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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, we're gonna be totally upfront with you. This

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Speaker 1: is the most perilous time that we have ever operated in.

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Speaker 1: It is so difficult just to sort through the information

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Speaker 1: that's coming at us, but more importantly, to accurately report

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Speaker 1: the news as a wave of censorship spreads across the nation.

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Speaker 1: Breakingpoints dot com in order to subscribe. Thank you all

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Speaker 1: so much. We love you and we appreciate you. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: the show. Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday. We have an

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Speaker 1: amazing show for everybody today. What do we have for

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Speaker 1: salf Indeed, we do lots of big updates to get

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Speaker 1: to you this morning. Some troubling moved actually by Zelenski

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Speaker 1: banning a bunch of opposition parties will give you the

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Speaker 1: details of what is going on there and why he

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Speaker 1: is doing that. Also some troubling details on of China.

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Speaker 1: Any sort of hopes we had last week that there

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Speaker 1: may be a little bit of a split between them

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Speaker 1: and Russia. M not looking so likely this week, so

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Speaker 1: we will update you there. Also, we'll update for you

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Speaker 1: on the whole Hunter Biden laptop story, so you recall

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Speaker 1: the Biden doj and the New York Times confirmed the

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Speaker 1: authenticity of the emails on that laptop that during the

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Speaker 1: election had been deemed as having the homeworks of Russian disinformation.

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Speaker 1: Of course, all the spooks who had said that just

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Speaker 1: doubling down or not responding to the story at all.

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Speaker 1: Most of the press not covering it. So we'll give

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Speaker 1: you those updates. Doctor Fauci has emerged to make some

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Speaker 1: comments that are sparking some controversy. We have a wonderful

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Speaker 1: guest on to talk about what is going on with

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Speaker 1: Saudi and Yemen and our complicity in that incredible humanitarian catastrophe.

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Speaker 1: But we wanted to start with the very latest on

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Speaker 1: the ground in Ukraine. Yeah, so there's been a big

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Speaker 1: proxy fight here in Washington over the last couple of days.

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Speaker 1: Are the Russian forces stalled? Are they not? So we

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Speaker 1: thought we would wade into a little bit of that

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Speaker 1: with our battle updates. So let's go and put this

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Speaker 1: up there on the screen. Some very measured thoughts from

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Speaker 1: Michael Kaufman. He's a respected Russian analyst at CNA, and

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Speaker 1: he has been absolutely spot on about this entire war

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Speaker 1: so far, so we thought we'd bring it to He says,

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Speaker 1: quote about two weeks ago, I suggested Russian forces have

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Speaker 1: three weeks before combat effectiveness becomes increasingly exhausted. I think

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Speaker 1: that's generally been right, but we are not quite there yet.

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Speaker 1: The war has broken down in perfectly could be called

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Speaker 1: three fronts. Russian advances have stalled out alongs two of them.

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Speaker 1: One of them, where is the front around the city

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Speaker 1: of Kiev is far from encircled. Now. Here's what he

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Speaker 1: gets to, which is that the area to watch in

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Speaker 1: the coming weeks is the Russian attempt in order to

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Speaker 1: encircle Ukrainian forces in the eastern part of the country

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Speaker 1: in a pincer movement, and that would put the Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: or the Ukrainian military in a very precarious position in

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Speaker 1: terms of what he thinks in the grand strategic aim.

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Speaker 1: He says, I think Moscow is searching for some thing

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Speaker 1: that it can use to declare a victory. Taking the Dunboss.

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Speaker 1: Having the leverage to attain concessions from Kiev probably what

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Speaker 1: they're looking to accomplish at this point. This is at

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Speaker 1: best a guest so there Actually that might be an

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Speaker 1: optimistic take Crystal, because if that's what they can do,

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Speaker 1: they can declare a victory a quote unquote victory, declare

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Speaker 1: some sort of concessions, then this will end in a

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Speaker 1: diplomatic stalemate. The other way is that it doesn't end

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Speaker 1: up in a diplomatic stalemate and we enter a full

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Speaker 1: blown hot conflict. Now. The reason why, though it's important

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Speaker 1: not to overstate that the Russians have been beat back,

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Speaker 1: they've installed completely, is because all of that is part

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Speaker 1: of a proxy war here in Washington as to whether

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Speaker 1: we should ship arms to that country. And unfortunately, that's

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Speaker 1: kind of what we've been seeing on the domestic Washington front,

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Speaker 1: with the press declaring a narrative which is not one

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Speaker 1: hundred percent true, which is why I appreciate Michael Kaufman's

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Speaker 1: thoughts so much. Yeah, so you've probably if you've been

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Speaker 1: following the news in the past couple of days, you've

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Speaker 1: probably noticed, all of a sudden, basically every major news

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Speaker 1: out it is running with this term stalemate, that the

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Speaker 1: conflict is approaching a stalemate. Let's go and put axios

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Speaker 1: up on the screen, which you know, echoes that reporting.

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Speaker 1: Researchers say Russia's invasion is reaching a deadly stalemate. And

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Speaker 1: what that wording and that analysis is being used to

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Speaker 1: justify is, Hey, all we need to do is send

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Speaker 1: more weapons in, escalate further the amount of arms that

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Speaker 1: we're shipping in, and perhaps make that you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: we need longer range drones. Maybe we need to think

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Speaker 1: again again about those meg fighter planes. So let's up

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Speaker 1: the number of weapons that were flooding into Ukraine because

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Speaker 1: they're on the precipice of really being able to push

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Speaker 1: the Russian forces back, and that would force Moscow to

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Speaker 1: the table. So that's what this stalemate analysis is being

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Speaker 1: used to justify. And there are reasons to be skeptical

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Speaker 1: of this number one. Russia, yes, has deployed a lot

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Speaker 1: of the forces that they had a mass at the border,

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Speaker 1: but this is not even close to their entire capability,

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Speaker 1: and so the fear is always and this is part

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Speaker 1: of what Kaufman says as well. He says, generally, I

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Speaker 1: don't see how any military success can add up to

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Speaker 1: something that constitutes a political victory for Moscow. If there

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Speaker 1: is another phase, Russian forces will probably try to compensate

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Speaker 1: for poor performance by inflicting greater destruction. They have much

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Speaker 1: more advanced and we're going to get to this in

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Speaker 1: a minute, military technology that they could deploy and inflict

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Speaker 1: even greater horrific damage on the civilian population, mass casualties,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. And so the idea that you know, the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainians have basically like almost won this fight, which is

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Speaker 1: also what the Ukrainian people believe, is just not accurate

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Speaker 1: when you consider the totality of the Russian military capabilities

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Speaker 1: versus what the Ukrainians. I also think people are really

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Speaker 1: misreading what happened here. So the group that put that out,

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Speaker 1: it's called the Institute for the Study of War, and

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Speaker 1: very long ago, yours truly was actually an intern at

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Speaker 1: that group twenty fifteen or so in some different flirtations

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Speaker 1: of neo conservative foreign policy. But it's important to understand

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Speaker 1: here the ideological bent of the organization. And I don't

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Speaker 1: I don't want to speak ill of a former employer,

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Speaker 1: but I think it's very clear that the two individuals

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Speaker 1: who run the thing. Tank are very much more of

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Speaker 1: advocates for a much more hawkish position and for intervention

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Speaker 1: in the conflict, and I don't think that they would

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Speaker 1: dispute me saying that. Now, it's important to see and

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Speaker 1: understand that when they declare stalemate, they are using a

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Speaker 1: military term, because if you read their report, he actually says,

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Speaker 1: he says, look, it's actually going to be long and

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Speaker 1: a bloody protracted campaign. He reminds that the Psalm and

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Speaker 1: the Passiondale conflicts of World War One, where you know,

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Speaker 1: millions of people were killed, those happened in a condition

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Speaker 1: of stalemate. The end of the Civil War where the

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Speaker 1: most people were killed, that also happened in a position

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Speaker 1: of stalemate. The problem is is that the press takes

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Speaker 1: that and runs it as like, oh, it's a total stalemate.

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Speaker 1: It's all good. Actually, no stalemates are at the time

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Speaker 1: when there can be an escalation and increase in the

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Speaker 1: number of civilians. Let's go ahead and put this next

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Speaker 1: one up there on the screen, which is another reason

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Speaker 1: you've got to go and probe people's research. Where Mike

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Speaker 1: Brandan Dherty, who is a friend of the show, he says, quote, unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: I think ISW at the Institute of the Study of

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Speaker 1: War is relying exclusively on what the Ukrainian government posts

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Speaker 1: on Facebook, and one author there tends to really overinterpret

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Speaker 1: what they say. I would go with the New York

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Speaker 1: Times for now. So there is a big narrative battle

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Speaker 1: here in Washington as to whether the actual Ukrainians have

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Speaker 1: fought the Russians to a stalemate. Now, it's possible, it

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Speaker 1: could be that they are on a stagnating part of

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Speaker 1: the front line. That does not mean though, that the

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Speaker 1: war won't get much worse. And in fact, if you

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Speaker 1: read their ISW report in the bottom, that's really what

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Speaker 1: they say. So I think that there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: interpretation games that need to happen here, because if you

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Speaker 1: look at it and say, oh, that's great, that means

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Speaker 1: we need to supply the Ukrainians with even more weapons

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Speaker 1: or offensive weapons. Na they're going to win this thing. No,

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Speaker 1: that's absolutely not the case. And if anything, this could

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Speaker 1: signal instead in escalation into the worst part of the war,

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Speaker 1: where an easy knockout military victory not attainable and now

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Speaker 1: we're going to a full blown civilian bombing campaign. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's no diplomatic for a long time we've worried about

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Speaker 1: Russia US escalating tactics given that things did not go

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Speaker 1: for them the way that they expected them to go.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that part is definitely very real, But just

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Speaker 1: be skeptical. I guess the whole point is, just be

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Speaker 1: a little skeptical of this narrative. Understand the ideological underpinnings

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Speaker 1: that this comes from. Understand what it's being used to justify.

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Speaker 1: Because the whole sort of narrative around this is the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainians are almost there, we just need to do a

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Speaker 1: little more, We need to give them a little bit more.

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Speaker 1: And so it's you know, being used to make an

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Speaker 1: argument that we need to escalate the type of weapons

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Speaker 1: and the type of support that we are giving to

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Speaker 1: the Ukrainians. Yeah, outright military victory by the Ukrainian military,

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Speaker 1: that's just not going to happen. It's not on the ape,

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Speaker 1: it's not on the table, and they would tell you that,

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Speaker 1: the honest ones would tell you it's absolutely not going

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Speaker 1: to happen. Really, what it is is that as a

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Speaker 1: defensive force, when you're a smaller defensive force, your main

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Speaker 1: military objective is to make attacking in the offense as

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Speaker 1: painful as humanly possible in order to fight to some

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Speaker 1: sort of diplomatic settlement. And we'll give you the diplomatic

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Speaker 1: settlement in a bit. But the reason why it's important

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Speaker 1: for all of us to have an honest conversation is

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Speaker 1: because Russia is holding back a significant part of its

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Speaker 1: military capability because they don't want to be even more

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Speaker 1: a pariah state in the eyes of the world, because

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Speaker 1: it's not necessarily a military necessity at this time. But

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Speaker 1: there is a whole like there are many many rungs

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Speaker 1: higher on the escalation ladder in the Russian military capability

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Speaker 1: that do not exist. The Ukrainians are fighting to the

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Speaker 1: death with everything that they possibly can. They are throwing

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Speaker 1: everything in terms of a total war against the Russians,

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Speaker 1: but it's not even close to the same on the

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Speaker 1: other side. So really what it comes down to is

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Speaker 1: defeating their political will to continue fighting this war that

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Speaker 1: may still happen, and there can be a conversation about that,

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Speaker 1: but do not delude yourself into thinking that this is

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Speaker 1: any way over. So let's go then and move on

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Speaker 1: to the next part of this which we find incredibly important,

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Speaker 1: which is and let's put this up there on the screen,

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Speaker 1: which is that over the weekend the Russians claimed the

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Speaker 1: first use of a hypersonic kinsol missile in Ukraine. This

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Speaker 1: is an incredibly significant event. Hypersonic missiles, obviously are capabilities

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Speaker 1: which the Russians and the Chinese have, but which the

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Speaker 1: United States, at least from what they tell us, we

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Speaker 1: do not have. The reason why it matters is because

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Speaker 1: they are much faster than any traditional ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile,

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Speaker 1: and because they defeat any of the military anti air

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Speaker 1: of defense anti missile defense systems that we have currently

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Speaker 1: in place. It's kind of like an increase in an

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Speaker 1: offensive strategic weapon. And it's a very clear demonstration by

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Speaker 1: the Russians. If you think that they needed to use

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Speaker 1: this militarily in Ukraine, they didn't. They did this as

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Speaker 1: a very clearly screw you. And I'm using Pg. Thirteen

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Speaker 1: language to NATO and to the United States, which is, hey,

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Speaker 1: we got these missiles, we can use them. Here's how

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Speaker 1: well they work. And by the way, we could strap

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Speaker 1: a nuke to it if we wanted to, and it

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Speaker 1: could be in the city of Washington in five minutes

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Speaker 1: from US. I don't know the exact flight time. But

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Speaker 1: it's something like that, and if you launch it even closer,

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Speaker 1: then you're going to have no warning whatsoever and we

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Speaker 1: can destroy and penetrate the United States. You have no

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Speaker 1: defense systems that are even capable of this. This is

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Speaker 1: something that Russians did often when in Syria. They would

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Speaker 1: use ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and other of those types

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Speaker 1: of technology. Frankly, we did the same thing whenever we

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Speaker 1: use Tomahawk missiles against the Asad regime. This is all

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Speaker 1: part of a proxy war and kind of like a

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Speaker 1: you know, showing what exactly you can do. But the

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Speaker 1: use of the missile itself is an incredibly important strategic

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Speaker 1: event Crystal and very much as a warning to all

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Speaker 1: of us here in the United States. And I think

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Speaker 1: we should heed that warning. I think we should understand

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Speaker 1: what that warning. Yeah, and they bragged about it. They

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Speaker 1: put on a video, and this is just a message

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Speaker 1: of don't f with us, And I think it fits

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Speaker 1: well with what we were just saying about the fact

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Speaker 1: that they have suffered significantly more losses, that they haven't

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Speaker 1: achieved their military objectives in the timeframe that they expected.

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Speaker 1: That I think there are genuine issues with the morale

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Speaker 1: of the Russian soldiers. All of that being said, this

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Speaker 1: is still they're saying, Hey, whatever problems we're having on

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Speaker 1: the battlefield, remember what we've got in the arsenal. Remember

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Speaker 1: the capabilities that we have here and what we can

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Speaker 1: do and the pain we can bring not only to

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Speaker 1: Ukraine but the broader region if you continue to escalate.

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Speaker 1: So this was meant to be a direct message to US, yes,

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Speaker 1: into NATO and Europe in general, that you know, don't

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Speaker 1: aft with us. That's basically the message that this sends.

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Speaker 1: Because this can also these kinsels can also carry a

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Speaker 1: nuclear warhead. So that's also really important to keep in

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Speaker 1: mind in terms of we've seen this sort of escalating

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Speaker 1: nuclear rhetoric from Putin and from his Krumlin allies. This

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Speaker 1: should also be seen as part of that escalatory rhetoric. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so Secretary of State defend our Secretary of Defense,

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Speaker 1: Lloyd Austin, he was on one of the Sunday shows.

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Speaker 1: He is significantly trying to downplay this. It's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: we're not too worried about it. Let's take a listen

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Speaker 1: to how the Biden administration is trying handalus. Russia is

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Speaker 1: also saying that it used a hypersonic missile at least

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Speaker 1: twice in Ukraine so far. So this is a missilet

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Speaker 1: travels more than a mile a minute. It's very difficult

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Speaker 1: to intercept. Is this weaponry game changer? I would not

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Speaker 1: see it as a game changer. I think again, the

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Speaker 1: reason that he's resorting to using these types of weapons

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Speaker 1: is because he's trying to re establish some momentum. And

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Speaker 1: we've again we've seen him attack towns and cities and

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Speaker 1: civilians outright. We expect to see that continue. But I

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Speaker 1: don't think that this in and of itself will be

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Speaker 1: a game changer. Okay, he's trying to frame it in

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Speaker 1: terms of the actual Russia Ukraine War. They didn't use

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Speaker 1: this because they militarily needed to. They did it because

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Speaker 1: they have it and we don't have it and we're

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Speaker 1: not going to have it for several years. It was

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Speaker 1: a very clear demonstration of capability, and they're trying to

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Speaker 1: tamp that down. Clinton, who is a military analyst, put

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Speaker 1: this up there on the screen. He very much has

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Speaker 1: a different and I think the correct take, which is

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Speaker 1: that this is a major deterrent signal to NATO. As

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Speaker 1: he says quote. There is no plausible reason that the

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Speaker 1: Kinsol would need to be deployed against Ukraine, given that

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Speaker 1: its own air defenses have been suppressed. It is Russia's

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Speaker 1: single most advanced conventional weapon, thirteen times faster than a

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Speaker 1: Tomahawk missile, with three times the amount of payload, and

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Speaker 1: its use was similar to when the administration, the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration used the Moab bomb, the famous mother of all

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Speaker 1: bombs in Afghanistan. Both of those, that one was much

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Speaker 1: more of a signal to the Iranians. But this is

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Speaker 1: all part of a broader display of strategic military power,

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Speaker 1: which is, Hey, you want to ship all these missiles

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Speaker 1: and all the stuff to Ukraine. Okay, that's fine. This

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Speaker 1: one could be waiting for you, and they could use

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Speaker 1: crystal a Kinshaw missile against an arms convoy that we

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Speaker 1: send in there, even if it is armed by the Ukrainians.

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Speaker 1: I very much could see that happening. And look, all

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Speaker 1: of this is what the danger of escalation is, which

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Speaker 1: is that when Russia bombs that military convoy that we

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Speaker 1: sent in only ten miles from the Polish border. Look,

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Speaker 1: everybody says that the navigation systems are good, but we're

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Speaker 1: not talking about a lot of space here. I mean,

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Speaker 1: all it takes is one guy to do something once

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Speaker 1: wrong and the next thing you know, you have a

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Speaker 1: missile that lands in NATO territory. What now, what do

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Speaker 1: we do? I mean, we're at war. That's a trip wire.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if you could kill the wrong guy. Or

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Speaker 1: we had those three natoheads of state that went to Kiev,

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Speaker 1: and then here in DC we have these idiot pundits

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Speaker 1: who are or are arguing that Biden should go to Kiev.

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Speaker 1: If he dies, it's over. We're going to nuclear war?

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Speaker 1: Are you people crazy? We can't send the president into

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Speaker 1: a war zone like that that we're not actively involved in.

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Speaker 1: There is a lack of consideration here as to just

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Speaker 1: how important the use of this technology is. And it's

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Speaker 1: the reason that the Chinese used it last year as well,

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Speaker 1: flying it all the way around the globe in a

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Speaker 1: spotnik moment to say hey we got this too, and

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Speaker 1: their development and use of that technology very clear to

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Speaker 1: sign up, do not screw with us. Yeah, And the

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Speaker 1: narrative that's being spun by Austin and echoed by a

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Speaker 1: lot of their media allies is, oh, we think Russia

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Speaker 1: is using kinsels because they're running out of more precisely

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Speaker 1: targeted missiles. It's like, no, that's not what this is

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Speaker 1: about at all, and they know that, right, they're not stupid.

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Speaker 1: But this is the clearly what they're trying to sell

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Speaker 1: to the American people is, oh, the Ukrainians are actually

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Speaker 1: you know, they thought it to a stalemate. If we

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Speaker 1: just do a little bit more, and actually these tactics

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Speaker 1: from the Russians this is a sign of their desperation.

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Speaker 1: That means if we just continue what we're doing and

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Speaker 1: up the ante a little bit, then we're going to

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Speaker 1: push them in the direction of ultimately having a piece.

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Speaker 1: So that's how they're trying to spin this, but that's

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Speaker 1: not really what's ultimately going on here. It's very important

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Speaker 1: that you all understand that, Yeah, exactly, So there's a

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Speaker 1: proxy media war happening in terms of the use of

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Speaker 1: the hypersonic missile. The use of the missile itself is

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Speaker 1: a very important strategic event, and it's meant very clearly

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Speaker 1: in order to signal things to us, and we should

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Speaker 1: actually watch very closely with the use of some of

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Speaker 1: these weapons that the Russians are using, you know, thermobaric

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Speaker 1: weapons and others. The reason behind all of this is

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Speaker 1: a defense and a display of strength towards the NATO countries,

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Speaker 1: even though yes they may ridiculous and asymmetric it is,

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Speaker 1: but there's a reason that. In the one hand, it

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Speaker 1: also is a demonstration to the Ukrainians of what we

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Speaker 1: were talking about earlier in this block, which is, hey, look,

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Speaker 1: you want to start, you know, using javelins and trying

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Speaker 1: to shoot down our stuff. Fine, we're going to start

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Speaker 1: using hypersonic missiles, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, all these things

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Speaker 1: against you. This is the immense military power that they

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Speaker 1: still have to bear, and they're not pulling out all

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Speaker 1: the stops, but it's a demonstration that in a full

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Speaker 1: scale hot war with the Russians, this is exactly the

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Speaker 1: type of technology that we would have to deal with.

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Speaker 1: It's a type of stuff which could penetrate US air

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Speaker 1: defense systems. And it's also a symbol to all of

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Speaker 1: us of how fast things can go off the rails.

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Speaker 1: I mean, takes is one mistake, two mistakes something like that,

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Speaker 1: and then within five Minutesllion two hundred million people are dead. Well,

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Speaker 1: and what the Biden administration has been this line. They've

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Speaker 1: been trying to walk in terms of what they do

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Speaker 1: send into Ukraine and what they refrain from sending into

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Speaker 1: Ukraine is they're trying to provide things that don't have

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Speaker 1: the ability to be an offensive weapon against Moscow. Is

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Speaker 1: part of why the use big discussion matters exactly, because

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Speaker 1: there were a lot of people who are playing dumb saying, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't see what's different about fighter jets. Well, what's

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Speaker 1: different about fighter jets is that those can go into

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Speaker 1: Moscow and be there very quickly. Whereas if you have,

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Speaker 1: you know, these stinger missiles and these sorts of things,

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Speaker 1: obviously those are most effective US there on the ground.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, when you've got morons like Lindsey

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Speaker 1: Graham running around talking about regime change in Russia and

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Speaker 1: assassinating Putin and other people like Adam Kinziger are basically

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Speaker 1: calling for full scale war, Moscow is looking at those

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Speaker 1: things and feeling very leery about the possibility of US

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Speaker 1: offensive action against the regime. So that's why they've tried

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Speaker 1: to walk this line. But they are under increasing pressure

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Speaker 1: to do more, provide more weapons up the ante in

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Speaker 1: terms of what is actually being sent over there, and

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Speaker 1: this whole narrative is being used to justify that direction. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's right. Just remember this was a done explicitly as

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Speaker 1: a reaction to our shipping of arms over there. So

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Speaker 1: let's just keep that in mind as we continue this discussion.

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Speaker 1: Very important, all right. We want to bring you the

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Speaker 1: latest in terms of a potential piece deal, which I

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Speaker 1: got to tell you, guys, I am not very hopeful

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Speaker 1: about at this point. I'm going to talk more about

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Speaker 1: this in my monologue, but let's go ahead and put

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Speaker 1: this first piece up on the screen, which seemed a

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Speaker 1: little bit hopeful. So we had some reporting this from

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Speaker 1: Financial Times from Turkey. They are saying that Russia and

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Speaker 1: Ukraine have quote almost reach agreement on a neutral Ukraine

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Speaker 1: with no plans from NATO, demilitarizing Ukraine security guarantees, denotification

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Speaker 1: whatever that is, lifting restrictions on the use of Russian

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Speaker 1: in Ukraine. This was a sticking point. This was a

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Speaker 1: sort of source of tension between the Russian speaking population

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Speaker 1: in Ukraine and Ukraine speaking population and with Russia themselves.

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Speaker 1: There were laws that were passed basically you know, making

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Speaker 1: it getting rid of Russia as one of the official languages.

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Speaker 1: So that's one of the pieces here. That's a kind

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Speaker 1: of sticking point. But let's go out and put this

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Speaker 1: next piece up on the screen about denotification. There's some

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Speaker 1: more details here about what that might mean. Likely a

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Speaker 1: compromise would involve Kiev making some token concessions, banning certain groups,

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Speaker 1: changing the names of streets named after what they describe

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Speaker 1: as Ukrainian partisans who fought alongside Nazi Germany. It's a

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Speaker 1: very diplomatic way of putting it against the USSR in

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Speaker 1: the Second World War. Russia is also likely to soften

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Speaker 1: a demand for Ukraine to make Russian the second official

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Speaker 1: language in the country of Kiv, rolls back laws limiting

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Speaker 1: its use. One of the people at it. So this

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Speaker 1: is once again putting out there, oh, we're getting close

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Speaker 1: to a deal that here are the outlines of it.

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Speaker 1: You know, this could really be coming together. But I

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Speaker 1: think there are very good reasons to be skeptical of this.

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Speaker 1: First of all, there was reporting from the US that

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Speaker 1: behind closed doors, Zelenski, when he was meeting with the leaders,

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Speaker 1: who sort of foolishly and very you know, in a

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Speaker 1: very risky maneuver, actually went to Keev to speak with

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Speaker 1: him directly. Some of the diplomats familiar with those exchange

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Speaker 1: basically said, like he's they want to fight. They don't

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Speaker 1: think that they need to back down. They're not trying

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Speaker 1: hard to reach a piece deal. And then this morning

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Speaker 1: you have additional reporting that Dmitri Peskov, who's Putin spokesman,

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Speaker 1: says on the Possibilities piece that the degree of progress

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Speaker 1: falls short of what we would like, and how the

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Speaker 1: dynamic of developments demands on the Ukrainian side, meaning Russia's

429
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: ongoing assault on its cities. Peskov said direct talks between

430
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,880
Speaker 1: Putin and Zelensky will only happen if Kiev quote does

431
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 1: its homework by holding negotiations and agreeing their results. For now,

432
00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:57,480
Speaker 1: there is no substantial movement. They won't have any agreements

433
00:21:57,480 --> 00:21:59,879
Speaker 1: to commit to. So what's going on here? You have

434
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 1: two sides that think they're winning. You have the Russians,

435
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:08,960
Speaker 1: who you know, they just debuted this incredible, extraordinary capabilities.

436
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 1: They know they've got a vastly superior military. Yeah, they

437
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,359
Speaker 1: may be engaged in these talks as a sort of

438
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:19,480
Speaker 1: like you know, as like a pr deal demonstrating the war.

439
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 1: Of course, we're serious about peace, demonstrating their own population.

440
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,840
Speaker 1: Of course we care about peace, but perhaps not really

441
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 1: negotiating in good faith because they think they can ultimately

442
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,880
Speaker 1: accomplish their military objectives and they don't think that they

443
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,360
Speaker 1: have to accept any sort of concessions. You have the Ukrainians,

444
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: and I just looked up the polling. Ninety percent of

445
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: the Ukrainians think they're going to outright win this war

446
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,920
Speaker 1: ninety percent. And so even if Zelensky and his heart

447
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: of hearts knows the reality, this is the political landscape that,

448
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,320
Speaker 1: by the way, he's helped co create, so he can't

449
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:55,119
Speaker 1: go in and accept in a deal what would be

450
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,200
Speaker 1: extremely painful concessions. I mean, any actual peace deal would

451
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 1: almost certainly end up with seeding some Ukrainian territory to

452
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: the Russians. Like that's what the Russians are willing to accept,

453
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: and I don't think the Ukrainians are anywhere close to

454
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,520
Speaker 1: being willing to accept that, because they believe not only

455
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: that they are going to win ultimately. It was the

456
00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:19,400
Speaker 1: almost a majority of Ukrainians who believed in this polling

457
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,159
Speaker 1: from a Ukrainian polster that they would be able to

458
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,679
Speaker 1: prevail in the next couple of weeks. So you're not

459
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 1: going to have a peace deal which requires painful concessions

460
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,239
Speaker 1: on both sides when both sides think that they are

461
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:34,800
Speaker 1: on the cusp of victory. I think that once again

462
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: it seems like it's been going on for eternity, especially

463
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: to us. But look at the history of warfare. This

464
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: has only been less than a month. It has not

465
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:46,440
Speaker 1: been even a full four weeks. That's not a long

466
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 1: time in the history of a military campaign, and especially

467
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: whenever we have to relatively irreconcilable positions, which is that

468
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 1: the Russians have now put and need to say face

469
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,160
Speaker 1: in terms of declaring some sort of victory, or they

470
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:01,160
Speaker 1: need to fight it out as a stalemate. You see

471
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 1: this all the time in the history of offensive warfare,

472
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 1: which is that you have somebody who is a leader

473
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 1: like Putin, who gambles that he can get this done

474
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:10,680
Speaker 1: very quickly, doesn't have to bring one hundred percent of

475
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:13,240
Speaker 1: his military power to bear. Then you have this smaller

476
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 1: state which puts up a heroic resistance. This actually has

477
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,639
Speaker 1: two downsides. Number one which is that it shows the

478
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 1: bigger power that they have two options, say face and

479
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 1: negotiate or fight to the death and throw everything that

480
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: you have in there, and then on the other side,

481
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:29,920
Speaker 1: it actually gives I wouldn't say a false hope necessarily

482
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 1: because they're not diminishing what they've done, but it gives

483
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:34,400
Speaker 1: them a false sense of, oh, we could actually win

484
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: and we could fight this thing. And then what ends

485
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: up happening is you have the solidification of the two positions,

486
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 1: and now we have a situation where here's how it

487
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 1: almost always ends in history, which is that, yeah, we'll

488
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 1: try to negotiate. Both tides say they can't negotiate a position.

489
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,399
Speaker 1: We're going to have a very very bloody quote unquote stalemate,

490
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: the use of offensive weapons by the Russians in order

491
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: to break that stalemate, as we saw all throughout the

492
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: First World War, the Civil War, and World War Two,

493
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: which leads to a tremendous loss of life. Then with

494
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:05,680
Speaker 1: the Ukrainians, you have a solidification of that civilian population

495
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to negotiate, and it takes I hate

496
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,159
Speaker 1: to say this, about four to five years and hundreds

497
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 1: of thousands of deaths before those people are really ready

498
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,120
Speaker 1: in order to be once again either subjugated or negotiate

499
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 1: some sort of position. I just think I don't see

500
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: a way out of that, given the history of European conflict,

501
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 1: given the Russian history in the way that they fight,

502
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 1: and we shouldn't forget the Ukrainian people themselves put up

503
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 1: heroic resistance actually against the Nazis during the Red Army,

504
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: and you know, fought to the last man and to

505
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,040
Speaker 1: the death. So you have two very proud peoples here.

506
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: You have a classic situation of military history that everything

507
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: tells us. Look, as much as I want diplomacy and

508
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 1: you know, will cheer and work for it as hard

509
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: to here as possible, it's extraordinarily unlikely. And we just

510
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:52,439
Speaker 1: generally know the way this is going to go. And

511
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound glib in this. This is

512
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: a tremendous, tremendous loss of life and suffering for so

513
00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: many people. Yeah, that's exactly right, and especially when they're

514
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 1: you know, when there is this kind of war propaganda

515
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,560
Speaker 1: in our media, in the Ukrainian media, convincing people that

516
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 1: reality is different than reality actually is. Ultimately, you know,

517
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 1: that doesn't serve the cause of coming to some sort

518
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: of negotiated settlement, which is extraordinarily difficult. So, you know,

519
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: any little rays of hope that we felt like maybe

520
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 1: we were getting last week on that front. I wouldn't

521
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:26,959
Speaker 1: be helpful about I just think the two sides are

522
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: too far apart, both convinced of their own imminent victory

523
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: and so unlikely to be willing to give up the

524
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 1: concessions that would be necessary. Here. We also wanted to

525
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 1: bring you an update from inside Ukraine some of the

526
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: political moves that are being made here that are really

527
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: deeply troubling. Let's go ahead and put this first tear

528
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:50,200
Speaker 1: sheet up on the screen. So President Lensky has suspended

529
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 1: eleven political parties that they claim have links to Russia.

530
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,440
Speaker 1: Now I don't doubt. Let me just read a little

531
00:26:58,440 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: bit of the news here and then I'll give you

532
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: a little bit of my analysis. So they say the

533
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,199
Speaker 1: country's National Security and Defense Council took the decision to

534
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 1: ban the parties from any political activity. Most of the

535
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: parties affected were small, but one of them, the opposition

536
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: Platform for Life, has forty four seats in the four

537
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty seat Ukrainian Parliament. Here's what Zelenski said.

538
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: He said the activities of those politicians aimed at division

539
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,880
Speaker 1: or collusion will not succeed, but will receive a harsh response. Therefore,

540
00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,160
Speaker 1: the National Security and Defense Council decided, given the full

541
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:29,680
Speaker 1: scale war unleashed by Russia and the political ties that

542
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 1: a number of political structures have with this date, to

543
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: suspend any activity of a number of political parties for

544
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: the period of martial law. So they have been under

545
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 1: martial law, understandable given that it's wartime, and he is

546
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: now using martial law to ban eleven different opposition parties. Now,

547
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: obviously their rhetoric is very similar to this idea. Oh,

548
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: they're Russian controlled, their Russian puppets, they're pro war, those

549
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: sorts of things, which they might be, and in some

550
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 1: cases appear to have very close time. That may very

551
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: well be the case for some of these parties, but

552
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,680
Speaker 1: some of them have been actively anti war. It's mostly

553
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 1: sort of leftist like socialist or communist parties that are

554
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:21,879
Speaker 1: being banned here outright, and notably not the ultranationalist linked

555
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: to neo Nazis parties. Those ones are still good to go.

556
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 1: So it's a troubling development here, and I think it

557
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: matters for a couple of reasons. First of all, it

558
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: matters in terms of our understanding of who Zelensky is.

559
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: I've been very leary of the like Zelenski hero narrative.

560
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: Even if it was totally true, it's still dangerous because

561
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 1: his interests in his country are different than our interests.

562
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: So when he's aggressively out there calling for the most

563
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 1: hawkish actions, which would in fact lead us directly into

564
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: a war, we need to understand that we've got to

565
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: protect our interests and we shouldn't be doing what hero

566
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: Zelensky says. So I think this shows you that there

567
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,239
Speaker 1: is a lot more going on in Ukraine than has

568
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: been presented in the media. It's what makes it so complicated,

569
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: which is that the media is casting this as a

570
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: war of a democracy against an authoritarian state. I mean, yes,

571
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 1: Ukraine is a democracy, it's probably more democratic than Russia.

572
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that it doesn't have its own problems.

573
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: And notice, we're not out here being like Zelenski is

574
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: a thug. You know, they're both. We're not equivocating whatsoever.

575
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: What we're saying is well, it's complicated. That being said, look,

576
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 1: the Russians still invaded the Ukrainians, so not as this

577
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 1: to justify a Russian invasion. A lot of at all

578
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: in some ways they deserve a lot of what they're getting.

579
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: But the problem is is that the Ukrainian government itself

580
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 1: and the way it responds to this this matters less

581
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 1: towards US and even the Western narrative around defending democracy,

582
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: but how the Russians are going to signal this inside

583
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: of Russia, which is they're like, oh, look, they're persecuting

584
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 1: these Russian peoples. They're not banning the Nazi Party, the

585
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: azav Battalion, so they main affiliated with this thing which

586
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: is so objectionable to the Russian people that they would

587
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 1: then continue fighting. At the same time, if you're Ukraine,

588
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: I mean, do you really want to allow like pro

589
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: Russian elements to be like operating in your government. I

590
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 1: get it the problem and I'm not justifying it. What

591
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that the anti democratic ends this is

592
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 1: a hallmark of warfare, and I think that that is

593
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: why this is really tragic, which is that we are

594
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 1: seeing both of these states descend into total, all out

595
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 1: kind of a civilizational struggle, and in all of history

596
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 1: of war, especially in that region, what you see is

597
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: a massive totalitarian crackdown, consolidation of power, and the use

598
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: of that sometimes to very unfortunate ends. You know, I'm

599
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 1: seeing reports here about the way that civilians are being

600
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 1: treated or prisoners of war being treated on both sides,

601
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: you know, some horrible things, and it's like that's just

602
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:53,840
Speaker 1: simply a hallmark of war. And I'm not again not

603
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 1: justifying it writing it off. I'm like, this is what

604
00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: war is like. When Russia decided to launch this, this

605
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: is what they have lit And part of the issue though,

606
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,719
Speaker 1: is that we're not honestly talking about it either in

607
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: order to say, hey, look, if this is a war

608
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 1: for democracy, this is not something that you should be doing.

609
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: If this is a war that you are casting yourself

610
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 1: as a member of the West, well, if you do

611
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: want actual entree into the West, like you know he

612
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 1: signed his EU application, this stuff can't be happening, yea.

613
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: And I mean this is all part of why what's

614
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: happening in this entire conflict is all in the gray area.

615
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 1: And while there may be it might be morally outrageous

616
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: that the Russians have invaded, that doesn't mean the Ukrainians

617
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: are perfect either, and that should also change how we

618
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 1: view our calculus. Doesn't mean we don't support them, doesn't

619
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: mean we don't defend them, but they're not the most

620
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: perfect people on earth either. The cause, the Ukrainian cause,

621
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: is absolutely right, right and just in the Russian yeah

622
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: and just and the Russians are the aggressors here, and

623
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: there's absolutely no equivocating in that. And any commentary about

624
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: like Ukrainians democracy is not all that it's being presented as.

625
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: None of that should be construed as any sort of

626
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 1: a justification for what's being done to them at all.

627
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 1: So I want to be completely clear about that. But

628
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 1: you know, also looking at this development, there are some

629
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: echoes from our own politics, like Cold War politics, the

630
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: way that, especially during Russia Gate, any potential ties to

631
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: Russia was used as a way to smear and dismiss people.

632
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 1: That this is often used as a tactic to shut

633
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: down any sort of left wing opposition in particular. So

634
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: I mean, he's using war to take this to a

635
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 1: very extreme place. But you can see the echoes of

636
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 1: the way that this is used in our own propaganda

637
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: in our own politics as well. So that's another reason

638
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 1: why I thought it was interesting here. Let's go ahead

639
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: and put this next piece up on the screen of

640
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: additional actions that are being taken. Zelensky has also signed

641
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 1: a decree that combines all national TV channels into one platform,

642
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 1: citing the importance of a unified information policy under martial law.

643
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 1: And if there's one thing he has been very good about,

644
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: he's been very effective in his communications, with one notable

645
00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 1: exception we're about to get to in MoMA with regards

646
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 1: to Israel. But you know, this man came up as

647
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: an actor and a comedian. He knows how to he

648
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 1: knows how to communicate in a way that lands with

649
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 1: the populations that he's talking to most often. And so

650
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: this is yet another way for him to sort of

651
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: shut down any potential dissenting voices and make sure that

652
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: all of Ukrainian television is speaking with the message that

653
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: he wants ultimately to go forward. Yeah, and in Israel,

654
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:30,760
Speaker 1: had to bring you this because I do think he

655
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 1: actually significantly miscalculated. Let's put this up there on the screen. Well.

656
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 1: While Zelenski was addressing the Israeli nested, he says that

657
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 1: Ukrainians helped Juice during the Holocaust. Many Ukrainians are among

658
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: the righteous among the nations. He says, quote, the people

659
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,880
Speaker 1: of Israel now have a choice to make and there

660
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:51,040
Speaker 1: is actually a lot of criticism inside of Israel accusing Zelenski,

661
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: who himself is a Jew, of minimizing the Holocaust and

662
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 1: whitewashing the Ukrainian's role because well, there was, let's just say,

663
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,400
Speaker 1: a lot going on there terms of World War two

664
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: and the Nazis. And let's put this next one up

665
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 1: there on the screen, which is that if you go

666
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: ahead in PERUS, what exactly the Israeli reaction to this.

667
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 1: It's been a significant error. Zelensky has been trying, as

668
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 1: he notes here, to tailor his speeches to appeal to

669
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,320
Speaker 1: various national audiences, like Martin Luther King in nine to

670
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 1: eleven here in the US, or when addressing the UK

671
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 1: evoking Churchhill, but invoking the Holocaust in Israel was really,

672
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: I think a bridge too far, and he appears to

673
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: have pissed off a significant amount of a significant amount

674
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:39,400
Speaker 1: of actual politicians in Israel to that end, especially because Israel,

675
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: and I'll be talking about this some of my monologue

676
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 1: is pursuing a strategic sovereign foreign policy here. They are

677
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 1: not wanting to take as much to take a significant side.

678
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,520
Speaker 1: They're one of the mediating partners whenever it comes to

679
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: the peace deal along the Turkey because they have good

680
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,600
Speaker 1: relations with Russia, they have a huge Russian population, and

681
00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 1: so Zelenski trying to force them to take a so

682
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:03,480
Speaker 1: has had some interesting consequences. I also just have to

683
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 1: say this because it's hilarious. Adam Kissinger tweeted yesterday that

684
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,960
Speaker 1: he was like, Israel must take a stand, they must

685
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:14,640
Speaker 1: make a choice. Their support for Ukraine will then make

686
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:18,839
Speaker 1: contingent US support to Israel. And I was like, oh interesting.

687
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: I was like, Adam Kissinger has neo con himself so

688
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: hard that he is now like aligned with skeptical elements

689
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: of arming Israel no matter the consequences. So that's interesting. Yeah,

690
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 1: kind of a hilarious, I mean, very unusual horseshoe, is

691
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 1: a true horseshoes, like the neo Khan leftist torshoe that

692
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: lit almost never. Yeah. I mean there's there's a lot

693
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: to say here. I think that there were some much

694
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:51,280
Speaker 1: more effective ways to shame Israel, and they do deserve

695
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,239
Speaker 1: to be shamed here in a certain sense. I mean,

696
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 1: for example, the entire region has been mostly taking in

697
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 1: a lot of Ukrainian refugees, and Israel has been notable

698
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:07,839
Speaker 1: in turning away people who are coming in. I mean

699
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 1: the very first day they set an extraordinarily limited was

700
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,839
Speaker 1: like five thousand people of non Jewish Ukrainians who were

701
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:18,439
Speaker 1: allowed to enter the country. That was exhausted on day one.

702
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,319
Speaker 1: And so, you know, for a people who obviously were

703
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 1: persecuted over many, many years, and who famously, in one

704
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,440
Speaker 1: of the most shameful moments in World War our own

705
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 1: World War II history, turned away when they were seeking refuge,

706
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: to then close their doors to the Ukrainian people because of,

707
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 1: you know, their own sort of commitment to being an

708
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 1: ethno state. I think that deserves to be publicly shamed.

709
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,919
Speaker 1: And then the other thing that is interesting here, and

710
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 1: you can read this a lot of different ways, but

711
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:55,880
Speaker 1: the Ukrainians asked for their Iron Dome defense missile defense system,

712
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 1: which we helped to create. I mean, we're like part

713
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,480
Speaker 1: owner in this thing, and apparently put some pressure on

714
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 1: the Israelis as well to provide this, and they're like, nah,

715
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 1: we're going to do that. Well. To be honest, I

716
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:09,040
Speaker 1: hate to say it, but that actually I think that

717
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,960
Speaker 1: would be kind of an offensive move, both on Israel's

718
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: part and on the US part. But it look I

719
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 1: actually don't begrudge Israel for not choosing a side here,

720
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:21,440
Speaker 1: because there are making some significant diplomatic progress and at

721
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,360
Speaker 1: the end of the day, is sovereign country's job is

722
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:25,759
Speaker 1: in order to pursue its sovereign interest and that's what

723
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 1: I would say that the has really rankled the US.

724
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: It is part of a broader discussion of it's kind

725
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 1: of interesting that all the Middle Eastern client states that

726
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: we have don't do anything that we ask them to

727
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 1: do right it comes to any crisis, which may have

728
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,760
Speaker 1: some questions around why exactly we give them complete and total,

729
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:44,760
Speaker 1: unconditional support no matter what. But that is a different

730
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,600
Speaker 1: discussion for another day. Yeah, well, we're going to continue

731
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: that discussion with Martaza, who say later on in the show,

732
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 1: so we'll get back to that. Absolutely. At the same time,

733
00:37:56,200 --> 00:38:01,839
Speaker 1: some significant comments coming from the State. So last week

734
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,319
Speaker 1: we were bringing you some of the indications maybe they

735
00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:07,399
Speaker 1: were uncomfortable with what was going on with Russia, maybe

736
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,360
Speaker 1: they weren't going to really but back Russia up, that

737
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 1: they were kind of, you know, considering pressuring Russia to

738
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: come to the table and end this thing, which would

739
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 1: be the best possible situation. And they are the country

740
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:21,280
Speaker 1: that has the most power in the most way, ultimately

741
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 1: in being able to force some sort of concessions on

742
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 1: the Russian state. Well, now not so much. Let's go

743
00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:29,200
Speaker 1: ahead and put this Axios tear sheet up on this screen.

744
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:35,399
Speaker 1: So the day after Biden and She spoke, you had

745
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 1: China's vice foreign minister just completely taking Russia's side, blaming

746
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,320
Speaker 1: NATO directly for the war in Ukraine, among other comments.

747
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 1: I'm going to read you a number of his comments

748
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: here because this was quite significant. He called NATO a

749
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:52,360
Speaker 1: Cold War vestige, warning of this expansion could cause repercussions

750
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: too dreadful to contemplate. He said sanctions against Russia are

751
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,399
Speaker 1: now going to such links that globalization is used as

752
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 1: a weapon. Even people from the sports, cultural, art and

753
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: entertainment communities are not spared. Let's go ahead and put

754
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: the next piece up on the screen. This is from Reuters.

755
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: He also said that the sanctions against Russia are getting

756
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 1: more and more outrageous, adding that Russian citizens were being

757
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 1: deprived of overseas assets for no reason. Some more of

758
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:18,960
Speaker 1: his comments. History has proven time and again that sanctions

759
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 1: cannot solve problems. Sanctions will only harm ordinary people. Impact

760
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 1: the economic and financial system and worse, in the global economy.

761
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:28,840
Speaker 1: The pursuit of absolute security by NATO precisely leads to

762
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: absolute non security. The consequences of forcing a major power,

763
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: especially at nuclear power, into a corner are even more unimaginable.

764
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:41,480
Speaker 1: So listen, I actually agree with some of that analysis

765
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,640
Speaker 1: about sanctions. I do think that they are extraordinary what

766
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:47,239
Speaker 1: we're doing. I do think they will be brutal on

767
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: the Russian people. I do think that the freak out

768
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 1: over sports and cultural figures is insane. But if you're

769
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,239
Speaker 1: only talking about NATO and you're not talking about the

770
00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:01,000
Speaker 1: fact that it was Russia that just in vas, then

771
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:04,520
Speaker 1: clearly you have a very selective view of what is

772
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:06,760
Speaker 1: going on here, which is why these comments would seem

773
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:11,040
Speaker 1: to indicate that any hopes that the Chinese government might

774
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,400
Speaker 1: step in to help bring this conflict to a close

775
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: probably not going to happen. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know,

776
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 1: let's put this in New York Times tear sheet up

777
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 1: on the screen, which actually echoes a lot of what

778
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:22,920
Speaker 1: Matt Stoler did for us over the weekend on becoming

779
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: food crisis, which is that China is facing its worst

780
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: wheat crop in decades after severe flooding, and is planning

781
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: to buy more of the world's renewing supply. Kiev and

782
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,880
Speaker 1: Ukraine are known as the bread basket of the former

783
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 1: Russian Empire, and they are going to need to buy

784
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: a lot of Russian wheat, which is one of the

785
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 1: world's largest wheat producers. So that's another reason why the

786
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:46,759
Speaker 1: Chinese are going to have it difficult in order to

787
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 1: take sides. But really what it is is I think

788
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:50,799
Speaker 1: the Chinese are maybe trying to get ahead of a

789
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,280
Speaker 1: narrative here in the West that maybe they were abandoning

790
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,319
Speaker 1: the Russians, and I think they are just trying to

791
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 1: play all sides, you know, because we've seen reports that

792
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: they denied at at least these kind of the weapons

793
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 1: request from the Russians, but then they're blaming NATO. So

794
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 1: what they tell us is very different than what they

795
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 1: tell them. In terms of what they're telling us, though,

796
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:14,880
Speaker 1: is a very clear message of being absolutely politically neutral,

797
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,440
Speaker 1: even if it makes them look like a clown. And

798
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:20,480
Speaker 1: that's what we saw whenever it came to the recent

799
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:24,239
Speaker 1: Chinese ambassador's appearance on the Sunday Shows, when he was

800
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,920
Speaker 1: depressed on the Russian invasion. Let's take a listen, and

801
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 1: weisha amassed more than one hundred and fifty thousand troops

802
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 1: at China's border. Well that's why, Well, just to be clear, China,

803
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:44,399
Speaker 1: you would grande neighbor relations with Russia, but you would

804
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 1: it's a good friendly neighborly relationship. It is one hundred

805
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:50,520
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand troops on the border of a neighboring country,

806
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 1: and then to send those troops into that country in

807
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 1: those circumstances, why can't you condemn this as an invasion.

808
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:05,319
Speaker 1: Let's don't be naive. Condemnation it sounds naive to say,

809
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 1: that's not doesn't It doesn't solve the problem. I will

810
00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:15,880
Speaker 1: be surprised if Russia well back down by condamnation. What

811
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:21,479
Speaker 1: is urgently if your president asks Vladimir Putin to back down?

812
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:24,360
Speaker 1: Will your president ask Vladimir Putin to back We have

813
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:29,760
Speaker 1: done so and will continue to promote peace talks and

814
00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 1: you know, urge the immediate fire, and you know, condemnation,

815
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 1: you know, only doesn't help. We need wisdom, We need wisdom,

816
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:49,560
Speaker 1: we need courage, and we need good diplomacy. Well, Vladimir.

817
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:53,720
Speaker 1: Vladimir Zelensky says he would like to meet with Vladimir Putin.

818
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:57,799
Speaker 1: Vladimir Zelensky is in a bunker. Vlaimir Putin is at

819
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 1: a political ro war rally right now. You can't have

820
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:07,840
Speaker 1: diplomacy when it is one country, the only one country

821
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:13,880
Speaker 1: willing to actually negotiate. China has good relations with Russia,

822
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:19,280
Speaker 1: has good relations with Ukraine, and that China keeps close

823
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:25,360
Speaker 1: communications with the United States and with Europe. They enable

824
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:30,000
Speaker 1: China to reach to all partiest concerns in the crisis.

825
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: So China's a unique role, you know, can help the

826
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 1: peaceful settlement the crisis. I keep a bit cringe to

827
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 1: watch that entire thing, but I did think it was

828
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:44,799
Speaker 1: important for you guys to hear all of it, because

829
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:46,920
Speaker 1: you're seeing he's trying to tow the line very clear.

830
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:48,480
Speaker 1: He's like, well, and he's not wrong. He's like, well,

831
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,280
Speaker 1: condemnation isn't going to solve the problem, so but also

832
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: we're not going to condemn it. And then she's like, well,

833
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:54,759
Speaker 1: we will your president ask him to stop. He's like, well,

834
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 1: we've done so with peace talks. Well, they haven't exactly

835
00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:00,120
Speaker 1: been present at any of the major peace talks or

836
00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:02,760
Speaker 1: from what we can see they haven't pushed them towards

837
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 1: the negotiating table, so they are doing everything in their

838
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: power to stay out of it, which is a choice

839
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:10,839
Speaker 1: in order to side with the Russians. And they are

840
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,759
Speaker 1: in a strategic bind because they have an alliance, but

841
00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:16,239
Speaker 1: on terms of their in terms of how they're being

842
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: perceived on the world stage, their image, you know, even

843
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 1: post COVID was terrible, and now being aligned here is

844
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 1: even worse. And now we even have the US saying

845
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,440
Speaker 1: that they could face significant consequences. I'll talk a bit

846
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: about this in my monologue, but they could even face

847
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,440
Speaker 1: sanctions from the West for continuing to buy Russian oil

848
00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: or in another escalatory out like maneuvers, which could keep

849
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: them out of certain types of trading organizations and others.

850
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:43,320
Speaker 1: All of that is on the table. So they're in

851
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,440
Speaker 1: a tough buying crystal. I think, at least from what

852
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 1: we can see right now, they're sticking with Russia. If

853
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:53,200
Speaker 1: we sanctioned China, that would be a huge extraordinary I mean,

854
00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:58,359
Speaker 1: that would really be a major, major geopolitical realignment. And

855
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:00,439
Speaker 1: we have put C four up on the screen here.

856
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: The reporting out of Biden's meeting with gi was that

857
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: he did warn China of quote, consequences if they aid

858
00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: Russia in Ukraine war. So that would require going further

859
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,359
Speaker 1: than just their sort of like studious neutrality, which really

860
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 1: does put a finger on the you know, on the

861
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: scale on the side of Russia versus actually providing some

862
00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:24,919
Speaker 1: type of direct military aid. I think is what he's

863
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:29,320
Speaker 1: talking about here, he said. He warned him of implications

864
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 1: and consequences if Beijing designs to give material aid to

865
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:36,319
Speaker 1: Russia to support its war in Ukraine. He made the

866
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 1: case China would pay a similarly heavy price if they

867
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 1: backed Putin of Russia in the fight, similarly heavy as

868
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 1: to the price paid directly by Russia. Less than two

869
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:49,560
Speaker 1: months after, of course, Putin and g had declared a

870
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: limitless partnership in facing off against the US and the West.

871
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:58,840
Speaker 1: G reportedly told Biden, I think this phrasing is very interesting. Quote.

872
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:02,160
Speaker 1: Let he who tied the bell on the tiger take

873
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 1: it off, basically again saying like you all created this

874
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: mess with your NATO expansion and all, you know, sort

875
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 1: of like thumbing your nose at Russia. So now this

876
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 1: is this is your problem. We're not doing anything to

877
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:17,640
Speaker 1: solve your problem for you. Of course, they could be

878
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:22,040
Speaker 1: instrumental in pressuring Russia to come to the table and ultimately,

879
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:25,560
Speaker 1: you know, negotiat in good faith for peace. But all

880
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:28,560
Speaker 1: indications today are that they're not interested in doing that.

881
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,920
Speaker 1: I don't think they're interested in any of that. So, look,

882
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:33,319
Speaker 1: it's going to be interesting in terms of how this

883
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,000
Speaker 1: is shaking out. But in terms of the a block

884
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:38,400
Speaker 1: where we told you guys about how the Kremlin is

885
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: kind of pissing all over the idea of a piece deal,

886
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:44,239
Speaker 1: and now these Chinese comments, we could be entering, you know,

887
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:48,720
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a strident Russian campaign, which

888
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:52,200
Speaker 1: is not, unfortunately a good news whenever it comes to peace. Yeah,

889
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 1: there we go, certainly the case. Okay, let's go ahead

890
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: and move on to this next one. This is a

891
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 1: fun one. We have to, you know, throw in something

892
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,840
Speaker 1: fun into the show. It can't all be doom and gloom.

893
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:04,280
Speaker 1: You will all remember that when the Hunter Biden laptop

894
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 1: story came out, it caused one of the biggest freak

895
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 1: outs in modern political memory. Twitter outright censors the New

896
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,319
Speaker 1: York Post in one of the most outrageous acts of

897
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 1: censorship that we have seen yet from the big tech companies.

898
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 1: Then you see a full scale media campaign in order

899
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 1: to not acknowledge the laptop, despite the fact that no

900
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: Biden campaign official or Hunter himself ever denied that the

901
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:29,799
Speaker 1: laptop was not his and that the information on it

902
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: was not authentic. Therefore it was obviously real. And yet

903
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:37,040
Speaker 1: two years on, it's very clear that all of the

904
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: emails on the laptop have been confirmed that they are

905
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 1: not part of some op. At that time, the media

906
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 1: launched a campaign to discredit the laptop by saying that

907
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:49,640
Speaker 1: intelligence experts told them that it had quote all the

908
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: hallmarks of Russian disinformation, not that it was Russian disinformation. Well,

909
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:55,719
Speaker 1: two years later, now that the New York Times, the

910
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: Department of Justice itself is confirmed that the laptop is real,

911
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: the New York Post has content at those fifty one

912
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:03,879
Speaker 1: intelligence expertials put it up there on the screen, and

913
00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 1: lo and behold, not one of them refuses to apologize

914
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: for discrediting that story. The officials, including James Clapper, who

915
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:16,760
Speaker 1: was literally almost indicted for perjury to Congress, who signed

916
00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:19,719
Speaker 1: that letter saying that he has the classic hallmarks of

917
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:26,680
Speaker 1: Russian disinformation, they have not responded whatsoever, apologized, denied, any

918
00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:30,919
Speaker 1: of their previous comments, which is completely and totally outrageous

919
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,400
Speaker 1: because what's happening here is a complete and a total

920
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:39,680
Speaker 1: they're ignoring this. It's a media blackout campaign. And here's

921
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:41,480
Speaker 1: the other thing we're not saying. This is the biggest

922
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: story in the world. It bears investigations, certainly called Hunter

923
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: certainly looks guilty as hell of tax fraud and also

924
00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:51,680
Speaker 1: of probably not registering as a foreign agent. And that's,

925
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 1: you know, a crime which we saw under the Trump people. Yeah,

926
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:56,080
Speaker 1: you probably get like eighteen months in prison or you know,

927
00:48:56,120 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 1: a fine or something like that. I doubt you'll get

928
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,399
Speaker 1: a prison time under this administration. But more what we're

929
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,920
Speaker 1: saying is is that the fact that this is being ignored,

930
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: and that this was only reported once, that it isn't

931
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:13,040
Speaker 1: you know, going It isn't at least requiring any of

932
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 1: these Intel experts who said this nonsense and we have that.

933
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 1: Let's go and put D two up there on the screen.

934
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:22,799
Speaker 1: This was from October twenty twenty, right before the election, saying, oh, Hunter,

935
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 1: Biden's story is Russian disinformation. Dozens of former Intel official

936
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 1: say the fact that this hasn't had a complete and

937
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:31,760
Speaker 1: a total retraction and that any of the so called

938
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 1: intel experts are not willing to denounce this because they're

939
00:49:35,680 --> 00:49:39,279
Speaker 1: supposedly nonpartisan. Well, Crystal, I think it just tells us

940
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,920
Speaker 1: a lot about how the actual media apparatus works now

941
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:45,800
Speaker 1: full of it. These people are their outright political actors.

942
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:48,080
Speaker 1: They're not real experts. They know they should be discredited.

943
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:49,759
Speaker 1: They knew at the time, Yeah they know, I mean,

944
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 1: come on, they and noteworthy the author on that Politico

945
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:57,719
Speaker 1: piece at the time that said that that said that

946
00:49:57,840 --> 00:50:01,279
Speaker 1: they outright said it was Russian information, which wasn't even

947
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 1: what they said they said. Bear's the hallmarks of or

948
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:09,440
Speaker 1: classic earmarks of Russian disinformation is Natasha Bertrand, who has

949
00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:14,360
Speaker 1: of course been promoted since then. She's now CNN, White House, whatever.

950
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:17,880
Speaker 1: So she got a little, a nice little bump up

951
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:21,839
Speaker 1: in her career after peddling false information to sway an

952
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 1: election herself. And that's why I think what matters about

953
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:29,319
Speaker 1: this story is the actual details that were revealed on

954
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: the laptop mattered. They were significant. They raised some questions

955
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:36,120
Speaker 1: about Biden family corruption, which is a story that's certainly

956
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:39,640
Speaker 1: worthy of consideration. But I think the meta story here

957
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,439
Speaker 1: is what's way more important. And the New York Post

958
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:45,479
Speaker 1: in their piece put it quite well. They said, big tech,

959
00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:49,440
Speaker 1: former government officials, and the media conspired together to bury

960
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:52,840
Speaker 1: a story, no not just Barry, create a false narrative

961
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 1: that flipped the script to make Joe Biden the victim

962
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: of a conspiracy. In short, they peddled online disinformation to

963
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:03,400
Speaker 1: sway election. That's why this matters, because you can see

964
00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:05,680
Speaker 1: the way that they did this. They all worked in

965
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:10,600
Speaker 1: tandem to suppress information that they thought was unfavorable. And

966
00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 1: so it's very noteworthy, even though we of course didn't

967
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:17,840
Speaker 1: expect any better that then when provided with okay, so

968
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:21,279
Speaker 1: now it's been confirmed. Actually, the Biden DOJ authenticated it.

969
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 1: We talked before to a Politico reporter who had already

970
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: confirmed the authenticity of at least some of the emails,

971
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:30,720
Speaker 1: and the New York Times, the paper of record, is saying,

972
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 1: guess what, guys, this was authentic. Nary a word out

973
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:38,959
Speaker 1: of any other mainstream media outlet. But these fifty one

974
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:43,160
Speaker 1: intelligence schouls who had originally were so concerned about this

975
00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: that they had to get together and they had to

976
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:46,719
Speaker 1: sign this letter, and they had to put it onto

977
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 1: the public square. Now suddenly they are nowhere to be found.

978
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:54,359
Speaker 1: Almost none of them responded to this at all, revelations

979
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:56,279
Speaker 1: that you think they were so concerned about it. On

980
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:58,239
Speaker 1: the other side, that they might be concerned about it

981
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:00,120
Speaker 1: now that we have the truth of what was going on.

982
00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:05,040
Speaker 1: But Jim Clapper, famous liar, he actually did respond, and

983
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 1: he doubled down. He said, yes, I stand by the

984
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:10,719
Speaker 1: statement made at the time and would call attention to

985
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:12,759
Speaker 1: its fifth paragraph. I don't know what that is. I

986
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 1: think sounding such a cautionary note at the time was appropriate.

987
00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so he has no regret, Saga. He would

988
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,399
Speaker 1: do it all over again, even though this turned out

989
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,719
Speaker 1: to be completely and totally false, which was obvious at

990
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,920
Speaker 1: the time because, as you said, if it had really

991
00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:33,239
Speaker 1: been fabricated Russian disinformation lies, they would have denied it.

992
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 1: But they didn't. They never ever, not Hunter, not Joe,

993
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 1: none of them ever said that these emails were not

994
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:44,280
Speaker 1: accurate or that they were fabricated. They would not confirm

995
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:46,400
Speaker 1: it whatsoever. And you know for a fact, if it

996
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:48,879
Speaker 1: was fake, they would be out there screaming it from

997
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: the rooftop. So it was completely obvious at the time.

998
00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:55,359
Speaker 1: These guys aren't stupid. They know it. So there you go,

999
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 1: h percent. Right, if they could find even one thing

1000
00:52:57,680 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 1: on the laptop which wasn't genuine, they would say it,

1001
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:02,320
Speaker 1: and we'll forget the media story on this. Remember NPR,

1002
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:04,520
Speaker 1: let's put this up there on the screen. They should

1003
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:07,400
Speaker 1: retract this. They said that the Hunter Biden news was

1004
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:10,719
Speaker 1: a quote waste of time. The NPR public editor said,

1005
00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: why haven't you seen any stories from NPR about the

1006
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:15,439
Speaker 1: New York Post Hunter Biden story, because quote, we don't

1007
00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:17,319
Speaker 1: want to waste our time on stories that are not

1008
00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 1: really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners

1009
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:23,319
Speaker 1: and readers' time on stories that are pure distractions. Look, this,

1010
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, was actually Look, it

1011
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:27,799
Speaker 1: was a story, of course, a public corruption the ten

1012
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:31,200
Speaker 1: percent for the big guy. It certainly noted and needed

1013
00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:34,279
Speaker 1: some investigation at the time and even the immediate months after.

1014
00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:36,359
Speaker 1: Was it the biggest story in the country at the time. No,

1015
00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:38,920
Speaker 1: it wasn't. There was literally a global pandemic, the election,

1016
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:41,840
Speaker 1: all of that, and yet the censorship campaign by the

1017
00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 1: media and by big tech they made it worse in

1018
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:47,120
Speaker 1: many ways. It was a streisand effect. I'll never forget

1019
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:49,160
Speaker 1: the day that it came out. You and I were

1020
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:51,120
Speaker 1: sitting at the Rising desk, yeah, and I was like, hey,

1021
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:53,080
Speaker 1: this is a story from the New York Post, and

1022
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:54,320
Speaker 1: you were like, I don't think that's a big of

1023
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:55,920
Speaker 1: a deal. And I was read it and I was like, yeah,

1024
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, I think we'll have to

1025
00:53:57,200 --> 00:53:59,120
Speaker 1: wait till something comes out. And we didn't even cover it.

1026
00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:01,120
Speaker 1: And then later on that day that's when you know,

1027
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:04,160
Speaker 1: the Twitter goes in they cancel it and they stopped

1028
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:06,359
Speaker 1: the allowing of links, and we were like, oh my god,

1029
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:07,640
Speaker 1: now this is one of the biggest stories that we

1030
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:10,480
Speaker 1: have to cover that happened over and over again, and

1031
00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:14,200
Speaker 1: many times that we've seen censorship campaigns happen. So all

1032
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:16,000
Speaker 1: of this is a long winded way of saying that

1033
00:54:16,200 --> 00:54:19,280
Speaker 1: the media and the intelligence officials and all these people,

1034
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:22,359
Speaker 1: they refuse to have any contrition for an outright con

1035
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:25,440
Speaker 1: job that they pulled on the American people, which is

1036
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:27,799
Speaker 1: a disgraceful act and is exactly why they have no

1037
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:30,600
Speaker 1: credibility with many people who are already distrustful of them

1038
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:33,440
Speaker 1: in the first place, because frankly, they shouldn't have any credibility.

1039
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:37,800
Speaker 1: And I think that Glenn Greenwald is right in pointing

1040
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 1: to this is a hangover effect from the fact that

1041
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 1: the media and the intelligence apparatus they were they blamed

1042
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:53,719
Speaker 1: themselves for getting Trump elected by reporting on Hillary's emails,

1043
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 1: by reporting on the leaks, for Wiki leaks, and because

1044
00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:00,840
Speaker 1: the Clinton campaign, I mean, they really stretch magically plotted

1045
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:03,880
Speaker 1: like how do we avoid being blamed for this devastating defeat?

1046
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 1: And this was the you know, the path that they

1047
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 1: plotted out. And so now you have all of these

1048
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:13,239
Speaker 1: media organizations so desperate to make sure that they're not

1049
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:16,360
Speaker 1: involved in, you know, helping to elect Donald Trump, that

1050
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:19,840
Speaker 1: they're unwilling to just do their job of reporting and

1051
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:22,520
Speaker 1: letting the public sort out what they make of that

1052
00:55:22,640 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: information and you know, go to the ballot box and

1053
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:29,680
Speaker 1: make their choices. So very well said, Okay, finally they

1054
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:33,000
Speaker 1: finally let him out of the cage. Doctor Fauci is back,

1055
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:35,799
Speaker 1: and he's not back necessarily in the way that we

1056
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:39,000
Speaker 1: would want. In his first appearance on national television in

1057
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:42,359
Speaker 1: nearly a month, Fauci returned to the airwaves in order

1058
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:45,799
Speaker 1: to say that the Biden administration UH may need to

1059
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 1: bring back mass mandates if necessary. Let's take a listen.

1060
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:52,520
Speaker 1: We have to be careful that if we do see

1061
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:56,719
Speaker 1: a surge as a result of that, that we're flexible

1062
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:01,200
Speaker 1: enough to reinstitute the kinds of interventions that could be

1063
00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:04,920
Speaker 1: necessary to stop an additional surge. That could mean a

1064
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 1: return of mandatory masking, especially in areas of high transmission. Ah, So,

1065
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:15,160
Speaker 1: mandatory masking that could come back. That's kind of amazing.

1066
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:17,800
Speaker 1: And you pair that then with his most recent appearance

1067
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:20,640
Speaker 1: on the Sunday Show in order to echo a similar sentiment.

1068
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:22,799
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to that. You know, you've said

1069
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:24,359
Speaker 1: you're going to stay in this job until we get

1070
00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 1: out of the pandemic phase. Of course, you've been serving

1071
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:29,920
Speaker 1: your country now for decades. Are we approaching the point

1072
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:32,680
Speaker 1: where we are past the pandemic phase and you'll go

1073
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:38,000
Speaker 1: get some rest. I'm not so shure, George. I want

1074
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:39,759
Speaker 1: to make sure we're really out of this before I

1075
00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:43,520
Speaker 1: really seriously consider doing anything different. We're still in this

1076
00:56:43,560 --> 00:56:45,000
Speaker 1: we have a way to go. I think we've got

1077
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:47,200
Speaker 1: clearly going in the right direction. I hope we stay

1078
00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:50,080
Speaker 1: that way. Well, there we go, So, Christal, I think

1079
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:52,680
Speaker 1: it's very interesting to see Ffauchu re emerge and say

1080
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:54,800
Speaker 1: that we may need to bring back mass mandates and

1081
00:56:54,880 --> 00:56:56,840
Speaker 1: more I do have to say, is he are the

1082
00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:59,560
Speaker 1: Biden people too stupid to not keep this man off

1083
00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:02,160
Speaker 1: of the air in order to like COVID was dead,

1084
00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:06,600
Speaker 1: everybody was moving on, and yet he somehow is unable

1085
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:08,680
Speaker 1: to say no. You know, this would be the time

1086
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:11,200
Speaker 1: for him to step down, right. You know, he's certainly

1087
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:13,279
Speaker 1: lost a lot of credibility with the people. But the

1088
00:57:13,320 --> 00:57:15,320
Speaker 1: culture war is not as hot at this time around

1089
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:17,520
Speaker 1: masking and lockdowns. This would be the time to go

1090
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:19,960
Speaker 1: declare victory and say, hey, look I did my basstar.

1091
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 1: I'm eighty something years old. It's time for me to go.

1092
00:57:22,120 --> 00:57:24,160
Speaker 1: But I just don't think he can handle himself not

1093
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:26,840
Speaker 1: being on TV and not being the center of the spotlight.

1094
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 1: I mean, one thing you do have to say for

1095
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:31,320
Speaker 1: doctor Fauci is he looks incredible for his age. I mean,

1096
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:34,560
Speaker 1: I cannot like he's a doctor, right, He's clearly knows

1097
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 1: has some secret sauce for taking care of himself. I

1098
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,000
Speaker 1: didn't think the comments were that outrageous of being like

1099
00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:42,680
Speaker 1: if things change, then things might change. But I think

1100
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:47,000
Speaker 1: your broader point about like, listen, I know liberals love

1101
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:50,280
Speaker 1: doctor Fauci like they've got their little votive candles, they

1102
00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:53,480
Speaker 1: got their vibe trust doctor Fauci signs and all that stuff.

1103
00:57:53,560 --> 00:57:56,800
Speaker 1: But the reality is he has lost a lot of

1104
00:57:56,800 --> 00:57:59,160
Speaker 1: trust with the people that you most need to have

1105
00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:02,320
Speaker 1: a trusted figure in place with. And you know, there

1106
00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:05,280
Speaker 1: has been a significant shift from the Biden administration and

1107
00:58:05,360 --> 00:58:08,280
Speaker 1: how they're talking about COVID and how they're approaching these things,

1108
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:10,760
Speaker 1: and so you would want a messenger who would be

1109
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:13,640
Speaker 1: perhaps a little bit more in step with the direction

1110
00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:16,120
Speaker 1: that they are ultimately going in. Yeah, I think that's

1111
00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:18,640
Speaker 1: exactly right. So look at the same time, also, we

1112
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:21,640
Speaker 1: wanted to bring you some news around ivermectin. Obviously that

1113
00:58:21,720 --> 00:58:25,080
Speaker 1: there was a lot of controversy and around that. Let's

1114
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:27,600
Speaker 1: put this up there on the screen. So, in their

1115
00:58:27,720 --> 00:58:30,479
Speaker 1: largest trial to date, and this is from the Wall

1116
00:58:30,480 --> 00:58:33,560
Speaker 1: Street Journal, which is ivermectin did not reduce COVID nineteen

1117
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: hospitalizations in the largest trial to date that they saw.

1118
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:38,720
Speaker 1: There they said that patients who got the anti parasitic

1119
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:42,080
Speaker 1: drug didn't fare better than those who received a placebo. Now,

1120
00:58:42,200 --> 00:58:45,040
Speaker 1: I'm sure the pro ivermectin folks might have something to say.

1121
00:58:45,120 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 1: I tried to see what exactly the criticism of this was.

1122
00:58:48,080 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 1: It seemed like a pretty good study from some of

1123
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:52,400
Speaker 1: the doctors and others that I follow, and I think

1124
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:54,520
Speaker 1: that it really just goes to show you that this

1125
00:58:54,640 --> 00:58:56,440
Speaker 1: is what we needed the entire time. We needed a

1126
00:58:56,520 --> 00:58:59,600
Speaker 1: legitimate view as to whether a double blind placebo control

1127
00:58:59,640 --> 00:59:01,440
Speaker 1: study as to whether it was going to work or not.

1128
00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 1: The whole culture war that erupted over this at the

1129
00:59:03,600 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 1: time was totally ridiculous. Prescribing it, especially as a medical doctor,

1130
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:09,320
Speaker 1: should not have been shunned or shamed given what we

1131
00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 1: knew at the time, and any sort of intervention for

1132
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:16,560
Speaker 1: therapeutic drugs like fluvoxamine, ivermectin, any of these should have

1133
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:19,640
Speaker 1: been on the table and open to a real investigation.

1134
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:22,480
Speaker 1: And instead, because the media is what it is, they

1135
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:24,520
Speaker 1: had to simply rot, you know, the they have to

1136
00:59:24,600 --> 00:59:27,120
Speaker 1: have their brains rotted. But we have the data now,

1137
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:28,919
Speaker 1: so maybe given that we've all moved on, it doesn't

1138
00:59:28,920 --> 00:59:31,040
Speaker 1: matter as much anymore. We have the COVID pill, but

1139
00:59:31,360 --> 00:59:33,960
Speaker 1: there it is. There is now that it's yeah, so late,

1140
00:59:34,200 --> 00:59:35,840
Speaker 1: it does it in the game. It isn't that much

1141
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 1: of a difference. We have a decent study that says

1142
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:40,480
Speaker 1: it does not look like it has worked. Okay, the

1143
00:59:40,560 --> 00:59:42,960
Speaker 1: last piece that we wanted to show you here is

1144
00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:47,800
Speaker 1: potentially worrying signs that COVID we may see another COVID spike.

1145
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:49,600
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this. This is kind of

1146
00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:54,000
Speaker 1: an early indicator. COVID nineteen is being found increasingly in

1147
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:58,640
Speaker 1: US wastewater sewage systems. So the numbers here nearly forty

1148
00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:01,600
Speaker 1: percent of wastewater sampling site report at least some increase

1149
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:04,440
Speaker 1: over the past fifteen days. That's more than twice what

1150
01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:08,120
Speaker 1: it was a month ago. The CDC has found throughout

1151
01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:10,760
Speaker 1: the COVID pandemic that wastewater is one of the sort

1152
01:00:10,760 --> 01:00:14,680
Speaker 1: of early leaning indicators of when we may see a

1153
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:18,160
Speaker 1: rise in terms of COVID. There's this new variant that's

1154
01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:21,360
Speaker 1: really taken off in Europe BA two that seems to

1155
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:28,360
Speaker 1: be equally mild as omicron but even more infectious, which

1156
01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:32,040
Speaker 1: has caused a spike there. All indications are that are

1157
01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:36,320
Speaker 1: existing vaccines, especially that mRNA vaccines continue to be effective

1158
01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:38,480
Speaker 1: against it. So I don't think there's any reason to

1159
01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:42,520
Speaker 1: panic about this. You know, we're not facing the early

1160
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:45,120
Speaker 1: days when we didn't have vaccines, and we didn't have

1161
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:47,520
Speaker 1: effective treatments, and we didn't know what was going on.

1162
01:00:47,640 --> 01:00:50,360
Speaker 1: We're not headed back there, but you know, just to

1163
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:53,040
Speaker 1: sort of note that we may see another increase because

1164
01:00:53,080 --> 01:00:57,040
Speaker 1: of this new, even more infectious variant that could be coming. Yeah,

1165
01:00:57,080 --> 01:00:59,760
Speaker 1: I think that's right. Okay, let's go ahead and move on,

1166
01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:04,160
Speaker 1: all right, Saga, what are you looking at? Well? The

1167
01:01:04,200 --> 01:01:07,000
Speaker 1: ironclad rule of media bias here at breaking points bears repeating.

1168
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:09,160
Speaker 1: The most pernicious form of media bias is not what

1169
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:11,640
Speaker 1: they've choosed to show you, but what they choose not

1170
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:15,840
Speaker 1: to show you. Selective presentation of facts, cherrypicked headlines, curated

1171
01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:18,160
Speaker 1: bias is the name of the game for narratives on

1172
01:01:18,200 --> 01:01:21,920
Speaker 1: cable news and in the Western press. It's designed specifically

1173
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:25,120
Speaker 1: to fulfill an ideological or policy agenda, and in a

1174
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:28,000
Speaker 1: time of war, it is perhaps the most dangerous. In

1175
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:30,840
Speaker 1: the sincereous and crazy environment that we're living in today,

1176
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:33,880
Speaker 1: we've seen a collective psychosis take over the media and

1177
01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:36,120
Speaker 1: the global elite as they push for a no fly

1178
01:01:36,240 --> 01:01:39,640
Speaker 1: zone aka World War three with Russia. But more recently

1179
01:01:39,720 --> 01:01:42,040
Speaker 1: they have taken up a different cause, one that shows

1180
01:01:42,040 --> 01:01:44,800
Speaker 1: the outright chauvinism of the Western press, which could in

1181
01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:48,360
Speaker 1: fact have major geopolitical ramifications, and that has how it

1182
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,560
Speaker 1: is currently treating the nation of India. India right now

1183
01:01:51,600 --> 01:01:54,280
Speaker 1: is being raked by the Western press for continuing to

1184
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,880
Speaker 1: explore ways to buy Russian oil, not voting to condemn

1185
01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:00,320
Speaker 1: the invasion of Ukraine and the UN Security Council, and

1186
01:02:00,360 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 1: in general taking a very cautious approach to how it

1187
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:07,200
Speaker 1: handles this crisis geopolitically. This has caused consternation and outrage

1188
01:02:07,200 --> 01:02:10,640
Speaker 1: here in Washington, with many accusing India of abandoning the

1189
01:02:10,640 --> 01:02:13,840
Speaker 1: West and siding with Russia. There's just a problem with

1190
01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:17,320
Speaker 1: that narrative. Last time I checked, India is not a

1191
01:02:17,360 --> 01:02:21,280
Speaker 1: Western country. It is a massive Eastern democracy on the

1192
01:02:21,320 --> 01:02:23,680
Speaker 1: other side of the globe with nothing at stake in

1193
01:02:23,800 --> 01:02:26,920
Speaker 1: Ukraine or in NATO. And as I said at the top,

1194
01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:29,800
Speaker 1: what people don't mention in all of these articles slamming

1195
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:32,800
Speaker 1: India is though, while India's exploring ways to buy Russian gas,

1196
01:02:33,080 --> 01:02:37,360
Speaker 1: the European nations that are literally in the EU inside

1197
01:02:37,400 --> 01:02:42,240
Speaker 1: of NATO bordering Ukraine are buying Russian oil and gas

1198
01:02:42,480 --> 01:02:46,760
Speaker 1: right now, namely Germany. This does not stop However, Trish Reagan,

1199
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:49,440
Speaker 1: she's the former Fox News anchor from saying the quiet

1200
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:51,520
Speaker 1: power out loud of a lot of Washington group think

1201
01:02:51,720 --> 01:02:55,200
Speaker 1: that India should be literally sanctioned for buying Russian oil.

1202
01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:58,400
Speaker 1: She says, quote, right now, you're with us or you're

1203
01:02:58,480 --> 01:03:02,200
Speaker 1: against us? Simple? Is it that simple? Or maybe just

1204
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 1: maybe part of the reason that we're in this goddamn

1205
01:03:03,960 --> 01:03:06,280
Speaker 1: mess in the first place is because we acted with

1206
01:03:06,400 --> 01:03:10,280
Speaker 1: chauvinism and refuse to consider the interests of other countries.

1207
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:13,920
Speaker 1: I am an American nationalist. I believe that the principal

1208
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:16,600
Speaker 1: interest of US foreign and economic policy should be to

1209
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:20,680
Speaker 1: produce prosperity for the American people. If that, at times

1210
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:23,120
Speaker 1: happens to align with the interests of the world, then fine,

1211
01:03:23,240 --> 01:03:26,000
Speaker 1: but that is not my primary motivation. It is having

1212
01:03:26,040 --> 01:03:29,040
Speaker 1: that mindset that lets me appreciate this. The world does

1213
01:03:29,080 --> 01:03:32,880
Speaker 1: not always revolve around US, and other countries also have

1214
01:03:33,000 --> 01:03:36,240
Speaker 1: their own strategic interest, which is fine. What the Western

1215
01:03:36,280 --> 01:03:38,600
Speaker 1: press doesn't tell you about India is that they buy

1216
01:03:38,680 --> 01:03:41,240
Speaker 1: seventy percent of their arms from Russia and they need

1217
01:03:41,280 --> 01:03:43,760
Speaker 1: those parts. The Indian foreign policy, going back to the

1218
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:47,600
Speaker 1: days of the Cold War, has always been a non alignment, explicitly,

1219
01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:50,240
Speaker 1: don't take side and play the US and Russia against

1220
01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:53,240
Speaker 1: each other. And in the modern age, especially India believes

1221
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 1: the West cannot be trusted, especially after the Obama administration

1222
01:03:56,840 --> 01:03:59,720
Speaker 1: continued to back Pakistan even after they funded and directed

1223
01:03:59,720 --> 01:04:02,920
Speaker 1: a er terrorist attack in Mumbai, and given that the

1224
01:04:02,920 --> 01:04:06,240
Speaker 1: Western press describes India as fascist every chance that it gets.

1225
01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:08,600
Speaker 1: The biggest problem with the West makes and its dealings

1226
01:04:08,600 --> 01:04:11,240
Speaker 1: abroad is the assumption that other people's elites are as

1227
01:04:11,320 --> 01:04:14,320
Speaker 1: deranged as ours. Most people just act in their self

1228
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:17,920
Speaker 1: interest with relatively no other consideration. India is not the

1229
01:04:17,920 --> 01:04:21,880
Speaker 1: only one take Israel America's greatest ally right. Israel has

1230
01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:24,760
Speaker 1: pointedly taken a neutral stance on the conflict to balance

1231
01:04:24,800 --> 01:04:28,360
Speaker 1: its own strategic priorities. Israel has a massive Russian population

1232
01:04:28,440 --> 01:04:31,160
Speaker 1: in its own right, it maintains deep ties with boat countries,

1233
01:04:31,280 --> 01:04:33,480
Speaker 1: and thus they're not jumping in the fray nearly the

1234
01:04:33,480 --> 01:04:37,280
Speaker 1: same way as the American and European allied West. Now, look,

1235
01:04:37,320 --> 01:04:39,280
Speaker 1: there's a variety of reasons you're not hearing nearly the

1236
01:04:39,320 --> 01:04:42,520
Speaker 1: same criticism of Israel amongst our elites in public, But

1237
01:04:42,600 --> 01:04:45,520
Speaker 1: behind closed doors there are whispers that they are quote

1238
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:49,040
Speaker 1: abandoning us. No, they're not. They're doing what's best for them.

1239
01:04:49,360 --> 01:04:52,680
Speaker 1: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has re aligned global politics forever,

1240
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:55,040
Speaker 1: and the axis on which it is being defined is

1241
01:04:55,080 --> 01:04:57,840
Speaker 1: fundamentally not one that is all that useful to US

1242
01:04:57,840 --> 01:05:00,280
Speaker 1: interests in the long term. Should the US relationshi with

1243
01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:04,440
Speaker 1: Russia really be tarnished over with India really be tarnished

1244
01:05:04,480 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 1: over Russia. At the end of the day, Russia is

1245
01:05:07,400 --> 01:05:10,640
Speaker 1: not all that important to US interests. Yes, a stable

1246
01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 1: Europe is in America's interests, but to the extent we

1247
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:15,600
Speaker 1: can do anything about it, it is the European themselves

1248
01:05:15,640 --> 01:05:18,600
Speaker 1: who must lead the future of US GDP of US

1249
01:05:18,680 --> 01:05:21,720
Speaker 1: interests is and has always been in the Asia Pacific

1250
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:24,120
Speaker 1: for the future. And yet the domination of Ukraine and

1251
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:27,320
Speaker 1: Russia covers here in America in the West is coloring

1252
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:29,560
Speaker 1: the way with which we will engage with the globe

1253
01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:32,640
Speaker 1: and in the Asia Pacific. Even right now, the US

1254
01:05:32,720 --> 01:05:36,240
Speaker 1: relationship with China is defined by Russia. Are they supporting

1255
01:05:36,320 --> 01:05:39,240
Speaker 1: Russia or not? In fact, I find it especially amusing

1256
01:05:39,400 --> 01:05:41,840
Speaker 1: that it is acceptable to the American elite to sanction

1257
01:05:42,040 --> 01:05:44,520
Speaker 1: China for supporting Russia, but years ago when it came

1258
01:05:44,560 --> 01:05:47,160
Speaker 1: time to put tariffs on China for years of abusing

1259
01:05:47,240 --> 01:05:50,320
Speaker 1: the global trading and financial system and killing US businesses.

1260
01:05:50,400 --> 01:05:52,680
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, that would be a flagrant violation of

1261
01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:55,320
Speaker 1: the global order. The key to keeping America out of

1262
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:58,160
Speaker 1: the war further and to keeping us prosperous in the

1263
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:01,000
Speaker 1: future is the ability to bat I lunch the outrage

1264
01:06:01,120 --> 01:06:04,480
Speaker 1: at what is happening in Russia with our actual interests

1265
01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:07,760
Speaker 1: in the future. Instead, we are allowing the pull of

1266
01:06:07,800 --> 01:06:10,480
Speaker 1: the old world once again to suck us up into

1267
01:06:10,520 --> 01:06:13,120
Speaker 1: a conflict and into an ideology which is not in

1268
01:06:13,120 --> 01:06:16,320
Speaker 1: our long term interest. This only serves our enemies and

1269
01:06:16,360 --> 01:06:18,520
Speaker 1: our adversaries in the long run. And just like the

1270
01:06:18,600 --> 01:06:21,840
Speaker 1: hubris of Iraq broke our position abroad for two decades,

1271
01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:25,040
Speaker 1: this too can and will have a long standing impact

1272
01:06:25,160 --> 01:06:28,480
Speaker 1: on America forever. I think that's very important to consider this, Crystal,

1273
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:31,040
Speaker 1: because and if you want to hear my reaction to

1274
01:06:31,080 --> 01:06:37,880
Speaker 1: Sager's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot com. Crystal,

1275
01:06:37,920 --> 01:06:39,600
Speaker 1: what are you taking a look at? Well, I'm starting

1276
01:06:39,600 --> 01:06:42,120
Speaker 1: with President Obama as well. Back in twenty fourteen, President

1277
01:06:42,200 --> 01:06:45,320
Speaker 1: Obama was under tremendous pressure to do more about Russia's

1278
01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:48,600
Speaker 1: takeover of Crimea. In particular, Top aids, we're pushing him

1279
01:06:48,640 --> 01:06:51,200
Speaker 1: to send US arms into Ukraine in order to fortify

1280
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:54,560
Speaker 1: their military. Now, among Obama's questions and objections to that

1281
01:06:54,600 --> 01:06:58,360
Speaker 1: potential course of action, one concern stood out. He worried

1282
01:06:58,360 --> 01:07:01,440
Speaker 1: that quote arming the Ukrainian would encourage the notion that

1283
01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:04,920
Speaker 1: they could actually defeat the far more powerful Russians, and

1284
01:07:04,960 --> 01:07:08,560
Speaker 1: so it would potentially draw a more forceful response from Moscow.

1285
01:07:08,960 --> 01:07:11,160
Speaker 1: While those concerns have of course now been tossed aside

1286
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:14,600
Speaker 1: by two administrations, as the Biden team and Oarnado allies

1287
01:07:14,640 --> 01:07:16,760
Speaker 1: have flooded the zone with what is truly an extraordinary

1288
01:07:16,800 --> 01:07:19,000
Speaker 1: amount of weapons of all kinds. We've got drones, anti

1289
01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:22,760
Speaker 1: aircraft missiles, anti tank missiles, not to mention our covert

1290
01:07:22,840 --> 01:07:26,280
Speaker 1: CIA led training programs in the separatist regions, and additional

1291
01:07:26,320 --> 01:07:30,200
Speaker 1: programs training Ukrainian insurgents here on our own soil. Bolstered

1292
01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:33,160
Speaker 1: by our arms and by their own courage, Ukrainians have

1293
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:36,040
Speaker 1: in fact mounted a stiff defense of their country, and

1294
01:07:36,560 --> 01:07:39,560
Speaker 1: they certainly have an advantage in the tenacity of their population.

1295
01:07:39,760 --> 01:07:42,400
Speaker 1: Every Ukrainian grandma out there is spending their free time

1296
01:07:42,480 --> 01:07:47,240
Speaker 1: fashioning Molotov cocktails, while young conscripted Russian soldiers reportedly abandoned

1297
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:50,160
Speaker 1: their posts and despair of the depravity of their mission.

1298
01:07:50,600 --> 01:07:52,480
Speaker 1: But Russia's use of a new weapon is a deadly

1299
01:07:52,520 --> 01:07:55,920
Speaker 1: reminder that while yes, a gorilla insurgency can continue basically

1300
01:07:56,000 --> 01:07:59,360
Speaker 1: and definitely without direct US involvement, something that absolutely no

1301
01:07:59,360 --> 01:08:04,360
Speaker 1: one should wish, Russia's vastly superior military tech will ultimately prevail.

1302
01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:07,960
Speaker 1: In fact, in a demonstration of their advanced weaponry, Russia

1303
01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:11,200
Speaker 1: says it used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine for the first time,

1304
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:14,800
Speaker 1: something we covered earlier. The Kinsel dagger was allegedly used

1305
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:18,000
Speaker 1: to destroy a Ukrainian missile depot in what analyst Clint

1306
01:08:18,040 --> 01:08:22,760
Speaker 1: Erlik is characterizing as an extraordinarily significant development. Quote. By

1307
01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:26,240
Speaker 1: firing Kinsels in Ukraine, Putin is sending a major do

1308
01:08:26,360 --> 01:08:28,320
Speaker 1: not f with US message to the West. He is

1309
01:08:28,360 --> 01:08:31,839
Speaker 1: reminding the world that whatever logistics challenges his military faces,

1310
01:08:31,920 --> 01:08:36,080
Speaker 1: it retains an edge in absolute, bleeding edge nuclear and

1311
01:08:36,280 --> 01:08:39,960
Speaker 1: conventional weaponry. Now, this all puts Russia's war in Ukraine

1312
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:43,200
Speaker 1: in a horrible no man's land that echoes Obama's warning. Frankly,

1313
01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:46,320
Speaker 1: on one side, you have Putin who will absolutely not

1314
01:08:46,400 --> 01:08:49,719
Speaker 1: accept anything that smacks of humiliation or defeat. As a result,

1315
01:08:49,880 --> 01:08:52,000
Speaker 1: the longer the conflict wears on the war, he will

1316
01:08:52,040 --> 01:08:56,600
Speaker 1: deploy these powerful, indiscriminate weapons which destroy cities and murder civilians.

1317
01:08:56,960 --> 01:08:59,519
Speaker 1: We've already witnessed this escalation. The use of a hypersonic

1318
01:08:59,560 --> 01:09:02,439
Speaker 1: missile ship be viewed as part of that escalatory cycle.

1319
01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:06,200
Speaker 1: On the other side, Ukrainians, bullied by early successes, our

1320
01:09:06,280 --> 01:09:10,360
Speaker 1: bank backing and the wartime inspiration of Zelenski, falsely believe

1321
01:09:10,560 --> 01:09:13,360
Speaker 1: that they could win this war outright. In fact, a

1322
01:09:13,400 --> 01:09:16,240
Speaker 1: recent poll by Ukrainian based Polster found that ninety three

1323
01:09:16,280 --> 01:09:18,679
Speaker 1: percent of respondents in the country thought that Ukraine would

1324
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:22,760
Speaker 1: be able to repel Russian attacks. Nearly half believe such

1325
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:25,840
Speaker 1: victory will be achieved in just the next few weeks.

1326
01:09:26,200 --> 01:09:29,320
Speaker 1: Eighty two percent believe that it's unlikely the country will

1327
01:09:29,360 --> 01:09:33,320
Speaker 1: lose any of its territory. Now. Sadly, this is fanciful

1328
01:09:33,439 --> 01:09:37,680
Speaker 1: given the vast disparity between Russian and Ukrainian capabilities. This

1329
01:09:38,040 --> 01:09:41,799
Speaker 1: rock solid belief in victory on both sides the equation. Frankly,

1330
01:09:41,840 --> 01:09:45,479
Speaker 1: it makes a peace settlement nearly impossible. After all, to

1331
01:09:45,520 --> 01:09:47,680
Speaker 1: negotiate a deal, both sides would have to give up

1332
01:09:47,720 --> 01:09:51,759
Speaker 1: extremely painful concessions. Why would the Ukrainians or the Russians

1333
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:56,000
Speaker 1: negotiate an excruciating compromise when they believe they can outright

1334
01:09:56,040 --> 01:09:59,080
Speaker 1: prevail on the battlefield and dictate the terms of peace.

1335
01:10:00,080 --> 01:10:02,479
Speaker 1: Post is now reporting that these dynamics are in fact

1336
01:10:02,520 --> 01:10:05,400
Speaker 1: standing in the way of a negotiated settlement, in spite

1337
01:10:05,400 --> 01:10:07,600
Speaker 1: of some public statements by Zelenski and his team that

1338
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:12,880
Speaker 1: Ukrainians were aggressively pursuing diplomacy behind the scenes, Reportedly, there's

1339
01:10:12,880 --> 01:10:15,680
Speaker 1: actually a little movement. According to a diplomat familiar with

1340
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:18,080
Speaker 1: conversations in Kiev, when the prime ministers of Poland, the

1341
01:10:18,120 --> 01:10:20,240
Speaker 1: Czech Republic and Slovenia all traveled there to meet with

1342
01:10:20,280 --> 01:10:23,880
Speaker 1: Zelenski in person, quote, he showed very little interest in

1343
01:10:23,920 --> 01:10:27,240
Speaker 1: a negotiated settlement and said Ukraine needed to keep fighting

1344
01:10:27,320 --> 01:10:31,840
Speaker 1: until Putin altered his demands. A senior US official gave

1345
01:10:31,880 --> 01:10:35,320
Speaker 1: a similar assessment, saying there's no indication on our end

1346
01:10:35,400 --> 01:10:38,160
Speaker 1: that the Ukrainians are suing for peace. They want to

1347
01:10:38,200 --> 01:10:41,360
Speaker 1: fight now, all of this would seem to validate Obama's concerns,

1348
01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:43,840
Speaker 1: expressed at a very different time, that our fortifications have

1349
01:10:43,960 --> 01:10:46,840
Speaker 1: provided Ukrainians with a sort of false hope, making it

1350
01:10:46,880 --> 01:10:49,880
Speaker 1: impossible for Zelenski to sell a peace deal with compromises

1351
01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:53,920
Speaker 1: to Ukrainian public convinced that outright victory is in fact imminent.

1352
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:57,760
Speaker 1: At the same time, even if Selenski is willing to

1353
01:10:57,800 --> 01:11:00,760
Speaker 1: negotiate this painful peace deal with Putin, it does not

1354
01:11:00,840 --> 01:11:03,800
Speaker 1: appear that we've actually empowered him to do so. Any

1355
01:11:03,880 --> 01:11:06,679
Speaker 1: peace deal would of course, have to include a rollback

1356
01:11:06,720 --> 01:11:09,320
Speaker 1: of the draconian sanctions we imposed upon Russia over the

1357
01:11:09,320 --> 01:11:12,400
Speaker 1: past several weeks. In order to negotiate, Zelenski needs the

1358
01:11:12,439 --> 01:11:14,880
Speaker 1: authority to say, Hey, if the deal meets our terms,

1359
01:11:14,920 --> 01:11:17,200
Speaker 1: we can promise you that the US and NATO allied

1360
01:11:17,240 --> 01:11:21,839
Speaker 1: sanctions will end. Doesn't appear we've actually given Zelensky this ability.

1361
01:11:22,240 --> 01:11:25,240
Speaker 1: Ryan Graham recently pressed Jensaki on exactly this point, and

1362
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:28,280
Speaker 1: what may be literally the only pro piece question that

1363
01:11:28,280 --> 01:11:30,959
Speaker 1: has been asked in the White House briefings. She refused

1364
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:34,280
Speaker 1: to directly answer. What's more. Secretary of State Tony Blinkin

1365
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:37,959
Speaker 1: recently told NPR that we had our own red lines

1366
01:11:38,080 --> 01:11:40,800
Speaker 1: in terms of what an acceptable peace deal would look like,

1367
01:11:41,040 --> 01:11:45,240
Speaker 1: a mere withdrawal by Russia apparently being insufficient. Lincoln said

1368
01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:47,920
Speaker 1: of the sanctions, they're not designed to be permanent, but

1369
01:11:48,080 --> 01:11:50,880
Speaker 1: he continued, we will want to make sure. They will

1370
01:11:50,920 --> 01:11:53,840
Speaker 1: want to make sure that anything that's done is in

1371
01:11:53,920 --> 01:11:57,840
Speaker 1: effect irreversible, that this can't happen again. Russia won't pick

1372
01:11:57,920 --> 01:11:59,639
Speaker 1: up and do exactly what it's doing in a year

1373
01:11:59,720 --> 01:12:02,880
Speaker 1: or two, two years or three years. So the US

1374
01:12:02,920 --> 01:12:05,639
Speaker 1: position is not whatever deal works for the Ukrainians also

1375
01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:08,920
Speaker 1: works for US and will trigger sanctions rollbacks. Instead, we

1376
01:12:09,040 --> 01:12:11,880
Speaker 1: are demanding that the deal includes some sort of guarantees

1377
01:12:11,920 --> 01:12:15,200
Speaker 1: that the peace will be irreversible. What that would look like,

1378
01:12:15,479 --> 01:12:17,800
Speaker 1: I don't know. All of this is a long way

1379
01:12:17,800 --> 01:12:20,519
Speaker 1: of saying we have given the Ukrainians the tools to fight,

1380
01:12:20,880 --> 01:12:24,320
Speaker 1: but not to negotiate. To make matters worse, powerful interest

1381
01:12:24,360 --> 01:12:27,680
Speaker 1: here will always push for world war. A hawkish, bloodthirsty

1382
01:12:27,760 --> 01:12:30,320
Speaker 1: media that only ever presses for world wars reiins stands

1383
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:32,599
Speaker 1: ready to punish every single leader who has ever been

1384
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:36,040
Speaker 1: committed to peace and diplomacy. A military industrial complex that

1385
01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:38,679
Speaker 1: is constantly horny for war and the billions and additional

1386
01:12:38,680 --> 01:12:41,120
Speaker 1: profits that will flow into their pockets from every conflict

1387
01:12:41,160 --> 01:12:44,760
Speaker 1: that we stumble into, a foolish and corrupted political class that,

1388
01:12:44,800 --> 01:12:47,840
Speaker 1: with few exceptions, preens for the pro war media and

1389
01:12:47,960 --> 01:12:51,120
Speaker 1: shills for the pro war defense contractors. All of this

1390
01:12:51,280 --> 01:12:55,040
Speaker 1: spell's likely prolonged devastation for the civilians in Ukraine who

1391
01:12:55,080 --> 01:12:59,360
Speaker 1: are suffering under a brutal onslaught. Let us be completely

1392
01:12:59,439 --> 01:13:02,840
Speaker 1: clear here, Russia is the aggressor, and of course they

1393
01:13:02,880 --> 01:13:05,639
Speaker 1: are the biggest obstacle to peace, since they're the ones

1394
01:13:05,640 --> 01:13:07,599
Speaker 1: who caused the war in the first place and continue

1395
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:11,000
Speaker 1: to unleash fresh hell every single day. But the false

1396
01:13:11,000 --> 01:13:14,080
Speaker 1: hope we provided the Ukrainians might be a terrible cruelty

1397
01:13:14,200 --> 01:13:17,880
Speaker 1: disguised as kindness. Instead of asking how we can do war,

1398
01:13:18,360 --> 01:13:21,400
Speaker 1: we should be asking all day, every day, how we

1399
01:13:21,439 --> 01:13:24,800
Speaker 1: can help to create the conditions for peace. Every moment

1400
01:13:24,800 --> 01:13:28,519
Speaker 1: of delay risks the outbreak of World War three, and Sager,

1401
01:13:28,600 --> 01:13:30,840
Speaker 1: this is what we were talking about earlier. How you know,

1402
01:13:31,280 --> 01:13:33,160
Speaker 1: both sides have an interesting and if you want to

1403
01:13:33,160 --> 01:13:36,519
Speaker 1: hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber.

1404
01:13:36,560 --> 01:13:42,439
Speaker 1: Today at Breakingpoints dot Com. Joining us now is Mortaza

1405
01:13:42,479 --> 01:13:45,479
Speaker 1: Hussein of The Intercept to talk all things Saudi Arabia.

1406
01:13:45,520 --> 01:13:47,160
Speaker 1: It's good to see you man, Welcome to the show,

1407
01:13:47,680 --> 01:13:50,519
Speaker 1: and absolutely so it's going to put this up there

1408
01:13:50,560 --> 01:13:53,000
Speaker 1: on the screen in terms of what's happening exactly with

1409
01:13:53,080 --> 01:13:56,760
Speaker 1: the US forces in Saudi Arabia. Obviously there's a horrific

1410
01:13:56,960 --> 01:13:59,920
Speaker 1: campaign going on right now in Yemen. The news just

1411
01:14:00,040 --> 01:14:02,879
Speaker 1: broke this morning, Mortaza that the US has supplied Patriot

1412
01:14:02,960 --> 01:14:06,680
Speaker 1: missiles to the Saudis, despite the fact that we've extracted

1413
01:14:06,720 --> 01:14:09,240
Speaker 1: no promises from them in order to pump no oil.

1414
01:14:09,320 --> 01:14:11,360
Speaker 1: We just simply are doing it as a gesture of goodwill,

1415
01:14:11,400 --> 01:14:14,000
Speaker 1: which is please pay attention to us as somebody who's

1416
01:14:14,040 --> 01:14:16,160
Speaker 1: been covering this for such a long time. What does

1417
01:14:16,160 --> 01:14:19,840
Speaker 1: this tell us about the US relationship with Saudi Arabia. Well,

1418
01:14:20,040 --> 01:14:22,400
Speaker 1: it's a very curious relationship because in many ways, Saudi

1419
01:14:22,400 --> 01:14:26,120
Speaker 1: Arabia is dependent on US security guarantees, They're dependent on

1420
01:14:26,240 --> 01:14:29,080
Speaker 1: political guarantees from the US. They have very close ties

1421
01:14:29,120 --> 01:14:32,439
Speaker 1: with US elites. But as we see, there's not the

1422
01:14:32,479 --> 01:14:35,960
Speaker 1: reciprocity you'd expect given the unequal relationship here. As well too.

1423
01:14:36,479 --> 01:14:38,080
Speaker 1: You may have seen in the past few days there

1424
01:14:38,080 --> 01:14:40,320
Speaker 1: were stories about the Crown Prince of Sauda Arabia not

1425
01:14:40,400 --> 01:14:42,800
Speaker 1: returning to the calls of the US president. It's a

1426
01:14:42,880 --> 01:14:46,559
Speaker 1: very significant sort of signal. I think that what you're

1427
01:14:46,600 --> 01:14:48,880
Speaker 1: seeing here is that there are many states in the

1428
01:14:48,880 --> 01:14:51,600
Speaker 1: Middle East, especially that had a lot of money or

1429
01:14:51,600 --> 01:14:54,080
Speaker 1: had a lot of political connections in DC, and there's

1430
01:14:54,080 --> 01:14:56,519
Speaker 1: a sense of entitlement that's come along with that now

1431
01:14:56,680 --> 01:14:59,960
Speaker 1: or since that they're paying money and they expect good

1432
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:02,240
Speaker 1: customer service from US e Leaites who they deal with.

1433
01:15:02,280 --> 01:15:05,320
Speaker 1: No normally, you know, I'm not super you know, we

1434
01:15:05,320 --> 01:15:07,920
Speaker 1: should not take everything symbolically so seriously, but I think

1435
01:15:07,960 --> 01:15:11,719
Speaker 1: that generally speaking, the significant step for a Saudi preference

1436
01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:15,080
Speaker 1: to literally ignore the phone call of a US president

1437
01:15:15,120 --> 01:15:16,880
Speaker 1: or refused to speak them, it's a bit of a

1438
01:15:17,520 --> 01:15:21,639
Speaker 1: slight against US leadership and by extension, the American electorate

1439
01:15:21,680 --> 01:15:24,400
Speaker 1: who lives Donald Trump or Joe Biden, whoever else it is.

1440
01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:27,439
Speaker 1: It's significant that, you know, we don't really take a

1441
01:15:27,439 --> 01:15:29,439
Speaker 1: hard line with these countries, and the more and more

1442
01:15:29,479 --> 01:15:32,120
Speaker 1: we allow them to have a lot of runway in

1443
01:15:32,200 --> 01:15:34,600
Speaker 1: their behavior, the more you see these sort of abuses,

1444
01:15:34,680 --> 01:15:38,160
Speaker 1: whether they be you know, slights against Americans or abuses

1445
01:15:38,160 --> 01:15:41,720
Speaker 1: like we're seeing Yemen, which the US actually supporting. Anyways, Yeah,

1446
01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:43,840
Speaker 1: could you talk more about that for people who haven't

1447
01:15:43,920 --> 01:15:47,800
Speaker 1: followed what's going on in Yemen closely? What is our

1448
01:15:47,920 --> 01:15:50,920
Speaker 1: level of complicity in that crisis, which is considered to

1449
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:53,639
Speaker 1: be the greatest humanitarian crisis on the planet right now.

1450
01:15:54,720 --> 01:15:57,839
Speaker 1: So the US is given arms and the political support

1451
01:15:57,880 --> 01:16:00,680
Speaker 1: to Saurabia and the coalition of other Arab states which

1452
01:16:00,680 --> 01:16:03,400
Speaker 1: has been blockading yemenis been at war with Yemen for

1453
01:16:03,439 --> 01:16:07,760
Speaker 1: several years now. It's actually interesting that post. You know,

1454
01:16:08,000 --> 01:16:09,920
Speaker 1: in the last decade or so, it's clear that the

1455
01:16:10,040 --> 01:16:13,080
Speaker 1: US tried to build up sat Arabia as a local

1456
01:16:13,120 --> 01:16:16,679
Speaker 1: proxy in the sense that it could do expeditionary military

1457
01:16:16,680 --> 01:16:19,639
Speaker 1: expeditions on his behalf, building up as military's air force,

1458
01:16:19,720 --> 01:16:22,519
Speaker 1: training and so forth, with the hope that, you know,

1459
01:16:22,680 --> 01:16:25,200
Speaker 1: the way that Iran was a long time before the revolution,

1460
01:16:25,280 --> 01:16:27,000
Speaker 1: and the way Turkey has been and certain other states

1461
01:16:27,040 --> 01:16:29,759
Speaker 1: have been in the least they would be the enforcer

1462
01:16:29,840 --> 01:16:32,920
Speaker 1: of US interests alongside the US in the region. But

1463
01:16:32,960 --> 01:16:34,519
Speaker 1: I think we've seen that the war in Yemen is

1464
01:16:34,520 --> 01:16:37,200
Speaker 1: not ending. It's not even clear that Sarabia is winning

1465
01:16:37,280 --> 01:16:39,400
Speaker 1: it or the tidest turning or even if the the

1466
01:16:39,400 --> 01:16:41,840
Speaker 1: stalemate thinks he became presially worse for satur Arabia and

1467
01:16:41,920 --> 01:16:44,920
Speaker 1: yemen A For years and years very lopside conflict. US

1468
01:16:44,960 --> 01:16:47,240
Speaker 1: have been arming this conflict. In the beginning, we've seen

1469
01:16:47,280 --> 01:16:50,080
Speaker 1: that Sarabia is not seemingly capable of acting as the

1470
01:16:50,200 --> 01:16:53,439
Speaker 1: role that the US wanted. Instead, we're in this sort

1471
01:16:53,439 --> 01:16:55,439
Speaker 1: of worst of all world situation where the war is

1472
01:16:55,479 --> 01:16:58,680
Speaker 1: going on and on. There's been shelling of you know

1473
01:16:58,880 --> 01:17:02,639
Speaker 1: that UAE and Saurabia as well too from Yemen. Rockets

1474
01:17:02,640 --> 01:17:05,639
Speaker 1: have been fired as well backwards and it's not getting better,

1475
01:17:05,760 --> 01:17:08,639
Speaker 1: but it's not also coming to conclusion, and we sell

1476
01:17:08,720 --> 01:17:10,719
Speaker 1: to a status quo where this blockade is on Yemen,

1477
01:17:10,720 --> 01:17:14,320
Speaker 1: where millions of people are starving, this massed operations of disease,

1478
01:17:14,640 --> 01:17:16,479
Speaker 1: and what you're seeing is the richest country in the

1479
01:17:16,479 --> 01:17:19,960
Speaker 1: Middle East really decimating the poorest country in the the Mid Least.

1480
01:17:19,960 --> 01:17:22,559
Speaker 1: It's a very ugly scene and we certainly have been

1481
01:17:22,600 --> 01:17:25,040
Speaker 1: complicit on the side of Saarabia. Right, So from a

1482
01:17:25,080 --> 01:17:29,120
Speaker 1: moral perspective, obviously that's happening. And then from a geostrategic perspective, Mortaza,

1483
01:17:29,439 --> 01:17:31,880
Speaker 1: the way this is always justified is, yeah, but they

1484
01:17:31,920 --> 01:17:33,760
Speaker 1: pump all the oil, they have all this money. What

1485
01:17:33,800 --> 01:17:35,840
Speaker 1: are we supposed to do? We have to support them.

1486
01:17:35,880 --> 01:17:39,840
Speaker 1: This is about balancing against Iran, the Abraham Accords and

1487
01:17:39,880 --> 01:17:42,639
Speaker 1: all of that in terms of actual US interests from

1488
01:17:42,640 --> 01:17:45,600
Speaker 1: a hard power perspective, and we already outline they're not

1489
01:17:45,640 --> 01:17:47,599
Speaker 1: doing what we asked them to do. But are they

1490
01:17:47,600 --> 01:17:51,679
Speaker 1: having a detrimental out a detrimental impact on US interests

1491
01:17:51,680 --> 01:17:54,960
Speaker 1: in the region. Well, if you look at the relationship

1492
01:17:55,000 --> 01:17:56,519
Speaker 1: within the US and satura Aba going back to one

1493
01:17:56,560 --> 01:17:58,800
Speaker 1: hundred years when Sarabia didn't really even exist at that

1494
01:17:58,840 --> 01:18:01,639
Speaker 1: sign it was in a very nice stages of becoming

1495
01:18:01,680 --> 01:18:05,240
Speaker 1: a country. When the US developed this relationship with them,

1496
01:18:05,320 --> 01:18:08,600
Speaker 1: there was an expectation that, Okay, we'll provide security and

1497
01:18:08,640 --> 01:18:11,479
Speaker 1: protection and in return, when we need you to do so,

1498
01:18:11,880 --> 01:18:15,160
Speaker 1: you'll pump more oil. And this has been the whatever

1499
01:18:15,200 --> 01:18:17,960
Speaker 1: else is said about, you know, the relationship with the

1500
01:18:18,000 --> 01:18:20,800
Speaker 1: people or peoples or whatever else it is, that's been

1501
01:18:20,840 --> 01:18:23,160
Speaker 1: the core crux of the relationship and which led to

1502
01:18:23,200 --> 01:18:26,400
Speaker 1: the US security guarantee for saturay Abia for so many years.

1503
01:18:26,640 --> 01:18:28,880
Speaker 1: Now we're seeing that they're not exactly willing to do

1504
01:18:28,960 --> 01:18:31,120
Speaker 1: that per se, that when we want to, they're kind

1505
01:18:31,160 --> 01:18:33,600
Speaker 1: of standing up and saying, well, we're not gonna do that.

1506
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:35,599
Speaker 1: We're going to ignore these requests. So we have other

1507
01:18:36,120 --> 01:18:38,840
Speaker 1: potential partners. There was a very important story in The

1508
01:18:38,880 --> 01:18:41,800
Speaker 1: Atlantic a few days ago by Graham Wood. He was

1509
01:18:41,840 --> 01:18:45,040
Speaker 1: interview with the MBA some on and he mentioned the

1510
01:18:45,040 --> 01:18:46,760
Speaker 1: interview that you know, if you don't like us, we

1511
01:18:46,840 --> 01:18:48,840
Speaker 1: have other options. We have China. They've got to take

1512
01:18:48,920 --> 01:18:52,400
Speaker 1: our oil or our investment money and so forth. And

1513
01:18:52,439 --> 01:18:54,160
Speaker 1: I think that's true. And we're seeing some of that

1514
01:18:54,240 --> 01:18:57,639
Speaker 1: now too, because you know they're entertaining call to z Well,

1515
01:18:57,640 --> 01:19:00,240
Speaker 1: ignoring Biden. There's reports that the Chinese help and then

1516
01:19:00,240 --> 01:19:03,640
Speaker 1: develop ballistic missiles, and they're pivoting in some ways or

1517
01:19:03,680 --> 01:19:05,400
Speaker 1: hedging their beds a little bit because they feel the

1518
01:19:05,439 --> 01:19:08,680
Speaker 1: US not doing everything they want from a hard power perspective.

1519
01:19:08,840 --> 01:19:12,200
Speaker 1: For the time being, Saudi oil is still very important

1520
01:19:12,240 --> 01:19:15,000
Speaker 1: to the global markets. But I think even they see

1521
01:19:15,240 --> 01:19:17,680
Speaker 1: that there's going to be a horizon in somewhere or

1522
01:19:17,720 --> 01:19:19,519
Speaker 1: oil is it going to be less somewhat less crucial

1523
01:19:19,560 --> 01:19:22,479
Speaker 1: than it is today. It will be decrease reliance on it,

1524
01:19:22,560 --> 01:19:26,280
Speaker 1: other alternative energy sources, nuclear renewables, many many other things,

1525
01:19:26,680 --> 01:19:28,559
Speaker 1: And when that time comes, salary will will not be

1526
01:19:28,600 --> 01:19:31,760
Speaker 1: so indispensable to the US as it is today. And

1527
01:19:31,840 --> 01:19:34,560
Speaker 1: it's becoming less so there's been a natural gas and

1528
01:19:34,600 --> 01:19:37,240
Speaker 1: all revolution in the US. There are other alternative sources

1529
01:19:37,240 --> 01:19:39,920
Speaker 1: coming on the market. It's still very important. But I

1530
01:19:39,960 --> 01:19:42,400
Speaker 1: think that it's possible for them to overestimate their importance.

1531
01:19:42,439 --> 01:19:45,320
Speaker 1: And if they continue overestimating it, and if they continue

1532
01:19:45,600 --> 01:19:48,080
Speaker 1: going down the same path visa v. The US as

1533
01:19:48,080 --> 01:19:50,160
Speaker 1: they are today, they're going to find that we don't

1534
01:19:50,200 --> 01:19:51,479
Speaker 1: have much in common and we have a lot of

1535
01:19:51,479 --> 01:19:55,400
Speaker 1: great differences, and the US could become easily a rival

1536
01:19:55,640 --> 01:19:57,920
Speaker 1: or an antagonist to the US to Sauda in the

1537
01:19:57,960 --> 01:20:00,960
Speaker 1: Middle East, if the relationship is not built on something

1538
01:20:01,000 --> 01:20:04,120
Speaker 1: more solid than it's a very transactional bargain that they

1539
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:07,200
Speaker 1: are no longer even holding up. You suggested a moment

1540
01:20:07,240 --> 01:20:10,160
Speaker 1: ago that perhaps the Biden administration should take what you

1541
01:20:10,240 --> 01:20:13,160
Speaker 1: described as a harder line with Saudi. I would say

1542
01:20:13,200 --> 01:20:17,160
Speaker 1: that them transferring patriot anti missile interceptors to Saudi is

1543
01:20:17,160 --> 01:20:20,080
Speaker 1: probably the opposite of a hard line. So what would

1544
01:20:20,080 --> 01:20:24,200
Speaker 1: an alternative approach look like. You know, it's very interesting

1545
01:20:24,240 --> 01:20:28,559
Speaker 1: because the Southeast we do give saviis preso much everything

1546
01:20:28,600 --> 01:20:32,880
Speaker 1: they want in many ways. The contention on MBS's part

1547
01:20:33,000 --> 01:20:34,679
Speaker 1: or the side of the leadership's part, that the US

1548
01:20:34,760 --> 01:20:37,920
Speaker 1: is somewhat pivoted away from Saturaybia, that's what they viewed

1549
01:20:37,960 --> 01:20:40,280
Speaker 1: as It doesn't seem very substantiate. The one thing that

1550
01:20:40,320 --> 01:20:43,320
Speaker 1: I could see is the Iran nuclear deal, but either

1551
01:20:43,360 --> 01:20:45,559
Speaker 1: the US's own interesting to pursue in the region, to

1552
01:20:45,560 --> 01:20:47,680
Speaker 1: extricate itself in the region after many, many years of

1553
01:20:47,760 --> 01:20:51,880
Speaker 1: inconclusive and you know, many ways failed wars, So you know,

1554
01:20:52,120 --> 01:20:54,760
Speaker 1: transferring these missile systems. I think that there's still a

1555
01:20:54,840 --> 01:20:57,120
Speaker 1: very complex relationship here. The US does not want to

1556
01:20:57,120 --> 01:21:00,640
Speaker 1: completely alienate Saturayba. Right now, they don't able to do

1557
01:21:00,680 --> 01:21:03,599
Speaker 1: everything they want. The Iran deal is predectually being revived

1558
01:21:03,680 --> 01:21:06,840
Speaker 1: right now, within the next week or so. It's it's

1559
01:21:06,880 --> 01:21:08,559
Speaker 1: not a lot of signs of that, and they're trying

1560
01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:11,280
Speaker 1: to assuage their anger by giving them these missile systems

1561
01:21:11,320 --> 01:21:13,960
Speaker 1: and trying to have it both ways. I think there's

1562
01:21:13,960 --> 01:21:16,280
Speaker 1: a very indecisive policy. Can we say that there's a

1563
01:21:16,360 --> 01:21:20,360
Speaker 1: coddling policy or a hard line there's an indecisive one.

1564
01:21:20,439 --> 01:21:23,320
Speaker 1: A hardline policy would be, you know, it would be

1565
01:21:23,400 --> 01:21:26,160
Speaker 1: something maybe closer we're seeing, not all the way way

1566
01:21:26,240 --> 01:21:28,599
Speaker 1: the spectrum, but closer we're seeing Russia that these sanctions

1567
01:21:28,640 --> 01:21:31,519
Speaker 1: on Saudi officials for human rights abuses, which you know

1568
01:21:31,600 --> 01:21:34,280
Speaker 1: is going on very very very extensively in Saudura Arabia.

1569
01:21:34,760 --> 01:21:36,519
Speaker 1: You know, still there was a killing of a Washing

1570
01:21:36,640 --> 01:21:39,559
Speaker 1: Post columnist by the Saudi crown prince at a lango.

1571
01:21:39,640 --> 01:21:41,360
Speaker 1: They kind of escaped center from that. They get a

1572
01:21:41,400 --> 01:21:43,479
Speaker 1: free pass for a lot of things. And this goes

1573
01:21:43,520 --> 01:21:46,800
Speaker 1: back even before that the War on Terror era. There

1574
01:21:46,800 --> 01:21:48,519
Speaker 1: are a lot of things that they get away with

1575
01:21:48,560 --> 01:21:50,840
Speaker 1: effectively because and that's the indulgence that they get for

1576
01:21:50,920 --> 01:21:53,960
Speaker 1: being having this relationship. If we stop giving those indulgences,

1577
01:21:54,000 --> 01:21:56,280
Speaker 1: it would start feeling like a hard line, even though

1578
01:21:56,320 --> 01:21:59,120
Speaker 1: we're only enforcing our own interests. And we're talk about

1579
01:21:59,120 --> 01:22:02,639
Speaker 1: how much of this latest you know, MBS not taking

1580
01:22:02,640 --> 01:22:05,680
Speaker 1: the phone call and unwilling to pump more oil and

1581
01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:08,000
Speaker 1: all of that, how much of that is the sort

1582
01:22:08,040 --> 01:22:10,920
Speaker 1: of direct interference in our politics. It's part of what

1583
01:22:11,000 --> 01:22:14,320
Speaker 1: Ken Klippenstein has been reporting on over your colleague at

1584
01:22:14,360 --> 01:22:17,759
Speaker 1: the Intercept there that effectively, look, they may be getting

1585
01:22:17,960 --> 01:22:19,640
Speaker 1: ninety five percent of what they want on of the

1586
01:22:19,640 --> 01:22:21,680
Speaker 1: Biden administration, but they got one hundred percent of what

1587
01:22:21,680 --> 01:22:25,240
Speaker 1: they wanted under the Trump administration. They see Biden is

1588
01:22:25,400 --> 01:22:28,720
Speaker 1: weak politically, with low approval ratings, they seems likely to

1589
01:22:28,760 --> 01:22:31,720
Speaker 1: get slacked in the midterms, and so they're happy to

1590
01:22:31,720 --> 01:22:34,519
Speaker 1: put their thumb on the scale to try to affect

1591
01:22:34,520 --> 01:22:37,840
Speaker 1: that outcome, have Republicans take control of the House of

1592
01:22:37,880 --> 01:22:41,000
Speaker 1: the Senate ultimately perhaps reinstall Trump in the White House.

1593
01:22:41,280 --> 01:22:43,360
Speaker 1: How much of it is them sort of not only

1594
01:22:43,439 --> 01:22:46,200
Speaker 1: just waiting out the Biden term, but actively trying to

1595
01:22:46,200 --> 01:22:49,040
Speaker 1: make sure that the Biden term is a four year affair.

1596
01:22:50,520 --> 01:22:52,760
Speaker 1: I get the strong sense that they decide that they

1597
01:22:52,760 --> 01:22:54,880
Speaker 1: do not want to deal with Democrats anymore in the US.

1598
01:22:54,960 --> 01:22:56,640
Speaker 1: They like to deal with Republicans. They don't want to

1599
01:22:56,640 --> 01:23:00,600
Speaker 1: deal with the Democrats. That's fine, but it's very insulting

1600
01:23:00,760 --> 01:23:04,760
Speaker 1: and you know, offensive to Americans, because Americans are our

1601
01:23:04,800 --> 01:23:07,400
Speaker 1: own choice who we elect, and we expect other countries

1602
01:23:07,400 --> 01:23:11,439
Speaker 1: to deal with them, you know, by you know, to

1603
01:23:11,479 --> 01:23:15,480
Speaker 1: recognize the democratic choice American people not to have preferences

1604
01:23:15,520 --> 01:23:19,480
Speaker 1: and prerogatives and trying to change the configuration of US politics.

1605
01:23:19,640 --> 01:23:22,080
Speaker 1: I have a theory about this that in DC there

1606
01:23:22,160 --> 01:23:24,320
Speaker 1: are a few countries which seem to get everything they

1607
01:23:24,400 --> 01:23:28,000
Speaker 1: want using different means, financial or other forms of soft power.

1608
01:23:28,439 --> 01:23:32,920
Speaker 1: Sud Arabia has been in that little bracket countries deuees there,

1609
01:23:33,040 --> 01:23:36,120
Speaker 1: Israel's there, Turkey is there to some extent, even Azerbaijan

1610
01:23:36,280 --> 01:23:38,680
Speaker 1: is there in many ways. And they've a sense of

1611
01:23:38,840 --> 01:23:41,120
Speaker 1: entitlement now because under Trump, you could really see these

1612
01:23:41,120 --> 01:23:43,439
Speaker 1: countries got everything they wanted. They got everything they wanted

1613
01:23:44,439 --> 01:23:46,799
Speaker 1: and more with a bow on top. And they're getting

1614
01:23:46,800 --> 01:23:48,839
Speaker 1: a little bit less than that now, as you said, Crystal,

1615
01:23:49,280 --> 01:23:51,320
Speaker 1: and that's antagonizing them. And they want to go back

1616
01:23:51,320 --> 01:23:53,559
Speaker 1: to one hundred percent because, as they see it, they're

1617
01:23:53,560 --> 01:23:57,080
Speaker 1: paying for service, which is the protection of this empire

1618
01:23:57,160 --> 01:23:59,320
Speaker 1: that is far away but gives them what they want.

1619
01:23:59,360 --> 01:24:01,400
Speaker 1: And they have these relationship in DC with their elites,

1620
01:24:01,800 --> 01:24:03,920
Speaker 1: and they want everything they want in return. They want

1621
01:24:03,960 --> 01:24:06,240
Speaker 1: good customer service, they want no one to be criticized,

1622
01:24:06,280 --> 01:24:08,880
Speaker 1: they want to be praised and coddled, and if they

1623
01:24:08,880 --> 01:24:10,600
Speaker 1: don't get that, they're going to be very angry, just

1624
01:24:10,680 --> 01:24:12,680
Speaker 1: like if someone get angry with bad customer service for

1625
01:24:12,680 --> 01:24:15,480
Speaker 1: a service they're paying for. I think that the transactional

1626
01:24:15,560 --> 01:24:18,400
Speaker 1: relationship that we're seeing, it's something which if you pay

1627
01:24:18,439 --> 01:24:21,080
Speaker 1: more attention to it is quite outrageous. It's not undemocratic,

1628
01:24:21,640 --> 01:24:24,760
Speaker 1: it does result in de facto interference in our politics.

1629
01:24:25,520 --> 01:24:28,320
Speaker 1: You can see this by maybe this MBS is thinking

1630
01:24:28,360 --> 01:24:30,760
Speaker 1: that if we don't help bide with all prices, the

1631
01:24:30,800 --> 01:24:32,800
Speaker 1: American people will kick him out in a couple of

1632
01:24:32,840 --> 01:24:34,960
Speaker 1: years because it'll be so dispast by then. We'll turn

1633
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:38,240
Speaker 1: the taps back on for Republican administration. That's fine, but

1634
01:24:38,360 --> 01:24:40,200
Speaker 1: in those couple of years, Americans is going to suffer

1635
01:24:40,200 --> 01:24:42,880
Speaker 1: a lot, and Americans are not, you know, they're not.

1636
01:24:42,960 --> 01:24:44,760
Speaker 1: They're going to remember this as it's happened as well too.

1637
01:24:45,360 --> 01:24:47,120
Speaker 1: I think that if we pay a lot more attention,

1638
01:24:47,160 --> 01:24:48,880
Speaker 1: we'll see that the serebase is one of many countries

1639
01:24:48,920 --> 01:24:51,679
Speaker 1: deeply interfering in politics. It's even a bit worse because

1640
01:24:51,920 --> 01:24:54,799
Speaker 1: other countries maybe have some organic based support. In the US,

1641
01:24:54,920 --> 01:24:56,559
Speaker 1: I think we can all recognize that Surrey base not

1642
01:24:56,600 --> 01:24:58,720
Speaker 1: have a mass support based in the US. What they

1643
01:24:58,720 --> 01:25:02,080
Speaker 1: get is money. It's about money, and it should not

1644
01:25:02,120 --> 01:25:06,240
Speaker 1: cross certain minds Upot, including trying to manipulate the outcome

1645
01:25:06,280 --> 01:25:08,640
Speaker 1: for our elections now in the future as well. So

1646
01:25:08,800 --> 01:25:13,280
Speaker 1: I would submit that gas prices probably more consequential for

1647
01:25:13,479 --> 01:25:18,080
Speaker 1: US elections than some Russian Facebook ads poorly worded English.

1648
01:25:18,120 --> 01:25:21,559
Speaker 1: But you know that's just my guest constituency on cable

1649
01:25:21,600 --> 01:25:24,840
Speaker 1: news unfortunately, Mataz, thanks so much for joining us. Mary

1650
01:25:25,080 --> 01:25:27,680
Speaker 1: always enjoy your work. Everybody go and check him out.

1651
01:25:27,800 --> 01:25:29,439
Speaker 1: Will put a link down to his Twitter in the

1652
01:25:29,479 --> 01:25:34,559
Speaker 1: description appreciate you joining us, Oh pleasures absolutely, Thank you

1653
01:25:34,560 --> 01:25:36,800
Speaker 1: guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it, like

1654
01:25:36,840 --> 01:25:38,919
Speaker 1: we said, and you know, we've been trying to emphasize

1655
01:25:38,960 --> 01:25:41,559
Speaker 1: this is the most censorious environment we've ever operated in.

1656
01:25:41,920 --> 01:25:44,559
Speaker 1: I was watching with baited breath because we had to

1657
01:25:44,680 --> 01:25:47,880
Speaker 1: play a clip of Putin in our Thursday show, right

1658
01:25:48,120 --> 01:25:50,360
Speaker 1: I was. I was sure that it might get taken

1659
01:25:50,400 --> 01:25:53,439
Speaker 1: down or might get taken off, same with demonetization on

1660
01:25:53,479 --> 01:25:55,519
Speaker 1: so many of these segments. Look, the news is not

1661
01:25:55,640 --> 01:25:59,639
Speaker 1: always good. Sometimes it's bad, and especially in this hot blooded,

1662
01:25:59,720 --> 01:26:03,160
Speaker 1: crazy environment, we are just simply one step away from

1663
01:26:03,280 --> 01:26:06,720
Speaker 1: total you know, takedown. I see on Spotify we have

1664
01:26:06,800 --> 01:26:08,400
Speaker 1: when's the last time we even cover COVID? We did

1665
01:26:08,439 --> 01:26:11,320
Speaker 1: it today? I think, well like two weeks, maybe three weeks. Yes,

1666
01:26:11,439 --> 01:26:14,320
Speaker 1: all of our episodes are being labeled on COVID misinformation

1667
01:26:14,720 --> 01:26:16,519
Speaker 1: and all this all of us is to say is

1668
01:26:16,520 --> 01:26:19,600
Speaker 1: that we rely on you guys, our premium program to

1669
01:26:19,680 --> 01:26:21,880
Speaker 1: build the team. We have all that awesome third party

1670
01:26:21,880 --> 01:26:24,200
Speaker 1: content which has been performing really well. We have some

1671
01:26:24,200 --> 01:26:26,880
Speaker 1: more cool stuff in the pipeline, and in order to

1672
01:26:26,880 --> 01:26:28,920
Speaker 1: pay all those bills, we rely on you. So thank

1673
01:26:28,960 --> 01:26:30,640
Speaker 1: you all very much. We really appreciate it. Did you

1674
01:26:30,680 --> 01:26:32,679
Speaker 1: see the thing that happened with Kyle He had covered

1675
01:26:32,720 --> 01:26:36,200
Speaker 1: the full Send podcast interview with Trump, and he didn't

1676
01:26:36,240 --> 01:26:38,960
Speaker 1: even play the part of the interview where Trump talked

1677
01:26:39,000 --> 01:26:42,240
Speaker 1: about stop the steel rigged election or whatever, and they

1678
01:26:42,439 --> 01:26:46,240
Speaker 1: pulled the entire his coverage of an interview of the

1679
01:26:46,280 --> 01:26:51,479
Speaker 1: President of the United States, like that's the former president insane. Man.

1680
01:26:51,600 --> 01:26:55,599
Speaker 1: They look, we can't operate this way on you guys.

1681
01:26:55,760 --> 01:26:57,559
Speaker 1: That's that's what the way he's saying. Yeah, that's why

1682
01:26:57,560 --> 01:26:59,880
Speaker 1: we built it. That's why I appreciate you all. So much,

1683
01:27:00,160 --> 01:27:01,719
Speaker 1: have a wonderful day. We'll see back here tomorrow.