Unmasking the Censorship-Industrial Complex – “Provoked” Parts 6 & 7 (Russia-Ukraine Conflict)

We discuss parts 6 & 7 of Scott Horton’s book “Provoked”, from page 427 (Hamilton 68 & #TwitterFiles) to page 597 (Killer MIC). Special guest: Dave DeCamp In this explosive episode, we unpack the revelations from the Week 6 & 7 document, exposing the deep entanglement of government agencies, media organizations, and Big Tech in shaping public perception and silencing dissenting voices. From the Hamilton 68 dashboard’s fraudulent claims about Russian bots to the shocking censorship apparatus revealed by the Twitter Files, we reveal how misinformation was weaponized to manipulate political discourse and suppress free speech. With Jacob, Shaun, and Mark leading the discussion and featuring guest insights from Dave DeCamp, we explore: The Hamilton 68 Hoax – How a coalition of intelligence operatives and media figures falsely branded ordinary Americans as Russian agents to justify mass censorship. The Twitter Files Revelations – Internal documents showing Silicon Valley’s collaboration with the FBI, Pentagon, and political operatives to control the digital narrative. The Role of NGOs and Academia – How think tanks, universities, and media outlets contributed to a sprawling “censorship-industrial complex.” Government Interference in Speech – Shocking cases where U.S. and foreign governments pressured social media giants to silence dissenting voices, even journalists and private citizens. What Comes Next? – The long-term implications of state-sponsored censorship and how we fight back against this assault on free expression. If you’re ready to challenge the official narrative and uncover the truth behind modern information warfare, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Subscribe now and join the conversation!

Transcript:

(0:11) Hello, Internet. I don’t know what that sound was, but we’re here back for—this is going (0:19) to be a two-week special edition of the Provoked Book Club here at LCI. I’m Jacob Winograd.(0:26) I’m host of the Biblical Anarchy podcast. I’m recovering from COVID 7.0 or 8.0 or 10.0 or (0:34) whatever version of COVID we’re on, which never warranted a lockdown, never warranted all the (0:39) hoboloo, but it’s inconvenient enough that it makes me question my foreign policy stance towards (0:45) China, because if I was more of a vindictive person, I’d say—although we know it’s partly (0:52) China, partly Fauci. Actually, no, it can’t be Fauci.He was pardoned, so he’s innocent of all (0:57) crimes related to COVID. From now until forevermore, that’s the way it goes. But I’m (1:02) going to be relying heavy on my two brothers here tonight to pick up the slack, because I’m only (1:10) today back to the land of the living after spending the last 48 hours basically sleeping (1:15) off whatever virus I had.You guys know them. Mark, Sean, how you guys doing? (1:21) What up? And by the way, it’s not China. Trump is back, so it’s China.(1:30) Mark is better with the impersonation than I am. (1:33) Jason’s got the best impersonation for Trump. I don’t know what a Trump is at all.(1:38) Tonight, I am going to be, in honor of the fallen, doing my best Biden impersonation, (1:44) because that’s about how much mental capacity I have right now. So I’m going to be speaking (1:48) very slowly, barely reading the teleprompter needs to move slower, slower. (1:55) Pause, hold the line.(1:57) Don’t poop your pants, we’ll be okay. (2:03) Oh boy. But yeah, we’re going to do, we have in about 35 minutes from now, we have the one and (2:10) only legendary Dave DeCamp from antiwar.com, Libertarian Institute, who’ll be joining us.(2:17) We had scheduled him for week seven, but we missed last week for week six. So let’s do a (2:23) little bit of, as always, this is just giving you guys the tip of the iceberg. You have to, (2:29) to get the full experience, get this thick monstrosity right here provoked.(2:36) There’s just no way in 45 minute sections at a time, hour sections at a time, (2:42) that you’ll talk. Do we have a shot of all three of us holding it up? We got to do that. (2:45) You have to read this thing.You cannot get it through us. You can’t get it through osmosis. (2:51) You can’t get it through any kind of thing.You got to listen to it or read the darn thing. (2:55) This is a major, major, major commitment, ladies and gentlemen. And there’s so much.And I promise (3:06) you, as you’re reading it, you’re going to go back and read what you just read a couple of times, (3:10) because you’re going to say, that can’t be real. And then you’re going to go back and read it again. (3:15) And you might even look at the footnotes on the bottom and go, oh my God, this is real.And this (3:21) is so bad. Highly recommend anybody read this. I don’t care if you’re left, right, dumb, fat, (3:30) stupid, whatever it may be, read the damn book, get yourself an edumacation.Yeah, (3:35) I just said edumacation. And seriously, if you really want to learn something about what’s (3:41) really going on over there in Europe right now, between Russia and Ukraine, it’s in this book. (3:48) And the receipts are endless.I mean, the footnotes are endless. I mean, Scott’s a walking (3:55) encyclopedia, and he shows that. And the book is absolutely brilliant.But be prepared to get (4:01) yourself extremely upset a few times here and there. Yeah, absolutely. And Scott just had a (4:09) debate with Eli, somebody, and what, he lost by 2% or some kind of, okay, I didn’t watch it yet, (4:14) so we should talk about it probably after, but definitely don’t spoil it for me.But I know, (4:20) I mean, the expression, reading this book, that expression, you know, you can’t make this shit up. (4:26) I mean, literally, if you were trying to write some like political science fiction dystopian novel, (4:32) I’m not sure you could, you know, reach this level of absurdity. You couldn’t reach this (4:38) level of absurdity, right? So, Mark, I believe you are starting us off, right? Oh, am I? Oh, boy, (4:48) am I? Oh, boy, this is going to be great.All right, everybody, welcome back. It’s been a couple (4:53) weeks, but it’s been awesome. We’re going to try to go as quickly as we can through these, (4:56) because I got video clips in this section, you got video clips in the second.I’m going to (5:00) titillate yours. So, let me share this first one. So, basically, my section can be, I’m just (5:09) going to sum it up in three, well, a bunch of words, but a few chained together.It’s going to (5:14) be Hamilton 68, Taibbi, Twitter, Tulsi. That’s all we got to know. Taibbi, Twitter, Tulsi, you’re (5:22) going to see all this stuff.Basically, in reading the book, Hamilton 68 was this weird website. I (5:28) had to do research. I found this weird clip.It’s one minute long. I asked you just listen to them (5:33) talk about what Hamilton 68 was, and then the truth. We work with the Hamilton 68 project to (5:39) really understand the foreign influence online.Hamilton 68 falsely accused legitimate American (5:47) accounts of being Russian bots. Hamilton 68, we track Russian bot armies. (5:54) Hamilton 68, we are tracking this the most.Hamilton 68, I’ll tell you what the Russian (5:59) associated accounts were doing. Hamilton 68. Hamilton 68.Hamilton 68. Hamilton 68 looks (6:05) at Russian accounts. A wonderful website called Hamilton 68 that tracks known Russian bots.Look (6:10) at Hamilton 68. I encourage you to look at that. The Hamilton 68 research.A really interesting (6:15) website students will really enjoy. Hamilton 68 has just been such an amazing resource. Hamilton (6:21) 68 knows the Russian bots.Hamilton 68 dashboard, if you want to track their covert accounts. We need (6:25) more fact-checking like Hamilton 68. Hamilton 68.Hamilton 68, they track Russian associated troll (6:32) farms. There is no evidence to support their statements. Hamilton 68.It’s bullshit. (6:40) All right, so I did a little goog search. I just typed in Hamilton 68 website.There’s still (6:47) a website there where you can put down Russian disinformation bots or something. It’s the (6:53) weirdest, creepiest kind of website I’ve seen. Do you guys remember Hamilton 68? (6:59) Yes.There’s also people on X who can add you to groups like that. I’ve been added to Russian (7:06) propaganda many times because of my X account. It’s so funny.Heaven forbid you speak out (7:14) against the grain. You know what I’m saying? Otherwise, you’re just a Putin sympathizer (7:18) or God knows whatever. People are dumb.I’m not going to say what I think I should say right now. (7:27) Let’s go. I get you.I get you. What are your thoughts, Jacob? (7:33) That felt like some kind of weird government indoctrination thing. I’m in a closed room (7:39) with a light going around it.That video you just played, that was wild. It reminded me of (7:48) those other news clips before where all the different news outlets are saying the same exact (7:53) thing over and over again through different news outlets. I don’t like to get all tinfoil hat.I (8:01) like to think the government’s just incompetent and not evil and satanic, but man, do they make (8:08) it hard to argue for that? Operation Mockingbird is still very real, ladies and gentlemen. That’s (8:14) all I’m going to say about that. If you don’t know what that is, feel free to Google Operation (8:19) Mockingbird and knock yourself out.We are living it in real time as we speak. (8:26) As we continue, the next piece was a Twitter file, Matt Taibbi. Matt Taibbi goes in Congress, (8:34) and then something really strange, just something very coincidentally happens the same day he’s (8:41) called to testify on the day.I’ll play some of this video. It’s just fun to watch and go back (8:47) in time and just remember some of this stuff and what they tried to pull over, which wool they (8:53) tried to pull over our eyes. I’ll share this for us.Is that working? Let me start that over if I (9:05) hold on. He gave a speech at the first Soviet right. Hate speech is protected in the United (9:09) States.One of my heroes growing up was the Ukraine-born author Isaac Babel. He gave a (9:16) speech at the first Soviet Writers’ Congress, and he was asked if any important rights had been taken (9:22) away. He sarcastically answered, no, the only rights that have been taken away are the right (9:27) to be wrong.The crowd laughed, but he was making an important point, which is that in a free country, (9:33) you can’t have freedom without the freedom to be wrong. (9:40) So far, no answers tonight from the IRS as to why agents confronted Twitter files journalist (9:46) Matt Taibbi at his New Jersey home. Ironically, it happened on the very same day he testified (9:51) before the House subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government.Taibbi played a key (9:57) role in exposing Twitter’s once-secret communications with the government. Taibbi reported on a 2016 (10:03) executive order signed by President Obama establishing the Global Engagement Center. (10:10) It lays out how it set off a dramatic shift in the government’s focus from counterterrorism to (10:15) so-called disinformation, adding that it created a collective panic, defining this generation (10:21) similar to how the Red Scare defined the 1950s.One more. Actually, two more. This is great.(10:29) Watch the look on Kirby’s face. This thoughtfulness on his smug little stupid face. (10:39) Did I leave the oven on? (10:59) But I was wondering if you could respond to this Taibbi visit by the IRS and say, (11:04) well, this is part of a campaign to harass or intimidate them related to this journalism.(11:09) I’m afraid I’m going to have to refer you to the IRS. (11:11) I’m afraid I got the chicken shit out of this answer. Sorry.(11:14) It’s so interesting to see the IRS make a strange house call, that was the title of the article by (11:18) the Wall Street Journal, on Matt Taibbi during his house testimony on Twitter and all of the (11:24) bad things that the government has done. That is not a coincidence. It’s just plain (11:32) brazen and somewhat stupid.There you go. I just want to share a (11:38) couple of clips of how the Twitter files, what they did to Taibbi, and then Trump even got to (11:42) chime in. I’d love to hear your guys’ thoughts.Well, they talk about free speech and stuff like (11:52) that. I love how they included hate speech in there, because free speech does include hate (11:58) speech and speech that you don’t agree with or don’t like. If you’re going to be a pro-liberty (12:03) person, you need to champion liberty then instead of just being like, well, he said this and that’s (12:08) wrong.It doesn’t matter. You can be an anti-Semite, Donald Trump, exclusively to you, (12:15) Donald Trump, who thinks you’re going to lock people up or get them deported for being anti-Semites. (12:20) No, that’s not going to work.Anyways, I digress. All speech is included in free speech, (12:28) and people either need to be a part of it or not. If you want to be pro-liberty, (12:33) be pro-liberty, or you can be a commie.Those are your choices. (12:38) Your thoughts, Jacob? None of us like commies, by the way, I’m pretty sure. (12:45) It’s a tough one.I don’t have much to add. I think you guys covered it pretty good. (12:58) I keep going back and forth with where I stand in this new administration.There’s certainly a lot (13:08) about the current Trump administration that’s not perfect, not libertarian, but I at least (13:14) appreciate that there is some repudiation because of who was in Trump’s orbit of a lot of this (13:19) stuff. But you’ve got to wonder, are these people going to be good for the next—was it just this (13:28) time that they’re good on the propaganda, or are they going to fall for the next propaganda when it (13:34) comes to China or— They have their own propaganda. Let’s not kid ourselves.(13:39) Yeah. I don’t know. I’ve got mixed feelings about it.I’ve met Matt Taibbi and a lot of them, (13:45) and I’m glad for the good that some of these people—I’m glad for the good that Elon’s done, (13:51) I’m glad for the good that they’ve done in exposing a lot of the Twitter files and all this, (13:57) but it’s—I don’t know. I guess that’s the only thing I have to say, is that I wish that they (14:05) could have the same level of scrutiny and skepticism on all things. (14:13) Yeah.It’d be nice. That’s what we find, though. That’s kind of where we’re at.We find we thought (14:18) we’d get along with all sides, and we find both sides to be hypocritical because they’re like, (14:22) well, no free speech here, but free Palestine. Oh, wait, but that’s anti-Semitic, so no free (14:29) speech there from the other side. It’s like, well, pick a side, pick a—it’s either you’re for it, (14:34) to Sean’s point, or you’re against it.That’s really where you’re at. I mean, it’s pretty (14:40) simple, so. All right, so I do have one more clip.It’s only three more minutes, so then I’ll call (14:45) it because I know we’re up against time, but once again, thank you to everyone who’s joining us. (14:50) This has been so awesome, but here’s Tulsi Gabbard, one of my favorites, on The View. (14:56) Do you want to pull that up there? All right, here we go.(15:00) I want to start with something that I think is also important, about facts, (15:05) because recently on your show here— I was just going to get to that. (15:08) Good. Helping you out.You want me to ask you? (15:12) Some of you have accused me of being a traitor to my country, a Russian asset, a Trojan horse, (15:21) or a useful idiot, I think was the term that you used, which basically means that I’m (15:27) naïve or lack intelligence to know what’s going on. (15:30) They use that. (15:31) I want to let your viewers know exactly who I am.(15:34) All right. (15:35) Set the record straight. I am a patriot.I love our country. I am a strong and intelligent woman (15:42) of color, and I have dedicated almost my entire adult life to protecting the safety, security, (15:50) and the freedom of all Americans in this country. It was the attacks on 9-11.(15:57) So I guess we’re getting a little bit far ahead of ourselves, but Franklin Graham finds you (16:05) refreshing. He doesn’t find me refreshing. Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader, (16:10) says he could vote for you.(16:11) Joy, this is why— (16:12) I mean, you’re on Tucker Carlson at least 10 times. Why don’t you go on Chris Wallace’s show? (16:17) This is why I’m here, because you and other people continue to spread these innuendos (16:23) that have nothing to do with who I am. (16:26) Well, Hillary Clinton started it, and then you shot back at her, boy.(16:29) You called her the queen of war mongers. (16:31) You doubled down—unfortunately, you doubled down on the baseless accusations that she made (16:37) that strikes at the core of who I am. I’m a soldier.Because of the attacks on 9-11, (16:43) I enlisted in the military to go after and defeat and destroy the evil that visited us on that day. (16:49) I’ve served now for over 16 years. I deployed twice to the Middle East during the height of (16:54) the war, where every single day I saw firsthand the terribly high human cost.That’s why I ran (17:00) for Congress. (17:01) We actually have the clip of Hillary Clinton. Just to put this in context of what we’re (17:04) talking about, let’s take a look at that.(17:05) I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who’s (17:09) currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. (17:14) She’s a favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of, you know, (17:19) sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.(17:26) And that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she’s (17:31) also a Russian asset. (17:35) Really? I mean, this is outrageous. This is outrageous and offensive on so many levels.(17:41) I’ve served as a member of Congress now for almost seven years, (17:43) receiving high-level national security and intelligence briefings, (17:47) serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the Homeland (17:50) Security Committee, working to ensure the safety and security of the people of this country. (17:55) This is why I’m running for president, to continue that commitment of service. (18:08) Your mic’s off, Doug.Mark, you’re muted. (18:12) Thank you. So, see, once again, when you stop doing it for a couple weeks, you forget all (18:17) your clicks and doodads to do, your buttons to push.(18:21) So, we’ve got Tulsi Gabbard on The View. We got Hillary Smearinger, (18:25) Joy Behar. They’re all just piled up.She’s like, look at who I am. (18:30) And she’s like, you’ve been on Tucker 10 times. Yeah, she’s also on your show.(18:35) Like, all right. Like, it’s just so funny. And then Hillary, a Russian, and then the bots thing.(18:40) Like, every talking point is just all the same, just all these robots saying the same stuff. (18:48) That’s mainstream media for you. They have a couple talking points, and that’s it.(18:52) And if you’re going against what they’re saying, you’re some sort of asset of somebody else or, (18:58) you know, a sympathizer of somebody else or whatever. It doesn’t even matter. (19:01) At this point, I don’t care what legacy media says.Legacy media has died a horrible death. (19:10) And to be quite frank, they’re laying off like almost, well, not half, but between 30 and 40 (19:16) percent of people from the Wall Street, you know, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, (19:20) Washington Post, you know, all stuff like that, TV station, CNN, Fox, all of them, (19:26) they’re all laying people off. People are losing their jobs.Why? Because everyone knows they’re (19:33) full of shit and reading propaganda fed to them either by the FBI, the CIA, the government, (19:39) whatever it may be. And we all know those people lie. Nobody’s going to believe somebody in (19:45) unless you’re a complete moron.Go ahead, Jacob. (19:53) I really feel for Kamala. And I think, you know, what I said earlier, we’re like, (19:58) again, this is tough.Like, I’m evaluating a lot of people in Trump’s new orbit administration on (20:04) two different criteria. The first criteria is, of course, my Christian libertarian criteria, (20:14) and a lot of these people fall short. But the second criteria is just comparing them to (20:20) the absolute worst of the scum that is the establishment in D.C. And when I look at Kamala (20:28) Harris, despite there being a lot that I can criticize, I can I can kind of resonate like (20:36) I see myself in her in many ways because I was a former Democrat.I was anti-war. I was anti- (20:44) deep state corporate collusion. And to see how she was treated reminds me of how I was treated (20:51) because I didn’t like Vaughn.I don’t like the cliche sayings about like I left the left or the (20:57) left left me like one of the left didn’t leave me. The left chewed me and spit me out like old gum (21:02) because and even though like I I did not want to vote for Hillary Clinton. I’ve said this many (21:08) times.I was a Bernie Sanders guy. Obviously, he was treated very unfairly back in 2015 during (21:15) those primaries. The irony of the Republican Party having more Democratic primaries and the (21:29) Democrats themselves.But yeah, sorry. Sorry. Sorry, David.Yes, you’re adding me to Hamilton (21:35) 68 now. That’s that’s fair, right? Yeah. I mean voting for Hillary.That’s that’s pretty bad on my (21:40) track record. I was again. So I was how long ago this was over.It’s almost 10 years ago. Now, (21:45) I was a much younger person. I was I was I was responding to the peer pressure of everyone around (21:50) me.They were like, doesn’t matter how bad you think Hillary Clinton is. Right. You just you (21:55) have to keep Trump out.He’s a Russian agent. Yeah. And then after that, what Tulsi went through (22:00) was what a lot of people like me went through on the left where it was no longer about.Yeah. Like (22:06) it was no longer about our core principles of of caring for middle America, of of being anti-war, (22:16) of being kind of anti-establishment. It became about woke ism.It became about Trump derangement (22:21) syndrome. It became about, you know, Russia, Russia, Russia, like they just completely lost (22:27) the narrative. And I would credit Trump with that if I didn’t think it was just incidental.(22:33) Like, I think Trump just like by not this was not like preplanned. Right. But he just (22:42) managed.And it’s the most amazing. He’s done some good things. He’s done a lot of bad things.(22:46) He’s done some good things. But the best thing he’s ever done is troll the mainstream media (22:51) into completely exposing and delegitimizing themselves and only them in this mission. (22:58) Yes, exactly.So I’m like Donald Trump is the ultimate troll when it comes to trolling. (23:05) There is no one better, not a single person. Trump wins that.I’ll give credit where credit (23:09) due. You know, that guy control people and he does it and he is winning. And (23:16) I’m not concerned about him.It’s the force behind him that’s pushing that other stuff like (23:21) my issue. What was it? Hex it goes and removes like NBC, MSNBC, CNBC. We know how corrupt they (23:29) are, but removing them from the Pentagon to replace them with different or like with media (23:35) they agree with, which is just as fricking corrupt just to take a propaganda from the other side.(23:41) Right. You know, it’s like, why? No, it’s either all or nothing. Let them all in.Let all the voices (23:47) shout at each other or kick them all out. Don’t don’t have this. My my media.You know what I (23:53) mean? This my media stuff. That’s the whole thing. That’s what kills corporate media is.(23:58) It’s such a win now that Trump is allowing podcasters and independent media to take to (24:05) apply for the White House. You have the White House press credentials like that. (24:10) Like, again, it’s such a mixed bag, but I’m going to I want to celebrate the wins, man.(24:18) Like it’s it’s it’s certainly it. Oh, action is good. We agree that certain things needed to be (24:24) undone.We are we are just concerned about the overcorrection. Right. Right.But the inertia (24:30) of the million miles per hour we were headed towards the cliff has at least been abrupted. (24:35) And I’m happy about that. One hundred.And so, sir, I hand it to you to take over from here (24:42) and I step away till our next section and when we see Dave. So thank you, gentlemen. (24:47) So picking up where I guess kind of where we left off.So as much as it’s funny because Putin’s (24:57) constantly, you know, he’s this evil boogeyman. He wants to remake the USSR and all that, (25:04) you know, and he’s not pursuing peace. There’s been so many times I think we’ve already covered (25:09) past instances.We’re going to continue to cover them going forward where Putin is seeking off (25:14) ramps, seeking peace. My section began with with a missed chance for peace, which was Putin (25:23) proposing U.N. peacekeepers into the Donbass to stabilize the conflict and to actually like (25:29) advance and like enforce the Minsk agreements, which we all know the Minsk agreements were just (25:35) basically a ruse. Like, let’s just call it for what they were.This was just basically like (25:39) putting pause on the situation to give us as much time as possible to put Ukraine in a better (25:45) position so that we could better leverage them against the Russians. Like that’s that’s just (25:48) what it was. Let’s just call it for what it is.But, you know, Putin like like he’s like, (25:55) hey, we have an agreement here. Let’s I don’t know. Let’s follow it.Let’s get the U.N. to (26:00) help us follow it. Right. Seems seems reasonable.But there was, of course, refusal from the the U.S. (26:09) and the U.K. Germany, of course, wanted to go forward with it. But but no one else. (26:17) And then, of course, we had talked about the so there was a shift in strategy.There was the I (26:27) forget the actual name of the of the treaty, but there was the one treaty that Trump pulled out of. (26:34) It was like an arms control treaty. And so because Putin had so it was because Trump had pulled out (26:38) of that Putin had announced like, OK, well, you know, now I have to basically like I have to (26:44) respond to that.So now there’s a new nuclear weapons program. And this included hypersonic (26:50) missiles, nuclear powered cruise missiles, underwater nuclear drones, all designed to (26:55) bypass U.S. defenses. And Putin, of course, you know, is saying this is a deterrence measure and (27:00) he’s continuing to warn.He’s basically screaming at this point to stop expanding NATO, stop pulling, (27:08) you know, stop expanding their military alliance right up to their borders. So, (27:15) you know, and I have more to say on this stuff later in terms of like the next section where (27:22) Dave’s coming in. But I don’t know if you guys have anything you want to say to any of that.The (27:26) refusal to enforce the Minsk deals and the Putin’s response. (27:32) To pulling out the treaties, which I think I need to wait until the next round for that, (27:42) honestly. What I love about like is is Merkel’s admission in hindsight is the Minsk accord.The (27:48) Minsk treaty was to help bolster the defenses of Ukraine to help pour more weapons in. Right. It (27:54) was basically a stall tactic.So just watching the admission of that, the admission of Stoltenberg (27:59) and all these guys all admitting, yeah, NATO was a red line. Yeah, we did it anyway. Yeah, (28:08) we we stalled.I mean, they’re just openly admitting these huge flaws that we clearly see, (28:15) which certainly compelled people to make certain other actions they may not have done. (28:23) Are you responding to the comment? (28:25) Yeah. We’re not going to we’re not going to display that comment on on our nice Christian (28:31) stream here.But for those on the other channels, they can they can appreciate (28:37) it. Very true. You guys.Zach will be with us on Thursday. So tune in on Thursday. (28:42) Right.I mean, is it offensive if it’s true? Right. I mean, that’s that’s the question one (28:47) has to ask. I can keep that PG if you want.I could say it, PG. He said, I watched Zelinsky (28:53) play the piano. Zakatack said Putin and Zelinsky need to have sex.We already know they’re both (29:01) homosexuals. That works. Something like that.Yeah. Which, Zakatack, you’re right. (29:10) That’s hilarious.So so something else from my section, I think, is funny. So we we (29:17) have ex-ISIS fighters finding a safe haven in Ukraine. So, you know, that doesn’t make (29:26) sense to me, because obviously, like we remember that after 9-11, that Putin made the offer to (29:32) George Bush to, hey, let’s fight the war on terror together.And then, of course, then they combined (29:36) forces and took out all the Mujahideen and Bin Ladenites in the region. Right. (29:42) But there’s no Al-Qaeda that’s running Syria right now, who’s dancing in the streets when 9-11 (29:47) happened.Yeah, there’s none of that guy. None of that. (29:50) Right.Wait, wait. ISIS is still a thing? I thought I thought we I thought we combined (29:56) forces with every the West and the East to take. Which one’s backing? Is it the Pentagon (30:02) backing them and the F and the CIA is backing Al-Qaeda? Or is it the other way? I keep switching (30:07) which three letter, which whatever, which douchebags are backing which douchebags.(30:11) They go together like peas and carrots. (30:15) Obviously, I’m being coy. I mean, it’s again, sometimes these sections are hard to talk about (30:21) because I just like it.We’re beating a dead horse and it’s like, oh, yeah, OK, yeah. And, (30:25) you know, the Bin Ladenites that we funded and supported while we were fighting the Bin Ladenites (30:32) you know, hundreds of miles in the other direction, you know, the Bin Ladenites when (30:37) they can fight Russia is good and Bin Ladenites when they’re closer to Israel is bad. Right.(30:43) I’m sure there’s no connection there. I’m sure I’m sure I’m sure our you know, Israel being our (30:48) most important ally and Russia being literally the devil in the neocon foreign policy manual (30:53) has nothing to do with impacting our very inconsistent policy with how we handle (31:00) the Islamic extremists. And nothing and nothing to do with Trump taking over (31:06) two hundred and thirty million dollars from AIPAC.I’m sure nothing at all. (31:10) Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s uncalled for.That’s that’s anti that that is (31:16) some violent antisemitism you dispute there, Sean. How dare you have a problem with a foreign nation (31:23) political action committee spending billions of dollars on American politicians? (31:27) I mean, hey, they only they only fund 90 percent of our government. But hey, (31:32) I digress.I mean, I guess I’m just an anti-Semitic old Irish bastard for, you know, (31:38) pointing out the obvious that some foreign nation has control over our country. And it (31:44) didn’t matter whether Trump or Harris won. But once again, I digress.I digress. I digress. (31:49) You know, it also makes us anti-Semitic if we if we oppose Nazis, apparently.Right. Because (31:54) in my section, we continued to hear from figures like the Azov battalion and Andrew Blitzky and (32:01) others who basically told Zelensky, screw you, we’re not capitulating, blocked any efforts by (32:07) Zelensky to pursue peace, which was kind of what he was elected for in the first place. (32:12) And then, of course, we have.Wait, remember. Hold on. Those are Nazis that helped kick out (32:20) Yevchenko back in the day with C14 and the right faction.Like this is the same players, (32:27) just like the Al Qaeda guys from ninety five guys. Ninety three. Ninety one.Like (32:32) think about how far. I mean, they were they were obviously built up by us in the 80s, (32:37) right, with Afghanistan because they were fighting the Russians then or at least the Soviet Union. (32:40) And then they then we globalize it in the early to mid 90s.This is 30, 25 years later, (32:48) 25, less than 30, between 25 and 30 years later, that long. And we still hear the same players. (32:55) Same thing.And then we go and bomb them. And then what? Ten minus two equals (32:59) 20, because every cousin and brother and uncle and they join and then we fund them. (33:06) So there is I know Sean has got it.Sean has it. Sean has the Sam Harris of Trump (33:14) syndrome for Israel. And I’m even doing the Trump dance for y’all.(33:17) I just love this comment. This is an IDS acceptance chat. That’s (33:23) God.We don’t care for the IDF, though, man. My section, my section ended with Ukraine gate, (33:30) which I don’t want to spend too much time on because we’re running short on time. But obviously (33:34) we all know about Hunter Biden’s dealings with Ukraine and all the money laundering and corruption (33:40) there.And, you know, what can you say? What can you say, Sean? You got anything you want to say (33:47) to that and then transition to your stuff quick here? I think we should just transition because (33:52) we all know what the laptop is. We all know why he got pardoned. We all know why Fauci got pardoned.(33:59) We all know why we’re doing this today. Listen, Biden is just a staunch Second (34:05) Amendment advocate. Right.I mean, he just couldn’t stand for Hunter, his son being (34:12) convicted for, you know, unjust, unconstitutional gun laws. Right. (34:16) Going back to 2014.I know. How ironic. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? What happened in 2014, (34:22) guys? Wait, wait, wait.In the chat, chat, chat. Hey, chat. What happened in 2014? I want to hear (34:28) from you guys.We don’t want to tell you what happened in 2014. Come on, chat. Come on.(34:37) Oh, come on, guys. You guys are being gay. You’re not answering right now.Come on. (34:42) Fine. I’ll answer for you then, because you suck at this point.(34:47) Q in Ukraine. The Q in Ukraine. Yes, I am.And there we go. And who did the Q? Who did the Q? (34:55) That was a grassroots democratic revolution. (34:58) If I say it loud enough over and over again, it’s true.Right. It was a grassroots democratic (35:06) revolution. It was crazy.And it had to be done because of democracy. It was democracy (35:13) in a Slavic state that is does not even know what democracy is. (35:18) But listen, I need to get that quote from Star Wars episode two or three where Palpatine goes, (35:26) I love democracy.And just play that like nonstop during these conversations, (35:32) because it’s just so ironic. Sean, do you want to go through your stuff quick and then? (35:37) Yeah, I’m going to go through real quick because we got to get Dave on here just because he’s (35:40) much more entertaining than any of us. So real quick, like I started with Paul Whelan, which (35:46) is great because Paul Whelan at the time when he got arrested was living just like 25 minutes down (35:52) the road from me straight up in Novi, Michigan.He wasn’t far from me at all. So Paul Whelan’s (35:59) arrest and impact on Russia relations. Arrested in Russia for alleged espionage in 2018 and (36:06) sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.Whelan’s case heightened tensions. His imprisonment was (36:13) seen as a barrier to barrier to improved US Russia relations. And he was later on released (36:22) in a prisoner swap in 2024.Craziness here in Michigan, there was people in the streets like (36:29) trying to protest it. It was wild, man. It was it was a different time.You know what I’m saying? (36:33) Just because like, wow, somebody got arrested for espionage in Russia for Michigan. Whoa, you know, (36:40) because like outside of the Whitmer bullshit, like Michigan’s kind of like pretty laid back. (36:45) Pretty much all our sports teams suck, you know, and it’s just one of those things where like (36:49) we’re just Michigan.We have a lot of breweries. That’s cool. We like to drink.But other than that, (36:54) you know, we don’t get a lot of like new stuff at us unless it’s about Gretchen Hitler, you know. (36:59) But anyways, moving on to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and war. Ukraine officials predicted a Russian (37:08) invasion if they pursued NATO membership.Advisor Alexey Aristovich suggested that provoking Russia (37:17) into a conflict could solidify his NATO support and Ukraine’s position against Russia. Wow, (37:24) isn’t that something? But sanctions in Nord Stream 2, wow, what happened to Nord Stream? Good God, (37:31) we have no idea. We thought Russia bombed Nord Stream, right? Right? It was probably the UFOs.(37:38) Oh, yeah. You want to know what? Bin Laden did it. Bin Laden did it.I got videos later for it. (37:44) Don’t worry. But anyways, the US imposed sanctions to halt the pipeline connecting (37:50) Russia to Germany, aiming to protect American natural gas export and limit Europe’s dependency (37:57) on Russian energy, which it later got blown into smithereens in the middle of the ocean, right? (38:04) Oh, my God.End of key arms treaties, the US withdrawal from treaties like INF and open skies (38:12) under Trump and Biden marked significant setbacks in arms control, increasing mistrust between (38:20) Russia and NATO. Gee, a mistrust between Russia and NATO. No shit, man.I wonder why. Cultural (38:28) and religious divides in Ukraine. Oh, man, this has been going on for a very long time, obviously, (38:33) because there are some Christians over there.There’s some Nazis over there. And there’s some (38:38) straight up Satanists over there. And they are trying to all live together in perfect harmony, (38:43) aren’t they? Aren’t they? Like the Brady’s.(38:47) Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, Russia, Russia, Russia. Anyways, language laws and the split of the (38:55) Orthodox Church deepen divisions within Ukraine, particularly between pro-Western and pro-Russian (39:02) factions. Go figure.And I need to stop here real quick and say something. I don’t know. Well, (39:12) I don’t think he is a Christian.But I’ll tell you what, Vladimir Putin portrays himself (39:19) more Christian than most politicians in Washington, D.C. (39:26) I just said that out loud and I’ll say it again. Hey, whoever wants to put me on your next probe, (39:31) Russian propaganda site, knock yourselves out. Oh, you’re going to get on that.You’re going to (39:37) get on that list that I know Kyle Angelone is on it. I forget. I think some others from the (39:43) Institute are on it.That list where like it’s like that weird 3D chart of like enemies of (39:48) Ukraine. Ukrainian kill list. Because there is a Ukrainian kill list that he’s like Jimmy (39:52) Dore’s on, for goodness sakes.Nice. I mean, if somebody wants to try to kill me, please. (39:58) I don’t know if our other guest for tonight, which I’ll bring up now, Mr. Dave DeCamp, (40:04) legendary contributor to antiwar.com and Libertarian Institute.Are you on the Ukrainian (40:10) kill list, Dave? Or are you still? Well, there’s a few different lists. I’m not on the kill list, (40:15) but we were mentioned on one of the, I forget even who put the list together, but one of the (40:22) Russian propagandist lists or whatever. They’ve made a lot of lists.(40:27) If you’re not on the list, you’re not working hard enough. So it gives you something to push (40:32) towards. I watch a lot of wrestling and Chris Jericho.They’re a couple of seasons behind. (40:38) Thanks for joining us, Dave. We missed last week, so we got on early and we’re finishing (40:43) up week six.I wanted to just bring you up because that was a good transition point. (40:48) Sean, do you have any closing thoughts there for- (40:50) I have a few more notes, but really we can maybe skip them possibly. I mean, (40:55) but there are a few more if you want to keep going.(40:57) Pick the juiciest one. How about that? Just pick the juiciest one to close out on. (41:01) We can’t cover everything, folks.You got to read the book. (41:04) They’re all pretty damn juicy, but we’ll go into geopolitical consequences of Belarus’ (41:10) slipper revolution just because, well, just because. US-backed attempts to oust Belarus (41:17) president Lukashenko in 2020 failed, pushing Belarus closer to Russia and influencing (41:25) Russian policies towards Ukraine.Wow. Go figure. It’s like whatever the US does (41:35) is always the wrong thing at this point.It’s Groundhog Day. (41:44) But let’s move on. Dave, thanks for coming on, man.I don’t know if we’ve ever talked or met (41:48) before. Welcome, Dave. (41:52) Oh, I think you’re muted, Dave.You’re muted, Dave. (41:54) I’m sorry. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.Yeah, well, I think I’ve only spoke with Jacob (41:59) out of you guys. Sean and Mark, good to meet you guys. (42:01) Good, good, good.No, we all got together. We all do different podcasts, but we had this idea (42:07) all at the same time back in December when the book came out and we all got it. And Scott thought (42:12) it was a great idea, and we were like, heck, let’s go for it.So it’s been good, kind of pushed (42:16) us all to actually read through the book and discuss it with one another, hopefully encouraging (42:21) others to read it as well. Yeah, it’s good because it’s, you know, (42:26) it motivated me to finish the book. When you asked me to do this, I was like, man, I got to finish (42:29) this.And then to look back, like to look back on the Biden section, you know, because it’s so much (42:37) information, it is good to like kind of study it. And then I’m listening now because he’s putting (42:42) out the podcast. So now I’m listening to the audio version.So, you know, with all this, (42:49) so much information packed in there, you really got to kind of go over it a few times to retain much. (42:56) It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode. It’s like there’s always a new thing every time you go (43:00) through it.You always pick up something new, right? Yeah, something new that just makes you (43:06) angry. So I like, you mentioned the Belarus thing. I mean, that’s something I always think of, (43:13) like, because the US and the EU, like sanctioning Belarus and rejecting the results of their (43:21) election, like you said, it really did push Lukashenko closer to Putin.I mean, that wasn’t, (43:26) they weren’t that close before that. And then Russia ended up launching part of its invasion (43:30) from Belarus. I mean, it just goes to show how these sanctions, this style, you know, the way (43:35) the US has been operating for the past few decades just backfires so much.Yeah, absolutely. (43:45) The sanction part of everything is what most people don’t understand. You know, (43:51) most Americans think, hey, man, we’re sanctioning the bad guy and we’re going to stick it to him, (43:55) you know, and they don’t see the aftermath of the actual innocent people that are involved.(44:01) You know, they did it in Iraq. You know, they did it in all the Middle Eastern countries. (44:05) They’re doing it now to Russia.And nobody understands the impact that it has on everyday (44:10) people who don’t want anything to do with this in the first place. And then you watch, like, (44:17) I just watched the Piers Morgan, Tucker, and I don’t know, whatever you want to call the recent (44:21) one. And you just look at those points.You’re like, how do you argue with logic? How do you (44:27) argue with logic? It’s like democracy. You’re selling the land to a private company. You’re (44:32) poisoning it.Like, how are you preserving these things? You’re literally poisoning it and killing (44:37) people. There’s nobody left. There’s no future.You know, you’re just like, what? It’s silly. (44:43) It’s just silliness. Yeah.Well, I guess I’ll get us kicked off with the week seven content, (44:50) and we’ll keep tying Dave in here to give his insights as well. Normally what we do, Dave, (44:55) is each week we kind of split it into three sections. When we have a guest on, the guest (44:59) just kind of, you get to chime in whenever you want on anything that you think is interesting.(45:05) My section for, so the week seven section started with declarations of war. So Scott kind of goes (45:12) into a lot of different things here. He, you know, explains how, kind of like summarizing (45:18) and kind of using Putin’s words to summarize, like, how we got here, right? And that, like, (45:24) this is, we’re getting close to the end of the book at this point.(45:31) The first section was blame, blame Wilson. So, I mean, yeah, we can always, as libertarians, (45:36) go back and put a lot of blame on, on Woodrow Wilson. But, you know, Putin in his, in his speech (45:45) kind of explains that he inherited a situation that wasn’t great, but that he found to be at (45:52) least acceptable.Like they had already kind of gone back on their, their promises that they’d (45:57) given to Gorbachev and, and whatnot, and they’d already expanded into former Warsaw Pact states, (46:04) and then other former republics as well. But then, in his words, like they just, you know, (46:13) he’s now in a state of emergency because American and NATO are, are supporting Kiev’s aggressive (46:19) actions and basically treating Ukraine as it’s going to be a de facto NATO member at some point. (46:27) And that this, the level, you know, Putin’s words, the level of military, military threats to Russia (46:32) had just increased dramatically over and over again, and now he had to act.Now, Scott then (46:39) follows this up by saying that there’s options, right? Saying, like, you know, yeah, he’s being (46:44) provoked here. Yeah, his security concerns aren’t being fully respected, but that, that doesn’t mean (46:49) that he didn’t have other options that he could have, you know, had some responses, like shutting (46:55) off gas to other parts of Europe, or he could have, you know, demanded more UN. He already tried (47:06) this, but he could have kept, keep trying.He could have, like, demanded that the UN intervene (47:10) with peacekeeping forces and things like that. So there were other steps along the way that could (47:17) have been pursued. So what were your thoughts on that opening section there, Dave, if you want to (47:20) chime in on that in terms of Scott kind of, like, he kind of, like, summarizes how we got there, (47:24) uses Putin’s speech, but then kind of reminds us that there were other options, which I have my (47:31) thoughts on, but I want to hear yours to start us out.Yeah, I remember, you know, I remember that time (47:37) very well, because what I do for antiwar.com is basically follow the news very closely all day, (47:43) and a lot of us got, didn’t expect the invasion to actually happen. If you remember those months (47:48) leading up to it, the U.S. was issuing all these warnings, and a lot of people were kind of waving (47:53) it off and saying, you know, they’re not actually going to invade, and even Russia was doing so, (47:59) was doing that too. So, you know, even though it was, like, a month’s long buildup to the invasion, (48:05) it kind of came out, it happened, like, really quickly, like, that stuff, that Putin’s speech (48:09) and everything.And one thing I like that Scott says in his book, you know, I forget exactly the (48:14) context here. Basically, he says, you know, if Putin wasn’t so damn coy about the invasion, (48:21) like, if he was really, you know, making it clear to everybody that he was planning to invade, (48:29) then maybe other people on the other side in Europe, because Germany wanted to, seemed like, (48:35) at least at the time, that they wanted to avoid this, could have, you know, put some other, (48:39) some other offers or put pressure on Ukraine or something. But at the same time, I mean, (48:44) it was very clear, and we really, you know, learned after the fact that the Biden administration just (48:50) was not, did not have any interest in negotiating with Russia’s main thing that they wanted, (48:57) which was Ukrainian neutrality and a guarantee that Ukraine wouldn’t join NATO.But, yeah, (49:04) and I remember, you know, and at the time when he, because it started with him saying he was sending, (49:10) you know, quote, unquote, peacekeepers into the Donbass region. And that’s another option, (49:15) I think, you know, Putin could have gone with instead of launching the actual invasion of (49:19) Ukraine was to actually just send troops into the areas of the Donbass that were controlled by (49:24) these, you know, self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Because before that, (49:29) he never did that, you know.As Scott says in the book, he sent kind of deniable special forces (49:34) to the Donbass, but, because that, you know, I think if he sent those troops in there, (49:39) he would have really shown the U.S. that he means business here. And maybe they could have, (49:46) maybe, you know, again, it’s hard to say because it just didn’t look like the U.S. wanted to (49:49) negotiate anything seriously. But, yeah, I definitely think there were there were options (49:53) there.And again, I just when I remember this time, I just remember how kind of quickly it (49:58) happened because at one point Russia said they were pulling troops back. And then just like a (50:01) couple of days later, they went in and it all just happened so quick. So, Dave, do you happen (50:09) to know how long between how long it’s been since we’ve spoken with anyone on the Russian side? (50:15) That hasn’t been through Ukraine? Well, there’s been contacts at like a lower level, (50:21) like between the U.S. and Russia, probably at the embassy level.And there was a few times over the (50:27) over the throughout the Biden administration, you know, after the invasion, they basically (50:33) cut off all contact. You know, obviously, Biden and Putin didn’t talk. Blinken and Lavrov, the (50:42) very briefly one was a call about a prisoner exchange.Another time was like five minutes (50:47) on the side of a G20 summit. And then another time was another call about a prisoner exchange. (50:53) So there has been no talks between, you know, no real talks at a high level between the U.S. and (50:59) Russia about the war.There was another time when Jake Sullivan, this was in the fall. (51:04) Was it 2022, the fall of 2022? If you remember, you know, I know it’s in the book when Biden said (51:09) that, you know, the world was facing the greatest risk of nuclear Armageddon and like at any time (51:14) since the Cuban missile crisis. Well, around that time, they thought there was a good chance of (51:19) Russia using a nuke.And this was revealed recently by Bob Woodward’s new book with Bob (51:25) Woodward. You never know. I mean, he embellishes a lot, I think, but there’s a lot of evidence.(51:29) You got to be careful with his ties with the CIA and how he got his information about. (51:33) Yeah. Yeah.Yeah. When you get that much access, you’re definitely compromised to some level. (51:37) But this aligned with what was happening at the time, because I remember, again, just from (51:43) following this, reading his reports about Jake Sullivan got on the phone with Putin’s national (51:48) security advisor, because there was apparently a real—they thought there was a real risk of (51:51) Russia using a nuke.The fact that they really thought that and that—because I remember when (51:57) Biden said there was a risk of nuclear Armageddon. In a way, I was like, OK, well, maybe this means (52:02) he’s going to back down a bit here. But no, they just continued with everything.They got on the (52:09) phone with the Russians at one point and said, hey, don’t use a nuke or else. But that was it. (52:14) They just continued this thing.Well, it’s funny. There’s figures that Scott describes, like John (52:21) Mearsheimer, George Kennan, who had been predicting that all these actions by the West, (52:29) by Europe, NATO, America, would provoke Russia into an aggressive response. (52:34) These were, of course, ignored.And it occurs to me that the critics of this who say that it (52:42) wasn’t provoked, and we all agree that it wasn’t necessarily justified because there were other (52:47) options, but there’s something about that that I have a hard time parsing out in real time (52:52) sometimes, because I don’t want to allow people to kind of have their cake and eat it too, (52:56) because I kind of go like, well, hold on. If you’re a libertarian like me, an ANCAP Christian, (53:05) then you can probably say that, and I would agree with where you’re coming from. (53:11) But for a lot of people, it feels like what they’re doing is rules for me, but not for (53:15) thee.And it’s like, well, by an actual consistent ethical standard, yes, what Russia did was not (53:23) justified. By sort of like, what’s the word I’m looking for here? Precedent set by what America (53:34) and NATO and European, what Western militaries have done, right? They have done more for less (53:41) than what Russia is responding to, based on what I knew beforehand, and even more so after reading (53:47) this book. So it kind of feels like, well, you didn’t have all these experts saying like, (53:55) oh, you’re going to provoke Russia into an attack, and it’s going to be evil and unjustified, (54:02) right? So not everyone who’s talking about this is applying an actual anti-war, (54:07) kind of libertarian first principles analysis.And so that’s kind of where it gets tricky, (54:13) right? Because it’s like, I don’t want to give cover for Russia, but I don’t want to like, (54:18) in my condemnation of Putin’s invasion, forget to point out that like, you know, compared to (54:26) what’s like before you hopped on, I don’t know if you were here for this yet, Dave, but like, (54:29) Sean made a comment, like a provocative one, saying that Putin, for all his flaws, sometimes (54:34) presents himself and carries himself more as a Christian leader than a lot of Western leaders. (54:41) And I don’t know, like that might be an embellishment, but there’s a kernel of truth (54:47) to that, I think. So I’d like to hear your thoughts on that.Yeah, I mean, you know, (54:52) when you’re talking, I get a little impatient with it, which I probably should be more patient (54:58) with people who accuse me of being, you know, pro-Russia or whatever the accusation is. Now (55:04) I’m always called like a terrorist or something because of my stance on Israel. (55:10) And the reason why I kind of get frustrated is because it’s like, as an American, you know, (55:15) I see my duty to call out my government, you know, its crimes and its interventions and everything.(55:24) And that, you know, like, it’s just, we don’t have any control over what Russia is going to do. (55:31) Not that we really have any control over our own government, but I mean, it’s just not like, (55:38) this just wasn’t unexpected, as you mentioned. I mean, for decades you had people warning about (55:43) this, and it was just such a propaganda push.I mean, the fact that they called it an unprovoked (55:47) invasion and that just became the line, like across all the media, all the officials calling (55:52) it unprovoked. I mean, that should just show you that it’s clearly, it was clearly provoked. (55:59) And yeah, anybody, you know, and right after the invasion, I remember Condoleezza Rice, (56:04) which is in the book, she was on some TV show and said that, oh, you know, a country cannot (56:12) invade another sovereign nation.It’s like, this is the person who was in the George W. Bush (56:16) administration when they invaded Iraq. So the hypocrisy is just, it’s just so much. (56:22) That’s funny you brought it up.It’s beautiful with like John Stewart’s (56:25) interviewing. He does the Wuhan thing, the Wuhan slip up, and then he goes dark for like six months (56:30) while they put him in re-education. Then he comes out, puts a medal on an Azov battalion member, (56:36) and then does a complete tongue bathing of Condoleezza and Hillary in that little giggle (56:42) fest where they’re like literally holding hands and playing hopscotch almost.It is like disgusting (56:48) the way they just got along in their like 180 degree sine cosine evil just merged into this (56:54) big glob of evil, evil. Well, let’s not forget that Condoleezza Rice wanted to shut down any (57:00) type of peace talks with Russia during the H.W. era. That’s in the book too.She wanted nothing (57:07) to do with trying to make friends with Russia whatsoever. She tried to shut that down immediately. (57:13) That woman is evil, like evil, evil.Yeah. No, it’s, we’re all agreeing. There’s a major (57:22) hypocrisy.And don’t forget, don’t forget now she’s in charge of the football playoff (57:25) championship selection. Wait, wait, what? How evil? It’s awful. Yeah.Cause wasn’t, (57:32) isn’t she part of that? Wasn’t she part of the football playoff selection? Like the first (57:35) round Condoleezza Rice was chosen. Cause she was like, her dad was like at Stanford and she was (57:40) at Stanford and something. She was like part of that first member of the playoff championship, (57:44) college football playoff, the four team.I don’t, she picked one. She was one of the selection (57:49) committee. So yeah, it’s like, but yeah, they’ve all been rehabilitated.The Bush administration (57:55) people, they’re, they’re all just totally rehabilitated. And you know, it doesn’t (57:59) matter what they did only 20 years ago. Yeah.And that’s like, it’s so like, as a Christian, (58:05) sure, people can redeem themselves, but like, there needs to be kind of like, there needs to (58:11) be some kind of proof of like, Hey, this is like, you’ve changed your views. Not that you’re just (58:14) saying things that are now politically expedient. Like, I’m sure we all heard of what you did.(58:20) Yeah. Like, like you, did you hear the comments Rubio made the other day about like, you know, (58:24) basically saying like, Oh, like, you know, we, America can’t be the police force going around (58:29) the world and doing all this. It’s like, what do you mean? Like you were championing all this stuff (58:35) for like, as long as I can remember.And now suddenly you’re part of Trump’s administration (58:39) and you’re going to try to sell a different game. Like, you know, yeah. And then especially like, (58:44) and okay, sure.Does that apply to America’s greatest ally? Or is there a special exception (58:51) there? So it yeah, it kind of falls on deaf ears. And then, you know, so like, Scott then goes (58:59) through and kind of summarizes the, the initial invasion and how America shared intelligence, (59:06) how that helped kind of thwart the Russian attack. And you’d think like, okay, at this point, (59:14) if we had, you know, reasonable, well-concerned, thoughtful leaders, they’d go, wow, we weren’t (59:20) expecting this.We better see what we can do to deescalate things. But then instead of that, (59:26) so there’s a section in the book called the Afghan model. And it basically says like, well, (59:31) hey, we’ve been fighting proxy wars with Russia forever anyway.But, you know, since the 90s, (59:36) we’ve been funding, you know, various Mujahideen and Bin Laden knights to, to basically be fighting (59:42) against Russia and draining their resources. And, and now we have a chance to do that on a larger (59:47) scale with Ukraine and turn it into a quagmire for, for Russia. Nevermind those, you know, pesky (59:54) Ukrainian lives are going to be lost in the process.So what do you… (59:58) Yeah, that, that’s one of, I think what is, what I think is like a really scandalous part of this (1:00:02) is that, you know, those reports that Scott’s talking about it and everything that the Biden (1:00:08) administration was saying, what the U.S. was saying was that they thought Russia was going (1:00:11) to roll right in and be able to just, you know, take over Kiev. And essentially they were ready (1:00:17) to back an insurgency in Ukraine. And even then they weren’t ready to really honestly negotiate (1:00:25) with Russia, that they were willing to kind of accept that, you know, like a total Russian takeover (1:00:31) of this areas of Eastern Ukraine, and then backing some sort of, you know, again, Mujahideen style (1:00:38) insurgency against the Russians.So, and then Russia did do better than expected in the face (1:00:46) of the initial invasion. And then what I think should probably be the biggest scandal of the (1:00:50) Biden administration was the fact that they blocked the, they discouraged and essentially (1:00:56) blocked the peace talks that were happening in the early part of the war. There’s a guy, (1:01:01) I’m blanking on his name.I know he’s in the book. I’m not sure if this is in the book. (1:01:04) He was an aide to Zelensky, kind of a close advisor to Zelensky.They fired him at one (1:01:10) point because he said a Russian, like a Ukrainian air defense missile hit a building instead of a (1:01:14) Russian missile. It’s like, I want to say Aristovitch, something like that. But he said (1:01:20) about, I think this was last year, that basically after the initial invasion, you know, Ukraine (1:01:25) could have declared victory and said, you know, we stopped the invasion.Now we could sign this deal. (1:01:31) Russia would withdraw. And, you know, Ukrainian neutrality was the real demand and everything else (1:01:39) was kind of just dressing.They did want some, you know, Ukraine’s military to be limited in (1:01:45) some ways, but essentially he’s saying that they should have just declared that that should have (1:01:50) been it. They should have declared victory and the country would be in much, much better, (1:01:54) much better off. And that’s very obvious now over two years later.And, (1:01:59) oh, you know, the war’s almost, wow, it’s almost three years. It’s coming up this month. (1:02:04) And just so many people dead and they have, they’re going to lose all this territory now (1:02:08) that they wouldn’t have lost if they signed the deal then.So that really is like one of the (1:02:13) most shameful things about the Biden administration and Antony Blinken and Joe Biden. And Scott lays (1:02:19) it out like all the evidence really well in the book. All, you know, all the different, (1:02:23) every single side, anybody who, you know, was, was even remotely involved in the negotiation (1:02:29) saying, yeah, there was a deal on the table, the U.S. and some NATO members didn’t, didn’t (1:02:34) want it to happen.Boris Johnson tore it up allegedly. And that’s the interesting thing (1:02:38) too, is, you know, we’ve got we’re talking about a nation or its people, the people make the nation, (1:02:45) right? No Ukrainian fathers mean no, no Ukrainian babies. It just, it doesn’t work that way.You (1:02:52) need Ukrainian mothers and Ukrainian fathers to make Ukrainian babies and watching the Piers Morgan (1:02:58) thing. What is it in a six week span, a hundred thousand dead on, you know, the total between the (1:03:04) two sides in this quagmire of a stalemate world war one, like trenchy kind of thing right now, (1:03:11) where it’s a strafe warfare. It’s like, what’s going on here? They’re not going to be alive (1:03:15) anymore to make a nation anymore.It’s like, that’s what we’ve sent them to do. We’ve sent (1:03:20) has been pushing them to lower the conscription age because Ukraine actually the way that their (1:03:25) work. Yeah.They, they make it a little older. And then the idea, I guess, is so the, (1:03:32) they don’t want to send too many men off, off the battle who haven’t reproduced yet, (1:03:37) but now the, you have the U S Blinken was saying this and even, uh, what’s even homing. (1:03:42) I think homing said it, uh, the, the border guy, right.He said, well, if you’re going to go in (1:03:46) there, then lower the age and just get it over with. I think that Trump guy. Yeah.Yeah. And (1:03:52) yeah. So they wanted to send, they want them to send 18 year olds now, even though, again, (1:03:56) there’s just no chance of them achieving any kind of military victory.Um, it’s all fodder. (1:04:02) It’s all fun. Yeah.Yeah. So, and now I just wrote up a thing for anti-war.com that the, (1:04:06) it wasn’t clear. We have this foreign aid pause that this new Trump administration did.It wasn’t (1:04:12) really clear if that applied to weapon shipments for Ukraine. Now, according to this report from (1:04:17) Reuters, which I guess isn’t totally confirmed, apparently it did pause the weapons, but they (1:04:21) resume, they just resumed them the other day. So there’s things still proxy war is still going on.(1:04:26) It’s crazy. Yep. And, I mean, and Trump needs held to account.I mean, you know, (1:04:30) the whole, I’m going to end it on day one. It’s like, you know, big talk. And, but like, (1:04:35) what do you, so, I mean, I’m still like, I want to be optimistic that he’s going to push (1:04:40) things to stop there.But I also know there’s been great coverage on how, like, (1:04:44) it’s going to be tough because like, you know, Trump has to stand down against (1:04:49) the military industrial complex and the money machine that is continuing this thing. Right. (1:04:54) So, I mean, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll see how that works out.There were two more things in my (1:04:58) section. I’ll just cover real quickly. I mean, there’s actually a lot more in my section, (1:05:01) but two more things that I wanted to briefly mention before, uh, transitioning to the next (1:05:06) section, which was it, you know, in this section, I read, uh, the, um, there was the, uh, well, (1:05:12) the censorship industrial.Yeah. It was doing that earlier. Um, so there’s the censorship (1:05:23) industrial complex.So it’s a parallel to the military industrial complex and we’ve all seen (1:05:28) it right. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, um, you know, basically, you know, heavily, heavily censoring (1:05:35) anyone who, uh, is repeating Russian disinformation. Right.Uh, Google played a hand in this as well. (1:05:42) And then we also have the, uh, no, where is it here? Um, oh yeah. Yeah.The claim of chemical (1:05:53) weapons, uh, which is basically just like, you know, like once you’ve been in the anti-war (1:05:58) libertarian space long enough, kind of like when, um, in like the matrix movies where they’re like, (1:06:04) you, you begin to see the code, right? It’s like, Oh, it’s like, Oh, Hmm. We’re claiming (1:06:08) without any real evidence that a country we want to go to war with has weapons of, you know, (1:06:15) mass destruction or chemical weapons, which violate, uh, you know, like the Geneva convention (1:06:21) and all that. And CNN reporter sniffing a backpack there by any chance.Oh yeah. Oh, (1:06:27) Oh my noise. My nose is stinging.Oh, this must be chemical weapons. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s just (1:06:33) like, and we’ve talked about this before in other episodes, but like, and like, if you don’t pay (1:06:37) attention to this stuff, then you can fall for it more easily.But like, if you pay attention to it, (1:06:41) which I recommend, you know, Dave is a great person to read his, his daily reporting. You begin (1:06:47) to see a pattern to things where it’s like, uh, you know, it’s like they, they use the same playbook (1:06:54) and they call the same plays, but like, it’s kind of like in football when, you know, over time the (1:06:59) same plays are called, but they give them different like code names and that’s all that’s (1:07:03) happening here. Right.Same play, just drawn up in different situations. And you know, uh, they give (1:07:09) it a new coat of paint. So that’s all for my section.So Dave, you can, uh, anything you want (1:07:14) to say there. And then, uh, I think Sean is after me. So yeah, I was, I was just, uh, the censorship (1:07:21) industrial complex thing is interesting, you know, just again, kind of the way you saw the (1:07:26) narrative was controlled about this when this invasion happened, like, you know, obviously (1:07:31) things have eased, you know, it’s kind of eased up since then.But I just remember in those like (1:07:36) first months after the invasion, you know, really the first year, like there was this kind of tight (1:07:43) control from YouTube and everything on this, this narrative about, you know, what happened with this (1:07:49) invasion and, and just, you know, all this stuff labeled pro-Russia, you know, we saw this from (1:07:54) the Biden administration itself, putting out all these things about certain media outlets, (1:07:58) um, you know, that really is, was kind of a new thing with this war. Yeah. That’s interesting too.(1:08:07) Yeah. And watching, like, remember when they had the initial convoy that like 90 mile convoy line (1:08:13) of Russian tanks and whatever, to me, if I were to wind it back, it seemed like they were waiting. (1:08:19) They weren’t stuck.They were just waiting. Putin was showing, I think what’s interesting, (1:08:24) Sean talks about the Christian thing. I get, I think it’s called discipline, (1:08:30) restraint.Like he shows discipline of like what a Christian person has and restraint (1:08:35) because he’s there on his doorstep pretty much now. He, yes, he invaded 100%. It was an illegal (1:08:44) invasion of a foreign, whatever sovereign nation, all that said, all that aside, like it’s crazy (1:08:51) how we just sit there.We’re like, Oh, he can’t even have enough gas to make their convoy go. (1:08:56) Remember how like we were, they were just poking the bear even up to the invasion while they were, (1:09:01) while he was patiently waiting possibly for a diplomatic solution. What did it seem like? (1:09:05) Well, that, that is the criticism of, of Putin domestically is that he waited too long to invade.(1:09:11) Um, and you know about that, cause I mentioned, uh, you know, Ukraine was able to stop Russia (1:09:17) and they, they certainly put up a much better fight than people thought they were going to, (1:09:21) but it also, you know, Russia sent in 200,000 troops. They didn’t really send in a force to (1:09:28) really conquer the place. Um, and you know, if you notice the timing of the withdrawal, (1:09:34) they withdrew from the North, uh, during the negotiations in Istanbul when there was like (1:09:39) a real chance of a deal on the table.Uh, so it did seem like that was the whole purpose was (1:09:44) leverage for negotiations. Um, but again, that was, that was sabotaged. (1:09:50) Yep.Yep. Absolutely. That like my section literally ended with what? Nay, no, Ned.(1:09:58) Oh, Sean, you’re every time you move, you’re like bumping something and then it goes. (1:10:02) I think it’s when I put my papers or it’s okay guys. So I have a hundred pound pit bull (1:10:08) and I have a puppy who is probably like 20 pounds who thinks she’s a hundred pounds and they’re (1:10:15) literally wrestling over my head right now.Like literally like I’m in my basement doing this. And (1:10:21) if you’re hearing a bunch of crashing, that might’ve been the numbers, but, uh, it’s fine (1:10:27) right now. But yeah, my section ended with nay, no Ned, which is about how the stance of negotiations (1:10:32) from, uh, Zelinsky’s end was shifted due to the pressure from all the, uh, Western government.(1:10:37) So Sean, go ahead and, uh, uh, I guess, uh, keep us rolling here and everyone, everyone watching, (1:10:45) please make sure that you give this video a stream of thumbs up that way more people see it (1:10:49) in the algorithm. So, all right, take it away, Sean. Well, I mean, we kind of touched on Instable, (1:10:54) but we’re going to, we’re going to start here because Instable peace talks in their collapse (1:10:58) in March, 2022, Ukraine and Russia engaged in negotiations and Instable where Ukraine (1:11:04) proposed neutrality, non-nuclear status and security guarantees in exchange for peace.(1:11:11) Russia appeared to soften its demands, moving away from regime change and full control over (1:11:16) Ukraine territories, except all of a sudden this MFR Boris Johnson comes in here and shuts the (1:11:24) shit down. Now we need to touch on this a little bit more because it’s always Britain who’s buttoning (1:11:32) in business. That’s not necessarily theirs.We could go back to the, uh, the HW era through all (1:11:41) this or yeah, HW or even Reagan where, uh, Margaret Thatcher, who happened to be the, (1:11:48) the prime minister or the president, whatever you want to call it of Britain at that time, (1:11:53) did not want peace within Eastern or Western Germany. And she also had a big say in what (1:12:01) happened between, uh, uh, the United States going into Iraq the first time with HW Bush. (1:12:10) Now Britain has so much say in so many things where they don’t necessarily have (1:12:19) money and or troops involved.And it’s kind of, well, it is bullshit because it’s how, (1:12:29) how is a country that’s not necessarily heavily involved in something have so much of a say (1:12:34) in peace talks of anything that has anything to do with us and what we’re involved in? (1:12:40) Would you like to take that Dave? Well, I mean, the UK, you know, is very involved (1:12:47) in this, you know, they’re not spending as much as the U S but their intelligence, you know, (1:12:51) MI six has been deeply involved with Ukraine. Um, the same way the CIA has like, you know, (1:12:59) all this stuff about the CIA building up Ukrainian intelligence after the 2014 coup (1:13:05) building these like bases in Eastern Ukraine, essentially the MI six was, was with them, (1:13:10) you know, the whole way. Um, and they have, you know, again, the dollar amount that you see from (1:13:16) the U S is much more than the UK, but the British are the ones they’ve, they’re kind of doing the (1:13:23) more provocative things.Like they were the first ones, as far as we knew that sent troops basically (1:13:29) back into Ukraine, like special operations forces after the invasion to train Ukrainians. (1:13:34) They’re also, they have troops there on the ground to help them targeting, you know, (1:13:39) to help their targeting with the storm shadow missiles and with other missiles. So the UK is (1:13:43) like, you know, very involved how they, they have all this influence.Uh, you know, I’m not sure, (1:13:51) but they, uh, you’re list got Imperial. Yeah. And they helped draw up plans to blow up the (1:13:58) Crimean bridge, you know, again, just very deeply involved.And so at the same time, (1:14:04) Boris Johnson was there on behalf of NATO in the U S basically because Victoria Newland confirmed (1:14:11) this recently that the U S didn’t like the deal that they wanted to scrap it. Um, so, but I mean, (1:14:18) again, it is just such a scandal, like, you know, people can say all they want and you hear this a (1:14:24) lot, like, Oh, Ukraine didn’t want to want to sign the deal. It wasn’t a fair deal to Ukraine.(1:14:30) And, you know, obviously it wouldn’t be exactly what Ukraine wanted, but they would have been (1:14:35) much more likely to sign it if they didn’t have the U S and NATO whispering in their ear and saying, (1:14:40) you know, don’t sign this thing. Thank you fund. How many times, how many times through this book (1:14:46) has this happened? How many times has it been here? Here’s a deal.U S goes, don’t take the (1:14:53) deal. We got your back. They fight thousands, hundreds, thousands, whatever, die millions, (1:15:00) trillions spent.And then the deals like 1% in their favor at the end, like it was worth the 1% (1:15:07) extra that they got out of all of that. You know, it’s, it’s every time just repeat groundhog day (1:15:14) over and over. But, but the whole fact of the matter is, is that how in the hell does Boris (1:15:20) Johnson even just get to be the one that just acts as an entire deal, an entire deal like this, (1:15:27) this could have been ended in 2022, shortly after the war started, it could have been ended (1:15:33) very easily.Putin was ready to deal, but they weren’t having it. They weren’t having it. The (1:15:40) power of the NATO, the United States, the West, you know, they weren’t having it, but (1:15:44) you know, whether, whether they had, you know, some foreign intelligence or, or troops there, (1:15:50) not like they weren’t forking over the billions of dollars that we were.So how the hell should (1:15:56) they even have a say to shut down a deal that is beyond me, but maybe, maybe I just don’t know (1:16:01) enough about foreign policy. I guess, you know, I, I might have some learning to do still. (1:16:06) Well, I’d argue that it’s definitely the five eyes, right? Which is UK, U S New Zealand, (1:16:13) uh, Australia, and is it Israel five? Or is it, there’s that six, Canada, Canada, (1:16:22) Canada, the five eyes, right? So those are the guys who steer it.It’s the West. So the West is (1:16:27) kind of in it together. Like they do not see Russia.They either do not see Russia as the West (1:16:33) or the military industrial complex continues to use them as a punching bag to make more money. (1:16:39) It’s a little bit of that, right? A little, both to be quite honest, but the Western influence on (1:16:45) war and continuation reports from sources, including Ukrainian officials and former (1:16:50) German chancellor Schroeder, uh, suggests that Ukraine was pressured by NATO and the U S to (1:16:56) reject peace deal. Former Turkish, former Turkish minister, uh, Mevlut.I’m not even going to try (1:17:05) to do that because no, I’m not going to do it. We’re just going to call Medlu stated that the (1:17:11) NATO members saw the war as an opportunity to weaken Russia, the U S and UK reportedly (1:17:18) opposed negotiations, aiming, prolonged conflict, conflict, drain, uh, into Russian military (1:17:25) capabilities, the Boucher massacre and narrative shifts, the massacre, the massacre of Bushka or (1:17:33) Boucher in which hundreds of civilians were reportedly executed, played a key note in (1:17:39) turning international opinion further against Russia. Reports indicate that accusations of (1:17:46) Russian war crimes were used to justify continued Western support and avoid peace talks while Russia (1:17:53) was responsible for civilian deaths.Some reports are just that exaggerations may have been used to (1:17:59) derail negotiations. Then they move on to the role of the Ukrainian nationalist militias, (1:18:06) the Azov. Oh man.Yes. The Azov regiment and other nationalist groups played major roles in (1:18:13) Ukraine’s defense, but have historical ties to extremist ID ideologies. The Western media, (1:18:20) which previously criticized these groups for neo-Nazi affiliations later rehabilitated their (1:18:26) image.Reports suggest that far right elements treated Zelensky against or threatened Zelensky (1:18:33) against making peace with concerns of possible coup if he conceded to too much to Russia. (1:18:41) So the Azov battalion was literally telling Zelensky not to bow down to Russia is the way I (1:18:47) see it. Um, you guys, you guys remember, and I know, I think Mark played the clip from this, (1:18:52) but that debate Scott did with, what was her name at, um, freedom at the young Kathy young at, (1:18:59) uh, pork fat.Oh, sure. We don’t really want to talk about the Azov battalion. (1:19:03) Well, she’s like, well, it’s just gotta, you know, it’s a military regimen that just has a very (1:19:09) unfortunate history.I was like by history, do you mean like a year ago? Like what? (1:19:16) I mean, it’s just crazy. Well, this is one of the things, you know, it’s interesting, (1:19:20) kind of the whitewashing of the Azov battalion. There was this, the, the recent pause on foreign (1:19:26) aid that Trump did, all these media outlets in Ukraine are now asking for money.And these are (1:19:32) all the media outlets that have been whitewashing Azov and these other elements of, you know, (1:19:39) the Ukrainian far right or whatever you want to call them. And these are the media outlets that (1:19:44) have smeared opponents of, you know, continuing to fight the war as you know, on the Russian payroll (1:19:49) or something. Well, they’re all on the American payroll.I mean, this is part of this stuff as (1:19:54) Scott outlines all this stuff with USAID and NED funding in Ukraine, you know, before the coup and (1:20:00) after. It just goes to show like, this isn’t, it’s not like by accident that Azov was whitewashed. (1:20:07) It’s, this is all part of this kind of US funded, uh, push to, to, you know, support this war, (1:20:15) to get people to support this war.Even though you have these groups, you know, they call everybody (1:20:19) here in the US a Nazi, if they’re like one click to the right of, of, you know, whoever, but here (1:20:25) you have literal neo-Nazi militias that the US is sending weapons to, and they’re treated like, (1:20:31) you know, like Jon Stewart, you know, they’re given medals here. And it’s, but let’s just- (1:20:38) What is it? Wow. That’s happening while the four of us anti-war libertarians are smeared as Nazis (1:20:47) because we don’t like genociding Palestinians for, for, for Israel.It’s just like, I mean, (1:20:56) it, it’s almost, it’d be comedic if it wasn’t so tragic. (1:21:05) The United States has been supporting and funding Nazis for literal decades, (1:21:11) longer than any of us have been alive. It’s been going on.They brought Nazis home from (1:21:17) World War II to work for NASA. Look up Operation Paperclip. Okay.And now, and, and not to mention, (1:21:24) like, there’s Nazi ties. Earlier in this book, we talked about how the Ukraine was trying to (1:21:35) join with the Hitler regime, even though the Hitler regime didn’t want them to be a part of it. (1:21:41) Yeah, they were off-white.They were off-white. (1:21:44) What I’m saying is that the Ukrainian country has always had ties to neo-Nazis. (1:21:51) And now we’re supporting them again through this, this, this proxy war, whatever you want to call it.(1:21:58) We know there’s boots on the ground there. They lied to us about that. Tucker pointed that out (1:22:02) a year or two ago on his show.Right when he first broke out, you know, when he, when he left Fox and (1:22:07) he started one of his new shows, he had a whistleblower on there or whatever talking about (1:22:11) we do have boots on the ground there, which makes complete sense because how the hell are you going (1:22:17) to send a bunch of brand new weapons over there that these clowns don’t know how to use? Somebody’s (1:22:21) got to train them. So we obviously have people there, but hey, whatever. I mean, I’m, I’m just a (1:22:28) Putin sympathizer, I guess, whatever.But the last, there’s, there’s more to this, but the one last (1:22:32) thing I would like to touch on this just because of time is the U.S. role in shaping the conflict. (1:22:39) The U.S. administration discouraged negotiation, portraying Putin as a war criminal and pushing (1:22:46) for Ukraine’s continued resistance. Biden’s rhetoric and policy choices aimed at isolating, (1:22:53) at isolating Russia rather than seeking a diplomatic resolution.Reports indicate that (1:22:59) Western officials recognize Ukraine’s limited chances of outright victory, but continued (1:23:06) supporting the war to weaken Russia. So they know that Ukraine had no chance in hell to do this (1:23:14) and yet continued to send your money, your money, your money, my money, and everybody’s money, (1:23:20) listening to this show right now, are watching over there. And we’re over 200- (1:23:25) Lindsey Graham wanted to kill every Russian town to every last Ukrainian for all that minerals.(1:23:32) Stop voting and stop paying taxes immediately. (1:23:35) Do you think that it’s, I mean, how much, there’s tons of motivations, I’m sure. I mean, is this, (1:23:42) can we really boil it down to one, one primary motivation, Dave? Or is it like, (1:23:47) it all, I mean, there’s, there’s, I guess, like minerals in Ukraine, but then there’s also, (1:23:51) like, I guess it’s icing on the cake, but, you know, I tend to view the people responsible for (1:23:57) this as, you know, like, like literally either demonic or, or influenced by demonic forces.(1:24:03) And I think that even if there weren’t minerals in Ukraine, I think that just being high, (1:24:08) drunk on their own power and, you know, thinking that they can sort of control the world and, (1:24:15) you know, move pieces around like chess pieces and whatnot, like, I think that’s all the (1:24:19) motivation they need. But, but I’m curious what you think in terms of reading the motivations of (1:24:25) why this war has continued so far and why they haven’t pursued off ramps in peace. (1:24:32) Yeah.I mean, I think there’s a few motivations. You know, I think some of the people in the Biden (1:24:36) administration that were really, you know, a key part of all this, like Victoria Nuland, (1:24:42) Jake Sullivan, these types of people, like they really do want to dominate the world (1:24:46) and they hate Russia and they hate the fact that, you know, they don’t want Russia to have (1:24:52) any influence outside of its borders. They want it to be just a completely neutered state that (1:24:58) can’t influence any other country.They want Russia to be surrounded. You know, what Nuland (1:25:04) types ultimately want is regime change. They want Putin out of there.But of course, if that happens, (1:25:10) he would be replaced with somebody much more aggressive, I think. (1:25:13) What? American regime change always goes so well, right? (1:25:17) Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.And, but so that’s definitely, that’s one motivation. (1:25:24) And then, you know, others are, I think just the fact that there’s a lot of money to be made. (1:25:31) It could be as simple as that because it’s just such a boon.I mean, you see Lloyd Austin, (1:25:35) Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who came literally from the board of Raytheon into the job (1:25:42) and he was the one, as you mentioned, that the U.S., you know, the goal was to weaken Russia. (1:25:46) They knew that Ukraine couldn’t win. There was just a recent report in Time Magazine quoting (1:25:50) some guy that was on Biden’s National Security Council at the time saying that Ukrainian victory (1:25:55) was never the goal.That was never even on their minds. So, you know, the purpose was to kind of (1:26:04) bog Russia down, to try to weaken Russia. And Austin said that in April 2022.And again, (1:26:12) this is a guy who came right off the board of Raytheon. And then after that Congress. (1:26:18) And, you know, all of a sudden all these weapons made by Raytheon were in hot demand, (1:26:22) weapons that they were basically obsolete, like the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.I mean, (1:26:27) they stopped producing them years ago. And then now all of a sudden they got to get the factories (1:26:31) going again. So that’s definitely a motive, the world domination.And also, I mean, I guess this (1:26:37) is kind of tied to this attitude of world domination. I think a lot of them really (1:26:43) did want to weaken Russia and to kill Russians, but Russia hasn’t been weakened. And then, (1:26:49) you know, because you see this from kind of the smarter, you know, people within the U.S. (1:26:55) government who are more like hawkish on China.Some of them recognize how obviously all these (1:27:00) sanctions on Russia, trying to destroy Russia while at the same time building up around China (1:27:05) and going after their economy was obviously going to lead to China and Russia increasing trade and (1:27:10) everything. So, you know, by doing what they did, they created like a real serious force against (1:27:18) the U.S. and the world, and that is allied China and Russia with a few other countries that the U.S. (1:27:24) also keeps under sanctions like Iran and North Korea now and everything. So you just see how, (1:27:30) you know, is it how… I kind of chalk it up to hubris with some of these people like (1:27:36) Victoria Nguyen and kind of the neocons, that they thought they could really hurt and weaken (1:27:41) and destroy Russia here, but it’s just, you know, backfired for their plans of world domination.(1:27:49) That’s the beauty of it. Are you done, Sean? Because I can pick up that. (1:27:54) I’m done.Otherwise, I’m going to go on a rant that most people don’t want to hear. (1:27:57) So perfect segue. So I’ve got a bunch of clips.I’m going to run it down real quickly. We’re (1:28:02) going to start talking about the EU sanctions backfiring. We’re going to talk about BRICS (1:28:07) and how that is.We’re going to talk about Nord Stream. We’re going to talk about a journalist. (1:28:13) I don’t want to spoil that because that’s very important.We’re going to talk about (1:28:17) the democracy and the elections that we’re fighting for, right? Democracy. And we’re (1:28:23) going to close it with the killer military industrial complex with Eisenhower. So do (1:28:28) you mind cranking me up there, Jacob, on that one clip? All right.So basically what happens, (1:28:33) we start sanctioning, right? And who do the sanctions hurt? They never hurt the regimes. (1:28:39) They think they’re going to hurt the people, then the people uprise. All it does is make (1:28:43) people think that we hate them and they glum with their… How many times has this happened? (1:28:48) Cuba, all these other countries where it does not do what we intended to do.It just hurts (1:28:53) the people in it. So here is the result of the initial sanctions because we’re thinking (1:29:01) we’re going to weaken Russia. Not so true.Here we go. The European Union sanctions on (1:29:07) Russia have already backfired, leading to a soaring energy prices and gripping its people (1:29:12) with fear of mass unemployment. In a recent interview with China’s central television, (1:29:18) Thomas Gula, president of the Hungarian Workers’ Party, said the expansion of Western hegemonism (1:29:24) is behind the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.He also stated the U.S. sanctions (1:29:28) against Russia have backfired on itself, and it is the bloc and its people who are in trouble now. (1:29:35) The regional bloc rushed to impose sanction packages against Russia since the conflict (1:29:39) in Ukraine started in late February. The sanctions included individual banks, (1:29:44) economic and diplomatic restrictions, and import and export bans on energy products.(1:29:54) The European Union sanctions against Russia backfired on itself. It is the EU and the people (1:30:00) of Europe who are in trouble now. Inflation has reached extremely high levels across Europe, (1:30:06) and energy prices have risen sharply.In Hungary, the non-private sector is paying the electricity (1:30:12) and gas with a price eight to ten times of the usual amount. The whole Europe is facing severe (1:30:18) consequences. People started to strike for fear of mass unemployment.A cold winter is looming due (1:30:26) to the lack of Russian gas. We don’t know what will happen next, but it is certain that European (1:30:31) people don’t want to live this way. So that’s where we’re at, right? We initiate these sanctions (1:30:41) and all our printing to send money over, our inflation goes up.All the energy that we waste (1:30:48) or the energy that we destroy, which we’ll get to, causes the energy to go up. Who’s burdening (1:30:54) all the weight of the burdens of these types of conflicts? If not directly the Ukrainian people, (1:31:02) it’s us, all of us. So Dave, I’d love you to chime in on some of those sanctions and how those did (1:31:08) backfire and what happened.I remember, I don’t really drink anymore, but I used to drink Russian (1:31:13) standard vodka, and Biden sanctioned the vodka, and I was pissed about that. That was in 2022. (1:31:20) No way.Yeah. But other things, it was really something to see Biden do this. I remember again (1:31:28) at the time, we’re talking about 2022 when they started really putting all these sanctions on (1:31:31) Russian oil, and it was when gas prices were really high, inflation was really high.(1:31:36) And Americans really did feel it. Of course, the Europeans felt it a lot more. (1:31:45) It’s a real shame because we’re libertarians, so we believe in free trade and the old saying, (1:31:52) if goods don’t cross borders, then armies will.You think about Germany and Russia, their history, (1:31:59) and the fact that they were trading all this gas, and it was really beneficial for the German (1:32:04) economy to get this cheap Russian gas, and they were going to get this new pipeline in. (1:32:08) And then you just look at where we are now, the pipeline’s been blown up, (1:32:13) and everybody’s talking about war in Europe. And so I think it’s just a real shame.And they’ve (1:32:20) continued to try to implement these sanctions. And just recently, the flow of gas through Ukraine (1:32:27) from Russia, because just until recently, a lot of people probably didn’t realize this, (1:32:31) Russian gas was still transiting through Ukraine, going to Slovakia. I forget exactly the path of (1:32:37) the pipeline, but I know it was a big hit for Slovakia for this gas being turned off.(1:32:42) Because some of those central European countries that are landlocked, (1:32:47) they got exemptions for the oil sanctions because their infrastructure is like pipelines. It’s not (1:32:53) like they can get different ships coming into their ports. But it’s certainly had this big (1:32:58) impact.And we’ve really just… for there to be real peace in Ukraine and peace between (1:33:05) Russia and the West, there needs to be a serious rebuilding of trust. And just all these things (1:33:11) that have been… all these sanctions need to be rewinded. So there’s just so many obstacles to a (1:33:18) real deal, a real easing of tensions, all these little sanctions.And they might not seem like (1:33:23) much, but they’ve seized Russian money to give Ukraine now. I mean, they’ve just stolen money from (1:33:29) Russia to give Ukraine and all these things. So apart from kind of hurting people, it’s also just (1:33:36) a big obstacle to real peace.And they’re talking about potential ideas for a peace deal, (1:33:41) and I don’t really see the conversation about lifting sanctions on Russia yet. And that’s got (1:33:46) to be part of it. I do have to… I got to take off in a couple of minutes because I got to get back (1:33:52) to work.No worries. We appreciate your time. Just to give you a heads up.I didn’t realize (1:33:56) it’s 828 already. But to expound on that, watching the interview with Tucker and Putin, (1:34:02) I don’t know how much of that exact number is right, but watching the percentage of rubles (1:34:07) that are going up being used for trade and the wind and the other… and the Indian rupee and (1:34:13) whatnot, just watching that for the oil trade and watching India’s go up from like 2% use to like (1:34:18) 22% use, it’s astonishing what we’ve done pushing these groups together. So feel free to jet out (1:34:24) anytime.Anybody else want to jump in before I play the BRICS thing? Because I think it’s kind (1:34:29) of important. A lot of the audience doesn’t know who BRICS is or what that is. So it’s just a (1:34:33) minute and a half clip on it.Dave, do you want to head out and you want to say something before (1:34:38) you head out? Yeah, I got to jump off. But I was just going to say, Biden said he wanted to turn (1:34:43) the ruble into rubble, and he completely failed at that. And it goes to show, again, these (1:34:50) sanctions.Like the idea is you sanction a country and then you get their population to rise up (1:34:54) against their government, which never happens. So imagine if you’re in Russia and you see this (1:35:00) foreign leader saying, oh, I’m going to destroy your economy. Like you think that’s going to make (1:35:04) you, you know, it’s just going to make, it gives the government.(1:35:08) It’s going to galvanize you. (1:35:08) Yeah, exactly. Yeah.It’s just, it’s just such a. (1:35:11) I mean, the economic warfare that they basically did back in the 90s, right? With the sort of phony (1:35:17) help that the Clinton administration gave trying to help guide Russia post-Soviet Union to be more (1:35:23) capitalistic. Like it’s the same thing there. Like the Russian people, like the Middle Eastern (1:35:29) people, like so many people, like when they get a taste of American foreign policy and sanctions and (1:35:33) whatnot, it doesn’t make them like us more.It doesn’t make them hate their governments more. (1:35:39) It has the opposite effect. Dave, thank you so much for being here and taking time out of your day (1:35:43) to come here.Do you want to plug? (1:35:45) Thanks, Dave. You’re doing a good part, man. I love what you do, man.(1:35:48) Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for having me guys.I appreciate it. You can always just read my (1:35:51) writing. (1:35:51) Give us all your socials.Yeah. Give us all your stuff, please. (1:35:54) Antiwar.com is where all my writing is.My show Antiwar News is on YouTube, (1:35:59) Rumble, and you can, or you can listen to the podcast. It’s like a daily news show. (1:36:03) Of all the stories I write every day.And then my only social media is really Twitter. (1:36:09) At The Camp Dave is my handle there. (1:36:11) I’ll reach out to you, sir, because we got, I want to hear your turtle stories.So we’ll (1:36:15) have to, we’ll have to do it. (1:36:15) I’m a big fan of turtles. That’s right.(1:36:17) That’s what I heard. Yeah. (1:36:19) Awesome.Thanks, Dave. We’ll let you go. (1:36:21) Thank you so much.(1:36:22) Thank you for stopping by. We’re going to keep going then finish up here. So, all right.(1:36:28) Stick around. I got some cool videos, guys. I really do.I promise. (1:36:31) Mark, go ahead. And we got one more video here.(1:36:35) Here we go. We got a couple more to go through, but they’re all, they’re all like minute, (1:36:39) minute and a half. So they’re all worth it.But this one’s highly informational about (1:36:42) what BRICS is exactly. (1:36:44) So what is BRICS? The BRIC acronym was coined by a Goldman Sachs economist in 2001 to describe (1:36:51) Brazil, Russia, India, and China as the economies predicted to dominate the world by 2050. (1:36:57) The bloc’s first summit was held in 2009 to provide greater representation of non-Western (1:37:04) countries in international financial institutions and support India and Brazil in their call (1:37:09) for a greater role at the UN.Two years later, South Africa joined the club and it became (1:37:14) BRICS. In 2023, for the first time in more than 10 years, BRICS admitted new members, (1:37:21) Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. (1:37:25) Argentina was also accepted, but the country’s far-right leader, Javier Millet, refused to (1:37:31) join.The bloc is now sometimes called BRICS+. More than 30 states have since expressed interest (1:37:37) in joining the coalition, including Cameroon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Venezuela. (1:37:44) This year, Russia invited 15 non-members, including Turkey, to take part in the summit.(1:37:49) The club now accounts for more than 45% of the world’s population and 32% of the global (1:37:56) GDP, compared to the G7, which accounts for 30%. Among their goals, create a more inclusive, (1:38:03) multilateral order for the global South, use more local currencies rather than the US dollar (1:38:09) for global trade, develop a BRICS bank to replace the IMF and the World Bank, institutions (1:38:14) they see as continuing Western neoliberal and colonial ambitions by imposing strict (1:38:20) development conditions on loans. (1:38:29) So we are here splitting up Russia, right? We are like, let’s split up China and Russia, (1:38:35) and here we are pushing BRICS together.Now they are 45% of the world’s population, (1:38:40) 32% of the economy, guys. That’s more than what the West is. So just your thoughts.(1:38:48) I’m here for it, and I’m here for all of it, and I am not against the BRICS system (1:38:53) whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I want to see more countries leave the SWIFT system, (1:39:01) the global monetary system. I want the American dollar to go to hell because the only way it’s (1:39:07) going to force our government back into a gold standard is if they leave our dollar.(1:39:13) So please keep joining BRICS. Please. I want to see our dollar burn.I really do. And I (1:39:19) know that sounds very, very bad. But as an economist, somebody who’s very much well in (1:39:24) the know on this stuff, the BRICS system is on point.But the scary part about the BRICS (1:39:30) system is that’s going to be backed by gold. BRICS will be backed by gold. And that is going (1:39:38) to set a whirlwind of insanity within our monetary system that needs to happen.And people will be (1:39:47) like, well, you’re a collapsitarian. I am a collapsitarian, big time. And I’m going to tell (1:39:52) you why.Because if it doesn’t happen right now, while people like me, you, you, and you, and you, (1:39:59) and everybody listening is around, we can navigate through something like this. The next generation (1:40:06) can’t. So it needs to happen now, while we are here and still working and able to navigate through (1:40:13) this.But look, guys like me and Mark, we’re getting older. You know what I’m saying? Like, (1:40:20) it’s only a matter of time. So yeah, is that a little radical? Absolutely.But is it an absolute (1:40:26) must? Do you want your children? Do you want your children to go through a major, major financial (1:40:31) disaster? Or do you want to deal with it right now? Is the million dollar question because your (1:40:37) children are not going to be able to deal with it because they’re not wired to deal with it like we (1:40:43) are. So yeah, I mean, that’s that’s such a good point. I mean, I and I don’t want to get into the (1:40:48) whole collapsitarian debate here.But but in terms of do I want the worst of it to happen now or when (1:40:55) my kids are older? Like, yeah, I’d rather it happen now so that I can shield them from the (1:41:01) worst of it. And we are we do have a network of people who can support one another and, you know, (1:41:06) help navigate whatever crisis comes up. So it only gets worse the longer we wait.Yeah, I think I (1:41:13) mean, the bumper under the rug that you sweep under can only get so much bigger. One of the (1:41:19) biggest problems we have as libertarians trying to advance our ideas is that and one of the (1:41:26) biggest problems also with like, even if Trump had all the best impulses and ideas, which he (1:41:31) doesn’t, but even if he did, getting in there and then having to be the one that pulls the plug on (1:41:39) the machine that like says like, nope, we’re done with the Fed, we’re done with QE, we’re done with (1:41:45) the money printing and all that, like, there’s going to be some major, like, the correction (1:41:51) that’s going to follow is going to hurt just like a heroin addict getting off of heroin, right? (1:41:57) He’s making a mistake already, just because he wants to still give away free money while this (1:42:02) happens. Like there’s like a double whammy that would be so detrimental.You can’t have both. (1:42:09) You got to either suffer or prosper. People get into their heads where they’re like, well, (1:42:15) like, so every crash in economic hardship we’ve had, we’ve been able to somewhat reset the bubble.(1:42:21) And like, I think that people just are not comfortable. Like they just cannot admit, (1:42:28) oh, like, oh, we can always just like, you know, just pump enough money and it gets things back (1:42:34) on track. They they can’t even think about the possibility that that one day that’s not going (1:42:39) to work.Meanwhile, the bubbles have been shorter and shorter and shorter between them and harder (1:42:46) in duration, right? It’s inevitable. The inevitable is coming and it’s most likely going to happen (1:42:52) under Donald Trump and they’re going to blame it on him. You are going to blame it on him.It’s (1:42:57) going to be all his fault. Did he have a hand in it? Yes, he did, of course. Certainly is a team (1:43:02) sport.All of this has been a team sport. They all spent an infinite amount of money or had it (1:43:07) printed or whatever it may be. But the fact of the matter is, is that the BRICS system might be the (1:43:14) well, I don’t want to say might be the BRICS system could be the greatest thing to ever happen (1:43:20) to the United States monetary system.It really could be because it’s going to light a fire under (1:43:27) some butts to do something to try to combat this. I’m not against BRICS at all. As a matter of fact, (1:43:33) I would like to invest in it because I think it’s going to be a big deal.(1:43:38) Well, yeah, if we have enough to do with it. Right. I mean, let’s be honest.The petro dollar (1:43:42) has kept the United States number one and the collapse of the petro dollar would really hurt (1:43:48) us individually. But we should land under power in an emergency rather than lose all power and (1:43:55) not have a choice. You know what I mean? So let’s do it and take the bear the brunt of it.(1:44:00) And just on BRICS once before you I know you another clip there pulled up. (1:44:04) Absolutely not. But this quote just came to my mind while we’re talking about how the U.S. (1:44:12) is trying to use sanctions and economic warfare and the military to hurt Russia.And instead, (1:44:19) it creates a counter effect and BRICS grows. And it just reminds me of this short little clip (1:44:24) from Star Wars. And we’re talking about a Scott Horton book.So a Star Wars clip is very fitting, (1:44:30) right? So let me just play this quick. Right. So, I mean, isn’t that so true, though? Like we (1:44:41) just the more the American empire insists on complete domination and control, the more it (1:44:51) loses it.Right. And that’s what we’re in the middle of seeing. Right.And so anyways, Scott (1:44:57) will appreciate that Star Wars reference. Mark, let me go ahead and put up your next video here. (1:45:05) All right.So basically, next Nord Stream, I’m going to try to do back to backs on this one. So (1:45:10) I’ll try to see if I can switch it over. But I don’t know if I’m going to be confident enough.(1:45:13) But basically, you guys know what happened. This is before all the noise Nord Stream happened. (1:45:19) This I don’t even know who this guy is.Some old demented dude got up behind this. He just (1:45:24) stumbled up here on my behind these microphones, started blathering on about something. (1:45:28) So I’m really curious what he has to say.Let’s take a listen. (1:45:33) If Russia invades, that means tanks and troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then (1:45:43) there will be we there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring it into it. (1:45:51) But how will you how will you do that? (1:45:57) Exactly.Since the project and control of the project is within Germany’s control. (1:46:02) We will. I promise you, we’ll be able to do it.(1:46:10) Damn, or source. Trust me, anyone source. You trust me, bro.(1:46:17) I got this. No, no, no. I got this guy.No, I got this. No. Oh, we have no control.(1:46:22) I’ll show you no control. Just just sit back. Hold my beer.Hold my beer. (1:46:27) Listen, this is why Trump won. Like we Trump won because Biden just expertly just like I mean, (1:46:36) it was the emperor has no clothes, but like even more exaggerated than you could possibly hope.(1:46:43) So Trump brought like, you know, sort of a proper respect to the office by like taking away sort of (1:46:49) the reverence of it. And then Biden like did even better than Trump and just being like, (1:46:55) yeah, this whole thing is meaningless, right? Like it’s all just theater. We don’t actually (1:47:01) like it’s it’s anyway, let’s we’re running short on time here.So so I’m going to play this one (1:47:06) real quick. The next the next clip, I do want to spend some time. It’s about three minutes, (1:47:09) but it’s one of the most important ones for us because we’re reporting on this stuff.(1:47:13) But this one, who did it? What happened? How did Nord Stream happen? What a shocker. (1:47:18) Let’s find out. Seymour Hersh, shall we? You had Victoria Nuland bragging that she was happy (1:47:23) to see Nord Stream as a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.Senator Cruz, like you, (1:47:30) I am and I think the administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, (1:47:35) as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea. I mean, it’s really incredible. (1:47:40) Like, why do you think they’re both denying it and then gloating about it? Am I maybe reading (1:47:45) too much into that as some sort of smart strategy? Or what are your thoughts? (1:47:50) They’re dumb.They’re dumb. (1:47:51) That simple. (1:47:52) Their ideology, they may have reasonable IQs, but their ideology has made them dumb.(1:47:58) OK. (1:47:58) They’re just dumb. It’s just dumb to do what they did.It’s dumb to make fun of the Chinese. (1:48:03) It’s dumb to go and and cancel a summit meeting with the with the with the (1:48:09) the Secretary of State of America cancels a summit meeting because of a balloon. (1:48:15) That’s what he did because of a balloon.(1:48:17) Yeah. (1:48:21) So that is Cy Hirsch reporting on Nord Stream and watching Victoria Nuland. (1:48:29) Watching the evil make her look uglier and uglier every day.(1:48:34) Watch her picture like when she started her stint. And I know age is a thing, (1:48:40) but the evil really ages a person. (1:48:46) All they said was Putin did it.Putin did it. It was right away when it happened. Putin did it.(1:48:51) And I was like, as soon as they came out right away and were like, yeah, (1:48:54) Putin did it. They didn’t even put an investigation out or anything. (1:48:58) Putin did it.I’m like, yeah. (1:49:01) Thou dost protest too much. (1:49:03) He thinks thou dost protest too much.Exactly. (1:49:07) It’s provoked. It’s provoked.He did it. He started it. (1:49:10) Yeah.When all he had to do. Oh, wait, I have a switch. (1:49:13) I could just turn the switch off.No, no, no. (1:49:17) Let me drop a mine down there and blow the whole thing to smithereens (1:49:21) because that’s a real temporary solution. (1:49:25) So, all right.So we hear about how many people have heard about this Navalny guy, (1:49:31) this Russian amazing dude who stood up to Putin was poisoned, blah, blah, blah. (1:49:37) And then he died in a prison and they’re like, it was Putin. (1:49:44) And I looked at the date.It was February 16th. (1:49:47) It’s coming up here, February 16th of 2022. (1:49:51) But wait, we talked about Putin.(1:49:55) What about Zelensky holding an American person in prison? (1:50:00) There was a guy, I think his name was Gonzalo Lira. (1:50:04) I think he’s on the screen right now. (1:50:05) And I think I’m going to play him because this absolutely breaks my heart.(1:50:10) You watch this clip and you just literally hear him foreshadow his own death. (1:50:15) It is chilling just going through this stuff. (1:50:19) It’s it’s maddening to watch an American citizen killed or die in a Ukrainian prison (1:50:28) fighting while we fight for democracy for that Ukrainian group of people.(1:50:32) Help me understand this. I’m going to play it and then I’ll shut up. (1:50:37) Hey, how’s it going? It’s been a while.(1:50:41) I hope you’ve had a good time. (1:50:44) I didn’t have such a good time. (1:50:46) I spent nine and a half weeks in prison here in Ukraine.(1:50:51) I’ve been out on bail since July 6. (1:50:55) Today is July 31st. (1:50:58) And to prove the time, I just checked on my on my subscription, (1:51:04) Defense Politics Asia, which is a pretty good channel, (1:51:08) just put out a video called Niger on the brink of regional war. (1:51:13) That should prove the time that I’m recording this video.(1:51:19) Now, at the same time that I’m posting this video, (1:51:22) I’m posting a long thread on my Twitter account. (1:51:26) My Twitter account is Gonzalo Lira 1968. (1:51:29) Gonzalo Lira 1968, one word, all together.(1:51:34) And in that, I discuss what has happened to me over the past three months in some detail. (1:51:42) I also include the indictment against me that I’m going to be tried on. (1:51:51) I’m going to be tried on Wednesday, August 2nd.(1:51:55) The day after tomorrow, as a matter of fact. (1:51:59) I posted both the original Ukraine language version and the translation. (1:52:07) The translation was by the court-appointed translator, (1:52:10) so I have no idea if it’s accurate or not.(1:52:11) Those of you who speak Ukraine will be able to give a better sense as to whether that (1:52:18) translation is accurate. (1:52:19) But that’s besides the point. (1:52:20) I put up the entire indictment in both the original and the translation (1:52:25) so that you can see exactly what I was charged with and imprisoned for.(1:52:30) Now, the charges are very serious because the penalty (1:52:36) is five to eight years in a prison labor camp. (1:52:42) I’m 55 years old. (1:52:44) And some of you may know, I have a fairly serious heart condition.(1:52:48) I’m not going to survive five to eight years. (1:52:51) And I’ve already been told by people who would know that I will be found guilty. (1:53:00) And because of circumstances, it would be convenient for me to serve out that sentence, (1:53:07) for me to basically disappear.(1:53:10) Disappear in a prison labor camp and potentially die there, (1:53:16) either naturally or unnaturally, as the case may be. (1:53:24) So there it is. (1:53:27) It’s like his last broadcast, I think.(1:53:31) And he died, right? (1:53:33) Here we are. (1:53:33) We’re talking about Navalny, a Russian citizen, by the way, (1:53:37) a Russian citizen dying in a Russian prison. (1:53:40) Meanwhile, we have an American citizen, a journalist.(1:53:44) We talk free speech. (1:53:45) I don’t agree with all the journalists. (1:53:47) I think some journalists, I think a lot of journalists, (1:53:49) I think all sides have some bias going in.(1:53:52) But we must allow it. (1:53:54) And to watch this just eradicated by, we’re funding that guy who killed journalism. (1:54:01) Once again, another attack on speech by the same administration over and over.(1:54:07) So I got a couple more clips. (1:54:09) I don’t want to waste any more of your time, guys, if you guys have to go. (1:54:12) But I got to go.(1:54:13) Unfortunately, we’re running out of time. (1:54:16) It’s about the democracy. (1:54:18) Zelensky canceling elections.(1:54:20) He should have been out. (1:54:20) I think it’s March 20th this year. (1:54:23) Cancels elections.(1:54:24) We had elections during Civil War and the World War II. (1:54:28) So OK, whatever. (1:54:29) And then finally, it was about just the military-industrial complex.(1:54:32) Eisenhower warned us of it in his farewell presidential speech. (1:54:36) So thank you. (1:54:37) Yeah, he did.(1:54:38) Great job, gentlemen. (1:54:40) We covered a lot of content here. (1:54:43) We did two weeks of content here.(1:54:46) Special basically two-hour episode here with Dave joining us for about an hour of it. (1:54:52) Alex, hi. (1:54:52) We’re close to the end.(1:54:53) We got one more week and then we’ll probably do a finale. (1:54:56) I’m going to reach out to Scott, see if he’ll join us for that finale, which should be a lot (1:55:00) of fun. (1:55:01) So everyone stay tuned for that.(1:55:03) So we’ll definitely be here next Monday. (1:55:05) And then we’ll do another episode, which that might be a week or two out. (1:55:09) We’ll see.(1:55:10) We’ll fit it to Scott’s schedule. (1:55:13) But yeah, no, boys, I mean, we’re coming to the end of this journey. (1:55:15) But I’m excited to keep doing stuff with you.(1:55:19) I’ve enjoyed this process. (1:55:21) Enjoyed the sort of, you know, we got a good thing going here. (1:55:25) We bounce off each other well.(1:55:26) We all got different styles and approaches, but I think it works. (1:55:30) I hope everyone here watching has enjoyed this. (1:55:33) Please make sure that you’re subscribed to all of our channels.(1:55:37) Give this video a thumbs up wherever you are watching it. (1:55:41) And, you know, Mark, Sean, any closing thoughts here before we close out? (1:55:48) Well, I guess, you know. (1:55:51) You can find me on X at BUDZ in reality, BNR, just so it’s not BUDZ and reality.(1:55:57) It’s at BUDZ in reality with the letter N. (1:56:01) I’m no longer doing my podcast, though. (1:56:04) I’ve shelved it for a while. (1:56:07) I’m actually shoving it for good.(1:56:08) There will be no more BUDZ in reality podcast shows. (1:56:11) We’ll resurrect it. (1:56:12) There will be a return.(1:56:14) There will be a return. (1:56:15) Yes. (1:56:16) I’m going to take some peace time, though, for now.(1:56:19) Yeah, you got to take time off once in a while, man. (1:56:21) But when I do come back, it’ll be very much. (1:56:24) It’ll be a different vibe.(1:56:25) It’s going to be everything. (1:56:27) We’re going to talk about everything. (1:56:29) The good stuff, not just Blackfield politics.(1:56:31) So stay tuned, y’all. (1:56:33) I appreciate y’all tuning into this. (1:56:34) It’s been great.(1:56:35) It’s been a fun ride. (1:56:36) Mark Poles, what do you got to say, brother? (1:56:39) We’ll step on my podcast. (1:56:40) I talk about everything, bro.(1:56:42) You can’t do that. (1:56:44) Yeah, so Knocked Conscious. (1:56:46) Cool thing is BUDZ going to be on with Zach, who’s in the comments right now.(1:56:50) Andrew, Jason dropped the mask pod this Thursday. (1:56:54) We’re going to talk about the coolest thing because this thing came up with RFK’s (1:56:58) confirmation about Bernie talking about, well, you talk about health care being a natural (1:57:03) human right for the people of America. (1:57:06) That’s what it’s about.(1:57:07) So that’s Bernie. (1:57:09) And he was trying to sell health care as a natural human right. (1:57:12) So we’re going to get we’re going to go deep into Spooner.(1:57:15) We’re going to go deep into Hoppe. (1:57:17) We’re going to go deep into everything about what is a natural right. (1:57:20) I wish I was available.(1:57:21) I wish I wasn’t also streaming Thursday night. (1:57:24) But actually, I’m going to be on someone else’s show Thursday night and then streaming on (1:57:28) mine after that. (1:57:29) But man, that sounds like a lot of fun.(1:57:30) I’ll have to go watch that. (1:57:32) I love I love me some Spooner. (1:57:33) Man, there’s some great like Spooner and what’s his name? (1:57:37) I forget his first name.(1:57:39) Tucker here in America. (1:57:43) But they were two like the two like precursors to like Rothbard and anarchocapitalism. (1:57:49) And so a lot of good stuff there.(1:57:52) All right, everybody, if you enjoyed this, make sure again, you’re subscribed. (1:57:56) You can find out more about me at Biblical Anarchy on X or go to Biblical Anarchy (1:58:01) podcast dot com. (1:58:02) And I am this podcast is part of the Libertarian Christian Institute.(1:58:06) You can check out more about them at Libertarian Christians dot com. (1:58:10) But that’s all we have for you guys for tonight. (1:58:13) Again, we’ll be back here next Monday.(1:58:16) And I’ll also be back here Thursday as well. (1:58:19) I don’t remember the exact time, but I’ll have that published somewhere on my social (1:58:23) media before it comes out. (1:58:25) And yeah, we’ll talk to you all again real soon.(1:58:29) Take care. (1:58:30) Bye. (1:58:31) Peace.