The Duran Podcast
$95B; Three Wars, TikTok Ban & Asset Theft Live)
And Daniel McAdams was going to join us today for this live stream, but he is sick. He fell ill, and so we wish Daniel a speedy recovery. And we look forward to having him on the show as soon as possible. At Alexander, we wanted to go forward with the live. And there's a lot to talk about. So before we start talking about everything that's going on in the world today, let's just say a quick hello to everyone that is watching us on Rockfin, on Odyssey, hello Odyssey, to everybody on Rumble, how is everyone doing on Rumble? Check out our Rumble channel, everybody. It's got a really, really great community on Rumble. And of course, the great community on YouTube, hello to our awesome moderators today, Zariel. Zariel had a great live stream yesterday in the locals. I was watching it, but I was being quiet and didn't participate in the chat and a reckless abad did, good to see you, Peter, how are things going, Peter, good to have you with us. And Tish Em, how are you doing, Tish, and I think that's everybody that is helping us moderate. And hello to our amazing locals community, the drad.locals.com, definitely check out our locals community and join our locals community. It's a fantastic community and that is where we post everything that we do. That is our center is the drad.locals.com. So Alexander, let's talk about some news and let's answer some questions. We're going to have to do a hard stop in one hour, about an hour and 15 minutes. So let's go through the questions and let's talk about what's going on in the world today. 95 billion rewars, TikTok ban, and asset theft. When I wrote the title Alexander for this live stream, I was thinking three wars, okay, we have Ukraine, we have Israel, Gaza, the Middle East, and I was thinking China, Taiwan. Is that going to be a third war? And then we had Blinken's trip to China and it's a war, it's definitely an economic war without a doubt and I think it's going to, I think the direction is for this thing to get hot. I don't know when, but let's hope not, but wow, what a trip from Blinken to China. So Alexander, what are your thoughts on everything that's happening in the world? So Blinken's trip to China is the big news of this week. Can I just say you're absolutely right about where we're going? It is absolute disaster, it is a complete train wreck. The Chinese have rushed out a readout that are the meeting between Blinken and Sichim Bing and she will come to in a moment, you can see there what the Chinese are saying. We've not yet had the Chinese readout of the meeting between Blinken and Wang Yi, but we're not going to get that from the Chinese soon. But it's exactly what you said, we're now in a full scale confrontation between China and the US and looking back, I'm going to suggest something which is that the $61 billion that was that appropriation for Ukraine is the least important thing that happened on Saturday. This money which has already been largely spent on Ukraine, it's not going to change the outcome of the war, we've discussed that in various programs. The real important thing is the confrontation with China. The money for Taiwan, the Chinese had already said Taiwan for us, first red line, which mustn't be crossed, China won't sit on its hands if it is, that's what the Chinese said, Sichim Bing said to Biden just three weeks ago, and we've now had an $8 billion appropriation for Taiwan. Secondly, the TikTok ban, seizing a Chinese asset, trying to get the Chinese to divest themselves of it, that hasn't happened, they're now going to seize the asset. The Russian asset steal. Now I think this is a point which people haven't grasped. Yes, the JP Morgan thing which the Russians have done, but it's what this appropriation debt, the $5 billion that they're taking of Russian assets in the US, what that is doing, yes it's putting pressure on the Europeans, absolutely. But it is also providing a precedent and a legal mechanism for the seizure of foreign assets in the United States, and whose foreign assets are being targeted, it's not difficult to guess it's China. That's what that's principally about. So you can see that all of these things line up together, and of course we have a spy mania in Germany about Chinese spies, a Maximilian car, Ifta politician, we've actually did a program with him, Glen Diesel and I, you can find it on the Duran, one of his people arrested on suspicion now being a Chinese spy, Chinese spy mania, and one of the results is a massive expansion of the Pfizer rules to allow even wider surveillance. So these are the really big events, and what ties them all together is China. So we have Blinken going to Beijing, he takes this incredibly tough line with the Chinese, he's basically talking about sanctions, and it must be said clearly. What Blinken is doing is he's using Ukraine, the conflict there as a pretext to impose sanctions. That decision is not connected with the war in Ukraine, not really, it's all about the economic war between the United States and China. And the second point about this is the Chinese, furious about this, that he has a tough meeting with Yat Wang Yi, he then has another meeting with Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping throws the book at him, and if you read the readout, the Chinese readout, Xi Jinping repeatedly says to Blinken, "You're telling me one thing, you've been telling me one thing all this time, and you aren't doing the opposite. You are saying you want good relations, and you are destroying those relations, where there is no progress, there is regress, there's actually a specific statement in the readout of Xi Jinping saying that countries like the United States and China should not lie to each other. You should not say one thing and do the opposite, and you can see that the relations now have to all intents and purposes, and in fact, come apart. It is an absolute complete train wreck, and we are now in a straightforward confrontation between China and the United States. There's another aspect about this appropriations bill that we saw last Saturday, and it's been made by various Republicans, which is that the way it is constructed, it ties the hands of any future president, including, of course, Donald Trump if he's elected in November. So if he goes back on some of these decisions that have been made in these appropriations, he now risks finding himself in an impeachment situation. So I mean, it is terrible what has happened, it's extraordinary, and it was prefigured looking back by a really incredible article that appeared in Foreign Affairs a few days ago, written by Man called Potter and Joker, who I believe was one of George W Bush's national security team, in which he said that we mustn't manage the relationship with China, we must go out to win, and that effectively means engineering regime change in Beijing. Talk about China stockpiling like the last 17, 18 months, bold everything, they're stockpiling on everything. So they're preparing for what's about to come, and it would be impossible for China to even give an inch to the US demands, if that were to happen, then it would be lights out game over for China. I mean, that's what we're talking about here. Absolutely. Of course it would. I mean, let's say they agree to divest themselves of TikTok, then of course, as nightfallers stay, they'd have further demands to divest themselves of more companies and assets that they own in the United States. So they can't do that. If they agree not to supply Russia with chips and machine tools as nightfallows day, more demands, the China stops exporting other goods as well, stops buying Russian oil, stops trading with other countries that he wants to trade, stops exporting certain goods to the United States, they can't do that. They know perfectly well that they cannot do that. And they know also perfectly well that, even if they did do that, the Americans, the erased not the Americans, the Biden administration would simply come up with something else in order to sanction them because sanctions are now baked in the cake. They are part of the policy. A decision was obviously made months ago, probably even before the San Francisco summit to try to get this together and to do it before the election. I'm guessing that the US has been working, rather than Biden team, have been working in this direction for over a year. And as we discuss in our program, in one of our programs that we recently done, it follows exactly the same copy book that they used in 2021 with the Russians. That's followed by sweet talk, we want good relations with you, we want to put relations with you on a stable footing, a summit meeting in Geneva between Putin and Biden that seem to go well. And then of course, the reality is, once that's out of the way, once whatever obstacle is still in the way of moving forward with whatever it is you want to do in this case, in the case of the Russians, once Merkel was out of the way, you move forward towards the confrontation which exploded in February 2022. They're doing exactly the same thing with China. They set out on a line of confrontation. They'd strung the Chinese along, a few more months, they had that meeting with Xi Jinping in San Francisco, they've now got the bill through Congress, they've now put themselves in a position where they can move forward, and we have Lincoln going to Beijing and basically telling the Chinese we're going to sanction you. I'm having such a hard time trying to understand the logic to all of this. I really am because it appears to me that China can really do a lot of damage to the US economy. China, yes, the US can do damage to China, but I think the Biden White House is really, they're making a horrific mistake here with escalation with China. I mean, Russia's one thing, and even with Russia, they're getting their ass handed to them, but China's just a whole nother deal. I don't understand this at all, I really am having a very difficult time understanding the logic from the Biden, it's almost as if they want to destroy the United States, they want to destroy the US dollar. It's a cataclysmic mistake, by the way, we're also getting reports. But presumably the same people who are driving this are also apparently driving advising Donald Trump now, because there's apparently meetings going on within the Biden. Trump teams, well, about sanctioning anybody who gets drawn into any Chinese financial or global trade arrangements, more sanctions, more threats, more pressure on all kinds of third parties as well, clearly an attempt to isolate and break China, and it is cataclysmically wrong. You know what it reminds me of, and I don't like to make these parallels, it's a parallel that I really would much rather not make, but it reminded of German policy in 1941. The Germans found themselves, the German leadership found themselves facing more problems that they expected. Things were going wrong in all kinds of directions, they weren't winning the war this quickly as they thought, and things weren't turning out in the way they wanted them to. So first they invaded Russia, then incomprehensibly they declared war on the United States, supporting the Japanese. Eventually, by the end of 1941, they are in a war with the United States, Russia, China, and let's always forget them, and Britain as well. I mean all the great powers, in other words of the world, lined up against them in order to sort out, you know, because they went out and every gun's blazing in all directions to sort out their various problems, and of course the Japanese at the same time did exactly the same thing, and well as we know, we all know how that ended up with the Russians in Berlin, with the Americans in Tokyo, with a terrible devastation and disaster. You know, I don't like to make this parallel, I don't want to talk in that way about the United States, a country for which I have expressed many times my deep and strong feelings of regards, but I mean it's the only example of a country behaving like that, but I can think of it. There's no way to make any logic out of it, I mean it's basically the United States, the collective West, because Europe, the EU will seize the 200, 260 billion, whatever the amount is, of Russian pros and assets, they're going to do it, I've been saying this for the last year, they are going to do it, they allow the United States to blow up their energy infrastructure, they're going to allow the US to push them to steal these assets, there's no, in my mind, I hope I'm wrong, but I have no doubt that they're going to do it, it's like they're telling the world 80% of the whole world outside of the collective West, pull your money out of the collective West, everybody, pull it out because we're going to seize it, that's basically the message that they're sending to everybody, it makes no sense at all, economist after economist is warning them to do it, banker after bankers, central banks, all the central banks, telling them don't do this, an article in a book places to tell a graph yesterday, saying for heaven's sake, don't do this thing, you know, but they're going to do it because of course they won't, if you want to make it comparison, go back to 1941 again, you know, all the demand for all the, you know, within Germany, you know, we need to do what we need to do is go for unrestricted, you vote warfare, that means blowing up American commercial ships on the high seas, you know, that is the pressure that leads you to declare war on the United States, I mean, logic does not exist for these people, I think that's the thing to say, one senses that they feel that their back is against the wall, the situation in Ukraine, which was their great project has turned out. Horrible, catastrophic, wrong, just like if we could go back to the Japanese, for example, their invasion of China had gone catastrophically wrong, so they look to solve their problems by striking out in all kinds of directions, going for some Titanic gamble, which can never realistically come off, and it's simply going to make their problems exponentially worse, but that's what they're going to do. Yeah, so Elza says Alex has just posted Blinken's threatening speech while being in China, is he provoking or simply done, so I found a snippet of Blinken's speech, where he basically delivers the ultimatum to China, and my thought was in that post, Blinken is in China threatening China, I don't mean these guys, at least wait until you get home to the US before you start issuing threats. When you're in China, China's hosting you, you're supposed to be a diplomat, the top diplomat in the United States, and you're in China, you're threatening China, and it's all about, he starts off with the Russian trade with Russia, and then he gets to the core of the matter, which is Chinese overcapacity, that's kind of yellow term now that everyone is using overcapacity, that's the problem, is China's overcapacity. So what do you make of Blinken issuing threats against China while he's in China? Going back to Elza's question by the link, greetings to you, Elza, thank you for joining us, but going back to Elza's question, why make the distinction, why say he's busy being stupid, always being provocative, he is being both, he is both at the same time, he's being both stupid and provocative, you're absolutely right, you don't do this when you're in the country, when you're meeting the leaders of that country, when you're meeting with Xi Jinping and Wang Yi, you don't talk like that, I mean this is, to say that this is undiplomatic language, I mean it's off the scale, undiplomatic language, once upon a time and a former age, it would have provoked a war, I mean that would have been enough, it would have been enough to talk like that for a country like China to feel there's no option but to declare war, you don't believe me, go back in time to 1870 and see how, see what happened between Germany and France, and when the French ambassador publicly berated the German emperor, he had to war between Germany and France, this is in 1870, and that was a war by the, in Germany actually, that would happen in Germany, and that was a war of course, which France lost, I mean it's so off the scale, and it's crazy, but of course there is a method in the madness because what Blinken is doing, as he thinks, and he's trying to be clever here, he wants to humiliate the Chinese, as well as provoke them, he wants to come along to China, make these kind of spectacular, sensational rude comments, and he wants to embarrass and humiliate the Chinese leaders, of course what he's going to do is make the whole nation of China incredibly angry as well, and he makes the United States look so bad, of course, of course, God, what in the world says, what if China dumps US tea bills before any seizure? Yeah, well what if it does, what if China isn't there to buy those tea bills, given like the speed at which, you know, American debt is increasing, who's going to buy them, I mean, you know, there are people, you know, a lot of people, we're always told it's Americans who buy tea bills, which is simply means by the way that more and more Americans are holding bad debt because that's what it is ultimately, but an and bad debt, which ultimately will come back to buy them, whereas China probably does have an immense capacity to buy tea bills. Well, you know, your blanket, you don't worry about that kind of thing, I mean, when did they worry about the consequences of imposing economic, you know, energy sanctions on Russia, for example, you see, you see, you see a little turnout, because of course, that's what you want to do. Here's my question to you, since they're blaming China for Russia's momentum, that's that this is the cope that they're going with Russia was going to lose and then China stepped in and and now Russia has the the upper hand. So since they're blaming China, why doesn't China just say, okay, you know, we're being blamed for it anyway, you guys are blaming us for Russia's success, we might as well start manufacturing missiles might as well start manufacturing ammunition. And if they think that Russia is out producing the EU and the US combined, can you imagine if China started to really crank things up, like really started to get things going to back Russia, it would be lights out, well, that's exactly what might happen. I mean, again, I don't know whether this has been worked out, but going back to that analogy I made with 1941, wasn't that exactly what the Germans found? You know, they were worrying about the fact that the, you know, the Americans were sending some carcass, you know, old destroyers and clapped up warships and things like that via, you know, to the British, by lend lease and all of that. And so they declared war on the US and engaged in unrestricted Uber warfare against the US. What do they do? They simply got the gigantic American industrial machine gearing up and harming and going and producing weapons on a scale that nobody in Germany could ever have imagined. They could do exactly the same thing with Russia and China. Absolutely right. The Russians have shown that they can out-reduce the West. The Russians have a big economy bigger than people thought, but not like China's China, which produces more goods, has more manufacturing capacity than all of the West combined. It's crazy. You, yourself, are talking about colonies over capacity. Just imagine even military production in Ukraine, that over capacity is used against you. But of course, if you're Blinken, you don't think about that. If you are all of these brilliant people in the State Department and the National Security Council, you don't think about those things. You say to yourself, well, let's impose sanctions on China. That will show them. They're talking about Chinese banks. Oh, no, Chinese banks. Boy, better start stocking up on some Chinese currency. I don't know what to do. Everything's going to have to get priced outside of the dollar. Absolutely. Why? I don't just stay on the logic in any of this. There is no logic. As I said before, this is the great difficulty. We are dealing with a situation where there is no logic. Was it logical for the Germans to cut themselves off from Russian gas? Of course not. Was it logical for the Europeans to sabotage Minsk? No, of course it wasn't, but that's what they're doing. Now, this is the great problem that people like us have, because we wealth operate in a logical and rational way. It's difficult for us to anticipate actions, at least I've invited very difficult to anticipate actions that people who don't think logically and don't think rationally. But that's what we're seeing. The amazing blub-blubkin says, when you talk about Blinken, you need the Pacino sound drop, you effing child. Yeah. Exactly right. And Simon says the US is acting out of weakness and fear. Out strength. The US debt in January 2021 was 21.6 trillion. Today it's 34.6 trillion, a 60% increase in 39 months. Yeah, absolutely. Of course, just as the Germans in 1941 were acting ultimately out of fear, they sensed that it was slipping away. So what do they do? The double, the triple. They quadrupled down. It's the same Japanese as well. The Americans do the same. I hate making that parallel. Let me say that again. But I cannot think of a better one. Yeah, there's, you have to, there's, there's no other way to rationalize this. Jeff Bickford says, how would the eventual loss of US hegemony affect the average citizen? Why is this loss so dire for the ruling elite? Well, well indeed, I mean, again, I remember a program that Glenn Deeson and I did with an Indian diplomat and an ambassador in which he said that, you know, the Indians had been hoping that this period of moving away from the period of American hegemonism to a multipolar system would be negotiated, that, you know, there would be a negotiated and amicable transition. And that the Indians, and he was talking about the Indian government, and noticed, by the way, how relations between the United States and India are also now deteriorating. They have been accusing Modi of sending assassins around the world. They're not happy about the fact that he's going to win them, blow out victory in the elections. They're talking about the fact there's an article today in the Economist about how India needs a stronger opposition, all of that. The Indians say to themselves, oh, tragically, this transition which could have been negotiated is instead being resisted, and it is a disaster because no one wants to threaten the United States. This is something Americans really do need to understand. Yes, the Chinese wanted to trade with the United States, yes, they wanted to take advantage of it, the Americans threw open their doors, they didn't have to, they did. Maybe they could have started to shop them again a couple of years ago, Alex and I were talking about a negotiated divorce, you know, moving away from China, you could have done that. But going all out for absolute full on confrontation, that was crazy. Yeah, Sir Mugg's game says, it doesn't matter what nation's flag, they wave in Congress at this stage of the game, they'll wave white flags at some point, they will. And that what a disaster that's going to be, what a disaster that's going to be. By the way, that was graceful. The only flag one should wave in the Congress is the American flag. If they start waving the flags of any other countries, that tells me something about these people. There's a famous incident from British history, English history, in the 16th century, when Mary Tudor, the Queen, who was before Elizabeth I, she married the King of Spain and subordinated English policies to Spanish interests and the complaint that circulated in England was that the Queen loves another realm more than this. And that's exactly what I feel about this awful people in Congress. Yeah. Zariel says, $95 billion and not $1 for their own people. Traders all. Yeah. Vincent Vega says, good morning from Dallas. Alex Alexander. Good morning. Good morning to you. Right, right. He says, blink in, no welcome and no red carpet. Yeah. That's the way he was welcomed. Was interesting. Absolutely. Well, it was. Does it surprise you? I mean, Sophie Midkiff has told me that there were lots of comments in Chinese social media asking, why are we allowing this man to come to our country at all, to China at all? Yeah. Sir Muggs game says, the script is sunset boulevard. The US is a normal Desmond. The British are a demented butler, both fueling each other's delusion of past glory. The US citizens are a bill holding shot for rejecting and walking away from the crazy. That's so true. That is a great point. That's a very, very good film, by the way. Yeah. And Sir Muggs game says, if 30 billion is required to restock the US arsenal, what does the one trillion budget go to restocking toilet paper and tampons at the Pentagon? Sheesh. Good question. Very good question. Brian Byrne. Welcome to the direct community. Sancho Nalaxo says, reply. Clerteri in the direct involvement, decentralized control and incorruptible transactions would reboot democratic participation by passing the old back room, compromise, kickback methods. Yeah. But we need to stop thinking in these, you know, we need to start thinking about getting our democracies back. We see how dangerous things are. And how completely out of control the political classes in our respective countries have become. We have an active lunacy coming out of the United States. And in Britain, we have a prime minister who talks about having a war economy by 2030. I was completely disconnected from reality is that? Forrest Whitaker says, at least half of the US debt is held by FIs and pension funds. Basil banking regulations require banks to hold a certain amount of capital in safe assets like AAA plus government bonds. Yeah. But are they safe? That's the point. You see, if things were to go wrong, if things were to go wrong in the United States, China could absorb losses on T bonds. What about the banks in the US? By the way, you know, we speak with knowledge, Greek, Alex and I, because of course, in Greece, Greek banks before the financial crisis bought Greek sovereign debt. So did Cypriot banks, by the way. And that was why when the Greek government defaulted in which it affected did, it affected the entire banking system and all the other institutions, financial institutions in our two countries. So, you know, Americans talk about this sometimes as if this is the same. We actually don't need the Chinese after all, but actually, given the scale of the debt in the United States, these ought to be a worry, not a reassurance. Yeah, when the big banks go under, look out. It is devastating to a country, to all the citizens of the country. It is absolutely devastating in Cyprus. The two big banks, big collapsed, and the second largest bank completely closed. And in 24 hours, everyone was locked out of their money. Everyone lost all their money. And we're not talking about 1% of the population, we're talking about 50%, 60%, 70% of the population, everyone had money in these two banks. This is madness, what the Biden White House is doing. It's absolute madness. Ryan says, "The reason we have legal immigration in the US because the government is using them in subterranean cities to manufacture arms, trust me, bro." Big Wyman, thank you for that, super sticker. Stephen Walter says, "17 months already time goes way too fast." Thank you for being a member for 17 months, Stephen. Tish M says, "Given current events of the collective West collapse, historically, where are we in terms of the end of empire?" It's always difficult to say because, you see, we can't look forward and give a particular date because the date comes and one should never underestimate the ability of people to kick the can down the road. But we're running out of road fast, and the people who think they are kicking the can down the road, what they're actually doing is they're pulling us further along towards the abyss that lies at its end. It's a very difficult situation. What I will say is we are now coming close to the end of empire. The British media is already talking about the West, by which, of course, they really mean the United States, facing a Suez moment in Ukraine. Suez, the debacle of the British French invasion of Egypt in 1956, is universally recognized in Britain today as the moment when the British Empire began its end. So if the British is saying that, we could see that we're not far. The black cat, thank you for that super sticker, Raka Billie says, "In economics, if you have an asset that has value but you know it will lose value, you get as much other assets for it while it has value." Ruby Appel says, "Thank you guys for your tireless work. A great point by Alexander. As a cataclysmic mistake by the US." Mort Vader says, "Thanks for your awesome programs. Friends. Martin Middle says, "How can stupid be this stupid? Could this be by design? If so, why?" Well, if there is a design here, I don't understand it because it seems to be so completely crazy. I really can't see what the logic and thinking behind this is. People talk about even mad people having a plan. This plan, if it exists, is so mad because I just don't understand what it is." Mr Shem says, "Isn't the death of the USD the end of US Real and why Trump's team is looking into sanctioning those nations not using USD to trade?" Well, you see, this is the point. It's not the end of the US if the USD ceases to be a reserve currency. Countries like Spain and Britain have operated reserve currencies in the past. The reserve currency sees to be the reserve currency and those nations continue to survive and in some cases prosper. The US could do the same. Trying to resist what are inevitable economic processes is what is really dangerous. But you're absolutely right, controlling the USD, keeping it the reserve currency is seen by some people in the US as the mechanism to preserve American power because nothing else works. The United States is no longer the world's biggest manufacturing economy. It is no longer the world's major military power. So you hang everything on the USD, but it's not about the US. It's about preserving the global hegemonic system from which to say it again, the American people and their great majorities do not benefit. Sherry, thank you for that. Super chat. Tishab says, "By the way, isn't Blinken's welcome in China symbolic of the state of the US?" Yeah, that's true. It's absolutely true. Yes. I mean, once upon the time, whatever message he came with, the Chinese would have certainly rolled out the red carpet for the US Secretary of State. The fact that they didn't, even for the fact that there wasn't the red carpet there and that there was only one junior official, the very fact that most of the people who met Blinken on the runway were American officials, that in other words, the Americans are principally meeting themselves in China. I found even more extraordinary in some ways. Yeah. Kratos 2022 says, "You think we'll be at war with China and Russia by year's end? War with one is war with both." Well, I hope not. I hope still. I still hope that we can avoid that. But to be clear, we are heading in that direction. On Taiwan, it's not as if we haven't been warned for Chinese, just like the Russians have given repeated warnings and, of course, those warnings are disregarded. When they're not disregarded, they're seen as a mechanism either to provoke or to humiliate. Yeah, I think you were telling me the other day that you saw the package that was given to China as a clear indication that it's about wrapping up a conflict with China. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Because what it is. It's the actual package. Yeah. Absolutely. They're trying to build up now the Taiwanese army, not, you know, Navy, Air Force, all of that. They're trying to build up the Taiwanese army specifically because they have this idea, you know, the Taiwanese army, you know, the Chinese army lands on Taiwan. They will be cut off and bogged down in some great kind of land, battle. And in the meantime, the U.S. fleet will break whatever Chinese blockade there is. It'll all lead to some great victory, very much like the victory we achieved last year with Ukraine's splendid summer events. And it's the same kind of inane strategizing. But you know, think about it, the quantities, the sums are roughly the same. The libertarian by default says this is China adds some spit and kick. The Hakigoli says Stoltenberg, aid to Ukraine and investment in our own security as it reduces the amount the West needs to spend on defense. New aid only creates more body bags. They don't care as not filled with Western men and helps with the U.S. election. You know, the thing about Stoltenberg and his constant harping on this is I don't know what is more shocking. Firstly, the utter cynicism of this statement is an investment. So, you know, kill lots and lots of Ukrainians or have lots and lots of Ukrainians killed. And that makes us in the West more secure. So that's shocking in itself, the cynicism of it. But also the stupidity of it because it's not true. We have no less a person, the General Cavalik, who is the, you know, senior American military commander in NATO, telling us the exact opposite that it's not making the Russians weaker militarily. It's making them stronger. Those who are making weaker are us in the West. We are running out of tanks. We are running out of shells. We are being asked to do away with our air defence missiles. We are the people who are de-equipping ourselves. Not the Russians, Boris Pistorius, who's the German defence minister, is now complaining that the Russians are producing more weapons, that they need to win the war in Ukraine. And yet, Ken Stoltenberg comes along and still continues with this absolutely inane, untrue, ridiculous claim that he has been constantly making about how much this is making the Russians weaker and are stronger. He just reads the script that's handed to him. To be fair to Stoltenberg, he just reads the script that's given to him. That's it. Simon Antifer says China and India opposed Russia's BRICS trading currency. Will they have the same view after Blinken's visit and if Russian assets are stolen? I don't think the Russians ever proposed a trading currency. I think this is the point to say. The idea for a new financial trading arrangement, actually, if you go back long enough, it originated in China. It was the Chinese who started to float ideas like this about 10 years ago. The Russians initially very skeptical because most of their trade was with the West. The number of 2014 crisis happened and they began to rethink their view about what the Chinese were saying. The Indians are still more skeptical than not. But as they showed last year in the BRICS summit in South Africa, their skepticism is not strong enough to cause them to say, "We're going to oppose these ideas and we're going to prevent them being realized." They still went along with them and I'm confident that they will do the same and go even further with them this time when the BRICS may in a few months in Kazan. Rafael says, "Do you guys think in 50 years history we'll be talking about people like Barack Blinken, Trudeau, Macron, as serious and powerful world leaders?" Yes, no, Samuel says, "Could Ukraine war end like Germany in World War I?" No, I don't think so. You see, the war in World War I ended with an armistice, the Germans, the German general staff, Ludendorff and Cohen, realized that if the war continued, Germany would lose. They didn't want that to happen. They were also aware that there was a festering political crisis developing in Germany itself. Somewhat unexpectedly, this sort of armistice, unexpectedly for many people in Germany, they sort of armistice, they called it off before in other words, Germany fully collapsed. That caused all kinds of problems in the future, because some people in Germany said that Germany could still have won, and the designer of surrendering like that was a terrible thing and should never be countenanced again. But anyway, that is what the Germans did. I don't think that the political leaders in Ukraine or in the West are capable of doing that about the Ukraine conflict this time. All the indications are on the contrary, that they're going to go on fighting to the very bitter end, and we've just done a program, you can watch it on, did you, ran? We did publish it yesterday about how they're coming up with all kinds of schemes to create iron triangles underneath the defend and fight the Russians forever, and that's what they're thinking about at the moment. Cheri, thank you for that super chat. Latimero says, "I don't think we should ever compare Russia's and China's production capacities due to one component, labor, 150 million versus 1.5 billion population. With labor, that small, Russia is a giant in its own right." Well, I've never made the comparison. I mean, Russia is a giant, but of course, if Russia is a giant, China is a titan. I mean, that's the difference. Yeah, sophisticated caveman says, "Deep state map labels Kaliningrad, Oblast, as occupied East Prussia. Is this really the mindset of NATO? Do people really think it's possible to displace a million Russians from Kaliningrad?" Some do. Some do. I certainly in Ukraine they do. I'm pretty sure some people in NATO think so too. Eric Hatchet, thank you for that super chat. Kerry C says, "Speaker Mike Johnson is either a loon, compromised or both. Both US parties are lost under current leadership." Yeah, Mike. Yeah. Matt Lisex says, "Alexander, about two or three months ago, Zelensky said that Barostov and Varunish are historically Ukrainian. I think we owe Liz Truss an apology." That's true enough. Alexander Lima says, "I've been following the Duran from Brazil since the beginning of the SMO. I have a question. Do you think Trump could be blackmailed and support Ukraine, NATO, and Taiwan and not going to jail and become eligible for a president?" Well, first of all, thank you for supporting the Duran and, you know, we're always very grateful and thank you for doing that. The answer is we don't know about Trump. We don't know exactly what just happened, but it's not an implausible theory. I mean, look at the legal pressures he's coming up on, he's coming under. You want to understand how extraordinary, out of bizarre, the current cases in New York, just go to Jonathan Turley's site, "Rere sips a lock with her," in which he points out that Trump is being prosecuted in New York when nobody yet has been able to identify the crime that he's been prosecuted for. That hasn't even been a clear explanation of what the alleged crime, in fact, is. Now, a case like that should have been tossed out. It hasn't been. We've had that bizarre case with the evaluations, you know, a crime where literally the alleged victims benefited from it. I mean, the crime from which the victims materially benefited and wanted to continue to do business with the perpetrator, I mean, this is all, I mean, it's Alice in Wonderland stuff. Now, the fact is that these sort of things are happening. If they're happening, who knows what pressures are being exerted? And, you know, if you're being prosecuted for crazy things, well, you know, it has an effect on you. You must be asking yourself, "Well, if they can bring this against me, what else are they going to bring? When is this going to end?" So I could perfectly well imagine that at some level, in some way, in some place, some kind of a deal to, you know, let go, has been done. But of course, I don't know that for a fact. Madame Marose is also to add to my comment above, half of Russia territory is Tega and very harsh weather conditions in winter versus China's. Oh, yeah, absolutely. By the way, I've never been there, but I've been to the Urulls, and the most extraordinary thing about Russia, by the way, is that the landscape, the further east you go, the more dramatic it becomes, I mean, it opens up and you have mountains, you have scenery like you know, it's difficult to imagine. The people who live in these places love them. It may sound like the landscape is harsh and the climate is harsh, but the Russians who are perhaps most attached to rule to their places, in my experience, are the people who come from these territories. Life of Brian says Alexander once mentioned that he viewed W.F. Buckley's influence as malign, could he expand? When did you realize what Neil Kant really were? Well, when did I realize it? I realized it, especially I think you're in the time of the George W. Bush administration. I was already becoming alarmed in Bill Clinton's time. I knew that some things were going very, very badly wrong. I should say that when George W. Bush won against Gore, I actually mistakenly thought that things might actually calm down a little, because things were becoming so bad under Clinton, I thought that a new administration might actually, you know, introduce some kind of steadiness. Well, how wrong was that? But anyway, I began to understand then what Neil Kant was like, and I've been aware of Buckley for a very long time, and I was somebody from time to time dipped into national review, where I hadn't realized the extent to which his ideas had gained hold in the United States. I think he has been a very, very damaging influence in the United States altogether. President Orca says, author Walter Kim wrote, "Make Chinese TikTok American so we can be sure that only the country that is constitutionally prohibited from spying on us is allowed to do it." That is brilliant, by the way. That's absolutely outstanding. I'm going to remember that one. Yeah. Mattless X says, "Nevil Chamberlain is used as an excuse for the West to not engage diplomacy. Diplomacy is not a piece of it." Absolutely. By the way, we've had lots and lots of comments, including some very important historians, about our discussion about Chamberlain and a piece in the program yesterday. I knew that we would. I should say all of the comments I've received are being incredibly polite and really helpful, and I'm confident that we'll be doing more programs about stopping. At 22, Daniel says, "What are the odds that EU nations start to mobilize their civilian population and send them to Ukraine?" I think that some may try, but I don't think they will find it easy to do. On the contrary, I think if you want to do something which will finally radicalize EU populations, the way to do it is to do it like that. Yeah. Moon Dragon says, "I think one of you guys needs to take over after Putin leaves." We're not Russians. Yeah. The Gulf says, "Love you guys. I just backed out of a work transfer to and from the U.S. to Warsaw. I don't like the way Poland is going, and I'd rather study Russian than Polish." Wow. Wow. Gosh. Jerry Kogend says, "When can we get a tour of Alexander's bookcase?" Yeah. That's a good thing. One day, we'll sort this out, and we'll do a good tour. Lots of other books in this house, by the way. Lots of them. Stephanie Waback says, "Please give us your perspective on Moldova as it relates to Russia and the Ukraine war." Well, it's the same. I mean, it's a minor version of Ukraine, a smaller version of Ukraine, and it's very like Georgia and Armenia. We've done a program about this, which will come out fairly soon, about the political crisis in Georgia, and about the role that NGOs, West and Finance, NGOs play in these events. And you see exactly the same thing playing out in Moldova as well. Moldova is unusual in one respect in that a clear majority of the people who actually live in Moldova and vote in elections apparently never voted for her and oppose her. The reason she's president of Moldova and has a vote in the Moldovan parliament, so I understand, is because this enormous Moldovan diaspora in Europe is mobilized to support her. And they have the right to vote in Moldovan elections. DS at 1993 says, "I don't think China will go without a fight, even if that means World War III. It's also existential for them. We are going to have multipolarity or U.S. hegemony." You're completely correct, and either way, on the topic of China, the thing to always understand, and this is something that people in the West don't understand, is that China for the first time in 100 plus years is enjoying an economic prosperity and stability. And they've achieved that from a terribly bad situation where it seemed at one point that China would go like India and be carved up by the Great Powers, the Western Great Powers, and would become in effect a colony. So this is the century of humiliation that Chinese talk about so much, and that makes them particularly sensitive to external pressure. One thing that is puzzling to me is why have the Russians not stepped up Syria's missile defense in Damascus? The Israelis have been attacked in Damascus for far too long. Well I think up to now, and until fairly recently, the Russians have been wanted to burn their bridges with the Israelis. I mean, they've had reasonably good and correct relations with the Israelis. They sorted out a deconfliction line with the Israelis when the Russian military entered Syria, and I think they wanted to avoid creating a crisis between themselves and Israel. It could be that with recent events, things are going to start to change. Now it's important to say that a dialogue between Russia and Israel still continues recently Putin's national security adviser, Nikolai Petrushchev, had a conversation with Netanyahu's. So you know, they haven't completely cut off contacts even now. Summer of 1970 says I'm following China and Russia's plan in stockpiling essentials. I'm smart, the alchemist says who else checks their phone every time Alexander gets a text. Well, Catherine is always vigilant on my behalf. I've never discussed this with her, but I'm sure she keeps them on all sorts of things. As B06 says, what has to happen for Europeans to throw out all these globalists from power and replace them with people who care about their country as opposed to some weird values? I've never known a time in British history, and I really have to speak about Britain because it's the country where I live, and admittedly it's outside the EU, but when I've traveled two places in the EU, I've found the same sentiments. I've never known a time when people in Britain are so unhappy with our political system. To give you an example, we have a situation where the Conservative government is so unpopular that there is a high probability that in the next election, the Conservative Party will completely collapse. In other words, it could be down to 100 seats or even less. And yet even as that is the case, I saw an opinion poll recently that said that 45% of British voters do not want a Labour government. In other words, a plurality of Labour voters, many of them are going to vote Labour because they hate the Conservatives so much, still don't want a Labour government. They feel that it would be worse for them than any other possible alternative except the Conservatives. Now when you get into that kind of situation, it tells you that things here are really bad. And I think that reproduces itself right across Europe. The difficulty is the political class is very entrenched. We've repeatedly seen how ruthless this is in maintaining itself and the lengths to which it is prepared to go. And so far, we haven't seen anywhere in Europe a political figure appear who is able to take them on, pull together support and win. Eventually that will happen. But we've had people like Farage and Corbyn in Britain, different people completely, by the way, very unlike each other, they'll get on. And of course, they have different perspectives. But each of them, opposed to the political class, we've had Le Pen in France. We've had Maloney and Salvini in Italy. We have the IFD in Germany. We've had Wagner Knicht in Germany with all kinds of people like that. But so far, we haven't had a big, strong Titanic figure who is able to basically break through. Eventually, such a person will appear. In history, one always does. Great Switch says it's the anti-design, the anti-life design. Harry C. Smith says if forced, China could drop the USD overnight, crashing its values and creating massive inflationary, even hyper-inflationary crisis in the US and then globally. Well, you would have thought so and that's why Blinken should not be talking in that way when he is in China, moreover, I've often seen people say that the United States can simply stop China doing that by pressing a button and freezing payments on T-bonds. I mean, I ask myself, are people, the poor Krugman has written about this in this way? Are people like this joking? Do they not understand that doing something like that is a colossal default by the United States on its debt obligations? The implications of doing something like that are awesome. Anybody else who holds DT bonds is going to be terrified if the United States does government, does something like that. People in the United States are going to be terrified if the United States does something like that. But the very fact fact that people like Paul Krugman talking that way tells you how detached from reality they've become. Sophisticated caveman says, can you do an analysis of South Korean relations with Russia and China? This is a huge topic. I should say I know South Korea, I've traveled to the country. My brother-in-law is married to a Korean woman. So you know, I know a reasonable amount about Korea, I mean, Korea has had a massively long history with China, obviously going back millennia. It has a recent relationship with the United States. It's had a very, very bitter and bad relationship in recent years with Japan. And over the last 30 years, it's cultivated a reasonably good and friendly relationship with Russia. And Korean society is very divided on these issues in the sense that a lot of people in Korea have valued the new relationships with Russia and have been less nervous about the Colossus, which is China on their doorstep and have wanted to develop and build on that relationship. But during the Cold War, a class and a deep state in South Korea developed, which is very committed to the US alliance and for the moment it is in control. Now I think this can change and I think one day it probably will. But for the moment, they are the people who are in control. Joe Public says Qaddafi's demise was his intent to introduce the goal to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Many people say that. I think it's true. Yeah. Nick Switch says, "And the EU members are dwarfs with a very low hanging son in the back." True. "Habazzal Beshkov says, 'Make America Hours Again.'" Yeah. How would a great statement, you know, you should pass that on to Trump, that actually I think is a winning statement. I mean, you know, it's brilliant. It's on the level of Dominic Cummings, his famous slogan, "You're the Brexit referendum. Take back control." Yeah. John Halpin says, "If the neocons aren't stopped, the downfall of Empire will be sooner rather than later." Yeah. I agree with that too. John Roberts says, "Johnette Yellen said in China that the US is not decoupling from China." That tells me the US is decoupling from China. How do you see the BRICS versus West economies developing? You're completely correct. That's exactly what's going to happen. Well, to be clear, it's going to cause problems with China. I mean, if they're a major export machine, because they're exporting to many, many other places too, but they will get through. It will slow their growth. It might even lead to a recession. But of course, they'll blame the Americans for it, not their own government. And they will do that from a position of great economic strength and prosperity. What it will do is it will aggravate massively inflationary pressures in the West, because we will no longer have access to cheap Chinese goods. And of course, it will be catastrophic for certain European economies, notably Germany's, which exports to China. And well, just take a step back and think of what is going to do to companies like Apple, for example, which have so much of their production in China, and depend on China to produce phones, smartphones, which they sell in the US. At the name says Biden regime proposing 25% tax on unrealized investment gains. Yep. Do they realize this will cause a US market to collapse? Businesses will leave US crazy. It's a crazy idea. It is a completely crazy idea. And it is a ludicrous misuse of the tax system. It's confiscatory. It confiscates property. Zariel says off topic. Great beard, Alex. The Spartan looks good. Thank you, Zariel. As me, zero six says, it is said that the US plan to demolish TSMC if China makes any move towards Taiwan. But did anyone thought what happens next? China still has a bunch of other Silicon fabs while the US will have nothing? Well, you're right. But again, does anybody think that through? Yeah. Tim Gibson. Thank you for that. Super sticker. Paula are. Thank you for that. Super sticker. sophisticated caveman asks, can you explain how BRICS prioritizes who becomes a member and who doesn't from their list of applicants? I think what happens is this, each country, that's a member of the BRICS, especially the inner for China, Russia, India, Brazil, have a list of countries that they want to come forward with the list of countries that they sponsor. There's a haggle and negotiation and there's an agreement that some of they'll go along with one country from one of these lists in return for an agreement that another country should be accepted. So the Russians wanted Egypt, for example, the Brazilians last time around wanted Argentina, they should both come in, Argentina, of course, elected Mille who changed course. Now the Brazilians are advocating Colombia instead. So I think that's how it's done, basically. Yeah. Jeff Pickford says, "I heard a university professor once suggest that the hour of apocalypse is forever being adjusted." Yeah, true enough. That's why one should be careful about giving dates. But empires do end. Gyplical cataclysm do happen. The fact that they don't happen according to arbitrary deadlines which we set with our lack of knowledge and our ability to see the future in precise chronological terms, that doesn't mean that empires won't end. And cataclysm won't happen. Andres Ferrenti says, "How can some people on one hand be convinced that Brexit would ruin the British economy, but on the other hand, think that sanctions against China were somehow a good idea." Very good point. Well, people always want to believe these things and that's what makes them think those things. Yeah. Martin Middle says, "Quibono, during the Great Depression, did in the wealthy elites buy valuable, productive assets for pennies on the dollar?" I agree with that, absolutely. But please do bear in mind that this crisis, if it comes, will be worse than the Depression by far and without a clear root out. Scary thought, Tom, somebody says, "So China is giving Russia economic momentum, but China didn't give the U.S. massive economic momentum after Deng Xiaopan's rise to leadership in China, US geopolitical neoliberalism in a nutshell." Yeah. Well, yes, can I say, I understand many of the criticisms Americans have about China. All I am saying is, they could have been negotiated. The Chinese are very tough-minded, practical people. I think they note deep down that they had a lucky ride that they exploited. Why wouldn't they, by the way? The geopolitical advantages, they go to the tail end of the Cold War to build their economy. They'd probably understand, give them time, we've got to try and find ways forward. It wouldn't be possible to agree this, but instead, that's what we're getting. We're getting full on confrontation between the U.S. and China. I noticed, by the way, that even Steve Bannon, well, I say even Steve Bannon, Steve Bannon is now coming up and warning against this. I mean, he actually said, in the Second World War, the two countries that were most important as allies to the United States were Russia and China, they were the ones that took the biggest losses, were turning against, were making enemies of the two best allies we ever had. And that was Steve Bannon. - No friend of China's, not friend of China's. Simon Endeffer says, "I will bet, by 2034, the EU and NATO won't exist. The dollar won't be the reserve currency. The U.S. will be two or more political entities. And the West will be less than 50%, 15% of global GDP. Anytakers." - I am not a gambling man, as I always say. I'm wanting to bet against you. - Yeah, Pugs McGee says, "The recent Ukraine funding bill says the loans can be forgiven on November 15th, 2024, one week after the 2024 election." Why? - Tell me, you work it out. - And a Republican speaker agrees to this. - Yes, and a Republican speaker, Republican speaker in name only. Andrew Nelson says, "Is there a real truth behind the U.S. economy being in such trouble that they need these billions and billions to stay out of collapse?" - Yes, otherwise, why would the debt grow in the way that it is? - Neurosurgery Highland, the plan of the W.E.F. is to get it to lose the war with Russia and China to explain why financial system is broken and accept CBDC. Look at how British Johnson destroyed Brexit. - Well, a lot of people say this. Again, if this is what the W.E.F. are thinking, they are idiots. They're even bigger idiots than people like Johnson turned out to be. You cannot ride this tiger in that way. It will swallow you. It's the idea that you can unleash the storm and then ride it. It doesn't work. What you will do is you won't unleash the whirlwind and it will blow you away. - Yeah, Vladimir O says, "Thank you, gentlemen, as always for talking to this community." Thank you, Vladimir O. Mustafa says, "Can you make a list of European countries' percentage of having autonomy against America, including Turkey? I claim Turkey has much greater autonomy." - Well, of course it does. The only two countries that are showing any signs of independence at the moment are Hungary and Slovakia. What others are? Of course, if you wanted to include Russia as a European country, well, they are the one most of all. - Yeah, Samuel Maroni says, "How did Putin respond to the Baltics in NATO in 2002?" - He was very, very unhappy about his indeed, but he just become president. His position was very insecure. He had to deal with all kinds of oligarchs, like Hoda Koski, who was still operating at the wings. And of course, Russia itself was still only coming out, just coming out of the terrible crisis of the 1990s, so he had to accept it. - David Bazak says, "Was Budanov killed or injured in a missile strike?" - Well, I think he was no injured about a year ago. He's obviously not being killed because he's alive, and we can see him. - Yeah, I think he was injured too. Semper says, "In America, everyday, proper politics doesn't exist anymore. Is it the same in Britain?" - Yes. - But I've just described to you the political situation today, where people hate the opposition, and they hate the government. They're going to vote for the opposition, because they hate the government or they hate the opposition. I've never known a ton like that in prison. - Fragments of the USSR says, "Zero seats is a subject online, an attempt to crush the UK government system by having the Tories get as few seats as possible, participate by spoiling your ballot, convince the Tory voters, you know, to do the same." - Well, absolutely, and that's probably going to happen, but all that's going to result in is a lopsided, massive majority full-starmer who is massively unpopular for a Labour party that is also unpopular, and of course, what they will do is they will do exactly the same things that the current governments are doing, only more so with an even more authoritarian edge, in fact, a significantly more authoritarian edge than the one we're seeing from the current government. - The Amazing Blumpkin says, "The tube is censoring big time." "Hunger, the dye merchant says, 'The best description I've heard of U.S. foreign policy is kick the dog until it bites, then shoot it and call it a mad dog. The U.S. was already at war with Germany and Japan in 1940, lead lease, and the oil embargo." - Well, I think there's some truth to this, but I mean, it doesn't nonetheless explain why the Germans in December 1941 did what they did. You would have thought that it would have been the best policy for them to tell the Americans, "We have nothing to do with what happened in Pearl Harbor. We weren't informed in advance. This isn't our work. If you want to be angry with someone, be angry with Japan. In fact, we know that the Germans didn't have advanced knowledge of Pearl Harbor, and yet what did they do? They declared war on the United States. That was a crazy thing to do. - Johari says, "Why do U.S. leaders think they are the center of everything? We must now down to them at every turn." - Because the United States has for so many years been the center of everything. And it's very difficult when you find yourself in that position just to accept that you no longer are the center of everything. Just saying. - Abi Chenna says, "Why Israel government thinks Israel will survive a World War III?" - I don't know that they do, by the way, but my own sense is that the Israeli government is also becoming increasingly reckless in what it's doing. I know there's a lot of people who are very critical of Israel in our community, and I can understand that. When I remember previous Israeli leaders, I remember people like Golda Meir, for example, and she had much more control over what she did than the government we're seeing now, and was more calculators in what she did than the government we see now. - Ignaki says, "American, perp walk, genocide, Joe, Jake, the snake, and bloody blink, and it is surreal. Great conversation." - Thanks a lot. And thanks for that very, very insightful comment. - Jeff Brooks says, "Random, but I haven't heard anyone discuss it. Any thoughts on how Gaza is affecting anti-Semitism? I regularly hear it casually mentioned that Congress is beholden to APAC money and other things like that, but no one seems to notice the whole affair, seems to be trying to prove asserted German leader right, and I'm terrified at how many new neo-blanks may currently be getting converted." - I think that you are making a good point, actually. I think that a lot of things, a lot of comments of being made and words are spoken, which frankly make me extremely uncomfortable, just as they obviously make you uncomfortable. Another compelling reason, in my opinion, why we need to cease firing Gaza in order to bring this whole situation under control as fast as possible. - Paul Dorofiev says, "Do you find any merit in El Ariane's burst to a theory that the U.S.D, Euro, and Yen uphold the dollar hegemony, and if any leg falls, it all falls apart?" - Yeah, I think he's wrong. I think he's absolutely right, if any part of that falls, the whole unstable stool collapses. - Mr. Scott says, "With sensible nationalism outlawed in the West and non-stop mass immigration leftism, is there a threat of a genuine far-right reaction occurring?" - Yes, of course there is. So, evidently there is, if all options for sensible, reasonable change are closed down and called far-right or far-left, if it comes to that, then what you're going to see is political energy drift towards the real far-right and the far-left, because everybody can feel as unhappy, will say to themselves, "Well, we won't change, and that's the only place it will come from." Now, that's a well-known reality. The classic case study here is Italy, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, where the Italian political class entrenched itself, conducted a policy known as transfer to Mismol, which is a kind of policy of the aggressive liberal center, and what you ended up with was in Italy in the 1920s with a very powerful communist party and a very powerful fascist party, which eventually took over. The Blue Noble says, "Unrelated, this may seem a little wild, but what if Hamas pulls off another insane operation like October 7th and steals Israel's new, clear weapons, nuclear weapons?" - It's what spelling is. - I don't want to think about those kind of possibilities. I mean, they're so terrifying, if they ever happen, then, as I said, we'll have to address them. But I don't want to think about those possibilities. I would have thought that all the precautions that one could imagine are being taken to prevent them. And I wonder whether there are people in Hamas who would want to find themselves in that kind of situation themselves. But having said that, let's hope nothing like that does happen, because then we really are moving towards apocalyptic outcomes. - William says, "Many things make sense with Garland Nixon's explanation that a key objective of the USA with Project Ukraine was to de-industrialize the UK and the EU." - Yeah, absolutely. - How does that benefit in the end, the United States? How does it benefit the United States to have weaker allies instead of stronger ones? - Just asking. I'm not denying the policy. Garland is obviously right. If I come back to still ask him the question, what is the Senate? What is the logic behind the policy? Because again, I don't see it. - What in the world says, "When both US parties sink on foreign policy and act contrary to their usual base politics, be worried. Dark days are coming." - Correct. Absolutely. - Nunn says, "So I finally was able to catch a live show. Is it the US obligated to defend Taiwan, not due to any treaty because losing 90% of the world's microchip manufacturing would be fatal to the US tech economy?" You see, this is what's so utterly frustrating. What the Chinese want to attack Taiwan, if they weren't being continuously provoked, they say no. They say what they want is to keep the situation as it was, say, 10 years ago, Taiwan remains legally part of China. In practice, it goes its own way. Most of its trade is with China. The Chinese work towards one day achieving a peaceful reunification, and the matter doesn't involve the United States. If we're talking about an attack on Taiwan, what's going to provoke it? Is the Americans coming in and starting to arm the Taiwanese? The Chinese have already said that is for them, the first red line, which mustn't be crossed. And they said that China won't sit on its hands, if it does, if it is. Rafael says Russia is on her way to remove their ambassador out of the US, Russia's eliminating all US personnel in Ukraine. Russia will not be intimidated. You're quite right about this. They've already said they have announced actually that they're thinking of reducing their diplomatic representation in the US, which is an astonishing thing. During the worst periods of the Cold War, we'd not seen anything like that. Stan Lippmann says, "At the start, you said 100 worse than Afghanistan. Since then, you've said as bad, 10 times as bad. What say you today?" Well, I'm not sure when I said these things than what it was in relation to, but I mean, if you're talking about Ukraine, I mean, it would be orders of magnitude worse than Afghanistan. If you're talking about a conflict between China and the US, well, I'm not even going to make those comparisons because Afghanistan is like a firecracker compared to a blazing fire. Paul Dorafeyev, thank you for that super chat. Tom, somebody says, "How much of the US is nominal GDP is not tied to actual material tangible wealth for exchange? For exchange will make the US debt crisis, or does that matter?" Well, it matters a huge deal, a huge amount, and the answer is nobody knows. How can one know? How can one actually know? It's very difficult when you create a GDP that is made up that way to understand what is real and what is not. There is a lot of general economic activity in the United States. We shouldn't underestimate it. Whatever it is, the United States remains a major economic power. But it's GDP figures have been goosed up now for a very, very long time. When they're stripped down, it might not be such a pretty picture. Beverly Trout, thank you for that super sticker. Simon Enerfer says interview Luke Grohmann. His views on the US fiscal position are compelling, terrifying, labor, government IMF on speed dial and buy Swiss francs gold. Yes, a commando crossfire says anti-genocide is not anti-Semitism. The damage being done to the Jewish image is from Israel's genocide. They alone are solely responsible for any rebuke. I agree. Sparky says great work, fellas. Thank you. Gordon So says keep it up. I listen to you both each day and night no longer BBC or CNN for me. Thank you. And Superfly says any update on the Arctic Sea route. Oh, huge amount. Can I go on there apparently and a chat about this with Glenn Deesum and members from Norway. And he says surprise, surprise, major attempts to militarize the Arctic from the Western powers to stop the Russians developing the North Sea route. And of course the Russians building up their own bases and surprise, surprise, whom are they inviting it to help them with Chinese of course. All right, Alexander, I know you have to do a hard stop, but we add into all the questions on all the platforms. One more. One says, do you think France wants to fight Russia because it is losing most of West Africa? Well, we've discussed this many times. I think that's a major part of the explanation. Putin himself thinks so. I think it's the whole of it. I think part of it is anger that the Germans have gained so much more influence than Macron. It's also partly Macron's political problems in France. It's many things, but certainly Africa places and the anger over Africa place. It's important role. So again, any rational one, I mean, I was going to get lots of French soldiers killed in Ukraine to avenge the loss of West Africans, bizarre. The children, their children lashing out. All right. Thank you to everyone that watched us on Rockfin, Odyssey, Rumble, YouTube, and vidaran.locals.com. Thank you to all our moderators, Zarell, Reckless Abandoned, Tish, M, Peter, and who else? I think I'm missing somebody or maybe not. All right. If I forgot someone, I'm sorry, moderating, I'm looking through the moderator right now. Thank you to our moderators and Alexander and any quick final thoughts and we'll call it a fantastic, a fantastic live stream. And a very, very consequential week. These last 10 days, historians are going to be writing about 100, 200 years from now. They are that important in Martin. Wow. All right. Take care. Everybody, thank you, Johati, for that super sticker. We'll end it on that note. Take care. All right. All right. All right. All right. Thank you. All right.