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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to Breaking Points with Crystal

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Speaker 1: and Sager. We're going to be totally upfront with you.

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Speaker 1: the show notes. Enjoy the show, guys, Good morning, everybody,

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Speaker 1: Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

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Speaker 1: What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do lots of

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Speaker 1: course of breaking news to get to this morning. We'll

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Speaker 1: have all the very latest for you on our sanctions

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Speaker 1: and on oil prices, and on China's response and new

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Speaker 1: public polling and some potentially worrying trends. There also the

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Speaker 1: insane censorship crackdown both here and also in Russia, and

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Speaker 1: Trump's latest very unhelpful comments on the whole situation. We

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Speaker 1: also have a government transparency expert coming on to talk

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Speaker 1: about potential corruption of pharmaceuticals at the FDA. So we'll

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Speaker 1: dig into one non Ukraine story here as well, But

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Speaker 1: we have to start, of course with the war in

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Speaker 1: Ukraine and the very latest that we can glean which

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Speaker 1: is happening on the ground. Let's go ahead and put

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Speaker 1: this first tweet up on the screen. More escalating rhetoric

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Speaker 1: here from Putin. He says that Ukraine could lose its statehood.

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Speaker 1: The whole tweets. Russia's dictator Vladimir Putin said that if

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Speaker 1: Ukraine quote continues to behave in the same way, that

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Speaker 1: will bring into question the future of its statehood. That

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Speaker 1: during a meeting broadcast on TV, there were some additional

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Speaker 1: eyebrow raising comments that we'll get to later as well

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Speaker 1: from Putin about who he considers to be convinced that

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Speaker 1: our sanctions are he considers to be an act of war.

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Speaker 1: So a lot of escalating rhetoric there. One of the

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Speaker 1: worrying situations that we were tracking over the weekend is

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Speaker 1: that there was fighting very close to a large nuclear plant.

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Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this tear sheet up on

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Speaker 1: the screen. Thankfully things did not go completely sideways here.

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Speaker 1: There was no nuclear meltdown. But the basic idea is

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Speaker 1: that Russia is trying to take control of these power plants,

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Speaker 1: especially the nuclear power plants, because this is how much

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Speaker 1: of Ukraine gets their energy, so that they can have

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Speaker 1: control over the electric grid. There were five nearby that

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Speaker 1: had people extremely concerned. Turns out, the fires and the

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Speaker 1: shelling was of a building on the site, but not

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Speaker 1: actually the nuclear reactor. Now you have this very strange

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Speaker 1: situation where the power plant is actually still being run

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Speaker 1: by Ukrainians, but the Russians are in charge. This is

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Speaker 1: similar to the dynamic that we saw already at Chernobyl. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I want to be clear here, this is

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Speaker 1: an outrageous act. I mean beyond also just the civilian targets.

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Speaker 1: Russia is supposed to be a responsible nuclear power attacking

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Speaker 1: a nuclear power plant is an explicit violation of the IAEA,

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Speaker 1: of which Russia loves to talk about, especially whenever it

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Speaker 1: comes to the Irani nuclear deal, something which we would

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Speaker 1: love to see in terms of compliance. And this is

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Speaker 1: the issue, which is that by attacking this plant, they

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Speaker 1: were trying to take out twenty five percent of the

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Speaker 1: power that the entire country gets from this power plant,

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Speaker 1: and they are risking a serious escalation here in terms

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Speaker 1: of what that means. Already, the IAEA inspectors and others

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Speaker 1: had said that the Russians have not allowed them in

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Speaker 1: order to have any communication or having any inspection of

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Speaker 1: the plant, and this is outrageously dangerous. Now, look, I

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Speaker 1: just did a whole monologue on how nuclear power is safe,

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Speaker 1: effective and all that, and all of that remains true,

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Speaker 1: but attacking a nuclear reactor with shelling and weapons seems bad.

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Speaker 1: I I'll go ahead and just say that for the record,

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Speaker 1: it's just sposed to show you the tactics that they're

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Speaker 1: willing to use, that's right, and how dangerous this really was,

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Speaker 1: because even if you know the intent was just to

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Speaker 1: take control of the plant, and we're just going to show,

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Speaker 1: like to the side of the nuclear reactor, this other

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Speaker 1: building that's on the on the site. Obviously you're creating

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Speaker 1: an extraordinarily dangerous situation, and not just for the Ukrainian population,

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Speaker 1: for the Rush student population as well, and for the

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Speaker 1: entire region. So that was something that people were watching

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Speaker 1: with a lot of obvious concern. And it was crazy

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Speaker 1: too because there was actually a live stream. Did you

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Speaker 1: see this of some of the fighting while it was

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Speaker 1: going on, and you had tens of thousands of people

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Speaker 1: watching some of the fighting unfold in real time. Big picture,

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Speaker 1: let's go ahead and put the battle map that we

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Speaker 1: have up on the screen from Simtak. This is the

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Speaker 1: same map we've been showing you over days. There really

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Speaker 1: hasn't been a whole lot of movement in terms of

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Speaker 1: Russian advances. In fact, you know, they've been trying to

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Speaker 1: make their way to Odessa, a key strategic port city

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Speaker 1: on the Black Sea. They have been at the very

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Speaker 1: least held back, and there are some reports that they

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Speaker 1: have actually been pushed further back from their positions in

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Speaker 1: one of the cities that is on route there between

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Speaker 1: Mariopol and Odessa. At the same time, the situation in

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Speaker 1: Mariopol is really quite dire. Those are the reports from

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Speaker 1: the ground. Of course, that city has undergone quite a

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Speaker 1: lot of shelling. It also is under siege, and so

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Speaker 1: they don't have heat, they don't have electricity, they don't

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Speaker 1: have water. Is still very very cold in Ukraine this

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Speaker 1: type of time of year, so civilians there are really suffering.

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Speaker 1: Let's put this next piece up on the screen, very murky,

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Speaker 1: to be honest with you, what happened here? So Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: officials are saying that we do know there was a

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Speaker 1: ceasefire that was agreed to a temporary ceasefire in order

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Speaker 1: to establish humanitarian corridors to try to allow civilians from

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Speaker 1: Mario Paul to evacuate. That ceasefire quickly collapsed. Ukrainian officials

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Speaker 1: are saying that Russians were shelling civilians, creating a very

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Speaker 1: dangerous situation there. Russians are saying that Ukrainians were using

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Speaker 1: people as human shields. And I do want to say

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Speaker 1: late yesterday and not in time to be able to

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Speaker 1: pull the element. But even our own defense officials are

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Speaker 1: saying they were unable to corroborate the claims from the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainians that Russians were violating the ceasefire, so very murky

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Speaker 1: exactly what happened to cause that temporary ceasefire to collapse

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Speaker 1: and allow civilians to evacuate, But we do know that

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Speaker 1: they were unable to establish those humanitarian corridors and be

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Speaker 1: able to get people out. At the same time, the

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Speaker 1: UN Human Rights off is saying that at least three

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty one civilians have been confirmed killed in

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Speaker 1: the conflict. It is likely more than that. That's just

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Speaker 1: the numbers that they are able to count reach. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's very likely. And look, I mean, we have no

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Speaker 1: idea about the humanitarian corridor. The fog of war makes

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Speaker 1: it so that it's very difficult to discern. I watch

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Speaker 1: a lot of this happen in Syria, and I can

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Speaker 1: tell you that there was a lot of blame to

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Speaker 1: go around on many sides, and unfortunately there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of currency to be made, both in terms of the

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Speaker 1: other person violated it and oftentimes they can be used

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Speaker 1: for military advantage. All we know is that it's hell

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Speaker 1: on earth for the people who are actually involved. So

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Speaker 1: let's go ahead and put this video up on the screen.

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Speaker 1: I'll talk a little bit over it, but this just

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Speaker 1: shows you this is what a supposed humanitarian corridor is

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Speaker 1: supposed to look like. During the evacuation, this was in

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Speaker 1: the city of our Pin. Now this crumps from an

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Speaker 1: account claiming that it was Russians shelling. Again, we do

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Speaker 1: not know exactly what it was. All we can say

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Speaker 1: is that's a beautiful city that is now on fire

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Speaker 1: in the middle of what's supposed to be a humanitarian evacuation.

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Speaker 1: And that's just the civilians that are always who the

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Speaker 1: number one people we should really be thinking about here

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Speaker 1: in this conflict. We did have some breaking news Crystal

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Speaker 1: this morning of goan ahead and verified hit from the

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Speaker 1: Kremlin spokesperson. So I'm going to go ahead read this

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Speaker 1: to you. It's breaking literally as we're doing the show,

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Speaker 1: which is at Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin,

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Speaker 1: says three demands for which Russia will quote stop its

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Speaker 1: military action in a moment. In a moment is what

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Speaker 1: he says if Russia of Ukraine meets these demands. So

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Speaker 1: let's go ahead. Quote Russia told Ukraine it could halt

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Speaker 1: the operation quote at any moment if Kiev meets Russian conditions.

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Speaker 1: Ukraine must recognize CRIMEA as Russian as well as the

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Speaker 1: independence of the DNR and the LNR, the Dinantsk and

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Speaker 1: the Lahansk people's republics which are there in the Eastern

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Speaker 1: separatist regions. That was one of the pretexts for why

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Speaker 1: this operation started in the first place. Finally, it says

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Speaker 1: that Ukraine must amend its constitution and renounce its claim

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Speaker 1: to join any block in a reference to both the

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Speaker 1: European Union and the NATO Alliance. Now, the one thing

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Speaker 1: I do want to be clear here is it is

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Speaker 1: unclear current whether the quote unquote de militarization aspect remains

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Speaker 1: on the table. So there is a report from the

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Speaker 1: largest Eastern media company that before issuing this demand, Crystal

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Speaker 1: Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, had already said that Russia

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Speaker 1: will complete demilitarization of Ukraine. So the first two I

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Speaker 1: think you and I could probably see some sort of

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Speaker 1: deal on that happening. Amending the constitution saying look, we're

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Speaker 1: not going to join the EU, We're not going to

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Speaker 1: join NATO as long as you guys go ahead and

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Speaker 1: pull out. Sure, even Crimea and you know, the DNRL.

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Speaker 1: There's some quibbles to be had on where exactly the

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Speaker 1: front line and all that might happen, but the demilitarization aspect,

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Speaker 1: especially after literally getting invaded as a country, it's not

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Speaker 1: going to happen. As a nonstarter, there was I just

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Speaker 1: want to say this, and this was a report out

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Speaker 1: there that this is from Krysto Gravzs. He says that

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Speaker 1: two persons close to the Ukraine Russian negotiations tell him

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Speaker 1: that Russia proposed that Zelensky could remain the pro form

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Speaker 1: of press, but that Russia would get to choose who

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Speaker 1: the prime minister was. So they're also indicating behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes that they would have They're like, okay, you might

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Speaker 1: be able to say, but you would have no power,

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Speaker 1: but we would. Really it's going to really pub the show.

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Speaker 1: And that pairs with the thing that we first put

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Speaker 1: up there that Putin said that Ukraine could quote lose

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Speaker 1: its statehood. So the demands in English that are being

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Speaker 1: put out seem relatively reasonable. Behind the scenes, there are

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Speaker 1: still some demands which could be complete non starters for

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Speaker 1: this stuff. Yeah, and that's what's really important because if

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Speaker 1: it was just I mean, this sound may sound horrible,

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Speaker 1: but the reality is where things stand today. If it

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Speaker 1: was hey, we're going to give you CRIMEA, which was

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Speaker 1: effectively already done. We're going to give you the separatists republics,

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Speaker 1: and we'll figure out the lines and we're going to

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Speaker 1: agree and put it in the constitution. We're not joining

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Speaker 1: any block. You take that deal all day long. That's

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Speaker 1: a bit if they actually leave too, Yes, absolutely, one

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Speaker 1: hundred percent. I mean, if that's really an actual deal

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Speaker 1: on the table. But when you start to talk about

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Speaker 1: demilitarization after you your entire nation has just been invaded

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Speaker 1: by your next door neighbor, that's a total non starter.

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Speaker 1: And then also, I mean, think of what an ideal

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Speaker 1: situation that political dynamic you laid out would be for Russia,

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Speaker 1: where you keep Zelenski as the technical figurehead, lending the

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Speaker 1: government some air of legitimacy among Westerners who now love

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Speaker 1: this guy, when really it's just a puppet government of

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Speaker 1: the Kremlin. So that would be of course an ideal

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Speaker 1: political situation for them, and I have to think for

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Speaker 1: Zelenski and the Ukrainians that is also a non starter.

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Speaker 1: But you know, this continues to be an extremely dangerous

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Speaker 1: situation in terms of a broader escalation. And there was

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Speaker 1: news that came out yesterday about just how many weapons

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Speaker 1: we have been flowing into this country. I mean, it

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Speaker 1: is beyond what you could possibly comprehend. They're calling it

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Speaker 1: Berlin Airlift two point zero. This was reporting from the

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Speaker 1: New York Times. So just for comparison, there was a

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Speaker 1: sixty million dollar arms package to Ukraine that was announced

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Speaker 1: back in August, and that was not fulfilled until November.

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Speaker 1: But now the President approved three hundred and fifty million

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Speaker 1: dollars in military aid on February twenty six, so that's

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Speaker 1: nearly six times larger, and seventy percent of it was

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Speaker 1: delivered in five days, So they are rushing in everything

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Speaker 1: they possibly can. The US and NATO in less than

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Speaker 1: a week have pushed more than seventeen thousand anti tank weapons,

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Speaker 1: including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania

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Speaker 1: into Ukraine. They also detail a lot of technical support

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Speaker 1: that we are directly providing to Zelensky to help keep

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Speaker 1: him alive, but also to their military forces to help them,

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Speaker 1: you know, using our own intelligence and satellite capabilities to

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Speaker 1: figure out where the Russians are and what their plans are,

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Speaker 1: and they are coming very close to the line of

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Speaker 1: being considered a co combatant in this conflict. And one

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Speaker 1: of the things that they lay out here is that look,

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Speaker 1: by our definition, we haven't crossed the line. But the

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Speaker 1: Russians have a different definition. I mean from their perspective,

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Speaker 1: they've already said that even just our sanctions are an

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Speaker 1: act of war. So you are really playing with fire

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Speaker 1: here when you are getting so directly involved. There was

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Speaker 1: also a secretary Blincoln spoke to us trying to work

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Speaker 1: out a deal with Poland so that we could in

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Speaker 1: fact get the Ukrainians these fighter jets. The ideas basically

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Speaker 1: Poland has the type of you know, Soviet fighter jets

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Speaker 1: that the Ukrainians know how to fly. So the idea

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Speaker 1: is Poland would give them those and we would replace

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Speaker 1: the Polish fleet with our own jet fighters. So we're

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Speaker 1: not directly putting them in, but we're basically facilitating the transfer. Again, Listen, guys,

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Speaker 1: at this point, even though the Ukrainians have you know,

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Speaker 1: held the Russian forces back way better than anyone anticipated. Partly,

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Speaker 1: I think this helps reveal part of how they've been

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Speaker 1: able to do this is with overwhelming sort of like

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Speaker 1: military capabilities given by the US and NATO and also

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Speaker 1: by our technical support. But you know, we have to

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Speaker 1: be focused on keeping this conflict to Ukraine and not

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Speaker 1: escalating it any further. And when you're taking these types

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Speaker 1: of actions that Russia could easily view as escalatory, and

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Speaker 1: the US becoming directly engaged in this war, you are

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Speaker 1: really playing a dangerous game. Yeah, that's my great fear.

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Speaker 1: That's why I reference Syria. I mean, whenever you think

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Speaker 1: about Syria, remember it started off as an actual conflict

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Speaker 1: of Syrians and the Kataris and the Saudis and the

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Speaker 1: Americans and the Libyans and the Russians, and everybody starts

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Speaker 1: getting involved in five years later, five years in you

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Speaker 1: have rebel groups right which are armed to the teeth

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Speaker 1: in terms of their military technology, and which necessitates then

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Speaker 1: also whenever the political objective of the Assad regime and

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Speaker 1: the Putin government for keeping a sod In power was

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Speaker 1: total annihilation of those civilian populations and everybody subburned. That's

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Speaker 1: part of the reason the death toll was so high

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Speaker 1: and the tactics were so brutal. I'm sorry, but I

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Speaker 1: do think that that is just the most likely scenario here,

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Speaker 1: given the demands here and given the tactics of the

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Speaker 1: Russian military. We saw that they were able to do

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Speaker 1: it in Aleppo, and we also saw them do it

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Speaker 1: in their own country in Grosny in the Chechnian Civil War.

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Speaker 1: Almost certainly this seems to be an outright play by

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Speaker 1: play of what happened in Chechnya. At this point, the

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Speaker 1: Russian government just simply has gotten too much invested in

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Speaker 1: order to pull out, just like they did there from

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Speaker 1: a political objective and from putin saving face, and that

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Speaker 1: means a full bore and you know, use of some

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Speaker 1: of the most brutal military tactics that the world has

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Speaker 1: seen in a long time, especially on a stage like this.

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Speaker 1: And you know, with the US providing ISR capability, which

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Speaker 1: is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the Ukrainian military, it

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Speaker 1: will prolong the conflict as well. I'm just you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying moral judgment, it's just a fact it

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Speaker 1: is going to do so and a lot of people

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Speaker 1: are going to lose their lives here. And really think

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Speaker 1: that we are on the precipice of something way worse

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Speaker 1: than what we've already seen the history of warfare, and

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Speaker 1: particularly of the main actor in this Russian military shows

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Speaker 1: us that what is actually possible. A lot of analysts

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Speaker 1: are basically preparing have the expectation that this is going

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Speaker 1: to be a long, grinding conflict that you know, eventually

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Speaker 1: the Russians with their military superiority and their larger amount

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Speaker 1: of resources brought to bear. There's also reports that they're

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Speaker 1: actually recruiting Syrian fighters who are knowledgeable in urban warfare

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Speaker 1: to help them take the city of Kiev, that eventually

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Speaker 1: they will be able to take over the regions that

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Speaker 1: they want to and specifically the capital city of Kiev.

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Speaker 1: And so you'll have this long going conflict with a

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Speaker 1: gorilla insurgency much like what they faced again in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: And we also have the lesson of history of what

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Speaker 1: happened when we armed that resistance to the teeth. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't see a lot of handering about

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Speaker 1: who and how we are arming the Ukrainians right now.

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Speaker 1: And you know, it is very well documented that a

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Speaker 1: part of their National Guard are avowed Neo Nazis, especially

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Speaker 1: actually down in that Black Sea region around Mariopol, that's

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Speaker 1: where the Azov Battalion is based in no strongest. So

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Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of worrying developments here, and

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Speaker 1: in particular you know, for US walking right up to

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Speaker 1: that line of being drawn into this conflict. There's also

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Speaker 1: reports we may be sort of bolstering the Ukrainian cyber

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Speaker 1: capabilities because they haven't faced the level of cyber attacks

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Speaker 1: that were expected. So if you're watching from the outside,

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Speaker 1: you're thinking maybe the US is helping to harden their

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Speaker 1: tech to make sure that they are not so vulnerable

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Speaker 1: to cyber attacks. There's also speculation that we may be

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Speaker 1: intermittently disrupting Russian communications, so that's pretty direct involvement. So again,

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Speaker 1: this is a very very dangerous posture for the US

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Speaker 1: to be taking. And even though the Biden administration has

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Speaker 1: been very clear about noteboots on the ground, you know,

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Speaker 1: if Russia used US as a party to this conflict

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Speaker 1: and strikes some of our facilities, kills any of our people,

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Speaker 1: I mean, the way that we could get brought in.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that people wouldn't flip on a dime

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Speaker 1: if there was that kind of provocation, of course they would. Well,

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Speaker 1: you're outlying is why we need great care whenever we

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Speaker 1: consider this. There's a big difference between javelin anti tank

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Speaker 1: missiles and then using the US military to disrupt Russian communications. Right,

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Speaker 1: one is an act of actual like cyber war. The

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Speaker 1: second one is on these Polish jets. I'm sorry, I

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Speaker 1: do not think that a significant a small handful of

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Speaker 1: Ukraine former Russian jets that the polls have is going

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Speaker 1: to make a significant difference in the air war over Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: And that is a direct facilitation by a NATO ally

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Speaker 1: of something which is just constitutionally different, I mean in

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Speaker 1: terms of its makeup in jets versus missiles and planes.

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Speaker 1: It may sound foolish, but whenever you have planes like

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Speaker 1: that with that kill Russian soldiers or shoot down Russian planes,

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Speaker 1: it is a level of escalation in the level of aid.

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Speaker 1: And it's all also in the beholder. In the eye

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Speaker 1: of the beholder, what do they consider to be a

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Speaker 1: matter of escalation right now? In rhetoric that they are saying,

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Speaker 1: you know, anybody who facilitates these types of things itself

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Speaker 1: is considered a co combatant. They can say that, are

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Speaker 1: they going to do anything about that? Obviously those are

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Speaker 1: two different things. So we need to take great care

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Speaker 1: in the level of aid that we do go ahead

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Speaker 1: and give, and also to make sure it doesn't come

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Speaker 1: back to bite us in the future, and all, you know,

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Speaker 1: we have to take great care and also not feeding

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Speaker 1: what the Russian narrative is in terms of funding groups,

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Speaker 1: which they say that this is all about in the

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Speaker 1: first place. So this is all in the interest of

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Speaker 1: we want peace and we want less loss of life,

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Speaker 1: and in the past it shows us that being lacking

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Speaker 1: a consideration can make the conflict actually go much much longer,

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Speaker 1: which you know is terrible for everybody. Yeah, indeed, okay,

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Speaker 1: let's go ahead and move on here to the oil front.

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Speaker 1: And obviously this is something which is very very important

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Speaker 1: funding the Russian war machine here at home, though it

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Speaker 1: has huge political consequences. Let's go ahead and put this

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Speaker 1: up there on the screen, which is that the national

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Speaker 1: average in the United States for a gallon of gas

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Speaker 1: is already four dollars a gallon. That's the highest price

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Speaker 1: at the pump since two thousand and eight. It actually

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Speaker 1: went higher than I possibly expected. Crystal and the price

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Speaker 1: of Brent crud for a barrel is currently one hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty six dollars, which is you know, one point

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Speaker 1: fifty is considered a catastrophe. So we're already on our

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Speaker 1: way to some record high gas prices a national average

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Speaker 1: of five dollars. I said four to fifty previously, we

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Speaker 1: could see it soon. I didn't expect four this quickly.

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Speaker 1: I think five is now very much on the table

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Speaker 1: in the next month. I watched over the weekend every

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Speaker 1: day as the price continued to increase at the pump,

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Speaker 1: which is really just a catastrophe for major working class Americans.

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Speaker 1: So obviously this is going to go ahead and ignite

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Speaker 1: a massive fight here at home over banning Russian oil.

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Speaker 1: So this is the big fight with the United States

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Speaker 1: dates and its allies because we actually do not import

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Speaker 1: that much Russian crude oil. So why I went ahead

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Speaker 1: and check this morning. It's about three percent of imports.

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Speaker 1: Some estimates it's ten percent. That being said, it's not

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Speaker 1: going to have a major impact at least here at home,

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Speaker 1: although ten percent, you know, still a decent amount when

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Speaker 1: you're paying four dollars a gallon. Any little scrap helps.

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Speaker 1: But where it is going to have the biggest effect

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Speaker 1: is Europe and China. So Europe and China take eighty

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Speaker 1: five percent of Russia's crude oil exports. Europe in particular,

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Speaker 1: exporting or importing nearly as much as China, with millions

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Speaker 1: and millions of barrels per day that are imported to

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Speaker 1: that country. So this is if there is a ban,

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Speaker 1: it is going to have a massive supply shock, and

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Speaker 1: that is currently what is being considered by the European Union,

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Speaker 1: the US allies, and the United States Secretary of State

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Speaker 1: Anthony Blincoln was talking about this over the weekend. Let's

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Speaker 1: take a listen. We're adding to the sanctions virtually every day.

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Speaker 1: We're doing it in coordination with Europeans. When there's a

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Speaker 1: difference between us, if there's a loophole on one side

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Speaker 1: or the other, we're closing it. That's part of the

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Speaker 1: work that I was doing here. And when it comes

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Speaker 1: to oil, Russian oil, I was on the phone yesterday

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Speaker 1: with the President and other members of the Cabinet on

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Speaker 1: exactly the subject. And we are now talking to our

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Speaker 1: European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way

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Speaker 1: at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil

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Speaker 1: while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply

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Speaker 1: of oil on world markets. That's a very active discussion

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Speaker 1: as we speak. So that is the biggest news that

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Speaker 1: came out of that crystal. Considering the Russian oil ban, Now,

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Speaker 1: this is going to cause a major domestic political fight

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Speaker 1: about a couple of things. Obviously, high gas prices people

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Speaker 1: freak out, and they should, especially at four dollars a gallon.

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Speaker 1: That's a tax on every working class person in this country,

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Speaker 1: on every average household finance. And that is also going

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Speaker 1: to cause a major discussion around drilling here at home,

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Speaker 1: around energy capacity, and it's going to expose some little

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Speaker 1: bit of a whole in diplomacy. So first and foremost

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Speaker 1: we saw from Nancy Pelosi say that she does support

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Speaker 1: a ban on Russian oil at Speaker of the House.

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Speaker 1: This is something which Congress could also act on in

432
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,440
Speaker 1: terms of export controls and all of that, but does

433
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: not support any new drilling. Let's go ahead and take

434
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:18,880
Speaker 1: a listen to that. There's been pushed by some Democrats

435
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: to ban the import of Russian toil. I believe that

436
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:25,400
Speaker 1: Senator's mansion and Rakowski, you're gonna look for the bill

437
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 1: on that today. Where do you stay. I'm all for

438
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 1: the ban ban, the oil ban. It will come from Russia, yeah,

439
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,680
Speaker 1: from the bowl and the and there is I'm not

440
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 1: for drilling on public lands. So this is going to

441
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:43,879
Speaker 1: be the big domestic political fight. Crystal, you and I

442
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:45,800
Speaker 1: were talking about this. I actually support any sort of

443
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: drilling or fracking which is going to bring down the

444
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,440
Speaker 1: price in the immediate term. But you make an excellent point,

445
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,399
Speaker 1: which is that we don't actually have that good of

446
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 1: a refining capacity, which is that fracking in particular, you

447
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 1: can get oil out of the ground and not that

448
00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:01,479
Speaker 1: particularly long period of time, which could relieve some price pressure.

449
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: But the choke point that we have right now in

450
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 1: our refining capacity makes it so that even if we

451
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 1: did drill, it is not going to bring down the

452
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 1: price in the way that we would need. Yeah, so

453
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,359
Speaker 1: oil I was reading for, you know, to bring like

454
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: new oil onto the market, it takes at least six months,

455
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,160
Speaker 1: So even that is not going to bring the price

456
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 1: down in the short term. In addition, I mean there's

457
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 1: kind of this narrative because of some of Biden's rhetoric

458
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,159
Speaker 1: around climate that he's reduced the amount of drilling. He

459
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:32,200
Speaker 1: actually hasn't. They went through with the largest sale of

460
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: public lands eighty million acres in the Gulf of Mexico

461
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:39,600
Speaker 1: during his term. So if more fracking and more drilling

462
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 1: was going to be our key to low stable prices.

463
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,800
Speaker 1: We would already have them because we've had administration after

464
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,320
Speaker 1: administration who has had exactly that policy. So that's why

465
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 1: I actually agree with the idea that what we should

466
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: be focused on is and we're going to talk about

467
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,640
Speaker 1: some of these other deals around the world. We're talking

468
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: to the Venezuelans, which is very interesting potentially around the

469
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: nuclear deals on the table. They're also talking to Saudi

470
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 1: which I think that part is insane, Like if you're

471
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: doing this for humanitarian reasons, the Saudis are currently, with

472
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 1: our help, perpetrating the worst humanitarian crisis on the entire planet.

473
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 1: But you know, the more that we drill, the more

474
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: that we increase our dependence on fossil fuels, the more

475
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,880
Speaker 1: we kick the can down the road on becoming actually

476
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:31,280
Speaker 1: energy independent where we have a stable, renewable supply, including

477
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: nuclear that isn't going to leave us at the whims

478
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: of countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran and Russia into

479
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 1: the future. So I know it sounds like, oh, well,

480
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: let's just drill more and then that'll lower the prices.

481
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,119
Speaker 1: The reality is that's not going to do anything in

482
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: the short term, and it's just going to make us

483
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: more dependent on those sources in the future. I think

484
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,120
Speaker 1: it's a dual source, which is you got to show

485
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:53,959
Speaker 1: the American people going to do everything possible in order

486
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 1: to bring the price down in the short term. In

487
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: the near term, we already know that this is going

488
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 1: to happen now for the next year or so, so

489
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,200
Speaker 1: I would say, go ahead and drill, But that is

490
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,200
Speaker 1: not the thing that is going to solve the contests

491
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,560
Speaker 1: in the long run. And that's why I think it

492
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: has to be paired obviously with the massive nuclear investment.

493
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: The problem I have with our current fights is that

494
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: you see the fossil fuel guys and Joe Manchin and

495
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 1: the coal people make it seem as if you just drill,

496
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,880
Speaker 1: then that's going to solve all of our problems. It's like, look,

497
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 1: we already found out that's not the word it works.

498
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: We have a global we have a global path. It's

499
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,400
Speaker 1: not like, you know, natural gas and fracking doesn't bring

500
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: down carbon missions by fifty percent. But what if I

501
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 1: told you there's this technology that has four to five

502
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 1: percent of natural gas. It would be a shocker. In

503
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: order to find that out. Now on the diplomacy side,

504
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:38,400
Speaker 1: this is another reason why we need to wane ourselves

505
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:39,720
Speaker 1: off of this. Let's go ahead and put this up

506
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: there on the screen, which is that American officials are

507
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 1: traveling to Venezuela a Russian ally. The reason why is

508
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: that they want the Venezuelans to pump oil and they

509
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:51,879
Speaker 1: want to buy some of that oil. The reason that

510
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: it matters is that we had not even recognized the

511
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: Maduro regime as legitimate over the government of Venezuela, and

512
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,239
Speaker 1: there's been all sorts of sanctions that have been put

513
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,879
Speaker 1: into place. That's right, we were pretending that Juan Guido,

514
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 1: I forget what it was like the speaker whatever, we said,

515
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:11,360
Speaker 1: that he was the president of that country. But now

516
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,120
Speaker 1: that we need the oil, we're like, okay, Venezuela, let's

517
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 1: start pumping and let's get some of this here into

518
00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: the US. Also, last night there's a consideration of breaking

519
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 1: news from Axios that the Saudi or the US is

520
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:29,920
Speaker 1: considering deploying some diplomats to Saudi Arabia specifically to try

521
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 1: and shore up relations with MBS to get them to

522
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 1: pump more oil to relieve price pressure. As well. MBS

523
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: has been playing foot see and really playing his hand.

524
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: Remorse recently, I saw him talking about pulling US money

525
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,959
Speaker 1: out of the United States and about, you know, very

526
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: openly kind of acknowledging that he's screwing with our domestic

527
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: politics in terms of oil production. And the reason why

528
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 1: is right now they have the most leverage over US

529
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: humanly possible. Part of the reason why the Biden administration

530
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: wanted to take a stand against Saudi Arabia on the

531
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,000
Speaker 1: jamalkash Oga killing, but you know, yeahmen and other things

532
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,880
Speaker 1: like that, and now making it so that we're gonna

533
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 1: have to go beg them hat in hand, and it

534
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: just exposes, like you said, which is that okay to

535
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,119
Speaker 1: punish the Russians, Now we have to go hat in

536
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: hand to the Saudis and the Venezuelans. It's like pick

537
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 1: your poison. Oh, you know, we have Venezuela, Iran, what

538
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 1: is it? We have Saudi Arabia. There are other you know,

539
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 1: in terms of the other countries that pump oil, not

540
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 1: a lot of them, particularly great US allies. This is

541
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,880
Speaker 1: why it has to be paired. I think these diplomatic efforts,

542
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 1: but also you have to show America that you're trying

543
00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: to do something to drop the price of gas in

544
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: the long run, you have to sell it with some

545
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 1: sort of we can never I mean, we need a

546
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: speech from the President and being like, we can never

547
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: let this happen again. Let's go ahead, situation again. So

548
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: let's let's do everything in our possibles power in the

549
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 1: next year or two to bring the price down and

550
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: in the long run, we are making sure that this

551
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: will never ever happen to America and its allies. I

552
00:28:57,800 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 1: think we're in for a real crunch. I think this

553
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: is going to be massive, massive economic impact in terms

554
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: of the lost dollars that we're going to be spent otherwise. Yeah,

555
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: I mean, gas is a relatively inelastic product. You have

556
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: to drive, most people do. They may may decrease in

557
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 1: the short term, but you know, we found out in

558
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight two thousand and nine, most people

559
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,200
Speaker 1: did not reduce the amount of driving that they did.

560
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: They just had to curtail spending in other areas of

561
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:23,560
Speaker 1: their lives. There's a lot to say about this, and

562
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: I'm sure this is a topic we're going to continue

563
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: to talk a lot about with regards to Venezuela. I mean,

564
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 1: I don't support the sanctions that we have on them anyway,

565
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 1: which are causing help contributing to the misery of the

566
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: population there, just as I think that we've gone too

567
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: far with the sanctions against Russia that are causing misery

568
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: among the Russian population. It's also you know, some of

569
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: the demands that we have in this negotiation are sort

570
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 1: of amusing and show how bad our policy towards Venezuela

571
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: has been with regard to the whole like Juan Guido

572
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: coup attempt situation. Part of what we're demanding is the

573
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: release of some of the Green break Green Beret I

574
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: should be clear, commandos who were down there thinking that

575
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: they were involved somehow in the coup. I forgot you

576
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: remember all that? Yeah, So that's part of all in

577
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: order to read to lift the sanctions and re establish

578
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: relations in all of that. That's one of our demands

579
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: is like, we want our Green Beret commandos that were

580
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: running around causing trouble in your country back. But I

581
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: think it's also important to note that right now, the

582
00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 1: latest polling says eighty percent of American support banning Russian oil. Now,

583
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 1: I would also say that people can be very unreliable

584
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: on issue polling and support in theory the idea of

585
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 1: banning Russian oil, but then very much not support when

586
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 1: they go to the gas pump and it costs five

587
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: dollars a gall by fifty. Yeah, so you know, I

588
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: think you see you see a huge bipartisan push right now,

589
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 1: Mark Ruby, you Wilso in favor, You see a huge

590
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: bipartisan effort of like, let's go all the way and

591
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: let's ban Russian oil because they see that broad public support.

592
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: But again, just because the support is there for the

593
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: idea in theory does not mean that when people who

594
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: are already really stretched with inflation and struggling to be

595
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: able to make rent, make mortgage payments, put food on

596
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,800
Speaker 1: the table, keep body and soul together, those costs are

597
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: going to take a big chunk out of the American public.

598
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: And you know, I think there will be a political

599
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 1: price to pay for that. There's just no question about it.

600
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the way it goes. When you look

601
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:37,200
Speaker 1: at history. People really rightly are you know, it really

602
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 1: hurts them when gas prices go up because we are

603
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 1: so dependent on it. Right now, Yeah, that's this is

604
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: the thing that nobody ever wants to acknowledge. I fine,

605
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 1: it's like for most people, energy policy means heating bill

606
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 1: and gas. That's it. That's literally it. That's most what

607
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 1: most people care about. And so when you're going to

608
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 1: look at the fact that we already have record high

609
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,640
Speaker 1: heating prices, Luckily it's getting a little bit warmer at

610
00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,719
Speaker 1: least here in the DMV, but that was a big

611
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: ten on a lot of Americans heating oil and all

612
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: that was up like ninety percent. Add in the add

613
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 1: in now four dollars a gas average price. Hearing from

614
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: people in California, I believe the California average is five dollars,

615
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: which is already that's what fifty million people living. It's

616
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: like a sixth of the entire country. Fresno apparently has

617
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: six dollars a gallon. So we could see a situation

618
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: where the national average is five. Then you have the

619
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: nation's largest state by population, which has six point fifty

620
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: or something like that. That is a massive economic drain

621
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 1: out of the country. So this is going to be

622
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: this is You're gonna be hearing about this all day long.

623
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: And I think rightfully, it's got a lot of lessons

624
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: about what we need to do in the future, and

625
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: especially about how we run our policy. But most importantly,

626
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: it's going to have an impact geopolitically, because I do

627
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: think that they are probably going to go ahead and

628
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 1: go through with this, and they're not thinking through the consequences.

629
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 1: All of us are going to be paying a lot

630
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: more for gas in the near term if they do

631
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 1: go ahead and ban this. Because remember, even if we

632
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 1: don't import that much Russian oil, bill is a global

633
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:03,760
Speaker 1: market and the price of baryl contributes to the price

634
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 1: at pump, So whenever our oil is sold out into

635
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: the global market, it's priced by everybody, not necessarily by

636
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 1: US demand, although there is some impact there. So just

637
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:17,200
Speaker 1: think about that whenever we're thinking about what exactly to

638
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 1: do and more and in terms of the sanctions, because

639
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 1: this is one of those that could have a significant

640
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: impact here at home and on our own country. It's

641
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: mess polty. What I saw is roughly fifty percent of

642
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: the price that the gas pump is determined by the

643
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 1: price put a barrel on the global commodities market. So

644
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,280
Speaker 1: the fact that we don't personally import that much Russian

645
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:37,959
Speaker 1: oil doesn't mean that you won't be effected exactly. There

646
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 1: was one other story that we wanted to track here

647
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: in terms of breaking news. Let's go ahead and put

648
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: this first piece up on the screen. They continued to

649
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 1: be widespread protests in Russia against the war. It's really

650
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 1: quite remarkable. An independent tracker here says that more than

651
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: the forty three hundred people were arrested over the weekend

652
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: at anti war protests occurred in cities really across the country,

653
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 1: twenty one Russian cities, they say here, I saw numbers

654
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: as high as fifty three different cities where anti war

655
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 1: protests have erupted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Of course,

656
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: these individuals know they're going to face arrest. Actually talk

657
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: to one person in Russia who said his boyfriend had

658
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 1: been arrested and they had been involved in activism before.

659
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:28,040
Speaker 1: They weren't too fearful about it. They said, right now,

660
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 1: like you're going to spend a night in jail, you're

661
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:32,240
Speaker 1: going to get a fine. But they were more fearful

662
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:34,560
Speaker 1: of what may be coming down the road if this

663
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: sort of opposition and dissent continues, and you already see

664
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: some of those more aggressive actions being taken. Let's go

665
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:43,320
Speaker 1: ahead and put this next piece up on the screen.

666
00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:49,879
Speaker 1: So Russia is cracking down on information period. We've got

667
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 1: them banning Facebook, they're restricting Twitter. I saw also, and

668
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 1: this is kind of noteworthy because of TikTok's connections to China.

669
00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 1: But TikTok has stopped allowing Russians to upload new content.

670
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: So what does this mean? I mean this makes it

671
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:07,439
Speaker 1: even more difficult in order to organize protests and take

672
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: collective action. We're going to talk in the censorship block

673
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:15,320
Speaker 1: as well about the crackdowns on any kind of independent media,

674
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 1: including threatening up to fifteen years of jail time for

675
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: spreading quote fake news, another one of our terms to

676
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: come back to bite us here. But you know, it's

677
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: just extraordinary to see the number of people who are

678
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 1: willing to risk their freedom in order to push back

679
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 1: against this war. And I think we have to we

680
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 1: have to really acknowledge how courageous that ultimately is. There's

681
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:43,360
Speaker 1: no way of knowing what public sentiment is, you know

682
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 1: what person on which side. It's very hard to have

683
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: reliable polling out of Russia. There are some polls that

684
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,240
Speaker 1: are sort of state affiliated that indicate that Putin's approval

685
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 1: writing has gone up since the invasion. Again, there's no

686
00:35:57,719 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 1: way to know whether that is the case, but it's

687
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 1: extraordinary to see this number of people in the streets.

688
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 1: The last thing I wanted to note as an update

689
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: to the sort of you know backlash among Russian society

690
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 1: is apparently Anton Dollin, one of Russia's best known film critics,

691
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:17,440
Speaker 1: just said there's no more Russia. We are suffering a catastrophe. No,

692
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 1: not an economic or political one, this is a moral catastrophe.

693
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 1: And he announced his departure from the country. And that's

694
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: another thing that's being tracked is the number of people

695
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: who were just leaving Russia who have the means, who

696
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 1: are sort of you know, the global citizen types who

697
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:33,399
Speaker 1: are saying we're out of here, the most cosmopolite. Yeah,

698
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,439
Speaker 1: so they could definitely be facing, you know, a brain

699
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 1: drain of those type of people. Those people are all

700
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 1: definitely going to leave it. I mean, this is, yeah,

701
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: look at a catastrophe for the Russians. I do want

702
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 1: to temper expectations, like you said. Yeah, currently they've been tracked.

703
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: I think seventy three hundred protesters have been put in prison.

704
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: It's not that many. Whenever you consider the population of Russia,

705
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,320
Speaker 1: and Putin is broadly popular in Russia. We don't know

706
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 1: how popular. You know, they claim eighty percent, It's probably

707
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,880
Speaker 1: more like sixty, maybe fifty five. That's still actually pretty

708
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,120
Speaker 1: significant whatever you consider that, how this is all being

709
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:06,600
Speaker 1: messaged to the Russian public, I mean, how are they

710
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: going to know? You know, somebody I was listening to

711
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: recently the US. The propaganda by the Russians against the

712
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: US and the West and the Allies on their own

713
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: population over the last fifteen years has been so remarkable

714
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 1: that it's difficult for us to understand that they live

715
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 1: in a totally separate reality from US. And I'm not

716
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: saying they're stupid or whatever. They have legitimate grievances with

717
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,760
Speaker 1: the West, and you know, they all suffered the nineteen

718
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: nineties economic sanctions and actually, most recently Soviet nostalgia has

719
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,479
Speaker 1: been going up in Russia amongst the youth. So people

720
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,879
Speaker 1: need to understand the domestic political conditions over what's happening there,

721
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,000
Speaker 1: and in that context, why a war and an operation

722
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:47,440
Speaker 1: like this, Especially if you control the information environment like

723
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 1: the Russians do, well, you're probably going to see at

724
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: least some support. I still think the most potent weapon

725
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,120
Speaker 1: against Putin's regime are going to be the body bags

726
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 1: that are coming home. They already have acknowledged five hundred dead.

727
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: We have no idea what the real number is. It's

728
00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:07,720
Speaker 1: probably more like fifteen hundred to two thousand. They only

729
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 1: lost what fifteen thousand people in the Soviet Union during Afghanistan.

730
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,400
Speaker 1: That caused a domestic political backlash. And when you have,

731
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 1: you know, moms who lost their sons, they're not going

732
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:21,759
Speaker 1: to shut up. You can try, but they're going to

733
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: talk whenever they go out or whenever. You know, they're

734
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 1: talking to their friends. And those whisper networks are part

735
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,360
Speaker 1: of what brought down the Soviet Union and part in

736
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:34,120
Speaker 1: terms of confidence within the regime. So the more people die,

737
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 1: and you can't keep death from people's relatives, at least

738
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 1: for too long, that's going to have an impact. I

739
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 1: think they're at home people. You can't ignore coffins that

740
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:46,479
Speaker 1: are coming back. Potentially, yeah, potentially. You know, it really

741
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:50,919
Speaker 1: is hard to wrap your head around the information ecosystem

742
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 1: that they're experiencing. And again, some of it they have

743
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,680
Speaker 1: a legitimate point. I mean when they say, like, oh,

744
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: the US casually invaded a sovereign nation of a rack

745
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: and made up this fantastical story about WMD's They didn't

746
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 1: get sanctioned, their people weren't punished, and so even the

747
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:09,520
Speaker 1: New York Times was reporting that there was some segment

748
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:13,000
Speaker 1: of the population that because our sanctions were so broad

749
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 1: and so indiscriminate, it was pushing them more towards the

750
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: Kremlin narrative. Because then you have, you know, when this

751
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:21,879
Speaker 1: war case sort of came out of nowhere from their

752
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 1: perspective where they were sold, Oh, there's the peace keeping mission,

753
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,040
Speaker 1: and we're just focused on these eastern separatist regions, and

754
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 1: then now you're getting word that there's this broader they

755
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 1: called it special military operation. Not allowed to call it

756
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,280
Speaker 1: a war, an invasion, but special military operation that happens

757
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: to be across the entire country. Well that's kind of

758
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,320
Speaker 1: a huh, Well, that's not exactly what we expected. But

759
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:45,760
Speaker 1: now when you have, you know, a very familiar villain

760
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 1: here in the West blanket punishing ordinary Russian citizens in

761
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 1: a way that they can rightly point out is hypocritical

762
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 1: based on our own behavior, that does help to push

763
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,800
Speaker 1: people potentially towards the Kremlin's narrative on this. So I

764
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 1: I think it's important to highlight these individuals, not because

765
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,600
Speaker 1: I really expected to have a big impact on the government,

766
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: but because I think their bravery and their moral fortitude

767
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 1: here is really commendable and you know, worthy of us

768
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:15,439
Speaker 1: taking a minute to take a look at hundred percent.

769
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,239
Speaker 1: I mean, you stand up to a regime like this,

770
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,240
Speaker 1: it really means something. Let's let's continue with this thread

771
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 1: then in the next block, because this matters a lot

772
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: in terms of the sanctions and how it's changing the

773
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 1: entire geopolitical world. Potentially, let's go ahead and put this

774
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:29,880
Speaker 1: up there on the screen in the way that Putin

775
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 1: is viewing the sanctions. He has said in a speech

776
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 1: over the weekend that the Western sanctions on Russia are

777
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:39,320
Speaker 1: tantamount quote to a declaration of war, that's a direct quote,

778
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: and threatened Ukraine with loss of statehoods if its leaders

779
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 1: continue to resist his military invasion. And actually, while you

780
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,840
Speaker 1: and I were just speaking, President Zelenski of Ukraine is

781
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,360
Speaker 1: giving a speech in which he says, you know, Ukraine

782
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 1: is continuing to stand and in addition to asking for

783
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:56,320
Speaker 1: a no fly zone on the economic part, where he

784
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 1: has a lot more sympathy here in the West. He

785
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,440
Speaker 1: is urging a ban of Russian oil and continuing economic

786
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,120
Speaker 1: sanctions against them. So I think it's very important for

787
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 1: people to understand that on the sanctions front, the most

788
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,560
Speaker 1: maximalists are moving in that direction. I also want to say,

789
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talk about companies, you know,

790
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 1: pulling out of Russia and all that went ahead and

791
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,200
Speaker 1: asked around Crystal and here's what it is about eighty

792
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 1: percent of these companies they're pulling out anyway. The reason

793
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 1: why is the sanctions, so that the sanctions are underlying

794
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:27,400
Speaker 1: the policy. As in, think about it this way. If

795
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: you have the sanctions that we currently have and you're

796
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 1: doing business in Russia, well you can't wire any money

797
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:36,480
Speaker 1: from there to here. So then you're like, okay, what

798
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,279
Speaker 1: do I do? Well, what I do is I just

799
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 1: use the pr of saying we're pulling out of Russia

800
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 1: before I'm forced to say we literally aren't able to

801
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: do business there. Yeah, so it's more it may look

802
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 1: like a lot of aren't doing this. Yeah, a virtuous desire.

803
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:55,320
Speaker 1: I just want people to know old human rights. I

804
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 1: can't believe it. I just want people to know that

805
00:41:57,760 --> 00:41:59,360
Speaker 1: most of these companies are not doing this oude of

806
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,319
Speaker 1: the goodness of their home. I went ahead and asked

807
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 1: around as people in the Treasury Department and they were like, oh, yeah,

808
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:05,879
Speaker 1: these people don't care. I'm like, they're doing it because

809
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,399
Speaker 1: we're forcing them to do it. So that's clear. It's

810
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 1: mostly an action of government policy that doesn't erase some

811
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: of the most excesses, which we'll get to later in

812
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,360
Speaker 1: the show. The most significant one though, and this is

813
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,400
Speaker 1: almost again from what I hear, a result of sanctions.

814
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 1: Let's put this up there on the screen, which is

815
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 1: that Visa and MasterCard, which process the vast majority of

816
00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:31,760
Speaker 1: transactions across the planet, are pulling out of Russian banks,

817
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: which is going to force a very interesting thing. Russian

818
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 1: banks are now having to switch to the Chinese card

819
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,840
Speaker 1: system Union Pay, the second largest and fastest growing global

820
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 1: credit card network. Now, this is a financial bifurcation that

821
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 1: we have really never seen before. China has set up

822
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 1: in an alternative financial system in their country through Alley pay,

823
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 1: through d D and also many of the companies that

824
00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 1: they have there, which integrates very cleanly, or social credit system.

825
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 1: They don't really have a lot of cash over there.

826
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: A lot of it is online because that way the

827
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 1: government can control all of it. Well. That matters though,

828
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 1: because that alternative payment system is totally and completely quote

829
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:15,600
Speaker 1: unquote sanctions proof from our reach because they built it

830
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,359
Speaker 1: from the ground up from the nineteen nineties. So now

831
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: Russian banks are turning to this Chinese led financial architecture

832
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,440
Speaker 1: which is absent from any ability of US in order

833
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: to sanction it. This geopolitically is a significant development because

834
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 1: the fact that the US controls kind of the rails

835
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 1: of the global financial system is what makes our sanctions

836
00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 1: so potent aggress to the rest of the world. You

837
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 1: can ask Venezuela and Iran in any other country that

838
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 1: has US sanctions about how exactly that goes and how

839
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: easy it is in order to find somebody to do

840
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:49,359
Speaker 1: something as basic as you know, process your credit card.

841
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:51,920
Speaker 1: These are things that you think are immutable, but in

842
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:55,480
Speaker 1: fact can be pulled out by America well. As biology

843
00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 1: Streen of Austin points outlet's put this up there on

844
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 1: the screen. Ukraine, it may not be becoming a Russian client,

845
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:06,880
Speaker 1: but Russia could be becoming a Chinese client economically. Now

846
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,560
Speaker 1: this pairs back a little bit with what we were

847
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: talking about previously, which is that Russia exports the vast

848
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 1: majority of its oil to Europe and to China. So

849
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 1: if the EU and in the United States and the

850
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 1: rest of the world does ban Russian oil, China is

851
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: going to be the last remaining buyer of a lot

852
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,239
Speaker 1: of Russian oil. Then you have Chinese companies like Union

853
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 1: Pay guaranteeing the financial architecture of the entire Russian financial system.

854
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 1: China being the second largest economy in the world in

855
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: the ability to provide them not as good of a

856
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,480
Speaker 1: customer experience, but somewhat you know, they could give them

857
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,399
Speaker 1: Alley Pay, you know, to replace Apple Pay on their thing,

858
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 1: and there's a lot that they could be able to

859
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:49,400
Speaker 1: provide them. It could actually push not Russia into the

860
00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:54,040
Speaker 1: hands of China, but make them pretty economically dependent upon them,

861
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: giving the Chinese a lot of diplomatic leverage over this

862
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:01,399
Speaker 1: entire situation. This could be good and it could be bad.

863
00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: It depends on what the Chinese want to do. Crystal.

864
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 1: You know, I've been listening David colcullen. He did an

865
00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: episode on the Reline podcast I was listening to. Is

866
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:12,719
Speaker 1: fascinating when what he was saying is that the Chinese

867
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 1: could decide that this is their moment to try and

868
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: broker some bigger diplomatic solution. So if they have their

869
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,440
Speaker 1: influence over Russia in the way that they do right now,

870
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:26,120
Speaker 1: especially economically, just as the US declared itself independent and

871
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:30,440
Speaker 1: tried to score a diplomatic score during the Suez Crisis

872
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:33,560
Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties, China could try and ascend to

873
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 1: the world stage and broker some sort of talks between

874
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,960
Speaker 1: the West and Russia in this situation that would be

875
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:42,440
Speaker 1: really interesting and actually would be a good thing. It

876
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,680
Speaker 1: would rewrite the entire global order, but you know, it

877
00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:47,720
Speaker 1: would be a good thing in terms of this immediate

878
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 1: conflict in particular. So it just goes to show you

879
00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 1: that the soft not even soft power, the financial power

880
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:55,719
Speaker 1: of a country matters immensely to its ability in order

881
00:45:55,800 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 1: to you know, have deals or project diplomacy. And China could,

882
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: I want to be clear, could flex its muscles here

883
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,360
Speaker 1: after in my opinion, miscalculating in its total alliance with

884
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:09,840
Speaker 1: Russia ahead of this invasion. Yeah, I mean that seems

885
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 1: to be the reporting is that they didn't really take

886
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 1: the threat seriously. They kind of bought into the Ohasjesaber rattling,

887
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:18,800
Speaker 1: or it's just going to go as far as the

888
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,359
Speaker 1: Eastern separatists republics. There's a few things to say here.

889
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 1: The other part of Bologi's tweet was he said, we

890
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:28,239
Speaker 1: may see Russia China buy Russia for a song in

891
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,120
Speaker 1: the largest belt and road deal of all time after

892
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:33,560
Speaker 1: the best drop the price. And so I think that

893
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,279
Speaker 1: is the way to think about all of this. It's

894
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:39,720
Speaker 1: also worth pointing out, first of all, American Express joined

895
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 1: Visa and MasterCards, so you have sort of like unified

896
00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:46,400
Speaker 1: front now from the American credit card processing companies. What

897
00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 1: that means in terms of Russian citizens is that they

898
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:55,760
Speaker 1: are going to be unable or have difficulty making foreign transactions.

899
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 1: The Russian banks have rush to switch to that Chinese

900
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 1: card US Union pay, and it's backed by their own

901
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 1: internal system mir and I how you pronounce that mirror.

902
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 1: So for domestic transactions, they're trying to smoothly switch over

903
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,920
Speaker 1: the system so that people can still engage domestically and

904
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:18,200
Speaker 1: use their cards and have all of that ultimately work.

905
00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:21,320
Speaker 1: It's for foreign transactions that this is a problem. And

906
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:24,120
Speaker 1: we should also point out as you are that you know,

907
00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:28,040
Speaker 1: this new financial architecture, both in Russia and more in China,

908
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:31,080
Speaker 1: this has been years in the making. Russia started to

909
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 1: build up its mere domestic transaction system after sanctions were

910
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:39,320
Speaker 1: imposed back in twenty fourteen over CRIMEA. So again, this

911
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:43,800
Speaker 1: is sort of that law of unintended consequences US levying

912
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,800
Speaker 1: these sanctions. It's not that it doesn't have any blowback

913
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:49,640
Speaker 1: to us, because the way that we have thrown our

914
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,480
Speaker 1: economic might around in the world has led both of

915
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:56,240
Speaker 1: these countries to say, hey, we can't depend on these people,

916
00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 1: we need to try to make ourselves sanctions proof. That

917
00:47:59,320 --> 00:48:01,840
Speaker 1: led to Alsorussia building up all this foreign reserve currency.

918
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 1: We kind of took that off the table by sanctioning

919
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 1: their central bank, which again is an extraordinary and you know,

920
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,640
Speaker 1: has never happened in history before with regards to a

921
00:48:09,719 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 1: G twenty central bank. But you have the Chinese having

922
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:16,239
Speaker 1: built up their own architecture as a potential alternative to

923
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:19,480
Speaker 1: having to exist in the US system, including their own

924
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 1: alternative to this swift banking communication system that is so

925
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:29,040
Speaker 1: central to the global financial system. You know, the big

926
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 1: fear that people worry about is what if there is

927
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:35,880
Speaker 1: a move away from US dollars as the foreign reserve currency.

928
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,400
Speaker 1: I think that's bad. That would be very bad. I

929
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 1: think we're probably not quite there. But you know, the

930
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:46,080
Speaker 1: more that we sort of use these types of measures,

931
00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 1: the more that we create an incentive for countries to

932
00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 1: protect themselves by having this alternative architecture ready to go.

933
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:56,080
Speaker 1: And we are seeing that play out right now in

934
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:58,400
Speaker 1: real time in Russia. Yeah, and we'll end with this

935
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:00,560
Speaker 1: interesting report from the Wall Streeture, and let's put this

936
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:02,880
Speaker 1: up there on the screen, which is that China had

937
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,359
Speaker 1: went ahead and declared that its friendship with Russia had

938
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: quote no limits given Ukraine. They're starting to have some

939
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 1: second thoughts. Basically, it's been a catastrophe obviously for Russia.

940
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:15,760
Speaker 1: The global public opinion has turned against them. The Chinese

941
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,880
Speaker 1: see what's happening with the Russian military and worst they

942
00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: see that what the potential consequences for them are if

943
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 1: they go ahead and invade Taiwan, which is that you know,

944
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 1: the world has responded in such a way and now

945
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:30,919
Speaker 1: has a playbick for which they could deploy against China

946
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 1: if they wanted to, which would if you think this

947
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:36,399
Speaker 1: is crippling Russia. I mean China's economy. While yes, they're

948
00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 1: you know, internally not as dependent in terms of the

949
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 1: West and its exports and all that, we could destroy

950
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:44,560
Speaker 1: their economy ten times over in the way that Russia

951
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:46,759
Speaker 1: is as well. So they're looking at this. They're not

952
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:48,880
Speaker 1: happy with the way it's played out on the global stage.

953
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:51,719
Speaker 1: Actually could be a good thing given the leverage now

954
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:53,880
Speaker 1: that they have over the Russians, and we're hoping that

955
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:57,080
Speaker 1: they might be able to facilitate some sort of peaceful projects.

956
00:49:57,520 --> 00:49:58,960
Speaker 1: I hope they're a good actor in all of this.

957
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:00,879
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the best way and do it. That's

958
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,279
Speaker 1: the best we can hope for. And I mean the

959
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 1: part of what they're looking at is Bloomberg Economics estimates

960
00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 1: that if on top of the sanctions we already have,

961
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:14,839
Speaker 1: if we also ban the Russian gas, that would mean

962
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:18,719
Speaker 1: their economy would contract about fourteen percent this year. Wow.

963
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:22,640
Speaker 1: I mean that's insane. And the Chinese realized, like, on

964
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 1: the one hand, we're going to have a lot harder

965
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:28,400
Speaker 1: time pulling back from our engagement with the Chinese economy,

966
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:31,279
Speaker 1: but the fact that we are so interdependent means it's

967
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:34,719
Speaker 1: also extremely vital for them. I mean, they know that

968
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:37,840
Speaker 1: the reason that they are have grown to be this

969
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: economic juggernaut is because of their interactions with US and

970
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:44,600
Speaker 1: with the West, So that would oil way more than

971
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,200
Speaker 1: we do. Yeah, so that road definitely goes both ways.

972
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 1: And also, you know, they're trying to establish themselves as

973
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:52,359
Speaker 1: sort of good players in the global system and all

974
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,880
Speaker 1: of that, and to be seen as citing just directly

975
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: with Russia on this is I think making them potentially

976
00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:02,600
Speaker 1: making them uncomfortable. And we've definitely seen the rhetoric shift

977
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:05,640
Speaker 1: a little bit for them to express some weariness over

978
00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:11,359
Speaker 1: this conflict. That's right. So that's as best we can

979
00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:13,800
Speaker 1: tell the Chinese perspective. So what is the perspective of

980
00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:16,440
Speaker 1: the American public on all of this. There's some new

981
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:22,320
Speaker 1: polling that shows basically Americans are super on board with

982
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:27,880
Speaker 1: everything except for actual boots on the ground, including measures

983
00:51:28,200 --> 00:51:33,280
Speaker 1: that are terrible ideas and would probably result in boots

984
00:51:33,360 --> 00:51:36,280
Speaker 1: on the ground and world War three and potential nuclear conflict.

985
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this tweet up on the screen.

986
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:41,320
Speaker 1: That kind of just a good summation of this latest

987
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:43,839
Speaker 1: economist I think it was economist Yugo, but definitely Ugov

988
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:47,440
Speaker 1: poll net support in the USA for sanctions plus fifty one,

989
00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:50,640
Speaker 1: sending money plus forty three, sending weapons plus thirty eight,

990
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:54,439
Speaker 1: sending troops to NATO plus thirty one. Here's where things

991
00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:59,839
Speaker 1: get really scary. No flies on support plus twenty five.

992
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:06,440
Speaker 1: Also scary Ukraine in NATO plus twenty. Then you get

993
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,840
Speaker 1: to the place, Okay, cyber attack on Russia, there's basically

994
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:13,640
Speaker 1: like equal split in favor and against. This is also

995
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 1: a terrible idea. Guys, sending soldiers to help but not

996
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:20,759
Speaker 1: to fight. Okay, that has minus five only minus five.

997
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:24,600
Speaker 1: Also a little scary drone attacks on Russia minus nineteen,

998
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:28,360
Speaker 1: airstrike on Russia minus thirty three, and sending soldiers to

999
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:32,680
Speaker 1: actually fight minus thirty five. So again, the fact that

1000
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:38,799
Speaker 1: you have such bipartisan strong support for no fly zone,

1001
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:41,839
Speaker 1: which I hope we have adequately explained to you here

1002
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 1: multiple times you're talking about World War three, is deeply,

1003
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:51,440
Speaker 1: deeply disturbing. And why do you have such broad support

1004
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:55,960
Speaker 1: among the public for something that is so dramatically escalatory

1005
00:52:56,239 --> 00:53:00,279
Speaker 1: and extremely dangerous for the world. Well, in part it's

1006
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:02,960
Speaker 1: because the media has done a terrible job of helping

1007
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:06,719
Speaker 1: people to understand what this actually means. And not only

1008
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 1: that they're pushing. We played you the clips of them

1009
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:12,279
Speaker 1: pushing Kamala Harris and other officials like why won't you

1010
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:14,399
Speaker 1: do more? Why won't you do a no fly zone.

1011
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 1: Here's the latest iteration of that, Chuck Todd pushing Secretary

1012
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 1: of State Tony Blinken, Why are you ruling out a

1013
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:24,680
Speaker 1: no fly zone? Let's take a listen. President's been very

1014
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 1: clear about one thing all along as well, which is

1015
00:53:28,040 --> 00:53:30,800
Speaker 1: we're not going to put the United States in direct

1016
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:36,080
Speaker 1: conflict with Russia, not have American planes flying against Russian

1017
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:39,840
Speaker 1: planes or our soldiers on the ground in Ukraine. Because

1018
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,400
Speaker 1: for everything we're doing for Ukraine, the President also has

1019
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:47,000
Speaker 1: a responsibility to not get us into a direct conflict,

1020
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:49,799
Speaker 1: a direct war with Russia, a nuclear power, and risk

1021
00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:54,239
Speaker 1: a war that expands even beyond Ukraine to Europe. That's

1022
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:56,880
Speaker 1: clearly not our interest. What we're trying to do is

1023
00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:01,680
Speaker 1: end this war in Ukraine, not start. So, you know,

1024
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:05,960
Speaker 1: good answer there, great answer from Tony Blinken. And thankfully,

1025
00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:08,200
Speaker 1: this is one of the few times where I'm glad

1026
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:12,920
Speaker 1: that the politicians are actually bucking public sentiment again, because

1027
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:16,040
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the political rhetoric too around

1028
00:54:16,520 --> 00:54:19,600
Speaker 1: He's Hitler, this is you know, we can't have appease men,

1029
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 1: we can't be Neville Chamberlain. All of this rhetoric Trump

1030
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:26,319
Speaker 1: saying it's a holocaust. Well, it leads people to want

1031
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:29,440
Speaker 1: to take relatively extreme actions. I mean, that is the

1032
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:32,880
Speaker 1: logical next next step conclusion. So it's hard for you

1033
00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:36,120
Speaker 1: to say, as Nancy Pelosi did that basically like this

1034
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 1: is Germany and Hitler and Nazis, and then say oh,

1035
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:41,799
Speaker 1: absolutely not to a no fly zone. People rightly look

1036
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:43,719
Speaker 1: at that and they're like, well, that doesn't make any sense.

1037
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:45,640
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put New York Times up on

1038
00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 1: the screen. Right now, most US lawmakers are saying no

1039
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:51,800
Speaker 1: to the no fly zone. Guess who one of the

1040
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:56,000
Speaker 1: few exceptions to that is our friend, Senator Joe Manchin

1041
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:58,800
Speaker 1: of West Virginia, who just loves to be terrible and

1042
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: wrong on every issue. I guess he says, I would

1043
00:55:02,239 --> 00:55:04,960
Speaker 1: take nothing off the table for us to hesitate, or

1044
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:08,000
Speaker 1: for anyone to hesitate, and the free world is wrong.

1045
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:10,880
Speaker 1: And just so you know again what the stakes are.

1046
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:14,879
Speaker 1: What Putin said in that same news conference that we've

1047
00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:17,080
Speaker 1: been quoting because he said. A lot of noteworthy things

1048
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:20,480
Speaker 1: about a no fly zone is that is, he says,

1049
00:55:20,520 --> 00:55:22,800
Speaker 1: we hear calls to impose a no fly zone over Ukraine,

1050
00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,520
Speaker 1: it is impossible to do from Ukrainian territory. It can

1051
00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:27,680
Speaker 1: only be done from the territory of other states. But

1052
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:30,799
Speaker 1: any moves in such direction will be seen by US

1053
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:34,440
Speaker 1: as participation in an armed conflict by the country that

1054
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:37,919
Speaker 1: will create threats to our servicemen. So he's directly saying,

1055
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:40,719
Speaker 1: no fly zone means you are part of this war. Yeah,

1056
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 1: I think. Look, here's where I employ you. Please send

1057
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:46,520
Speaker 1: anybody who supports this. What we've talked about here over

1058
00:55:46,600 --> 00:55:49,120
Speaker 1: and over again, and I will use the words of

1059
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:52,880
Speaker 1: Philip Breedlove, the NATO, former NATO commander who supports a

1060
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,239
Speaker 1: no fly zone, who still at least explained what it is.

1061
00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:59,879
Speaker 1: It doesn't just mean shooting planes out of the sky.

1062
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:04,320
Speaker 1: It also means that if Russia retaliates against our jets,

1063
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:07,280
Speaker 1: that we would then have to take offensive action against

1064
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:10,799
Speaker 1: their air defense systems inside of Russia. And then after

1065
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:13,200
Speaker 1: we do that, that the Russians would have to take

1066
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 1: action against our jets which are outside of Ukraine in

1067
00:56:17,239 --> 00:56:20,480
Speaker 1: NATO territory. Which means that you have now created a

1068
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:22,879
Speaker 1: situation where just in a span of a few days,

1069
00:56:23,080 --> 00:56:25,279
Speaker 1: they have a full blown hot war between the NATO

1070
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:28,920
Speaker 1: Alliance and Russia in which the consequences and the chances

1071
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:32,279
Speaker 1: of going nuclear are at what fifty I would say

1072
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:36,040
Speaker 1: higher personally based upon what I've read about Russian military doctrine.

1073
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:38,719
Speaker 1: Another thing I do want to say, which is very

1074
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 1: important for everybody at home, in terms of the idiocy,

1075
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:43,600
Speaker 1: which didn't make it in the show, but we saw

1076
00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:46,879
Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham out there, you know, calling for the assassination

1077
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:49,239
Speaker 1: of Putin, saying oh, we need to see you know

1078
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:52,560
Speaker 1: who is the brutus in Russia. First of all, read

1079
00:56:52,640 --> 00:56:55,440
Speaker 1: the second half of Julius Caesar. There. Okay, find out

1080
00:56:55,480 --> 00:56:58,560
Speaker 1: exactly what happens, but in terms of what that means

1081
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:03,040
Speaker 1: Russian military doctrine, military doctrine in terms of use for

1082
00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:08,480
Speaker 1: its nuclear weapons specifically includes an attempt at regime change

1083
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:11,719
Speaker 1: inside of Russia. This is written in very specifically as

1084
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:14,080
Speaker 1: a threat to the West, do not screw with us.

1085
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:16,480
Speaker 1: If you are calling for the destruction of our regime.

1086
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:20,320
Speaker 1: That is grounds for the launch of a first strike

1087
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 1: by the Russian government. So it may seem cavalier by

1088
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:26,120
Speaker 1: these people. Oh, you know, we need somebody needs to

1089
00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 1: take this guy out. Talk of a no fly zone

1090
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:31,040
Speaker 1: beating the chest. I posted about it. Some people were like,

1091
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:33,800
Speaker 1: well is he wrong? Well, yeah, actually he is wrong

1092
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:37,320
Speaker 1: because here's why. If we are seen to be engaging

1093
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:39,560
Speaker 1: at this at any level in the US government, it

1094
00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:43,400
Speaker 1: feeds paranoia in the Russian government, increases the likelihood of

1095
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:46,840
Speaker 1: a nuclear confrontation, and worse, what it really does show

1096
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:50,240
Speaker 1: you is that we are slow walking ourselves in a

1097
00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:54,240
Speaker 1: public that does not understand these consequences. We have to

1098
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:58,400
Speaker 1: use real rhetoric. No fly zone means war with Russia.

1099
00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:02,160
Speaker 1: It's inevitable. It is a fad of complete and if

1100
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: you message it that way, people will understand. So all

1101
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:07,480
Speaker 1: of you who watched this show, listen to the show,

1102
00:58:07,840 --> 00:58:09,840
Speaker 1: do the Lord's work in spread the gospel. Yeah, because

1103
00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:12,080
Speaker 1: we have to. We have got to get people understanding

1104
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 1: the consequences. Yes, that's exactly right. It is so so

1105
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:18,280
Speaker 1: important because how long are these politis is going to

1106
00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:21,880
Speaker 1: hold the line against their own hawkish instincts here and

1107
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 1: Senator Graham also, it's not like he's some backbench senator.

1108
00:58:26,600 --> 00:58:30,040
Speaker 1: I know I mean, this is someone who has traveled broadly,

1109
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 1: is widely known among world leaders. So for him to

1110
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:38,040
Speaker 1: be saying something that is so irresponsible and so insane

1111
00:58:38,680 --> 00:58:42,480
Speaker 1: is in and of itself just a horrific turn of events.

1112
00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:46,160
Speaker 1: Even he later sort of like, you know, walked it

1113
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:48,880
Speaker 1: back a little bit and you know, but it was

1114
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:51,280
Speaker 1: it was bad, and people ont of his own side

1115
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 1: of the aisle were saying this is terrible. Fox News

1116
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:56,240
Speaker 1: was saying, this is terrible, this is irresponsible. Don't go

1117
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:59,919
Speaker 1: forward with this kind of grap So that's where they're

1118
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:04,880
Speaker 1: people are today. It is another reason why I'm sort

1119
00:59:04,920 --> 00:59:09,400
Speaker 1: of uncomfortable with the like rising levels of Zelensky thirst

1120
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:12,800
Speaker 1: because and this is not to take anything away from it.

1121
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:14,560
Speaker 1: I think he's a hero, but he's doing what's good

1122
00:59:14,560 --> 00:59:17,600
Speaker 1: for him, right, And you have to understand, like, here's

1123
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:20,400
Speaker 1: a propaganda campaign around the sky too, And anytime you

1124
00:59:20,560 --> 00:59:24,160
Speaker 1: have this sort of political hero narrative, then it gives

1125
00:59:24,200 --> 00:59:27,280
Speaker 1: that person more standing when they do what he's doing,

1126
00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:30,280
Speaker 1: which is calling for a no fly zone and calling

1127
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:33,040
Speaker 1: for banning Russian oil and calling for you know, more

1128
00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:35,680
Speaker 1: fighter jets and these sorts of things. So you're like, well,

1129
00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:37,919
Speaker 1: if the hero Zelenski is saying it, then it must

1130
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,000
Speaker 1: be the right thing to do, and it makes it

1131
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:42,760
Speaker 1: harder to resist those calls. Once you've built a person

1132
00:59:42,840 --> 00:59:45,240
Speaker 1: I already know Krystol. The fact that you even acknowledge

1133
00:59:45,280 --> 00:59:47,120
Speaker 1: that you know there are some limited number of neo

1134
00:59:47,240 --> 00:59:49,080
Speaker 1: Nazis in Ukraine, people are going to say, oh, you're

1135
00:59:49,080 --> 00:59:51,560
Speaker 1: parroting Russian propaganda. We're trying to tell you the truth.

1136
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:54,880
Speaker 1: We're just trying to be honest dynamic situation, and in

1137
00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:58,280
Speaker 1: dynamic situations, it's important that you at home understand the

1138
00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:01,280
Speaker 1: consequences of everything, because if you were just getting spoon fed,

1139
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:03,560
Speaker 1: you know, you look just as foolish as some guy

1140
01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:06,240
Speaker 1: who's telling you that the Ukrainian government, run by a

1141
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:09,560
Speaker 1: Jew is full of Nazis. You have to acknowledge both

1142
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:11,480
Speaker 1: the good and the bad so that we can make

1143
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:15,320
Speaker 1: a clear decision. Whenever the consequences are in nuclear exchange.

1144
01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:18,040
Speaker 1: People think I'm fear mongering too whenever I talk about this.

1145
01:00:18,280 --> 01:00:20,600
Speaker 1: I mean, look, you're welcome to believe that, But if

1146
01:00:20,640 --> 01:00:23,680
Speaker 1: you've read enough about Russian military doctrine and also about

1147
01:00:23,920 --> 01:00:25,960
Speaker 1: how the many times in our history that we've come

1148
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:28,760
Speaker 1: close to pushing the red button, you would be, I

1149
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 1: think just as afraid as I am. History teaches us

1150
01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:33,760
Speaker 1: that we should be ten times more cautious and less

1151
01:00:33,840 --> 01:00:36,880
Speaker 1: cavalier about nukes than we are, especially in a confrontation

1152
01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:39,680
Speaker 1: with these great power conflicts. So look, you know, it

1153
01:00:40,240 --> 01:00:42,800
Speaker 1: may sound good, snowfl zone. Yeah, it just make sure

1154
01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:46,560
Speaker 1: so nobody can fly. What does that mean? It means war.

1155
01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:49,080
Speaker 1: And as if you understand that, the people who are

1156
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:51,680
Speaker 1: the most in the know all do understand that. God

1157
01:00:51,800 --> 01:00:54,440
Speaker 1: bless the fact that Joe Biden seems to understand that.

1158
01:00:54,600 --> 01:00:57,960
Speaker 1: For now, let's keep it that way. Indeed, all right,

1159
01:00:58,040 --> 01:00:59,880
Speaker 1: let's move on. We also want to detrack some of

1160
01:00:59,920 --> 01:01:04,320
Speaker 1: the insane censorship efforts that we're watching here, and then

1161
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:07,560
Speaker 1: we'll also tell you about what they're doing overseas in Russia.

1162
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:12,040
Speaker 1: Let's start with this CNBC tear sheet. So Ourt America

1163
01:01:12,440 --> 01:01:16,960
Speaker 1: is done, it's over. They shut down operations were immediately

1164
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 1: amid the Ukraine invasion. Basically what happened is direct TV,

1165
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:25,960
Speaker 1: which is the largest US satellite TV operator, They stopped

1166
01:01:26,040 --> 01:01:30,880
Speaker 1: carrying Art America earlier this week, and then Roku followed

1167
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:34,440
Speaker 1: DirecTV's lead and also removed the network from its Roku

1168
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:38,320
Speaker 1: channel store. But my understanding is that direct tv was

1169
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:43,440
Speaker 1: the big sort of distributor and revenue source for RT America.

1170
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:48,520
Speaker 1: So you know, that is that's done. That's over. Western

1171
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,920
Speaker 1: governments and tech platforms have banned the Russian news network RT,

1172
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:54,920
Speaker 1: which is of course the Russian version of RT America.

1173
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:58,960
Speaker 1: The EU has accused it of systematic disinformation over Russia's

1174
01:01:58,960 --> 01:02:01,120
Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine. I don't doubt that that is the case.

1175
01:02:01,600 --> 01:02:04,760
Speaker 1: And we've also seen even so far as you know,

1176
01:02:04,960 --> 01:02:09,400
Speaker 1: Russian artists overseas being banned from you know, losing their

1177
01:02:09,560 --> 01:02:12,480
Speaker 1: jobs or having their concerts canceled and things like that.

1178
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:16,080
Speaker 1: So you see this sort of like xenophobic hysteria as well.

1179
01:02:16,880 --> 01:02:18,720
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this Lee camp tweet up

1180
01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:21,640
Speaker 1: on the screen. So Lee had a show on Our

1181
01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:26,040
Speaker 1: Tea America and he also had his podcast of twelve

1182
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:30,120
Speaker 1: years removed from Spotify and according to him, with no notice.

1183
01:02:30,200 --> 01:02:33,320
Speaker 1: His YouTube videos are also banned across Europe and the UK.

1184
01:02:34,120 --> 01:02:38,240
Speaker 1: So there is this, you know, mass movement to take

1185
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:42,680
Speaker 1: off any podcast, any sort of commentary that can even

1186
01:02:42,720 --> 01:02:46,400
Speaker 1: be considered to be affiliated with Russia. And you know,

1187
01:02:46,640 --> 01:02:49,800
Speaker 1: this is this is not something that we support whatsoever.

1188
01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:53,880
Speaker 1: This goes completely counter to the idea of free exchange

1189
01:02:53,920 --> 01:02:56,439
Speaker 1: of ideas, and we've talked about even in the most

1190
01:02:56,520 --> 01:03:01,640
Speaker 1: extreme situations where you have direct Russian propaganda from Sputnik

1191
01:03:01,760 --> 01:03:05,880
Speaker 1: and Pravda or whatever, having access to the way that

1192
01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:08,560
Speaker 1: they're processing events, the way they're spinning to the public

1193
01:03:08,800 --> 01:03:12,680
Speaker 1: is incredibly important for our own understanding of what is

1194
01:03:12,760 --> 01:03:15,440
Speaker 1: happening and how the Russian public is happening. In this morning,

1195
01:03:15,560 --> 01:03:17,480
Speaker 1: we saw a statement come out from the Kremlin and

1196
01:03:17,560 --> 01:03:19,560
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, man, is this the crectright translation.

1197
01:03:19,680 --> 01:03:21,120
Speaker 1: I was like, what does that mean? I said, well,

1198
01:03:21,280 --> 01:03:23,120
Speaker 1: I got to go check Tasks, which is the Russian

1199
01:03:23,160 --> 01:03:25,400
Speaker 1: state media organization. So I go on Task and I

1200
01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:29,040
Speaker 1: read it in English, the official state media translation. I'm like, okay,

1201
01:03:29,040 --> 01:03:31,400
Speaker 1: I feel comfortable sharing this on the air. So I

1202
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:34,880
Speaker 1: had to use Russian state media. Whenever we talk about China,

1203
01:03:34,960 --> 01:03:36,439
Speaker 1: I do the same thing. I go and I read

1204
01:03:36,480 --> 01:03:39,360
Speaker 1: the Global Times. Now I should have access to that. No,

1205
01:03:39,840 --> 01:03:43,520
Speaker 1: the more that we have bifurcated information environments, the more

1206
01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:46,960
Speaker 1: screwed we are. You have got to understand what is

1207
01:03:47,080 --> 01:03:49,480
Speaker 1: the Russian point of view? My entire monologue today is

1208
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:51,680
Speaker 1: actually going to be about this in terms of some

1209
01:03:51,760 --> 01:03:53,880
Speaker 1: of the thinkers that the Russians are listening to, what

1210
01:03:54,000 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 1: the most extreme view of that looks like. Guess why

1211
01:03:57,080 --> 01:03:59,440
Speaker 1: I'm bringing it to you because you need to understand

1212
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:02,720
Speaker 1: their mind is maybe sanctions are exactly what they want.

1213
01:04:02,840 --> 01:04:05,360
Speaker 1: Maybe we've actually achieved Putin and some of the most

1214
01:04:05,400 --> 01:04:08,200
Speaker 1: alternationalists wildest dreams. I'm not saying we shouldn't have done

1215
01:04:08,200 --> 01:04:11,240
Speaker 1: it anyway, but understand the implication. Know what it means,

1216
01:04:11,600 --> 01:04:14,160
Speaker 1: Know the mind of your adversary, what they care about,

1217
01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:18,000
Speaker 1: and what they don't like. I said too cavalier statements

1218
01:04:18,160 --> 01:04:22,120
Speaker 1: in our country could be perceived as wildly off base,

1219
01:04:22,320 --> 01:04:25,760
Speaker 1: offensive and escalatory in theirs, like the regime change one

1220
01:04:25,960 --> 01:04:28,920
Speaker 1: that Lindsay Graham talked about. It's important for us to

1221
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:31,840
Speaker 1: know how did we react on the nuclear thing. Whenever

1222
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:33,480
Speaker 1: we were trying to tell people how serious it was,

1223
01:04:33,760 --> 01:04:36,520
Speaker 1: we showed and read people a statement that was read

1224
01:04:36,600 --> 01:04:39,240
Speaker 1: directly on Russian state media about how well, if the

1225
01:04:39,280 --> 01:04:41,520
Speaker 1: world does isn't going to exist, then why or if

1226
01:04:41,560 --> 01:04:43,440
Speaker 1: the world if Russia doesn't exist, then why does the

1227
01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:46,400
Speaker 1: world worth it? Something I'm paraphrasing, Yeah, that was important

1228
01:04:46,440 --> 01:04:48,840
Speaker 1: to tell people. That's what people at home are hearing

1229
01:04:48,920 --> 01:04:51,920
Speaker 1: and consuming. They do the same to us. So all

1230
01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:54,880
Speaker 1: I would say is with some of these efforts, they're

1231
01:04:54,920 --> 01:04:58,800
Speaker 1: completely ridiculous. Most of the PRF stuff that you're seeing

1232
01:04:59,200 --> 01:05:01,280
Speaker 1: is going to happen anyw way because of sanctions. But

1233
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:05,120
Speaker 1: like EA Sports removing Russia from FIFA, I mean, what

1234
01:05:05,280 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 1: the conductor or whatever gonna get fired the International Cat

1235
01:05:08,400 --> 01:05:12,200
Speaker 1: Federation fan Russian cats? Okay, I mean, come on, and

1236
01:05:12,880 --> 01:05:15,000
Speaker 1: I mean it really does get into a kind of

1237
01:05:15,160 --> 01:05:20,800
Speaker 1: like witch hunt, neo McCarthyist direction because and we saw

1238
01:05:20,880 --> 01:05:23,080
Speaker 1: this in the build up as well. If you said

1239
01:05:23,120 --> 01:05:25,680
Speaker 1: anything that wasn't part of the sort of like sanctioned

1240
01:05:25,720 --> 01:05:28,320
Speaker 1: to prove network, people are very happy to call you

1241
01:05:28,440 --> 01:05:31,040
Speaker 1: a trader. You know, if this is you should be

1242
01:05:31,160 --> 01:05:35,200
Speaker 1: tried for Teresa. It's it's a type of hysteria that

1243
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:40,320
Speaker 1: is incredibly anti productive and just straight up scary, because listen,

1244
01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:43,160
Speaker 1: this is a complicated conflict and you have to have

1245
01:05:43,400 --> 01:05:46,160
Speaker 1: the ability to tell the truth about what's going on

1246
01:05:46,360 --> 01:05:49,760
Speaker 1: about you know, parsing out. Okay, who's involved in the conflict.

1247
01:05:50,200 --> 01:05:53,240
Speaker 1: Ukraine has been accused of war crimes as well. You know,

1248
01:05:53,360 --> 01:05:54,960
Speaker 1: we have to be able to be able to talk

1249
01:05:55,040 --> 01:05:57,240
Speaker 1: honestly about those things too. They've been sort of trotting

1250
01:05:57,240 --> 01:06:00,920
Speaker 1: out Russian POW's and really nice, which you're not supposed

1251
01:06:00,920 --> 01:06:02,920
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah and so, and you know, if the

1252
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:05,640
Speaker 1: Russians were doing it, which I think they may be

1253
01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:07,439
Speaker 1: as well, but if the Russians were doing it, people

1254
01:06:07,480 --> 01:06:10,160
Speaker 1: would be confident and comfortable calling that out. We have

1255
01:06:10,240 --> 01:06:12,600
Speaker 1: to be able to be fair minded and even handed

1256
01:06:12,640 --> 01:06:15,400
Speaker 1: here as best we can and sort through the propaganda

1257
01:06:15,760 --> 01:06:19,160
Speaker 1: which is clearly being fueled by both sides of this conflict.

1258
01:06:19,480 --> 01:06:21,960
Speaker 1: We also wanted to highlight though, I mean, there is

1259
01:06:22,160 --> 01:06:26,040
Speaker 1: an absolute crackdown on any kind of independent media or

1260
01:06:26,080 --> 01:06:29,600
Speaker 1: journalism happening right now in Russia. Oh it's not even

1261
01:06:29,840 --> 01:06:33,480
Speaker 1: it's not close. Okay, So let's go in and put

1262
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:35,960
Speaker 1: this Daily Mail tear sheet up on the screen. Basically

1263
01:06:36,120 --> 01:06:42,720
Speaker 1: every Western news outlet, TV news outlet has stopped broadcasting

1264
01:06:42,880 --> 01:06:48,360
Speaker 1: in Russia. They track their CNN, ABC, CBS News, Bloomberg, BBC,

1265
01:06:48,880 --> 01:06:54,520
Speaker 1: Canada's CBC. They're all temporarily suspending operations. I believe the

1266
01:06:54,920 --> 01:06:57,840
Speaker 1: some of the print publications have remained. Times in the

1267
01:06:57,920 --> 01:07:00,760
Speaker 1: post I believe are still there. But this is all

1268
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:06,240
Speaker 1: in response to actual legislation that is being passed which

1269
01:07:06,560 --> 01:07:09,280
Speaker 1: says that if you are you know, if you are

1270
01:07:09,640 --> 01:07:13,320
Speaker 1: found guilty of spreading quote fake news, then you could

1271
01:07:13,360 --> 01:07:18,320
Speaker 1: be subject to up to fifteen years in prison. So

1272
01:07:18,560 --> 01:07:22,240
Speaker 1: they are really cracking down. There have been rumors of

1273
01:07:22,280 --> 01:07:25,520
Speaker 1: potential martial law putin swears that's not going to ultimately happen.

1274
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:33,000
Speaker 1: But this type of legal official punishment for having wrongthink

1275
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:36,560
Speaker 1: and you know, accurately reporting on what's happening, for example

1276
01:07:36,680 --> 01:07:39,560
Speaker 1: calling it a war or calling it invasion, this is

1277
01:07:39,640 --> 01:07:42,000
Speaker 1: really pretty wild. And here's the other thing that we

1278
01:07:42,040 --> 01:07:44,480
Speaker 1: should say is for a lot of the population this

1279
01:07:44,760 --> 01:07:47,080
Speaker 1: will work. I mean, it will make it much harder

1280
01:07:47,520 --> 01:07:50,640
Speaker 1: to get any kind of other perspective on what is

1281
01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:54,200
Speaker 1: happening right now in Ukraine, and so it probably will

1282
01:07:54,320 --> 01:07:57,960
Speaker 1: help to bolster their propaganda's effectively. And worse, as to

1283
01:07:58,040 --> 01:07:59,520
Speaker 1: what I just said about how we need to understand

1284
01:07:59,520 --> 01:08:01,720
Speaker 1: the Russians, they need to understand us. They need to

1285
01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:03,760
Speaker 1: be able to read us too, and see, they need

1286
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:06,440
Speaker 1: to read what's happening on polling and how people are

1287
01:08:06,520 --> 01:08:09,280
Speaker 1: feeling and seeing how exactly their actions could also lead

1288
01:08:09,320 --> 01:08:12,800
Speaker 1: to a miscalculation and an escalation. And the worst thing

1289
01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:15,600
Speaker 1: that we have for this country is a return to

1290
01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:19,599
Speaker 1: no cultural understanding of each other. That makes us more

1291
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:23,320
Speaker 1: reliant on official channels in order to explain what people are,

1292
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:26,720
Speaker 1: and you really want that. I want Moscow correspondence out

1293
01:08:26,800 --> 01:08:29,280
Speaker 1: there being like, hey, we're hear in the Kremlin. This

1294
01:08:29,439 --> 01:08:31,640
Speaker 1: is what it looks like, this is what the population is.

1295
01:08:31,880 --> 01:08:33,800
Speaker 1: Here's a picture of the protests, so that I can

1296
01:08:33,880 --> 01:08:35,639
Speaker 1: at least look at that and try and suss out

1297
01:08:35,880 --> 01:08:39,160
Speaker 1: for myself. Otherwise I'm relying on the fricking State Department

1298
01:08:39,400 --> 01:08:41,680
Speaker 1: in order to tell me what to think. That's not

1299
01:08:41,840 --> 01:08:45,200
Speaker 1: a good situation when the biggest miscalculations that we would

1300
01:08:45,240 --> 01:08:47,080
Speaker 1: make in the Cold War is when we did not

1301
01:08:47,280 --> 01:08:49,759
Speaker 1: understand what they were thinking and they did not understand

1302
01:08:50,000 --> 01:08:52,400
Speaker 1: what we were thinking. In the age of the Internet

1303
01:08:52,560 --> 01:08:55,800
Speaker 1: and of globalization, it's madness to have this level of

1304
01:08:55,880 --> 01:08:59,280
Speaker 1: cultural separation between our two peoples, and to see a

1305
01:08:59,360 --> 01:09:02,639
Speaker 1: return to that level of posture is a total disaster. Yeah,

1306
01:09:02,760 --> 01:09:05,760
Speaker 1: total total disaster. It makes it very easy to then

1307
01:09:05,920 --> 01:09:11,240
Speaker 1: go from we don't like Putin and to the entirety

1308
01:09:11,439 --> 01:09:14,920
Speaker 1: of Russia and Russian people, they're setting themselves. You already

1309
01:09:14,920 --> 01:09:16,560
Speaker 1: see it happening. I mean, you see it happening in

1310
01:09:16,640 --> 01:09:21,000
Speaker 1: real time with you know, people's comfort with the level

1311
01:09:21,080 --> 01:09:23,240
Speaker 1: of we must make them pay. And there are no

1312
01:09:23,400 --> 01:09:26,519
Speaker 1: innocent Russians anymore, there are no neutral Russians. That we're

1313
01:09:26,520 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 1: cutting a restaurant in New York called the Russian Tea House,

1314
01:09:29,280 --> 01:09:31,600
Speaker 1: which is apparently not even owned by the Russians. So

1315
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:36,120
Speaker 1: everybody calmed down. Everybody calmed down, all right, speaking of

1316
01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:39,800
Speaker 1: calming down, speaking of absurd and absurdity, Let's move on

1317
01:09:40,040 --> 01:09:43,120
Speaker 1: our former president. So we brought you the news that

1318
01:09:43,240 --> 01:09:47,160
Speaker 1: Sean Hannity had proposed some plan in which we bomb

1319
01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:50,800
Speaker 1: the Russian convoy, but we put a fake Chinese flag

1320
01:09:50,880 --> 01:09:52,840
Speaker 1: on it, so then they go to war. I thought

1321
01:09:52,920 --> 01:09:55,040
Speaker 1: he was dumb enough to come up that with his

1322
01:09:55,160 --> 01:09:57,559
Speaker 1: own but it seems that we have the original source.

1323
01:09:57,800 --> 01:09:59,519
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.

1324
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:03,519
Speaker 1: So Donald Trump recently over the weekend, speaking to a

1325
01:10:03,640 --> 01:10:07,360
Speaker 1: donor conference, he told the donors, quote, we should put

1326
01:10:07,360 --> 01:10:11,160
Speaker 1: a Chinese flag on our F twenty two's, then bomb

1327
01:10:11,280 --> 01:10:14,679
Speaker 1: the shit out of Russia and then we say China

1328
01:10:14,760 --> 01:10:17,720
Speaker 1: did We didn't do it, China did it. And then

1329
01:10:17,840 --> 01:10:20,479
Speaker 1: they start fighting with each other and we sit back

1330
01:10:20,760 --> 01:10:23,000
Speaker 1: and watch. Let's go ahead and put this next one

1331
01:10:23,080 --> 01:10:25,280
Speaker 1: up there, which is also very important, which is that

1332
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:27,840
Speaker 1: Trump went ahead and said that NATO was a quote

1333
01:10:27,840 --> 01:10:30,920
Speaker 1: paper tiger and added of Ukraine. At what point do

1334
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:34,000
Speaker 1: we say, can we not take the massive crime against humanity?

1335
01:10:34,200 --> 01:10:36,599
Speaker 1: We can't let it happen, We can't let it continue

1336
01:10:36,680 --> 01:10:39,600
Speaker 1: to happen. This, again, is the sheer incoherence of the

1337
01:10:39,640 --> 01:10:43,240
Speaker 1: Trump administration, you know, musing one of the dumbest possible

1338
01:10:43,280 --> 01:10:46,479
Speaker 1: ideas you could say is joking. Okay maybe, but look

1339
01:10:46,600 --> 01:10:49,679
Speaker 1: in geopolitics, like I just explained in our censorship block,

1340
01:10:50,040 --> 01:10:52,400
Speaker 1: whenever that stuff gets printed out on the page, the

1341
01:10:52,560 --> 01:10:54,760
Speaker 1: words of the former president and they're read in the

1342
01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:57,479
Speaker 1: Kremlin or in Moscow or in Russian state media, what

1343
01:10:57,600 --> 01:10:59,360
Speaker 1: do you think that they're going to say, look at

1344
01:10:59,360 --> 01:11:01,760
Speaker 1: the insanity of what they're trying to do over there.

1345
01:11:01,840 --> 01:11:05,040
Speaker 1: And then also the more he keeps up this there,

1346
01:11:05,160 --> 01:11:08,040
Speaker 1: it's a holocaust over there, it's a crime against humanity.

1347
01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:12,920
Speaker 1: Those terms mean something, They mean that the world should

1348
01:11:13,040 --> 01:11:16,360
Speaker 1: act and in almost every case, that they are used,

1349
01:11:16,680 --> 01:11:21,240
Speaker 1: they are used to justify military action. By preparing and

1350
01:11:21,600 --> 01:11:24,760
Speaker 1: using this language to the GOP base and to you know,

1351
01:11:24,840 --> 01:11:28,680
Speaker 1: Republicans in general, you're setting up a faction and empowering

1352
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:32,439
Speaker 1: one which will pursue a war with Russia, something your

1353
01:11:32,439 --> 01:11:37,200
Speaker 1: administration rightfully wanted to not have and came in which

1354
01:11:37,320 --> 01:11:40,280
Speaker 1: I supported a Dayton with the Russian government and a

1355
01:11:40,320 --> 01:11:45,920
Speaker 1: realignment of geopolitics. But unfortunately his sheer incoherence is setting

1356
01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:49,479
Speaker 1: up a terrible situation. I mean, it's look, I know

1357
01:11:49,560 --> 01:11:52,120
Speaker 1: I sound like MSNBC right now, but the words of

1358
01:11:52,200 --> 01:11:55,640
Speaker 1: a president do matter, especially whenever it comes to a

1359
01:11:55,760 --> 01:11:59,160
Speaker 1: hot conflict, and especially somebody who may himself be the

1360
01:11:59,280 --> 01:12:02,600
Speaker 1: chief executive three years from now dealing with whatever the

1361
01:12:02,720 --> 01:12:05,360
Speaker 1: fallout is here. Even if it was a joke, it's

1362
01:12:05,479 --> 01:12:08,000
Speaker 1: not one that should be floated in public in any

1363
01:12:08,439 --> 01:12:10,640
Speaker 1: serious way. So I don't know what to say. I mean,

1364
01:12:10,680 --> 01:12:13,240
Speaker 1: it scares the hell out of me, honestly, Crystel. Yeah. Well,

1365
01:12:13,280 --> 01:12:15,280
Speaker 1: and it's not just that he was the former president

1366
01:12:15,320 --> 01:12:18,000
Speaker 1: that he might be. He's the once possibly future president,

1367
01:12:18,280 --> 01:12:20,720
Speaker 1: the president, but he's he's very influential. Yeah, you know,

1368
01:12:20,960 --> 01:12:23,719
Speaker 1: millions of people believe every word that the man says.

1369
01:12:23,880 --> 01:12:26,519
Speaker 1: And this is one of those situations where you know,

1370
01:12:26,600 --> 01:12:29,080
Speaker 1: when things sort of jump off and people aren't sure

1371
01:12:29,120 --> 01:12:31,880
Speaker 1: where they're supposed to be, they look for these sort

1372
01:12:31,920 --> 01:12:35,040
Speaker 1: of signals of where is my team that's right? What

1373
01:12:35,160 --> 01:12:37,360
Speaker 1: is my team's posture and stance in all of this,

1374
01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:40,360
Speaker 1: And he is one of the people that, for the

1375
01:12:40,479 --> 01:12:44,080
Speaker 1: Republican base, is most influential in setting what that posture,

1376
01:12:44,200 --> 01:12:47,760
Speaker 1: instance is. So when you say things like it's a holocaust,

1377
01:12:47,840 --> 01:12:49,800
Speaker 1: when you say things like we can't let it happen,

1378
01:12:49,960 --> 01:12:52,920
Speaker 1: we can't let it continue to happen. Okay, well, what

1379
01:12:53,000 --> 01:12:56,559
Speaker 1: does that mean? What does that ultimately justify? And we've

1380
01:12:56,720 --> 01:12:59,639
Speaker 1: already seen, just in the span of the past couple

1381
01:12:59,640 --> 01:13:03,760
Speaker 1: of weeks, a huge shift in the Republican base on

1382
01:13:03,920 --> 01:13:08,200
Speaker 1: their orientation towards this conflict. Originally there was more of

1383
01:13:08,280 --> 01:13:11,320
Speaker 1: a sort of attitude of this isn't really our problem.

1384
01:13:11,680 --> 01:13:15,680
Speaker 1: We should be limited and very judicious ultimately in our response.

1385
01:13:16,400 --> 01:13:18,920
Speaker 1: Now you're seeing, we can put this next piece up

1386
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:22,360
Speaker 1: on the screens from the Washington Free Beacon poll. You're

1387
01:13:22,439 --> 01:13:28,040
Speaker 1: seeing now a large level of support for the plurality

1388
01:13:28,120 --> 01:13:31,680
Speaker 1: here is imposed the strongest possible sanctions on Russia and

1389
01:13:31,840 --> 01:13:36,200
Speaker 1: seek a diplomatic resolution. So that's the most The only

1390
01:13:36,280 --> 01:13:38,519
Speaker 1: one that they, you know, that was more hawkish that

1391
01:13:38,560 --> 01:13:40,560
Speaker 1: they didn't go along with was sending US troops to

1392
01:13:40,600 --> 01:13:43,960
Speaker 1: support the Ukrainian resistance. That's good, but you now have

1393
01:13:44,360 --> 01:13:47,680
Speaker 1: eighty percent of the Russian base saying we need to

1394
01:13:47,760 --> 01:13:50,519
Speaker 1: do more, that we're not taking a tough enough stance,

1395
01:13:50,960 --> 01:13:54,160
Speaker 1: and so that creates an opening for people to say,

1396
01:13:54,200 --> 01:13:56,800
Speaker 1: all right, well, that do more is a no fly zone,

1397
01:13:56,920 --> 01:13:59,600
Speaker 1: That do more is a cyber attack on Russia. That

1398
01:13:59,680 --> 01:14:01,719
Speaker 1: do more is you know some of the things. Frankly,

1399
01:14:01,720 --> 01:14:04,800
Speaker 1: the Biden administration is already doing floating fighter jets and

1400
01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:09,800
Speaker 1: seventeen thousand Javelin missiles and all of this massive flow

1401
01:14:09,920 --> 01:14:14,000
Speaker 1: of arms into Ukraine. So that's why Trump's words here

1402
01:14:14,160 --> 01:14:18,360
Speaker 1: are really significant. And I think the GOP base has

1403
01:14:18,760 --> 01:14:21,880
Speaker 1: significantly changed over just the past couple of weeks to

1404
01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:25,000
Speaker 1: take a much more hawkish position, when in the beginning

1405
01:14:25,040 --> 01:14:27,200
Speaker 1: it was actually a democratic base that was in the

1406
01:14:27,280 --> 01:14:30,280
Speaker 1: more hawkish stance with regards to Rush. After of course,

1407
01:14:30,400 --> 01:14:34,000
Speaker 1: years of Russia Gate and look, escalation seems like nothing

1408
01:14:34,320 --> 01:14:37,599
Speaker 1: until it's everything. I mean, the Cuban missile crisis happened

1409
01:14:37,600 --> 01:14:39,920
Speaker 1: in the thirteen days. That's really not that long. That's

1410
01:14:40,160 --> 01:14:42,840
Speaker 1: you know, it's less than two weeks. Think about that

1411
01:14:43,200 --> 01:14:46,759
Speaker 1: in terms of how quickly the geopolitical situation can escalate

1412
01:14:46,760 --> 01:14:48,439
Speaker 1: all the way up to the top and the brink

1413
01:14:48,560 --> 01:14:52,519
Speaker 1: of nuclear war, and all it takes is one wrong situation.

1414
01:14:52,640 --> 01:14:54,599
Speaker 1: And when you have a base and people who are

1415
01:14:54,640 --> 01:14:57,040
Speaker 1: pushing for something, and people want to appear tough with

1416
01:14:57,360 --> 01:15:01,040
Speaker 1: big language, boom that in the matter of seconds, you've

1417
01:15:01,120 --> 01:15:04,720
Speaker 1: just created an incredibly dangerous situation. So Trump's rhetoric here

1418
01:15:04,920 --> 01:15:07,240
Speaker 1: is you know, worse than useless. It's actually, you know,

1419
01:15:07,680 --> 01:15:11,639
Speaker 1: it's escalating in terms of what he's saying about Chinese

1420
01:15:11,680 --> 01:15:14,120
Speaker 1: planes and all this stuff. Some of the it's always

1421
01:15:14,600 --> 01:15:17,160
Speaker 1: he never ceases to amaze me whenever it comes to

1422
01:15:17,640 --> 01:15:20,439
Speaker 1: this type of action. And look, if he's a president again,

1423
01:15:20,680 --> 01:15:22,200
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to grapple with that. And then he's

1424
01:15:22,200 --> 01:15:24,680
Speaker 1: got his own propaganda network, apparently in Sean Hannity and

1425
01:15:24,760 --> 01:15:27,559
Speaker 1: code to spread whatever insanity he you know, cooks up

1426
01:15:27,600 --> 01:15:29,600
Speaker 1: in his dry You know, I should have known that

1427
01:15:29,680 --> 01:15:32,280
Speaker 1: this would have come directly from Trump's mouth it's funny

1428
01:15:32,320 --> 01:15:35,320
Speaker 1: because you're You're totally right. It definitely originated with Trump.

1429
01:15:35,360 --> 01:15:37,599
Speaker 1: When I first saw it, I thought, Oh, he didn't

1430
01:15:37,600 --> 01:15:39,599
Speaker 1: even come up with this idea himself. Trump. This came

1431
01:15:39,640 --> 01:15:43,160
Speaker 1: from Sean Hannity. You're right, yeah, this is a Trump

1432
01:15:45,960 --> 01:15:48,200
Speaker 1: all right, Sagar, what are you looking at? Well? What

1433
01:15:48,360 --> 01:15:50,960
Speaker 1: is Vladimir Putin thinking? It's a trillion dollar question in

1434
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:52,960
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, And one of the biggest problems

1435
01:15:53,000 --> 01:15:55,920
Speaker 1: Americans make is thinking of their adversaries across the world

1436
01:15:56,200 --> 01:15:59,519
Speaker 1: in a uni dimensional terms, like Putin is bad, China

1437
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:03,120
Speaker 1: is bad, United Kingdom good. As usual, in these situations,

1438
01:16:03,360 --> 01:16:07,000
Speaker 1: it's complicated. Someone can be both bad and foolish, but

1439
01:16:07,120 --> 01:16:10,040
Speaker 1: to different degrees than others before him and history. I've

1440
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:12,400
Speaker 1: stated before, the real reason I never thought that Putin

1441
01:16:12,400 --> 01:16:15,200
Speaker 1: would ever invade Ukraine was simply because he would be

1442
01:16:15,240 --> 01:16:17,720
Speaker 1: such an idiot to do so. He is now guaranteed

1443
01:16:17,720 --> 01:16:20,000
Speaker 1: a strong NATO with deployments of the East. He has

1444
01:16:20,040 --> 01:16:25,320
Speaker 1: invited geopolitical cancelation effectively of Russia, financial isolation, poverty for citizens,

1445
01:16:25,560 --> 01:16:28,200
Speaker 1: a more hawkish Europe, and the distaste of the entire

1446
01:16:28,360 --> 01:16:32,320
Speaker 1: Western and Allied Asian publics. So why would any of

1447
01:16:32,439 --> 01:16:36,040
Speaker 1: this happen legitimate security concerns around NATO. They're not a

1448
01:16:36,120 --> 01:16:38,760
Speaker 1: good enough answer to stomach the response that Putin has

1449
01:16:38,840 --> 01:16:42,880
Speaker 1: now gotten. The only thing that really makes sense is ideology,

1450
01:16:43,080 --> 01:16:45,400
Speaker 1: and that's a powerful lesson for all of us. Too

1451
01:16:45,479 --> 01:16:48,240
Speaker 1: often people think that money is the root of all evil,

1452
01:16:48,479 --> 01:16:51,880
Speaker 1: and in many many cases it is, but when it

1453
01:16:51,960 --> 01:16:55,720
Speaker 1: comes to geopolitics, ideology actually becomes even more of a

1454
01:16:55,800 --> 01:16:59,880
Speaker 1: powerful drug. Only thing that can trump greed is an ideal,

1455
01:17:00,080 --> 01:17:03,800
Speaker 1: logical commitment to something deep, and with Putin it's really

1456
01:17:03,880 --> 01:17:06,800
Speaker 1: just a matter of seeing what his ultimate ideology is

1457
01:17:07,280 --> 01:17:09,600
Speaker 1: now in the most extreme form. I found somewhat of

1458
01:17:09,640 --> 01:17:13,040
Speaker 1: an answer in Alexander Dugan. He's a Russian philosopher and

1459
01:17:13,080 --> 01:17:16,599
Speaker 1: a geopolitical thinker who, perhaps more than anyone in Russia,

1460
01:17:16,840 --> 01:17:20,280
Speaker 1: typifies what seems to be the Putin thinking in invading Ukraine.

1461
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,120
Speaker 1: Let's go and put this up there. Dugan's most influential

1462
01:17:23,160 --> 01:17:25,519
Speaker 1: work it's called The Foundation of Geopolitics. It was written

1463
01:17:25,520 --> 01:17:28,519
Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties. It's recommended reading by the Russian military,

1464
01:17:28,720 --> 01:17:31,679
Speaker 1: and which Putin is almost certainly familiar with. It raised

1465
01:17:31,760 --> 01:17:35,200
Speaker 1: three distinct possibilities in nineteen ninety seven, that Russia should

1466
01:17:35,240 --> 01:17:38,320
Speaker 1: invade Georgia, it should annex Ukraine, and should attempt to

1467
01:17:38,320 --> 01:17:40,800
Speaker 1: separate Britain from the rest of Europe, and that the

1468
01:17:40,880 --> 01:17:43,320
Speaker 1: seeds of discord should be sown in the United States.

1469
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:45,800
Speaker 1: Now resistance liberals are having a field day with the

1470
01:17:45,880 --> 01:17:48,240
Speaker 1: latter two as evidence of a Russian plot, but the

1471
01:17:48,320 --> 01:17:50,880
Speaker 1: first two are way more interesting, as they are ones

1472
01:17:50,920 --> 01:17:54,280
Speaker 1: that the Kremlin actually can and did do so. The

1473
01:17:54,400 --> 01:17:58,000
Speaker 1: question for Dugan is why fundamentally Dugan is opposed to

1474
01:17:58,080 --> 01:18:02,439
Speaker 1: what he calls Atlanticism words the influence of the United

1475
01:18:02,479 --> 01:18:06,320
Speaker 1: States and the West on the Eurasian step, which organizationally

1476
01:18:06,400 --> 01:18:10,080
Speaker 1: he calls NATO now firmly putting Moscow in the latter

1477
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:14,360
Speaker 1: category separates Moscow from the rest of the European continent.

1478
01:18:14,680 --> 01:18:17,280
Speaker 1: What I find so interesting about Dugan is how simply

1479
01:18:17,400 --> 01:18:20,960
Speaker 1: typical he is of a Russian thinker. If you're willing

1480
01:18:21,000 --> 01:18:23,479
Speaker 1: to go back far enough in time, the seminal conflict

1481
01:18:23,520 --> 01:18:25,400
Speaker 1: of the Russian Zardom from the time of Peter the

1482
01:18:25,439 --> 01:18:28,360
Speaker 1: Great onward was do we modernize or do we stay

1483
01:18:28,439 --> 01:18:31,880
Speaker 1: true to our roots of Russian autocracy. Seemingly every czar

1484
01:18:31,960 --> 01:18:34,479
Speaker 1: from sixteen hundred to nineteen hundred was a battle between

1485
01:18:34,479 --> 01:18:37,320
Speaker 1: the influences of the West, the need to modernize the economy,

1486
01:18:37,520 --> 01:18:40,519
Speaker 1: but then the embrace of a Russian bear character, an

1487
01:18:40,560 --> 01:18:44,519
Speaker 1: embrace of autocracy, an outright rejection of fanciful notions like freedom.

1488
01:18:44,880 --> 01:18:48,400
Speaker 1: This matters because it already aligns with Putin's landmark speech

1489
01:18:48,680 --> 01:18:51,000
Speaker 1: before the Ukrainian invasion, which I outlined for all of

1490
01:18:51,080 --> 01:18:53,640
Speaker 1: you here one where Putin cast himself not as the

1491
01:18:53,680 --> 01:18:56,759
Speaker 1: heir to the Soviet Empire, but to the Russian Empire

1492
01:18:57,000 --> 01:18:59,519
Speaker 1: of long ago, where Ukraine and many of these former

1493
01:18:59,600 --> 01:19:03,519
Speaker 1: Soviet republics were not independent states but subject to his

1494
01:19:03,800 --> 01:19:08,360
Speaker 1: total control. Dugan's pressions on today's move into Ukraine really

1495
01:19:08,520 --> 01:19:11,360
Speaker 1: is noteworthy. He cheered the two thousand and eight operation

1496
01:19:11,520 --> 01:19:13,920
Speaker 1: in Georgia, and in twenty fourteen he cheered again the

1497
01:19:14,000 --> 01:19:17,360
Speaker 1: Russian annexation of Crimea. In fact, his only beef with

1498
01:19:17,439 --> 01:19:19,640
Speaker 1: Putin at the time was that he was succumbing to

1499
01:19:19,760 --> 01:19:23,840
Speaker 1: Western influence by only taking Crimea. He predicted that a

1500
01:19:23,920 --> 01:19:27,160
Speaker 1: war with Ukraine was quote inevitable, and noted that he

1501
01:19:27,320 --> 01:19:30,160
Speaker 1: and many of his thinking felt down, let down by

1502
01:19:30,200 --> 01:19:32,559
Speaker 1: the Kremlin because of what he saw as the interest

1503
01:19:32,680 --> 01:19:35,639
Speaker 1: of the money delite and the liberals in Russia. While

1504
01:19:35,720 --> 01:19:38,320
Speaker 1: Dugan was effectively taken off Russian state media at that

1505
01:19:38,439 --> 01:19:41,679
Speaker 1: time and marginalized for his criticism of Putin, he didn't

1506
01:19:41,680 --> 01:19:44,120
Speaker 1: go anywhere, and in the interim seven years it seems

1507
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:46,840
Speaker 1: that Putin has found himself purging his government of as

1508
01:19:46,920 --> 01:19:50,200
Speaker 1: much Western influence as he can and following the Dugan playbook,

1509
01:19:50,479 --> 01:19:52,360
Speaker 1: all of us got a taste of that in Putin's

1510
01:19:52,360 --> 01:19:55,960
Speaker 1: speech recasting history and justifying an invasion which has been

1511
01:19:56,040 --> 01:19:58,400
Speaker 1: cheered on by Dugan. Today, go and take a look

1512
01:19:58,400 --> 01:20:01,439
Speaker 1: at this. Here's how boot Dugan is responding to this war. Quote.

1513
01:20:02,200 --> 01:20:04,240
Speaker 1: This is not a war with Ukraine. This is a

1514
01:20:04,320 --> 01:20:08,680
Speaker 1: confrontation with globalism as a whole planetary phenomenon, confrontation at

1515
01:20:08,720 --> 01:20:14,360
Speaker 1: all levels, geopolitical and ideological. Russia rejects everything in globalism, monopolarity,

1516
01:20:14,439 --> 01:20:18,640
Speaker 1: atlanticism on the one hand, liberalism, anti tradition, technocracy, a

1517
01:20:18,760 --> 01:20:21,240
Speaker 1: great reset in the word. In the other it is

1518
01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:24,839
Speaker 1: clear European leaders are part of the Atlantic liberal elite

1519
01:20:25,080 --> 01:20:28,080
Speaker 1: and we want war with her. He scoffs at the

1520
01:20:28,160 --> 01:20:31,040
Speaker 1: idea of sanctions, saying, quote, Russia has taken a course

1521
01:20:31,080 --> 01:20:34,240
Speaker 1: to build its world, its civilization. Now the first step

1522
01:20:34,360 --> 01:20:37,040
Speaker 1: is being taken in the face of globalism. Only a

1523
01:20:37,160 --> 01:20:41,360
Speaker 1: large space, a continent state, a civilizational state, can be sovereign.

1524
01:20:41,680 --> 01:20:44,719
Speaker 1: No country will last a complete blackout for long. Russia

1525
01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:47,639
Speaker 1: is now creating a field of global resistance. Her victory

1526
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:50,920
Speaker 1: will be the victory of all alternative forces. He's got

1527
01:20:50,960 --> 01:20:52,960
Speaker 1: a flair for the dramatic, for sure, But if you

1528
01:20:53,080 --> 01:20:55,639
Speaker 1: read that, a lot of what's transpired makes a lot

1529
01:20:55,680 --> 01:20:57,840
Speaker 1: of sense. I and many others see it as a

1530
01:20:57,920 --> 01:21:01,599
Speaker 1: catastrophe for modern Russia to be geopolitically cut off, financially

1531
01:21:01,640 --> 01:21:05,320
Speaker 1: cut off, culturally isolated, dugan and now perhaps putin himself.

1532
01:21:05,640 --> 01:21:08,000
Speaker 1: They see it as the end result that they desire.

1533
01:21:08,400 --> 01:21:11,519
Speaker 1: It's an autarchic state backed into the corner, with no

1534
01:21:11,840 --> 01:21:15,040
Speaker 1: choice but to choose its own path, wholly diverse of

1535
01:21:15,160 --> 01:21:17,800
Speaker 1: the whole West. I can understand that point of view,

1536
01:21:18,000 --> 01:21:19,880
Speaker 1: but I'll end it though with the warning that nearly

1537
01:21:20,000 --> 01:21:22,759
Speaker 1: all of those who advocated the same view in Russian

1538
01:21:22,840 --> 01:21:25,240
Speaker 1: history found out the hard way. In the end, the

1539
01:21:25,320 --> 01:21:30,160
Speaker 1: story of Russian autocracy is one that ends in disaster, revolution, hunger, famine,

1540
01:21:30,280 --> 01:21:33,200
Speaker 1: and destruction. In the end, for all their noble talks

1541
01:21:33,240 --> 01:21:37,240
Speaker 1: of the United Orthodox peoples, the breakaway republics did everything

1542
01:21:37,320 --> 01:21:40,519
Speaker 1: they could to get out because life was so miserable,

1543
01:21:40,800 --> 01:21:43,360
Speaker 1: and for the vast majority of the Russian people, life

1544
01:21:43,479 --> 01:21:46,200
Speaker 1: under the Zardom was one of relative misery, while the

1545
01:21:46,280 --> 01:21:49,720
Speaker 1: privileged view did better than any of their monarchic counterparts

1546
01:21:49,920 --> 01:21:53,120
Speaker 1: in all of Europe. If Russia chooses its path, I'm

1547
01:21:53,160 --> 01:21:56,040
Speaker 1: certain it may work, maybe in some time, but history

1548
01:21:56,080 --> 01:21:58,920
Speaker 1: as a way of catching up with such idealism and ideology.

1549
01:21:59,320 --> 01:22:01,439
Speaker 1: I laid this all out for you so that you understand,

1550
01:22:01,479 --> 01:22:03,360
Speaker 1: at least in part, what we're dealing with in Russia,

1551
01:22:03,680 --> 01:22:06,640
Speaker 1: how our response may really be giving Russia exactly what

1552
01:22:06,720 --> 01:22:09,600
Speaker 1: they want, and to inform what we must think and

1553
01:22:09,760 --> 01:22:12,639
Speaker 1: deal with such actors. History does not give us any

1554
01:22:12,720 --> 01:22:15,280
Speaker 1: really good answers. Gives a sum though, and it's up

1555
01:22:15,320 --> 01:22:18,120
Speaker 1: to us to try it, because the alternative is a

1556
01:22:18,200 --> 01:22:21,720
Speaker 1: really terrible war. I think it's very important fact that

1557
01:22:21,840 --> 01:22:24,360
Speaker 1: we understand who we're dealing with here, because when he

1558
01:22:24,439 --> 01:22:26,439
Speaker 1: talks about war, and if you want to hear my

1559
01:22:26,640 --> 01:22:30,080
Speaker 1: reaction to Sagre's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at

1560
01:22:30,160 --> 01:22:35,759
Speaker 1: Breakingpoints dot com, chrissel, what are you taking a look at? Well, Guys,

1561
01:22:36,200 --> 01:22:38,960
Speaker 1: as if living through a pandemic was not bad enough,

1562
01:22:39,120 --> 01:22:41,840
Speaker 1: with the fear and the morning, and economic loss and

1563
01:22:41,920 --> 01:22:45,120
Speaker 1: the social isolation. On top of all of that, we've

1564
01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:49,160
Speaker 1: also had to suffer through this. Well, look, I want

1565
01:22:49,280 --> 01:22:51,240
Speaker 1: us to act as a community. I want us to

1566
01:22:51,360 --> 01:22:54,120
Speaker 1: act as a team. When you're fighting a war, you

1567
01:22:54,240 --> 01:22:56,759
Speaker 1: need all hands on deck. I don't want to reject

1568
01:22:57,000 --> 01:22:59,960
Speaker 1: those who still haven't done the right thing. I'll condemn them,

1569
01:23:00,160 --> 01:23:03,400
Speaker 1: I'll shame them, I'll blame them, but I don't want

1570
01:23:03,479 --> 01:23:05,960
Speaker 1: to exclude them. They've got to come around. We can't

1571
01:23:06,040 --> 01:23:08,360
Speaker 1: win this war. We're going to be talking about COVID

1572
01:23:08,920 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 1: this time next year if we don't get more people

1573
01:23:11,920 --> 01:23:14,200
Speaker 1: to do the right thing. So we can't write them off.

1574
01:23:14,800 --> 01:23:17,439
Speaker 1: We can penalize them more. We can say we're going

1575
01:23:17,520 --> 01:23:20,560
Speaker 1: to pay more on your hospital bill if you weren't vaccinated.

1576
01:23:20,960 --> 01:23:24,160
Speaker 1: You can't get life insurance or disability insurance at affordable

1577
01:23:24,240 --> 01:23:26,880
Speaker 1: rates if you weren't vaccinated. So if they get up

1578
01:23:26,920 --> 01:23:30,320
Speaker 1: and criticize science, nobody's going to know what they're talking about.

1579
01:23:30,920 --> 01:23:33,759
Speaker 1: But if they get up and really aim their bullets

1580
01:23:33,800 --> 01:23:36,840
Speaker 1: at Tony Fauci, Well, people could recognize there's a person there,

1581
01:23:37,080 --> 01:23:40,839
Speaker 1: so it's easy to criticize. But they're really criticizing science

1582
01:23:41,640 --> 01:23:46,160
Speaker 1: because I represent science that's dangerous. First and foremost, I

1583
01:23:46,200 --> 01:23:49,479
Speaker 1: am obviously unvaccinated. You follow the story of me trying

1584
01:23:49,520 --> 01:23:51,519
Speaker 1: to get a COVID test and Aspen and I only

1585
01:23:51,560 --> 01:23:52,840
Speaker 1: had to get a COVID test to show that it

1586
01:23:52,920 --> 01:23:54,920
Speaker 1: was negative because I was unvaccinated, so I didn't go

1587
01:23:55,040 --> 01:23:57,320
Speaker 1: through those jumps and hoops we're tending to be vaccinated.

1588
01:23:57,360 --> 01:23:59,680
Speaker 1: I am not getting this vaccine ever, never going to

1589
01:23:59,720 --> 01:24:01,160
Speaker 1: get it. I don't care if I'm on my deathbed

1590
01:24:01,200 --> 01:24:02,400
Speaker 1: and they say it can save you, I'm not going

1591
01:24:02,479 --> 01:24:04,640
Speaker 1: to get it. I'm principally now opposed to it. And

1592
01:24:04,680 --> 01:24:08,320
Speaker 1: I do not understand why anybody who is healthy, able

1593
01:24:08,400 --> 01:24:11,559
Speaker 1: body and young would ever get this vaccine if you're

1594
01:24:11,600 --> 01:24:14,800
Speaker 1: not at risk of COVID. I am so done with it.

1595
01:24:15,080 --> 01:24:18,920
Speaker 1: They are ruining our country, these vaccine Nazis. And I'm sorry,

1596
01:24:19,000 --> 01:24:20,960
Speaker 1: I know I'm using the word Nazi and everybody gets

1597
01:24:21,040 --> 01:24:23,360
Speaker 1: mad when I say it, but that's exactly what they are.

1598
01:24:23,640 --> 01:24:26,439
Speaker 1: They're vaccine Nazis, and they need to do you think

1599
01:24:26,479 --> 01:24:30,479
Speaker 1: this shows the fascism of this of the elites, they

1600
01:24:30,520 --> 01:24:33,880
Speaker 1: are the fascists. Ah the COVID culture wars. You know,

1601
01:24:34,080 --> 01:24:37,519
Speaker 1: in some parts of the world, COVID actually brought populations together.

1602
01:24:37,600 --> 01:24:40,400
Speaker 1: In Denmark, for example, seventy two percent of people said

1603
01:24:40,439 --> 01:24:44,000
Speaker 1: that COVID actually united them. In Canada, at least before

1604
01:24:44,040 --> 01:24:46,840
Speaker 1: the truck or protests, sixty six percent said the same.

1605
01:24:47,400 --> 01:24:49,200
Speaker 1: There might have been some point in our history when

1606
01:24:49,200 --> 01:24:50,800
Speaker 1: it would have done the same yere, but that point

1607
01:24:50,840 --> 01:24:53,880
Speaker 1: in history is not today. In this nation, we fought

1608
01:24:54,000 --> 01:24:58,200
Speaker 1: over literally every aspect of the pandemic and its response,

1609
01:24:58,520 --> 01:25:01,280
Speaker 1: from how it even began, how deadly it was, to

1610
01:25:01,400 --> 01:25:04,240
Speaker 1: how to treat it. We fought overmasking, We fought over

1611
01:25:04,320 --> 01:25:08,680
Speaker 1: pool parties, over school openings, over school masking, whether ivermectin

1612
01:25:08,840 --> 01:25:12,680
Speaker 1: was only for livestock, vaccine passports, vaccine mandates, and of

1613
01:25:12,760 --> 01:25:17,520
Speaker 1: course the vaccines themselves. Signs proclaiming their faith Inductor Faucian

1614
01:25:17,600 --> 01:25:20,760
Speaker 1: and signs itself sprouted in liberal lawns as we speak.

1615
01:25:20,800 --> 01:25:23,320
Speaker 1: There are some number of truckers and their supporters camped

1616
01:25:23,320 --> 01:25:26,519
Speaker 1: down in Maryland to protest COVID policies. But a potential

1617
01:25:26,600 --> 01:25:29,360
Speaker 1: sign of the times that Trucker Convoy has kind of

1618
01:25:29,439 --> 01:25:32,040
Speaker 1: seemed to lose the thread. One of the leaders told

1619
01:25:32,120 --> 01:25:34,439
Speaker 1: news outlets and in addition to COVID mandates, he was

1620
01:25:34,520 --> 01:25:38,439
Speaker 1: protesting issues as wide ranging as illegal immigration, lor and

1621
01:25:38,520 --> 01:25:42,519
Speaker 1: oil trucking regulation, and critical race theory. He also said

1622
01:25:42,560 --> 01:25:45,400
Speaker 1: the protest was to demand justice for Ashley Babbitt, to

1623
01:25:45,439 --> 01:25:47,759
Speaker 1: stop the steel rioter who was killed by Capitol police

1624
01:25:47,840 --> 01:25:51,439
Speaker 1: on January sixth. It says something that the most committed

1625
01:25:51,520 --> 01:25:54,400
Speaker 1: of COVID culture warriors isn't even sure that they've gotten

1626
01:25:54,400 --> 01:25:56,919
Speaker 1: that much to fight about on the pandemic front anymore.

1627
01:25:57,320 --> 01:26:00,400
Speaker 1: Could it possibly be that the COVID culture wars are

1628
01:26:00,479 --> 01:26:04,800
Speaker 1: finally ending? These media fueled fights have literally torn families apart,

1629
01:26:04,920 --> 01:26:08,599
Speaker 1: divided communities, and created world historic amounts of cringe content.

1630
01:26:09,040 --> 01:26:11,400
Speaker 1: Could we be moving on from this hellish phase of

1631
01:26:11,439 --> 01:26:14,760
Speaker 1: discourse and mania the real end of a terrible era?

1632
01:26:15,240 --> 01:26:18,639
Speaker 1: After all, almost all pandemic restrictions have actually now ended.

1633
01:26:18,640 --> 01:26:21,639
Speaker 1: Even in the bluest of cities, La DC, New York,

1634
01:26:21,680 --> 01:26:24,679
Speaker 1: they've all lifted their mask mandates. The CDC says indoor

1635
01:26:24,760 --> 01:26:28,080
Speaker 1: masking is not really necessary. Schools are broadly open and

1636
01:26:28,320 --> 01:26:30,880
Speaker 1: let's go. Brandon Man himself had this to say during

1637
01:26:30,920 --> 01:26:33,439
Speaker 1: the State of the Union. We have the tools we need.

1638
01:26:35,240 --> 01:26:37,320
Speaker 1: It's time for America to get back to work and

1639
01:26:37,439 --> 01:26:40,679
Speaker 1: fill our great downtowns again with people working from home

1640
01:26:41,120 --> 01:26:43,559
Speaker 1: can feel safe and begin to return to their offices.

1641
01:26:44,160 --> 01:26:46,960
Speaker 1: We're doing that here in the federal government. The vast

1642
01:26:47,000 --> 01:26:50,280
Speaker 1: majority of federal workers will once again work in person.

1643
01:26:50,400 --> 01:26:53,400
Speaker 1: Our schools are open. Let's keep it that way. Our

1644
01:26:53,479 --> 01:27:00,760
Speaker 1: kids need to be in school. This was in credit significant.

1645
01:27:00,880 --> 01:27:02,880
Speaker 1: Biden is the leader of the Democratic Party, and he

1646
01:27:03,040 --> 01:27:05,479
Speaker 1: used his State of the Union to officially declare an

1647
01:27:05,640 --> 01:27:08,280
Speaker 1: end to the COVID culture wars. Biden saying we've got

1648
01:27:08,360 --> 01:27:10,720
Speaker 1: to keep schools and businesses open means that this is

1649
01:27:10,800 --> 01:27:15,120
Speaker 1: now the officially sanctioned polite society position. Reactionary liberals can't

1650
01:27:15,120 --> 01:27:17,320
Speaker 1: screen that you're trying to murder children or whatever when

1651
01:27:17,360 --> 01:27:20,160
Speaker 1: your position is literally the same as Joe Biden's. And

1652
01:27:20,280 --> 01:27:22,880
Speaker 1: there's another factor as well. Last year, in Biden's first

1653
01:27:22,920 --> 01:27:25,680
Speaker 1: address to a joint session of Congress, COVID dominated the

1654
01:27:25,680 --> 01:27:28,680
Speaker 1: speech and dominated the political landscape. In last week's State

1655
01:27:28,720 --> 01:27:30,800
Speaker 1: of the Union, it was Putin's war in Ukraine that

1656
01:27:30,920 --> 01:27:34,360
Speaker 1: dominated the speech, the coverage, and the reaction. There's nothing

1657
01:27:34,520 --> 01:27:39,080
Speaker 1: like war, actual war and potential nuclear annihilation to focus

1658
01:27:39,160 --> 01:27:42,360
Speaker 1: the mind. Squabbles over masking policy the kind of seem

1659
01:27:42,439 --> 01:27:44,960
Speaker 1: like small potatoes when put up against the history bending

1660
01:27:45,040 --> 01:27:49,160
Speaker 1: geopolitical turning point that we are all currently contemplating. Back

1661
01:27:49,240 --> 01:27:51,320
Speaker 1: over in the trucker Chat, the war in Ukraine led

1662
01:27:51,320 --> 01:27:54,320
Speaker 1: to infighting as protesters debated whether they should somehow link

1663
01:27:54,400 --> 01:27:57,559
Speaker 1: their own cause in with the overseas conflict. WECE reports.

1664
01:27:57,600 --> 01:28:00,320
Speaker 1: The Truckers for Freedom protest telegram channel, which has ninety

1665
01:28:00,360 --> 01:28:04,160
Speaker 1: six thousand subscribers, saw some vigorous discussions on how exactly

1666
01:28:04,240 --> 01:28:07,160
Speaker 1: to make people care about their scattershot, a morphous cause

1667
01:28:07,400 --> 01:28:09,760
Speaker 1: when the possibility of World War thread was sucking up

1668
01:28:09,840 --> 01:28:12,960
Speaker 1: all the oxygen. One road quote, Truckers at this point

1669
01:28:13,040 --> 01:28:15,160
Speaker 1: can't compete with the world events, and if the movement

1670
01:28:15,200 --> 01:28:17,640
Speaker 1: won't transform and adapt, we won't have the impact that

1671
01:28:17,720 --> 01:28:21,439
Speaker 1: we want. The organizer of that telegram channel even pathetically

1672
01:28:21,520 --> 01:28:24,200
Speaker 1: insisted that their protest of driving around in trucks in

1673
01:28:24,320 --> 01:28:26,880
Speaker 1: RVs was just as brave as the Ukrainians who are

1674
01:28:27,000 --> 01:28:30,439
Speaker 1: literally getting shelled and being starved by an invading army quote.

1675
01:28:30,760 --> 01:28:33,400
Speaker 1: What we see in Ukraine is not bravery, it's adrenaline

1676
01:28:33,439 --> 01:28:36,280
Speaker 1: and rush. Real bravery comes from a good dose of wisdom.

1677
01:28:36,520 --> 01:28:38,960
Speaker 1: That people finding in wars are not brave, but pumped

1678
01:28:38,960 --> 01:28:42,560
Speaker 1: with adrenaline and lacking wisdom. This is bravery. Support the

1679
01:28:42,600 --> 01:28:45,880
Speaker 1: truckers in the most telling sign. Though, cable news seems

1680
01:28:45,920 --> 01:28:48,679
Speaker 1: to have moved on as I write this. CNN's homepage,

1681
01:28:48,720 --> 01:28:51,639
Speaker 1: of literally hundreds of stories, has one post on COVID,

1682
01:28:51,680 --> 01:28:54,160
Speaker 1: and it's about how the numbers are getting better the situation.

1683
01:28:54,320 --> 01:28:57,400
Speaker 1: It's similar over on msmbc's homepage, where the only COVID

1684
01:28:57,439 --> 01:29:01,040
Speaker 1: related item is about RHN Deasantus's un hinged outburst about

1685
01:29:01,080 --> 01:29:04,439
Speaker 1: high school students wearing masks. On Fox News, COVID updates

1686
01:29:04,439 --> 01:29:06,600
Speaker 1: are buried all the way towards the bottom of the

1687
01:29:06,640 --> 01:29:08,360
Speaker 1: home page you have to scroll a long way to

1688
01:29:08,400 --> 01:29:11,120
Speaker 1: get there, and news items include updates on how ninety

1689
01:29:11,120 --> 01:29:13,240
Speaker 1: percent of the country is now officially maskless and the

1690
01:29:13,320 --> 01:29:16,400
Speaker 1: latest blue cities that are lifting mandates. I might add

1691
01:29:16,640 --> 01:29:19,559
Speaker 1: that Fox News is not featuring a single article about

1692
01:29:19,600 --> 01:29:21,640
Speaker 1: that trigger convoy, at least when I was taking a

1693
01:29:21,640 --> 01:29:24,280
Speaker 1: look at it. Yesterday. All of this suggests that COVID

1694
01:29:24,320 --> 01:29:27,800
Speaker 1: culture wars have lost their juice as cable news outrage generators.

1695
01:29:28,240 --> 01:29:31,440
Speaker 1: And then there's one final factor, which is the reality

1696
01:29:31,600 --> 01:29:35,839
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. Today, cases, hospitalizations, I see you, visits,

1697
01:29:35,880 --> 01:29:39,240
Speaker 1: and deaths. They are all declining significantly as the omicron

1698
01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:42,599
Speaker 1: wave subsides. These numbers should be improved even more by

1699
01:29:42,640 --> 01:29:44,880
Speaker 1: the arrival of spring in much of the US. At

1700
01:29:44,920 --> 01:29:48,880
Speaker 1: the same time, vaccination rates are actually quite good. Eighty

1701
01:29:48,960 --> 01:29:51,519
Speaker 1: one percent of those aged five and up have had

1702
01:29:51,560 --> 01:29:54,200
Speaker 1: at least one dose at this point. Ninety five percent

1703
01:29:54,320 --> 01:29:56,840
Speaker 1: of those sixty five and up. Deaths, of course, are

1704
01:29:56,880 --> 01:30:00,400
Speaker 1: still unacceptably high, about fifteen hundred per day. But those

1705
01:30:00,479 --> 01:30:04,080
Speaker 1: who are dying, they're overwhelmingly unvaccinated, and that creates a

1706
01:30:04,160 --> 01:30:06,920
Speaker 1: much different moral landscape than when there were no vaccines.

1707
01:30:07,360 --> 01:30:10,280
Speaker 1: It begs the obvious question, why should we take steps

1708
01:30:10,320 --> 01:30:12,720
Speaker 1: to protect a population that isn't doing the basics to

1709
01:30:12,760 --> 01:30:16,320
Speaker 1: protect themselves. Now, big word of caution here, this entire

1710
01:30:16,360 --> 01:30:18,960
Speaker 1: picture could be turned completely upside down by another variant,

1711
01:30:19,200 --> 01:30:21,600
Speaker 1: and with so much of the developing world still unvaccinated,

1712
01:30:21,680 --> 01:30:24,439
Speaker 1: that possibility is much too likely. That's why I've always

1713
01:30:24,479 --> 01:30:26,280
Speaker 1: said that the one COVID fight that would make the

1714
01:30:26,320 --> 01:30:30,240
Speaker 1: biggest difference is over farm agreed and patent protections. But

1715
01:30:30,320 --> 01:30:33,599
Speaker 1: with COVID declining at home, Democrats even embracing an end

1716
01:30:33,600 --> 01:30:36,479
Speaker 1: to restrictions, and the horror of war being the focus

1717
01:30:36,520 --> 01:30:39,759
Speaker 1: of our minds, it could just be that the fights

1718
01:30:39,800 --> 01:30:43,760
Speaker 1: over maskless Karens and triple masking Libs might be coming

1719
01:30:43,840 --> 01:30:46,000
Speaker 1: to a close. And while I'm glad to see the

1720
01:30:46,080 --> 01:30:47,800
Speaker 1: end of this discourse, I can hardly call it a

1721
01:30:47,840 --> 01:30:50,920
Speaker 1: silver lining. After all, what has replaced this culture war

1722
01:30:51,080 --> 01:30:53,880
Speaker 1: are calls for literal war. So what do you think, Sager?

1723
01:30:54,120 --> 01:30:55,800
Speaker 1: Think We're at the end of the COVID culture wars,

1724
01:30:55,920 --> 01:30:58,760
Speaker 1: as the Arabs say. And if you want to hear

1725
01:30:58,920 --> 01:31:02,280
Speaker 1: my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today

1726
01:31:02,360 --> 01:31:08,000
Speaker 1: at Breakingpoints dot com. Join us. Now we have Jeff Houser.

1727
01:31:08,080 --> 01:31:11,000
Speaker 1: He is the executive director of the Revolving Door Project,

1728
01:31:11,080 --> 01:31:13,240
Speaker 1: and he is here to tell us about the pharma

1729
01:31:13,360 --> 01:31:16,280
Speaker 1: ties with our new FDA commissioner. Let's go and throw

1730
01:31:16,320 --> 01:31:19,000
Speaker 1: this tear sheet up on the screen. This was before

1731
01:31:19,080 --> 01:31:21,960
Speaker 1: he was confirmed, and says, well, Biden's FDA be led

1732
01:31:22,080 --> 01:31:25,320
Speaker 1: by a pharma guy, Robert Caeliff, who's worked and lobbied

1733
01:31:25,320 --> 01:31:27,479
Speaker 1: for the big drug companies, looks to be the front

1734
01:31:27,560 --> 01:31:31,679
Speaker 1: runner for the job. He is now there in the job,

1735
01:31:32,040 --> 01:31:35,320
Speaker 1: and Jeff just tell us why we should care here. Well,

1736
01:31:35,760 --> 01:31:39,320
Speaker 1: Robert Califf is, unfortunately Biden's head of the Food and

1737
01:31:39,360 --> 01:31:44,080
Speaker 1: Drug Administration. Joe Biden right now is focused on addressing inflation,

1738
01:31:44,720 --> 01:31:47,920
Speaker 1: raining and costs and going after corporations, and yet he

1739
01:31:48,080 --> 01:31:51,040
Speaker 1: put in charge of the Food and Drug Administration somebody

1740
01:31:51,160 --> 01:31:56,320
Speaker 1: who has eagerly revolved between big pharma and big tech

1741
01:31:56,760 --> 01:31:59,560
Speaker 1: and the US government, and he has brought his expertise

1742
01:31:59,640 --> 01:32:03,080
Speaker 1: and govern to his corporate benefactors. He's made a lot

1743
01:32:03,160 --> 01:32:06,880
Speaker 1: of money shilling on behalf of shaky drugs, not the

1744
01:32:06,960 --> 01:32:12,360
Speaker 1: best drugs, and on behalf of Google's extremely dystopian move

1745
01:32:12,600 --> 01:32:18,320
Speaker 1: into health sciences life sciences. So he is not somebody

1746
01:32:18,439 --> 01:32:20,840
Speaker 1: I think that we can trust to rein in the

1747
01:32:20,960 --> 01:32:24,439
Speaker 1: power of big pharma to pursue the government's ability to

1748
01:32:24,720 --> 01:32:29,120
Speaker 1: lower drug costs. And we just can't really trust the guy. Yeah, Okay,

1749
01:32:29,160 --> 01:32:31,600
Speaker 1: So let's go into some of those examples here that

1750
01:32:31,760 --> 01:32:33,839
Speaker 1: are laid out give us some of the worst examples

1751
01:32:33,880 --> 01:32:36,200
Speaker 1: in his career and why that matters in a time

1752
01:32:36,280 --> 01:32:40,240
Speaker 1: of I don't know, a global health pandemic. Yeah. So

1753
01:32:40,400 --> 01:32:45,439
Speaker 1: he was involved with Johnson and Johnson obviously one of

1754
01:32:45,479 --> 01:32:49,120
Speaker 1: the largest historical big pharma companies, and one of their

1755
01:32:49,240 --> 01:32:53,200
Speaker 1: products was a shaky drug college gibralto, one of these

1756
01:32:53,280 --> 01:32:56,719
Speaker 1: made up words that basically just means profits for big pharma,

1757
01:32:57,240 --> 01:33:00,760
Speaker 1: and he helped shepherd that drug to approval at the

1758
01:33:00,800 --> 01:33:04,120
Speaker 1: Food and Drug Administration after they had been a client

1759
01:33:04,200 --> 01:33:06,679
Speaker 1: of his and he had in fact worked on that drug.

1760
01:33:08,000 --> 01:33:12,599
Speaker 1: He is somebody who left the So he became head

1761
01:33:12,640 --> 01:33:16,840
Speaker 1: of the FDA in twenty fifteen after having led a

1762
01:33:16,960 --> 01:33:21,000
Speaker 1: key component of the FDA, and there was serious Senate

1763
01:33:21,080 --> 01:33:24,360
Speaker 1: concern at the time. Joe Manchin Ed Marky and others

1764
01:33:24,800 --> 01:33:28,160
Speaker 1: who were very concerned about the opioid fight saw that

1765
01:33:29,360 --> 01:33:32,160
Speaker 1: Caleb was somebody who was indifferent to their concerns about

1766
01:33:32,200 --> 01:33:34,839
Speaker 1: oil fioids and one of the many people in government

1767
01:33:34,920 --> 01:33:38,080
Speaker 1: who has tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of deaths

1768
01:33:38,280 --> 01:33:42,639
Speaker 1: on their hands for having allowed the opioid pandemic to occur.

1769
01:33:43,600 --> 01:33:46,080
Speaker 1: And they were opposed to him back then. So he

1770
01:33:46,400 --> 01:33:50,040
Speaker 1: left the Food and Drug Administration when Trump became president

1771
01:33:50,160 --> 01:33:53,200
Speaker 1: and went to Duke, where he took a ton of

1772
01:33:53,320 --> 01:33:57,000
Speaker 1: money into a new program he led at Duke, and

1773
01:33:57,320 --> 01:34:01,280
Speaker 1: he went to Google, which was creating Verily, which is

1774
01:34:01,439 --> 01:34:05,120
Speaker 1: their effort to apply big data looking into your personal

1775
01:34:05,200 --> 01:34:10,000
Speaker 1: life in order to presumably help help life sciences. And obviously,

1776
01:34:10,600 --> 01:34:13,479
Speaker 1: you know, we want big data to be applied to

1777
01:34:13,840 --> 01:34:16,519
Speaker 1: health concerns, but we also want to protect people's privacy.

1778
01:34:16,640 --> 01:34:19,200
Speaker 1: And I think protecting people's privacy I very much do

1779
01:34:19,360 --> 01:34:22,280
Speaker 1: not think Google. And so now that he is at

1780
01:34:22,320 --> 01:34:24,880
Speaker 1: the Food and Drug Administration, he'll not only be dealing

1781
01:34:25,000 --> 01:34:28,719
Speaker 1: with the ongoing COVID pandemic, but he'll also be dealing

1782
01:34:28,800 --> 01:34:32,679
Speaker 1: with all sorts of key issues with prospective technology, data

1783
01:34:33,200 --> 01:34:36,240
Speaker 1: and health, and honestly, I just don't trust how he'll

1784
01:34:36,280 --> 01:34:39,720
Speaker 1: do that job. Jeff. The counterpoint that I always see

1785
01:34:39,880 --> 01:34:43,600
Speaker 1: offered from people who are like, oh, this is this

1786
01:34:43,760 --> 01:34:46,200
Speaker 1: is fine, or even this is actively good, is Look,

1787
01:34:46,200 --> 01:34:47,960
Speaker 1: you got to have people who are experts in the field,

1788
01:34:48,040 --> 01:34:50,080
Speaker 1: who have worked in the public sector. How are you

1789
01:34:50,120 --> 01:34:53,000
Speaker 1: going to have people run these agencies that have expertise

1790
01:34:53,479 --> 01:34:56,200
Speaker 1: and have zero conflicts of interest? So it's a sort

1791
01:34:56,200 --> 01:35:01,519
Speaker 1: of like appeal to the technocracy to justify these conflicts

1792
01:35:01,560 --> 01:35:04,840
Speaker 1: of interest. What is your response to those Well, for

1793
01:35:04,960 --> 01:35:07,719
Speaker 1: one thing, the Food and Drug Administration has been run

1794
01:35:07,840 --> 01:35:10,880
Speaker 1: by for the most part, by a series of insiders

1795
01:35:10,960 --> 01:35:13,120
Speaker 1: for the past several decades. So if we think that

1796
01:35:13,240 --> 01:35:16,200
Speaker 1: the current types of people being chosen are the best

1797
01:35:16,240 --> 01:35:18,920
Speaker 1: to run the FDA, then you have to look at

1798
01:35:18,960 --> 01:35:21,320
Speaker 1: the record and say can we do any better? And

1799
01:35:21,400 --> 01:35:23,160
Speaker 1: then you have to look at do you want a

1800
01:35:23,240 --> 01:35:25,840
Speaker 1: complete outsider who has no understanding of the Food and

1801
01:35:25,880 --> 01:35:29,400
Speaker 1: Drug Administration and no understanding of the drug development process.

1802
01:35:29,520 --> 01:35:31,960
Speaker 1: Obviously that is not the case, But there are many

1803
01:35:32,080 --> 01:35:35,720
Speaker 1: people who have spent their lives at universities where they

1804
01:35:36,040 --> 01:35:40,000
Speaker 1: have retained enough autonomy in their work that they are

1805
01:35:40,120 --> 01:35:43,519
Speaker 1: not people who are owned by big pharma. They may

1806
01:35:43,560 --> 01:35:46,200
Speaker 1: have at some point interacted with big Pharma. I agree.

1807
01:35:46,240 --> 01:35:49,600
Speaker 1: You probably not gon have somebody who's completely pristine, but

1808
01:35:49,680 --> 01:35:51,880
Speaker 1: there are many people. One who comes to mind is

1809
01:35:52,720 --> 01:35:57,240
Speaker 1: doctor Joshua Sharfstein at Johns Hopkins, who has been a

1810
01:35:57,280 --> 01:36:00,720
Speaker 1: deputy at the Food and Drug Administration in the who

1811
01:36:01,200 --> 01:36:04,880
Speaker 1: is notorious within big Pharma as somebody they can't deal

1812
01:36:04,960 --> 01:36:09,040
Speaker 1: with as somebody who retains his independence. And I don't

1813
01:36:09,040 --> 01:36:12,919
Speaker 1: think Sharstein is unique. There are people who have managed

1814
01:36:12,960 --> 01:36:17,840
Speaker 1: to retain independence but are disliked by the traditional insiders

1815
01:36:18,080 --> 01:36:21,439
Speaker 1: who manage both the FDA selection process and the big

1816
01:36:21,479 --> 01:36:25,120
Speaker 1: pharma industry. Yeah, and so what are the biggest decisions

1817
01:36:25,160 --> 01:36:27,800
Speaker 1: that are on his plate now that he's the commissioner.

1818
01:36:27,880 --> 01:36:30,360
Speaker 1: What's going to happen in terms of both COVID. We've

1819
01:36:30,400 --> 01:36:33,519
Speaker 1: got the pills obviously full approval. What are some of

1820
01:36:33,560 --> 01:36:35,479
Speaker 1: the most controversial stuff that we can point to, because

1821
01:36:35,479 --> 01:36:37,559
Speaker 1: obviously COVID is not done and there's still a lot

1822
01:36:37,560 --> 01:36:40,760
Speaker 1: of big stuff to do. Sure, I mean, for the

1823
01:36:40,880 --> 01:36:43,479
Speaker 1: most part, vaccines are not where the money is made

1824
01:36:43,520 --> 01:36:47,040
Speaker 1: in big pharma. Where the money is made are ongoing

1825
01:36:47,120 --> 01:36:51,400
Speaker 1: treatments for diseases that middle class and upper middle class

1826
01:36:51,439 --> 01:36:55,160
Speaker 1: and bridge people get. And in that situation, if you

1827
01:36:55,240 --> 01:36:57,640
Speaker 1: look at the overall impetus of the Biden administration to

1828
01:36:57,720 --> 01:37:00,920
Speaker 1: try to take on COVID, to fight I'm sorry, take

1829
01:37:01,000 --> 01:37:05,960
Speaker 1: on inflation and fite higher prices, the big issues are

1830
01:37:06,000 --> 01:37:09,520
Speaker 1: going to be will Biden use the executive branches authorities

1831
01:37:09,720 --> 01:37:13,280
Speaker 1: under Section fourteen ninety eight and under marching rights to

1832
01:37:14,200 --> 01:37:17,760
Speaker 1: rest control from big pharma of some of the key

1833
01:37:17,880 --> 01:37:21,560
Speaker 1: technological advances, many of which were paid for by the

1834
01:37:21,680 --> 01:37:24,599
Speaker 1: National Institutes of Health and other aspects of the US government,

1835
01:37:25,040 --> 01:37:28,599
Speaker 1: and make them more readily available at more realistic prices

1836
01:37:28,720 --> 01:37:31,600
Speaker 1: for both the American people and abroad. I mean with

1837
01:37:31,800 --> 01:37:36,120
Speaker 1: COVID a lot of the issues surround vaccine access outside

1838
01:37:36,160 --> 01:37:40,559
Speaker 1: of the United States. Obviously, the more people suffer from

1839
01:37:40,920 --> 01:37:43,080
Speaker 1: COVID across the planet, that is not only bad for

1840
01:37:43,200 --> 01:37:47,280
Speaker 1: those people, which should matter morally, but it's also creates

1841
01:37:47,320 --> 01:37:50,559
Speaker 1: a potential for more variants down the line, which obviously

1842
01:37:50,640 --> 01:37:53,559
Speaker 1: none of us want to see happen. So on COVID,

1843
01:37:53,800 --> 01:37:57,559
Speaker 1: it is will we make vaccines and treatment technology more

1844
01:37:57,600 --> 01:38:00,720
Speaker 1: widely available so the supply can get out there as

1845
01:38:00,800 --> 01:38:03,519
Speaker 1: widely as possible. And in the United States it's going

1846
01:38:03,600 --> 01:38:08,320
Speaker 1: to be these efforts to take cancer drugs and digestive

1847
01:38:08,400 --> 01:38:12,120
Speaker 1: tract drugs, all sorts of important technologies that where there

1848
01:38:12,160 --> 01:38:16,040
Speaker 1: are monopolies that are held by current big pharma companies,

1849
01:38:16,200 --> 01:38:20,559
Speaker 1: can we share the benefits more widely? Can we rein

1850
01:38:20,680 --> 01:38:24,040
Speaker 1: in the monopolistic profits that are being earned by big pharma?

1851
01:38:24,720 --> 01:38:28,840
Speaker 1: And Jeff bigger picture, what sort of rules or legislation,

1852
01:38:29,200 --> 01:38:32,040
Speaker 1: I mean, what could be done about this problem, because

1853
01:38:32,479 --> 01:38:35,040
Speaker 1: it's just not just a problem of the actual conflicts

1854
01:38:35,080 --> 01:38:37,040
Speaker 1: of interest, it's a problem of perception too. I mean,

1855
01:38:37,120 --> 01:38:40,160
Speaker 1: we have people who have so little faith in government.

1856
01:38:40,280 --> 01:38:42,600
Speaker 1: This is part of why, you know, we struggled with

1857
01:38:42,720 --> 01:38:47,160
Speaker 1: vaccine uptake among some communities. So what sort of legislation

1858
01:38:47,640 --> 01:38:51,280
Speaker 1: do you and the Revolving Door Project believe would help

1859
01:38:51,360 --> 01:38:53,960
Speaker 1: to lessen corruption in the appearance of corruption in government?

1860
01:38:55,160 --> 01:38:57,320
Speaker 1: I think the single biggest thing that we need to

1861
01:38:57,400 --> 01:38:59,760
Speaker 1: see is that when you leave government, there has to

1862
01:38:59,840 --> 01:39:04,960
Speaker 1: be a longer cooling off period where between going leaving

1863
01:39:05,040 --> 01:39:08,880
Speaker 1: government and working with your former colleagues and government on

1864
01:39:09,000 --> 01:39:13,519
Speaker 1: behalf of a private sector employee. The one halfway decent

1865
01:39:13,600 --> 01:39:18,200
Speaker 1: thing about Califf is, in order to get Elizabeth Morton's vote,

1866
01:39:18,560 --> 01:39:21,080
Speaker 1: he agreed that there'll be four years rather than two

1867
01:39:21,200 --> 01:39:23,800
Speaker 1: years before he deals with the FDA again. Once he

1868
01:39:24,000 --> 01:39:27,360
Speaker 1: leaves the FDA. Now we need more stringent enforcement. There

1869
01:39:27,400 --> 01:39:29,599
Speaker 1: have been promises in the past, and I don't necessarily

1870
01:39:29,640 --> 01:39:32,320
Speaker 1: agree with Senator Warren's vote on this, but we do

1871
01:39:32,600 --> 01:39:36,680
Speaker 1: need to see requirements like that written into law, not

1872
01:39:36,960 --> 01:39:42,960
Speaker 1: just pledges by people signed. We need actual enforcement that

1873
01:39:43,160 --> 01:39:46,759
Speaker 1: you just can't deal with your former colleagues for several

1874
01:39:46,920 --> 01:39:50,240
Speaker 1: years after you leave government on behalf of a private

1875
01:39:50,280 --> 01:39:53,599
Speaker 1: sector employer or are some like you know, think tank

1876
01:39:53,880 --> 01:39:57,879
Speaker 1: or business association that is effectively a private sector employer.

1877
01:39:58,160 --> 01:40:00,479
Speaker 1: We just need to make sure you're not in government

1878
01:40:00,600 --> 01:40:02,880
Speaker 1: in order to become a well paid mercenary right after

1879
01:40:02,960 --> 01:40:05,400
Speaker 1: you leave government. I think that's the single biggest thing

1880
01:40:05,439 --> 01:40:10,280
Speaker 1: we can do from a perception of ethics issue. Yeah, well,

1881
01:40:10,520 --> 01:40:12,639
Speaker 1: really well done. I mean, now people know a little

1882
01:40:12,640 --> 01:40:14,360
Speaker 1: bit more about the FDA commissioner. So thank you so

1883
01:40:14,439 --> 01:40:16,880
Speaker 1: much joining us. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me,

1884
01:40:17,640 --> 01:40:21,600
Speaker 1: no problem. Thank you guys so much for watching. We

1885
01:40:21,680 --> 01:40:25,679
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. I mean, you know, it's been crazy week, month, whatever,

1886
01:40:26,120 --> 01:40:28,640
Speaker 1: it's been nuts. Look, thank you guys so much for

1887
01:40:28,840 --> 01:40:30,800
Speaker 1: your support. That's why we have all of our new

1888
01:40:30,840 --> 01:40:34,000
Speaker 1: partnerships that we announced. Kyle Marshall, James Lee. We got

1889
01:40:34,000 --> 01:40:36,360
Speaker 1: another one. Matt Stoler put out a video this weekend,

1890
01:40:36,400 --> 01:40:39,320
Speaker 1: an excellent, really good one about the economy. So it's

1891
01:40:39,360 --> 01:40:42,599
Speaker 1: really ours. It was crazy, so well for us. Stoller's

1892
01:40:42,600 --> 01:40:46,000
Speaker 1: got his finger on the poll. He knows the people. Look,

1893
01:40:46,040 --> 01:40:49,080
Speaker 1: it matters because your support enables us to support them

1894
01:40:49,200 --> 01:40:53,160
Speaker 1: with our infrastructure, editing the channel, give more exposure, give

1895
01:40:53,240 --> 01:40:55,599
Speaker 1: you guys more content. That's what it's all about. That's

1896
01:40:55,640 --> 01:40:57,600
Speaker 1: what you're helping us build, and we really appreciate it.

1897
01:40:57,840 --> 01:41:00,600
Speaker 1: Gearing up for the midterms not that far away, and

1898
01:41:00,760 --> 01:41:03,120
Speaker 1: remember that's all over our minds right now. So thank

1899
01:41:03,160 --> 01:41:04,479
Speaker 1: you all so much for the support. That's what you

1900
01:41:04,520 --> 01:41:06,680
Speaker 1: guys enable, and we really appreciate it. Yeap, love you guys,

1901
01:41:06,760 --> 01:41:08,200
Speaker 1: have a great dable. See back here tomorrow.