members of their military

717
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:12,560
Speaker 2: and their intelligence agencies were murdered. We have seven reported

718
00:48:12,719 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 2: American injuries, but no reported American fatalities any one sided.

719
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 3: And it all happened while most of the United States

720
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:23,600
Speaker 3: was asleep.

721
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:24,440
Speaker 2: Yep.

722
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:26,839
Speaker 3: And then you wake up in the morning and there's

723
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 3: a big announcement and you go, what in the hell

724
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 3: just happened?

725
00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Meduro and his spouse, as you said, the

726
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 2: first lady are captured. They're spirited away, they're kidnapped, basically,

727
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 2: and the Venezuelan government portrays it that way, and I

728
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,360
Speaker 2: agree with them. They're kidnapped to the United States to

729
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:48,240
Speaker 2: face those drug charges, which I think are a little

730
00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:52,719
Speaker 2: trumped up. And the public learns we're moving on. The

731
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:56,319
Speaker 2: public learns the complexity of the operation. The next day,

732
00:48:56,480 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 2: and questions remain. You know, probably the most direct source

733
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:06,440
Speaker 2: on This is going to be the press conference that

734
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:10,520
Speaker 2: Joint Chiefs General Dan Kane delivered on the day after,

735
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:15,280
Speaker 2: on January third, and he talks about how Uncle Sam

736
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:19,560
Speaker 2: launched more than one hundred and fifty aircraft from twenty

737
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:24,799
Speaker 2: different bases across the Western Hemisphere, cooperating for months with

738
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:30,720
Speaker 2: intelligence agencies to do this intradiction and says integration doesn't

739
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 2: even begin to cover it. This was a group project,

740
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 2: but it was also a massive expense in terms of

741
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,720
Speaker 2: manpower and financial cost. You know, if you want to, folks,

742
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:46,000
Speaker 2: if you want to read a breakdown on the publicly

743
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 2: disclosed details online for free. I can't. I actually can't

744
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 2: believe I'm saying this. US Today did a great job

745
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,960
Speaker 2: on this one. Yeah. Check out mappy US attacks in

746
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:03,879
Speaker 2: Venezuela line of Nicholas Maduro's capture. They did, You guys

747
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:05,799
Speaker 2: did a great job. Fair is fair?

748
00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 3: No? Wow?

749
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:12,000
Speaker 2: You can see maps of the strike zones. You can see,

750
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:14,359
Speaker 2: I guess a lot of targeted ads. But you can

751
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:20,880
Speaker 2: also see a list of the US aircraft that were used,

752
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:23,400
Speaker 2: including the support helicopters.

753
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 3: They didn't they didn't put the stealth helicopters in there.

754
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, that would make them non stealthy, wouldn't it.

755
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:36,720
Speaker 3: For the UAP guys? Come on, they got.

756
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 2: The they got unmanned aircraft in there. They've got one.

757
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:45,000
Speaker 2: They've got one. But yeah, it's an umbrellatar. So there's

758
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:46,759
Speaker 2: still a lot of stuff they're not going to tell

759
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:50,279
Speaker 2: the public. I think they had to. I don't know

760
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:52,799
Speaker 2: if you worked on that operation, let us know and

761
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 2: stay safe out there, I mean, do what would we

762
00:50:56,080 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 2: do if a foreign powered kidnapped our president? Like, folks,

763
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,400
Speaker 2: if you are, no matter who you vote for, no

764
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,319
Speaker 2: matter where you live, even if you don't like your

765
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:10,040
Speaker 2: president or your ruler, even if you're let's say you're

766
00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:13,759
Speaker 2: British and you hate the monarchy because it's a ridiculous,

767
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 2: stupid idea. And by the way, you're correct and believing

768
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:19,960
Speaker 2: that even if you didn't like the monarchy and someone

769
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 2: kidnapped the King of England, wouldn't you be kind of offended,

770
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:27,839
Speaker 2: like a like a little bit right?

771
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:30,840
Speaker 3: What you can't do that?

772
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 2: That's our guy? Do you? Oh you love the president

773
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:35,479
Speaker 2: or the king and you're like.

774
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:39,520
Speaker 3: No, but no, are like how dare you?

775
00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:41,719
Speaker 2: It's our house? You know what?

776
00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:46,160
Speaker 3: I mean to slap you with the back of this glove.

777
00:51:46,719 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 2: I propose a duel god. That feels so United Nations.

778
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 2: I wonder if they ever did that at the Security Council,

779
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:58,360
Speaker 2: they probably gone down weird things. We should do a sketch,

780
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:00,839
Speaker 2: we should get back into our sketch comedy. I really

781
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:04,360
Speaker 2: enjoyed that. Let's do that. Yeah, I mean, okay, so

782
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:09,719
Speaker 2: it is an affrontier country. It's like, even if you

783
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 2: are the kind of person who has a bunch of

784
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:18,960
Speaker 2: different random beverages in your refrigerator and you hate one

785
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:22,719
Speaker 2: of them, right, Like, let's say you hate kombucha and

786
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:26,279
Speaker 2: someone breaks into your house and all they take is

787
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:29,799
Speaker 2: the kombucha. You'd still be pissed. It's not that you

788
00:52:29,840 --> 00:52:32,000
Speaker 2: love kembucha, so they broke into your house.

789
00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I was not going to drink that

790
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:36,120
Speaker 3: for a while.

791
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:41,400
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah. And so this is this is kind of

792
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 2: where we're at for a lot of people, for a

793
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:46,400
Speaker 2: lot of the public of Venezuela. If you go to

794
00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:51,240
Speaker 2: the United Nations, our favorite big to dos of international institutions,

795
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:54,720
Speaker 2: and you go to the legal beagles who study this stuff,

796
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 2: they all agree this kind of attack is only legal

797
00:52:59,360 --> 00:53:01,920
Speaker 2: if the US either had the green light from the

798
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:06,000
Speaker 2: United Nations Security Council, a bunch of dudes who famously

799
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:10,720
Speaker 2: don't get along, or if the US was provably acting

800
00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:14,160
Speaker 2: in self defense, and neither of those seems to be

801
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 2: the case. So here, Dylan, Matt, everybody, we've got to

802
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:22,879
Speaker 2: riddle ourselves. Why would the US gamble so much? Why

803
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 2: would they risk so much in the pursuit of again,

804
00:53:26,719 --> 00:53:31,959
Speaker 2: one guy, just like one guy? Why this one guy?

805
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:34,640
Speaker 3: I'm going to go out on a crazy limb here,

806
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:38,160
Speaker 3: let's do it. I'm gonna say, maybe it has something

807
00:53:38,239 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 3: to do not with Venezuela at all, maybe not even

808
00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:46,799
Speaker 3: to do with Chevron Orseshell, maybe it has something to

809
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 3: do with who Venezuela was selling oil to.

810
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:53,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's trip to that one. This is okay, So

811
00:53:53,680 --> 00:53:56,680
Speaker 2: all right, why spend so much time and the risk

812
00:53:56,719 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 2: of American deaths right to get this one? The answers

813
00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 2: from the administration shift at such a surprising rate. Originally

814
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 2: was touted as a winning move to stop the flow

815
00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:12,040
Speaker 2: of legal drugs, but the flow of oil resources quickly

816
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:17,960
Speaker 2: took center focus. So going to this, here's an internet,

817
00:54:18,040 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 2: here's a facet of the international argument, and then we'll

818
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:25,080
Speaker 2: jump back. So coupled with the attacks on Iran, the

819
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:31,080
Speaker 2: US has severely complicated China's energy supply chain. China is

820
00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:35,840
Speaker 2: the world's largest importer of fossil fuels. It's depended on

821
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:40,160
Speaker 2: resources from countries the US typically doesn't get friendo with

822
00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 2: countries like Iran, Russia, Venezuela. So you're gonna hear you

823
00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:49,840
Speaker 2: probably already have heard, folks, some people claiming this is

824
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:53,960
Speaker 2: a four D chess move to hamstring China's growth and economy.

825
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 2: While that is possible, I would say it's worth noting

826
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:00,799
Speaker 2: this may be a knock on effect and not the

827
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:06,760
Speaker 2: primary goal of the United States. I would go further

828
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 2: on this conspiratorial route that we're proposing and say there

829
00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:15,200
Speaker 2: is one nation that definitely profits from China becoming a

830
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 2: captive market, Russia. And that's especially interesting because the US

831
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:26,160
Speaker 2: has temporarily reversed sanctions on Russian oil purportedly due to

832
00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:31,399
Speaker 2: price spikes and during the conflict against Iran. Pretty much

833
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:35,279
Speaker 2: everybody except for Russia and the US believe easing these

834
00:55:35,320 --> 00:55:39,719
Speaker 2: sanctions will just bolster Russia's position in the ongoing war

835
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:42,800
Speaker 2: in Ukraine. They'll give them a fresh influx of cash,

836
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 2: profits armaments and know how. One of the biggest things, however,

837
00:55:47,520 --> 00:55:51,280
Speaker 2: that a lot of people are missing, is the idea

838
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:57,240
Speaker 2: of experience. In any military experience is one of those

839
00:55:57,280 --> 00:56:02,239
Speaker 2: things you can't buy. So dissipating in a conflict in

840
00:56:02,280 --> 00:56:05,440
Speaker 2: any way is going to give Chinese military minds a

841
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:09,880
Speaker 2: phenomenal opportunity to learn the greatest of arts. And while

842
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 2: these military minds are learning the greatest of arts, their

843
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:20,600
Speaker 2: economy will be fed by Russia. Russia's profiting from this

844
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 2: entire thing. So I think it's also I'll take one

845
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:26,040
Speaker 2: more leap on the willow branch here. I think it's

846
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 2: also quite possible, not quite possible. It's worth considering that

847
00:56:32,760 --> 00:56:37,160
Speaker 2: perhaps our current administration in the US was influenced by

848
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:40,879
Speaker 2: Russia in some of these decisions, because remember we when

849
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:43,920
Speaker 2: this all started to go down on January third, twenty

850
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:48,719
Speaker 2: twenty six. Even before then, we had privately agreed in

851
00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:52,959
Speaker 2: some of our offline conversations that Russia had to green

852
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:59,399
Speaker 2: light these incursions against Venezuela. There's just no other logical way.

853
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:04,239
Speaker 3: I don't remember that Russia would have to say, okay, US,

854
00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:04,880
Speaker 3: you can do it.

855
00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:07,480
Speaker 2: Russia would have to have some kind of tacit go

856
00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:11,640
Speaker 2: ahead is part of what I think it's. I think

857
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:15,279
Speaker 2: it's less like that being the most important part of

858
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:18,400
Speaker 2: their phone calls and chats, but I think it's more

859
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:21,680
Speaker 2: like something they mentioned as the meeting is wrapping up,

860
00:57:22,120 --> 00:57:25,840
Speaker 2: like oh, hey, we're gonna do those Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

861
00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:29,760
Speaker 3: That's you interesting. I just you know, it's so it's

862
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:32,760
Speaker 3: so puzzling to me, and maybe it is like you're

863
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:35,000
Speaker 3: almost talking about a five D move, like it it

864
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:38,440
Speaker 3: looks like forty chest, but there's actually another layer and

865
00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:43,520
Speaker 3: a whole other timeline occurring that this complicated situation. If

866
00:57:43,560 --> 00:57:45,360
Speaker 3: you look deep into it, you feel like you can

867
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:49,080
Speaker 3: see the true meaning behind the actions, but you're actually

868
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:52,880
Speaker 3: just seeing something to the left of what the true

869
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:56,200
Speaker 3: action is. That's very interesting to me. I do think

870
00:57:56,360 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 3: the China stuff, to me, feels just way more impactful initially.

871
00:58:04,680 --> 00:58:07,160
Speaker 3: And the reason why I feel like it's more about

872
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 3: that is because that wasn't talked about in the news

873
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:13,240
Speaker 3: during a lot of the run up to this about

874
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 3: how it's actually going to affect China. It was all

875
00:58:16,560 --> 00:58:20,280
Speaker 3: about how these actions affect Venezuela, what the oil companies want,

876
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:22,600
Speaker 3: all of the things that the Trump administration was talking

877
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:26,240
Speaker 3: about the privatization of Venezuela's state run oil, you know,

878
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:29,800
Speaker 3: making all these deals and then seeing the actions in Iran,

879
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:34,320
Speaker 3: which also trades a lot of oil. Venezuela I think

880
00:58:34,440 --> 00:58:37,160
Speaker 3: shipped half of the oil they were producing to China,

881
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:41,640
Speaker 3: and now Iran also shipped most of their oil to China.

882
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:45,360
Speaker 3: Those two moves in particular, then to have Cuba being

883
00:58:45,400 --> 00:58:49,600
Speaker 3: talked about as the next play, which is another oil

884
00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:54,760
Speaker 3: exporting country to China, as well as a strategic positioning.

885
00:58:55,080 --> 00:59:00,800
Speaker 3: You know, just from a geography perspective, it does feel

886
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:04,000
Speaker 3: like Cold war moves to me, if if the Cold

887
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:07,439
Speaker 3: War isn't between the US and China or I guess rather,

888
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:11,200
Speaker 3: what is Russia's role in your mind too, that kind

889
00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:14,080
Speaker 3: of Cold war situation the US and China have going

890
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:15,840
Speaker 3: on right now, folks.

891
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:18,280
Speaker 2: To me, Russia is increasingly becoming a vassal state to

892
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:24,200
Speaker 2: chat them Russian moads. Yeah, Russian needs to you know,

893
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:27,040
Speaker 2: in the old days, now I want to tick off

894
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,120
Speaker 2: any of our Russian friends in the crowd. But in

895
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:32,120
Speaker 2: the old days we used to say Russia is a

896
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:35,320
Speaker 2: developing country that happens to have nukes and a lot

897
00:59:35,360 --> 00:59:39,280
Speaker 2: of oil and maybe doesn't deserve a seat at the

898
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:44,000
Speaker 2: Security Council despite their you know, despite their instrumental role

899
00:59:44,240 --> 00:59:49,280
Speaker 2: in winning World War Two. However, now because Russia remains

900
00:59:49,320 --> 00:59:56,320
Speaker 2: an energy giant, if not a very functional military, because

901
00:59:56,400 --> 01:00:00,480
Speaker 2: they are reliant similar to some Gulf countries on fossil

902
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:05,680
Speaker 2: fuel exports, this is a big win for Russia. Russia

903
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:10,400
Speaker 2: doesn't want to be sidelined in the international order and

904
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:13,480
Speaker 2: feels that, especially since the fall of the Soviet Union,

905
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:17,240
Speaker 2: that is increasingly the case. Now. They've still got a

906
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:23,080
Speaker 2: pretty pretty good hold on the stands and they're definitely

907
01:00:23,240 --> 01:00:28,520
Speaker 2: frenemies with China. But China needs the energy and Russia

908
01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:32,840
Speaker 2: can get it to them. So that's part of the calculus.

909
01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:35,040
Speaker 2: And I do want to go back and point out

910
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:37,680
Speaker 2: something just so you can paint the picture before you

911
01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:44,440
Speaker 2: get to China. Hear, despite the initial calculus or window

912
01:00:44,520 --> 01:00:48,480
Speaker 2: dressing to the US public being something about the flow

913
01:00:48,520 --> 01:00:54,560
Speaker 2: of illegal drugs, the US president at the time went

914
01:00:54,640 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 2: back and contradicted himself to the statements of various US

915
01:00:58,560 --> 01:01:04,480
Speaker 2: agencies pretty quickly. It has been indeed transparent about wanting

916
01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:09,880
Speaker 2: Venezuela's vast oil resources for a long time. We mentioned

917
01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:12,640
Speaker 2: they have the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

918
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:16,360
Speaker 2: That's going to be about three hundred billion barrels as

919
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:21,080
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five. But again, not all oil is

920
01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:25,160
Speaker 2: the same. Venezuela does have bubbling crude, but it's called

921
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 2: heavy crude or sour crude, and that means you can't

922
01:01:30,600 --> 01:01:35,120
Speaker 2: use the generic, most easy refinement processes for it. You

923
01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:40,800
Speaker 2: have to specialized infrastructure. So getting the oil is fine,

924
01:01:40,880 --> 01:01:44,280
Speaker 2: that's great, good job, good hustle everybody. But getting that

925
01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:52,480
Speaker 2: resource to a consumable place requires expensive infrastructure, refineries, transit expertise.

926
01:01:52,880 --> 01:01:55,400
Speaker 2: That's where we get the boffins at Big Oil. Here's

927
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:58,600
Speaker 2: another conspiracy for you, folks. We want to introduce you

928
01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:04,120
Speaker 2: to a former Chevy executive, Ali Boschiri. He once headed

929
01:02:04,200 --> 01:02:08,400
Speaker 2: up Chevron's oil production in Venezuela. And it turns out

930
01:02:08,680 --> 01:02:12,240
Speaker 2: we know now that he worked with the CIA to

931
01:02:12,320 --> 01:02:16,520
Speaker 2: figure out how to overthrow Baduro and what happens after

932
01:02:16,600 --> 01:02:21,080
Speaker 2: Maduro gets overthrown. He secretly advised the United States to

933
01:02:21,120 --> 01:02:26,480
Speaker 2: push for Delce Rodriguez as Venezuelan's interim president. Now that's

934
01:02:26,520 --> 01:02:29,160
Speaker 2: what Matt and I mean when I say this acting

935
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:35,440
Speaker 2: president situation is a little complicated. Yeah, it's a little little.

936
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:42,880
Speaker 3: It is, And especially seeing that move occur simultaneously in

937
01:02:42,920 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 3: the moment where you're seeing footage of the American President

938
01:02:46,880 --> 01:02:51,800
Speaker 3: on a plane just casually remarking about how, oh no,

939
01:02:51,880 --> 01:02:55,040
Speaker 3: this is about oil. The American oil companies are going

940
01:02:55,080 --> 01:02:58,560
Speaker 3: to be They're so happy. And then you see meetings

941
01:02:58,880 --> 01:03:02,560
Speaker 3: like publicly shown meetings in the White House, where where

942
01:03:02,600 --> 01:03:05,600
Speaker 3: does Chevron Shell and all the big players VP, They're

943
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:09,400
Speaker 3: all hanging out together. They appear to be divvying up

944
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:14,040
Speaker 3: Venezuela's oil infrastructure very much so the bear of the

945
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 3: perils that we just mentioned.

946
01:03:16,280 --> 01:03:19,919
Speaker 2: Very much So, yes, yes, very much so. After the

947
01:03:20,120 --> 01:03:27,400
Speaker 2: success of the coup, our current president Donald Trump told reporters, quote,

948
01:03:27,600 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 2: I'm not going to do the voice where everybody you

949
01:03:31,040 --> 01:03:32,920
Speaker 2: can picture the voice. I'm not going to do it.

950
01:03:33,320 --> 01:03:36,000
Speaker 2: So hold on, We're going to be taking out a

951
01:03:36,040 --> 01:03:39,440
Speaker 2: tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground. Uh. And

952
01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:42,600
Speaker 2: then he goes on and say the money generated from

953
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 2: the oil business will go to one the people of Venezuela,

954
01:03:46,360 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 2: two American oil companies, and then three is the rest

955
01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:54,080
Speaker 2: of the quote. Quote to the United States of America

956
01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:57,400
Speaker 2: in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us

957
01:03:57,480 --> 01:04:00,760
Speaker 2: by that country end quote. So they're going to charge

958
01:04:00,800 --> 01:04:04,720
Speaker 2: them for the coup, They're going to charge them for nationalization,

959
01:04:05,560 --> 01:04:07,320
Speaker 2: and then they're gonna have a bunch of I don't know,

960
01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:09,640
Speaker 2: I don't know. Are they bowsy enough to do a

961
01:04:09,680 --> 01:04:11,720
Speaker 2: convenience fee like ticketmaster?

962
01:04:12,920 --> 01:04:14,880
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah per gallon.

963
01:04:15,560 --> 01:04:19,520
Speaker 2: Here's our convenience fee, here's a here's our broker fee, right,

964
01:04:19,760 --> 01:04:25,160
Speaker 2: just like the current administration got from the TikTok deal.

965
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:28,160
Speaker 2: Remember that. Do you see all the billions they got

966
01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:31,480
Speaker 2: from that one. We're in the wrong business man.

967
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:36,600
Speaker 3: We need here, we are, we need to get into oil.

968
01:04:36,920 --> 01:04:41,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, oil AI top blight countries. I don't know, Yeah,

969
01:04:41,880 --> 01:04:45,680
Speaker 2: we know that. Nationalization. As we mentioned, it's bedeviled Venezuela

970
01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:48,479
Speaker 2: and US relations since the dawn of the modern age.

971
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:52,520
Speaker 2: It's very familiar story. Aaran is another great example of that,

972
01:04:52,600 --> 01:04:58,240
Speaker 2: iron with the British. Before Venezuela nationalized their oil industry

973
01:04:58,360 --> 01:05:04,080
Speaker 2: back in nineteen seventy six, American companies Exxon, Mobile, Golf Oil,

974
01:05:04,480 --> 01:05:09,480
Speaker 2: they were huge players there, but then the country denationalized

975
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 2: or reopened its industry in the nineteen nineties, but then

976
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:16,880
Speaker 2: Hugo Chavez came in and nationalized it again in two

977
01:05:16,960 --> 01:05:21,680
Speaker 2: thousand and seven. So all your favorite big oil companies

978
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:25,400
Speaker 2: in the US and specific are claiming they are owed

979
01:05:25,560 --> 01:05:29,600
Speaker 2: billions of dollars in compensation because all the stuff they built,

980
01:05:29,920 --> 01:05:32,400
Speaker 2: in their opinion, got stolen from them.

981
01:05:33,040 --> 01:05:35,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the country wanted to be in charge of

982
01:05:35,960 --> 01:05:39,040
Speaker 3: its own stuff. What a crime?

983
01:05:39,560 --> 01:05:42,560
Speaker 2: What a crime? Well there, yeah, yeah, and from there

984
01:05:42,680 --> 01:05:45,480
Speaker 2: you can see where we fall on this one, folks,

985
01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:49,600
Speaker 2: I think. But from their perspective, they built a bunch

986
01:05:49,640 --> 01:05:52,880
Speaker 2: of refineries, they built a bunch of extraction facilities, what

987
01:05:53,040 --> 01:05:56,280
Speaker 2: have you, and then they lost all of that because

988
01:05:56,360 --> 01:06:00,880
Speaker 2: the government said nope. Hours it makes me think it's

989
01:06:00,920 --> 01:06:04,560
Speaker 2: not really about drugs. I'm to say it really really

990
01:06:04,560 --> 01:06:07,040
Speaker 2: about drugs. I don't think it's really I think it's

991
01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:10,520
Speaker 2: about the main drug, oil, but not the I don't

992
01:06:10,520 --> 01:06:16,440
Speaker 2: think it's about the marching powder or the the fentony.

993
01:06:15,880 --> 01:06:19,400
Speaker 3: There's there's only one bigger drug than oil. Ben It's

994
01:06:19,440 --> 01:06:23,600
Speaker 3: the one that have all the bends on them, and

995
01:06:23,600 --> 01:06:27,480
Speaker 3: and Abraham's and press.

996
01:06:27,400 --> 01:06:30,840
Speaker 2: Yes and we gotta We got a great letter recently

997
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:36,120
Speaker 2: about our standing challenge, differentiate economy from money. I've got

998
01:06:36,160 --> 01:06:38,040
Speaker 2: to respond to that one. Did you see that one?

999
01:06:38,120 --> 01:06:38,800
Speaker 2: It's pretty good.

1000
01:06:39,800 --> 01:06:41,760
Speaker 3: Oh, we got so many great ones lately.

1001
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:45,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did. Uh, but we didn't get anything about

1002
01:06:45,560 --> 01:06:49,360
Speaker 2: the discombobulator, which is one of our main questions. We

1003
01:06:49,440 --> 01:06:53,360
Speaker 2: can't let the episode end without getting to this ido.

1004
01:06:53,640 --> 01:06:57,800
Speaker 2: We were both so excited, what a weird word to

1005
01:06:57,880 --> 01:07:00,800
Speaker 2: use for this, but so excited with the president said

1006
01:07:01,320 --> 01:07:05,800
Speaker 2: we disabled Venezuelan equipment with a discombobulator.

1007
01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:08,000
Speaker 3: Oh you know, it's a discombobulator.

1008
01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:11,040
Speaker 2: Discabuppu like you have a home.

1009
01:07:11,680 --> 01:07:15,560
Speaker 3: But perhaps you like us. When that phrase came around

1010
01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:19,520
Speaker 3: and then what the effects of the discombobulator were, all

1011
01:07:19,560 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 3: of our ears perked up because it sounded an awful

1012
01:07:22,800 --> 01:07:25,720
Speaker 3: lot like a directed energy weapon that, oh, I don't know,

1013
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:30,000
Speaker 3: maybe uses microwaves to disable people and electronics.

1014
01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:35,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, going back to our our opening there about Havana syndrome,

1015
01:07:36,200 --> 01:07:40,880
Speaker 2: we instantly clocked this and I think this, this story

1016
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:47,080
Speaker 2: about the discombobulator occurred before the sixty minutes publication of

1017
01:07:47,520 --> 01:07:55,840
Speaker 2: their expos on Havana syndrome weapons. We're not clear whether

1018
01:07:56,360 --> 01:08:04,120
Speaker 2: the current US president meant to talk about emp's electromagnetic

1019
01:08:04,160 --> 01:08:09,000
Speaker 2: pulse devices or whether he meant something like a directed

1020
01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:12,120
Speaker 2: energy weapon or whether he meant something else. But he

1021
01:08:12,240 --> 01:08:15,000
Speaker 2: did say in an interview with The New York Post,

1022
01:08:15,120 --> 01:08:18,519
Speaker 2: quote they never they being Venezuela. They never got their

1023
01:08:18,600 --> 01:08:22,200
Speaker 2: rockets off. They had Chinese and Russian rockets, and they

1024
01:08:22,240 --> 01:08:24,920
Speaker 2: never got one off. We came in, they pressed buttons

1025
01:08:24,920 --> 01:08:28,080
Speaker 2: and nothing worked. They were all set for us. I

1026
01:08:28,200 --> 01:08:31,120
Speaker 2: also end quote. I also liked the idea of saying

1027
01:08:31,360 --> 01:08:32,439
Speaker 2: got your rockets off?

1028
01:08:33,160 --> 01:08:35,400
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, we really appreciate that phrasing.

1029
01:08:35,640 --> 01:08:37,920
Speaker 2: Nice very much, so nice one. Looking forward to your

1030
01:08:38,080 --> 01:08:38,920
Speaker 2: Netflix special.

1031
01:08:41,560 --> 01:08:46,439
Speaker 3: My question is, if the discombobulator, as it were, was

1032
01:08:46,479 --> 01:08:50,839
Speaker 3: so effective in this operation, is it being used in Iran?

1033
01:08:51,080 --> 01:08:53,320
Speaker 3: And if so, is it just ineffective in a lot

1034
01:08:53,360 --> 01:08:55,280
Speaker 3: of the ways it's being used or is there just

1035
01:08:55,400 --> 01:09:00,439
Speaker 3: not a specific targeted invasion force that's occurred yet with

1036
01:09:01,120 --> 01:09:04,479
Speaker 3: stealth helicopters and things like that, where maybe you would

1037
01:09:04,479 --> 01:09:05,920
Speaker 3: deploy a discombobulator.

1038
01:09:06,479 --> 01:09:09,679
Speaker 2: Right. That's a great question, is one I share as well,

1039
01:09:09,760 --> 01:09:16,200
Speaker 2: because if something can be used to such tremendous advantage,

1040
01:09:16,240 --> 01:09:18,960
Speaker 2: then why is it not being deployed elsewhere? And there

1041
01:09:18,960 --> 01:09:23,000
Speaker 2: are a couple of gaming out, you know, follow up

1042
01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:26,240
Speaker 2: questions we could have in that, But right now, from

1043
01:09:26,240 --> 01:09:30,559
Speaker 2: what we can tell is whatever the current president of

1044
01:09:30,640 --> 01:09:34,840
Speaker 2: the US goals a discombobulator has not been fully explained

1045
01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:37,680
Speaker 2: to the rest of the world.

1046
01:09:38,080 --> 01:09:45,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, there were reports of soldiers on the ground,

1047
01:09:45,680 --> 01:09:50,000
Speaker 3: both Cuban and Venezuelan who well, at least again we

1048
01:09:50,320 --> 01:09:53,080
Speaker 3: get these reports, and it's very difficult to verify if

1049
01:09:53,120 --> 01:09:56,320
Speaker 3: these quotations are truly coming from somebody who was hit

1050
01:09:56,400 --> 01:09:59,599
Speaker 3: by a US weapon during the attack, but they were

1051
01:09:59,720 --> 01:10:05,000
Speaker 3: report Howard things symptoms that sounded very familiar to Havana syndrome,

1052
01:10:05,040 --> 01:10:06,720
Speaker 3: which is that whole thing. It just makes us very

1053
01:10:06,720 --> 01:10:09,479
Speaker 3: intrigued surely know if that's what it was.

1054
01:10:10,320 --> 01:10:13,360
Speaker 2: And what we mean by that, folks, is we have

1055
01:10:13,400 --> 01:10:18,679
Speaker 2: seen allegations we have not seen. We have not seen

1056
01:10:19,520 --> 01:10:24,439
Speaker 2: video statements or medical diagnoses by people that we could

1057
01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:29,000
Speaker 2: prove were either there on the scene or by people

1058
01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:33,400
Speaker 2: that we could prove our doctors who assessed the victims afterwards.

1059
01:10:34,160 --> 01:10:38,519
Speaker 2: So we don't have that smoking gun discombobulation yet. But

1060
01:10:38,600 --> 01:10:42,880
Speaker 2: we also know that when asked about this during this

1061
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:46,120
Speaker 2: conversation with New York posts. The current President of the

1062
01:10:46,280 --> 01:10:49,080
Speaker 2: United States said I'm not allowed to talk about it

1063
01:10:49,240 --> 01:10:52,679
Speaker 2: multiple times, and then kept talking about it multiple times.

1064
01:10:53,439 --> 01:10:57,720
Speaker 2: He also made references to something we were talking about

1065
01:10:57,760 --> 01:11:02,800
Speaker 2: a little bit earlier, ongoing US addiction and destruction of seacraft.

1066
01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:07,720
Speaker 2: These reportedly occur for two reasons, one quote, detecting destroying

1067
01:11:07,880 --> 01:11:11,000
Speaker 2: drug vessels. So we also know that the United States

1068
01:11:11,000 --> 01:11:16,800
Speaker 2: has conducted over forty strikes against quote alleged drug trafficking

1069
01:11:16,840 --> 01:11:21,960
Speaker 2: boats throughout the Caribbean since September of twenty twenty five.

1070
01:11:22,080 --> 01:11:26,080
Speaker 2: And these are manned vessels. So more than one hundred

1071
01:11:26,120 --> 01:11:28,800
Speaker 2: and forty human beings have died as a result of

1072
01:11:28,840 --> 01:11:30,080
Speaker 2: these attacks too.

1073
01:11:31,200 --> 01:11:33,600
Speaker 3: And when there Because we know it's mostly in the

1074
01:11:33,600 --> 01:11:36,040
Speaker 3: Caribbean area where these strikes have occurred, but they're also

1075
01:11:36,080 --> 01:11:39,880
Speaker 3: occurring on the Pacific side, and it's always mentioned as

1076
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:44,040
Speaker 3: the Eastern Pacific, which I'm assuming is just somewhere near

1077
01:11:44,080 --> 01:11:47,040
Speaker 3: the coast of California or Mexico, or maybe even down

1078
01:11:47,680 --> 01:11:50,960
Speaker 3: towards Guatemala, Nicaragua. In all those spaces, I don't know

1079
01:11:51,000 --> 01:11:54,880
Speaker 3: the exact locations where those strikes are occurring. It just

1080
01:11:54,920 --> 01:11:57,120
Speaker 3: wouldn't make much sense for those smaller boats to be

1081
01:11:57,160 --> 01:12:01,639
Speaker 3: any further out to the west. You know, if you're

1082
01:12:01,640 --> 01:12:04,200
Speaker 3: looking at the huge Pacific Ocean and then the coastline

1083
01:12:04,240 --> 01:12:05,519
Speaker 3: of the US.

1084
01:12:05,360 --> 01:12:07,479
Speaker 2: And looking at the size of those boats too.

1085
01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:08,559
Speaker 3: Man, exactly.

1086
01:12:09,280 --> 01:12:12,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, we also knew for anybody who checked out our

1087
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:15,640
Speaker 2: earlier episode on Shadow Fleets, if you haven't check it

1088
01:12:15,640 --> 01:12:17,680
Speaker 2: out now, I don't say this all the time. That

1089
01:12:17,760 --> 01:12:22,920
Speaker 2: was a really good one, and I'm surprised how I'm

1090
01:12:22,920 --> 01:12:26,040
Speaker 2: not happy with how prescient that was. But we know

1091
01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:29,880
Speaker 2: that the United States has been seizing oil tankers linked

1092
01:12:29,960 --> 01:12:35,000
Speaker 2: to Venezuelan oil exports since December of last year, maybe

1093
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:39,680
Speaker 2: a little bit before that. Man. Yeah, again, curtailing supplies

1094
01:12:39,760 --> 01:12:43,559
Speaker 2: to other things. And it's interesting the China aspect and

1095
01:12:43,640 --> 01:12:46,599
Speaker 2: needs to I agree, it needs to be reported more often.

1096
01:12:47,720 --> 01:12:50,760
Speaker 2: Remains to be seen. What's happening. Oh oh, we do

1097
01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:53,920
Speaker 2: have because one to end on good news, right, we

1098
01:12:54,080 --> 01:12:57,040
Speaker 2: do have some things that this reminded us of. So

1099
01:12:57,200 --> 01:13:02,000
Speaker 2: before we get to the good news, you'll see. Before

1100
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:04,680
Speaker 2: we get to the good news, folks, Matt, you were

1101
01:13:04,720 --> 01:13:07,080
Speaker 2: telling me off air, this reminds you a little bit

1102
01:13:07,160 --> 01:13:09,479
Speaker 2: of a in some way about a video game you

1103
01:13:09,560 --> 01:13:11,440
Speaker 2: played back in earlier evenings.

1104
01:13:11,960 --> 01:13:16,160
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, okay, so this is I do not remember

1105
01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:20,600
Speaker 3: the film, a film called License to Kill. It was

1106
01:13:20,640 --> 01:13:25,000
Speaker 3: about this guy named James Bond and there's a drug

1107
01:13:25,040 --> 01:13:28,880
Speaker 3: lord that puts a hit out on the soon to

1108
01:13:28,920 --> 01:13:33,000
Speaker 3: be bride of a CIA agent who happens to be

1109
01:13:33,120 --> 01:13:37,640
Speaker 3: James Bond's best friend. And it's this convoluted bit of

1110
01:13:37,680 --> 01:13:39,840
Speaker 3: a story there. But the bride ends up getting killed.

1111
01:13:40,360 --> 01:13:44,559
Speaker 3: So then the I six meter James Bond goes on

1112
01:13:44,640 --> 01:13:49,800
Speaker 3: a full on revenge film journey against a drug lord

1113
01:13:50,000 --> 01:13:54,240
Speaker 3: and an entire cartel. I don't remember the movie. I

1114
01:13:54,280 --> 01:13:56,559
Speaker 3: remember the video game, which is one of those old

1115
01:13:56,600 --> 01:14:00,640
Speaker 3: floppy discs, and you played it on MS DOSS. What

1116
01:14:00,720 --> 01:14:05,240
Speaker 3: I realized, I have visceral memories as a young boy

1117
01:14:05,360 --> 01:14:10,759
Speaker 3: playing this game Licensed to Kill, where you are shooting

1118
01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:16,320
Speaker 3: at Narco terrorists as James Bond with you know, with

1119
01:14:16,360 --> 01:14:19,799
Speaker 3: a side arm. You're in a helicopter shooting and killing

1120
01:14:20,479 --> 01:14:24,840
Speaker 3: drug traffickers. Then you're swimming with some scuba gear and

1121
01:14:25,000 --> 01:14:28,680
Speaker 3: shooting and killing people in boats and collecting all the

1122
01:14:28,760 --> 01:14:34,040
Speaker 3: kilos of cocaine. I just realized that I have view

1123
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:39,719
Speaker 3: I have seen drug trafficking and drug traffickers and drugs

1124
01:14:39,760 --> 01:14:42,960
Speaker 3: and all of that stuff as the bad guys since

1125
01:14:43,040 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 3: I was a very young child in elementary school, like

1126
01:14:47,560 --> 01:14:50,200
Speaker 3: fifth grade is when I was playing that game, and

1127
01:14:50,240 --> 01:14:52,639
Speaker 3: I just was just thinking about how much that has

1128
01:14:52,680 --> 01:14:58,679
Speaker 3: been ingrained into my psyche, as specifically cocaine and drugs,

1129
01:14:59,160 --> 01:15:01,880
Speaker 3: as being the bad guy. And it's okay to just

1130
01:15:02,320 --> 01:15:07,479
Speaker 3: kill those those bad drug traffickers, especially if you're an six.

1131
01:15:07,320 --> 01:15:10,639
Speaker 2: Agent, especially if you're a very bad I six agent.

1132
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:14,519
Speaker 2: For the record, the kind to day drink since has

1133
01:15:14,560 --> 01:15:18,439
Speaker 2: your full name in public. Oh so, I think a

1134
01:15:18,439 --> 01:15:21,439
Speaker 2: lot of us share that experience. It's not a unique thing.

1135
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:24,160
Speaker 2: The propaganda is real. Shout out to everybody who still

1136
01:15:24,200 --> 01:15:26,439
Speaker 2: has their old g I Joe's, you know what I mean.

1137
01:15:27,080 --> 01:15:29,680
Speaker 2: Shout out to anybody who's plate Hall of duty. You

1138
01:15:29,720 --> 01:15:33,720
Speaker 2: can kind of see the way the tides of narrative

1139
01:15:33,840 --> 01:15:38,320
Speaker 2: shift depending upon who gets used as the bad guys

1140
01:15:38,520 --> 01:15:42,400
Speaker 2: or the terrorist. You know. I also want to put

1141
01:15:42,439 --> 01:15:45,599
Speaker 2: something out there, Matt, that you just reminded me of. Folks,

1142
01:15:45,600 --> 01:15:49,400
Speaker 2: if you're familiar with the game GoldenEye, do you enjoy

1143
01:15:49,479 --> 01:15:53,960
Speaker 2: playing GoldenEye? They called me Ben, Come find me. I'll

1144
01:15:54,000 --> 01:15:55,880
Speaker 2: eat you all right.

1145
01:15:56,040 --> 01:15:58,799
Speaker 3: What wait, I'm really gone.

1146
01:15:59,040 --> 01:16:00,559
Speaker 2: I'm really good at gold and eye.

1147
01:16:00,880 --> 01:16:03,200
Speaker 3: Oh my god, did you figure out how to do

1148
01:16:03,240 --> 01:16:05,120
Speaker 3: it with the N sixty four controller?

1149
01:16:06,240 --> 01:16:09,559
Speaker 2: All right, these this briefing is not for questions.

1150
01:16:09,640 --> 01:16:11,240
Speaker 3: Now, It's possible.

1151
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:15,360
Speaker 2: You got to spend a lot of time, I think.

1152
01:16:15,400 --> 01:16:22,040
Speaker 2: But yeah, we're obviously we're fans of games that are fun,

1153
01:16:22,240 --> 01:16:25,240
Speaker 2: We're fans of games that don't kill people. But this

1154
01:16:25,800 --> 01:16:28,679
Speaker 2: is an episode of the great game, right, the greatest

1155
01:16:29,000 --> 01:16:32,040
Speaker 2: of games and one of the most dangerous ones. And

1156
01:16:32,280 --> 01:16:36,800
Speaker 2: our quote unquote positive news here is that Chevron and

1157
01:16:36,920 --> 01:16:39,479
Speaker 2: the rest of big oil may be coming back to

1158
01:16:39,600 --> 01:16:42,840
Speaker 2: Venezuela in a big way. I'm sure we all saw this.

1159
01:16:42,960 --> 01:16:46,200
Speaker 2: But just last week on March tenth, again, we're recording.

1160
01:16:46,240 --> 01:16:51,400
Speaker 2: On March sixteenth, Reuters has verified Chevron and Shell are

1161
01:16:51,520 --> 01:16:54,960
Speaker 2: closing in on some oil production deals that allow them

1162
01:16:55,080 --> 01:16:58,439
Speaker 2: to participate in what the current US president calls a

1163
01:16:58,560 --> 01:17:04,400
Speaker 2: one hundred billion dollar effort to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry

1164
01:17:04,520 --> 01:17:09,559
Speaker 2: after decades of mismanagement and under investment. Will the actual

1165
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:14,479
Speaker 2: people of Venezuela receive any benefit from this? That remains

1166
01:17:14,520 --> 01:17:15,120
Speaker 2: to be seen?

1167
01:17:16,680 --> 01:17:19,559
Speaker 3: No answer, I'm joking.

1168
01:17:19,680 --> 01:17:20,680
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with no.

1169
01:17:21,360 --> 01:17:24,120
Speaker 3: Maybe it'll be great for everybody. Oh and they also

1170
01:17:24,280 --> 01:17:27,679
Speaker 3: I love that idea of like rebuilding Venezuela's oil industry

1171
01:17:27,760 --> 01:17:32,320
Speaker 3: after decades of mismanagement, under investment and bombs.

1172
01:17:33,000 --> 01:17:38,719
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And also under investment is such a little

1173
01:17:38,760 --> 01:17:45,439
Speaker 2: Weasley parkourish word, you know, Oh, under investment. Okay, okay, buddy,

1174
01:17:45,640 --> 01:17:48,080
Speaker 2: cool story bro. You know, it's important for us to

1175
01:17:48,160 --> 01:17:51,599
Speaker 2: end on this. Our thoughts are with the people, the

1176
01:17:51,640 --> 01:17:55,040
Speaker 2: public of Venezuela, the people the public of a Rod

1177
01:17:55,120 --> 01:17:58,240
Speaker 2: and the people the public of U grat of Russia

1178
01:17:58,320 --> 01:18:01,360
Speaker 2: as well. You know. It's it's not the public that's

1179
01:18:01,439 --> 01:18:04,559
Speaker 2: usually waging these wars, and our thoughts are with you.

1180
01:18:04,680 --> 01:18:06,360
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, it's important for us to say

1181
01:18:07,560 --> 01:18:11,160
Speaker 2: Madodo not a good guy. The Ayatola, the former Iyatola

1182
01:18:11,520 --> 01:18:13,839
Speaker 2: not that great a guy. They're not peaches as people,

1183
01:18:14,080 --> 01:18:17,680
Speaker 2: if we could say, but these strikes do fly in

1184
01:18:17,720 --> 01:18:22,559
Speaker 2: the face of established international laws. What's motivation? What's the endgame?

1185
01:18:23,360 --> 01:18:27,840
Speaker 2: Is it oil? Is it new Cold war? Geopolitical control

1186
01:18:27,920 --> 01:18:30,360
Speaker 2: of resources? What's the endgame? Yeah?

1187
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:33,719
Speaker 3: What if it's Jesus sure?

1188
01:18:34,320 --> 01:18:37,599
Speaker 2: What if it's a case of das you know, it's

1189
01:18:37,640 --> 01:18:40,920
Speaker 2: anybody's guests that for now seems to be the stuff

1190
01:18:41,000 --> 01:18:43,080
Speaker 2: they don't want you to know. Thank you so much

1191
01:18:43,160 --> 01:18:46,320
Speaker 2: for joining us this evening. Folks, we'd love to hear

1192
01:18:46,400 --> 01:18:49,040
Speaker 2: your thoughts. Our thoughts are again with you. You're the

1193
01:18:49,080 --> 01:18:51,439
Speaker 2: best part of the show. So hit us up on

1194
01:18:51,479 --> 01:18:54,200
Speaker 2: the internet. You can find us anywhere with the handle

1195
01:18:54,320 --> 01:18:58,080
Speaker 2: Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff Show. You can also give

1196
01:18:58,160 --> 01:18:59,960
Speaker 2: us a call and you can find us on email.

1197
01:19:00,280 --> 01:19:02,560
Speaker 3: We have a phone number. It is one eight to

1198
01:19:02,680 --> 01:19:07,639
Speaker 3: three three st d WYTK. Give it a call. Tell

1199
01:19:07,760 --> 01:19:11,200
Speaker 3: us what happens next with all this stuff? What do

1200
01:19:11,240 --> 01:19:13,840
Speaker 3: you think? What do you see in the future. We

1201
01:19:13,880 --> 01:19:15,640
Speaker 3: don't think you can actually tell you know, see the

1202
01:19:15,640 --> 01:19:17,800
Speaker 3: future and all that stuff, but we're very interested to

1203
01:19:17,880 --> 01:19:20,599
Speaker 3: know what you think. Yeah, give yourself a cool nickname.

1204
01:19:20,760 --> 01:19:23,240
Speaker 3: Leave a three minute message and we will see you

1205
01:19:23,320 --> 01:19:26,320
Speaker 3: in the listener mail segments on our audio feed. If

1206
01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:28,120
Speaker 3: you want to send us an email. We are the.

1207
01:19:28,120 --> 01:19:31,200
Speaker 2: Entity's that read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be

1208
01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:34,880
Speaker 2: well aware, yet o't afraid. Sometimes the void writes back

1209
01:19:34,920 --> 01:19:37,400
Speaker 2: and is writing back to some people later this evening

1210
01:19:37,439 --> 01:19:40,880
Speaker 2: New fact give us a random fact we got some

1211
01:19:40,920 --> 01:19:44,160
Speaker 2: great bird facts recently. I'm very excited to respond to those,

1212
01:19:44,200 --> 01:19:47,120
Speaker 2: and we'll give you a random fact in return. So

1213
01:19:47,800 --> 01:19:51,240
Speaker 2: whitprobe who trade some stuff with us out here in

1214
01:19:51,280 --> 01:20:12,240
Speaker 2: the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

1215
01:20:12,400 --> 01:20:14,439
Speaker 3: Stuff they don't want you to know. Is a production

1216
01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:19,080
Speaker 3: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1217
01:20:19,160 --> 01:20:22,040
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